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Slate, on today's proceedings in the Supreme Court:
Arguments were somewhat dry until the last few minutes, when Ilana H. Eisenstein, an assistant to the solicitor general representing the federal government, was preparing to finish up and take her seat. Just before she left the lectern, Justice Clarence Thomas spoke up, asking his very first question from the bench in a decade. The entire court perked up. Everyone shifted forward in their seats, and there was a look of shock on many spectators' faces. We in the press section nearly fell out of our seats, though the other justices kept admirably cool, with only Chief Justice John Roberts swiveling his head in evident surprise.
You have to wonder if he did it on a February 29 on purpose.
BBC announcer misspeaking yesterday:
(mp3 here if the Flash player doesn't work)
A federal judge presiding over a terrorism case has been in the news for his blunt remarks. Among other things, he thinks that DoJ personnel from DC are clumsily interfering in a case better left to local prosecutors. In an "Order on Ineptitude", he berated the Washingtonians for not knowing how to order a transcript of an in-chambers conference. The transcript in question has been quoted in media reports, primarily for the parts where Judge Hughes bares his contempt for a lawyer brought in from Washington ("You don't add a bit of value, do you?"). The rest of the transcript is not without entertainment value, e.g.:
THE COURT:... Now, there may be other data he wants to see raw. He ought to be able to do that. But delivering to you or to him 1.3 terabytes of data -- my Greek is not good. It's a billion? Because a megabyte is a million bytes, isn't it?
MR. ADLER:So, terabyte -- I don't even know.
MR. MC INTYRE:A trillion maybe.
THE COURT:Something like that anyway. Don't you speak Greek?
This is the same Judge Hughes known for various racially insensitive remarks. His personal page on the Texas Southern District's web site autoplays an mp3 file, a scratchy recording of Battle Hymn of the Republic. He is, of course, a Republican appointee (Reagan).
The Michelson-Morley experiment:Michelson-Morley apparatus A beam of light is split, sent in two perpendicular directions, and recombined to produce interference patterns.

LIGO Hanford Observatory The LIGO experiment that's been in the news: a beam of light is split, sent in two perpendicular directions, and recombined to produce interference patterns.

My favorite part: when Michelson-Morley-type experiments detect no difference between the two beams, that's considered a confirmation of Einstein's theories. And when LIGO detects difference between two beams, that's considered a confirmation of Einstein's theories.
I placed an order with Amazon a week ago. They never shipped it but that didn't deter them from saying it was arriving. Yesterday's screenshot: between 8pm and midnight Friday, it still said "Arriving today by 8pm"
When you say it's gonna happen now
Well when exactly do you mean?
See I've already waited too long
And all my hope is gone
Now, Saturday, it's "Expected Feb 5". ("was" is implied)

This is my second attempt at ordering this item. The order I placed last month was "Shipping soon" for two weeks before Amazon mysteriously deleted it altogether. Medical offices in the USA recently started using ICD-10, an updated diagnosis classification system. It's been in the news for a few entertaining categories, e.g. V95.43 (Spacecraft collision injuring occupant).

Some diagnoses are phrased in curious ways, e.g.
Z89.121 (Acquired absence of right wrist)
Y62-Y69 (Misadventures to patients during surgical and medical care).

Richard: W53.2 is for you.
Paul: W61.6.
JD: your ilk is not specifically listed. 8½ years ago, I wrote about a new typeface ("Clearview") for use on road signs in the USA. I wasn't thrilled with it then, and I like it even less after having seen instances of it on the road. In response to complaints back then that Clearview wasn't beautiful, one of its designers said, "But it isn't supposed to be."

I'm pleased to report that the Federal Highway Administration has seen the error of its ways and is ditching Clearview. The arc of signage is long, but it bends away from typefaces not intended to be beautiful.