Journal of Post-Ralphaelite Thought

I've convinced my long-suffering wife to watch all six seasons of LOST (I preordered the gonzo boxed set as soon as it appeared on Amazon). We are now half-way through the final season and are still married. The ABC website has the following little bonus clip they released at Comic Con this year, which will only make sense if you are a total fanboy like me and have seen the entire LOST run: If it makes no sense, go back and review at ABC.com .

Today's Dilbert hits a new high for colorful imagery and euphemism: "I'm an admin, you steaming log. The only thing that would inspire me is finding your corpse floating in my worst enemy's drinking water." The man has a gift for words, that's for sure.

A short economics lesson for today, courtesy of the magnificent Bananas Gorilla . A free-market economy is truly a marvelous thing if someone else is doing all the work. More of Bananas' wisdom can be found at the Japing Ape .

For my fellow LOST addicts, an amusing post on the Onion, speculating on a possible spin-off show .

Finally! A decision on the Node 3 naming contest. Astronaut Sunita "Suni" Williams appeared as a guest on the Colbert Report tonight and announced NASA's decision. Cut to the chase: they are not naming Node 3 after him. (Surprised? If so, why?) The new Node 3 name will be...drumroll... Tranquility . Colbert affected mock surprise and outrage. "You promised you'd put my name in space!" he protested. Referring to notes written on her hand, Suni revealed that in August, NASA would be launching the "Combined Operational Load-Bearing External Resistance Treadmill" (a.k.a. the C.O.L.B.E.R.T). The treadmill will include the patch (see above). Suni said when astronauts need to work out, they'll say, "Time for me to jump on COLBERT." The thought obviously pleased Stephen. On the NASA page , Bill Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for Space Operations, explained further, "Apollo 11 landed on the moon at the Sea of Tranquility 40 year...

Update! The NASA " Name the Node 3 Page " states they will announce the new Node 3 name on the Colbert Report on April 14! Can they dare call it anything besides Colbert? By choosing this venue to unveil the new name they are practically guaranteeing they've decided to name some part of the Node (if not the Node itself) after Stephen -- a toilet or urine processing unit at the very least. From the press release: NASA TO ANNOUNCE NEW SPACE STATION MODULE NAME APRIL 14 WASHINGTON -- NASA's newest module for the International Space Station will get a new name on April 14. The agency plans to make the announcement with the help of Expedition 14 and 15 astronaut Sunita "Suni" Williams on Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report." The program will air at 11:30 p.m. EDT. The name, which will not be publicly released until the program airs, was selected from thousands of unique suggestions submitted on NASA's Internet site, www.nasa.gov . The ...

Though my wife, the librarian, turns up her researchers nose at it, I love Wikipedia . Which is why I thought the following parody version of it of it was hilarious. Go to and check random facts -- someone has gone to a lot of trouble to make up all this nonesense. Wait -- you mean this was meant to be serious ? Holy shit.

According to the Discovery Channel website, Stephen Colbert of the Colbert Report is now outpolling NASA's officially sanctioned name for Module Number 3. As of March 11, the tally for "Colbert" stood just shy of 115,000 votes, with Serenity trailing at 98,641. More than 451,000 people have voted. If you haven't voted yet, go to the NASA site - you can vote once a day - and check the box labeled "Suggest your own" and enter Colbert . Hurry though. Voting ends March 20. UPDATE: NASA to announce name on the April 14th Colbert Report!

Thanks to a recent post, I've stumbled on The Japing Ape . Human sexuality, in all its absurdity, seems to be the chief interest of Gorilla Bananas (the world's leading anthropological ape). No offense to others, but it is a welcome change to Libertarian politics. Mr. Bananas has a gift for the literary turn of phrase, which is both engaging and insightful. Funny stuff - in a twisted, slightly Stiff Upper Lip sort of way.

The Daily Show and Colbert Report don't have a monopoly on fake news. This just in courtesy of The Onion . Not recommended for the workplace (as if you couldn't tell).

Despite the fact that much evil stupidity pervades the web, there is a lot of good stuff out there as well. Here's a random assortment of free books (in PDF form) you may or may not find interesting. Copyright and Intellectual Property Lessig and Boyle may well prove to be some of the most important writers about the Internet Age around. Free Culture (Lawrence Lessig) The Future of Ideas (Lawrence Lessig) Code Version 2.0 (Lawrence Lessig) The Public Domain (James Boyle) Bound by Law? (James Boyle) Tech/Web books Web and computer books seem to have a shorter shelf-life than fish. Electronic books make lots of sense. Mastering Java Beans, 3rd Edition Ubuntu Pocket Guide Sitepoint books - numerous excellent sample chapters available on web technology, including CSS; occasional free offers. The Definitive Guide to Linux Network Programming Literature We all have to relax a little, right? Chess books PlanetPDF classic literature Penn State electronic classics Planet eBook Humor Pillar...

In case you've been wondering, I've taken on a new hobby -- tweaking the local Libertarian crowd, mostly at the blog of my good friend, the Whited Sepulchre . While I don't always (or even often) agree, the debate is lively and intelligent. In fact, some of my best writing these days is at his site, not mine (irony of ironies). The other day, I accorded the distinct honor of being the token Democrat guest blogger while the Whited Sepulchre was on vacation. For the most part the local Libertarian crowd are an intelligent, thoughtful bunch, passionate about their cause and ready to talk, sort of like political Jehovah's Witnesses. While not agreeing with them, I admire their commitment to the cause. One thing I've noted on various occasions is their hang-up with my icon. "As your hero, Trotsky..." they'll begin, as they spin some long drawn-out rant property rights. (By the way, this is Trotsky . As I've pointed out numerous times, any resemblance i...