Thanksgiving

Week in Review

Brazil is getting their AIDS under control, which is good to hear because I imagine they just go at it all the time like Energizer bunnies on chocolate and Red Bull. I mean their women look like this...

...and that's in the winter (when it snows mannah).













Amazon has released their tepidly anticipated eBook device, scintillatingly entitled the Kindle.

I thought this would be because the device would kindle your desire to get back the $400 you just spent on a damn eBook (that doesn't even support PDF), but apparently it's kindling CEO Jeff Bezos's bank account: the thing debuted on Nov. 19 and sold out in 5.5 hours.

Apparently the Kindle (ugh) does have perks, including free wireless, so users can go to amazon.com and get eBooks for discounted ePrices, as well as search Wikipedia.That, to some people, might be worth the wallet cramps, although sitting on the subway looking like you're scrutinizing a blood pressure monitor might not be.


Canadians are sexy. Robots are sexy. And when you combine them...well, who could keep their hands off that?

Nonetheless, Dr. Le Trung (like Le SportSac, but with Trung, which may or may not mean SportSac in Asian) manages to grope his way into getting slapped by an android. He has created Canada's first functional female android, which can feel pain, interact through touch, and recognize voices and faces
She can also speak Japanese and English, which will allow her to communicate her famous "I do not like it when you touch my breast" to 90% of the world's most lecherous perverts. Her name is Aiko, Ai meaning Love and Ko meaning Child...which does nothing at all to make this project less OH MY GOD REALLY CREEPY.


Pandora finally introduced classical music to their lineup, both delightful "classical classics" as well as eye-gouging "holiday classics".

A Verdi Merry Christmas to all!

(I know that's Beethoven, but the image results for Verdi didn't fit the hat as well.)













Lessons from the news

• If you want a stable life, you probably shouldn't marry any man with the last name Peterson, especially if your first name rhymes with -acy.
• Sometimes, Mr. President, it is okay to condemn Arabs. It was different when we got mad about it before. It's alright this time. Don't be afraid; condemn away. You know you want to.
• The ability to spontaneously lose recollection is handy. Hopefully Gonzales can forget this incident as well. Shake it off them haters, Al.

Fun fact

Thanksgiving was proclaimed a national holiday in 1863 by President Lincoln - that guy just could not miss! (Too bad the same can't be said for John Wilkes Booth.)
The gift of a turkey for the Cratchit family's Christmas dinner in A Christmas Carol helped popularize it as a holiday meal, especially after people had decided since the 17th century that venison was too much of a bother to hunt, while cows and chickens were more useful alive.

Ouch.