Quick-fire links collection
Link-fest that I wouldn't otherwise have blogged.
Segway user climbs Mount Washington - needs 6 batteries to do so.
New words added to the OED (via use Perl - yes, Perl is one of the new words). As a sign of English’s dominance of the modern world, many new words are from Africa, the West Indies or other obviously non-white countries, as opposed to white anglo-saxon origin countries that used to be coloured pink on Victorian maps.
Bottled water isn’t as good as tap water (via Doc Searls). And here I thought Perrier was dodgy for extracting the bubbles during processing and then putting them back in; the major US bottled water brands aren’t even from natural mineral water sources.
The SoBig virus lets you know who’s reading your site (or, less realistically in this case, who has you in their address book). Via This Modern World.
Halliburton’s Deals Greater Than Thought: “Independent experts estimate that as much as one-third of the monthly $3.9 billion cost of keeping U.S. troops in Iraq is going to independent contractors.”
More on the Alabama Ten Commandments fracas: “Those who think that America should be run according to religious principles are entitled to their opinions, of course. But they shouldn’t pretend that they’re asking for anything less, or that doing so isn’t an establishment of religion.” See also The Onion (not a permalink): ““I support its removal. A monument to the Ten Commandments is a graven image, and therefore blasphemous.”
Similarly, Christopher Hitchens Fisks the Ten Commandments (via Instapundit). “One is presuming (is one not?) that this is the same god who actually created the audience he was addressing. This leaves us with the insoluble mystery of why he would have molded (“in his own image,” yet) a covetous, murderous, disrespectful, lying, and adulterous species. Create them sick, and then command them to be well? What a mad despot this is, and how fortunate we are that he exists only in the minds of his worshippers.”
Tolerance of Hindus vs tolerance of homosexuals: ‘I would hope that many people’s attachment to religious freedom is deeper than just “Well, the Constitution requires it, so we have to reluctantly adhere to it.”’ Via Mark Kleiman, via Instapundit, again.