Secrets and Lies

"In a landmark article published this month, Fry traced the evolutionary roots of all the major poisons known to occur in snake venoms - a feat that scientists said should facilitate a spectrum of biomedical discoveries."

MONDAY MORNING:
* NYTimes public editor on the tempest surrounding the use of the word "terrorism."
* "How do you keep up with the news of this big, bad world and still sleep at night?"
* A photo gallery of DC's troubled schools.
* Wal-Mart's new way to get around store size restrictions: open two stores next to each other. No, literally.
* Gene Weingarten and Gina Barreca on monkeys that would rather look at monkey porn than eat.
* Scifi fans aren't always realistic about the shows they always try to save.
* MI5 reveals the secret history of James Bond.

I have collected a total of ten things we didn't know this time last week.

Well, a Thursday-through-Saturday wrapup, as all I did yesterday was watch TV and bebesit.

Thursday was Nation. Carpooled up with Wallaby again. Great conversation, as always. Got to see Kermit, Spence, Katarina, and a few other people I haven't seen in a long while. Music was half and half, still danced some. Drive home was a bit... rough, but I survived. I never realize I'm too tired to drive until it's a bit late.

Friday, tried out that Longhorn steak house in Columbia, next to Red Robin (because our first two picks for dinner had big waits.) Tasty! A couple bucks more expensive than places of, uh, comparable decore, but the steak was good, and that's the important part.

Afterwards, caught Million Dollar Baby. It's pretty damn good. Gritty, dramatic, and very real-feeling, if that makes sense. Not the best film released last year, IMHO, but really good. When they do a big biopic of my life, I totally want Morgan Freeman to do the narration. And, oh, the graphic violence, I could *feel* some of the punches. And man, Hillary Swank was cut from a block of wood, very hot, despite her voice. Also, I've decided I don't want to be a boxer, but I do wanna train to be a boxer, it looks like great exercise.

Saturday evening was dinner for Regent's birthday at Eggspectation in Columbia. I got some weird egg thing, which was decent. A good time was had by all, though I think there was a misunderstanding between me and a friend on my part. Nothing major, but poor communication on my part.

And work's been goofy all day, probably because I'm not even supposed to be here today.

A quiz for the federal bench.

Must read: the Texas D.A. and Tom DeLay.

Andrew Cohen's Court Watch on the case of extraordinary rendition.

News analysis: are bloggers reporters too? What about in court?

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Investigating the recent space burst - is it a new object?