Sure you’ve heard of Lonelygirl15, but what about lonelygirl362436? It’s odd, because she acts like Bree but looks suspiciously like Carmen Electra…

The HPV vaccine, which can prevent four types of cervical cancer in women, has caused heated debates in several states due to its price, questions about long-term efficacy, but mostly by fundamentalist parents concerned that providing a cancer cure to their children is bested by a need to promote an ineffective and heavily debunked abstinence message. But not New Hampshire, where the shot is voluntary and provided free by the state to girls aged 11-18. They can’t keep up with demand, says the _New York Times_. Hooray. Now go get some more!

Skywalkers in Korea cross Han solo. Hehe, neat headline. (via Kottke)

“Whatever his manifold faults, [Robert] Moses nursed a faith in the power of government to throw up public works. He was a public servant with the temperament of a czar.” Revisionist historians are attempting to repaint his complicated legacy as Master Builder of the city of New York.

*School:* Kids stole a teacher’s cell phone and pilfered naked photos, then mailed them to the basketball team. Kids are gonna get in trouble.
*Teacher:* …
*Parents:* But the teacher shouldn’t have had them there in the first place! If they weren’t on her cell phone, the kids wouldn’t have been able to break into the locked room and steal the cell phone to get at the pictures!
*Teacher:* …?
*Random Comunity Member:* Teachers shouldn’t be having sex in the first place! And they certainly shouldn’t be leaving their phones out in plain view where students might accidentally stumble upon nude photos after breaking into a locked room and stealing private property!
*Teacher:* ???

I was going to blog something oblique about a really interesting presentation I went to today, but I just couldn’t find a good way to do it while respecting Chatham House Rules. Or rather I was making a bit of progress, but it was a tough slog. Instead I’m gonna go see _Spiderman 3_, and if you’re interested in the interesting bits, ask me about it in person and you can try to deobfuscate it yourself. 🙂

California’s legislature has narrowly approved a major reform package for the troubled prison system, and the Governor has pledged to sign it. Some notable voices are calling the $7.3 billion compromise meant to head-off a federal takeover of the system a dodge of true reform.

“There is no reason that any private citizen in a democracy should own a handgun. At some point, that simple truth will register. Until it does, phones will ring for dead children, and parents will be told not to ask why.” I don’t agree entirely, but I do agree a lot. I don’t understand why we can’t have a rational political discussion about the best way to uphold (or modify) the second amendment in these modern times such that we can restrict access to deadly weapons.

I avoided as much of the TV news converage of the Virginia Tech shootings as I could, but still felt oversatured. Now with the incident almost two weeks gone, Wikipedia’s article about the attack, meticulously research and footnoted, is a valuable resource, as well as a sad reminder of the tragic events of April 16, 2007.

Honeybee colonies are collapsing across America and the world, and no one knows why. Bees are essential to pollinating hundreds of important food crops. Teams of scientists nation-wide are conducting a large scale search for answers, using modern gene sequencing techniques to attempt to ferret out the cause.

I think University of Nebraska Lincoln has the best web site I’ve ever seen for a university. Podcasts, feeds, standards compliance, open source code. Check out the admissions site (and the funny videos)! Check out the daily events spotlight. Check out the drop-down combo box on every page!

Why is the redesigned wired.com so bloody awful?

Apple and EMI have agreed to offer the latter’s entire music catalog on iTunes at high quality and without DRM. This is excellent, excellent news. They’re also going to let people who bought DRM-encumbered songs “upgrade” to the new versions for 30¢ per song.

My National Security Letter Gag Order is a letter to the editor of the _Washington Post_ by an anonymous author who is required by law to lie to his friends and family about a secret FBI National Security Letter that he received — and chose to challenge — three years ago. The case is still ongoing.

_Stanford Magazine_ offers a profile of Edward Tufte, the master (wizard?) of information design.

Showtime has posted the first episode of the _This American Life_ TV show, and it’s awesome. I’d maybe subscribe to Showtime if it was cheaper and I wasn’t…err… cancelling my cable. Oh well, perhaps they’ll put ’em on iTunes.

The _House_ formula is tired, and that’s part of it, but TV Squad is right, the character of Gregory House is what is really killing _House_, and its why I stopped watching in disgust at the conclusion of the Tritter storyline. Nothing changes! He goes through all that ridiculousness and comes out the other side *exactly the same*! I can’t stand it!

Arin from Four Eyed Monsters put together a nice, clear, and impactful video about what the concept of “network neutrality” means and why it is worth fighting for. Worth a watch.

Damn! the Parody ended *tonight*, and I didn’t even know it had begun! Now I guess I have to stick around Berkman for at least another year. 😉

Is it possible to reach a sickening sort of scandal fatigue when it comes to the Bush administration’s ongoing (successful) efforts to dismantle pretty much every non-partisan piece of the United States executive branch and replace seasoned experts with political hacks? Because I’m there, and that’s part of the reason I haven’t had much to post in the last few weeks. Aww, what the hell, here is a _Slate_ piece on how Bush is systematically destroying the Department of Justice. Enjoy.