Somehow I figured the first side I read that brought Nazis — or, in this case, Holocaust denial — into the Intelligent Design debate would be the ID proponents, not the opponents. Guess I was naive. Oh well, Godwin’s law wouldn’t exist if Nazi analogies weren’t useful across the political spectrum. And, by the way, darn those “techniques of rhetoric and debate”. If we just didn’t have those, we’d be in a much better…Oh wait, he doesn’t say what those are, does he? ;) ...

Not really news, usually, but this time the package contained financial information and Social Security numbers on 3.9 million Citibank customers. Apparently Citibank was sending unencrypted backup tapes by UPS, and a set disappeared a few weeks ago. After what must have been a agonized few weeks of searching, Citibank is now planning on notifying affected customers. It’s nice that identity thieves have that waiting period before they can use information that fell off the truck, thereby giving Citibank plenty of time to wait, right? ;) ...

Apparently the Justice Department has decided not to enforce the criminal penalties behind HIPAA, which protects the privacy of medical records. Basically, they ruled that criminal prosecution can be brought against medical practices, hospitals, insurance companies, and the like, but not against the employees of those entities. That’s kind of interesting, since the employees who did the stealing would have been the targets of any criminal prosecution anyway. I’m not sure what Justice was thinking on this one, although I don’t entirely buy the theory that it’s a backhanded way of getting rid of HIPAA. To the extent that I do buy it, I think it is likely a result of a larger ongoing Justice Department attempt to downsize its influence over corporate practices. If it was a real attempt to overthrow HIPAA, I would expect it to be even more ham-handed. (Although the person I linked to would have a better idea than I, I would think, having worked to put HIPAA together.) ...

Man, step away from the Internet for a few days, and by the time you get back, hell freezes over. Okay, so hell didn’t freeze, it just caught a draft, but still: Apple is planning on using Intel chips? And they aren’t planning to do anything to keep those computers from running Windows as well? Admittedly, Apple can easily fix it so OS X only runs on its hardware, no matter what processor. However, the illogic of being able to run it on this Pentium IV while not being able to run it on that Pentium IV is going to be one more push down the path to widespread Mac clones. Maybe Apple’s counting on the idea that it’s the Microsoft in this picture, instead of the IBM. ...

It’s interesting what you miss when you’re moving. I’m spending my time trying not to forget things like bills and address changes, and I completely miss the one-year anniversary of The Phantom City. When I started this blog, I figured my biggest problem would be keeping it going. After 241 posts, that doesn’t seem like a problem. There’s a lot to write about out there, in a lot of different fields, a few of which I actually pay attention to. ...

The Fashion SWAT review on Something Awful is all about bad comic character costumes this time. While I’m surprised they could stick to only a dozen, one has to appreciate that they manage to get two Rob Liefeld drawings in there. How to explain Liefeld…If, back in the 1990’s, you ever saw a comic book cover and went “What is that thing?!?”, only to realize it was supposed to be a human, that would be a Liefeld-influenced cover. His characters always seem to have lots of muscles where people simply don’t have muscles, as well as inch-wide veins that stick out all over them and upper bodies that would cause them to tip over easily. Check out his gallery for some good examples. Back then, he largely plied his trade for Marvel and Image Comics. ...

Mattel is suing a BBQ restaurant in Montreal because its name is “Barbie’s,” and its logo might be confusing. Personally, I think I would have wanted a “Barbie’s BBQ Joint” toy when I was a kid. :) Link courtesy of Boing Boing

I received this spam today at work: I’m new, it’s Julie Alot of the times I feel weird, even my girlfriends told me that …. old time friend suggested to put my hot videos somehow online. My website is like my new hobby AllCome check website I put together, I’m not that good tho with comp skills yet but tell me what you think She’s not that good with spelling, grammar, punctuation, spacing, or line breaks either. :) ...

From the Chicago Tribune: “The Bulls have no picks in the June 28 NBA draft, but that didn’t stop them from bringing perimeter players Mike Bell, Drake Diener, Jackie Manuel and Rawle Marshall to the Berto Center on Wednesday. “Management wants to get a handle on some players who may go undrafted and could fill the summer-league roster and/or be invited to October’s training camp.”

Personally I agree with at least one part of Marybeth Peters’ testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee: It is disturbing that there may be ties between terrorist organizations and copyright violators. I mean, after all, what if the terrorists get their hands on copies of Britney and Kevin: Chaotic and release it to the rest of the world? That will just make people hate America more. ;) Link courtesy of Corante, via Boing Boing ...