Seems to be an accurate statement. :) Courtesy of User Friendly, a great web comic.

Some interesting lists of 100 going around out there right now: The 100 Most Annoying Things of 2004 92 CLEAR CHANNEL’S MEDIA MONOPOLY It’s official, they now own the broadcast rights to that guy down the street with a Mr. Microphone saying, “Hey Good Looking, I’ll See You Later!” 91 THE IRISH they come here and take all of our good jobs (EDITOR’S NOTE: Sorry, this was left off of “The 100 Most Annoying Things of 1804” list and I had to find a place for it) ...

I am happy. I am happy that I was able to share the day with my Valentine, a bright, beautiful, brilliant woman who makes life better than I ever thought it could be…who makes me better than I ever thought I could be. Happy Valentine’s Day, Lorrie. I can only aspire to bring as much happiness to you.

Yeah, Highlights used to upset me too, before I dropped my subscription. ;) Courtesy of the inimitable Fafblog

Technology has the unfortunate quality of tempting people to use it, no matter how deleterious the effects. The growing ability to keep everyone under some sort of surveillance is a good example. Just today, I ran across a couple of stories that really creep me out in terms of what kind of society we are building. The first story is a classic case of how good motives don’t necessarily excuse ill effects. A school in California tags its children with RFID badges and scans them wherever they are in the school. Apparently this gives them a good way of keeping out trespassers, keeping an eye on the kids, and taking accurate attendance. (Hmm, that doesn’t seem like it would be that difficult. I’m thinking it’s a matter of convenience in collecting data, kind of like the idea of checking out an entire cartload of groceries at once by running it under a scanner.) ...

More North Korean stuff. This time, it’s a fascinating gallery of governmental propaganda art lionizing the Great Leader, Kim Il Sung, and the Great Mother, Kim Jeong-Sook. Link courtesy of Boing Boing, which points out the Norman Rockwell-ness of at least one of the pictures. ( Freedom of Speech is turned into Criticizing and Exposing Collaborators.)

Ouch. :( I’ll give Duke credit. They played their game, and forced Carolina to play it as well. Roy’s comments are available at Scout.com, as well as audio of the press conference. And let’s not forget another good night for Jackie Manuel. 3 out of 4 on both field goals and free throws. Not bad. Anyway, hope Duke enjoys it. I just have a feeling they won’t as much in three weeks. :) ...

I thought they had already announced that they had them? Maybe not.

The unfortunate brief description of this column in the Chronicle of Higher Education was A music professor who prides himself on his cultural sensitivity suddenly finds it wanting in the classroom of an urban university. As you can see, while the author talks about his cultural sensitivity and the challenges of teaching in a multicultural classroom, the hook for the story doesn’t seem to have much to do with culture. Essentially, the story revolves around two students who simply did not feel it necessary to respect the class or anyone in it, and then left after midterms. Given that he doesn’t mention problems with the other students or any specifics about the troublesome pair — something that may have fallen out in the editing — I’m not sure why this would be a cultural issue so much as the kind of discipline issue teachers run into all the time. ...

The Christian Science Monitor describes a novel approach to dealing with Al Qaeda in Yemen. “If you can convince us that your ideas are justified by the Koran, then we will join you in your struggle,” Hitar told the militants. “But if we succeed in convincing you of our ideas, then you must agree to renounce violence.” I like the idea of the theological contest. I hope it continues to be effective. ...