Here’s a wonderful editorial essay from today’s Times about what it’s like living in a surveillance society. If anyone tells you that Bush’s TIPS program will only affect people who have something to hide, show ’em this — and ask for a copy of their house keys.

Now here’s a piece that’s unsettling on a diferent (for us) level: This fellow’s daughter has fallen into the pit of consumerism, and hey! no problem, we tried, oh well. I suppose it should be noted that the guy is himself involved with branding, so I suppose it cheers him up to see that his work has effect int he world, even if the child’s on her way to becoming a screamy little materialist. Heck, maybe I’m being too hard on the kid as well; you never know how these things will turn out if the child is sufficiently free-thinking and sarcastic…

Attention all dot-com unemployed folk: It could be worse.

TV Guide’s list of the 50 all-time greatest cartoon characters is pretty brilliant; good to see Bobby Hill and Space Ghost represented, among others. Of course, I’m confused about Daria being here. I’m pretty sure she’s real. I’m pretty sure, in fact, she’s me.

A remarkable article from The Observer with an important message about copy “protection” and totalitarianism. Read this one.

Check out this wicked cool little neutron detector, fresh from the University of Nebraska. Not only does the research team include the folks listed in the press release, it also includes my sister-in-law Angel McMullen-Gunn, who tells me that undergrads never get credit in public for this stuff. Well, that’s what blogs are for. BIG UPS TO ANGEL! I have spoken. Selah.

Dammit. Dammit. Dammit. (No, it doesn’t affect me personally — other than the part where I’ve been connected to the company for 12 years — but it quite probably screws my friends who were recently lain off in the YIL closure and are awaiting certain monies. I won’t likely get that last chunk of money they owe, but compared to what it could be I’m not quite panicking yet.)

From the getting-the-house-back-to-normal front: It’s official. I can kill unkillable plants. Please don’t ask — I don’t know how I did it, only that it was pretty much inevitable. My mom and I bought our bamboo plants on the same day; knowing how it is in her house, she’s got an entire grove ready for harvest.

Come on Barbie, let’s go party: Not only is this a tremendously smart decision from the Ninth in the case of the Mattel megalith versus a tiny Danish band (band writes funny song about the sex-toy-turned-plastic-princess, toymaker gets pissed off), the last quote in the article is funny. Alex Kozinski, always interesting…

Ass over teakettle out of the New York Timeswarp (the portal back to 2000 where they get these cutting-edge tech-trend articles) tumbles Jennifer 8. Lee with an article on how you can, you know, find out a lot more than you’d think about people online. Yo Jenny! In a couple of years, maybe you could follow this up with a piece on archive.org!