Great post about one person’s experience losing thirty pounds on Atkins. He says a lot of the stuff I’ve been ranting about for the past year.

Apparently Amazon have done something recently to break everybody’s wishlist links. If you link to your website on your blog (like I do, way down at the bottom of the right column), you may need to change yours. The solution is pretty simple. (Link courtesy of Bill.)

Ha! The guys who run the shop where I bought my panda shoes are claiming that they own the Doc Martens logo. I’m not sure what grounds the English judge has for taking it off them. Sounds like they bought it fair and square.

‘Tis the season…
I just got into a huge fight with, like, half my office. It all started when a co-worker mentioned that she’d heard something on the radio this morning about Lucy Turnbull, the mayor of Sydney, outlawing Christian Christmas carols in the city. There was a predictably huffy response from a couple other people, saying that it was censorship and that “If non-Christian people don’t want to be offended, maybe they should just stay home.” I tried to inject some sanity. First, I can’t believe that she got the story right. I can’t verify because it hasn’t been posted on any of the news sites (which gives weight to my theory that it’s not a real issue and merely some wanker talk-back radio host mishearing a quote or something), but there’s no way I’d be, like, arrested for walking down Martin Place and singing “Silent Night.” I mean, duh. She insisted that she’d heard the story accurately. So I theorized that maybe Turnbull was just saying that the city wouldn’t fund any carolers to sing exclusively Christian carols, and that I thought that was a fine idea. Mistake. Immediately I had about fifteen pissed off people telling me that this country was “founded on Christianity” and “ordered around the Christian calendar” and that if people who migrated in got offended by hearing about it then they could bloody well leave. I kept trying to explain that it’s not about being offended, it’s about f***king separation of church and state, and that regardless of whether the majority of the population is Christian, an elected official shouldn’t be seen to favor that religion over all others. Things just got worse. The normally friendly guy across from me started ranting about “guys in turbans at the pub when I’m not allowed to wear a hat”! The girl behind me – who’s an immigrant herself, I might add – actually argued that Australian society was intrinsically Christian and if people didn’t like it, “they shouldn’t come.” I finally gave up. It’s insane. I’d never realized before how xenophobic and anti-PC some of these people are. Nobody’s saying that you can’t sing Christian (or Buddhist or Jewish or whatever) songs all you want. All I’m saying is that it should be an individual activity, not a state-sponsored one. Is that too difficult to understand?

And now I look like the office Communist or something, simply for trying to be rational. Sheesh.

How to eat a pomegranate. It might be “no-mess”, but it still sounds like too much bloody work for some fruit. (Link courtesy of Brigita.)

Sometimes the weirdest things make you homesick… like this Metafilter discussion about hitting deer and moose with your car. I’ve never hit one but I’ve come close, and I think half the members of my family have smooshed one at some point. Ahh, good times in Indiana.

Yesterday I held a check for $1.2 million. In my hands. A real check. Wasn’t made out to me, of course…

I was going to post something snarky about the “iPod’s dirty little secret” guys and warn y’all not to give any credit to their assertions, when Daring Fireball beat me to it. Ha!

Where is Bill Watterson? Great article about the famous cartoonist behind Calvin & Hobbes who abrupty retired in 1995. Rodd and I have a few of the books and quote them fairly regularly. I always identified with that Susie Derkins…

Knitted fractals and mathematical formulae. Those are so cool. I feel a major nerd sweater coming on… (Link courtesy of Kirsty.)