ambivalent bits

Google SMS
Google SMS (Short Message Service) enables you to send queries as text messages over your mobile phone or device and easily get precise answers to your questions. {via}

Screaming Bean
Did you know I never have to go to school again? I so look forward to the day when I can say that, too.

iPod Flea
You'll be itching to use it.

Barry Trotter and the Shameless Parody
Since I really liked Rowling's books, and had seen what awful crap that the American publishing business calls “parody,” I felt obligated to try to write a spoof worthy of the originals. And, obviously, I thought there might be a few dollars in it, if I didn't end up having to spend the next five years in court.

Today is BlogHer Con '05
BlogHer's 2005 conference runs from 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. PDT today, and we have our live bloggers standing by to update you as it happens

musclehead: Nick Hornby's A Long Way Down
Honestly, I cannot recommend this book strongly enough.

Judge OKs Utahn's 3 'gay' plates
The letters may say gay, but a Park City woman says love is the only message she wanted to send with personalized license plates that read “GAYSROK,” “GAYWEGO” and “GAYRYTS.” {via}

Ditzy Genius: Virginia is for Lovers Policeman
My initial thought was not “damn” but was “Why the hell is a cop driving a Camaro?”

Japanese develop 'female' android
Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro of Osaka University says one day robots could fool us into believing they are human. {via}

Learning The Lessons of Nixon » Be True To Your Blog
Practice blog monogamy; bring all your gifts to your one and only faithful old blog . . . take them all and give them to your blog and she shall reward you richly.

The 'War On Terror' is Over!
The Bush administration has quietly retired the term in favor of the less marketable “struggle against violent extremism.”

AG: High Court Not Bound by Roe V. Wade

elevatorride: Fruit Tattoo
Many years from now, we will look back on these simple days, days when horrific weather events were still newsworthy, days when you could get a legal abortion in the US, and perhaps most importantly, days when your fruit did not have advertisements etched into its skin.

Who Said
A literature game delivered as a podcast.

Sam Worlds Ugliest Dog
Sam is a purebred, yes that's right, a purebred Chinese Crested Hairless.

Roberts Listed in Federalist Society '97-98 Directory
In conservative circles, membership in or association with the society has become a badge of ideological and political reliability.

Welcome to the OPML Editor
The core purpose of this program is to create outlines and share them with other people, in various forms.

Objective Justice: Blawg Review #16
I'm not going to give this whole Review over to discussion to Roberts, but I have to consider this the Roberts Review.

Spoof of Bush Wins Faux Faulkner Contest
The story portrays President Bush in the role of Benjy, the mentally challenged son — or, as Faulkner himself said, the “idiot” — in his 1929 novel about the wreckage of a Southern family. (The story is here.)

Teamsters, SEIU Decide to Bolt AFL-CIO
The unions are part of the Change to Win Coalition, seven labor groups vowing to accomplish what the AFL-CIO has failed to do: Reverse the decades-long decline in union membership.

Scholarships For Virgins
Girls who want to take advantage of the virginity scholarships will have to agree to medical exams to confirm their chaste status.

Poll: Fewer Americans think president is “warm and friendly”
The most amusing results of the survey are the one-word descriptions, in which pollsters asked each respondent to come up with one word to describe Bush. . . . Here are the top responses in this week's poll, presented in descending order: honest, incompetent, arrogant, good, integrity, determined, liar, stupid, idiot, strong, leader.

JD2B.com
I just noticed the redesign—nice!

John Kerry sees a budding politician in Lance Armstrong
What the hell? Hey Kerry, stop w/the trying to be kingmaker thing. You're looking foolish yet again.

Armstrong's success has prompted huge growth in American cycling
USA Cycling, the sport's national governing body, says more Americans are riding bicycles these days than ever before -- a direct correlation to Armstrong's popularity.

Scott Rosenberg: Elections Have Consequences:
But if the Bush appointments result, as they might well, in the overturning of Roe v. Wade, I think we might be in for some “consequences.”

Scripting News:
If all goes well, the OPML Editor will be available publicly on Monday.

AndrewRaff.com: Blogging about blogging:
Those of us who are looking for work while blogging under our own names may be creating more problems for ourselves with pointless non-proofread posts that have no worthwhile conclusion.

Plugs and Dottles: Goldberg's Enemies List:
Bernard Goldberg has published another book of conservative political pornography for the red-staters. He calls it: 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America : (and Al Franken Is #37).

9rules network
The 9rules Network is about building a community of high quality websites as well as a community of highly discerning readers.

Jon Cryer Doesn’t Have An iPod
Funny celebrity story. I do it the other way around—when I'm out w/my iPod I use black earphones so nobody knows what kind of player I'm listening to. To each his own...