Koplowicz.com

I'm in love with this blog called Shady Characters by Keith Houston.  It delves into the history of punctuation marks, and the result is drama, political intruige, and passion.  Think The Da Vinci Code for the ampersand.

So, a lot of websites, including Wikipedia, are blacking themselves out today to protest SOPA.  Apparently someone has decided to take the protest one step further: instead of just imagining life without Wikipedia (because it's blacked out because of SOPA), some people are acting it out.  I'm seeing a bunch of Twitter hashtags for #factswithoutwikipedia.  Here's the best of the lot:

It seems like this is becoming a common refrain on the internet.  Let me preface it by saying that they're still better than AT&T DSL - I canceled that shit after one week, and I've been putting up with Comcast for over two years now.  But I'm getting more and more sick of their abysmal customer service.

A recent review of the new Tintin movie claims that we have finally passed the Uncanny Valley, and thus a whole new vista of hyper-real animation is open to us.  I'm not convinced.

I've previously blogged about the true story behind Hanukah.  To recap: it had nothing to do with oil in the lamp.  That was made up by rabbis hundreds of years later, in a deliberate attempt to water down the true message of the holiday.

I was recently sent an op-ed from the New York Times, which argues in favor of lowering the barriers of entry for attorneys.  Here's the link.

Thought-provoking, to be sure, but I don't agree with this op-ed.  Winston seems to make two assertions: (a) lowering the barrier to entry would lower the costs of legal representation, and (b) there should be a rating system for lawyers, like Zagat's or Consumer Reports.

I usually ignore advertisements, but I had to share this one.  Apparently, Honda is running a new ad campaign showing that their CRV is superior to the Toyota RAV4.  Yelena & I test drove both cars, multiple times, before choosing the RAV4 two years ago.  So, were we wrong?  Is the CRV superior?  Here's the answer, according to Honda: