I never thought fans of “The View” would miss Star Jones, but…

(Thanks to Lally for the heads-up on this one)

Why am I not surprised the Canadians are figuring out before the Americans that higher or no speed limits will save money, increase productivity and decrease fatalities?

This article by Ron Rosenbaum at Slate.com is one of the scariest things I’ve ever read, about the prospect of nuclear holocaust. No jokes for this one.

This isn’t really news… but I wanted to share my all-time favorite short story. It’s half satire and half satire and was written in 1875 by Mark Twain. It’s called “The Story of the Bad Little Boy,” and it slaps the sanctimonious right in the chotchkies. It’ll take you about five minutes to read, and it available here. (Thank goodness for the public domain.)

From our friends at The Onion.

There’s a new high-tech kid on the block. Amazon.com unveiled its new “Kindle” device today, an e-book reader built to actually be usable. It works with Amazon.com - much like the iPod works with iTunes - allowing users to purchase books for $9.99 and download them to the reder, which can hold about 200 tomes.

For monthly subsctiption rates, your Kindle will also provide you the full text of the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, or others every day. These papers will download wirelessly - the Kindle doesn’t plug into your computer, but rather utilizes wifi technology - so all you have to do in the morning is remember to take your Kindle with you. (You can subscribe to magazine the same way.) It also offers blog subscriptions, for $1.99 (or less) per blog per month. I imagine charging for what otherwise is free information will probably not last long; people will complain and it will be a small concession for Amazon to change their blog policy.

As to useability, the 10.3 ounce device weighs less than a standard trade paperback and uses e-ink technology, which means it is read without backlight and puts much less strain on the eye than a standard computer screen. It is only in black and white, but of course grown-up books do not have many color illustrations. (I don’t know if e-ink can handle colors, or if the method is a one-color pony.)

Want one today? Visit Amazon with $400 and one of the first Kindles can be yours.

Happy reading.

Duke, a pro poker player notable for being Howard Lederer’s sister and also for being bats**t crazy, testified before Congress in support of online poker. Her speech was actually well done, a strong call to legalize internet gaming. Guess that Masters degree in Psycholinguistics means she’s not crazy all the time, right?

I saw a flier about relationship abuse alleging that 85% of people in relationships experience “emotional abuse.” This is just another example of obviously fraudulent numbers being paraded as the truth. As anybody who has ever been in a relationship knows, the actual number is 100%.

It’s just the cost of business when you’re dating somebody. Remember: The emotional abuse of a relationship is almost always easier to take than the the self-inflicted emotional abuse of being single.

Why don’t campus restaurants offer more high culture deserts like this?

Try to endure the beginning of this clip to get to the last minute or so, with a special cameo by some guy in an Obama mask.