Random

• It's Columbus Day in most of the US -- except for Hawaii, where it is "Discovers Day" (and in some Guam institutions which try to follow Hawaii around as a younger child shadows an older more mature sibling). And, of course, it is Thanksgiving Day in Canada! Gobble, gobble! Happy ___________ Day to you all!

• More troubling economic news from the mainland -- Mother's Cookies has gone into chapter 11 bankruptcy and turned off the ovens. I join Chris in lamenting the loss of this junk food staple. Now you know what was behind the market tumble last week. ~ link

• Both Obama and McCain are left-handed. I'm not against left-handed people (some of my best friends are left-handed) but I'd at least like to have a choice when it comes to president. ~ link

• Last night, while waiting for some video to load, I spent a few minutes hitting the "next blog" button on the blogger bar at the top of the screen. Two things stand out: (1) Most blogs are in a language other than English. The world has changed. (2) A lot of people have been pimping their blogger sites so that they look like MySpace. What's with that?

• Researchers have isolated a genetic variance that increases the risk of male pattern baldness in one out of seven Caucasian men. This, of course, brings science a lot closer to finding a cure for this devastating disease. ~ link

• Someone has finally figured out the true cause of the decline of the British Empire! From one of the stiff upper-lip Telegraph bloggers -- "Graham Kendrick - the author of such painful hymns as Shine, Jesus, Shine has been included amongst a list of 50 people responsible for ruining Britain." In case anyone cares Graham is #39 on the list of shame. ~ link

• "Remembering Collective Shame" by Uwe Siemon-Netto ~ link