Cricket - it rocks

The English just got done with a test match series on those islands to the south of us that we sometimes go to during spring break to smoke some ganja. 4 test matches, that's 20 days of exciting cricket action. Well, more like 19, because the 1st test ended on the fourth day. And what was the score after 4 matches & 19 days of thrilling cricket?

West Indies 1, England 0.

Change we can't believe in

Palin says Republican ticket was too 'status quo'

Hi. I'm Barry. Codename: Renegade

First-family-to-be given code names

The Secret Service traditionally has given pithy, private names to those whose lives they protect. The monikers are a throwback to a time when electronic communications were not encrypted, and they no longer serve a security function. Still, they give an occasional peek at the players' personalities, in addition to serving as great trivia questions.

President-elect Barack Obama: Renegade
As in, how did Darky get in here? Or as in a change agent we can believe in? I can see it now: Dispatch, Renegade is causing a renaissance in Renaissance, I repeat, Renegade is causing a renaissance in Renaissance.

Barack-tober is coming!

Barack Obama's Top Ten Campaign Promises

The complete Top Ten List, as read by Obama:
10. To keep the budget balanced, I’ll rent the situation room for sweet sixteens.
9. I will double your tax money at the craps table.
8. Appoint Mitt Romney secretary of lookin’ good.
7. If you bring a gator to the White House, I’ll wrassle it.
6. I’ll put Regis on the nickel.
5. I’ll rename the tenth month of the year “Barack-tober.”
4. I won’t let Apple release the new and improved Ipod the day after you bought the previous model.
3. I’ll find money in the budget to buy Letterman a decent hairpiece.
2. Pronounce the word nuclear, nuclear.
1. Three words: Vice President Oprah.

Who knew: there are phones in Zambia?

News Item: Zambia bans radio call-in shows because they have become a "channel of insults and misinformation."

Why haven't we thought of this?

Self-hatin'

From Slate...

A genetic analysis suggests James Watson is 16 percent African. Watson's genome is publicly available here; a company analyzed it and concluded his genes are "what you would expect in someone who had a great-grandparent who was African." Watson previously said he was "inherently gloomy about the prospects for Africa" because "all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours—whereas all the testing says not really." Critics' reactions to the DNA test: 1) Oops—looks like "their" genes are "ours"! 2) Why the gloom? A part-African kid can even grow up to become James Watson. 3) This shows Watson has "black genes." 4) This shows race isn't genetic; it's a social construction. Cautions: 1) Current genome analyses are often inaccurate. 2) The real impact of this one will be to scare people about genetic privacy. Fine print: "9% of Watson's genes are likely to have come from an ancestor of Asian descent." (Related: Human Nature's summaries of the Watson uproar.)

Wonder how many more "darky haters" out there turn out to have "darky genes." I say we all get tested, so we can send the pure whiteys back to Europe, pure darkies back to Africa, Asia etc and keep all the mixed up people over here. And only the pure Native Americans get to have casinos. Here's to hoping there's some Portuguese ancestor in my family tree...

African Resilience

You can take the African out of Africa, but you can never take the African out of him. Or it will take at least 500 years...

A Language, Not Quite Spanish, With African Echoes