Now all we need is a big-ass blender and all the rum ever made.

The Larson B ice shelf, an enormous floating extension of Antarctica, has broken up. When I say “enormous,” I mean REALLY REALLY BIG, like 1,250 square miles and 650 feet thick (which is roughly the same as Rhode Island, though right offhand I don’t know how thick Rhode Island is). It’s now basically free-floating icebergs of the absurdly large variety; one is about nine times the size of Singapore.

Coverage at Yahoo and the BBC.

Global warming? What’s that?

Dept. of Robots

Sony has produced a humanoid robot that walks on two legs, can handle uneven surfaces, and even get up on its own if it falls down. It can also recognize you, and have limited conversations. Not exactly C3P0, but definitely getting there.

Dept. of Long-Lost Subjects

National Geographic photographer Steve McCurry took what is widely believed to be the most recognizable photograph ever to appear in that magazine: the haunting portrait of a refugee Afghani girl that appeared on the cover in 1985. It’s the same shot that’s been bandied about lately as the face of worn-torn Afghanistan.

McCurry knew he had something special, but he didn’t have the one additional thing he really wanted: the girl’s name, or how to reach her. He’s made several trips to try and locate her, but with no success — and more than a few false leads — until now.

The girl’s name is Sharbat Gula — though “girl” is wrong, as she’s now married, a mother, and about 30. McCurry has arranged for both a trip to Mecca and the education of her children. National Geographic Explorer will air a special on his search this Friday. Cool.

This Just In: The Feds are Jerks

Love her or hate her, most of us know who Ayn Rand was. She left her papers to a friend, who decided to donate all but two pages to the Library of Congress. The two pages in question? The first and last of her manuscript of The Fountainhead. The rest he shipped off to Washington as a gift to the Library. Nice enough, right? Well, the LOC decided it wanted all of the papers — so they sued him. Nice, guys.

Dept. of Observations and No Neat Links

This evening, when watching television, I noticed two things that disturb me.

First, over the course of a about an hour, I saw ads for all three major American car companies. Of the three, only Chrysler actually appealed to quality. Ford was content with a “tradition of Ford” spot, and GM shamelessly wrapped itself in the flag with a spirit of America spot. I’m wildly annoyed by this. I’m convinced the US is capable of making a decent car, but it seems like only Chrysler is actually trying; witness the sloppy attempts of GM to participate in the sports sedan market with its butt-ugly Cadillac CTS — this from the folks who thought “Hey! A Cadillac pick-up truck” and called it a good idea.

The other thing: I just watched a fascinating dialog on the Middle East question that was both nuanced and interesting — and altogether free of bombast. Moreover, said dialog featured substantive contributions from both show host and guest. The show? Comedy Central’s Daily Show, which featured the New Yorker’s David Remnick as its guest this evening. A comedy show is the only place we can see discussion without some talking head going apo-goddamn-plectic over the sound of his own howling. Why is this? Contrast this with the softball handling Jay Leno gave Dick Cheney, and you’ll see what I mean.

Dept. of My Birthday

So having one’s birthday on the 13th of a month is kinda cool. Some years, it’s also a Friday, which pretty much demands a large, dangerous party. After this year, though, I may wish it were some other day.

The fact that they feel it necessary to point out that they will have a “real doctor” on hand makes it even creepier.|*|

Ha!

Remember those inane anti-drug ads during the Super Bowl, and the absurdly oversimplistic full-page print ads that followed? The ones that suggest that a casual pot user is “supporting terrorism” by purchasing illegal drugs, all the while ignoring the fact that it is prohibition that creates the black market and its exhorbitant prices? There’s finally a counterpoint. (PDF)

Society has officially collapsed.

Not only is Fox airing a show called “Glutton Bowl” — something I was pretty sure was an Onion story at first, I don’t mind admitting — but these freaks also appear to have some sort of governing body.

Bill Maher suggests that it’s shows like this that really make the rest of the world hate us. He can’t be far wrong.

Politics as usual, sort of.

The more politically plugged-in among you are probably already aware of the fight brewing over Shrub’s first big judicial nominee, but what you probably don’t know is that said nominee — Federal Judge Charles Pickering, up for the Court of Appeals — is my cousin. We’re not close, but we do see each other several times a year. This brings a new perspective to the whole confirmation battle scenario for me. Charles is a staunch Republican, and has certainly been active in the Mississippi GOP for years. He’s been on the Federal bench since 1990 — a position that, of course, also required Congressional approval. That time, it was unanimous.

It won’t be that way for the Court of Appeals. A movement is afoot, largely led by People for the American Way, to defeat his nomination for reasons that probably boil down to the fact that he’s a Republican, which strikes me as a poor way to pick judges. I certainly don’t agree with him politically, but by most accounts he’s been a fine and fair jurist. When the decidedly left-of-center Washington Post says it’s gotten needlessly mean, and that the charges of racism and worse are so much smoke and mirrors, well, you know something ugly is happening. Aside from this piece, the only other balanced material I’ve seen has been in the New York Times; today, there was a long article (registration required) on Charles’ minority support within Mississippi, which is also food for thought.|||||*|

Lonesome, Orn’ry, and Mean

There is much to hate about the Houston Chronicle, but the fact that Waylon Jennings’ obituary was front page news on Thursday can make up for at least some of it. (Of course, I’m not linking to it because of one of the aformentioned reasons to hate them: archives are a fee-only deal.)