This post is long overdue. If you're fan of This American Life, or if you're a scientist or science groupie, check out RadioLab a great program from WNYC. I've been listening to them on my iPod while running and it's been terrific. My favorite episodes are the ones on Deception, Mortality, and Wagner's Ring Cycle.

Every once in a while my path collides with a song whose lyrics seem destined to reach me. You ever get that feeling?

This week the song is "King Without a Crown" by Matisyahu. If you can find a brother who's more down and is also an Orthodox Jew, let me know. This guy is it.

Check out this live performance.

The piece of the song that grabs me is:

What's this feeling?
My love will rip a hole in the ceiling
Givin' myself to you from the essence of my being

The good folks at Campain Monitor have just updated their guide to developing and using CSS in emails.  A Guide to CSS Support in Email: 2007 Edition - Campaign Monitor BlogThis is a great guide, in light of MS' decision to get rid of IE as the email renedering engine.

I reckon y'all would like Modern Earl.  This is a simple video to a simple song.

The first stanza of the song is:

"I don't get religion and it sure don't get me. 
Don't know where I'm going when I die. 
Meanwhile I'm going to linger, have fun while I'm here.
With the good Lord my savior, hot coals, and cold beer."

Would that everything was so simple.

I just got a swell plugin for FireFox called ScribeFire that lets you post blogs directly from your browser to your XML/RPC enabled content management system.  In my case, it's Drupal.  Here's a link to the download page, if you'd like to try it yourself.  I'm writing from it right now as a matter of fact.  I'e been looking for a tool that would allow me to blog firectly from my web browser instead of from within the CMS.  This just might be it. More, later.

I never really liked scrubs until my wife turned me on to the program last year. It has to be one of the best written shows on TV today. I'm less concerned about the cute romance and more with the comedic dialogue and timing of the actors.

The best character of late is "The Todd," an ambiguously preferenced surgeon who is all about sex (with nurses, old men, whoever's around). I just dug up the following "Todd Video Blog" on YouTube. I have no idea where it came from and I'm CERTAIN the network isn't proud of it, but it's hilarious (also not safe for children or work without headphones).

This is one of the most creative - if not depressing - things I've seen all week. "Remember, Charlie Brown, Christmas is not about Santa or the birth of a Saviour. It's about moving merchandise and false sentiment."

Not safe for your children.

This letter was submitted online to Comcast after a quite frustrating experience trying to pay my bill online with their NEW online bill pay tool.

Dear Comcast - This has to be the worst online account management service I have ever used. I tried enrolling in automatic withdrawl last month. Then I get an email that my bill is ready to be paid. I try to log on to pay it and it won't display the bill anywhere. THEN I get a call that my payment's late!!!

The best - and I mean the BEST - effing part is that I tried to log on this morning to access the bill and pay it and I see comcast has rolled out a pretty, new UI for account management...and it's completely unusable.

Where else on Earth could you have the experience I had this past Saturday? Nowhere but inside the beltway, in my front yard.

So this weekend the annual White House Press Corps Dinner was hosted at the Washington Hilton. The president made some remarks and then Stephen Colbert delivered a terrific, satirical address that lampooned (no, there is no better word for this) the administration's positions and statements by suggesting that he was in passionate agreement with them. I have to hand it to the guy, he did a terrific job. After the party, 500 A-listers (out of the 3,400 people in attendance) mosied on up to the after party right next to my apartment for merriment, dancing, and gift bags.

I can't believe all the hubub about the potential deal that would give a United Arab Emirates based company shipping operations in a number of US ports. The company would be operating under US regulations, subject to all monitoring as would any other company (US owned or otherwise).

The real issue here - and the purple elephant in the corner reactionaries fail to see - is the Bush administration's failure to focus on port security since the 9/11 attacks. The government's sanctioning of this deal should not prompt us to ask "Should a UAE (Arab) company be allowed to have this kind of access to our ports?" Instead, it should make us ask "Why do we feel like the government isn't making us feel safe enough that the ownership of a private company matters?"