Using the word "dichotomy" makes me feel like Kevin Smith

My favorite thing about Yahoo! News is the dichotomy that you can get from randomly prioritizing headlines in a certain category, levels of irony a human editor with even the most rudimentary skills wouldn’t let pass. This struck me yesterday in the form of an article about poor Haitians literally eating dirt to survive and one about hand sanitizer not being as effective as commonly believed. Nothing beats today’s pair under Most Popular:

Vaccine for drug addiction could offer hope to users
Vending machines dispense pot in LA

Staked Sock

My laundry room has a cork board to post messages and what not. Someone tacked a black sock to it. I'm sure someone just found it on the floor and put it up for whoever lost it, but it had the image of being hung as a warning to the other socks... you know, to keep them in line.

Let's Go Yankees!

Oh, best Yankees tickets ever... in Oakland. Field level. Section 109 row 31 (check the seating chart, they even give you a view from the section) - $47.50 each all taxes and delivery included. Similar seats in The House that Ruth Built run like $100 EACH, most of which are already taken by season ticket holders. Plus now I get to be "that guy" in the opposing team gear. And, comparing records, I might actually get to see the Yanks win one this year.

Peny Arcade on WoW

The guys at Penny Arcade recently got back into WoW, due mainly to this (which is, by the by, the coolest WoW related thing I've ever seen), and Tycho had a similar reaction to his relapse as I did to mine:

What I do know is that they have set up a system that allows me to rent my friends on a monthly basis.

I've missed hanging out with 40 people every night, even more so now that we're alone out here, but it's like a second job. Add into that the time zone difference and we'd barely be playing with our Albany friends anyhow. I do think about it from time to time, seeing as how I'm subscribed again (I think), but I don't know how I feel about Hunter anymore. I gave some thought to leveling a Belf Paladin when BC came out, but that's WAY more time than I'd like to invest in it. Besides, what with the 360, and notably Rock Band, my gaming time is occupied.

I guess I never get to watch my favorite romantic comedy again, as it now depresses Erin, which sorta defeats the purpose.

You have my gummi sword...

With out a doubt this (and this from last year) are the coolest sugar sculptures I've ever seen, and I watch the Food Network.

R.O.U.S.'s

Rodents of unusual size? I don't believe they exist.

Canada

You know how in news articals when an amount is listed in foreign currency they allways list the US value in parens next to it? Like "40 GBP ($80)"? I saw one in a yahoo news article today about a street racing law in canada that contains the line:

face a minimum C$2,000 ($2,000) fine.

I knew the dollar has been in a tail spin, I even knew the canadian dollar was now equal to ours, but damn if that's not depressing seeing it in print that way. Looks to be about time to get all your international travel out of the way, before it becomes financially unfessable.

All this time, I should have been collecting canadian quarters instead of deriding them as 17 slugs.

EDIT:
Just finished the above noted article. The guy was pulled over doing 100 in a 60 (near enough at least, after the metric conversion). In New York they'd arrest you for reckless endangerment at that speed. Here's what happened in canada:

"When he finally stopped, the man told the officer he was going to the bank and planned to go shopping ... the officer drove him to the bank."

There's something wrong with these people.

EDIT the second:
A different article on Yahoo News about (or aboot, eh?) the same occurance with all the values (speed, speed limit, cost of the fine) already converted into US terms shows the fine as $2002. A sad day indeed.

Intern!

I'm beginning to realize that I'm, in some respects, just a very highly paid intern. There are several tasks that are dull and repetitive, like extracting Ledger data (20 minutes per company for about 25 companies, once per month!) or, my current task, which is actually fun as hell for me, reviewing expense reports for irregularities, all 1000+ pages of em. These are things that a trained ape, or even a college student, could do, but "sensitivity" of the information involved, they need someone at a higher pay grade.