"I am honored to be here with Barack Obama. I am absolutely honored."

"Shame on you, Barack Obama!"

Wow. That was fast.

Maybe Hillary should be Ralph Nader’s running mate — a ticket with two smart, hard-working progressives, both of whom might be globally respected if they just weren’t so hell-bent on destroying their own reputations.

I touched on some of this in Trebekistan, in the bits about encoding information so that it could be retrieved in competitive conditions.

But the more scientists learn, the cooler this stuff gets.

I touched on some of this in Trebekistan, in the bits about encoding information so that it could be retrieved in competitive conditions.

But the more scientists learn, the cooler this stuff gets.

Just a heads-up: last year’s "Quiz Show" episode of Ira Glass’s This American Life is repeating this week, including a very brief chat with yours truly in the wake of Prisoner of Trebekistan.

It’s a free listen on the TAL website this week.

Next week, Ira takes an inside look at the writers of The Onion.  Now that’s an episode I’m looking forward to.

Webmaster of this site and all-around good Canadian guy Colin is also pretty darn fine musician, and one of the pleasures of having his friendship the last few years has been the occasional mp3 of his latest noodlings from the home studio, often coming not long after the arrival of some new technical doohickey that reflanges the hemostat or hypertunes the gonkulator.  In any case, the tunes are always a good listen.

Colin has recently joined forces with fellow singer-songwriter Charlie Burton to form an actual band thingy, self-deprecatingly called Two Old Goats ("their bleat can’t be beat!").  He mailed me a CD shortly before I left for Ecuador in December, and I wound up listening to it while writing or hanging out in airports at least a half-dozen times.  (It’s precisely the sort of music you’d expect goodhearted Canadians to write to bring happiness to other goodhearted Canadians.  You’ll probably clear the irony out of your system just by listening.)

Now it turns out that the Goats tune "Waiting For the Light" has reached the Top 50 on CBC Radio 3.  My congrats to both Colin and Charlie, and I’m sure there’s more where that came from.

Meanwhile, thanks to the CBC, you can hear some Goat music yourself here.  Although one warning: if you get the phrase "island standard time" caught in your head, it may not come out until Easter.

And you can buy the CD here.  (Just look for the big button that says "Get our CD — Buy Now.")

Enjoy.