“Everything is changing. People are taking the comedians seriously and the politicians as a joke.” Who said it? The answer is at the end of this post. Now on to the links! … “Michael Brown, the incompetent head of FEMA who fiddled as New Orleans drowned under Hurricane Katrina, appears to have amassed the perfect credentials to enter the right-wing radio talkosphere” … “Oceans of liquid diamond, filled with solid diamond icebergs, could be floating on Neptune and Uranus” … “These animals are really treated as little more than milk-producing machines” … “Thousands of power flashes from cameras have the potential to further damage some of the nation’s most important original documents” … “At least one of them had a feathered mohawk tail in a subdued palette of chestnut and white stripes” … “Americans who hid money from the Internal Revenue Service in secret Swiss bank accounts may escape exposure” … “Privacy is the core currency of the social web, and like any other type of currency system there’s an exchange rate” … “It brushes my hand, leaving a telltale streak of sticky, stinky moistness” … “Dictatorship in the name of religion is the worst kind” … “He threw darts at the audience and then attacked them with a fire extinguisher” … “You are very likely a maternal cousin with Hillary Clinton” … “Sills is not even in high school yet” … “The hottest musician of the day was a jazz-playing Gypsy” … “He lasted three nights, went insane, became bankrupt and was committed at an institution on the island or, some stories say, he killed himself two weeks later” … “The ending of the imperial wars and the dismantling of America’s global military empire—and its global gulag—would save trillions of dollars in the coming years” … “I think the quartet may be one of the bands of the decade, at least in terms of influence” … “The world’s largest Internet search company and the world’s most powerful electronic surveillance organization are teaming up in the name of cybersecurity” … “If I wait too much longer, I’m not going to be able to do it” … “The real problem is that too many people tend to follow GOP cues about how hopelessly unsafe America is” … “Pat Metheny insists he isn’t out to replace his band, but it is the band inside his head” … “It is possible they are being held at a zoo in Abidjan” … “It is alarming to hear that the Obama administration is asserting that the president can authorize the assassination of Americans abroad” … “Fitting that the most dramatic views ever made of distant Pluto should be made public on the birthday of its discoverer” … “I was Vangelis’s sound engineer in the early 80’s and worked on Blade Runner“ … “Charmin Ultra 6-pack just $4.99!” … This issue’s quote is attributed to Will Rogers … And finally, “A recent flurry of research is suggesting new ways to get rid of the fear associated with certain memories, and even to delete those memories—permanently.” ∞