No! Desmond Llewelyn died in a car crash today. Besides being a name-alike for this site, he was a terrific actor, appearing in over 30 movies and a good number of the Bond films.

The Shuttle is now spaceborne.

So, after getting the spam from AOL themselves yesterday, I forwarded it to abuse@aol.com. It bounced back to me as undeliverable — “connection refused”. Somehow seems par for the course for AOL. And it turns out that Chuck Taggart got the same spam (see his 12/17 entry).

Relive your childhood — online Etch-A-Sketch. (Of course, a better alternative would be to buy a real one, since there’s no way that a Java applet can simulate the fun of holding one in your hands.)

This is tres cool — contact lenses to correct colorblindness. I’m interested in finding out how these work, since colorblindness is more or less a physiologic deficiency, an absence of some or all cones (the color-sensing part of the retina) or the absence of a photopigment in the cones.

Garry Trudeau pens a tribute to Charles Schultz and Peanuts, saying that he is one of only two cartoonists that had the power to change the world.

Today’s sign that we’re nearing the apocalypse: James Brown named Strom Thurmond as a “hero of the 20th century.” Yes, the same Strom Thurmond who ran most of his early political campaigns, including his bid for the Presidency, on a strict segregation platform. Then again, yes, the same James Brown who has used enough drugs that there’s no telling how well his brain works anymore.

Thank GOODNESS that domain names can now be 67 characters long — I was feeling pretty darned oppressed that they wouldn’t let me register whoingodsnamewouldwanttotypeadomainnamethislongjusttobuycrap.com.

It turns out that Newt had a honey on the side while he was lambasting the President for doing the same, and even while he was trumpeting the Contract With America. (And by settling his divorce suit with his now ex-wife, his answer to her interrogatory “Do you believe that you have conducted your private life in this marriage in accordance with the concept of ‘family values’ you have espoused politically and professionally?” does not have to be made public.)

Here’s a much-overlooked way to avoid all of the portal-like blinding eye candy at Altavista — I don’t use the main page anymore.