Under anesthetic, subdivided and synthetic

Have you ever worried that fanfic would become institutional in literature? To the point where its works would be referenced and lauded? Say, where state names would come from fanfic? Or fanfic would win a Pulitzer?

Mind you, none of this excuses Monk slash (no link: shudder).

Congrats to the gang from River City as the Shockers knock off #2 Tennessee 80-73 to advance to the Sweet Sixteen. This, I think, is worth breaking out the WSU hockey jersey for.

I knew the smaller conferences would get some attention just after the first round, but this...this is awesome. Represent!

NFL owners voted unanimously Thursday to break off talks with the players' union on a contract extension, leaving the current salary cap in place with the start of free agency looming and possibly forcing the mass dumping of veterans.

"The situation is about as dire as dire can be," commissioner Paul Tagliabue said.

The owners, who met for 57 minutes Thursday morning, endorsed a recommendation by their management council executive committee to reject the union's latest proposal.

The breakdown of talks left intact, for now, a salary cap of $94.5 million. The two sides had hoped to add $10 million to $15 million to the 2006 salary cap. Without the additional room, some teams could be forced into wholesale cuts to get beneath the cap by midnight. Free agency starts Friday.

In addition to the whole uncertainty that comes with a lack of a labor agreement, the biggest ramification is that today will probably see the most and the most-talented players cut from NFL teams ever. Instead of trimming fat, they'll be trimming to the marrow to meet the low salary cap, which means egregious spending teams (*ahem cough Washington*) will be forced to let go expensive albeit talented players....

Also note, sadly, that KC is one of those teams. Today's a bad day to be a Chief. Edit: Today's a really bad day to be Eric Warfield, Dexter McCleon, Shawn Barber or Gary Stills. But then again, most days are.

...And an update on the Hedwig Chronicles from last night, too, later. I swear, every time I turn my head, an owl appears.

Super Mario sound/music board. Ace. Reminds me of Mario Twins.

Cthulego.

Unintentional hilarity amid Islam's festering hatred and calls for violence. Dudes, you're losing the blue states.

The Smoking Gun has pics of 25 Florida strippers busted in undercover stings. If going to a strip club ever seemed like a good idea to you, take a look and reconsider. (I've had an interesting number of colleages work at strip joints, and rarely were they actually the ones I'd have chosen/hoped.)

Sorkin's Studio 7 60 castings. Matthew Perry, Amanda Peet, DH Hughley, Steven Weber...not a must-see cast.

Oh, and as promised, adding a civilization to Civ4. Not entirely accurate and occasionally erroneous, but whatever gaps there were I filled in using the Soviet Union mod. They're what I used to make the Pretty Birds mod....

The Bush administration on Wednesday asked a federal judge to order Google to turn over a broad range of material from its closely guarded databases.

...The government indicated that other, unspecified search engines have agreed to release the information, but not Google.

Orwell was an optimist.

Stolen.



Edit: Just for missmiah, a deleted scene from Sorcerer's Stone.

At the Stadium Club in Jacksonville workers have found what they believe is an image of Jesus in a nacho warming tray. Full story here.

It's Osama, not Jesus. They found him hiding in a two-dimensional state on a nacho warming tray in Jacksonville, the second-to-last place anyone would ever look. The last place is, apparently, Pakistan.

From reynardine: ( My letter to Cthulhu.... )

Flying Spaghetti Monster triumphant! Science standards in Kansas now on the cutting edge of the 19th century....