&c.:

Monkeypox confirmed in US: Perhaps the moral of this story is not to sell wild animals like priarie dogs-- the carriers in this case-- as pets. (While we were in Paris our tour guide Veronique told us that priarie dogs have become the hottest new exotic pet there, and we actually went by the street markets where people could buy them. Wait, why did I parenthesize this?

The Killer Elite, part one: This is the best article concerning the war in Iraq that I've read. I didn't read many, admittedly, but this is simply great journalism. I would definitely recommend buying the issue to get the full effect of its pictures and the like, but this's better than nothing. Read it. I'm serious.

I'm getting called "sir" a lot more often at work now, which is odd but nice. Lately I've been hanging out, both on and off the job, with some of the supervisors and hearing all the funny behind-the-scenes action. Apparently in the early days of the facility, the workers and supervisors would all smoke a bowl during break and then go back to work stoned as hell. As lousy as it is overall, this job never ceases to amuse me.