Potpourri XXII

Darlene the Science Cheerleader tagged me as one of about three conservatives in the country willing to support the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA). Scary, but jeez, the alternatives are much worse, as my previous post makes clear.

Ever wake up and feel different somehow? There was a story by SF writer Cordwainer Smith in which people enter "the Instrumentality," a kind of all-powerful computer/machine, and come out French. Well, now there's a chance that if you were born under just the right circumstances, you might wake up and be...Canadian. The YouTube commercial is frickin' hilarious.

If you're a Wall Street Journal subscriber, you can read the whole text of this article on Sprite. They're doing a low-key sponsorship of a singer as she tries to hit the big time. Sort of like Sprite-commercial-meets-American-Idol-meets-some-other-reality-TV-show. I've got to admit, I'm intrigued. The first "Green Eyed World" video can be found on YouTube.

And now for something completely different: a bird who really enjoys Ray Charles.