Perfect for when you’re watching Saturday morning cartoons. [via thedailywhat]

The problem with the design of AA.com, however, lies less in our competency (or lack thereof, as you pointed out in your post) and more with the culture and processes employed here at American Airlines.

—

Mr. X, in a reply to Dustin Curtis’ open letter mocking the design of American Airlines. I have to admire Mr. X’s tone, especially considering the derision that Curtis was all to willing to heap on the faceless design team at AA.com.

Also: I recommend reading Mr. X in the same voice as MISTER F.

Because he sounds like someone who lives on the subway and wears origami sailor hats made out of Soldier of Fortune magazines.

—David Rees wants to know who this Dick Cheeny guy is and why should he give a flying purple goddamn what he thinks.

But John survived, grew into Nick Stahl and has now matured into Bruce Wayne — I mean Christian Bale, all grizzled cheekbones and frayed vocal cords — while the original T-800 runs the State of California.

—And this is why I love A.O. Scott.

“Don’t make me spit-up”

For indefensible

If girls realized the consequences of sex, nobody would be having sex. Trust me. Nobody.

—

Bristol Palin, who didn’t get to go to prom because she was taking care of her newborn.

While Ross is fomenting spit-up gate, I honestly couldn’t get past this quote. I realize things like “reason” and “faith in science” aren’t highly coveted values in the Palin family, but there are plenty of happy, healthy people the world over who are having happy, healthy sex without unwanted, out-of-wedlock children. It’s a natural, zesty enterprise.

The federal government today launched data.gov, a clearinghouse for data generated by the federal government; OMB director Peter Orszag has more details at the White House blog. Unfortunately, and somewhat ironically, the news coverage of this event seems to have been usurped by former Obstructionist in Chief Dick Cheney. Considering the potential impact data.gov may have on Americans’ every day lives, it’s unfortunate this story is getting a short shrift over sour grapes and fear mongering.

I haven’t had much time to dig into the details, but so far it looks excellent. The data is searchable, rather rich and in a variety of parsable formats, like CSV and XML. This is going to be a boon to media organizations, watchdog/good government groups and ordinary folk interested in how the sausage gets made.

Time will tell how useful and complete the data turns out to be but the fact that data.gov even exists is a landmark achievement. Can anyone seriously imagine the Bush administration, or even his predecessor, opening up government databases like this? Even allowing for the fact that we are living in a gilded age of technology (though, I would argue that data.gov isn’t doing anything that wouldn’t have been technically possible in, say, 2000), this kind of initiative required a political will that has been missing in modern times.

Now that the data is out there, it’s our job to do something with it.

Infinite Summer

Some of my favorite writers (Matthew Baldwin and Avery Edison amongst them) are reading Infinite Jest this summer. This is a swell idea, one I’ll happily try to participate in.

Explaining the popularity of Wired-style theses should keep sociologists busy for years to come

—Andrew Orlowski, who has declared Chris Anderson’s Long Tail theory dead.

Pope encourages young to use internet

Well, now that the Pope’s behind it, I’m sure this internet thing will take right off