Stop Embarrassing Yourself

Today’s holidays have little or no comedic value, so today we celebrate Larry Niven.
 

There is no cause so right that one cannot find a fool following it.
-Niven’s Law

Todays word is:
topic drift - \TAH-pik DRIFT\ - noun
1. The tendency of a thread to drift away from the original subject of discussion.
2. The results of that tendency.

Other birthdays today: Ashley Alexandra Dupré (23), Kirsten Dunst (26), Willie Nelson (75) and Cloris Leachman (82).

Go out and shake your groove thing, because today is International Dance Day.
 

Todays word is:
Gambol - \GAM-buhl\ - verb
To run and skip about playfully; to frolic

And a happy birthday to Uma Thurman (38), Andre Agassi (38), Master P (41), Michelle Pfeiffer (50), and Jerry Seinfeld (54).

I love the show Heroes, and apparently so do the people of Barbados who have designated today as National Heroes Day.

Today is also the first day of the Floralia. So if you are an ancient Roman (or have any ancient Roman friends) today should be a celebration of dancing, drinking, and flowers to symbolise the cycle of life.

Todays word is:
genial - \JEEN-yuhl; JEE-nee-uhl\ - adjective
1. friendly and cheerful.
2. (of weather) pleasantly mild and warm.

And a happy birthday to Jessica Alba (27), Jorge Garcia (35), Mary McDonnell (56), Ann-Margret (67), Eugene M. Shoemaker (1928-1997) and Kurt Gödel (1906-1978).

Today is World Graphic Design Day. So why not design something. Or just enjoy other peoples designs.

Todays word is:

lissom \LISS-uhm\ also
1. Limber; supple; flexible.
2. Light and quick in action; nimble; agile; active.

Today is World Intellectual Property Day. A day to celebrate corporate stifling of innovation. In celebration you should download a movie off the internet.

Todays word is:

enervate \EN-ur-vayt\ transitive verb
1. To reduce strength or energy; debilitate.
2. To weaken morally or mentally.
3. To unnerve or faze.
4. To partially or completely remove a nerve.

The Red Hat Society is a global society of women approaching the age of 50 or beyond that connects and supports women in their pursuit of fun, friendship, freedom and fulfillment.

Todays word is:

rara avis \RAIR-uh-AY-vis\ noun
A rare or unique person or thing.

Today is the 38th anniversary of the formation of the Republic of The Gambia.
 

Todays word is:

gelid \JEL-id\ adjective
Extremely cold; icy.

Twitter. I love it. If I’m connected to the internet, I’m on Twitter. I don’t send a lot of tweets (that’s what they call the 140 character or less messages on Twitter), but I do enjoy reading the tweets of people I admire or just find interesting. It’s a good way to get quick up to the minute information about their podcasts, blog entries, appearances, shows, parties, projects, streaming videos, what they are reading, watching and eating for lunch.

Unfortunately there where some technical difficulties this weekend (something about the new cache system) and popular peoples (those with more than hundred followers) tweets weren’t showing up on the home page. So you had to got to each individuals page to read their tweets. It was a little annoying, but Twitter is a free service and it wasn’t completely broken, just sprained. Now I had to decide which people I thought where the most interesting and visit there individual pages.

Luckily they had everything working yesterday and I was able to continue following the lives of the people I’ve come to think of as my Twitter friends.

Then today I heard that some users private direct messages where showing up on their main page where anyone could read them. Oops. Personally I would never use a service like Twitter to send sensitive or embarrassing personal messages, but still this would be a huge security blunder. It’s one thing if an active attacker can get to someone’s private data (like on almost every other social networking site). Of course the guys at Twitter aren’t that lame. It turns out the problem was caused by a 3rd party service called group tweet that the twitter users configured incorrectly.

Finally as if to prove that bad things always come in threes Twitters lead architect, Blaine Cook, has left. Blain Cook described his departure as “amicable“, whatever that means.

No, seriously, I had to look it up in Wiktionary. It means showing friendliness or goodwill.

Todays word is:
 

indolent \IN-duh-luhnt\ adj.

1. Avoiding labor and exertion; habitually idle; lazy; inactive.
2. Conducive to or encouraging laziness or inactivity.
3. Causing little or no pain.
4. Slow to heal, develop, or grow.

Wiktionary

Today is World Book Day.  Read a book.  Might I suggest any of the works of William Shakespeare (who would turn 444 today if he hadn’t died in 1616).  Better yet read them online.

Good frend for Iesvs sake forbeare,
To digg the dvst encloased heare.
Blest be ye man yt spares thes stones,
And cvrst be he yt moves my bones.

 Inscription on Shakespeare’s grave