It lives, I see

First of all, Ra points to anyone who can give the name and publisher of the game whose opening line is the title of this post. Since we haven't given out any Ra points in about a year, let's make it, say, 50 points.

The exam went really well, thanks for asking. If you care (not that any of you do), you can see my answers here (PDF). The after-party was fun for a while, too, but eventually involved my bathroom becoming a biohazard of epic proportions, plus a visit from the paramedics. Hooray!

In other news, the sinking of the world into complete paranoid, vindictive chaos continues. As I'm sure you've all heard, the British foiled a plot to blow up as many as nine planes headed into the US from Heaththrow. Calm and level-headed statements described it as having the potential for `unimaginable destruction', which apparently means either the number of people on a 777 is unimaginable, or nine times that number is unimaginable. Unsurprisingly, Republicans immediately tried to make political hay, despite the facts that

1. The UK is not the US, and the GOP can take no credit for this in any way whatsoever.
   
2. The invasion of Iraq has only exacerbated the problem of Islamic extremism.

Next up, the use of torture in interrogation moves one step closer to quasi-official status:

The Bush administration drafted amendments to the War Crimes Act that would retroactively protect policymakers from possible criminal charges for authorizing any humiliating and degrading treatment of detainees, according to lawyers who have seen the proposal.

Because the only way to fight theocratic radicals who indiscriminately kill civilians and regimes with gross human rights violations is with theocracy, indiscriminately killing civilians, and gross human rights violations. BushCo take `To beat my enemy, I must become my enemy' a little too seriously.

My housemate does not understanding what the big deal is with Snakes on a plane (via Amanda). He simply seems tragically unable to comprehend the brilliance of a plot based, simply and elegantly, on the combination of snakes and a plane in such a way that the former are actually located inside the latter.

Obligatory feminist link: Modesty and raunch culture: two sides of the same coin
Obligatory science link: Debunking the upper tail: More on the gender disparity

I'm taking a break from heavy philosophizing this weekend, but maybe -- just maybe! -- you lucky people will be privy to an in-depth liveblogging of me writing the paper for my incomplete next week! (Try to contain your joy, it's a bit unbecoming.)