Can I still write phone numbers on my hand?

--Today, Microsoft patented skin. Well, the use of skin as a medium to transmit data. All I have to say is, "WTF?" and "get that thing away from me".

--I'm a little slow with the ball on this one. In a classic example of people in power overreacting to things that they don't understand, the FBI is investigating a Boulder, CO artist for bioterrorism. When police arrived at Steve Kurtz's home after he called to report that his wife had died, they spotted equipment and materials that Kurtz uses in his artwork. Not knowing what the stuff was, they automatically jumped to the conclusion that he was manufacturing bioterrorism materials in his home, had him arrested, and sealed off the home. They even confiscated his wife's body. Now the case is slowly lurching towards trial, and the art community has rallied to his defense.

--The man who helped create ASCII, thus paving the way for giant sig files and dot-matrix renditions of the Mona Lisa, and who happened to notice that the century was eventually going to end, died today.