I’m off to St. George for the week. Since we all know I do not tan, I’m taking wagers on the shade I’ll be when I get back. Use the following scale as a reference:

In the interests of fairness, I will say that I am currently sporting a 0.5, with nose approaching 0.8.

The inaugural issue of Goblin Fruit is up, and it’s gorgeous. Join the feast of poetry and readings by Elizabeth Gross, Eric Marin, Bruce Boston, E. Sedia, Marge Simon, Thomas Zimmerman, Patricia A. Boutilier, Jennifer Crow, Mike Allen, and yours truly.

Is Emperor Palpatine secretly behind Snubster?

To test this theory, I tried some hate searches for tell-tale omissions:

Ten Things Not Currently Hated by Snubster Users:

1. The Galactic Empire
2. Sith Lords
3. Trade Federation
4. The Dark Side of the Force
5. Jar Jar
6. Order 66
7. Exar Kun
8. Darth (with any title: Sidious, Vader, Maul, Andeddu, etc.)
9. Star Wars Galaxies: NGE
10. Palpatine

Draw your own conclusions, but ask yourself: who benefits from your hatred?

‘The Nothing’ swallows up Turkey, Cyprus, and the Mediterranean:

ISS View of the March Total Solar Eclipse

And, because you need an ear worm today, I’ll point out that you can listen to “The NeverEnding Story” theme song on LIMAHL’s MySpace page.

(Watch the video only if you have the courage of Atreyu.)

The current issue of Mother Jones has a smarty bit on IP madness: Intellectual Property Run Amok.

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.

But I did like this:

“For including a 60-second piece of silence on their album, the Planets were threatened with a lawsuit by the estate of composer John Cage, which said they’d ripped off his silent work 4′33. The Planets countered that the estate failed to specify which 60 of the 273 seconds in Cage’s piece had been pilfered.”