I’m poking my way through The Best American Mystery Stories of the Century; a collection of short stories that looks a bit like an unabridged dictionary. I read Damon Runyon’s short story Sense of Humour while I was making dinner tonight. The characters made me think of Looney Toons’ Rocky and Mugsy, but I guess the inspiration went the other way ‘round.

Great stuff, and it looks like thanks to Google books you can read the entire story online.

Over the weekend I finished Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic, which Amazon says I bought on Jan. 1 of 2007. I have a pretty strong romantic fascination with the period covered in the last half of the book, thanks probably to Rufus J. Fears. Pompey, Cato, Cicero, Brutus, Crassus, Ceasar, Octavian, Marc Anthony and Cleopatra…

I want to move on to Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire but it’s not cheap, even used, to get the entire collection. I’ll keep looking. Exciting.

@wardspan where are the cool kids?

RT @0xcharlie: Yeah! @dionthegod won the pwnie for best research. Congrats!

@jackwillk welcome, I am at the far side of the pool wishing I had my suit.

New school: The Verizon 2010 Data Breach Investigations Report: http://securityblog.verizonbusiness.com/2010/07/28/2010-dbir-released/

@charmsec I'll need you to set up the Skype telepresence rig you promised me. I look forward to catching up w/ those of you in LV this week!

Because @_defcon_ attendees are changing their profile pictures to network easier, I've found a video to augment mine: http://goo.gl/ATYN

@kathybarnett it's tough to cycle without going clipless. The real advantage though: Goofy shoes + Bunny-hops.

I'm clicking a cow. http://goo.gl/Wiad

"Hi, I hold ignorant and often illogical, divisive positions."

...

"refudiate—oops, refute/repudiate. *undo*"

LANGUAGE GAFFES! BURN HER!

One of our cats has a clear plastic cone-collar on 'til something clears up. Her reaction suggest like she's experiencing the 4th dimension.

I͈̮͕̼͓̗͚̎͗̊̈́ͤ̋t͍͉͎͇̫̥͍̿͒̔̊̏'s͖̻̩̙̮̘͇ Z̮̱̼̟̘̙̰ͪͭa̮̗̱͙̞̻͛̂ͅl͕̋́̽d̲̰̱ͯͅo͚ͮ͑ͨ͋̋̓ ̗̳͚̯ͫ̉͐̂ͫͨḁ͚̩̗̂̂̊ͨ̊g͚͚̘̜̦̲ͦ̊ͭ̇̚ͅa̝ͥ͂ͭ̍̿ȉ͈͆ͬ̃̌n̼͙͉͚̜̾͆ͯ̾̂.

Logged User-Agent strings differing from legit ones by typos or truncation are: a) Purloined letters b) Lazy c) Stupid d) What are logs?

@will_torres uh, hey Will?

Wanna see my bracket for the World Cup?

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@bbaskin An expanded URL only claims to not be a 302. The web is a Skinner box: I just frantically click on everything underlined. Yay!

I accidentally bought a large-print _Evil_Eye_The_Origins_And_Practices_of_Superstition. And you know what that means. http://goo.gl/WmAk

@jackwillk getting back into home brewing is as easy as having an address to ask @MoreBeer_B3 to send ingredients to. Go for it!

I enjoyed @cshirky's Cognitive Surplus this week.

Where Carr seems to continue rediscovering Plato on media, Shirky finds opportunity.

"Memes!", H4cKe® said, kicking up his feet to pause from writing "show-us-your-tits" jokes on his black-background website. #pebkac

@jackwillk at least you acknowledge that your fear is irrational! http://goo.gl/2kZ0