For those of you who are preparing to take the GRE for grad school or masochism, I give you a word to study: raconteur.

I first heard the word three days ago; since then, I have seen it thrice. Once on Wikipedia, once on the aforementioned “Bullshit!”, and once in the Wall Street Journal print edition.

Be not feckless when learning.

I have found a new favorite TV show: Penn and Teller’s Bullshit!

It’s irreverent, libretarian, and dreadfully entertaining.

Maybe it’s just me, but I find this phrase a wee bit disturbing: “They estimate the possibility of accidentally destroying the planet as extremely low.” That might not be so bad, but just a few sentences earlier appears the text: “For the first time in many decades we have built a machine that exceeds our powers of prediction.”

Hmmm…

(source)

We remember tragedy so that we can heal.

Five years ago today, I woke to a beautiful, crisp morning. I went to my first period class, which I recall was rather boring. When I got out of class at 8:50 a.m. CDT, I went to the commons, like always, to hang out with my Brothers until my next class. When I arrived there, the sight was unbelievable.

Above the couches, two TVs were on, tuned to CNN. They showed a live shot of the New York skyline with the twin towers billowing smoke. Everybody watched with rapt attention.

A few minutes later, the live feed showed the south tower collapse. A half hour after that, the other tower fell. Around that time, CNN showed footage of explosions in Kabul, Afghanistan. One of the ROTC cadets near me said, “We’re going to war, boys.”

I remember going to another class, but I remember only that nobody could concentrate.

I remember looking into the bright blue sky and seeing no jet contrails.

I remember going to the cafeteria. In the Kahn room, somebody had set up a projector showing a cable news feed on a giant screen. Students ate their lunches in complete silence while watching the news.

I remember trying to get news from the web and finding most major news sites completely unresponsive.

I remember a mad rush to fill up with gas at the Bigfoot gas station next to campus. Word went out that other stations had jacked up prices to obscene levels, but the Bigfoot still sold regular unleaded for $1.40/gallon. Dave Atkinson took a photo of the hiked prices at a different station. Before long, lines stretched for a block away from the Bigfoot. The state police were soon summoned to calm heated tempers. The gas rush epitomized the fear of what had become of the world.

This morning, CNN streamed their complete coverage from September 11, 2001, starting at 7:30 a.m. CDT, in real time. The transition from fluffy morning news to shock and confusion was surreal. When I saw the towers collapse again, the exact same images I saw five years prior, I couldn’t stop a tear from welling in my eye.

(Yeah, the item mentioned below has been around for a few months; no cable + no real TV = pop culture delay.)

As many of you know, Comedy Central has been airing the “lost” episodes of the Dave Chappelle show, which were filmed before Chappelle’s sudden departure. One of the skits in one of those episodes was a send-up of the fact that the late rapper Tupac Shakur has released about half a dozen albums since his death in 1996 (with another coming this November).

I ran across that skit on YouTube this evening, and I found it absolutely hilarious. Tight beat, too. Give it a look.