Back in February, I wrote about all sorts of ways humans adjust our clocks to more closely match the natural world. Here's an example of how bad we are at doing this stuff. Back then - ten months ago - scientists whose job it is to do this stuff were predicting that the next "leap second" would be added at the end of 2009.

WRONG! It's tonight

Earlier today the Globe broke a story about "a 43-year-old WIlmington man [who] allegedly stole millions of dollars while working as the business manager for a national entertainer with local ties." Why the AG wanted to keep the name of the victim a secret became apparent when some people googled the name of the perp. Turns out the name of the business manager, Darryl McCauley, matches the name of Dane Cook's business manager and occasional spokesman

I’m breathing deep sighs of relief. Not just because of the sudden beach weather, but because the media is no longer perceived as the sharpest thorn in black Boston’s backside. At least not yesterday; and at least not from where I sat at last night’s small assembly at the YMCA on Martin Luther King Boulevard in Roxbury.

Everybody knows at least one person who claims to know at least one person who was in the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. They truly believe all these stories, and since social regulations dictate that we’re not allow to call bullshit on them, most of us sit idly while people say things like, “He was never late to work even one day in the 35 years that he worked there, but for some reason he went in late that morning.

This year was an amazing year in health. We saw some real advancements in the research labs and in medical technology this year, but most of these amazing stories below stem from unlikely pregnancies and extraordinary surgeries. A woman has her feet turned the right way round, a man has two new arms, and a man is not pregnant once, but twice.

With MASSIVE hat-tips to Consumerist and the Spike Feresten Show, I'll offer you these tidbits about Digital Television.

First, since most non-old-people fit in (at least) one of four categories (to be enumerated in a moment), there is an extremely good chance you don't need to do anything at all to account for the DTV "transition."

THE SADDAM SHOW
5 years ago
December 19, 2003 | Chris Wright watched his television with some sympathy as Saddam Hussein was snatched from a hole outside of Tikrit.
“At first, I thought they’d nabbed Nick Nolte for DUI again. But no, the ravaged, bewildered face on my TV screen was that of Saddam Hussein — captured, apparently, by the US Dental Corps.

Many of the comments about Take Back Barack so far have been from conservatives shouting with glee, calling Obama a "snake-oil salesman" and a "con man," and apparently suggesting I'm a sucker for believing his promises. But it appears the progressive community might be paying some attention. Early tomorrow morning (East Coast time) - so early it's late at night Pacific time - I'll be on the Phil Hendrie Show talking about the Take Back Barack effort.

Miller/Coors announced today they will no longer produce Sparks, the super-sweet combination energy drink/alcoholic beverage that I recall as a staple of house parties in Allston and JP back in my younger days. It was, frankly, kind of gross, but after you'd had that first one it wouldn't matter so much anymore.

In this week’s Phoenix, as a companion to David Bernstein’s excellent cover story, 20 Reasons the Earth Will Be Glad to See Bush Go, I took a look at the incoming officials of the Obama administration who’ll be charged with the stewardship of the environment — a group one member of the League of Conservation Voters called a “Green Dream Team

Yes, it's true: down in Dixie they use Coca-Cola to wash the bugs off their windshield -- and that's at gas stations. But who am I to talk? I once washed down my father's gravestone with a bottle of Yeungling Black & Tan. There are many uses for the fabled soft-drink product in the red-and-white can . . . including some that use just the can.

The Slutcracker, the holiday burlesque show that whisks the audience away to a carefree realm of sexual fantasy, has been such a hit with festive hornball audiences that creator/director Vanessa "Sugar Dish" White has added two more shows -- Friday Dec. 19 and Saturday Dec. 20, 8 pm at the Somerville Theatre.

Back in the late-Vietnam era, one of the most coveted underground novelty items was a Richard Nixon dart board -- basically a cork disk bearing a portrait of Tricky Dickie as seen through crosshairs. It was sold in head shops and disreputable book stores. It routinely decorated the walls of alternative newsweekly offices.