Gothamist has an annoying habit of posting about very hipsterish events populated overwhelmingly by white people. Still, this is good. (Found it here.) A slew of cell phones started ringing simultaneously in the bag-check area of the Strand. Not just once, but several times, over the course of 20 minutes. They rang together and then in categories: Nokias, then Motorolas, and so on. Turns out it was an elaborate prank.

As I watched the video and listened to all the ringing, I couldn’t decide if it was good or just damn annoying. Had I been in the store at the time, I probably would have thought the latter.

Still, well played.

“The Government’Â’s argument echoes the classic rejoinder of bureaucrats throughout history: If I make an exception for you, I’Â’ll have to make one for everybody, so no exceptions.”

I like the Chief Justice’s writing style.

Today (which we have off for Presidents’ Day) Matt and I finally finished watching the Battlestar Galactica Season 1 DVDs, which I’d borrowed from Jon. We’ve been watching Season 2 every week with a group of friends, but I was confused for a long time because I hadn’t seen the miniseries or the first season. Now everything is clear to me. (Or at least everything that is supposed to be clear.) And perusing various aspects of the show via Wikipedia helps even more.

What an absolutely terrific show this is. While it’s sci-fi, it’s not your typical sci-fi. A good term for it is naturalistic science fiction. The characters are rich, realistic and flawed.

It’s a complex, character-driven show with multiple long-term story arcs. One way in which TV is superior to movies is the ability to do things like that. It’s the modern-day version of reading Charles Dickens novels in weekly or monthly installments.

It’s just great.