Demonizing smokers is so 2004. Evidently the next big health crisis–or one of them, anyway– is a looming obesity epidemic. The surgeon general is so concerned about it he’s invoking 9/11, which is sure to win him fans everywhere.

As Jeremy pointed out earlier, a review of David Marusek’s Counting Heads has appeared in the New York Times. Defending its turf, the SF field is having a field day on the reviewer, whom most consider a half-assed SF poser. I like Andrew Wheeler’s response, which also conveniently comments on (and links to) the other responses.

I haven’t commented on AOL’s “email tax” plan because others were doing it exhaustively. But I feel the need to point out an update to Boing Boing’s post on the matter, in which one Erik Olson suggests that two can play at that game.

It’s not exactly news, but in case you’re a tech company customer service manager or suffer some other form of severe mental impairment you might like to know that outsourcing customer-facing support doesn’t work.

Although most peace-loving people on both sides of the gulf are loathe to admit it, it’s sure beginning to feel like the current divisions between Western nations and Islamic nations are accumulating into a war of cultures. At least, it’s hard to avoid that conclusion when you read statements like this: “After having overcome fascism, Nazism, and Stalinism, the world now faces a new global threat: Islamism.” That one’s signed by Salman Rushdie and a number of other literary notables.