NSFW. But I laughed.

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This new credit card has a keypad and LCD display built right into it (to enter a PIN and receive a security code).

A built-in keypad and screen means we're getting closer to a day when there will be ambiguity when someone says, "I completed an online transaction on my credit card."

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Random links for anyone bored on Sunday night:

From WaPo, Inside the writers room at The Onion:

In an inversion of the traditional editorial process, the Onion chooses its headlines and then invents stories to fit them. For a headline to have made the first cut, at least two of the six writers in attendance had to okay it, generally an occasion of little fanfare in which a couple of people threw up their hands and murmured with a defeated sigh, "Sure, why the hell not?"

From the WSJ, Islamic scholar and practicing Muslim in Germany decides Muhammed probably didn't exist:

Muhammad Sven Kalisch, a Muslim convert and Germany's first professor of Islamic theology, fasts during the Muslim holy month, doesn't like to shake hands with Muslim women and has spent years studying Islamic scripture. Islam, he says, guides his life.

So it came as something of a surprise when Prof. Kalisch announced the fruit of his theological research. His conclusion: The Prophet Muhammad probably never existed.

. . .

"We had no idea he would have ideas like this," says Thomas Bauer, a fellow academic at Munster University who sat on a committee that appointed Prof. Kalisch. "I'm a more orthodox Muslim than he is, and I'm not a Muslim."

There have been approximately six-billion articles in the last couple weeks arguing that the United States is still a center-right nation despite the election of Barack Obama, but now be prepared to read six-billion op-eds making the opposite argument:

True, the percentage of voters describing themselves as "liberal" and "conservative" has held relatively constant over many election cycles, with self-described liberals checking in at 22 percent this time around (up one percentage point over 2004) and self-described conservatives at 34 percent (unchanged from 2004). The numbers may not have changed, but the views behind those labels certainly have. Nowadays, it's a fair bet that most of those calling themselves "liberal" support gay marriage. In 1980, those same liberals were, no doubt, cutting-edge supporters of gay rights, but the notion of same-sex marriage would have occurred only to the most avant-garde. In 1980, having a teenage daughter who was pregnant out of wedlock would have ruled you out for the No. 2 spot on the Democratic ticket. This year, it turned out to be a humanizing addition to the conservative vice presidential nominee's resume.

Will Barack Obama give up his BlackBerry? Probably:

Mr. Obama is the second president to grapple with the idea of this self-imposed isolation. Three days before his first inauguration, George W. Bush sent a message to 42 friends and relatives that explained his predicament.

"Since I do not want my private conversations looked at by those out to embarrass, the only course of action is not to correspond in cyberspace," Mr. Bush wrote from his old address, G94B@aol.com. "This saddens me. I have enjoyed conversing with each of you."

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My recent Fark approvals.

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Here's an amusing email exchange regarding a late bill payment. I'm going to assume it is real, because it's funnier that way.

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It's about time.

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Some commercials to watch if you happen to be bored this weekend. Ignore the oldness.

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This didn't make the print edition of the Edmonton Journal, but it was published online:

Re: "Speak for yourself," by Andy Maguire, Letters, Oct. 21.

Andy Maguire makes a good point when he wonders whether the federal Conservatives will punish Edmonton-Strathcona for electing an NDP MP, but his concerns for the U of A and Stollery Children's Hospital are misplaced. As most Edmontonians know, those two institutions no longer exist. They were bulldozed by the provincial government immediately after the 1997 provincial election when the area made the mistake of electing an NDP MLA.

Fane Henderson, Edmonton

Don't get me wrong: I realize that governments do often reward loyal areas. But I suspect most of the fear that the CPC will punish Edmonton is unnecessary. It's true that Calgary's 8 CPC MPs will probably have slightly more clout than Edmonton's 7 CPC MPs, but it's equally true that all parties, including the CPC, serve their short-term interests best by lavishing attention on competitive constituencies, like Edmonton-Strathcona. I say it's a wash.

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Farley Katz (New Yorker) and Randall Munroe (XKCD) have a cartoon-off.

Because enjoyment of cartoons isn't subjective at all, let me tell you how you should feel about them:

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