The Neighborhood Diner has opened up their patio and, apparently, closed their inside dining area. Or something, but anyhow they wouldn’t let me in, so I had the patio experience under somewhat more breezy conditions than I was prepared for. Less wordily: it was a little chilly and I had no sweater. But the food was good as always and it’s nice to be outside. Next time I’ll bring my laptop down and check for wireless. ...

Berkeley DB XML is a very intriguing technology.

Palladium Books just announced that Jerry Bruckheimer and Walt Disney Films have optioned the Rifts universe for a live action motion picture. Disney also gets dibs on marketing resulting from the movie. Now, chances are the thing will never get made. Options are just options, and don’t pan out at a high percentage. In fact, it’s kind of goofy of Palladium to announce it — trumpeting your options is sort of a sign of amateur hour. But that’s Palladium for ya, god bless their overpowered little hearts. ...

Hey, Richard Thompson made the front page of CNN.com. Trival little interview, but cool anyhow. “I prefer to work autobiographical elements into the fiction so that you can’t see the join, like a well-made toupee.”

More on inconsistent US opinions about the IAEA: we want an IAEA ruling against Iran. “Maybe if you let us do our job in Iraq…” The thing is, international agencies just don’t have much moral weight if one and only one country has veto power over them. Even if that country is moral and just. Fair? No, but true.

At one point in his ill-fated reign over the Celtics, Rick Pitino told the team that Larry Bird wasn’t going to “come walking through that door.” He was right. But it looks like Danny Ainge is. This is pretty awesome news. It relieves the team of the burden of Chris Wallace, who has made some good moves but has also made some moves so incredibly boneheaded that I can only say “Wow, what a boneheaded move.” It provides a connection to the most recent Celtics dynasty. And Ainge has a good basketball mind. ...

It looks like the whole looting question (original) has been more or less cleared up. Various people were quick to jump on reports that only a handful of artifacts were missing. Turns out that there are only a handful missing… now. Because Customs did its job and found thousands of missing items (mostly manuscripts, some artifacts). Praise is due to the US for making a strong and serious effort to fix the initial mistake. People who can’t wait for the full story to be in before mocking those who mourned the initial loss might want to consider getting a little more patient.

Dear Raed is back, with the assistance of Diana Moon. (Via Metafilter.)

Do not fear the giant robots, for El Santo is here! Santo Street is in the business of selling Mexican movie posters. To me, that can mean only one thing: masked wrestlers (original)! These are just so very cool.

So, this cartoon (original). It’s from a newish online comic strip, which has found an audience by being fervently right-wing. The art isn’t bad. OK, all well and good. Occasionally I see right-wing bloggers chuckling at a strip and I can usually see why. But, y’know, that cartoon. I gotta ask. Is the artist aware that the Dems are in fact blocking only a handful of nominees? Jeff Sutton got through, no problems. Deborah Cook just got through. Michael McConnell got through. Dennis Shedd got through. Timothy Tymkovich got through. ...