Host Ann Curry begins by reporting on Obama’s “10 percent” lead, then corrects herself to say “10 points,” despite the fact that these are identical. Unless — and this is a real possibility — she is actually referring to the score of the recent McCain/Obama 1-on-1, no-blood-no-foul, street rules b-ball game (currently in rain-delay.)

Next, she gets the ball rolling by asking the panel for “a show of hams.” Yum.

Panelist Jimmy takes a second or two before deciding, apparently on the spot, that McCain had appeared stronger on economic issues. He then becomes visibly uncomfortable upon realizing that he will be asked to defend this position. Gulp. Ultimately he explains that, in his view, McCain is “lookin’ downna road.” Eloquently put.

After Brian deftly defends the Obama “longer plan-picture”, Renise ruins everything by making perhaps the only reasonable comment of the night: that nobody even knows what the hell is going on with the economy, let alone how to fix it.

Lisa is introduced and described as being undecided because both candidates are just so great! Nobody listens to a thing she says, because we’re all too busy being amazed that anyone has this problem.

Next we have a couple shows of hands which, scientifically-extrapolated, prove that while 50% of Virginians know a racist, a full 100% know someone who thinks Palin is a moron. I’m going to be honest with you, Virgina: this makes me very sad/happy and I am disgusted/overjoyed to hear it.

Panelist Joan now joins the fray and, in a heroic effort to use as many words as possible, speaks of “The general public at large…” Wait, I’m confused. We’re talking about a subset of people here, right? Yes, that was sarcasm. The word you’re looking for is “everyone”. I just saved you 6 syllables.

Eventually we come back to Renise who, after disappointing early, now regales us with tales of Obama’s “temperament”, “discipline” and crowd-favorite “even kiln.” (I can second that one. You should see that dude’s pottery — it is freakin’ amazing.) Nice save, Renise. You are tonight’s big winner. I’m sorry I ever doubted you.

Last place goes to Michael, who by virtue of the fact that he is never called upon and, in fact, doesn’t utter a single word, is unfortunately able to maintain an illusion of competence. Better luck next time.

Google Reader refuses to eat either of these.

An error has occurred because the feed being requested cannot be found.

Am I the only one with this problem? Impossible.

1. Can we please introduce someone on the Groups team to someone on the Reader team?
2. When Reader chokes on a feed URL, can I get a big red button that says “REPORT THIS”?

PS: Perhaps this problem has to do with Reader’s lack of support for authenticated RSS feeds. In that case a better error message is needed.

This is silly. Human brains immediately detect this crap and deactivate.

We should have a debate system that encourages the participants to make direct and succinct points when appropriate. Seems to me that a Chess clock would do the trick nicely.

Oh, and for the love of god, why do you show 8 “circles” in the pre-filled password dialog regardless of how long my pass-phrase actually is? This does not inspire confidence.

Apple’s Wifi config is seriously better. (Not that it needs to be… Their supplicant actually works.)

(credit to Ganesh for noticing the similarity)

… It’s the power of Fusion. … It’s where customer needs, dreams and desires bond with our own passion for engineering.

Uhh, sounds like someone needs to take a cold shower. I just don’t get it.

Good thing I’m not in marketing, I guess.

Apparently others share my opinion.

More about Melanie here.

If only I could get John Mayer to install Vista x64, that would probably do it.