Keith and I were listening to a radio show together when the host exhorted people to send in their comments:

Host: We read all your emails.
Keith starts laughing.
Ellen: What's so funny?
Keith: Do you know how mad people would be if Google said that?

I added The Art of the Prank to "Links we like" on the right side of the page. Some recent stories:

• Eunicure, "a loosely affiliated group of “board-certified urological surgeons” that offers hope—in the form of castration—to homosexuals that have failed to control their desires through prayer, meditation" (originally from Dan Savage in The Stranger)
• Obay: a drug to prevent children from having ideas of their own (from Alma's Soulfood)
• Penn and Teller get environmentalists to sign a petition to ban water (originally posted by Lew Rockwell)

I gave an unconventional inspirational talk at the first Bay Area Girl Geek Dinner. Instead of spoiling any of the surprises, I'll invite you to watch the below video. I recommend starting at 2:15; my part is about 5 minutes.

The above photo from the event was taken by Tatyana Kanzaveli, who kindly gave me permission to use it in my blog.

The use of search-and-replace can lead to entertaining reading, such as this classic from the July 21, 1990, Fresno Bee via Herb Caen via Peter van der Linden:

An item in Thursday's Nation Digest about the Massachusetts budget crisis made reference to new taxes that will help put Massachusetts 'back into the African American.' That item should have said 'back in the black.'

(I was surprised to learn from the reputable Peter van der Linden that the original error was a prank, not an accident.)

A co-worker pointed me to an article that apparently underwent automatic online censorship. The headline reads:

CHRISTIAN loveUAL ABUSE CHURCHES TO PAY HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS

and the article states:

Spokane's lawyers, like those in Portland, argued that the bishop holds "bare legal breastle" to the property and buttets that lawfully belong to the diocese's 81 parishes and affiliated enbreasties, such as schools and cemeteries.

The Daily WTF user ezrec has described this phenomenon as the "clbuttic mistake", pointing out that there are thousands of hits for "clbuttic" on Google and cautioning:

People who make buttumptions about their regex scripts, will be embarbutted when they repeat this mbuttive mistake.

I won't give the translations, but some kind commenter may.

gratuitious xkcd cartoon