Electric Josh

From the Things That This Space Isn't Creative Enough to Make Up So They Must Be True Department comes news that

1. Barbara Walters has produced an episode of 20/20 that involves five childless couples pleading to adopt a 16-year-old's baby. Four couples will lose on national television.
2. Uri Geller (yes, Uri Geller) has a friggin' patent pending on the very idea of such a show, and is threatening to sue ABC.

I shit you not. May they both lose and be (further) humiliated (if that's possible) before God and their families. I'm throwing away the TV before it gets my baby.
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Roland has something of a review article posted that covers a couple of subjects near to this space's previous life's heart, including Lehigh University, scanning [fill in the blank] microscopy and very small particles.
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The Times has an article on Asperger's syndrome [non-paywall copy here], which is apparently a form of autism that affects only one's social skills. Sounds almost too ridiculous to be true, but if it leads the paper of record to print things like this, then it's okay with me:

Neurotypical friends had been invited to serve as "expert" panelists to field questions on the evening's topic: flirting. But the best advice came from the Aspies.

"I find that sometimes shutting up and just not talking often makes them think you're a good listener when in fact you're just not talking," said one participant.

Note that you can't make up anything as wonderful as the following:

"She'll say something about how terrible her clothes look," Mr. Jorgensen explains. "I'll say, `Yes, honey, those are terrible-looking clothes,' when really she's wanting some affirmation that her clothes don't look terrible."

At those moments, Ms. Jorgensen now tells her husband that he is acting like an "ass burger," a running joke that defuses anger on both sides. But such exchanges have mostly disappeared because Ms. Jorgensen knows that she is unlikely to get what she wants that way.

Learning to be more direct herself was not so horrible.