Stanford dorm rooms to go co-ed; yes, I said “rooms.”

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The movement builds on Stanford’s decision in September to expand its non-discrimination policies to protect students who are biologically one gender, but psychologically identify with the other.

Although students have pressed for coed rooms for years, they say the new language grants them the right to live with whatever gender they best relate to – platonically or otherwise.

Throughout much of Stanford’s history, students mingled mostly at mixers. But in recent years, the sexes have grown more chummy. First came coed dormitories in 1966. Next came coed floors, even unisex bathrooms. Bedrooms are the final frontier.

Other schools do it

If Stanford housing officials adopt a “gender-blind” option for all students, the campus would join a small but growing number of colleges that are modifying policies to accommodate male and female students who want to live together. It is already available at about 30 schools, including California Institute of Technology, University of California-Riverside, Dartmouth, New York University and Swarthmore. “It’s not that radical,” Roubos said.

Time to call a halt to nooses

If we had a president who cared about our country, he would have already made public statements about the use of nooses to intimidate blacks.  This is now completely out of hand.

Who’s dumber: Stanford or the Washington Post?

Stanford extends the title Distinguished Visiting Fellow to Don Rumsfeld. The Washington Post pays him to write an article on

The Smart Way to Beat Tyrants Like Chávez

Now, if you’ll stop laughing, this is pretty much a dead heat, as to which institution is dumber. I guess I choose Stanford, because the Post will put out another edition tomorrow.  Besides, we already know what the Post is: a swiftboating Republican hacksheet.

Occasional Saturday Big Lebowski Roundup

Big news on TBL this week: a new book.

For those Achievers for whom the movie offers an ethos, catharsis against the daily grind, or Zen philosophy for how to live, I’m a Lebowski, You’re A Lebowski is the book we’ve been waiting for. Written by four Lebowski fans (and Lebowski Fest founders) with both a fierce dedication to the movie and an apparent abundance of available free time, this humorous book offers enough Lebowski ins and outs to satisfy even the most rabid fan.

The book is logically divided into chapters that each take a specific approach related to the movie, and even includes a forward by Jeff Bridges (the Dude himself…er, the movie version of the Dude, anyway). The various chapters cover everything from ways to “Dude-ify” your life, to playful yet informative interviews with the movie’s actors (major roles like John Goodman and minor roles like Jim Hoosier, who played Jesus Quintana’s bowling partner and didn’t even have a single line of dialogue), to a tidy analysis of how The Big Lebowski became a cult classic, to various Lebowski tidbits, including the number of F-bombs dropped in the movie (281 according to the authors. I still count 279, and yes, I clearly need professional psychiatric help).

The most revealing chapter of the book contains interviews with the real-life people upon whom the movie versions of the Dude, Walter, and Little Larry Sellers were based. To a certain amount of horror, we learn that there really was an incident in which a junior high kid was confronted in his home by two men who claimed the kid had stolen the Dude’s car. One of the men even produced the kid’s homework, extracted from the seat of the stolen car, encased in a plastic baggie as if it was some sort of evidence bomb.

I believe I have found a great Xmas gift…..

Googling Google: what are they up to now?

Those wild and crazy nerds in Mountain View are just bustin out all over; they’ve been Over the Line for a long time, yet OTLS! has not been giving them a damn bit of coverage. Meanwhile, we have been covering the insane Rapture Index guy. That’s all about to change. Rapture Guy may have humor value, but let’s face, how many ways can you ridicule madness? Google, on the other hand, has a certain geekness which will offer a myriad of opportunities for mirth. Not to mention stock tips.

This week, they announced that even as they seek to conquer the mobile-phone market and uphold their Internet dominance, they are going to try to solve the world’s energy problems.

Google calls it the Renewable Energy Cheaper Than Coal project.

Beginning with about two dozen clean-tech staff engineers, and investments in the “tens of millions” from the company’s philanthropic arm, google.org, the founders said they hope to produce low-cost clean energy – and do it soon.

“We really want to rapidly push forward, and our goal is really to produce one gigawatt of renewable energy capacity that’s cheaper than coal economically,” Page said on a conference call Tuesday.

A gigawatt is enough to power San Francisco.

First of all how geeky is

Renewable Energy Cheaper Than Coal;

I mean, is the acronym RETCH? [update: Tom Friedman clues me in: it's RE < C; how opaque] Power San Francisco? More like power the peninsula or the South Bay; you know, Google already provides supposed internet to the entire city of Mountain View, and they have a little iGoogle homepage for anyone who enters. Except that the signal is so weak you have to walk up and down the streets trying to find even a “warm spot.” So you Google Guys, don’t scrimp on the RETCH megawatts, okay?

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