Tomorrow brings Richmond’s annual Christmas Parade marches on down Broad Street from 10am-12pm.  You can get a map of the route here.  If you find yourself unable to get there the parade will be on WCVE TV and WVCW will be broadcasting live coverage from the studio at 817 W. Broad (right in the middle of the route) starting at 9:45am tomorrow morning.  Good times for all (unless you’re trying to drive somewhere in the area).

J’s Notes has had a bit of design tweaking this week, going to a three column format, having the scribbles return on the sidebar, and a brand spankin’ new banner being chruned out today.  It’s all still rough and up to some changes, but bit by bit it’s turning into something that less resembles a template.  I hope.

Guitar Hero III made Guitar Hero available on all the current game systems (yay, Wii!) but there are some old schoolers who think they need to go back (waaaay back) for system availability.  Never fear, some guy’s working on Guitar Hero for the Commodore 64.  Somewhat related, Shatner was a Commodore spokesman.  A Shat/Commod[e] joke will have to wait for another time, I guess.

Chat Noir is a neat little game where you click on circles in an attempt to trap a kitty who gets to move every time you click.  Not as easy as it looks.  (Via Boing Boing)

Prematurely naming tropical depressions as tropical storms could be costing you money:

Any inconsistencies in the naming of tropical storms and hurricanes have significance far beyond semantics.

The number of a season’s named storms forms the foundation of historical records used to determine trends in hurricane activity. Insurance companies use these trends to set homeowners’ rates. And such information is vital to scientists trying to determine whether global warming has had a measurable impact on hurricane activity.

Polonium Pen.  No matter what happens, get one for Kasparov.

Is war photography art?  An interview with Philip Jones Griffiths:

My photography, unlike say, police photography, relies on emotion. I need to make the viewer laugh or cry, and sometimes both. Statistics are important, but it’s a photograph of the anguish in the eyes of a starving child in Darfur that initiates the quest for a solution.

Del. L. Scott Lingamfelter submitted HB20 earlier this week that would add party affiliation to voter registration information and allow state parties to set who may participate in their primaries.  Much needed and about time.  (Via BVBL).

Jurassic Park 4 to feature dinosaurs with freakin’ lasers on their heads.  Or something like that.  A Jurassic 5 joke will have to wait for the next movie, I guess.

Scientists find that working the graveyard shift could literally kill you.

There are enough cellphone subscriptions for half the world now.

But although mobile subscriptions have reached the equivalent of 50 percent of the population, this does not mean that half the people in the world now have a mobile phone, since Informa said 59 countries have mobile penetration of over 100 percent — where some owners have more than one phone.

Welcome to Putin’s Russia.  “No matter what happens, get Kasparov.”

Ten studies on why we do dumb stuff.  I wonder how often “boredom” pops up as a reason.

EMI is reportedly looking into cutting some of its funding to RIAA and IFPI, trade organizations that lead the charge (and lose money) on anti-piracy efforts.

How many HTML elements can you name in 5 minutes?  I was only able to pull of 35 and am smacking my forehead at some of the 56 I missed.  Via Kottke.