Today's news round-up

Good News

• Scouring the Web to Make New Words ‘Lookupable’
• Police can no longer pepper-spray students for minor misbehavior at school, judge says
• Gay Student Allowed In-State Tuition After Marrying Florida Resident
• 5 fired at Miami-Dade lockup where teen died in beat-down
• Oklahoma pre-k teacher accused in left-handed controversy resigns
• Spain, Morocco arrest suspected Islamic State recruiters

Bad News

• Two Egyptian policemen shot dead by IS in Sinai
• Syrian activists: IS group destroys ancient Palmyra arch
• Suicide attacks kill six in Niger: aid worker

Animal headline of the day

I know it's two in a row, but they keep happening.

German police nab runaway elephants at bus stop

Semi-random thoughts

● www.weather.com almost always seems to show at least a 10% chance of precipitation. I consider this a classic CYA--no one can complain if it does happen to rain.

● "Losing your tuna" should be a euphemism for something. One of my Facebook friends suggested it should mean having female-to-male gender surgery.

● The museums' audio guide explanations for kids are sometimes more informative than the general ones--and always more entertaining.

Semi-random thoughts

● I did some internet research on satellite radio for a friend. Immediately after that I got ads for Sirius radio on my Excite news pages. These targeted advertisements really watch your internet usage--and they are fast.

● A Facebook friend (whom I don't really know) wrote that she "wants to learn to speed read so i can read 2-4 books a month." Sad.

● 'Unfriend' Is Dictionary's 2009 Word of the Year, beating out "sexting" among other neologisms. I generally don't unfriend Facebook friends. Mostly I just hide them on my feed. There have also been a few really obnoxious people I've blocked completely, but I don't think any of them were friends.

(Non-) word of the day

inclusivizing

Neologism of the day

Quippie: a queer hippie.

I guess this one has been around for a while, but I hadn't heard it until today (Jennifer Finney Boylan describing herself--though she said she was more the hippie part).

Neologism of the day

"Shittiquette list." Thank you, Helen Boyd.

Google lists a half dozen references to "shittiquette," all dealing with shit in the literal sense, and mostly as synonymous with bathroom etiquette. Helen, though, has invented a new usage.

Just another example of why I like Helen's writing.