Voters in Pierce County did something I thought I'd never see around here: The voted to try out instant runoff voting.

Here's a reasonable explanation of how it works. I'd like to see instant runoff voting spread, but I fear it's too complex a process to ever be used on a wide scale when we can barely make our current voting system work.

Warner Home Video announced they've begun production on a direct-to-DVD release of Babylon 5.

I loved Babylon 5, and I'm really happy to see news that some new stories will be making it my way some day.

While I'm not super excited about the initial line-up of shows, this is a very cool development. It'll be my first foray into video on demand type service, though I'm not super excited about trying to stuff all of this onto the Xbox 360's smallish hard drive. The press release above mentions a few movies will be making their way onto this service. If they actually release on or near the DVD release window, Netflix might be in for some serious competition.

That reminds me, I haven't bothered to check out "Current TV" in a while. I wonder if they've managed to get more than a sliver of any viewer ship.

Perhaps the funnies part of this is that we actually managed to create cookies that look more appetizing and visually appealing than the sample cookies they had on the box art. You'll just have to believe me on this.

Well, it seems like someone has finally managed to basically do this. My hat is off to Abel Gonzales, who created a deep fried Coke for the Texas State Fair. Now I need to come up with a more ludicrous food to joke about.

I can only hope the home owners don't use the home to run a small car-repair shop and decide that two in the morning is a good time to begin construction on a car-shed for their new limo. In other words, I just hope these neighbors aren't worse than the most inconsiderate neighbors ever.

It's clearly superior to Woot since they launch the daily deals three hours earlier. Otherwise, Tanga feels like a clone of Woot. Time will tell if they have any worthwhile deals.

I feel so much safer now that the moral fabric of country is safe from gambling online. I also feel safe that the evil doers of the world can no longer funnel money through online gambling. Pick your excuse, I've heard both used as reasons for this bill.

I'm off to go buy a government sanctioned lottery ticket and have a government sanctioned amount of fun.

What is the Dissenting Pebble?