Has anyone seen the deets for Microsoft’s latest anti-spam strategy? Apparently, they’re using the argument that we have so much spam because e-mail is free, and that if we make folks pay for it, spammers won’t send as much. Mr. Gates & company suggest that users can “buy” postage by playing a 10-second math puzzle. (See the story from CNN here.) No doubt this “game” would be Microsoft-branded. Of course, that’s only one proposal–others are calling for users to pay a penny per e- mail. For sure, spamming is annoying, but is it annoying enough that we need to start charging people to send an e-mail? I hope this is one idea that never goes anywhere.

Tongue splitting latest piercing rage

CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) — Ears with two, three, even five piercings are ancient history. Studs in tongues and navels are, for many, no big deal. And who doesn’t have a tattoo? These days, the attention-grabbing look is tongue-splitting: cutting the tongue to make it forked.

Those who’ve had their tongues split call it a body modification, and see it as an enhancement.

A few do it for shock value. Others describe the experience as spiritual. And many say they simply like how it looks and feels.

“When I first saw it, I thought tongue-splitting was the most beautiful thing I’ve seen in my life,” says James Keen, a 19-year-old from Scottsville, Kentucky, who got his tongue cut by a local body piercer in December after a surgeon declined to do it.

Keen, who now speaks with a slight lisp, says most people don’t know he’s had it done unless he shows them.

When he does, he demonstrates how both forks of his tongue can move independently. And it’s a plus, he says, when it comes to kissing.

“People are very curious about how it feels,” says Keen, whose parents gave him their blessing — and the $500 it took to do it.

Ummmm, spiritual?? Can anyone say scary religious symbolism??