THIS INTERACTIVE DEMO of optical illusions in light shading using computer graphics will enthrall you for, well, minutes.

TROMPE L'OEIL EXHIBIT in DC.

Los Angeles Delis vs. New York Delis.

X10 POP-UP ADS are bad enough, but the latest ones are really infuriating in their historical illiteracy. Can someone explain to me how X10 cameras at the Watergate would've saved the Nixon presidency?

MAYOR BLOOMBERG boycotts the Columbus Day parade, the first mayor in memory to do so, when the organizers sue to keep him from inviting Lorraine Bracco from marching with him.

I'M SEEING OBJECTIONS TO THE plan to use an American military government to lead the transition in Iraq to democracy on the grounds of "colonialism."

My reaction: so what?

What's wrong with a little colonialism? Are people saying that the brown peoples of Iraq aren't worthy of Western-style democracy and freedoms?

I can't think of a better route to peace in the region than the installation of a peaceful freedom-loving Arab government in the Middle East to serve as an aspirational alternative to sharia.

And I would love to see any of these so-called opponents to colonialism speak out against Wahhabist colonialism in Europe or Afghanistan (or the repeated Arab desire to colonize Israel by force and commit genocide in the process). The failure to do so shows that the objection is not to colonialism but to the West and to democracy. It's frankly appalling and close to racist to see people complaining that a repressive and murderous dictatorship might get replaced by a democracy because the people leading the transition aren't the same skin color as the victims of the totalitarian regime.

THE WEBSITE FOR "The Future is Wild", a television series speculating about future evolution coming to the Animal Planet channel in January.

CHARLES JOHNSON, CALL YOUR OFFICE. Captain Spaulding links to an ancient episode of The Lucy Show, but the interesting part of the link is the mysterious pop-up ad for...wait for it!...Saudi Arabia! With images of green doves, the pop-up, titled "The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia - allies against terrorism", invites people to sign up for a mailing list and visit aboutsaudiarabia.net. I imagine the only reason we haven't seen this pop-up sooner is that the newspapers have refused them? A shame, because I can't think of any way to alienate the American people faster than to blizzard them with pop-up ads. I suppose my real annoyance with pop-up ads is the decrepit memory features of Windows, and how opening and closing the new windows permanently sucks memory away, causing computer crashes and unnecessary reboots. I know, I know, get a Mac.

REUTERS ON THE SNIPER INVESTIGATION:

Quoting law enforcement sources, WUSA television reported that detectives who recovered a shell casing in woods near Monday's shooting, when a 13-year old boy was badly wounded, found a Tarot card known as the "Death Card" with a message scrawled on the back that read: "Dear Policeman, I am God."

"I am not going to talk about the investigation. I will not talk about the investigation, I will not put people in harm's way so that people can have good sound bites," Police Chief Charles Moose of Montgomery County, Maryland, told local television on Wednesday.

WUSA said Prince George County police declined comment on any evidence that might have been located. Contacted about the report, a police spokesman told Reuters that she could not confirm it.

But Moose reacted angrily when asked about the alleged message, saying he was disappointed at his own team.

"I would like to think that anything about the investigation would be run through me and released by me," the frustrated police chief said.

"Someone in the team, someone on the law enforcement community has done something I find very inappropriate. It indicates that I don't have control of the team," Moose added.

When will police learn that "I am disappointed that someone on the team has leaked this information" is a confirmation, and defeats the purpose of refusing to confirm the information? WaPo coverage; WashTimes missed the tarot card angle. Good news from the Post is that police are deeming "frivolous" attempts by "psychics" to help them.

I'VE SEEN MORE THAN one commentator excuse the $28 billion punitive damages award against Philip Morris on the grounds that Philip Morris had $72.9 billion in revenue (revenue, not profits) last year.

Philip Morris (MO) has $72.9 billion of revenue not just because of cigarettes, but because they sell a lot of cheese and coffee and cereal and beer and mayonnaise and Jell-O brand gelatin.

So any punitive damages award based on the size of MO's revenues is punishing Philip Morris for being successful at selling cheese. After all, if MO sold less cheese, then the punitive damages would be lower, right?

Yes, punitive damages need to make the tortfeasor feel the sting: I need a larger punitive damages award to deter Warren Buffett from deliberately smashing in my windshield than I do for the guy from the "Bumfights" video. But that rationale doesn't apply to corporations that are being punished for selling products. If they are large, it is because either (1) they sell a lot of innocuous products, and shouldn't be punished for that, or (2) they sell a lot of sinister products, and they will face punitive damages in a lot of other lawsuits. If Philip Morris did something wrong to this lady, there are 10,000 other people that they did something wrong to. If each of those cases award $3 million in punitives, then Philip Morris feels the sting appropriately.

It would be one thing if the $28 billion were a one-time punitive damages award, and Philip Morris would never be punished again. But there are hundreds of other lawsuits from smokers, each of which is seeking punitive damages, and not one of which will be precluded from doing so by this jury's award. This jury's award is thus unreasonably high, because it's punishing Philip Morris for being big than for doing something wrong. There is absolutely no economic rationale to have punitive damages for products liability be more than some reasonable multiple of actual damages.

Of course, actual damages are inappropriate here, also. There's no evidence that the sine qua non of this woman's smoking was Philip Morris's behavior, as opposed to her lack of willpower. Lots of people quit smoking with encouragement from the cigarette companies. Lots of people smoke now even though cigarette companies frankly admit that smoking is dangerous. (Indeed, according to Kip Viscusi, smokers overestimate the risk of smoking.)

I don't smoke, I get annoyed at people who smoke in front of me on a moving escalator, but I still recognize this as a dangerous dangerous case. If the government has the power to randomly swoop in and take a third of your revenues for the year, well, that's a huge disincentive to doing business or investing in a business that can face such confiscatory policies. The same is true when the government's power is backed by a random assortment of twelve underemployed people and a judge who hates corporations. This isn't just cigarettes, it's hospitals, auto manufacturers, food sellers, retail stores, banks, etc. Jury verdicts like this do more damage to the economy than a hundred Ken Lays.