Hail Eris!

Many developments this week, both online and off-.

• Google alters its search engine, making it "more personal"; Twitter slams the change; Google makes catty response.

• LA City Council gingerly okays ordinance mandating the wearing of condoms on porn movie sets; porn star/nurse points out that extended wearing of condoms can be as bad as not wearing them at all. 

• Either the CIA or Mossad has an Iranian nuke scientist car-bombed, dismally failing to stave off war (though not immediately causing it, either); the sabre-rattling is getting loud. Then again, it's not like Iran developing nuclear weapons is anything more than a teabagger's nightmare fantasy. BTW, Frothy? Just keep on frothing.

• Stephen Woodworth, MP, opens his yap about abortion. That's nice, Stephen. I guess you won't be having one. 

• SCOTUS discusses "indecency," and whether it's a relevant concern, as well as the wavering standards of the FCC. The possibility of a Romney presidency, and the presence on SCOTUS of Scalia (and four like-minded (to varying degrees) guys), though, make this a highly interesting discussion to US citizens, and rather more academically so to the rest of the planet.

• Fed. appeals court rules that OK can't enforce ban on sharia law, which isn't an entirely bad thing, as Islamic wills and contracts are bound by it; one might also point out that Catholic Canon law and Jewish kosher law both fall under the same rubric as sharia, yet there's no hysteria about either of them. 

• Shorter Wonkette: *headdesk*; meanwhile, since Bachmann quit, the world has been awaiting the advent of another muppet candidacy. Wait no more!

• New Yorker Magazine too demure for definition of "santorum," but "Anal Rapists for Bush" is just dandy

• Doomsday Clock pushed to five minutes to midnight; in three more minutes, an honourary playing of Iron Maiden.

• Vermin Supreme: An improvement on Obama?

• Wizards of the Coast has announced the development of D&D, 5th ed.; claims it will "reunite" the previous editions. What, including Pathfinder?  

• Republican leaders plan rally in support of Scott Walker; dozens expected

• On the front page of HuffPo: "THE GUY THEY'RE SETTLING FOR." Mittens must be so thrilled. Poor baby. But he's spinning it as just cause for thrill, anyway.

• Tom Tomorrow, via Daily Kos, has a take on Mr. Gingrich & Dr. Paul. 

• Meanwhile, on a world called "Gielinor," RuneScape's most D&D-like quest yet makes its debut.

Snarky