Glow in the dark sheep are a pretty tough act to follow. But I think these extraordinary British birds are just as entertaining. Maybe someone should open an Alternative British Zoo? (Via PemC.)

There’s a troubling story in today’s New York Times about the conduct of Israeli soldiers during their incursion into Gaza::

Amir Marmor, a 33-year-old history graduate student in Jerusalem and a military reservist, said in an interview with The New York Times that he was stunned to discover the way civilian casualties were discussed in training discussions before his tank unit entered Gaza in January. “Shoot and don’t worry about the consequences,” was the message from the top commanders, he said. Speaking of a lieutenant colonel who briefed the troops, Mr. Marmor said, “His whole demeanor was extremely gung ho. This is very, very different from my usual experience. I have been doing reserve duty for 12 years, and it was always an issue how to avoid causing civilian injuries. He said in this operation we are not taking any chances. Morality aside, we have to do our job. We will cry about it later.”

Soldiers’ Accounts of Gaza Killings Raise Furor in Israel (NYT)

It might be a blatant ad for Samsung, but this Sheep-powered LED display is extraordinary. (Via Sofie!)

The Wall Street Journal’s Numbers Guy, Carl Bialik, suggests possible alterations to the Scrabble points scoring system. Somehow, I can’t see the game being as much fun if letters are auctioned off to the highest bidder or tile values based on computer approximations (-26.6 points for a blank, anyone?). Bialik was inspired by this intriguing letter to The New Yorker that somehow escaped my attention:

Judith Thurman, in describing Scrabble, calls its scoring system a work of “finesse and calculation” (“Spreading the Word,” January 19th). I would argue that it needs to be adjusted for inflation. The original scoring system was developed according to “educated English usage” in the nineteen-thirties, but the current Scrabble word list admits words far beyond that usage. As the word list has grown, certain letters have become overvalued and others undervalued. “X,” an eight-point letter, is now far more easily played than “C,” a three-point letter. When “za” and “qi” were added to the official word list a few years ago, no adjustment was made to the ten-point values of the “Z” and “Q” tiles. The result is that the current game encourages players to exploit the inefficiencies of an outdated scoring system. It also increases the role of luck: the player who draws the “X” is virtually guaranteed a big play. Meanwhile, the fifty-point bonus for using all seven tiles, what was once a home run, now seems like a ground-rule double. If the scoring was recalibrated to the current word lists, we might get to play Scrabble with the finesse of its original points system.

As John Williams, of the National Scrabble Association, points out to Bialik, such changes rely on word knowledge that is “impractical for 85% or 90% of people who play Scrabble.” And as he and a number of other Scrabble specialists point out, the game in its current form is fine as it is. That is, until the next time I spot QIN on my rack and am unable to play it because it’s still not an accepted Scrabble word.

There is so much wrong with this video, made by Israeli arms dealer Rafael Advanced Defense Systems for the Indian defense ministry’s annual air show, that I don’t think there is very much to be said, except to let the action speak for itself. Wired magazine has labeled it the most atrocious defense video of all time. Meanwhile, Rafael tells Ha’aretz it has been received with much acclaim in India. Dinga Dinga Dee, indeed. (Via JTA.)