Wednesday night links.

* Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers was on Colbert last night. The reporting Jaimee and I did for the Indy's green issue this year sadly convinced me that Rogers's "responsible CEO" schtick is 90% PR, and this clean-coal-centric interview didn't sway that opinion a bit.

* Meanwhile, health-insurance CEOs agree: they totally have the right to screw you out of coverage you paid for once you actually need it.

* A reality check on Twitter and the protests in Iran.

* A good sign for 2010: Richard Burr trails Generic Democrat by 3 points.

* Who could have predicted that the NSA's domestic surveillance program would be abused?

* Alice and Kev, homeless Sims. Via Kotaku.

* Darkseid without New Gods.

I have a long Thanksgiving break this year (something I must admit I'm very thankful for). Here's a few links to celebrate my good fortune.

* Google is now hosting thousands of images from Life magazine dating back to the 1800s. At right: my guy Albert Einstein. More good off-the-top-of-your-head searches at the Valve.

* Boston College will stop offering incoming students email addresses; instead, they will redirect email to a private service of the students' choice. In other words, the moronic email addresses they made up as a joke in eighth grade will now follow BC students forever.

* The new MacBook Pros (like mine!) come saddled with major DRM problems. The good news is that your machine is only crippled for media you purchase legally; pirated media still works just fine.

* Pushing Daisies has been canceled. It's a shame.

* Two pop-criticism reviews of Quantum of Solace I liked: "Guilt-Flavored Ice Cream" and "Quantum of Anti-Imperialism."

* Nabokov, on YouTube.

/b/ has apparently hacked one of Sarah Palin's email accounts.

barackobama@gmail.com: Guru Raj set up barackobama@gmail.com on a whim one night in 2004; now he gets email intended for Barack Obama.

The letters expressed a range of sentiments: simple incredulity (“R U REAL?”), electoral reassurance (“Don’t worry about California, they’re old fogies anyway”), mystical backing (“You represent the spirit of the Lotus sutra”), conspiratorial opposition (“Obama might not be a U.S. citizen and not qualified to run for president”), niggling criticism (“You were losing your OOMPH delivering your speeches in Texas and Ohio”), sound advice (“Don’t lose your humility”). Raj’s favorite e-mail was a nursery rhyme that went, “Hillery Dillery Dock / Obama will clean her clock / Monica’s a sin / Bu Ba fell in / Now she’s gotta deal with Barack.”

Other correspondents were more practical-minded—one extended an invitation to a Seder in Hyde Park (“We heard you were shooting a movie at the synagogue by our place”), while another expressed regrets (“I can’t make the meeting tomorrow, but I’d like to buy a shirt—preferably a medium”). At 11:14 P.M. on May 30th, a real-estate agent from Manhattan sent the following note to barackobama@gmail.com, as well as to barackobama@hotmail.com and barackobama@yahoo.com: “Mr. Obama, good luck in the rest of the election year. Please let me know if you have any real estate needs.”