Thursday night, how I love you.

* Jason Zengerle at the Plank undertakes a much more full-throated defense of Letterman than the one I offered last night, reminding us about Bristol Palin's recent publicity tour (which I guess I'd blocked out) and questioning the logic of the Palins making their own joke about their daughter being assaulted. For what it's worth, I still think the joke was borderline and shouldn't have been told, but it was plainly not about the fourteen-year-old.

* The headline reads: 'Tiny chance' of planet collision.

* Game theory and Batman villains. Isn't it well-established by now that the Joker would never kill Batman?

* New element added to the periodic table. Canavanium?

A sober tone is struck at the 40th annual conference on planetary emergencies.