Joshua Topolsky

This is just awesome.

As George Orwell points out in “Politics and the English Language,” one need not take on the responsibility of thinking when composing sentences:

You can shirk it by simply throwing your mind open and letting the ready-made phrases come crowding in. They will construct your sentences for you — even think your thoughts for you, to a certain extent — and at need they will perform the important service of partially concealing your meaning even from yourself. It is at this point that the special connexion between politics and the debasement of language becomes clear.

Please read the whole post.

So I’m seriously in the market for a new bag, but I’m having pretty much zero luck. Of course, like everything I want, my needs are complicated and probably expensive. What I’m trying to get away from is the nylon, black, every-man business laptop bag. They’re ugly. Terribly terribly ugly. I need something with style that isn’t eurotrash ultra-modern (please, no colored stripes or “minimal” design), something rugged, something with a really nice spot for the laptop (like an actual pocket with padding / hard sides), and something that has a few other storage spaces (one or two of decent size). It doesn’t need to be super techy, but some inside pockets wouldn’t hurt.

Let me offer some quick guidance:

No.

No.

Hell no.

When Ryan told the group he was moving on to a new project, the perfect “retirement” gift for him immediately popped into my head — a gold Casio calculator watch. Little did I know (though, it makes perfect sense) that Ryan would actually unbox the thing and put it up. And wouldn’t you know it… Wired’s Gadget Lab picked up the story. Anyhow, now you know just what kind of perks we send you off with at Engadget — only the best.