News You Can Bruise for 2000 October 9

It is as I suspected: Neal Stephenson is a much better writer when his imagination is constrained by historical fact. I started reading Cryptonomicon today and have yet to be gripped by the urge to put the book away in disgust.

Also, I like that Vitamin B6 is actually another name for pyridoxine hydrochloride. This could be the foundation of a great hoax of the "dihydrogen monoxide" form. "Stop! Don't you realize that that banana contains pyridoxine hydrochloride?"