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Today’s Bad Baby Name is truly unique. It’s so unique you’ll… well, you’ll just have to see.

First, there’s the usual collection of run-of-the-mill Bad Baby Names: Shaelynn, Khaisyn, Angell, and Madilyn. They’re bad, but they’re starting to get a little boring.

Reef spices things up a tad. I guess living in the tropics you get influenced by your surroundings, so I guess it’s a good thing this little boy didn’t get named Papaya or Vog.

Then there’s Xeighvian. I’m not at all sure how this is meant to be pronounced. Two things I do know about this name, though: the kid’s going to have a hell of a time spelling it in school, and it’s a Bad Baby Name. I haven’t seen Xeighvian before, so it’s pretty unique.

But this week’s winner is even more unique. It’s so unique you’ll shake your head. Ready for the Bad Baby Name of the week? It’s unique, I’m telling you. Unique.

That’s right.

Unique.

Cue the comedy routine:

Teacher: “And what’s your name?”
Unique: “Unique.”
Teacher: “I’m sure it is, given the idiocy of parents these days, but what is it?”
Unique: “Unique.”
Teacher: “What is it, Chevyaughn? Reef? Xeighvian?”
Unique: “No, it’s Unique!”
Teacher: “…”
Unique: “I don’t know who’s on first!”

The Bad Astronomer talks to Adam Savage. Too cool. I wonder if The Amazing Meeting could count as a work conference…

While the rest of you were getting snowed on or frozen or blown over, I’d just like to pass along the news that this past weekend we went to Hapuna Beach for some body surfing. Two to three foot with the occasional four (and maybe five) footers. Upper 80s, not a cloud in the sky. I got a slight sunburn on my face, even though I was lathered up with sunscreen.

Two weekends ago we went walking through Devastation Trail in Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park where we saw three nene, two parents and a chick.

Here’s hoping the rest of you are bundled up nice and warm. :-)

Psychics prey on the fears of families of missing people. They make up stories that they think placate worried families, but are in fact misleading and only serve to deceive.

Take Sylvia Browne. Back in 2003 she appeared on the Montel Williams Show, where she told Pam and Craig Akers, the parents of Shawn Hornbeck, that he was dead and his body could be found in a wooded area 20 miles from their house in Richwoods, Missouri. Search efforts were redirected to this area, ultimately finding nothing.

About a month after appearing on the show, Browne allegedly offered her services to the Akers for $700. As Wayne Evans, a spokesman for the Shawn Hornbeck Foundation, said, “Pam was that desperate that if she had had $700 in her bank account she would have put it on the table. We are talking about a mother who would have sold her soul to have her boy back.”

Shawn Hornbeck was ultimately found quite alive.

Preying on people in times of weakness is bad enough, trying to extort money out of them is downright evil. Stop Sylvia Browne.

Over at Slate there’s an excellent recap of Rorygate, complete with graphs and whatnot. The final paragraph is pretty much bang-on:

It’s been almost two years since a lockout almost ruined the sport. Now the league has baited, misled, and rejected its fans. The NHL has hit a new low. It’s turned the All-Star Game—an event that’s supposed to be about giving people what they want—into a repudiation of the game’s most loyal supporters.

In related news, Rory scored the game-winning goal in the Canucks’ 2-1 victory over Ottawa last night. Well done, Rory!