At Least the WMD Hunt Had an Exit Strategy?

It's making headlines only now, but sometime around Christmas, U.S. officials charged with hunting down those pesky weapons of mass destruction in Iraq folded up shop and came home. With nothing -- no evidence, no weapons, no new information that might have contradicted all the previous reports that found no WMD's. (I have to ask: are we safer now, or what? Is there a similar exit strategy for the rest of the mess in Iraq?)

BlogPulse's other finds today are mostly entertainment-related or just downright frivolously silly. From the entertainment field comes discussion of the sneak preview of Queer Eye for the Straight Girl" (today's burstiest phrase) and the season finale of the weight-los program Big Loser.

But bring on the frivolity instead! For starters, how popular is your name? The Name Statistics web site provides lists of the top most popular first and last names.

From Deutschland comes a ditty that's downloadable in several versions, depending on whether you want the original version, a pop remix, a beat version or something else. It's a song about Schnappi, das kleine Krokodil (the little crocodile). Try to get the tune out of your head the rest of the day. Just try.

And if that doesn't work, try to remove the Sawyer Song (based on the Llama Song, rooted in the "Lost" TV series) from cruising the synapses of your brain.

From Scotland comes the tale of yet another employee fired because of stuff he wrote in his blog. Hint to workers who blog: it's one thing to THINK bad things about your boss, but probably not a good idea to share them publicly in your blog. Just a tip.

Gizmodo offers this tongue-in-cheek tip on how to hack the new iPod Shuffle (get it?), but if you prefer your toys to be of the furry kind, check out Link No. 37 among today's top links for the cat video of Fat Boy Slim. (I've said it before, I'll say it again...some people have waaay too much time on their hands, but we thank them for it.

PASSINGS: Normally, this spot is reserved for remembrances of people who've recently passed away, but MSNBC commentator Howard Fineman appears atop today's burst people list for his ode to the American Mainstream Media Party in the wake of the CBS firings. (Question: Does the Department of Education, which paid commentator Armstrong Williams to be its "spokesman," now count as mainstream media, too? The White House? Any hands slapped? Anyone fired?)

BLOGPULSE TREND GRAPH OF THE DAY The NFL playoffs are in full swing and quarterbacks are hot, while Super Bowl anticipation builds. (Speaking of the Super Bowl, Intelliseek is launching a Super Bowl Initiative to help brands/advertisers track "buzz" about the 2005 Super Bowl ads among online consumers and bloggers).

And speaking of interesting graphs created using BlogPulse, check out this tsunami-related graph from Steeph's blog.