Hello, readers. Joel here. I’m about to catch a plane to Las Vegas to began an in depth report for The Consumerist detailing water quality in casinos’ mixed drinks. (Not really. I’m going as part of the support staff for sister sites Gizmodo and NSFWy Fleshbot.) I’ve also be enjoying letting the PR folk at various tech companies know that I am going to be writing even more about their failings.

We would not leave you alone in these early hours of relationship, however, so we’ve brought in John Brownlee to shore up my inevitable failings, who I asked to send his own personals:

I’m easy on the introduction. Pertinent facts are limited to the fact that I am a native Bostonian who is living in Ireland, that I have a quasi-regularly updated blog at PimpJunta.com, and that I co-host Radio Psyence, a music podcast with an extremely casual view of the concept of “fair use” while playing rock and jazz. You could also mention that I was a pallid sissy of a youth, but ran away from the parsonage when I was 16 to become the idealistic first mate of the merchantman Patna, only to abandon ship when I lost my nerve in a crisis. Since then, I have wandered the earth, learning what it means to be a man.

Continue to use the tips email like always, as I’ll still be around, reading mail and posting stories like always. John’s already been sneaking in a few posts since last week, so I’m sure we’re in good hands.

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