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The most eagerly awaited movie review of the year The ChildCare Action Project reviews Harry Potter.
comment posted at 5:32 PM on Nov-26-01

Bloink! Leonids touchdown in northwest Indiana.
comment posted at 12:52 PM on Nov-20-01

Amazon screws up bag promotion. Amazon messes up a 'Buy this camera and get that bag free" promotion to be "Buy this bag and get that camera free." As a result you can get a $350 Minolta Maxxum SLR for $40. We'll see how long this lasts. I know that when the airlines made this mistake, they had to honor it.
comment posted at 12:25 PM on Nov-20-01
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comment posted at 12:45 PM on Nov-20-01

Wow, the Romans really found no problem with sex being shown out in the open. This is a picture found in an ancient Roman bath.
comment posted at 5:12 PM on Nov-14-01

Australia's Having Trouble Shirking Refugee Responsibility
In a sure sign of desparation, AU has approached TV (Tuvalu) about taking 1000 refugees in exchange for aid. They were rebuffed, for what should be obvious reasons. Its the same deal they've shopped around to PNG, FJ, and just about every Pacific island country since the refugees' boat caught fire near CX. PNG has already agreed to detain and process asylum requests on Manus. And the ultimate destination of the Tampa refugees was Nauru. Using Pacific island countries as chess pieces in the political calculations just isn't working -- I think it's highly revealing of AU attitudes toward the Pacific and asylum-seekers.
comment posted at 1:48 PM on Nov-13-01

Rob Rosenberger, editor of Vmyths.com, writes that three uniformed federal police visited him in the middle of the night and asked that he not to publish an upcoming column that would embarrass anti-virus vendor for "national security reasons." From late-October, but intriguing.
comment posted at 5:18 PM on Nov-8-01

White House summons biz chieftains The industry's top leaders, including Viacom Inc. chairman Sumner Redstone and News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch, will assemble in Beverly Hills Sunday morning with Karl Rove, the president's senior adviser, to hammer out a specific agenda for the entertainment industry to aid the fight on terrorism. They say it's not about propaganda, it's to identify strategies and agree on practical ideas, which may involve films as well as TV messages. Huh? That sounds like propaganda to me.
comment posted at 8:18 PM on Nov-7-01

America's Terrorist Training Camp George Monbiot asks, in the Guardian, "what's the difference between Al Qaeda and Fort Benning?" Well, is there a difference? Away you go, kids...
comment posted at 9:07 PM on Nov-1-01

Josh Kirby has Died Perhaps best known for his artwork on Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels, Josh was a well known science fiction and fantasy cover artist. He was 72.
comment posted at 2:58 AM on Nov-1-01

"Afghanistan" as seen by Frederick Engels in August 1857. First published in "The New American Cyclopaedia", Vol. I, 1858 ".....Thus ended the attempt of the British to set up a prince of their own making in Afghanistan...." Last sentence of classic piece of writing. Does history always repeat itself, or can nations and their leaders alter destiny by finding lessons in the most dismal failures of their past?
comment posted at 10:02 PM on Oct-28-01

Monkeys are capable of abstract reasoning according to recent research, which may have "profound implications for the evolution of human intelligence and the stuff that separates homo sapiens from other animals."

Just so long as there are enough bananas to go round, it's OK by me ...
comment posted at 7:50 AM on Oct-16-01
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comment posted at 2:39 PM on Oct-16-01

George Rap Bush? Turn him over. Turn him over. Turn his cohorts over. Turn any hostage they hold over. Destroy all the terrorist camps. There's no need to negotiate. There's no discussion. I told them exactly what they need to do. And there's no need to discuss innocence or guilt. We know he's guilty. Turn him over.
comment posted at 5:35 PM on Oct-14-01

Whats that? is what we say, but the french seem to have a different way of asking the same question.
comment posted at 4:14 PM on Oct-10-01

Bert 'n' Osama As near as I can figure it, the guy who made the Osama poster everyone is waving happened to download from the "Bert is Evil!" site...look behind Osama's left ear. Sorry, but I had to post this.
comment posted at 7:11 PM on Oct-9-01

Syria Wins Seat on Security Council Despite Being on U.S. List of Terrorism Sponsors. First the U.N. Human Rights Commission Boots the U.S., then there was the U.N. conference of racists, and now this... Is the U.N. rendering itself increasingly irrelevant? (Syria Daily reports | Info on Syria: The Heart of Terrorism | Testimony on Syrian Support for Terrorism)
comment posted at 8:56 PM on Oct-8-01

Try This Quiz -- Famous Dates in American History We all love to take an online quiz, so...Boston.com has a quiz today that asks you to match specific dates to important moments in U.S. history. Just how well do you really know your history, gang?
comment posted at 8:15 PM on Oct-2-01

Polls say blacks tend to favor checks.
"African-Americans ... are more likely than other racial groups to favor profiling and stringent airport security checks for Arabs and Arab-Americans in the wake of this month's terrorist attacks, two separate polls indicate."

"The findings by the Gallup Organization and Zogby International were met with varying degrees of disappointment and disbelief by black activists and intellectuals, who struggled with explanations."

Could it be that income and education are more related to racialist attitudes than race itself?
comment posted at 12:57 AM on Oct-2-01

New US National Anthem? Slate's Dialogue this week is about alternatives to "The Star-Spangled Banner" as the US national anthem. Should we keep it? If we replaced it, what should we replace it with?
comment posted at 8:12 PM on Oct-1-01

You know Jakob Nielsen's old saying "users don't scroll?" Maybe it's because you'd be violating his patent if you did. You got mail? Nope, that's also Jakob's patent. When was the last time this site updated? Again, don't ask or you could owe Jakob. Did I misspell anything in this post? Don't hit the spellcheck button, or it's violation time again. And that's just the tip of the scary patent iceberg. Is it a good idea for Jakob to have all these patents on basic internet application functions?
comment posted at 5:01 PM on Sep-28-01

A sign of Global recession? For the first time I can remember, it's cheaper to buy a console in the UK than it is the States. Over here, we're used to seeing straight dollar to pound conversions ($299 = £299), so this is a first. Do you think it's sign of recession or just Sony developing a conscience?
comment posted at 4:52 AM on Sep-28-01

An open directory of resources pertaining to the terrorist attack, the world's reaction, the upcoming military response, and all the various issues surrounding recent events. I think it's important that we maintain a library of sorts -- keeping track of all the news, all the opinion, the personal accounts, the photos -- so that we can learn from these events, so that we can find patterns, so that we can remember. So, post your good links to the directory!
comment posted at 4:11 AM on Sep-17-01

Giuliani requests 6,000 body bags. I don't feel like this is ever going to end...
comment posted at 10:44 PM on Sep-12-01

Photos of tragedy - Warning, may be distressing to some. Tragedies like this always provide for very dramatic photos. What are some of the ones you've seen today that made you gasp? This one made me think "all these people are now dead." Any more?
comment posted at 6:49 PM on Sep-11-01

England vs. USA Over the death penalty. Initially I felt like saying "butt out" but America tends to get involved in other countries when our citizens are in trouble (like that kid in Singapore way back).
comment posted at 1:11 AM on Sep-11-01

A vietnamese man, 95, sprouts new set of teeth. Are our bodies starting to adjust to longer life spans by replacing lost bits? Maybe we are developing redundant systems, like Klingons.
comment posted at 10:37 PM on Sep-10-01

DMCA: It's not just for software pirates and movie traders anymore. [salon link, sorry] Don't like what a web site is saying about your company and its investors? Cry copyright wolf and the site goes down, no questions asked.
comment posted at 4:37 AM on Sep-4-01

The Flitcraft Parable (Warning: RealMedia) This nicely crafted nugget is taken from Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon. While some literary reputations from the 1920s and '30s are falling (e.g., Nobel Prize winner Sinclair Lewis), Hammett's rep is still rising.

My question: Which so-called genre authors writing today have the greatest chance of still being read in the 22nd century?
comment posted at 9:54 PM on Sep-3-01

A world wide weblog. Neale's trying out an idea: a weblog by anyone, anywhere--but the technological "seeds" have to be planted by people. So far it's spread to Brunei, Australia, England, the US and the Moon. Slow virus, distributed guestbook, or what? I don't know, but I like it. Help blanket the earth!
comment posted at 7:31 PM on Sep-2-01
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comment posted at 10:40 PM on Sep-3-01

Have you ever wondered about your sexuality? If you're like me, no. But, you might want to mosey over here and check on it anyway. Who knows what happened to it since the last time you looked? This quiz attempts to guess your sexuality based on the answers you give to multiple choice questions. There's a AI program behind it that grows more intelligent as more people take the quiz.
comment posted at 9:43 PM on Aug-29-01

Hitting all 50 by 30. Have you come close? Do you keep track? How many countries and continents have you racked up?
comment posted at 6:55 PM on Aug-29-01

Oh, God, here we go again. Maybe he can go next door and ask Wilson for some advice?
comment posted at 5:00 PM on Aug-28-01
comment posted at 5:37 PM on Aug-28-01
comment posted at 6:09 AM on Aug-29-01

Is it just me (again), or does Ann Marie Smith, the next in line to Gary Condit, look bizarrely like Wendie Malick in a wig?
comment posted at 7:16 PM on Aug-27-01

The Little Ninja. A beautiful Flash series, one of the best I have stumbled across in my travels around the web. The music, artwork and production are all top notch, and Ninjai's voice is just spellbinding. Anyone know of any other high-quality flash comics like this one?
comment posted at 10:34 PM on Aug-26-01

Chase for Skase over. That is, if you believe it. There'll be certain elements in the media who'll doubt the death of Christopher Skase. Prepare for killer headlines, such as "Skase Escapes Spain for Underworld - Australian Authorities Look Up Underworld in Street Directory".
comment posted at 7:43 PM on Aug-5-01

john cusack for president
Why Shouldn't John Cusack be President?

He made the tough decisions in Grosse Pointe Blank.
He couldn't be bought in Eight Men Out.
He's cooler than John Malkovich
And we like his politics so far.

interesting. what actor do you think should be president? and why?
comment posted at 11:57 PM on Jul-31-01

Cheat! Win a new car! Ford's website tie-in to the NASCAR race series looks fairly normal on first glance. It's a contest that offers prizes (Grand Prize a new Taurus) based on picking the top Ford finishers in each week's race. However, the website is riddled with issues. Enough issues that no one should win a prize when all is said and done. More inside:
comment posted at 9:50 PM on Jul-31-01

20 percent would give up great sex or personal wealth if some genie would grant them eternally perfect hair. Women think about their hair almost as much as they think about sex. A new poll says that a woman spends 43 minutes a day thinking about her hair vs. 48 minutes a day thinking about sex.
comment posted at 4:46 PM on Jul-30-01

The Princess Bride... "In the 1980s, a timeless story was brought to life... after over a decade, it has returned... the most anticipated remake in a generation... in a way it has never been seen before." And that's an understatement.
comment posted at 3:51 PM on Jul-30-01