Once again (and for the fourth time!), former Redskin Art Monk was denied entry into the Football Hall Of Fame, despite having "more catches than anyone currently enshrined in Canton, Ohio." I ranted about this last year when he was also ignominiously eliminated in the first round, so I will spare you the brunt of my wrath and refer you to that post. Still, I'm beginning to wonder what the voters are smoking after these horrible, repeated oversights.

The Aerial Reconnaisance Archives is a project based at Keele University in the UK with the help of its Ministry of Defense, allowing one to "access 5.5 million photographs taken over occupied Western Europe by the Allies during World War II." The website was apparently hit with a lot of traffic after it went live and is still working to make things smoother. However, it shows a lot of promise, and there are already some very cool images online.

In one of the most hilarious spoofs I've seen in a while, Black Table contends that the Democratic presidential candidates all look like characters from Brat Pack movies. ROTFLMAO... :-)

Update: As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, CBS is still refusing to air Moveon.org's "Bush In 30 Seconds" ad during the Super Bowl. This refusal has sparked quite a reaction, drawing the ire of many congressman, organizations, and individuals. Here is an e-mail I received from Moveon.org today detailing the reaction and proposing a one-minute boycott of the Super Bowl halftime show to watch the ad on CNN:

Dear friend of MoveOn,

The CBS networks still refuses to run our winning ad in the Bush in 30 Seconds ad contest during the Super Bowl. The MoveOn.org non-partisan campaign to get CBS to air issue ads continues, but we're not going to let CBS's censorship stop us in the mean time. That's why we're spending over $1 million to air the ad in our swing states and nation-wide on other channels -- starting with two spots on CNN that will air during the Super Bowl half time.

This Sunday, during the Super Bowl half time show, join us in changing channels on CBS. At 8:10pm and 8:35pm EST, switch over to CNN to watch "Child's Pay" on a channel which doesn't censor its ads. We'd like to keep a tally of the number of people who participate -- you can sign up here.

The number of groups, individuals, and newspapers that have called on CBS to run our ad is remarkable. The National Organization for Women and the American Civil Liberties Union have asked their own members to call CBS. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) gave a powerful speech about CBS on the floor of the Senate, saying, "Maybe network executives at CBS are so afraid of political pressure from the right wing and their business advertisers who are in league with the right wing politics of America that they are afraid to put anything on the air that might in fact make things uncomfortable. If that is the case, it is time for CBS to announce the name of their network is the 'Conservative Broadcasting System' and come clean with American viewers."

28 members of the House of Representatives wrote a letter to CBS which stated, "The choice not to run this paid advertisement appears to be part of a disturbing pattern on CBS's part to bow to the wishes of the Republican National Committee. We remember well CBS's remarkable decision this fall to self-censor at the direction of GOP pressure. The network shamefully cancelled a broadcast about former President Ronald Reagan which Republican partisans considered insufficiently flattering." Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) wrote a separate letter to CBS urging them to reconsider their decision.

Today, the L.A. Times printed an Op-Ed piece of ours which lays out the case against CBS's censorship. That's attached below. But the editorial pages of the Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, and many other papers came out in our favor as well. As the Globe wrote, "MoveOn.org's 30-second ad, which has aired on CNN, is a gentle yet powerful depiction of how hard today's children will have to work to pay off the country's mounting deficit. That's a vital message that might get lost in a year of campaign rhetoric, and it deserves a response from the White House in its own 30 seconds of imagery. America, sitting on the couch, junk food in hand, just might sit up and want to know more."

Luckily, there are still some networks that do allow the free exchange of ideas. Please join the one-minute boycott: at Super Bowl halftime, switch to CNN and watch "Child's Pay," and let us know.

Thanks for all you do,
--Adam, Carrie, Eli, James, Joan, Laura, Noah, Peter, Wes, and Zack
The MoveOn.org Team
January 30th, 2003

I plan on switching over to support this cause, although I usually avoid the horrible halftime show anyway... :-p

The Pocket Calculator Show Website is a showcase of "a generation of electronic with a soul," "collect[ing] and celebrat[ing] personal memories of all integrated circuit-based products from the electronic revolution of the 1970s and 1980s." Sections of the site cover "Nerd Watches," Boomboxes, Walkmans (Walkmen?), Calculators, and one of my favorites, "Magical Gadget," catalogs unusual electronics that never got their due back in the day. There's lots to explore and reminisce about here...

CNN reports that Georgia state school superintendent Kathy Cox has proposed "striking the word evolution from Georgia's science curriculum and replacing it with the phrase 'biological changes over time.'" In a pathetic attempt to ameliorate this moronic move, Cox said "the concept of evolution would still be taught under the proposal, but the word would not be used." At least some people realize how idiotic this is: "'If you're teaching the concept without the word, what's the point?' said Rep. Bobby Franklin, a Republican [my emphasis]. 'It's stupid. It's like teaching gravity without using the word gravity.'"

The story claims that Cox is bowing to pressure on teachers from "socially conservative" parents: "'If teachers across this state, parents across this state say, "This is not what we want," then we'll change it.'" Yeah, that makes sense. Let's change all of the history and science we don't like (or, more likely, don't understand).

I am just incensed by this ignorant, blatantly transparent attempt to impose Bible Belt religious views on unwitting children. Believe me, there are many other things that I would like to say about this, but I will stifle my bile-filled thoughts of rancor before I say something I'll regret. Probably a first, I know... :-p

Update: Former President (and Georgia native) Jimmy Carter released a statement about this debacle: "As a Christian, a trained engineer and scientist, and a professor at Emory University, I am embarrassed by Superintendent Kathy Cox's attempt to censor and distort the education of Georgia's students."

"Kaba Kick is Russian Roulette for kids." 'nuff said. I wish I knew where this graphic came from so I could find other morbid, scary toys...

The Godfather Of Soul James Brown was arrested today on charges of domestic violence. I should just collect "bad hair day" mugshot pictures on my blog; I think I'm on a roll here...

For you regular readers of The Onion, Herbert Kornfeld, Accounts Receivable Supervisor, AKA tha H-Dog, needs no introduction. You should immediately check out his latest (and perhaps greatest) A-R adventure, a "haiku a' violence" immortalized as "Enter Tha Office." For those of you unfortunate enough to not have experienced the exploits of tha H-Dog's Accountz Reeceevable posse, you should check out The Onion's archive. Peace out.

No, that is not a headline from The Onion, although had I not seen it for myself I would've thought so. CNN reports:

In an unusual spectacle at the Vatican, Pope John Paul II presided over a performance of break-dancers who leaped, flipped and spun their bodies to beats from a tinny boom box. The 83-year-old pontiff seemed to approve, waving his hand after each dancer completed a move, then applauding for the entire group.
...
During Sunday's show, one dancer -- part of a Polish group that helps poor and marginalized youths -- planted his head on the inlaid marble floor of the Vatican hall and spun to loud applause from his group and from Vatican officials.

This is just too surreal for me to wrap my brain around...

CNN reports that "workers at a nuclear weapons plant in Texas improperly secured broken pieces of a highly explosive component by taping them together, which could have caused a 'violent reaction.'" The incident started when "workers taking apart a W62 warhead accidentally drilled into its radioactive core," and then decided to fix it themselves by taping it.

Federal investigators listed a series of violations regarding this incident, including a very curious statement: "No experts who developed the taping procedure were present to supervise and watch for any potential problems." Huh? This implies that the established repair procedure for a broken nuclear warhead is apparently to tape it together rather than, oh, I don't know, use something else besides duct tape from a hardware store to repair a highly explosive nuclear weapon. IANANP, just a lowly aeromechanical engineer, but I'm pretty sure I could come up with something better than that. Not that I'd even want to fool with something like that. What a bunch of morons...

Bob Keeshan, better known as Captain Kangaroo, died yesterday at the age of 76 after a "long illness." His children's TV show Captain Kangaroo was on the air from 1955 to 1985, and I was surprised to find out that he also played Clarabell The Clown on The Howdy Doody Show for five years. A former Marine, Keeshan deplored violence on TV, and his show reflected that, "entertaining youngsters with his gentle, whimsical humor" along with "the puppets Bunny Rabbit and Mr. Moose, as well as Dancing Bear and the laconic Mr. Green Jeans." I guess I didn't watch the show too much as a child, since I have only vague memories of the show, albeit good ones. His distinctive presence will definitely be missed...

If you liked Slingshot Santa, then you'll probably enjoy Smack The Pingu, although I will admit that it gets old a little quicker. Which is not to say that I haven't sat here figuring out trajectories and timing for the last 15 minutes or anything. Because that would be obsessing, and I am not obsessing! OK, maybe a little... :-p

I totally missed Howard Dean's infamous speech after his loss in the Iowa caucuses, now known as the "I Have A Scream" speech because of his rant and barbaric yawp at the end. This transcription doesn't do it justice at all, but I haven't gotten the video link to work yet. I'm sure his campaign managers have been in a tizzy trying to figure out how to spin this, and it appears that they've taken one of the few tactics that could work: shameless self-deprecation. To wit: Howard Dean appeared on Late Night With David Letterman last night to present a very appropriate Top Ten List:

Top Ten Ways I, Howard Dean, Can Turn Things Around
10. "Switch to decaf"
9. "Unveil new slogan: 'Vote for Dean and get one dollar off your next purchase at Blimpie'"
8. "Marry Rachel on final episode of 'Friends'"
7. "Don't change a thing -- it's going great"
6. "Show a little more skin"
5. "Go on 'American Idol' and give 'em a taste of these pipes"
4. "Start working out and speaking with Austrian accent"
3. "I can't give specifics yet, but it involves Ted Danson"
2. "Fire the staffer who suggested we do this lousy Top Ten list instead of actually campaigning"
1. "Oh, I don't know -- maybe fewer crazy, redfaced rants"

His image of an angry berserker may still linger, but his willingness to make fun of himself and put the speech behind him is a start towards directing attention away from his rant and back towards his campaign. We'll see if it's enough...

Oh, and just to show that I'm not letting him off that easy, here's a site dedicated to the speech, as well as some MP3 "remixes" of the speech that have been making the rounds on the 'Net:        :-)

Update: MTV has joined the fray with some descriptions and review of the remixes.

Madville presents a pretty cool quiz where you figure out which arcade game belongs to which letter of the alphabet. I'm stuck at 15 out of 26 right now, but I'm on the verge of a couple more, as some of the rest are very familiar...

The Command Post first appeared as an authoritative source of the latest news from the war in Iraq, and continues to do so. Its latest project is coverage of the 2004 US Presidential Election, and it appears to do an equally thorough, timely job of covering it as well.

I'm glad to see that the Russian military has its priorities straight. According to CNN, "Russian troops have retrieved 10 tons of beer trapped under Siberian ice," apparently a week-long operation. A truck carrying the beer sank while trying to cross the frozen river Irtysh near the Siberian city of Omsk. The rescue team of "six divers, 10 workers and a modified T-72 tank" were unable to save the truck, which sank when the rope tethering it broke. However, and most importantly, the kegs and bottles of beer were retrieved unharmed. At temperatures of around -17 degrees Fahrenheit, I don't think there's any danger of the beer being skunked, although the news agency TASS "quoted the brewery as saying it will sell the beer as a rarity, but with a discount." What a feel-good story to start the day... ;-)

ESPN's Page 3 presents the 100 best sports moments on The Simpsons, or at least 100-75 so far. I think my vote would have to be the whole episode "Homer At The Bat," starring Wade Boggs, Jose Canseco, Roger Clemens, Ken Griffey, Jr., Don Mattingly, Steve Sax, Mike Scioscia, Ozzie Smith, and Darryl Strawberry (at right) as softball ringers for the Nuclear Plant's team. In fact, it ranks up there with my favorite episodes of all time...

Hilarious as usual...

Check out "The Most Beautiful Periodic Table Displays in the World." These Periodic Tables are intended as museum display pieces, and are unique in that an attempt is made to show each element with an example of how it is used, including a sample of the element in some cases. It looks pretty cool...

Just when I thought Star Wars fans couldn't get any more obsessive, I find this: Katie Horn has painted her Toyota Tercel to look like an X-Wing, complete with "blaster" scars. OK, maybe it's kind of cool, but the flight suit is a little scary...

Slate presents an interesting article explaining how delegates are assigned in the Iowa Democratic caucuses. I thought I had an idea of how it worked, but the method in which delegates are assigned is much more complicated than I thought, and there are several factors that can weigh heavily against candidates, particularly in a close race like this year. According to the article, the last such close race was in 1988, when Dick Gephardt narrowly won Iowa. This time around, he wasn't so lucky, and early leaders like Dean didn't do as well. The article surmises that Dean's ability to get people who hadn't voted before mobilized into action is all well and good, but can actually have little effect on the delegate totals, which to me seems contrary to the spirit of the process.

The tag line of the article is "If you liked the Florida recount, you'll love the Iowa caucuses." This refers to the fact that the Democratic party never reveals the raw vote count for each candidate, only the amount of delegates awarded to each:

The party won't compile or even record them, except as a temporary step in most precincts so that the caucus chair can determine how many delegates each candidate gets. The party doesn't want raw votes compiled and released, because it wants the caucuses to be a collaborative activity, not a tally of individual preferences. That's all well and good, if you like the party's communitarian version of democracy. But if you want to know how many voters stood up for John Edwards, you're out of luck.

That means that, for example, Dick Gephardt will never know whether he lost Iowa because of some of the vagaries of the process rather than a lack of support. It makes me wonder whether something needs to be done to create a more transparent process in a state that has a seemingly disproportionate say in the primary election system.

Play SimCity Classic online! Just don't try to do so on Netscape Navigator or Mozilla. Bastards. :-( Must... resist... urge... to... open... Internet... Explorer. Too late; I just couldn't resist such a cool classic game, even though it means (temporarily, I assure you) compromising most of my principles. Wouldn't be the first time... ;-)

Now this is cool, although it has been done before...

If this was around back in college I could've stayed 22 forever! Mmmm... beer.

This could be rough. If only I didn't have this damn job thing... ;-)

This is somewhat older news, but I forgot to post it earlier. Bush in 30 Seconds (sponsored by the moveon.org voter fund) urged people to submit 30-second ads that "challenge [W]'s policies and his administration." The result was hundreds of submissions that were recently narrowed down to 26 finalists. The winning ad, "Child's Pay," is available for viewing on their page, as are the other 25 finalists. Currently moveon.org is raising funds to be able to run the winning ad during the Super Bowl. I really hope they get enough donations to do so, as it would obviously be a huge audience for their important message.

Update: Well, so much for reaching the masses during the Super Bowl. The donation page has a message informing prospective donors that "CBS has refused to place 'Child's Pay' nationally during the Super Bowl." Bastards. I just hope they have a legitimate reason like a deadline, because if W and his administration have gotten to the networks, I will be extremely pissed off. The page goes on to say, "We are considering options. Please stay tuned." I hope that they can still come up with some sort of highly visible campaign, but losing out on the Super Bowl is a pretty big setback...

Another Update: According to AdAge, CBS decided not to air the commercial because "the spot violated the network's policy against running issue advocacy advertising." However, the story also reports that "MoveOn is airing a 60-second version [of] the commercial... in advance of [W]'s State of the Union address Jan. 20" on CNN. I'm going to have to keep an eye out...

I've been confused about how the quarterback rating was calculated for some time, but I just now found out how it's done, thanks to FARK. Checking out the official NFL site for an explanation of the quarterback rating has made things clearer, although I'm still dumbfounded as to why they arbitrarily decided that 158.3 was a perfect rating. Or rather, I'm confused as to why they used a seemingly arbitrary maximum limit (2.375) for each of four categories (percentage of completions, average yards per attempt, percentage of touchdown passes, and percentage of interceptions). The QB rating is calculated by adding calculations for all four of those categories (explained in more detail at the NFL page), dividing by six, and multiplying by 100. Therefore, a perfect QB rating is [(2.375 * 4) / 6] * 100 = 158.3. Peyton Manning managed a perfect rating two weeks ago in his rout of the Broncos in the AFC Wild Card game, which planted the seed in my mind that I need to figure this out. Finally...

Ever try to visualize one trillion? Or one quadrillion? The MegaPenny Project helps you do so through the comparison of stacks of pennies to landmarks such as a football field, the Washington Monument, and the Sears Tower.

It doesn't get much cooler than this. Visit Maestro Headquarters and "Explore Mars with the program that NASA scientists use to operate Spirit," the NASA probe that recently made a successful landing on Mars. You can follow the descent of the vehicle firsthand and view some of the first pictures from Mars, panning, zooming, and rotating images from the dataset NASA is using. I can't do this justice; download the Maestro application (>30MB download) and updated Mars data and try it for yourself.

It's been some time since I've posted any fun games, so here are a few for you to enjoy:

• Robootik - cool once you get used to the controls
  
• Snake - an update of the classic; I still like the original DOS version :-p
  
• Egg Run - reminds me of the egg in that comic U.S. Acres...
  
• Cannon Fodder - a real-time version of the classic cannon game

The site Free After Rebate proclaims that "The best things in life are free, after six to eight weeks." The site lists deals for products that end up being free after sending in the rebate form, although shipping and handling are usually extra. Still, there were a couple of deals on the page that caught my eye. Might be worth a look...

I posted previously about how obsessed some people can get about Disney, and I didn't think that I could find anyone to top the personalities in that article. Until now. I'll let the proclamation on "Disney Tattoo Guy" George Reiger's page speak for itself (note the annoying, self-absorbed use of the third person):

George C. Reiger Jr. is proclaimed by the worldwide news media as the #1 devoted Disney fan of all time ! He is the only person in the world with over 1,500 (1,501 to be exact) Disney tattoos. He is also the only person with a custom built Disney House in the world with over 19,000 Disney items. Mr. Reiger has been on numerous television shows both local and national. George Reiger (The Disney Tattoo Guy) is by far Disney's #1 fan !!!

There are plenty of pictures on his site detailing this obsession; I stand dumbfounded...

Once you get past the bad Engrish and new windows generated by the web site, you can download Pac-Man and Space Invaders Excel spreadsheets that run the actual games in Visual Basic (I think; make sure and enable macros). Pretty cool...

I've noticed that over the years movie credits have gotten longer, but I had no idea that they've gotten this bad.

Although this is so last week, I had to mention Dave Letterman's hilarious Top Ten List from last Tuesday:

Top Ten Messages on Britney Spears' Answering Machine
10. "This is the printing company. Your wedding announcements are ready"
9. "Hey, it's Christina Aguilera, did you get married or did I?"
8. "It's the printing company. Your annulment announcements are ready"
7. "Rush Limbaugh here. I'd love to try whatever you were taking the other night."
6. "So other than the embarrassing marriage and annulment, how was Vegas?"
5. "Hey, it's Paris. You don't need to get married to get attention. Just have sex on the internet."
4. "This is Kenny from high school. I have a couple of hours free on Thursday if you want to get married and divorced."
3. "Honey, it's Liza. Next time, instead of an annulment, hit him with a bottle."
2. "It's Jessica Simpson. Thanks for making me look like a genius."
1. "Pete Rose here. I bet 10,000 dollars on your marriage lasting a week"

I think I agree with Fimoculous that #2 was the funniest... :-)

The BBC reports that "Professor Simon Blackburn of Cambridge University is trying to 'rescue' lust, arguing it has been wrongly condemned for centuries, the Sunday Times says. His campaign is part of an Oxford University Press project on the modern relevance of the seven deadly sins [lust, anger, envy, gluttony, sloth, pride and greed]." Hear, hear! Gotta love those randy Brits... ;-)

Adding to its extensive array of web search features (including some new ones I mentioned last month), the Google Weblog reports that there are even more number search options at Google:

• Area Codes, e.g. 650, bring up maps.
  
• UPC codes, e.g. 073333531084 or 036000250015, bring up some information about the product.
  
• Flight numbers, e.g. usair 50, provide links to flight tracking
  
• Vehicle ID (VIN) numbers, e.g. JH4NA1157MT001832, link to a CARFAX report on what kind of car and its status.
  
• U.S. Postal Service tracking numbers link to package status.

In a series of interviews that are included in Pulitzer Prize Winner Ron Suskind's new book The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House and the Education of Paul O'Neill, former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill had little good to say about W's administration. He contends that he never saw any evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, that W had planned on invading Iraq before 9/11 even occured, and that in cabinet meetings W was "like a blind man in a roomful of deaf people." Burn!

Update: The Borowitz Report broke a related story: "Former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill was captured Sunday night in a surprise raid on the CBS studios in New York, the Pentagon confirmed today...'We got him,' a coolly confident Vice President Dick Cheney announced to the press moments after Mr. O’Neill was apprehended." Hilarious...

Waxy.org reports on some great finds in the Internet Archive. The series is a great time capsule of cool videos and stories about computers and computer gaming in the '80s. I gave up on trying to paraphrase the post and decided to just reprint it here:

Nearly every episode of Computer Chronicles, the influential and long-running television series, is freely available on the Internet Archive. If you browse by year, you can find plenty of classic geek nostalgia dating back to 1984. A few of my favorites are below.

Computer Games, February 1984. Steve Kitchen demos Activision's Space Shuttle, the most complex Atari 2600 game ever created and the only one to reprogram all of its switches. Electronic Arts' Bill Budge shows off the classic Pinball Construction Set for the Apple II, while EA/3DO founder Trip Hawkins shows off Dr. J and Larry Go One on One, the game that paved the way for EA Sports.

Computer Games, January 1985. The authors of Sargon and Millionaire demo them on the original Mac, and talks to Pitfall creator David Crane about Ghostbusters and David Lebling discusses Zork and other text-based adventure games. The short piece on the fledgling Lucasarts (then named Lucasfilm) is great, which had just released its first two games a few months before, the groundbreaking Rescue on Fractalus and Ballblazer.

Software Piracy, January 1985. A spirited debate between an Activision exec against a developer of a cracking utility, a surreal interview with John "Cap'n Crunch" Draper taking an anti-piracy stance, and a demonstration by the pseudonymous "Frankie Mouse" of a pirate BBS on a 300 baud modem. (Look at that text scroll!)

Operating Systems, 1984. The big highlight is Bruce Tognazzini, then an Apple engineer, shrinking himself to give a guided tour inside an Apple IIe.

The "Random Access" news segment at the end of each show is also entertaining, if you haven't had enough geekery. I've only watched a fraction of the episodes so far, so post a comment if you find any particularly good moments.

I'm sure that you've all heard ways to make your own pinhole camera out of a Quaker canister or something similar. Well, in 1979 Czech inventors Martin Pilny, Mirek Kolar, and Richard Vyskovsky created a "functional pinhole camera made of stiff paper, designed for 35 mm film, which resembles a real camera" and published it in the magazine ABC mladych techniku a prirodovedcu (An ABC of Young Technicians and Natural Scientists). Courtesy of pinhole.cz, you can download an Adobe PDF file and make your own Dirkon pinhole camera. This sounds pretty cool...

Take a look at some great photographic galleries from around the world at TrekEarth. Makes me want to travel (and photograph) more...

The Fontifier lets you submit samples of your handwriting that are then turned into fonts you can use on your computer. That might be a good thing for some of you, but it would render most of my writings illegible... :-p

eatmail.tv presents the Best Videoclips Of 2003, including such classics as "Star Wars Kid," Trojan Condoms' "Sex Olympics," and Jack Black in "Lord Of The Piercing." Hilarious...

According to Ananova,

William Shatner has recorded a new album featuring a guest appearance by US punk legend Henry Rollins. Shatner, who played Captain James T. Kirk in the original TV series of Star Trek, has also enlisted Joe Jackson and US country star Brad Paisley to guest on the album. The album will be produced by Ben Folds, leader of the Ben Folds Five, reports the New York Post. Shatner is generally acknowledged as having recorded the worst ever version of a Beatles' song. He released his spoken word cover of "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" in 1968.

If you are ever described as having recorded the "worst ever version" of a song, then perhaps it's time to stick with your day job. Although I will admit that Shatner's "Lucy" cover was one of the (obviously unintentionally) funniest things I've ever heard...

Play the handheld LCD version of Donkey Kong Jr. in this Shockwave applet. Better yet, download MAME and play thousands of arcade games on your computer once you find the proper game ROM files; newsgroups are the best source IMNSHO (alt.binaries.emulators.mame, I believe). I love technology, even if it's applied to make things more like they were in the '80s... :-p

To the apparent disappointment of several, I missed my opportunity to rag on the Redskins last week when Coach Spurrier quit the team after two disappointing seasons, with a record of 12-20. I'm not certain that it was all his fault, and I will be happy to lay the blame on owner/wannabe Dan Snyder. But that's just me. Anyway, let me just say that I'm glad Spurrier quit, not giving that little troll Dan Snyder the chance to fire him. There, that feels better. :-p

Now, on to the good news. I've said for some time that the Redskins have gone downhill ever since Joe Gibbs resigned in 1993. True or not, there's no denying his three Super Bowl rings (XVII, XXII, and XVII) and his subsequent induction to the Football Hall Of Fame in 1996. Tomorrow he is expected to announce that he is returning to coach the Washington Redskins, news that is hailed by almost every sports fan in the D.C. area as the best in some time. The game has changed since his retirement just over 10 years ago, but if nothing else, he will command the respect of the team, something which I believe has been sorely lacking since he left. Cross your fingers...

Ever wonder what your favorite celebrities are up to in between projects? Wonder no more! Japander.com brings you the best of the Japanese TV commercials that the stars hope you will never see in the US. Take it from Woody Allen on The Simpsons: "So many rice crackers claim to be low-cal, but only Fujikawa rice crackers make your interiors go bananas! What'd I do to deserve this? Oh, right."

The Hidden Song Archive is "a database of hidden and unlisted tracks from albums by all types of artists." The first time I can remember coming upon a hidden track was in Nirvana's Nevermind, in which there was a hidden track after a long silence in the last track, "Something In The Way."

Happy New Year, everyone! Now that we are well into 2004, I wanted to remind you of the link to the excellent fimoculous 2003 Year In Review, chock-full of links to year-ending lists, reviews, and rankings. In particular, the Google 2003 Year-End Zeitgeist presents search trends for last year, which are a pretty good barometer for what was in the news or popular at the time.

Update: I just happened upon Dave Barry's hilarious article "Between Iraq and a Hard Place" that pokes fun at the events of 2003.