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Mark Knoller, a CBS News radio correspondent, is known as the “leading collector of modern presidential arcana,” and “collects data about presidential activities as if it were baseball trivia.” He has tallied some very interesting statistics about W: he’s “spent 42 percent of his term so far at one of his three leisure destinations (Camp David, Kennebunkport, and his Texas ranch)” and has “devoted far more time to golf (15 rounds) than to solo news conferences (six).” Go figure. Ha, get it? Go figure? Never mind…

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ZDNet (among many other news sources) reports that Google is inaccessible in China, as the Communist Party expands its control over web content in the country. And it’s no coincidence that a Communist Party congress is upcoming in November, “sparking speculation of a crackdown on Internet content viewed as subversive.” Great. I think it’s a damn shame that no other country has had the balls to make more of an issue of things like this happening in China, to say nothing of the more egregious human rights violations. For a discussion of the Google issue, Slashdot (as always) is a good source.

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I was beginning to worry about imposters taking over the Italian capital until I saw “Rome to issue gladiator licenses” on CNN. Now I can be sure that my photo will be taken with a certified fake gladiator when I visit.