Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks and a very rich man, talks about taking advantage of the broadcast flag in a way its proponents probably don’t like to think about. :) BTW, that is a blog he’s writing.

You know, according to this test, my brain rates at 100% female. (“I feel pretty, oh so pretty…”) ;) Kind of weird, since my scores on each individual part always fall closer to the male range and never go above the average for female. I don’t think I would have been surprised by a somewhat “female” score, but I think the 100% score may be an error. Maybe I should have taken it in Internet Explorer. ...

Wow, folks are actually talking about one of my favorite books! Of course, the reasons I found it fascinating are the same reasons people cite for its lack of appeal. I actually like the Biblical structure and voice. It makes it seem more like a dry, fragmented history of ancient, half-legendary events, rather than a story. However, Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings isn’t for everyone, and The Silmarillion is much, much less so. What we’re looking at is essentially Tolkien’s background notes for an entire world in which he was going to set his main stories. That probably puts it one step above the entertainment level of getting a script from a movie you like. ...

Great, now the AARP is going to be attacked by the same consultants who came up with the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. The reason: The AARP doesn’t want the Administration’s Social Security “reform” plan. Given recent events, I wonder how long it will take before someone finds out there is federal money being spent on this campaign? Update: Geez, it gets even worse. Nice to see our major political issues being defined by such a grassroots organization. (Dismantle Social Security! Drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge! For the Seniors!) ...

WordPress 1.5 is out. (The Phantom City currently runs on 1.2.2.) I’m going to upgrade after a little testing, and hope I don’t have to redo my CSS much. :) The feature list looks really interesting.

Looks like Mars might still have little Martians. Little Martian bacteria, that is, hanging out under the soil and producing methane. Cool! (Excuse me while I get my geek on.) :)

The tribulations of running a game store are recounted in nine Books by Keeper of the Retail Faith/Game Store Owner Gord. Highly entertaining acts of idiocy, unless you were experiencing them. :) Sample story: “What did you call my son on the phone today!” “I labelled him a petty thief.” “No one calls my son a thief!” “Actually, I labelled him a petty thief. Would you prefer aspiring criminal, or the more accurately descriptive incompetent law breaker?” ...

A pastor asks why so many churches urged their members to go see The Passion of the Christ but aren’t urging them to see Hotel Rwanda. Having seen neither movie yet, I couldn’t tell you what their relative merits are. However, I can make a guess as to two reasons why: First, The Passion had a truly amazing marketing push behind it. To talk about it as a purely grassroots hit movie is to ignore the accomplishments of Mel Gibson and the distributor in promoting this film as a must-see for Christians. There is a common mistake made when talking about evangelical Christians. Despite the talk about cutting ourselves off from the world, we are very much aware of it and are exposed to the tools used in the rest of culture. In other words, it’s hard to separate “religious” church and/or school life from the “secular” world of working and shopping. The evangelical community has always had a large community concerned with marketing to it, just like any other niche market with special interests. ...

The more I heard about “Gannon’s” story, the more I thought it had to be made up. But, then again, I would have thought that about using taxpayer money to pay columnists to support your agenda as well. If we spent the 90’s ragging on the Clinton Administration for mysteriously finding files years after they were needed, then you’d think we’d have more time for what’s turning into a political/media scandal. ...

Okay, it was done back in 1951, so the verbage in the story probably didn’t seem as bad at the time. (Either that, or the writer was pretty sure his younger audience would find it hilarious, kind of like an older audience does now.) ;)