The candidate’s name is Jamal Abu Roub, but everyone here calls him Hitler because, well, that is the name he has answered to quite comfortably since he was a teenager. The Int’l Herald Tribune had the story. Roub, 40, is a leader of the militant Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades in […]

Amrit Hallan writes a blog in India called Writers Cave “Cell phones are gradually becoming an integral part of generic human form these days. You rarely see people without a cell phone. Whether they are in parks, restaurants, bus stands, hospitals, offices, residential complexes, you see people holding cell phones […]

These pandas were donated by Thailand to China, and are four and five years old.

In “This Film Is Not Yet Rated,” director Kirby Dick uses private investigators to unmask the identities of members of the Certification and Rating Administration. These are the people who rate the movies. The film presents side-by-side scene comparisons that Kirby contends show how the board’s decisions favor studio releases […]

Last night we joined other members of Circolo Italiano for a lecture from a Smith College geologist. The topic was wine and geology, and Prof. Larry Meinert showed slides that convinced me that how good the wine is directly corresponds with what’s below the ground. During the Ice Age, a […]

Stephanie Barry wrote in today’s Republican about Francis G. Keough III’s vacation home in Charlestown, R.I.. Barring a legal turnaround, Keough’s $700,000 home at 59 Oyster Drive has been drained of value. Neighbors successfully sued him for using their private access road as a driveway. A Rhode Island Superior Court […]

I spent time late tonight poring over Craig’s list, and was intrigued by this amalgamation of people’s points of view. Particularly noteworthy was the “Best Of Rants and Raves section,” where in the true folksonomie tradition, readers voted for their favorite rants. One woman got right to the point. She […]

From John Battelle’s Search blog tonight. “Amazon.com Inc. plans to broadcast on its Web site an original show hosted by Bill Maher and featuring performers and authors touting new releases — which, not coincidentally, will be for sale at the online retailer. The 12-episode Webcast series, which will begin airing […]