Check out the article from CNN about a new set of dolls, including one of the Iraqi information minister, Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf.

According to a report I just heard on CNN, the movement from to a medium terror threat has relaxed flight restrictions in Chicago and New York, but not in DC or at the Disney theme parks. Question: What do the three have in common?

For the weird news of the day, here's a great article from Yahoo. Apparently this guy parleyed $800 into $350M with a series for 126 high-risk trades over the period of 2 weeks. When arrested, he claimed to be a time traveler from 2256

Click here to order your Iraq's Most Wanted playing cards from Great USA Flags.

If you're among the people (you know who you are) that were absolutely mesmerized by the Iraqi Minister of (dis-)Information, the end is not at hand. Although he has not been seen since US troops seized Baghdad last Wednesday, a new web site, We Love the Iraqi Information Minister …

Hong Kong is getting rid of their new tourism slogan, "Hong Kong: It'll take your breath away!" due to its central role in the in spreading SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome). The new slogan: "Hong Kong: There's no place like it". I'm not sure it is that much better.

Infoworld is reporting that the US Senate is going to be introducing a new bill to combat spam, possibly bringing a $10/email fine (up to $500,000) for sending unsolicited email for marketing purposes.

Here's an article from Salon.com that finally shows an abuse I've been wondering about for a couple of years. The idea is that it is seldom the case that the check-out workers really verify the item identification with the item being scanned by the bar code scanner. Hence, if …

First Mr. Rodgers and now the inspiration for the series of books about Babar, a fond memory from my youth, is now dead too. An article on CNN provides the details, but she died of a stroke in a hospital in Paris. There is a detailed story in the article …

It appears that, for now, the hackers have lost and you can now reach the English Al-Jazeera site and read information from the Qatar-based channel. The US government and the channel have had an uneasy relationship for quite some time, with claims of press repression on the Al-Jazeera side, and …

This is well worth a read, if for no reason other than the two Harry Potter stories. Thanks, Business 2.0.

USA Today tells the story of a small business owner who, after being slapped with a hefty fine for using illegal copies of Microsoft software, decided to go completely free in his office. To date, he believes he saved himself $80,000 by doing so. The row with Microsoft began …

I'm as annoyed at the French (government) as the next guy but, this article on CNN.com shows just how lacking in any clue our legislators are. That's right, they're wasting our hard-earned cash to go out and change the name of French Fries and French Toast to Freedom Fries …

Congresswoman Lofgren (D-CA) has proposed a new bill to congress aimed at bringing fair use back to the United States Copyright system. Although I'm not a lawyer, I did read the whole thing, and it certainly moves things in the right direction. In particular, it addresses a purchasers ability to …

Wired writes in an article about the pending Lexmark DMCA case (reported here a couple of times, and basically dealing with the copying of a copy protection chip in a piece of hardware) and the potential effects if this case were to be won by Lexmark. As many have postulated …

Check out Icon Wars. It's a cool little flash movie. Make sure your sound is turned on.

Enough about war in Iraq. Enough about budget deficits. Enough about crime and punishment. Forget all of that and check out this cool site (pun intended). The site contains a wonderful array of microscopic photos of snow crystals. Check it out!

Many people know that there are pesticides that have been eating away at the ozone layer (along with other useful chemicals like Freon and others). In an odd twist, researchers in Indiana have determined that Ozone itself can be used as a pesticide when used on grain in gr, in …

According to an article from CNet, Microsoft's bCentral small-business services system was down for a number of hours yesterday, resulting in a multi-hour outage for some 15,000 small business customers that depend on the service to handle their web sites. Ouch.

As reported a while back on this site and others, Lexmark (manufacturers of printers, scanners, and multi-function devices) have filed suit against Static Control Components for making a product that allows you to refill Lexmark toner cartridges without paying Lexmark. Although it isn't a complete win for Lexmark (that'll likely …