http://www.snopes2.com/glurge/warner.htm True: Kurt Warner, quarterback of the St. Louis Rams, has an interesting life story. 16:12

http://slate.msn.com/?id=2061246 A successor to toilet paper? Uh... 15:18

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41329-2002Jan26.html People don't think rationally about money. This stuff is all extremely interesting. 13:05

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/24/garden/24WALL.html Wall-to-wall carpets are coming back. (Plus: stupid headline.) 11:10

http://www.bol.ucla.edu/~rahjr79/ninja.htm 09:54

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,2001570030-2002020060,
00.html Disturbing: with the Taleban now gone, men and their ashnas--"young boys they have groomed for sex"--are once again on the streets of Kandahar. But I don't completely trust this article. It sensationalises: "Kandahar's Pashtuns have been notorious for their homosexuality for centuries, particularly their fondness for naive young boys. Before the Taleban arrived in 1994, the streets were filled with teenagers and their sugar daddies, flaunting their relationship." I also question this: "... the rape of young boys by warlords was one of the key factors in Mullah Omar mobilising the Taleban." Article also doesn't take great pains to distinguish between homosexuality and the apparent fondness for "naive young boys." Has this story run anywhere else? A google search for ashna indicates that the term isn't very common. 02:43

http://www.economist.com/library/styleGuide/ woo, back! 00:13

http://timblair.blogspot.com/?/2002_01_20_timblair_archive.html#9003488 "There are many besides Al Qaeda prisoners who are forced to wear humiliating clothing, gloves, and hats" Unfair possibly, but, well, clever. 12:20

http://www.satirewire.com/news/jan02/australia.shtml "Australia gets drunk, wakes up in North Atlantic" 11:41

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/23/sports/othersports/23FITE.html Tyson gets rowdy again. Interesting style ... it's almost a "Talk of the Town" piece. 23:16

http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/webservices/2002/01/18/brewster.html the hardware and software behind the Wayback Machine 17:02

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/20/magazine/20LOURY.html?
pagewanted=all profile of black ex-conservative Glenn Loury. 12:40

http://members.tripod.co.uk/chlormethiazole/poetry.html 10:32

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/020118.html why there's a "Fifth Third Bank" 09:28

http://www1.cnn.com/2002/SHOWBIZ/News/01/16/life.plaque.reut/
index.html "Thank you James Earl Ray for keeping the dream alive" 02:56

http://fcit.coedu.usf.edu/holocaust/resource/document/DocJac01.htm opening remarks of Robert Jackson, US Chief Prosecutor, at the Nuremberg Trials. This is an amazing address. I am in delight, and awestruck. 15:22

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap001127.html the Earth at Night 11:59

http://www.interdacom.ru/~tanks/gallery/g14.jpg 17:11

http://www.nationalpost.com/search/story.html?f=/stories/
20020112/1107772.html cute article: free-thinking liberals get laid more often than libertarians 13:51

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/entertainment/arts/newsid_
1761000/1761211.stm The Elgin Marbles are to stay in the UK, apparently. I saw these about a year ago, when I was in London. (I stayed in a hostel directly opposite, and a good hostel it was too.)

They're busted up, and not in very good condition, but still affecting. But more interesting was the justification for keeping them there. Various bits of text describe how their condition had declined in the centuries prior 1799 (when they were removed from the remains of the Parthenon). The Turks, for example, stored gunpowder there, and once upon a time it--oops!--went bang. The Greeks can't take care of their own relics, the exhibition argued, and so we have to do it for them.

Lots and lots of people are not very happy with this situation. In the picture below, the banner wrapped around the building at the right reads "Parthenon Marbles / It's time they were returned home". (This of Melbourne.) A little way up the street, at 258 Russell, is Cafe Baloo, which serves Indian curries and Italian pasta (!). Recommended, although it was better a few years ago.

10:58

http://www.nationalpost.com/search/story.html?f=/stories/
20020107/1053525.html what happened to the "brutal Afghan winter"? I don't agree with the second half, and don't appreciate the tone, but it's a good question. 10:19

http://www.brunching.com/features/geekhierarchy.html 02:18

http://slate.msn.com/?id=2060586 the word and concept: "meritocracy" 20:02

http://www.penny-arcade.com/images/2002/20020109l.gif 18:12

http://www.westegg.com/simpsons/ Simpsons' quotes, by theme 15:18

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6054-2002Jan6.html what laws should apply to Americans serving their country overseas? Lt. Col. Martha McSally wants to wear regular clothes off base, a cause supported by both conservative Republicans and liberal feminists. 11:58

http://www.upc-online.org/011226vegan_voice_singer.html Peter Singer is guilty of "the ignorant denigration of chickens"? 11:49

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,2001260052-2002000011,
00.html will those Brits ever stop whining? Now *The Times* tries to tell us that the high nickel content of euro coins will cause eczema... 16:33

http://mandavoshka.diaryland.com/older.html wild, cute 12:57

http://www.natsherman.com/since1930/ns_cigar_faq.cfm cigar FAQ. "How far down do you smoke a cigar?" 12:02

http://www.keyofz.com/keyofz/langley/ "The backing arrangement is astounding. Coupled with the earnest if lugubrious vocal performance you have a piece of art that I couldn't have conceived of, even with half of Colombia's finest export products in me." -- David Bowie 14:52

http://newyorker.com/THE_TALK_OF_THE_TOWN/CONTENT/?020107ta_
talk_mead 14:31

http://newyorker.com/THE_TALK_OF_THE_TOWN/CONTENT/?020107ta_
talk_surowiecki the credit ratings given by Moody's, S&P's, etc. have immediate fiscal implications 10:47