Rob Pegoraro, a smart editorialist and an all-round good egg, has a wonderful piece in Friday’s Washington Post on how the movie and music industries are working to turn you into a criminal. Worth your time.

Kuro5hin regularly gets on my nerves — it’s just not as well-focused as Slashdot or even Plastic. Still, every so often they turn up something great, like this piece on the Oklahoma Spaceport. A surprisingly touching read.

It has come to my attention that Aaron “Boondocks” McGruder is psychic, or evil, or really kicking himself right now. Be careful what you ask for dearie…

I really, truly hate April Fools Day. That said, only the proximity of 1 April kept me from reading an (unflagged) excerpt from the brand-new-to-me FutureFeedForward and having a aneurysm. This is brilliant, and I am now totally queasy.

More recession humor from Sweet Fancy Moses. I think the writer forgot the part where the corporation turns employees into freelancers, and then turns freelancers into nonentities. (Ask me how many of my friends have fallen for THAT racket, some all too recently and with far too many should-have-have bad examples to learn from. Tch.)

The judge’s sentence — no sex ever again for the deadbeat “father” of 12 — seems likely to be set aside in this Kentucky case. But read this and ponder the deeper question here: Blind in one eye, nearly blind in the other, high blood pressure and a heart problem — WHO IS HAVING SEX WITH THIS MAN?!?!?!?

The Beatles make a Lord Of The Rings movie? Two thoughts: 1. Thank heavens it didn’t happen, amen, amen. 2. You realize that if this had happened, the entire history of geekdom would have been reversed — the books would have become too uncool and mainstream to have spawned D&D and the entire fantasy genre, while slackjawed Boomers would still be wandering around talking about whether Frodo (Paul) or Gollum (John) was better?

I’m glad nobody was seriously hurt, but DAMN this is sad — this beautifully restored Boeing 707 Stratoliner, the last of its kind, crashes into Elliott Bay. On behalf of the staff and management of the Speed City Velocitors, this sucks.

Prozac may cause cancer? Oh fuck, this means Liz Wurtzel’s going to write another stinkin’ book…

That hippie cant about “we are stardust, we are golden?” It may not be hippie crap. (My disdain for the line about “we’ve got to get back to the garden” still stands, though. How about “we’ve got to get back to the asteroid field,” huh?)