Have you ever wondered why an actor suddenly begins appearing in several different TV ads at about the same time? Seth Stevenson explains this phenomenon in this Slate article.

In 1983, Stanislav Petrov saved the world.

McSweeney's presents its Daily Reason to Dispatch Bush. As of tonight, they are on Reason #39.

Here's a list of Famous Unsolved Codes and Ciphers.

According to E. J. Dionne, "In his first two years as president, George W. Bush set a trap. He pushed through tax cuts so big that they would inevitably force Democrats into a series of no-win arguments during this election year. Democrats could dedicate themselves to undoing the budget damage Bush had caused by favoring tax increases and spending restraint. Or they could ignore the issue of fiscal balance and propose popular programs.

Either way, Democrats risked getting trashed and tearing each other apart. The first option offers voters little to cheer (tax increases and fewer programs) while the second opens the party to charges that it's engaging in its own form of fiscal irresponsibility."

Dionne discusses whether the Democrats can escape this trap in this Washington Post column.

The Daily Show's Jon Stewart gave this year's commencement address at his alma mater, the College of William and Mary. You can read the full transcript here.

Here are a few excerpts:

"So I know that the decisions that I made after college worked out. But at the time I didn’t know that they would. See college is not necessarily predictive of your future success. And it’s the kind of thing where the path that I chose obviously wouldn’t work for you. For one, you’re not very funny."

"I was not exceptional here, and am not now. I was mediocre here. And I’m not saying aim low. Not everybody can wander around in an alcoholic haze and then at 40 just, you know, decide to be president. You’ve got to really work hard to try to…I was actually referring to my father."

In this Slate article Fred Kaplan summarizes recent developments in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, explains why the White House can't do much to stop it, and speculates on what will happen next.

The United Nations has released this list of "Ten Stories the World Should Hear More About."

Chuck Todd explains why he thinks the next election could be a Kerry landslide in this article from Washington Monthly.

According to this BBC News article, the Hubble Space Telescope may have taken the first image of a planet circling another star.

A Republican administration must be in trouble when even George Will questions their competence. In this Washington Post column, Will writes:

"When there is no penalty for failure, failures proliferate. Leave aside the question of who or what failed before Sept. 11, 2001. But who lost his or her job because the president's 2003 State of the Union address gave currency to a fraud -- the story of Iraq's attempting to buy uranium in Niger? Or because the primary and only sufficient reason for waging preemptive war -- weapons of mass destruction -- was largely spurious? Or because postwar planning, from failure to anticipate the initial looting to today's insufficient force levels, has been botched? Failures are multiplying because of choices for which no one seems accountable."

What's New Khaaan?

Khaaan!

Forthright's Phrontistery is a website devoted to unusual words. It includes a 14,000-word dictionary of obscure and rare words, the Compendium of Lost Words, and topical word lists on subjects like manias and obsessions, names for names, and divination and fortune telling.

The Origins of American Animation is a collection of the Library of Congress that documents the development of American animation between 1900 and 1921. The collection includes 21 animated films and 2 fragments that you can download here.

This Salon article looks at the state of the Kerry campaign with 6 months to go until the presidential election.

"Media Matters for America is a Web-based, not-for-profit progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media. Conservative misinformation is defined as news or commentary presented in the media that is not accurate, reliable, or credible and that forwards the conservative agenda."

In this New York Observer article Ron Rosenbaum asks, "Did Vladimir Nabokov lift the controversial plot, indeed the very name of Lolita, from a 1916 German short story called 'Lolita'?"

Is it okay to grab someone's shirt and clean your eyeglasses with it? President Bush thinks it is. During a commercial break on the Late Show with David Letterman, Bush used producer Maria Pope's sweater to clean his glasses. You can watch the video here.

The story about George W. Bush and his service in the Texas Air National Guard seems to be over as journalists have moved on to cover other stories. But James C. Moore thinks there is more to this story. Moore explains in this Salon article that:

"The president of the United States is lying to hide his behavior while he was a young pilot during the Vietnam War, and he has almost taken away reporters' ability to get the whole story. Unfortunately, the national media have other distractions, and they apparently don't think the Guard story is important enough to warrant additional effort. I think they are wrong."

Who will John Kerry pick to be his running mate? The Washington Post helps you figure it out with their Veep-O-Matic 2004.

The Gallery of the Forbidden presents a history of music censorship.

In late 1882, astronomer David Peck Todd photographed the transit of Venus across the sun. One hundred twenty years later Bill Sheehan and Anthony Misch realized they could turn Todd's 147 glass negatives into a movie. This Sky & Telescope article lets you download a movie of "an astronomical event that occurred when Queen Victoria sat on the throne of Great Britain and Chester Arthur was president of the United States."

In this Onion A.V. Club interview with Ricky Gervais, the co-creator and star of The Office discusses comedy, his influences, and fame.

The illicit drug habits of America's high school students have been tracked by a group of researchers at the University of Michigan since 1975. The Michigan drug researchers have "never seen such a dramatic drop in the use of an established illicit drug as they're seeing now with LSD." According to this Slate article, there are two reasons for the decline in LSD use. First, in November 2000 the DEA arrested two Kansas men who were responsible for 95% of the country's supply of LSD. Second, Jerry Garcia died, the Grateful Dead stopped touring, and LSD's distribution system disappeared.

In this Salon interview, Neal Stephenson, author of "The Confusion," discusses science, alchemy, Puritanism, science fiction, writing with a pen, and the feud between Newton and Leibniz.

Barry Ritholtz of the blog, The Big Picture, believes we are undergoing a dramatic shift in how the war is covered by the media. He writes in this weblog post that, "Lately, I have noticed several changes in the media's coverage of both the White House and the Iraq War . . . What we are seeing -- in real time -- is an unraveling of the administration's media management strategy."

This Seattle Times article is another example of the shift in media coverage of the war.

Bob Woodward discussed his new book "Plan of Attack" on 60 Minutes tonight. This CBS News article summarizes the interview. Woodward calls the book,” the first detailed, behind-the-scenes account of how and why the president decided to wage war in Iraq. Some of the book's more surprising revelations include:

Congress did not know about or approve of the money used to fund war preparations. Instead, President Bush approved using "money from a supplemental appropriation for the Afghan War."

The Saudi Arabian Ambassador, Prince Bandar, promised President Bush that Saudi Arabia will lower oil prices in the months before the election -- to ensure the U.S. economy is strong on election day.

Neal Stephenson's new novel The Confusion was released on Tuesday. In this Wired interview, Stephenson discusses his new book, confusion, and money.

I didn't blog last night because I was at the first Pixies concert in 12 years. The show included almost anything a Pixies fan could have wanted. All four original members were there. They sounded great, and almost all the songs were from their first three albums. You can read the Minneapolis Star Tribune's review of the show here. This GQ article (in PDF format) helps explain why Frank Black decided to reunite the band. Drummer David Lovering put his career as a "Scientific Phenomenalist" on hold to rejoin the band.

How are recent events in Iraq effecting President Bush's supporters? According to this CBS News article, conservatives like Indiana Senator Richard Lugar and columnist George Will, have begun criticizing the president's conduct of the war. The weblog Political Animal has more examples of Republicans Against Bush.

Comedy Central's The Daily Show is the funniest show on television. If you miss the show or don't have cable, you can watch clips on the Daily Show's website here. Many more Daily Show clips are posted in the Daily Show Clip Comedy Archive from the weblog On Lisa Rein's Radar. For example, here's the Daily Show on The Republican Response to Richard Clarke's Testimony.

Condoleezza Rice testified before the 9/11 commission today. You can read a transcript of her testimony here.

Historian Eric Rauchway wrote:

"Here's the bottom line: Rice said something in passing that rather sums up the situation: "There are plans and plans and plans. And the problem is, unless those plans are engaged by the civilian leadership... those plans simply sit." So: Why didn't the civilian leadership, AKA the White House, engage?"

Richard Clarke said:

"I think that Dr. Rice's testimony today, and she did a very good job, basically corroborates what I said. She said that the president received 40 warnings face to face from the director of central intelligence that a major al Qaeda attack was going to take place and she admitted that the president did not have a meeting on the subject, did not convene the Cabinet."

Neal Pollack sums up Rice's testimony this way:

"Lie, lie, distortion, half-truth, pander, manipulation, pseudo-intellectual bombast. Dodge, dodge, feint, lie, dodge, avoid, subject change, lie, slander, pretentious generalization, character assassination, bald-faced lie."

Harold Meyerson examines recent events in Iraq in his Washington Post column and concludes, "The only unequivocally good policy option before the American people is to dump the president who got us into this mess, who had no trouble sending our young people to Iraq but who cannot steel himself to face the Sept. 11 commission alone."

In this New York Times column, Frank Rich wonders why, "the White House, so often masterly in its TV management, particularly where 9/11 is concerned, has been wildly off its game." If you can't access the New York Times, the column is also available here from the International Herald Tribune. (Advance the page with the next page button at the bottom right.)

The war in Iraq and the Medicare bill were supposed to be two of the achievements that assured George W. Bush's reelection. But neither of them worked out quite as planned. According to Eric Boehlert in this Salon article, "Bush's Medicare program and the Iraq war both fit a striking pattern: The real motives were clouded in secrecy and false claims; the true costs distorted; administration officials pressured not to reveal true information; and the White House has relied on taxpayer-funded propaganda operations to try to prop up both."

This Seattle Times article explains why some people are night owls and others are early risers. It also explains how a night owl can reset his body clock to wake up early and how an early riser can reset her body clock to stay up late.

Both the Bush administration and Richard Clarke believed that terrorists threatened the United States, but they disagreed on the source of the threat. The administration thought the threat came from countries like Iraq and North Korea, while Clarke believed the most serious threat came from groups of terrorists not supported by a country. Fareed Zakaria explains the difference in this Newsweek column.

This New Yorker article discusses anthropometric historians, who study the history of human height. They have found that height is determined more by nutrition and wealth than by genetics. They are trying to figure out why Europeans have grown taller over the past 50 years while Americans have not. The average Dutch man is now six feet one, while the average American man is five feet nine and a half.

More Fun with Zip Codes

Marketing companies divide the country into market segments by life style and zip code. The marketing company Claritas uses a system of 66 distinct lifestyle types. They cross-referenced their lifestyle types and zip codes on their "You are Where You Live" website. Go here and type in your zip code to "get your neighborhood's top five segments, along with some descriptive detail about each segment's lifestyle traits."

Fundrace is a website that allows you to find out who has made presidential campaign contributions. You can search by zip code or name.

Cartoonist Joe Sacco takes a look at this year's presidential campaign in his comic strip "Meanwhile in America."

Today Richard Clarke testified before the 9/11 commission. He began his testimony by saying:

"I welcome these hearings because of the opportunity that they provide to the American people to better understand why the tragedy of 9/11 happened and what we must do to prevent a reoccurrence. I also welcome the hearings because it is finally a forum where I can apologize to the loved ones of the victims of 9/11. To them who are here in the room, to those who are watching on television, your government failed you, those entrusted with protecting you failed you and I failed you. We tried hard, but that doesn't matter because we failed.

And for that failure, I would ask -- once all the facts are out -- for your understanding and for your forgiveness.

With that, Mr. Chairman, I'll be glad to take your questions."

Fred Kaplan provides a good summary of the testimony in this Slate article. You can read a transcript of Clarke's testimony here. (It begins near the bottom of the page.)

Here are two more articles on the Richard Clarke kerfuffle. First, Fred Kaplan explains that "Dick Clarke Is Telling the Truth" in this article from Slate. Second, Todd Purdum analyzes the effects of Clarke's accusations on the presidential campaign in this New York Times article.

Today the Bush Administration responded to last night's 60 Minutes interview with Richard Clarke with several counterarguments. This Center for American Progress article shows that these White House arguments are just misinformation.

You can find more commentary on the White House response to Clarke at Intel Dump, Talking Points Memo, and Eschaton.

According to former White House terrorism advisor Richard Clarke, the Bush administration ignored terrorism before 9/11. Clarke appeared on 60 Minutes tonight and said, "Frankly, I find it outrageous that the president is running for re-election on the grounds that he's done such great things about terrorism. He ignored it. He ignored terrorism for months, when maybe we could have done something to stop 9/11. Maybe. We'll never know." Clarke also says that after 9/11 the Bush administration decided Iraq was to blame, even though there was no evidence Iraq was involved. You can read a summary of the 60 Minutes report here.

In this Boston Globe article, Michael Gilbert wonders whether the recent transformation of Howard Stern's radio show into "a rabidly anti-Bush talk forum" could have an effect on the presidential election.

This Harper's Magazine article tells the story of David Hahn, a teenager who almost built a nuclear breeder reactor in his mother's potting shed.

The Exorcist was originally made in 1973, and a modified version was released in 2000. Several other versions have also been produced. First, here's a review of the Turkish Exorcist. Second, here's the Exorcist in 30 seconds re-enacted by bunnies.

Gadflyer is a new "progressive Internet magazine" that features articles and columns on politics and public affairs and a weblog called Flytrap.

Astronomers have detected what could be the Solar System's 10th planet.

Here are two articles on politics and the media. First, Campaign Journal previews George Bush's new television ad, which "is the first ad to use the image of a dark-skinned man who is obviously meant to be a terrorist." Second this CNN article discusses the new liberal Air America Radio network, which will begin broadcasting on March 31. Al Franken will host a 3-hour midday show that he has named "The O'Franken Factor."

The Calvin and Hobbes Extensive Strip Search is a database that allows you to access all 3150 published Calvin and Hobbes comic strips. You can search by description or date. For example, here's the first Calvin and Hobbes strip published on November 18, 1985.

The Museum Of Bad Art (MOBA) is the world's only museum dedicated to the collection, preservation, exhibition and celebration of bad art in all its forms. MOBA has made several bad art works available as part of its online collection .

Have you ever wondered how news travels on the Internet? Well, Stephen VanDyke researched this question and presents his findings in a diagram he helpfully calls, "How News Travels on the Internet."

Although the presidential election is 8 months away, political ads are already being shown on television. Some of these ads have become controversial. According to this CNN article, the Republican National Committee is warning TV stations not to run ads from the MoveOn.org Voter Fund. The RNC claims these ads violate campaign-finance laws.

The Bush campaign has also started running TV ads. Jimmy Breslin explains in this Newsday column why he is offended by the Bush campaign's new ads that feature film of "dead bodies, or body parts, covered with an American flag being taken through the smoke and flames of the world trade center attack." According to Breslin, "In his first campaign commercial, George Bush reached down and molested the dead."

Here's a website on the history of the Soviet Exploration of Venus. This page shows some surprisingly good pictures of Venus, including photos of the surface of the planet.

This posting from the blog, The Big Picture, takes a look at the projected Electoral College vote in the 2004 presidential election. According to a recent Zogby Poll, Kerry leads Bush in electoral votes by 226 to 176, with several states too close to call.

This New Yorker article by Seymour Hersh discusses the nuclear weapons black market. Hersh interviewed former United Nations weapons inspector Robert Gallucci who says, "There’s nothing more important than stopping terrorist groups from getting nuclear weapons. The most dangerous country for the United States now is Pakistan, and second is Iran. Gallucci went on, “We haven’t been this vulnerable since the British burned Washington in 1814.”

You've probably never heard of Paul Arnold, but he "is the best quarterback in college football history. Over his 10-year career, Arnold won four national championships for three different schools and was a nine-time All-American." Why have you never heard of Paul Arnold? Because, as Josh Levin explains in this Slate article, Arnold played flag football.

In this Boston Globe article, Steven Johnson explains the connection between mindreading, which is "the complex yet taken-for-granted talent most people have for detecting the inner emotional states of others," and autism.

Last week Twin Cities Babelogue, the City Pages Online Blog Community, honored Blogenheimer as the Minnesota Blog of the Day. Twin Cities Babelogue called Blogenheimer "your gateway to discussions on politics and pop culture. The announcement is here. Scroll down. It's between the Death Row Cookbook and the Gay Penguin for President links.

A British newspaper obtained a secret U.S. Defense Department report that they said predicted catastrophic climate change in the next 20 years. This climate change would cause rioting and nuclear war, and would give Britain a "Siberian" climate. The story quickly spread on the Internet.

However, the report isn't very secret (you can read it here), and the authors write that it describes a "plausible" but "not very likely" scenario.

This Oakland Tribune article explains how all this happened.

In this Boston Globe article, Mitchell Rofksy explains why, "[n]o matter who wins the presidency this year, the last century went to liberals -- and there's no going back".

Here are two articles from this weekend's New York Times on war and history. First, Frank Rich discusses the effect of the Vietnam War on the current presidential election. Second, Benjamin Schwartz reports on how the end of the cold war changes our understanding of World War II's eastern front.

Use this table to determine where you fit on the Geek Hierarchy.

William Gibson discusses his career as a science fiction writer in this Philadelphia Inquirer interview.

"I remember [in the early '80s] seeing posters for the small, semi-portable version of the Apple IIc," he says. "Quite a lot of what I subsequently imagined in my early science fiction simply came from seeing that ad in a bus stop. I didn't know anything about it technologically. I just thought if it's that small and that nicely styled, everything is changing."

Ben Chandler has won the special election in Kentucky's 6th congressional district. Chandler is the first Democrat since 1991 to win a Republican-held seat in a special election. Talking Points Memo explains the significance of this election here.

The Village Voice has released its 30th (or 31st) annual Pazz and Jop Critics Poll of the best music of 2003. The poll is a compilation of the ballots of 732 music critics. The results include lists of 2003's Best Albums and 2003's Best Singles, as well as an introductory essay by Robert Christgau, the "Dean of American Music Critics."

The CBGB Shrine is a link to everything you would want to know about the New York underground music club, including the club's written history and photographic history .

Here's Calpundit on the President's recent political difficulties:

BAD TIMES....It's been a rough few weeks for President Bush, hasn't it? Let us count the ways.

Last Sunday President Bush agreed to release the records of his service in the National Guard. However, the White House has been very selective in what it has released. For example, they have refused to release Bush's medical records, except for his dental records. This suspicious behavior seems to have finally awakened the press, who are now investigating both Bush's time in the National Guard and what happened to his service records.

Dave Moniz and Jim Drinkard of the USA Today are reporting that:

"As Texas Gov. George W. Bush prepared to run for president in the late 1990s, top-ranking Texas National Guard officers and Bush advisers discussed ways to limit the release of potentially embarrassing details from Bush's military records, a former senior officer of the Texas Guard said Wednesday.

A second former Texas Guard official, who spoke only on condition of anonymity, was told by a participant that commanders and Bush advisers were particularly worried about mentions in the records of arrests of Bush before he joined the National Guard in 1968, the second official said."

The blogger Calpundit has the best information on the Bush military service story. Calpundit summarizes the story here. He tries to understand the records released so far in this post.

Do you know someone who really, really, really, really, really likes Stevie Nicks? If you do, then here's a great gift idea. This website offers drawings of you or a friend and Stevie. You can even get the portrait on a tambourine.

The Pixies make it official. The reunion is real.

According to this Reuters story, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani survived an assassination attempt today. This Slate article explains who Sistani is and why he's important to the future of Iraq.

Nathan Radke explains why Charlie Brown is an existentialist in this article from Philosophy Now.

The competition during the 19th century between the British and Russians for influence in Central Asia was known as the "Great Game." As Lutz Kleveman explains in this article from The Nation, the combination of the war on terrorism and large oil reserves has created a new "Great Game" in Central Asia.

Philip Gourevitch examines how the race for the Democratic presidential nomination is shaking out in this New Yorker article.

Darrin McMahon looks at the history of conspiracy theories in this article from the Boston Globe.

Neave Games has recreated several classic arcade games including Asteroids, Tetris, Space Invaders, and Pac-Man. You can play all these games online. To view the list of available games click here.

"Wise-cracking funnyman Al Franken yesterday body-slammed a demonstrator to the ground after the man tried to shout down Gov. Howard Dean."

Follow this link to Ben Fry's zip decoder. Each dot on the map represents a U.S. zip code. Type in a zip code and watch the map zoom to the location.

Josh Marshall discusses the question, "Did the Bush Administration create a new American empire—or weaken the old one?" in this New Yorker article.

So you are orbiting the earth and you want to find Mount Everest. Even something as big as earth's tallest mountain is tough to spot when you are moving at 5 miles a second. Luckily, NASA has put together the tutorial Finding Mt. Everest from Space. (The secret is to watch for the V-shaped valleys.)

According to this Boston Globe article, "Republican staff members of the US Senate Judiciary Committee infiltrated opposition computer files for a year, monitoring secret strategy memos and periodically passing on copies to the media." These Republican dirty tricks "could result in ethics complaints to the Senate and the Washington Bar -- or even criminal charges under computer intrusion laws."

According to the MIT Technology Review, these are the 10 Emerging Technologies That Will Change Your World.

Political commentators are trying to figure out what the results of the Iowa Caucuses mean for the Democratic presidential race. William Saletan looks at how the candidates are spinning the results in this Slate column, while today's post on Eric Alterman's weblog Altercation discusses "What We Learned" from the Iowa Caucuses.

In this Atlantic Monthly article, Joshua Green explains why independent voters in about 15 states will decide the 2004 election.

Steve Curry's Expedition Company is offering a "once-in-a-life-time chance to discover Our Hollow Earth first hand." They have chartered a Russian icebreaker to search for the hole in the Arctic Ocean that leads to "paradise within our earth" where King David reigns over the City of Jehu. Cost is only $18,950 for the first 100 people to sign up.

Dr. Jukka Ammondt is a Finnish literature professor who loves Elvis. Dr. Ammondt translated several Elvis songs into Latin and released the albums "The Legend Lives Forever in Latin" and "Rocking in Latin." For his latest project, Dr. Ammodt translated "Blue Suede Shoes" into Sumerian, a dead language that has not been spoken since 1800 BC. To see Dr. Ammodt's discography, click here and then click on the "Records" link on the left.

The Beastie Boys' bankrupt record label, Grand Royal, is for sale at the auction site Bid4Assets. Bidding is open for the next 7 days. Click here to bid.

According to this Billboard story, "For a minimum bid of $10,000, potential purchasers can acquire the label's entire product inventory as of May 2002 (including thousands of copies of releases by acts such as Josephine Wiggs, Luscious Jackson, Buffalo Daughter and Money Mark), master tapes and a wealth of merchandise."

Some Democratic voters believe that Howard Dean is their party's best hope to win the Presidential election, while others are afraid he won't be able to beat President Bush. Here are two columns that examine this wide range of opinions about Dean. First, E.J. Dionne looks at the pros and cons of the Dean campaign in this Washington Post column. Second, William Saletan asks "Is Howard Dean electable? Should you vote for him?" in this Slate column.

The BBC has posted clips from many of their best-known sitcoms on this page. They have included everything from Black Adder the Third, to Fawlty Towers, to The Office, to The Young Ones.

Jonathan Yardley looks back at the work of William Faulkner, focusing on his novel "The Reivers," in this Washington Post article.

Futurist/author Bruce Sterling discusses "media, design, fiction, and the future" in this Reason interview, and discusses the state of the world in 2004 in this Inkwell interview.

Louis Menand discusses top 10 lists in this New Yorker article.

The Property Room is an auction site that sells stolen goods after they are "no longer needed as evidence" for police investigations. Be sure to check out their "Hot Pursuit Specials."

NASA is posting pictures taken on Mars by the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit on this Planetary Photojournal moblog.

Each year Google reviews the queries used in its Internet search engine and compiles them into the Google Zeitgeist. This year's Google Zeitgeist includes the year's 10 most popular search terms (Britney Spears was the most popular) and the 10 most popular searches in categories such as news, men, women, and fictional characters. The Google Zeitgeist also includes the most popular searches by country and other search trends and surprises.