24 May 2006

  • New York's currently: speeding up so we can speed back down
  • Iran asks U.S. for direct talks on its nuclear program--and that letter still goes unanswered.
  • Iraqi death squads may maintain loyalties to the government and the insurgency, and operate within the lawful bounds of Iraq's Ministries.
  • In testimony, Lee Malvo lays out the second phase of John Allen Muhammad's plot--to blow up schools, buses, and hospitals.
  • World Health Organization detects no mutation in bird flu--though human-to-human transmission cannot be ruled out in Indonesian deaths.
  • Purported bin Laden audio recording denies Moussaoui's role in Sept. 11 attacks.
  • Largehearted Boy's "Book Notes" with TMN's Kevin Guilfoile.
  • When potential future inductees will be eligible for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; next year could include R.E.M., the Beastie Boys, and Sonic Youth.
  • After a nine-day fast-food road trip, Frank Bruni can pin a Whataburger from miles out.
  • The feds may not have found Jimmy Hoffa in Milford, Mich., but Milford discovered a business in novelty T-shirts and cupcakes.
  • Another baseball record may soon be toppled--the Astros' Craig Biggio has been hit by 277 pitches, 10 plunks away from the top mark.
  • Thirty-five hundred Germans arrested for file sharing.
  • New legislation holds students accountable for MySpace profiles--2,000 photos of teens holding red Solo cups deleted.
  • In today's Digest, Rosecrans Baldwin on the week in Mp3s.
  • Two elderly California women arrested for taking out insurance on homeless men, running them down in their Honda Civic.
  • Cesar Millan: "In the city [dogs] become a child, they become a husband, they become a soul mate. They become something the human wants before they are willing to do what is best for them."
  • The Simpsons for the blind [mp3]; knock-off Tiny Toons for the deaf [mpg]
  • Seventy-five years of Soviet posters.
  • The future of building design should be A/C-free, says architect Richard Rogers.
  • A (not really) secret Flickr message.
  • One's natural reaction to arm-twisters of any description is to wriggle free, turn around, and kick them in the pentacles. Anthony Lane hits the Da Vinci Code where it hurts.