Santana Santana's new album is number one on the Billboard 200 Album chart.

Master Caster My favorite childhood toy: Mattel Master Caster. Anyone else have one?

Office 11 Snubs Windows 9x, Me "Microsoft has told beta testers of Office 11 that the product will only work with the Windows 2000 operating system with Service Pack 3 installed, Windows XP and later desktop releases. This means that the more than 50 percent of the software company's installed customer base will not be able to upgrade to Office 11 when it is released next year without first upgrading to at least Windows 2000 with Service Pack 3 installed." Resistance is futile.

Texas Teacher Gives Birth in Class "An elementary teacher gave students in her early childhood development class an unexpected lesson when she gave birth in her classroom. Rhonda Schafer was able to get her students, ages 3 and 4, out of the Bear Creek Elementary School classroom on Monday and then called for the school nurse. The nurse arrived just in time to help Schafer as she gave birth behind her desk about 2:30 p.m., about five minutes after the first sign of labor."

Unease With Islam "No one would have been surprised if, after 9/11, rage-filled Americans blamed Islam as the culprit. After all, the nation was just attacked in the name of Allah. Then, it might have been assumed, the antagonism would have faded as people gained a more nuanced understanding of Islam and the terrorists' twisted use of doctrine. Instead, something close to the opposite has happened. A surprising new ABCNEWS/Beliefnet poll shows that after starting out surprisingly tolerant, public opinion of Islam has become more negative."

Avril Lavigne Susan Konig: "Avril Lavigne has yet to writhe and sweat. She jumps up and down and plays the guitar. She sings songs about being real and skater boys. She refuses to bare her body parts in "fashions" she describes as "skanky." She prefers muscle-man undershirts, army pants, and neckties. She's got taste and talent."

New Air War Strategy in Iraq "The tactics, goals and weapons are all expected to be different. When bombs begin to drop - and in some cases before - there will be U.S. special operations troops on the ground inside Iraq calling in airstrikes and trying to confuse and disrupt Iraqi defenses, sources say. The sources told ABCNEWS the United States is likely to establish air bases inside Iraq within the first days, in the Kurdish-controlled north and most likely in the largely uninhabited western desert near the border with Jordan."

Bush to Force Vote on Iraq Resolution "President Bush plans to force a vote in the Security Council over the future of Iraq if substantial progress toward a stringent weapons inspection plan is not made by next week, senior administration officials said today."

U.S. Aircraft Drop Leaflets Over Southern Iraq "For a second time this month, U.S. aircraft dropped leaflets over Iraq, trying to persuade Iraqi troops not to fire on coalition aircraft patrolling the southern no-fly zone. The leaflets were printed in Arabic. An English translation supplied by the Pentagon reads, "Before you engage coalition aircraft, think about the consequences," and on the other side it reads, "Think about your family, do what you must to survive." The other leaflet reads, "Reaction if you decide." Both fliers depict images of Iraqi forces firing on coalition aircraft and then being destroyed by coalition aircraft."

FBI's Theory On Anthrax Is Doubted "A significant number of scientists and biological warfare experts are expressing skepticism about the FBI's view that a single disgruntled American scientist prepared the spores and mailed the deadly anthrax letters that killed five people last year. These sources say that making a weaponized aerosol of such sophistication and virulence would require scientific knowledge, technical competence, access to expensive equipment and safety know-how that are probably beyond the capabilities of a lone individual."

U.S. Says It Can Bypass U.N. on Iraq "The White House said it would be "not very hard at all" to assemble an alliance to confront Saddam Hussein without the United Nations, a clear signal that President Bush's patience with the international organization is reaching its limits. As France, Russia, Mexico and other allies seek to water down his zero-tolerance approach to Iraq, Bush on Saturday renewed his call for the U.N. to confront Saddam or stand aside while the United States acts."

Suspects Left a Troubled Trail "On their journey toward the nation's capital, they left scattered clues, most undetected or misread. Friends and associates, acquaintances and strangers look back now and search for answers."

Gas Killed 116 in Moscow Raid "Moscow's chief physician said Sunday that all but one of the 117 hostages who died during an operation to free hundreds of captives from a city theater were killed by the effects of gas used to subdue their captors." Russian officials have not told reporters what type of gas was used.

Gus Takes a Drink Great photo!

Burn CD Tracks for 99 Cents "Online music company Listen.com will announce Thursday that it has signed licensing deals with Warner Music Group and Universal Music Group, enabling fans to burn songs from both companies' catalogs on Listen's Rhapsody music subscription service. As of Monday, more than 75,000 tracks will be available for burning for 99 cents per track." (via Slashdot) This sounds encouraging!

Christina Aguilera She's got a new album, a new look, a new Rolling Stone cover and eleven body piercings. Two years and one Grammy can really change a person.

Sleuth Without a Badge Time.com - "Retiree Ed Lake has become obsessed with the anthrax case - and he has a theory about who did it." (via MeFi)

Google Bans Controversial Sites "Google, the world's most popular search engine, has quietly deleted more than 100 controversial sites from some search result listings."

Armed, Unmanned Predators Patrol Iraq 'No-Fly Zone' "For the first time, the United States is patrolling the skies over Iraq's southern "no-fly zone" with unmanned Predator surveillance planes that are armed, ABCNEWS has learned. The Predator can stay over an area for 24 hours or longer, allowing the United States to keep constant watch over a suspicious site. Now, these unmanned planes, which are armed with two Hellfire missiles, for the first time can fire at moving targets within minutes or seconds if an Iraqi missile or mobile radar moves out of hiding. With a manned aircraft, it can take hours to scramble the jets and get to a target - which by then could be hidden again."

RocketCam You may use this link to download the 2 MB QuickTime movie file of the last shuttle launch. The video was recorded using the new RocketCam.

Music Industry Spins Falsehood Janis Ian: "Attacking your own customers because they want to learn more about your products is a bizarre business strategy, one the music industry cannot afford to continue. Yet the RIAA effectively destroyed Napster on such grounds, and now it is using the same crazy logic to take on Internet service providers and even privacy rights."

Duh Boy in Wheelchair Loses Bid to Play on Basketball Team

Santana I like the new Santana single, The Game of Love, featuring Michelle Branch. Here is more about his new album.

Microsoft: Mod Chips are a Threat "CEO Steve Ballmer said Microsoft may pull its Xbox game console from the Australian market because of a court decision that legitimizes "mod chips" for hackers, an Australian newspaper reported." This doesn't make any sense to me. If they pull the product, their profit will immediately go to zero in Australia. Am I missing something?

FDA Warning on Decorative Contact Lenses "U.S. health officials Monday warned Americans not to wear colored contact lenses being sold simply for decoration and without a prescription or a professional fitting, saying the lenses present serious risks of permanent eye injury."

NFL The Saints are looking good this year.

U.S. Refines Plan for War in Cities NY Times: "The American military is training furiously and polishing a plan for attacking Baghdad that calls for isolating the city and then taking control of it by seizing or destroying Saddam Hussein's pillars of power - but avoiding house-to-house combat in its hostile streets. The new strategy is a significant change in Pentagon doctrine. In World War II, the American military dealt with the difficult question of urban combat by using heavy artillery, intense fire-bombing and, twice over Japan, even atomic weapons. Since the war, the strategy had been to isolate urban areas, then move on to other targets."

Mark Steyn: They Want to Kill Us All They Want to Kill Us All - Mark Steyn argues that the massacre in Bali was part of the continuing Islamofascist war against the West, and that those who ignore it are sleepwalking to national suicide.

Republicans Planning for Full Control Of Congress "White House officials and Republicans on Capitol Hill are so optimistic about winning control of both chambers of Congress in next month's elections that they have begun mapping how they would use their new power, including the possibility of speeding up tax cuts that were to take effect gradually."

U.S. to Withdraw From Arms Accord With North Korea "The Bush administration has decided to scrap the 1994 arms control accord with North Korea that has provided Western energy aid in return for the North's promise to freeze the development of nuclear weapons, senior administration officials said today."

Pakistan Gave Nuclear Technology to North Korea U.S. Says Pakistan Gave Technology to North Korea - "The equipment, which may include gas centrifuges used to create weapons-grade uranium, appears to have been part of a barter deal beginning in the late 1990's in which North Korea supplied Pakistan with missiles it could use to counter India's nuclear arsenal, the officials said."

CIA Director Warns of Al Qaeda Threat "CIA Director George Tenet told lawmakers Thursday that recent attacks overseas suggest that Al Qaeda is poised to strike once more against Americans - possibly in the United States."

Ebert: 'Love' At First Sight Roger Ebert: "So there I am at the Toronto Film Festival, eyeing Adam Sandler across the room. He knows and I know that I have never given him a good review. That time we met backstage at Letterman, he was very decent, considering. He said he hoped that someday he would make something I liked. Now he has."

Law & Order: First Year on DVD I picked up the Law & Order First Year DVD Collection at the local Wally World. (It's also available at Amazon, of course.) Law & Order has been my favorite TV show for the last five or six years. Now I can watch the earlier episodes that I had missed.

Family Timeline This is cool.

Timequake.com Zack has a new home: Timequake.com

Wallace & Gromit: Cracking Contraptions "Wallace and Gromit are back in their first screen outing for six years. BBC News Online exclusively presents Soccamatic, one of 10 short films, revealing Wallace's latest inventions. Soccamatic is free to watch or download from this site."

Duct Tape What can I say? Duct tape can fix anything!

XP Windows XP from A to Z

KC & The Sunshine Band We saw KC & The Sunshine Band at the Mississippi State Fair tonight. I'm here to report that KC can still shake his booty at age 50.

Beer Blog Malted Barley: "Flag Porter is brewed from a traditional 19th century British recipe, fermented with original 1825 yeast salvaged from a sunken vessel in the English Channel. Good stuff - very English, it had the sour thing going on. Try it if you ever get the chance." Giddy-Up!

Bush Appoints Belafonte As Weapons Inspector LOL! Here's a little Scrapple Face humor for you!

FCC Rejects Satellite TV Merger "The FCC rejected a proposed merger between Echostar and Hughes, scuttling a $26 billion deal that would have created the nation's largest pay-TV service. "Based on the record, the commission cannot find the merger is in the public interest and thus has voted to decline the license transfer," FCC chairman Michael Powell said. EchoStar , runs Dish Network, while Hughes operates DirecTV. Together they serve about 18 million subscribers. Opponents said a merger would create a monopoly in many areas, particularly in rural places without access to cable television."

World's "Best" Joke Stinks Wolf: World's Best Joke Stinks. Agreed.

Digital Radio FCC Approves Plan for Digital Radio - "Some digital car stereos will have small screens, displaying pictures of the artist whose song is playing, news or advertising. Others will allow listeners to choose to hear reports on stocks, sports, weather and traffic. The digital broadcasts will be free, unlike the subscriber services offered by Sirius Satellite Radio and XM Satellite Radio Holdings, which beam music and talk to radios from satellites. The iBiquity technology allows broadcasters to use their existing airwaves and simultaneously send digital and analog signals. Listeners won't have to buy a new radio to continue listening to their favorite stations, but will if they want better sound and other options."

Blogmints "Blogmints shows you the highest commented posts on blogs currently appearing on weblogs.com."

Microsoft Caves on Copy Protection David Coursey: "Microsoft is shifting its course. The Media Center software has been changed so that now the copyright owner, not Microsoft, gets to decide whether a particular TV program will be "encrypted to the hard drive"--meaning, "unable to be viewed on a different PC or DVD player."

Enough Now on DVD: Enough - Predictable and a bit too long, but I enjoyed it.

Movable Type 2.5 Movable Type 2.5 is now available. I'm too chicken to upgrade.

Suckers I have little sympathy for anyone who falls for the alpacas scam. Remember the emus?

Tiger Baby Great photo!

Advanced Call Recorder 1.4 "Advanced Call Recorder records telephone conversations to your computer's hard disk. It stores calls as standard Windows sound files. Advanced Call Recorder can record conversations as long as your hard disk can store. The program is Caller ID compatible so there is no need to type numbers and names of calling parties. The software has an option to start recording from a telephone line automatically whenever a receiver is put off." There is a free 30-day trial version available. I have not used this product.

Love Me Do Turns 40 "Today is the 40th anniversary of the first single released by the Beatles, "Love Me Do". "Love Me Do" only hit number 17 on the British music charts when it was released in 1962, but went to the top in the United States in April 1964." Don't own a Beatles CD? I recommend that you purchase Revolver.

Yankees It would appear that the Yankees are in trouble. But, as my Uncle Harry once said: "I stopped betting against the Yankees in the 50's."

MagicTweak MagicTweak 1.94 has been released.

Deer vs. Durango Here's one of the reasons I don't drive a motorcycle.

Mass Amateurization of Publishing "This destruction of value is what makes weblogs so important. We want a world where global publishing is effortless. We want a world where you don't have to ask for help or permission to write out loud. However, when we get that world we face the paradox of oxygen and gold. Oxygen is more vital to human life than gold, but because air is abundant, oxygen is free. Weblogs make writing as abundant as air, with the same effect on price. Prior to the web, people paid for most of the words they read. Now, for a large and growing number of us, most of the words we read cost us nothing." - Clay Shirky

Survivor 5 So far, I've found the reward/immunity challenges on Survivor 5 to be more interesting than some of the previous ones. Why do I watch survivor? I'm not sure. I think it's because I enjoy watching the mix of airheads, jerks, cry babies and legitimate contenders wreak havoc on each other.

San Francisco Moves to Ban Segway "Two days after Gov. Gray Davis signed a bill legalizing the use of the electric Segway Scooter on California sidewalks, San Francisco Supervisor Chris Daly introduced legislation that would ban the two-wheelers in the city. "These things are dangerous," Daly said Monday. "We need to take action."

Elvis vs. The Beatles Well, I guess this settles that question. Go ahead, start your own Googlefight. (via MeFi)

ZoneAlarm Pro 3.1 ZoneAlarm Pro 3.1 has been released. You can download it here.

King Tut The Discovery Channel: The Assasination of King Tut. Tune in Sunday at 9 PM ET to find out who killed King Tut.

Baseball 2002 MLB Postseason Overview

ColorMatch 5K Awesome!

AlltheWeb.com This is one powerful search engine! Check out the advanced features.

"Leave No Trace" "On Mt. Shasta and at a growing number of national forests and parks across the West, climbers are taking the "leave no trace" ethic to a new level. In the past four years, climbers have hauled 10 tons of their own waste off Mt. Shasta as the park tries to avoid the sight, stench and health threat of human waste."

Lili Wimps Out "Having lost much of its punch overnight, Hurricane Lili blew ashore Thursday morning over coastal Louisiana and then weakened further. At 11 a.m. ET, Lili's maximum sustained winds had dropped to 90 mph, making it a Category 1 hurricane. The storm had been a Category 4 hurricane just hours earlier, with winds of 145 mph."

The End of Google's Reign? Mark wonders.

Norah Jones Music: Norah Jones. Good stuff! (via Blonde)

Hit the "Record" Button Here's a little Onion humor for you.

Two Towers Trailers You can get the new Two Towers trailer in various sizes and formats here.

Linux vs. Windows Linux vs. Windows: The Rematch (via dm!)