The new Google News service kind of bugs me. The FAQ says this: The headlines on the Google News homepage are selected entirely by a computer algorithm, based on many factors including how often and on what sites a story appears elsewhere on the web. This is very much in the tradition of Google’s web search, which relies heavily on the collective judgment of web publishers to determine which sites offer the most valuable and relevant information. Google News relies in a similar fashion on the editorial judgment of online news organizations to determine which stories are most deserving of inclusion and prominence on the Google News page. ...

On October 11, 2002 (original), the following movies that I want to see will open: Below, a submarine haunted house flick directed by David Twohy ( Pitch Black) and written by Darren Aronofsky. The Grey Zone, directed by Tim Blake Nelson and starring Steve Buscemi, Harvey Keitel, Mira Sorvino. Knockaround Guys, a much-neglected gangster flick with Vin Disel, Seth Green, Dennis Hopper, and John Malkovich; the writer/directors also wrote Rounders. Punch-Drunk Love, the new Paul Thomas Anderson ( Boogie Nights, Magnolia) movie that happens to star, um, Adam Sandler. ...

The new Two Towers trailer (original) is now available in Quicktime. (Link obtained from Ain’t It Cool News.) Enjoy.

About time. Paul Gaston sold the Boston Celtics today. Under the ownership of the Gaston family, the Celtics saw two championships, but since Don Gaston turned the team over to his son, it’s been very sparse times for Celtics fans. Gaston Jr. has been more interested in keeping costs low than in winning titles. This has, not surprisingly, kept the Celtics far away from the latter. We’ll see what happens now.

After much twiddling around, www.innocence.com has moved and is now served off my shiny semi-new OpenBSD box in Somerville. Making new entries just got a lot faster; at some point I’ll try mod_perl again and see if that doesn’t speed up as well. DNS hasn’t propagated as I write this, but it will in a few hours. And I suppose if you’re reading this, you know it’s propagated. Let’s see. The new server is now my primary nameserver, and I’ll be letting the registrars know that next. The last piece is email (also probably the most nervewracking piece). Woot!

There is much talk over here in the States of Tony Blair; of how well he gets along with Bush (original), and of course of his recent speech presenting the case against Iraq. No stauncher ally than the Brits. Yeah. Well, or at least, none stauncher than Tony Blair. Andrew Sullivan’s article on the friendship between the two men says more than he realizes, I think. “Blair’s second intuition was that with George W. Bush, the most important element is always personal rapport and trust. He sensed almost intuitively that an intimate bond with Bush would give the British prime minister more influence than any other world leader in the post 9/11 world.” Yes, indeed. How much is that influence worth? Is it worth the trust of Blair’s own Labour Party? ...

The 2002 MacArthur Fellows were announced today.

Matthew White’s done some really excellent research on death tolls in the 20th century. It’s very grim; it’s also a good reminder of atrocities we might otherwise forget. The rest of his Atlas of the 20th Century is also pretty interesting.

Kevin Kelly (one of the guys behind Long Bets) wrote a really good book, entitled Out of Control, and made it available online. I bumped into it via a link to Chapter 2: Hive Mind. Super cool stuff. The rest of his site (original) looks interesting too.

South Dakota is about to vote on a constitutional amendment permitting jury nullification. This means that juries could vote not guilty on the grounds that the relevant law was unfair or otherwise misguided. The supporters have a site (original), and the South Dakota State Bar has this (original) to say. The actual amendment would rewrite Article VI, Section 7 of the South Dakota Constitution as follows. The changes are marked in italics. In all criminal prosecutions the accused shall have the right to defend in person and by counsel; to demand the nature and the cause of the accusation against him; to have a copy thereof; to meet the witnesses against him face to face; to have compulsory process served for obtaining witnesses in his behalf; and to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury of the county and district in which the offense is alleged to have been committed; and to argue the merits, validity, and applicability of the law, including the sentencing laws. ...