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CNN ran a nice story on Warren Zevon (original) the other day. The new CD comes out Tuesday; there’s a VH1 special airing 10 PM on Sunday, Eastern time. Set your TiVos.

If you’re interested in CafePress Publishing, you ought to check out this report (original) from someone who’s tried it. He’s pretty positive, on the whole, but he provides enough information so that you can easily decide for yourself. They still aren’t doing perfect bound books, and they still plan to put CafePress advertising in each book, though, so my interest level is pretty low at the moment.

To my vast amusement, the Koppel-Argamon Gender Predictor (original) believes Reese is female. Seriously! There’s some sort of gender-determining algorithm which looks way too simplistic from where I’m standing which is meant to determine whether the author is male or female. The latest Dear Brother tests as feminine. Link thanks to Kip (original), who I don’t know at all so why am I using his first name?

Poland’s decided to adjust its military committment (original) in Iraq. There aren’t any fewer Polish troops over there, but they’re not quite as interested in administering the area near Baghdad as they once were. You know, we’re gonna wind up turning this mess over to the UN sooner or later, whether or not that’s a good thing.

Absolutely awesome campaign concept, plus a bonus first session writeup. Man, I am beginning to yearn for some good pulp. Here’s the most brilliant gem out of all the brilliant gems: The characters were all previous associates who had been in Paris just before the bombs were dropped. They don’t talk about what happened there, but as a result of it they all swore an oath — an oath which takes preference over loyalties, family and faith. Each of them can call on the others to help them with any situation once and once only. For the first time, one of them has invoked the oath. ...

A special two-session Dear Brother, in which our heros undergo torture and brainwashing. Not for the faint of heart.

Matrix: Revolutions trailer. Available now. The site is so hammered it isn’t worth trying, though. Ah. Bittorrent link here. That’s better.

Baghdad Burning is a new addition to the blogroll; it’s written by a 24 year old Iraqi in Baghdad. It’s strong and angry and educated. No- I’m getting great at it. I can tell you if it’s ‘them’ or ‘us’. I can tell you how far away it is. I can tell you if it’s a pistol or machine-gun, tank or armored vehicle, Apache or Chinook… I can determine the distance and maybe even the target. That’s my new talent. It’s something I’ve gotten so good at, I frighten myself. What’s worse is that almost everyone seems to have acquired this new talent… young and old. And it’s not something that anyone will appreciate on a resume… ...

Another Monday, another mashup. What’s the Wayback Machine got for us today, Sherman? “Um, it’s something about ‘true believers,’ boss.” Right! Time to mash up the Fantastic Four! The Fantastic Four are notable among superhero teams for a) being a family and b) being the most blatant example of Jack Kirby’s “use the elements as inspirations” rule ever. It’s kind of a difficult mashup in that the characters are key to the concept, so you’d almost need to use pregen PCs. Perhaps we’re talking convention games, here. My mashup follows.

I don’t have anything really brilliant to say about the Baghdad bombing. What’s there to say? A lot of people died — a lot more people died, I should say, because it’s been a busy summer for terrorists in Iraq — and that’s depressing. The buzz is that it was an Al Qaeda operation. Oddly, Jay Bremer disagrees. “These are probably people left over from the old regime who are simply fighting a rear guard action by attacking Iraq’s assets.” I’m not sure what that means; the Bush administration has been pushing the theory that the US occupation will act as flypaper, and if the UN bombing was not carried out by Iraqis, that would support their theory. But maybe Bremer just thinks Bush is wrong. ...