"I find it rather easy to portray a businessman. Being bland, rather cruel, and incompetent comes naturally to me." A quotation from John Cleese.

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Virtuoso storyteller Stanislaw Lem has written some of the most thought-provoking stories and novels of the last several decades. I first encountered his eerily wonderful reviews of imaginary books (somewhat reminiscent of Borges, but with a sci-fi bent) in The New Yorker and later in his highly recommended book A Perfect Vacuum.

Now Steven Soderbergh, director of the recent films Ocean's Eleven and Traffic, is directing a remake of Solaris (originally a Russian film, although Lem is Polish) for a November 2002 release in the US.

You can visit Lem's own site for an introduction to the man and his work.

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Got spider-goat milk? Corporate technologists are feverishly devising and testing new ways to create a huge range of never-before-seen allergies, birth deformities, poisonous foods and incalculable suffering -- all through the miracle of transgenetics. Celebrities will soon be called upon to sell us bioengineered milk moustaches in milk industry advertising.

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"Never have the ordinary people of America, the decent, working stiffs whose bodies lay in the hecatomb of Ground Zero, needed and deserved a great tribune more urgently. The greatest honour we could do them is to take back the voice of democracy from the plutocrats."

This quote comes from an astonishing essay, entitled "The dead and the guilty" and written by Simon Schama, that can be found in The Guardian. Thanks to Ozten for the link.

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New York, Washington DC and Pennsylvania are not the only places with a Ground Zero to remember. On the other side of the world in Kenya, Nairobi has one too.

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Painting by Gerhard Richter. Used without permission to commemorate the dead.

{ 9:26 AM }

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When was the last time the US bombed Iraq? (Hint: Roughly once a week for the last three years.)

{ 9:49 AM }

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Five reasons to bomb Iraq as channeled by Tom Tomorrow in Salon.

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