The article also says the AP is backing down from their initial complaint, because they agree it may have been heavy-handed. Hand it to the Associated Press, folks, it's rare to see a company that large back down over anything.

Wassup Parody Steams AP: Regarding the Wassup movie, "Bonner and Lathrop say that the clip was created entirely as parody and not with a particular political point of view. 'My dad got me a subscription to Mad magazine when I was six years old,' Lathrop says, 'and ever since then I've just wanted to make fun of things.'" I guess that answers my motivation question.

I'll start by catching up to two things I missed on Friday:

It's Final Exam week, so things may be a bit sporadic as I'm studying myself senseless (which may not be a great plan, but hey, it's traditional). Lots of news, though.

Here's to hoping the wait is short!

Due to the nature of this site, it only makes sense to convert over to the News Item format, giving me for free an eventual archive on topics if I break them down fine enough. You'll be seeing a burst of news on this site, though, as I take old stories and convert them into the News Item format. The ability to pull up all the interesting stories on some topic in the new millenium will square the value of this site.

Inevitable feature prediction: You will be able to get a list of stories broken down by catagory. (I am extremely pleased to see that included from day 1.)

We tend to forget what is being done to us, because it happens so slowly and each step seems so small. The proverbial frog jumps right out of boiling water but will let you slowly raise the water temperature around it until it dies. We need to look around every once in a while and notice the bubbles in the water forming around us.

This may overstate the case a bit (not all cookies are privacy invasions!), but I think that it's more accurate then most would admit.

A List Apart: "The electronic privacy invasion points to the failure of site designers to provide compelling content, clear navigation, and a user experience memorable enough to entice repeat visits. Click-thru is more important than Content. We have opted to become Electronic Rapists."