As The Most Powerful Country On Earth (TM) becomes more strangely gripped by religious fundamentalism, and insists on science textbooks including a disclaimer that suggests religious alternatives to the theory of evolution, at least we can assuage our mild terror by looking at witty responses like this one. Also contains a useful link to a survey that found only a third of Americans believe Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution. And to think these people have the right to bear arms written into their consistitution…

(I shouldn’t mock. The CIA may be listening in.)

Organisers of the 2005 British Press Awards have said for the second year running that they will not be making awards in the categories for best online news site and best online journalist. Apparently this is because they attract too few entries, and the standard of entries is not high enough. Someone should show them the Guardian and BBC’s best work, which has been winning awards in America.

Another one for my Xmas list: a doll that looks just like me. The power of interactivity is being put to its best use at MyTwinn.com, where you can make your own doll, including choosing hair, skin, and eye colour as well as experiment with face shapes and hair styles. Oh, and you can also have a freckle pattern replicated from a photo onto the doll. All for only $119. Now if I can get it to talk in a creepy voice, ideally during the small hours…

Interesting comment on a revision to the Intellectual Property Protection Act in America, as Big Business seeks to protect its copyright. There’s a mention here about a person potentially getting three years for filming in a cinema – I wonder if anyone’s ever done a comparison between sentences for this type of crime, which harms big business, and those that harm actual people?

The Independent reports staff at Reuters fearing that management will outsource their jobs to Asia. The editorial reference unit is one area bound for Bangalore, along with a news diary service and some financial reporting. CNET’s Charles Cooper isn’t that sympathetic.

How helpful of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, an investor advocacy group, to release its list of the 10 most violent games. This is supposed to be a warning to parents, but as a side effect it was very nice of them to help me out with my Xmas list.

My favourite quote comes from Dr. Martha Burk, president of the Center for Advancement of Public Policy: “The retailers have standards for other products,” she said. “Would Wal-Mart sell a board game where a player has to have sex with a prostitute to move forward four spaces and then kill her to move forward another six spaces? I don’t think so.”

Grand Theft Auto Monopoly, anyone?

As Google launches yet another arm to what is becoming an octopus-like operation, I’m yet again impressed by what looks like a very useful search tool for academic writing. Google Scholar ranks results by how many articles reference it (among other things) rather than how many sites link to it – and it even pulls out references within texts and presents them as separate results, even if these are books or publications not available offline. I did a search for Online Journalism and immediately discovered some very useful stuff.

Meanwhile, bigger fish Microsoft is looking to challenge Google with its own search technology, expected to be bundled in its next OS (a la Explorer) in 2006. Apparently if you type in “more evil than Satan” Google comes up top, partly because the Google motto is apparently ‘Do no evil’, which is better than those bland corporate mottos you usually get (although the company is doing a good deal of its own gobbling, including Blogger.com and Usenet).

For those animation students struggling with the limitations of their hardware, here’s a novel solution to the problem: processing power you can tap into, via your network.

While tidying up my office I came across this posting on the excellent Poynter website about blogs devoted to watchdogging the media. Useful links include Regret The Error (strangely addictive), CJR Campaign Desk (from Columbia Journalism Review) and ChronWatch, which focuses on the San Francisco Chronicle. Time to find something similar in the UK…

Conspiracy theories flying around re: 9/11 and a compelling video (with at times hilarious hard rock soundtrack) launched by multi-millionaire Jimmy Walter as part of a campaign to re-open the 9-11 investigation, and who claims that there is no evidence of a plane crashing into the Pentagon.

For more background, see this debate between author Jimmy Walter and Gerald Posner.