November 25, 2002

Television Without Pity has an interview with Jose Molina, a staff writer on Firefly. While not giving much information on the future of the show (it depends on the ratings for the next few episodes), it’s quite funny. 11:57:36 PM

Life imitates art The possible emergence of the tip of a submerged volcano south of Sicily may lead to an international dispute last seen in 1831 when the tip last broke the surface to form a short lived island which Italians called Ferdinandea and the British, Graham Island. The dispute presumably went on hold when the island sank after 6 months. A similar idea forms the basis of Terry Pratchett’s book Jingo. 11:50:38 PM

Shlomo Avineri, an Israeli professor compares Hitler in the mid-1930’s to Saddam Hussein. In calling for immediate action to remove Saddam Hussein he writes of the folly that hindsight shows resulted in ignoring Hitler in the mmid-1930's. He writes: In a way, Hussein's record today is worse than Hitler's was in 1936. Hussein has already invaded two of his neighbors (Iran and Kuwait), attacked Israel with missiles and used poison gas against his own population. His treatment of the Iraqi Kurds is much worse than Hitler's treatment of the Jews was by 1936. And Hussein may possess weapons of mass destruction Hitler hadn't dreamed of. With all the understandable reluctance to launch a war, shouldn't Europe -- and the rest of the world -- be considering these parallels? Wouldn't the world be a better place today if the international community in 1936 had possessed the will to stop Hitler? 1:02:09 AM