China threatens force against Taiwan--Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao says:
“The law is not aimed to change the status quo across the Taiwan Strait,” he said. “It’s for the peace and stability in the area.”

Somehow I'm not relieved by Wen's concerns for "peace and stability."

The fields are set:
NCAA Men's Basketball tournament
NCAA Women's Basketball tournament
National Invitation Tournament
Women's National Invitation Tournament

NASA gets a new administrator: Michael D. Griffin, a Johns Hopkins physicist.

Tax on toilet paper? Florida legislator Al Lawson thinks it's a good idea.

What made an Airbus rudder snap in mid-air? The money paragraph:
Despite these and earlier assurances, some pilots remain sceptical. The Observer has learnt that after the 587 disaster, more than 20 American Airlines A300 pilots asked to be transferred to Boeings, although this meant months of retraining and loss of earnings. Some of those who contributed to pilots' bulletin boards last week expressed anger at the European manufacturer in vehement terms. One wrote that having attended an Airbus briefing about 587, he had refused to let any of his family take an A300 or A310 and had paid extra to take a circuitous route on holiday purely to avoid them: "That is how convinced I am that there are significant problems associated with these aircraft."

Some of Filbert's favorite things:

All-time favorite TV show: Mystery Science Theater 3000. Second place: Babylon 5.

All-time favorite RFC: RFC 1149 - A Standard for the Transmission of IP Datagrams on Avian Carriers.

All-time favorite band/music artist: A tough one, which goes in cycles. The Replacements, when I'm feeling the need to get a bit out of control. REM, when I can ignore the purile politics and focus on the gorgeous music (which is fairly often, actually). Sheryl Crow, occasionally. Warren Zevon, RIP. Many others, which someday I'll document on the Entertainment page.

Favorite day: Saturday.

Favorite dog: Whippet.

Favorite dessert: Carrot cake.

Favorite author: Terry Pratchett.

The brief experiment in individual postings was, well, unsatisfying. So, if you don't mind, I'll go back to the routine of a quick review of whatever the heck happens to catch my attention first thing in the morning. Plenty of time for the individual postings later, right?

My sister points me to The Fishbowl. Appears to be a nice little political gossip site.

An oldie but a goodie, the Internet Storm Center, for all of your uber-geek network security needs.

Alton attorney accidentally sues himself. The headline is unfortunately more amusing than the actual story, which descends into actual lawyer stuff. Ick.

The Bush Was Right toteboard now stands at 37,000 Google hits. Today's feature from Newsweek via MSNBC. Special bonus article: Macleans Magazine, from Canada.

Today's lesson in "don't quit" comes from the Kansas State women's basketball team, who started their game down 17-0 to Texas in the Big XII tournament, and came back to win.

Good news day:
Dan Rather finally leaving Walter's CBS Chair.
USA issuing ultimatums to the IRA.
Sheriff John Bolton is still headin' to Dodge, er, the UN.
Mount St. Helens has woken up again.

Sports, Oakland University (who? where?) is in the Dance.

Pity I actually have to go to work. More on these and much more, later today. (tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick)

Morning, all.

Let's see . . . college basketball is the lead here at Medary:

Tennessee Lady Vols beat #1 LSU to win the SEC championship.

Missouri beats Kansas. Mizzou salvages a .500 regular season.

Illinois gets beat by Ohio State, so it looks like South Dakota State's rumored opener next year against the Illini won't feature a returning undefeated national champion vs. a first-year D-I RPI counter.

Current affairs:

The Sgrena Incident (the Italian Communist journalist wounded in a U.S. attack in Iran). Something is odd about this whole thing, and not just Sgrena's paranoid thought that she was deliberately targeted.

It wasn't just me: I admit I was wondering what was up with all of the really photogenic Lebanese women showing up in photos of the demonstrations against Syria. Megablogger Instapundit (Glenn Reynolds) notices, too. (Yes, I know it's a cynical mechanism to grab attention, ya think I was born yesterday?)

Victory for VoIP: FCC rules that a local telco/ISP can not block Voice over IP (VoIP) traffic from their customers.

Gas is expensive. And it's won't be getting any cheaper. Why? Wal-Mart. I'm serious - gas is expensive because the emerging economies of Asia, led by China, are using more and more energy resources. All the sudden, President Bush's call for hydrogen-powered cars doesn't seem quite as frivolous as some commented after the 2003 State of the Union address. The key is alternative methods of electricity generation. Time to reconsider nuclear power plants? Or how about the new, high-efficiency solar panel technology?

That's it this morning. Go out and play, everyone, it's Saturday.

An excellent Whip day today, if I do say so myself.

My nephew asks "what's up with all the Duke ads" on Medary.com. Sorry, Bryan, you'll have to ask Google, they control the ad links here by scanning the page for content. Oops, there's another Duke mention. Oops, another one. Bryan wants North Carolina references. Sorry, Brian, to do that I'd need to mention North Carolina and Tarheels a lot.

My sister likes singing the Monkeys Have No Tails In Zamboanga song in the morning while out camping. Your life is more full for knowing that, I'm sure.

News Flash: the Aryan Nation is NOT moving from Pennsylvania to Kansas City, Kansas. I'll admit, I'm hard-pressed to recommend where they should go, exactly, although a certain very warm subterranean location comes to mind.

Big in the Blogosphere: the Federal Election Commission apparently has not read or understood the Constitution. Apparently half (the Democrat half, at that, go figure) of the FEC seems to think that linking from a web site to a campaign site constitutes a donation and thus falls under regulation. I wonder if it's OK to link to the Aryan Nation web site. Or the FEC web site. Or the House of Representatives site. Or the "Monkeys have no Tails in Zamboanga" site. Or the University of North Carolina Tar Heels site. This via Instapundit.

Peter Jackson wants his money for Lord of the Rings. Meanwhile, Hobbit fossils are causing strife among scientists. Maybe Sauron isn't dead after all - this is the kind of thing he'd enjoy.

Tar Heels.

Finally this morning, another entry for the "Bush was right" file, this time from Daniel Schorr. This via freerepublic.com.

The Global Flyer - Steve Fossett closes in on completing a round-the-world solo flight.

The mainstream media's macabre fascination with the Iraq body count continues.

Meanwhile, the flame of freedom continues to flicker in Lebanon.

Greenspan: deficits bad, Social Security is in fact fubar'ed.

And, the Award for Most Disingenuously Confusing First Line in a News Article Award goes to: The Detroit Free Press, for Poll: Social Security plan wins young voters' support
WASHINGTON -- While polls show that President George W. Bush is losing support for his push to partly privatize Social Security, the group he's winning support from may be the most important one politically -- young people.

Another reason why it's a bad idea to make public policy according to poll results.

Ah, the Replacements. One of my all-time favorite bands. I might have to make my way down to the Grand Emporium tomorrow night.

Judge, Lawyer on Saddam Tribunal Killed. This being the same judge that the Iraqi provisional authority pleaded with the media to keep his name secret. Coincidence? Or irresponsible media?

Supreme Court bars juvenile executions. Yawn. Yet another issue decided by the unelected, unaccountable nine-member Ruling Council of the United States. Remind me again what we elect legislators for?

IE drops below 90 percent market share. What can you say? Firefox is a better browser.

Breaking: Fox News is showing an anti-Syrian demonstration in Beirut. Thousands of Lebanese, flying the cedar tree flag. No link yet that I can find.

Who watched the Oscars? Me neither. What's the over/under--a 20 share?

Gee, President Bush wins a Razzie. Har, har, har. That cracks me up. Really. Har.

Got Ding? Southwest Airlines wants you to. Too bad you can't find it on the SWA web site.

Without Moody, the Jayhawks are pretty ordinary. With Moody, the Jayhawks are Final Four contenders. All hail the role player!