All hail our new Saturnian overlords

Titan has a 300-mile-wide infrared "bright spot" on its surface.

Now, I'm no scientist, but it's pretty clear that this can be nothing other than the heat from an underground alien metropolis.

F you, Lucas

I have successfully resisted going to see "Revenge of the Sith" (just doesn't have the same ring as "Return of the Jedi," no?) for its first weekend.

I've seen some good reviews. I've seen some not-so-good ones. The most important, however, came from a good friend, a ridiculous movie buff who also despised the first two movies. He reports -- as I suspected -- that as with the first two, the special effects ain't so special, the dialogue sucks and Hayden Christensen and Natalie Portman are terrible actors. (Hayden Christensen as Darth fucking Vader? Who's stupid idea was that?)

So, I don't care if it made $158.5 million so far. None of it was mine.

By popular request ...

... or at least by the request of one dude -- and yes, I found it annoying:

Total volume of music files on my computer: 9.85 GB, in 1,964 files. (All of them legally acquired, of course.)

Last CD I bought was: (together, via BMG) Bruce Springsteen, Born in the USA; David Bowie, Best of Bowie; The Doobie Brothers, Best of the Doobies; Weezer, self-titled (the green album).

Song playing right now: Well, let's see what Jenna randomly selects tonight ..."I Can't Stop It" by the Mighty Blue Kings. Goddamn I love this thing.

Five songs I listen to a lot lately, in no particular order:

• "Island In The Sun," Weezer
  
• "Under Pressure," David Bowie (with Queen)
  
• "Givin' Up The Nappy Dugout," Ice Cube
• "Ring of Fire," Social Distortion
• "Shut Up," Black Eyed Peas

Because I've always believed in killing chain letters, and yet have wound up pretty lucky in life nonetheless, I'm not bothering to suggest anyone else complete this exercise. Fascinating as it may be.

Happy birthday, pops

My dad, who turns 59 today, is like the far-right conservative conscience every left-leaning weenie journalist like myself ought to have. Just one of the reasons I love the guy.

Example: during the birthday phone call tonight, the conversation veers -- as it pretty much always does -- into politics. My dad is not a big fan of the State Department, it turns out. Colin Powell, he believes, was "co-opted" by all those conciliatory wusses at Foggy Bottom. Condi Rice hasn't shown herself to be much better, in dad's eyes.

"You know who'd be perfect for the job?" he says, and I can hear him grinning a mile wide on the other end of the phone.
"John Bolton," we say in unison, laughing.

Don't worry; only one of us was serious, and he doesn't write for an influential Washington news organization.

Correction: Mom notes that I forgot Dad's age. Gave him his year back accordingly.

Almost too ironic for words

Yeah, yeah, been a long time, I know. Life's been hectic, or something. But sometimes you read something that you just HAVE to blog about, even when your blog has stringent rules about commenting on people or issues you might encounter in your profession ....

So, with a minimum of commentary, I link to this report: "White House slams media role
in Quran furor." The lead is classic:

The White House said Tuesday that the U.S. image abroad had suffered irreparable damage from a now-retracted Newsweek article alleging that American interrogators at Guantanamo Bay desecrated the Quran, the Muslim holy book.

I mean, not to suggest that Newsweek didn't totally fuck up here, or that the media shouldn't seriously reconsider how we use anonymous sources. But was this incident worse than, hmm, I dunno -- a bunch of dipshit American soldiers stripping Iraqi prisoners naked, piling them into pyramids and pretending to wire their dicks to car batteries?

Journalism 101

Welcome to alexwayne.com's first-ever section of Journalism 101. Open your books to page one. Our first lesson, boys and girls, is news judgment.

News: Our military is stretched perilously thin.

Not news: A "runaway bride" who nobody knows wasn't killed.

Any questions?