Journal of Post-Ralphaelite Thought

Bill Watterson, creator of 'Calvin and Hobbes," pens The Grief That Made 'Peanuts' Good , a review of David Michaelis' Schultz and Peanuts: a biography . Watterson's review is literate and thoughtful. Well worth a read.

I confess, one of the principle reasons that NBC's Heroes is my flat-out favorite TV show on the air right now is that they are not afraid to teeter on the absolute edge of jumping the shark. Case in point (potential spoilers ahead -- avert eyes now), this week's episode introduced a plucky new Heroine whose Power is, as far as I can see, the ability to do anything she sees on TV! What more compelling argument could you possibly raise for getting (at the very least) basic cable? I laughed out loud. So wrong yet so very right! Heroes also makes no bones about pimping for the fanboys. The TV-imitating Heroine's grandmother is played by sci-fi icon Nichelle Nichols . You may better remember her as Lt. Uhuru , on the original Star Trek. Her eyes can still cut steel. Also seen this season and last, was another Star Trek alum, George Takei , who played Mr. Sulu. Previously seen as mysterious villain Linderman was (omg!) acting great Malcolm McDowell. How can you not love a sho...

Despite setbacks , the thugs at the RIAA continue to chase down miscreants who choose to share music. Guess what, sports fans - there's a way to get free tunes that they can't do a damn thing about ! Live recordings, old music, new music, jazz, rock, country, world music - all free. All in formats unencumbered by "Digital Rights Management" (which is never about your rights). Not that I'm encouraging anyone to break the law. Far from it. Instead, hope over to http://www.archive.org and look around. This is a site dedicated to the notion , first espoused by Stewart Brand , that " information wants to be free ." It is arguably the world's largest library, with movies, music, text, historical artifacts; all digitally available, all . It is an astonishing project. Among the music archives are tens of thousands of streaming performances in the Live Music Archive , as well as recordings in other formats. Most of these are of regional bands you may have ne...

I blame Ken Burn's excellent documentary " The War ," airing since last Sunday on PBS. Amazon.com has it for pre-order at $79 . I've already ordered my copy.

In the news today: what passes for the Iraq government has banned the operations of Blackwater USA , a secretive private army based in North Carolina, after a violent attack that left 8 Iraqis dead. Blackwater is one of several "security firms" operating in Iraq on a no-bid U.S. Government contract from the Bush administration. Blackwater: the name has the same slightly chilling Kafkaesque quality that "Homeland Security" has. Their website brags they are "the most comprehensive professional military, law enforcement, security, peacekeeping, and stability operations company in the world." Okay, let's call a spade a spade: they are the largest mercenary army in the world. Mercenaries: guns for hire. You got the money, we got the muscle. Drug lords know all about this shit. So did the Nazis. Hitler's Stormtroopers, least we forget, were a private paramilitary organization. Army officers swear an oath of allegiance to the U.S. Constitution against ...

I swear I must be Google's biggest fanboy. It's a little embarrassing, really. Their latest thing may seem no small feat until you've attempted to take it on yourself: trying to add RSS feeds to web pages. Their Google AJAX Feed API makes it quick and (relatively) easy. You simply insert some JavaScript, request a (free) numeric key, and paste the target feed URL(s) into your html. For the more adventurous, you can, with a little effort, get in and create customized CSS styles to format the feeds to suit yourself. All relatively simple. In addition to the AJAX Feed API, they've also got code to integrate search (natch) and Google maps, and a slew of other tasks . They've recreated an amazing collection of tools for the small time web developer, all for free. Once again, thanks to the wizards at Google!

I just finished filling out a required employee survey. It is not, I repeat not, being submitted anonymously. The following (reported verbatim) was listed as an objective to assess for the survey: "Alignment of mind-sets and behaviors with those required within the organization." Just shoot me. I hate this f**king place.