Les Jones

Blogging > Linkfest

• The Vatican is encouraging countries to send troops to Iraq to help with the process of building a democracy, despite its original opposition to the invasion.

• Google Print may shake up the book industry.

• ScienceBlog is a nice place to catch up on science news.

• Beldar tells the story of the time he had Evel Knievel as a client. "My recollection is that the additional terms would have required the promoters, at the moment of Mr. Knievel's jump, to 'release 10,000 white doves and deflower 20 virgins,' or something pretty close to that."

• NY Times ombudsman Daniel Okrent: "As nasty as critics on the right can get (plenty nasty), the left seems to be winning the vileness derby this year." Via the Commissar.

• The FTC has charged spam king "Spamford" Wallace with infecting PCs with spyware, and then selling their owners software to get rid of the spyware. It's scummy, but almost futuristic crime.

• Afghanistan has had their first democratic elections. Other than a kerfuffle over ink, things went surprisingly well. I don't expect Iraq to go that smoothly, but I also expect that the Afghan example is giving a lot of Iraqis hope.