In an October 26 show entitled "The Man Who Kept Oprah Awake At Night," Winfrey hailed Frey's graphic and coarse book as "like nothing you've ever read before. Everybody at Harpo is reading it. When we were staying up late at night reading it, we'd come in the next morning saying, 'What page are you on?'" In emotional filmed testimonials, employees of Winfrey's Harpo Productions lauded the book as revelatory, with some choking back tears. When the camera then returned to a damp-eyed Winfrey, she said, "I'm crying 'cause these are all my Harpo family so, and we all loved the book so much."

But a six-week investigation by The Smoking Gun reveals that there may be a lot less to love about Frey's runaway hit, which has sold more than 3.5 million copies and, thanks to Winfrey, has sat atop The New York Times nonfiction paperback best seller list for the past 15 weeks. Next to the latest Harry Potter title, Nielsen BookScan reported Friday, Frey's book sold more copies in the U.S. in 2005--1.77 million--than any other title, with the majority of that total coming after Winfrey's selection.

I've disliked several of Oprah's previous moves and statements made by her book club, and this is just one of them.

A Million Little Lies

Robertson stated on the show that, "God considers this land [Israel] to be His. When you read the Bible, He said 'This is my land.' For any Prime Minister of Israel who decides he will carve it up and give it away, God said, 'No, this is Mine.'" He later added, "I would say woe to any prime minister of Israel who takes a similar course to appease the EU, the United Nations, or the United States of America."

In other news, Pat Roberson is a gigantic asshole.

Televangelist Pat Robertson suggests Sharon's stroke is act of God in response to Gaza withdrawal

"It is true that much of the intelligence turned out to be wrong," Bush said during his fourth and final speech before Thursday's vote for Iraq's parliament. "As president I am responsible for the decision to go into Iraq.

Say what you will about the man. He has huge balls.

CNN.com - Bush takes responsibility for invasion intelligence - Dec 14, 2005

Chinese security forces have sealed off a village where police have allegedly shot and killed up to 20 people, in what has been touted as the most lethal use of force by authorities since the Tiananmen Square massacre.

Days after reports of the shooting leaked out, Beijing has confirmed that police had opened fire last Tuesday on villagers protesting against land seizures. According to government statements, three people had been shot dead as police quelled a demonstration. The incident came after months of protest against the building of a power station, which villagers say was on stolen land.

Protesting Chinese villagers killed in confrontation with police - Wikinews

Broadcast Consortium Threatens to Exclude Green Party from Leaders' Debate

Despite being a national party with widespread public support and a full slate of 308 candidates, the Green Party of Canada was excluded from the nationally televised leaders' debate in the 2004 election.

Now the broadcast consortium that controls the debate is trying to exclude Green Party of Canada leader Jim Harris again during the 2005/2006 election. This despite the fact that 4.3% of voters voted for the Green Party of Canada in 2004 and polls show that literally millions of Canadians say they would consider voting green in this election.

The Green Party of Canada must be included in the election debate.

Apparently democracy shouldn't have alternatives.

Where's the Green Party of Canada? | Digital Copyright Canada

Enter Google, the hip, incredibly profitable corporation whose motto is "Do No Evil." Google doesn't like the copyright laws as they have existed for centuries. Google wants the rights to store all the books in the world in its Google Library program, and the company doesn't want to pay for that right.

Copyright? No problem. Google cites "fair use," but it isn't using 400 words; it plans to digitize whole libraries and make them available piece by piece. Google is formidable. Google has brilliant public relations people and clever lawyers and connections in important places.

I'm not getting the controversy here, hasn't Amazon been doing this for awhile now?

Newsday.com: Just Google 'thou shalt not steal'

Meanwhile, rap star Jay-Z is also being sued by a former WWE wrestler for stealing his trademark hand gesture.

Diamond Dallas Page had claimed that Jay-Z was guilty of "copyright infringement" and the "misappropriation of a hand signal" for using his "Diamond Cutter" gesture. (ANI)

The headline article isn't all that interesting, but the second one is pretty hilarious. How many possible two hand configurations are there? I hope Mr. Page is ready to sue thousands of 14 year-olds.

50 Cent, Dr Dre sued for copyright infringement

Like all good web services, Delicious is elegantly simple, truly useful, and subtly powerful. It doesn't try to do too much, and it delivers its core service -- bookmarking -- reliably and well. The Delicious API has made possible dozens of tools for extending the service, adding even greater utility (here's a big list).

Why Del.icio.us matters.

In Négone, created by Differend Games, each player has a wrist console displaying your score, your character's health and tools obtained in the game. You select your mission (they range from "inoculate the virus" to "steal the secret weapon") and difficulty level. Security guards then escort you to your cell.

Each of the more than 20 rooms has its own theme, and the adrenaline pumps hard as you explore the space - shooting down slides, climbing ladders or diving into a pit of small plastic balls. Every time you see a screen, you place your wrist console beneath it. This activates your helper, one of four pre-recorded characters from a hackers' group. On the screen, they set you a challenge - a memory challenge or logic puzzle answered using the buttons on your wrist console, or something more physical. Correct answers mean a score boost, and a tool that will help you complete your mission; incorrect ones soon add up to you being condemned to a punishment cell - and expelled from the game.

Real life puzzle-based adventure games? Brilliant.

RFID turns you into a real-life action hero

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