Based on Left Behind, the bestselling Christian fantasy book series created by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, it puts players in command of brainwashed legions fighting for Christianity. Players are ordered to convert or kill to advance to the next level and remodel America as a Christian-controlled state, and establish its world vision of Christ’s dominion.

Oh boy! I killed an Atheist. That's 2 points!

Christian Video Game is a Force for Evil

Inspired by an article in The New York Times Magazine, the Gender Genie uses a simplified version of an algorithm developed by Moshe Koppel, Bar-Ilan University in Israel, and Shlomo Argamon, Illinois Institute of Technology, to predict the gender of an author. Read more at nature.com.

Simply type or paste your text in the box below. Click submit for the results.

See if you write like a bitch or a dick.

Wow, I love it! After several tests with e-mails from both males and females, this algorithm is amazingly accurate! This is definitely the best web tool I've seen all week.

The Gender Genie

The number of Second Life residents making profits over US$5,000 a month surged more than 40 percent in November, according to data released on Tuesday by Linden Lab, while the total number of profitable residents rose 11.5 percent from the prior month.

Month by month, Second Life proves itself more and more to be a viable business platform. After interviewing a number of highly successful SL entrepreneurs, these rewards do not come easy. Those that are clearing US$5,000 a month are doing such on a full time basis. Second Life is their primary source of income, and the skills required to pull it off often match the RL equivalent of a similar position. If Second Life is a game, for these people, the Linden Dollar is the high score.

Surge in High-end Second Life Business Profits

Kudos to the D.C. Council, which recently voted in favor of a resolution by Carol Schwartz, at-large Republican, to nix the District's unjust "zero tolerance" policy of allowing police to arrest motorists who register any alcohol at all after stopping them for other offenses.

The Schwartz resolution was inspired by an article in The Washington Post, which found that hundreds of D.C. residents had been arrested for driving under the influence (DUI) with blood alcohol levels below .05, including some at as low as .01.

The larger problem, however, is the fact that since 2000, the federal government has mandated a blanket .08 legal threshold for the entire country. We've now had five years of data to measure the effectiveness of the .08 standard, and the data strongly suggest that not only is the standard too low, but the resources we're expending to enforce it may actually be making our roadways more dangerous.

So I stumbled upon the WaPo article linked above with this totally insane story about this woman who was arrested and had to spend thousands of dollars to keep herself out of going to a 12 week "counseling program" because she had a single glass of wine at dinner. I was heartened to find that DC repealed that law. This commentary provides some interesting information about the national .08 standard and whether or not it actually makes roads safer. Sometimes, authoritarian policies kill. Particularly when you have the police in one of the most dangerous cities in the country focused on hassling people who drank a single glass.

Unnecessary laws of this nature are quite popular with many smaller communities. There's usually enough going in large "dangerous cities" where this is a valid waste of resource that's needed elsewhere. Many of the places that I've lived, which are for the most part, very low crime, exhibit the behavior of a somewhat corrupt police force. The police are constantly creating work for themselves in order to justify their numbers and funding in such communities. It's not uncommon to be pulled over for a malfunctioning license place light (normal) and see 5 additional patrol cars rush to the scene (unnecessary.) Monthly quotas for the amount of tickets written in order for an officer to keep his/her job are common, as are an excessive amount of speed traps. It's up to the federal government to keep this stuff in check.

Forum: Lower DUI Threshold More Dangerous?

A rare 1939 German sports car commissioned by Adolf Hitler is expected to command the highest price ever paid for any automobile at auction, according to Christie's, which will conduct the auction in Paris in February 2007.

Hitler's Hot Rod! Now if that's not a chick magnet, I don't know what is. Now that Hitler has a really cool custom car to go with his secret underground lair I guess he qualifies for full super-villain status.

Hitler's Race Car

A 24-year-old student at an Oslo business college was sentenced to 30 days in jail on Monday for throwing a cream cake at Finance Minister Kristin Halvorsen last autumn.

A city court in Oslo decided it needed to send "a stern signal" that throwing cakes at top politicians won't be tolerated in Norway. Such incidents could damage democracy if politicians felt threatened and unable to freely move about in public, the court ruled.

I love Norway. They have the cutest little crimes and scandals.

A Delicious Threat to Democracy

A flight headed to Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport was diverted in Nashville on Monday after passengers reported the smell of burning matches, which officials said came from a woman trying to hide body odor.

Trying to hide body odor? It would have made more sense to me if she was just trying to light up her farts Beavis and Butthead style!

Fart Brings Down Airliner!

For nearly 20 years - ever since Pete Costello was 8 - his mother has collected disability benefits on his behalf. In meetings with Social Security officials and psychologists, he appeared mentally retarded and unable to communicate. His mother insisted he couldn't read or write, shower, take care of himself or drive a car. But...

This guy got $111,000 for faking mental retardation, but Bush gets $400,000 per year for faking competence. They both owe the American taxpayer full refunds.

Man Accused of Faking Retardation

One of the teenagers responsible for beating a Holly Hill homeless man to death asked a judge to reduce his 22-year prison sentence Monday. Warren Messner and three other teens pled guilty to killing the man because they were bored, but Messner said prison is too hard.

Yeah, they're right. Prison's too hard on a 15 year old boy. They should commute the sentence of 22 years in prison to the mother and give him death.

I don't care what sort of crap they give you about the biology of adolescent children and how their thought processes work. Any child over the age of 2 can learn that hurting other people physically is about one of the most seriously wrong things you can do, even if they don't "fully grasp the concept of mortality."

Well the kid failed one of those life lessons that even a three year old can grasp, and judging by the responses by the mother, there's a high likelihood that bad parenting is partially to blame. Not only did that little cretin kill someone, he showed absolutely no remorse and no fear of any consequences, which to me means that there's been a deplorable lack of discipline. And WORSE, the mother moaning over how a prison sentence for KILLING a man is so unfair to her poor little lump of lard...

When I was a kid, and YOUNGER than this kid at that, even if I couldn't fully grasp ALL the rammifications of whatever bad behavior I might do, connecting the dots to what sort of behavior might get my ass beat was pretty easy. This sort of self-preserving logic works independently of whether or not a kid is a fat pud, as long as the kid is taught to respect the fact that every action has a consequence, good or bad, and that they will have to face up to those consequences. But this kid never got taught. Now society has to make up for her lack of discipline and punish her son in her stead at our expense.

By the way, good on the judges for saying deprivation of services is the point of prison. Now if only they pulled cable TV out of the prisons, I might believe it.

Teen Murderer Says Jail Is Too Hard, Appeals Sentence

This is a neat site.

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If you want to explore the site, try the zeitgeist and the BookSuggester. For example: enter From Dawn to Decadence and you'll get a recommendation for The Metaphysical Club.

What a wonderful idea! All I need to do now is acquire some books :)

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