Imdb's convergence moment may soon be at hand.

The Needhams live in what he calls their "dream house" about 15 minutes away. It is there that Mr. Needham keeps his prized possession: an ever-growing collection of 7,500 films, mostly DVD's.

From a Small Stream, a Gusher of Movie Facts

a passionate debate over the ethics of high altitude climbing, particularly in what is called the death zone, where conditions, temperatures and the lack of oxygen combine to mean that rescuers may forfeit their own lives in trying to save a sick or incapacitated climber.

'Dead' Climber's Survival Impugns Mount Everest Ethics

True, this.

I liked your alarm feature, so I kept you bedside. I'd check you late at night. I'd check you first thing in the morning. Sometimes I'd even check you on Sundays, and often regretted it.

But you gave me something to do in idle moments, while I was standing in line or waiting for a train. With you, there was no dead time. It seemed great for a while.

Living without you, though, there's more time to think.

The idea percolator works better with fewer distractions.

Here's a thought. What if they cooled it just for a week? Wouldn't that leave more time to puzzle through what-ifs and how-abouts, the kind of questions that help us keep a step ahead of the competition?

Feeling All Thumbed Out

"Afghanistan is the sleeper crisis of this summer."

The number of roadside bombs is up 30 percent over a year ago, with insurgents getting designs off the Internet.

"Has Pakistan done enough? I think the answer is no.

"I'm more concerned in the long term about the results of the drug war in Afghanistan than I am about resurgent Taliban," said the NATO military commander. The government and its NATO allies have not lost the people yet, officials say. But it is getting close to that."

Springtime for Killing in Afghanistan

The love affair with little women appears to be over.

"It appears that we have frustrated some customers. We are trying to figure out how many we have frustrated."

Where's the Petite Department? Going the Way of the Petticoat

You can choose to have the seats automatically inflate for extra side bolstering when you go around corners. This feels as if someone in the backseat is jabbing you in the kidneys.

Among all the technology — including Night View Assist, a gee-whiz $1,150 option that lets you see in the dark beyond the headlamps' range — is one brilliant application: Distronic Plus.

Leave the Driving to the Microchips

Mr. Ahmadinejad is pursuing a risky strategy that could offer him a shot at long-term influence over the direction of the country — or ruin. He appears motivated at least in part by a recognition that relying on clerics to serve as the public face of the government has undermined the credibility of both.

"Unfortunately, whenever there is talk of social corruption, fingers are pointed at women," Mr. Ahmadinejad said, in comments that for a leader in this society were groundbreaking. "Shouldn't men be blamed for the problems, too?"

Iran Chief Eclipses Power of Clerics

Sunni forces working for the Ministry of Defense who were supposed to be guarding Iraq's oil pipeline were instead freelancing as death squads, assassinating people who cooperated with the same government that paid the gunmen's salaries.

The Price of Iraq

Page 1 is not the Holy Grail.

Other Voices | Letters to NYT

Researchers have revealed that the ancestors of humans and chimpanzees exchanged genes — they had sex — a million or so years more recently than we had thought.

A less salacious but more salubrious use for this data is to observe, in rich detail, how organisms are made and how they evolve.

We can examine evolution with a sophistication and subtlety that, even 10 years ago, we could only dream of.

Affairs to Remember