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A UN committee is investigating whether the US violated an international ban on torture. [Christian Science Monitor]

quadsoft writes to tell us The Toronto Star has a look at three University Toronto computer geeks who are working hard to circumvent the internet censorship problems like those found in China. From the article: “But the computer smarts of Ron Deibert, Nart Villeneuve, and Michael Hull, combined with their passion for politics and free expression, have led them to develop a highly anticipated software program that allows Internet users inside China and other countries, such as Iran, Saudi Arabia and Burma, to get around repressive censorship and not get caught.”

Visit ESPN.com for the complete story.

Filed under: Drama, ABC, Programming, OpEd, Grey’s Anatomy

(S02E24) This is one of those Grey’s episodes where, instead of giving everyone separate storylines, we see how the doctors’ lives are progressing in their reactions to the cases that come through Seattle Grace. It’s the little things; gestures, looks, actions. This is an episode that follows the axiom that newbie writers are given the first time their work is critiqued: “Show, don’t tell.”

The main story is pretty simple. Five victims come in from an MVC: four family members (three of whom have accents that make you think they’re in the same family as Joy from My Name Is Earl) and the driver of the car that T-boned them. The most seriously injured is the daughter, who is pregnant. At first she’s awake and concerned for her family; the main focus of the docs is her unborn fetus. But when she goes to CT and her body relaxes, it’s discovered that she’s suffered massive internal injuries, which send her crashing. She goes into surgery, with everyone from Burke to Webber to both Sheppards involved.

The person who caused the accident isn’t a drunk driver or some other careless driver, though; Marshall’s a surgical resident at another hospital in town. He tacked 12 hours on his 30-hour shift just to scrub in on an operation he’s never seen before, making him fall asleep behind the wheel just long enough to cause the accident. Funny, who among the crew did the same thing? Oh, yeah, Cristina did… only she didn’t fall asleep in the car, she fell asleep on top of Burke… while they were having sex.

Cristina’s such a guy, isn’t she? She’s tells Burke that, hey she was tired, and after all, she did finish, twice! So what’s the problem? Only thing was, Burke wasn’t done (what, is he learning Tantric sex from Sting?), and guess what? He’s not all that happy about it, which Cristina doesn’t really see until Meredith points it out to her.

At least in her efforts to save a life (and to advance her career, of course), she only ticked off her boyfriend; Marshall (the male Cristina?) did a whole lot worse.

On to Meredith. You’ve got something good with McVet, Mer… the guy’s not even kissing you or expecting you to cook! But you can’t be with him because you’re scary and damaged and he seems so normal, right? But you still somehow need Derek’s approval; until, of course, he bitches you out for accidentally allowing Marshall to enter the sugrical gallery where his pregnant victim is being worked on. “When are you going to take responsibility for once in your life!?” he yells to you. We all know he’s not really tallking about Marshall, right kids?

Anyway, the stairway confrontation is classic… Derek is visibly pissed and jealous, starting to tell Meredith how slutty she’s being. She FINALLY stands up to him, saying “You don’t get to call me a whore,” since he was the one who hid the whole Addison thing from her. “This is done, you and me,” says Derek. But is it really? I mean, can Grey’s sustain without the whole Meredith-Derek flirtation? Probably. I’m just glad they’re not saying the word “Friends” anymore.

More subtleties: Izzy leaving her assignment, which is with Callie, to be by Denny’s side as he has an episode where he expresses how emasculated he feels with the LVAD, and that Izzy forced him into it. Izzy’s definitely getting to close, which is going to be devestating if (when) Denny kicks it. She cuddles with Denny to show him that he’s still pretty manly.

Even more subtleties: After Callie stumbles into the Grey household bathroom and pees topless in front of Mer and Izzy, she leaves without washing her hands, or so the girls think. So, because both women seemingly disapprove of Callie, Izzie actually gets George to ask her if she did. Of course the answer is yes. But the fact that George had to ask means he’s not taking Callie’s side. Bad move, George.

Ok, back to the car accident. The pregnant woman, who is taken off the table — with her body still open — to stabilize, ends up not making it off the table when she goes back in. Alex, who is still in Addison’s doghouse, ends up saving the baby’s life after spending the whole hour bitching about being the “captain of the vagina patrol.” Bailey — who’s still a new mom, remember — stands dazed over the woman’s body, realizing that there will be a baby who will have no idea who his mother is. And the George/Meredith feud begins to thaw when he brings the woman’s dad, Big Jim,  in to Marshall’s room to let Marshall express his deepest regrets, something Mer sold to George by saying, “He’s one of us.” How do we know things are getting better? George says “See you at home?” See what I mean by the little things.

Oh, and the ending is not-so-subtle. McVet isn’t so normal after all. In fact his scary and damaged blows Meredith’s scary and damaged out of the water. So, now that they can be scary and damaged together, they can now kiss. Let the healing begin.

So, you think I might have liked this episode? How could you tell? Oh, and it was good to see Frances Fisher, who played the doomed pregnant woman’s mother; the last time I saw her was on Becker (yes, I was the one person who watched that show). And, who doesn’t like seeing John Cho, who played Marshall? He showed that he could do a whole hell of a lot more than play a stoner who hankers for tiny burgers. The two-day season finale is next week; better stock up, because I won’t be going anywhere for a while.

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The last word will not be had by Phil Jackson, Mike D’Antoni, Kobe Bryant, or even runaway MVP-winner Steve Nash. The last word was had by Raja Bell’s mom.

Bell’s mother, however, did have a…

Sega announces its arcade fighter is coming to Sony’s next-gen console–and Sony’s next-gen console.

Filed under: Culture, Nintendo Wii

In addition to the hands-on preview, the author of the TIME Wii article had this to say regarding conventional input devices: “When you play with an old-style controller, you look like a loser.”

That’s a pretty bold statement regarding a tradition that we have all come to know and appreciate (the current “old-style” controller). As most, I’m very excited to experience Wii’s input device. But I still wouldn’t degrade what got us here.

Maybe I’m just a loser, or at least I look like one.

[Updated spelling]

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• MLB: San Francisco @ Philadelphia. It’s been seven straight for the Phils… not too shabby, fellas. I wonder if ESPN will mention that “Barry Bonds” character.

• NHL Playoffs: …

Visit ESPN.com for the complete story.

Steve Nash won the NBA’s Most Valuable Player award for the second straight year Sunday, beating runner-up LeBron James by a comfortable margin.

Jonny Gomes hit a pair of RBI doubles on a day when more than 200 fans from his hometown cheered him on, and Mark Hendrickson pitched six strong innings in the Tampa Bay Devil Rays’ 3-2 victory over the Oakland Athletics on Sunday. Aubrey Huff drove in a run with a groundout to help Tampa Bay win a day after Jason Kendall’s roller went through his legs at third base as the A’s scored the winning… [Yahoo Sports]

Reuters - Lifetime, which takes
its responsibility as routine demonizer of the white American
male quite seriously, sabotages its own estrogen-rich sense of
justice in this original fact-based telepic by giving us a
villain who is as uncompromisingly transparent as he is
divertingly dull. “Murder on Pleasant Drive” is a mystery with
no mystery, eschewing the whodunit conceit for a “hedunit.”