More Al-Jazeera (Now with free web-standards rant!)

The register has an interesting article on Al-Jazeera's recent hosting and domain registration woes, which poses several pertinent questions. Not least because AJ is one of the less-politically-encumbered news organisations in the middle east, and many western outlets are far from impartial.

For those who want an alternative perspective, AJ's English-language site now appears to be managing serious periods of Uptime. Though, unfortunately, it's written in MS-proprietary crap, and many pages display no real content in Mozilla :(.

Night On Disco Mountain

I just acquired the Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack, which features a disco arrangement of "Night On Bald Mountain". Cal is absolutely appalled by the entire concept, and made sure I knew it.

Better not tell her about the track which borrows bits of Beethoven's Fifth, then.

Recently Seen: Solaris

(Soderbergh, not Tarkovsky)
[IMDB]

[Note: It's a very long time (at least 15 years) since I read the book, and I've not seen the Tarkovsky film.]

Psychologist Chris Kelvin is sent to a research station orbiting Solaris to investigate the mysterious events that have occurred there. He finds his friend, the mission's commander, dead, along with several of the crew. The two survivors won't discuss what happened.

After his first night on the station, he wakes to find his dead wife alive in his bed. He is, understandably, somewhat disturbed by this.

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