>>and i have a solution to the situation in iraq: why don't all of the concerned governments just buy iraq and give saddam a gold watch and a condo somewhere? kind of like a hostile corporate takeover, but without bloodshed. people are saying that the cumulative cost of this war could be 1 trillion dollars. couldn't we all just pitch in and buy iraq for a trillion dollars? same money, less pain and suffering? just an idea. From Moby's Journal.

>>Why Team Comics Is A Bad Idea -- an article about the activist craze that simultaneously re-inspired me to read comics, and drove me out of their community. I could write a very very long blog post about this in the Journal or the Mediablog, and maybe I will... don't let me forget about it. (via LinkMachineGo)

>>Rolling Stone chats briefly with The Matrix, the songwriting team responsible for Avril Lavigne's hits. What, you really thought she wrote them all by herself? They sound like nice folks, actually.

>>Tube Haiku -- an oldie-but-goodie at Brainsluice that I'd never seen before. Brilliant!!!

>>Superb writing by Tom Ewing at New York London Paris Munich on The Pet Shop Boys' "King's Cross."

>>Also at the NYT, an amusing article pointing out the many, many faults with this year's Grammy nominations. Amen.

>>Sweet Tunes, Fast Beats and A Hard Edge -- a lengthy article about Chuck Berry at the New York Times. (Free registration req'd).

>>Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds are going out on tour in Europe. They don't play London until after I leave, but if you'll be where they're going, you owe it to yourself to go see 'em.

>>I really hate Rolling Stone (a long-form post for another day, methinks), but I enjoyed this interview with Daniel Day-Lewis -- short as it is (though, unbelievably, longer than most RS features these days).

>>NME.com has redesigned. I'm not sure I like it visually, but it does load much faster, and, well, at least it WORKS functionally... NME has always been a great source of info (or at least entertainment) but the number of layout errors I see while regularly visiting their site is somewhat mind-boggling.

>>Hmmm... World New York is back.

>>Dell Dude arrested for marijuana possession. It's a good good day. (He goes to my school, you know. He's reportedly quite the asshole.)

>>Kevin Spacey to take over as artistic director for the Old Vic Theatre. I'm only just now getting savvy to the politics & history of London's theatres, so I'll refrain from commenting in-depth for now... that said, doesn't sound like an awful idea to me.