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The similarities between this (here’s part two) and this are amusing as all hell. This doesn’t really say much about the people parodied, though, since both of ‘em are pretty similar to this (with another part two — will wonders never cease?).

Lesson: pundits are goobers.

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“According to Square Enix, Bakusou Yankee Damashii will be the first online MMORPG that will let players enjoy the world of Japanese motorcycle delinquents.”

Via Dispatches From Revland, which has a link to the trailer. It seems to be 2D isometric and I want to play it very badly.

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CafePress seems to be a mite closer to launching their book printing arm. I just got an intriguing email offering me the chance to beta it; alas, I don’t have a book all ready to go. C’est la vie. However, the email does have some hints about formats.

They want page sizes of either 4.18 x 6.88 (mass market paperback), 5 x 8, 7.5 x 9.25, 8.5 x 11, or 6.625 x 10.25 (comic books). That’s inches, one assumes. They offer saddlestitch binding for lower page counts and wire-o for full fledged books. Maximum page count is 600 pages.

That’s kind of interesting, since people were expecting perfect bound books. Then again, maybe the perfect bound books work, um, perfectly and they don’t need to beta test those. More to come, I’m sure.

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I have, on occasion, argued that attempting to control terrorism by controlling the states that sponsor terrorism is futile. It’s too easy for non-state sponsored terrorists to build weapons, and getting easier. As evidence, I offer the home-made cruise missile.

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Den Beste notes a $500 million drop in American tourism over in France. Meanwhile, the ITA Office of Travel and Tourism notes a 7.6% drop in visitors to the United States for Q1 2003. This follows a 8.3% drop last year.

Putting that into perspective, a little over 600,000 fewer people visited the US in the first quarter of 2003. If each of those people would have spent an arbitrary $1,000, which is probably low, then the US has lost over $600 million in one quarter. The article on France implies that their drop is $500 million total. Per capita, $500 million represents more for France than $600 million does for the US, of course.

The point being not that we’re suffering more, because right now we aren’t. The point is that economic ties go two ways.

Addendum: what the heck happened to my dollar signs?