LATEST ADDITIONS

There's an old Spanish proverb: "If six people call you an ass, start braying." A contemporary corollary might be that if enough audiophiles insist a product is the best ever, it behooves the "experts" to check it out. At least, that was John Atkinson's thinking when he suggested I audition the Oppo Digital DV-970HD universal disc player ($149).

For a word that first appeared in print only 35 years ago, prequel has a lot of impact—if only in a commercial sense. The television series Smallville has become a staple of American broadcasting. Film producers gambled millions on the chance that audiences would want to know what happened when Batman began. And while moviegoers have turned their backs on the apparently awful Hannibal Rising, the book of the same name is doing brisk business indeed.

"When you're hungry, eat. When you're tired, nap in a sunbeam. When you go to the vet's, pee on your owner."
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Gary Smith

"That's what matters. If cats looked like frogs we'd realize what nasty, cruel little bastards they are."
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Terry Pratchett, <I>Lords and Ladies</I>

The best rock songs ever, according to the prince of darkness&mdash;whose band, the Rock Bottom Remainders, I am so going to see June 1.

Is it possible that growing wheat locally and baking and selling it nearby could be the answer for decaying rural communities? Not to mention that vile white sponge we now call bread. . . .

There is no "I" in coauthor.

Understanding the trad of Strad.

An EE ponders traffic from the standpoint of fluid dynamics.

Einstein's theories of Quantum and gravity don't mesh&mdash;Itzhak Bars thinks there's more to time than we've understand. Space, too, but that's really, really small.