The Nationals did the right thing in keeping Alfonso Soriano rather than trading him. He's been a real asset to the team and - importantly - is getting butts into seats in creaky old RFK. And I get to see him tomorrow when he comes to SF!

Oldie but a goodie, thanks to boingboing. (Make sure to read the archive, and also the sign PPTs.)

"The average blogger is a 14-year-old girl writing about her cat."

Take that, self important web 2.0-osphere!

Senator Barbara Boxer is giving away free money to candidates that are challenging incumbents. The catch is that you have to vote for who you want the money to go to. Pete Ashdown is not only running to unseat Senator Hatch (enemy of geeks everywhere) but is tech savvy himself, given that he is the founder of Utah's oldest ISP. His positions on tech issues should be of interest to many a slashdotter. So if you have a moment, click on the link below and vote for him to get some free money.

Vote for Pete Ashdown.

Every time CleanFlicks or similar services/technologies come up on /. there is a decided bias against them by the submitters, editors, and commenters. They're all missing the bigger picture! As I said in the most recent article:

This is a win for big copyright and a loss for free culture. /.ers are only seeing censorship here when they should be seeing remixing and control of content that you've bought. /. has consistently been on the wrong side of this issue because of a lack of vision about what it represents. How /. can champion Free DVD software for Linux so that you can watch a movie on the OS of your choice but not favor this is a mystery to me. What if that Free player knew how to skip the booring bits (Jar Jar?) or replay the naughty bits in slow mo while leaving the original media untouched? All the /.ers would be lining up behind it! But if someone uses technology for a purpose that is seen as socially conservative all the idiots here go bonkers. Your fear of "censorship" has blinded you to a corporate power grab of your culture.

Can someone out there in journal land explain to me why so many here at /. take the corporate/anti-free stance on this?

What can I say about Zidane's moronic head butt that cost France the tournament?! How do you say WTF en francais?

Update: A story about Zidane from the AP.

Wikipedia functions as it has for years, earns writeup in Reuters.

Numbers get sorted first, right?

4 Non Blondes - What's Up
AC/DC - Back In Black
Bjork - Aurora
Cake - End of the Movie
Def Leppard - Rock of Ages
Everlast - Blinded by the Sun
Fugazi - Furniture
Grandmaster Flash with Melle Mel and the Furious Five - White Lines
Haddaway - What is love?
Iggy Pop - Funtime
Joan Jett - I Hate Myself For Loving You
Kruder & Dorfmeister - Bomberclaad Joint
Led Zeppelin - Gallows Pole
Mighty Mighty Bosstones - Detroit Rock City (cover of Kiss)
Newcleus - Jam On It
Orbital - Bigpipe Style
Pink Floyd - Have A Cigar
Queen - Fat Bottomed Girls
Ramones - Do You Remember Rock & Roll Radio
Sisters Of Mercy - Dominion/Mother Russia
Three Dead Trolls In A Baggie - The White House Burned (The War of 1812)
U2 - Night and Day (Cole Porter tribute)
Various Artists - Kyle's Mom's A Bitch (South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut)
Who - Behind Blue Eyes
Xploding Plastic - Let's Pretend Desperate
Yale Glee Club - Bright College Years
Zero 7 - Simple Things

All from my iTunes. (Note, this is not necessarily the best from each, but what might make it onto a playlist.)

(aka Sudafed PE and related so-called cold meds) Don't buy it! Useless. Worse than useless, not even a placebo effect. Take the damn ticket to the pharmacy, tell them that no, you're really not running a meth lab, and get the real thing.

Update: Real pseudoephedrine (in DayQuil) + coffee = loopy sulli!

with the motherfucking snakes on this motherfucking blog!

(they are pretty cool though.)

And you, and you, and you! I half expected the Portugal/Netherlands game to be down to just the goalkeepers by the end. Fun game to watch, though, unlike the Bore Them Like Beckham squad.

With all those guys sent off and suspended, though, England should have a good chance in the quarterfinal.

World Cup, wireless, coffee, and apple pie in a gleaming chrome New Jersey diner. (Don't miss it or you'll need to take two jughandles two miles apart to get back!)

A man with his head stuck in a wall.

Well, the USA sure stunk up the place, didn't they? Except for Reyna's near miss and a few minutes of proper passing and such, and some nice play by Eddie Johnson, they looked like AYSO out there. Let's hope our boys get their act together before Italy, or this will be a real short tournament.

Your tax dollars at work.