A scary post-Super Bowl 2004 thought...

I don't even WANT to Google a search on Real Person Fic feauturing Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake.

I'll just sit here, keeping warm inside my straightjacket.

I'm a Google News addict

The last thing I ever want to hear would be that Google is being controlled by evil Powers That Be.

Why?

That's where I get my news.

Google News ( http://news.google.com/ ) is my sole mass media connection to current events. The rare bits of TV I watch are taped (with commercials blithely zipped through). My favorite radio station (out of Mexico) plays nothing but classical music.

The Google Newsbot browses 4500 English-speaking news sites around the world and posts the most common ones on its front page. I can get the same story with different biases (from US, Canadian, UK, Indian, Australian, or Singaporean newspapers and TV stations). I can direct a search for the latest news on any topic. I can request that it send me email alerts on terms like "RIAA", "spam", or "NASA".

So if you're an evil dictator who has plans of disseminating your agitprop, please don't touch my Google. Look for weapons of mass destruction elsewhere.