Time for another stylesheet, I think. Download it here.

The influential home affairs select committee chairman, Chris Mullin, throws doubt on the home secretary's anti-terrorism bill. The bill includes a provision against "inciting religious hatred", as well as powers to opt out of parts of the European Convention on Human Rights, and intern suspected foreign terrorists. Mullin, who left a ministerial job after the election to rejoin the home affairs select committee, said the proviso on religious hatred was "gesture politics". "We have not seen sufficient evidence to justify the proposition that extending the law of incitement to include religious as well as racial hatred will work in practice."

Pointless link of the day Think your partner is cheating on you? Do you have suspicions that they're actually seeing someone else? Then order the Five Minute Semen Detector Kit. Pick up the dried white stuff from anywhere, and you can tell if they've been sleeping around. Does not work on men or lesbians. (mefi)

Republican spokesmodel Bush puts forward a proposal to set up secret trials for foreigners under his sole command. This sends a message to the world that it is acceptable to hold secret trials and summary executions, without the possibility of judicial review, when the defendant is a foreign national. This will inevitably put US citizens abroad, including military personnel and peacekeepers, at grave risk.

US TV byron c go:
You know, I was thinking about this last night, and came to the conclusion that current Buffy and Roswell don't seem to measure up to the first couple of seasons of those shows. Why that is I'm not sure.
There's no way BUFFY can ever live up to season 3. There's wasn't a single clunker after the Christmas episode that year, and that level of sustained brilliance is really rare.

Season 4 had a few clunkers, and a weak central plot, but plenty going on in the background. I wasn't impressed with the central plot of S5, but there was only one obvious weak episode, TOWT Troll.

Gilmore Girls continues to delight, and Smallville is getting good
Both sound like they could be very promising. Byron's been raving about GG since it began, and it seems to be with good reason.

Massive criticism in Gibraltar, following news that Britain and Spain will conclude a deal on the future of the Rock by the end of next summer. Gibraltarians fear being sold down the river, and that the UK will renege on her 1969 commitment to put any transfer to the people in a referendum. The Tories lead the attack, with shadow foreign sec M'Lord Ancram saying "this smells of a stitch up."

The European Union rules in favour of gratuitously expensive branded goods, outlawing the grey import market that has flourished in recent years. The imports were sourced from the US, imported legally, and sold - at a profit- more cheaply than the official sources charge. A subsidiary claim, that brand owners should be able to control where their goods are sold, was also upheld. This ruling begs the question of why something is exclusive in the UK that is freely available in the US. This court ruling allows brand owners to have one rule for their business in Europe and one rule for the US, extorting huge profits from Europe. One bright spot is that the ruling leaves the way open for parallel imports from within the EU.

Finally, proof that Bush lost the election. It may have taken 54 weeks to emerge, but without the attempted coup d'etat by the then Supreme Court members, it would now be President Gore. (Slate)

Useless Idea Of The Day: Make your own custom warning signs in printer-perfect PDF. [mefi]

Quote of the Day "The most damage you can inflict upon a dangerous zealot who has the power to terrorize is to report fully what the zealot says." [sf chronicle]

World Politics Sara :)
>Isn't that the aim? Using intelligence and carefully targetted strikes to
>capture bin Liner to put him before the International Court, in accordance
>with the resolutions passed in July?
yep, yep, yep - and hopefully they will!! I'm just actually really happy that we are helping the country at the same time :)
This was sarcasm. The US has failed to make any commitment to an international system of justice, on the utterly flimsy pretext that her citizens might be hauled up before it. That's the whole point of the damned thing. If a court is super-national, then it's super-national for everyone equally.

>Have the powers that want to be given any thought to the next phases? Have
>they given any thought to this phase?
yeah, they probably have, but what else can they really do? he has to be punished for his crimes, and if more people spring up in his place, then so be it. he still needs to be punished.
But is this the right way to go about things? Is it necessary to risk a huge humanitarian disaster in order to kill a handful of people?

>2) Isn't there an interdiction on cruel and unusual punishments? This is
>certainly the latter.
there is *smiles* but I don't always agree with that. I say that if someone say..is a serial killer who strangles his/her victimes, then they should die by strangulation. I mean, why should they get a humane death when their victims didn't?
Because we, the people, are Better Than That Person. And we don't need to descend to their level of inhumanity in order to make a point.

>3) Is gender reassignment still appropriate for humour?
why not?
Well, is someone's gender still appropriate for humour? Or someone's ethnic background?

I've never been at a NATO meeting, just as none of you have. None of us know what really goes on at them. However, I sincerely doubt that people would just back the USA without a valid reason for doing so. The US being a 'superpower' is hardly enough reason.
Yet that is the only reason that we've been given.

Besides that, as that one clause of NATO says (which actually you told me about didn't you, or was it someone else?) it there is an act of terrorism against one of the NATO countries, then all NATO countries will declare war on either the country of the terrorist, or the terrorist itself. so *shrugs*
Nope, the definition is an act of *war*. An attack on one NATO member country is deemed an attack on them all. The US has defined this as an act of war under those terms. NATO countries therefore have both an expectation and an obligation to treat the attack as one on their territory.

besides that, none of us have much backup - you don't have any proof that anybody does what the US says simplybecause the US says it, as much as I don't have proof that they don't do that. Its all down to what either of us believe.
And the evidence that will come out over the coming years and centuries.

But what I'm looking for is something big - something that other countries haven't done, for this person to aim his attack at OUR country and not some other capitalst country.
You mentioned it earlier: the US is the one remaining superpower.

Not really, no. Its not their fault, and its not really their problem, is it?
Oh, come off it. The US holds herself up to the world as a bastion of democracy, where anyone can (in theory) become president. This reputation has taken severe beatings in recent years, with corruption winding its way through all branches of government, culminating in last December's coup d'etat.

If this is the sort of democracy that we're trying to impress the rest of the world with, then they will laugh at us. And with good reason.

not to me, it isn't. To me anyway, corporations selling firearms and the government selling firearms to countries are completley different things.
How so? They're all United Stations at the end of the day. And it's not really your views that count so much as those of the people on the ground. It doesn't matter whether the gun was supplied by the private or public sector: the target still ends up just as dead.

...more

It's always a major irritation when one's heros turn out to have feet of clay. It happened six months ago when Kaycee turned out to be a fraud. And it happens today, when Jonathan King is jailed for abusing kids. He's probably responsible for more huge records than any other person, having hands in Genesis, "Tubthumping," 10CC, "Who Let The Dogs Out" and half a dozen Eurosong acts. Though there's an appeal pending, it looks like another idol is fallen.

The dumbasses at the US Justice department allow Microsoft to spent about $200 million in extending its monopoly into schools under the guise of charitable contributions. The company will donate $1 billion for schools to buy second-hand hardware and supply cheap software. This is a massive propaganda coup for the Earth branch of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation, and kids all across the US will be invited to share and enjoy the blue-screen experience.

More sensible netheads will be pleased to learn of mozilla 0.9.6 The crawl towards the full release 1.0 is going on, even though it feels to be more asymptotic as time progresses. Best interpretation of the previous release I've found is k-meleon. A full Windows browser with change from 4MB? I like.

Blogging and Venting Sara :)
well, there are parts that I want to keep private, but be open about in other circles than my family or Ross's (like the stuff with my dad, Curtis, etc.), and then my writings because I generally write about everything that is going on in my life, and Ross told me that I might hurt someones feelings by doing that on my normal webpage (he didn't mean for me to take them down though...) but anyway, it made me feel a little guilty, because I certainly don't write to hurt anyones feelings,
This is a fair call, and one of the reasons why people don't open themselves up as much as they might want to. Personally, I assume that the person I'm slagging off will get to read the piece in the end, and attempt to restrict my comments to what might be defined as "fair comment." Nothing factually incorrect, assuming as little as possible, and making criticism more constructive than destructive. Others, I know, just slam their thoughts onto metapaper without even thinking about how their notes reflect on them.

I write to get things out of myself and onto something else....its how I sort things out within myself.
Yep, similars from here. Part of my website is cheap therapy, part is a record of what happened, part is a more proper list of Interesting Things.

I also know that a number of other listies maintain their own diaries on the web. Three of them (no names...) are in my bookmarks, and others get visits from time to time. Those correspondents might be able to make their contribution to this topic.

we're thinking of alias's for Toby and Ross, and everyone else as well, 'just in case' Ross's family happen to find the site.
Start with "my husband" and "my eldest" and work from there.

Work hired a contractor to cover our vacationing network guy on Monday. He's with us till the end of January. In four days he's patched the mail server that was busily spewing out spam. And put in some software to speed up the routers and stop the PCs heading out over the internet for local traffic. Then after lunch...

"Jamie. A man lying about meeting another woman. How predictable." as if

World Politics 2 Sara
I don't really think Bin Laden should come before an international justice system. to be honest, I think he should go before each country that he killed someone from individually
The whole point of an international court is to avoid this duplication of effort.

what would be a better way?
Use your intelligence... or your intelligence forces to locate bin Liner, then capture him in a daring midnight raid. That would be such a huge propaganda coup.

>Because we, the people, are Better Than That Person. And we don't need to
>descend to their level of inhumanity in order to make a point.
I want that person to feel the pain that they put the other person through..I see it as only right.
One wrong and another wrong tends not to add up to a right.

The same could be said of the other way around..saying that the US basically runs everything at NATO. there is no evidence that I've seen to support this..do you have any?
How often has NATO made a decision that goes against a declared US policy, or trodden on the toes of US public opinion? While there aren't that many examples of NATO snubbing other countries, I can't remember a time when the organisation has ignored US opinion.

I suppose...well, they classify Russia as a superpower as well, but I suppose that wouldn't really count, because they aren't capitalists, are they?
Capitalism has nothing to do with it. The theoretical ability to deploy significant military might, including (but not limited to) nuclear weapons and massive troop numbers, is what counts.

last December? what was last December?
When the then-Supreme Court voted to put itself in breach of all parts of the constitution, forcing the Commonwealth, OECD and G8 to ignore that body and its puppet president, and recognise the Government of National Unity under Bryan Gould. The then-Supreme Court justices have been thrown out of office, and all parties have accepted the result that offends everyone equally. Except for the Republican party, which to this day persists in the charade that former Texas governor Bush won.

your country basically has a democracy
No it doesn't. The UK has a Crown Perogative exercised by the Prime Minister of the day. He is more powerful than the US president; he can select his own cabinet, declare war, appoint judges, deem the country to be in a state of emergency, and do pretty much what he damn well pleases. Don't call the UK a democracy, that would be a fib.

you don't understand at all, really. Okay, if you get yourself into the *american* frame of mind - typical americans attitude. we don't NEED to convince anyone else that our country is the best, because it IS THE BEST.
And then they wonder why so many people dislike them, and with such intensity.

oh, and because the attack was unprovoked.
Not in the minds of the attackers.

---

paulo:
First of all, I have to say that I'm really happy that this discussion is happening here, instead of any other list or web-based forum. Everybody in this list have read my rants against Pinochet and the like, so I feel more comfortable knowing that people here won't confuse me with some warmonging jingoist redneck.
We know Paulo's not a jingoistic redneck. He's not in the Sweltering South of the US (yet.)

Second, I'd like to clarify that, in my mind, supporting the attack against Afghanistan doesn't mean supporting automatically supporting all the other "antiterrorist measures" that Bush and Blair are pushing
This is a distinction that is evading the minds of our self-proclaimed leaders.

here in Spain, I have seen and heard lots of people who were happy about the terrorist attacks.
So, they were in favour of massive crimes against humanity, killing 4000 people (+ VAT) in less time than it takes to play a football match?

Some quotes from spanish web forums: "well, it seems like the school bully has been slapped", "if it's been really Irak, couldn't it be considered legitimate defense?", "USA 0, rest of the world 2"...
There are times when it really hurts to defend people's right to speak their brains.

*And*, this is important, most of the people saying these things aren't outcasts or people opressed by global capitalism, but in fact the opposite: they are people who have jobs, cars and credit cards, who travel to other countries for holidays and watch satellite TV...
You make it sound like these are US inventions. Capitalism flows from the Calvinistic tradition of Predestination, as adopted by Adam Smith, making it a German-Scottish idea. Cars are a German idea. Credit cards - well, that's a US invention, but the concept is as old as the hills. Television is, of course, Scottish, and satellites are a German-US-Russian idea.

The biggest home-grown contribution to world culture from the US might well be Barney the purple dinosaur.

Basically, this is the environment where I live, and you'll have to understand most of my attitudes as reactions against the stupidity and the closemindedness of all those knee-jerk leftists
Thank you for explaining where you're coming from. It always helps the rest of us to understand.

"Europe, being much more civilized and respectful of human rights, should start leading the world and forget about that banana republic called the U.S.". The last part (Europe leading the world???) was probably the 2nd funniest thing I've read lately about this subject
It's happened before, though not since the century before last.

> I think most sensible people can tell the excesses of the ruling clique
> apart from the daily life of the rest of the population.
Really? When so many middle-class liberals in Europe express their happiness about the terrorist attacks because they "teach a lesson to the imperialist american government", even when they are aware of the fact that those attacks killed 5000 civilians, are we sure that they are able to make that distinction?
Permit me, then, to slightly modify my claim. Most *thinking* people can tell the excesses of the ruling clique from the daily life of the rest of the population.

All of the above, of course, doesn't mean that the abuses perpetrated by the US through the world aren't true or shouldn't be dennounced. I'm just bugged by the "holier than thou" attitude that so many europeans have when talking about them.
Britain is in no place to adopt that attitude. Even this week, she (or her government) has been trying to transfer Gibralter to Spain, in spite of the clear and unanimous opposition of the Gibraltarians. This smacks of the same colonial attitude that led to the breakup of the Ottoman Empire, the creation of fictitious nation states such as Afghanistan, and everything that follows.

If the pacifists had had their way and the US hadn't started its campaign... how would people in Kabul be living *right now*? Even if the taliban had nothing to do with the terrorist attacks, they had already earned a good kick in the ass.
This is perhaps the hardest part about maintaining a principled opposition to the war. I really hate the means, but the ends are not at all bad. Is it wrong to accept a good outcome obtained by bad works?

In an ideal world, when the first news of taliban brutality reached the western countries, the UN would have created an international force to invade Afghanistan, kick out the taliban government and establish democracy...
There was a really interesting interview with the UK ambassador to the UN, where he suggested that the UN is deeply uneasy about the use of military force, even for such clearly positive ends. It encourages the mighty to flex their muscles.

I don't have any delusions about the american government's morality;
Let me add that to my list of oxymorons. (:

(A last word about these demostrators: at least here in Spain, most of the antiwar/antiamerican demostrations are organized by the Communist Party and associations close to it
In London, the demonstrations are focussing exclusively on the war, not on any anti-US feeling.

A day off work allows me to go through the prezzie list for Christmas. Mother, unless she comes up with something else, will get a spoof present. Dad has ideas, the sister doesn't. The people I'm meeting over new year have been promised X, and will get X. If they can't remember what X is, that's their problem, quite frankly.

Three are arrested, questioned, and bailed over The Coughing Incident on WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE. Major Charles Ingram hasn't been paid the million he won in the studio back in September following allegations that he was assisted by a coded cough from the audience. He's been questioned, so has his wife. The third person brought in for questionning was a contestant on the second show to be taped that day, and who moved to the centre circle about half way through Ingram's run. Reader, draw your own conclusions.

Tony Blair returns to domestic politics, delivering the speech he was scheduled to give to the TUC on September 11. Lamenting missed opportunities in the past, he urged Britain to co-operate more with Europe, a coded argument for joining the ECU. The Party's official organ, The Sun alleges that a referendum on Britain's use of the convertable ECU will be held on the same day as the next general election, pencilled in for June 9, 2005.

The Mary Whitehouse Experience comes to an end, following the death of its founder aged 91. The campaigner for the removal of anything interesting on television took potshots at many classic programmes, including Benny Hill, Dr Who, and the news.

The Substitute Elizabeth Wrigley-Field:
I always though this was playing up the Patty is a Princess idea, centered, in this case, around her anxiety about Graham.
What, he's been shagging a horse behind her back and will have her bumped off by the secret services? Let's not run the parallels *too* far; Patty is literate, to begin with...

It's similar to, I think, what Camille says in the Zit (about how she got used to not looking good--am I making this up?), and all the continued references to Patty's high school popularity: she was the high school "princess," if you will, and now she has to adjust to life as an adult, with the realization that her actual life (her looks, her marriage) doesn't necessarily measure up to the fairy tale ideal.
Both of these things are part of Patty's path, and are thrown into sharp relief in The Zit. Clearly, there's part of Patty that still sees Graham as her handsome prince (see episode 9) and as the beautiful one (the incident at the perfume counter.) And there's an element of the commander in Patty - the way she will deal with Graham's career in episode 7, and her insistence on doing things her way (the fashion show, a church service in episode 15.) Patty can be tender and loving, but she doesn't show it often.

But rather than idealizing famous strangers (and, by extension, herself?--I think that's what Patty's doing), does Angela idolize people she knows? The most obvious example seems to me to be her father--which brings me into Father Figures, and now that I have your analysis I'll comment there :)--and this brings me to the Fable, something I think is sort of interesting given your query about fairy tales.
Another example: Vic Racine. Look at how proud she is to have attracted his praise for that Fable, and it's pride curried with the knowledge that *she* knows and *he* knows, but no-one else does. From nothing, she admires the man as an adult she can look up to.

Although I do remember your saying you think the Fable defies analysis :)
Yep (:

A fairy tale is a piece of literature, a myth, and a part of popular culture. MSCL is all about literature: look at all the English class scenes, and how they're used to propel the plot and the character understanding (although, Iain says, not always skillfully).
Sometimes a lot more skilfully than it might seem. I'm getting a *lot* of insight into Jordan's depths from watching the episodes again. It's the small, almost throwaway lines that give the insight into his character.

And it seems like a lot of the insights in the show are that particular myths (well, okay, stereotypes) are wrong.
Even the Very Special Episodes (image, esteem, booze, homelessness) are dealt with in a non-cloying way.

Angela's relationship to that fairy tale--the fact that she doesn't see herself reflected in it--is important, in the very first episode. This, maybe, is the issue Patty deals with all season long.
In a way, it's the issue Angela deals with right through the tale.

Over on a game show list, someone has described THE MOLE as the equivalent of an A-level literature exam. Everything has subtexts, nothing is quite as it seems. By that analysis, MSCL is final year degree level. Everything hangs together, but no-one is ever going to know quite how.

Piss-poor actress and even worse singer Jennifer Lopez has inflicted her over-inflated ego and even larger rider on the BBC. Prior to an appearance on the Parkinson show, where she was outfoxed by Terry Wogan, Lopez arrived with a 90-strong entourage and a seven-and-a-half ton truck loaded down with her necessities. Among her coterie were a personal chef and three assistants. Before she stepped into any room, it had to be decorated with white muslin, white flowers, and white sofas she had flown in from the US. "The whole thing is utterly ridiculous to the point of being a farce," according to a BBC source. "There seems to be hundreds of people running around trying to keep Jennifer happy."

Seen This Week

Shafted. In which no-one leaves the studio with any money. And everyone is patronised by Robert Kilroy-Silk. Can we get a new host yet? (ITV, 8:30 Mo)

Cold Feet. "It's a joke." With plenty of bite. (ITV, 9 Mo)

As If So Sooz and Jamie are romping on the bed in Sasha's flat when Alex and his new boy-toy walk in and suddenly begin romping on the bed on top of them. Things get even more complicated when Sooz's extensions get caught on the bed springs, and when Rob walks in, all hell breaks loose. Normal life? (E4, 8 Tu)

The West Wing A Very Special Episode of the US political drama, attempting to explain why there are terrorists around. While there were a couple of clangers (the Ontario - Vermont border, anyone?) and the comparison with the KKK doesn't take into account the vicious nature of all Abrahamic religions, there was a lot of sense in the show. Especially the moment when everything was put down to the reaction of Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar. V good. (E4, 9 Tu)

Friends TOW Chandler's Father. It's back to the A-B-C plot, in a quite literal sense. Chandler and Monica go to a drag bar in Vegas. Ross and Rachel go for a spin in the car. Joey and Phoebe stick in Central Perk and discuss underwear. Apart from a short scene at the beginning, the three groups don't meet again. This is very funny, this is crucial in terms of plot development, but this is *very* lazy. (C4, 9 Fr)

The Rest Of The News

The government pushed ahead with the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Bill, which does away with habeas corpus for detained foreigners suspected of terrorism and allows different government departments to send round confidential information about people. Mrs Cherie Blair said that in Afghanistan under the Taleban, ‘if you wear nail polish you can have your nails torn’. There was a flurry of press stories about rivalry between Mr Blair and Mr Gordon Brown, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who, the Financial Times said, ‘shouted and swore’ after a meeting with Mr Blair. Consignia, as the Post Office now calls itself, plans to abolish second deliveries and to charge extra to customers who want post delivered before 9.30 a.m. The General Medical Council found there was no case to answer by a doctor who had been accused by Worcestershire Health Authority of serious misconduct for giving single injections instead of a joint one for measles, mumps and rubella. The Prince of Wales wore an eye-patch after getting sawdust in his eye while sawing a tree at home in Gloucestershire. A tongue-piercer was fined by a Scottish sheriff for being drunk while practising at a rock festival.

A cinema in Kabul showed the first film since the takeover by the Taleban, a tale of mujahedin resistance to Russian occupation, watched by 600 men; women were not admitted. Mrs Laura Bush said that in Afghanistan ‘the Taleban threaten to pull out women’s fingernails for wearing nail polish’. An unopened letter to Senator Patrick Leahy, postmarked on 9 October in Trenton, New Jersey, was found to have shed 23,000 anthrax spores into a plastic evidence bag. General Colin Powell, the American secretary of state, said that Palestinian children should not be shot and that Israeli settlement on Palestinian territory was an obstacle to stability. The Democratic League of Kosovo won the largest share of votes in elections, allowing its leader, Mr Ibraham Rugova, to become President. The Socialist candidate and former communist, Mr Georgi Parvanov, was elected President of Bulgaria, whose Prime Minister is the former king, Simeon Saxe-Coburgotski. Followers of a deposed Anglican bishop, Peter el-Berish, unfrocked for seducing two Nuba women, attempted to storm Khartoum episcopal cathedral during a Sunday service held by the Rt Revd Bulus Idris Tia, whom he had wrongly accused of being a sorcerer.

Afroman takes the #1 in Germany with "Because I Got High." Why? Kylie holds the top in Italy. Mary J Blige is still top of the pile in the US, though Garth Brooks takes the top album honours with "Scarecrow." Nickleback and Enya continue to dominate rock and adult radio, respectively.

Enrique Iglesias' "Hero" takes over from Alicia Keys' "Fallin" as the Biggest Song On The Planet Right Now; it's also the top player in Canada. Kylie spends her fifth week leading the way in non-English speaking markets.

The Fab Fifty	Last	Ps	Last	The Weaver 21
have you ever s club 7	NE	01	1	that day natalie imbruglia
fallin alicia keys	1	02	3	im a slave for u britney spears
emotion destiny's child	5	03	2	standing still jewel
queen of my heart westlife	3	04	--	last night strokes
if you come back blue	9	05	7	fallin alicia keys
because i got high afroman	2	06	4	emotion destiny's child
im real jennifer lopez	4	07	8	what would you do city high
cant get you out of my mind kylie	7	08	5	turn off the light nelly furtardo
family affair mary j blige	6	09	11	stuck in a moment u2
rapture iiie	8	10	9	follow me uncle kraker
free lighthouse family	15	11	13	just can't last natalie merchant
hard to make it happen riva	NE	12	14	superman five for fighting
walk on u2	NE	13	15	new york new york ryan adams
what would you do city high	11	14	6	in the end linkin park
hey baby dj otzi	10	15	10	chop suey system of a down
do wah diddy dj otzi	NE	16	12	whenever wherever shakira
whats going on all star tribute	13	17	19	walk on u2
im a slave for you britney	12	18	--	freelove dep mode
hit em up style blu cantrell	14	19	--	sixty mph new order
hero enrique iglesias	23	20	--	closer to me five
ugly bubba sparxx	18	21	20	teenage dirtbag wheatus

So, S Club 7 have their third consecutive #1 hit, following last November's "Never Had A Dream Come True" and May's "Don't Stop Moving." Like the November hit, this is released to benefit the BBC's Children In Need appeal, is written by early 90s hitmaker Cathy Dennis, and is a soft ballad. It took me some months to appreciate NHADCT, and the same could be true here.
New peaks for the Child and Blue, also for the Family and Enrique.
Riva's record features guest vocals from Dannii Minogue. The younger sister of Kylie, famed for her puppy fat and oh-so-generous prizes on GOING LIVE, is staging the third comeback of her ten year career.
U2 launch the fourth single off their album. If this fails to climb into the top 10 next week, it'll be the first to miss since "Please" in Sept 97.
DJ Otzi falls into the fatal trap of following up a novelty record too quickly. The rule of thumb: if the original is still remembered, it's too soon. If the original is still charting above the follow-up, it's *way* too soon.

Lower: Dance And Shout (22), the re-released first single from Shaggy's "Hot Shot" album. This cracked the top 10 in the US in summer '00, but was passed over in the UK in favour of "It Wasn't Me." It's the first of four releases to miss the top 10.
Paid My Dues (26), the first single from Anastacia's new album. Unremarkable.
You Give Me Something (31) Jamiroquai always gives us something. The zeebs.
60 Miles An Hour (44) New Order's second single off their "Get Ready" album is yet another classic. Add it to the box set...
Feelin' Good (45) Indie darlings Muse cover Nina Simone. It works, after a fashion.
Black Black Heart (49) I'm yet to hear David Usher's second hit.
Climbing to a new peak: Nickleback (27), Backstreet Boys (34), Lenny Kravitz (35), Five For Fighting (36), Creed (38), N'Sync (40), and Pink (41).

New to the Weaver 21: The Strokes, who should have appeared last week (Heck, I've only been doing this a few months, the odd error will creeep in...) Depeche Mode, with another killer track from their album. New Order, doing what they do best. And Five, splitting in style.