I have to say I was rather impressed with Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, the American version of the British quiz show. Fox, of course, has its new rip-off, Greed. (You'll have to follow their links, they're disrupting deep linking.) WWTBAM lets you watch someone wrestle with their own inner forces. In true Fox fashion, Greed pits people against each other: big long term winnings only available through cooperation, with fairly large immediate cash incentives for spiting each other. When Other People Attack.

Perhaps I'm with the mindless media-crazed populus on this one, but I can't help but be intrigued. Greed is a much messier game than the straight and simple WWTBAM, seeming like Chuck Woolery is making up stuff as he goes along. But the video-game-like heartbeat music, the swift lighting changes, the long pauses and the dopey host making a big deal out of easy questions will get anyone worked up. And now worked up contestants can hurt people other than themselves.

I love strategically engineered products of commercial media. (Don't get me started on Pokemon...)

Academy Selects Five to Receive Screenwriting Fellowships [front door]. I'm not one of them.

I was never going to link to Mahir's home page, seeing as it was already on everyone else's blogs. But now that he's a phenomenon, I can no longer contain myself. As of Nov 4 1999 8:00pm PST, he's got 877826 hits on his counter. Like the author of the article, I too first viewed this page when the counter was around 10,000.

The gunman who shot four people, two fatally, in a Seattle shipyard area yesterday is now believed to have had deliberate and specific intentions. He remains at large. Buildings where I work are in a lock-down situation right now, as are area schools. (Seattle Times' front web page currently has a slightly scary picture of SWAT team members searching a trail on which I occasionally jog.)

President Clinton apparently made a weak attempt to sympathize, hitting two birds with one stone by expressing "profound shock and sorrow" for shootings in both Seattle and Honolulu in one sentence.

KIRO TV had pretty good coverage, the Seattle Times was impressed.

What a perfect time to pass an initiative that results in cutting funding for police and public health.