Take a Cyber Cigarette Break, why don't you?

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas ...

Christmas trees are lighting up throughout NYC this week.

After the closing bell on Monday, the switch was flipped on a 65-foot Norway spruce outside the New York Stock Exchange. Nearly 100,000 holiday lights are also shining Downtown at the World Financial Center's Winter Garden, as part of the Festival of Light and Sound.

Across the street, a 32-foor Balsam fire was installed on the World Trade Center site, and it will be lit in a ceremony next week.

The annual Lincoln Center tree-lighting also went off without a hitch Monday.

Yesterday, Mayor Michael Bloomberg presided over the lighting of the Christmas tree in City Hall Park.

The most famous tree-lighting, in Rockefeller Center, is set for 7 p.m. today. More than 30,000 lights strung on the 76-foot Norway spruce there will be switched on, with a slate of musical performances as well.

If you can't make it to the ceremony, the tree will be lit from 5:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. every day through January 5.

Dems: Clark for V.P. in '04

The Democrats don't appear to have an outstanding presidential candidate for 2004 — but they may have an excellent choice for veep: Retired General Wesley Clark. The 57-year-old former Supreme Allied Commander in Europe has tried to downplay his partisan loyalties, but the facts suggest he harbors Democratic political ambitions. [more]

A military man to take on a wartime president? That's a thought. Without risks, there are no rewards.

Fatal Attraction

Rolf Eden, a Berlin property tycoon, former nightclub owner, and all-purpose celebrity, says he is offering $125,000 to any woman, from anywhere in the world, who can kill him with sex.

"My real desire is to die on a lady, while making love," Eden said. "A lawyer has my will, and in my will I have $125,000 for this lady."

Eden says that even at age 72 he is fit as a fiddle, and ready for love. He claims he will pay for an unspecified number of women to fly to Berlin from various parts of the world, for a couple of days of sexual activity, providing they fit his criteria.

Read the story Here (Via ABC News)

Can't blame the man for wanting to come and go at the same time.

Supreme Court Watch

The Supreme Court re-entered the debate over affirmative action yesterday, agreeing to decide if minorities can be given a boost to get into public universities.The court will decide by next June if race can be used in college admissions, an issue that the justices have dealt with only once before, in a cloudy 1978 ruling that led to more confusion.

"It is hardly an exaggeration to say that the court's decision in these cases will directly affect the lives not only of this generation of students but of generations of students to follow," Theodore Shaw, counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, told justices in a filing on behalf of black and Hispanic students.

I think it's appropriate for The Supreme Court to take on this issue if for no other reason than to begin sorting out the current confusion of legal opinions on affirmative action. If the justices rule that there is a compelling societal interest in pursuing diversity for the educational benefits it confers, I'm certain that Americans will benefit as a result.

Love, Sweet Love

A separatist group operating in north-eastern India has decided to no longer accept women into their ranks. The organization gives a very simple explanation: there have been too many instances when male terrorists fell in love with female members and gave up the armed struggle. [more]

Give me a break.

MTV's New Generation

Five years ago, MTV’s ratings were flatlining as music videos started to look like a relic of the eighties. Now it’s the envy of every other network, spawning The Osbournes, Jackass, and a score of other offbeat—and wildly popular—offerings. How’d it happen? Call it chaos theory, managed (barely) by two of television’s unlikeliest executives. Man, this could be chaos. [more]

Fighting Whites

Remember these guys well. they're back in the news.

What started out as an attempt to shame a local high school into dropping a mascot name viewed as racist has raised at least $100,000 for scholarships for Indian college students

They raised it all by selling more than 15,000 shirts and hats ... Hey, you even get to pick your own Logo design.

The spy inside your home computer

So-called "parasite programs" are logging what you do online and, like a nest of busy gossips, sharing the information with anyone who will pay to listen. Most parasite programs divide into two categories:

"adware" - programs on your computer that fling pop-up ads at you, install toolbars full of adverts or hijack searches and web use; and

"spyware" - more underhand, these devices surreptitiously watch what you do, steal personal information and dispatch it across the web.

What they have in common, is that they quietly download onto your computer while you are online ... Sometimes without your permission [more]

Bush and the Environment

In the midst of all the talk about war, terrorism etc. Blogger Robert Byrd reminds us of an important issue, that is also worthy of inquiry.

While we were looking away, Bush has slowly begun to dismantle environmental protections. Over the last two weeks the administration has taken action relating to logging and clean air that will negatively affect us for years to come.

fear that these changes are only the first of many. We can't allow Bush and headline media to distract us from what is really happening. The world that Bush is creating is not the one that I envision for my children and grandchildren.