As a blogger, my job is often to present news stories and provide commentary so as to begin a conversation. Sometimes, though, an article comes along where you don't have to do much talking. NPR released a fictional news story on April 20 on its "All Things Considered" radio program. The question they considered was simple: What if marijuana had been legal in the US for two years and was treated like alcohol in terms of taxation, regulation and who it could be sold to? What would the world be like?

You'll find only a brief blip about the turtle who swam to the Turtle Hospital on the news, but it's enough to stir up feelings of compassion and intrigue.

When you walk into a video game store, you know what you're going to get: a lot of first person shooters, sports games and fantasy RPGs. Very little variety. If these kinds of games appeal to you, great. If they don't, chances are you won't find something different for a very long time.

Now that the box office receipts are in, it's hard to believe that "Watchmen" once had a lot of buzz behind it.A week ago, the LA Times wrote that the film had a substantial drop in revenue, garnering $17.8 million in its second week from its opening weekend revenue of $55.2 million.

Cameroonian security forces have destroyed street stalls in the capital of Yaounde as part of an effort to clean up the city for a visit next week by Pope Benedict as part of his first official trip to Africa, according to a recent Reuters article. However, this leaves thousands of people without means of survival, and the Cameroonian government will not compensate them for their losses.

Cyberspace fascinates me, particularly because our culture's view of it is changing. When I was in high school, if I posted a picture of a classmate on my Web site, I'd often be asked to take it down or erase him or her from the picture. Now, of course, it's common to post pictures online on Facebook, and people concerned about privacy are more likely to "un-tag" themselves from photos instead of asking others to delete them.

What does Robert Frost have to do with Joaquin Phoenix? Precious little at first glance. And yet he may have everything to do with explaining, in part, our obsession with celebrities. Why do so many of us Americans find celebrities fascinating enough to read and talk about? I believe that when future anthropologists study today's popular culture, they will find the obsession with the lives of actors, musicians, politicians, and other famous figures to be a complex phenomenon.

The Academy Awards approach, and on February 22, we will see who walks away with the Oscars. It is true that these awards do not always honor the best films or performances of any year, but I believe the nominations have improved over the past five years. Now independent films and performances from around the world are more likely to be given at least a nomination, if not an award.

You can't make a story like this up. In fact, you really can't introduce it. So here it is: "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies", a novel scheduled for release in June 2009. While there is scant information on the novel, author (or is it co-author?) Seth Grahame-Smith estimates that 85 percent of the book is the original Jane Austen text of "Pride and Prejudice", with the other 15 percent being the zombie storyline

It used to be that you had to get media corporations on your side to get worldwide attention. Not anymore. If the news about this year's Super Bowl commercials are any indicator, we may be moving into an age where virtual marketing may not only be cheaper, it's more effective as well. By ads, I mean the ones that didn't make it to air, but are now floating around on the Internet for all to see. Consider the latest PETA commercial, which NBC refused to let air during the Super Bowl because it "depicts a level of sexuality exceeding our standards", according to Victoria Morgan, NBC Universal's advertising standards executive.