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.

Yes, there is a Turtle Hospital. You can find it in the city of Marathon in the Florida Keys. It is a charitable corporation funded by grants, foundations and personal donations. The hospital was founded in 1986 to help treat injured sea turtles, according to its Web site.

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.

A recent article in CNET indicates game designers are cognizant of this problem and are working to fix this by developing more innovative games. At the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, a contest on March 27, game designers worked for 36 hours to develop a game. This year, the concept was "your first time", or an autobiographical game about how the game designers lost their virginity.

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. This week, the film also had steep decrease in profits, making only $6.8 million in its third week. With its $60.6 million from overseas ticket sales, this brings the movie's totals up to about $160 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.

Source

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. It seems as if people are not as concerned about the consequences of posting personal information and photos on the Web.

I was reminded of this recently when I read about an English girl who was fired because she posted on Facebook that she was bored at work, even though she didn't name the company employing her.

"...I let my neighbor know beyond the hill;

And on a day we meet to walk the line

And set the wall between us once again..."

"Mending Wall" by Robert Frost

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.

Nevertheless, as with every year, there are wonderful films and acting that the Academy overlooks. Below are my selections of work from the previous year that I believe is worth your while to look at. If there is something you feel is missing from the list, please comment in the blog. Chances are I haven't seen it yet.

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. This text-hybrid turns the five Bennet sisters into zombie slayers and Mr. Darcy as a ninja expert, as they attempt to vanquish the zombies that have risen up in their village as the result of a plague.