[Dilbert.Blog]
People keep telling me that I should respect the beliefs of others. That sounds entirely reasonable, at least until you think about it.

[SF Site]
F&SF's Hugo-nominated stories "Magic for Beginners" by Kelly Link, "The Calorie Man" by Paolo Bacigalupi, and "Two Hearts" by Peter S. Beagle available to read online.

[Regions of Mind]
Mapping religion in America using 2000 Census data on a county-by-county basis.

[The Progressive]
Now that most Americans no longer believe in the war, now that they no longer trust Bush and his Administration, now that the evidence of deception has become overwhelming (so overwhelming that even the major media, always late, have begun to register indignation), we might ask: How come so many people were so easily fooled?

[Los Angeles Times]
Christians sue for the right to gay-bash. And shouldn't the 1st Amendment entitle them to win?

[BBC News]
Bollywood star Salman Khan has been sentenced to five years in prison for poaching rare antelope. Several other leading actors have also been charged, including actor Saif Ali Khan and actresses Tabu, Neelam and Sonali Bendre, who are accused of accompanying Salman Khan on the illegal hunting trip.

[PR Watch]
Fake TV News: Widespread and Undisclosed: a multimedia report on television newsrooms' use of material provided by PR firms on behalf of paying clients.

[Yahoo! News]
Archeologists have discovered a huge 1,500-year-old pre-Hispanic pyramid in a working class district of Mexico City. The unnamed pyramid has the same sized base as the giant Pyramid of the Moon at Teotihuacan and, according to archeologist Jesus Sanchez, was built by the same people who constructed Teotihuacan between A.D. 400 and 500.

[Indian Life & Style]
Indian writers in English have carved out a niche for themselves in the literary world by dutifully focusing on an "ethnic" format. But do they run the risk of becoming passé by not widening the canvas of their creative imagination?

[Publishers Weekly]
Fantasy has conquered popular culture, and the successes are continuing to build in the final frontier: literary fiction. The blurring of borders signals a return to a broader idea of literature: Great writers have been incorporating fantasy, science fiction and horror in their fiction for a very long time.

[SF Gate]
Borders and Waldenbooks stores will not stock the April-May issue of Free Inquiry magazine because it contains cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that provoked violent tantrums among Muslims in several countries.

No, it's not an April Fool's joke, though one could certainly be forgiven for thinking it must be. Time to stop shopping at Borders and Waldenbooks.