The nominees for the National Book Critics Circle awards for the publishing year 2004 in the categories of fiction, nonfiction, biography/autobiography, criticism, and poetry have been selected. The winners will be announced this March at the organization’s 31st annual awards ceremony. Most notable is a little memoir by the former …

I am sad to report the end of Cynthia Webb’s excellent tech and Internet column, Filter, for Washington Post.com. She said farewell on Friday: The tech sector has come along way since this column began two-and-a-half years ago. In 2002, pink slips were more common than initial public offerings, venture …

Right now the United Nations is webcasting a special commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camps. This is their offical statement: With everlasting regret for the past and “never again” resolve for the future, the United Nations today commemorates the 60th anniversary of the …

Who is the greatest American ever? Discovery Channel and America Online have teamed up to answer that question with a campaign that combines original television and online programming with interactive online features. The initiative, which kicked off January 13, will give Americans a chance to determine who will be named …

Just the other day I was musing on my ’90s experiences in the Cleveland music scene: DJing clubs and on the radio, writing two books and for various local and national publications, compiling a greatest hits collection for Cleveland. And since Cleveland really isn’t all that big a town (are …

An abandoned zebra grows up believing he is a racehorse, and, with the help of his barnyard friends and a teenage girl, sets out to achieve his dream of racing with thoroughbreds. The film stars the voices of Mandy Moore, Frankie Munoz, Snoop Dogg, Whoopi Goldberg, Dustin Hoffman, David Spade, …

Michael K. Powell, 41, will step down in March as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission after almost four years as the government’s top media and telecommunications regulator, he announced today. Poor Michael Powell, the son of Colin Powell, was in over his head as major domo of the FCC. …

Confirming the obvious, an analysis conducted by the the research firms responsible for the $10 million Election Day exit poll system (sponsored by ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, CNN and the Associated Press) verified they were the most inaccurate of any of the last five presidential elections, highlighted by “procedural problems …

There are an estimated 300,000 blogs in China, with thousands being added daily. The government is stepping up efforts to control their content. The OpenNet Initiative — a partnership of the Citizen Lab at the Munk Centre for International Studies, University of Toronto, the Berkman Center for Internet & Society …

There is nothing new or revelatory about what Richard Brookheiser says here about the forthcoming elections in Iraq and our general presence there, but he presents the case in an unusually concise and persuasive manner, addressing each one of the standard objections I have come across. This is why we …