hackery

 My pal Andy likes to read ESPN.com at work. But I don't yell at him for being a slacker, because he's pretty crafty. For instance, he's a little angry that ESPN.com wants him to pay for some of its online content -- what is this, cable? Here, for instance, is a story (headline: "Top 5 Overrated NFL Prospects") that he wanted to see, which he clicked on from the homepage:
http://insider.espn.go.com/insider/benefits?redir=Finsider&id=1538808
That doesn't work -- it asks him to register. And pay. But he grabbed the content id from that URL and tagged it on a story that does work, to come up with this URL:
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfldraft/columnist?id=1538808
That's the story he wanted to read. That Andy. Now he knows the top 5 overrated NFL prospects.

 In other online hackery news, almost exactly a year ago, we had a laugh when Matt @ Metafiler discovered the 12-page Reagan obit newspaper insert that was readily available at the Scripps-Howard site. Today, someone at Fark.com found CNN.com's Reagan obit, plus Cheney, Fidel, Mandela, Bob Hope, and Nelson Mandela -- all dead. Of course it's gone now, but The Smoking Gun got screengrabs.

 I think this is new. The Amazon.com homepage has a box for "Web Search" that searches Google, but returns results in the Amazon environment.

 According to this Time article, Uday Hussein's email address is (was?) udaysaddamhussein@yahoo.com.

 Was I the only confused one to recently see the Mars Blackmon / Michael Jordan commercial? Looks like Nike is re-releasing the series (video).

 Slate's really on the ball with a piece on those fake Puma ads from three millenia ago. However, the news about the demise of the Partisan Review is new (and concisely written).

 Three new Liz Phair songs from her forthcoming self-titled album on her site.

 That's so nice. The army is celebrating Earth Day (for real).