On cash-for-recommendations in British bookstores (including Amazon).

Marcus Chown on why NASA is so excited about the Odyssey's success: This time they expect to find life.

On how Wall Street firms created Panama.

Pirates in Hong Kong are offering XP for a steep discount: HK$50 versus HK$2,330. (HK$1 is about 13 U.S. cents).

Landing sites for the Mars Exploration Rovers have been selected.

EFF's collection of sites which have been shut down or edited due to anti-terrorism concerns. [via the null device]

Gagpipe: Gathers satire from around the world. [via The Fruitlog]

The Adventures of Spyke Johnson: ASCII Archaeologist - a guided tour of NetHack.

Microsoft and Apple unveil new error codes for 2002.

Frederich Engels' view of Afghanistan in 1857. [via Metafilter]

Lehman Brothers and the Eurasia Group have started a joint venture to rate the political risk of emerging market countries through the Lehman Eurasia Group Stability Index (LEGSI), similar to what is already being done with financial stability ratings by Moody and S&P. Currently, LEGSI covers ten countries: Azerbaijan (49), Bulgaria (72), Croatia (62), Hungary (79), Indonesia (53), Poland (74), Russia (66), Thailand (66), Turkey (53), and Ukraine (57). All of these fall into the moderate (40-60) or high (60-80) stability range. Stories at Forbes and Moscow Times.