if you’ve commented on a post recently and find that it’s not appearing, the reason is because I’ve turned on moderation for first-time commenters. this is thanks to to the recent wave of comment spam that’s been circulating (p0ker sites, mostly) on blogs, which are a pain in the ass to manage. this should add an extra layer of security to the comments-blacklist I already have installed, though if you frequently change names, you’ll have to wait until I notice the comment and approve it.

if you’ve posted before, you should have no problems.

this just in – star trek enterprise has been cancelled.

didn’t notice it was still on? yeah, neither did I. but apparently nerdy rabid trekkie fans were so provoked that they’ve taken to climbing out of their parents’ basements and rallying together. but I’m going to guess that won’t be enough, even for the likes of upn.

The campaign to save the show is headed by Trekkie Tim Brazeal. Brazeal, 42, is galvanizing thousands of fans worldwide to collect $32 million to pay for the cost of a fifth season of Star Trek: Enterprise.

Brazeal’s campaign to save the show is coordinated through TrekUnited.com and Save Enterprise. As of Thursday, TrekUnited.com had raised $42,000.

But the campaign claims to be very close to securing $3 million from three anonymous donors who helped fund a commercial space flight venture.

whoa, what? back up a minute there. the show costs $32 million to make? that kind of money could’ve saved the nhl season right there (so long as goodenow and bettman aren’t in the room). I could launch an XFL2 league with that kind of cash. starring he hate me, of course.

I saw a couple of episodes a few years ago, and apart from the korean chick, there didn’t seem to be anything worth paying attention to. the show is/was like some kind of weird pre-william shatner storyline. it’s like watching star wars: episode 1 every week. but strangely enough, things magically don’t look like they were made in the 60’s out of tin foil and peanut butter. so much for continuity.

upn seems to be taking a big risk on cancelling the show. on the one hand, it’s 32 million freakin’ dollars. on the other hand, you’ll lose a sizable, loyal demographic (single white male, 35-45 computer programmers, no doubt). if only they could create shows as great as veronica mars, they wouldn’t be having this problem.

one thing’s for sure, triumph is going to have a field day with this one.

I thought briefly about linking to the whole paris hilton-sidekick-hacking-thing on sunday, but it just didn’t seem worth anyone’s time… and that’s including all the worthless shit I usually link to.

seriously, if you haven’t seen her naked by now, you probably never will. which means either 1. you don’t care, or 2. you’re amish. either one is fine by me; adding to her notoriety as a b-list celebrity known only for her, uh, social skills only causes her to become more famous. so what’s the point in helping that along?

it’s sad that celebrity news so frequently pushes the real news out of the way. when matt drudge of the drudge report seemingly took chris rock’s joke in complete seriousness, he probably knew what he was doing. he wanted to fan the flames of sensationalistic journalism, and it worked. he managed to drag the mainstream media right into it. everybody should’ve known better, and even proving drudge was just plain wrong only helps him increase his visibility. look at the o’reilly factor. all he does is scream at people, right or wrong, and it gets ratings.

which brings me to the title of this post. we’re lucky to have freedom of speech protecting our views (most of the time, depending on the patriot act), but other countries aren’t so fortunate. that’s why today is Free Mojtaba and Arash Day, dedicated to two iranian bloggers arrested for speaking out against recent arrests of fellow iranian bloggers. so think about that while you’re all busy calling the celebrities in paris’ address book.

upgrade to wordpress 1.5 is finished, but due to the new template implementation, you may see some weird things in internet explorer until I can get the bugs ironed out. not that you should be using that shitty browser anyway.