THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:

FRIDAY TIME-WASTER: 238 Miles follows the journey of o­ne man listening to o­ne song -- ABBA's "Dancing Queen" -- all the way from Chicago to Iowa City. In Quicktime.

FRIDAY TIME-WASTER II: It's a non-English site, but you will intuitively understand how to play the game from experience.

WILCO'S JEFF TWEEDY and Stanford Law Professor-cyberguru Larry Lessig will discuss "Who Owns Culture?" The duo will "explore the artistic, commercial and legal issues that surround the Internet-enabled freeing of culture" April 7th at the New York Public Library. Sounds very Royal Tenenbaums, doesn't it?

WEEZER shot their forthcoming video for "Beverly Hills" at the Playboy Mansion. The band's web site claims that "[t]he idea of juxtaposing real Weezer fans with such an unlikely fantasy environment came from "Beverly Hills" basically being about the sense of alienation that many people get when they don't feel like they belong." Hanging out with Playmates had nothing to do with it.

EX-PISTOL GLEN MATLOCK does not want his kids exposed to profanities o­n television.

CATS AND DOGS can now get prescription eyewear.

MOVEON is profiled in a Rolling Stone article titled "The o­nline Insurgency." "Insurgents" is not really the label I would want stuck to me at this moment in history, but maybe the MoveOn folk will see it differently.

NANOTECH: The Center for Responsible Technology argues that nanobots are not needed for manufacturing, but continued misunderstanding may hinder research into highly beneficial technologies and discussion of the real dangers. Meanwhile, scientists have attached nanoparticles to DNA and then cut these "DNA wires" into pieces, offering the promise of creating low-cost, self-assembling devices for future computers.

GEENA DAVIS FOR PRESIDENT: On television, maybe. Better looking than Martin Sheen, definitely.

THE HEIMLICH MANEUVER turns into a drug bust.

THE BEST PART OF BREAKING UP is when you're publicizing it. Denise Richards and Charlie Sheen? Done. Katie Holmes and Chris Klein? Done. J-Lo? Not done attacking Ben Affleck.

EDUCATION BLOGGING: The fourth Carnival of Education is o­nline.

SYRIA UNDER PRESSURE to leave Lebanon from Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Russia.

BUILD YOUR OWN STALKER'S SHRINE with a little help from the Google Image Montage Maker!

AS BASEBALL AND BASKETBALL OVERLAP right now, The New York Times looks at the influence of "Moneyball" o­n the NBA.

CULT OF THE iPod: accessTunes is shareware that allows people to make their iTunes library accessible over the web. Seems like a security hole to me! Drexel University will hand out free iPod Photo players to between 30 and 50 students entering its School of Education this September. Perhaps they can dress their devices to look like Chewbacca. Finally, fishbowl LA speculates that God probably has an iPod.

THE FEDERAL ELECTION COMMISSION AND BLOGS may collide in the near future. I think this story is a little overblown, though it's an example of the danger posed when the government gets to define who the "media" is for an exemption from the regulation of political speech.

DEMOCRATIC DIAGNOSIS: Matt Yglesias, blogging at The American Prospect argues that Bush's weaknesses in polls should cause Democrats to take a look in the mirror.

KUDOS TO WARNER BROS. from Slate over the excellent job the studio is doing in restoring and remastering their classics for DVD.

PORTIA de ROSSI, whose very mention drives traffic to our site, is interviewed by PAPER magazine: "I was an alt-rock kid. My roots are in the Pixies, PJ Harvey, Dinosaur Jr., Sonic Youth. The o­nly time I've been starstruck is when I met Kim Gordon last year. I could barely speak. She was kind of a hero to me growing up -- a talented, ballsy chick."

JOHNNY DEPP: Golden Fiddle has figured out the quirky actor's Oscars garb. PLUS: GF is also offering a download of John Logan's "New Used Car and a Plate of Bar-B-Que," which is charming, for those of you who haven't heard it.

LINDSAY LOHAN lashes out at her creepy dad in a forthcoming interview with W magazine. But she doesn't rule out doing a reality show with him.

CNN: Its ratings are tanking.

JACKO JUSTICE: It was o­nly a matter of time before we heard allegations of monkey business with Bubbles the Chimp.

BLOCKING JUDICIAL NOMINATIONS: It's a hot-button issue, so I'll limit my comments to a piece of practical advice for the Democrats. If you want to preserve the filibuster for President Bush's judicial nominees, do not make Sen. Robert Byrd your point man. People are bound to point out that Byrd set the Senate record for filibuster, speaking for 14 straight hours against the Civil Rights Act of 1964. That's not a good ad for filibusters. Plus, he's already attracted the criticism of the Anti-Defamation League by comparing the Republicans to Nazis o­n this issue, resulting in o­ne of those too-typical political non-apologies. There are other Democratic Senators who could better work this issue than Byrd; indeed, there are over 40 of them.