SON SEALS dies at 62 due to complications of diabetes.

PARENTAL ADVISORY: Someone who may wish to remain anonymous tipped me to Ask Snoop, a site that shizzolates web pages into hip-hop lingo n' s**t. It's like having Barbara Billingsley on da airplane wit yo' a** at izzall times.

SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, Spam, Spam, Spam, rejected guilty plea and Spam.

THE BODY ELECTRIC: This one's for Craig O'Neill -- "Subway Robot Paints to Rush Tunes"

LISA MONTGOMERY, suspected of strangling a mother-to-be and cutting the baby from her womb, was nabbed --and the baby rescued -- through the internet.

HARDCORE PRIVACY: Yahoo! e-mail accounts are so protected that the family of a Marine killed in Iraq is being denied access to it.

GALLUP POLL: Online news gains on traditional media.

AP MEMBERS POLL: Top Ten Stories of 2004

FOUNTAINS OF WAYNE: "'All Kinds of Time" used for NFL promo; Two CDs planned for 2005.

IRAQ: Generally, you don't expect to find good news in a story headlined "Blasts Kill At Least 64 In Iraq's Holy Cities." But the quotes from Iraqis in the article are rather encouraging.

PAUL GIAMATTI, the star of Sideways (which may be the best movie of the year), is really cool.

SELF-ESTEEM: Boosting it actually may do more harm than good.

ANCIENT ROMAN REST STOP under a German bus terminal. Imagine how stinky that restroom is.

JIBJAB'S "THIS LAND" takes the honors at Atom Films for 2004. If you haven't seen it, it's still worth seeing.

ECOTOXICOLOGY: The "new science" that will cause someone to advocate banning toothpaste and shampoo -- most likely someone who doesn't use them enough now.