Lo!

--Happy birthday to Charles Fort, born this day in 1874! While certainly not the first in his field, Mr Fort popularised the study of unusual phenomena through his books, "The Book of the Damned", "New Lands", "Lo!" and "Wild Talents". His love for the abnormal and overlooked lives on today in the UK publication "The Fortean Times".

--We at Oliver Towers believe that Mr Fort would have appreciated the following story: Dutch parliament members are considering a ban on unsolicited toe-licking after a series of incidents in which a man licked the toes of unsuspecting women sunbathing in Rotterdam parks. Because there is no law against toe-licking, police were unable to charge the man with a crime.

--Also worthy of mention alongside the good name of Fort is a candy being marketed in Japan as "Snot from the Nose of the Great Buddha". Though buddhist priests have objected to the name, they have been unable to flick the sticky treat from the marketplaces, as tourists have been picking the candy from the shelves as if it were gold.

--Here are a couple of trailers for upcoming anime films that we at Oliver Towers cannot wait to see here in the states (though hopefully free of Disneyfication). No, they're not in English, and no, you shouldn't care. Steamboy comes to us from the director of Akira and Metropolis, while Appleseed is based on the eponymous manga of Ghost in the Shell creator and author Masamune Shirow.

--As if there were ever any doubt of a correlation, JuliusBlog has compiled a timetable of terror alerts as compared to Bush's approval ratings. The results are...interesting, to say the least. We of the Tower are continually amazed at what can only be either the administration's belief that the citizenry genuinely accepts their balderdash, or the administration's arrogance of knowing that we don't buy it yet not caring that we don't.