So, it has come to this. After weeks of falling lower and lower on the BoA depth chart, I am somewhat saddened to announce that this will be the final News Watch. The grueling BoA schedule just cannot keep producing top notch editions of NW like we did in the early part of 2005, when this column debuted. And rather than throw together half assed weekly perusals of the news cycle, we've decided that it is better to devote our time to more pressing matters. So, welcome to the News Watch finale.

This week, in the Hot 5 from the Debris Field, China looks for Disclosure, Stonehenge gets some recognition, a lady weds a dolphin, Malaysia loves Bigfoot, and Flutie his an ultrare dropkick. The impending fad status of the microchip is addressed in "Future News Now". Khyron takes a look at the Sin City Special Edition DVD. I look at the latest news from the Red Sox in "My Fandom : Year 2.5" Oscar is coronated Noory Story Showdown II winner. And, I look at the big news stories of '05 in a special editorial.

Thanks to everyone who has enjoyed News Watch over the past year. It has been a fun column to do, for the most part, but I also feel it never really got going like I'd hoped it could. I want to especially thank Lesley and Khyron for their contributions over the course of '05 for this column. You can still find top notch stuff @ their sites. Lesley's is The Debris Field and Khyron's is khyron.net.

Don't weep for News Watch. It may return someday in a different format, but for now, a one year run is all I'd really planned for it and, by the end of this year, it sorta sputtered out as BoA : Audio and SNP took most of my time away from the weekend, leaving precious little to devote to NW. Thanks for the ride, News Watch, it was fun while it lasted.

Future News Now

More RFID Propaganda: Computer chips get under skin of U.S. enthusiasts (infowars.com)

I've been predicting it ever since I'd heard Alex Jones predict it and now it is coming to fruition. Microchips in your body, they're cool now ! Oh crap.

We can only hope this popularity for "the chip" will extend only to techno nerds and people in their late 20's who haven't found a job yet.

Rest assured that someday when my kid comes to me to get "chipped", he will be thoroughly beaten or given a "time out". But, us noisy conspiracy theorists, cannot stand in the way of "progress" forever, so it looks like we are screwed.

Mikey Sklar, a 28-year-old Brooklyn resident, said, "It does give you some sort of power of 'Abracadabra,' of making doors open and passwords enter just by a wave of your hand."

The RFID chip in Sklar's hand, which is smaller than a grain of rice and can last up to 100 years, was injected by a surgeon in Los Angeles.

Tattoo artists and veterinarians also could insert the chips into people, he said. For years, veterinarians have been injecting similar chips into pets so the animals can be returned to their owners if they are lost.

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Posted @ Khyron.net, 1.5.6

Among the more dubious practices in Hollywood is the release of multiple DVD's for a single film under the guise of being 'special' or 'extended' in some way. Not so much dubious in that they don't include interesting or entertaining new features, but that I find myself owning several DVD's for the same movie. A quick glance through my DVD collection shows 2 Dawn of the Dead's (3 if you include the remake), 2 Saw's, and now one more duplicate: Sin City.

Voted as Khyron's favorite movie of 2005, I wont say much more on the merits of this excellent and highly faithful comic book adaptation, but directors Robert Rodriguez, Frank Miller, and Quentin Tarantino made one helluva cool movie.

So how does this new special edition DVD hold up? Pretty well despite a very annoying sound flaw.

First I'm going to talk about said flaw, because it really turned me off to the whole presentation of the film. This may not get on the nerves of others as it got on mine, but in the first of the Sin City stories (That Yellow Bastard, starring Bruce Willis and Nick Stahl), an ever-present ringing noise could be heard behind several pieces of dialogue. It went away before long, so didn't ruin the whole movie, but it drove me nuts trying to get to the bottom of it.

I went so far as to rewire my surround sound system to try to fix it--to no avail. I haven't ruled out the possibility that I got a bad disk, but I don't think that's the case. As the 2 disk set comes with a theatrical disk and an extended one--and the ringing is present on both.

Alright, so annoyances aside, the extra features here are dynamite. Most notable among them is the option to watch each story on it's own. In the theatrical version, the 3 main stories were intertwined with a short opening and ending sequence. Now you can choose to watch them individually and with deleted scenes added.

There's nothing pivotal that was added, but for the fan of the graphic novels, you'll notice a few items of interest. My favorite is a more light-hearted scene in which urban monster Marv visits his kindly mother's house.

Otherwise, the special features are all very Robert Rodriguez. There's a cooking lesson of all things, plus plenty of commentary (including one recorded at the film's first screening, so you can feel like your in a theatre), and even the option to watch the movie with green screens and no special effects. The later of these really helps you appreciate the work that went into creating the Sin City's unique visual appearance.

If you don't own Sin City yet, this is a must get DVD. If, however, you were a sucker like myself and eagerly bought the barebone's DVD already, you could probably do without it. But if you choose to get both, I'm pretty confident you wont feel cheated over owning two.

Rating: 4/5

Contact Khyron here : mjbrun@gmail.com

As we look out over 2006, things look mediocre for the Red Sox next season. The gist of what seems to be going on with the Red Sox is that they are dropped quite a lot of the stars who were on the infamous 2004 championship team. Gone are Kevin Millar, Bill Mueller, Doug Mirabelli, Mike Myers, and, of course, Johnny Damon.

So much can be said about the Damon story that hasn't, at least by me. The mood here in Boston was like no other. First, it was days before Christmas and we expected something big that week. Then, at 11 at night, when most folks had gone to bed or were about to head to the sack, the news breaks : "Damon signs with New York". The first general reaction was "What ?!", followed closely behind by a disgusted, "Oh, f**K".

What makes it worse, obviously, is that Damon is going to the hated Yankees. It's insane. Over the course of the next few days, Boston was generally crapping all over Damon, the Red Sox management, and New York. No one was immune from the hatred of the fans. Damon shaving his beard and cutting his hair was surreal and it all seemed like a bad dream.

This leaves the Sox with a huge hole in center field and still needing a shortstop. Apparently, they're set on starting Kevin Youklis at first, which I'm indifferent about. He'll need to prove himself to me, I'm in doubt of his defensive skills.

They did add two new guys playing second and third, Loretta and Lowell, respectively. I hear good things about them, but I also hear Lowell is overrated. The addition of Beckett to the starting pitching rotation is key and the only bright spot of an otherwise dismal off season. If he lives up to the hype, the Sox will have strong starting pitching, for sure. They still have problems with their relief pitching and I've not seem that addressed much in the off season, aside from holding onto Mike Timlin. Hopefully, some of those young guys they brought up at the end of last season can deliver as well.

Meanwhile, I'm interested in two other teams this offseason. First of all is the Toronto Blue Jays, who have made a boatload of big moves. They seem to see some unraveling in the AL East, despite the success of Boston and NY the last three years. Expect to see big things from the Blue Jays. I'm hopeful that they can act as spoiler in the Red Sox favor and put some hurting on the Yanks.

Along with the Blue Jays, I'm becoming a fan of the Dodgers. I see they have picked up lots of former members of the Red Sox, like Bill Mueller, Nomar Garciaparra, and the interesting Derek Lowe. They even signed the wacky manager Grady Little, who was run out of Boston after the 2003 playoff debacle. So, I'm keenly interested in seeing how the Dodgers turn out.

With only about 6 weeks until Spring Training starts, I'm hoping that the Sox can keep Manny, fill the holes in their roster, and turn into a force. I'm not as down on the team's prospects as some of those baseball "experts" out there, but I never trust those clowns anyway. It will be an interesting season, that's for sure.