Saturday Notes

Adam Hochschild,"A Congo Lesson for Bush," LA Times, 22 December, suggests that, after reading King Leopold's Ghost: a Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa, President Bush might want to take some lessons from it. Thanks to michaelph at Progressive Historians for the tip.

The prosecution in the case of three Duke lacrosse players has dropped the charges against them. Lesser charges are still pending. Congratulations to our colleague, KC Johnson. See his response to developments at Durham-in-Wonderland.

Finally, from CityRag for the holiday season, the animation industry's 1994 choice of the 50 greatest cartoons with links to them on YouTube. This is an incredibly rich resource. I've looked at the top 15 so far and will be watching more of them this weekend."Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs" (1943), for example, is both unspeakably awful and incredibly good. Thanks to boingboing and idiosynchronic at Progressive Historians for the tip.