Sharapova in French 16

Marai Sharapova is into the round of 16 in the 2008 French Tennis Open.

David Cook Wins American Idol

Cook, 25, who was tending bar and playing in a band before he auditioned for the singing competition, stood back to applaud rival David Archuleta, 17, and then bent over crying after host Ryan Seacrest said he had won by 12 million votes.

The dueling Davids garnered a record 97.5 million votes between them, smashing the previous record by 23 million.

Also, it was announced that seventeen-year-old Josiah Leming, known as the teary-eyed "American Idol" contestant who just missed making it through the show's Hollywood audition rounds, has signed with Warner Bros. Records for a record and publishing deal. He is to begin recording his album this week.

"Alex the Great" NHL Player of Year

Washington Capitals star left-winger Alex Ovechkin was named the 2008 National Hockey League player of the year by the Sporting News. Ovechkin picked up 250 of a possible 287 votes in a poll of players from around the NHL conducted for the sporting magazine.

The 22-year-old Russian led the NHL in goals with 65 to capture the league's Maurice (Rocket) Richard Trophy as the top goal-scorer and had 112 points to win the Art Ross Trophy as the league's leading scorer. Ovechkin led the league in power-play goals (22), game-winning goals (11) and shots (446).

Happy Mother's Day!!!

Happy Birthday Spam

Washington Post

Happy birthday, spam.

P.S.: Now go away.

It was 30 years ago this Saturday that users of Arpanet, a U.S. government-designed precursor to the Internet, logged onto their accounts to find what is considered the first piece of unsolicited commercial e-mail ever sent.

It was a pitch for a new computer. "We invite you to come see the 2020 and hear about the DECSYSTEM-20 family at the two product presentations we will be giving in California this month," read the missive, sent by a salesman named Gary Thuerk on May 3, 1978.

Thuerk's e-mail prompted an aggravated discussion among the service's users, the relatively small number of high-level academics with access to computers that then cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

"This is a clear and flagrant abuse of the directory!" one of the hundreds of users on Thuerk's recipient list complained in a public reply.

It's unclear at this point whether Thuerk was able to sell any computers through his then-novel approach, but both spam and spam prevention have grown into major industries since that day. Market research firm Ferris Research estimates that business will spend $42 billion fighting spam this year in the United States. That's up from $35 billion last year. ...read full article here...