IN YOUR FACE, EARTH SIMULATOR! USA! USA! IBM's Blue Gene/L tops the list of world's fastest supercomputers, bringing the coveted title back to our shores for the first time in three years. IBM's bad boy can make 70.72 trillion calculations per second, almost twice as many as NEC's girly man Earth Simulator. Meanwhile, my four-year old Dell desktop sadly did not make the list, probably slowed by all the Lindsey Lohan nipple slips shots clogging my Web cache.

JUST A HUNCH, MIND YOU: When Robert Zemeckis and Tom Hanks were getting set to read the first-day reviews of The Polar Express, I have a feeling they weren't expecting to see the phrase 'airborne scrotum' anywhere.

Manohla Dargis' NYT review touches on some interesting issues on the limits of computer animation and the artistic divide between imaginative animation v. that which seeks heightened realism, and is worth a minute of your time.

THIS DATE IN NBA HISTORY: Twenty years ago today, Dr. J and Larry Bird had a little to-do.

CELEBRATE DEMOCRACY with a brand new ALLOTTFMA-approved Bi-Partisan Party Game (or ALLOTTFMAABPPG for short), inspired by the news today of the Attorney General's resignation. To play, complete the following lead-in for an article from a 2007 edition of your favorite Infortainment Periodical (revealing if it's E!, The Economist, CNN, TNN or whatever):

"According to the 5-4 decision handed down by the Supreme Court today, _______ will _________ or _______. Mr. Justice Ashcroft, writing for the majority, noted that '_________________________'."

Democracy works. Let the healing, and the expenditure of political capital begin.

WE DON'T NEED ANY CHARACTERS AROUND TO GIVE THE JOINT MORE ATMOSPHERE: Bravo takes a page out of the VH1 playbook with an upcoming five-night countdown of the Top 100 TV Characters of All Time. I can't find the list online anywhere (the link, to a USA Today article reveals some of the picks), but no doubt closer to the Nov. 22 air date it will pop up. The top 10 is under wraps, but here, off the top of my head, is my biased suggestion:

1. George Costanza
2. Homer Simpson
3. Ted Baxter
4. Marcia Brady
5. Archie Bunker
6. Barney Fife
7. The Fonz
8. Larry Sanders
9. Fox Mulder
10. B.A. Baracus (I used to edit A-Team episodes into best of Mr. T highlight tapes in the pre-driver's license/girlfriend days).

Of course, you, gentle reader, can come up with a better list, and for that we have the comments section.

DENNYCRANE: I have not had a ton of time this fall to check out the new tv shows -- no Lost, only occasional Desperate Housewifery, but I have been around a tv most Sunday nights to watch Boston Legal.

It is by no means great television -- it is neither gripping as drama nor as funny as other David E. Kelley works. But it burrows nicely into the ethical dilemmas of contemporary legal practice, and James Spader and William Shatner eat so much scenery you'd think they were at the Bellagio Buffet.

Also, the show marks the return to network series tv of Rene Auberjonois, so good as a pissy little douchebag in Benson twenty years ago, and in the same role today as the firm's managing partner.

It's all good. While never being compelling, it sure manages to hold your attention for an hour. Worth watching when the football game's bad.

HEY, IT'S THAT BALD, NOT PARTICULARLY LIKABLE GUY! Reviewing this week's TV, I have a H!ITG! submission. With appearances on "Jack and Bobby," in a recurring role as Pres. McAllister's James Carville, "Joan of Arcadia," as a manipulative litigator representing the Girardi family, and "Without a Trace," as a skeevy photogapher, this week, Evan Handler has been that guy. You've assuredly seen him in something, be it his work as millionaire Shrug on the underrated 90s comedy "It's Like, You Know", or his work as Charlotte's unlikely divorce lawyer/Prince Charming on "Sex & The City." He's also shown up on "The West Wing" (as a political consultant working with Ron Silver) and on the late, lamented, "Ed" as Stuckeyville institution "Dr. Crazy," or maybe in the 2000 "Three Stooges" telemovie as Larry.

Handler almost always plays a variant on the same character--a brash and not particularly likable (at least at first) fellow who's smarter than you and he knows it. However, usually, although not always, Handler's character turns out to have a heart of gold and is willing to use that brain to help, and there are few actors that do comic intellectual exasperation as well as him. Unlike a true "H!ITG!," Handler hasn't shown up in a ton of movies, but his ubiquity on television makes him worthy of the title.

So for this week, Evan Handler, you are that guy.