Someone is selling a very precise and fully-tricked-out Back to the Future DeLorean time machine car on eBay, in “pristine” condition, can actually be driven, and has all the special effects including flux capacitor and time circuits. Vanity plate “OUTATIME” not available (too many letters anyway), instead it reads “BK2D80S.” For the ultimate geek who has everything. Looks like it would be fun to ride in, for about five minutes, and then the embarrassment would quickly overtake the novelty.

I mean, it’d be OK for a joyride, but really, can you imagine going shopping in it? Of course, it would probably be theft-proof; even if a car thief did want to steal it, it’s not like the police couldn’t track it down in ten seconds flat.

The eBay description does not guarantee flyability or accurate time displacement. Your mileage may vary.

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Speaking of movies, there’s going to be yet another remake of the The Seven Samurai, this time with a Chinese cast (Donnie Yen, Zhang Ziyi et al), plus George Clooney. Um, wha? According to the rumors, the film, budgeted at $100 million, will feature lots of Kung-fu action and digital effects. This is a movie that Harvey Weinstein (producer of Pulp Fiction, Lord of the Rings, Scream, and Scary Movie among others) has reportedly wanted to make for some time. Clooney is said to be taking the role of the lead samurai, portrayed by Takashi Shimura in the original. It’s anyone’s guess as to where and when the remake would be set, or how Clooney could fit in. One can only hope that it won’t be as terrible as it sounds.

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Supposedly another of Weinstein’s projects will be Fahrenheit 9/11 ½, a new film due out in 2007 (presumably after Sicko) by Michael Moore about the state of Bush’s America since the 2004 election. Make of it what you will.

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A very interesting birth: a child born in Shanghai with three arms–and it is difficult to tell which of his left arms is more developed than the other. While doctors debate which arm should be removed, another question is, should either arm be removed? The photo is not grotesque (unless that kind of thing especially bothers you), but what is unnerving is how similar it seems to all the pictures we’ve seen over the past years showing frogs being born with similar extra limbs. The next sign of environmental damage taking its toll?of it what you will.

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And finally, I did not know that you could be fined and even jailed by a court of law in Japan for disrupting a high school graduation ceremony. Apparently you can be. But I’ll bet you any amount you like that 65-year-old retired Social Studies teacher Katsuhisa Fujita was not fined ¥200,000 by the Tokyo District Court just because he was disruptive. My bet is that he would never have been arrested, tried, or fined had the disruption been about anything else but the Japanese national anthem and flag. Fujita’s crime was that he urged parents attending the ceremony to remain seated during the anthem as a way to protest Japan’s growing nationalism, which many see as represented by the government’s demand that the anthem and flag be displayed and mandatorily saluted at schools across the country.

The “tumult” caused by Fujita delayed the ceremony by all of two minutes, for which the prosecutors wanted the senior citizen thrown in jail for eight months. Which, one would presume, would convince everyone that Japan is not becoming a totalitarian state, because we all know that liberal democracies are renowned for throwing the elderly in prison for the egregious crime of free speech, especially when agitating against fascism. And with the prosecutors’ job done, Japan is again safe from 65-year-old Social Studies teachers trying to teach everyone about democracy.