Get into Harvard.

Beefing up your resume to get into a competitive college is SUMMA CUM HOT! The kind folks at whistleaway.com will teach you how to play the Irish Tin Whistle for FREE. Stick it on your college app, and maybe you'll be strolling among the ivy soon.

Shiny Happy Games

Happy is GLEEFULLY HOT. According to the psychologists that created them, the games at mindhabits.com can reduce stress and boost confidence. Hey, they're free to try. And its certainly better than lying on a couch complaining how your parents didn't love you enough for 50 minutes.

Ph for Phake

Fake photos are LINDSAY-LOHAN-LEVEL HOT. And one program can take all the credit - Adobe Photoshop. This program is so powerful at faking photos that its very name has become a verb and an adjective - from fashion models Photoshopped flawless skin to your nephew's obsession with Photoshopping Katie Couric's head on various nude bodies.

Well, now those fine folks at Adobe will give you the famed program - for FREE! Well, its not really Photoshop, it's a new product called Photoshop Express. But, then again, your cat can't really water ski, now can it? If fake Photoshop, er, I mean Photoshop Express isn't powerful enough to fake your pictures and you don't want to shell out any dough, you can always turn to open source. The GNU Image Manipulation Program is an open source photo retouching program supposedly similar to Photoshop. Photo by Kitty de Medici

Feed the Need

Helping people is HOT! This one is real simple. People are hungry, a few clicks on your computer can help them. Just go to freerice.com and donate rice at no cost to you while brushing up on your pathetic vocabulary skills.

Little boy you're a man, little man you're a king.

"All cultures have a similar rite of passage. Your people have a Bar Mitzvah."
John Redcorn, "King of the Hill", discussing a Native America vision quest

Coming of age, whether through a Native American vision quest to or a Jewish Bar Mitzvah, is HOT. Goodbye childhood, hello adult world. For those about to rock the Torah for the first time, we salute you. Plan your big day with a FREE JNF B’nai Mitzvah Program kit.

Stick it to the Man Monday...FREECYCLE

Here's a HOT idea. Instead of throwing the things you don't need away (where exactly is away?), why not just give it to people who need it? And instead of buying more useless crap from the local store, why not just take it from people who don't need it anymore? It's called FreeCycle. And as the name implies, its FREE. They have everything from speakers to sprockets.

Automatic for the People

R.E.M. was HOT, then they weren't, but now they are again. Check out the ups and downs of R.E.M. or any of your favorite bands in the FREE SPIN Archives.

Is this man a Socialist?

Socialism has become RED HOT in America. In recent weeks, the Bush Administration and his Republican appointees have used the government to intervene in our capitalist economy to the benefit of Bear Stearns, J.P. Morgan Chase, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and other major mortgage and Wall Street corporations. (To learn more, read David Wessel's excellent article in yeterday's Wall Street Journal, "Ten Days that Changed Capitalism")

But, wait, you say? Aren't these the same people, who along with their talking heads, deride the government with every breath and hold the markets up above all? Well...yes, they are. And, if they support government intervention in the financial markets, why not some place where it might really make sense, like health care? Universal care could save money and provide better care by leveraging preventive treatment that would keep many (especially the uninsured) out of the very expensive and overcrowded ERs.

If all this is too hard to understand, here's a Seussian explanation (with all due respect to the great Dr.'s "Grinch"):
And the Bush, with his economy ice-cold in the crunch,
Stood puzzling and puzzling: "But what of my hunch?
They borrowed and lended with no thought of risk!
The economy's not self correcting and no longer brisk!"
And he puzzled three hours, till his puzzler was sore.
Then the Bush thought of something he hadn't before!
"Laissez faire," he thought, "doesn't work well alone.
Pure capitalism...without government...is way overblown!"

The Race For and Of the Next President

The Presidential election is RED HOT this year...HOTTER than in any year in recent memory. People actually seem to care and vote this year, sparking record turnout. A huge reason why is Barack Obama, one of the most dynamic presidential candidates since JFK. Check out his speech on race. He handles this third-rail subject with grace, dignity, respect, and insight.

Doctor...doctor...doctor...doctor.

Health insurance is a HOT topic lately. There's a huge movement towards free, universal health care. Until the day when everyone qualifies for a sane health care system, let's all look with envy at those who already have universal health care. I'm not talking about the French, British, or Canadians. I'm talking about Americans that live and walk amongst us...seniors. If you know anyone lucky enough to have Medicare, let them know about SHIPtalk. The State Health Insurance Assistance Program provides free counseling and assistance to those with Medicare.

Pray Over IP

Expressing your faith is HOT. And even hotter than Voice Over IP phone service is the Pray Over IP service which lets you call, write, or send a video of your prayer which is then transmitted over the Internet for FREE and broadcast at a Holy site of your choosing.

Stick it to the Man Monday...HEALTH CARE

Newsflash...health care in America is a mess! There are many reasons, but one of the biggest is private, for-profit health insurance companies. We really don't have a "health care" system at all, what we really have is an "insurance company profit" system, because the end result of our system is not to produce healthier people, it's to produce insurance corporation profits. Simply put, the less health care they provide, the more money insurance companies make. And while insurance companies provide no actual health value, it is estimated that 31% of American health care spending goes to insurance corporation bureaucracy, paperwork, denial-of-care investigators, CEO salaries, and shareholder profits. By having universal health care, not only would we cut out the middleman, we would also be able to provide preventive care to everybody (which is much cheaper than critical care) and ease the burden on our overwhelmed emergency rooms (which are the health care of last resort for many Americans). Being healthy has always been HOT, so stick it to insurance company CEOs and improve your own chance for better health care by clicking below.

You're Living in the Past, Man

March Madness is HOT, but if the brackets aren't breaking the way you'd hoped (I'm talking to you Florida and Ohio State fans), hop into the Wayback Machine and explore the Sports Illustrated Vault, a FREE look at a mythic time when your favorite team was experiencing better days. Photo By adobemac

Find Your Special Purpose in Life

Know thyself...or at least be able to fake it in a job interview. And make sure it's a job interview for a job you'll really love. Loving what you do and doing what you love is RED HOT. Of course, it's not always easy to know just what your special puprose is. To find out, or get as good of an idea as the Internet can give you, take a FREE personality test at keirsey.com to help you choose a career. Photo by bookish in north park

If you live here, you'll be able to fly...and see through walls

Real estate advertising is well known for ridiculous, over the top boasts. Just had to point this one out, as it's so over-the-top ridiculous...

After nearly a decade of planning, what is quickly becoming known as the most impressive and architecturally distinct master-planned community in St. Johns County is now even more undeniably extraordinary.

Whoa! Where do I sign up? For our random cookie-cutter subdivision in the suburbs is far superior to every other random cookie-cutter subdivision in the suburbs. It is everything, yet it is nothing. It is remarkably fabulous, yet distinctly luxurious. HA! Ridiculously over-the-top advertising hyperbole is NOT HOT. Feel free to email me your best examples using the link on the right. Photo By tlindenbaum

The only thing worse then junk mail is more junk mail

This goes out to all the business owners out there...the ones not working for The Man...the ones who are The Man. Sick of having to deal with junk mail from an ex-employee. Breaking up (or canning their lazy butt) is hard enough to do, you shouldn't be reminded of your ex everday with all their junk mail. Eco is hot, and being Logical is always good for business, so stop the flow of junk mail with the EcoLogical Mail Coalition. Hey, it's FREE. And they say you'll save at least $18 per ex you drop from the mailing lists. Nothing's hotter, or greener, than money in your pocket.

The Country's Gone Mad!

War? Famine? Global environmental destruction? No, of course not. What drives this country truly mad is...college basketball. And nothing's hotter right now than March Madness. Watch all the games for free at ncaa.com.

Stick It to the Man Monday presents...Ralph Nader

Every Monday on The Hot Minute is "Stick It to the Man Monday." As the name suggests, it's the day you can do one little subversive act, even while most of us are heading back to the box we call work. For the first "Stick It to the Man Monday," I had to choose Ralph Nader. No one has "stuck it" harder or longer than the original raider himself. So go to votenader.org and help Ralph stick it to corporate greed, corporate power, and corporate control. Photo by wickenden