'Best of TBH Politoons'
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
RICHARD BRAND: Forget Dubai -- worry about Smartmatic instead (miami.com)
The greater threat to our nation's security comes not from Dubai and its pro-Western government, but from Venezuela, where software engineers with links to the leftist, anti-American regime of Hugo Chávez are programming electronic voting machines that will soon power U.S. elections.
JOHN CASSIDY: RELATIVELY DEPRIVED (newyorker.com)
How poor is poor?
SASHA FRERE-JONES: Mariah Carey's record-breaking career (newyorker.com)
Mariah Carey is thirty-six years old, and barring a debilitating illness, or another movi as bad as "Glitter," her 2001 vanity project, sh will likely break the world record for the mos No. 1 songs before she turns forty. The Beatle had twenty, and Carey is currently tied wit Elvis Presley for second place, at seventeen.
Beverly Carol Lucey: Drowning in Jessicas (irascibleprofessor.com)
Our university is growing rapidly and administrators are onto a simple math equation: if we just change the number of students allowed in a section from 20 to 27, we won't have to hire as many new lecturers. Result? Fewer opportunities for students to make themselves known in class discussions, fewer papers assigned to assure instructor sanity, especially when some are saddled with five sections of writing, fewer people for students to reach out to for recommendations.
Video: Female and Male
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Some sun, but more weather is moving in.
No new flags.
Oscar Swag Bag Nets $45,100
George Clooney
George Clooney's swank Oscar swag bag has fetched thousands at auction.
Clooney donated the bag to the United Way, and Wednesday it sold for $45,100 in an extended online auction that began March 21, organization spokeswoman Sheila Consaul said.
The winner would only be identified as a family from Birmingham, Ala., Consaul said.
The money will benefit the United Way's hurricane response and relief recovery Fund, Consaul said.
George Clooney
Control Up to Viewers
TV Content
An overwhelming majority of voters believe that viewers and not the government should make decisions about what is appropriate to watch on television, according to a poll conducted for the group TV Watch.
A telephone survey of 501 registered voters found that 82 percent said they would prefer to see individuals exercise personal choice over what they see on TV, with 12 percent favoring government regulation, TV Watch said Thursday.
While a majority of people believe there are always those who find something offensive on TV, 87 percent said they don't think the interests of a few should dictate television content, the survey found.
TV Content
First Wave Hits Halifax
Juno Festivities
Classical soprano Measha Brueggergosman is so excited about this weekend's Juno festivities that she laced up Thursday to practise for a charity game - even though she's never played hockey. "It's an unlikely marriage, hockey and opera," Brueggergosman admitted as she prepared for an on-ice workout.
Proceeds from the game, to be played Friday evening, will go to MusiCan, a foundation which helps buy instruments for school music programs.
The Juno awards will be handed out over two nights: Saturday during an industry-only dinner and on Sunday during a televised TV show.
Juno broadcaster CTV announced Thursday the show has been picked up by several MTV stations, including ones in the U.S., Italy, Portugal and China. In the U.K., music fans will be able to view the show via VH1.
Juno Festivities
Chinese Version In Limbo
Rolling Stone
The Chinese edition of American rock and roll magazine Rolling Stone does not have proper authorization, an official said, throwing the venture into limbo after just one issue.
"Rolling Stone's cooperation with Chinese partner Audiovisual World wasn't authorized by the General Administration of Press and Publications and has been halted," said an official at the Shanghai Bureau of Press and Publications.
Hong Kong-based One Media had been chosen to publish the magazine under license, with Audiovisual World as its local partner.
Rolling Stone
Book Required Reading
Michael Palin
A travel book written by a former Monty Python comedian will become required reading in high school geography classes, Britain's school minister said Thursday, as the government seeks to boost interest in geography.
"Himalaya" follows Michael Palin's 1,800-mile, six-month trek through India, Pakistan and China in 2003 and 2004.
Palin - known for the catch phrase "No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!" on the cult British TV comedy series "Monty Python's Flying Circus" - has filmed seven travel documentaries, including several for the British Broadcasting Corp.
The announcement by School Minister Lord Adonis follows the release of a report from the government's education watchdog, the Office for Standards in Education, which said that geography was the worst taught subject in British schools.
Michael Palin
Gets Walk O'Fame Star
George Lopez
George Lopez has been honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Lopez, star of ABC's "George Lopez," was joined by his wife, Ann, and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa at the ceremony Wednesday.
Ann, who donated a kidney to Lopez last spring, cited her husband's rough upbringing in Los Angeles, saying he "is that little blade of grass that got through the cracks and got out."
George Lopez
First Folio For Sale
William Shakespeare
A complete First Folio edition of William Shakespeare's plays, in prime condition and still in its 17th century calf leather binding, is expected to fetch up to 3.5 million pounds when it goes on sale in July.
Hailed by auctioneer Sotheby's as the most important book in English literature, the First Folio is credited with saving for posterity many of the bard's plays including "Macbeth," "Twelfth Night" and "Julius Caesar" which had never before been printed.
Printed in 1623, seven years after Shakespeare's death and containing 36 plays, only about 250 copies of the First Folio survive and most of those are incomplete.
William Shakespeare
Indiana Museum Closes
James Dean
The museum chronicling the short life of James Dean has closed after struggling financially since its opening in 2004.
David Loehr, owner of the James Dean Gallery, announced in December that he planned to close the museum, but an outpouring of contributions led him to give it another try.
It ultimately shut down at the end of February, though, and Loehr has packed up and placed the memorabilia in storage.
James Dean
Charged With Assault
Naomi Campbell
Supermodel Naomi Campbell was arrested at her Park Avenue home on Thursday and charged with assaulting her housekeeper, New York City police said.
A police spokesman said Campbell had been charged with second degree assault and the housekeeper was taken to hospital after the incident. The spokesman had no further details on the woman's injuries.
Naomi Campbell
President Questions Film's Veracity
'Hotel Rwanda'
Rwanda's president said the hotel manager that was the inspiration for the Hollywood film "Hotel Rwanda" does not deserve the hero status accorded him for saving Tutsis during the country's 1994 genocide.
Speaking to reporters a week before the 12th anniversary of the start of the mass slaughter, President Paul Kagame questioned the role that hotel manager Paul Rusesabagina actually played in the early days of the killings.
Kagame, a Tutsi whose rebel army ousted the Hutu government responsible for the massacres, suggested that Rusesabagina, a Hutu, had demanded cash from at least some of those he is credited with altruistically saving in the film.
'Hotel Rwanda'
Man Sues Over Burns
'Mission: Impossible'
A special effects technician alleges that negligence caused him to be severely burned in an explosion on the set of "Mission: Impossible III."
Steven Scott Wheatley says in a Superior Court lawsuit that he suffered third-degree burns over more than 60 percent of his body when a Chevrolet Suburban that was "rigged with pyrotechnical material" accidentally exploded and engulfed him in a fireball last June 6.
The lawsuit names as defendants Viacom, the parent company of Paramount Pictures; the owners and mangers of the Agua Dulce Movie Ranch; Cruise/Wagner Productions, the production company owned by Cruise and Paula Wagner; and various people on the set that day.
'Mission: Impossible'
Pleads Guilty To Drug Possession
Nora Aunor
Philippines movie and song star Nora Aunor pleaded guilty to drug possession but escaped jail after agreeing to enter a drug rehabilitation program, a court official said.
Aunor, 52, was arrested at the Los Angeles airport in March 2005 when security agents discovered eight grams of methamphetamine in her handbag.
On Wednesday she entered her plea with Los Angeles Superior Court Judge James Brandlin and agreed to allow probation officers monitor her progress at a court-ordered drug rehabilitation program, Superior Court spokeswoman Susan Matherly said.
Nora Aunor
CGOP Talker Tanks
Michael Eisner
Former Walt Disney Co. chairman Michael Eisner's star power failed to attract a large audience Tuesday in the debut of his CNBC talk show.
"Conversations with Michael Eisner" brought in just 95,000 viewers, according to data released Wednesday by Nielsen Media Research.
"Conversations" plunged from its lead-in, a repeat of comedian Howie Mandel's NBC game show "Deal or No Deal," which drew 518,000 viewers. The premiere was down 23% in viewers compared with CNBC's average in the time slot in the first quarter of this year.
Michael Eisner
3rd Friars Club Roast
Jerry Lewis
Jerry Lewis is used to making jokes. This summer, he'll bear the brunt of them.
The legendary comedian will take his third turn suffering insults and slams - all in good-natured fun, of course - at a Friars Club celebrity roast on June 9, it was announced Thursday.
Actor-comedian Richard Belzer will lead the roast, which will be presented at the Hilton Hotel in Manhattan.
Jerry Lewis
Palace Ruins On Salamis
Ajax
Among the ruins of a 3,200-year-old palace near Athens, researchers are piecing together the story of legendary Greek warrior-king Ajax, hero of the Trojan War.
Archaeologist Yiannis Lolos found remains of the palace while hiking on the island of Salamis in 1999, and has led excavations there for the past six years.
Now, he's confident he's found the site where Ajax ruled, which has also provided evidence to support a theory that residents of the Mycenean island kingdom fled to Cyprus after the king's death.
Ajax
Poland Seeks Name Change
Auschwitz
Poland wants to change the official name of the Auschwitz death camp on the U.N.'s world heritage directory to emphasize that it was run by German Nazis, not Poles, an official said Thursday.
The government requested that UNESCO, the U.N.'s educational and cultural body, change the name from "Auschwitz Concentration Camp" to "Former Nazi German Concentration Camp Auschwitz-Birkenau," Culture Ministry spokesman Jan Kasprzyk said.
Polish officials have complained in the past that foreign media sometimes refer to Auschwitz - a death camp located in occupied Poland where Nazi Germans killed 1.5 million people during World War II - as a "Polish concentration camp."
Auschwitz
Suffers Record Death
Caribbean Coral
A one-two punch of bleaching from record hot water followed by disease has killed ancient and delicate coral in the biggest loss of reefs scientists have ever seen in Caribbean waters.
Researchers from around the globe are scrambling to figure out the extent of the loss. Early conservative estimates from Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands find that about one-third of the coral in official monitoring sites has recently died.
"It's an unprecedented die-off," said National Park Service fisheries biologist Jeff Miller, who last week checked 40 stations in the Virgin Islands. "The mortality that we're seeing now is of the extremely slow-growing reef-building corals. These are corals that are the foundation of the reef ... We're talking colonies that were here when Columbus came by have died in the past three to four months."
Caribbean Coral
Stuck Cat Waves Paw for Help
'Wally'
A cat stuck in a wall at a house under construction initiated his rescue when he caught the attention of a prospective buyer by meowing and waving his paw out a small hole.
Collierville Animal Services supervisor Nina Wingfield thinks the cat, who had been stuck without food long enough for his ribs to be showing, is a lost pet. The owners have until Friday to come forward and claim him before he will be offered for adoption to someone else.
In the meantime, the animal shelter is calling him by a new name: Wally.
'Wally'
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