'Best of TBH Politoons'
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Alice Walker: White People Have a Racial History Too
How dishonest it is to portray Obama as the only candidate with a racial inheritance.
Mark Morford: A hooker for every senator (sfgate.com)
Imagine a world with more sexually open, sensual, happily libidinous politicians. Wait, can you?
Ted Rall: Don't Move Past Bush. Start Over. (Maui Time Weekly)
We'll never, ever "move on" past George W. Bush -- unless we erase him from American history. Here's how.
Jim Hightower: NAME THAT DRUG! (jimhightower.com)
What does the word Prozac say to you? Or Viagra? Yes, they're brand names for widely used prescription drugs, but how did they get those names?
Jim Hightower: READ THE FINE PRINT (jimhightower.com)
It's time for another trip [space music] into the Far, Far, Far-out Frontiers of the Free Enterprise. Today, Spaceship Hightower takes you on a perilous journey into the dark hole of commerce known as: "Fine Print." Our intergalactic guide is Consumer Reports magazine, which always reads the fine print and reports on it monthly.
Kai Chang: My Favorite Liar
One of my favorite professors in college was a self-confessed liar.
Annalee Newitz: English is Dead (San Francisco Bay Guardian)
My glee in the destruction of my own spoken language isn't entirely inspired by knowing language history.
Carlin Roman: "African novel of the century: An interview with Chinua Achebe" (The Philadelphia Inquirer; Posted on popmatters.com)
Over a simple dinner of chicken breast, potatoes and ginger ale in his Hotel Palomar room, the great Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe explains that he's not sure when his appearance on "The News Hour With Jim Lehrer," from which he has just returned, will make it on the air.
David Patrick Stearns: Virtuosity and sneakers: Bocelli and adidas are in pianist Lang Lang's purview (The Philadelphia Inquirer; Posted on Popmatters.com)
The clothes are getting wilder. The hair is a testament to the gravity-defying properties of mousse. And now, Chinese pianist Lang Lang has made a collaborative recording with Andrea Bocelli. It's on a new compilation titled "The Magic of Lang Lang."
David Bruce: Wise Up! Authors (athensnews.com)
* John Adams insisted that Thomas Jefferson write the Declaration of Independence. To persuade Mr. Jefferson to do so, Mr. Adams gave a number of reasons: "Reason first - You are a Virginian, and a Virginian ought to appear at the head of this business. Reason second - I am so obnoxious and unpopular. Reason third - You can write 10 times better than I can."
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Overcast, but no rain.
Broadcasting From Darfur
Mia Farrow
As the world turns its attention to Beijing and the Summer Olympic Games, Mia Farrow will be broadcasting from a Sudanese refugee camp to highlight China's involvement in the region.
Farrow will spend the first week of the Beijing Olympics in August showing the poor living conditions of ethnic African refugees displaced by conflict with the Sudanese Arab-dominated government, the group Dream for Darfur announced Thursday.
The group criticizes China's role as Sudan's main trading partner, buying oil from Sudan and selling the country many of the weapons used to wage war on the agrarian tribal people of Darfur, said executive director Jill Savitt.
Dream for Darfur, along with partners Save Darfur Coalition and the San Francisco Bay Area Darfur Coalition, also wants world leaders to boycott the opening ceremonies unless the United Nations African Union Mission in Darfur, a peacekeeping mission, is fully deployed in the region.
Mia Farrow
Selling Video Clips
Paramount
Paramount Pictures' film vault is opening up in the virtual world.
Thousands of video clips from Paramount's movie library - ranging from "Footloose" to "Clueless" - will be available inside the virtual 3-D online worlds of There.com and vMTV, Paramount Digital Entertainment and Makena Technologies Inc. announced Wednesday.
There.com and vMTV members will be able to express themselves with seconds-long video clips of movie one liners - say, Danny Zucko's "Be cool, huh?" from "Grease" - with the service called VooZoo. The application from Los Angeles-based developer FanRocket was introduced on social-networking site Facebook last month and on mobile devices Tuesday.
The PG-13-or-tamer snippets will cost There.com and vMTV members about $1 and will play in a small window above avatars' heads inside the online realms. In addition to archive footage, Paramount hopes to use the application to virally market upcoming releases, such as "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull."
Paramount
Letter Sells For $3.4 Million
Abraham Lincoln
A letter written by late US president Abraham Lincoln in response to a children's petition to end slavery sold for a record 3.4 million dollars at auction in New York on Thursday.
The letter, an emotional response to a "Children's Petition to the president asking him to free all the little slave children in this country," dates from 1864 and was the highlight of a sale of historical American manuscripts.
The top lot, which was bought by an anonymous US buyer bidding by phone, set a record price for a US manuscript at auction.
However, several other top lots -- including a letter written by founding father and third US president, Thomas Jefferson, in which he reveals his concern over the health of then president George Washington -- failed to sell.
Abraham Lincoln
Desk & Chair Up For Auction
Charles Dickens
The desk and chair Charles Dickens used while writing "Great Expectations" will go up for auction in June at the London auction house Christie's.
The furniture is expected to sell for between $100,000 and $160,000.
The mahogany desk dates to the mid-19th century and bears a bronze plaque describing its appearance in Luke Filde's drawing, "The Empty Chair." The author's oldest daughter, Mamie, wrote in her memoirs that Dickens used the walnut chair and desk the night before he died in 1870. The desk has been in the family ever since.
The money raised will go to the Great Ormond Street Hospital. Dickens spoke at the hospital's first fundraising Festival Dinner 150 years ago and was a close friend of its founder, Charles West. Great Ormond Street Hospital is also linked to playwright J.M. Barrie, who donated his "Peter Pan" copyright to the hospital in 1929.
Charles Dickens
No Hospital News
Jerry Seinfeld
Jerry Seinfeld was in a harrowing rollover wreck but was unhurt after the brakes on one of his vintage cars failed.
Seinfeld was driving alone when the brakes on his 1967 Fiat BTM stopped working Saturday evening, East Hampton Town Police Chief Todd Sarris told the New York Post. Seinfeld tried the emergency brake, to no avail, and then swerved to keep the car from careening into an intersection, Sarris said.
The two-door sedan flipped over and came to a stop just yards from the highway, Sarris said, adding that the comic's maneuver "probably avoided a very serious accident."
The wreck was attributed to mechanical failure, and no summonses were issued, Sarris said. Seinfeld, 53, did not require medical attention and returned to his East Hampton home.
Jerry Seinfeld
Wants Records Sealed
Mel "Sugar Tits" Gibson
Mel Gibson, who's being sued by a writer over payment for the "The Passion of the Christ" screenplay, wants to keep financial information about the blockbuster movie out of the public eye.
Benedict Fitzgerald claimed in his February lawsuit that Gibson misled him into accepting a small payment for writing the script by saying the movie would cost between $4 million and $7 million.
Fitzgerald, who shared screenwriting credits with Gibson, claimed he agreed to "a salary substantially less than what he would have taken had he known the true budget for the film," which the lawsuit claimed was $25 million to $50 million. The lawsuit claims fraud, breach of contract and unjust enrichment, and seeks unspecified damages.
In court filings Tuesday, attorneys for Gibson and his production company asked the court to seal the movie's financial records and only allow Fitzgerald's lawyers access to them. The information details the movie's domestic and foreign box office receipts, production costs and distribution expenses.
Mel "Sugar Tits" Gibson
Subject Of Australia Tax Probe
Steve Irwin's Zoo
Australian tax officials are probing the affairs of late "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin and his wife Terri over an offshore scheme involving their Australia Zoo wildlife business, the zoo said on Thursday.
General Manager Frank Muscillo said the zoo, where the khaki-clad Irwin got up close with crocodiles and other wildlife at the 5,000-seat "Crocoseum," had done nothing wrong except fall victim to a "highly sophisticated case of deception."
The scheme, under investigation by the Australian Taxation Office, allowed the Irwin's zoo to claim large tax breaks by paying more than A$600,000 a year ($550,000) in fees to a Singapore-based company, the Australian newspaper said.
Steve Irwin's father, meanwhile, told Australian television in an interview to be aired next Monday that he recently quit the zoo he founded 36 years ago, and which his son made famous, because he was becoming a "disrupting influence."
Steve Irwin's Zoo
Granted Day Release
Farruquito
Spanish flamenco star Farruquito, jailed since 2007 for a hit-and-run death, has been granted work release and only has to sleep in prison for the rest of his sentence, a prison spokesman said Thursday.
Farruquito, whose real name is Juan Manuel Fernandez Montoya, must be in jail between midnight and 8 a.m. but will be free to work during the day and on weekends, the spokesman said. He was granted the furlough for good bahaviour.
In July 2005 the flamenco star was was sentenced to 16 months in prison for reckless driving and leaving the scene of an accident. The sentence was raised to three years in 2006 following an appeal by the victim's family.
Prosecutors said he was speeding and driving without a licence and then fled the scene of the accident.
Farruquito
UCLA Medical Center Snoop
Farrah Fawcett
UCLA Medical Center has disciplined an employee for snooping in Farrah Fawcett's medical records, the hospital said Wednesday, a few weeks after announcing that several employees were fired for taking peeks at Britney Spears' files.
Fawcett expressed concern to a doctor in May that details of her condition were being leaked to tabloids, and he reported it to hospital executives, UCLA spokeswoman Roxanne Moster said.
Fawcett's attorney, Kim Swartz, said an employee at the hospital accessed Fawcett's medical records without authorization, and details about her cancer treatment later showed up in the National Enquirer. The tabloid published details about a recurrence in Fawcett's cancer before she had a chance to tell family and friends, Swartz said.
The Los Angeles Times reported on its Web site Wednesday that hospital officials fired an employee who reviewed Fawcett's records without authorization.
Farrah Fawcett
Heathrow Temper Tantrum
Naomi Campbell
Naomi Campbell was arrested at Heathrow Airport's Terminal 5 on Thursday for allegedly spitting at a police officer, Sky News reported. Police said a 37-year-old woman was arrested at the terminal on suspicion of assaulting police.
The Metropolitan Police spokesman refused to identify the woman, or say whether the incident took place inside the terminal or aboard a plane. He spoke on condition of anonymity, in line with police policy.
Campbell's publicist, Selina Aponte, left Heathrow's police station, where the model had been taken, just before 10 p.m. but told waiting reporters she had not seen the British model, who had been due to fly to Los Angeles.
Naomi Campbell
Devised Sophisticated Arithmetic System
Aztecs
Using written symbols such as hearts, arrows and hands, the ancient Aztecs maintained an arithmetic system that was far more complex than previously understood, scientists said on Thursday.
The Aztecs, an empire in central Mexico toppled by Spanish invaders in 1519, has long been recognized for its sophistication in architecture, engineering, astronomy and other fields. And the new research confirms arithmetic can be added to the list.
The researchers examined hundreds of drawings in two manuscripts dating back to between 1540 and 1544 that were used to document agricultural properties by the Aztec people in the city-state of Tepetlaoztoc, near modern Mexico City.
The Aztecs used a system that included symbols of hearts, hands, arrows, bones, arms as alternatives to using fractions. An examination of these hieroglyphic records showed that the Aztecs used their own calculation system to figure out, for example, the area of a parcel of land.
Aztecs
Petrified Poop Provides Earlier Evidence
North Americans
New evidence shows humans lived in North America more than 14,000 years ago, 1,000 years earlier than had previously been known. Discovered in a cave in Oregon, fossil feces yielded DNA indicating these early residents were related to people living in Siberia and East Asia, according to a report in Thursday's online edition of the journal Science.
"This is the first time we have been able to get dates that are undeniably human, and they are 1,000 years before Clovis," said Dennis L. Jenkins, a University of Oregon archaeologist, referring to the Clovis culture, well known for its unique spear-points that have been studied previously.
Few artifacts were found in the cave, leading Jenkins to speculate that these people stayed there only a few days at a time before moving on, perhaps following game animals or looking for other food.
The petrified poop - coprolites to scientists - is yielding a look at the diet of these ancient Americans, Jenkins said.
North Americans
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