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Dick Eats Bush
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Scientists shocked as Arctic polar route emerges
PARIS (AFP) - European scientists voiced shock as they showed pictures which showed Arctic ice cover had disappeared so much last month that a ship could sail unhindered from Europe's most northerly outpost to the North Pole itself.
Michele Hanson: Baby boomers go bust (guardian.co.uk)
Here comes another wretched "survey", this time by Help the Aged, suggesting that two-thirds of the baby boomer generation have not saved for their final years. Oh tut-tut. Naughty baby boomers.
Annalee Newitz: Ahoy, Chumby! (AlterNet.org)
How a plush creature with a mini-computer for a face just might change your life.
Jane Goodwin: You Can't Take That Away From Me (irascibleprofessor.com)
Back then, the public library was the only air-conditioned building in town. Do you suppose that had something to do with the fact that most of the kids in that generation hung out there a lot and became readers in the summertime?
'I used to get my dad confused with God' (telegraph.co.uk)
Kate Beckinsale tells John Hiscock how reaching 32 has revived memories of the shocking early death of her actor father Richard.
Hello, is that Kim Philby? (guardian.co.uk)
Today's celebrities are all ex-directory but there was a time when even the most famous were happy to be in the phone book. As a website puts their old numbers online, Stuart Jeffries imagines what might happen if you could ring them.
The man with the golden touch (telegraph.co.uk)
Composer John Barry reveals the secrets of his inimitable James Bond sound to Mark Monahan.
The Bill Press Show: Progressive Radio (billpressshow.com)
Hubert's Poetry Corner
MY FORMULA FOR IRAQ VICTORY
IMMEDIATE PEACE GUARANTEED?
Reader Comment
Re: Gnomey
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and a bit cooler.
Canadian Vent
Margaret Cho
Something is bugging comedian Margaret Cho. And she's heading north of the border to get it off her chest.
"I'm very frustrated with the system that's happening in America right now," said Cho, who is scheduled to perform Friday at the city's ComedyFest.
"I'm very frustrated with the Iraq war and with the Bush administration. And I'm here to complain about it, in Canada."
The comedian's last two shows, "State of Emergency" and "Assassin," focused almost entirely on her frustration with U.S. politics.
Margaret Cho
Hugo's Book Club Selection
Noam Chomsky
The UN address by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has had an unexpected impact - on the bestseller lists of Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com.
At the start of his talk Wednesday, during which Chavez referred to resident George W. Bush as "the devil," Chavez held up a book by Noam Chomsky, "Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance," and recommended it to everyone in the General Assembly, as well as to the American people.
As of Thursday afternoon, "Hegemony or Survival," originally published in 2003, had jumped into the top 10 of Amazon, where it was ranked 20,664 the day before, and Barnes & Noble.com, from a previous ranking of 748.
Noam Chomsky
Pledges Billions Against Warming
Richard Branson
British business mogul Richard Branson on Thursday pledged to invest about $3 billion over the next decade to combat global warming and promote alternative energy, saying that it was critical to protect the environment for future generations.
The so-called "rebel billionaire" - wearing a dress jacket with no tie and denim pants - made the announcement on the second day of the Clinton Global Initiative, an annual conference of business, political and nonprofit leaders hosted by former President Clinton.
Branson said he was inspired to contribute after a meeting with Al Gore, who served as Clinton's vice president and has been highly visible in raising awareness about global warming and environmental issues. Gore, who spoke at an afternoon session, praised Branson.
Richard Branson
Turkish Court Acquits Novelist
Elif Shafak
One of Turkey's leading authors was acquitted Thursday of "insulting Turkishness" in a novel that touched on the mass killings of Armenians during the final years of the Ottoman Empire.
The panel of judges said there was no evidence to support the charge against Elif Shafak, a University of Arizona assistant professor who gave birth to a daughter Saturday and did not attend her trial.
Shafak expressed satisfaction with the verdict and called for greater freedoms and tolerance.
"You would counter writing with writing, not with a gun," Shafak told private NTV television about protests and scuffles that took place outside the courtroom after the verdict was read. "Insulting Turkishness? According to whom? Who determines it?"
Elif Shafak
Dusts Off "Spaceballs" For TV Cartoon
Mel Brooks
Mel Brooks is developing an animated TV series based on his comedy feature "Spaceballs."
Like the 1987 movie, which parodied well-known science-fiction movies, "Spaceballs: The Animated Series" will spoof current blockbusters as well as every genre of entertainment from movies and reality TV to culture and politics.
It is set to debut on cable network G4 in fall 2007. Production has already started on an initial batch of 13 episodes.
Mel Brooks
`SNL's `Update' Co-Anchor
Seth Meyers
Seth Meyers gets the plum job of "Weekend Update" anchor next to Amy Poehler in a newly streamlined "Saturday Night Live" this season, the show's creator and executive producer, Lorne Michaels, said on Thursday.
Meyers, entering his fifth season on the late-night institution, must replace the popular Tina Fey on the fake-news anchor desk. Like Fey, Meyers will also be one of the show's head writers.
Also like Fey, Meyers will primarily appear only on "Weekend Update" each week.
The stripped-down cast was driven, in part, by the need to cut costs, Michaels told The Associated Press. Given a choice by NBC executives of making fewer shows or having fewer people, he said he chose the latter.
Seth Meyers
Hospital News
Don Ho
Entertainer Don Ho has been in the hospital since Sept. 13, but expects to get out before the weekend. The 76-year-old legendary Hawaiian crooner had a new pacemaker installed Saturday.
In December, Ho underwent a new heart treatment in Thailand that hasn't been approved in the United States. The procedure involved taking multiplying stem cells from his blood and injecting them into his heart in hopes of strengthening it.
Ho said he's considering additional stem-cell treatment if necessary, but that would require traveling internationally.
Don Ho
Says No To Drugs
Keith Richards
Keith Richards has quit drugs, claiming they're not strong enough anymore.
In a new interview, Richards, who underwent brain surgery earlier this year after an accident in Fiji, said he was finished with drugs.
"I think the quality's gone down. All they do is try and take the high out of everything," he told Q magazine.
"I don't like the way drugs now are working on your brain area instead of just through the blood stream. That's why I don't take any of them anymore."
Keith Richards
Owes Art Rroker
Axl Rose
An art broker has filed a lawsuit against Axl Rose, claiming the rocker backed out of a deal to pay $2.36 million for an Andy Warhol portrait of John Lennon.
Acquire d'Arte, in a lawsuit filed Sept. 11 in Los Angeles Superior Court, said it negotiated with a New York art gallery and was able to lower the price of the artwork from $2.65 million to $2.36 million for Rose.
But after agreeing to buy the portrait, the Guns N' Roses frontman paid only $1.21 million, according to the suit. Rose's manager and attorney told the broker that the rocker would not pay the remaining balance because he didn't have enough money and "the painting was not worth the price he had agreed to pay," the lawsuit stated.
Axl Rose
Average Home Has More Than 2
TVs
The average American home now has more television sets than people. That threshold was crossed within the past two years, according to Nielsen Media Research. There are 2.73 TV sets in the typical home and 2.55 people, the researchers said.
Half of American homes have three or more TVs, and only 19 percent have just one, Nielsen said. In 1975, 57 percent of homes had only a single set and 11 percent had three or more, the company said.
In the average home, a television set is turned on for more than a third of the day - eight hours, 14 minutes, Nielsen said. That's an hour more than it was a decade ago. Most of that extra TV viewing is coming outside of prime time, where TVs are on only four minutes more than they were 10 years ago.
TVs
Film Rattles Ratings Board
'Deliver Us From Evil'
Lionsgate will release its upcoming documentary about child molestation scandals in the Catholic Church without a rating after the trailer garnered a restrictive tag from the Motion Picture Assn. of America.
"Deliver Us From Evil" focuses on a northern California priest, Father Oliver O'Grady, who admits on camera to being an active pedophile who was harbored by the church for more than 30 years. Lionsgate will release it on October 13.
Under MPAA policy, redband trailers are allowed to be screened only before movies rated R or NC-17, but most national exhibitors enforce much stronger policies in their theaters, refusing to screen redband trailers at all. One fear exhibitors have is that a redband trailer might accidentally screen before a less restricted movie, alienating some patrons.
'Deliver Us From Evil'
Russia Celebrating 100th
Dmitri Shostakovich
It's a rare talent that would make Mstislav Rostropovich feel second-rate in comparison. Dmitri Shostakovich had it.
Rostropovich is among the renowned musicians who will put the wide and contradictory breadth of Shostakovich's vision on full display this month as Russians observe the 100th anniversary of his birth. The concerts include Rostropovich conducting the Moscow Conservatory's orchestra in Shostakovich's Eighth Symphony.
Ahead of the concert that takes place Monday, the birth anniversary, Rostropovich reminisced about hearing rehearsals of the symphony when he was a Shostakovich pupil at the conservatory in 1943.
Dmitri Shostakovich
To Be Reburied in St Petersburg
Empress Maria Fyodorovna
The remains of Empress Maria Fyodorovna, mother of Russia's last tsar, Nicholas II, will be moved from Denmark to Russia on Saturday, finally fulfilling her wish to rest next to her late husband, Tsar Alexander III.
She will be reburied in a crypt next to that of Alexander III in the Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral in St Petersburg on September 28, 140 years to the day after she first arrived in Russia.
Born in 1847 as Princess Dagmar, she was the daughter of Danish King Christian IX. She changed her name and converted to the Russian Orthodox faith when she married Alexander in 1866.
Her son, Tsar Nicholas II, was forced to abdicate in 1917 and executed by the Bolshevik revolutionaries who seized power months later. After losing two sons and five grandchildren in the revolution, Maria Fyodorovna left Russia for England in 1919 and later returned to Denmark, where she died in 1928.
Empress Maria Fyodorovna
Abysmal Alliteration Author Admired Again
Amanda McKittrick Ros
For literature fans, it is the ultimate challenge -- read the world's worst novelist out loud for as long as possible without laughing.
Belfast is to end its literary festival next Tuesday by asking fans to meet in a pub to recite the works of Amanda McKittrick Ros, accused by critics of penning some of the most atrocious books ever written.
The Belfast read-in echoes a meeting of Oxford dons known as The Inklings who once met to read her works out loud -- and see how long they could keep going without cracking up.
Among the group were two literary giants in C.S. Lewis, author of "The Chronicles of Narnia", and J.R.R. Tolkien, creator of "The Lord of Rings".
Amanda McKittrick Ros
Bands Settle Over Name
'Rock Star Supernova'
There's enough Supernova for everyone. At least according to the settlement reached by a Southern California punk band called Supernova and the CBS reality show "Rock Star: Supernova."
Under the agreement, announced Thursday, the punk band will keep its original name and the TV band will be known as "Rock Star Supernova."
'Rock Star Supernova'
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