'Best of TBH Politoons'
Baron Dave Romm
Penguins In Love
By Baron Dave Romm
Shockwave Radio Theater
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All podcasts also on the Shockwave Radio audio
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Sorry, it's been a while since I've updated the files;
been busy with these pictures.
We arrived in Antarctica during mid-summer, early in the penguin mating season. We didn't see any chicks. I tried to get pictures of penguin eggs, and parents fussing over them. I also tried to get pictures of the various courting and mating behaviors, as pointed out by the naturalists accompanying us. We did not interfere with the penguins in any way, and we were largely ignored by them.
Much of their behavior seemed familiar.
All pictures taken by Baron Dave or Ethel until the Vernadsky Station photos.
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| Penguin Mating Dance 1 | Penguin Mating Dance 2 |
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| Penguins singing in
recognition note egg |
"Hey, remember to bring
me back some krill! note egg |
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| "Yes, it's me." | "Remember me?" |
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| A Tender Moment | Grooming Together |
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| The Proud Parent note egg |
Snow wooing |
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As mentioned last week, the best souvenir in Vernadsky Station, the Ukrainian research base, was a CD of pictures presumably taken by the staion personnel. I traded a Shockwave CD for this CD, and will share some of the pictures. The CD is 696 megs of the most gorgeous pictures of the Antarctic. Here is a small sample of the photographs, cropped for Bartcop-E.
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| A Tender Moment 1 | A Tender Moment 2 |
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| "Eat your dinner! people are starving in America" |
"It's been a long winter eh, honey?" |
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| The "Our Egg" Duet | "Dinner for you, honey, then Junior" |
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But wait, there's more! At Vernadsky Station, this CD goes for $20 US. For $40 plus $3P&H, I will make a copy of this CD and send all the price of the CD to Vernadsky. You'll get an unadorned CD plus thin case (pretty much how it comes) filled with astonishing pictures and the knowledge that you are helping a scientific station perform important work... but you don't have to travel to the South Pole! What a deal! E-mail Baron Dave for mailing address and details on how to order.
Baron Dave Romm is a conceptual artist and a noble of Ladonia with a radio show, a Live Journal demi-blog, a very weird CD collection and an ever growing list of political links. Dave Romm reviews things at random for obscure web sites. You can read all his music recommendations from Bartcop-E , and you can hear the last two Shockwave broadcasts in Real Audio (scroll down to Shockwave). Thanks to everyone who has sent me music to play on the air.
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Winner's Comment
A haiku thank you
Marty and zEN mAN
Thank you for the haiku verse
And the great dog pic!
Contributor Comment
Re: zEN mAN
The zEN mAN is a true national treasure. I cannot start my day without him - especially today!
Hubert
Thanks, Hubert!
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Arianna Huffington: NBC News PR Department Gets Down and Dirty... (236 comments)
Somebody's feeling the heat... How else to explain the widely-off-the-mark responses from NBC's PR department in Lloyd Grove's column to our reporting on Russert's multitude of journalistic ethical conflicts.
Rev. Steven Baines: Articles of faith (advocate.com)
The religious right's high-profile moral and ethical failures could be a direct result of repressive religion
ERIK POTTER: How a nurse's life turned on the kindness of a stranger (illinoistimes.com)
Months passed as Kim prayed that someone would die so that she could live. Months passed as the guilt of that wish grew larger: "You think I didn't pray about that every day - and I didn't apologize for praying for that?" From the first day on the transplant list she prayed for the family of the person who would die.
Shawn Stone: Speak Out (metroland.net)
But she did have an abortion. Thinking back on that time, Lane doesn't remember ever having a conversation about abortion with her peers; she didn't know anyone who had even had the procedure. And it's not like she came from a restrictive background: Lane is a Vassar graduate with a feminist mom, and she grew up in a liberal environment. Of course, it turned out that she did know women who had abortions. It's just that the silence was deafening.
Kelly Sharp: Conspicuous Little Consumers (texasobserver.org)
Juliet Schor talks about a culture in which children do not merely consume, but also find their identity in consumption.
Brendan Bernhard: Interfacing With Clive James (nysun.com)
Unlike with books, "there's no warehouse that's eventually going to fill up with unsold copies and cause its section of the earth to sink - the thing is weightless. Eventually I hope that bright young people will come into the site and never come out, just wander around forever. I do know that when people hit on the site they tend to stay a long time.Whether it's because they fall asleep or just die there, I'm not sure."
Dating (nplusonemag.com)
Dating presents itself as an education in human relationships. In fact it's an anti-education. You could invent no worse preparation for love, for marriage, than the tireless pursuit of the perfect partner.
Roger Housden: The Pleasure of Doing Nothing Useful
It's not what you don't do, it's the way you don't do it.
The Reading Crisis (nplusonemag.com)
The reading crisis, like the social security crisis, has become a con-game based on facts.
clivejames.com
Arts and Letters Daily
Hubert's Poetry Corner
BY W'S HAND
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny & pleasant.
No new flags.
Honored at World Economic Forum
Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali was honored at the World Economic Forum for his efforts to promote dialogue and understanding between the Muslim and Western worlds.
Accompanied by his wife, Yolanda, Ali received the first-ever prize from the Council of 100 Leaders, a group formed at the forum's annual meeting two years ago to promote understanding between the West and Muslims.
His wife, Yolanda, gave a speech to accept the award as Ali sat back down Saturday.
"Even though his voice is silent," she said, choking back tears, "dialogue is not always verbal. Sometimes it's about gestures, interaction."
Muhammad Ali
Honored By DGA
Ang Lee
The most lauded movie of 2005 added another honor to its list Saturday. Ang Lee was named filmmaker of the year by his peers, winning the Directors Guild of America award for the epic romance "Brokeback Mountain."
The win affirms Lee's position as favorite for best director at the Academy Awards on March 5. He has captured more than 10 honors for his work on the film, which follows a 20-year forbidden love affair between two Wyoming ranch hands. Oscar nominations will be announced Tuesday.
Veteran director Clint Eastwood was presented with the guild's lifetime achievement award.
Ang Lee
Chavez Backs Plan
Cindy Sheehan
Cindy Sheehan, the peace activist who just announced that she is weighing a run for Senate, plans to protest again outside resident Bush's Texas ranch, Venezuela's president said Sunday with Sheehan by his side.
Hugo Chavez, his arm around Sheehan's shoulders, told a group of activists that Sheehan had told him that during Holy Week, in April, "she is going to put up her tent again in front of Mr. Danger's ranch."
"She invited me to put up a tent. Maybe I'll put up my tent also," Chavez said, to applause from an audience invited to his weekly broadcast on the final day of the World Social Forum, an annual gathering of anti-war and anti-globalization activists.
Noting that the singer and activist Harry Belafonte recently called Bush "the greatest terrorist in the world" on Chavez's show, Sheehan said: "I agree with him."
Cindy Sheehan
Filmmakers More Politically Active
Steven Spielberg
Director Steven Spielberg, whose film about the killing of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics has provoked controversy, says moviemakers have become much more politically vocal since the re-election of resident George W. Bush.
In a roundtable discussion with editors of Newsweek magazine along with other nominees for the Directors Guild award, Spielberg said, "Maybe I shouldn't get into this ... I just feel that filmmakers are much more proactive since the second Bush administration."
In remarks released by the magazine on Sunday, he said, "I think that everybody is trying to declare their independence and state their case for the things that we believe in. No one is really representing us, so we're now representing our own feelings, and we're trying to strike back."
Also taking part in the discussion which will be published on Monday in Newsweek were Bennett Miller, director of "Capote," George Clooney, director of "Good Night, and Good Luck," Lee and Paul Haggis, director of "Crash."
Steven Spielberg
Pakistan Concert
Bryan Adams
Canadian rocker Bryan Adams thrilled 10,000 fans at a concert in Karachi on Sunday, the first big show by a Western singer in Pakistan in decades, to help students affected by country's October 8 earthquake.
Adams, who performed most of his hits and moved the audience with "Summer of 69," said he was glad to discover new fans in Pakistan.
The Canadian rocker said before the show that he was excited to help the victims of the earthquake in northern Pakistan.
Bryan Adams
Stopped Writing for Now
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Nobel Prize winner Gabriel Garcia Marquez, who rarely offers glimpses into his private life, says he has stopped writing - for the time being, at least.
"The year 2005 was the first in my life when I did not write a single line," the 78-year-old author was quoted as saying in Sunday's edition of the Barcelona-based daily La Vanguardia.
"I haven't sat before a computer. And besides, I have no prospect or prospects to do it. I had never stopped writing, this is the first year in my life I haven't done any writing," he said.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Tops Among Guys
Jessica Alba
More guys want Jessica Alba for their girlfriend than any other woman, according to AskMen.com's top 99 list for 2006.
The 24-year-old actress tops the Web site's list ranking female celebrities on their "long-term relationship material." Alba is followed by "Alfie" star Sienna Miller and the ubiquitous Angelina Jolie.
The rest of the top 10, in order, is Brazilian model Adriana Lima (No. 1 last year), "Access Hollywood" correspondent Maria Menounos, Charlize Theron, Jessica Biel, singer Amerie, Natalie Portman and Eva Longoria.
Britney Spears - a mainstay of such lists in previous years - failed to chart.
Jessica Alba
'Big Time' In Wrestling World
Peter Gabriel
Peter Gabriel's "Big Time" has become the official theme of World Wrestling Entertainment's upcoming "WrestleMania 22," nearly 20 years after the song hit the top 10 in the United States.
The tune is heard in TV and online spots for the annual live and pay-per-view extravaganza. The ads began airing earlier this month and will continue through April 2, when "WrestleMania 22" touches down at the Allstate Arena in Chicago.
WWE fans logging on to wrestlemania are able to stream "Big Time" -- the song and its accompanying video. The site also spotlights Gabriel's best-of CD ("Hit") and DVD ("Play") collections.
Peter Gabriel
Stable After Iraq Bombing
Bob Woodruff
ABC News anchor Bob Woodruff and camera operator Doug Vogt were in serious but stable condition on Sunday after suffering head injuries when their Iraqi military vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb.
At the time of the blast, they were traveling with an Iraqi Army unit near Taji, outside Baghdad, ABC News said. The vehicle came under small-arms fire after the blast, the network reported.
Both Woodruff and Vogt suffered head and shrapnel injuries even though they were wearing body armor, helmets and protective glasses, ABC News said. Vogt also had a broken shoulder.
Bob Woodruff
Hopes to Fend Off Eviction
Boys Choir of Harlem
There have been many moments of greatness over the decades for the Boys Choir of Harlem - concerts around the world, audiences including Nelson Mandela and Pope John Paul II. But the choir has also struggled in recent years with financial troubles, and management issues in the wake of a sexual abuse scandal.
Now, with the organization up to $5 million in debt, the choir is facing the loss of its home as well.
The city has told the Boys Choir to leave the public school where it has operated rent-free since 1993. Citing concern about the group's financial and management difficulties, the Department of Education sent a letter last month saying the choir must vacate its office space by Jan. 31.
Boys Choir of Harlem
Defends Free Speech
Denmark
Denmark's Prime Minister said on Sunday his government could not act against satirical cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed after Libya closed its embassy in Copenhagen amid growing Muslim anger over the dispute.
The newspaper Jyllands-Posten had not intended to insult Muslims when it published the drawings, Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen said, referring to an editorial on the paper's Web site in Danish and Arabic.
Since Jyllands-Posten published the drawings in September, the Danish government has repeatedly defended the right of free speech.
The Danish government has broad public backing for it stance on the cartoons. An opinion poll showed that 79 percent of Danes think Fogh Rasmussen should not issue an apology and 62 percent say the newspaper should not apologize.
Denmark
Get Chunk of AIDS Money
Religious Groups
Resident Bush's $15 billion effort to fight AIDS has handed out nearly one-quarter of its grants to religious groups, and officials are aggressively pursuing new church partners that often emphasize disease prevention through abstinence and fidelity over condom use.
Award recipients include a Christian relief organization famous for its televised appeals to feed hungry children, a well-known Catholic charity and a group run by the son of evangelist Billy Graham, according to the State Department.
The New Partners Initiative reserves $200 million through the 2008 budget year for community and church groups with little or no background in government grants. Some may have health operations in Africa but no experience in HIV work. Others may be homegrown groups in Africa that have not previously sought U.S. support.
Religious Groups
Criminals Taking Tips
TV Crime Shows
When Tammy Klein began investigating crime scenes eight years ago, it was virtually unheard of for a killer to use bleach to clean up a bloody mess. Today, the use of bleach, which destroys DNA, is not unusual in a planned homicide, said the senior criminalist from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.
Klein and other experts attribute such sophistication to television crime dramas like "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," which give criminals helpful tips on how to cover up evidence.
Prosecutors have complained for years about "the CSI effect" on juries - an expectation in every trial for the type of high-tech forensic evidence the show's investigators uncover. It also appears the popular show and its two spinoffs could be affecting how some crimes are committed.
TV Crime Shows
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