Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: Senator Bunning's Universe (nytimes.com)
Democratic and Republican debates over unemployment benefits and health care show that the parties currently live in different universes, both intellectually and morally.
DAVID BROOKS: The Hard and the Soft (nytimes.com)
That Norway won as many gold medals as the United States at the Vancouver Winter Games was no anomaly. Take the story of Jan Baalsrud, for instance.
Mark Morford: Radical homosexuals ate my baby! (sfgate.com)
And now, ladies and gentlemen, right here on our stage, a fine and terrifyingly hilarious -- or is that hilariously terrifying? -- spectacle, for your disquieting reading pleasure. Please, remove the children. Ready?
Lionel Rolfe: Obama Will Likely Be Our Next Lincoln (randomlengthsnews.com)
Ultimately I think that Barack Obama will be considered one of the great presidents. He has the intellectual ability to see what the problems are and what might be done about them. That's a big start, compared to the last president. There's a problem, however. The nation is awash in religious fervor and a growing worship of ignorance, not unlike the Middle East and too many other parts of the world. This is not the way to deal with the future.
CHARLES M. BLOW: Spirit Quest (nytimes.com)
Young adults are looking for spirituality but not necessarily through organized religion.
Meghan Daum: Too many heroes (latimes.com)
The daughter of Austin suicide-pilot Joseph Stack claimed her dad was one and got a vehement response. But she deserves some slack.
Gary Greenberg: 'Am I happy enough?' (guardian.co.uk)
Psychotherapist and author of 'Manufacturing Depression' Gary Greenberg talks to Tim Adams about drugs and true love.
There's something about Alice (guardian.co.uk)
With its unforgettable creatures, games with language and logic and ever-curious hero, Lewis Carroll's Wonderland is not only vivid but thrillingly different from other imagined worlds. In the week Tim Burton's film is released, AS Byatt takes another trip down the rabbit hole to celebrate classics she first enjoyed as a child.
"The System of Vienna: From Heaven Street to Earth Mound Square" by Gert Jonke: A review by Matthew Jakubowski
When Austrian dramatist, poet, and author Gert Jonke died from pancreatic cancer at age 62 last year, British journalist Guy Dammann lamented that he passed just as his readership was finally beginning to match his reputation: ...
A date with the new Phantom: Love Never Dies (guardian.co.uk)
He is a murderer in a mask but Tanya Gold loves him. As The Phantom of the Opera sequel opens, she sneaks backstage to throw herself into his arms.
roger ebert's journal: I wonder if this will work
"Nobody on the web is has figured out how to make any money," I said one day before a screening at the Sundance Film Festival. I was talking to another movie critic whose reviews were also online.
ROGER EBERT: Hello, this is me speaking
After I lost my speaking voice, everybody thought they had this brilliant idea. "Hey! Why don't you just take your voice from your old shows and put it on a computer?" Sounded good to me.
The Weekly Poll - Closes Tonight
Current Question
The '1st Ever BadtotheboneBob Oscar Award Contest' Edition...
With a Prize! That's right, Poll-fans! A Prize! You like prizes, dontcha? I know I do!
I emptied my little change jar and I came up with $27.54 that I will gladly, gladly I say, donate to yer favorite charity. If that's you, OK, that's cool. If it's Marty and the page, so much the better, eh? All ya gotta do is correctly pick the winners of these Oscar categories... The closest one wins The Prize!... Ready? Set... Go !!!
Best Picture
Best Actor in a Leading Role
Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Best Actress in a Leading Role
Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Directing
List of nominees
Oscar night is Sunday, March 7th. Cut off for entries will be 8PM EST Saturday March 6th (tonight) and will be posted Sunday morning. The winner will be officially announced Tuesday, March 9th, along with a new question.
Oh, ties will be resolved in a scientific manner involving my toddler grand-daughter, 'Maddie Muffin' and will be explained with the posted predictions... Good Luck!
Send your response to
Here's BadtotheboneBob's list of nominees
replied:
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Reader Suggestion
More Family Values
The DUI arrest of California State Senator Senator Roy Ashburn is raising new question about the politician -- an outspoken opponent of gay rights -- who has been spotted frequently at gay bars in Sacramento.
Ashburn served six years as a state Assemblyman before being elected to the State Senate. According to Project Vote Smart, Ashburn's voting record shows he has voted against every gay rights measure in the State Senate since taking office, including Recognizing Out-Of-State Same-Sex Marriages," as well as legislation to honor Harvey Milk, and Expansion of Anti-Discrimination Laws.
Reader Suggestion
Vic in AK
Suggestion
Academy Awards
A very interesting and entertaining list of what we think the 82nd Annual Academy Award nominees for Best Picture say about us as a society.
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Cloudy and cooler - more rain on the way.
Sweden Honors
Michael J. Fox
Sweden's Karolinska institute says it will give an honorary degree of medicine to Canadian-American actor Michael J. Fox for his work to raise funds and awareness for Parkinson's disease.
The institute, which awards the annual Nobel Prize in medicine, says the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research has since 2000 given more than $175 million to research aimed at developing drugs against the disease.
Fox was diagnosed with Parkinson's in 1991. The disease is a progressive neurological condition that impairs the motor skills.
Karolinska says Fox will receive the doctorate in a ceremony in New York on Friday.
Michael J. Fox
Man With An Opinion
Sean Penn
Sean Penn has strong words for those who think he's showing off with his aid to earthquake-ravaged Haiti.
In an interview airing on this weekend's "Sunday Morning" on CBS, the outspoken actor says he hopes any cynic who dismisses his efforts as a star turn will "die screaming of rectal cancer."
Penn has visited the devastated Caribbean nation accompanied by doctors and a U.S. businesswoman with whom he established a relief organization. He has brought water filters for distribution to villages and met with aid groups.
Besides raising funds, Penn says he has contributed his own money.
When asked how much, he replies with a laugh, "Enough that I'd better get a job soon."
Sean Penn
Wins Latest Round
Snoop Dogg
U.S. rapper Snoop Dogg has won the latest round in a long-running battle with British border authorities to be allowed into the country.
The 38-year-old, whose real name is Calvin Broadus, was originally denied entry in 2007, forcing him and fellow rapper Sean "Diddy" Combs to cancel the British dates of their European tour.
The ban relates to Snoop Dogg's arrest at Heathrow airport in 2006 following a fracas involving members of his entourage.
In 2008 the ban was lifted but when the UK Border Agency challenged the decision, it went to an Asylum and Immigration Tribunal. Earlier this week, the tribunal announced its decision that to deny him entry had been wrong.
Snoop Dogg
Car Commercial
John Lennon
A new Citroen commercial that's airing on U.K. television features old footage of John Lennon, and now Beatles fans are wondering whether Yoko Ono made the right decision in allowing the French car company to use her late husband's image.
In the ad -- made for Citroen's new "anti-retro" DS-3 model -- Lennon is shown criticizing people who rehash the past in their own work. "Once a thing's been done it's been done, so while this nostalgia -- I mean for the '60s and '70s, you know, looking backwards for inspiration, copying the past -- how's that rock 'n' roll?" Lennon says. "Do something of your own. Start something new, you know? Live your lives now. Know what I mean?"
In response to the controversy, Lennon and Ono's son Sean Lennon took to his Twitter page and explained the thought process behind his mother's decision. "She did not do it for money," Lennon said. "Has to do (with) hoping to keep dad in public consciousness. No new LPs, so TV ad is exposure to young."
"Having just seen (the) ad I realize why people are mad," Lennon added. "But (our) intention was not financial, (it) was simply wanting to keep him out there in the world."
John Lennon
Renewed For 10th Season
"Smallville"
The CW has picked up "Smallville" for a 10th season.
The series, starring Tom Welling as a young Clark Kent, has been holding up strong for the network on Fridays this season. It joins five previously announced series that will return next season on the network: "The Vampire Diaries," "Gossip Girl," "90210," "Supernatural" and "America's Next Top Model."
"Smallville"
Baby News
Baby Girl Dane
A spokeswoman for actors Eric Dane and Rebecca Gayheart says the couple has welcomed their first child, a baby girl.
Publicist Nanci Ryder told The Associated Press that the 38-year-old Gayheart gave birth Wednesday in Los Angeles.
The name of the girl was not immediately known.
Baby Girl Dane
Too Hot
Snow Venus
Police in New Jersey ordered a snow sculpture modeled on the famous nude Venus de Milo to be covered up after a neighbor complained, the artist said Thursday.
Elisa Gonzalez, 44, carved the ancient Greek-style torso from snow on her front lawn in Rahway and says her work was initially a hit.
One neighbor clearly felt the snow nude -- headless, armless, and cut off above the knees -- was too hot.
"We had a visit from the local police who told us that a neighbor had complained about the statue and we needed to cover it up or knock it down," Gonzalez said. "We didn't want to have any problem with the police so we covered it up."
Snow Venus
Abandons Gen Xers
MTV
Music videos are still valuable content for MTV, even though viewers' evolving tastes have required an expansion into reality and other shows, a top executive at the cable channel said Thursday.
MTV and its sibling networks, such as VH1 and CMT, still play more than 600 music video hours a week, but they increasingly play on alternative platforms, said Van Toffler, president of MTV Networks Music and Logo Group.
Toffler, speaking during a keynote interview at the Billboard Music & Money Symposium, said MTV integrates music in different ways via big events and by using music within shows. It also spends more than $100 million in music each year in the form of promotions and the like.
He was recently quoted as saying the channel was pushing out members of Generation X. Asked jokingly by his Billboard interviewer why he hates that audience, Toffler quipped: "Because you're cynical."
On a serious note, he said the 12-29-year-old demographic is in focus for him and his colleagues. Those Millennials, born between 1980 and 2000, are "much more traditional," Toffler explained. For example, many of them watch "Jersey Shore" with their parents, he said. That's why Taylor Swift got such strong support when Kanye West interrupted her on stage at the Video Music Awards last year, he added.
MTV
Arctic Seas Action
Methane Bubbles
Large amounts of a powerful greenhouse gas are bubbling up from a long-frozen seabed north of Siberia, raising fears of far bigger leaks that could stoke global warming, scientists said.
It was unclear, however, if the Arctic emissions of methane gas were new or had been going on unnoticed for centuries -- since before the Industrial Revolution of the 18th century led to wide use of fossil fuels that are blamed for climate change.
The study said about 8 million tonnes of methane a year, equivalent to the annual total previously estimated from all of the world's oceans, were seeping from vast stores long trapped under permafrost below the seabed north of Russia.
The experts measured levels of methane, a gas that can be released by rotting vegetation, in water and air at 5,000 sites on the East Siberian Arctic Shelf from 2003-08. In some places, methane was bubbling up from the seabed.
Previously, the sea floor had been considered an impermeable barrier sealing methane. Current methane concentrations in the Arctic are the highest in 400,000 years.
Methane Bubbles
Back To Babylon-By-The-Bay
Sea Lions
The thousands of California sea lions that showed up this winter off the central Oregon coast seem to have largely moved on.
In San Francisco, last fall's abrupt disappearance of the creatures left tourists disappointed. Now they're slowly returning to San Francisco's Pier 39.
While the sea lions range widely, the mass exodus of most of a population of about 1,700 was puzzling. Some scientists suggest perhaps they simply headed north looking for food.
The Oregonian reports that schools of fish such as anchovies and sardines were ample off Oregon. One photo taken this winter off Oregon's Lost Beach between Sea Lion Caves and Heceta Head showed thousands of the animals.
Sea Lions
Welcome Wake-Up
Birdsongs
Britons love to wake up to the sound of a bird tweeting or warbling, according to a poll which showed that birdsong is the most popular alarm tone after the traditional beep.
Although the beep led the way, birdsong was ahead of church bells, chimes, World War Two sirens and dogs barking.
By contrast, the least popular tones were violin screeching and kettle whistling.
The poll was carried out by British digital radio maker PURE whose latest model provides access to 365 alarm tones, one for every day of the year.
Birdsongs
In Memory
Johnny Alf
A founder of Bossa Nova music has died in Brazil after fighting prostate cancer. He was 80.
Pianist Johnny Alf was called the "true father of Bossa Nova" by Ruy Castro, who wrote a definitive history of the music. Alf widely influenced later stars.
Alf was born Alfredo Jose da Silva on May 19, 1929, in Rio de Janeiro. He was an aficionado of early American jazz, which greatly influenced his work and that of Bossa Nova as a whole.
He appeared on 46 albums, but only recorded nine solo records.
His 1955 songs "Rapaz de bem" and "O Tempo e o vento" are considered by many the start of Bossa Nova.
Johnny Alf
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