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From 'TBH Politoons'
Great Site!
Thanks, again, Tim!
Reader Cool Link
Pikes Peak Observatory
Pikes Peak Observatory
Click on the link to the panoramic camera and you get a good view of what it's like on top the Peak. Sunrise is about 8:50 AM eastern. Sunsets are cool, too.
~~ Mick
Way cool! Thanks, Mick!
He's Been Busy, Again!
the worried shrimp
Jesus Freak...
(Thanks, Marc!)
Cool Site
Jeff Crook
Jeff Crook
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Local LA TV was obsessed with Chick Hearn today. The Chuck Heston video never aired til the dinner-time news here (except on cable).
So, I'm out sweeping the front porch and a white van parks in front of the house. Glad I had my glasses on. On the side of the white van was
painted 'Crime Scene Investigation', and the local police insignia. Uh-oh and damn! It's one thing if it has a CBS logo, but, as a property owner, it's
not something you want to see in your 'hood. The driver of the van then proceded to eat his lunch & enjoy the shade of the big piney tree...whew!
Did the grocery shopping & stopped by the reptile shop for the weekly load of fresh crickets. Even Shelob, the tarantula was hungry. : )
Tonight, Saturday, CBS starts the evening with a fresh 'Big Brother 3', then follows with reruns of 'The District' and 'The Agency'.
NBC has a fresh (but taped on the West Coast) 'Gymnastics', then a seemingly fresh 'The Crocodile Hunter' (Steve Irwin), followed by a fresh 'She Spies'. (Hey - am I the only one
watching 'She Spies'?)
The 'Saturday Night Live' rerun is hosted by Hugh Jackman.
ABC reruns the James Bond movie 'The Spy Who Loved Me'.
The WB has the movie 'Operation Jumbo Drop'.
Faux, as usual, has 2 reruns of 'Cops' followed by 'America's Most Wanted'.
UPN has more of the Philadelphia Phillies visiting Rupert's Doggers.
AMC has 'Lawrence Of Arabia'. Sit back & enjoy it.
TCM explores the realm of 70's paranoia with 'Westworld', 'Silent Running', 'Logan's Run', 'Soylent Green',
and 'Rollerball'.
Anyone have any opinions?
Or reviews?
(See below for addresses)
Voted Best Ever Film
'Citizen Kane'
The greatest film ever made is "Citizen Kane," according to an international poll of film critics and directors.
The Orson Welles classic was chosen by 144 film critics and directors polled separately by the British Film Institute.
The critics put Alfred Hitchcock's "Vertigo" in second place, followed by Jean Renoir's "La Regle du Jeu."
The directors' second choice was "The Godfather" and "The Godfather Part II," followed by Federico Fellini's "8-1/2."
There were no British films among the top tens, although Sir Carol Reed's "The Third Man" was at number 35.
However, classic musical "Singing in the Rain" was voted tenth most popular by the critics, while "Lawrence of Arabia" scored highly with the directors.
The age of the films was also telling, with the most recent on either list being Martin Scorsese's 1980 movie "Raging Bull" at number six on the directors' list.
'Citizen Kane'
Interesting Link
The Exploited Class. org
www.exploitedclass.org - only the largest class in the world
Hint - Hint - Hint - Hint - Hint - Hint - Hint - Hint - Hint - Hint - Hint - Hint - Hint
Dems In Vegas
Democratic National Committe Chairman Terry McAuliffe, left, listens to U.S. Rep. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., center, as Democratic candidate for the U.S. House, Linda Sanchez,
from California's 39th district, looks on Thursday, Aug. 8, 2002, at the Hilton Hotel in Las Vegas. The DNC is holding their summer meeting in Las Vegas and the Hispanic
Caucus candidates' meeting was part of the event.
Photo by Joe Cavaretta
Edinburgh Fringe Festival
Jerry Springer - The Opera
First the Jerry Springer Show -- Now the Opera
For British composer Richard Thomas, the Jerry Springer show offered the ideal formula for an outrageous opera.
"It's got tragedy. It's got violence. There are people screaming at each other and you can't understand what they are saying. It's perfect for opera," Thomas said of the show whose lurid topics have
ranged from "Honey I'm a Call Girl" to "Bring on the Bisexuals."
So, aided by comic writer Stewart Lee, he penned the profane, foul-mouthed and hilarious "Jerry Springer The Opera" that has turned into one of the biggest hits at this year's Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
And now they are holding their breath -- Jerry Springer himself will be coming to see the show when he visits Edinburgh later this month for a television festival.
It could prove to be a real eye-opener, even for the host of one of America's most lurid talks shows that is seen across 100 U.S. television stations and in more than 20 countries around the world.
Watch the diaper fetishist confess all to his true love; catch a dance routine by the Ku Klux Klan; see the corpulent lover tell his future bride that he is sleeping with her best friend as
well as a transvestite; marvel as Jesus and the Devil launch into a swearing tirade against each other.
Jerry Springer - The Opera
The 'Hottentot Venus'
Sarah 'Saartjie' Baartman
Traditional dancers perforn at the burial ceremony for Sarah Baartman on Friday in the Gamtoos river valley, where she is believed to have been born. Baartman, also know as Saartjie, or
the "Hottentot Venus", was a Khoisan woman taken to Europe by a British doctor and paraded as an anatomical freak about 200 years ago. Her remains were returned earlier this year from France, where she died.
Photo by Mike Hutchings
For more information (and an incredibly sad story), The Return of the "Hottentot Venus"
and
Hottentot Venus Bibliography
Received Cochlear Implant
Heather Whitestone McCallum
Former Miss America Heather Whitestone McCallum, saying she needed to hear her children talk, has undergone surgery that's expected to allow her to detect whispers.
McCallum, the first deaf woman to win the pageant in 1995, returned to her Atlanta home Thursday after receiving a cochlear implant in her right ear.
A childhood bout with the haemophilus influenza virus and high fever left her with no hearing in her right ear and the ability to discern only low frequencies in her left.
McCallum said she had been happy using a hearing aid until the birth of her two sons. It enabled her to hear sirens and horns and some environmental sounds, but she couldn't hear her boys' speech.
Dr. John Niparko, the surgeon who inserted McCallum's implant Wednesday at Johns Hopkins Medical Center in Baltimore, said her ear will need about six weeks to heal before the device can be activated.
Heather Whitestone McCallum
Interesting Link
New Spiders
New Spiders
Slam Dunk for CBS
Shaquille O'Neal
Shaq is set to hold court at CBS.
The network has picked up a drama script revolving around L.A. Lakers star Shaquille O'Neal and a fictional teammate who suffers a career-ending injury and winds up securing a job at Shaq's
old high school. The multiethnic drama will focus on the ex-player, who becomes a coach and is advised by the school's principal, a former mentor of Shaq's.
O'Neal is expected to appear in the pilot and will make occasional guest appearances as his schedule with the three-time NBA champions permits.
Scribe Judith McCreary will executive produce the untitled project with O'Neal. She's no stranger to writing about the basketball world, having been a supervising producer on Showtime's "Hoop
Dreams." She also spent the last two and a half years as co-executive producer on "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit."
Shaquille O'Neal
NASA Gets With The Program
Lance Bass
NASA says it's ready for 'N Sync singer Lance Bass' space debut.
If the boy band member clinches a deal with Russian officials to fly to the international space station this fall — and a deal is supposedly close — then NASA will welcome him into training.
NASA already is making plans for Bass and his cosmonaut crew to visit Johnson Space Center in Houston later this month for a full week of training. He would be the third space
tourist, but the first to rack up corporate sponsors and TV shows to help finance the trip.
Bass still needs the OK from a crew-operations panel representing the U.S., European, Japanese, Canadian and Russian space agencies. The group has been reviewing the matter
since mid-July, when the Russians formally submitted Bass' name for the upcoming launch of a Soyuz spacecraft. Also along for the ride to provide a fresh space station lifeboat:
a Russian cosmonaut and a Belgian astronaut.
Liftoff is scheduled for Oct. 28. The Soyuz would dock two days later and its crew would depart Nov. 7 in the capsule that's been attached to the space station since spring.
For more details, Lance Bass
In The Kitchen With BartCop & Friends
Has Alzheimer's Symptoms
Charlton Heston
Oscar-winning actor Charlton Heston said on Friday that he has a neurological disorder consistent with Alzheimer's disease.
In a video-taped announcement played at a Beverly Hills news conference, the 78-year-old actor, who played Moses in the "The Ten Commandments," said, "For an actor there is no
greater loss than the loss of his audience. I can part the Red Sea, but I can't part with you, which is why I won't exclude you from this stage in my life."
He added that for now he would continue living a normal life but added, "If you see a little less spring in my step, if your name fails to leap to my lips, you'll know why.
"And if I tell you a funny story for the second time, please laugh anyway."
Charlton Heston
Pittsburgh Native
Andy Warhol Stamp
The family of pop artist Andy Warhol, a Pittsburgh native, older brothers John Warhola , left, and Paul Warhola, right, stand with Andy's great nephew Matthew Warhola, 2, of
Cranberry, Pa., in front of the newly issued Andy Warhol stamp at a first day of issue celebration at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh Friday Aug. 9. 2002. The 37-cent
stamp features his 1964 self-portrait, which is now in the collection of the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, where he was born.
Photo by Gene J. Puskar
Wants To Act
Serena Williams
Serena Williams, the world's top-ranked woman's tennis player, has added struggling actress to her resume.
The 20-year-old says she's been taking classes and has a new acting coach.
Williams said she'd love to work with Sean Connery, Anthony Hopkins or Morgan Freeman.
And what kind of part would she want to play?
"With my time schedule, I'd have to have a small role," Williams said, "but I'd like the movie to be all about me, so maybe I can get hurt in the beginning of the movie and
I can just stay in a coma until the end."
Known as a practical joker, Williams was asked if she was serious about a future in show business.
"I'm very serious as a heart attack," she said, giggling.
Serena Williams
Fun Link
Beer Bottle Collection
Beer Bottle Collection
Media Violence = Mean Kids
Study Says
Watching lots of violence on television and playing violent video games not only makes kids more physically aggressive, it makes them meaner and more distrustful, researchers said in a study released on Thursday.
The findings add a troubling new dimension to an existing body of research linking violence in the media with overtly violent behavior in children and adults, said David
Walsh, co-author of the new study and head of the National Institute on Media and the Family.
The six-month study was based on evaluations of 219 Minnesota children in the third, fourth and fifth grades, taken from a combination of public and private schools in urban, suburban and rural areas, Walsh said.
The youngsters filled out surveys of their TV viewing and video-game habits, and were evaluated by their own teachers and peers in terms of how well they get along with others. They
also took a standardized test used to rate individuals' level of trust and suspicion of others.
Children rated the most ill-behaved reported more exposure to overall media violence and a greater preference for violence than other youngsters. They also played more video games and
tended to favor more violence in those games, the study found.
These trends increased with the age of the children, the study found.
Media Violence = Mean Kids
BartCop TV!
Appeals From Both Sides
Internet Music Rates
Both sides in the dispute over Internet music royalties said they will appeal a recent federal decision setting rates for music broadcast over the Internet.
In June, the U.S. Copyright Office decided to charge webcasters 70 cents per song heard by 1,000 listeners, or half of what a government panel had proposed in February.
That decision angered both Internet music broadcasters, who said the rate was still too high, and the recording industry, which said it did not fairly compensate artists and record labels.
Internet Music Rates
On The Menu?
Pangolin
A Malaysian pangolin walks past cages as a wildlife officer watches in Kuala Lumpur, Aug. 8, 2002. Officials seized dozens of pangolins they suspected were ready to
be smuggled to restaurants in China.
Photo by Bazuki Muhammad
Romance Goes Sour
'The Bachelor'
The Bachelor apparently will stay that way a little longer.
Alex Michel chose Amanda Marsh from among 25 contestants on ABC's reality dating show "The Bachelor" last spring, but Marsh said Michel hasn't exactly been courting her.
On more than one occasion, "he told me to get a cab to meet him at events," Marsh, 23, told TV Guide for its Aug. 17 issue.
For his part, the 32-year-old Michel, a former San Francisco management consultant, said Marsh's radio job "sounds cool" and it wouldn't be "loving" of him to dissuade her from it. The couple,
he said, is "happy — and going along as a regular couple and not trying to agonize about what challenges the future holds."
'The Bachelor'
Fun Link
Where's George?
Where's George?
Determining Prime Numbers
New Method
Indian computer scientists said Friday they have solved a mathematical problem that has eluded researchers for 2,200 years — and could be crucial in modern times in improving computer configurations.
A three-member team of scientists at the Indian Institute of Technolgy in the northern Indian city of Kanpur have devised a method that will make no mistake in
quickly determining a prime number — those that are divisible only by themselves and 1.
Prime numbers hold the key to solving many mathematical problems and play an important a role in cryptography. Scientists have long worked on ways to improve methods to identify a prime number.
The new algorithm will have no immediate applications, however, because current methods used in computers are faster.
New Method
Department of Computer Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur
'Mystery' Death & Names From Todays News
Frank R. Olson
Relatives of Frank R. Olson have long believed the government killed the Cold War scientist who plunged 13 stories to his death days after unwittingly taking LSD in a CIA mind-control experiment.
But nearly 50 years after Olson's death, family members said they have substantiated the theory to their satisfaction and must now close this chapter and go on with their lives,
even though the people they believe are responsible will never stand trial.
The CIA denied Thursday that its agents killed Olson by throwing him out a New York hotel window on Nov. 28, 1953, to keep him from revealing secrets about the torture of Cold
War prisoners and biological weapons used in the Korean War.
The family originally was told Olson, a microbiologist at Fort Detrick, the Army's biological weapons research center in Frederick, had fallen or jumped.
In 1975, a commission headed by Vice President Nelson Rockefeller released a report on CIA abuses that included a reference to an Army scientist who had jumped from a New
York hotel days after being slipped LSD in 1953.
Outraged family members threatened to sue but President Ford invited the family to the White House, assuring them they would be given all the government's information.
CIA Director William Colby handed over documents and the family accepted a $750,000 settlement to avert a lawsuit.
But the documents didn't answer all the family's questions, and their investigation continued.
On Thursday, Eric Olson distributed copies of a July 11, 1975, memorandum from Vice President Dick Cheney to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, then both Ford White House aides.
Cheney wrote that any lawsuit or legislative hearings stemming from the incident would raise "the possibility that it might be necessary to disclose highly classified national security information."
Another memo, dated Aug. 4, 1975, from White House counsel Roderick Hills to Cheney, urged a settlement with the family.
Frank R. Olson
The Frank Olson Project
Perseid Meteor Shower Peaks Sunday & Monday
Viewer's Guide
Every August, just when many people go vacationing in the country where skies are dark, the best-known meteor shower makes its appearance. As with many celestial phenomena, there's
some curious lore surrounding the shooting stars of the annual Perseid meteor shower.
Laurentius, a Christian deacon, is said to have been martyred by the Romans in 258 AD on an iron outdoor stove. It was in the midst of this torture that Laurentius supposedly cried
out: "I am already roasted on one side and, if thou wouldst have me well cooked, it is time to turn me on the other."
It is highly doubtful whether this actually happened or was a product of morbid medieval imagination, but King Phillip II of Spain believed it enough to build his monastery place,
the "Escorial," on the plan of the holy gridiron. The saint's death was commemorated on his feast day, Aug. 10.
The abundance of shooting stars seen annually between approximately Aug. 8 and 14 have come to be known by some as St. Lawrence's "fiery tears."
We know today that these meteors are the dross of a comet called Swift-Tuttle.
According to the best estimates, in 2002 the Earth is predicted to cut through the densest part of the Perseid stream sometime between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. EDT on Monday, Aug. 12. This is
during the late afternoon and early evening hours across North America, and while the actual interval of peak activity might be lost to daylight, the predawn hours of both Monday morning,
the 12th, and Tuesday morning, the 13th, still holds the promise of seeing a very fine Perseid display.
For Europe, the peak comes near or soon after midnight on Aug. 13. Few Perseids are ever visible from the Southern Hemisphere.
For a lot more info, Viewer's Guide
Ayutthaya, Thailand
Piek & Pom
Piek, a four-year-old monkey, checks one-year-old Pom for lice at a temple in the Thai city of Ayutthaya, 85 km (53 miles) north of Bangkok on August 7, 2002. Both animals were
abandoned at the temple by their owners a year ago. Since then they have become playmates.
Photo by Sukree Sukplang
'The Osbournes'
Freshly updated - 'The Osbournes' ~ Page 3
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 2
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 1
