Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Hadley Freeman: My love affair with the 'Enquirer' (guardian.co.uk)
How the supermarket tabloid shaped my journalistic ambitions.
Joan Bakewell: Happiness is being 74 (guardian.co.uk)
The young have stress, ambition, unfulfilled dreams. The elderly have contentment.
Christiane Northrup, MD: We Need To Stop Circumcision (huffingtonpost.com)
Circumcision is an unnecessary procedure that is painful and can lead to complications, including death. No organization in the world currently recommends this. Why should we routinely remove normal, functioning tissue from the genitals of little boys within days of their birth?
Jack Shafer: The Plagiarist's Dirty Dozen Excuses (slate.com)
Take off your shoes and socks and count them all.
Marion Maneker: Want To Know What a Book Really Costs? (thebigmoney.com)
Over the weekend I got a note from my Slate colleague Jack Shafer expressing disbelief at a quote in the Financial Times' story on the perils of publishing in the digital age. The FT piece echoed an op-ed written by John Makinson, CEO of the Penguin Group, which has the same corporate parent as the paper, Pearson. Here's what provoked Shafer to ask "Can this possibly be true?"
Jonathan Safran Foer: the truth about fish farming (guardian.co.uk)
In the second extract from his book 'Eating Animals,' the novelist reveals how intensive rearing of sea animals in confinement is essentially underwater factory farming.
Steve Appleford: "Patti Smith: Dreams of Life and Death (laweekly.com)
Looking back with the iconic poet-musician.
Glenn Gamboa: The Vinyl Album Is Getting Its Groove Back (Newsday)
Don't bury the album just yet.
Kevin C. Johnson: After tragedy, Alice in Chains celebrates a new chapter (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
Seattle rockers Alice in Chains looked like a wrap after the 2002 death of lead singer Layne Staley, ending a storied career that included hit singles, multimillion-selling albums and a Grammy Award.
Barry Koltnow: Movie director attacks fat bias (The Orange County Register)
I was so distraught over the news that Kevin Smith had been thrown off a Southwest Airlines flight because he was too fat that I immediately ordered a pizza. In all fairness, if he hadn't been forced off the flight, I still would have ordered a pizza.
PATRICK GOLDSTEIN: "Kevin Smith: How 'A Couple of Dicks' became 'Cop Out'" (latimes.com)
To hear Smith tell it, it could've been much worse.
Patrick Goldstein: Kevin Smith on the media's coverage of 'Fatgate': 'They're really pathetic' (latimes.com)
The "Clerks" and "Cop Out" director has a big mouth and he knows it.
The Weekly Poll
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
...
Oscar night is Sunday, March 7th. Cut off for entries will be 8PM EST Saturday March 6th and will be posted Sunday morning. The winner will posted Tuesday, March 9th 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!
BadtotheboneBob
Send your response to
replied:
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Another rainy day.
New Mexico Film Program
Robert Redford
Actor and director Robert Redford and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson unveiled details Friday of a collaboration that will expand training opportunities for Native Americans and Hispanics interested in filmmaking, the arts and the environment.
Redford and Richardson first announced the "Sundance in New Mexico" idea last spring. In recent months, it has evolved and been given a new name - "Milagro at Los Luceros" - to better reflect that the institute will be a product of New Mexico, rather than just an offshoot of Redford's Sundance Institute in Utah.
The project will be based at Los Luceros, a state-owned hacienda and complex of buildings along the Rio Grande north of Espanola. Besides the historic buildings, the state will use $750,000 in federal stimulus funds to build a series of eco-friendly lodges where aspiring filmmakers can stay while attending workshops.
Redford and Richardson signed an agreement to formalize the partnership. Redford said he has been committed throughout his life to enabling "underrepresented voices" - particularly those of Native Americans and Hispanics - to tell their stories.
Robert Redford
Stars Rock Out
Tibet
Patti Smith, Iggy Pop, Regina Spektor and many others contributed to a potent sonic cocktail that rocked Carnegie Hall at the 20th Annual Benefit Concert for Tibet House US, a non-profit organization charged with preserving Tibetan culture.
Traditional chants by monks from the Drepung Gomang Monastery opened the concert. A highlight was a performance by 15-year-old Tenzin Kunsel, a Tibetan refugee who moved to the United States in 2003. She performed a Tibetan aria, backed by the Patti Smith Band.
Gogol Bordello, Pierce Turner and Jesse Smith - daughter of Patti_ were also among the acts on the Carnegie stage. The lineup was curated by the event's artistic director, noted composer Philip Glass. He also performed.
The Patti Smith Band helped close out the night with the punk classic "Gloria." At the end of her set, she introduced a soon-to-be-shirtless Pop, who dived right into his 1970s hit, "Passenger."
Tibet
Asks Canada To End Seal Hunt
Pamela Anderson
Pamela Anderson sent a letter Saturday to Canada's prime minister requesting an end to the country's annual seal hunt.
The Canadian actress and spokeswoman for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals dropped the letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper in a mailbox in front of the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans office.
Anderson called the hunt "an embarrassment to Canada" at a news conference, saying she made the appeal during the Winter Olympic Games here because "the whole world is watching Canada."
Canada's annual East Coast seal hunt from mid-November to mid-May, mostly in Newfoundland and Labrador and in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, is the largest in the world, killing an average of 275,000 harp seals.
Pamela Anderson
Winners
Image Awards
The complete list of winners of the 41st NAACP Image Awards:
• Comedy Series: "Tyler Perry's House of Payne"
• Drama series: "Lincoln Heights"
• Television movie, miniseries or dramatic special: "Gifted Hands"
• News/information (series or special): "The Inauguration of Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States"
• Variety series or special: "The Michael Jackson Memorial: Celebrating the Life of Michael Jackson"
• Motion picture: "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire"
• Documentary: "Good Hair"
For the rest: Image Awards
Students Storm Offices
San Diego
Anger boiled over on the University of California San Diego campus Friday, where students took over the chancellor's office for several hours to protest the hanging of a noose in a campus library.
Students wearing red handkerchiefs over their faces blocked the doors to Chancellor Marye Anne Fox's offices for hours, while more students inside chanted "Real pain, real change."
They left the office peacefully at sundown, about the same time that leaders of the university's Black Student Union ended talks with administrators in a nearby conference room over demands that include more boosting the African-American curriculum and campus activities. A university spokesman, Jeff Gattas, said there were no arrests and no property was damaged during the takeover.
The noose found dangling from a light fixture on the seventh floor of Geisel Library on Thursday night was the latest in a string of racially charged incidents in the university community, authorities said Friday. Less than two weeks ago, an off-campus party mocking Black History Month ignited racial tensions.
San Diego
Performers See Tiny Returns
Streaming Music
As the music business continues to watch traditional revenue streams slow or even evaporate, a good deal of faith often has been placed in what's hailed as a panacea for the industry's ills: online streaming.
But a Billboard analysis shows that even the amount of money earned by top artists from on-demand streams and noninteractive streams (such as Internet radio) is, in plain terms, shockingly low.
When Billboard calculated the rankings for its annual Money Makers report, the music trade magazine assigned a value to each digital download or song streamed based on information about labels' licensing deals with those services and assumptions made about standard artist contracts.
The results show that of the more than 100 artists examined to compile the Money Makers list, only 10 made more than $2,000 from noninteractive streams in 2009, with Beyonce topping the list with an underwhelming $5,000. Only 25 artists made more than $1,000 from on-demand streams, with Michael Jackson topping that list -- as the result of a barrage of interest after his death -- with $10,000. Neither totals include any due publishing royalties and all are for U.S. activity only.
Streaming Music
Obama Signs One-Year Extension
Patriot Act
President Barack Obama has signed a one-year extension of several provisions in the nation's main counterterrorism law, the Patriot Act.
Provisions in the measure would have expired on Sunday without Obama's signature Saturday.
The act, which was adopted in the weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, expands the government's ability to monitor Americans in the name of national security.
Obama's signature comes after the House voted 315 to 97 Thursday to extend the measure.
Patriot Act
Birth Certificates Voided
Puerto Rica
Native Puerto Ricans living outside the island territory are reacting with surprise and confusion after learning their birth certificates will become no good this summer.
A law enacted by Puerto Rico in December mainly to combat identity theft invalidates as of July 1 all previously issued Puerto Rican birth certificates. That means more than a third of the 4.1 million people of Puerto Rican descent living in the 50 states must arrange to get new certificates.
People born in Puerto Rico, a U.S. commonwealth, are U.S. citizens at birth. Anyone using a stolen Puerto Rico birth certificate could enter and move about the U.S. more easily, which could also pose security problems.
Puerto Rico's legislature passed the law after raids last March broke up a criminal ring that had stolen thousands of birth certificates and other identifying documents from several different schools in Puerto Rico.
Puerto Rica
Producer Spam
'Lockergate'?
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is considering action against a producer of "The Hurt Locker" who sent multiple e-mails urging academy members to vote for his movie in the Oscar best-picture race and "not a $500 million film" - an obvious reference to close-competitor "Avatar."
The e-mails by Nicolas Chartier, one of four nominated producers for "The Hurt Locker" and who put up the financing to make the front-running film, violated the academy's rule against sending mailings that "attempt to promote any film or achievement by casting a negative light on a competing film or achievement," according to academy spokeswoman Leslie Unger.
The initial e-mail was sent Feb. 19 and obtained by The Associated Press. Subsequent e-mails, posted by the Los Angeles Times, showed Chartier giving more specific instructions, asking Oscar voters to rank "The Hurt Locker" at No. 1 and "Avatar" at No. 10 on this year's preferential ballot for the newly expanded best-picture category.
Chartier, after being confronted by Summit executives, worked with the studio and the academy to craft an apology for his actions, said Summit spokesman Paul Pflug.
'Lockergate'?
Scientists Unravel Mysteries
Intelligence
It's not a particular brain region that makes someone smart or not smart.
Nor is it the strength and speed of the connections throughout the brain or such features as total brain volume.
Instead, new research shows, it's the connections between very specific areas of the brain that determine intelligence and often, by extension, how well someone does in life.
"General intelligence actually relies on a specific network inside the brain, and this is the connections between the gray matter, or cell bodies, and the white matter, or connecting fibers between neurons," said Jan Glascher, lead author of a paper appearing in this week's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "General intelligence relies on the connection between the frontal and the parietal [situated behind the frontal] parts of the brain."
Intelligence
Search In Montana
Air Mail
A cargo plane door opened in flight over Montana and likely turned two bags into air mail. Crews are searching the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex for the two priority mail bags that might have fallen out of the plane last weekend.
Alpine Air reported that a cargo hatch on the twin-engine turboprop opened during the flight between Billings and Kalispell and the pilot was unable to close it. The plane carried about 3,000 pounds of mail.
Postal workers aren't sure any mail is missing, but if any is, they say it's likely two bags, or about 25 packages.
Kalispell customers who believe they're missing priority mail packages are asked to call the Kalispell Post Office.
Air Mail
Ships Diary To Auction
"The Planter"
Violence, drunkenness and all manner of debauchery featured on a six-month voyage on a migrant ship bound for Australia 170 years ago, a newly discovered diary reveals.
The raunchy tale of anarchy on the high seas is recorded by a junior officer, James Bell, aboard "The Planter" which sailed to Adelaide from Deptford in east London in 1838.
In the green vellum-bound journal, Bell tells how the captain regularly entertained two of the 11 daughters of a doctor-preacher from Liverpool called McGowan.
He wrote: "our captain of course could not want a mistress till he returned to his own in England, but made love to two of McGowan's daughters ... The Capt was allowed to keep the daughters company at all hours, and during the whole time of our being in warm weather our bed on deck sufficed for all three."
Bell, whose 225-page diary goes up for sale at auction in London next month after being bought in a market stall for a pittance, said his crew were no better.
"The Planter"
Chimp Sent To Rehab
Zhora
A Russian chimpanzee has been sent to rehab by zookeepers to cure the smoking and beer-drinking habits he has picked up, a popular daily reported on Friday. An ex-performer, Zhora became aggressive at his circus and was transferred to a zoo in the southern Russian city of Rostov, where he fathered several baby chimps, learned to draw with markers and picked up his two vices.
"The beer and cigarettes were ruining him. He would pester passers-by for booze," the Komsomolskaya Pravda paper said.
It added he has now been transferred to the city of Kazan, about 500 miles east of Moscow, for rehabilitation treatment.
Zhora
In Memory
Michael Blosil
The teenage son of singer Marie Osmond killed himself by jumping from a building in downtown Los Angeles, celebrity news television program "Entertainment Tonight" reported on Saturday.
"ET" said Michael Blosil, 18, leapt from his apartment around 9 p.m. (0500 GMT) Friday after leaving a note saying he intended to kill himself due to a long battle with depression that made him feel as if he had no friends.
The report on ET's website quotes Marie Osmond as saying, "My family and I are devastated and in deep shock by the tragic loss of our dear Michael and ask that everyone respect our privacy during this difficult time."
Michael Blosil
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