'Best of TBH Politoons'
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Nat Hentoff: Ghost Prisons, Ghost Courtrooms (villagevoice.com)
From CIA secret prisons, 14 "high-level" terror suspects are at Gitmo. Where are all the others?
Sean Gonsalves: The Life of the Mind
Pursuing the "life of the mind" and taking full responsibility for the choices you make has nothing to do with intellectualism, elitism or being an "expert."
Rich Cohen: American Entropy (huffingtonpost.com)
The great problem of the age is inherited wealth, and the great danger is the sons and grandsons of the super-rich. We have become a nation of dynasties -- political dynasties, newspaper dynasties, sports franchise dynasties, Hollywood dynasties, literary dynasties. What's more, these dynasties were often founded in the boom after the Second World War, which means they are in their second or third or fourth generations, which are far weaker than the founding generation.
Barbara Ehrenreich: Big (Box) Brother (huffingtonpost.com)
We've always known that Wal-Mart is as big, in financial terms, as many sizable nations. It may even have begun to believe that it is one, complete with its own laws, security agency, and espionage system.
Daniel Gross: Haunted Mansion (slate.com)
A study proves that the bigger his house, the worse the CEO.
A lustful life (books.guardian.co.uk)
Paul Trynka's Iggy Pop - Open Up and Bleed skilfully charts the rise of the classic American anti-hero, writes Catherine Sevigny.
Lust for life (books.guardian.co.uk)
Paul Trynka's sober biography of Iggy Pop charts the hard times and high jinks of a godfather of punk, says David Sinclair.
BILL ZWECKER: High-tech 'Robinsons' offers old-fashioned fun (suntimes.com; 3 stars)
Though there are a few plot inconsistencies along the way, it all does come together in the end. It's all feel-good fantasy, and a ride that I enjoyed the entire time. Though state-of-the-art technically, I think you'll find there's a healthy, old-fashioned feel to this movie -- one that will make you walk out of the theater feeling satisfied, and all warm 'n fuzzy inside. Not a bad feeling, if you ask me.
Gary Indiana: Total Recall: Is Clive James's effort to save western civilization beautiful, stupid, or both? (villagevoice.com)
All right, he hates Sartre. Be my guest. But if part of James's project is to "destroy" people he considers malignant or less wonderful than other people think, as the jacket of this book asseverates, he should, at least, hire a fact-checker. It really is inexcusable to reproach the writer Karl Kraus for failing to raise his voice against Hitler's onrushing Anschluss with Austria, if only because this event occurred in 1938. Kraus died in 1936.
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Reader Comment
Velociraptors
Marty,
Your links are always great, and that is one of the best yet. It's
one more reason why the Wonderful World Wide Web is the greatest
invention in the history of mankind!
David Dvorkin
Blog
Thanks, David!
In case anyone missed the link - The American Society for Velociraptor Attack Prevention
Purple Gene Reviews
'The Host'
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny with a pleasant breeze.
Albany Honors
William Kennedy
Back rooms and saloons where William Kennedy's characters prowled are stops on a trolley tour. The local orchestra is tuning up for a concerto based on his latest work. And residents around this city so intimately tied to the Pulitzer Prize winner's imagination are being asked to read "Legs," "Ironweed" or "Roscoe."
The string of events through early May were hatched, in part, to bring attention to the Albany Symphony Orchestra's newly commissioned concerto based on "Roscoe." But the feelings behind them are real. The two-month Kennedy-palooza is a sort of payback for a loyal son who has spun Albany's roguish past into novels that have put this little city on the literary map.
"He's an important figure in literature, but also he's so much about Albany," says David Alan Miller, music director for the Albany orchestra. "His subject matter has virtually always been about this sense of the grandeur and the poetry of old Albany - particularly the sort of gritty grandeur of the Democratic machine."
William Kennedy
France's Legion of Honour
Nadine Gordimer
South African novelist and Nobel laureate Nadine Gordimer, whose work addresses the struggle against apartheid, received France's Legion of Honour Saturday at a ceremony in her home country.
"By making you an officer of the Legion of Honour, we also wish to pay tribute to a symbolic figure of the fight against apartheid," said French ambassador in South Africa Denis Pietton.
The ceremony took place at the French embassy in Pretoria.
Nadine Gordimer
Best Hoaxes
April Fool's Day
From television revealing that spaghetti grows on trees to advertisements for the left-handed burger, the tradition of April Fool's Day stories in the media has a weird and wonderful history.
Here are 10 of the top April Fool's Day pranks ever pulled off, as judged by the San Diego-based Museum of Hoaxes for their notoriety, absurdity, and number of people duped.
-- In 1957, a BBC television show announced that thanks to a mild winter and the virtual elimination of the spaghetti weevil, Swiss farmers were enjoying a bumper spaghetti crop. Footage of Swiss farmers pulling strands of spaghetti from trees prompted a barrage of calls from people wanting to know how to grow their own spaghetti at home.
-- In 1992, US National Public Radio announced that Richard Nixon was running for president again. His new campaign slogan was, "I didn't do anything wrong, and I won't do it again." They even had clips of Nixon announcing his candidacy. Listeners flooded the show with calls expressing their outrage. Nixon's voice actually turned out to be that of impersonator Rich Little.
For the rest, April Fool's Day
Post Office Unveils Stamp Set
Star Wars
Darth Vader and Obi-Wan Kenobi will do battle one more time - and the emperor, Han Solo, Princess Leia and others will join in the struggle. A set of 15 stamps commemorating the Star Wars movies will be released in May, the Postal Service said Wednesday.
And people will get to vote on their favorite from the set, which will be reissued in late summer or early fall as a single stamp, said David Failor, director of stamp services at the post office.
The 41-cent stamps will be released May 25. The price of sending a letter goes up to that rate on May 14.
The 15 stamps will be issued on a single sheet that resembles a movie poster. Once the stamps are available, people who want to vote for their favorite will be able to do it online at www.uspsjedimaster.com.
Star Wars
Star Academy Winner
Shatha Hassoun
After enduring one of the bloodiest weeks in Iraq's sectarian conflict, Iraqis on Saturday were united in celebrating the win of an Iraqi woman in the hit pan-Arab television talent show Star Academy.
Shatha Hassoun, 26, fell on her knees on stage and wrapped the red, white and black Iraqi flag around her shoulders after learning she had garnered the biggest share of the public vote in the reality show, which is broadcast from Lebanon and is one of the most popular programs in the Middle East.
While Hassoun, the daughter of a Moroccan mother and an Iraqi father, lives in Morocco, many Iraqis saw in her an opportunity to forget their own troubles in the war-ravaged country and restore some national pride.
Star Academy Middle East is the Arab version of the French show Star Academy produced by Dutch company Endemol.
Shatha Hassoun
Longest Concert Record Set
Japanese Musicians
Japanese musicians overcame fatigue and a major earthquake to set the record for the world's longest concert on Saturday, playing 184 hours non-stop in a program that ranged from The Beatles' classics to Japanese traditional harp music.
Over 900 musicians aged 6 to 89 took turns performing in the 9-day marathon - with breaks of no more than 5 minutes between acts - at a small railway station in Hikone city, western Japan, according to organizer Kuniko Teramura, 51.
The previous record for longest concert was set in Canada five years ago and lasted 182 hours, according to the Guinness Web site.
Japanese Musicians
Congress Questions Katrina Maps
Google
A congressional subcommittee accused Google on Friday of "airbrushing history" by replacing post-Hurricane Katrina satellite imagery on its popular map portal with images of the region taken before the storm's devastation.
Citing an Associated Press report from Thursday, the House Committee on Science and Technology's subcommittee on investigations and oversight asked Google Inc. Chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt to explain why his company is using the outdated imagery.
It was not clear when the current images replaced views of the city taken after Katrina struck Aug. 29, 2005, flooding an estimated 80 percent of New Orleans.
Brad Miller, D-N.C., asked Google to brief his staff by April 6 on who made the decision to replace the imagery with pre-Katrina images, and to disclose if Google was contacted by the city, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the U.S. Geological Survey or any other government entity about changing the imagery.
Google
Big Pharma Busted By Schoolgirls
GlaxoSmithKline
Global drugs giant GlaxoSmithKline faces a court case on Tuesday for misleading advertising after two 14-year-olds found its popular blackcurrant drink Ribena contained almost no vitamin C.
High school students Anna Devathasan and Jenny Suo tested the children's drink against advertising claims that "the blackcurrants in Ribena have four times the vitamin C of oranges" in 2004.
Instead, the two found the syrup-based drink contained almost no trace of vitamin C, and one commercial orange juice brand contained almost four times more than Ribena.
Ribena, first made in the 1930s and distributed to British children during World War Two, is now sold in 22 countries.
GlaxoSmithKline
Golden Gun Auctioned
Ian Fleming
A revolver once owned by Ian Fleming, author of the James Bond books, was sold for 12,000 pounds (17,650 euros, 23,550 dollars) at an auction in London on Wednesday.
The Colt Python .357 Magnum was presented to Fleming by the Colt Company as a gift in 1964, possibly as thanks for having his character Scaramanga, the KGB-trained villain in "The Man With The Golden Gun", use a Colt gun.
The snub-nosed revolver, which is in excellent condition, is engraved with the legend: "Presented To Ian Fleming By Colt's Patent Fire Arms Mfg. Co".
Ian Fleming
Engineers To Help Find Ithaca
Homer
A geological engineering company said it has agreed to help in an archaeological project to find the island of Ithaca, homeland of Homer's legendary hero Odysseus.
It has long been thought that the island of Ithaki in the Ionian Sea was the island Homer used as a setting for the epic poem "The Odyssey," in which the king Odysseus makes a perilous 10-year journey home from the Trojan War.
But amateur British archaeologist Robert Bittlestone believes the Ithaca of Homer is no longer a separate island but became attached to the island of Kefallonia through rock displacement caused by earthquakes. The theory could explain inconsistencies between Ithaki and Homer's description of Odysseus' island.
The Dutch-based engineering services company, Fugro Group, will use high-tech surveying equipment normally used in oil-and-gas exploration for the Ithaca project, due to start this summer and last about three years. The Greek Geological Society is also sponsoring the research.
Homer
School Bus Converted
Matzos Oven
The first hint that something was amiss came in the middle of the night when the neighbor called to report a smell of smoke. Police investigated and found the blaze, but it wasn't your typical fire.
It was an old school bus that had been converted into a supersized oven for Passover matzos - complete with a smokestack, exhaust fans and working fire. A building inspector said that while the bakery bus wasn't nearly up to code, it was "very creative."
The derelict red-and-white bus, connected by a plywood passageway to a single-family house, was out of sight of casual passers-by in a Hasidic Jewish neighborhood and had apparently long escaped the notice of authorities. Its owner, Rabbi Aaron Winternitz, said Monday he had been making the unleavened bread there for three Passovers and was eager to do the same this year, with Passover coming up in a week.
He said that the oven-in-a-bus was his invention, and that he purposely bought an old school bus because "school buses are made strong and safe." He said the bus he purchased had also been used as a home and as a race-car carrier.
Matzos Oven
In Memory
Tony Scott
Jazz musician Tony Scott, a clarinetist, composer and arranger who worked with such greats as Billie Holiday and Charlie Parker, has died, the House of Jazz said Saturday. He was 85.
Scott, who also played the saxophone, worked with many of the greatest jazz musicians over a career that spanned decades and continents, playing with Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington and Sarah Vaughan.
Scott was born Anthony Joseph Sciacca in Morristown, N.J. Considered a forerunner of world music - he was among the first jazz musicians to mix the genre with other influences.
His travels took him to Europe, Africa and Asia. He eventually settled in Rome, and became a fixture of the Italian jazz scene.
Scott took an interest in photography, and documented the work and life of jazz greats in a series of pictures that were displayed in an exhibit in France in the late 1980s. He wrote an autobiography called "Bird, Lady and Me" in honor of Parker and Holiday.
"I decided a long time ago I would rather be a jazz musician than rich and famous. I had the chance to sell out, but I didn't. I've never regretted that," Scott was quoted as saying by his Web site.
Tony Scott
In Memory
Joel Brodsky
Joel Brodsky, whose photography was featured on hundreds of music album covers, has died at age 67, his daughter, Jill Holt, said.
One of Brodsky's best-known works was the black-and-white image of a shirtless, unsmiling Jim Morrison on "The Best of the Doors." It was immortalized in posters and other memorabilia, and was praised for capturing Morrison's intensity and sexuality.
Brodsky even had the image etched into the prosthesis he used after losing part of a leg to diabetes several years ago, Holt said.
Some of Brodsky's other notable images included the cover of Van Morrison's "Astral Weeks" and the 1974 self-titled debut for the rock band Kiss. In all, he did photography for more than 400 album covers, largely for rock, blues and soul performers.
In 1966, he shot the Jim Morrison photos that established his reputation. Holt said her father's favourite image was his photograph of Booker T & the MG's walking across McLemore Avenue in Memphis, Tenn., in a scene reminiscent of the Beatles' "Abbey Road" cover.
Brodsky is survived by his wife, Valerie, of Stamford; Holt and two other daughters, and one sister and three grandchildren.
Joel Brodsky
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