Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Matt Donnelly: Cameron Diaz named the most dangerous celeb on the Internet
Who knew that loving Cameron Diaz could be so risky? Turns out that searching the Web for the bubbly blond star comes with this year's highest chance of encountering corrupt sites and malicious software.
Jack Shafer: Greetings, 18 Percenters!
Let's meet the knucklehead Americans who think Barack Obama is a Muslim.
Jim Hightower: HIDING WORKER INJURIES
According to the latest safety reports, workplace injuries are on the decline in our country. Great! Only... it's untrue.
Ted Rall: DIFFERENT WAR, SAME SITUATION
Nine Years Later, Afghan City is Buzzing But Still Menacing.
Civilians to Take U.S. Lead as Military Leaves Iraq (nytimes.com)
As the United States military prepares to leave Iraq by the end of 2011, the Obama administration is planning a remarkable civilian effort, buttressed by a small army of contractors, to fill the void.
Ask the indie professor: why shout for a song the band will never play? (guardian.co.uk)
When a guy yells for an obscure B-side the band haven't played in 17 years, he isn't talking to them; he's talking to you.
Luaine Lee: Comedian Dave Foley is a standup guy (McClatchy-Tribune News Service)
It's a lucky thing that Dave Foley is good at comedy - because he's bad at everything else. "I'm terrible at so many things," says the star of the late sitcom "NewsRadio."
Troy Patterson: 50 Years of Rat Packing (slate.com)
How an OK movie and a circle of drinking buddies became an iconic American attitude.
Michael Ordoρa: Getting to the truth of Pat Tillman's death (latimes.com)
Amir Bar-Lev chronicles a determined family's struggle for answers in the documentary 'The Tillman Story.'
After Stanley Kubrick (guardian.co.uk)
Christiane Kubrick had 42 wonderful years with her husband. But in the decade since his death, she has been beset by tragedy. For the first time, she talks about losing one daughter to cancer, another to Scientology - and why her uncle made films for Goebbels, writes Jon Ronson.
Your next box set: King of the Hill (guardian.co.uk)
Almost closer to a real-life sitcom than it is to its animated peers, King of the Hill is a tender, funny portrayal of middle America, writes Will Dean.
The Weekly Poll
EMMY CONTEST
The First Ever BadtotheboneBob's Emmy Contest!™
Well then, Poll-fans, here are the 21 categories and nominations. I would suggest a cut and paste action and then adding yer predictions... Best of luck be upon ya!
Drama
Drama Series
Breaking Bad AMC
Dexter Showtime
The Good Wife CBS
Lost ABC
Mad Men AMC
True Blood HBO
Lead Actor, Drama
Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad AMC
Michael C. Hall, Dexter Showtime
Kyle Chandler, Friday Night Lights NBC
Hugh Laurie, House FOX
Matthew Fox, Lost ABC
Jon Hamm, Mad Men AMC
Lead Actress, Drama
Kyra Sedgwick, The Closer TNT
Glenn Close, Damages FX Networks
Connie Britton, Friday Night Lights NBC
Julianna Margulies, The Good Wife CBS
Mariska Hargitay, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit NBC
January Jones, Mad Men AMC
Supporting Actor, Drama
Aaron Paul, Breaking Bad AMC
Martin Short, Damages FX Networks
Terry O'Quinn, Lost ABC
Michael Emerson, Lost ABC
John Slattery, Mad Men AMC
Andre Braugher, Men Of A Certain Age TNT
Supporting Actress, Drama
Sharon Gless, Burn Notice USA
Rose Byrne, Damages FX Networks
Archie Panjabi, The Good Wife CBS
Christine Baranski, The Good Wife CBS
Christina Hendricks, Mad Men AMC
Elisabeth Moss, Mad Men AMC
Comedy
Comedy Series
Curb Your Enthusiasm HBO
Glee FOX
Modern Family ABC
Nurse Jackie Showtime
The Office NBC
30 Rock NBC
Lead Actor, Comedy
Jim Parsons, The Big Bang Theory CBS
Larry David, Curb Your Enthusiasm HBO
Matthew Morrison, Glee FOX
Tony Shalhoub, Monk USA
Steve Carell, The Office NBC
Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock NBC
Lead Actress, Comedy
Lea Michele, Glee FOX
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, The New Adventures Of Old Christine CBS
Edie Falco, Nurse Jackie Showtime
Amy Poehler, Parks And Recreation NBC
Tina Fey, 30 Rock NBC
Toni Collette, United States Of Tara Showtime
Supporting Actor, Comedy
Chris Colfer, Glee FOX
Neil Patrick Harris, How I Met Your Mother CBS
Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Modern Family ABC
Eric Stonestreet, Modern Family ABC
Ty Burrell, Modern Family ABC
Jon Cryer, Two And A Half Men CBS
Supporting Actress, Comedy
Jane Lynch, Glee FOX
Julie Bowen, Modern Family ABC
Sofia Vergara, Modern Family ABC
Kristen Wiig, Saturday Night Live NBC
Jane Krakowski, 30 Rock NBC
Holland Taylor, Two And A Half Men CBS
Miniseries or Movie
Miniseries
The Pacific HBO
Return To Cranford (Masterpiece) PBS
Made-for-TV Movie
Endgame (Masterpiece) PBS
Georgia O'Keeffe Lifetime
Moonshot HISTORY
The Special Relationship HBO
Temple Grandin HBO
You Don't Know Jack HBO
Actor, Miniseries or Movie
Jeff Bridges, A Dog Year HBO
Ian McKellen, The Prisoner AMC
Michael Sheen, The Special Relationship HBO
Dennis Quaid, The Special Relationship HBO
Al Pacino, You Don't Know Jack HBO
Actress, Miniseries or Movie
Maggie Smith, Capturing Mary HBO
Joan Allen, Georgia O'Keeffe Lifetime
Dame Judi Dench, Return To Cranford (Masterpiece) PBS
Hope Davis, The Special Relationship HBO
Claire Danes, Temple Grandin HBO
Supporting Actor, Miniseries or Movie
Michael Gambon, Emma (Masterpiece) PBS
Patrick Stewart, Hamlet (Great Performances) PBS
Jonathan Pryce, Return To Cranford (Masterpiece) PBS
David Strathairn, Temple Grandin HBO
John Goodman, You Don't Know Jack HBO
Supporting Actress, Miniseries or Movie
Kathy Bates, Alice Syfy
Julia Ormond, Temple Grandin HBO
Catherine O'Hara, Temple Grandin HBO
Brenda Vaccaro, You Don't Know Jack HBO
Susan Sarandon, You Don't Know Jack HBO
Reality and Variety, Music or Comedy
Reality Program
Antiques Roadshow PBS
Dirty Jobs Discovery Channel
Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution ABC
Kathy Griffin: My Life On The D-List Bravo
MythBusters Discovery Channel
Undercover Boss CBS
Reality-Competition Program
The Amazing Race CBS
American Idol FOX
Dancing With The Stars ABC
Project Runway Lifetime
Top Chef Bravo
Host for a Reality or Reality-Competition Program
Phil Keoghan, The Amazing Race CBS
Ryan Seacrest, American Idol FOX
Tom Bergeron, Dancing With The Stars ABC
Heidi Klum, Project Runway Lifetime
Jeff Probst, Survivor CBS
Variety, Music or Comedy Series
The Colbert Report Comedy Central
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Comedy Central
Real Time With Bill Maher HBO
Saturday Night Live NBC
The Tonight Show With Conan O'Brien NBC
Variety, Music or Comedy Special
Bill Maher "...But I'm Not Wrong" HBO
Hope For Haiti Now Tenth Planet Productions and MTV
The Kennedy Center Honors CBS
Robin Williams: Weapons Of Self Destruction HBO
The 25th Anniversary Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Concert HBO
Wanda Sykes: I'ma Be Me HBO
Total correct predictions takes The Prize. Again, that would be a $50 VISA gift card mailed directly to you from 'yours truly'.
Also, again, ties will be resolved in a scientific manner involving the ever fabulous, Maddie Muffin (Future Nobel AND Pulitzer Prize winner, President of the United States AND General Secretary of the UN amongst other notable achievements to numerous to mention)...
"My Grampa is The Best!"
The 21 nominations/categories will run daily until August 28th.
Response cut-off time is 3pm EDT, Saturday, August 28th, and will be posted for all to see August 29th (Emmy Day).
The winner will be the one with the most correct predictions and will be announced Tuesday August 31st.
Oh, and please make it easy on me and don't wait until, like, the last minute and flood me with your predictions, eh? Good luck be on ya, Poll-fans!
Send your predictions to:
BadToTheBoneBob
Here's a complete list of all Emmy Nominations - 2010.
wrote:
responded:
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Reader Suggestions
Michelle in AZ
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and a bit cooler.
Sweden Withdraws Warrant
Julian Assange
Swedish authorities revoked a short-lived arrest warrant for the founder of WikiLeaks on Saturday, saying a rape accusation against him lacked substance.
Julian Assange, who was believed to be in Sweden, remained under suspicion of a lesser crime of molestation in a separate case, prosecutors said.
The nomadic 39-year-old Australian dismissed the allegations in a statement on WikiLeaks' Twitter page, saying "the charges are without basis and their issue at this moment is deeply disturbing."
WikiLeaks is preparing to release of a fresh batch of classified U.S. documents from the Afghan war, despite warnings from the Pentagon that they could endanger American soldiers and their Afghan helpers.
Julian Assange
Given Greedom Of Glasgow
Billy Connolly
British comedian Billy Connolly was looking forward Saturday to exercising his new rights to graze animals in the middle of Glasgow after he was awarded the freedom of his native city.
His new honour brings with it various antiquated privileges and duties, including the right to fish in the River Clyde and graze livestock on common land.
"I am completely blown away. I am thrilled," Connolly said.
Connolly, who is married to the Australian comedian turned psychologist Pamela Stephenson, started out as a welder in the Glasgow shipyards before moving into folk music.
Billy Connolly
Lnks Deal
Vintage TV
Hundreds of hours of footage of iconic movie stars and newsreel footage from the likes of Getty Images, BBC Archives and Eagle Rock Entertainment will find their way onto TV screens next month, as backdrops for a new British music TV channel.
Billed as the first ever music channel in the U.K. for the over-fifties, Vintage TV is dedicated to music from the 1940s to 1976 -- the era before music videos became ubiquitous.
Vintage has hired a specialist production company to create new music videos fashioned from archive content of the time. Around 120 videos will be ready by the September 1 launch, including rare footage of Marilyn Monroe in the video for "Will You Love Me Tomorrow," images of Martin Luther King in the video of Elvis Presley's "If I Can Dream" and film of The Rolling Stones revamped for a video of "Not Fade Away."
Around 500 videos are expected by the end of January. The concept has been launched by Vintage TV founder David Pick, who said he was excited by the new concept. "Each video offers a definitive blend of music and social history, and stands alone as a cultural piece in a never-before-seen form," he said.
Vintage TV
Moving Sale
'Amityville Horror'
The owner of the New York house made famous in the 1979 film "The Amityville Horror" is holding a moving sale.
The five-bedroom Dutch Colonial on Long Island has been on the market since May for $1.15 million and is under contract. Owner Brian Wilson is holding a moving sale Saturday. Items include furniture and exercise equipment, not loot from the house's infamous past.
The Oscar-nominated film is based on the story of the Lutz family's brief stay in the house in 1975 after six members of the DeFeo family were shot and killed as they slept. Oldest son Ronald DeFeo Jr. was convicted.
The crime spawned a book and a series of movies that chronicled various supernatural horrors, including visions of walls oozing slime and moving furniture.
'Amityville Horror'
Haiti Ruling Ends Run
Wyclef Jean
In the span of a few weeks, hip-hop star Wyclef Jean turned the world's attention to a little-known political race in a small, impoverished Caribbean country - with little campaigning, no TV ads and zero debates.
Within a few seconds at a hastily called news conference Friday night, Jean was barred from running for president in Haiti, presumably because he didn't meet the residency requirements.
The 40-year-old singer-songwriter says he will stay involved, though in "a different role than I had anticipated it to be," according to his statement Friday.
Jean said little Saturday as he attended a church service in Croix des Bouquets, the small town northeast of Port-au-Prince where he was born. He was preparing to fly back to the United States where his wife and daughter live later in the day.
Wyclef Jean
Shopping "Speidi" Sex Tape
Spencer Pratt
"The Hills" TV stars Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag, once dubbed "Speidi" as a couple but now in the throes of a nasty divorce, found themselves at the center of a new controversy on Friday when Pratt was reported to be shopping around a sex tape that he claims features himself and his estranged wife.
Celebrity website TMZ said Pratt had asked for a meeting with Los Angeles porn film company Vivid Entertainment about selling the alleged tape. Vivid co-chairman Steven Hirsch told TMZ he had spoken with Pratt "about a sex tape with Heidi Montag...We are in early negotiations to possibly come to terms for a deal."
Pratt later told UsMagazine.com that he has "been making films since I was in the 7th grade. I'm looking forward to people seeing my directorial debut".
Montag, 23, is in the process of divorcing Pratt, 27, after 15 months of marriage. Pratt said earlier this week that he planned on writing a tell-all book about their relationship, which began when they were both featured on the MTV series. Montag told TMZ she might sue to block it.
Spencer Pratt
Judge Criticizes Prosecution
Anna Nicole Smith
A judge delivered a harsh assessment Friday of the evidence and charges against two doctors and a lawyer in the ongoing Anna Nicole Smith drug conspiracy case.
The criticism came as Superior Court Judge Robert Perry reluctantly agreed to let jurors see a videotape of Smith on an awards show in a performance her former boyfriend Larry Birkhead testified was considered "loopy, wacky and crazy" by many people.
Perry said outside the jury's presence that he was concerned about the prosecution's case.
"It's the people's position that Anna Nicole was kept in a drugged state," Perry said. "They claim she was a pawn in the hands of her handlers and doctors who kept her in a drugged state to control her and her money."
The evidence so far does not support that, he said.
Anna Nicole Smith
Pukkelpop Festival
Ou Est Le Swimming Pool
The lead singer of the British electro-pop group Ou Est Le Swimming Pool committed suicide after performing at a rock festival in Belgium, organisers said Saturday.
Charles Haddon killed himself on Friday after his three-piece band played at the danse hall of the Pukkelpop festival near the Flemish town of Hasselt, festival organiser Chokri Mahassine told journalists.
Belgian media said Haddon jumped off a pillar, falling to his death on the artists' parking lot.
The three-day festival, which ends Saturday, includes big name bands such as Placebo, Iron Maiden, Queens of the Stone Age and The Prodigy.
Haddon's suicide was the second death at the festival, after the sound engineer of the band Black Rebel Motorcycle Club died of a heart attack on Thursday, local media said.
Ou Est Le Swimming Pool
Sues Concert Promoter
Bret Michaels
Two weeks ago, Bret Michaels showed up in Syracuse, N.Y., to perform a concert. He arrived at the venue only to find that the gig had been postponed without his knowledge.
The rocker and "Celebrity Apprentice" winner, fuming from the incident, has just filed a $5 million lawsuit against the concert promoter who allegedly claimed that the show didn't happen because Michaels was going to appear on TV instead.
Around the same time that Michaels was scheduled to perform in Syracuse, he appeared on NBC's "America's Got Talent." Can a modern-day rock star appear in two locations at the same time? Thanks to the wonders of technology, he can. The TV show was taped.
So on Monday, Michaels sued Michael Banks and Aloha Events for breaching his contract and exposing him to public contempt and ridicule with allegedly defamatory statements about his schedule.
Bret Michaels
Sues Over 'Harry Potter Condoms'
Warner Bros.
Movie executives behind the lucrative Harry Potter franchise are taking legal action against a Swiss condom brand for allegedly naming their products after the boy wizard.
Bosses at the Warner Bros. studio are said to have filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against the company making Harry Poppers, which feature an illustration of a condom wearing round glasses and waving a magic wand on the packet.
The legal action, reported by Swiss newspaper Bote, is said to come in a bid to banish the brand from stores ahead of the release of the next installment of the movie franchise, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I, in November.
Warner Bros.
On The Rise In Germany
Radioactive Boars
When Georg van Bebber hauled back his wild boar from Ebersberg forest near Munich after a day of hunting, he was exhilarated about his impressive prey.
But before he could take it home, a Geiger counter showed a problem: The boar's meat was radioactive to an extent considered potentially dangerous for consumption. It needed to be thrown out and burnt.
Almost a quarter century after the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear meltdown in Ukraine, its fallout is still a hot topic in some German regions, where thousands of boars shot by hunters still turn up with excessive levels of radioactivity. In fact, the numbers are higher than ever before.
The total compensation the German government paid last year for the discarded contaminated meat shot up to a record sum of euro425,000 (about $558,000), from only about euro25,000 ten years ago, according to the Federal Environment Ministry in Berlin.
Radioactive Boars
In Memory
Jack Horkheimer
Jack Horkheimer, the creator and host of the PBS show "Star Gazer" who helped popularize naked-eye astronomy, has died. He was 72.
The Miami Museum of Science and Space Transit Planetarium, where Horkheimer was director emeritus, said in a news release that the astronomer died Friday afternoon of a respiratory ailment.
Horkheimer was director of the planetarium for more than 35 years.
Millions of people have watched the weekly "Star Gazer program since its inception in the 1970s, getting advice on what to look for in the night sky.
Jack Horkheimer
In Memory
Harold Dow
Emmy-winning CBS News correspondent Harold Dow, who helped shape the documentary program "48 Hours" and covered the kidnapping of Patricia Hearst and the Sept. 11 attacks, has died. He was 62.
Dow died suddenly Saturday morning in New Jersey, network spokeswoman Louise Bashi said. He lived in Hackensack, but it wasn't immediately clear if he'd been at home.
Dow had been a correspondent for "48 Hours" since 1990. His 40 years with the network and its affiliates also included reporting for "CBS Evening News with Dan Rather" and "CBS News Sunday Morning."
A "48 Hours" report on runaways earned him a George Foster Peabody Award. He also won five Emmys, for work including coverage of the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, and of American troops' movement into Bosnia in 1996.
Dow landed an exclusive interview with kidnapping victim Hearst in December 1976, and he had the first network interview with O.J. Simpson following the 1994 killing of his ex-wife. He barely escaped one of the falling twin towers on Sept. 11, 2001, the network said.
He is survived by his wife, Kathy, and their three children.
Harold Dow
In Memory
Christoph Schlingensief
Christoph Schlingensief, one of Germany's most provocative theatre directors, died of lung cancer on Saturday, organisers of the Ruhr Triennale festival said. He was 49.
Schlingensief, a director from Berlin's Volksbuhne theatre, was due to present his latest production "S.M.A.S.H." at the festival, but had cancelled the performances in July due to his illness.
He is best known for casting neo-Nazi skinhead amateur actors in his "Hamlet" production, burning an effigy of former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon and wearing a placard inscribed with "Kill Helmut Kohl".
Schlingensief, who would have been 50 this October, was known as the "terrible child" of German theatre and fearlessly attacked hot-button issues.
In Vienna, his TV show, "Auslaender raus!", or "Foreigners out!" denounced the rise of populism and racism, with a Big Brother send-up where real asylum seekers lived inside containers -- resembling wagons that deported Jews -- and the public was invited to vote on candidates, who would not be voted off the show, but out of the country.
Christoph Schlingensief
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