Juan Cole:: What the Number 3000 Hides (juancole.com)
Iraqi guerrillas killed 6 more GIs and AP put the total dead in combat at 2998. The dreadful milestone of 3000 is upon us. Like all statistics, this one is deceptive. It does not include US troops killed in Afghanistan, that oddly forgotten war where the US still has a division engaging in active combat. Nor is it nice to ignore NATO dead in Afghanistan, including French and Canadians (yes). The number does not include ...
Tom Engelhardt: "Fixing" the War (tomdispatch.com)
At the cost of a quarter-billion dollars, the Pentagon launched the most elaborate war games in its history, immodestly entitled "Millennium Challenge 02." These involved all four services in "17 simulation locations and nine live-force training sites." Officially a war against a fictional country in the Persian Gulf region -- but obviously Iraq -- it was specifically scripted to prove the efficacy of the Rumsfeld-style invasion that the Bush administration had already decided to launch.
Aaron Delwiche: Game Theory: Torture's Banner Year
As we gear up for the 2008 presidential elections, politicians will try to shore up their moral credentials by criticizing the never-ending tide of violent video games -- yet isn't it more important to stop the real torture of real human beings that happens in our name?
Bill Gallagher: Bush Now Overruling Own Generals (Niagara Falls Reporter; Posted on smirkingchimp.com)
We are now spending $2 billion a week on the war, and next year the total could top $170 billion. Before the bloodshed is over, U.S. taxpayers may drop $1 trillion into Bush's hole. Working-class people whose payroll checks are taxed are paying inordinately for the war that is largely financed through deficit spending. Fifty million Americans have no health insurance, while we pay for state-sponsored coverage in Iraq.
JOHN M. SHALIKASHVILI: Second Thoughts on Gays in the Military (nytimes.com)
Last year I held a number of meetings with gay soldiers and marines, including some with combat experience in Iraq, and an openly gay senior sailor who was serving effectively as a member of a nuclear submarine crew. These conversations showed me just how much the military has changed, and that gays and lesbians can be accepted by their peers.
Guilt-free pleasures (guardian.co.uk)
It's nonsense to applaud acts such as Borat and Little Britain for being 'non-PC', says Stewart Lee. It's the fact that the writers are truly aware of what's offensive - and what life was like before political correctness made things better - that makes them so funny.
CBS opens the night with a RERUN'CSI: The Original One', followed by a FRESH'CSI: The Original One', then a FRESH'Shark'.
Scheduled on a FRESHDave are Cedric the Entertainer and Switchfoot.
Scheduled on a FRESHCraig are Carl Reiner, Tracee Ellis Ross, and Max Brooks.
NBC begins the night with a FRESH'My Name Is Earl', followed by a FRESH'The Office', then a FRESH'Scrubs', followed by a FRESH'30 Rock', then a FRESH'ER'.
Scheduled on a FRESHLeno are Hilary Swank, Tom Papa, and Akon.
Scheduled on a FRESHConan are Jarod Miller and Louis C.K.
On a RERUNCarson Daly (from 11/15/06) are Bill Bellamy and Xzibit.
ABC starts the night with a FRESH'Ugly Betty', followed by a RERUN'Grey's Anatomy', then another RERUN'Grey's Anatomy'.
Scheduled on a FRESHJimmy Kimmel are Maggie Gyllenhaal, Tom O'Dell, and Lindsey Buckingham.
The CW offers a RERUN'Smallville', followed by another RERUN'Smallville'.
Faux has a FRESH'Til Death', followed by a FRESH'The War At Home', then a FRESH'The O.C.'.
MY has a FRESH'Wicked Wicked Games', followed by a FRESH'Watch Over Me'.
A&E has 'CSI: The 2nd One', another 'CSI: The 2nd One', 'The First 48', and 'Dallas SWAT'.
AMC offers the movie 'Platoon', followed by the movie 'Conan The Barbarian', then the movie 'Ronin'.
BBC -
[1:00 pm] As Time Goes By - Episode 1;
[1:40 pm] Are You Being Served - Fire Practice;
[2:20 pm] Keeping Up Appearances - Episode 1;
[3:00 pm] The Benny Hill Show - Episode 16;
[4:00 pm] Ethan Frome;
[6:00 pm] BBC World News;
[6:30 pm] Cash in the Attic - Episode 3;
[7:00 pm] Cold Comfort Farm;
[9:00 pm] Afterlife - Ep 6 The 7:59 Club;
[10:00 pm] No Angels - Episode 9;
[11:00 pm] Whose Line Is It Anyway? - Episode 8;
[11:30 pm] Whose Line Is It Anyway? - Episode 8;
[12:00 am] The Benny Hill Show - Episode 17;
[1:00 am] Afterlife - Ep 6 The 7:59 Club;
[2:00 am] No Angels - Episode 9;
[3:00 am] Love Soup - Ep 1 There Must Be Some Way Out of Here;
[4:00 am] Love Soup - Ep 2 Death and Nurses;
[5:00 am] Love Soup - Ep 3 The Reflecting Pool;
[6:00 am] BBC World News. (ALL TIMES EST)
Bravo has 'Inside The Actors Studio', 'Top Chef', then the movie 'The Cider House Rules'.
Comedy Central has 'Scrubs', another 'Scrubs', an old 'Jon Stewart', an old 'Colbert Report', 'Mind Of Mencia', 'South Park', 'Chappelle's Show', and another 'Chappelle's Show'.
On a RERUNJon Stewart (from 12/14/06) is Rajiv Chandrasekaran.
On a RERUNColbert Report (from 12/14/06) is Daniel Pinchbeck.
FX has 'That 70s Show', another 'That 70s Show', followed by the movie 'Little Black Book', then the movie 'Little Black Book', again.
History has 'Modern Marvels', 'Engineering An Empire', and 'Decoding The Past'.
IFC -
[06:10 AM] Ararat;
[08:10 AM] Invincible;
[10:25 AM] Grand Theft Parsons;
[11:55 AM] Gerry;
[01:45 PM] IFC News Special;
[01:55 PM] Ararat;
[03:55 PM] Invincible;
[06:15 PM] January Media Lab Results;
[06:25 PM] IFC News Presents: Spirit Awards Nominations Special 2007;
[06:55 PM] Le Divorce;
[09:00 PM] The Anniversary Party;
[11:00 PM] The Sweet Hereafter;
[01:00 AM] Sleep with Me;
[02:30 AM] The Anniversary Party;
[04:30 AM] The Sweet Hereafter. (ALL TIMES EST)
SciFi has the movie 'Post Impact', followed by the movie 'Inferno'.
Sundance -
[07:35 AM] Slo-Mo;
[08:00 AM] Sugar Town;
[09:45 AM] The Guggenheim and the Baroness;
[10:45 AM] Monsterthursday;
[12:30 PM] Control Room;
[02:00 PM] Little Otik;
[04:15 PM] Winning;
[05:15 PM] Piccadilly Jim;
[07:00 PM] A Fond Kiss;
[08:45 PM] Before Dawn;
[09:00 PM] Iconoclasts Season 2: Episode 5: Paul Simon + Lorne Michaels;
[09:45 PM] Victoria Para Chino;
[10:00 PM] Havoc;
[11:30 PM] Slo-Mo;
[12:00 AM] Iconoclasts Season 2: Episode 5: Paul Simon + Lorne Michaels;
[12:45 AM] I Want You Directed By: Michael Winterbottom;
[02:15 AM] IN SHORT: Festival 6;
[03:05 AM] Cowards Bend the Knee;
[04:15 AM] Samaritan Girl. (ALL TIMES EST)
Singer and musician Ashigh Rasoul Ghorbani of Azerbaijan performs at the 22nd Fajr International Music Festival in Vahdat Hall in Tehran January 3, 2007.
Photo by Morteza Nikoubazl
Stephen King has beaten JK Rowling to the title of the UK's favourite literary guilty pleasure. A survey carried out on behalf of the Costa Book Awards 2006 has shown that the thriller writer is the most popular choice among readers looking for an indulgent read, with the adventures of Harry Potter coming a close second.
85% of those surveyed admitted to having an author they turn to for sheer gratification, but whom they might not admit to reading in pubic. Third place in the survey was tied between John Grisham and Dan Brown, while the fourth position was split between Danielle Steel and Catherine Cookson. Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels were placed fifth.
The survey also reveals that nearly a third of Britons read every day. At 41%, Scotland had the highest proportion of daily readers, compared with 30% in the north of England and 28% in London. 13% of those surveyed said they read books every couple of days, with 11% claiming to read books only rarely. Only 3% stated that they never read books at all.
Jeremy Kilbreth, left, and Jim Cormier, right, re-attach part of the weathervane to the top of Portland City Hall , Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2007, in Portland, Maine. The 1912 sculpture of a sailing ship was re-guilded and covered with gold leaf as part of the restoration of the clock tower.
Photo by Joel Page
• Variety television: "The Ellen DeGeneres Show," "Late Night with Conan O'Brien," "The Late Show with David Letterman," "Real Time with Bill Maher," "The XX Olympic Games: Opening Ceremony."
Before the 2004 election, artist Richard Serra chose one of the most startling images of the Iraq war to convey his opinion of the Bush administration: a hooded Abu Ghraib prisoner standing with his arms spread wide.
The provocative black-and-white pictures - which Serra first labelled with "STOP BUSH," then dropped two letters to spell "STOP B S" - anchor a new exhibit of prints at Harvard's Fogg Art Museum that balance anger with beauty, resistance with design and politics with art.
This show, featured through Feb. 25, is a collection of prints created to challenge society's status quo, from the powers of the pope in the 16th century to the United States' recent obsession with gas-guzzling SUVs.
The guardians of Britain's historic Tower of London are enlisting girl power for the first time in their 522-year history.
The Tower's Yeoman Warders, commonly known as Beefeaters -- whose ceremonial dress is a distinctive scarlet and gold tunic, white ruff, red stockings and black patent shoes -- have appointed the first female member to their ranks.
Spokeswoman Natasha Woollard said the woman, whose name has not yet been made public, was serving in the armed forces and "will join her new colleagues in the Yeoman Body at the Tower of London in summer 2007."
To apply to become a Beefeater, candidates must have a minimum of 22 years' service in Britain's armed forces and have earned medals for long service and good conduct.
A monkey attempts to get to the fruits and vegetables in a container by playing around with the rope, during an event to celebrate the New Year at Ueno Zoo in Tokyo January 3, 2007.
Photo by Issei Kato
Teri Garr is on the mend and "recovering nicely" after undergoing surgery last month to repair a brain aneurysm.
The health scare began early on Dec. 21, when Garr's 13-year-old adopted daughter, Molly, was unable to rouse the 62-year-old actor.
Molly and one of Garr's house staff called 911 and the Close Encounters of the Third Kind star was rushed to a Los Angeles-area hospital, where physicians performed a non-invasive procedure called a coil embolism. The operation involves the insertion of a microcatheter through the cerebral arteries at which point platinum coils are used to stop blood from entering the aneurysm.
Garr, who announced in 2002 that she had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, a chronic degenerative disease of the nervous system, remained in the hospital over Christmas and New Year's with her family at her side.
Karen Walker would have a few choice words about this: Megan Mullally's syndicated talk-variety show is finished after less than five months.
The low-rated "The Megan Mullally Show" has been canceled and production has been halted, NBC Universal Television Distribution said Wednesday. Original and repeat episodes of the show, which debuted last September, will air through January.
A replacement for her show was not announced Wednesday.
Officials at the Getty museum knew a famous statue of the Greek goddess Aphrodite was possibly stolen when they acquired it for a record $18 million in 1988, the Los Angeles Times reported on Wednesday.
The article cites former Getty executives and archeologists who said they warned museum officials not to acquire the 2,400-year-old statue that is now considered the centerpiece of the Getty's antiquities collection.
Current Getty director Michael Brand has said the museum was willing to return 26 of 46 disputed pieces that Italy wants back, including the Aphrodite, pending a final check on its provenance.
A shopkeeper displays offering powders during 'Swasthani brata' festival at Sankhu in Nepali capital Kathmandu January 3, 2007. Devotees from all over the country flock to this holy place to celebrate the month-long festival during which they seek blessings for good life and happiness.
Photo by Gopal Chitrakar
The union representing Canadian performers has set a strike deadline of midnight Monday amid last-ditch talks with producers to settle a dispute over wages.
The union received an overwhelming 97.6 per cent strike mandate from its membership in December.
If no agreement is reached this week, ACTRA will be striking against producers in most of Canada except British Columbia. Producers who have signed continuation letters with ACTRA - the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists - will be spared a strike.
When watching the DVD re-release of "Gone With the Wind," what once appeared as simply a green cloth shawl worn by Vivien Leigh is revealed as a garment of dark emerald velvet so rich it beckons touching.
Likewise, when Errol Flynn rides horseback into Sherwood Forest in 1938's "The Adventures of Robin Hood," the detailed pattern embedded on his and other soldiers' armor is so vivid that the number of small metal rings can be counted.
These elements have been made clearly visible through a patented technology created by Warner Bros. in collaboration with AOL. The process involves digitally realigning and sharpening the older film negatives of these classic movies shot on Technicolor three-strip film.
Known as Ultra Resolution, the technique has been nominated this year for a Scientific and Technical Academy Award and has restored films in the studio's vast library including "Singing In the Rain," "The Searchers" and "The Wizard of Oz" -- prints that over time have suffered blurring or "color fringing" as well as shrinkage, stretching and other damage.
A bird holds a fish in it's mouth at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens in New York, Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2007. The area enjoyed unusually mild temperatures Wednesday.
Photo by Seth Wenig
Few people can sing like Whitney Houston. But next week, anyone with some spare cash can dress like the Grammy winner, right down to one of her black velvet bustiers, and croon into one of her microphones.
Those items and more than 300 others from a 1999 world tour, including grand pianos, drum kits and a forklift, will be auctioned Tuesday in an effort to cover unpaid storage fees on the gear and clothing, said Jeffrey Campisi, a lawyer for Speed of Sound, a company that has been tending to the equipment.
Speed of Sound went to court in May after not receiving payments from Houston's company, Nippy Inc., for a year. The company is now owed $175,000 to $200,000, Campisi said Wednesday.
Coca-Cola Co. may be making an unsigned London ska band famous in Argentina, but the band isn't happy about it.
The band, called 7 Seconds of Love, says Coke used their song "Ninja" and the video that goes with it without permission in a South American commercial for Coca-Cola Light.
The band learned of the advertisement when a fan asked about it. The discovery, lead singer Joel Veitch said, led to "righteous fury followed by deep irritation."
"Initially, we didn't think much about it, because we don't get Argentine television here," Veitch said. "It was when it turned up on the Internet that we went, `Oh my god.'"
A former assistant to Marlon Brando has settled a lawsuit with executors of the late actor's estate over claims she was cheated out of a home bought for her by the Hollywood idol, her lawyer said.
Angela Borlaza had claimed in a lawsuit filed last year that executors of Brando's estate had changed the actor's will shortly before his death in 2004 and evicted her from a house he had promised to leave to her.
Borlaza had sought 627,000 dollars in actual damages and 2 million in punitive damages from Brando estate executors Morris Medavoy and Larry Dressler, along with unspecified general and compensatory damages.
According to papers filed in a related case in Los Angeles on December 22, Borlaza agreed to settle all the claims in exchange for 125,000 dollars.
A Chinese child looks at a wishing pond covered with shapes of traditional Chinese coins and the carp, a Chinese symbol for prosperity outside a shopping mall in Beijing, China, Wednesday, Jan 3, 2007. China's tax revenues soared 22 percent in 2006, the government said Tuesday, amid surging economic growth and official efforts to increase tax collections from private industry. Revenues in 2006 totaled 3.8 trillion yuan (US$480 billion; euro380 billion), the State Administration of Taxation said on its Web site.
Photo by Ng Han Guan
Office workers who use phrases such as "blue sky thinking" and "singing from the same hymn sheet" are being urged to drop the jargon. A survey of 1,600 staff revealed the best and worst phrases as well as the "downright ugly" which are guaranteed to be a huge turn-off for colleagues. The essential buzzwords for this year include "thought grenade", meaning an explosive good idea, and "let's sunset that", meaning a bad idea will never see the light of day, said recruitment firm Office Angels.
Worst phrases included "thinking outside the box" and "park that thought" as well as the now hated blue sky thinking.
Staff also came up with the ugliest phrases.
They include "getting down with the kids", which means trying to interact with junior staff, "open up your kimono", which translates as putting your cards on the table, and "let's raise the anchor and let this one drift", which means forgetting about a bad idea.
A metal, rock-like object about the size of a golf ball and weighing nearly as much as a can of soup crashed through the roof of a Monmouth County home, and authorities on Wednesday were trying to figure out what it was.
Nobody was injured when the oblong object, weighing more than 13 ounces, crashed into the home and embedded itself in a wall Tuesday night. Federal officials sent to the scene said it was not from an aircraft.
Police received a call Wednesday morning that the metal object had punched a hole in the roof of a single-family, two-story home, damaged tiles on a bathroom floor below and then bounced, sticking into a wall.
Prime-time viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen Media Research for Dec. 25-31. Listings include the week's ranking, with viewership for the week and season-to-date rankings in parentheses. An "X" in parentheses denotes a one-time-only presentation.
1. (X) "Deal or No Deal," NBC, 16.33 million viewers.
2. (4) "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," CBS, 13.84 million viewers.
3. (7) "NBC Sunday Night Football: Green Bay at Chicago," NBC, 13.36 million viewers.
4. (16) "NCIS," CBS, 11.88 million viewers.
5. (X) "1 Vs. 100," NBC, 11.76 million viewers.
6. (34) "NFL Postgame Show," Fox, 11.06 million viewers.
7. (9) "CSI: NY," CBS, 10.57 million viewers.
8. (9) "Criminal Minds," CBS, 10.03 million viewers.
9. (X) "Kennedy Center Honors," CBS, 9.94 million viewers.
10. (21) "Shark" CBS, 9.72 million.
11. (X) Criminal Minds" (Thursday, 8 p.m.), CBS, 9.68 million viewers.
12. (18) "House," Fox, 9.13 million viewers.
13. (21) "Law & Order: SVU," NBC, 9.11 million viewers.
14. (19) "NFL Postgame Show," CBS, 8.91 million viewers.
15. (X) "Cold Case," CBS, 8.72 million viewers.
16. (X) Movie: "Pirates of the Caribbean," ABC, 8.6 million viewers.
17. (30) "Sunday Night NFL Pre-Kick," NBC, 8.52 million viewers.
18. (X) "Without a Trace," CBS, 8.43 million viewers.
19. (X) "New Year's Rockin Eve," ABC, 8.25 million viewers.
20. (34) "60 Minutes," CBS, 8.17 million viewers.
Frank Campanella, the hulking character actor who played tough guys in 100-plus films and television shows, died Saturday. He was 87.
One of Frank Campanella's most distinctive roles was his first - Mook the Moon Man on the TV series "Captain Video and His Video Rangers" in 1949. "Guardian of the Safety of the World", private citizen-scientist Captain Video, was assisted by teenage helper The Ranger in fighting off the evil Dr. Pauli of the Astroidal Society and other bad guys, including Nargola, Mook, Kul and Clysmok.
Born in New York on March 12, 1919, Campanella enrolled at Manhattan College as a drama major. During World War II he worked as a civilian interpreter, deciphering Italian and Sicilian dialects for the U.S. government.
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