'Best of TBH Politoons'
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Jim Hightower: GRASSROOTS ECONOMIC REALITY (jimhightower.com)
Economists have this to say to those of you who see your family's economic fortunes on the decline: "Don't be so glum, chum!"
'There's humour in the darkest places' (books.guardian.co.uk)
Author Terry Pratchett, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer's last year, has just donated half a million pounds to research into the disease. As he tells Stuart Jeffries, he's not about to give up without a fight.
Brian McCollum: Canadian standout Matthew Good is still below U.S. radar (Detroit Free Press; Posted on popmatters.com)
Music might be the universal language. But here's one hard fact about the American cultural conversation: Canadian doesn't always translate.
Hands off our music! (music.guardian.co.uk)
Bands such as the Jam and the Smiths were at the forefront of the resistance to Thatcherism in the 1980s. Twenty years later, Tory leader David Cameron lists them as among his favourite acts. Is nothing sacred, asks John Harris.
Desert Blues (pasadenaweekly.com)
Beating the winter doldrums and keeping up with Malian music via the internet.
John Lucas: Saul Williams Aims to Break the Color Barrier (straight.com)
With nudges from Trent Reznor, Williams realized it would be simpler to take the reins rather than explain himself or The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust! to a marketing department.
Len Righi: Second MySpace tour metes out Justice (The Morning Call; Posted on popmatters.com)
Ask Xavier de Rosnay how he stays in creative rhythm with Gaspard Auge, his partner in white-hot French electronic dance act Justice, and he doesn't miss a beat: "We dislike the same things," replies the 25-year-old de Rosnay in heavily accented English made all the more difficult to comprehend by the variety of noises filtering through his cell as he strolls New Orleans' French Quarter.
Tim Whitaker: Nicole Atkins Rides a Wave (philadelphiaweekly.com)
Two years ago Atkins, 28, was named an artist to watch by Rolling Stone, where she was described as "a laid-back Jersey girl who was equally into hair metal and her grandmother's Johnny Cash records."
David Hiltbrand: Meet the Dane who plays an immortal New York cop (The Philadelphia Inquirer; Posted on popmatters.com)
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, the star of Fox's "New Amsterdam," doesn't have the standard resume for a prime-time actor.
Heading off a 'brain attack' (telegraph.co.uk)
Even the most basic grasp of what causes a stroke can reduce your susceptibility, says Fiona Macdonald-Smith.
Awareness Test
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Still sunny and seasonal.
What Global Warming?
Spring
The capital's famous cherry trees are primed to burst out in a perfect pink peak about the end of this month. Thirty years ago, the trees usually waited to bloom till around April 5.
In central California, the first of the field skipper sachem, a drab little butterfly, was fluttering about on March 12. Just 25 years ago, that creature predictably emerged there anywhere from mid-April to mid-May.
And sneezes are coming earlier in Philadelphia. On March 9, when allergist Dr. Donald Dvorin set up his monitor, maple pollen was already heavy in the air. Less than two decades ago, that pollen couldn't be measured until late April.
What's happening is so noticeable that scientists can track it from space. Satellites measuring when land turns green found that spring "green-up" is arriving eight hours earlier every year on average since 1982 north of the Mason-Dixon line. In much of Florida and southern Texas and Louisiana, the satellites show spring coming a tad later, and bizarrely, in a complicated way, global warming can explain that too, the scientists said.
Spring
Hollywood on the Ohio
George Clooney
For one night, Maysville will be Hollywood along the Ohio River, thanks to George Clooney.
The 46-year-old actor-director will visit the northern Kentucky town Monday night for a special screening of his new movie, "Leatherheads," his father, Nick Clooney, said Tuesday.
Clooney, who won an Oscar for his role in "Syriana," grew up in the town of Augusta, about 16 miles west of Maysville.
The setting has special significance for the Clooney family. In 1953, "The Stars Are Singing," starring Rosemary Clooney, George Clooney's aunt, premiered in Maysville.
George Clooney
Sticking To Small Screen
'Battlestar Galactica'
A "Battlestar Galactica" prequel series may be in the works, but the show won't be taking the big-screen route like other sci-fi franchises that have gone before.
"I think the series works best as an ensemble TV drama," said Ronald D. Moore, an executive producer of the Sci Fi Channel hit, which will end this year after four critically acclaimed seasons. "If it translated into a feature it would be a different animal."
At its "upfront" presentation to advertisers Tuesday in New York, the Sci Fi Channel said that it has green-lighted a two-hour pilot for "Caprica," which is set 50 years before the events in the departing "Battlestar." It hails from the "Battlestar" masterminds Moore and David Eick.
'Battlestar Galactica'
UK's Biggest Exhibition Opens
Doctor Who
Doctor Who fans can now play Time Lord in a new exhibition at London's Earls Court.
The UK's largest-ever display dedicated to the cult science fiction programme features props, costumes and monsters - including the Daleks.
Doctor Who is thought to be the longest-running science fiction TV show in the world and has legions of fans spanning all generations.
Doctor Who
`Law & Order: SVU'
Robin Williams
Robin Williams will guest star on "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," but don't expect him to bring laughs to the NBC crime drama.
Williams is playing an "engineer whose life has gone terribly wrong" and who faces serious repercussions, series spokeswoman Pam Golum said Tuesday. The episode, which films later this month, is scheduled to air April 29.
The "Special Victims Unit" episode with Williams, titled "Authority," is the show's 200th, Golum said.
Robin Williams
TV Pact With Oprah
Kirstie Alley
Oprah Winfrey's Harpo Prods. has signed a development deal with Kirstie Alley for TV projects. It's unclear whether the deal might include a syndicated daytime talk show or a program for Winfrey's new cable channel.
Winfrey helped launch other daytime talk shows, including "Dr. Phil" and "Rachael Ray." Both hosts appeared frequently on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" before getting their own shows.
Alley also has been on multiple episodes of "Oprah," including a November 2006 appearance that generated headlines after she donned a bikini to flaunt her 75-pound weight loss.
Kirstie Alley
Hospital News
Anderson Cooper
CNN's Anderson Cooper was back at work Wednesday after minor surgery two days earlier to remove a cancerous mole from underneath his left eye.
There was no indication the skin cancer had spread, spokeswoman Shimrit Sheetrit said.
"I hadn't planned on mentioning this," said Cooper, 40. "But I still have stitches and you'll no doubt notice them. ... Don't want you to think I got into a fistfight with Charlie Rose."
Anderson Cooper
Offer Rescinded
Ashley Alexandra Dupre
A $1 million offer to the call girl linked to former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer was rescinded because she'd already shot footage for "Girls Gone Wild." Now it might be the video maker who will lose out.
A lawyer for Ashley Alexandra Dupre, now 22, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Dupre was 17 when the footage was filmed. After hearing from her attorney, the company said the video's Internet release will be delayed.
"Girls Gone Wild" founder Joe Francis originally reached out to Dupre, offering $1 million for her to appear in a non-nude spread for his company's new magazine and a chance to join the "Girls Gone Wild" tour bus.
But on Tuesday "Girls Gone Wild" employees found archived footage of Dupre filmed in 2003, and Francis retracted the offer.
Ashley Alexandra Dupre
Theater In Public Bathrooms
Paul Walker
For most visitors to Central Park, the public bathrooms are a facility of last resort, visited only in desperation after consuming one too many cups of coffee. They're dark and creepy, filled with spiders, foul odors and puddles of questionable origin.
But for Irish director and playwright Paul Walker, the damp, the chill and even the smell are all part of the experience - the theatergoing experience.
His prize-winning play, "Ladies & Gents," is a noir thriller performed entirely in the covered men's and women's bathrooms in Central Park's Bethesda Terrace.
The action takes place near the sinks and urinals; the audience stands, clustered in front of the row of stalls. Each of the two pieces that comprise the play runs simultaneously in both bathrooms, and it doesn't matter the order in which they are seen; the audience splits in half and switches facilities at intermission.
Paul Walker
Archive Auction
Napoleon
Rare-book lovers, museum buyers and fans of Napoleon flocked Wednesday for a chance to bid on a rich archive on the emperor, put up for sale by former French prime minister Dominique de Villepin.
Some 335 books and letters, collected over the past three decades, were up for auction after Villepin -- a poet and historian in his spare time -- decided it was time to "turn the page" on the Napoleon era.
Several rare volumes sparked fierce bidding battles, with a manuscript decree signed by the early 19th-century emperor snapped up for 28,000 euros (44,000 dollars) by France's National Archives.
The overall collection was expected to raise well over its estimated value of 400,000 euros.
Napoleon
Sotheby's New York
Photo Auction
A rare photograph by Edward Weston, once owned by Ansel Adams, will be among the highlights of a photography auction spanning from early daguerreotypes to iconic 20th century images.
The April 8 sale at Sotheby's New York also includes a copy of Man Ray's "Champs Delicieux," a volume of 12 gelatin silver prints of the artist's earliest Rayographs, a process in which a three-dimensional object is placed on photographic paper and exposed to light.
"Leeks," Weston's close-up of three leeks arranged in a row, had passed from his son Brett to photographer Gerry Sharpe and then to Adams. The photo is characteristic of Weston's stark images of vegetables, nudes and sand dunes.
The sale also will include photos by Diane Arbus, Robert Frank, Edward Steichen, Alfred Stieglitz. The total sale is expected to bring $3.6 million to $5.6 million.
Photo Auction
It Pays Says Harvard Study
Play Nice
Screaming sports coaches and cutthroat tycoons have it wrong: Nice guys do finish first, a new study suggests.
The Harvard University study involved 100 Boston-area college students playing the same game over and over - a punishment-heavy version of the classic one-on-one brinksmanship game of prisoner's dilemma. The research appears in Thursday's edition of the journal Nature.
In Nowak's experiment, the students played more than 8,000 games of prisoner's dilemma, using dimes to reward and punish. The normal game of prisoner's dilemma gives two players two options: cooperate or defect. If both cooperate, each ends up winning a dime. If both defect, each gets nothing. If one cooperates and the other defects, the cooperative player loses 20 cents and the defector wins 30 cents.
Nowak then added a "costly punishment" component. A player could choose to punish someone who didn't cooperate. That penalized the non-cooperative person 40 cents, but the other player had to pay a dime to mete out the punishment.
When Nowak compared how much money people earned or lost in the long run, there was a noticeable correlation between punishment and overall money. The players who punished their opponents the least, or not at all, made the most money.
Play Nice
In Memory
Ivan Dixon
Actor Ivan Dixon, who brought the problems and promise of contemporary blacks to life in the film "Nothing But a Man" and portrayed the levelheaded POW Kinchloe in TV's "Hogan's Heroes," has died. He was 76.
Dixon died Sunday at Presbyterian Hospital in Charlotte after a hemorrhage, said his daughter, Doris Nomathande Dixon of Charlotte. He had suffered complications from kidney failure, she said.
Dixon, who also directed scores of television shows, began his acting career in the late 1950s. He appeared on Broadway in William Saroyan's 1957 "The Cave Dwellers" and in playwright Lorraine Hansberry's groundbreaking 1959 drama of black life, "A Raisin in the Sun." In the latter, he played a Nigerian student visiting the United States, a role he repeated in the film version.
Other film credits included "Something of Value," "A Patch of Blue" and the cult favorite "Car Wash."
In 1967, Dixon starred in a CBS Playhouse drama, "The Final War of Olly Winter," about a veteran of World War II and Korea who decided that Vietnam would be his final war. The role brought Dixon an Emmy nomination for best single performance by an actor.
Dixon also directed numerous episodes of TV shows, including "The Waltons," "The Rockford Files," "Magnum, P.I." and "In the Heat of the Night."
In 1973, he directed the film "The Spook Who Sat by the Door," a political drama based on a novel about a black CIA agent who becomes a revolutionary. He also directed the 1972 "blaxploitation" story "Trouble Man."
Born in 1931 in New York, Dixon graduated in 1954 from North Carolina Central University in Durham.
In addition to his daughter, survivors include his wife of 53 years, Berlie Dixon of Charlotte, and a son, Alan Kimara Dixon of Oakland. At Dixon's request, no memorial or funeral is planned, the family said.
Ivan Dixon
In Memory
Philip Jones Griffiths
Philip Jones Griffiths, a photojournalist who spent years traveling across Vietnam to capture the effects of the war on its people, died Wednesday. He was 72.
Jones Griffiths was perhaps best known for his book "Vietnam Inc." - described as one of the most detailed studies of any conflict.
"If anybody in Washington had read that book, we wouldn't have had these wars in Iraq or Afghanistan," linguist and author Noam Chomsky said of "Vietnam Inc."
Jones Griffiths was born in Rhuddlan, Wales, and studied pharmacy in Liverpool. His career as a photojournalist began with a part-time job for Britain's Guardian newspaper. In 1961, he began shooting full time as a freelancer for The Observer newspaper.
He shot his first war photos in Algeria in 1962 before moving to Central Africa. He eventually ended up in Asia and joined Magnum as an associate member in 1966, beginning five years documenting the Vietnam war.
Jones Griffiths is survived by two daughters.
Philip Jones Griffiths
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