'Best of TBH Politoons'
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
David Morris: The Once and Future Carbohydrate Economy (prospect.org)
The carbohydrate economy could transform agriculture as well as energy, reviving producer co-ops, and giving farmers a hedge against voilatile commodity prices.
ALISON WOLF: Working girls, broken society (thestar.com)
While the benefits of career equality are axiomatic, its negative repercussions are wilfully ignored. In a contentious essay that is sparking fierce debate in Britain, a King's College professor argues that we must confront the losses to society when women choose work over family.
Jessica Valenti: A Good Job Is Hard to Find (AlterNet.org)
The conservative movement's obsession with gender roles is keeping women poor.
PAUL KRUGMAN: John and Jerry (The New York Times)
Well, I'll be damned. At least, that's what the Rev. Jerry Falwell says. Last month Mr. Falwell issued a statement explaining that, in his view, Jews can't go to heaven unless they convert to Christianity. And what Mr. Falwell says matters - maybe not in heaven, but here on earth. After all, he's a kingmaker in today's Republican Party.
Editorial: Flunking the Oil Addiction Test (The New York Times)
The muscle cars of yesteryear don't seem quite so impressive any more. In fact, as Matthew L. Wald pointed out in The Times the other day, the most powerful 2005 Toyota Camry, the ultimate plain-vanilla family sedan, accelerates more quickly than some 1975 Pontiac Firebird models. A 2005 Nissan sports wagon can outrun a '65 Mustang.
Francoise Kadri: Japan's gigolo bars still going strong (iafrica.com)
Gigolo bar owner Takeshi Aida is one of a rare breed in Japan these days - a happy entrepreneur - thanks to the demand for male attention from Japanese women who feel neglected by the men in their lives.
Annalee Newitz: Arbitrary Anachronism (AlterNet.org)
A knight clanked by in his armor. He was talking on a smartphone.
Mark Morford: Who Will Stop The Evil Jogger? (sfgate.com)
One TV commercial says all you need to know about GW Bush's America. And trophy wives
Purple Gene Says Goodbye
A Town Without Pitney
Purple Gene says goodbye to another great one:
Gene Pitney was my favorite singer from the early 60's ! His first smash hit in 1961 was called "A Town Without Pity" …."No it isn't very pretty…what a town without pity can do!" Not since Roy Orbison had anyone hit the pop music scene with such vocal range, timber and sheer beauty…… He sang "It Hurts to Be in Love" and then "I'm Gonna be Strong"….wow. I still remember hearing "24 Hours from Tulsa" for the first time. Then I saw the movie "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" and of course "Gene" was singing the title song. He sang another Burt Bacharach/Hal David hit with "Only Love Can Break a Heart" ("only love can mend it again"). He ended his 4 year run with "Half Heaven…Half Heartache"
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Rained early, sunny by noon, and a very windy night.
Sat through 27 l-o-n-g minutes of Rosie O'Donnell last night on 'Craig' so I wouldn't miss Harry Shearer.
Harry's segment was under 5 minutes. Boo. Hiss.
No new flags.
Winners Announced
Peabody Awards
Comedy Central's "South Park" won its first Peabody Award on Wednesday, winning praise from judges as TV's boldest, most politically incorrect satirical series.
Two Gulf Coast stations that stayed on the air throughout Hurricane Katrina won awards as well, and CNN and NBC were also honored for their coverage of the deadly storm.
The George Foster Peabody Awards, for broadcasting excellence in both news and entertainment, are given annually by the University of Georgia. Thirty-two awards will be handed out June 5 in New York, hosted by two-time recipient Jon Stewart, who anchors Comedy Central's "The Daily Show."
Peabody Awards
CBS Cameraman Acquitted
Abdul Ameer Younis Hussein
An Iraqi criminal court Wednesday acquitted a CBS News cameraman accused of insurgent activity a year after he was wounded and detained by the U.S. military. But the cameraman, Abdul Ameer Younis Hussein, was returned to Abu Ghraib prison pending final U.S. military approval of his release.
A three-judge panel ruled that there was insufficient evidence against Hussein, a 25-year-old Iraqi, who was filming the aftermath of a car bomb for CBS in the northern city of Mosul when he was apprehended.
The defendant, who wore a yellow jumpsuit, was not permitted to speak to reporters. Between appearances on the witness stand, he had to kneel on the floor in the back of the courtroom, facing a wall. Half a dozen American soldiers in full body armor stood nearby, guarding him and other Iraqi defendants, who also faced the wall.
Abdul Ameer Younis Hussein
Dining for Demining
Landmines
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, actor Michael Douglas and singer Angelique Kidjo promoted a global drive to rid the world of land mines in 82 countries that kill up to 20,000 people a year.
A $500 per person dinner to raise money for mine clearance marked the first U.N.-sponsored International Day for Mine Awareness on Tuesday. UN officials say it might take as little as 10 years to rid the world of millions of hidden land mines that are inexpensive to make and hard to eliminate.
The dinner, attended by some 500 people, was sponsored by the UN Association of the USA, a grass roots foreign policy group, which initiated an Adopt-A-Minefield campaign in 2000, that has now raised $17 million.
Landmines
Suspicious Song
'London Calling'
British anti-terrorism detectives escorted a man from a plane after a taxi driver had earlier become suspicious when he started singing along to a track by punk band The Clash, police said Wednesday.
Detectives halted the London-bound flight at Durham Tees Valley Airport in northern England and Harraj Mann, 24, was taken off.
The taxi driver had become worried on the way to the airport because Mann had been singing along to The Clash's 1979 anthem "London Calling," which features the lyrics "Now war is declared -- and battle come down" while other lines warn of a "meltdown expected."
Mann told British newspapers the taxi had been fitted with a music system which allowed him to plug in his MP3 player and he had been playing The Clash, Procol Harum, Led Zeppelin and the Beatles to the driver.
"He didn't like Led Zeppelin or The Clash but I don't think there was any need to tell the police," Mann told the Daily Mirror.
'London Calling'
Blasts K-Fed
Thomas Dolby
Thomas Dolby is blinding mad, and science has nothing to do with it. The subject of his ire is, surprisingly, Britney Spears's husband.
On his official website's blog, the new waver behind such '80s hits as "She Blinded Me With Science," "Europa," and "Hyperactive" blasts Kevin Federline for allegedly sampling his most famous tune without permission. Dolby writes:
"Britney Spears' husband Kevin Federline, whom I'd never heard of until a few days ago, appears to have illegally sampled one of my compositions. On his MySpace site you can download an MP3 which uses a looped sample from Mobb Deep's 'Get It Twisted', which in turn copped the string line from my own song 'She Blinded Me With Science.' Now, Mobb Deep did it the right way and had his label BMG come and ask for a license. They paid me a fee and a royalty on the sales of Mobb Deep's record. However K-Fed, as his fans affectionately refer to him, did NOT ask permission, he just went ahead and did it. He is therefore blatantly violating the copyright law. And laws aside, he owed it to me as an artist to ask if I minded that he recorded a vitriolic rap over the top of my music.
Thomas Dolby
Splits From Kim Mathers - Again
Eminem
Eminem's dysfunctional relationship with wife Kim has hit another low - he filed divorce papers Wednesday, less than three months after remarrying her.
The filing on behalf of Marshall Bruce Mathers III, Eminem's real name, was confirmed by Eminem's publicist, Dennis Dennehy, and two employees of the Macomb County clerk's office. They didn't provide their names, citing an office policy.
The Grammy- and Oscar-winning rapper and Mathers remarried Jan. 14, a month after the couple announced they were getting back together.
Eminem
Wins Suit Over Topless Photos
Cameron Diaz
A judge has awarded Cameron Diaz damages in a civil lawsuit filed against a photographer who took topless photos of the actress when she was 19 and later tried to sell them back to her for $3.5 million.
Superior Court Judge Valerie Baker awarded an undisclosed amount in statutory damages to Diaz and dismissed a countersuit filed against the "Charlie's Angels" star by photographer John Rutter. Baker's summary judgment was entered March 9 and made public last week.
The judge also issued a permanent injunction prohibiting the sale, license or other use of the photos and a videotape shot in 1992.
Cameron Diaz
Returned Art On View In L.A.
Gustav Klimt
Five Gustav Klimt paintings stolen by the Nazis and ordered returned from Austria went on display in Los Angeles on Tuesday after a lengthy dispute highlighting the ownership complexities of the world's great art works.
The paintings, valued at more than $120 million, include a famous golden portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, wife of the original owner of the work. They had been displayed at a Vienna museum since World War II after being seized by the Nazis when Germany annexed Austria in 1938.
After a seven-year legal case, an arbitration court in January ordered the Austrian government to return the five paintings to Los Angeles resident Maria Altmann, the niece and heir of Bloch-Bauer, who fled Nazi-ruled Austria for the United States.
Altmann has loaned them to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art for three months, saying she wanted to thank the city "which provided me a home when I fled the Nazis, and whose courts enabled me to recover my family's paintings."
Gustav Klimt
Top 20
Concert Tours
The Top 20 Concert Tours ranks artists by average box office gross per city and includes the average ticket price for shows in North America. The previous week's ranking is in parentheses. The list is based on data provided to the trade publication Pollstar by concert promoters and venue managers.
1. (1) Bon Jovi; $1,256,376; $76.96.
2. (2) Aerosmith; $1,111,723; $91.80.
3. (4) Coldplay; $865,677; $57.39.
4. (3) George Strait; $834,282; $57.68.
5. (6) Rascal Flatts; $447,807; $48.04.
6. (7) Nickelback; $359,604; $37.56.
7. (8) Keith Urban; $341,793; $36.68.
8. (11) Motley Crue; $318,602; $54.11.
9. (9) Ricky Martin; $312,944; $66.53.
10. (10) Larry The Cable Guy; $310,914; $40.74.
11. (12) Il Divo; $301,947; $61.52.
12. (13) Kid Rock; $289,108; $35.03.
13. (14) Brad Paisley; $283,265; $43.05.
14. (15) Martina McBride; $252,704; $46.15.
15. (New) Korn; $239,626; $36.96.
16. (New) Michael Flatley's "Lord Of The Dance"; $197,438; $49.92.
17. (16) Nine Inch Nails; $194,862; $37.09.
18. (19) Juanes; $188,553; $56.30.
19. (18) Gretchen Wilson; $188,008; $34.09.
20. (17) Michael Bublé; $187,653; $58.46.
Concert Tours
Plagiarism Charged
'Syriana'
A French screenwriter living in Jordan has sued Warner Bros. Pictures, George Clooney's production company and writer-director Stephen Gaghan, alleging that their film "Syriana" plagiarized entire scenes and characters from a script she wrote several years ago.
Stephanie Vergniault's case comes up for hearing Monday at the Paris High Court, said her attorney, Jasna Hadley Stark. The filmmakers are being sued for 2 million euros ($2.4 million) and damages, Stark said.
Executives at Warner Bros. France said they were aware of the case but declined comment. A spokesman for Warners in the United States said, "While we have not seen a copy of this suit, we believe it is without merit and (we) will defend our position in court."
'Syriana'
Vietnamese Doctor
War Diaries
By day, she amputated limbs and comforted the wounded. By night, she sought to heal herself, filling tiny notebooks with thoughts on suffering and love, the petty politics undermining the Communist Party and her hatred of American "pirates who drink the people's blood but don't smell the stench."
Thirty-five years after a U.S. intelligence officer saved them from being burned, the poignant diaries of a North Vietnamese surgeon named Dang Thuy Tram have reconciled once bitter enemies.
Their publication has also become a sensation in Vietnam, opening floodgates of memories in a nation long disciplined to take a sanitized, glorified view of the conflict.
War Diaries
9,000 Years Old
Dental Drill
Proving prehistoric man's ingenuity and ability to withstand and inflict excruciating pain, researchers have found that dental drilling dates back 9,000 years.
Primitive dentists drilled nearly perfect holes into live but undoubtedly unhappy patients between 5500 B.C. and 7000 B.C., an article in Thursday's journal Nature reports. Researchers carbon-dated at least nine skulls with 11 drill holes found in a Pakistan graveyard.
That means dentistry is at least 4,000 years older than first thought - and far older than the useful invention of anesthesia.
This was no mere tooth tinkering. The drilled teeth found in the graveyard were hard-to-reach molars. And in at least one instance, the ancient dentist managed to drill a hole in the inside back end of a tooth, boring out toward the front of the mouth.
Dental Drill
"I Tried to Represent a Better America"
Bill Clinton
Since leaving office, former US president Bill Clinton has devoted himself to making the world a better place. DER SPIEGEL editors Stefan Aust and Gerhard Spörl spoke to him about his Global Initiative and his influence beyond the White House.
SPIEGEL: And at the same time you can represent the better side of America now?
Clinton: Oh, that's a loaded question. I tried to represent a better America when I was president. But now I don't have to take on so many controversial positions. Like anybody who is heading any country of any substantial size whose decisions affect other people, time and time again I had to do something which people wouldn't agree with, both within and outside the country. But I tried to protect America's better face always. I tried to get people to feel that I wanted to build a common world with everybody treated fairly. But now that I'm free of the responsibilities of my earlier office and can pick and choose it's maybe easier to represent that better face of America.
For the rest of the interview, Bill Clinton
In Memory
Gene Pitney
Gene Pitney, a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame whose hits included "Town Without Pity" and "Only Love Can Break a Heart," died Wednesday at a hotel in Wales after playing a show, his agent said. He was 65.
Born in Hartford, Conn., on Feb. 17, 1941, Pitney had his first success as a songwriter with "Rubber Ball," a Top 10 hit for Bobby Vee in 1961. Later that year, Ricky Nelson had a hit with Pitney's "Hello Mary Lou."
But Burt Bacharach and Hal David provided the songs that put Pitney in the Top 10: "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" and "Only Love Can Break a Heart."
Pitney also had some success as a country singer, pairing with George Jones to record "I've Got Five Dollars and It's Saturday Night" and "Louisiana Man."
He recorded in Italian and Spanish, and twice took second place at the San Remo Song Festival in Italy. He also had a regional hit with "Nessuno Mi Puo' Giudicare."
Gene Pitney
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