'Best of TBH Politoons'
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Bryan Young: A Good Case for Universal Healthcare (huffingtonpost.com)
It's sad and disgusting to me that that I considered cost when my only thought should have been getting my son immediately to the hospital. Within a month, my son and I had accumulated $40,000 in medical bills.
David Misch: See Me, Feel Me, Touch Me, Read Me (huffingtonpost.com)
Reports that Amazon's Kindle book-reader is actually a reasonable substitute for a book bring us one step closer to the death of bound paper. How does that make you feel?
Neil Hallows: Why typewriters beat computers (news.bbc.co.uk)
They're clunky, dirty and can't access the internet, yet every year thousands of people buy typewriters when they could probably afford a computer. Why?
Lisa Anderson: "James Bond: Ever changing, ever the same" (Chicago Tribune)
Whether it's cocktail hour in Manhattan or Mumbai, is there anyone in the developed world who doesn't know who likes his martinis "shaken, not stirred"?
Adam Sage: Anna Sam's book skewers shoppers (entertainment.timesonline.co.uk)
The supermarket checkout worker turns the tables on customers with a book that depicts the full extent of their stupidity
Glenn Gamboa: R.E.M. gains momentum with 'Accelerate' (Newsday)
Now it can be told: In 2004, during the recording and release of the "Around the Sun" (Warner Bros.) album, R.E.M. was on the ropes.
Jon Bream: "Kanye West: Is he rap's greatest rock star or just lost in space?" (Star Tribune)
If Kanye West reads this headline, he'll undoubtedly object. It's not BIG enough for him. Super-size is not his style. It must be SUPA DUPA size - even if it won't fit on the page.
Jon Bream: On her True Colors Tour, Cyndi Lauper still just wants to have fun - but with a purpose (Star Tribune)
Cyndi Lauper wanted to talk about serious things like photorealism, beat poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti and the consequences of the presidential election.
Michael Fortes: A Chat with Rachel Taylor Brown (bullz-eye.com)
... that whole tune just ended up being improvised on toy piano and all the other stuff, kind of like "Hemocult" was. And so, yeah, once I played Jeff's toy piano, I wanted my own toy piano, and I wound up with three or four, 'cause I'm greedy.
Mario Tarradell: Skid Row's Johnny Solinger goes from metal to country (The Dallas Morning News)
Johnny Solinger grew up in the Hurst-Euless-Bedford area of Texas. He lives in Austin. In his spare time, the 37-year-old singer likes to play Texas honky-tonks.
Will Harris: A Chat with David Morse, star of "John Adams" (bullz-eye.com)
I remember being on the set and noticing a portrait of Washington, but when I looked at it really closely, I realized that it wasn't just that, it was actually a portrait of me as Washington, that they'd made a point of making sure the portraits were of the actors as the characters.
Luaine Lee: Jamie Kaler and his 'Boys' return Thursday to TBS (McClatchy-Tribune News Service)
Sometimes actor Jamie Kaler wonders what possessed him. He gave up his commission in the Navy to become an actor.
Your Tax Dollars At Work
DHS & The Movie 'Speed'
Hello Marty,
Check this one out -
Don't Make a Fuss just get on the Bus.........
DHS spends millions on bus kill-switches to stop Osama bin Laden from
reenacting the movie "Speed"
Bus services across America are spending a fortune on driver-side
kill-switches for busses that have been hijacked by terrorists that can
stop them or slow them to five miles per hour. This is to stop terrorist
from ramming busses into buildings.
Private bus companies have received millions of dollars from the
Department of Homeland Security for the security systems. It costs
$1,500 to equip each bus, with $50-per-bus monthly maintenance costs.
Gray Line double-decker tourist buses and Coach USA have spent hundreds
of thousands of dollars in federal funds to install 3,000 devices. After
receiving a $124,000 federal grant, DeCamp Bus Lines is installing the
device on its 80 commuter buses, which travel routes from northern New
Jersey to the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Midtown.
New Jersey Transit is currently in the process of equipping all of its
roughly 3,000 buses with the technology. NJ Transit Chief of Police
Joseph Bober said: "This enhanced technology helps us protect our bus
drivers and customers. It's another proactive tool to protect our
property, employees and customers."
Link Via Boing Boing:
Take Care,
Kev Kev in Apache Junction
Thanks, KevKev!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Coastal Eddy is getting ready to leave so the hot, hot weather won't be far behind.
Not A McSame Fan
John Cusack
Pop quiz: Why has John Cusack jumped into the political arena with a pair of videos saying John McCain is a war-profiteering clone of resident George W. Bush?
"I know my opinion doesn't matter more than anyone else's and I just make films," he told The Associated Press in a phone interview Wednesday. "But I do feel you have to speak out, and that's what I'm doing."
The 30-second videos, which went out to members of the liberal political activist group MoveOn.org on Wednesday, will begin airing as television ads Thursday. In one, Cusack offers a "pop quiz" to voters, asking them among other things: "Who supports keeping our troops in harm's way in Iraq but not the bipartisan G.I. bill of rights to support them when they return home?"
In the other, he points out that Charlie Black, a key campaign adviser to presumptive Republican presidential nominee McCain, has been a lobbyist for Blackwater Worldwide, the largest private security contractor in Iraq.
John Cusack
Most Powerful Celebrity
Oprah
Talk show host Oprah Winfrey is the world's most powerful celebrity for the second straight year and for the fifth time ever, according to the 2008 Forbes Celebrity 100 Power List released on Wednesday.
The annual list also included two couples among its top 10. Actress Angelina Jolie came in at No. 3 and her partner Brad Pitt nabbed No. 10, while music mogul newlyweds, Beyonce Knowles and Jay-Z were fourth and seventh.
Golfer Tiger Woods remained No. 2 and soccer player David Beckham was No. 5, while actor Johnny Depp took sixth. Music group The Police nabbed No. 8 after reuniting for a successful world tour and British author J.K. Rowling was No. 9 after the release of the seventh and final Harry Potter book.
The 2008 top 100 is made up of 20 film actors, 20 athletes, 10 musicians, 10 talk show hosts, 10 TV actors, five "tween" stars, five directors/producers, five celebrity personalities, four authors, four hip-hop impresarios, four chefs and three models.
Oprah
No Star On Hollywood Walk O'Fame
Cheeta
Three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame have gone to the dogs, so why can't Cheeta the chimp get some love?
The animal actor, whose credits include the 1967 comedy "Doctor Dolittle" and the "Tarzan" movies, is trying for the seventh time to get a sidewalk star and become the first monkey to get the honor. His handlers have launched an online petition to get supporters to urge the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce to give him a star in 2009.
This year, Cheeta will be considered along with some 200 entertainers. The chamber usually chooses about 24 a year.
The Guinness World Records has called the 76-year-old chimp the oldest living, non-human primate. Cheeta is retired and lives in Palm Springs.
Cheeta
Playboy Jazz Fest Turns 30
Hugh Hefner
Hugh Hefner couldn't think of a better way to celebrate Playboy magazine's 25th anniversary than by throwing a big bash at the Hollywood Bowl featuring his favorite performers who knew how to swing while keeping their clothes on.
To produce the event he turned to jazz impresario George Wein, who had created the first outdoor jazz festival in Newport, R.I., in 1954, the same year Hefner launched his culture-changing men's lifestyle magazine.
The inaugural 1979 Playboy Jazz Festival packed the Hollywood Bowl for both days with a lineup that featured some of Hefner's favorite artists such as Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton and Count Basie as well as contemporary jazz stars like Weather Report, Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock. Hefner took the stage on opening night to announce that what had been planned as a one-time anniversary celebration would become an annual event.
Hugh Hefner
Space Tourist
Sergey Brin
One of the cofounders of Internet giant Google, Sergey Brin, has booked a flight to space aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket for 2011, The New York Times reported Wednesday.
Virginia-based Space Adventures, which arranges space flights for ultrawealthy clients, plans to buy a private Soyuz flight in 2011, and Brin is a new investor in the company, the report said.
Brin, Google's technology president, made a five-million-dollar investment that "will serve as a deposit on a future flight," the report said.
Sergey Brin
Damn Liberal Media
Al D'Amato
Al D'Amato, having made his mark in the legislative branch of government, is ready to move on to the judicial system.
Twentieth Television is planning to shoot a pilot for a potential court show featuring the former U.S. senator from New York.
The project revolves around small-claims cases, which makes sense given D'Amato's background. He earned the nickname "Senator Pothole" for his willingness to meet with constituents and help them with their individual cases, however modest.
Al D'Amato
Starting News Network
J.C. Watts
J.C. Watts (R-Unemployed) thinks the uproar over statements by Barack Obama's one-time pastor illustrates the need for a national black TV news channel.
Watts, who hopes to get one running by the summer 2009, tells The Associated Press that the voice of blacks is often missing from political debates, including the one over the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
He said the Black Television News Channel will be added to Comcast cable systems in Philadelphia, Chicago, Detroit, Atlanta, Baltimore and Washington, and would be available nationwide on Dishnet.
He's trying to raise $20 million to build studios in Washington as well as a "coast-to-coast high definition news gathering infrastructure."
J.C. Watts
VH1's `Celebrity Rehab'
Rodney King
Rodney King will appear in the next installment of VH1's "Celebrity Rehab With Dr. Drew."
The show features famous people dealing with drug and alcohol problems aided by celebrity addiction specialist Dr. Drew Pinsky.
King, whose 1991 beating by Los Angeles police led to deadly rioting the next year, prompting him to make a famously earnest plea for peace, will appear with actor Jeff Conaway, former Guns 'N Roses drummer Steven Adler, Rod Stewart's son Sean and actress Tawny Kitaen.
Rodney King
Quarter-Mile Drawing
Filemon Trevino
He forgot to eat, sleep or even drink water. But Mexican artist Filemon Trevino accomplished his lifelong dream of entering the Guinness Book of World Records.
In a news conference Wednesday, Trevino presented a Guinness certificate declaring his quarter-mile-long pencil drawing as the world's largest.
The Monterrey artist said he spent 6,000 hours and used 800 pencils to complete his representation of the heart and circulatory system, with symbols including doves, geometric shapes and hundreds of yards of intertwined tubes.
Trevino started the drawing in July 2004 and completed it in August 2005. But he could not apply for the world record until he found someone willing to display the work and sponsor Guinness' $600 entry fee.
Filemon Trevino
Thanking Sanitation Workers
Boy George
Boy George is returning some good karma to New York City's sanitation workers: Two years after sweeping the city streets as part of community service, he has decided to perform a free concert for his former co-workers.
George will sing some of his hits for the Department of Sanitation's Family Day on Aug. 17.
"The people I worked alongside showed great kindness to me at a very difficult time, and I wanted to thank them all in a way that would show my appreciation," he said.
Michael A. Bimonte, a first deputy commissioner with the department, said: "Keeping New York City safe and clean is a daunting challenge - as Boy George well knows - and we welcome his generous offer to entertain those who have made our city the cleanest it has been in more than 30 years."
Boy George
Say Capitol Computers Hacked
DC Lawmakers
Multiple congressional computers have been hacked by people working from inside China, lawmakers said Wednesday, suggesting the Chinese were seeking lists of dissidents.
Two congressmen, both longtime critics of Beijing's record on human rights, said the compromised computers contained information about political dissidents from around the world. One of the lawmakers said he'd been discouraged from disclosing the computer attacks by other U.S. officials.
Wednesday's disclosures came as U.S. authorities continued to investigate whether Chinese officials secretly copied the contents of a government laptop computer during a visit to China by Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez and used the information to try to hack into Commerce Department computers.
The Bush administration has been increasingly reluctant publicly to discuss or acknowledge cyber attacks, especially ones traced to China.
DC Lawmakers
Erector Skyscraper
Chris Burden
A million pieces of stainless steel toy parts assembled into a nearly seven-story model skyscraper glimmered under the hot sun in New York on Tuesday, in American artist Chris Burden's latest project.
The 16,000-pound (7,250-kg) "poetic interpretation" of the 30 Rock Building at Rockefeller Center was made of replicated Erector set pieces from the toy created by A.C. Gilbert in 1912, Burden said.
The project, assembled by 20 to 30 people using screwdrivers, began in late 2006 and was put together in Los Angeles County and trucked across the country in two parts.
Burden, who lives in Los Angeles, was born in Boston in 1946. He received attention as a performance artist in 1971 when he was shot in the arm for the sake of art in a performance called "Shoot."
Chris Burden
We're #30!
US Life Expectancy
For the first time, U.S. life expectancy has surpassed 78 years, the government reported Wednesday, although the United States continues to lag behind about 30 other countries in estimated life span.
The increase is due mainly to falling mortality rates in almost all the leading causes of death, federal health officials said. The average life expectancy for babies born in 2006 was about four months greater than for children born in 2005.
Japan has the longest life expectancy - 83 years for children born in 2006, according to World Health Organization data. Switzerland and Australia were also near the top of the list.
Life expectancy was up for both men and women, and whites and blacks. Although the gaps are closing, women continue to live longer, almost to 81, compared to about 75 for men. Among racial categories, white women have the highest life expectancy (81 years), followed by black women (about 77 years), white men (76) and black men (70). Health statisticians said they don't have reliable data to calculate Hispanic life expectancy, but they hope to by next year.
US Life Expectancy
Faux Sports
Rock Paper Scissors
The USA Rock Paper Scissors League is proving to have staying power in the media industry.
The championship tournament of the league devoted to the playground game is heading to Fox Sports Network as an hourlong "Best Damn Sports Show Period" special October 6.
The third annual tourney, sponsored by Bud Light, runs June 20-22 at the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.
More than 300 players will compete in this year's event, with the winner receiving a $50,000 grand prize and a trip to Beijing to compete against international champions in an event coinciding with the Summer Olympics.
Rock Paper Scissors
Still Not A Planet
Pluto
Pluto is finally getting its day in the sun, after being stripped of planetary status by astronomers two years ago.
From now on all similar distant bodies in the solar system will be called "plutoids." That's the decision by the International Astronomical Union, which met last week in Oslo, Norway, and announced the decision Wednesday.
The same group raised a cosmic fuss when it demoted the once-ninth planet to "dwarf" status in 2006. The new policy allows Pluto to be the standard for a whole new category of dwarf planets.
Pluto is one of only two plutoids, the other being Eris. Both are objects that circle the sun and are too small to be considered planets, but big enough to have a level of gravity that keeps them in a near spherical shape. Plutoids also must be farther from the sun than Neptune.
Pluto
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