The Weekly Poll
The current question:
Who would make the best Secretary of State when (not if) Obama takes the helm in January 2009?
A. Hillary Clinton
B. Zbigniew Brzezinski
C. Bill Richardson
D. Chris Dodd
E. Evan Bayh
F. Your choice
Send your response to BadtotheBoneBob ( BCEpoll 'at' aol.com )
Results Tuesday
Baron Dave Romm
Live from Mpls
Baron Dave Romm is an accredited journalist for the RNC!
Watch his LiveJournal for updates.
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Michael Moore Responds to Joe Lieberman (michaelmoore.com)
Dear Joe: John McCain IS just another partisan Republican -- so that must mean you ARE my favorite Democrat!
ALAN S. BLINDER: Is History Siding With Obama's Economic Plan? (nytimes.com)
Data for the whole period from 1948 to 2007, during which Republicans occupied the White House for 34 years and Democrats for 26, show average annual growth of real gross national product of 1.64 percent per capita under Republican presidents versus 2.78 percent under Democrats. That 1.14-point difference, if maintained for eight years, would yield 9.33 percent more income per person, which is a lot more than almost anyone can expect from a tax cut.
George Lakoff: Palin Appeals to Voter Emotions -- Dems Beware (AlterNet.org)
The initial Democratic response to Palin indicates that many Democrats have not learned the lessons of the Reagan and Bush years.
Clive James: The exiles who wowed America (timesonline.co.uk)
How exiled European artists reacted to the energy and freedom of the US.
Paul Tough: Everyday wisdom (guardian.co.uk)
Can serious intellectual theory provide the key to happiness and personal fulfilment for everyone? Julian Baggini examines a new series of practical philosophy books dedicated to 'the art of living.'
Back-to-School Day (slate.com)
Teachers will be the focus of the next big education debate.
Lucy Powell: Why Caryl Churchill is the Top Girl (timesonline.co.uk)
As Caryl Churchill turns 70, her admirers and collaborators tell what it's like to work with one of our most important playwrights.
John Mark Eberhart: Ageless Van Morrison still rocks me down to my soul (McClatchy Newspapers)
The ageless Van Morrison still rocks me down to my soul. He turned 63 on Sunday, and 40 years ago he laid down some transcendent tracks.
Will Harris: A Chat with Johnny Galecki ("Roseanne") and relative newcomer Jim Parsons of the "The Big Bang Theory" (bullz-eye.com)
"Guys who are obviously these big, handsome surfer guys or these gorgeous women will come up and tell me that they're just like our characters-and I'm thinking, 'You are so much cooler than our characters!'"
Luaine Lee: Life, art are one for Bonnie Hunt (McClatchy-Tribune News Service)
Actress Bonnie Hunt has seen one of her characters on TV turn into real life. Hunt has starred in three of her own television sitcoms and on the last one, "Life with Bonnie," she played a talk-show host.
Interview with Chan Kinchla of Blues Traveler (popmatters.com)
A backstage chat at Lollapalooza with Blues Traveler co-founder Chan Kinchla. Words by Chris Catania and pictures by Colleen Catania.
David Bruce: Wise Up! Practical Jokes (athensnews.com)
In high school, author Beth Lisick had a truly original boyfriend. He could pass gas whenever he wanted, and for Christmas one year he gave her a toilet seat. Beth was quite original, too. After seeing a few too many catfights on the TV series "Dynasty," Beth and her best friend Amy used to fake catfights in public places, rolling on the ground and pretending to kick each other and pull each other's hair until somebody stopped the "fight."
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Wonderfully foggy morning.
The kid survived the first day of school - even has homework.
Auction Raises Cash For Ohio Birthplace
Superman'
An online auction began Tuesday to raise money to restore the inner-city house where the idea for the Superman character was conceived.
Two high school boys, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, hatched the idea of the man who could bend steel with his bare hands in 1933. Hattie and Jefferson Gray have owned the home and lived there for more than two decades, tolerating unexpected visits by Superman fans.
Among the items to be auctioned during September will be a T-shirt signed by Siegel, a walk-on role on television's "Heroes," and original art by Jim Lee, Murphy Anderson, George Perez, Tim Sale and others. Lee's drawing offer drew a $710 bid on Tuesday.
The Cleveland-based Siegel and Shuster Society and novelist Brad Meltzer's charity - Ordinary People Change the World - will run the four weeklong auctions of about 12 items at a time.
Superman'
Google's Fine Print Spurs Privacy Concerns
Chrome
Google's Chrome didn't even make it through 24 hours of downloads before stirring controversy. The search giant's new Web browser is in the privacy spotlight thanks to terms of service that give it rights some may not want to grant.
"By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any content which you submit, post or display on or through, the services. This license is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the services and may be revoked for certain services as defined in the additional terms of those services."
Chrome's service terms also indicate that some of the services are supported by advertising revenue and may display advertisements and promotions. These advertisements, Google explained, may be targeted to the content of information stored on the services, queries made through the services, or other information.
When you download Chrome, you receive a unique browser identifier number. That means Google not only knows what people are typing, but Google also knows what browser it came from.
Chrome
Former US Ooet Laureate
Louise Glueck
Former U.S. poet laureate Louise Glueck has been awarded the Wallace Stevens Award, a $100,000 prize for "outstanding and proven mastery in the art of poetry," the Academy of American Poets announced Tuesday.
Glueck, who served as poet laureate in 2003-04, is known for such books as "Averno," "The Seven Ages" and "Vita Nova." Previous winners of the Stevens award include Adrienne Rich, John Ashbery and Richard Wilbur.
Brigit Pegeen Kelly, a runner-up for the Pulitzer Prize in 2005, received an academy fellowship, which includes a $25,000 stipend, for "distinguished poetic achievement."
Louise Glueck
Fleming's Inspiration
James Bond
A set of rare James Bond novels are expected to sell for £20,000 at auction later.
The full collection of Ian Fleming's 007 books come from the library of the late Sir Fitzroy Maclean - the man thought to be part of the inspiration for one the world's most famous spies.
The collection, which includes a rare first edition of Casino Royale, is going under the hammer at Lyon and Turnbull in Edinburgh.
Sir Fitzroy, a former soldier, diplomat and Conservative MP, was a friend of Fleming's and widely believed to have been the role model for Bond.
James Bond
Tops List
Tupac
Dead rapper Tupac "2Pac" Shakur, the hip-hop icon who sold more records after he was murdered than during his brief career, is the most overrated person in music, according to music magazine Blender.
Shakur tops a tongue-in-cheek list that also includes "places, trends and other junk in rock," Blender said in its upcoming October issue, due on newsstands next week.
Other overrated finalists included the Grammys at No. 7, encores at No. 12, Pink Floyd at No. 14 and "the music you loved as a teenager" at No. 23.
As for the Grammys, the music industry's top awards, Blender said sitting through the ceremony was "like watching paint dry on Celine Dion's forehead."
Tupac
Behind The Curtain
'It's Over'
After a segment with NBC's Chuck Todd ended today, Republican consultant Mike Murphy and Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan (R-Wordy) were caught on a live mike ridiculing the choice of Sarah Palin.
"It's over," said Noonan, who then responded to a question of whether Palin is the most qualified Republican woman McCain could have chosen.
"The most qualified? No. I think they went for this - excuse me - political bullshit about narratives," she said. "Every time Republicans do that ... because that's not where they live and it's not what they're good at and they blow it."
Murphy chimed in:
"The greatness of McCain is no cynicism, and this is cynical."
'It's Over'
Charged With Possession
Mackenzie Phillips
Former teen star Mackenzie Phillips has been charged with felony possession of drugs after she was allegedly found carrying narcotics at Los Angeles International Airport.
District Attorney's spokeswoman Jane Robison says Phillips has been charged with two felony counts of possession of a controlled substance, heroin and cocaine. She also faces a misdemeanor count of unauthorized possession of a needle or syringe.
The 48-year-old Phillips is out on $20,000 bail.
Mackenzie Phillips
Sued Over IndyCar Deal
Gene Simmons
A Los Angeles man claims in a lawsuit that Gene Simmons took him for a ride on a marketing deal with the Indy Racing League.
Allan Brown on Wednesday sued Simmons and two business partners, claiming the group cut him out of a 2006 deal between the Kiss bassist and the racing league.
Brown is seeking unspecified damages and is claiming fraud and slander. His suit alleges he helped broker the deal between Simmons and the IRL, but was cut out of the contract while on a personal vacation.
Simmons promoted IndyCar racing in 2006, and even co-wrote a song, "I Am INDY."
Gene Simmons
What Global Warming?
Ice Sheet
A chunk of ice shelf nearly the size of Manhattan has broken away from Ellesmere Island in Canada's northern Arctic, another dramatic indication of how warmer temperatures are changing the polar frontier, scientists said Wednesday.
Derek Mueller, an Arctic ice shelf specialist at Trent University in Ontario, told The Associated Press that the 4,500-year-old Markham Ice Shelf separated in early August and the 19-square-mile shelf is now adrift in the Arctic Ocean.
"The Markham Ice Shelf was a big surprise because it suddenly disappeared. We went under cloud for a bit during our research and when the weather cleared up, all of a sudden there was no more ice shelf. It was a shocking event that underscores the rapidity of changes taking place in the Arctic," said Mueller.
Mueller also said that two large sections of ice detached from the Serson Ice Shelf, shrinking that ice feature by 47 square miles - or 60 percent - and that the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf has also continued to break up, losing an additional eight square miles.
Ice Sheet
Let Mengele Get Away
Mossad
Israeli agents who kidnapped Nazi mastermind Adolf Eichmann from Argentina in 1960 found the notorious death camp doctor Josef Mengele but let him get away, one of the operatives said Tuesday.
Rafi Eitan, now an 81-year-old Israeli Cabinet minister, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that he and other Mossad agents located Mengele living in a Buenos Aires apartment with his wife at the time of Eichmann's capture in 1960.
But they decided that trying to nab him would risk sabotaging the capture of Eichmann, who implemented Adolf Hitler's "final solution" to kill European Jewry and was deemed a more important target.
Mossad
Used To Date Wine
Particle Accelerator
French scientists have devised a way of using particle accelerators to authenticate vintage wines, one of France's top research bodies said this week.
The new method tests the age of the glass in wine bottles by analysing X-rays emitted when the bottles are placed under ion beams produced by a particle accelerator, the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) said in a statement.
By comparing the results with a database containing detailed information on 80 bottles from the Bordeaux region from the 19th century to the present day, the tests can help indicate the vintage of many wines.
The new test extends existing radioactivity tests on the actual wine itself, which are currently incapable of identifying vintages prior to 1950.
Particle Accelerator
Prime-Time Nielsens
Ratings
Prime-time viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen Media Research for Aug. 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. (14) "America's Got Talent," NBC, 11.12 million viewers.
2. (21) "Deal Or No Deal" (Monday), NBC, 11.00 million viewers.
3. (38) "America's Got Talent" (Wednesday), NBC, 10.34 million viewers.
4. (16) "Two and a Half Men," CBS, 9.03 million viewers.
5. (21) "60 Minutes," CBS, 8.03 million viewers.
6. (14) "NCIS," CBS, 7.45 million viewers.
7. (96) "America's Toughest Jobs," NBC, 7.30 million viewers.
8. (21) "Criminal Minds," CBS, 6.93 million viewers.
9. (8) "House," Fox, 6.81 million viewers.
10. (57) "The New Adventures of Old Christine," CBS, 6.63 million viewers.
11. (X) Democratic Convention Coverage (Thursday), ABC, 6.58 million viewers.
12. (65) "Wipeout," ABC, 6.33 million viewers.
13. (110) "Big Brother 10" (Tuesday), CBS, 6.28 million viewers.
14. (X) Democratic Convention Coverage (Thursday) NBC, 6.10 million viewers.
15. (X) "Bones," Fox, 6.06 million viewers.
16. (X) Democratic Convention Coverage (Tuesday) NBC, 5.98 million viewers.
17. (126) "Big Brother 10" (Thursday), CBS, 5.97 million viewers.
18. (X) "CSI: NY" (Sunday), CBS, 5.89 million viewers.
19. (126) "Big Brother 10" (Sunday), CBS, 5.70 million viewers.
20. (110) "Greatest American Dog," CBS, 5.68 million viewers.
Ratings
In Memory
Bill Melendez
Bill Melendez, best known for bringing the Peanuts characters to life with such classics as "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown," died Tuesday at St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica. He was 91.
Melendez, the only animator permitted by Charles M. Schulz to work with the Peanuts characters, earned eight Emmy Awards, 17 Emmy nominations, one Oscar nomination and two Peabody Awards.
In 1948, the Mexican native left Warner Bros. and for more than a decade served as a director and producer on more than 1,000 commercials and films for United Productions of America, Playhouse Pictures and John Sutherland Prods.
It was at UPA that Melendez started doing work for the New York-based J. Walter Thompson ad agency, whose clients included Ford. The carmaker expressed interest in using the Peanuts characters to sell its cars on TV, and in 1959 Melendez prepared his animation work and showed it to Peanuts creator Schulz.
Melendez went on to bring Charlie Brown and his pals to the screen in more than 63 half-hour specials, five one-hour specials, four feature films and more than 372 commercials. In addition to perennial favorites "A Charlie Brown Christmas" (1965) and "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" (1966), Melendez produced the Oscar-nominated "A Boy Named Charlie Brown" (1971), "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" (1973), "She's a Good Skate, Charlie Brown" (1980) and "You're a Good Sport, Charlie Brown" (1975). He also provided the voices for Snoopy and Woodstock through the years.
Melendez also animated TV specials "Garfield on the Town," "Cathy," "Babar Comes to America" and "The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe," among others. He shared an Emmy in 1987 for outstanding animated program with three others for "Cathy."
Melendez, who sported a handle bar mustache for decades, began his career at Walt Disney Studios and worked on classic Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck cartoons. He then moved to Warners to animate Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig and others. He worked under the monikers C. Melendez and J.C. Melendez.
Melendez is survived by his wife of 68 years, Helen; two sons, Steven Melendez and (Ret.) Navy Rear Admiral Rodrigo Melendez; six grandchildren; and 11 great grandchildren. A memorial service will take place for family only.
Bill Melendez
| CURRENT MOON lunar phases |
