'Best of TBH Politoons'
Reader Question
Re: Mindfreak
Am I the only one who thinks "Mindfreak" is the most incredible show on TV?
Kevin
Thanks, Kevin!
The kid is rather fond of the show - guess I'm going to have to check it out.
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Hans Johnson: Wave of Party Switchers Hits Republicans (inthesetimes.com)
Citing extremism, more GOPers are joining the Democrats
Nicholas D. Kristof: Aid: Can It Work? (nybooks.com)
The conundrum facing the rich countries is that everywhere in the developing world, and particularly in Africa, you see children dying for want of pennies, while it's equally obvious that aid often doesn't work very well.
MONEY: The auto makers and you have conflict of interests (metricmind.com)
Hydrogen is an extremely clever scam. When you step back and ask, "Where will the hydrogen come from?" the house of cards falls apart. You will get hydrogen from fossil fuels. The most economic way to get hydrogen is to catalyze natural gas. When you do this, you throw away 50% of the fuel value. If you were to put that hydrogen into a fuel-cell car, it would only go 50% the distance (at best) that a hybrid car would, if fueled from the natural gas directly. The oil company loves it. They get to sell twice as much per mile driven. It is also twice as much CO2 per mile driven.
DIY High Performance Electric Vehicle Conversion Project (metricmind.com)
On the following pages I will describe the process of converting a gasoline car to electric one. More precisely, upgrading (because it is already electric) but since every single component is doing to be replaced, it's almost like starting from scratch. Empty engine compartment, new battery boxes, etc.
'I'm ready' (guardian.co.uk)
The last words of the 376 prisoners executed in Texas since 1982 are faithfully recorded on the state justice department's website. Aida Edemariam reads through their final statements, and we publish edited extracts from the site.
MARK OPPENHEIMER: Where Have All the Intellectuals Gone? (chronicle.com)
One might say there are two kinds of people: those who were deeply saddened by Barbara Epstein's death in June and those who had never heard of her.
James Atlas: The Ma and Pa of the Intelligentsia (New York Magazine)
Robert Silvers and Barbara Epstein of The New York Review of Books set the table for the city's left intellectuals for the past 40 years. But now that Epstein's gone, home is a lot lonelier.
or
James Atlas: The Ma and Pa of the Intelligentsia (New York Magazine)
A diner's lament (guardian.co.uk)
Whatever happened to good old-fashioned restaurant service, asks Nora Ephron.
'We're just a bunch of clunky guys in tutus' (guardian.co.uk)
British and American audiences love the spoof ballet of the Trockaderos. But does the rest of the world get the joke? Not always, finds Judith Mackrell in Greece.
Write Your Letter to Newspaper Editors ... (democrats.org)
For Poet Laureate
Avery Ant
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Still sunny.
There's a lot of ash in the air from the fires north of here. Enough to make the sunlight more rosy-gold, in a Maxfield Parrish-kind of way.
Cast Changes
'SNL'
After nearly a month of speculation that the fates of several Saturday Night Live cast members were up in the air comes confirmation from NBC that regulars Chris Parnell, Horatio Sanz and Finesse Mitchell will not be returning to the late night staple.
The non-announcement was made by simply omitting the players' names from a press release touting the start of the show's 32nd season, though a rep for the network denied there was any bad blood between the MIA cast and svengali producer Lorne Michaels or that their departure was the result of a firing.
According to a statement from NBC, no new regular players have been added to the late night mix, though several of the remaining funnymen and women will see various changes to their onscreen roles.
Saturday Night Live kicks off its new season Sept. 30 with host Dane Cook and musical guest The Killers.
'SNL'
National Book Award
Adrienne Rich
Poet Adrienne Rich and two founders of The New York Review of Books have been named recipients of honorary National Book Awards medals, the National Book Foundation announced Wednesday.
The 77-year-old Rich, known for her passionate, socially conscious verse, has been awarded a "Medal for Distinguished Contribution." Her previous honors include a National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle prize. She has also turned down an award, refusing the National Medal for the Arts in 1997 because it "is incompatible with the cynical politics of this (the Clinton) administration."
The Literarian Award, given for "outstanding service to the American literary community," goes to Robert Silvers and the late Barbara Epstein, who in the early 1960s helped start the New York Review of Books, still a leading literary publication. Epstein died in June at age 76.
Also Wednesday, the National Book Foundation announced that writer and humorist Fran Lebowitz will host this fall's National Book Awards ceremony, to be held Nov. 15 in New York. Finalists in the competitive categories will be announced Oct. 11 by poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, last year's winner of the Literarian Award. He will read the list of nominees at the City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco.
Adrienne Rich
Publishes Mock-Obit Of Republican Spokeswoman
Ted Rall
Conservative columnist/author Ann Coulter has joked a number of times about the deaths of certain alleged liberals, such as New York Times reporters. Now, liberal cartoonist/columnist Ted Rall has joked about Coulter's death.
In a blog entry, Rall noted that "an unnamed humor magazine" had assigned him to write a fictional Coulter obituary "in the deadpan style of The New York Times." The magazine killed the piece, so Rall posted it today on his blog.
"Coulter died from injuries sustained on September 11, 2006, when the historic replica of a dirigible in which she was riding exploded over the Hudson River near Ground Zero in lower Manhattan," wrote Rall. "Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board believe that Coulter initiated the accident when she fired a pistol as she stormed the airship's flight deck in the mistaken belief that its bearded pilot was an Islamic hijacker."
For the rest, Ted Rall
Give $1 Million Gifts
Jolie and Pitt
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are giving gifts of $1 million each to two humanitarian organizations, an adviser to the couple said Wednesday.
The recipients are Global Action for Children and Medecins sans Frontieres/ Doctors Without Borders.
"In the most troubled parts of the world - places that much of the world has abandoned - MSF is always there," said Jolie in a statement issued by Trevor Neilson, the couple's philanthropic and political adviser. "I have seen these brave men and women working in war zones and horrific conditions and I deeply admire them."
Jolie and Pitt
Signs Auction Deal With Christie's
Elizabeth Taylor
Actress Elizabeth Taylor has signed a deal to give Christie's exclusive rights to handle future sales of her jewelry, art work, memorabilia, clothing and other personal possessions, the auction house said on Wednesday.
"When the items I've collected are cared for by other people I hope they will be loved and respected in a sharing way," said Taylor, 74, of her decision to see her property auctioned in the future.
"Eventually, they will be passed on to others ... but not too soon!" added the native of England who was made a dame of the British Empire in 2000.
Elizabeth Taylor
Donates $175 Million To USC
George Lucas
"Star Wars" creator George Lucas, who honed his skills as a young film student at USC, is giving a little something back to his alma mater - $175 million.
The gift from the Lucasfilm Foundation is the largest in the school's history, USC officials announced Tuesday. His donation topped the previous school record of $120 million, made in 1993 by Walter Annenberg.
Lucas, 62, graduated from USC in 1966.
George Lucas
Investigates Liberal Church
IRS
With the campaign season in full swing, a liberal church is locked an escalating dispute with the IRS over an anti-war sermon - delivered two days before the 2004 presidential election - that could cost the congregation its tax-exempt status.
Religious leaders on both the right and left are watching closely, afraid the confrontation at All Saints Church in this Los Angeles suburb will compromise their ability to speak out on issues of moral importance such as abortion and gay marriage during the midterm elections.
Under federal tax law, church officials can legally discuss politics, but to retain tax-exempt status, they cannot endorse candidates or parties. Most who do so receive a warning.
The dispute centers on a sermon titled "If Jesus Debated Senator Kerry and President Bush" that Regas delivered as a guest pastor. Though he did not endorse a candidate, he said Jesus would condemn the Iraq war and Bush's doctrine of pre-emptive war.
IRS
Road Trip
'Lucy'
"Lucy," the celebrated skeletal remains of a female hominid who lived 3.2 million years ago will leave Ethiopia next year for her first-ever foreign exhibition, officials said.
Beginning in September 2007, Lucy will enjoy top billing among 200 other Ethiopian exhibits that will tour museums in 10 US cities for four years, they said Wednesday.
The trip will be Lucy's first overseas visit for exhibition purposes since she was discovered by American paleontologists Donald Johanson and Tom Gray in 1974 in Ethiopia's northern Afar region.
'Lucy'
Polar Route Emerges
Arctic Ice
European scientists voiced shock as they showed pictures which showed Arctic ice cover had disappeared so much last month that a ship could sail unhindered from Europe's most northerly outpost to the North Pole itself.
The satellite images were acquired from August 23 to 25 by instruments aboard Envisat and EOS Aqua, two satellites operated by the European Space Agency (ESA).
Perennial sea ice -- thick ice that is normally present year-round and is not affected by the Arctic summer -- had disappeared over an area bigger than the British Isles, ESA said.
Vast patches of ice-free sea stretched north of Svalbard, an archipelago lying midway between Norway and the North Ple, and extended deep into the Russian Arctic, all the way to the North Pole, the agency said in a press release.
Arctic Ice
Ice Sheet Melting
Greenland
Greenland's massive ice sheet is melting much quicker than scientists had estimated and the pace has accelerated lately, according to research published on Wednesday.
An analysis of satellite observations shows the rate of ice loss rose 250 percent between the periods April 2002 to April 2004 and May 2004 to April 2006, most of it in southern Greenland.
The ice sheet is now shrinking by about 248 cubic kilometers each year which is equivalent to a rise in sea level around the world of 0.5 millimeters.
Greenland
Attends Steelers Game
Gnomey
Allen Snyder's garden gnome is apparently out of jail and now traveling the country. The 14-inch tall red-and-white statue disappeared from Snyder's Morgantown yard in the spring, and Snyder has since received three letters claiming to have been written by "Gnomey."
The latest letter, which Snyder received this week, included photos of the gnome in the company of Steelers fans attending Pittsburgh's football home opener.
"You never took me to any games," the note said. The letter ended: "Have to go now. Boarding a plane. Now, finally, broadening my travels."
An earlier letter included a request for bail money and included what appeared to be booking photos of Gnomey and another of the gnome in the back seat of a police car.
Gnomey
In Memory
Sven Nykvist
Oscar-winning filmmaker Sven Nykvist, who was legendary director Ingmar Bergman's cinematographer of choice, died Wednesday after a long illness, his son Carl-Gustaf said. He was 83.
Nykvist won Academy Awards for best cinematography for the Bergman films "Cries and Whispers" in 1973 and "Fanny and Alexander" in 1982.
Nykvist's sense of lighting and camera work made him a favorite of Bergman's after their first collaboration on the 1954 movie "Sawdust and Tinsel," which began a partnership that lasted nearly 30 years.
Nykvist also worked on fellow Swede Lasse Hallstrom's "What's Eating Gilbert Grape" and did several movies with Bergman fan Woody Allen. His last film was "Curtain Call" in 1999.
Nykvist's wife, Ulrika, died in 1982. In addition to his son, he is survived by his daughter-in-law, Helena Berlin, and grandchildren Sonia Sondell and Marilde Nykvist.
Sven Nykvist
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