Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Video: Will Ferrell stands up for the real health care victims
Mark Morford: This is a difficult letter to write (sfgate.com)
Of course it will never happen to you. Until it does.
Aditya Chakrabortty: Why doing good sometimes makes you into a bad person (guardian.co.uk)
Researchers have found that, after doing something ethically sound, people are more - not less - likely to do something immoral, or even illegal.
Eva Wiseman: "Tavi Gevinson: the 13-year-old blogger with the fashion world at her feet" (guardian.co.uk)
Teenager Tavi Gevinson was the true star of New York Fashion Week.
Louis P. Masur: Tramps Like Us (slate.com)
The birth of 'Born To Run.'
Richard Hawley: Rock'n'roll troubadour (guardian.co.uk)
Richard Hawley has been called a modern-day Roy Orbison. The Sheffield crooner talks about fame, Pulp, his dad's death - and kicking a gargantuan drug habit. By Alexis Petridis.
Todd Martens: Lily Allen, Radiohead on opposite sides of heated British file-sharing debate (latimes.com)
A file-sharing debate in England that could have wide-ranging effects on how music is distributed via the Internet is getting heated.
Christopher Borrelli: "Breaking up with Hughes: Learning to let go of the legend that ruined my life" (The Chicago Tribune)
To begin an academic year without the bard of high school around? Is it a bit like Mickey Mouse without Walt Disney, the muse no longer tethered to its artist?
Agnès Poirier: Happy birthday, Brigitte Bardot (guardian.co.uk)
The French cinema star whose sexy, liberated style outraged and inspired in equal measure is about to turn 75. Agnès Poirier finds out how the pinup girl became an existentialist icon.
George and Mike Kuchar: attack of the killer twins (guardian.co.uk)
George and Mike Kuchar thrilled 1960s New York with their DIY B movies, inspiring everyone from Andy Warhol to George Lucas, writes John Patterson.
Penn & Teller: Crime fighters? (latimes.com)
... Penn and Teller ... will be doing a series pilot for ABC. The one-hour show will feature them as "Penn Jillette and Teller -- Las Vegas magicians by night. But here's how the show takes a slight twist from real life: By day, the duo become reluctant detectives."
Will Harris: A Chat with John Noble, Co-star of "Fringe" (bullz-eye.com)
On Leonard Nimoy's "Fringe" appearance: Just his very presence in the show is almost like a validation, and the fact that he wants to do it with us, that he likes what we do and wants to do it with us, is huge.
The Weekly Poll
New Question
The '2009 Season Premier' Edition
This week starts the premiers of new prime time programs as well as programs retained from last year.
What programs, if any, are you planning to watch during this 'premier' season?
Send your response to
wrote:
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Reader Suggestion
Lotus World Music & Arts Festival
Hi,
Check out 2009 Lotus World Music & Arts Festival . Lotus is an annual highlight here in Bloomington, Indiana.
We close traffic on several downtown streets for live music by acts from around the US and the world. It's worth driving to experience! If you just want to listen, the outdoor events are free. If you want to get close to the stage, or attend the indoor performances, you'll need a ticket.
Vic In Alaska
Permanent Fund
$1305, this year's amount of socialist money in the form of a Permanent Fund Dividend Check YAHOOO!!!!! Thank You Comrades!!!
Vic in AK
Thanks, Vic!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Freakin' hot.
Global Language Monitor
"ObamaVision"
"ObamaVision" -- the term coined by the media to sum up President Barack Obama's pledge to bring hope and change to America -- was on Wednesday deemed the most influential English word from television in 2009.
"ObamaVision" was first heard during last year's U.S. presidential election campaign. It topped "financial meltdown" in the 6th annual list of Top 10 Telewords compiled by U.S. tracking group, the Global Language Monitor.
"Michael Jackson" whose death in June triggered days of wall-to-wall news coverage, and "Susan Boyle" -- the British singer who became an overnight sensation after appearing on a televised talent show -- came third and fourth.
The Texas-based Global Language Monitor uses an algorithm to search printed and electronic media and the Internet for trends in word usage and their impact on culture.
The Top 10 Telewords of 2009 - "ObamaVision"
Antarctic Thinning Surprises Experts
Coastal Ice
Scientists are surprised at how extensively coastal ice in Antarctica and Greenland is thinning, according to a study Wednesday that could help predict rising sea levels linked to climate change.
Analysis of millions of NASA satellite laser images showed the biggest loss of ice was caused by glaciers speeding up when they flowed into the sea, according to scientists at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) and Bristol University.
"We were surprised to see such a strong pattern of thinning glaciers across such large areas of coastline -- it's widespread and in some cases thinning extends hundreds of kilometers inland," said Hamish Pritchard of BAS who led the study.
Rising seas caused by a thaw of vast stores of ice on Antarctica and Greenland could threaten Pacific islands, coasts from China to the United States and cities from London to Buenos Aires.
Coastal Ice
Authors Seek Delay In Books Settlement
Google
Authors and publishers asked a U.S. judge on Tuesday to delay a hearing on whether to approve a controversial settlement that would allow Google Inc to create a massive online digital library.
The request by the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers was unopposed by Google and follows a U.S. Justice Department filing on Friday that urged District Judge Denny Chin to reject the deal.
Google agreed with the delay request. "We are considering the points raised by the Department of Justice and others, and we look forward to addressing them as the court proceedings continue," it said in a statement.
Critics of the deal, including the Open Book Alliance, which includes Google's tech rival Microsoft and the Internet Archive, which is also scanning books, were thrilled.
Google
Baby News
Charlotte Grace Prinze
It's a girl for "Scooby-Doo" stars Sarah Michelle Gellar and Freddie Prinze Jr.
The couple named their newborn daughter Charlotte Grace Prinze. A spokeswoman for the actress said the baby was born Saturday.
It is the first child for the acting duo, who first met in 1997 while filming "I Know What You Did Last Summer" and later married in 2002.
Charlotte Grace Prinze
Baby News
Stella Luna Pompeo Ivery
"Grey's Anatomy" star Ellen Pompeo has given birth to a daughter.
Pompeo's representative, Amanda Silverman, says Stella Luna Pompeo Ivery was born Sept. 15. No other details are available.
She is the first child for Pompeo and her record producer-husband, Chris Ivery.
Stella Luna Pompeo Ivery
Daughter Of Lot
Mackenzie Phillips
Former child star Mackenzie Phillips said Wednesday her father, John Phillips, who was a leader of the 1960s pop group the Mamas and the Papas, raped her when she was a teenager and that her sexual relationship with him later became what she termed "consensual."
Mackenzie Phillips writes in her new book, "High on Arrival," that she had sex with her father on the night before she was to get married in 1979 at age 19, according to People magazine.
She told "The Oprah Winfrey Show" in an interview that aired Wednesday that her siblings "definitely have a problem with this." Winfrey also read a statement from Genevieve Waite, John Phillips' wife at the time of the alleged abuse and Mackenzie's stepmother. Waite's statement said John Phillips was "incapable, no matter how drunk or drugged he was, of having such a relationship with his own child."
Phillips, 49, who starred on TV's "One Day at a Time," said the sexual relationship with her father lasted a decade and ended when she became pregnant and didn't know who had fathered the child. She had an abortion, which her father paid for, and "and I never let him touch me again."
Mackenzie Phillips
Plea Deal
Joe Francis
Joe Francis has agreed to plead guilty to filing false tax returns and will avoid further jail time in a tax case that spanned two states and several years, court filings show.
Records filed Wednesday in Los Angeles show the "Girls Gone Wild" founder will plead guilty to two counts of filing false tax returns and one count of bribing Nevada jail workers in exchange for food.
The plea agreement states Francis will pay $250,000 in restitution and receive credit for jail time served. Francis was indicted by a federal grand jury on tax evasion charges in 2007 and has spent 301 days in jail. He will receive a year of supervised release.
The amount Francis is agreeing he underreported, nearly $563,000, is far less than the more than $20 million in fraudulent deductions prosecutors alleged Francis made. The deductions were for a Mexican home where Francis entertained celebrities, a Porsche, and other items.
Joe Francis
Sleaze Trial
Prince Victor Emmanuel
The son of the last king of Italy, Prince Victor Emmanuel, is to face court over allegations of providing prostitutes and dealing in illegal slot machines, a magistrate announced Wednesday.
The 72-year-old prince was first arrested over the accusations in June 2006 in Potenza in southern Italy.
The son of King Umberto II, Victor Emmanuel of Savoy made an official return to Italy in March 2003, after 56 years of exile imposed on the family of his grandfather King Victor Emmanuel III, who ruled from 1900 to 1946 and died in 1947, for its support of the fascist regime of Benito Mussolini.
The constitutional ban on a return to Italy by male heirs of the kingdom of Savoy was lifted in July 2002 by the national parliament.
Prince Victor Emmanuel
Lawyer Facing More Charges
Anna Nicole Smith
More charges were filed Wednesday against the lawyer-boyfriend of Anna Nicole Smith, with prosecutors claiming he helped obtain the drugs that killed the former Playboy model.
Howard K. Stern was charged with five more felony counts in an amended complaint filed by the Los Angeles County district attorney's office, bringing the total number of charges against him to 11.
Smith died of a drug overdose on Feb. 8, 2007, in a Florida hotel room. Prosecutors call Stern an aider and abettor of two doctors, Dr. Sandeep Kapoor and Dr. Khristine Eroshevich, who are charged with improperly prescribing the drugs that killed Smith.
The doctors each face six counts including conspiracy, and up to five years, eight months in prison if convicted. It was not clear what sentence Stern would face if convicted, Los Angeles County district attorney's spokeswoman Jane Robison said.
Anna Nicole Smith
Travel Ban
Gary Glitter
Gary Glitter has been blocked by the courts from travelling to Europe for a two-week holiday.
The former 1970s glam-rock star, real name Paul Gadd, wanted permission to travel to the south of France on Friday.
But Metropolitan Police detectives were granted a six-month foreign travel ban after the singer, who has served time for molesting two girls aged 10 and 11, notified them of his plans.
Speaking at City of Westminster Magistrates' Court, District Judge Timothy Workman said Gary, 65, could pose a risk to children overseas.
Gary Glitter
Books Show Fake Works
Frida Kahlo
Executors of the work of Frida Kahlo have filed a criminal complaint charging that many personal notes, drawings and illustrated letters of the celebrated Mexican artist published in two recent books are fake.
A committee of 15 art experts "have concluded that a great majority are not by the artist's hand," said Jose Luis Perez Arredondo, of the Central Bank of Mexico, the executor of the artists work.
Kahlo, who died at age 47 in 1954, was declared an "artistic monument" in 1984, and so her works are protected under Mexican law.
The complaint, while not singling out any individual, is directed at the documents and works reproduced in "Finding Frida Kahlo" and "The Laberinth of Frida Kahlo: death, pain and ambivalence."
Frida Kahlo
Headed For Trial With Apple
Eminem
Apple Inc and Eminem have failed to settle a lawsuit over whether the rapper's songs can be downloaded on the iTunes music service, paving the way for a federal trial to begin on Thursday.
Eight Mile Style LLC, Eminem's music publisher, had accused iPod maker Apple in a 2007 lawsuit of having used 93 songs in a downloadable format on iTunes without permission.
It also sued Aftermath Records, saying it had no right to approve digital downloads, despite having control of Eminem recordings under agreements entered into in 1998 and 2003.
Last-ditch talks held on Wednesday before a federal magistrate judge in Ann Arbor, Michigan, broke down after three different mediators had previously been unable to broker a settlement.
Eminem
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