Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Barbara Ehrenreich: Ridiculous Study Blames Feminism for Non-Existent 'Happiness Gap' Between Men and Women (Tomdispatch.com. Posted on AlterNet.org)
Much-discussed study claims that women are more depressed relative to men in recent decades, when it actually suggests that neither marriage nor children make women happy.
Emily Wilson: "Barbara Ehrenreich: The Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America" (AlterNet)
The author talks about how a plague of positive thinking is permeating our society, from medicine to business, and is even contributing to our financial crisis.
Mark Morford: Ready to eat your face and scream (sfgate.com)
Zombies and vampires and evil viruses, and nary a divine awakening in sight.
Rachel Williams: Still saving lives at 90 (guardian.co.uk)
Denny Mitchison fully intends to carry on having life-saving ideas
RANDALL STROSS: Will Books Be Napsterized? (nytimes.com)
YOU can buy "The Lost Symbol," by Dan Brown, as an e-book for $9.99 at Amazon.com. Or you can don a pirate's cap and snatch a free copy from another online user at RapidShare, Megaupload, Hotfile and other file-storage sites.
Rachel Balik: The E-book Pirate Ship Sets Sail (popmatters.com)
It's now possible to download e-books for free from piracy Web sites. How will the already downtrodden publishing industry fight back?
"The Extreme of the Middle: Writings of Jack Tworkov" by Mira (edt) Schor: A review by Barry Schwabsky
Almost any fable of the artist's life could take its title from the novel about the life that Balzac wrote, and that stands as a model for the rest: 'Lost Illusions.' Yet Balzac may have been too optimistic.
Will Harris: A Chat with Daryl Hall, Hall & Oates singer (bullz-eye.com)
When people use my music, whether it's in a movie or if they sample it and use it that way, I find it fascinating, because once it leaves me, it enters the world, and how people use these things and what it symbolizes alters from my original intent.
PC Muņoz: "Verse-Chorus-Verse: An Interview with Rosanne Cash" (popmatters.com)
Q: Who is your favorite "unsung" artist or songwriter, someone who you feel never gets their due? Talk a little bit about him/her.
A: I think Joe Henry is seriously overlooked as far as commercial recognition. He is one of the finest songwriters I've ever known, a true poet, a deep artist and a soulful human being. Of course he has his following, but if audience size was in exact proportion to talent, he would be playing stadiums.
Randy Lewis: "Live review: Steve Earle at the Troubadour" (latimes.com)
The alt-country singer-songwriter pays tribute to his youthful hero-turned-mentor in a set heavy on Townes Van Zandt's keenly observed tales of life's wanderers and truth seekers.
Bruce Dancis: 25 years later, 'Stop Making Sense' still makes plenty of sense (McClatchy-Tribune News Service)
David Byrne had just flooded his hotel bathroom and needed some help. It was late 1980, and the idiosyncratic guitarist and front man of the rock band Talking Heads was staying at San Francisco's Miyako Hotel while his band toured in support of their new album, "Remain in Light." I was knocking on Byrne's door to do an interview with him for a music magazine.
Ed Kennedy: Joy Behar brings gay teens front and center in advance of National Coming Out Day (afterelton.com)
The red haired comedienne offers support and context as teens come out earlier and earlier.
The Weekly Poll
New Question
The 'Nobel Peace Surprise' Edition...
WASHINGTON/OSLO (Reuters) - Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday in a stunning decision that honored the first-year U.S. president more for promise than achievement and drew praise... (U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said, "His commitment to work through the United Nations gives the world's people fresh hope and fresh prospects."... Former President Jimmy Carter says (it) is a "bold statement of international support for his vision and commitment.")
... and skepticism around the world...
War and Peace Prizes | CommonDreams.org
Comment: absurd decision on Obama makes a mockery of the Nobel peace prize - Times Online
Do you think awarding Obama the Peace Prize was appropriate?
Send your response to
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From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Links from RJ
Mid-Week Links
Hi there
Some mid week links perhaps? Both about animals but very different ones! Thanks for checking them out!
BadtotheboneBob
2 Links
Milwaukee -- PepsiCo Inc. is facing criticism for an iPhone application that promises to help men "score" with two dozen stereotypes of women by giving users pickup lines and a scoreboard to keep track of their conquests...
PepsiCo iPhone app draws fire for stereotyping women | detnews.com | The Detroit News
For a few hours today, a sliver of downtown Detroit evoked the heyday of the protests against Jack Kevorkian. The group of irate marchers in front of the Old Wayne County Building this morning was for the upcoming HBO film starring Al Pacino as Kevorkian.
Kevorkian film rolls into Detroit | Detroit Free Press | Freep.com
Thanks, B2tbBob!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Another rainy day. Woo hoo!
Key To Bellingham, Wash
Jon Stewart
The mayor of Bellingham says "Daily Show" host Jon Stewart is getting a key to the city. But he won't be traveling to the northwestern Washington city to accept it.
Mayor Dan Pike says representatives of Stewart's talent agency told him that Stewart appreciated the offer to come get the key but was too busy to accept. Pike made the offer after the mayor of Mount Vernon decided to give Fox News commentator Glenn Beck a key to that city.
Pike tells The Bellingham Herald that he's not disappointed by Stewart's decision because the point of the offer was to spark community discussion. He says he still plans to send Stewart a key to the city.
Jon Stewart
Eyes Hollywood Stardom
Bat Boy
Move over, Astro Boy and Iron Man -- Bat Boy could be stepping up to the plate soon.
The half-bat, half-human character is just one of 30-odd wacky creations spawned by the erstwhile supermarket tabloid Weekly World News (WWN) and now up for grabs in Hollywood.
Creative Artists Agency (CAA) has signed WWN to a representation deal, and DreamWorks is developing a TV show that likely will be the first to tap into the company's library of characters and its tens of thousands of offbeat stories.
Ownership of WWN changed hands a year ago and CEO Neil McGinness set out to revive the brand. McGinness thinks Hollywood and audiences will embrace the firm's cast of characters, which he said are different from superheroes because they are "cuddly but dangerous."
Bat Boy
Fingerprint Found?
Leonardo da Vinci
A portrait of a young woman thought to be created by a 19th century German artist and sold two years ago for about $19,000 is now being attributed by art experts to Leonardo da Vinci and valued at more than $150 million.
The unsigned chalk, ink and pencil drawing, known as "La Bella Principessa," was matched to Leonardo via a technique more suited to a crime lab than an art studio - a fingerprint and palm print found on the 13 1/2-inch-by-10-inch work.
Peter Paul Biro, a Montreal-based forensic art expert, said the print of an index or middle finger matched a fingerprint found on Leonardo's "St. Jerome" in the Vatican.
Alessandro Vezzosi, director of a museum dedicated to Leonardo in the artist's hometown of Vinci, Italy, said Wednesday he was "very happy" to hear about the fingerprint analysis, saying it confirmed his own conclusion that the portrait can be attributed to Leonardo with "reasonable certainty."
Leonardo da Vinci
Replaces Nude Image
Tate Modern
Britain's Tate Modern museum has replaced a nude image of 10-year-old Brooke Shields with a photograph of the actress as an adult.
The Tate closed a room housing the "Spiritual America 1983" image by artist Richard Prince after a visit two weeks ago by a London police unit that deals with obscene publications.
The London museum said in a statement Wednesday that it has replaced the piece with a later version of the work made by Prince in collaboration with Shields called "Spiritual America IV 2005."
The new art work shows a photo of Shields in a bikini taken in 2005.
Tate Modern
Would Do It Again
Muntadhar al-Zeidi
The Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at resident George W. Bush said Wednesday he has no regrets and would carry out his brazen protest again, even if it cost him his life.
Muntadhar al-Zeidi told Swiss television station Leman Bleu that, after being mistreated in Iraqi custody for two days following his outburst last Dec. 14, a judge asked him whether he regretted the gesture.
"I told the judge only one thing: if the hands of the clock could go back I would do the same act even if it cost my life," al-Zeidi said, speaking through a translator.
Al-Zeidi, a TV reporter, became a hero for many in and outside Iraq angered by the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq when, at a press conference in Baghdad, he hurled his shoes at Bush, shouting "this is your farewell kiss, you dog!" and "this is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq."
Muntadhar al-Zeidi
Opera Star's Son Pleads Not Guilty
Jeffrey Plishka
An opera star's son has pleaded not guilty to sexually assaulting and murdering a Pennsylvania camp counselor 18 years ago.
Wayne County prosecutor Michael Lehutsky says he is seeking the death penalty for 46-year-old Jeffrey Plishka. Authorities say Plishka killed 24-year-old Laura Ronning near a waterfall in the Pocono Mountains in 1991.
Ronning, of St. Petersburg, Fla., was working at Camp Cayuga near Honesdale when she disappeared while on a hike. Police say she was sexually assaulted and shot in the head.
Plishka, of Onley, Va., is the son of Metropolitan Opera singer Paul Plishka. He entered his plea Wednesday.
Jeffrey Plishka
Ice Free Summers In 10 Years
North Pole
The North Pole will turn into an open sea during summer within a decade, according to data released Wednesday by a team of explorers who trekked through the Arctic for three months
The Catlin Arctic Survey team, led by explorer Pen Hadow, measured the thickness of the ice as it sledged and hiked through the northern part of the Beaufort Sea in the north Pole earlier this year during a research project. Their findings show that most of the ice in the region is first-year ice that is only around 1.8 meters (six feet) deep and will melt next summer. The region has traditionally contained, thicker multiyear ice which does not melt as rapidly.
"With a larger part of the region now first-year ice, it is clearly more vulnerable," said Professor Peter Wadhams, part of the Polar Ocean Physics Group at the University of Cambridge which analyzed the data. "The area is now more likely to become open water each summer, bringing forward the potential date when the summer sea ice will be completely gone."
Wadhams said the Catlin Arctic Survey data supports the new consensus that the Arctic will be ice-free in summer within 20 years, and that much of the decrease will happen within 10 years.
North Pole
Shutting Down
Rupert's Reality Channel
Fox Reality Channel will cease operations next year.
Fox Networks Group told staffers Wednesday that the 4-year-old channel will end its run March 31.
The network aired a mix of acquired reality repeats such as "Temptation Island" and "Last Comic Standing" as well as original reality content like "American Idol Extra."
The company has not yet announced what it will do with the channel, which is distributed to 50 million homes.
Rupert's Reality Channel
Dropped From Group
Pigboy
Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh (R-Viva Viagra) has been dropped from a group trying to buy the St. Louis Rams after several black NFL players objected and the league commissioner weighed in against Limbaugh's "divisive comments."
"It has become clear that his (Limbaugh's) involvement in our group has become a complication and a distraction to our intentions," said SPC Worldwide Chairman Dave Checketts, who is leading the bid to buy the National Football League team and keep it in St. Louis.
"We have decided to move forward without him and hope it will eventually lead us to a successful conclusion," Checketts said in an emailed statement.
Checketts, who owns the National Hockey League's St. Louis Blues, wants to keep the Rams based in St. Louis, and to bolster these efforts, his group had invited Missourians to join them, leading to Limbaugh getting involved.
Pigboy
Worked For British Intelligence
Mussolini
He formed part of the Nazi axis that nearly brought Britain to its knees in World War Two, but historical papers have revealed that Italian dictator Benito Mussolini was once on the payroll of British intelligence.
During World War One, the then socialist journalist was running popular newspaper Il Popolo d'Italia in Milan and Italy was allied with Britain and France in the fight against Germany.
British secret services desperately needed Mussolini to print pro-war propaganda to keep Italy on board, said Cambridge historian Peter Martland, who uncovered details of weekly payments of 100 pounds by MI5 to Mussolini in 1917.
Martland said payments were authorized by Sir Samuel Hoare, an MP who headed a 100-strong British intelligence team based in Italy covertly working to keep the country on the side of the allies.
Mussolini
Garden Gnome Display
Ottmar Hoerl
A German artist is posing 1,250 garden gnomes with their arms outstretched in the stiff-armed Hitler salute in an installation that he calls a protest of lingering fascist tendencies in German society. Artist Ottmar Hoerl posed the gnomes in the historic central marketplace of Straubing, a town in southeastern Germany, on Wednesday. The exhibit called "dance with the devil" is to run through Oct. 19.
Most of gnomes are black plastic, but about 20 are painted shiny gold.
Displaying Nazi symbols is illegal in Germany but a court ruled earlier this year that Hoerl's gnomes were clearly satire and thus allowed.
Hoerl says: "the fascist idea, the striving to manipulate people or dictate to people ... is latently dangerous and remains present in our society."
Ottmar Hoerl
In Memory
Al Martino
Singer Al Martino, who played the Frank Sinatra-type role of Johnny Fontane in "The Godfather," died Tuesday afternoon at his childhood home. He was 82.
Publicist Sandy Friedman, of the Rogers & Cowan public relations firm, confirmed Martino's death in the Philadelphia suburb of Springfield, in Delaware County, but didn't cite a cause.
Starting in 1952, Martino was known for hit songs including "Here in My Heart," "Spanish Eyes," "Can't Help Falling in Love" and "Volare."
Besides acting in the Marlon Brando classic "The Godfather," Martino sang "I Have But One Heart (O Marenariello)" in the 1972 film. His Fontane character is a singer and occasional actor and is the godson of Brando's Mafia boss character, Don Vito Corleone.
Martino was born in South Philadelphia as Alfred Cini and was a longtime resident of Beverly Hills, Calif.
In Memory
Captain Lou Albano
Captain Lou Albano, the charismatic professional wrestler who appeared in Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" video, has died. He was 76.
World Wrestling Entertainment confirmed the death Thursday on its Web site.
Albano performed with WWE from 1983 to 1996, when he was inducted into its hall of fame. He began his wrestling career in Canada in 1953.
Albano expanded his fan base greatly when he played Lauper's father in the video for her hit single on a fledgling MTV in 1983. He later claimed to be the catalyst for her success, according to WWE.
Captain Lou Albano
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