Recommended Reading
from Bruce
More Than Half Of Teachers Report Buying Hungry Students Food With Their Own Money (huffingtonpost.com)
We often hear about U.S. teachers being paid poorly for all the work they do to educate children. But did you know that 63 percent of teachers report buying food for the classroom each month with their own money?
Sam Pizzigati: What Ever Happened To The Good Times The Tax-Cutters Promised? (ourfuture.org)
Don't expect an answer from the ranters and ravers who frequent 'Tea Parties' - or the politicians who egg them on.
Scott Dickensheets: E(vil)-Mail (lasvegasweekly.com)
John Freeman explores e-mail's dark side.
Archbishop John Sentamu: 'Mammon has been given a pasting' (guardian.co.uk)
The credit crunch has changed everything, the Archbishop of York tells Stephen Moss.
Robyn Chelsea-Seifert: Interview with Erin Brockovich (thecelebritycafe.com)
You would be hard pressed not to get caught up in the energy and enthusiasm of what environmental activist Erin Brockovich has to say.
Remington: "Better: The Malcolm Gladwell of the Medical World Offers His Thoughts on Health Care" (huffingtonpost.com)
Atul Gawande is a doctor who writes for the 'New Yorker.' Or perhaps, at this point in his career, he's a journalist who also happens to be a doctor.
Scott Burns: Just Go Away! (assetbuilder.com)
Do you ever get the urge to just go away?
Monica Hesse: Publicly, a whole new lewdness (washingtonpost.com)
Everywhere you look, porn is suddenly inescapable.
Eileen Kinsella: Warhol, Inc. (artnews.com)
"Andy Warhol is everywhere. He's in Europe. He's in Asia. He's quoted in papers every day. He has energy still. He's just, you know, still alive."
Germaine Greer: Want to know what the 60s were like? Then look at Martin Sharp's work (guardian.co.uk)
Martin Sharp's psychedelic vision travelled well beyond Sydney and the 1960s.
Joe Weider: Supplement Insurance (creators.com)
Tip of the Week: Go green ... tea, that is.
Go Betty Go: It's Too Bad (youtube.com)
BadtotheboneBob
Pumpkin Pie
How Pumpkin pie is made
Michael Dare
Stephen Colbert
The Weekly Poll
New Question
New Question
The "Shady in Red' Edition...
Publisher Harper Collins said Friday that Sarah Palin's memoir sold 300,000 copies its first day, among the best openings ever for a nonfiction book. Its print run already has been increased from 1.5 million copies to 2.5 million... In 2004, Bill Clinton's "My Life" debuted with sales of 400,000 copies. The year before, Hillary Rodham Clinton's "Living History" started at 200,000... The Wingnuts are going bonkers!
Do you consider Sarah Palin a legitimate political threat or merely a ditzy cultural doofus and a rabble-rousing, egotistical, power-broker wannabe?
Send your response to
Results Tuesday
answered:
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Wowser & Friends
Turkey Day
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and summery.
Posting Pager Messages
Wikileaks
An activist group has begun posting 573,000 pager messages purportedly sent on Sept. 11, 2001, from "Second World Trade Center tower collapses" to "I'm ok & love you..xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox."
The group, Wikileaks, says some of the messages were sent by federal and local officials, but most appear to be from regular people, including frantic New Yorkers trying to reach loved ones in and around the World Trade Center.
Wikileaks was posting the messages for most of the day Wednesday and expected to finish early Thursday.
The messages range from "DO NOT GET ON THE PATH TRAIN...THE WORLD TRADE CENTER IS ON FIRE" to "President has been rerouted wont be returning to washington but not sure where he will go."
Wikileaks says its goal is to promote transparency by putting leaked documents online. Its repository includes manuals, lawsuits and numerous government documents.
Wikileaks
Internet-Only Soap Opera
BBC
The BBC is releasing its first ever Internet-only soap opera, based on its long running popular domestic drama "EastEnders."
The BBC said Wednesday the show "EastEnders:E20" will debut in January.
The new show will focus on teenagers living in the same neighbourhood as characters from the main show and the story lines from the two programs will sometimes cross over.
"EastEnders: E20" will not be broadcast on terrestrial television but can be watched on the BBC entertainment Web site. Its scriptwriters are aged between 17 and 22.
BBC
To Sing In London
Julie Andrews
Julie Andrews is to perform in London, 30 years after her last appearance on the British stage.
Concert promoters AEG Europe said Wednesday the star of such musicals as "Mary Poppins" and "The Sound of Music" will appear at London's 02 Arena on May 8.
Andrews had non-cancerous throat nodules removed in 1997. The operation initially left her unable to sing.
Andrews says in a statement "to perform once again in my homeland on the London stage will be a wonderful moment - it is where it all began for me."
Julie Andrews
Jewelry Line
Alicia Keys
Singer Alicia Keys has won fans with her music but now the Grammy-winning R&B star is hoping to uplift them by launching her own jewelry collection inscribed with inspirational messages.
Keys has teamed up with Canadian designer Gisele Theriault to launch a jewelry line called "The Barber's Daughters" which features silver and gemstone pieces with quotes and poetry from iconic figures such as Gandhi, Buddha and Shakespeare.
"There's a gorgeous cuff, it's so beautiful, and it says 'I am a superwoman!'," laughed Keys after launching the collection in New York this week. It goes on sale in 2010.
Keys, 28, said that as a songwriter, the progression from putting words with music to inscribing jewelry, seemed natural.
Alicia Keys
Subbing For Vieira On 'Millionaire'
Regis Philbin
Regis Philbin will sit in for Meredith Vieira, host of the syndicated version of the game show "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire", during a weeklong guest stint from November 30 through December 4.
Philbin taped the shows earlier this month, before his Monday announcement on "Live with Regis and Kelly" that he will undergo surgery next week.
This marks the first time Philbin, the host of ABC's primetime "Millionaire," has hosted the weekday editions of the show.
During Philbin's "Millionaire" episodes, "Live" executive producer Michael Gelman will serve as the expert for the "Ask the Expert" lifeline.
Regis Philbin
Swiss Court Grants Bail
Roman Polanski
A Swiss court on Wednesday approved the release of Roman Polanski on bail of 4.5 million Swiss francs ($4.49 million) while the film director fights extradition to the United States over a 1970s child sex case.
The Swiss Federal Criminal Court ordered Polanski, 76, to surrender his identity papers and said he would remain under house arrest under electronic monitoring pending the outcome of his extradition case.
It noted the sum was a "substantial portion" of Polanski's fortune and said the director had raised the cash from a French bank using his Paris apartment as security.
Polanski's legal counsel had argued that the potential loss of fortune would prevent the director fleeing, the court said.
Roman Polanski
Germans Restore 1936 High Jump Record
Margaret Lambert
Gretel Bergmann matched a German high jump record on June 30, 1936. Two weeks later, the 5 feet, 3 inches she jumped in Stuttgart, Germany, was all but obliterated and she was kicked off the team.
Bergmann was Jewish. She would miss that year's Berlin Olympics. There was no way the Nazis would allow a Jew to compete and possibly win.
Now comes news that Germany's track and field association restored the mark, calling the decision an "act of justice and a symbolic gesture" while acknowledging it "can in no way make up" for the past. It also requested that she be included in Germany's sports hall of fame.
This was all a pleasant surprise for the 95-year-old Bergmann - a victory for the strong-willed woman who later changed her name to Margaret Lambert after emigrating to the United States in 1937.
Margaret Lambert
Weighs Senate Run In NJ
Lou Dobbs
Former CNN host Lou Dobbs (R-Birther Handjob) is seriously considering running for U.S. Senate in New Jersey in 2012 as a stepping stone to a possible White House bid - a congressional matchup that would pit one of illegal immigration's biggest critics against a champion for immigrant rights.
Dobbs spokesman Robert Dilenschneider told The Associated Press Wednesday that Dobbs may challenge Sen. Robert Menendez, a Democrat, but is considering other offers he's received since his abrupt exit from CNN on Nov. 11 after 29 years on the news network.
A Dobbs candidacy in 2012 would set up a pitched battle over immigration against Menendez, the Senate's only Hispanic member.
Dobbs, who owns a farm in rural northwestern New Jersey, flirted briefly this year with a run for governor. He later ripped Republican nominee Chris Christie, a former federal prosecutor, over immigration enforcement and gave the independent candidate air time on CNN.
Lou Dobbs
Needs World Help
Dead Sea
The Dead Sea may soon shrink to a lifeless pond as Middle East political strife blocks vital measures needed to halt the decay of the world's lowest and saltiest body of water, experts say.
The surface level is plunging by a metre (three feet) a year and nothing has yet been done to reverse the decline because of a lack of political cooperation as a result of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
The shoreline has receded by more than a kilometre (around a mile) in some places and the world-famous lake, a key tourism destination renowned for the beneficial effect of its minerals, could dry out by 2050, according to some calculations.
Landlocked between Jordan, Israel and the West Bank, the Dead Sea is rapidly vanishing because water which previously flowed into the lake is being diverted and also extracted to service industry and agriculture.
Jordan decided in September to go it alone and build a two-billion-dollar pipeline from the Red Sea to start refilling the Dead Sea without help from proposed partners Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
Dead Sea
Prime-Time Nielsens
Ratings
Prime-time viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen Co. for Nov. 16-22. Listings include the week's ranking and viewership.
1. "NCIS," CBS, 20.34 million.
2. "Dancing With the Stars," ABC, 18.84 million.
3. NFL Football: Philadelphia at Chicago, NBC, 17.33 million.
4. "Dancing With the Stars Results," ABC, 16.02 million.
5. "60 Minutes," CBS, 15.98 million.
6. "The Mentalist," CBS, 15.85 million.
7. "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," CBS, 14.91 million.
8. "NCIS: Los Angeles," CBS, 14.87 million.
9. "American Music Awards," ABC, 14.24 million.
10. "Grey's Anatomy," ABC, 14.07 million.
11. "Criminal Minds," CBS, 13.7 million.
12. "Two and a Half Men," CBS, 13.69 million.
13. "CSI: NY," CBS, 13.62 million.
14. "CSI: Miami," CBS, 13.26 million.
15. "The Big Bang Theory," CBS, 13.23 million.
16. "Sunday Night NFL Pre-Kick," NBC, 12.74 million.
17. "The Good Wife," CBS, 12.7 million.
18. "House," Fox, 12.67 million.
19. "Survivor: Samoa," CBS, 12.33 million.
20. "Amazing Race 15," CBS, 12.19 million.
Ratings
In Memory
Charis Wilson
Charis Wilson, who inspired photographer Edward Weston during an 11 year relationship and posed for many of his pictures, has died. She was 95.
Wilson was Weston's model, muse and companion from 1934-1945. She appeared in more than half of Weston's nudes, including some of his most well-known pieces, "Floating Nude" and "Nude in the Doorway."
She also was in many clothed protraits as well, including "Charis, Lake Ediza."
Wilson was born in San Francisco to a novelist father and actress mother, and raised in Carmel, where she met Weston at a concert. She had just moved back to the coastal enclave after doing secretarial work in San Francisco and working as an actress.
She wrote about Weston's photography and helped him with writing assignments, including an application for a Guggenheim fellowship. In 1937, he was the first art photographer to be awarded the grant.
The couple hit the road with the fellowship money and co-authored "California and the West," which included about 100 photographs.
They separated in 1945. A day after their divorce was finalized in 1946, Wilson married labor activist Noel Harris. She had two children during the marriage, which ended in 1967.
Wilson and Harris remained close until her death.
Wilson's memoir co-written with Wendy Madar, "Through the Lens, My Years with Edward Weston," was published in 1999. A documentary, "Eloquent Nude, the Love and Legacy of Edward Weston and Charis Wilson," was released in 2007.
Charis Wilson
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