'Best of TBH Politoons'
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Jim Hightower: BUSH PUSHES MILITARY COMMITMENT TO IRAQ (jimhightower.com)
George W tells us as loudly and as often as he can that the Iraqi government is steadily taking charge, and that this will allow America's military role to shrink there.
Thou shalt not waste (guardian.co.uk)
Thrift is fashionable again. But what is it like to grow up in a home where nothing is thrown away - and even toilet paper is strictly rationed? Mary Horsley remembers ...
Still Little Miss Sunshine (entertainment.timesonline.co.uk)
Abigail Breslin, the 11-year-old star of "Definitely, Maybe," is a refreshingly normal girl with a liking for "American Idol."
Michael Shinafelt: Margaret Cho is "Beautiful" and So Are Her Gay Fans (afterelton.com)
The comedian kicks off her tour down under.
Dara Nai: Interview With Rebecca Drysdale (afterellen.com)
She became a time traveler so she could "make out with really hot girls."
Interview with Carson Kressley (afterelton.com)
The gay fashion guru has left his Queer Eye days behind, but now he's helping women look good naked. And he isn't worried about what you think of him.
Fleur Britten: Living by the book (women.timesonline.co.uk)
Don't write off those self-help manuals quite so quickly - meet the women who owe their success to them.
Christine Larson: Keeping Your Brain Fit (usnews.com)
There's plenty you can do to slow the effects of aging. Here's how to keep your thinking and memory sharp
Nutrition (usnews.com)
A good diet helps us live well by promoting physical and mental vitality, helping us maintain a healthful weight, and fortifying our immune systems to prevent disease. A poor diet, on the other hand, can lead to a number of serious health issues that shorten our lives or make them less enjoyable.
"I'm F**king Matt Damon"
Sarah Silverman got Matt Damon to sing and dance in a music video for her boyfriend Jimmy Kimmel. She presented what may be the funniest video ever to Kimmel on Thursday night's show.
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Mostly sunny and still cooler than seasonal.
Valentines For Charity
Julianne Moore
Julianne Moore has a loving new way to help struggling kids in America: Send a valentine.
Just before Christmas, the 47-year-old actress read to elementary school students and met with parents in White Oak, Tenn., on behalf of Save the Children. The organization aims to improve children's quality of life through literacy, physical activity and nutrition programs.
Afterward, Moore, a mother of two, was inspired to offer Valentine's Day cards online in return for donations to Save the Children. The cards, featuring children's artwork, can be printed or e-mailed, and are available through Feb. 14 on the charity's Web site.
Julianne Moore
Auction Combines Art And Charity
Bono & Hirst
The contemporary art world's brightest stars, including Jeff Koons and Damien Hirst, have aligned to provide AIDS relief in Africa with a special auction in New York conceived by Hirst and rock star Bono.
"The (Red) Auction" is estimated to take in up to $29 million and is being billed by Sotheby's as the biggest contemporary art charity auction ever.
Dozens of works went on display on Monday at Manhattan's Gagosian Gallery before the February 14 sale to benefit the United Nation's HIV relief program in Africa.
Hirst contributed seven works, including "Where there's a will there's a way," a monumental medicine chest sculpture containing hundreds of metal HIV pills. It is the sale's top-priced lot, estimated to fetch $5 million (2.53 million pounds) to $7 million.
Bono & Hirst
Second-Most Viewed Show In US History
Super Bowl
The heartbreaking end to New England's quest for an undefeated Super Bowl championship season was the second-most watched television program in American history, Nielsen Media Research revealed Monday.
The television audience measuring firm said that 97.5 million US viewers watched Sunday's telecast of Super Bowl 42, in which the New York Giants stunned the previously unbeaten New England Patriots 17-14.
That broke the old Super Bowl ratings record of 94.08 million viewers set in 1996 when the Dallas Cowboys defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers 27-17 for their third National Football League title in four seasons.
The only television program in US history watched by more people was the 1983 final episode of the series "M-A-S-H", which attracted 106 million viewers.
Super Bowl
New Musical
'Anne Frank, A Song to Life'
Spanish producers have turned the life of Anne Frank, the Jewish girl who wrote a diary while hiding from Nazis, into a musical, tearing up the genre's widely held convention of light-hearted, sugar-coated tale.
The Spanish-language production: "Anne Frank, A Song to Life" chronicles the German-born girl's experiences hiding in an attic in Amsterdam from 1942 to 1944, before the Frank family were betrayed and sent to camps where Anne died of typhus.
The 3 million euro (2.3 million pound) production, closer in style to Les Miserables than Cats, is the first of its kind to focus on Frank's life.
Director Rafael Alvaro, who came up with the idea for the musical 10 years ago, said the show's aim was to project a vision of hope and optimism. He defended it against accusations that the subject was too serious to be made into a musical.
'Anne Frank, A Song to Life'
Awash In Booze And Drugs
U.S. Music
They have lyrics such as "Tequila makes her clothes fall off" and "Breakin down the good weed, rollin' the blunt/Ghetto pimp tight girls say I'm the man."
U.S. popular music is awash with lyrics about drugs, alcohol and tobacco. Medical researchers have reviewed the words of the 279 top songs of 2005 to estimate just how common they are.
Their report on Monday showed a third of the songs had explicit references to substance abuse. And two-thirds of these references placed drugs, alcohol and tobacco in a positive light by associating them with sex, partying and humor, according to the team led by Dr. Brian Primack of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
Certain genres contained more references than others -- for example, rap and country music far more so than pop.
U.S. Music
Rupert's Boy
Karl 'Turdblossom' Rove
Karl 'Turdblossom' Rove (R-Propagandist), the strategist behind resident George W. Bush's ascendancy to the White House, will join Rupert Murdoch's Fox News Channel as a contributor starting with Super Tuesday, the network said.
Rove has been contributing opinion pieces to The Wall Street Journal, which also belongs to Murdoch's NewsCorp, and will debut on the television network with live coverage on Tuesday of the biggest day of the presidential primary election season, Fox said on Monday.
Karl 'Turdblossom' Rove
Fox Generated $250 Million From Super Bowl
Rupert
News Corp's Fox network generated about $250 million from Super Bowl television advertising revenue, Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch (R-Vile) said.
"The $250 million yesterday, that was for the television network from when we started up in the morning until we closed up the house in the evening," Murdoch said.
He described the proceeds from the February 4 football game as "the biggest day in our company's history."
Rupert
Sue FCC Over Digital Channel Ruling
Cable Companies
A half-dozen of the biggest names in cable TV programming sued the Federal Communications Commission in federal court Monday for violating their free speech rights when it ordered, in effect, that cable systems carry broadcasters' analog and digital channels.
C-SPAN, Discovery Communications, the Weather Channel, TV One, A&E Television Networks and Scripps Networks told the court that the FCC was playing favorites by granting broadcasters "dual must-carry" rights.
Under the rule, almost all cable operators must re-create the analog version of a local broadcast station's signal and then devote channel space to carry two versions -- both the analog and digital versions -- for at least the following three years.
The cable programmers claim that the rule favors broadcasters at their expense because it squeezes them off of cable systems in favor of broadcast programming. They also argue that the FCC far exceeded its congressional authority to regulate programmers.
Cable Companies
Judge: Bush Can't Exempt Navy
Sonar
Resident Bush cannot exempt the Navy from environmental laws banning sonar training that opponents argue harms whales, a federal judge ruled Monday.
Navy officials did not immediately respond to the ruling by U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper. Mark Matsunaga, spokesman for the Navy's Pacific Fleet, headquartered in Hawaii, said officials needed time to review it before commenting.
The resident signed a waiver Jan. 15 exempting the Navy and its anti-submarine warfare exercises from a preliminary injunction creating a 12 nautical-mile no-sonar zone off Southern California. The Navy's attorneys argued in court last week that he was within his legal rights.
The Navy is not "exempted from compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act and this Court's injunction," Cooper wrote in her 36-page decision.
Sonar
Counters Common Perceptions
Health Costs
Preventing obesity and smoking can save lives, but it doesn't save money, researchers reported Monday. It costs more to care for healthy people who live years longer, according to a Dutch study that counters the common perception that preventing obesity would save governments millions of dollars.
In a paper published online Monday in the Public Library of Science Medicine journal, Dutch researchers found that the health costs of thin and healthy people in adulthood are more expensive than those of either fat people or smokers.
On average, healthy people lived 84 years. Smokers lived about 77 years, and obese people lived about 80 years. Smokers and obese people tended to have more heart disease than the healthy people.
Cancer incidence, except for lung cancer, was the same in all three groups. Obese people had the most diabetes, and healthy people had the most strokes. Ultimately, the thin and healthy group cost the most, about $417,000, from age 20 on.
The cost of care for obese people was $371,000, and for smokers, about $326,000.
Health Costs
In Memory
Shell Kepler
Actress Shell Kepler, who for years played the gossipy nurse Amy Vining on the TV soap opera "General Hospital," has died. She was 49.
Kepler's busybody character on "General Hospital" was a fan favorite and enjoyed a long run, 1979-2002.
In addition to her run on "General Hospital," she was also in a 1982 Joan Collins film, "Homework," and a couple of episodes of the situation comedy "Three's Company."
On the side, she was a businesswoman, marketing clothing on the former Home Shopping Club. She said in a 1994 Associated Press interview that her "Lacy Afternoon" collection had sales topping $20 million that year alone.
She moved to Portland after her TV career and became involved in charity fundraising.
Shell Kepler
In Memory
Barry Morse
British-Canadian actor-director Barry Morse, best known as the police detective in hot pursuit of David Janssen's Dr. Richard Kimble in the TV series "The Fugitive," has died in England at the age of 89.
Morse died at University College hospital in London on Saturday, his son, actor Hayward Morse, told The Canadian Press in an interview from Great Britain Monday.
Morse established himself in London theatrical circles before emigrating to Canada with his wife and two children in 1951 and the family obtained Canadian citizenship. Hayward Morse said his late mother, actress Sydney Sturgess, had strong ties to Canada and persuaded Barry Morse to make the move.
In 1963, Morse was hired by producer Quinn Martin to play Lieut. Philip Gerard on "The Fugitive" - a series that ran four seasons and 120 episodes.
Other television roles included several miniseries such as "The Martian Chronicles," "The Winds of War," "Master of the Game," "War and Remembrance" and "Anne of Green Gables: The Continuing Story." His website said he was a five-time winner of Canada's Best Television Actor award. He was also a founding member of Theatre Compact, a troupe of Canadian stars who performed in Toronto from 1976-78.
Hayward Morse said no funeral arrangements are being made because his father wanted his body donated to science.
"My father was very concerned that what was left of him, his body, should be used for science or any kind of transplant or donations that might be useful," his son said, adding that he was trying to arrange that.
Morse is survived by his son, two granddaughters and two grandsons and several great-grandchildren
Barry Morse
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