The Weekly Poll
The next Poll will be April 7th - BadToTheBoneBob's 'out state' on vacation.
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
PAUL KRUGMAN: Running Out of Planet to Exploit (nytimes.com)
Will limited supplies of natural resources pose an obstacle to future world economic growth?
Nick Sabloff: "Newsweek's Krugman Cover Story: Obama's Loyal Opposition" (huffingtonpost.com)
Someone has even cut a rock video on YouTube: "Hey, Paul Krugman, why aren't you in the administration?" A singer croons, "Hey, Paul Krugman, where the hell are you, man? We need you on the front lines, not just writing for The New York Times." (And the cruel chorus: "All we hear [from Geithner] is blah, blah, blah.")
Froma Harrop: Economy and Health Care Are Married (creators.com)
A most amazing number is $8,000. That's a recent estimate of how much America spends on health care for every man, woman and child a year. It is twice the average of other rich countries. And the $8,000 includes the 47 million Americans with no insurance. The other nations cover everyone.
Susan Estrich: A Benefit for Rape (creators.com)
What's Bill O'Reilly doing at a benefit for rape victims and their families? Helping them raise money. Last time I checked, that's a good thing.
No way out (guardian.co.uk)
Gordon Stewart died alone, drowning in rubbish piled solid to his ceiling. How did he end up in such a state? Simon Hattenstone on the life of an extreme hoarder.
"The Manual of Detection" by Jedediah Berry: A review by Nick Bredie
Mystery writers ... seem to adopt one of three approaches. First: rely on the pleasure of formula and familiarity, presenting a heroic detective doggedly searching for the novel's final page. Second: displace the genre's conventions, placing the sleuth in unusual settings or situations. Third: treat the genre as literature of exhaustion, the detective's drive for truth being no match for the problem of existence. In his debut novel, The Manual of Detection, Jedediah Berry deftly samples all three of these approaches to a charming, if slightly cartoonish, effect.
Say what?! (guardian.co.uk)
Time was when entertainers knew their place. Today they run riot, adopting orphans by the pramload, extolling oddball religions and even brokering peace deals. What's going on, asks Marina Hyde.
Q&A (guardian.co.uk)
Actor Charlize Theron on admiring her mother, photographs and her dog, Denver,
KATIE PEOPLES: Zack & Miri Takes a New Twist on Porn (curvemag.com)
Zack and Miri Make a Porno caused quite a ruckus with the conservative right when it hit theaters last fall, so our ears instantly perked up. Hey, any film that gets the goat of an anti-sexual zealot is A-OK in my book.
Extreme Sheep LED Art (youtube.com)
ATC (A Touch of Class): Without Your Love (youtube.com)
On the TV series 'Star Trek', how many times did Captain Kirk say "Beam me up, Scotty"?
noted:
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and warm.
NKorea Says US Journalists Will Stand Trial
Current TV
Two American journalists detained at North Korea's border with China two weeks ago will be indicted and tried, "their suspected hostile acts" already confirmed, Pyongyang's state-run news agency said Tuesday.
The Korean Central News Agency report did not say when a trial might take place, but said preparations to indict the Americans were under way as the investigation continues.
Euna Lee and Laura Ling, reporters for former Vice President Al Gore's San Francisco-based Current TV media venture, were detained by North Korean border guards March 17.
Telephones were not answered at Current TV Monday afternoon and there was no response to messages. Ling's sister, Lisa Ling, a correspondent for National Geographic Channel's "Explorer," has declined to comment.
Current TV
77 Names Added
Newseum
The journalism and free speech museum called the Newseum added 77 names to its Journalists Memorial on Monday to honor reporters, photographers and broadcasters who died while covering the news, including several killed in Mexican drug violence.
Mexico ranked second only to Iraq among the deadliest places for journalists last year, said Alberto Ibarguen, the Newseum's chairman, and president and CEO of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The names of five journalists killed in Mexico were added to the memorial wall, along with 13 who were killed in Iraq in 2008.
Last year was the deadliest for journalists in Mexico in at least five years, according to Newseum records. Iraq has been the most dangerous country for journalists since the war began in 2003.
The memorial includes 1,913 names dating back to 1837. It began in 1996 with less than 1,000 names.
Newseum
NASA In Conundrum Over Space Station
Stephen Colbert
NASA's outreach to the public to drum up interest in the International Space Station started innocently enough with an online contest to name the station's new living quarters.
But Stephen Colbert, a comedian who poses as an ultra right-wing news commentator on cable television's Comedy Central, nosed into the act with a grass-roots appeal that has backed the staid U.S. space agency into a corner.
The comedian's supporters cast 230,539 write-in votes to name the new module at the $100-billion space outpost "Colbert." The top NASA-suggested name, "Serenity," finished a distant second, more than 40,000 votes behind.
Contest rules stipulate that the agency retains the right to basically do whatever it wants, but it may not be that easy.
Stephen Colbert
Home Tape For Sale
Jimi Hendrix
A home recording by Jimi Hendrix, which its owners said showed the 1960s rock icon's softer side, will be auctioned next month and is expected to fetch between 50,000 and 100,000 pounds ($70-140,000).
According to co-owner Mark Sutherland, the tape was recorded by Hendrix in New York in 1968 and then taken to Britain.
Sutherland said the tape featured 14 tracks, including Hendrix performing Bob Dylan track "Tears of Rage." Hendrix famously covered Dylan with "All Along the Watchtower."
Jimi Hendrix
'The Dynamics of Portraiture' Exhibit
Marcel Duchamp
The artist who famously gave the "Mona Lisa" a mustache and called an overturned urinal his "Fountain" is getting a rare treatment at the National Portrait Gallery.
The new exhibit "Inventing Marcel Duchamp: The Dynamics of Portraiture" focuses on the lasting legacy of the French-American artist. The extensive presentation, drawing on Duchamp's self-portraits as well as portrayals of him by Richard Avedon, Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol and others, opened over the weekend and will remain on view in Washington through Aug. 2.
"One of the things we discovered is that while Duchamp is still a giant in the art world ... he still is not terribly well known to the American public," said Anne Collins Goodyear, co-curator of the exhibition. "We had the opportunity to pull Duchamp out of the shadows."
Marcel Duchamp
Rationalizes Reruns In Prime-Time
MSNBC
MSNBC will continue airing Keith Olbermann's talk show twice each weeknight in prime time, putting on indefinite hold a search for a new 10 p.m. program.
That time slot has attracted attention ever since MSNBC chief executive Phil Griffin suggested earlier this year he was on the lookout for a new show. Fans of the Internet show "The Young Turks" and of Air America's Sam Seder have openly campaigned for their favorites.
MSNBC currently reruns Olbermann's "Countdown" show only an hour after its original airing ends. It trails Fox News Channel's Greta Van Susteren and CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360" in the ratings, but MSNBC executives have been surprised at its showing.
Fox has 2.1 million viewers, on average, in the time slot in March. Cooper on CNN has 1.2 million and Olbermann has 902,000, according to Nielsen Media Research. On a handful of nights, a rerun of Olbermann has even beaten a live Cooper in the 25-to-54-year-old demographic that MSNBC watches most closely.
MSNBC
Rupert's Newest Venture
Right-Wing Propaganda
Fox News has started a Huffington Post-style Web site in an attempt to increase the network's online reach.
FoxNation.com debuted Monday as a destination for right-wing political commentary, highlighted by columns, blogs, lies and videos by the network's personalities. Contributors include Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck and Greta Van Susteren.
As the site rolls out in the coming weeks, it will add social networking components and encourage visitors to post their opinions.
Right-Wing Propaganda
Palestinian Orchestra Shut
'Strings of Freedom'
Palestinian officials in the occupied West Bank have shut down a youth orchestra because it performed before Holocaust survivors at a concert in Israel.
Adnan Hindi, an official in the Palestinian refugee camp in Jenin, said on Sunday the band's director had broken rules against holding "political" performances by taking the 18 boys and girls to a concert last week near the Israeli city of Tel Aviv.
About 10 women who survived the Holocaust were in the audience, said Wafa Younis, director of the "Strings of Freedom" orchestra based in Jenin refugee camp, a site of a fierce 2002 battle between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian militants.
"She took them to a place in order to teach them about the Holocaust, this is against her objectives and ours, which are only recreational," Hindi said.
'Strings of Freedom'
Fire Destroys Ski Lodge
Bruce Willis
Authorities say a fire has destroyed the main lodge at a small ski operation co-owned by Bruce Willis.
Camas County Chief Deputy Brian Miller says the Soldier Mountain Ski Resort lodge and an adjacent ski rental building were destroyed in the Monday morning blaze. No one was injured.
Willis has been working with forest officials on a new master development plan for the south-central Idaho resort, with runs in the mountains of the Sawtooth National Forest. The "Die Hard" actor has a home in nearby Hailey.
Bruce Willis
Pleads Guilty
Matt Dillon
Matt Dillon had his case dismissed after pleading guilty to speeding and paying an $828 fine.
The 44-year-old actor was stopped Dec. 30 on Interstate 91 while driving 106 mph in rural Northern Vermont. Because of the excessive speed, he was also charged with negligent operation of a motor vehicle.
Prosecutor Will Porter said Monday that Dillon agreed to plead guilty to speeding in exchange for having the negligent operation charge dismissed Wednesday, which he said is common in such cases.
Matt Dillon
Falling Russian Rocket
Boom
The mysterious boom and flash of light seen over parts of Virginia Sunday night was not a meteor, but actually exploding space junk from the second stage of a Russian Soyuz rocket falling back to Earth, according to an official with the U.S. Naval Observatory.
"I'm pretty convinced that what these folks saw was the second stage of the Soyuz rocket that launched the crew up to the space station," said Jeff Chester of the Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C.
Residents of the areas around Norfolk and Virginia Beach, Va., began calling 911 last night with reports of hearing a loud boom and seeing a streak of light that lit up the sky, according to news reports.
Boom
Nearly 7 In 10
Over Budget
Nearly 70 percent of the Pentagon's 96 major weapons-buying programs were over budget in 2008 for combined cost growth of $296 billion above original estimates, congressional auditors said in an annual report released on Monday.
The total estimated development cost for 10 of the largest acquisition programs, commanding about half the overall arms- purchasing dollars in the portfolio, has shot up 32 percent from initial estimates, from about $134 billion to more than $177 billion, the Government Accountability Office said.
The two largest programs -- Lockheed Martin Corp's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter aircraft and the Boeing Co-led Future Combat Systems Army modernization -- "still represent significant cost risk moving forward" and will dominate the portfolio for years, the survey said.
Last year, GAO reported total acquisition cost growth for the 2007 portfolio was $295 billion in fiscal 2008 dollars. Now expressed in 2009 dollars, this figure was put at $301 billion in the new report.
Over Budget
Ad-Supported Channels On YouTube
Disney
Walt Disney Co and Google Inc's YouTube said on Monday they have reached a pact to offer consumers advertising supported premium short-form content on the hugely popular video-sharing site from next month.
The deal will see videos from sports network ESPN from April and the Disney/ABC Television networks such as ABC Entertainment and SoapNet become available on YouTube from May. Disney Media Networks will have the option to sell its own advertising inventory within those channels.
The companies said that as part of the agreement, the ESPN Video Player will be integrated into ESPN's channel on YouTube and the sports network will also produce additional short-form content through YouTube's player.
Disney has resisted making its original content widely available for free through third party distributors on the Web before now. But in recent weeks there have been reports of plans for the media company to partner not just with YouTube but also with Hulu, the online video service owned by News Corp and NBC Universal.
Disney
In Memory
Monte Hale
Monte Hale, who appeared in a string of 1940s westerns as well as the classic James Dean film "Giant," has died at his home in Los Angeles, his family said Monday. He was 89.
In an entertainment career spanning more than 60 years, Hale starred in several westerns and was also featured in a popular comic book series, often as a singing cowboy.
"My husband was the most wonderful, generous, giving and loving man I have ever known," Hale's wife of 31 years, Joanne Hale, said in a statement.
Hale forged a career in Hollywood in the 1940s after hitchhiking to California. He first appeared in 1944's "The Big Bonanza."
Hale appeared in various television series and the 1956 epic drama, "Giant," playing Rock Hudson's attorney, Bale Clinch. Off-screen he taught Dean several rope tricks the teen idol used in the film.
Monte Hale
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