The Weekly Poll
Results Postponed
Decided to hold the poll over a few days to see if Assange triggers the 'nuclear option' as he's promised in case he's molested/arrested or even congested
B2tbBob
The 'Wiki-Humpty Dumpty' Edition...
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Monday the leak of hundreds of thousands of secret diplomatic documents is an attack not only on the United States but also the international community...
"This disclosure is not just an attack on America's foreign policy interests," Clinton said. "It is an attack on the international community: the alliances and partnerships, the conversations and negotiations that safeguard global security and advance economic prosperity." ..."It puts people's lives in danger, threatens our national security and undermines our efforts to work with other countries to solve shared problems," she told reporters at the State Department...
Clinton calls leaked documents attack on world | detnews.com | The Detroit News
(I watched her statement live and she looked to be NOT a happy camper... Woe be unto PFC Manning)
Do you feel the release of these diplomatic documents are:
1.) A good thing...
2.) A bad thing...
3.) Sorta good - Kinda bad...
4.) Hey! What happened to the Holiday Season theme - thingy?
Send your response to
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: Let's Not Make a Deal (New York Times)
Democrats should not give in to Republican blackmail on extending tax cuts.
PAUL DAVIES: The 'Give Me a Job' Microbe (Wall Street Journal)
A young researcher risked it all to chase an arsenic-guzzling bug.
Peg Tyre: A's for Good Behavior (New York Times)
A few years ago, teachers at Ellis Middle School in Austin, Minn., might have said that their top students were easy to identify: they completed their homework and handed it in on time; were rarely tardy; sat in the front of the class; wrote legibly; and jumped at the chance to do extra-credit assignments.
STEVE MARTIN: The Art of Interruption (New York Times)
Speed up, be funny, tell a story, but please feel free to be spontaneous.
RON LIEBER: Why Savings Account Rates Are So Pathetic (New York Times)
Savers just can't catch a break.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/04/your-money/brokerage-and-bank-accounts/04money.html?src=me&ref=general
Anneli Rufus: Are We Killing Ourselves with Cleanliness? As Number of Allergy Sufferers Soar, Potential Cures Are More Radical (alternet.org)
Alternative theories abound on why developed countries have such high rates of allergic reactions.
George Varga: Inspired by Bob Hope, Pop Princesses Team up With USO and VH1 for Salute the Troops Concert (Creators Syndicate)
But Hope, who died in 2003 at the age of 100, would surely have had a field day interacting with Perry, if not her animated wardrobe, which of late has included a whipped-cream-spewing brassiere. And the comic fondly known by fans as "Old Ski Nose" would have been flattered that this extravaganza is inspired by the USO shows he hosted for American military personnel between the 1940s and 1990, when he did his final USO gigs for Operation Desert Storm troops in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.
20 Questions: Dwight Twilley (PopMatters)
Tulsa native Dwight Twilley got his start in the early 1970s when he and his friend/partner, the late Phil Seymour, journeyed to the legendary Sun Studio in Memphis and soaked up the essence of rock 'n' roll from early Sun Records artist/producer Ray Harris.
Tom Lamont: "The xx: the band with the world at their feet" (Guardian)
After their Mercury-winning debut album, the xx embarked on a year-long global tour. Photographer Jamie-James Medina captures the trio's most intimate moments.
THE SWEAR - HOTEL ROOMS AND HEART ATTACKS (YouTube)
This 10-minute documentary film profiles THE SWEAR upon the release of their second CD - HOTEL ROOMS AND HEART ATTACKS. Hear directly from the Atlanta, GA-based band as they spin tales of the recording process, possibly French producers, their favorite tunes from the new album, and the importance of wearing belts.
Terry Jones: I'd like a robot butler - if it can peel potatoes (Guardian)
Comedian, writer and Monty Python star Terry Jones on the importance of using technology sparingly. By Stuart O'Connor.
Danny Leigh: Terry Gilliam, the king in exile (Guardian)
The director of 'The Fisher King' and 'Twelve Monkeys' is in danger of becoming an unknown to future generations.
David Bruce has 39 Kindle books on Amazon.com with 250 anecdotes in each book. Each book is $1, so for $39 you can buy 9,750 anecdotes. Search for "Funniest People," "Coolest People, "Most Interesting People," "Kindest People," "Religious Anecdotes," and "Maximum Cool."
Hubert's Poetry Corner
"Deadeye Dick$ter Christmas"
wrote:
answered:
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Still haven't gotten through all the mail. Yikes.
Charity Reaches $1M Goal
Alicia Keys
Alicia Keys, Lady Gaga and other celebrities can sign back online, thanks to donations from their fans and a philanthropist.
Keys announced Monday that her charity, Keep a Child Alive, reached its $1 million fundraising goal in honor of last week's World AIDS Day.
A slew of celebrities signed off digital platforms like Twitter and Facebook last Wednesday and asked their fans to donate to the charity, which supports families affected by HIV and AIDS in Africa and India.
The entertainers and their fans raised $500,000, and philanthropist Stewart Rahr matched it.
Alicia Keys
Goes To Sound Artist For 1st Time
UK Turner Prize
Susan Philipsz became the first sound artist to win Britain's coveted Turner Prize on Monday, but her acceptance speech at the Tate Britain gallery was drowned out by noisy protesters opposing cuts to arts funding.
The 45-year-old Scot, the bookmakers' firm favorite to scoop the 25,000 pound ($40,000) award, said she sympathized with the demonstrators, who were kept out of sight but not out of earshot at the London awards ceremony.
"It was kind of a surreal experience," the soft-spoken Philipsz told reporters in the gallery where her winning voice installation could be heard in the background.
Previous winners of the award, one of the art world's most important, include Grayson Perry, a cross-dressing ceramicist, and Martin Creed, whose installation in 2001 featured lights going on and off in an empty room.
UK Turner Prize
Hosting Video Game Awards
Neil Patrick Harris
Spike TV says Neil Patrick Harris will host this year's Video Game Awards.
The star of stage, video games and TV's "How I Met Your Mother," Harris will preside over the eighth annual celebration of gaming's best, Spike TV announced Monday.
Also expected are comedian Dane Cook, "Thor: God of Thunder" video-game star Chris Hemsworth, pro skateboarder Tony Hawk, and cast members from "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia," including Danny Devito, Kaitlin Olson and Rob McElhenney.
The awards show airs live on Spike TV on Saturday at 8 p.m. Eastern time.
Neil Patrick Harris
To Head Board Of Artist Colony
Michael Chabon
Michael Chabon, novelist, screenwriter and father of four, has a new responsibility.
He has been elected chairman of the board of the directors of the MacDowell Colony, the century-old artist residency program based in Peterborough, N.H. Chabon, best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay," replaces Robert MacNeil, author and television newsman who is retiring Monday after serving 17 years. MacNeil turns 80 in January.
Chabon, 47, has been a resident nine times at MacDowell, where he wrote part of "Kavalier & Clay," and said that he was eager to contribute to an institution that had done so much for him. He said he had been offered the position two years ago, but turned it down because his children were still too small. Now, with the youngest 7, he is ready to make the occasional trip East from his home in Berkeley, Calif., where he lives with fellow writer Ayelet Waldman.
The colony is laid out on 450 acres and accepts 250 artists a year, for stays up to two months. Despite the current recession, the colony has managed to keep to its annual budget of $3.5 million, in part by drawing more from its endowment.
Michael Chabon
May Have To Take Paycut
Howard Stern
Howard Stern could broadcast live on Sirius XM for the last time on December 16.
After that, he heads for his annual end-of-year vacation and there still is no decision as to whether he'll renew his contract, which expires on December 31 and sets Sirius XM back a hefty $100 million every year.
Speaking at a UBS investor conference in New York on Monday, Sirius XM CFO David Frear said he is "hopeful" that Stern sticks with the company, but hinted that if he does it would be for less money.
Frear also acknowledged that there could be other offers Stern is considering, maybe even one from Apple to do a show on iTunes.
Howard Stern
Jumpsuit Brings $50,000 At Auction
Johnny Cash
"The Man in Black" was dressed in blue as he rehearsed for a 1969 concert at San Quentin.
The embroidered blue jumpsuit that Johnny Cash wore to practice caused a bidding war during a memorabilia auction Sunday, bringing in nearly 10 times what was expected.
The suit was expected to sell for $5,000, but was eventually claimed for $50,000 by a collector from Belgium, said Darren Julien, president and CEO of Julien's Auctions in Beverly Hills. He would not name the buyer.
The auction of 321 lots sold for over $700,000, nearly twice what was expected, Julien said Monday.
Johnny Cash
Global Language Monitor
Top Words
"Palinism" and "Obama-mess" are likely to be among the top global words of 2011, as the United States gears up for its next presidential elections, according to a language monitoring group.
The coming year will also likely be commonly deemed "Twenty-Eleven" as the English-speaking world moves away from disagreement over how to pronounce the first years of the decade, the Global Language Monitor said on Monday.
But the "great recession" is expected to hang around in 2011 as a well-used term while the world economy struggles to right itself.
According to the UrbanDictionary.com, "Palinism" is also sometimes defined as "other illogical stream of conscious meanderings uttered by Sarah Palin."
Top Words
Lawyer Wants Death Video Barred
Christopher Bizilj
Prosecutors and defense lawyers argued Monday over whether jurors should see a video that shows an 8-year-old boy accidentally shooting himself in the head with an Uzi and his father dropping the camera and praying that his son is all right.
A lawyer for a former western Massachusetts police chief charged in the boy's death asked a judge to keep the graphic videotape out of his trial.
The video would invoke too much emotion from jurors and prejudice them against former Pelham police Chief Edward Fleury, who is about to go on trial in the 2008 death of Christopher Bizilj, said Fleury's attorney, Rosemary Curran Scapicchio.
Scapicchio told Superior Court Judge Peter Velis that the audio portion of the videotape, taken by Christopher's father, is "horrific" and includes the boy screaming while his father drops the camera and prays for his son.
She said the defense does not dispute that the Ashford, Conn., boy shot himself in the head with a 9 mm micro Uzi submachine gun at the Westfield Sportsman's Club.
Christopher Bizilj
Sexist Stunt
'Dr. Oz'
A "Dr. Oz Show" segment that featured women costumed as sexy nurses is drawing fire from groups representing the nursing profession.
A November episode of the syndicated TV show included a segment about dancing to lose weight. At one point, series host Dr. Mehmet Oz briefly danced onstage with six women wearing high heels, retro nurses' caps and white dresses with red lingerie showing.
Sandy Summers, executive director of the nonprofit group The Truth About Nursing, called the segment demoralizing and demeaning to nurses. Her organization launched a letter-writing campaign encouraging others to protest the depiction.
A spokeswoman for the American Nurses Association called it a "sexist caricature" of nursing.
'Dr. Oz'
Hearing Set On Petition
Rahm Emanuel
Chicago election officials are handling petition challenges in the mayor's race including more than two dozen objections to the candidacy of former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel.
The Chicago Board of Election Commissioners has assigned hearing officers to the cases and they start meeting Monday.
Emanuel faces the largest number of challenges. Opponents say he doesn't meet the residency requirement to run for mayor because he lived in Washington for nearly two years working for President Barack Obama.
Twenty candidates have filed to get on the Feb. 22 ballot for a chance to be Chicago's new mayor. A number of them face ballot challenges.
Rahm Emanuel
Statue Transfer Ends Italy Dispute
Getty Museum
The love goddess Aphrodite is going home to Italy after the new year, stronger and more stable than she has been in 2,500 years.
The statue, being returned to Sicily as part of Italy's decade-old campaign to retrieve antiquities it says were illegally brought to California, will be the last of 40 artifacts the J. Paul Getty Museum agreed to turn over.
Sebastiano Missineo, the minister of culture from Sicily, visited the Getty Villa in Malibu on Monday and viewed the statue.
The statue will be on display at the Getty Villa for one more week, acting Getty director David Bomford said at a tea for Missineo Monday.
Getty Museum
Recognizes Palestine As Free State
Argentina
Argentina announced Monday that it recognizes the Palestinian territories as a free and independent state within their 1967 borders, a step it said reflects frustration at the slow progress of peace talks with Israel.
President Cristina Fernandez informed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of the decision, which follows a similar move by Brazil, Argentine Foreign Minister Hector Timerman said.
Argentina is "deeply frustrated" that the goals of the 1991 peace talks in Madrid and the Oslo Accords of 1993 still have not been reached, Timerman said. "The time has come to recognize Palestine as a free and independent state," he said.
He stressed that Argentina also "ratifies its irrevocable position in favor of the right of Israel to be recognized by everyone and to live in peace and security within its borders."
Argentina
Family Feud Settled
L'Oreal
France's richest woman, L'Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt, and her daughter said Monday they had settled a family feud that had led to tax and political funding investigations.
What began as a row over gifts to a family friend expanded earlier this year into a web of investigations that threatened to suck in President Nicolas Sarkozy and raised questions about the stability of holdings in the L'Oreal cosmetics empire.
"The decision that Francoise and I have taken offers me hope. It meets my wish to see the family united," Bettencourt said in the joint statement with her daughter.
Investment analysts said the agreement should end months of feuding that had on occasion raised questions over the long-term solidity of the Bettencourt family as core shareholders.
L'Oreal
More Merrie Than Thought?
Medieval England
Maybe being a serf or a villein in the Middle Ages was not such a grim existence as it seems.
Medieval England was not only far more prosperous than previously believed, it also actually boasted an average income that would be more than double the average per capita income of the world's poorest nations today, according to new research.
"The majority of the British population in medieval times could afford to consume what we call a 'respectability basket' of consumer goods that allowed for occasional luxuries," said University of Warwick economist Professor Stephen Broadberry, who led the research.
He said a figure of $400 annually (as expressed in 1990 international dollars) is commonly is used as a measure of bare bones subsistence and was previously believed to be the average income in England in the Middle Ages.
But the researchers found that English per capita incomes in the late Middle Ages were actually of the order of $1,000.
Medieval England
Stolen In London
Stradivarius
A musician who went into a central London sandwich store to buy something to eat has had a 300-year-old Stradivarius violin worth 1.2 million pounds ($1.9 million) stolen, police said on Monday.
British Transport Police have launched a public appeal to get the rare instrument back and the musician's insurer, Lark Insurance Broking Group, has offered a 15,000-pound reward for information leading to its recovery.
Detective Inspector Andy Rose said the theft took place on the evening of Monday, November 29, outside Euston train station.
The police did not name the classical musician, but British media reported that the violin's owner was 32-year-old Korean-born Min-Jin Kym. British Transport Police were not immediately available to comment on the identity of the victim.
Stradivarius
Found In Northern Australia
Albino Kookaburras
Australian wildlife workers on Monday said they had discovered a never-before-seen pair of blue-winged albino kookaburras, believed to have been swept from their nests in a wild storm.
The six-week-old birds, renowned for their laughing cry, were found waterlogged at the base of a tree by a cattle farmer near Ravenshoe, in far northern Queensland, said Harry Kunz from the Eagles Nest Wildlife Sanctuary.
The pink-eyed, pink-beaked and starkly white creatures, thought to be sisters, are the first specimens of their kind ever found in Australia, Kunz said. They are still too young to feed themselves or fly.
"Everybody asks me 'are they rare?' They have never been seen because in nature they would not survive a few days out of the nest because their white colour sticks out and every reptile, owl or predator will get them," Kunz told AFP.
Albino Kookaburras
In Memory
Don Meredith
Don Meredith was the happiest, most fun-loving guy wherever he went, whether crooning country tunes in the huddle as quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys or jawing with Howard Cosell in the broadcast booth as analyst on the groundbreaking "Monday Night Football."
His irreverent personality made him one of the most beloved figures in sports and entertainment in the 1970s and 1980s, helping turn the Cowboys and "Monday Night Football" into national sensations.
"Dandy Don" died Sunday after suffering a brain hemorrhage and lapsing into a coma in Santa Fe, N.M., where he lived out of the limelight with his wife, Susan, for the last 25 years. He was 72.
A folksy foil to Cosell's tell-it-like-it-is pomposity, Meredith was at his best with unscripted one-liners - often aimed at his broadcast partners. His trademark, though, came when one team had the game locked up. Meredith would warble, "Turn out the lights, the party's over" - from a song by his pal Willie Nelson.
Meredith played for the Cowboys from 1960-68, taking them from winless expansion team to the brink of a championship. He was only 31 when he retired before training camp in 1969, and a year later wound up alongside Cosell in the broadcast booth for the oddity of a prime-time, weeknight NFL game.
The league pitched the idea to ABC, the lowest-rated network, after CBS and NBC tried occasional games on Monday nights and didn't think it would click. It became a hit largely because of how much viewers enjoyed the contrast of Meredith's Texas flair and Cosell's East Coast braggadocio.
Friends in real life, they took opposite stances to liven up broadcasts with their bickering. Meredith usually took the majority opinion, Cosell the minority. Cosell was playing a role, while Meredith was just being himself.
Meredith was the life of the party in the "Monday Night" booth from 1970 through 1984, except for a three-year stint playing a detective on NBC's "Police Story." He spent 11 of those years teamed with another former star player, Frank Gifford, a friend before they became broadcast partners.
Meredith also appeared in more than a dozen made-for-TV movies, specials or dramas. He once filled in for Johnny Carson on the "Tonight Show," and was a popular pitchman for Lipton tea.
During his playing days, Meredith recorded his own country music single. Former teammate Walt Garrison pulled it out Monday and proudly read the names of the songs: "Travelin' Man" on one side, "Them That Ain't Got It Can't Lose" on the other.
He was the inspiration for the carousing quarterback in the book and movie "North Dallas Forty," written by Pete Gent, a former Cowboys teammate and good friend.
Meredith left "Monday Night Football" a year after Cosell and soon retired from the spotlight altogether. He just didn't want to be famous any more. His absence meant younger generations have only heard "Dandy Don" stories - including current Cowboys coach Jason Garrett, who wore Meredith's No. 17 when he was a Dallas quarterback.
Joseph Donald Meredith was born April 10, 1938, and grew up in the Northeast Texas town of Mount Vernon.
He was a natural athlete. He scored a record 52 points in a high school basketball tournament. At Southern Methodist University, he was All-America quarterback in 1958 and 1959. His popularity in Dallas was part of why the Cowboys signed him to a five-year personal services contract before formally getting an NFL franchise.
Meredith's second career in entertainment obscures what a great quarterback he was, taking a team from 0-11-1 in 1960 to within minutes of reaching each of the first two Super Bowls.
Susan Meredith said she and her daughter were at Meredith's side when he died. A private graveside service was planned.
Don Meredith
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