M Is FOR MASHUP - August 20th, 2008
By DJ Useo
DJ Useo is still under the weather
The Monday Or Thursday Poll
Question
The current question:
What is the scariest movie you've ever seen?
Anecdotes are welcome...
Send your response to BadtotheBoneBob ( BCEpoll 'at' aol.com )
Fresh poll questions appear on Monday and Thursday, with Monday's results on Thursday, and Thursday's results on Monday.
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Stephen Mihm: Meet the Economist Who Thinks We're Doomed (The New York Times; Posted on AlterNet.org)
Dr. Nouriel Roubini believes we face a housing bust, a huge credit crisis, an oil shock and a deep recession. Just for starts.
Glenn Garvin: Fakery in Games makes plain China's contempt for reality (McClatchy Newspapers)
From Spielbergian digitized fireworks to Milli Vanilli-esque lip syncing to let's-pretend newscasts, these Olympics have been the biggest public exercise in media-inspired fakery since Orson Welles' Martians terrorized New Jersey.
Garrison Keillor: The old guy's technical foul makes you LOL
It's a simple, cheerful life but with occasional grim complications that one simply ignores, such as mortality or the 70s or the demise of the downtown department store. I love my downtown store, a block from the old stone courthouse where Alvin (Creepy) Karpis of the Ma Barker gang was tried for kidnapping in 1936, near a fine old popcorn shop, just down the street from a haberdashery where the other day I got fitted for a seersucker suit and was shown how to tie a bow tie. A great mystery, like the Trinity, suddenly made clear. You don't get this sort of instruction at a mall.
Garrison Keillor: Bathing beauty: An idea for cleansing America
People accuse us old liberals of smarmy self-righteousness and God knows they are right. Four of us had lunch the other day and we agreed before we sat down: no politics. We know what we're going to say so why say it? Self-righteousness is a good old American vice, and we have it, and though preferable to cruelty and cynicism and deliberate dumbheadedness, nonetheless remind yourself: You are not so different from the others.
Nicholas Blincoe: Would you buy a condom off the Ramones? (guardian.co.uk)
If any Ramone was going to get into the condom business, surely it had to be Johnny. But I wouldn't turn to the band for help with my love life.
ADRIEN BEGRAND: Triumph Over Tragedy (popmatters.com)
Into Eternity's Tim Roth talks about the tragic year that informed his band's new album, life in the Candadian prairies, and what it means to be a "hybrid band".
Lennard Davis: The Man Behind Woody Allen (thecommonreview.org)
Konigsberg makes it clear that he started reading to help him with the girls he was going out with, girls who tended to regard him as an uneducated lout. "It was the very end of high school when I started going out with women who found me illiterate," he reminisces. "I thought those girls were so beautiful. . . . One would say 'Did you read this Faulkner novel?' And I'd say, 'I read comic books. I've never read a book in my life.' I don't know anything like that. And so in order to keep pace, I had to read. Hemingway and Faulkner."
Will Harris: A Chat with Michael Vartan, Star of "Rogue" (bullz-eye.com)
On "Rogue": "The way my agent originally presented the project was not all that flattering. They said, 'How do you feel about going to the Outback for four months and doing a giant crocodile movie?' And I said, 'Well, I'd rather have needles in my eyes, frankly.'
20 QUESTIONS: Uh Huh Her: Camila Grey & Leisha Hailey (popmatters.com)
Uh Huh Her's Leisha Hailey and Camila Grey collaborate on their new CD, Common Reaction, and in their replies to PopMatters 20 Questions.
David Bruce: Wise Up! Children (athensnews.com)
On a train, Samantha Shen Yanping of Singapore once observed a couple of children, one 3 and the other 5 years old, holding four brightly colored balloons. Other families, with toddlers, then boarded the train. Attracted by the bright colors of the balloons, the toddlers pointed at them and began to cry. The 3-year-old and the 5-year-old walked over to the toddlers and gave them the balloons.
David Bruce: "The Kindest People Who Do Good Deeds, Volume 4" (Lulu.com)
The disciples of a Hasidic rabbi complained about the presence of the forces of darkness in the World. The rabbi counseled them to take brooms and sweep out the darkness. They tried to sweep out the darkness, but they were unsuccessful. Next he advised his disciples to shout against the darkness. They tried to shout away the darkness, but they were unsuccessful. Finally he advised his disciples to meet the challenge of darkness by lighting a candle. Each of his disciples lit a candle and the darkness was gone.
I.O.U.S.A. Movie Trailer (youtube.com)
zEN mAN Comments
BOB RE REVISITED
bOB dYLAN rE rEVISITED...
TRY TO LISTEN TO THIS CLIP RECORDED LAST WEEK IN PROSPECT PARK.
HEY BOB..."HOW DOES IT FEEL?
IS EVERYBODY MERELY BLINDED BY DYLAN'S CELEBRITY?
IT IS SAD BECAUSE I BELIEVE BOB HAS LOST HIS VOICE!
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
zEN mAN
Reader Comment
Boone Poll
RE: t boone and wind power
After (sort of) answering "yes" to your t boone wind plan question, I did a bit of research to get more info.
I found
this article from Seattle.
It has always bothered me that someone who can Swiftboat (notice it is now an action, not a noun) another person, isn't what you'd call "altruistic". So I found the column informative and thought you might like to read it.
I find I need to change my answer to your poll question : Do you think his '
plan' is viable and should it be seriously considered? my answer is "no, not as presented"
ducks
Thanks, ducks!
Purple Gene Reviews
'Border Feud'
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Mostly sunny and on the cool side.
A Proper Bitch-Slapping
Rosanne Cash
Rosanne Cash is tired of people using her late father's name to further their own political agendas.
The singer-songwriter released a statement on her Web site after country star John Rich invoked the name of Johnny Cash at a recent Florida rally for presidential candidate John McCain.
"It is appalling to me that people still want to invoke my father's name, five years after his death, to ascribe beliefs, ideals, values and loyalties to him that cannot possibly be determined, and to try to further their own agendas by doing so," Cash said on her Web site.
"I knew my father pretty well, at least better than some of those who entitle themselves to his legacy and his supposed ideals," Rosanne Cash said on her site, "and even I would not presume to say publicly what I 'know' he thought or felt. This is especially dangerous in the case of political affiliation.
Rosanne Cash
Suffering & Sacrifice
Olympics
Martial arts student Cheng Jianghua only saw the army barracks he stayed in and the stadium where he performed at the spectacular Olympics opening ceremony. But his sacrifices were minor - other performers were injured, fainted from heatstroke or forced to wear adult diapers so the show could go on.
Filmmaker Zhang Yimou, the ceremony's director, insisted in an interview with local media that suffering and sacrifice were required to pull off the Aug. 8 opening, which involved wrangling nearly 15,000 cast and crew. Only North Korea could have done it better, he said.
Cheng and 2,200 other carefully chosen pugilist prodigies spent an average of 16 hours a day, every day, rehearsing a synchronized tai-chi routine involving high kicks, sweeping lunges and swift punches. They lived for three months in trying conditions at a restricted army camp on the outskirts of Beijing.
In the most extreme case, Beijing organizers revealed last week that Liu Yan, a 26-year-old dancer, was seriously injured during a July rehearsal. Shanghai media reported that she fell from a 10-foot stage and may be permanently paralyzed from the waist down.
Olympics
Damn Liberal Media
McBush Whines
The John McCain campaign fired off an angry letter to NBC News criticizing Andrea Mitchell's (R-Mrs. Greenspan) comments regarding the "cone of silence" at Saturday night's presidential candidates' forum at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California.
Campaign manager Rick Davis cited Mitchell's comments on NBC's "Meet the Press" that the Barack Obama campaign had said privately that they believed McCain "may have had some ability to overhear what the questions were to Obama. He seemed so well prepared."
In a letter to NBC News president Steve Capus, Davis said that the network's "level of objectivity ... has fallen so low that reporters are now giving voice to unsubstantiated, partisan claims in order to undercut John McCain." He requested a meeting with Capus to discuss news standards and objectivity.
McBush Whines
Praises Obama
Toby Keith
Asked while promoting his new movie "Beer For My Horses" about the role of patriotism in the current presidential election, Toby Keith replied: "There's a big part of America that really believes that there is a war on terrorism, and that we need to finish up.
"So I thought it was beautiful the other day when Obama went to Afghanistan and got educated about Afghanistan and Iraq. He came back and said some really nice things.
"So as far as leadership and patriotism goes, I think it's really important that those things have to take place. And I think he's the best Democratic candidate we've had since Bill Clinton. And that's coming from a Democrat."
Toby Keith
Just A Rubber Gorilla Suit
Bigfoot
Turns out Bigfoot was just a rubber suit. Two researchers on a quest to prove the existence of Bigfoot say that the carcass encased in a block of ice - handed over to them for an undisclosed sum by two men who claimed to have found it - were slowly thawed out, and discovered to be a rubber gorilla outfit.
Steve Kulls, executive director of squatchdetective.com and host of Squatchdetective Radio, says in a posting on a Web site run by Bigfoot researcher Tom Biscardi that as the "evidence" was thawed, the claim began to unravel as a giant hoax.
First, the hair sample was burned and "melted into a ball uncharacteristic of hair," Kulls said in the posting.
The thawing process was sped up and the exposed head was found to be "unusually hollow in one small section." An hour of thawing later and the feet were exposed - and they were found to be made of rubber.
Bigfoot
FTC Bans
Prerecorded Sales Calls
The agency which brought you the "do not call" registry -- thus bringing a measure of peace to American dinner tables -- has now decided to tighten rules restricting prerecorded telephone sales calls.
It all started with the telemarketing industry, which uses automatic dialers that shunt calls to sales people. The industry asked the Federal Trade Commission to allow them to play a prerecorded message if a live sales agent was not available.
The result is a rule that requires telemarketers with prerecorded calls to give consumers a way to opt out, the same way that they can now ask live sales agents to refrain from calling again. This goes into effect on December 1.
And, as of September 1, 2009, the telemarketer must have consumers' written consent to telephone them at all.
Prerecorded Sales Calls
Malaysia Cancels Concert
Avril Lavigne
Malaysia on Tuesday canceled a concert by Canadian rock singer Avril Lavigne, saying it may taint the Muslim-majority country's independence day celebrations after the Islamic opposition slammed her show as being "too sexy."
The Arts, Culture and Heritage Ministry said it had decided not to permit Lavigne's show because it was unsuitable to Malaysian culture and could not be held on Aug. 29, two days ahead of independence day.
The decision came after the youth wing of a fundamentalist opposition party, the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party, called for the show's cancellation.
Avril Lavigne
Fox Seeks To Block Release
"Watchmen"
Twentieth Century Fox said on Monday it will seek an injunction to block release of the Warner Bros movie "Watchmen" after a Los Angeles court ruled a copyright lawsuit against Warner can go forward.
The movie about raffish, flawed superheroes -- which has already been shot -- is slated for release on March 6, said Warner Bros spokesman Scott Roe.
The highly anticipated film, with a budget believed to be about $120 million, is based on a 1980s DC Comics graphic novel written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Dave Gibbons.
In his decision released last week, Judge Gary Feess of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California wrote that Fox could hold some of the rights to the material, even if it did not hold all rights.
"Watchmen"
On The Road, Again
Gary Glitter
Vietnamese authorities freed British glam rocker Gary Glitter on Tuesday after nearly three years in prison on child molestation charges, then moved immediately to deport him.
Guards removed Glitter, 64, from the Thu Duc prison in Binh Thuan province and were transporting him Tuesday morning to the Ho Chi Minh City airport, some three hours away, said prison director Tran Huu Thong.
His most successful song, the crowd-pleasing anthem "Rock and Roll (Part 2)" cracked the top 10 in the United States, where it continues to bring sports fans to their feet with its rousing one-word chorus: "Hey!"
Gary Glitter
Killer 'Ashamed'
John Lennon
John Lennon's killer told parole officials during his latest unsuccessful bid for release from prison that he is ashamed and sorry for gunning down the former Beatle nearly three decades ago.
Mark David Chapman was interviewed by the parole board for a fifth time Aug. 12 and was immediately denied release. A transcript of the hearing was made public Tuesday.
"I recognized that that 25-year-old man, I don't think he really appreciated the life that he was taking, that this was a human being," he said. "I feel now at 53 I have grown into a deeper understanding of what a human life is. I have changed a lot."
John Lennon
Warming Climate Threatens Forests
Alaska
Here in a 13,700-year-old peat bog, ecologist Ed Berg reaches into the moss and pulls out more evidence of the drastic changes afoot due to the Earth's warming climate.
Rooting through a handful of mossy duff, Berg, an ecologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, shows remains of shrubs and other plants taking hold over the last 30 years in a patch of ground that has long been too soggy for woody plants to grow.
In other words, the ground is drying out, and the peat bog is turning into forest.
In 50 years, the bog could be covered by black spruce trees, he said.
Welcome to Alaska, where the blow of climate change will fall harder than on any other U.S. state.
Alaska
Firm Link To Diabetes
Arsenic
Arsenic, a naturally occurring poison and carcinogen found in ground water, is strongly linked to adult-onset diabetes, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday.
Dr. Ana Navas-Acien and colleagues at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore found a "relatively strong" association between commonly found levels of arsenic in urine and type 2 diabetes in a study of American adults.
The 20 percent of nearly 800 study participants who had the most arsenic in their bodies, a tolerable 16.5 micrograms per liter of urine, had 3.6 times the risk of developing late-onset diabetes than those in the bottom 20 percent, who had 3 micrograms per liter.
Levels of arsenic were 26 percent higher in people with late-onset, or type 2, diabetes than those without the disease, the study found.
Arsenic
Sues To Rescind Settlement
Joe Francis
"Girls Gone Wild" entrepreneur Joe Francis wants a California court to rescind a settlement he claims a federal judge coerced him into signing.
Francis, who created the popular video series that features young women baring their breasts, filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the parents of three underage girls, aiming to vacate an agreement reached in Panama City, Fla., and get his payout returned. The girls were filmed there, and their parents subsequently sued Francis.
He agreed to settle the civil case after U.S. District Judge Richard Smoak jailed him in 2007 for contempt of court.
In Francis' suit, he accuses Smoak of siding with former law partners to jail Francis and force him to settle on terms favorable to the girls. An attorney from a law firm where Smoak was once a partner represented the girls and their parents.
Joe Francis
Prime-Time Nielsens
Ratings
Prime-time viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen Media Research for Aug. 11-17. Listings include the week's ranking, with viewership for the week and season-to-date rankings in parentheses. An "X" in parentheses denotes a one-time-only presentation.
1. (X) "Summer Olympics-Tuesday," NBC, 34.01 million viewers.
2. (X) "Summer Olympics-Saturday," NBC, 31.59 million viewers.
3. (X) "Summer Olympics-Monday," NBC, 30.17 million viewers.
4. (X) "Summer Olympics-Thursday," NBC, 29.71 million viewers.
5. (X) "Summer Olympics-Wednesday," NBC, 27.66 million viewers.
6. (X) "Summer Olympics-Sunday," NBC, 27.18 million viewers.
7. (X) "Summer Olympics-Friday," NBC, 26.07 million viewers.
8. (16) "Two And a Half Men," CBS, 8.07 million viewers.
9. (13) "NCIS," CBS, 7.22 million viewers.
10. (20) "60 Minutes," CBS, 7.09 million viewers.
11. (20) "Criminal Minds," CBS, 6.43 million viewers.
12. (109) "Big Brother 10" (Tuesday), CBS, 6.36 million viewers.
13. (18) "CSI: Miami," CBS, 6.31 million viewers.
14. (89) "Flashpoint," CBS, 6.11 million viewers.
15. (136) "Big Brother 10" (Thursday), CBS, 5.86 million viewers.
16. (29) "CSI: NY," CBS, 5.79 million viewers.
17. (52) "The New Adventures of Old Christine," CBS, 5.63 million viewers.
18. (123) "Big Brother 10" (Sunday), CBS, 5.53 million viewers.
19. (123) "20/20," ABC, 5.52 million viewers.
20. (10) "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," CBS, 5.33 million viewers.
Ratings
In Memory
Pervis Jackson
Pervis Jackson, the man behind the deep, rolling bass voice in a string of 1970s R&B hits by The Spinners, has died after being diagnosed with brain and liver cancer. He was 70.
The native of the New Orleans area was one of the original five members of the group, which started out in the late 1950s singing doo-wop in Detroit. They worked under the Motown label in the 1960s but shot to stardom after moving to Atlantic Records in the 1970s.
Jackson last performed July 19 in California with the remaining original members of the group, Bobbie Smith and Henry Fambrough, and two new members, his wife Claudreen said.
With song's like "Mighty Love," "I'll Be Around," "One Of A Kind (Love Affair)" and "Then Came You," The Spinners were a constant on the R&B and pop charts during the 1970s.
They compiled 12 gold records, according to the group's official website, and were nominated for six Grammy awards, said Recording Academy spokeswoman Lourdes Lopez.
"I am extremely proud of the example he set in his music. The Spinners' music was clean," said Claudreen Jackson, 69. "What comforts me is he is one person who lived his life exactly the way he wanted to."
She met Pervis Jackson in 1964. They married in 1968.
Pervis Jackson
In Memory
LeRoi Moore
Dave Matthews Band saxophone player LeRoi Moore, one of the group's founding members and a key part of its eclectic jazz-infused sound, died Tuesday from sudden complications stemming from injuries he sustained in an all-terrain vehicle accident in June. He was 46.
Moore was initially hospitalized in late June after the accident on his farm outside Charlottesville, Va. He was later discharged and had recently returned to his Los Angeles home to begin a physical rehabilitation program when complications forced him back to the hospital on July 17, the band said.
Moore, who liked to wear his trademark dark sunglasses at the bands' live concerts, had classical training but said jazz was his main musical influence, according to a biography on the band's Web site.
The band formed in 1991 in Charlottesville, Va., when Matthews was working as a bartender. He gave a demo tape of his songs to Moore, who liked what he heard and recruited his friend and fellow jazzman Carter Beauford to play drums, and other musicians.
LeRoi Moore
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