'Best of TBH Politoons'
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Lawrence Pintak: Look Who's Fair and Balanced (Columbia Journalism Review Online)
The summer of 2006 marked an important milestone for Arab media. Israel and Hezbollah were locked in a bitter conflict that would claim the lives of more than 150 Israelis and an estimated 1,000 Lebanese - a third of them children. Each day brought brutal new images of civilian casualties.
Dennis Cauchon: Increase in workers drives household median income higher (usatoday.com)
Earnings actually fell for people working full-time. Household income rose because more people worked in the households, albeit at lower paying jobs.
A day in a different life (guardian.co.uk)
Ten years ago, as a struggling actor, Glenda May Richards was tempted by an ad offering huge sums to women working as escorts. In applying, she learned something about prostitution - but even more about herself.
Reborn (guardian.co.uk)
We have always been told there is no recovery from persistent vegetative state - doctors can only make a sufferer's last days as painless as possible. But is that really the truth? Across three continents, severely brain-damaged patients are awake and talking after taking ... a sleeping pill. And no one is more baffled than the GP who made the breakthrough. Steve Boggan witnesses these 'strange and wonderful' rebirths.
Drake Bennett: Survival of the harmonious (boston.com)
Mounting evidence suggests that human beings are hard-wired to appreciate music. What researchers want to know now is why our distant ancestors evolved music in the first place.
Scans show why teenagers act the way they do (msnbc.msn.com)
Area of brain that affects decision-making not developed until age 16
Jim Emerson: TIFF: Monsters & suicide (RogerEbert.com)
"The Host" (or "Gue-mool," which sounds better) is a South Korean monster movie in which a mutant amphibious creature swims beneath the Han River, scampers among the girders beneath its bridges, prowls its sewers, and occasionally leaps onto its banks to grab some human souvenirs. The creature is just doing whatever it's bred -- or mutated -- to do, but the monsters who created it, and who mischaracterize the nature of the threat, thereby making the thing practically impossible to catch or contain, are Americans -- portrayed as the world's most aggressive exporter of bureaucratic incompetence and misinformation.
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny & cooler.
Buddy the kitten met the vet & was neutered.
No new flags.
Visited Disneyland
Banksy
A life-size replica of a Guantanamo Bay detainee has been placed in Disneyland by "guerrilla artist" Banksy.
The hooded figure was placed inside the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad ride at the California theme park last weekend.
It is understood to have remained in place for 90 minutes before the ride was closed down and the figure removed.
A spokeswoman for Banksy said the stunt was intended to highlight the plight of terror suspects at the controversial detention centre in Cuba.
Banksy
Roadmap For Vacant TV Airwaves
FCC
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday set a road map for making vacant television airwaves available for other services by early 2009, when broadcasters are due to switch to digital signals.
Companies such as computer chipmaker Intel Corp. have been pressing the FCC to make those airwaves available to be used without a license, while broadcasters have expressed concerns about potential interference with their signals.
Intel, Microsoft Corp. and others hope the unlicensed airwaves could be used for a variety of wireless services, including high-speed Internet access, particularly in rural areas where such offerings can be scarce.
The airwaves at issue, frequencies below 900 megahertz, are a desirable slice because the signals can easily penetrate walls, trees and other obstructions unlike the higher frequencies.
FCC
Last Film & Message
Chris & Dana Reeve
There is an irony to a movie about a little boy who never gives up being made by a couple who themselves worked together to overcome the odds.
The opening this week of the animated baseball film "Everyone's Hero" marks the final project - and message - from Christopher and Dana Reeve, who both died during the making of the movie.
"It has a great message, which is really the philosophy that Chris and Dana Reeve had: Never give up," said actor and director Rob Reiner, whose role on this film was to voice a talking baseball. "We are getting the chance to realize Chris Reeve's last vision and dream, which is to get this message out."
Chris & Dana Reeve
Dems Admit Leaking Tape
$chwarzenegger
The campaign of Gov. Arnold $chwarzenegger's Democratic rival acknowledged Tuesday that it downloaded - and leaked to the media - a recording of a private meeting in which the governor described a Hispanic legislator as having a "very hot" personality.
But Cathy Calfo, campaign manager for Democrat Phil Angelides, said the campaign had done nothing wrong because the file was available publicly on the governor's Web site.
"No one hacked," Calfo said at a news conference to address the role played by the Angelides campaign, first reported by The Sacramento Bee. "They accessed information that was available to the public."
$chwarzenegger spokesman Adam Mendelsohn said someone would have had to snoop to find the audio file.
$chwarzenegger
Album Covers Made Into Stamps
Beatles
The Royal Mail is saluting the Beatles in January by releasing six commemorative stamps illustrated with memorable album covers.
The set includes ran image of "With the Beatles," released in 1963, which was the group's second album. In the United States, it was the first Beatles album to be released and was titled "Meet the Beatles."
Others in the series include "Help!" (1965), "Revolver" (1966), "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" (1967), "Abbey Road" (1969) and "Let It Be" (1970).
Beatles
Baby News
Britney Spears
Rumors swirled on Tuesday that pop star Britney Spears had given birth to her second baby, and that contrary to tabloid predictions, it was a boy.
Spears, 24, was reported by several tabloid outlets to have had the baby at a Los Angeles-area hospital early on Tuesday morning. But details were scarce, and Spears and her representatives were keeping mum.
The syndicated TV show "Access Hollywood" reported on its Web site that it had confirmed the birth with the performer's father, Jamie Spears, who said he had already seen his grandchild, adding, "Everything is great."
Britney Spears
90th Birthday Celebrations
Roald Dahl
Children, parents, teachers and adult fans are throwing parties on Wednesday to celebrate what would have been the 90th birthday party of the darkly comic writer Roald Dahl.
"He understood children and identified with them. This is like a great big happy birthday party to acknowledge him," said his daughter Lucy, launching what she and others hope will be a day of improvised "Revolting Rhymes" and "Oompa Loompa" dances.
Exhibitions and children's reading campaigns are also being staged to commemorate Dahl, who died in 1990 and has now sold more than 100 million books in 40 languages.
Dahl initially made his name as a writer of adult fiction, but cult children's classics such as "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and "The Witches" have more recently overshadowed his chilling adult work.
Roald Dahl
Company Pleads Guilty
'Girls Gone Wild'
The company that produces the "Girls Gone Wild" tapes of young women baring their breasts and acting in other sexual situations pleaded guilty Tuesday to federal charges and agreed to pay fines totaling $2.1 million.
Mantra Films Inc., based in Santa Monica, Calif., made the plea in U.S. District Court in Florida on charges of failing to maintain proof of age and identification for its young performers in sexually explicit films. It also failed to label its DVDs and videotapes properly as required by federal law.
A second company owned by Mantra's founder, MRA Holdings LLC, entered into a deferred agreement on charges of improper labeling. Under that agreement with prosecutors, the charges would be dismissed after three years if MRA Holdings cooperates with future government prosecutions, admits wrongdoing and pays fines.
The two companies and their founder, Joseph Francis, will pay $2.1 million in fines and restitution, the Justice Department said.
'Girls Gone Wild'
Too Expensive
HGTV Dream Home
Thanks, but no thanks. Donald P. Cook, who won HGTV's 5,700-square-foot Dream Home in April, says he's selling the house.
The annual $19,396 tax bill plus maintenance costs are too much for the state auditor from Alum Creek, W.Va.
Cook plans to live in the house near Asheville, N.C., for a few weeks then sell it.
HGTV Dream Home
Scraps Afternoon Newscast
CNN Headline News
CNN Headline News said Monday it will eliminate its 4-6 p.m. ET newscast in order to bolster its editorial resources elsewhere. Co-anchors Thomas Roberts and Kathleen Kennedy will remain at the cable news channel in as-yet-unspecified roles.
To fill the time, two newscasts will be increased by an hour each. Those are newscasts anchored by Christi Paul and Mike Galanos, and by Chuck Roberts and Linda Stouffer.
CNN Headline News
Scientists Remove Rear Hatch
Hunley
The 40-foot, hand-cranked sub, the first in history to sink an enemy warship, sank off Charleston after sending the Union blockade ship Housatonic to the bottom on Feb. 17, 1864.
The eight Hunley crew members went down with the sub.
Removing the rear hatch will allow scientists a chance to study a section of the sub that they have not been able to get to since it was raised more than six years ago.
Hunley
Ban Shocks Fashion World
Skinny Models
The world's first ban on overly thin models at a top-level fashion show in Madrid has caused outrage among modeling agencies and raised the prospect of restrictions at other catwalk pageants.
Madrid's fashion week has turned away underweight models after protests that young girls and women were trying to copy their rail-thin looks and developing eating disorders.
Madrid's regional government, which sponsors the show and imposed restrictions, said it did not blame designers and models for anorexia. It said the fashion industry had a responsibility to portray healthy body images.
Skinny Models
Memorabilia Auctioned
Agatha Christie
Possessions of the legendary late British crime writer Agatha Christie fetched well above their estimates at an auction attracting global interest.
The first 100 lots sold for two or three times their initial estimates, said Bearne's auction house in Exeter, on the southwest English coast.
The 700 items were taken from Greenway House, Christie's holiday retreat in nearby Churston Ferrers.
Agatha Christie
Out As Pirates Flagship Station
KDKA
KDKA will cease to be the Pirates' flagship station in 2007 as the team's radio rights shift for the first time to FM, news-talk station WPGB. KDKA has carried Pirates games since 1955 and, in 1921, carried the first live broadcast of a major league game - about a year after becoming the nation's first licensed commercial radio station.
KDKA, a 50,000-watt station that can be heard throughout the East Coast and in Canada during the evenings, also aired Pirates games at times before WWSW gained the team's broadcast rights for a period in the 1940s and early 1950s.
By changing radio flagship stations, the Pirates will trade the mass audience KDKA reaches in surrounding states for one with strong ratings in more desirable age brackets for a pro sports team. KDKA remains one of Pittsburgh's top-rated stations, but a large chunk of its audience is older than the 25-to-54 age group that advertisers covet.
Because KDKA will no longer carry games, out-of-state Pirates fans who do not have a local radio affiliate of the team must subscribe to Major League Baseball's online service or XM radio to keep hearing Pirates games. XM carries all Pirates games, but the team's broadcasters are heard only during home games. The team's radio network currently includes 37 stations, mostly in Pennsylvania but also in Ohio, West Virginia and Maryland.
KDKA
Highest Rating Ever
ESPN
ESPN's first regular-season Monday night NFL game under the new contract drew the cable network's biggest audience ever.
The game between the Minnesota Vikings and Washington Redskins, won 19-16 by Minnesota, drew a 9.9 rating, representing an average of between nearly 9.2 million and 12.57 million households, the network said. The previous record was 8.9 million households on Christmas Day 2004 for a game between Detroit and Miami.
ESPN
House For Sale
Syd Barrett
The former home of Pink Floyd founder Syd Barrett, who died in July, has attracted huge interest from potential buyers undeterred by the reclusive singer's patchy home improvement efforts.
Dozens of people have viewed the 1930s house, which in the delicate words of the estate agent "provides an excellent opportunity for sympathetic improvement and updating."
The walls are painted a patchwork of pink, orange, brown, blue, turquoise and lavender, while cheap wooden shelves cling precariously to the walls of every room.
His sister, Rosemary Breen, said the singer "loved the peace and quiet" of the house.
Syd Barrett
Will Live Again
Shortlist Music Prize
The Shortlist Music Prize, which was put on hiatus last year after its co-founders disputed over its future, is being resurrected.
Greg Spotts, who co-founded the Shortlist with Tom Sarig, said the prize - which honors critically acclaimed albums that are out of the mainstream loop - will resume, perhaps as early as January.
The Shortlist Music Prize - modeled after the prestigious Mercury Prize in Britain - was started in 2001. A rotating panel of cutting-edge artists and journalists - including Beck, Mos Def and Spike Jonze - would nominate several acts who had released top-tier albums that were not top-sellers, and select one as the Shortlist Music Prize winner. Past recipients' included N.E.R.D., TV on the Radio and Damien Rice.
Shortlist Music Prize
Nielsen Prime-Time
Ratings
Prime-time viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen Media Research for Sept. 4-10. Top 20 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) NFL Football: Indianapolis vs. N.Y. Giants, NBC, 22.57 million viewers.
2. (12) "House," Fox, 19.65 million viewers.
3. (X) NFL Football: Miami vs. Pittsburgh, NBC, 19.2 million viewers.
4. (X) "Sunday Night NFL Pre-Kick," NBC, 14.50 million viewers.
5. (X) "Thursday Night Pre-Kick," NBC, 14.02 million viewers.
6. (X) "Standoff," Fox, 13.63 million viewers.
7. (X) College Football: Ohio St. at Texas, ABC, 13.27 million viewers.
8. (37) "The O.T.," Fox, 12.12 million viewers.
9. (X) "Football Night in America," NBC, 11.63 million viewers.
10. (98) "The Simpsons," Fox, 11.626 million viewers.
11. (3) "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," CBS, 10.67 million viewers.
12. (7) "Without a Trace," CBS, 10.56 million viewers.
13. (X) "Two and a Half Men," CBS, 10.33 million viewers.
14. (116) "Family Guy," Fox, 9.93 million viewers.
15. (X) "CSI: Miami," CBS, 9.73 million viewers.
16. (26) "60 Minutes," CBS, 9.55 million viewers.
17. (X) "CSI: NY," CBS, 9.43 million viewers.
18. (61) "Prison Break," Fox, 9.29 million viewers.
19. (37) "Law & Order," NBC, 9.23 million viewers.
20. (71) "Bones," Fox, 9.13 million viewers.
Ratings
In Memory
Bennie Smith
Bennie Smith, a guitarist and St. Louis blues legend who played with stars like Chuck Berry and Ike and Tina Turner, died Sunday following a heart attack. He was 72.
Smith, Kim Massie and the Soulard Blues Band were to perform Sunday night at a club in suburban University City, but when the musicians arrived onstage without Smith, harmonica player Tom "Papa" Ray told the crowd that Smith had died earlier that evening.
He said Smith, lying in bed Saturday after a heart attack, wanted the show to go on without him. And it did.
Smith was diagnosed with lung cancer earlier this year, and had a heart attack in 2004, the same year his guitars and amps were stolen by a burglar. Still, friends said he didn't let any of the real-life blues get him down.
Smith wasn't a huge recording act. But he contributed to countless sessions and played with artists including Aretha Franklin, Little Milton, the Drifters, Albert King and Rufus Thomas.
Despite his ill health, Smith had been very active recently. His "The Bennie Smith All Star Session" live CD was released two weeks ago, and he performed at the Big Muddy Blues Festival in St. Louis on Sept. 2, with Mayor Francis Slay proclaiming it Bennie Smith Day. Later that evening, he played at BB's Jazz, Blues and Soups - his last performance.
Bennie Smith
In Memory
Rin Inumaru
The creator of a hugely popular Japanese children's animated show has fallen to her death after claiming she was no good at her job.
Rin Inumaru, the 48-year-old creator of "Ojaru Maru," apparently jumped from the roof of her 14-story apartment complex in Tokyo on Sunday. She left a note, addressed to her mother, in which she said, "I'm not good at my job."
Her show followed the exploits of a noble boy who is transported 1,000 years into the future to present-day Japan. It has aired five days a week on national broadcaster NHK since 1998. The 10-minute series is also screened in Spain and Italy. Inumaru also wrote children's picture books and novels.
Rin Inumaru
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