M Is FOR MASHUP - November 26th, 2008
Mashup Instructions Illustrated
By DJ Useo
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Andrew Sullivan: Princeton's Proposition 8
[Note from Bruce: This anecdote from yesterday had an embarrassing typo; it has been corrected in capital letters.] In 2008, voters in California passed Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage. (According to the new law, gay couples and lesbian couples CANNOT get married, but it is OK if a gay man marries a lesbian.) Inspired by a proposition that allowed a slim majority to take away a civil right of a minority, students at Princeton decided to attempt to pass their own Proposition 8--one that forbids freshmen from using the sidewalks. According to gay pundit Andrew Sullivan, "They don't hate freshman--they just want to protect the sidewalks." Proponents of Proposition 8 say that freshmen are equal, but they should be kept separate. After all, allowing freshmen to walk on sidewalks is a violation of traditional sidewalk values.
Matt Miller: How to love trillion-dollar deficits (money.cnn.com)
This reformed fiscal conservative has stopped worrying about the nation's ballooning deficit. You should too.
Mike Barajas: Ohio University prof's book hits best-seller list; charts rise of Barack Obama (athensnews.com)
Having spent most of the last three years documenting President-elect Barack Obama's life in the U.S. Senate and on the campaign trail, Pete Souza, assistant professor of photojournalism at Ohio University and former White House photographer, saw first-hand the rise of America's first black president.
"Can't Remember What I Forgot: The Good News from the Front Lines of Memory Research" by Sue Halpern: A review by Michael Greenberg
The "good news" of Halpern's subtitle is not a stab at false optimism. During the years that she was writing this book, one incontrovertible means of neurogenesis came to light: aerobic exercise. The mechanics of the process couldn't be simpler: exercise promotes new cell growth in old brains by increasing their blood volume, and cell growth improves memory. It was true for mice with cognitive impairment and it was true for humans with MCI (mild cognitive impairment).
Nine out of ten dogmas (timeshighereducation.co.uk)
Frank Furedi on the assumptions, agendas and distinctly iffy data behind those ubiquitous words, 'research shows.'
Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow: Group think (boston.com)
The turn to online research is narrowing the range of modern scholarship, a new study suggests.
Tara Brabazon: Terkel, Guthrie, Springsteen, Obama - and us
Set against an anthemic folk soundtrack full of optimism and passion, Tara Brabazon surveys a moment when change for the better in America finally seems possible.
'You can snort as much cocaine as you want and have as many beautiful women as you want ... it doesn't make you happy' (guardian.co.uk)
Former Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker talks fame and excess with Simon Hattenstone.
Synths, glitter and a cosmic disco vibe (guardian.co.uk)
She sings songs about love and maths and is being hailed as the future of pop. Paul Lester meets Little Boots.
Tim Dowling: "The bright side: We can revive those old skills we nearly lost" (guardian.co.uk)
David Thorne of Australia recently demonstrated this lost art when he attempted to pay an overdue bill with a drawing of a spider. When the accounts department told him they could not accept this form of payment, he asked for his drawing back. When they emailed it back to him, he claimed that it wasn't the same drawing, as the spider only had seven legs. You can see why the man is fast becoming an internet hero.
David Bruce: Wise Up! Food (athensnews.com)
Some opera singers can sing a part very well, but they don't look the part. Basso Luigi Lablache was a huge man; he stood six-foot-four and weighed 330 pounds. However, the audience laughed when he sang the role of a prisoner starving to death in a prison. His first words? "I'm starving."
The Weekly Poll
Results
Current Question
The Executive Order Edition
What action would you have our President-elect do in his very first Executive Order?
1. Issue a new order pertaining to___________....
2. Repeal Dubya's outrageous order to_________ ....
There it is, Poll-fans! Short, sweet and so very important, don't ya know...
So, think hard! This a big deal! The very first one! One shot only! Bring it on (haha)!
Send your response, and a (short) reason why, to BadToTheBoneBob ( BCEpoll 'at' aol.com )
Thursday & Friday
Erin Hart
Please join Erin Hart from 5 to 9 am PST (6 to 10 am MST | 7 to 11 am CST | 8 am to noon EST), on both Thanksgiving and Black (now Fading) Friday on AM760.net.
We'll count our blessings (and a few curses) -- for election results, for the food we eat and the country we will help change from many angles. We'll also swap tips on how to save in this very scary economy.
We will no doubt "cook" up our favorite recipes, too. What alternative foods do you eat on the day? I am going for chicken this year instead of turkey, and tamales a little early in the season. Pedro the pooch will dine on sweet potato treats. Yum! How about you?
Special guests, too!
Charlie was first, and correct, with:
Reader Comment
Re: Betty James
Marty
Slinky and Betty James have recently been in the news. Thought you might enjoy the video here:
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Overcast day, followed by lots of rain.
Pro Prop H8 Director Resigns
LA Film Festival
In the wake of harsh industry criticism over his $1,500 donation to support the recently passed California ballot initiative Proposition 8, which bans gay marriage, Richard Raddon has resigned his post as director of the Los Angeles Film Festival.
Board members of Film Independent, the nonprofit organization that produces the festival, refused to accept Raddon's resignation two weeks ago, shortly after his personal donation was revealed on Movie City News' The Hot Blog. But during a meeting Monday, they reversed their decision.
"I have always held the belief that all people, no matter race, religion or sexual orientation, are entitled to equal rights," Raddon said in a statement. "As many know, I consider myself a devout and faithful Mormon. I prefer to keep the details around my contribution through my church a private matter. But I am profoundly sorry for the negative attention that my actions have drawn to Film Independent and for the hurt and pain that is being experienced in the GLBT community."
LA Film Festival
New Book Said To Be Most Expensive
'Una Dotta Mano'
Valued at well over US$100,000, a 28-kilogram handmade tome depicting the life and work of Michelangelo has arrived at the New York Public Library, fresh from publication in Italy.
The velvet-and marble-bound book will go on public display next Tuesday.
It takes six months to make each book, using Italian artisan skills dating to the Renaissance. The copy on display was donated to the library but more than 20 books have been sold.
The book, titled "Una Dotta Mano" or "the learned hand," has a front cover made of white marble from Michelangelo's favourite quarry, in Carrara. The binding is covered with a red silk velvet handmade by the same Italian shop that made the main stage curtains at The Metropolitan Opera and Milan's Teatro Alla Scala.
'Una Dotta Mano'
Wins Special Prize
John Updike
It's not quite the Nobel Prize, but John Updike has a new literary accolade: laureate of bad sex.
Updike, who has a long and graphic history of detailing coupling on the page, won a lifetime achievement award Tuesday from judges of Britain's Bad Sex in Fiction Prize, which celebrates crude, tasteless or ridiculous sexual passages in modern literature.
The judges, editors of Literary Review magazine, said Updike had been shortlisted for the prize four times in its 16-year history. "Good sex or bad sex, he has kept us entertained for many years," they said in a statement.
The 76-year-old American novelist was a finalist for this year's Bad Sex prize for his description of an explosive oral encounter in his latest book, "The Widows of Eastwick," but lost out to British writer Rachel Johnson.
John Updike
Memorabilia Auctioned
Spike Milligan
It was going, going, Goon as the auctioneer's hammer fell on Spike Milligan's personal possessions, raising tens of thousands of pounds.
Milligan fans packed the auction house, and splashed out above all estimates for a chance to own the comedian's personal possessions which included a collection of his scripts, scrapbooks, recordings - and even furniture.
The surreal comedian shot to fame in the 1950s, writing and staring in the Goon Show alongside Peter Sellers and Harry Secombe. He died six years ago, aged 83.
And the comic might have enjoyed the irony with the sale of one lot, his hand-written poem called Auction Stations, which read: "With hand signals or polite cough, He bid 25 million, For a Vincent Van Gogh, For that sort of money, I'd chop my ear off."
A first-edition of The Primal Scream by Arthur Janov given to Milligan by John Lennon made £4,200.
Spike Milligan
Document Goes To Auction
`Eleanor Rigby'
Eleanor Rigby: fact or fiction?
That question, which has bedeviled Beatles' fans for decades, may be answered in part by a 1911 hospital payroll sheet to be auctioned in London on Thursday.
The document, sent by Paul McCartney in 1990 to the director of a music charity who had asked for funding, contains the signature of a scullery maid named "E. Rigby" who worked in a Liverpool hospital.
The director of the company auctioning the document believes the woman who signed the payroll is the same Eleanor Rigby buried in 1939 in a Liverpool graveyard next to the church where McCartney met the young John Lennon.
When the auction was announced earlier this month, McCartney released a statement reiterating that the character was not real. "If someone wants to spend money buying a document to prove that a fictitious character exists, that's fine with me," McCartney said.
`Eleanor Rigby'
Leaving Discovery Channel Early
Ted Koppel
Former "Nightline" host Ted Koppel and his documentary team are taking a buyout from the Discovery Channel six months before the end of their contracts.
Both sides said it was clear there was no interest in continuing to work together. Koppel's last project, a documentary about lynching in the United States called "The Last Lynching," aired a few weeks ago.
Top management at both the network and its parent company, Discovery Communications Inc., has changed since Koppel arrived there from ABC's "Nightline" in January 2006.
The new management is more interested in projects that can be rerun for a long period of time both in the U.S. and internationally, and news programs have a shorter shelf life, said company spokesman David Leavy.
Ted Koppel
Sentence Commuted
John Forte
Rapper/producer John Forte, who worked closely with the Fugees before being sent to prison on drug charges, had his sentence commuted Monday (November 24) by resident George W. Bush.
The musician was arrested at Newark International Airport in 2000 for possession with intent to distribute cocaine and conspiracy to distribute. Police discovered Forte with two briefcases filled with liquid cocaine, which they estimated were worth $1.4 million.
He was sentenced to the mandatory minimum of 14 years and was serving time in Fort Dix, New Jersey. He will be released December 22 after serving just over seven years. He must serve five years of supervised probation.
John Forte
Seuss Lawyers Stop Louisville
Who-ville
There will be no Who-ville in Louisville this Christmas.
The city of Louisville is scrapping plans to use the iconic Dr. Seuss village and characters as part of its annual Christmas display after receiving a cease and desist letter from Dr. Seuss Enterprises.
The city had planned to use "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" as part of its theme for the annual Light Up Louisville holiday celebration. The display called for an area called "LouWhoVille," complete with costumed characters from the Dr. Seuss classic such as Cindy Lou Who and the Grinch.
But the cease-and-desist letter from the law firm DLA Piper, which represents Dr. Seuss Enterprises, said the "Who-ville" name and image, as well as the Grinch, are copyrighted and cannot be used without permission.
Who-ville
New Corporate Master Cuts Jobs
Weather Channel
Storm clouds are brewing at the Weather Channel, with an estimated 60 to 80 jobs cut in recent weeks as the Atlanta-based company is absorbed into new owner NBC Universal.
Several on-camera meteorologists were laid off, including Weather Channel veterans Dave Schwartz and Cheryl Lemke. Also let go was the staff of "Forecast Earth," the channel's weekend environmental newsmagazine hosted by former CNN and MSNBC anchor Natalie Allen. The cuts also affected employees behind the scenes.
NBC Universal, which partnered with private equity firms Blackstone Group and Bain Capital to purchase the network, is merging the Weather Channel operations with its own Weather Plus. Weather Plus will close down by the end of the year, but some of its staff will remain.
The entire company is undergoing an effort to cut $500 million in costs, as mandated by NBC Universal's parent company, General Electric.
Weather Channel
NZ Billboard Thief Gets Ad Campaign
'The Ratbag'
A thief caught on camera stealing expensive equipment picked the wrong target if wanted to keep a low profile: a billboard company that has plastered his image around New Zealand's largest city seeking his capture.
The unidentified thief was photographed by a suspicious onlooker as he uncoupled 15 electrical transformers used to boost the lighting on a billboard in Auckland.
The photographer knew the pillaged sign belonged to Mark Venter, who runs OTW Advertising, one of New Zealand's oldest billboard companies.
So when the photographer offered pictures of the thief in action it cost Venter nothing to mount the images on four city billboards with the inscription: "Who is this Thief? Reward $500."
'The Ratbag'
Fascist Baby Names
Mussolini
An Italian right-wing party is offering 1,500 euros (1,271 pounds) to parents who name their babies after wartime fascist dictator Benito Mussolini or his wife Rachele, saying their names are under threat.
The MSI-Fiamma Tricolore party, the descendant of Mussolini's fascist party, said the initiative in the poor, southern region of Basilicata was meant to keep alive names "at risk of extinction" and pay tribute to the movement's roots.
Mussolini ruled from 1922 to 1943 when he was ousted after leading Italy to ruin by entering World War Two as an ally of Germany. He was executed along with his mistress Claretta Petacci in 1945. His widow Rachele died in 1979.
Mussolini
Researchers Find Slave Ship
Trouvadore
Marine archaeologists have found the remains of a slave ship wrecked off the Turks and Caicos Islands in 1841, setting free the ancestors of many current residents of those islands.
Some 192 Africans survived the sinking of the Spanish ship Trouvadore off the British-ruled islands, where the slave trade was banned.
Over the years the ship had been forgotten, said researcher Don Keith, so when the discovery connected the ship to current residents the first response "was a kind of shock, a lack of comprehension," he explained in a briefing organized by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
But after word got out "people really got on board with it," he said, and the local museum has assisted the researchers. He said this is the only known wreck of a ship engaged in the illegal slave trade.
Trouvadore
Prime-Time Nielsens
Ratings
Prime-time viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen Media Research for Nov. 17-23. 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. (2) "Dancing With The Stars," ABC, 19.63 million viewers.
2. (1) "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," CBS, 18.45 million viewers.
3. (3) "NCIS," CBS, 18 million viewers.
4. (6) "Dancing With the Stars Results," ABC, 17.59 million viewers.
5. (7) "Criminal Minds," CBS, 16.33 million viewers.
6. (4) "Grey's Anatomy," ABC, 15.91 million viewers.
7. (7) "The Mentalist," CBS, 15.84 million viewers.
8. (11) "CSI: Miami," CBS, 15.46 million viewers.
9. (11) "Two And a Half Men," CBS, 15.18 million viewers.
10. (7) Sunday Night Football: Indianapolis at San Diego, NBC, 15.17 million viewers.
11. (10) "60 Minutes," CBS, 14.89 million viewers.
12. (13) "CSI: NY," CBS, 14.12 million viewers.
13. (14) "House," Fox, 13.26 million viewers.
14. (15) "Survivor: Gabon," CBS, 12.5 million viewers.
15. (X) "American Music Awards," ABC, 12.2 million viewers.
16. (17) "Cold Case," CBS, 12.15 million viewers.
17. (X) "24: Redemption," Fox, 12.12 million viewers.
18. (19) "The OT," Fox, 12.06 million viewers.
19. (16) "Without a Trace," CBS, 11.85 million viewers.
20. (X) "Dancing With the Stars Recap," ABC, 11.6 million viewers.
Ratings
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