'Best of TBH Politoons'
M Is FOR MASHUP - June 13 2007
Robotic Intergalactic Astro-Artists
By DJ Useo
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
PAUL KRUGMAN: Authentic? Never Mind (The New York Times)
And where do you start with Rudy Giuliani? We keep being told that he has credibility on national security, because he seemed so reassuring on 9/11. (Some firefighters have condemned his actual performance that day, saying that rescue efforts were uncoordinated and that firemen died because he provided them with faulty radios. "All he did was give information on the TV," said a deputy fire chief whose son died at the World Trade Center. "He did nothing." And the nation's largest firefighters' union has condemned his handling of recovery efforts in the weeks following 9/11.)
Jim Hightower: BUSH'S CORPORATE COURT (jimhightower.com)
George W has struck another blow against America's working stiffs. This time, he didn't do it directly - he did his part when he appointed John Roberts and Sam Alito to the Supreme Court. And now, these two black-robed corporate hirelings are pummeling workers from the bench.
Andrew Tobias: Don't Ask, Don't Translate (andrewtobias.com)
You saw every hand go up when the Democratic presidential candidates were asked whether gays should be allowed to serve openly - and every Republican hand stay down a couple of nights later.
Poor Elijah (Peter Berger): The Teacher Crisis (irascibleprofessor.com)
Some experts insist that attracting "career switchers" from other fields is worth it, even if they don't stick around for long. This erroneously assumes that practice over years doesn't improve a teacher's skills. Most of the experts who rave about career-switching, short-term teachers wouldn't choose a career-switching, short term cardiac surgeon for their next bypass.
Forever young (guardian.co.uk)
Poet and writer Michael Rosen thinks that educationalists have taken all the fun out of kids' poetry. But, as the new children's laureate, he's here to change all that. He tells Simon Hattenstone about the humour, politics and personal tragedies that have shaped his perspective on the world.
You can't get it right every time (guardian.co.uk)
We all like to think that medicine is an exact science. But Atul Gawande, an American surgeon whose bestselling book inspired the hit TV series Grey's Anatomy, has news for you. He speaks to John Crace.
Painting Amy's nails (guardian.co.uk)
It had been a long time since Peggy Rambach had visited her disabled sister, who was put into care at birth. Now, as her sister lay dying, Peggy decided there was one last thing she could do for her ...
A walking soap opera (guardian.co.uk)
Critics scoffed that she starred in TV shows only because her father bankrolled them. So how did Tori Spelling cope when he virtually cut her out of his will? Now back on screen, she tells Hadley Freeman about her mink-clad childhood, family feud and becoming a mother.
Emine Saner: What is a superfood? (guardian.co.uk)
Foods considered to be super include those high in omega 3, which is good for the heart, (walnuts, oily fish) and anything high in vitamins (leafy green vegetables, berries).
Reader Suggestion
Paul Potts, Welsh Singer
I am not a great fan of American Idol, but I came across a clip from the British verson, UK talent show "Britain's got Talent", June 10th.
A cell-phone salesman finds his moment. Feel the chills!
It is quite unusual!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and a bit warmer.
The kid is down to his last 2 days of 8th grade.
Man With An Opinion
Dan Rather
Former CBS news anchor Dan Rather escalated a feud with his former employer Tuesday, saying CBS Corp. Chief Executive Leslie Moonves "doesn't know about news."
Moonves had said earlier Rather's remarks that the network was "tarting" up its newscast with Katie Couric, Rather's successor, were "sexist."
The spat started Monday when Rather, speaking by phone on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program with Joe Scarborough, said CBS had made the mistake of taking the evening news broadcast and "dumbing it down, tarting it up," and playing up topics such as celebrities over war coverage.
Later Tuesday, Rather said during an appearance on Fox News Channel's "Your World with Neil Cavuto" program that he didn't regret making his earlier remarks, but insisted he was referring to CBS's management of the newscast, not to Couric personally.
Dan Rather
Town Learns From Past
Monroeville, Alabama
When Harper Lee wrote "To Kill A Mockingbird" she could not have known it would be hailed as a classic, much less that it would shape the way her hometown viewed its past.
Lee's novel has put Monroeville, Alabama, on the map and acted as a magnet for tourists. It has also stimulated debate in the town about the legacy of racial segregation that prevailed in the south until the 1960s.
Published in 1960, it was an instant sensation. It won the Pulitzer Prize, has sold at least 30 million copies and a film of it starring Gregory Peck is hailed as a classic.
Every spring, thousands of Mockingbird tourists flock to Monroeville to visit locations associated with Lee's life, the book and the courthouse used in the film.
Monroeville, Alabama
Honored By Putin
Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday praised Alexander Solzhenitsyn, once a leading dissident writer and fierce critic of the Soviet Union, saying his life was associated with "the destiny of Russia".
Putin, who served in the KGB -- the state security organisation that once persecuted Solzhenitsyn -- last week signed a decree giving the veteran writer the state prize for lifetime humanitarian achievements.
Solzhenitsyn's wife, Nataliya, told RIA news agency that he had stayed at home because he felt unwell: "The state of his health today is the result of the camp trauma."
Solzhenitsyn had refused to accept a high state award from Boris Yeltsin, post-Soviet Russia's first president, saying he could not accept honours from a leader who brought misery to his people.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Controversy Dogs 40th Anniversary
Monterey Pop
Some bands that played Monterey Pop 40 years ago will return in July to the site of the first great rock festival, but the original promoter and others say the spirit of the Summer of Love is a long time gone.
The event at the County Fairgrounds in Monterey, California south of San Francisco, on June 16-18, 1967, helped boost the careers of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, The Who and others and showcased 1960s counterculture to the world.
This year promoter Andrew Hernandez, who was 11 in 1967, is organizing a "Monterey Summer of Love Festival" on July 28 and 29, to include some of the original acts such as Jefferson Starship, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Big Brother and the Holding Company and tribute bands filling in for Hendrix and others.
His reunion plan has ruffled some feathers.
Monterey Pop
Teams With USA Today
ABC News
ABC News has reached a content-sharing partnership with USA Today through the 2008 presidential elections.
The network and Gannett's national newspaper will share stories and video to shore up the text content on ABCNews.com and increase the video offerings for USAToday.com. Most of the content will be political but span other topics as well.
It's an extension of a relationship that has worked well during the past two years with, among other things, ABC's "Iraq: Where Things Stand" series, ABC News senior vp Paul Mason said.
ABC News' Mason said the partnership doesn't include an on-air component but may in the future. ABC News will continue using the Washington Post as its poll partner, however.
ABC News
London's Madame Tussauds
Camilla
Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall will join the royal family at Madame Tussauds, more than two years on since she married Prince Charles, the London waxworks museum said Tuesday.
Camilla, who married the heir to the throne on April 9, 2005, has agreed to sit for sculptors. The wax model should be ready later this year.
She will join Charles and Princes William and Harry -- his sons by his first wife Diana, princess of Wales -- in the refurbished royal zone.
"Diana will still be in the new royal zone but she will be a little bit away from Prince William, Harry, Camilla and Charles," Madame Tussauds' Ben Lovett said.
Camilla
Court-Ordered DNA Donation
Eddie Murphy
Eddie Murphy was seen entering a Beverly Hills doctor's office Monday where he reportedly underwent a court-ordered paternity test to determine whether he is the father of his ex-girlfriend Melanie Brown's baby, as she has claimed.
Murphy assured photographers waiting outside the clinic that he would "absolutely…do the right thing" by Brown and the infant if the test comes back positive, according to paparazzi agency Splash News.
Earlier in the day, Brown dropped by the same office with her two-month-old daughter, Angel Iris Murphy Brown, presumably to have the child undergo a DNA test of her own.
There is no word on when the results will be revealed.
Eddie Murphy
Boy-Band Loot Auction
Lou Pearlman
Platinum and gold records, autographed posters and even a key to the city all went "Bye Bye Bye" at an auction Tuesday as creditors liquidated the assets of boy-band impresario Lou Pearlman.
Hundreds of bidders packed a downtown building for the Chapter 11 bankruptcy sale. The auction was populated mostly by middle-aged men, not the screaming young girls who drove Pearlman's bands to multi-platinum success.
Pearlman's assets included memorabilia from the Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync, the two boy bands he created in the '90s that made him famous, and several of his lesser-known acts.
Pearlman allegedly defrauded about 1,000 investors of more than $315 million by selling for years a bogus savings account plan, then using their money to cover his losses in other businesses. Banks are hounding him and his companies for more than $120 million, according to court documents.
Lou Pearlman
Must Testify
Arnelle Simpson
A federal bankruptcy judge ordered O.J. Simpson's daughter Tuesday to give a deposition by week's end in a lawsuit about the former football star's canceled book, "If I Did It."
A judge already ordered the bankrupt company owned by Simpson's children to turn over any copies of the book in which the former NFL star explains how he might have committed the killings of ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman.
Simpson's oldest daughter, Arnelle, is named as the head of Lorraine Brooke Associates, which owns the book's rights.
Arnelle Simpson
Surname Shortage
China
With more than a billion people now sharing just 100 surnames, Chinese authorities are considering a landmark move to try and end the confusion, state media reported Tuesday.
Current Chinese law states that children are only allowed take the surname from either their mother or father, but the lack of variety means there are now 93 million people in China with the family name Wang.
In a country of around 1.3 billion people, about 85 percent share only 100 surnames, according to a nationwide survey conducted by the Chinese Academy of Sciences in April.
Under a new draft regulation released by the ministry of public security, parents will be able to combine their surnames for their children, a move that could open up 1.28 million new possibilities, the China Daily newspaper said.
China
Zambian Poachers
White Rhinos
Poachers have shot the last two white rhinos in Zambia, killing one and wounding the other, in a night operation at the Mosi-Oa-Tunya national park in Livingstone, an official said Tuesday.
The shooting of the two endangered animals in a heavily-guarded zoological park near Victoria Falls in Zambia's tourist resort town of Livingstone took place last week.
The dead female rhino's horn was apparently removed.
Zambia's white rhinos were all killed by poachers but the government managed to acquire six from South Africa in 1993, of which the injured male is the last to survive.
White Rhinos
Another Day, Another Suit
Lindsay Lohan
Lindsay Lohan's legal problems continue even while she recovers in rehab. The 20-year-old starlet has been sued by Grandeur Inc., which claims the actress crashed into a company van in October 2005.
Lohan was behind the wheel in Beverly Hills when her car collided with a parked van, according to small claims court papers filed May 18. Grandeur Inc. is seeking $3,624.84 in damages, the celebrity news Web site CelebTV.com reported.
A judge will hear the matter on June 20.
Lindsay Lohan
19th-Century Weapon Found
Bowhead Whale
A 50-ton bowhead whale caught off the Alaskan coast last month had a weapon fragment embedded in its neck that showed it survived a similar hunt - more than a century ago.
Embedded deep under its blubber was a 3 1/2-inch arrow-shaped projectile that has given researchers insight into the whale's age, estimated between 115 and 130 years old.
Calculating a whale's age can be difficult, and is usually gauged by amino acids in the eye lenses. It's rare to find one that has lived more than a century, but experts say the oldest were close to 200 years old.
The bomb lance fragment, lodged a bone between the whale's neck and shoulder blade, was likely manufactured in New Bedford, on the southeast coast of Massachusetts, a major whaling center at that time.
Bowhead Whale
Survives In Southern Sudan
Massive Animal Herd
A massive herd of animals thought to have been wiped out by decades of civil war in Southern Sudan has survived against the odds and could be one of the largest migrations of large mammals on the planet.
The New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society delivered that assessment on Tuesday, unveiling the results of an aerial survey that revealed the existence of more than 1.2 million antelope, gazelle, elephants and other animals.
Conservationist Michael Fay who conducted the survey said he had never seen wildlife in such numbers, "not even while flying over the mass migrations of the Serengeti."
Massive Animal Herd
Prime-Time Nielsens
Ratings
Prime-time viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen Media Research for June 4-10. 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. (27) "America's Got Talent," NBC, 13 million viewers.
2. (17) "Two and a Half Men," CBS, 11.27 million viewers.
3. (44) "So You Think Can Dance" (Thursday), Fox, 11.07 million viewers.
4. (55) "So You Think Can Dance" (Wednesday), Fox, 10.34 million viewers.
5. (X) "Deal Or No Deal" (Tuesday), NBC, 10.11 million viewers.
6. (4) "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," CBS, 10.04 million viewers.
7. (11) "CSI: Miami," CBS, 9.49 million viewers.
8. (29) "60 Minutes," CBS, 9.46 million viewers.
9. (19) "NCIS," CBS, 9.36 million viewers.
10. (31) "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader," Fox, 9.32 million viewers.
11. (23) "CSI: NY," CBS, 9.27 million viewers.
12. (X) " NBA Finals Game 1: Cleveland vs. San Antonio," ABC, 9.21 million viewers.
13. (25) "Shark," CBS, 9.14 million viewers.
14. (70) "How I Met Your Mother," CBS, 8.72 million viewers.
15. (X) "NBA Finals Game 2: Cleveland vs. San Antonio," ABC, 8.55 million viewers.
16. (82) "The Next Best Thing," ABC, 8.36 million viewers.
17. (77) "Hell's Kitchen," Fox, 8.16 million viewers.
18. (7) "House," Fox, 8 million viewers.
19. (82) "American Inventor," ABC, 7.9 million viewers.
20. (21) "Criminal Minds," CBS, 7.62 million viewers.
Ratings
In Memory
Mala Powers
Actress Mala Powers, who played Roxanne to Jose Ferrer's "Cyrano de Bergerac" and starred in other films of the 1940s and 1950s, has died. She was 76.
She was born Mary Ellen Powers on Dec. 20, 1931, in San Francisco to journalist parents who moved to Hollywood after losing their jobs. She began training as an actress at an early age and at 11 played in a Bowery Boys movie, "Tough as They Come."
In 1950, she starred as a rape victim in "Outrage," directed by Ida Lupino. The film created a minor sensation because rape had never been treated frankly on the screen due to the industry's self-censorship.
Howard Hughes was impressed by Powers' performances and placed her under contract at RKO. Among her films: "Edge of Doom," "Rose of Cimarron," "City Beneath the Sea," "City That Never Sleeps," "Bengazi" and "Storm Rider."
Powers' movie career dwindled in the late 1950s, but she remained active in radio, stage and television.
Powers is survived by Toren Vanton, a son from her first marriage. Her second husband was publisher M. Hughes Miller, who died in 1989.
Mala Powers
In Memory
'Mr. Wizard' Don Herbert
Don Herbert, who as television's "Mr. Wizard" introduced generations of young viewers to the joys of science, died Tuesday. He was 89. Herbert, who had bone cancer, died at his suburban Bell Canyon home, said his son-in-law, Tom Nikosey.
In "Watch Mr. Wizard," which was produced from 1951 to 1964 and received a Peabody Award in 1954, Herbert turned TV into an entertaining classroom. On a simple, workshop-like set, he demonstrated experiments using household items.
Herbert's place in TV history was acknowledged by later stars. When "Late Night with David Letterman" debuted in 1982, Herbert was among the first-night guests.
Born in Waconia, Minn., Herbert was a 1940 graduate of LaCrosse State Teachers College and served as a U.S. Army Air Corps pilot during World War II. He worked as an actor, model and radio writer before starting "Watch Mr. Wizard" in Chicago on NBC.
He is survived by six children and stepchildren and by his second wife, Norma, his son-in-law said. A private funeral service was planned.
'Mr. Wizard' Don Herbert
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