Karl 
MUSICTHING: It's like Gizmodo or Engadget, but musical. If you need info on a headless folding banjo, this is the place.
ON THE PITCHFORK: Wilco announces an expanded version of A Ghost is Born. The trend of expanded albums is one that seems cool at first glance and annoying at the second.
ROBERT POLLARD releases his first post-GbV album and it is… unusual.
DOGS are being shocked by electricity shooting up through the sidewalks of New York.
CURIOUS AMICI: The Eagles, the Dixie Chicks, Bonnie Raitt, Sheryl Crow, Stevie Nicks, Tom Jones and Brian Wilson have filed an amicus curiae (friend of the court; who knew you could learn something here?) brief with the U.S. Supreme Court opposing file-sharing in the Grokster case.
NOW THAT WE KNOW THE OSCAR NOMINEES, Defamer points to the sites where you can see them naked.
IRAQ ELECTION: CNN finds generally good karma in Karma, about nine miles northeast of Falluja. Powerline has the translation of a poll from the Arabic media showing about 72 percent intend to vote and 75 percent rating security good or average. Granted, Power Line is a conservative blog, but it's also Time magazine's Blog of the Year. USA TODAY has a column up comparing Iraq, Vietnam and… Austria.
KEANE has something in common with John Madden.
THE SAN FRAN CHRONICLE has a column on the rich topic of band names.
FLAGPOLE looks at state of Camper Van Beethoven with David Lowery.
HARRY AND THE HOLOCAUST: Although the controversy over his Nazi costume has abated somewhat, it may be interesting to view the aftermath of the Prince's extreme wardrobe malfunction in light of ceremonies commemorating the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau complex to be held today. In the U.K., the House of Commons announced it would probe how the aides of Prince Harry and his older brother Prince William were recruited. Almost three out of four Britons believe Prince Harry was wrong to wear the Nazi costume, according to one opinion poll. However, a poll conducted for the BBC found that 45 per cent of adults had never heard of Auschwitz, though the figure rose to 60 percent among women and people under 35. Another poll published earlier this week in Canada found 30 per cent of Canadians surveyed couldn't identify that Jews were the primary victims of the Holocaust. In Poland, that number rose to about half of the population, according to a recent survey conducted there. British Muslims plan to boycott this week’s commemoration of the liberation of Auschwitz because they claim it is not racially inclusive and does not commemorate the victims of the Palestinian conflict. The European Union may consider a ban on Nazi symbols. The UN broke with years of protocol and commemorated the 60-year anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camps, “a watershed event for a body that has repeatedly been accused of an anti-Semitic agenda.” France has recognized anti-Semitism has flared within its Muslim population and begun Holocaust education programs. Most Germans would prefer to forget the Holocaust and are tired of hearing about Nazi crimes during the Third Reich, according to another newly released poll. In the German parliament, the Home Affairs Committee is urging de facto limits on Jewish immigration. In Russia, a group of nationalist lawmakers have called for a sweeping investigation aimed at outlawing all Jewish organizations and punishing officials who support them, accusing Jews of fomenting ethnic hatred and saying they provoke anti-Semitism.
TED TURNER compares the popularity of the Fox News Channel to the prewar popularity of Hitler. In return Fox put out a statement: “Ted is understandably bitter having lost his ratings, his network and now his mind — we wish him well.” Turner has had to apologize twice before for this sort of comment.
AN ASTEROID is named after Douglas Adams, author of The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
WHICH WOULD CONCERN YOU MORE: The fact that surveillance cameras are all over the public square or a technology that would allow someone to blur their faces in digital photographs?
CLOCKWORK CREATURES stroll the beaches, powered only by the wind.
STROKES MARRIAGE RUMORS are clarified at Gawker.
MICKEY KAUS decries the trend of cable news to go wall-to-wall with a crisis du jour.
JIM WALLIS: The Boston Globe profiles the self-described “progressive evangelical” leader and editor of Sojourners magazine who has lately been discovered by Democrats in DC desperate to learn the language of “moral values.”
IN VARIETY: Diane Keaton, Carlos Santana, Martin Sheen, Emilio Estevez, Alfre Woodard, Danny Glover, Jackson Browne and “Million Dollar Baby” writer Paul Haggis are amond those putting their names to an ad asking Gov. Ahnuld to support legislation that would allow illegal immigrants to obtain driver's licenses. The implied threat: if undocumented women cannot raise our kids, we celebrities would have to do it ourselves; you know that's a tragedy waiting to happen.
USA TODAY runs a column declaring that “Blogging is similarly the latest [media] revolution — e.g., it's not. Which, in a way, makes it cooler.” Agreed.
FBI DECLARES BOSTON TERROR PLOT BOGUS, cooked up by a smuggler looking to hurt his competition.
MORE TROUBLE FOR CBS NEWS? A document examiner for the 60 Minutes Wednesday story about President Bush's TX Air National guard service claims he was defamed by the independent report regarding the authenticity of memos used in the story.
