Karl THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:
FRIDAY TIME-WASTERS: John Cleese helped with a Flash-based “reimagining” of Star Wars. It's long, so a big time-waster as well. And be forewarned: there are many juvenile sex jokes.
ALSO: THE 31st (or 32nd) VILLAGE VOICE PAZZ & JOP POLL is online with links to the Voice's album and singles reviews. I love that Norah Jones tied with William Shatner. You also get the essays, Robert Christgau's “Dean's List” and other voters' lists as well.
ANOTHER SIGN OF THE APOCOLYPSE: Willie Nelson will (be forced to, imho) record a duet with Jessica Simpson for the Dukes of Hazzard soundtrack.
GREENPEACE PROTESTERS met their match when they stormed the International Petroleum Exchange Wednesday. Greenpeace had hoped to paralyse oil trading at the exchange in London on the day that the Kyoto Protocol came into force. Instead, oil traders who kicked and punched them back on to the pavement. Greenpeace said two protesters were in the hospital, one with a suspected broken jaw, the other with concussion.
SUPERMODEL PETRA NEMCOVA says the tsunami that crumpled her body and killed her boyfriend has transformed her life – and she may turn her back on modeling forever. Her father doubts she will ever resume her old life, unless it helps raise money for charity.
BIOPOLITICS: A Stanford University researcher has gotten a preliminary go-ahead to create a mouse with a significant number of human brain cells — as long as the creature behaves like a mouse, not a human. The article carries criticism from people typically labeled as conservative. But opposition to genetically modified food typically comes from people typically labeled as liberals. The politics of new technologies may create strange bedfellows.
NANOTECH may be coming to a small screen near you.
DOG OWNERSHIP may affect your homeowner's insurance coverage, even down to the breed.
SYRIA: The assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri caused the Bush administration to recall its ambassador to Syria, which was followed by Iran's restatement of its alliance with Syria. Daniel Drezner rounds up some of the coverage and considers Syria's plight.
WHAT'S UP, DOC? Warner Bros. is “reimagining” the Looney Tunes characters for a new series called Loonatics. It ain't pretty, folks.
GEORGE MICHAEL bid farewell to the world of pop music on Wednesday, several years after it bid farewell to him.
BLOGS AND JOURNALISM: advises the press: BusinessWeek and Peggy Noonan both urge the traditional media: “Don't Fear The Blogger.” Just add more cowbell.
THE QUEEN OF BLOGS: UW Madison law professor Ann Althouse gets some ink for her blog and her talk on blogging at a Chaos and Complex Systems seminar. Sadly, her title as Queen appears only in the paper version of the paper.
GUESS WHAT A WASHINGTON POST REPORTER LEARNED when she was embedded with U.S. troops in Iraq: that members of our armed forces were not “blood-thirsty maniacs.” And that was just for starters.
DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES: The network is peeved that a spoiler of this Sunday's episode has leaked into the press. And there's an Arrested Development spoiler at the end of the article, though not as much of a spolier as the news that Fox is halting production after 18 episodes – four shy of the usual 22, causing rumors of the critically acclaimed show's demise.
BOOK BLOGGING: USA Today has discovered literary blogs, with URLs for several, though prudishness may have prevented them from mentioning Bookslut.
QOTD: “Brevity is not only the soul of wit and the essence of lingerie….” — George Will
BRAD PITT UPDATE: A model denies a previously-reported denial of a relationship with the estranged husband of Jennifer Anniston. With unintentional irony, the model tells Star magazine that the other magazine article was “fabricated.” Not to mention bad for her career.
THERE IS STRONG EVIDENCE THAT LIFE MAY EXIST on MARS, ACCORDING TO A pair of NASA scientists, as exclusively reported at space.com.
POLITICIZING SCIENCE: Professor David H. Guston suspects that allegations that science has been politicized are somewhat insincere, in the same way that Louis, the Vichy Prefect of Police in Casablanca, was “shocked, shocked” to find gambling in the back room at Rick’s, even as he collected his own winnings. From the $120 billion for scientific R&D that the government provides, to the petty power plays that plague departmental governance, science is deeply political. Guston argues that science should be democratized, meaning that, among other things, its institutions and practices should fully incorporate principles of accessibility, transparency, and accountability.
SERIAL BURGLAR caught after a webcam on the owner's computer recorded images of him carrying out the raid. The webcam's pictures were sent to an e-mail address so they could be seen even after the computer was stolen.
A RAPE VICTIM CATCHES HER ASSAILANT eight years later, working as a security guard at a Target store in Chicago.
