Karl Bade 
DING! Bun's out of the oven, Cletus! Us magazine, which broke the story, reports the young'n would be called Preston Michael Spears Federline, ensuring a lifetime of PMS jokes.
THE DECEMBERISTS: You Ain't No Picasso has audio and video of the band covering ELO's “Mr. Blue Sky.”
PINK FLOYD: Suddenly, Roger Waters is keen for another reuinion — even a full performance of Dark Side of the Moon — if there was a special occasion.
TOP 50 BASSLINES of all time, according to Stylus.
BAND NAME ORIGINS are being compiled at Am I Right.
JIMI HENDRIX'S childhood home again saved from demolition. Its final resting place (for now, anyway) is a three-acre site opposite the cemetery where Hendrix's body has been interred since his death 35 years ago. The City Of Seattle and The James Marshall Hendrix Foundation are in talks to renovate the house into a full-fledged community centre, complete with music lessons, practice rooms and a library of musical instruments.
WEEZER: Reports of their breakup seem semi-exaggereated.
SUFJAN STEVENS: The Mpls. City Pages thinks Illinois is “the best pop record you'll hear this year,” though Stevens' banjo playing “is more Kermit on a log than Earl Scruggs.”
ON THE PITCHFORK: The Iron & Wine/Calexico In the Reins EP scores an 8.5. Also, Wilco sets a track list for their upcoming live album.
PETE DOHERTY UPDATE: The troubled singer has reportedly recorded a duet with galpal Kate Moss.
BOB DYLAN: The BBC already gave him some love. Now it's the Guardian's turn.
RANDY NEWMAN is posting reports from the road while on tour. Some are very Newman: “I Just heard on Klassic Radio the worst record I've ever heard. Here's a hint…”
TROY'S MIXTAPE OF LOVE: “Now, the making of a good compilation tape is a very subtle art. Many do's and don'ts. First of all, you're using someone else's poetry to express how you feel. This is a delicate thing.”
KANYE WEST was left red-faced recently when his mother discovered how much money he spends on pornography. I blame President Bush!
NATALIE PORTMAN found out the hard way that many lesbians dig bald chicks. Now that was a completely original moment.
HEIDI KLUM names her son Henry — a name from Seal's family, rather than after a piece of fruit.
GUY RITCHIE make a documentary about Kabbalah, because he is becoming increasingly irritated with the way the faith is sensationalised in the media. Which had nothing to do with his wife Madge's embrace of the Hollywood version of it.
ON THE DL: A baseball gossip blog. For Sylvia Hauser, the literary version of a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup.
NAPOLEON DYNAMITE defeats Bill Gates for control of Microsoft.
RUSSELL CROWE is looking for reduced charges in that phone-throwing incident.
STEVE BUSCEMI, Stanley Tucci and Bob Balaban are among those lined up for indie American remakes of films by the murdered Dutch film director Theo van Gogh. Mohammed Bouyeri shot van Gogh seven times before stabbing him, slitting his throat and using the knife to pin a note to his chest threatening to kill Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Somali-born Dutch politician who collaborated with the film-maker on Submissions, a TV project accused by its critics of portraying Islam as a misogynous religion which condoned violence against women. Submissions is not one of the announced remakes. Maybe Hollywood would have been more outraged by the brutal slaying if van Gogh had made films criticizing the Patriot Act.
MICHAEL JACKSON rents out an entire water park in Dubai so that children and their parents could enjoy the facilities for free. Jacko wore a white lycra body suit exposing only his eyes and nose, which was not flattering, according to a lifeguard on the scene.
TONY FERRARI: If you haven't heard of him, I wouldn't want to spoil anything, so go there, but don't go there.
IRAQ: Bill Roggio has more analysis of strategy and tactics around Tal Afar, including the significant involvement and cooperation of the Iraqi Army. He also looks at Zarqawi's retaliatory wave of terror bombs in Baghdada, but notes the degradation of Zarqawi's forces in Northern Iraq. And the most recent Iraq Index from the Brookings Institution has casualty figures that are better than I tought they would be, given the ongoing operations in the north and the Anbar province.
NOW THAT'S A LANDSLIDE: Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party won so big that it did not have enough candidates to fill all the seats it would have won in Tokyo.
CULT OF THE iPod: The Joy of Tech pictures alternative uses for the Nano. Also, portable music players are turning people deaf. Not me though — Hüsker Dü in Iowa City gets the credit there.
NANOTECH: A new poll shows people are excited about the benefits of nano tech, but want regulation — though they are skeptical that government would get it right, either. Meanwhile Dartmouth researchers have created the world's smallest untethered, controllable robot. About 200 of these could march in a line across the top of a plain M&M. Moe techy details and video here.
MEAT PRESERVATIVES may preserve you someday.
EDU-BLOGGING: The back-to-school edition of the Carnival of Education is online.
HURRICANE KATRINA: CNN reports that even after Michael Brown's resignation as head of FEMA, “criticism of the government's response to the disaster keeps rising. It threatens to swamp other officials involved in the recovery effort. Blame is being directed at every level of government — federal, state and local.” Yesterday, CNN reported a new Gallup poll showing that about 60 percent thought federal, state and local officials did a bad job after the storm, but when asked about the response “in the last few days,” the results were almost reversed. So from where is the rising criticism coming? The same Gallup poll shows that 49 percent think the media are spending too much time trying to figure out who is responsible for the problems in the areas affected by the hurricane. Nevertheless, as I noted recently, a CNN producer was coaching at least one invited guest to “get angry.” CNN boss Jonathan Klein is in love with angry anchor Anderson Cooper: “He brings a new dimension to the job, which is a concept of an anchor as a kind of missionary. It’s a new model for thinking about what the anchorperson ought to be.” Some might question whether Cooper is up for the missionary position, but I think if CNN viewers wanted to see missionary reporters, they would already be watching CBN. The public is starting to question the unsubstantiated and seemingly overstated death estimates and the equally unsubstantiated stories of rape and murder in the Superdome, so journalists ought to keep in mind that they should be accurate before they get angry.
HURRICANE RELIEF: Delone Catholic High School in McSherrystown, PA, is playing Hanson's 1996 hit “MMMBop” through the loudspeakers before classes begin, between periods and during lunch. The idea? Annoy students into donating; have them pay to stop the music. I'm surprised the ACLU hasn't shown up there — this sort of thing is called torture down at Gitmo.
OSAMA BIN LADEN: The U.S. military in Afghanistan has denied that one of its officers told reporters OBL was seeking medical attention. Reuters adds: “The United States holds al Qaeda responsible for many attacks, including the suicide hijack assaults on New York and Washington on September 11, 2001.” Apparently, Reuters was in the bathroom when Khalid Sheikh Mohammed admitted al Qaeda was responsible for 9/11.
SQUIRRELAPALOOZA: A baby squirrel is nursed by a boy's pet Terrier. Awwww… A crazy little squirrel greets drivers as they cross the Hulton Bridge to enter Oakmont, PA (click link at the site to see him). Police in Barre Town, VT believe they have identified the “Squirrel Man,” believed to be responsible for killing squirrels and leaving them in plastic bags all over the town and Barre City for the past three to four years. And next time you're passing through Spencer, IA, stop for some lovely canned squirrel. (via Fark)
SEA LIONS are the scourge of a California town, recently sinking one man's 50-foot, newly-restored 1910 sailboat.
CATS: In New Orleans, Ray Lambert got past military checkpoints to batter frantically at his house with a sledgehammer in search of his eight cats.
FROG ACTION PLAN: Scientists will meet in DC this weekend to launch an action plan aimed at stemming the global decline in amphibians. Last year, the Global Amphibian Assessment revealed that almost a third of the 5,743 known species are categorized as Critically Endangered, Endangered or Vulnerable.
