Tuesday, January 31, 2006
2006 Academy Award Nominations
Best Motion Picture of the Year
Nominees:
Brokeback Mountain (2005) - Diana Ossana, James Schamus
Capote (2005) - Caroline Baron, William Vince, Michael Ohoven
Crash (2004) - Paul Haggis, Cathy Schulman
Good Night, and Good Luck. (2005) - Grant Heslov
Munich (2005) - Steven Spielberg, Kathleen Kennedy, Barry Mendel
Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
Nominees:
Philip Seymour Hoffman for Capote (2005)
Terrence Howard for Hustle & Flow (2005)
Heath Ledger for Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Joaquin Phoenix for Walk the Line (2005)
David Strathairn for Good Night, and Good Luck. (2005)
Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
Nominees:
Judi Dench for Mrs. Henderson Presents (2005)
Felicity Huffman for Transamerica (2005)
Keira Knightley for Pride & Prejudice (2005)
Charlize Theron for North Country (2005)
Reese Witherspoon for Walk the Line (2005)
Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role
Nominees:
George Clooney for Syriana (2005)
Matt Dillon for Crash (2004)
Paul Giamatti for Cinderella Man (2005)
Jake Gyllenhaal for Brokeback Mountain (2005)
William Hurt for A History of Violence (2005)
Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role
Nominees:
Amy Adams for Junebug (2005)
Catherine Keener for Capote (2005)
Frances McDormand for North Country (2005)
Rachel Weisz for The Constant Gardener (2005)
Michelle Williams for Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Best Achievement in Directing
Nominees:
George Clooney for Good Night, and Good Luck. (2005)
Paul Haggis for Crash (2004)
Ang Lee for Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Bennett Miller for Capote (2005)
Steven Spielberg for Munich (2005)
Thanks to Tess for posting this elsewhere for me to copy and paste. I have no thoughts to share since the only one of these I've seen so far is "Cinderella Man" which bugged me because Renee Zellweger's outfits were always perfectly clean/tailored/kept despite the fact that it was set during the Depression and she was allegedly nearly starving, renting a basement apartment.
But just because I can't share thoughts on the films themselves doesn't keep me from predicting winners.
Best Motion Picture of the Year - Brokeback Mountain...why? Everyone loves gay cowboys. Moreover, actors tend to be liberals and liberals want to get back at America for hating gay marriage...they'll vote for this as a snub to Texas rancher G.W. Bush.
Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role - Philip Seymour Hoffman for Capote...why? All actors seem to really like him. Actors like him and they like Truman Capote. It's a win-win vote for the Academy.
Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role - Felicity Huffman for Transamerica...why? People are sick of Dame Judi Dench. Keira Knightley isn't that great. Charlize Theron already won. Reese Witherspoon hasn't yet been forgiven for "Legally Blonde II."
Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role - Jake Gyllenhaal for Brokeback Mountain...why? People think he's really hot.
Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role - Rachel Weisz for The Constant Gardener...why? Because actors like this movie but know it won't win in other categories (unless it was nominated for set decoration or costume design, which I don't know).
Best Achievement in Directing - George Clooney for Good Night, and Good Luck...why? I guess it's because people love George Clooney and felt this film didn't get the recognition it deserved. I'm less adamant on picking this one, though.
Nominees:
Brokeback Mountain (2005) - Diana Ossana, James Schamus
Capote (2005) - Caroline Baron, William Vince, Michael Ohoven
Crash (2004) - Paul Haggis, Cathy Schulman
Good Night, and Good Luck. (2005) - Grant Heslov
Munich (2005) - Steven Spielberg, Kathleen Kennedy, Barry Mendel
Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
Nominees:
Philip Seymour Hoffman for Capote (2005)
Terrence Howard for Hustle & Flow (2005)
Heath Ledger for Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Joaquin Phoenix for Walk the Line (2005)
David Strathairn for Good Night, and Good Luck. (2005)
Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
Nominees:
Judi Dench for Mrs. Henderson Presents (2005)
Felicity Huffman for Transamerica (2005)
Keira Knightley for Pride & Prejudice (2005)
Charlize Theron for North Country (2005)
Reese Witherspoon for Walk the Line (2005)
Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role
Nominees:
George Clooney for Syriana (2005)
Matt Dillon for Crash (2004)
Paul Giamatti for Cinderella Man (2005)
Jake Gyllenhaal for Brokeback Mountain (2005)
William Hurt for A History of Violence (2005)
Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role
Nominees:
Amy Adams for Junebug (2005)
Catherine Keener for Capote (2005)
Frances McDormand for North Country (2005)
Rachel Weisz for The Constant Gardener (2005)
Michelle Williams for Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Best Achievement in Directing
Nominees:
George Clooney for Good Night, and Good Luck. (2005)
Paul Haggis for Crash (2004)
Ang Lee for Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Bennett Miller for Capote (2005)
Steven Spielberg for Munich (2005)
Thanks to Tess for posting this elsewhere for me to copy and paste. I have no thoughts to share since the only one of these I've seen so far is "Cinderella Man" which bugged me because Renee Zellweger's outfits were always perfectly clean/tailored/kept despite the fact that it was set during the Depression and she was allegedly nearly starving, renting a basement apartment.
But just because I can't share thoughts on the films themselves doesn't keep me from predicting winners.
Best Motion Picture of the Year - Brokeback Mountain...why? Everyone loves gay cowboys. Moreover, actors tend to be liberals and liberals want to get back at America for hating gay marriage...they'll vote for this as a snub to Texas rancher G.W. Bush.
Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role - Philip Seymour Hoffman for Capote...why? All actors seem to really like him. Actors like him and they like Truman Capote. It's a win-win vote for the Academy.
Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role - Felicity Huffman for Transamerica...why? People are sick of Dame Judi Dench. Keira Knightley isn't that great. Charlize Theron already won. Reese Witherspoon hasn't yet been forgiven for "Legally Blonde II."
Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role - Jake Gyllenhaal for Brokeback Mountain...why? People think he's really hot.
Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role - Rachel Weisz for The Constant Gardener...why? Because actors like this movie but know it won't win in other categories (unless it was nominated for set decoration or costume design, which I don't know).
Best Achievement in Directing - George Clooney for Good Night, and Good Luck...why? I guess it's because people love George Clooney and felt this film didn't get the recognition it deserved. I'm less adamant on picking this one, though.
Monday, January 30, 2006
Celebrities Looking Bad
Sunday, January 29, 2006
Happy Chinese New Year!
Welcome to the Year of the Dog.
The Chinese calendar has been in continuous use for centuries, which predates the International Calendar (based on the Gregorian Calendar) we use at the present day which goes back only some 425 years. The calendar measures time, from short durations of minutes and hours, to intervals of time measured in months, years and centuries, entirely based on the astronomical observations of the movement of the Sun, Moon and stars.
The Chinese calendar has been in continuous use for centuries, which predates the International Calendar (based on the Gregorian Calendar) we use at the present day which goes back only some 425 years. The calendar measures time, from short durations of minutes and hours, to intervals of time measured in months, years and centuries, entirely based on the astronomical observations of the movement of the Sun, Moon and stars.
Saturday, January 28, 2006
Horoscopes
AQUARIUS
(Jan. 20-Feb. 18). Financial goals loom large, and you're eager to meet them! This is done most effectively through the principle of attraction. An environment that is both functional and aesthetically pleasing wins new supporters.
PISCES
(Feb. 19-March 20). It's not an ends-justifies-the-means kind of day. The outcome is only glorious if it was fun to make the effort in the first place. Knowing what feels authentic from what doesn't will lead to your success. LOVE IN THE TIME OF 2006.
ARIES
(March 21-April 19). While the truth may not glitter and shine, it will certainly resonate. Dare to ask for the truth if you want, but the real daring comes from having the courage to hear it.
TAURUS
(April 20-May 20). You find yourself in revelry about the one that got away. It's a poetic use of time, but is it a productive one? There are so many that didn't get away -- and what about the one you've got now?
GEMINI
(May 21-June 21). Fear teaches you how to improve your life. Go where your fear lives, and conduct an interview. If you and your fear are not already good friends, this is a fine time to get acquainted.
CANCER
(June 22-July 22). There is progress in your love life -- big progress. To resist it is tantamount to standing in front of the tidal wave and yelling, "Stop!" Tonight, do something lovely for your family.
LEO
(July 23-Aug. 22). Get the tedious stuff out of the way so you can kick back and visit with friends, practice the piano or call your long-lost friend -- you know, the important stuff.
VIRGO
(Aug. 23-Sept. 22). You're hypercritical now, and it might be difficult for you to recognize your magnificence. You are made of the same material as the stars, and you resonate with their ancient wisdom. Believe it.
LIBRA
(Sept. 23-Oct. 23). Social situations are a little on the stiff side. It may feel as though you are doing a bad impersonation of yourself. You can get back to being authentic when you realize when people are asking too much of you and set boundaries.
SCORPIO
(Oct. 24-Nov. 21). A problem that has been dogging you for a long time suddenly seems simple -- maybe because you're doing instead of worrying about what there is to do. There's lots of good advice to be acted on, mostly from your relationships.
SAGITTARIUS
(Nov. 22-Dec. 21). Your approval puts someone's plan in motion. It's good to be king! Or queen, as the case may be ... Take charge of the entertainment or travel plans for the weekend. It's not too late to get out.
CAPRICORN
(Dec. 22-Jan. 19). Use your intuition to help you decide whether or not to go through with a deal. Relationships suck your mental energy if you allow them to. Or, you could release problems and ask the universe to show you what to do.
(Jan. 20-Feb. 18). Financial goals loom large, and you're eager to meet them! This is done most effectively through the principle of attraction. An environment that is both functional and aesthetically pleasing wins new supporters.
PISCES
(Feb. 19-March 20). It's not an ends-justifies-the-means kind of day. The outcome is only glorious if it was fun to make the effort in the first place. Knowing what feels authentic from what doesn't will lead to your success. LOVE IN THE TIME OF 2006.
ARIES
(March 21-April 19). While the truth may not glitter and shine, it will certainly resonate. Dare to ask for the truth if you want, but the real daring comes from having the courage to hear it.
TAURUS
(April 20-May 20). You find yourself in revelry about the one that got away. It's a poetic use of time, but is it a productive one? There are so many that didn't get away -- and what about the one you've got now?
GEMINI
(May 21-June 21). Fear teaches you how to improve your life. Go where your fear lives, and conduct an interview. If you and your fear are not already good friends, this is a fine time to get acquainted.
CANCER
(June 22-July 22). There is progress in your love life -- big progress. To resist it is tantamount to standing in front of the tidal wave and yelling, "Stop!" Tonight, do something lovely for your family.
LEO
(July 23-Aug. 22). Get the tedious stuff out of the way so you can kick back and visit with friends, practice the piano or call your long-lost friend -- you know, the important stuff.
VIRGO
(Aug. 23-Sept. 22). You're hypercritical now, and it might be difficult for you to recognize your magnificence. You are made of the same material as the stars, and you resonate with their ancient wisdom. Believe it.
LIBRA
(Sept. 23-Oct. 23). Social situations are a little on the stiff side. It may feel as though you are doing a bad impersonation of yourself. You can get back to being authentic when you realize when people are asking too much of you and set boundaries.
SCORPIO
(Oct. 24-Nov. 21). A problem that has been dogging you for a long time suddenly seems simple -- maybe because you're doing instead of worrying about what there is to do. There's lots of good advice to be acted on, mostly from your relationships.
SAGITTARIUS
(Nov. 22-Dec. 21). Your approval puts someone's plan in motion. It's good to be king! Or queen, as the case may be ... Take charge of the entertainment or travel plans for the weekend. It's not too late to get out.
CAPRICORN
(Dec. 22-Jan. 19). Use your intuition to help you decide whether or not to go through with a deal. Relationships suck your mental energy if you allow them to. Or, you could release problems and ask the universe to show you what to do.
Friday, January 27, 2006
Celebrities Looking Bad
Thursday, January 26, 2006
Officer Kills Optometrist Suspected of Gambling
From the Washington Post:
By Tom Jackman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 26, 2006; Page A01
Fairfax County's police chief said yesterday that one of his officers accidentally shot and killed an optometrist outside the unarmed man's townhouse Tuesday night as an undercover detective was about to arrest him on suspicion of gambling on sports.
Police had been secretly making bets with Salvatore J. Culosi Jr., 37, since October as part of a gambling investigation, according to court records. They planned to search his home in the Fair Oaks area, just off Lee Highway, shortly after 9:30 p.m.
Culosi came out of his townhouse on Cavalier Landing Court about 9:35 p.m. and was standing next to the detective's sport-utility vehicle, police said, when the detective gave a signal to tactical officers assembled nearby to move in and arrest Culosi.
"As they approached him . . . one officer's weapon, a handgun, was unintentionally discharged," said Fairfax Police Chief David M. Rohrer.
Culosi was not making any threatening moves when he was shot once in the upper part of his body, police said. He was taken to Inova Fairfax Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
The last fatal police shooting in Fairfax was in September 2000, when an officer killed a man threatening him with a woodcutting tool.
"On behalf of the Fairfax County Police Department and myself, I wish to express our condolences and our sincere sympathy to Mr. Culosi's family and friends," Rohrer said. He declined to answer questions after making the statement.
Police departments generally do not accept responsibility for an officer-involved shooting before an investigation is completed.
Culosi's family in Annandale was grief-stricken and declined to be interviewed. Culosi's older sister, Constance Culosi Gulley, issued a statement saying that her brother was "a respected local businessman and doctor with his whole life ahead of him and didn't deserve to have his life end this way."
Culosi grew up just off Annandale Road, graduated from Bishop O'Connell High School and the University of Virginia, then attended the Southern College of Optometry in Memphis and became a doctor of optometry. He opened practices in Manassas and Warrenton that are attached to Wal-Mart stores.
The officer, a 17-year veteran assigned to the police tactical unit, was not identified. He was placed on leave with pay while police conduct both an internal administrative investigation and a criminal investigation. Rohrer also expressed support for the officer, calling him a valued veteran of the department.
Lt. Richard Perez, a police spokesman, said he could not say how or why the gun discharged.
"When you draw the weapon, you always try to assess what the potential threat is going to be," Perez said. He said the officers in the tactical squad are "highly trained officers. Do unintentional shootings occur? Absolutely. We're humans, and these kind of things do occur."
Perez said he did not know what type of handgun Culosi was shot with.
After several years without any shootings, officers shot and wounded several people last year, including one of their own officers in an accidental shooting. A robbery suspect was shot this month on Route 1. In the nearly 39 years that Robert F. Horan Jr. has been the chief prosecutor in Fairfax, no officer has been charged with improperly shooting someone.
Rohrer said in his statement that the tactical squad routinely performs arrests and provides support for detectives executing search warrants. The chief said in his statement that "we will fully review, as always, our policies, practices and this operation in detail."
Culosi's family said that "police action that results in the death of an unarmed, nonthreatening person calls for a full and open investigation. We hope proper steps are taken by county police to ensure other families won't have to endure similar pain."
Culosi was a lifelong Pittsburgh Steelers fan, longtime friend Steve Lunceford said. Culosi excelled at soccer, playing on travel teams as a youth and for the O'Connell varsity. He was not married and had no children.
"He was gregarious, outgoing, loved to sing off-key at weddings," Lunceford said. "For this to happen, it's surreal. The police need to account for and be held accountable for their actions."
Deon Chapman said he became a casual friend of Culosi's after meeting him at a pool tournament at a Fairfax bar about 10 years ago. "He was a laid-back guy, funny guy. . . . I've never known him to even carry a pocketknife. This is a college boy, clean-cut." He also said he had no idea that Culosi might have been a bookie.
In an affidavit for the search warrant, Detective David J. Baucom, who often investigates sports gambling in Fairfax, said he met Culosi at a bar in October and started making NFL bets with him by cell phone. Baucom said he placed more than $28,000 in bets on games through last Sunday and met Culosi about every two weeks to pay his debts or collect his winnings, either at a restaurant or Culosi's home. Through Jan. 16, Baucom had lost more than $5,500 to Culosi, his affidavit stated.
Lt. Steve Thompson, Baucom's supervisor in the police organized crime division, said in a recent interview that there is no shortage of sports bookies in Fairfax and that police investigate only those who meet certain criteria. He said that Fairfax typically goes after only those bookies with many customers who take in $100,000 in bets per week and that larger bookies will take in $300,000 to $400,000 on a busy football weekend.
Last month, another investigation headed by Baucom resulted in the arrest of a man suspected of being a bookie who lives in Washington but operated in Fairfax. When police searched his safe deposit boxes, they seized nearly $350,000 in cash, court records show. Charges against that man are pending.
After shooting Culosi, police searched his townhouse. The results of that search were not available yesterday.
Perez said Culosi had not displayed a weapon or shown any violent tendencies while he was being investigated by Baucom. But Perez said police had to be prepared for any possibility, because "the unexpected can occur."
By Tom Jackman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 26, 2006; Page A01
Fairfax County's police chief said yesterday that one of his officers accidentally shot and killed an optometrist outside the unarmed man's townhouse Tuesday night as an undercover detective was about to arrest him on suspicion of gambling on sports.
Police had been secretly making bets with Salvatore J. Culosi Jr., 37, since October as part of a gambling investigation, according to court records. They planned to search his home in the Fair Oaks area, just off Lee Highway, shortly after 9:30 p.m.
Culosi came out of his townhouse on Cavalier Landing Court about 9:35 p.m. and was standing next to the detective's sport-utility vehicle, police said, when the detective gave a signal to tactical officers assembled nearby to move in and arrest Culosi.
"As they approached him . . . one officer's weapon, a handgun, was unintentionally discharged," said Fairfax Police Chief David M. Rohrer.
Culosi was not making any threatening moves when he was shot once in the upper part of his body, police said. He was taken to Inova Fairfax Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
The last fatal police shooting in Fairfax was in September 2000, when an officer killed a man threatening him with a woodcutting tool.
"On behalf of the Fairfax County Police Department and myself, I wish to express our condolences and our sincere sympathy to Mr. Culosi's family and friends," Rohrer said. He declined to answer questions after making the statement.
Police departments generally do not accept responsibility for an officer-involved shooting before an investigation is completed.
Culosi's family in Annandale was grief-stricken and declined to be interviewed. Culosi's older sister, Constance Culosi Gulley, issued a statement saying that her brother was "a respected local businessman and doctor with his whole life ahead of him and didn't deserve to have his life end this way."
Culosi grew up just off Annandale Road, graduated from Bishop O'Connell High School and the University of Virginia, then attended the Southern College of Optometry in Memphis and became a doctor of optometry. He opened practices in Manassas and Warrenton that are attached to Wal-Mart stores.
The officer, a 17-year veteran assigned to the police tactical unit, was not identified. He was placed on leave with pay while police conduct both an internal administrative investigation and a criminal investigation. Rohrer also expressed support for the officer, calling him a valued veteran of the department.
Lt. Richard Perez, a police spokesman, said he could not say how or why the gun discharged.
"When you draw the weapon, you always try to assess what the potential threat is going to be," Perez said. He said the officers in the tactical squad are "highly trained officers. Do unintentional shootings occur? Absolutely. We're humans, and these kind of things do occur."
Perez said he did not know what type of handgun Culosi was shot with.
After several years without any shootings, officers shot and wounded several people last year, including one of their own officers in an accidental shooting. A robbery suspect was shot this month on Route 1. In the nearly 39 years that Robert F. Horan Jr. has been the chief prosecutor in Fairfax, no officer has been charged with improperly shooting someone.
Rohrer said in his statement that the tactical squad routinely performs arrests and provides support for detectives executing search warrants. The chief said in his statement that "we will fully review, as always, our policies, practices and this operation in detail."
Culosi's family said that "police action that results in the death of an unarmed, nonthreatening person calls for a full and open investigation. We hope proper steps are taken by county police to ensure other families won't have to endure similar pain."
Culosi was a lifelong Pittsburgh Steelers fan, longtime friend Steve Lunceford said. Culosi excelled at soccer, playing on travel teams as a youth and for the O'Connell varsity. He was not married and had no children.
"He was gregarious, outgoing, loved to sing off-key at weddings," Lunceford said. "For this to happen, it's surreal. The police need to account for and be held accountable for their actions."
Deon Chapman said he became a casual friend of Culosi's after meeting him at a pool tournament at a Fairfax bar about 10 years ago. "He was a laid-back guy, funny guy. . . . I've never known him to even carry a pocketknife. This is a college boy, clean-cut." He also said he had no idea that Culosi might have been a bookie.
In an affidavit for the search warrant, Detective David J. Baucom, who often investigates sports gambling in Fairfax, said he met Culosi at a bar in October and started making NFL bets with him by cell phone. Baucom said he placed more than $28,000 in bets on games through last Sunday and met Culosi about every two weeks to pay his debts or collect his winnings, either at a restaurant or Culosi's home. Through Jan. 16, Baucom had lost more than $5,500 to Culosi, his affidavit stated.
Lt. Steve Thompson, Baucom's supervisor in the police organized crime division, said in a recent interview that there is no shortage of sports bookies in Fairfax and that police investigate only those who meet certain criteria. He said that Fairfax typically goes after only those bookies with many customers who take in $100,000 in bets per week and that larger bookies will take in $300,000 to $400,000 on a busy football weekend.
Last month, another investigation headed by Baucom resulted in the arrest of a man suspected of being a bookie who lives in Washington but operated in Fairfax. When police searched his safe deposit boxes, they seized nearly $350,000 in cash, court records show. Charges against that man are pending.
After shooting Culosi, police searched his townhouse. The results of that search were not available yesterday.
Perez said Culosi had not displayed a weapon or shown any violent tendencies while he was being investigated by Baucom. But Perez said police had to be prepared for any possibility, because "the unexpected can occur."
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Celebrities Looking Bad
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
Fat Burning in the Dark
Scientists show connection between darkness and metabolic fuel switch.
by Maggie Wittlin • Posted January 23, 2006 11:19 AM
Stop blaming an inability to burn fat on petty scapegoats like "adulthood" and start faulting the true culprit: the sun.
As we go about our bright days and dark nights, our bodies create cellular energy, primarily by consuming glucose—burning fat is a last resort. But, according to a paper in the January 19th edition of Nature, extended periods of darkness cause a state similar to hibernation, turning the body into a fat-burning machine. At least, that's what happens in mice.
Researchers at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston propose that darkness acts as a metabolic signal. Extended periods of darkness cause the release of an enzyme, switching the body from being glucose-fueled to being fat-fueled.
"If this mechanism is conserved in humans, I have proposed that it could provide new strategies to treat obesity and type-2 diabetes," senior author Cheng Chi Lee said via e-mail. "I think the most likely immediate effect is the regulation of core body temperature during major surgery and during trauma response."
Lee, a biochemistry professor and expert in circadian rhythms, examined the genes of two groups of mice: one that was kept in darkness for 48 hours, and one that was exposed to a normal light-dark cycle. When he examined the livers of the constant-darkness group, he found highly elevated levels of a gene involved in the degradation of dietary fat.
The study stemmed from Lee's investigation into what triggers hibernation. Previous studies have focused on food, environmental temperature and photo-period; however, not one of these factors is common to all animals that hibernate.
"We asked, 'What is the common environmental factor faced by hibernating mammals?'" Lee said. "I can only think one consistent environmental factor, and that is constant darkness."
In a further study, Lee and postdoctoral student Jianfa Zhang found that darkness not only affected the liver gene, it increased levels of a chemical called 5'-AMP, a byproduct of cellular energy (ATP) production. The increased levels of 5'-AMP, a "garbage" byproduct, baffled Lee, who expected to see a change in ATP levels instead.
"It then occurred to me that a CEO of a large company can monitor how well they are doing by looking at their sales, i.e. consumption," Lee said. "Similarly, a head of household will know what the family consumed if you look at the garbage."
"The organism must be doing the same thing," he continued. "To determine its energy requirement, it must determine how much ATP has been consumed, [using] the 5'-AMP level."
The level of the chemical acts as a feedback mechanism, indicating how much energy the body needs, based on how much 5'-AMP has been produced. The body responds to the level by either going into a glucose-burning normal state or a fat-burning, hibernation-like state.
Rejoice, carb counters! You can now try supplementing pasta with shots of 5'-AMP. Just prepare for a food coma unlike any other.
by Maggie Wittlin • Posted January 23, 2006 11:19 AM
Stop blaming an inability to burn fat on petty scapegoats like "adulthood" and start faulting the true culprit: the sun.
As we go about our bright days and dark nights, our bodies create cellular energy, primarily by consuming glucose—burning fat is a last resort. But, according to a paper in the January 19th edition of Nature, extended periods of darkness cause a state similar to hibernation, turning the body into a fat-burning machine. At least, that's what happens in mice.
Researchers at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston propose that darkness acts as a metabolic signal. Extended periods of darkness cause the release of an enzyme, switching the body from being glucose-fueled to being fat-fueled.
"If this mechanism is conserved in humans, I have proposed that it could provide new strategies to treat obesity and type-2 diabetes," senior author Cheng Chi Lee said via e-mail. "I think the most likely immediate effect is the regulation of core body temperature during major surgery and during trauma response."
Lee, a biochemistry professor and expert in circadian rhythms, examined the genes of two groups of mice: one that was kept in darkness for 48 hours, and one that was exposed to a normal light-dark cycle. When he examined the livers of the constant-darkness group, he found highly elevated levels of a gene involved in the degradation of dietary fat.
The study stemmed from Lee's investigation into what triggers hibernation. Previous studies have focused on food, environmental temperature and photo-period; however, not one of these factors is common to all animals that hibernate.
"We asked, 'What is the common environmental factor faced by hibernating mammals?'" Lee said. "I can only think one consistent environmental factor, and that is constant darkness."
In a further study, Lee and postdoctoral student Jianfa Zhang found that darkness not only affected the liver gene, it increased levels of a chemical called 5'-AMP, a byproduct of cellular energy (ATP) production. The increased levels of 5'-AMP, a "garbage" byproduct, baffled Lee, who expected to see a change in ATP levels instead.
"It then occurred to me that a CEO of a large company can monitor how well they are doing by looking at their sales, i.e. consumption," Lee said. "Similarly, a head of household will know what the family consumed if you look at the garbage."
"The organism must be doing the same thing," he continued. "To determine its energy requirement, it must determine how much ATP has been consumed, [using] the 5'-AMP level."
The level of the chemical acts as a feedback mechanism, indicating how much energy the body needs, based on how much 5'-AMP has been produced. The body responds to the level by either going into a glucose-burning normal state or a fat-burning, hibernation-like state.
Rejoice, carb counters! You can now try supplementing pasta with shots of 5'-AMP. Just prepare for a food coma unlike any other.
Monday, January 23, 2006
Celebrities Looking Bad
Sunday, January 22, 2006
The Darwin Awards
They made a movie on this subject but I didn't learn of it until now. I want to see it.
The Darwin Awards
The Darwin Awards
Saturday, January 21, 2006
Buy a Title for Me
Thanks to a friend who posted this link elsewhere. I wanna be Laird (Lady) of Glencairn!
Lord of Glencairn
Lord of Glencairn
Friday, January 20, 2006
The Dover Monkey Trial
Chris Mooney reports on how intelligent design is hijacking science.
by Chris Mooney • Posted October 1, 2005 02:32 PM
From the OCT/NOV 2005 issue of Seed
Late this summer, President Bush endorsed teaching the anti-evolutionist concept of intelligent design to America's high school students. But one community has already tried exactly that—and gotten sued for it. In August, the school board in Dover, Pennsylvania faced a community divided over biology and the bible. In attendance were parents and neighbors, co-litigants in a First Amendment legal suit. Welcome to the opening salvo in America's latest war on science.
Resigning from the Dover Area School Board was the last thing that Jeff and Carol "Casey" Brown thought they'd ever have to do. They had poured their lives into their community's educational problems, Jeff for five years and Casey for 10. But in a late-night discussion on October 16—the night of their 20th wedding anniversary, as it were—they realized they had little choice but to quit. Dover, the tiny township of 1,800 where they'd made their home for the past 22 years, had been radically altered. Former friends and school board colleagues were now bitter enemies, divided over a simple matter—what should be taught in ninth-grade biology at Dover High School.
Casey Brown, a tall woman with an uncompromising bent and a parliamentarian's mastery of school board rules, precedents and procedures, first ran for the board to advocate better treatment of students with learning disabilities, like her daughter. Jeff ran for the board because he was fed up with what he viewed as rampant cronyism and corruption. "I made a little cardboard button, took off a day of work and I got elected," he remembers.
That was back when Dover was still a sleepy place, long before most Americans had heard of the town or the New York Times assigned a reporter to cover its school board races. And it was long before the Dover board drove away the Browns, made national headlines, triggered a lawsuit for refuting Charles Darwin's theory of evolution and introduced students to the concept of intelligent design, or ID.
Now, with a highly visible federal trial beginning on September 27, amid a national and international uproar prompted by President Bush's own endorsement of ID, the press is depicting Dover as the 21st-century equivalent of Dayton, Tennessee, site of the famous 1925 Scopes monkey trial. But there's a key difference between the Scopes era and today: Anti-evolutionists seem to be abandoning the Dover confrontation like a sinking ship. They have plans elsewhere—particularly in the state of Kansas.
As a result, Dover represents something very different and perhaps more poignant. It's among the first towns to fall victim to a divisive religious and scientific battle that is building to a fever pitch—one that promises to tear apart many more communities before it's finally settled.
Jeff and Casey were on the front lines as the fight engulfed their town; in fact, they inadvertently facilitated it by choosing the wrong political allies. After their election to the nine-person school board, the Browns began to seek like-minded acquaintances to run for seats alongside them. They turned to a group of conservative Christians, who were soon elected. Together, they formed a majority on the board. The Dover area was home to a wide diversity of sects, including Mennonites, Lutherans, Brethren and Amish, and had a long-standing live-and-let-live tradition. "All of us were good friends, and religion didn't really enter into it," recalls Casey. Then things began to change.
In 2003, the Dover board proposed sending a letter to the U.S. Supreme Court that defended using the phrase "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance. Jeff, himself a Christian and a former Sunday school teacher, balked, asking if the board would also support the phrase "under Allah." Casey, an Episcopalian, also declared her opposition. But their views were in the minority, and the letter was sent.
In 2004, as the Seattle-based Discovery Institute—national hub of the intelligent design movement—impelled a new wave of fights over the teaching of evolution across the country, the Dover board pushed its own pro-ID agenda. Curriculum committee chair William Buckingham, a conservative Christian, denounced a widely accepted biology textbook as being "laced with Darwinism." The 57-year-old former police officer and prison guard (who often denounced the notion of the separation of church and state as a myth) encouraged the search for a book that supported creationism, stating, "Two thousand years ago, someone died on a cross. Can't someone take a stand for him?" In another candid (and legally liable) moment, he added, "This country wasn't founded on Muslim beliefs or evolution. This country was founded on Christianity, and our students should be taught as such." (Although they were reported in local papers, Buckingham later contested these statements.)
The Browns were shocked, but their former friend had strong support on the board and in the community. Shortly thereafter, he announced a mysterious "donation" to the high-school: 50 copies of a textbook entitled Of Pandas and People, published by the Texas-based Foundation on Thought and Ethics, a Christian organization. The book argues that natural processes cannot sufficiently explain the complexity of life, and that "intelligent causes" must, instead, be invoked. Officially, the donation was anonymous. Unofficially—as was later alleged in court filings—the books came after Buckingham solicited donations for them at his own church.
According to Jeff and Casey, Buckingham and his supporters had, by then, stopped listening to the couple's dissenting opinions. "It's one thing to be at war with your political enemies and I'd done that for years," says Jeff. "But when my friends turned into enemies, I just reached the end of the rope."
On Monday, October 18, two days after the Browns' anniversary, the board sealed their fate, and its own. It voted six to three to endorse the following change to the biology curriculum:
Students will be made aware of gaps/problems in Darwin's theory and of other theories of evolution including, but not limited to, intelligent design.
The Browns promptly announced their resignations; Casey read an eloquent statement declaring that as the evolution fight unfolded, board members had twice demanded to know whether she had been "born again."
"It has become increasingly evident that, in the direction this board has now chosen to go, holding a certain religious belief is of paramount importance," she said. In a deposition, Jeff Brown would later charge that, after he and Casey decided to resign, they were labeled "atheists" by pro-ID board member Alan Bonsell.
Shortly after the vote on ID, eleven parents of Dover High School students engaged the American Civil Liberties Union, Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, and the Pennsylvania law firm of Pepper Hamilton. They filed suit over the board's decision. "I want my daughter to have her religious education but I want to be responsible for it, or maybe the church we attend," says plaintiff Steve Stough, a Republican and a Christian who, like Jeff and Casey Brown, accepts evolution. "And no matter how you describe it, this whole thing was a shot at religious education."
Dover's science and religion rift goes back several years, as is illustrated by an event that took place over summer recess in 2002. While Dover high school students and teachers were on break, a high school janitor removed a large student-painted mural from its place in one of the school's science labs and set it on fire. The massive, colorful piece of artwork—taking up two four-foot by eight-foot plywood sheets—depicted an evolutionary progression of ape-like humanoids, running across grassland as they gradually became modern man. It had been commissioned by the science department itself, and it took its student creator a full semester to complete.
In picking a fight over evolution, the Dover board had exacerbated precisely what the authors of the U.S. Constitution sought to prevent with the First Amendment: Religious schisms in American communities. This fall, the Dover Area School Board's actions will be judged according to the amendment—as well as by precedents set by the long string of evolution lawsuits that punctuated U.S. history during the 20th century.
The fight against evolution in America has never really ended; it has only changed form—for legal and cultural reasons, rather than scientific ones. The 1925 Scopes monkey trial—memorialized in the play and film Inherit the Wind—took place after John Scopes, a first-year science teacher, deliberately violated Tennessee's explicit anti-evolution statute, which stated that "it shall be unlawful for any teacher to teach any law that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals." Prosecutor William Jennings Bryan defended the literal authority of the Bible and argued that science and religion are locked in inevitable conflict—evolution and biblical truth could never be reconciled. Clarence Darrow, the ACLU criminal defense lawyer, sought to show that the theory of evolution is perfectly compatible with equally valid, but non-literal, readings of scripture.
What's less frequently remembered about the Scopes trial is its somewhat ignominious conclusion. Scopes was convicted for doing what he had inarguably done: violated existing law. Because Scopes was later acquitted on a technicality, the ACLU could not appeal and seek a strong precedent in support of the separation of religion and science education. The cultural legacy of this trial clearly advanced the creationist cause in America. Other states passed anti-evolution laws; publishers of high school biology textbooks self-censored to conform. Then, in the 1960s, after the Soviets launched Sputnik, the US government increased spending on scientific research and education, promoting evolution at the high school level. The challenge to creationist sentiment and school board policy ignited a second chapter in the history of battles over the teaching of evolution in schools. This time, though, the anti-evolutionists were on the defensive.
In 1968, the US Supreme Court overturned an Arkansas anti-evolution law very similar to the Tennessee law violated by Scopes, calling it an affront to church-state separation and the First Amendment. In the wake of this new precedent, the anti-evolutionist legal strategy advocated "equal time" legislation, calling for the inclusion of both evolution and creationism (which creationists now labeled "scientific") in high school biology. 1981s McLean v. Arkansas was fought over that state's "balanced treatment for creation-science and evolution-science" Act 590. In a case closely resembling what's now happening in Dover, the ACLU challenged the law's constitutionality, leading to a lengthy and involved federal trial in which both sides, wielding dueling "experts," claimed to have science on their side. The ACLU sought to prove that "creation science" was in fact nothing of the kind, and Judge William Overton ruled strongly in the group's favor.
In 1987, the US Supreme Court ruled that Louisiana's "balanced treatment" law was also unconstitutional, favorably citing McLean. Both courts pronounced that "creation science" was, in essence, a fraud—religion masquerading as a valid scientific explanation just to get past legal barriers. With their "creation science" strategies struck down by the Supreme Court, anti-evolutionists almost immediately launched another tactic: They morphed into defenders of "intelligent design."
According to court filings, certain Dover board members pushed for the teaching of outright creationism long before they accepted a donation of anti-evolution textbooks from a local church. It was also long before they embraced ID—which is, itself, inherently theological, as the ACLU and co-litigants argue, because it postulates a designer who is "intelligent."
"The purposes and effect of the [intelligent design] policy are to advance and endorse the specific religious viewpoint and beliefs encompassed by the assertion or argument of intelligent design," the Dover lawsuit charges. When set in the context of Supreme Court legal precedents, the Dover board's actions would appear to leave it thoroughly exposed—relatively easy pickings for civil-libertarian lawyers who have defended evolution against religious onslaughts again and again in recent history.
If battling over culturally divisive issues like evolution can be destructive to a community, it can also be quite expensive in terms of legal fees; Dover, which Casey Brown calls a "bedroom community," is a relatively poor area with a modest tax base. If, as seems increasingly likely, the Dover board—represented pro-bono by the Thomas More Law Center of Ann Arbor, Michigan, which describes itself as dedicated to "defending and promoting the religious freedom of Christians" —loses its case, the fiscal penalty (comprised of the considerable legal expenses for the ACLU and co-litigants) could be substantial. The religious strife that Dover has already experienced may pale in comparison to the attacks and finger-pointing that will assuredly follow if Dover taxpayers have to underwrite a lawsuit that their elected school board inflicted upon the district.
From a practical standpoint, the emphasis on having to defend a federal lawsuit has almost certainly taken a toll on education in Dover. "How many hundreds and thousands of hours have been wasted on this already, by the administrators, the support staff, the teachers?" asks Casey Brown. "The time that was being spent on ID was not being spent on identifying at-risk kids," adds her husband.
And for what greater cause is Dover making all these sacrifices? Sadly, it may be for none at all. Even as the national media lionizes the Dover case as a new Scopes trial, top-tier anti-evolutionists have strategically backed away from it. In June, three leading Discovery Institute-affiliated ID advocates had their names removed from the list of experts slated to testify in court on behalf of the Dover school district. This, despite the fact that several Discovery fellows penned a 2000 Utah Law Review article, claiming that introducing ID into science classes—exactly the Dover board's strategy—is constitutionally permissible and legally defensible.
No longer the second-coming of the Scopes trial, the Dover situation is looking more and more like the mess nobody in the creationist camp wants to clean up. Even notorious Republican senator Rick Santorum, who last year stood by the Dover board's actions like a proud parent, is now pulling back from openly pushing for intelligent design in science classes. Santorum has relinquished his pro-ID stance; the Dover board, however, cannot. The national ID movement is backing away from Dover as though it's a village that must be sacrificed in the early stages of a long military campaign.
The Discovery Institute's updated strategy, which doesn't explicitly introduce ID into classes, is called "teach the controversy." Having manufactured a national debate through its widespread questioning of evolutionary biology—and through at least implicitly encouraging actions like that of Dover's school board—the Discovery Institute now points to the alleged "controversy" itself as a topic that American students need to understand. It's quite effective: school board members are only encouraging "critical thinking" about evolution. ID proponents can watch as evolution is questioned in class; they won't need to run the legal risk of explicitly advocating religious views or talking about an "intelligent designer."
After the Dover case runs its course, or perhaps even sooner, some locality's "teach the controversy" policy will probably spark the next legal battle over evolution; Kansas seems the likely front-runner. Although it hasn't finalized anything as of this writing, the anti-evolution majority on the Kansas State Board of Education has been pushing a Discovery Institute-friendly "critical analysis" of the teaching of evolution, intended for the state's science standards. They're also pushing a redefinition of science for the board's purposes, so that it would no longer be limited to naturally-occurring phenomena—providing ID with the chance to call itself science. But Kansas, unlike Dover, has carefully avoided introducing the words "intelligent design" into the standards, a strategic posture that may put it on somewhat stronger legal footing.
That's no consolation for Dover, which won't easily heal from its current battle. The nature of the Dover situation was apparent at the board's August meeting. There, parents in the audience discussed the abrupt disappearance of William Buckingham, the political leader of the Dover board's actions.
After the media descended and the lawsuit was filed, Buckingham denied making his infamous statement about defending Jesus in America's classrooms. Not long thereafter, citing health problems, he sold his house and moved to North Carolina. At the meeting, the school superintendent read Buckingham's resignation statement. Though they'd followed his lead into potentially costly litigation, none of his former school-board allies made use of the opportunity to comment on his influential tenure.
Jeff and Casey Brown were not present that day, though their side of the fight was well represented: Sitting in the back of the room were the parents who had filed suit against the board. "For the person who spearheaded this whole movement, to see him bail at this point in time disturbs me," said Steve Stough, one of the plaintiffs.
Buckingham's southward flight seems symbolic of the Dover board's problematic legal situation. While there is a new religious challenge to evolution afoot, Dover seems increasingly unlikely to represent the deciding battle—yet the town's experience is all the more revealing for precisely that reason. Rather than fighting science with science, Dover illustrates that the evolution conflict on the horizon is likely to feature ever-shifting legal strategies, broken allegiances and communities hung out to dry. It will be a conflict, in short, where the very essence of the anti-evolutionists' tactics demonstrates the legal and scientific weakness of their position.
by Chris Mooney • Posted October 1, 2005 02:32 PM
From the OCT/NOV 2005 issue of Seed
Late this summer, President Bush endorsed teaching the anti-evolutionist concept of intelligent design to America's high school students. But one community has already tried exactly that—and gotten sued for it. In August, the school board in Dover, Pennsylvania faced a community divided over biology and the bible. In attendance were parents and neighbors, co-litigants in a First Amendment legal suit. Welcome to the opening salvo in America's latest war on science.
Resigning from the Dover Area School Board was the last thing that Jeff and Carol "Casey" Brown thought they'd ever have to do. They had poured their lives into their community's educational problems, Jeff for five years and Casey for 10. But in a late-night discussion on October 16—the night of their 20th wedding anniversary, as it were—they realized they had little choice but to quit. Dover, the tiny township of 1,800 where they'd made their home for the past 22 years, had been radically altered. Former friends and school board colleagues were now bitter enemies, divided over a simple matter—what should be taught in ninth-grade biology at Dover High School.
Casey Brown, a tall woman with an uncompromising bent and a parliamentarian's mastery of school board rules, precedents and procedures, first ran for the board to advocate better treatment of students with learning disabilities, like her daughter. Jeff ran for the board because he was fed up with what he viewed as rampant cronyism and corruption. "I made a little cardboard button, took off a day of work and I got elected," he remembers.
That was back when Dover was still a sleepy place, long before most Americans had heard of the town or the New York Times assigned a reporter to cover its school board races. And it was long before the Dover board drove away the Browns, made national headlines, triggered a lawsuit for refuting Charles Darwin's theory of evolution and introduced students to the concept of intelligent design, or ID.
Now, with a highly visible federal trial beginning on September 27, amid a national and international uproar prompted by President Bush's own endorsement of ID, the press is depicting Dover as the 21st-century equivalent of Dayton, Tennessee, site of the famous 1925 Scopes monkey trial. But there's a key difference between the Scopes era and today: Anti-evolutionists seem to be abandoning the Dover confrontation like a sinking ship. They have plans elsewhere—particularly in the state of Kansas.
As a result, Dover represents something very different and perhaps more poignant. It's among the first towns to fall victim to a divisive religious and scientific battle that is building to a fever pitch—one that promises to tear apart many more communities before it's finally settled.
Jeff and Casey were on the front lines as the fight engulfed their town; in fact, they inadvertently facilitated it by choosing the wrong political allies. After their election to the nine-person school board, the Browns began to seek like-minded acquaintances to run for seats alongside them. They turned to a group of conservative Christians, who were soon elected. Together, they formed a majority on the board. The Dover area was home to a wide diversity of sects, including Mennonites, Lutherans, Brethren and Amish, and had a long-standing live-and-let-live tradition. "All of us were good friends, and religion didn't really enter into it," recalls Casey. Then things began to change.
In 2003, the Dover board proposed sending a letter to the U.S. Supreme Court that defended using the phrase "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance. Jeff, himself a Christian and a former Sunday school teacher, balked, asking if the board would also support the phrase "under Allah." Casey, an Episcopalian, also declared her opposition. But their views were in the minority, and the letter was sent.
In 2004, as the Seattle-based Discovery Institute—national hub of the intelligent design movement—impelled a new wave of fights over the teaching of evolution across the country, the Dover board pushed its own pro-ID agenda. Curriculum committee chair William Buckingham, a conservative Christian, denounced a widely accepted biology textbook as being "laced with Darwinism." The 57-year-old former police officer and prison guard (who often denounced the notion of the separation of church and state as a myth) encouraged the search for a book that supported creationism, stating, "Two thousand years ago, someone died on a cross. Can't someone take a stand for him?" In another candid (and legally liable) moment, he added, "This country wasn't founded on Muslim beliefs or evolution. This country was founded on Christianity, and our students should be taught as such." (Although they were reported in local papers, Buckingham later contested these statements.)
The Browns were shocked, but their former friend had strong support on the board and in the community. Shortly thereafter, he announced a mysterious "donation" to the high-school: 50 copies of a textbook entitled Of Pandas and People, published by the Texas-based Foundation on Thought and Ethics, a Christian organization. The book argues that natural processes cannot sufficiently explain the complexity of life, and that "intelligent causes" must, instead, be invoked. Officially, the donation was anonymous. Unofficially—as was later alleged in court filings—the books came after Buckingham solicited donations for them at his own church.
According to Jeff and Casey, Buckingham and his supporters had, by then, stopped listening to the couple's dissenting opinions. "It's one thing to be at war with your political enemies and I'd done that for years," says Jeff. "But when my friends turned into enemies, I just reached the end of the rope."
On Monday, October 18, two days after the Browns' anniversary, the board sealed their fate, and its own. It voted six to three to endorse the following change to the biology curriculum:
Students will be made aware of gaps/problems in Darwin's theory and of other theories of evolution including, but not limited to, intelligent design.
The Browns promptly announced their resignations; Casey read an eloquent statement declaring that as the evolution fight unfolded, board members had twice demanded to know whether she had been "born again."
"It has become increasingly evident that, in the direction this board has now chosen to go, holding a certain religious belief is of paramount importance," she said. In a deposition, Jeff Brown would later charge that, after he and Casey decided to resign, they were labeled "atheists" by pro-ID board member Alan Bonsell.
Shortly after the vote on ID, eleven parents of Dover High School students engaged the American Civil Liberties Union, Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, and the Pennsylvania law firm of Pepper Hamilton. They filed suit over the board's decision. "I want my daughter to have her religious education but I want to be responsible for it, or maybe the church we attend," says plaintiff Steve Stough, a Republican and a Christian who, like Jeff and Casey Brown, accepts evolution. "And no matter how you describe it, this whole thing was a shot at religious education."
Dover's science and religion rift goes back several years, as is illustrated by an event that took place over summer recess in 2002. While Dover high school students and teachers were on break, a high school janitor removed a large student-painted mural from its place in one of the school's science labs and set it on fire. The massive, colorful piece of artwork—taking up two four-foot by eight-foot plywood sheets—depicted an evolutionary progression of ape-like humanoids, running across grassland as they gradually became modern man. It had been commissioned by the science department itself, and it took its student creator a full semester to complete.
In picking a fight over evolution, the Dover board had exacerbated precisely what the authors of the U.S. Constitution sought to prevent with the First Amendment: Religious schisms in American communities. This fall, the Dover Area School Board's actions will be judged according to the amendment—as well as by precedents set by the long string of evolution lawsuits that punctuated U.S. history during the 20th century.
The fight against evolution in America has never really ended; it has only changed form—for legal and cultural reasons, rather than scientific ones. The 1925 Scopes monkey trial—memorialized in the play and film Inherit the Wind—took place after John Scopes, a first-year science teacher, deliberately violated Tennessee's explicit anti-evolution statute, which stated that "it shall be unlawful for any teacher to teach any law that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals." Prosecutor William Jennings Bryan defended the literal authority of the Bible and argued that science and religion are locked in inevitable conflict—evolution and biblical truth could never be reconciled. Clarence Darrow, the ACLU criminal defense lawyer, sought to show that the theory of evolution is perfectly compatible with equally valid, but non-literal, readings of scripture.
What's less frequently remembered about the Scopes trial is its somewhat ignominious conclusion. Scopes was convicted for doing what he had inarguably done: violated existing law. Because Scopes was later acquitted on a technicality, the ACLU could not appeal and seek a strong precedent in support of the separation of religion and science education. The cultural legacy of this trial clearly advanced the creationist cause in America. Other states passed anti-evolution laws; publishers of high school biology textbooks self-censored to conform. Then, in the 1960s, after the Soviets launched Sputnik, the US government increased spending on scientific research and education, promoting evolution at the high school level. The challenge to creationist sentiment and school board policy ignited a second chapter in the history of battles over the teaching of evolution in schools. This time, though, the anti-evolutionists were on the defensive.
In 1968, the US Supreme Court overturned an Arkansas anti-evolution law very similar to the Tennessee law violated by Scopes, calling it an affront to church-state separation and the First Amendment. In the wake of this new precedent, the anti-evolutionist legal strategy advocated "equal time" legislation, calling for the inclusion of both evolution and creationism (which creationists now labeled "scientific") in high school biology. 1981s McLean v. Arkansas was fought over that state's "balanced treatment for creation-science and evolution-science" Act 590. In a case closely resembling what's now happening in Dover, the ACLU challenged the law's constitutionality, leading to a lengthy and involved federal trial in which both sides, wielding dueling "experts," claimed to have science on their side. The ACLU sought to prove that "creation science" was in fact nothing of the kind, and Judge William Overton ruled strongly in the group's favor.
In 1987, the US Supreme Court ruled that Louisiana's "balanced treatment" law was also unconstitutional, favorably citing McLean. Both courts pronounced that "creation science" was, in essence, a fraud—religion masquerading as a valid scientific explanation just to get past legal barriers. With their "creation science" strategies struck down by the Supreme Court, anti-evolutionists almost immediately launched another tactic: They morphed into defenders of "intelligent design."
According to court filings, certain Dover board members pushed for the teaching of outright creationism long before they accepted a donation of anti-evolution textbooks from a local church. It was also long before they embraced ID—which is, itself, inherently theological, as the ACLU and co-litigants argue, because it postulates a designer who is "intelligent."
"The purposes and effect of the [intelligent design] policy are to advance and endorse the specific religious viewpoint and beliefs encompassed by the assertion or argument of intelligent design," the Dover lawsuit charges. When set in the context of Supreme Court legal precedents, the Dover board's actions would appear to leave it thoroughly exposed—relatively easy pickings for civil-libertarian lawyers who have defended evolution against religious onslaughts again and again in recent history.
If battling over culturally divisive issues like evolution can be destructive to a community, it can also be quite expensive in terms of legal fees; Dover, which Casey Brown calls a "bedroom community," is a relatively poor area with a modest tax base. If, as seems increasingly likely, the Dover board—represented pro-bono by the Thomas More Law Center of Ann Arbor, Michigan, which describes itself as dedicated to "defending and promoting the religious freedom of Christians" —loses its case, the fiscal penalty (comprised of the considerable legal expenses for the ACLU and co-litigants) could be substantial. The religious strife that Dover has already experienced may pale in comparison to the attacks and finger-pointing that will assuredly follow if Dover taxpayers have to underwrite a lawsuit that their elected school board inflicted upon the district.
From a practical standpoint, the emphasis on having to defend a federal lawsuit has almost certainly taken a toll on education in Dover. "How many hundreds and thousands of hours have been wasted on this already, by the administrators, the support staff, the teachers?" asks Casey Brown. "The time that was being spent on ID was not being spent on identifying at-risk kids," adds her husband.
And for what greater cause is Dover making all these sacrifices? Sadly, it may be for none at all. Even as the national media lionizes the Dover case as a new Scopes trial, top-tier anti-evolutionists have strategically backed away from it. In June, three leading Discovery Institute-affiliated ID advocates had their names removed from the list of experts slated to testify in court on behalf of the Dover school district. This, despite the fact that several Discovery fellows penned a 2000 Utah Law Review article, claiming that introducing ID into science classes—exactly the Dover board's strategy—is constitutionally permissible and legally defensible.
No longer the second-coming of the Scopes trial, the Dover situation is looking more and more like the mess nobody in the creationist camp wants to clean up. Even notorious Republican senator Rick Santorum, who last year stood by the Dover board's actions like a proud parent, is now pulling back from openly pushing for intelligent design in science classes. Santorum has relinquished his pro-ID stance; the Dover board, however, cannot. The national ID movement is backing away from Dover as though it's a village that must be sacrificed in the early stages of a long military campaign.
The Discovery Institute's updated strategy, which doesn't explicitly introduce ID into classes, is called "teach the controversy." Having manufactured a national debate through its widespread questioning of evolutionary biology—and through at least implicitly encouraging actions like that of Dover's school board—the Discovery Institute now points to the alleged "controversy" itself as a topic that American students need to understand. It's quite effective: school board members are only encouraging "critical thinking" about evolution. ID proponents can watch as evolution is questioned in class; they won't need to run the legal risk of explicitly advocating religious views or talking about an "intelligent designer."
After the Dover case runs its course, or perhaps even sooner, some locality's "teach the controversy" policy will probably spark the next legal battle over evolution; Kansas seems the likely front-runner. Although it hasn't finalized anything as of this writing, the anti-evolution majority on the Kansas State Board of Education has been pushing a Discovery Institute-friendly "critical analysis" of the teaching of evolution, intended for the state's science standards. They're also pushing a redefinition of science for the board's purposes, so that it would no longer be limited to naturally-occurring phenomena—providing ID with the chance to call itself science. But Kansas, unlike Dover, has carefully avoided introducing the words "intelligent design" into the standards, a strategic posture that may put it on somewhat stronger legal footing.
That's no consolation for Dover, which won't easily heal from its current battle. The nature of the Dover situation was apparent at the board's August meeting. There, parents in the audience discussed the abrupt disappearance of William Buckingham, the political leader of the Dover board's actions.
After the media descended and the lawsuit was filed, Buckingham denied making his infamous statement about defending Jesus in America's classrooms. Not long thereafter, citing health problems, he sold his house and moved to North Carolina. At the meeting, the school superintendent read Buckingham's resignation statement. Though they'd followed his lead into potentially costly litigation, none of his former school-board allies made use of the opportunity to comment on his influential tenure.
Jeff and Casey Brown were not present that day, though their side of the fight was well represented: Sitting in the back of the room were the parents who had filed suit against the board. "For the person who spearheaded this whole movement, to see him bail at this point in time disturbs me," said Steve Stough, one of the plaintiffs.
Buckingham's southward flight seems symbolic of the Dover board's problematic legal situation. While there is a new religious challenge to evolution afoot, Dover seems increasingly unlikely to represent the deciding battle—yet the town's experience is all the more revealing for precisely that reason. Rather than fighting science with science, Dover illustrates that the evolution conflict on the horizon is likely to feature ever-shifting legal strategies, broken allegiances and communities hung out to dry. It will be a conflict, in short, where the very essence of the anti-evolutionists' tactics demonstrates the legal and scientific weakness of their position.
Thursday, January 19, 2006
Great New Magazine
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
Best. Underwear. Ever.
Tuesday, January 17, 2006
Bonsai Kitten
Aww...how cute! A kitten in a bottle!
Bonsai kittens are kittens raised in bottles so that they grow to fit the shape of a bottle. The very idea is so gross that it has got to be a joke. And of course reading the website, it becomes clear that it is indeed a joke.
Dedicated to preserving the long lost art of body modification in housepets.
Method
At only a few weeks of age, a kitten's bones have not yet hardened and become osseous. They are extremely soft and springy. In fact, if you take a week-old kitten and throw it to the floor, it will actually bounce! We do not recommend that you try this at home. The kitten may bounce under the furniture and be difficult to retrieve, as well as covered in unsightly household dust. However, the flexibility of the kitten's skeleton means that if the bones are gently warped at this early age, they can be molded into any desired shape. At Bonsai Kitten, we achieve this by placing the kitten into a rigid vessel soon after birth, and allowing the young cat to grow out its formative time entirely within this container. The kitten essentially grows into the shape of the vessel! Once the cat is fully developed, it is removed (or the vessel broken to remove it!), producing the lovable, furry pet you've always wanted, but it remains in the shape you've always dreamed of! There is virtually no limit to the eventual shape of your pet.
Practical Considerations
At Bonsai Kitten, we are happy to take care of all the little details and simply deliver to you a fully shaped kitten according to your specifications. However, for those who have applied for and received the appropriate Bonsai Kitticulture permits from the U.S. government, we are happy to provide details of the procedure to those who want to start from "scratch"! There are three main requirements that must be considered when making a Bonsai Kitten:
Air. This ought to go without saying, but you'd be surprised how many amateurs forget this detail and wind up with a cold, hard kitty in the morning! If the containment vessel is sealed, you must drill airholes prior to kitten insertion. A diamond drill is recommended for glass vessels.
Food & Water. Especially if the kitten's head is being shaped (one of the most versatile aspects of the Bonsai Kitten), it will not be able to eat or drink normally. The most common solution is another hole in the container with a feeding tube to the kitten's mouth, where a liquid food slurry can provide both nutrient and hydration requirements.
Waste Removal. Left to its own devices, the kitten would quickly fill its vessel with its own urine and feces, leading to certain sickness and death, not to mention the inevitably unpleasant appearance and odor. The best solution is to seal the kitten's anus with Super Glue prior to insertion, and then insert a waste tube through a third hole in the vessel. As the kitten's body is still developing, a natural rectal diverticulum will soon form around the tube, which can be drained in any convenient fashion. It's just like a kitty colostomy bag!
If you have your license to "grow your own", don't hesitate to contact us for assistance and also to let us know your results! Our staff are always happy to help. Remember, you should not attempt these procedures without the proper training and licenses. Bonsai Kitten will not be held responsible for the results of any attempts to apply any procedures described on this web site.
The humor here is how many people take this sort of thing seriously.
Cube Kitty
Due to popular demand from our prospective customers, we present this special example of hyper-modern, non-traditional bonsai. The containment vessel will be the stylish shell of a popular personal computer from a certain litigious hardware manufacturer. Please note that this use of the computer is not officially endorsed by the manufacturer, and may void the warranty!
The subject of this piece will be a human baby. We have chosen a female, due to the increased predilection for cats exhibited by this gender later in life.
Just kidding! The baby is present to demonstrate that due to the pre-formed holes in the computer shell, this product is especially suitable for infants, who are therefore able to pet the kitty's soft fur throughout the containment stage. Hope we didn't scare you! Shame on those pranksters who have e-mailed us suggesting we bonsai children; remember, the art of feline bonsai is for kittens only! In actual fact, the non-traditional aspect of this product is that it cannot be performed with just any kitty - it requires a specially bred high-birth-weight kitten, in order to fill the large interior of the cube.
Initial preparation of the vessel and feeding tube, and planning of the medication regimen and kitten arrangement is of critical importance to the successful outcome of the Cube Kitty. Considering the high cost of the containment vessel, you owe it to yourself to spend the extra time at the start. Your kitten, and your children, will thank you for it. Shown here are the vessel, Alessi shoehorn and scooper, integrated feed/waste tube coupling, sedative syringe, precision bone crush calipers, electric spinal former and vent drill.
Physical insertion and restraint proceeds more smoothly with anaesthetic pre-treatment. However, general anaesthesia with barbiturates often results in significant mortality when followed by long-term intubation and catheterization. Use of preanaesthetic agents such as chlorpromazine hydrochloride (25mg/kg), diazepam and propiopromazine (5mg/kg), or fentanyl and droperidol (a combination product, given at 0.22mL/kg) may reduce the dose of general anaesthetic by 50%, and often prolongs anaesthesia. Ketamine (45mg/kg) and xylazine (8mg/kg) given together, result in adequate general anaesthesia for even extreme manipulations. Since the weight variance of high-birth-weight kittens can be significant, it is important to check the exact weight on a scale immediately prior to dosage.
Initial insertion, with the aid of the ubiquitous Alessi shoehorn. Although insertion may seem simple through the wide opening, the shoehorn and other fine manipulation are recommended to prevent undesired fractures and subluxations of lumbar vertebrae. Although such untoward effects usually do not affect the final outcome in a cosmetically obvious fashion, Master Liu-Chen's writings repeatedly warn that deep tissue and skeletal damage due to careless cramming is sufficient to disqualify the resulting Bonsai Kitten from the highest levels of the art, and may also result in sub-optimal temperament as the kitten ages.
Head placement in the corner is recommended in order to maximise the sought-after "Bonsai Kitten" expression via skull faceting. The bone crush calipers and electric spinal former may be used at this point to ensure an attractive and comfortable arrangement of the kitten's supporting body parts.
Although the shell comes with several pre-formed openings, we recommend accurate placement of the feeding tube by custom-drilling a vent hole. This will serve to hold the kitten's head in place during the shaping process, preventing danger to infants as they play with their kitty through the larger petting holes. Matching the vent hole with the kitten's mouth is easier if the hole is drilled after insertion; the drill should be set to a low speed, and care should be taken not to apply too much forward pressure.
Kitten intubated with coaxial feed/air tube. Intubation proceeds more easily with liberal application of a topical anaesthetic gel, such as Xylogel, to the outside of the tube, which should be advanced down the oesophagus to at least one-third of the unconstrained body length. The kitten is shown receiving its first post-insertion meal of a measured dose of food slurry containing three parts chicken baby food, one part whole egg, one part Silastic rubber compound, one part Nutrical and one part water. As this kitten will be a display model, we have chosen to divert to a separate waste tube via Super Glue anus sealing as usual.
As can be seen here in this picture taken after one week of confinement, the Cube Kitty makes an ideal toy for children of all ages, from infant and up, and while still in the containment vessel can even double as playroom furniture! Although the built-in openings allow children to touch the kitten in complete safety, the exposed fur should be periodically wiped down with a cloth soaked in a dilute solution of antibacterial pet soap and parasite repellent.
Bonsai kittens are kittens raised in bottles so that they grow to fit the shape of a bottle. The very idea is so gross that it has got to be a joke. And of course reading the website, it becomes clear that it is indeed a joke.
Dedicated to preserving the long lost art of body modification in housepets.
Method
At only a few weeks of age, a kitten's bones have not yet hardened and become osseous. They are extremely soft and springy. In fact, if you take a week-old kitten and throw it to the floor, it will actually bounce! We do not recommend that you try this at home. The kitten may bounce under the furniture and be difficult to retrieve, as well as covered in unsightly household dust. However, the flexibility of the kitten's skeleton means that if the bones are gently warped at this early age, they can be molded into any desired shape. At Bonsai Kitten, we achieve this by placing the kitten into a rigid vessel soon after birth, and allowing the young cat to grow out its formative time entirely within this container. The kitten essentially grows into the shape of the vessel! Once the cat is fully developed, it is removed (or the vessel broken to remove it!), producing the lovable, furry pet you've always wanted, but it remains in the shape you've always dreamed of! There is virtually no limit to the eventual shape of your pet.
Practical Considerations
At Bonsai Kitten, we are happy to take care of all the little details and simply deliver to you a fully shaped kitten according to your specifications. However, for those who have applied for and received the appropriate Bonsai Kitticulture permits from the U.S. government, we are happy to provide details of the procedure to those who want to start from "scratch"! There are three main requirements that must be considered when making a Bonsai Kitten:
Air. This ought to go without saying, but you'd be surprised how many amateurs forget this detail and wind up with a cold, hard kitty in the morning! If the containment vessel is sealed, you must drill airholes prior to kitten insertion. A diamond drill is recommended for glass vessels.
Food & Water. Especially if the kitten's head is being shaped (one of the most versatile aspects of the Bonsai Kitten), it will not be able to eat or drink normally. The most common solution is another hole in the container with a feeding tube to the kitten's mouth, where a liquid food slurry can provide both nutrient and hydration requirements.
Waste Removal. Left to its own devices, the kitten would quickly fill its vessel with its own urine and feces, leading to certain sickness and death, not to mention the inevitably unpleasant appearance and odor. The best solution is to seal the kitten's anus with Super Glue prior to insertion, and then insert a waste tube through a third hole in the vessel. As the kitten's body is still developing, a natural rectal diverticulum will soon form around the tube, which can be drained in any convenient fashion. It's just like a kitty colostomy bag!
If you have your license to "grow your own", don't hesitate to contact us for assistance and also to let us know your results! Our staff are always happy to help. Remember, you should not attempt these procedures without the proper training and licenses. Bonsai Kitten will not be held responsible for the results of any attempts to apply any procedures described on this web site.
The humor here is how many people take this sort of thing seriously.
Cube Kitty
Due to popular demand from our prospective customers, we present this special example of hyper-modern, non-traditional bonsai. The containment vessel will be the stylish shell of a popular personal computer from a certain litigious hardware manufacturer. Please note that this use of the computer is not officially endorsed by the manufacturer, and may void the warranty!
The subject of this piece will be a human baby. We have chosen a female, due to the increased predilection for cats exhibited by this gender later in life.
Just kidding! The baby is present to demonstrate that due to the pre-formed holes in the computer shell, this product is especially suitable for infants, who are therefore able to pet the kitty's soft fur throughout the containment stage. Hope we didn't scare you! Shame on those pranksters who have e-mailed us suggesting we bonsai children; remember, the art of feline bonsai is for kittens only! In actual fact, the non-traditional aspect of this product is that it cannot be performed with just any kitty - it requires a specially bred high-birth-weight kitten, in order to fill the large interior of the cube.
Initial preparation of the vessel and feeding tube, and planning of the medication regimen and kitten arrangement is of critical importance to the successful outcome of the Cube Kitty. Considering the high cost of the containment vessel, you owe it to yourself to spend the extra time at the start. Your kitten, and your children, will thank you for it. Shown here are the vessel, Alessi shoehorn and scooper, integrated feed/waste tube coupling, sedative syringe, precision bone crush calipers, electric spinal former and vent drill.
Physical insertion and restraint proceeds more smoothly with anaesthetic pre-treatment. However, general anaesthesia with barbiturates often results in significant mortality when followed by long-term intubation and catheterization. Use of preanaesthetic agents such as chlorpromazine hydrochloride (25mg/kg), diazepam and propiopromazine (5mg/kg), or fentanyl and droperidol (a combination product, given at 0.22mL/kg) may reduce the dose of general anaesthetic by 50%, and often prolongs anaesthesia. Ketamine (45mg/kg) and xylazine (8mg/kg) given together, result in adequate general anaesthesia for even extreme manipulations. Since the weight variance of high-birth-weight kittens can be significant, it is important to check the exact weight on a scale immediately prior to dosage.
Initial insertion, with the aid of the ubiquitous Alessi shoehorn. Although insertion may seem simple through the wide opening, the shoehorn and other fine manipulation are recommended to prevent undesired fractures and subluxations of lumbar vertebrae. Although such untoward effects usually do not affect the final outcome in a cosmetically obvious fashion, Master Liu-Chen's writings repeatedly warn that deep tissue and skeletal damage due to careless cramming is sufficient to disqualify the resulting Bonsai Kitten from the highest levels of the art, and may also result in sub-optimal temperament as the kitten ages.
Head placement in the corner is recommended in order to maximise the sought-after "Bonsai Kitten" expression via skull faceting. The bone crush calipers and electric spinal former may be used at this point to ensure an attractive and comfortable arrangement of the kitten's supporting body parts.
Although the shell comes with several pre-formed openings, we recommend accurate placement of the feeding tube by custom-drilling a vent hole. This will serve to hold the kitten's head in place during the shaping process, preventing danger to infants as they play with their kitty through the larger petting holes. Matching the vent hole with the kitten's mouth is easier if the hole is drilled after insertion; the drill should be set to a low speed, and care should be taken not to apply too much forward pressure.
Kitten intubated with coaxial feed/air tube. Intubation proceeds more easily with liberal application of a topical anaesthetic gel, such as Xylogel, to the outside of the tube, which should be advanced down the oesophagus to at least one-third of the unconstrained body length. The kitten is shown receiving its first post-insertion meal of a measured dose of food slurry containing three parts chicken baby food, one part whole egg, one part Silastic rubber compound, one part Nutrical and one part water. As this kitten will be a display model, we have chosen to divert to a separate waste tube via Super Glue anus sealing as usual.
As can be seen here in this picture taken after one week of confinement, the Cube Kitty makes an ideal toy for children of all ages, from infant and up, and while still in the containment vessel can even double as playroom furniture! Although the built-in openings allow children to touch the kitten in complete safety, the exposed fur should be periodically wiped down with a cloth soaked in a dilute solution of antibacterial pet soap and parasite repellent.
Monday, January 16, 2006
TV in the bedroom halves your sex life - study
At least one person I know will find this news interesting.
ROME (Reuters) - Thinking of buying a TV for the bedroom? Think again -- it could ruin your sex life.
A study by an Italian sexologist has found that couples who have a TV set in their bedroom have sex half as often as those who don't.
"If there's no television in the bedroom, the frequency (of sexual intercourse) doubles," said Serenella Salomoni whose team of psychologists questioned 523 Italian couples to see what effect television had on their sex lives.
On average, Italians who live without TV in the bedroom have sex twice a week, or eight times a month. This drops to an average of four times a month for those with a TV, the study found.
For the over-50s the effect is even more marked, with the average of seven couplings a month falling to just 1.5 times.
The study found certain programmes are far more likely to impede passion than others. Violent films will put a stop to sexual relations for half of all couples, while reality shows stem passion for a third of couples.
From: Yahoo! News
ROME (Reuters) - Thinking of buying a TV for the bedroom? Think again -- it could ruin your sex life.
A study by an Italian sexologist has found that couples who have a TV set in their bedroom have sex half as often as those who don't.
"If there's no television in the bedroom, the frequency (of sexual intercourse) doubles," said Serenella Salomoni whose team of psychologists questioned 523 Italian couples to see what effect television had on their sex lives.
On average, Italians who live without TV in the bedroom have sex twice a week, or eight times a month. This drops to an average of four times a month for those with a TV, the study found.
For the over-50s the effect is even more marked, with the average of seven couplings a month falling to just 1.5 times.
The study found certain programmes are far more likely to impede passion than others. Violent films will put a stop to sexual relations for half of all couples, while reality shows stem passion for a third of couples.
From: Yahoo! News
Sexy Sadie...what have you done?
Cheesy title, I know.
Click here for a bunch of *dirt* on Jude Law's ex-wife, Sadie Frost. Apparently, divorced mothers of four who manage to stay in great shape aren't allowed to have sex or go topless at topless Mediterranean beaches.
Click here for a bunch of *dirt* on Jude Law's ex-wife, Sadie Frost. Apparently, divorced mothers of four who manage to stay in great shape aren't allowed to have sex or go topless at topless Mediterranean beaches.
Sunday, January 15, 2006
The Strokes in the Mirror (UK)
6 January 2006
STROKES FOR FOLKS
They may not have had sales figures to match their profile, but to many The Strokes are the coolest band on the planet.
The good-looking, skinny New York boys are well known for their celebrity girlfriends (drummer Fab Moretti dates Drew Barrymore, guitarist Nick Valensi squires Amanda De Cadenet), and their roughneck punk sound ignited an international rock revolution when they emerged with their This Is The Modern Age EP in early 2001.
But the group’s frontman Julian Casablancas views the band’s chic image as an albatross hanging around their necks.
“To me it’s annoying because it’s not what my life feels like,” he explains. Recently married to Juliet Joslin, who works for the band’s management company, Julian, 27, has begun to put his wild party days behind him.
“It wasn’t a quick romance,” he says. “I’ve known her for something like seven years and by the time we got married we’d been together for two years. I felt real lucky – like I’d been taken over by a bigger power. You meet someone who makes you feel a better person and you feel the same way about them. I’ve never felt happier.
“How have I changed? Well, I’m always trying to be a better person, trying not to be an asshole. It is tough. Communication is a strange thing. Little things can make a big impression. You change a line, a word, or the way you are looking at someone when you say it, and it alters the way relationships will develop. I feel things are clearer and more fulfilled since I got married.”
Julian is also looking forward to the release of the new Strokes album, First Impressions Of Earth, the follow-up to the band’s underperforming second effort, Room On Fire.
The album’s meaty production, courtesy of former Paul McCartney producer David Kahne, sounds like an attempt to ensure that the band’s sales catch up with their often slavering press coverage.
“I didn’t really see it that way,” says Julian. “I know in the States that we don’t get played on radio or MTV, so it would be nice to get our foot through that door. We want to do it in a cool way with less corporate whoring, but maybe we went too much in the indie direction before. We’re still trying to figure out the balance. With David we got a bigger sound, but with the same vibe and attitude. It sounds like us.
“I didn’t really get a sense of David cracking the whip. At first I wouldn’t trust him. Part of me wants to let go completely, just do three takes my way and tell him to put it together. But I had to be sitting there to make sure that things I liked were kept in.”
And are you ready for the big breakthrough if it comes?
“I haven’t even tried to get my hopes up,” he says. “I’m excited and tense, but confident. I hope it does well, but I have no idea. We learned from Room On Fire not to get overconfident. We were popping the champagne corks and then it was like, ‘What do you mean it’s not selling?’”
The Strokes’ reputation as a hard-working, hard-partying band is pronounced, but Julian denies that he’s ever been floored by the lifestyle.
“Not clinically,” he laughs, “although sometimes I have laid in bed for a week. I have felt close to breaking down, but I don’t think I have ever been broken. Well, if I have I haven’t noticed it. We never had to stop a tour.”
It is not just his relationship with his wife that Julian has to attend to – his bonds with the band need constant attention.
“The relationships are fragile and complicated,” he says. “You have to work at it to make sure they function properly. We have our ups and downs, but overall I think we manage pretty well. It’s important to keep a balance to our schedule so that it doesn’t get to where we want to kill each other.
“It’s hard to find the balance. If you have too easy a week planned that can create problems too. It’s always a work in progress thing.”
One problem that seems to have been solved is Julian’s insomnia, something that has plagued him since the band first got started.
“Since I was 15 or 16, I’ve gone through phases were I couldn’t sleep, lying in bed until the sun comes up,” he says. “It’s unpredictable and I can’t connect it to anything – work, drinking, happiness or sadness. It’s totally random, but I feel fine now.”
On the new album, Julian shares songwriting duties with the rest of the group for the first time. “It’s been a good thing for everyone,” he admits. “I wanted everyone to feel that they could do their thing.”
And that has given him time to concentrate on his frontman duties.
“To be honest I used to do nothing to warm up. I’d smoke, drink, take whatever was put in front of me before a show and not take care of myself. The new songs are a little tougher to sing and so I have to take more care.
"I sometimes even catch myself humming songs before the show.”
First Impressions Of Earth is out now.
I think I've read almost all of the press regarding the Strokes as they've put out their third album and this is by far the most coherent interview that Julian has given. It's so coherent and sweet that I want to believe it but I can't. Why? It's the frigging Daily Mirror which is notorious for making things up, exaggerating, etc. So on the one hand we have a nice, sweet, believable article that it would be stupid to make up but then again we have a newspaper that does that sort of thing routinely and which no one (other than Jude Law's nanny) gives actual interviews to. It's the bastardized British equivalent of The Enquirer. For example, The Mirror is also currently running this quote from Sienna Miller:
"Daisy [the nanny] better live in fear. I'm quite looking forward to the days when our paths will cross, which I know they will," snarled Sienna. "I just hope that woman doesn't run into me in a dark alley!"
Right! I'm sure that Sienna Miller spent weeks with a Vogue journalist painting a rosy picture of herself and her "we're just close friends now" stance regarding Jude Law only to turn around and exclusively tell a tabloid that she's actually planning on beating up a nanny.
I guess I should shut up and be bemused that a gossip rag found one of my favorite bands worth writing about period without resorting to the Drew Barrymore or Amanda de Cadenet angles. This is a magazine that announced Julian Casablancas' engagement to Juliette Lewis (because God forbid there be another person on the planet with the same general first name). Even this article misnames the band's debut EP.
STROKES FOR FOLKS
They may not have had sales figures to match their profile, but to many The Strokes are the coolest band on the planet.
The good-looking, skinny New York boys are well known for their celebrity girlfriends (drummer Fab Moretti dates Drew Barrymore, guitarist Nick Valensi squires Amanda De Cadenet), and their roughneck punk sound ignited an international rock revolution when they emerged with their This Is The Modern Age EP in early 2001.
But the group’s frontman Julian Casablancas views the band’s chic image as an albatross hanging around their necks.
“To me it’s annoying because it’s not what my life feels like,” he explains. Recently married to Juliet Joslin, who works for the band’s management company, Julian, 27, has begun to put his wild party days behind him.
“It wasn’t a quick romance,” he says. “I’ve known her for something like seven years and by the time we got married we’d been together for two years. I felt real lucky – like I’d been taken over by a bigger power. You meet someone who makes you feel a better person and you feel the same way about them. I’ve never felt happier.
“How have I changed? Well, I’m always trying to be a better person, trying not to be an asshole. It is tough. Communication is a strange thing. Little things can make a big impression. You change a line, a word, or the way you are looking at someone when you say it, and it alters the way relationships will develop. I feel things are clearer and more fulfilled since I got married.”
Julian is also looking forward to the release of the new Strokes album, First Impressions Of Earth, the follow-up to the band’s underperforming second effort, Room On Fire.
The album’s meaty production, courtesy of former Paul McCartney producer David Kahne, sounds like an attempt to ensure that the band’s sales catch up with their often slavering press coverage.
“I didn’t really see it that way,” says Julian. “I know in the States that we don’t get played on radio or MTV, so it would be nice to get our foot through that door. We want to do it in a cool way with less corporate whoring, but maybe we went too much in the indie direction before. We’re still trying to figure out the balance. With David we got a bigger sound, but with the same vibe and attitude. It sounds like us.
“I didn’t really get a sense of David cracking the whip. At first I wouldn’t trust him. Part of me wants to let go completely, just do three takes my way and tell him to put it together. But I had to be sitting there to make sure that things I liked were kept in.”
And are you ready for the big breakthrough if it comes?
“I haven’t even tried to get my hopes up,” he says. “I’m excited and tense, but confident. I hope it does well, but I have no idea. We learned from Room On Fire not to get overconfident. We were popping the champagne corks and then it was like, ‘What do you mean it’s not selling?’”
The Strokes’ reputation as a hard-working, hard-partying band is pronounced, but Julian denies that he’s ever been floored by the lifestyle.
“Not clinically,” he laughs, “although sometimes I have laid in bed for a week. I have felt close to breaking down, but I don’t think I have ever been broken. Well, if I have I haven’t noticed it. We never had to stop a tour.”
It is not just his relationship with his wife that Julian has to attend to – his bonds with the band need constant attention.
“The relationships are fragile and complicated,” he says. “You have to work at it to make sure they function properly. We have our ups and downs, but overall I think we manage pretty well. It’s important to keep a balance to our schedule so that it doesn’t get to where we want to kill each other.
“It’s hard to find the balance. If you have too easy a week planned that can create problems too. It’s always a work in progress thing.”
One problem that seems to have been solved is Julian’s insomnia, something that has plagued him since the band first got started.
“Since I was 15 or 16, I’ve gone through phases were I couldn’t sleep, lying in bed until the sun comes up,” he says. “It’s unpredictable and I can’t connect it to anything – work, drinking, happiness or sadness. It’s totally random, but I feel fine now.”
On the new album, Julian shares songwriting duties with the rest of the group for the first time. “It’s been a good thing for everyone,” he admits. “I wanted everyone to feel that they could do their thing.”
And that has given him time to concentrate on his frontman duties.
“To be honest I used to do nothing to warm up. I’d smoke, drink, take whatever was put in front of me before a show and not take care of myself. The new songs are a little tougher to sing and so I have to take more care.
"I sometimes even catch myself humming songs before the show.”
First Impressions Of Earth is out now.
I think I've read almost all of the press regarding the Strokes as they've put out their third album and this is by far the most coherent interview that Julian has given. It's so coherent and sweet that I want to believe it but I can't. Why? It's the frigging Daily Mirror which is notorious for making things up, exaggerating, etc. So on the one hand we have a nice, sweet, believable article that it would be stupid to make up but then again we have a newspaper that does that sort of thing routinely and which no one (other than Jude Law's nanny) gives actual interviews to. It's the bastardized British equivalent of The Enquirer. For example, The Mirror is also currently running this quote from Sienna Miller:
"Daisy [the nanny] better live in fear. I'm quite looking forward to the days when our paths will cross, which I know they will," snarled Sienna. "I just hope that woman doesn't run into me in a dark alley!"
Right! I'm sure that Sienna Miller spent weeks with a Vogue journalist painting a rosy picture of herself and her "we're just close friends now" stance regarding Jude Law only to turn around and exclusively tell a tabloid that she's actually planning on beating up a nanny.
I guess I should shut up and be bemused that a gossip rag found one of my favorite bands worth writing about period without resorting to the Drew Barrymore or Amanda de Cadenet angles. This is a magazine that announced Julian Casablancas' engagement to Juliette Lewis (because God forbid there be another person on the planet with the same general first name). Even this article misnames the band's debut EP.
Memoirs of a Geisha
Memoirs of a Geisha has received a lot of press and praise because of its great style, interesting story, etc. But nowhere has anyone commented on the brilliant performance done by my all-time favorite actress, Gong Li. Gong Li plays Hatsumomo, a beautiful but aging geisha. Her character is bitter about being trapped and unable to have a relationship with a guy she actually likes. She's deliciously mean-spirited and cruel with never even a hint of a soft spot. This is quite different from most of the parts she's played (To Live, Farewell My Concubine).
Gong Li's entire performance in this film was flawless. I don't much care about the Academy Awards but if anyone deserves an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress, it's Gong Li.
Gong Li's entire performance in this film was flawless. I don't much care about the Academy Awards but if anyone deserves an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress, it's Gong Li.
Watvheer!
I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdgnieg.
The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid!
Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae.
The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm.
Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh?
The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid!
Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae.
The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm.
Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh?
Saturday, January 14, 2006
Stop it already!
It was the accepted practice in Babylon 4,000 years ago that for a month after the wedding, the bride's father would supply his son-in-law with all the mead he could drink. Mead is a honey beer and because their calendar was lunar based, this period was called the honey month, which we know today as the honeymoon.
In English pubs, ale is ordered by pints and quarts... So in old England, when customers got unruly, the bartender would yell at them "Mind your pints and quarts, and settle down."
It's where we get the phrase "mind your P's and Q's."
Many years ago in England, pub frequenters had a whistle baked into the rim, or handle, of their ceramic cups. When they needed a refill, they used the whistle to get some service. "Wet your whistle" is the phrase inspired by this practice.
In English pubs, ale is ordered by pints and quarts... So in old England, when customers got unruly, the bartender would yell at them "Mind your pints and quarts, and settle down."
It's where we get the phrase "mind your P's and Q's."
Many years ago in England, pub frequenters had a whistle baked into the rim, or handle, of their ceramic cups. When they needed a refill, they used the whistle to get some service. "Wet your whistle" is the phrase inspired by this practice.
Friday, January 13, 2006
Dirty Colin Farrell
I guess Dirty Colin, the website selling the Colin Farrell sex video, was shut down or maxxed out or something. But this guy is offering a *clean* peek at what the video contains. It's not worth looking at unless you're desperate to confirm that the tape exists.
Hooray for Hollywood
Wow.
I guess most everyone knows or suspects that celebrity marriages are largely contrived but we still don't expect them to be that contrived.
NICK SUES JESSICA FOR ENDING MARRIAGE THREE MONTHS BEFORE CONTRACT ENDED
According to court documents, Nick Lachey has sued estranged spouse Jessica Simpson for ending their marriage three months before the pair contractually agreed to stay together.
“Mr. Lachey signed over to Ms. Simpson all royalties from ’98 Degrees’ songs, his appearance on an MTV reality show to promote her albums and perfume line, and his soul in exchange for 41 months of marriage that would keep him in the public spotlight,” wrote Lachey’s attorney. “The couple has been married only 38 months and Ms. Simpson is in violation of the contract, ending the union early.”
In a written response, Simpson’s lawyers argued that since Lachey would continue to receive publicity until the divorce is official in several months, she is still fulfilling her contractual obligations.
“I hope Katie Holmes is paying attention to this,” said one source close to Lachey. “These Hollywood stars feel free to play fast and loose with marriage contracts and they think they have so much power you can’t do anything about it. The lack of morals sickens me.”
I guess most everyone knows or suspects that celebrity marriages are largely contrived but we still don't expect them to be that contrived.
NICK SUES JESSICA FOR ENDING MARRIAGE THREE MONTHS BEFORE CONTRACT ENDED
According to court documents, Nick Lachey has sued estranged spouse Jessica Simpson for ending their marriage three months before the pair contractually agreed to stay together.
“Mr. Lachey signed over to Ms. Simpson all royalties from ’98 Degrees’ songs, his appearance on an MTV reality show to promote her albums and perfume line, and his soul in exchange for 41 months of marriage that would keep him in the public spotlight,” wrote Lachey’s attorney. “The couple has been married only 38 months and Ms. Simpson is in violation of the contract, ending the union early.”
In a written response, Simpson’s lawyers argued that since Lachey would continue to receive publicity until the divorce is official in several months, she is still fulfilling her contractual obligations.
“I hope Katie Holmes is paying attention to this,” said one source close to Lachey. “These Hollywood stars feel free to play fast and loose with marriage contracts and they think they have so much power you can’t do anything about it. The lack of morals sickens me.”
Thursday, January 12, 2006
You thought it was over...
Q. If you were to spell out numbers, how far would you have to go until you would find the letter "A"?
A. One thousand
Q. What do bulletproof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers, and laser printers all have in common?
A. All invented by women.
Q. What is the only food that doesn't spoil?
A. Honey
Q. Which day are there more collect calls than any other day of the year?
A. Father's Day
In Shakespeare's time, mattresses were secured on bed frames by ropes. When you pulled on the ropes the mattress tightened, making the bed firmer to sleep on. Hence the phrase......... "good night, sleep tight."
A. One thousand
Q. What do bulletproof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers, and laser printers all have in common?
A. All invented by women.
Q. What is the only food that doesn't spoil?
A. Honey
Q. Which day are there more collect calls than any other day of the year?
A. Father's Day
In Shakespeare's time, mattresses were secured on bed frames by ropes. When you pulled on the ropes the mattress tightened, making the bed firmer to sleep on. Hence the phrase......... "good night, sleep tight."
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
Not Again! (Semi-Interesting Crap)
111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321
If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle. If the horse has one front leg in the air the person died as a result of wounds received in battle. If the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.
Only two people signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, John Hancock and Charles Thomson. Most of the rest signed on August 2, but the last signature wasn't added until 5 years later.
Q. Half of all Americans live within 50 miles of what?
A. Their birthplace
Q. Most boat owners name their boats. What is the most popular boat name requested?
A. Obsession
If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle. If the horse has one front leg in the air the person died as a result of wounds received in battle. If the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.
Only two people signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, John Hancock and Charles Thomson. Most of the rest signed on August 2, but the last signature wasn't added until 5 years later.
Q. Half of all Americans live within 50 miles of what?
A. Their birthplace
Q. Most boat owners name their boats. What is the most popular boat name requested?
A. Obsession
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
Even More Semi-Interesting Crap
The average number of people airborne over the U.S. any given hour: 61,000.
Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair.
The first novel ever written on a typewriter: Tom Sawyer.
The San Francisco Cable cars are the only mobile National Monuments.
Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from
history:
Spades - King David
Hearts - Charlemagne
Clubs -Alexander the Great
Diamonds - Julius Caesar
Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair.
The first novel ever written on a typewriter: Tom Sawyer.
The San Francisco Cable cars are the only mobile National Monuments.
Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from
history:
Spades - King David
Hearts - Charlemagne
Clubs -Alexander the Great
Diamonds - Julius Caesar
Monday, January 09, 2006
More Semi-Interesting Crap
Coca-Cola was originally green.
It is impossible to lick your elbow.
The state with the highest percentage of people who walk to work: Alaska.
The percentage of Africa that is wilderness: 28%; the percentage of North America that is wilderness: 38%.
The cost of raising a medium-size dog to the age of eleven: $6,400.
It is impossible to lick your elbow.
The state with the highest percentage of people who walk to work: Alaska.
The percentage of Africa that is wilderness: 28%; the percentage of North America that is wilderness: 38%.
The cost of raising a medium-size dog to the age of eleven: $6,400.
Sunday, January 08, 2006
Semi-Interesting Crap
Many years ago in Scotland, a new game was invented. It was ruled "Gentlemen Only...Ladies Forbidden"...and thus the word GOLF entered into the English language.
In the 1400's a law was set forth that a man was not allowed to beat his
wife with a stick no thicker than his thumb. Hence we have "the rule of
thumb."
The first couple to be shown in bed together on prime time TV were Fred
and Wilma Flintstone.
Every day more money is printed for Monopoly than the U.S. Treasury.
Men can read smaller print than women can; women can hear better.
In the 1400's a law was set forth that a man was not allowed to beat his
wife with a stick no thicker than his thumb. Hence we have "the rule of
thumb."
The first couple to be shown in bed together on prime time TV were Fred
and Wilma Flintstone.
Every day more money is printed for Monopoly than the U.S. Treasury.
Men can read smaller print than women can; women can hear better.
Saturday, January 07, 2006
I'm a Humanist
You fit in with: Humanism
Your ideals mostly resemble that of a Humanist. Although you do not have a lot of faith, you are devoted to making this world better, in the short time that you have to live. Humanists do not generally believe in an afterlife, and therefore, are committed to making the world a better place for themselves and future generations.
Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com
Your ideals mostly resemble that of a Humanist. Although you do not have a lot of faith, you are devoted to making this world better, in the short time that you have to live. Humanists do not generally believe in an afterlife, and therefore, are committed to making the world a better place for themselves and future generations.
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Daily Horoscopes
AQUARIUS
(Jan. 20-Feb. 18). Patience is a difficult virtue to remember when your ambitions are as hot as they are right now. Try not to overextend your energy, especially socially. Sweet love is the best balm for anything that ails you.
PISCES
(Feb. 19-March 20). Delayed action is costly. Take measures to eliminate delay from your life in any way possible. In this day and age, immediacy is often possible -- and therefore expected.
ARIES
(March 21-April 19). You're in a prime position to take advantage of opportunities, but that doesn't mean you should. Moral judgments are not black and white in this case -- still, you know the answer in your gut.
TAURUS
(April 20-May 20). Brilliant business ideas come to you during downtime. Also, you'll think up a way to make part of daily life better -- but you'll have to talk to one of your techno-genius friends in order to make it work.
GEMINI
(May 21-June 21). Selfish goals are rarely accomplished. It's a fact of the universe that works in your favor as someone's narcissistic self-interest is thwarted in favor of your plan for helping the whole team.
CANCER
(June 22-July 22). There's something that needs doing, so do it now. Acting now is the only way to get time on your side. Don't worry about whether you'll do it wrong. Finish it first, and then learn how to do it later.
LEO
(July 23-Aug. 22). Love is the only game in town now, so get your share -- you're aglow with radiant allure. Tonight, you'll be fond of being in the public eye, and it fixes on you with an attentive and adoring gaze.
VIRGO
(Aug. 23-Sept. 22). You are on solid financial ground, so stop worrying. You will always be taken care of. Take steps to solve a custody or property battle. A wonderful change of heart is featured; you're feeling generous and forgiving.
LIBRA
(Sept. 23-Oct. 23). Your personal interests could actually benefit mankind. Somehow, what you want is what everybody wants. So when you get what you want, everybody wins.
SCORPIO
(Oct. 24-Nov. 21). You're pushing ahead -- not just for yourself but for your family and loved ones, too. Your example is their inspiration. Your success is theirs. Forgoing the party in order to pursue your goal will therefore be admirable.
SAGITTARIUS
(Nov. 22-Dec. 21). You are psychic, and you prove it today. Then again, why wouldn't you be able to predict the future? You are, after all, creating it right now with your choices.
CAPRICORN
(Dec. 22-Jan. 19). Rise above the trap of thinking that the glamorous life will be available to you if you could just make more money. Glamour, adventure and excitement are cultivated within.
(Jan. 20-Feb. 18). Patience is a difficult virtue to remember when your ambitions are as hot as they are right now. Try not to overextend your energy, especially socially. Sweet love is the best balm for anything that ails you.
PISCES
(Feb. 19-March 20). Delayed action is costly. Take measures to eliminate delay from your life in any way possible. In this day and age, immediacy is often possible -- and therefore expected.
ARIES
(March 21-April 19). You're in a prime position to take advantage of opportunities, but that doesn't mean you should. Moral judgments are not black and white in this case -- still, you know the answer in your gut.
TAURUS
(April 20-May 20). Brilliant business ideas come to you during downtime. Also, you'll think up a way to make part of daily life better -- but you'll have to talk to one of your techno-genius friends in order to make it work.
GEMINI
(May 21-June 21). Selfish goals are rarely accomplished. It's a fact of the universe that works in your favor as someone's narcissistic self-interest is thwarted in favor of your plan for helping the whole team.
CANCER
(June 22-July 22). There's something that needs doing, so do it now. Acting now is the only way to get time on your side. Don't worry about whether you'll do it wrong. Finish it first, and then learn how to do it later.
LEO
(July 23-Aug. 22). Love is the only game in town now, so get your share -- you're aglow with radiant allure. Tonight, you'll be fond of being in the public eye, and it fixes on you with an attentive and adoring gaze.
VIRGO
(Aug. 23-Sept. 22). You are on solid financial ground, so stop worrying. You will always be taken care of. Take steps to solve a custody or property battle. A wonderful change of heart is featured; you're feeling generous and forgiving.
LIBRA
(Sept. 23-Oct. 23). Your personal interests could actually benefit mankind. Somehow, what you want is what everybody wants. So when you get what you want, everybody wins.
SCORPIO
(Oct. 24-Nov. 21). You're pushing ahead -- not just for yourself but for your family and loved ones, too. Your example is their inspiration. Your success is theirs. Forgoing the party in order to pursue your goal will therefore be admirable.
SAGITTARIUS
(Nov. 22-Dec. 21). You are psychic, and you prove it today. Then again, why wouldn't you be able to predict the future? You are, after all, creating it right now with your choices.
CAPRICORN
(Dec. 22-Jan. 19). Rise above the trap of thinking that the glamorous life will be available to you if you could just make more money. Glamour, adventure and excitement are cultivated within.
Friday, January 06, 2006
Daily Eye Candy: Jude Law
Thursday, January 05, 2006
I Want This Shirt
Wednesday, January 04, 2006
Art
The museums are crowding my inbox with offers to buy this but my heart screams: "Art cannot be bought or sold! It belongs to the world!" So here you go.
Tuesday, January 03, 2006
Horoscopes
AQUARIUS
(Jan. 20-Feb. 18). It would be wonderful if people in love were always considerate, but that just isn't the case. Instead of overlooking a loved one's transgressions, point them out immediately in that funny, endearing way of yours.
PISCES
(Feb. 19-March 20). It's been a while since you felt vivacious. You're due. This afternoon is the perfect forum to introduce the new-and-improved, vivacious you. Don't be afraid to make a dramatic entrance -- everyone is entertained.
ARIES
(March 21-April 19). Extreme requests seem reasonable to you because you are so dedicated. It’s been a hard day’s night though, hasn’t it? Stop working like a dog, and go home at a reasonable hour.
TAURUS
(April 20-May 20). See that pile of paper on your desk? You don't need a personal secretary -- you only need an hour to yourself and a bunch of file folders. Urge loved ones to support you by giving you your space.
GEMINI
(May 21-June 21). You demand the best from yourself and accept nothing short of it. That's why you're overwhelmed and a little tired now, but you're also smiling because you're a little impressed with yourself.
CANCER
(June 22-July 22). Newton's Law states that a body in motion tends to remain in motion. That's why the busiest person you know is also the best partner for your new project. Delegate to a doer.
LEO
(July 23-Aug. 22). Use fun to break down the barriers between people. With your natural charm, you get away with saying and doing things that other people wouldn't be able to pull off.
VIRGO
(Aug. 23-Sept. 22). The stars illuminate great potential today, but your energy level determines whether or not you can realize it. Keep it high by being generally zippy whether or not that's how you really feel. Your body soon tricks your mind.
LIBRA
(Sept. 23-Oct. 23). Mercury messes with you! Save yourself from wasting time looking for stuff by getting organized. There's a place for everything. If there's not a place for something, it's possible that you don't need it anymore.
SCORPIO
(Oct. 24-Nov. 21). You're smack in the center of a wild culmination of events. It's hard to see that everything that led up to this day was in your choosing. If you can take responsibility, you'll feel powerful indeed.
SAGITTARIUS
(Nov. 22-Dec. 21). Your attitude will make or break a new relationship. Check yourself with the diligence you would normally reserve for very important business. Your personal life is very important business.
CAPRICORN
(Dec. 22-Jan. 19). You're a perpetual motion machine. Even in your sleep tonight, you'll be working out the day's problems. Keep a notebook and pen by the bed to jot down solutions first thing when you wake up tomorrow.
(Jan. 20-Feb. 18). It would be wonderful if people in love were always considerate, but that just isn't the case. Instead of overlooking a loved one's transgressions, point them out immediately in that funny, endearing way of yours.
PISCES
(Feb. 19-March 20). It's been a while since you felt vivacious. You're due. This afternoon is the perfect forum to introduce the new-and-improved, vivacious you. Don't be afraid to make a dramatic entrance -- everyone is entertained.
ARIES
(March 21-April 19). Extreme requests seem reasonable to you because you are so dedicated. It’s been a hard day’s night though, hasn’t it? Stop working like a dog, and go home at a reasonable hour.
TAURUS
(April 20-May 20). See that pile of paper on your desk? You don't need a personal secretary -- you only need an hour to yourself and a bunch of file folders. Urge loved ones to support you by giving you your space.
GEMINI
(May 21-June 21). You demand the best from yourself and accept nothing short of it. That's why you're overwhelmed and a little tired now, but you're also smiling because you're a little impressed with yourself.
CANCER
(June 22-July 22). Newton's Law states that a body in motion tends to remain in motion. That's why the busiest person you know is also the best partner for your new project. Delegate to a doer.
LEO
(July 23-Aug. 22). Use fun to break down the barriers between people. With your natural charm, you get away with saying and doing things that other people wouldn't be able to pull off.
VIRGO
(Aug. 23-Sept. 22). The stars illuminate great potential today, but your energy level determines whether or not you can realize it. Keep it high by being generally zippy whether or not that's how you really feel. Your body soon tricks your mind.
LIBRA
(Sept. 23-Oct. 23). Mercury messes with you! Save yourself from wasting time looking for stuff by getting organized. There's a place for everything. If there's not a place for something, it's possible that you don't need it anymore.
SCORPIO
(Oct. 24-Nov. 21). You're smack in the center of a wild culmination of events. It's hard to see that everything that led up to this day was in your choosing. If you can take responsibility, you'll feel powerful indeed.
SAGITTARIUS
(Nov. 22-Dec. 21). Your attitude will make or break a new relationship. Check yourself with the diligence you would normally reserve for very important business. Your personal life is very important business.
CAPRICORN
(Dec. 22-Jan. 19). You're a perpetual motion machine. Even in your sleep tonight, you'll be working out the day's problems. Keep a notebook and pen by the bed to jot down solutions first thing when you wake up tomorrow.
Ouch!
Limelight has its downside, jailed bartender learns
As usual, bartender Christine Rutkowski spent New Year's Eve behind a bar.
But this year, it was many bars - each of them made of steel and about an inch in diameter.
Instead of serving drinks, she spent New Year's Eve in the Lucas County jail and remained there yesterday afternoon.
Ms. Rutkowski, of 819 Clark St., who was featured in a Blade story on Friday about bartenders working over the New Year's Eve weekend, was arrested the same day the story was published for various bench warrants on misdemeanor charges.
A preliminary hearing in Toledo Municipal Court has not been set.
The charges, 21 in all, are out of Toledo, Sylvania, Lucas County Juvenile Court, and Ottawa County.
Some of the misdemeanor charges in Toledo included handling of vicious dogs, endangering children, fireworks possession, driving under suspension, reckless driving, menacing, and obstructing official business.
She had warrants for failing to appear in Sylvania and Lucas County Juvenile Court.
Ms. Rutkowski was interviewed about working on New Year's Eve as a bartender at Rookies Bar and Grill in East Toledo.
She told The Blade she has been a bartender for 14 years.
"It's a crazy night, but I think it's fun working on New Year's Eve," she said in the story.
"Sometimes men have tried to come behind the bar for a kiss, even if they are already with someone. But I never let them."
Police arrested her at the corner of Starr Avenue and East Broadway.
As usual, bartender Christine Rutkowski spent New Year's Eve behind a bar.
But this year, it was many bars - each of them made of steel and about an inch in diameter.
Instead of serving drinks, she spent New Year's Eve in the Lucas County jail and remained there yesterday afternoon.
Ms. Rutkowski, of 819 Clark St., who was featured in a Blade story on Friday about bartenders working over the New Year's Eve weekend, was arrested the same day the story was published for various bench warrants on misdemeanor charges.
A preliminary hearing in Toledo Municipal Court has not been set.
The charges, 21 in all, are out of Toledo, Sylvania, Lucas County Juvenile Court, and Ottawa County.
Some of the misdemeanor charges in Toledo included handling of vicious dogs, endangering children, fireworks possession, driving under suspension, reckless driving, menacing, and obstructing official business.
She had warrants for failing to appear in Sylvania and Lucas County Juvenile Court.
Ms. Rutkowski was interviewed about working on New Year's Eve as a bartender at Rookies Bar and Grill in East Toledo.
She told The Blade she has been a bartender for 14 years.
"It's a crazy night, but I think it's fun working on New Year's Eve," she said in the story.
"Sometimes men have tried to come behind the bar for a kiss, even if they are already with someone. But I never let them."
Police arrested her at the corner of Starr Avenue and East Broadway.
Ohio Loves White Foreigners
School backs student facing deportation
PANDORA, Ohio — The Pandora-Gilboa school board met in special session yesterday to throw its support behind a senior facing deportation to his native Germany.
Superintendent Dale Lewellen said the board unanimously agreed to ask federal immigration officials to delay the deportation of Manuel Bartsch, 18, of Gilboa until he graduates from Pandora-Gilboa High School this spring.
The board also agreed to suspend “on a temporary basis any existing board policy that would be in conflict with this resolution, in order to allow Manuel Bartsch to remain and graduate.”
Mr. Bartsch came to the United States in 1997 on a 90-day visa waiver with his step-grandfather, who was his legal guardian at the time. He has been enrolled in the school district since fourth grade.
After turning 18 this summer, Mr. Bartsch began to investigate obtaining citizenship but was jailed on Dec. 21 after showing up in Cleveland for a meeting with immigration officials.
His deportation was delayed on Friday when an immigration judge in Arlington, Va., granted an emergency motion asking that Mr. Bartsch be allowed to have a bond hearing. That hearing has been scheduled for 1:30 p.m. tomorrow.
PANDORA, Ohio — The Pandora-Gilboa school board met in special session yesterday to throw its support behind a senior facing deportation to his native Germany.
Superintendent Dale Lewellen said the board unanimously agreed to ask federal immigration officials to delay the deportation of Manuel Bartsch, 18, of Gilboa until he graduates from Pandora-Gilboa High School this spring.
The board also agreed to suspend “on a temporary basis any existing board policy that would be in conflict with this resolution, in order to allow Manuel Bartsch to remain and graduate.”
Mr. Bartsch came to the United States in 1997 on a 90-day visa waiver with his step-grandfather, who was his legal guardian at the time. He has been enrolled in the school district since fourth grade.
After turning 18 this summer, Mr. Bartsch began to investigate obtaining citizenship but was jailed on Dec. 21 after showing up in Cleveland for a meeting with immigration officials.
His deportation was delayed on Friday when an immigration judge in Arlington, Va., granted an emergency motion asking that Mr. Bartsch be allowed to have a bond hearing. That hearing has been scheduled for 1:30 p.m. tomorrow.
Monday, January 02, 2006
Ohio Tribute
Sunday, January 01, 2006
Baby Noor
This story is pure cheese but whatevs.
ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Baby Noor, a 3-month-old Iraqi girl in need of urgent surgery to treat a dangerous birth defect, is in good condition and will undergo her operation within the next 10 days, according to a Saturday statement from the hospital where she's being treated.
The girl arrived earlier at the Atlanta airport, where an ambulance was waiting to take her to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. After an initial examination, the hospital released a statement saying Noor is "responsive and smiling, and seemingly resting comfortably."
"She will remain in Children's for further evaluation and for consultations with specialty physicians to determine her future medical needs and course of action," the statement said.
Noor was accompanied by her father and grandmother on the trip from Iraq to Kuwait, then to the United States. They arrived at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport about 4 p.m. ET.
Dr. Roger Hudgins, the chief of neurosurgery at Children's, has promised to perform the operation to help treat Noor's spina bifida, a birth defect in which the spinal column fails to completely close during prenatal stages.
Iraqi doctors had told her parents she would live only 45 days, but Noor defied those odds.
However, the surgery will be a tricky one. At a news conference Saturday, Hudgins said the surgery will be complicated because skin has already grown over Noor's exposed spinal column. This has helped prevent infection -- which could kill Noor -- but it will make the surgery more tedious.
The surgery is typically performed -- in the United States -- just after birth while the spinal column is exposed, said Hudgins, who has performed this type of surgery on two children, including an 8-year-old.
"Most pediatric neurosurgeons don't have the opportunity to do a delayed case like this," he said. "This just doesn't happen in our country anymore."
The surgery is scheduled for January 9, pending the doctor's evaluation, but regardless of the evaluation, the operation will have to take place soon.
"We need to get the back closed," Hudgins said. "The concern here is meningitis. If the baby gets an infection on the back, that infection can spread to the coverings all over the brain and the baby may die, so time is of the essence."
Noor and her family could be in the United States for as long as two months for her recovery. The family will stay with a host family.
Noor's journey began when Georgia National Guard members raided her family's home in Baghdad looking for weapons. As Noor's parents nervously watched the soldiers searching their home, the girl's grandmother -- unfazed -- thrust Noor at the Americans, showing them a purple pouch protruding from her back.
"I saw this child as the first-born child of the young mother and father, and really, all I could think of was my five children back at home and my young daughter," Lt. Jeff Morgan said. "And I knew if I had the opportunity whatsoever to save my daughter's life, I would do everything possible."
So the guardsmen began devising a plan to get Noor the help she needs, first by visiting the family under the cover of night so the family wouldn't be punished by insurgents for speaking to American soldiers.
They sneaked Noor to a U.S. military base for medical examinations and called American charities and their own friends back home to solicit help for the little girl. Even Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Georgia, got involved, working to expedite the family's visas.
Spina bifida, which can cause crippling effects and neurological damage, is the most common of the birth defects known as neural tube defects, which affect about 1,500 to 2,000 babies born in the United States each year, according to the March of Dimes.
About 70,000 people in the United States are living with spina bifida, according to the Spina Bifida Association.
Dr. Hudgins said that while the surgery will probably help baby Noor, there's no guarantee that it will cure her condition. But once it's successfully completed, he said, "then we can work on the quality of life."
From CNN
ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Baby Noor, a 3-month-old Iraqi girl in need of urgent surgery to treat a dangerous birth defect, is in good condition and will undergo her operation within the next 10 days, according to a Saturday statement from the hospital where she's being treated.
The girl arrived earlier at the Atlanta airport, where an ambulance was waiting to take her to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. After an initial examination, the hospital released a statement saying Noor is "responsive and smiling, and seemingly resting comfortably."
"She will remain in Children's for further evaluation and for consultations with specialty physicians to determine her future medical needs and course of action," the statement said.
Noor was accompanied by her father and grandmother on the trip from Iraq to Kuwait, then to the United States. They arrived at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport about 4 p.m. ET.
Dr. Roger Hudgins, the chief of neurosurgery at Children's, has promised to perform the operation to help treat Noor's spina bifida, a birth defect in which the spinal column fails to completely close during prenatal stages.
Iraqi doctors had told her parents she would live only 45 days, but Noor defied those odds.
However, the surgery will be a tricky one. At a news conference Saturday, Hudgins said the surgery will be complicated because skin has already grown over Noor's exposed spinal column. This has helped prevent infection -- which could kill Noor -- but it will make the surgery more tedious.
The surgery is typically performed -- in the United States -- just after birth while the spinal column is exposed, said Hudgins, who has performed this type of surgery on two children, including an 8-year-old.
"Most pediatric neurosurgeons don't have the opportunity to do a delayed case like this," he said. "This just doesn't happen in our country anymore."
The surgery is scheduled for January 9, pending the doctor's evaluation, but regardless of the evaluation, the operation will have to take place soon.
"We need to get the back closed," Hudgins said. "The concern here is meningitis. If the baby gets an infection on the back, that infection can spread to the coverings all over the brain and the baby may die, so time is of the essence."
Noor and her family could be in the United States for as long as two months for her recovery. The family will stay with a host family.
Noor's journey began when Georgia National Guard members raided her family's home in Baghdad looking for weapons. As Noor's parents nervously watched the soldiers searching their home, the girl's grandmother -- unfazed -- thrust Noor at the Americans, showing them a purple pouch protruding from her back.
"I saw this child as the first-born child of the young mother and father, and really, all I could think of was my five children back at home and my young daughter," Lt. Jeff Morgan said. "And I knew if I had the opportunity whatsoever to save my daughter's life, I would do everything possible."
So the guardsmen began devising a plan to get Noor the help she needs, first by visiting the family under the cover of night so the family wouldn't be punished by insurgents for speaking to American soldiers.
They sneaked Noor to a U.S. military base for medical examinations and called American charities and their own friends back home to solicit help for the little girl. Even Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Georgia, got involved, working to expedite the family's visas.
Spina bifida, which can cause crippling effects and neurological damage, is the most common of the birth defects known as neural tube defects, which affect about 1,500 to 2,000 babies born in the United States each year, according to the March of Dimes.
About 70,000 people in the United States are living with spina bifida, according to the Spina Bifida Association.
Dr. Hudgins said that while the surgery will probably help baby Noor, there's no guarantee that it will cure her condition. But once it's successfully completed, he said, "then we can work on the quality of life."
From CNN
New Paparazzi Law
LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- They lurk in bushes, camp out in cars and hover in helicopters. Some are brazen enough to openly brandish their cameras, like old Western gunslingers.
They may be hated, but their work -- candid pictures of celebs in unguarded moments -- is coveted. They are the paparazzi, purveyors of pix that are the lifeblood of the weekly star-tracking mags and tabs. Their photos demand huge sums of money and are circulated worldwide. And as the public hunger for such glossy grist has grown they've become ever more relentless and ruthless. But starting January 1, there'll be some new reins on the paparazzi parade.
That's when a new California law goes into effect that increases penalties against overly aggressive photographers -- dubbed "stalkerazzi" -- who forcefully thrust their cameras into famous faces or crash their car into a celebrity's vehicle. They'll now be liable for three times the damages they inflict, plus lose any payments their published photos might earn. Publishers can also be held liable.
"Now the paparazzi are going to have to think twice about chasing down a celebrity anywhere in California," said Assemblywoman Cindy Montanez, who drafted the bill, which was signed into law in October by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. (The former actor had an infamous paparazzi moment in 1998 when they used their cars to surround his SUV as he and wife Maria Shriver picked up their child from school.)
The new law was inspired by a rash of recent celebrity car chases, Montanez said. In May, a photographer following Lindsay Lohan crashed into the actress' car in West Los Angeles. The photographer was booked for assault with a deadly weapon, but prosecutors found insufficient evidence to press charges. (Read the full story)
In August, actress Scarlett Johansson was involved in a minor car crash in a Disneyland parking lot after being followed by paparazzi, and actress Reese Witherspoon said photographers tried to run her car off the road in April. No criminal charges resulted from those incidents, but the Los Angeles District Attorney's office continues to investigate paparazzi photographers' aggressive tactics, said spokeswoman Jane Robison.
Montanez said the new legislation "targets those who break the law in their attempt to get the photograph."
While some celebrity shooters think the new law is needed to curb increasingly aggressive behavior, others call it unfair and unnecessary. And it may even be unconstitutional.
Though the legislation is aimed at paparazzi photographers, it could have "a chilling effect" on newspapers and other media, said Jim Ewert, legal counsel for the California Newspaper Publishers Association.
"This law now gives (celebrities) the ability to quash a photograph, and potentially a story (resulting from the photograph), with a frivolous lawsuit in an attempt to keep the public from being informed," he said. "The constitution demands a little bit higher standard before the government puts the kibosh on a newspaper's ability to publish that story."
Montanez insists the law was "specifically crafted in a way so there is no infringement on the rights of journalists."
"This is about paparazzi who wait and hunt the celebrities, their prey, until they catch the celebrity in a state of compromise," she said. "They engage in assaultive behavior, and we can't condone that."
Longtime celebrity photographer Frank Griffin, co-owner of the Bauer-Griffin photo agency -- which bills itself as "The Hollywood Hunt Club" -- said existing laws already cover attempted assaults and that the new legislation unfairly targets celebrity photographers.
"Why should there be different standards for a hard-news photographer and a celebrity photographer?" he asked.
With the proliferation of photo-filled, celebrity-centered magazines, more paparazzi have emerged to fill the pages with images of the rich and famous. The more exclusive the photo, the bigger the paycheck, said former celebrity photographer Brad Elterman.
Shots of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner with their new baby, for example, could be worth $500,000, he said. Even less-exclusive pics of hot stars can sell for $10,000 or more.
"The business is driven by money," Elterman said. "The guys who take the pictures don't care how they get the photo because they have nothing to lose."
Jim Ruymen, a Los Angeles photographer for 30 years who worked as "a photojournalist by day and a paparazzo at night," said paparazzi photography has always been intrusive, but increasing competition has led to more in-your-face tactics. There might be "15 to 20 cars outside someone's house, waiting for them to leave so you can chase them down," he said.
"Part of the paparazzi act is you really have to have no conscience. You've got to rein these guys in, so we don't have a Diana here in Southern California," he said, referring to Princess Diana, who was killed in a Paris car crash in 1997 as paparazzi pursued her vehicle. Investigators later found that the driver of Diana's car was intoxicated and speeding.
Celebrities are likely to appreciate the new legislation, though none of their publicists returned calls for comment here.
George Clooney, an outspoken defender of the first amendment yet a critic of overzealous photographers, has said that being photographed is the price one pays for celebrity, but some tabloids take things too far.
"If you say to someone, 'I'll give you $400,000 for the first picture of Madonna's baby,' there are lots of people who are willing to break the law to do that," Clooney told CNN in 2003.
The new legislation amends a bill passed in 1998 that established the concept of "constructive trespass" for photojournalists. It said that using a long lens to capture an image of a person who had "a reasonable expectation of privacy" was tantamount to trespassing.
Ewert, counsel for the California Newspaper Publishers Association, questioned the constitutionality of that law, but it has not been challenged in court, he said. Laws are presumed valid until challenged.
The new legislation, which expands what constitutes invasion of privacy, "is probably even more unconstitutional, if that's possible," Ewert said.
"We don't apologize for the behavior of the paparazzi," he said. "But this law attempts to stop that conduct with a very broad brush."
From CNN
They may be hated, but their work -- candid pictures of celebs in unguarded moments -- is coveted. They are the paparazzi, purveyors of pix that are the lifeblood of the weekly star-tracking mags and tabs. Their photos demand huge sums of money and are circulated worldwide. And as the public hunger for such glossy grist has grown they've become ever more relentless and ruthless. But starting January 1, there'll be some new reins on the paparazzi parade.
That's when a new California law goes into effect that increases penalties against overly aggressive photographers -- dubbed "stalkerazzi" -- who forcefully thrust their cameras into famous faces or crash their car into a celebrity's vehicle. They'll now be liable for three times the damages they inflict, plus lose any payments their published photos might earn. Publishers can also be held liable.
"Now the paparazzi are going to have to think twice about chasing down a celebrity anywhere in California," said Assemblywoman Cindy Montanez, who drafted the bill, which was signed into law in October by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. (The former actor had an infamous paparazzi moment in 1998 when they used their cars to surround his SUV as he and wife Maria Shriver picked up their child from school.)
The new law was inspired by a rash of recent celebrity car chases, Montanez said. In May, a photographer following Lindsay Lohan crashed into the actress' car in West Los Angeles. The photographer was booked for assault with a deadly weapon, but prosecutors found insufficient evidence to press charges. (Read the full story)
In August, actress Scarlett Johansson was involved in a minor car crash in a Disneyland parking lot after being followed by paparazzi, and actress Reese Witherspoon said photographers tried to run her car off the road in April. No criminal charges resulted from those incidents, but the Los Angeles District Attorney's office continues to investigate paparazzi photographers' aggressive tactics, said spokeswoman Jane Robison.
Montanez said the new legislation "targets those who break the law in their attempt to get the photograph."
While some celebrity shooters think the new law is needed to curb increasingly aggressive behavior, others call it unfair and unnecessary. And it may even be unconstitutional.
Though the legislation is aimed at paparazzi photographers, it could have "a chilling effect" on newspapers and other media, said Jim Ewert, legal counsel for the California Newspaper Publishers Association.
"This law now gives (celebrities) the ability to quash a photograph, and potentially a story (resulting from the photograph), with a frivolous lawsuit in an attempt to keep the public from being informed," he said. "The constitution demands a little bit higher standard before the government puts the kibosh on a newspaper's ability to publish that story."
Montanez insists the law was "specifically crafted in a way so there is no infringement on the rights of journalists."
"This is about paparazzi who wait and hunt the celebrities, their prey, until they catch the celebrity in a state of compromise," she said. "They engage in assaultive behavior, and we can't condone that."
Longtime celebrity photographer Frank Griffin, co-owner of the Bauer-Griffin photo agency -- which bills itself as "The Hollywood Hunt Club" -- said existing laws already cover attempted assaults and that the new legislation unfairly targets celebrity photographers.
"Why should there be different standards for a hard-news photographer and a celebrity photographer?" he asked.
With the proliferation of photo-filled, celebrity-centered magazines, more paparazzi have emerged to fill the pages with images of the rich and famous. The more exclusive the photo, the bigger the paycheck, said former celebrity photographer Brad Elterman.
Shots of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner with their new baby, for example, could be worth $500,000, he said. Even less-exclusive pics of hot stars can sell for $10,000 or more.
"The business is driven by money," Elterman said. "The guys who take the pictures don't care how they get the photo because they have nothing to lose."
Jim Ruymen, a Los Angeles photographer for 30 years who worked as "a photojournalist by day and a paparazzo at night," said paparazzi photography has always been intrusive, but increasing competition has led to more in-your-face tactics. There might be "15 to 20 cars outside someone's house, waiting for them to leave so you can chase them down," he said.
"Part of the paparazzi act is you really have to have no conscience. You've got to rein these guys in, so we don't have a Diana here in Southern California," he said, referring to Princess Diana, who was killed in a Paris car crash in 1997 as paparazzi pursued her vehicle. Investigators later found that the driver of Diana's car was intoxicated and speeding.
Celebrities are likely to appreciate the new legislation, though none of their publicists returned calls for comment here.
George Clooney, an outspoken defender of the first amendment yet a critic of overzealous photographers, has said that being photographed is the price one pays for celebrity, but some tabloids take things too far.
"If you say to someone, 'I'll give you $400,000 for the first picture of Madonna's baby,' there are lots of people who are willing to break the law to do that," Clooney told CNN in 2003.
The new legislation amends a bill passed in 1998 that established the concept of "constructive trespass" for photojournalists. It said that using a long lens to capture an image of a person who had "a reasonable expectation of privacy" was tantamount to trespassing.
Ewert, counsel for the California Newspaper Publishers Association, questioned the constitutionality of that law, but it has not been challenged in court, he said. Laws are presumed valid until challenged.
The new legislation, which expands what constitutes invasion of privacy, "is probably even more unconstitutional, if that's possible," Ewert said.
"We don't apologize for the behavior of the paparazzi," he said. "But this law attempts to stop that conduct with a very broad brush."
From CNN
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