when a company lays out--or pledges to lay out--lotsa money for naming rights, management must be questioned. lucas oil's promises to pay $120 million ($6million a year) for naming rights for the indianapolis colt's yet-to-be-built stadium.
The Wall Street Journal noted that companies which bought the rights to name stadiums after themselves often fell into bankruptcy or financial difficulty. Examples include Enron, T.W.A., PSI Net, Fruit of the Loom, 3 Com, Conseco, and CMGI Inc.with several of the companies engaged in these deals involved in shaky industries (like the bankruptcy-a-month airline industry) or varying levels of skulduggery (bank one, conseco, mci, reliant...)
¶ - nitish @ 4:10 PM | 0 comments 
there will be alotta wasted ink about a certain cbs poll which has bush 43's approval number at 34%
¶ - nitish @ 9:57 AM | 0 comments
nature and science creates visions which rival anything traditionally dubbed art.
¶ - nitish @ 8:44 AM | 0 comments
being paid a dollar amount well above market value proved to be one of the contributors to the downfall of congressman duke cunningham.
¶ - nitish @ 4:46 PM | 0 comments
US-India relations have improved considerably, with india having among the most positive opinions of america in the world. common interest with regards to biz matters and the war on terror, contribute to the improvement
¶ - nitish @ 11:34 AM | 0 comments
WaPo media writer howard kurtz has a spotty record--correctly calling the 're-discovery of poor' media angle after katrina temporary, suggesting media caution in the plame affair, but suggesting a scapegoating of bush in mine tragedies and ignoring his own conflict.
¶ - nitish @ 9:00 AM | 0 comments
while not exactly of the stupid criminal variety...
¶ - nitish @ 9:19 AM | 0 comments
libs, visionaries and enviros have preferred, suggested, demanded movement towards alternative energy. some talk a good game, being for it before being against it.
Conservative politicians vying to embrace renewable energy may sound like an environmentalist's dream world, but there's a catch.one of jaffe's major complaints involves the relatively high costs involved in the near term. but costs are always high at the outset. he continues to suggest "big solar" plants with solar panels lined up in a desert--where are the deserts in pataki's new york again?--and residential solar water heater.
¶ - nitish @ 9:36 AM | 0 comments
ultra-conservative bill bennett and ultra-lib alan dershowitz agree on something? [bugmenot login]
We two come from different political and philosophical perspectives, but on this we agree: Over the past few weeks, the press has betrayed not only its duties but its responsibilities. To our knowledge, only three print newspapers have followed their true calling: the Austin American-Statesman, the Philadelphia Inquirer and the New York Sun. What have they done? They simply printed cartoons that were at the center of widespread turmoil among Muslims over depictions of the prophet Muhammad. These papers did their duty.next thing you'll tell me is bush 43 and jimmy carter agree on something (whicht could be a '"death blow')
Since the war on terrorism began, the mainstream press has had no problem printing stories and pictures that challenged the administration and, in the view of some, compromised our war and peace efforts.
¶ - nitish @ 3:24 PM | 0 comments
wired.com relates the results of a study of internet correspondence published in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology [note my personal opinion: studies and/or papers can be goofy]
The researchers took 30 pairs of undergraduate students and gave each one a list of 20 statements about topics like campus food or the weather. Assuming either a serious or sarcastic tone, one member of each pair e-mailed the statements to his or her partner. The partners then guessed the intended tone and indicated how confident they were in their answers.that is a recipe for alotta misunderstandings
Those who sent the messages predicted that nearly 80 percent of the time their partners would correctly interpret the tone. In fact the recipients got it right just over 50 percent of the time.
[snip]
At the same time, those reading messages unconsciously interpret them based on their current mood, stereotypes and expectations. Despite this, the research subjects thought they accurately interpreted the messages nine out of 10 times.
¶ - nitish @ 9:03 AM | 0 comments
with this season's success of smallville on the wb, network execs look to capitalize with another series starring a young aquaman.
¶ - nitish @ 4:14 PM | 0 comments
i'm no fan of the lawsuit happy culture prevalent today, but i believe student-athletes get a raw deal....and not just men....efforts are being made to rectify the fact that
On college campuses, athletes are the only students subject to aid restrictions imposed by an agreement among universities. Talented students in music, chemistry or any other area can be bid upon by individual colleges, without limits on the total value of their scholarship packages. Some, often graduate students, receive the full cost of attendance plus cash payments.i'm no legal scholar but that sounds like universities have colluded in a disciminatory policy to the disadvantage of athletes.
The suit does not list a damage amount but is structured in a way that suggests the NCAA pay a heavy price should the court find that the association acted illegally in its capping of scholarship costs. The lawsuit applies to 144 colleges, so the 20,000 or so affected athletes would have been shorted a potential $117 million, an aggregate figure that represents the gap between the grant-in-aid and the official cost of attendance over the past four years.while some college officials claim poverty, the numbers in college athletics are staggering. there are at least 10 college basketball programs with profits over $7 million while there are about 10 college football programs with $25 million in profits. the movement even got some (surprsing) support from NCAA president Myles who
Damages get trebled under antitrust law, pushing the potential penalty to $351 million.
came out in favor of the proposal, suggesting that the additional funds could be drawn from the NCAA's 11-year, $6 billion television contract with CBS."But, the NCAA membership subsequently declined to move on his recommendation
"We should provide student-athletes with the full cost of attendance," he said at the time.
¶ - nitish @ 11:45 AM | 0 comments
in the effort to remake new orleans, public officials seek the return of a vibrant population (via lucianne.com):while there will be public housing
Future residents, however, will have to comply with new restrictions, including a series of questions about employment history and job prospects.ultimately the city needs workers to provide a revenue base. the rhetoric gets a bit sharp with phrases like "new level of motivation", "stop blaming the government", "a lot of pampering".
In other words, people will have to express a willingness to work to qualify for public housing, officials in New Orleans have said.
¶ - nitish @ 9:07 AM | 0 comments
fox's ultra-compelling 24 counts fans in the White House
After one episode, our insider says she overheard staffers telling Chief of Staff Andy Card about how the 24 character who plays his role hanged himself.however due to the busy WH schedules, a tivo-spoiler policy has been instituted
¶ - nitish @ 5:01 PM | 0 comments
republican maryland governor bob ehrlich has had difficulty dealing with the 'big D' Democratic institutions in the state:
¶ - nitish @ 12:17 PM | 0 comments
a lucianne.com 'must read' involves a NYT article about a government re-evaluation of classified status of historical documents...
Is Sandy Burger a "private historian"?maybe clinton national security adviser sandy burglar can try a new defense
¶ - nitish @ 9:32 AM | 0 comments
some criminals are 'masterminds'...some are not...
¶ - nitish @ 8:54 AM | 0 comments
in a move reminiscent of a bad video game a coupla tech megacorporations declare control over a series of letters:
Nor will Yahoo! accept yahoo, osama or binladen. But it will accept god, messiah, jesus, jehova, buddah, satan and both priest and pedophile.unfortunately yahoo's policies appear arbitrary with a major reliance on monetary matters
¶ - nitish @ 3:04 PM | 0 comments
state legislatures look to counteract last year's ridiculous US supreme court decision kelo v new london. in the kelo decision last year, a slim 5-4 majority on the 'old' USSC (pre-Roberts and Alito) found that local governments had broad latitude to 'take' private property for 're-development' (read: higher tax revenue base).
¶ - nitish @ 9:25 AM | 0 comments
even after a full week of media wackiness regarding cheney's hunting accident, AP still can't let it go (via lucianne.com) going over 'discrepancies' while the NYT finds it fit to print about the ranch [bugmenot login] (via lucianne.com) where the accident occurred
¶ - nitish @ 9:27 AM | 0 comments
it's always awkward when the subject of race in sports is brought up.
"So try not to laugh when someone says these are the world’s greatest athletes, despite a paucity of blacks that makes the Winter Games look like a GOP convention."while gumbel's comment will likely receive less scrutiny simply because he's black, there's a long list of people whose comments stirred alotta controversy and fallout.
"The black is a better athlete to begin with, because he has been bred to be that way. This goes all the way back to the Civil War, when the slave owner would breed his big black to his big woman so that he could have a big black kid, see."(incidentally, jimmy the greek is #6 on that list with campanis get the #1 slot)
¶ - nitish @ 12:40 PM | 0 comments
in light of the powerball mega-jackpot ($365 Million / $177.3 Million Cash Value) slate re-visits a prior analysis of the mathematics of gambling. basically, it all depends on 'expected value'
¶ - nitish @ 8:55 AM | 0 comments
with the impending return of cbs reality stalwart (which repeats well) the amazing race (in a new time slot--unwelcome by me due to schedule conflicts), the NY Post calculates the cost of travel and lodging for the route in Amazing Race 7 which uchenna and joyce won:
Between planes, trains, automobiles, rickshaws, boats, horse-drawn carriages, lodging, and travel visas each "Amazing Race" fan would have to shell out around $11,000 to run the 30-day, 40,000 mile course around the world with stops in South America, Africa, India, Europe and the Caribbean. [emphasis added]and that doesn't include food, sightseeing, incidentals or askidentals (an obsure cosby show reference)
¶ - nitish @ 3:47 PM | 0 comments
last year, Popular Mechanics completed an investigative report debunking 9/11 conspiracy theories. in a similar vein, Popular Mechanics addresses Hurricane Katrina (via lucianne.com)
¶ - nitish @ 9:19 AM | 0 comments
when the New York Times calls something liberal [bugmenot login]....that's saying something
It's an hourlong sitcom, except when it turns into liberal talk radio: in almost every episode, the hero, Alan Shore (James Spader), shakes off his sardonic detachment and delivers a long, uninterrupted rant about the Iraq war, the credit card industry or the Roman Catholic Church.taking up liberal causes, makes him a "conventional prime-time hero"--or at least that's what stanley believes--who is awed (by audience and characters alike)
Early in the first season of "Boston Legal," Alan Shore had a soft spot for lost causes, but he kept any semblance of human decency well hidden from his colleagues and clients.however stanley warns
Shore remains icy and cutting, but he has shed much of his wickedness to champion causes. In a recent episode he represented a young woman suing the United States military for the death of her brother in Iraq, lashing out at the administration and a complacent, indifferent public. ( "At least with Vietnam we all watched and got angry.") He lost the case but won over the judge, who agreed with Shore's assessment that the war was a "disaster."
Shore has morphed from someone who was despicable even in his finer moments to a conventional prime-time hero. (The camera keeps cutting to characters staring in awe at his eloquence and moral fervor.)
But "Boston Legal" could do with less heat and more wit. In Shore, Mr. Kelley has created a character who rivals Tony Soprano or Al Swearengen of "Deadwood." It seems a shame to sacrifice him on the altar of politics. Dishing conservatives, after all, is a revenge best served cold.disclosure: as with a few too many NYT writers, alessandra stanley has some credibility issues
¶ - nitish @ 4:41 PM | 0 comments
cobbling together liberal hobby horse, senator hillary clinton complains of a bush adminstration 'pattern' of secrecy (found via lucianne.com). it's standard stuff
The incident was determined to be an accident, and a misunderstanding. However, besides the Journal News and Washington Times, according to LexisNexis, only the Boston Herald, the National Journal, the Bulletin’s Frontrunner, and the Hotline did reports on this incident.to put it into perspective, randy moss got into an incident with a traffic cop with much national press coverage. certainly, a United States senator involved in a traffic incident should garner as much media coverage as a football player
Compare that with the furor over a hunting accident this weekend: though an imprecise measurement, LexisNexis identified 649 reports since Monday containing the name "Whittington."
¶ - nitish @ 12:52 PM | 0 comments
having established some of my (admittedly somewhat irrational) germophobe fears and tendencies, i'm all over a study done by The Korea Consumer Protection Board of bacteria in public
Shopping cart handles led the way with 1,100 colony forming units of bacteria per 10 sq cm followed by a mouse used on computers in Internet cafes, which had an average of 690 colony forming units.the solution for us germophobes, of course, is to avoid facial contact and to wash your hands with soap
[snip]
Hand straps on buses were next with 380 units, followed by bathroom doorknobs at 340.
Rounding out the list were lift buttons at 130 colony forming units and hand straps on subways at 86.
¶ - nitish @ 9:28 AM | 0 comments
chris matthews, with a straight face, wondered "Has the press been playing this down?" despite the facts
"Since the news of Cheney’s shooting broke late Sunday afternoon, ABC, CBS and NBC aired 34 stories on their morning and evening newscasts...."matthews single-handedly tried to counteract this imagined 'playing down' by devoting the majority of monday and tuesday's shows to the matter. even clintonista dee dee myers dismissed matthews, saying
"I don't think putting it on the front page is burying it, Chris, I think that was an appropriate placement for the story, but I think what's made this a bigger story was, is the incredibly poor handling..."matthews has been known to be near obsessive about topics like the joe wilson/CIA non-leak/scooter libby story. unfortunately, matthews, his go to reporter and frequent guests are wacky to say the least
¶ - nitish @ 12:47 AM | 0 comments
along the lines of the kid who called the cops to recover his stolen drugs, a college kid calls the cops to score some drugs
[Officer Ken] Zeeb, who has worked narcotics for over seven years and "and has arrested people for trying to buy drugs at a house as it was being searched by police", admitted the bust was "about the craziest thing I've ever come across". He rightly concluded: "This is something that you couldn't even make up."you'd think a college kid would be smarter than this
¶ - nitish @ 5:07 PM | 0 comments
the uk register remarks on the silly stretching to connect issues, products, etc to valentine's day. case in point, email filtering specialist Michael Carmichael says
"A recent survey showed that 23 per cent of news items carried on February 14 were Valentines-related, PR-generated nonsense. This is costing the UK 2.3bn lost column inches of real news per year - equivalent to 23,000 jobs for up-and-coming journalists."however, he undercuts--or reinforces--his point when he continues to plug his own filtering product
¶ - nitish @ 9:57 AM | 0 comments
AP profiles (found via lucianne.com) P.I. to the stars Anthony Pellicano as he is indicted for some skullduggery. while dropping high profile names like John DeLorean, Garry Shandling, Michael Jackson and Sylvester Stallone, AP leaves out that the clintons hired pellicano with regard to gennifer flowers, according to judicial watch (an organization considered righty despite the fact that its gone after both the clinton and bush-43 administrations)
Legal experts believe authorities will now put pressure on Pellicano and other defendants to provide evidence about high-powered clients in exchange for lesser sentences.a clinton-hater can dream...
If Pellicano eventually testifies, some of Hollywood’s best-kept secrets could be revealed, with the possible fallout ranging from embarrassment to jail time.
"If he does co-operate, it could be a blockbuster," Levenson said.
¶ - nitish @ 8:29 AM | 0 comments
while the press, lefties and comedians are all over the cheney hunting accident...back to things that matter...
"There is no lobby for common sense. There is a lobby for education spending."kaus sums up bradley better than i could
Bradley summarizes the current, depressing state of California politics: The transportation lobby has plotted a big bond issue "to stop the education lobby from taking money from the gas tax which is supposed to be allocated for roads and highways and other transportation." So the education lobby is plotting with its underlings (the Democrats) to take money away from the transportation lobby's bond issue and divert it to the school bureaucracy. Democratic Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez declares education must be the "first priority" for funds "until every child in this state receives a decent education and a fair chance to succeed." Conveniently, there's no danger of that happening any time soon, at least as long as the California Teachers Association is in charge. [emphasis original]more politics trumping progress
¶ - nitish @ 4:15 PM | 0 comments
al gore badmouths the united states...again...on treatment of arabs...this time in saudi arabia...in front of arabs
¶ - nitish @ 1:11 PM | 0 comments
the issue of aid to africa has its pros and cons, with corruption being particularly alarming.
[T]he president spent a week last September in the Palace hotel, one of Manhattan’s most prestigious addresses.the whopping bill totaled out to $295,000 for 26 rooms and 8 rooms, all "to deliver a 15-minute speech to the general assembly’s 60th anniversary summit."
He paid $8,500 (about £4,875) a night for a three-storey [sic] suite with art deco furniture, a Jacuzzi bathtub and a 50in plasma television screen. His room service charges on September 18 alone came to more than £2,000.
More than 70% of the 3m people in the republic — known as Congo-Brazzaville to distinguish it from its larger neighbour, the Democratic Republic of Congo — live on less than £1.15 a day. [emphasis added]
¶ - nitish @ 9:16 AM | 0 comments
while i've questioned the business model of netflix, my personal experience was pretty good...
¶ - nitish @ 10:18 AM | 0 comments
the washington post heralds the arrival of the winter olympics with a cold wet blanket (echoing an editorial from last week) [bugmenot login]...
Never mind the usual puffery about what this month's Winter Olympics are all about. Sure, there's the beauty of sports, the spirit of friendly competition, the dedication of great athletes and all that. But the Winter Games are about a few other things as well: elitism, exclusion and the triumph of the world's sporting haves over its have nots.however, the editorial does take a more positive angle on american broadcasters and advertisers.
¶ - nitish @ 10:23 AM | 0 comments
in a move to formalize a reversal of prior policy, the fcc issues findings of a study of benefits of 'a la carte' pricing in cable television.
In Thursday's report, FCC staff said its November 2004 report was wrong to conclude that the average cable household -- which watches about 17 channels -- would likely face a monthly rate increase of up to 30 percent under a la carte.while the cable companies may have a point that DC should/could not dictate industry behavior (what about those licenses granting blessed monopolies?), a gouged consumer can dream
In fact, consumers could receive as many as 20 channels without seeing an increase in bills, the FCC staff said Thursday, blaming its earlier finding on faulty data it obtained from the cable industry.
The latest report also said in most cases subscribers would save 3 percent to 13 percent on their bills under a la carte. It noted that earlier assumptions that a la carte would lead consumers to watch two hours less of TV -- and thus decrease revenue for cable TV companies and increase costs -- lacked factual support.
¶ - nitish @ 3:30 PM | 0 comments
slate's jack shafer examines the variations of cliches in headlines. shafer illustrates the point with "attention deficit disorder" over the last ~10 years.
¶ - nitish @ 1:21 PM | 0 comments
some interesting actions by maryland democrats recently
It should normally be difficult to pick the worst state legislature in America, but Maryland's is way out in front.the MD dems passed bills allowing for expanded provisional ballots (voter wherever you feel like it), expanded on-demand absentee ballots, and multi-day voting in the prior legislative session. governor ehrlich vetoed them, but those were overriden by the legislature, disregarding bipartisan comments and critiques of the bills.
When voters are disenfranchised by the counting of improperly cast ballots or outright fraud, their civil rights are violated just as surely as if they were prevented from voting. The integrity of the ballot box is just as important to the credibility of elections as access to it. The Maryland lawmakers who are opening up new opportunities for fraud weaken the civil rights of all their constituents.
¶ - nitish @ 9:45 AM | 0 comments
- when it rains it pours for 4th place nbc...
¶ - nitish @ 5:13 PM | 0 comments
rumors that wayward emails contributed to the end of a coupla show biz marriages.
¶ - nitish @ 3:28 PM | 0 comments
the danish cartoon mess is quite cringeworthy: the original toons, the violence and the MSM's largely MIA response
¶ - nitish @ 9:55 AM | 0 comments
not meant as a slight to these guys, but Les Lailey knows how to keep a promise, the bbc reports (found via the register).
"We kept it safe, and I always said 'on my 50th wedding anniversary I'm going to eat that chicken' - so I did"the couple comments further
“It was all right. But I don't like chicken.”
[snip]
Les reported: “It tasted just like ordinary chicken. A little bit salty but that was my fault for not cooking it like I should have done.”
[surprisingly] Beryl was not too impressed with her husband's romantic gesture: “If it was a diamond ring or something like that, that would be different.”
¶ - nitish @ 8:45 AM | 0 comments
espn announces its new monday night football announce team. this continues the primetime changes and major money decisions of the recent past, including the nfl network taking some games for itself
¶ - nitish @ 4:25 PM | 0 comments
the uk sun reports (found via the register) that Tony Alleyne's fascination with all things star trek led to a re-creation of voyager of star trek fame (must be seen to be believed, needs shockwave).
"I'm proud of what I created but it's been a financial disaster."alleyne had hoped his place would serve as a model, which fellow trek fans would pay him to re-create. suffice it to say, it didn't work
¶ - nitish @ 3:09 PM | 0 comments
slate magazine through its readers guide-esque science column human nature and its daily today's paper cover "the latest study to debunk conventional diet wisdom" that low-fat diets greatly improve health prospects.
The results, the study investigators agreed, do not justify recommending low-fat diets to the public to reduce their heart disease and cancer risk. Given the lack of benefit found in the study, many medical researchers said that the best dietary advice, for now, was to follow federal guidelines for healthy eating, with less saturated and trans fats, more grains, and more fruits and vegetables.be careful what you eat (saturated/trans fat), eat fruits and veggies, eat in moderation, exercise...
¶ - nitish @ 9:23 AM | 0 comments
the liberal-democrat partisans are idiots...
[Civil-rights leader Rev. Joseph] Lowery, former head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which King helped found in 1957, gave a playful reading of a poem in eulogy of Mrs. King.Hamas fan jimmy carter was not to be outdone for dragging in a at best tangentially related issue
"She extended Martin‘s message against poverty, racism and war / She deplored the terror inflicted by our smart bombs on missions way afar," he said.
"We know now there were no weapons of mass destruction over there / But Coretta knew and we knew that there are weapons of misdirection right down here / Millions without health insurance. Poverty abounds. For war billions more but no more for the poor."
With Washington debating the legality of Bush‘s domestic eavesdropping on Americans suspected of al Qaeda ties, Carter also drew applause with pointed comments on federal efforts to spy on the Kings.the coup-de-grace was the off-handed launching of wife hillary's presidential candidacy as she stood by her man
"It was difficult for them personally with the civil liberties of both husband and wife violated, and they became the targets of secret government wiretapping and other surveillance," he said.
The audience showed where its allegiance lay when former President Clinton and his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, came to the podium to wild cheers and a long standing ovation. He opened by saying that he was honored to be with the other former presidents. Someone in the crowd yelled out, "Future president!" in reference to his wife's possible 2008 bid.apparently the liberal-democrat jackasses learned nothing from their politically opportunistic takeover of the paul wellstone funeral...and the aftermath
¶ - nitish @ 5:11 PM | 0 comments
speaking of senator mccain...
¶ - nitish @ 2:15 PM | 0 comments
senator john mccain responds with a blistering letter to the non-constructive and opportunistic nature of actions of first term democratic senator barak obama of illinois
Dear Senator Obama:obama responds with feigned outrage, attempting to disguise the democrats plan to block and/or criticize any efforts to fix problems in order to use it during upcoming election season. [i mean, the dnc and dscc would have to re-design their websites].
I would like to apologize to you for assuming that your private assurances to me regarding your desire to cooperate in our efforts to negotiate bipartisan lobbying reform legislation were sincere. When you approached me and insisted that despite your leadership's preference to use the issue to gain a political advantage in the 2006 elections, you were personally committed to achieving a result that would reflect credit on the entire Senate and offer the country a better example of political leadership, I concluded your professed concern for the institution and the public interest was genuine and admirable. Thank you for disabusing me of such notions with your letter to me dated February 2, 2006, which explained your decision to withdraw from our bipartisan discussions. I'm embarrassed to admit that after all these years in politics I failed to interpret your previous assurances as typical rhetorical gloss routinely used in politics to make self-interested partisan posturing appear more noble. Again, sorry for the confusion, but please be assured I won't make the same mistake again.
[snip]
As I noted, I initially believed you shared that goal. But I understand how important the opportunity to lead your party's effort to exploit this issue must seem to a freshman Senator, and I hold no hard feelings over your earlier disingenuousness. Again, I have been around long enough to appreciate that in politics the public interest isn't always a priority for every one of us. Good luck to you, Senator.
"There is an over-reliance on the part of Democrats for procedural maneuvers," he told ABC's "This Week."before voting for the "procedural maneuver" filibuster. [that john kerry quote keeps giving...]
¶ - nitish @ 9:22 AM | 0 comments
i realize there's definitely a humorous element to this poll...
¶ - nitish @ 4:11 PM | 0 comments
sky news reports (via lucianne) on the recipe dubbed unhealthiest ever--uk celebrity chef's Antony Worrall Thompson riidiculously over the top snickers pie. some of the vital statistics
Each serving contains the equivalent of 22 teaspoons of fat and 11 teaspoons of sugar, the Food Commission said.the chef comments
And the independent food watchdog calculates it contains more than 1,250 calories a slice.
"Obviously this goes straight on the hips and is not for regular use," he said.it's difficult to associate 'moderation' with that concoction.
"We are not encouraging people to do this all the time. My message is don't exclude any food groups. We try to tell everyone to eat in moderation and nothing in excess."
¶ - nitish @ 10:12 AM | 0 comments
an update on the soon-to-be released curious george movie from a slightly surprising source, the wsj's opinion journal [bugmenot login]
Consider how the first book violates our modern codes of political correctness. Rather than an eco-tourist, the Man in the Yellow Hat is a gun-toting poacher. When he first spots George, he says, "I would like to take him home with me." So he sets down his goofy hat as a lure. As George investigates, the man sneaks up from behind, pops him into a bag, and takes him home.has been altered to a more PC bit
The image they see on the big screen--of George looking at a yellow hat that has been laid on the ground as a trap--won't make it into the movie that comes out on Feb. 10. This episode simply can't take place in exactly the same form as it does in the books. The original Curious George offends so many of the 21st century's delicate sensibilities that if it were written today, no major publisher would accept it without demanding big revisions. And so, in crucial respects, the forthcoming movie--if its trailer is any guide--is sure to take liberties with the classic books by the wife-and-husband team of Margret and H.A. Rey.i'm a big fan of curious george and consider it somewhat of a slap in the face (to all those who bought the 30+ million books over george's 60+ years). i read more into the stories now
[snip]
[T]he new film's whitewashing will go much further: The trailer makes clear that although the man still wears a yellow hat, he's also an unarmed naturalist. There's no snatch-and-grab, either. Instead, George mistakes the hat for a banana and follows the man across the ocean as a stowaway.
But the challenges of adapting Curious George are in fact a bit more complex. Earnest literary types have interpreted the first book as a barely disguised slave narrative.despite the Reys' statement: "I don't like messages. . . . These are just stories."
¶ - nitish @ 3:29 PM | 0 comments
conservative-slanted newsbusters relates
"Detroit is a real city. You can get the New York Times here."meanwhile slate has a decidely more negative take on detroit which has a history of literally papering over some of its problems, including terrible city planning and political turmoil.
¶ - nitish @ 12:40 PM | 0 comments
i've always been partial to swiss miss martina hingis, who recently launched a comeback after a multi-year hiatus due to injury.
¶ - nitish @ 9:22 AM | 0 comments
an enterprising young business man discovers some of his product was stolen.
"Even the dumb criminals are generally smarter than this," said Orem Police Lt. Doug Edwardscriminals don't always develop the best thought process
[snip]
"He actually came and identified it as his," Edwards said....
"I have no clue as to why (the 18-year-old) would report this crime to the police," Edwards said, "but thank goodness that he did."
¶ - nitish @ 9:47 AM | 0 comments
apparently, the washington post has tougher standards on sportwriters than its news people. mickey kaus notes the most ironic element being that howard kurtz comments on a potential conflict while kurtz himself has an actual conflict.
¶ - nitish @ 9:26 AM | 0 comments
those "e-mail a friend" / "tell a friend" links which many websites utilize to generate traffic and word-of-mouth could be a source of spam, according to UK advertising watchdog the Advertising Standards Authority. the overly lax policy of identification and verification lends itself to bogus emails.
¶ - nitish @ 1:26 PM | 0 comments
several papers go with the story of the house passing a bill to corral some entitlement spending by $40 billion dollars, mostly stressing the politics of it, as the bill goes to the president for his signature
The vote helped President Bush deliver on his promise to rein in federal spending while underscoring deep anxiety within his party over cutting social welfare programs in an election year.the WaPo [bugmenot login]
[snip]
Coming on the heels of the State of the Union address, the vote was a critical test of Mr. Bush's ability to hold his fractured party together.
The impact of the bill on the deficit is likely to be negligible, slicing less than one-half of 1 percent from the estimated $14.3 trillion in federal spending over the next five years.only in washington can $40 billion be considered "negligible"--that's nearly $400 per american household...
¶ - nitish @ 9:21 AM | 0 comments
a person gets kicked out before the state of the union...
¶ - nitish @ 5:46 PM | 0 comments
there's a reason fox decided to cancel arrested development...
Take a look at the Nielsen figures for the show, and the numbers are startling. This supposedly terrific program, with its high hipness factor - people actually say they get their only news from "The Daily Show" - is averaging 1.3 million viewers in January, most of them men between the ages of 18 and 49. During November, the political high season in which Stewart and his cohorts supposedly thrive, the show averaged 1.45 million viewers.i'll go on record to predict (despite my sometimes good-sometimes bad record) the lowest rated oscars
For comparison, Nielsen estimates there are 218 million people over the age of 18 in the nation's 112 million homes with televisions.
That's a lot of people not getting Stewart's comedy.
¶ - nitish @ 3:09 PM | 0 comments
apparently the ny times isn't the only one questioning (the coverage) of woodruff-hurt-in-iraq story.
Perhaps some press critic will explore that question. And perhaps that critic will compare coverage of the Woodruff attack with coverage of the deaths of U.S. Army Private Brian J. Schoff, of Manchester, Tennessee, and Sergeant David L. Herrera, of Oceanside, California, who, according to Army records listed in icasualties.org, were killed in action — hostile fire, IED attack — in Baghdad on January 28.compare the 3000+ stories on woodruff-vogt as opposed to the few hundred stories of schoff and herrera
"Why do you think this is such a huge story?" wrote an officer stationed in Baqubah, Iraq, Monday via e-mail. "It's a bit stunning to us over here how absolutely dominant the story is on every network and front page. I mean, you'd think we lost the entire 1st Marine Division or something.the interest in the story propelled abc's world news tonight to a rare win against nbc nightly news
[snip]
"The point that is currently being made (is that) that press folks are more important than mere military folks," a senior military officer told UPI Tuesday.
[snip]
"It's just a bit frustrating to see something so dramatized that happens every day to some 20-year-old American -- or worse to 10, 30-year-old Iraqi soldiers or cops alongside us. Some of the stories don't even mention the Iraqi casualties in this attack, as if they're meaningless," wrote the officer in Baqubah.
[snip]
It was a story ABC News became aware of because that was where Woodruff and Vogt were treated. It was not a story ABC necessarily had reason to do before; there was no news hook. However, this was where hundreds of wounded soldiers and Marines had previously been stabilized [at the Balad Air Base hospital] before being moved to Landstuhl Air Base.
¶ - nitish @ 9:09 AM | 0 comments
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