Have reports of a bounce-less bounce been exaggerated? The often-insufferable William Saletan parses the recent polls and finds much mojo for Kerry hidden in the numbers.
Month: August 2004
Turmoil for the Laker Nation.
After months of little public movement, the assault case against Lakers star Kobe Bryant hits a crossroads of sorts. On one hand, because Judge Ruckriegle’s court apparently leaks worse than the Titanic, the accuser is contemplating dropping criminal charges against Bryant (but will still make a civil case.) On the other, another woman has emerged to corroborate a pattern of “aggressive” behavior on Kobe’s part. Hmmm.
Prince of Gotham, son of Krypton.
The first pics of Ken Watanabe as Ras Al Ghul in Batman Begins have been posted on a Japanese site. And, if you prefer your Caped Crusader with a side of Supes, the fan trailer for World’s Finest (by Sandy Collora, the guy who made the somewhat goofy Batman: Dead End short running around awhile back) is now also available. Yeah, the acting’s pretty substandard here, but I have to say, I sorta prefer the Collora cowl to the rubber suit look they’re going with in Chris Nolan’s film.
The Doctor Meets the Grid (and the Matrix).
Filming on the new Doctor Who runs afoul of British anti-terrorism forces. The article also has one of the first pics up of Christopher Eccleston as The Doctor. Between this and the Batman post above, I know I’m starting to sound like the fanboy Joan Rivers…but what’s up with the lousy costume? Surely, any Time Lord worth his salt would wear something a mite more quirky.
With all Deliberate Speed.
“Although these events concern different legal issues and different sets of detainees, they share a common denominator: a legal strategy to keep the rule of law out of the war on terrorism by whatever procedural, legal, or administrative means are available.” According to Slate‘s Phillip Carter, the Dubya administration is obstructing and/or ignoring the recent Supreme Court decisions on the Gitmo Gulag. Sadly, I guess we couldn’t expect any less from this crowd.
Solar Powered.
From REM.HQ: “The band officially confirmed today that the new record will be titled Around the Sun…Around the Sun will be released on Warner Bros. Records October 4th (internationally) and October 5th in the United States. The first single will be ‘Leaving New York.'” And, in other R.E.M. news, the band will be part of MoveOn’s Vote For Change Tour, with Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam, Jurassic 5, and many others.
No more Superstations.
“This is a fight about freedom–the freedom of independent entrepreneurs to start and run a media business, and the freedom of citizens to get news, information, and entertainment from a wide variety of sources, at least some of which are truly independent and not run by people facing the pressure of quarterly earnings reports. No one should underestimate the danger.” Fed up to the gills, Ted Turner takes on Big Media in the Washington Monthly.
Ugh.
Don’t call it a comeback…maggots return as an accepted medical tool. Well, I for one am overjoyed. The jury’s still out on bleeding, I guess.
Time to build a research lab.
In true Civ 3 fashion, USA Today ranks the most and least literate US cities. “Yuppie magnets” Minneapolis, Seattle, and Pittsburgh are at the top of the list, with Texas and California rounding out most of the bottom slots…score one for the South.
Not Exactly Soundgarden.
“The more black holes eat, the more they spill, and it is widely thought that their feeding frenzies power the violence seen in the nuclei of many galaxies, including the powerful quasars that are so bright they outshine their parent galaxies.” The NY Times delves into the strange sounds emanating from black holes. “The frequency of these waves was equivalent to a B flat, 57 octaves below middle C, the astronomers calculated.“