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09 Mar 2009 22:15

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Culture, Music: Dear Ryan Adams: Please stop following/diluting your muse

  • 2 books by Ryan Adams in six months. He does this with music, too. source

09 Mar 2009 21:57

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U.S.: More proof that Obama isn’t Bush: The war on science is over

  • Promoting science isn’t just about providing resources. It is about letting scientists … do their jobs, free from manipulation or coercion, and listening to what they tell us, even when it’s inconvenient; especially when it’s inconvenient.
  • Barack Obama • As he was lifting the ban on embryonic stem-cell research, which lasted for 8-and-a-half years during the Bush years. He claims this is part of a broader initiative to end the government’s limitations on what science can do. Understandably, he’s annoying a bunch of religious conservatives by doing this, but that’s why a Democrat was elected into office! • source

09 Mar 2009 20:50

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Biz: Customized newspapers in L.A.: Print it yourself!

  • Um, aren’t there RSS feeds that do this? The MediaNews-owned Los Angeles Daily News, that other newspaper in L.A., wants to give you your own specialized news. This would, admittedly, be cool – if it was delivered to your door. But ohhhh no! They want you to print your own news with your own ink, thereby taking away its reason for being. Did someone say CueCat? source

09 Mar 2009 20:29

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Culture: Good God. Who gave octet mom Nadya Suleman nurses?

  • 14 nurses will be on call, 4-5 at a time, for Suleman’s massive family.
  • $135,000 per month, the normal cost of the nurses. A charity’s payin’ for ’em. source

09 Mar 2009 10:48

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Politics: Jon Stewart’s not alone in his CNBC criticism

  • When they are all sitting around the table it’s hard to tell a business pundit versus a reporter.
  • Tom Rosenstiel • Director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, on the way that CNBC often combines reporting and editorializing seamlessly. He said it less funny than Stewart did, though. • source

09 Mar 2009 10:42

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Offbeat, World: Kangaroo kick-butt: Dude beats up an bouncy Aussie intruder

  • It was scarier than you’d think. Beat Ettlin of Canberra, Australia, was woken up by a pretty odd sight – a kangaroo who broke through his window and started bouncing on his bed. The ‘roo then started messing with his family. So he tackled and wrestled the intruder to the ground, then forced him out of the house. “I had just my Bonds undies on. I felt vulnerable,” Ettlin said about kicking the intruder out. The ‘roo left claw marks, a trail of blood, and an awesome story behind. source

09 Mar 2009 10:34

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Biz: Drug companies Merck, Schering-Plough have a shotgun wedding

  • $49 billion to merge the two pharmaceuticals source
 

09 Mar 2009 10:29

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Music: Speaking of Townes Van Zandt, Steve Earle’s got a tribute in the can

  • This may be one of the best records I’ve ever made. That hurts a singer-songwriter’s feelings.
  • Steve Earle • On his Townes Van Zandt tribute album, “Townes,” which will be out in May. Earle, who named his son Justin Townes Earle in honor of his hero and contemporary, has said many nice things about Townes before. • source

09 Mar 2009 10:17

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Music: Esquire makes an arbitrary 75-albums-you-must-own list

Townes Van Zandt is on the list, which makes it worth at least reading. source

09 Mar 2009 10:08

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Culture: In this era of sequelitis, don’t count on another “Watchmen”

  • But why? “Watchmen,” which already carried a rep of being a fairly hard-to-translate comic book film (and many critics think they didn’t succeed, either), didn’t have a sequel in comic book form. It’s unlikely to have one in film form, either, even though it did OK (but not amazing) at the box office. Furthermore, the stars, while not against the idea, don’t think there’s really a good way a sequel could be made.
  • The director: Not interested The cast and crew seems pretty much against the idea of a “Watchmen” sequel themselves. “I know that I wouldn’t have anything to do with it,” director Zack Snyder noted to the New York Times. He went further to criticize superhero sequelitis: “The attitude toward comic books, they show their hand a little bit. They would never say that about a real novelist, but they would about a comic book.” source