Cherry Blossoms

The pale pink flowers are coming into bloom just weeks after an earthquake and tsunami devastated their country. In Japanese art cherry blossoms symbolize the fleeting nature of beauty and life.

Blooming in Brief Beauty Audio Embed: Morning Edition 3/25/11, Host: Linda Wertheimer.

Delusional "Throne Rangers"

Princess Fantasies Without Halloween Costumes


Women tired of hoping their prince will come to them undertake a serious man-hunt in London, searching for royal hangouts & parties.

Intelligent Insight

Sometimes the Light Just Goes On

Brainy design by Maria & Igor Solovyov

Closet Social Democrats?

Economic Obstacles To Feeling Free

If Americans were to become refugees, most wouldn't choose the U.S.

Where To Run To? Audio Embed: Dave Ross, KIRO-FM/Seattle, 3/25/11

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"Everybody has to fight to be free."
-- Tom Petty (1980)

Tom Petty - "Refugee" - Damn the Torpedoes (1980)

7 of 9 in Scrubs

Body of Proof, starring Dana Delany and Jeri Ryan as Philadelphia medical examiners, premieres 3/29/11 @ 10pm E/P on ABC TV.

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Nurse Colleen McMurphy Graduates to Morgue MD

Overexposure

Freak Accident Releases 34 Katherine Heigl Films At Once



The nation reels from Sony Pictures accident which unleashed dozens of films starring the irritating actress on an unsuspecting public.

Buyers Remorse

Politicians always reward patrons... But some are going too far.


Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson talks about the political backlash against those so-called "fiscal conservatives" who claim to be broke while they reduce tax revenues with giveaways to business.

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Rick Mercer may not have a "Harper Government" to rant at anymore.

Stern Suing Sirius

Within weeks of an extensive round of late night TV appearances in which he said moving to satellite radio was the best move of his life, Howard Stern is suing Sirius/XM, claiming the company didn’t pay him bonus stock options when its subscription numbers doubled.

Browser Wars

A rash of new updates have hit the market. Does your choice matter?

Audio Embed: APM's Marketplace Tech Report, Host: John Moe.

Interact with an Angel

An augmented reality interactive advertising experiment conducted at London's Victoria Railway Station, by Lynx Excite fragrance for men.

Radioactivity Under Attack

The Word - Over-Reactor


The time to review the safety of America's aging nuclear power plants is not immediately after Japan's major environmental catastrophe.

Japan's Greatest Resource

Indexed by Jessica Hagy

Ready for a Remake?

Only nine years after the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japanese moviegoers in 1954 wept when watching the original “Godzilla.” The towering reptile that destroyed Tokyo was a symbol of nuclear, and Western, science run amok.

Anthropologist Peter Wynn Kirby, a researcher with the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology at Oxford University, says the Godzilla movies changed over the years, along with Japanese attitudes towards nuclear energy.

Oh No, There Goes Tokyo! Audio Embed: BBC, PRI & WBUR's Here & Now 3/25/11, Host: Monica Brady-Meyerov. Peter Wynn Kirby's essay.

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Blue Oyster Cult - "Godzilla" - Spectres (1977)

Get Out of The Pool

Two weeks into Japan's nuclear crisis, a daily drama continues to unfold amid the crumbled walls and tangled pipes of the stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant.

Carbon neutral... But the leftovers are a bitch.

American Fallout Audio Embed: CBS Radio's Osgood File, 3/23/11.

South Carolina and Washington were involved in "breeder reactor" & nuclear weapons research using Plutonium. The remnants are deadly.

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Indian Point


Congress just held a hearing on the safety of domestic nuclear plants after the events that triggered a nuclear crisis in Japan. Lawrence O’Donnell has a rewrite on handling New York’s Indian Point facility.

Diablo Canyon


State Senator Sam Blakeslee (R-CA) talks with Rachel Maddow about safety concerns at the Diablo Canyon, the nuke in his own district.

American Oligarchs

Two writers from "The Exiled," an English-language alternative newspaper; featuring investigative journalism, satire and radical views, were among the first to recognize the activities of petro-billionaires Charles & David Koch fit an all to familiar pattern to those who publish in Moscow... Russia's post-Communist oligarchs.

Yasha Levine recently wrote "Koch whore" trolls are employed to make blog & news site comments or Wikipedia edits consistent with Koch Industries agenda, Twitter and Facebook pages, they also produce.


Leonard Cohen - "Everybody Knows" - (Live in London, 2008)

He's Baaaaaaaaack!

A Keith Olbermann "Special Comment"



FOK News Channel is where he's hangin' until his move to CurrentTV.

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New Day, Newt Tune Audio Embed: Dave Ross, KIRO-FM/Seattle, 3/24/11.

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This American Life: Any Force Necessary


How far would you go to win a dispute?

Motown Becomes No Town

New census numbers show Detroit’s population plunged 25 percent from 2000 to 2010. Is there any future or hope for the Motor City?

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The latest Census confirms that once-segregated Southern cities like Atlanta, Dallas, Houston and Miami are luring African Americans from northern metro areas like New York, Chicago and Detroit. Today, 57 percent of the nation’s black population now lives in the South, which is the highest it's been since 1960.

Reversing the Great Migration Audio Embed: PRI & WNYC's program The Takeaway 3/25/11, Hosts: Celeste Headlee & John Hockenberry.

Social Network Losing Streak

Ever since "Love Story," Harvard's jinxed... Bye "ResearchGate."

First The Bay Area, Now Berlin Audio Embed: WBUR FM, Boston 3/24/11 Bob Oakes introduces reporter Curt Nickish.

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No doubt Boston is an expensive place to live... Been there, done that. But compared to San Francisco, it's the bargain basement.

The venture capitalists may have shown favoritism for having the start-up close at hand, but it's hard to believe excluding Boston as a place to build the business is strictly a matter of due diligence.

There are indications that the area's applicant to opportunity ratio would produce many qualified applicants eager to get onboard.

Roll Credits

Looking Exotic & Familiar at the Same Time

Kimberley Joseph (born Kimberley Hawryluk) is a Canadian-Australian actress... Based in the United States, born in Vancouver, B.C., raised on Australia's Gold Coast, and educated in Switzerland.

She appeared as a recurring character, flight attendant Cindy Chandler, on the American TV series Lost between 2004 and 2010...
But more often has been seen in commercials for Hughes Net rural broadband, Allegra anti-allergy pills, Kentucky Fried Chicken, FreeStyle Lite diabetes testing strips, and Bissell vacuum cleaners .

Thank God For "Friday" Song

If yesterday was Thursday, tomorrow is Saturday, and Sunday comes
afterwards, then what day is it? If you answered "Friday," you either a) can read a calendar or b) have seen Rebecca Black's music video.

Trump 2012?

Back in Black


Lewis Black thinks publicity whore/political poser Donald Trump has what it takes to be the crazy third-world dictator that America needs.

Spanish Lessons

Jean Anne Whorton talks to the high school student who become a conservative hero for refusing to learn his Spanish vocabulary.

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Spanish basketball announcer reacts to amazing game-ending shot.

Consult The Experts

Japanese American Scientist


Theoretical physics professor and author Dr. Michio Kaku on the best and worst case scenarios for the ongoing nuclear crisis in Japan.

Rock Band


R.E.M. - "It's The End Of The World"- Document (1987)

Dictionary

Based on the definition of "pert," an ex-pert is one who was formerly:

1. Trim and stylish in appearance; jaunty.
2. High-spirited; vivacious.
3. Impudently bold; saucy

Which might explain why they're sometimes dull, but still correct.

Spoilers!

If the world's ending, it's too late for alerts.

Dead Pool

Backstage with the News Brothers...

Steve: "So who had Elizabeth Taylor beating Zsa Zsa in the dead pool, and how much did it pay?"

Jeff: "I already know... But it'll cost you an arm and a leg to find out."

Gabriel: "Dead? No, no... She's outside looking in, like Tiny Doctor Tim."

Mike: "Zsa Zsa went right back to the hospital after hearing about Liz. Reportedly inconsolable, fish.
So if she goes,too... What was the spread?"

Steve: "I'm not going to use the word 'spread' talking about 2 women who married 17 times!"

Mike: "I probably shouldn't call you 'fish,' either."

The rigorous editorial process was, is and ever shall be exhaustive.

Who's Willing, For How Long?

Mixed Messages From the Arab League

Fragile & Fractious Fighters Audio Embed: Dave Ross, KIRO-FM/Seattle, 3/22/11

An Italian Air Force "Typhoon" fighter at take off.

NATO Ambassadors met at HQ in Brussels Wednesday after failing to agree on a role for NATO in the military campaign in Libya, as the U.S. seeks to step back from its commanding role... U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates held meetings in Moscow, where his Russian counterpart is calling for an immediate ceasefire in Libya.

Russia had a chance to block the U.N. resolution with a Security Council veto, but chose not to vote... Now Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has likened the campaign to a medieval crusade.

Will Libya break up “the tandem” with President Dmitry Medvedev?



Can Christopher Dickey of Newsweek sort it out?

Don't Fumble The Hand Off! Audio Embed: BBC, PRI & WBUR's Here & Now 3/22/11, Host: Robin Young.

What Privacy Settings?

CIA's 'Facebook' Program Dramatically Cut Agency's Costs

Talk To The Hand

Wouldn't you know Lucy would be the one to give you the finger?

See more from the Secret Life of Fingers.

Toure Talks Sheen

The “Violent Torpedo of Truth” isn't just Charlie Sheen’s tour name. It's also what sinks his chances despite (winning!) Presidential poll results in an impossible head to head match-up vs. Sarah Palin.

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Dana Carvey Does Sheen


Part Johnny Carson, Part Jack Nicholson... All Charlie!

Another Day, More Setbacks

Representative Ed Markey (D-MA) shares his thoughts on nuclear plant safety in the U.S., emergency evacuation plans and how the Japanese can battle their ongoing problems with the reactors in Fukushima.

Knut Dies, Newt Lives

Newt & Knut met in 2007... Good times.

Following former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich's comments urging a no-fly zone in Libya and regime change to "get rid" of Moammar Khaddafy, the beloved Berlin zoo polar bear, Knut, died unexpectedly and very prematurely.

Coincidence? Or could it be that Kaddafi, Qaddafi, or Gadhafi's own death wish for Newt was answered, but misspelled?

ABC News reports they found 112 ways to spell the name before settling on Moammar Gaddafi for their own articles... The Library of Congress has only 72 alternate spellings for the Libyan strongman.


CBS News correspondent and resident veterinarian Dr. Debbye Turner Bell reports on the mysterious death of polar bear Knut, not Newt.

Costume Controversy

Is This How You Picture Her?

Adrianne Palicki in costume as the new, and new-look, Wonder Woman... Lynda Carter's star-spangled panties are long gone.

Awkward T & T

Phones get smaller, but not the networks they connect to.

"We are Borg. You will be assimilated. Your biological and technological distinctiveness will be added to our own. Resistance is futile."
-- Borg greeting and/or every random corporate takeover memo

In a deal that will reshape the mobile phone industry dramatically, AT&T is purchasing T-Mobile USA from parent company Deutsche Telekom for a reported $39 billion. What does that mean for you?

Audio Embed: APM's Marketplace Tech Report, Host: John Moe.

Canadian model/actress Carly Foulkes future as spokesperson is iffy, but one thing you won't see is any more T-Mobile ads slamming AT&T.

Light Bulb Lamp

If hoarding incandescent light bulbs isn't retro enough, Sergio Silva has designed a non-twisty oil lamp for compact fluorescent haters.

Happy Home Economics

Paul Szep via Huffington Post

In their new book, “Spousonomics,” authors Jenny Marks and Paula Szuchman take an unusual look at the relationship between economics and marriage...
It's Freakonomics for live-in relationships.

A companion piece in the Wall Street Journal advised women to "do the dishes, lose weight, put out more and talk less."

Spousonomics... It's Scientific! Audio Embed: BBC, PRI & WBUR's Here & Now 3/21/11. Host: Robin Young.

TED's Top 10

TED started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from the worlds of Technology, Entertainment and Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader.

They want to encourage the advertising industry to transcend the realm of rapid fire video bludgeoning to really tell a story, share an idea, make a human connection and become unforgettable.

This year, TED selected 10 Ads Worth Spreading... Among them, Chrysler's Super Bowl winner, "imported from Detroit."

Surprise Party

Alien birthday cakes for those who just burst forth into the world

No Ifs, Ands, Just Butts

Rob Free is 1 of 5 sketchers that travel the country for The Original Butt Sketch. KWCH-TV's Megan Strader met with him in Wichita.

It's a wonder he can find willing models... Ranging from quiet wishes to suicidal self-loathing, 97% of women have body image issues.

Foo Fighters - Rope

The Foo Fighters - "Wasting Light" - album drops April 12th.

#happybirthday

Twitter co-founder Biz Stone’s
6 minute explanation of the
workings and history
of compact communication:
5 years, 140 characters at a time.

Flying High at Five Audio Embed: Weekend Edition Saturday 3/19/11, Host: Scott Simon.

Backing Into The Fan

Republican economic attacks targeting the middle class and stripping labor union rights only serve to reawaken and rally Democratic base.

Sounds of Shrinkage

"Scores" are the authentic musical segments, or "cues" from TV or movies, while "soundtracks" are collections of entire compositions. They both seek to capture the right musical mood for the moment.

Closing Credits as Art Form Audio Embed: Echoes, an ambient music program on public radio with extensive archives of subscriber downloads.

Mom Caves, Too

Moms want a hideout at home; sanctuary from kids & husband.