Walter Cronkite 1916 - 2009

He bore witness to history in times of social and political upheaval -- protest, riots, war, assassinations and wondrous achievement -- to emerge "the most trusted man in America."

And that's the way it is, Friday, July 17, 2009.

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"Today, so much media doesn't try to reach a mass audience, with all its unpredictable diversity and variations. They look for like-minded people who want a view of the news that will reassure them that they're right — that "that's the way it is." But in the welter of news sources, who will they trust to tell them when it's not? "

Scott Simon -- NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday, June 18, 2009

Roll Package

Debriefing

Rather spent the rest of the program talking to Rachel.

The remaining segments from July 17 are posted at MSNBC.

Sunglassases, Mr. Bond?

Coming from Calvin Klein... $200 shades with built in flashdrives.

For Your Eyes Only...

From: TechnaBob Blog

The Sky Over Berlin

In Der Himmel über Berlin (1987), a Wim Wenders film released the following year as "Wings of Desire" in the U.S., immortal angels see time and the human condition, but as Peter Falk explains, they're missing out on what comes with a shorter life and different senses...



A YouTuber thought Wenders' imagery would work well with Radiohead's "Pyramid Song."

Maniacs

New Englanders have names for the people from surrounding states. These women are all maniacs!

Yoo Oughta Know

Willie's Week

He missed compiling this feature last week, for the birth of a son: George Winston Geist... George W... What a way to start your life.

Oral Arguments: Buchanan v Maddow

Following Obama's summation @ the NAACP's 100th, a reprise of NBC's resident political pit bull & PhD on race/affirmative action:

I Can See Emmy In My House

WBCN Is Dead, Long Live Rock

My first set of call letters is going off the air.

What began as a great adventure in individual creativity had mutated over the years, freedom diminishing as the financial stakes increased. Yet for all the resources its current owners (CBS) have at their disposal, there hasn't been that much of a buzz about "The Rock of Boston" for years.

Rock, itself, isn't doing all that well as a musical genre.

Rolling Stone says: For the third time this year, an iconic rock radio station in a major city is shifting formats: Boston’s 104.1 WBCN, “The Rock of Boston,” will leave the airwaves (along with WXRK New York & LA's Indie 103.1).

The Boston Herald describes the road from freeform to progressive rock, then to album-oriented rock, then to modern rock including the perspective of former PD Oedipus (Edward Hyman), plus additional comments from distinctive long time air personalities Charles Laquidara, Mark Parenteau and News Dissector Danny Schechter.

History's Biggest Oops!

Believe it or not, NASA confessed the original recordings of the first humans landing on the moon 40 years ago were erased and re-used, but newly restored copies of the original broadcast look even better.

The digital restoration of network tv's archived broadcasts was done by the same company that reconstructed "Casablanca" after the negatives were "lost."

Here's looking at you, Neil.

Bits & Pieces

Amanda Boone has never seen a whole Star Wars film, but thought she already knew what happens... Here's her version of the original Star Wars Trilogy.

Star Wars: Retold (by someone who hasn't seen it) from Joe Nicolosi on Vimeo.

Polythechnique

The Montreal Massacre movie ‘Polytechnique‘ trailer. The real perp was not a skinny Edward Norton white guy, but the son of an Algerian immigrant and a Montreal woman, born Gamil Rodrigue Gharbi, and raised with traditional Muslim ideas of the subservience of women. In 1989, after claiming that he was "fighting feminism", he shot 28 of them... 14 died.

Jurist's Prudence

The nominee displays more patience than the newsguy.

Big Bucks, Bailouts & Bubbles

Financial powerhouse Goldman Sachs just posted its biggest quarterly profit ever in it 140-year history, and is preparing to pay billions in compensation "bonuses" to its traders. How'd they do that just a few months after receiving federal bailout money?

Matt Taibbi, wrote about Goldman Sachs in Rolling Stone. He accuses the firm has engineered every major market manipulation since the Great Depression, and warns they'll do it again.

Audio: BBC, PRI & WBUR's Here & Now, July 15. Host: Robin Young.
Illustration by Victor Juhasz

Political Affairs

He Never Said 'Malaise'

30 years ago this week, the reception to Jimmy Carter's speech was overwhelmingly positive... Until the "spin" took effect.

Critics dubbed it the "malaise speech." Even though the President never used that word, he never lived down the label.

What he did say addressed the energy crisis, unemployment, inflation and something else a bit more nebulous: "loss of a unity of purpose for our nation." It was a spiritual call to a very materialistic nation, and instead of unifying around a sense of civic sacrifice, it set the stage for the election of the more outwardly optimistic Ronald Reagan.

Audio: NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday, July 12. Host: Liane Hansen.

TW-4

Mobile Moron Multitasker Meets Manhole

Staten Island teen Alexa Longueira is recovering after falling into an open manhole. She was texting and walking when it happened.

Video: WABC-TV

Ensign Scandal Extenze

Undercover Dick

Search Me

While Google now dwarves Facebook in revenue and traffic, Facebook has something Google doesn’t: information on its 200 million Facebook users... Potentially invaluable to matching advertising messages to interests at a premium price. Fred Vogelstein of Wired Magazine suggests the social networking company could to use that information to create a web 2.0 search engine that will rival Google.

Audio: BBC, PRI & WBUR's Here & Now. Host: Robin Young.

Manimal Ban

Holy crap, Mancow!

Presumably, the ban would keep the U.S. safe from Darth Vader chops... Created on a farm... But shamelessly sold in a Swedish supermarket.

But as yet the proposed legislation fails to address the vegatable-based menace.

Photos Via: Geekologie Blog

Real Time Road Trip

Morgan Stanley Smith Barney

A new wealth management team with over 130 years of experience.

French Flies

What's on the menu for Bastille Day, Kermie?

Roller Babes

"Superior tecnology in the hands of primitive people is a frightening thing." -- Tim Kelly. KIIS/Los Angeles (1986)

Snakes On A Network

We were warned! (March 9)

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New House

Earrings, Fearing, Hearings

They're here!

Teddy Boy

Lawrence O'Donnell was a an aide to New York Democratic Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, and a writer/producer for "The West Wing" political drama. His knowledge of, and reverence for, the "Lion of the Senate" was obtained at close range.

The documentary "In His Own Words," debuts July 13th on HBO.

Barrier Method

On The Other Foot

Spokesmodel

Remember "spokesmodels" on Star Search?

With a look that is somewhere between UNLV sorority social chair, and future weekend TV weather gal, this is the latest one for the El Cortez Hotel-Casino in dowtown Las Vegas... Perhaps the eastern-most surving property of the old "Glitter Gulch," and about the only place it its neighborhood that's undergone any renovation recently.

In the nearly 9 years I've lived here, the spokesmodel is the third to play the role. On TV and promotional video spots she introduces the latest cycle of promotional items up for grabs. In June it was your choice of the least colorful "Hawaiian" shirts you've ever seen... The one in beige could have been mistaken for desert camouflage.

Over that time, the one thing to remain constant in the ads is the ending in which the spokesmodel says "Thanks, Jackie!" to an aged and increasingly oblivious hotel owner, dressed and groomed for an outing from the home, whose expression asks: "Where am I?"

July's ads look like spokesmodel's pay has gone to a two cup-size boob job. Kinda puts a different spin on "Thanks, Jackie!"...
But I doubt he knows anything.

Go To The Mirror

Should dress size matter when you're perfectly proportioned?



No wonder girls get psycho about body image.

Newt-ering Health Care

Ed Schultz aggressively champions a public healthcare insurance option on his MSNBC and talk radio platforms... If he had his way, a Canadian-style single-payer plan would already be law.

Polemics aside, employers choose which provider and plan are offered. Your only choice is take it or leave it.

US vs Canada Healthcare

CNN correspondent Dana Bash took a look:




To understand the issue in more depth, here are some sources at greater length:

Mitch McConnell attacks Kingston, Ontario General Hospital & Canadian Single-Payer Healthcare on the US Senate floor:




Senator Hugh Segal (a Conservative whose riding includes Kingston, Ontario) rebuts McConnell's charges:




Dr. David Zelt, Chief of Medicine at Kingston General, says the apples and oranges nature of US vs Canadian stats aren't the whole story.





Bottom line: It's a question of speed for some vs access for all.

Big Pill, Big Bill

Some Drugmakers have an all or nothing policy.

You either pay full price, or you get it free... If they decide to give it away. But there's no middle ground, or negotiation on price.

For example, Genzyme sued the Costa Rican government to pay $350,000 dollars a year indefinitely for their drug Cerezyme, to treat only two people afflicted with rare Gaucher disease.

Boston Globe reporter Stephen Heuser went to Costa Rica for the story.

Audio: BBC, PRI & WBUR's Here & Now, July 9th. Host: Robin Young.

Naked Yoga

Naked yoga is just that: the practice of yoga without clothes.

Las Vegas has many people & places minus clothes in twisty positions.
Very few are practicing yoga. But here's one that is.

Naked Scandal

Sanford & Sons

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