Week In Review

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Recap - Week of 6/7/10
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Recap - Week of 6/7/10
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Fox News

Video embeds: MSNBC, Comedy Central

The Whole World's Watching

"The referees at the World Cup want to make sure that players behave with proper decorum. There's a rule against players cursing during the world soccer championship. Of course the referees gathered in South Africa don't all speak fluent English. And they have to know the violation in order to call the violation. So they've taken a crash course in English four-letter words. In the interest of thoroughness, the class also included certain gestures."
-- Steve Inskeep, NPR Morning Edition 6/11/10

Except For That Prescott Dude

Audio Embed: Berger & Prescott, podcast via Facebook. Jeff blew his chance to be the guy who says, "Goooooooooooooooooooalllllllll!" He still hopes to be cranky enough to replace Andy Rooney when the time comes.

Game Changer?



Video embed: Newsy.com: Multi-source Video News Analysis, 6/11/10


Video embed: Bud United

Stark Raving Black

Tonight at 9p/Comedy Central

Video: Fox Business Network 6/9/10

39 Cents

More than an hour before, and from two blocks away, it looked like something dark dumped onto the sidewalk... But it wasn't on my way.

The street was on the edge of downtown. The kind of place with plenty of foot traffic, people parking to visit nearby clubs and even bicycle security patrols. Somebody else would check it out and see what was happening... And it was true, at least on weekends. But not so much on a Wednesday night.

After that hour or so had passed, the location was on my way. And as I walked toward the scene an ambulance and one of the two police cars pulled away. A second officer filled out an incident report.

A glint on the sidewalk caught my eye and as I stopped to look, the cop came out of his cruiser again to ask, "What are you looking at?"

"There's some change on the sidewalk. I wonder if it belongs to the person you just hauled away."

"Maybe... But it's up for grabs now."

I scooped up the coins as he drove away.

I hadn't recognized the dark patch in the distance was a person who could've been helped much sooner if I had... And now I have 39 cents that belongs to someone I failed.

New Papers

Video embed: Onion News Network

Mac Backs

Just Whatever has assembled 22 Hot Decals for the back of your Mac.

Leaked Stories

Kicker In Chief


Commentary from Dave Ross KIRO-FM/Seattle.

The Money Spill

Audio Embed: CBS Radio's Osgood File 6/10/10.

Keep The Spill At Bay

Oil has slinked into the inland waters of Perdido Bay, a body of water on the Alabama-Florida state line. There weren't enough skimmers or boom to corral the brown, gloppy goo. This has infuriated local officials who knew this was coming, and they blame BP and the federal government for not doing more to prevent it. As the oil from the spill has moved east, it's been a familiar story. Will officials in Florida be any more successful?

Audio Embed: NPR's All Things Considered 6/10/10, Reporter: Debbie Elliott.

What a way to mark the 100th birthday of Jacques Cousteau.

Two Right Turns

And You're Going The Opposite Way




Videos: MSNBC

Immigration Story

Video embed: Agence France Presse

A Gift With A Kick

As only kids can.

Audio Embed: WBUR & NPR's Only A Game 6/12/10, Host: Bill Littlefield.

Big Time Fan

This 16.5 meter high "Cratefan" was created using around 2500 1.25 liter Coca-Cola crates at a fan park in Johannesburg, South Africa.

All the materials will be reused/recycled once he has finished celebrating the World Cup, which starts its tournament today.

Via Like Cool

Pre-Hab

Video: Jimmy Kimmel Live/ABC-TV

BP is BS

BP Backlash

Boycott

President Barack Obama has strongly criticized BP’s chief executive Tony Hayward over the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. In an NBC interview, Mr Obama was asked about comments Hayward made in the wake of the disaster, such as “I want my life back” and the President said: “He wouldn’t be working for me after any of those statements.” The World’s Katy Clark reports on how citizens are grappling with the oil spill disaster. Some are now boycotting BP. But do such actions really make a difference?

Audio Embed: BBC, PRI & WGBH's The World, Host: Marco Werman.

Corporate Sociopaths

Former labor secretary Robert Reich connects BP’s disaster in the Gulf of Mexico to other recent disasters, including April’s tragic explosion in Massey Energy’s West Virginia coal mine and the financial meltdown, involving Goldman Sachs. Reich says all three companies have violated the public trust to make profits, demonstrating that it’s time for a new era of federal regulation. In the case of BP, Reich argues for taking the company into temporary government receivership.

Robert Reich served in the Clinton White House. He is now professor of public policy at University of California, Berkeley.

Audio Embed: BBC, PRI & WBUR's Here & Now 6/9/10, Host: Robin Young.

P.R.-mageddon

Video embed: The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
The Word - P.R.-mageddon 6/8/10
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Fox News

Go Directly To Bankruptcy

Calculating The Shortest Possible Monopoly Game

Dan Myers of Notre Dame University talks to Robert Siegel about his claim that he's figured out what theoretically the shortest possible game of Monopoly would be. That is: If everything went just the right way, with just the right rolls, Chance and Community Chest cards, and so on, what is the quickest way one player could go bankrupt?

Audio Embed: NPR's All Things Considered 6/8/10.

Space Invaders

Good thing he's ready!

Hawks in OT, Cup in 6

It hadn't happened since 1961 in the era of Bobby Hull and Stan Makita, but at 4:06 into overtime the Chicago Blackhawks' Patrick Kane sneaked the puck past Michael Leighton and stunned the Philadelphia Flyers to lift the Blackhawks to a 4-3 overtime win in Game 6 on Wednesday night... Ending the NHL's longest drought.

No one but the Blackhawks appeared to know what was going on for a few frozen moments. Kane and his linemates seemed the only players on the ice who knew the puck found the side of the net.

But it counted as the goal that brought Lord Stanley's Cup to Chicago.

Irrationailty's Upside

Robert Siegel talks to behavioral economist Dan Ariely about his new book, The Upside of Irrationality. The book is a follow-up to his New York Times best-seller, Predictably Irrational, in which Ariely examined a number of biases that lead all of us to make unwise decisions. This time, Ariely explores the flipside to irrationality and how it helps us achieve great things.

Audio Embed: NPR's All Things Considered 6/1/10.

What Me Worry?

Are these the scariest times humans have ever faced?

In his new book, “How Risky Is It Really? Why Our Fears Don’t Always Match the Facts,” author David Ropeik, a former award-winning TV news reporter who teaches at Harvard, says it takes some work to determine the differences between true dangers and those which are false alarms.

Audio Embed: BBC, PRI & WBUR's Here & Now 6/8/10, Host: Robin Young.

Here Comes The Sun

There is no SPF

ZZZZZZ

Snoring & Snore Stoppers... Both Sex Stoppers

Audio Embed: Berger & Prescott podcast on Facebook, unless they've been awake all night.

You Got To Roll With It

Collaboration among different design programs within the Karlsruhe (Germany) Institute of Technology resulted in a cylindrical modular prototype for flexible space within a minimal housing unit. It appears you reconfigure function by rotation.

Additional photos/configurations at Like Cool


Video from Steve Winwood's 5th solo album (1988).

Get Happy

Where



When

If the multibillion-dollar self-help industry is any gauge, Americans are spending a great deal of time and money trying to be happy. But a new study shows happiness is more a matter of time -- just wait for it. Host Guy Raz talks with psychologist Arthur Stone about his new study. It shows happiness tapering off in our 20s and returning after we turn 50.

Audio Embed: NPR's All Things Considered 5/30/10.

Primarypalooza

Arkansas Senate, California Governor



California Senate



Nevada Senate



Measuring Anti-Incumbent Anger

Audio Embed: Morning Edition 6/7/10, Roundtable: Ken Rudin, Mara Liasson, Steve Inskeep, Deborah Amos

Video embeds: CNN & MSNBC

Not My Jobs, Man

Your Performance May Vary


Video embed: CNN

Yes at its best musically, despite perms & eye-makeup.... From 90125 (1983).

Israeli Navy Kills 4 More

Four Palestinian divers were shot dead and two more missing off Gaza after the Israeli navy opened fire on their rickety boat. The Israeli military alleged its forces prevented an attack on Israeli targets, but did not offer evidence or further explanation. The incident comes a week after nine pro-Palestinian activists were killed in a clash with commandos as their supply vessel tried to reach Gaza.


Videos embed: AP, CNN & ITN

Again headshots... At a distance, a sniper's tactic. Up close, murder.

The BBC’s Jon Donnison in Ramallah explains a militant group, among several rivals to Gaza-ruling Hamas, claims involvement, but Israelis' firing on fishing boats is a frequent occurrence.

Audio Embed: BBC, PRI & WBUR's Here & Now 6/7/10, Host: Robin Young.

Helen Thomas Self-Destructs @ 89

Take Your Best Shot

Video embed: Jimmy Kimmel Live/ABC

Serious Coke Habit

Examine the condensation on the two bottles and you'll see the ten liter version is stretched out in Photoshop... Or is it scaled down?

---

Coca-Cola Introduces New 30-Liter Size
October 22, 1996 | The Onion | ISSUE 30•11

ATLANTA — The Coca-Cola Corporation held a press conference yesterday to announce that its soft drinks will soon be available exclusively in 30-liter plastic bottles. According to company spokespeople, Coke's decision to sell its product in what many consider to be overly large containers is not based on a specific study or survey of consumer demands, but rather on the company's desire to make a resounding display of its corporate might.

Several major soft-drink companies attempted to improve on the standard two-liter size bottle by introducing a three-liter size in 1985, but the new size failed because of difficulties with storage and carbonation loss.

The new bottles also take up an enormous amount of display space.

"The three-liter didn't fail because it was too big, but because it was not big enough," Coca-Cola CEO Vic Hertner said. "With our new 30-liter size, that won't be a problem. Two liters is nothing. I could urinate two liters for you right now. But 30 liters is untouchable."

The new plastic bottle is nearly four feet tall, and weighs 274 pounds when filled with Coke. In development tests, it took an average of three men to lift the new bottle. The product will fit in an average refrigerator, but only when all other products and shelving have been removed. Most inconvenient of all, the new Coke will go flat if not drunk within 17 minutes, even if it is promptly recapped. The Coca-Cola Corporation does not see these factors as drawbacks.

"By requiring three men to lift the bottle, our new product will encourage a sense of community," Hertner said. "The popular image of the lonely soda drinker wasting his life away in solitude will no longer be relevant, because anyone wanting to drink the new Coke will need two buddies to get the soda home, and at least 10 buddies to drink it all. The quick loss of carbonation might lead to tiny problems, but what are people going to do? Stop drinking Coke? I think not."

Sociologists see Coke's plan to manufacture the 30-liter bottle as the logical next step. "It makes sense," Stanford Professor Edmund Tillerton said. "Americans like big things. Big sky, big cars, big stereo speakers, big dicks and big TV sets. It would follow that we would like big bottles of Coke. We like things to be larger than life, and that's what the new Coke size is."

Coke stressed that the new 30-liter bottle would not be merely a new size option, but will soon be the only size option. "We're phasing out the smaller cans and bottles, as well as two-liter sizes," Hertner said. "We're confident that people will take to the new 30-liter size. Besides, they won't have a choice. We own Minute Maid as well. Soon, all orange juice will only be available in 30-liter sizes. Fruitopia as well. We will buy controlling stock in every beverage company and force them to follow suit. We are very confident. Did I mention that we own a small nation? If the people of this country don't like the newly sized product, we'll simply declare war. We will bury you."

Consumers are eager to sample the new size. "I like Coke a lot, so it would follow that I would like a lot of Coke," Linda Jillerman of Cincinnati said. "For the last 13 years, I've been working on a mechanism to funnel Coke into larger containers. I had to quit my job to do this, but it was worth it. Now, with the new size, Coke does all the work! I'll be able to get my old job back!"

The new size is ready for the public, and the public is ready for it. After considering "Coka-Munga" and "The Shitload," executives settled on "Family Size" as the product's official name.

An extensive promotional campaign for the new size is also in the works. The Coca-Cola company is considering exhuming the corpse of wrestling legend Andre The Giant for use as the product's spokesman. If Andre is chosen, Coca-Cola will reanimate him in the same laboratories where the Coca-Cola head executives were cloned. "Ve velcome zees challenge," head scientist Günther Brauerhauer said.

Photo from Flickr.

Underwater Base Jumping

Free diver Guilaume Nery at Dean's Blue Hole, Long Island/Bahamas
Video embed: College Humor 6/6/10.

BP's Gusher

To put the oil spill into perspective, Josh Landis and Mitch Butler of The Fast Draw show you just how much oil is gushing out compared with our every day energy use.


Video embed: CBS News

Non-Choices in NY State

An angry public doesn't connect their own consumption to Big Oil's penchant to engage in risky business while looking to meet our energy demands.

Audio Embed: NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday 6/6/10, Reporter: Brian Mann, North Country Public Radio (NY)

Clean Energy Wake-up Call

Environmentalist Bill McKibben has long called Americans' use of fossil fuels a dangerous addiction, and he says the disaster in the Gulf is just a reminder of the damage we do to the planet every day. With oil continuing to gush into the Gulf of Mexico, McKibben says it's time to rally public support of clean energy.

Audio Embed: PRI's Living On Earth 6/5/10, Host: Jeff Young.

Crude Trailer (2009)


YouTube video embed by documentary filmmaker Joe Berlinger.

Crude followed key players in a multibillion-dollar class-action lawsuit against an oil giant. Now, Berlinger is fighting his own battle against Chevron's lawyers -- who think his raw tapes will help them prove their case.

Audio Embed: NPR's All Things Considered 6/4/10. Reporter: David Folkenflik.

Flowchart du Jour

Click it to figure out what & why.

Fox & Friends On Crack

Reefer Madness 2010?



A former crack-smoking Pastor makes an argument that legalized Marijuana will bring problems that outweigh potential tax revenues.

The Gates: Show Up

For a period of time, Bill Gates, Jr. was the richest person in the world. Now he’s the second richest, according to Forbes Magazine – which may have something to do with the fact that he keeps giving away his money... At his Dad's urging.

Both Bill Gates, Sr. and Jr., showed up to talk about Bill Senior’s new book, “Showing Up for Life: Thoughts on the Gifts of a Lifetime,” and what 'showing up' means: in parenting, in business practices and in other aspects of life.

Audio Embed: PRI & WNYC's program The Takeaway 6/4/10, Host: Celeste Headlee.

Chewing Gum and Helium

Video embed: College Humor 6/4/10. The Boston Globe has a great photo set of large-scale ballooning around the world.

I'm Too Sexy For My Bank

Video embed: CBS News

Assume the (missionary) position, fashionista!

The Longest Day

The Birth of Literary Non-Fiction

In 1959, a reporter named Cornelius Ryan published The Longest Day, about the June 6, 1944 invasion of Normandy known as D-Day. In the Columbia Journalism Review this month, author Michael Shapiro argues that Ryan’s book was nothing short of revolutionary.

Audio Embed: WNYC's On The Media 6/5/10, Host: Brooke Gladstone.

Dimensions Of Disaster

From The Beach & Beyond



As Seen From Woods Hole


Video embeds: MSNBC & Clean Skies News

No Excuse

Video embed: ITN

Continuing to enforce a three-year Israeli blockade of Gaza, Israeli forces seized the aid ship Rachel Corrie bound there on Saturday.

Audio Embed: NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday 6/5/10, Host Scott Simon with Peter Kenyon in Gaza.

CNN reported autopsy results by forensics experts in Istanbul revealed that all nine of the men killed by Israeli commandoes aboard the humanitarian convoy that had planned to dock in Gaza died of gunshot wounds... Five with bullet wounds to the head.

Dr. Haluk Ince, the director of Istanbul's Medical Examination Institute, said Friday. "From the analysis of the bullet distance on one of the bodies," Dr. Ince said, "the gun was fired between 2 and 14 centimeters' distance from the victim's head."

A headshot at 1 to 5.5 inches? Sounds like an assassination.

An End To Israel Right Or Wrong?

Research shows that Jewish students across the country are less likely to feel attached to Israel than their elders. They cite the country's shift to the right as one reason. What that means, says writer Peter Beinart, is that young Jews are now less likely to join key organizations that make up the American Jewish establishment -- and the power of those groups, who unquestioningly support Israeli governments (rather than Israeli democracy), is waning. Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz joins this discussion on the future of the Zionist movement in the United States.

Audio Embed: NPR's All Things Considered 6/5/10, Host: Guy Raz. Peter Beinart's article in the NY Review of Books.

Opportunity For Palestinians

Israel's armed commando raid sparked international condemnation. It also provided a political platform for Palestinian activists at home -- and abroad -- to further their case for a homeland. Hussein Ibish, a senior fellow at the American Task Force, discusses whether pro-Palestinian groups are finding it easier to be heard.

Audio Embed: NPR's All Things Considered 6/5/10, Host: Guy Raz.