Tree Slackers. With Shrub’s intention that environmental quality be damned as clear as he makes it, why can’t the environmental left get its act together in opposition? The American Prospect

McVeigh’s Last Message: “If the FBI can “misplace” a cache of

documents in the most notorious death-penalty

case since the Rosenbergs, is it any wonder that

nearly 100 factually innocent people have ended

up on death row in recent years?” The American Prospect

Product Images to be Inserted in Law & Order Reruns: “Turner Broadcasting System has reached a deal to allow it to

insert virtual product images in reruns of

Law & Order when the hit show moves to

TNT in syndication next month. Virtual

product placement allows images of

products to be inserted into scenes to

appear as if they were originally part of

the setting.” Advertising Age

Escaped kangaroo lived for year in Dutch woods: “A kangaroo who has been on the run for a year after

escaping from its owner has been found living in a Dutch

wood.” Ananova

Never mind rogue states, how about rogue superpowers? asks Noam Chomsky. BBC

Blind mice see

There’s more to vision than meets the eye.

Although unable to see, mice lacking rods

and cones in their retinas can tell day from

night. And their pupils still respond to

bright light.

These latest findings suggest that

mammals’ eyes contain another

light-sensitive pigment not found in rods

or cones. The pigment may regulate

circadian rhythms that govern sleep

patterns and other behaviours, such as

eating, that are related to general light

levels. Nature

Plan to clone Dracula ‘sucks’ says Dolly scientist: “The Scottish researchers who cloned Dolly the sheep say a

plan to clone Dracula is doomed to failure… A group of US businessmen came up with the plan to clone

Vlad the Impaler, who inspired Bram Stoker’s tale, after

hearing he was buried in Romania. ‘It is just a wonderful way of spending

a bit of money and getting a lot of publicity.’ ” Ananova

You only live twice: “A decade ago, Robert Brault survived a crash in his home-built airplane near Austin Straubel International Airport. A crash Wednesday — in

the same aircraft — killed him.” Green Bay Press Gazette

Shamans set up a code of ethics to fight shams— “For the first time, Amazonian medicine

men have drawn up a code of ethics and

established a union to police themselves,

complete with membership cards. The union of

Colombian shamans is trying to weed out

people who are exploiting traditional ways for

big profits and cheap thrills.” MSNBC

“General Motors Corp…will donate $10 million to restore

and protect an endangered tract of Atlantic Coast rain

forest in Brazil, an environmental group said

yesterday.” It would be likely GM would receive ‘pollution credits’, in any future Kyoto-like international agreement, for the role such a forest preserve can play in buffering against global climate change. Planet Ark And “Shell renewed a pledge Thursday to stay

away from Bangladeshi forests inhabited by the endangered Royal Bengal

tiger in the face of protests from environmentalists at the oil company’s

annual meeting.” CNN

Kicking the Hobbit: The December film release looms, and critical dispute about the merits of J.R.R. Tolkien’s creation flowers. “Still, Tolkienists have the staggering popularity of The Lord of the Rings on their side–a key

factor in the literary reputation of Charles Dickens, for example. Some Tolkienists observe

knowingly that the upcoming films will no doubt hook the Harry Potter generation on The

Lord of the Rings (though purists may secretly be a bit nervous about Hobbit Happy Meals).

Meanwhile, Tolkien criticism is already a substantial body of work, much of which cannot be

dismissed outright as fan pamphleteering. When it comes to Tolkien, says Jane Chance, “the

popular has become canonical”–or at any rate, it is becoming more and more so. Ultimately,

Tolkien’s literary stature may be assured by sheer momentum.” The American Prospect

Rules of TV Business Change as Network Race Tightens. The four networks end the season in a closer race than ever, and it will force them to abandon tried-and-true rules next year. The made-for-TV movie is all but dead; repeats are the latest breakthrough idea in programming; comedy is eclipsed by law-‘n’-order shows and reality TV. In short, there’s a whole lot more of nothing to watch. New York Times

Sad sad news, Susannah McCorkle, Pop-Jazz Singer, Dies at 55, apparent suicide.

Wake up and smell the genetically modified coffee. If the coffee berry ripening process could be more precisely controlled, berries wouldn’t ripen at different times and require handpicking. That’s what an American biotech company has figured out how to do, and it’ll take away absolutely essential jobs in the developing world and centralize coffee production even more firmly with large industrial plantations. And don’t you bet Starbuck’s will be one of their best customers?

Elvis Costello: ‘Let’s make some music, and see if anybody likes it’ Describes his recent ‘crossover’ activity (he hates the word, BTW) and particularly his collaboration with mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter. I have to say that Costello’s recent collaborations — the Brodsky String Quartet, Burt Bacharach, and now von Otter — have taken away the Costello whose music really moved me. I searched the article in vain for an indication that he’s going to go back to doing his own thing anytime soon. New York Times

Myth in Journalism: review of Daily News, Eternal Stories: The Mythological Role of Journalism by Jack Lule. “By analyzing case studies involving Black Panther Huey

Newton, Mother Teresa, baseball player Mark McGuire

and Hurricane Mitch, among others, Lule — a great

storyteller himself — demonstrates seven master myths

in the news that shape our thinking about foreign policy,

terrorism, race relations, political dissent and other

issues. He calls them The Victim, The Scapegoat, The

Hero, The Good Mother, The Trickster, The Other World

and The Flood.” The Media Channel

Polio Virus Targets, Kills Brain Tumors: Study. It turns out, fortunately, that malignant glioma cells abnormally express a certain protein, CD 155, to which the polio virus is specifically attracted in the CNS. So researchers have succeeded in using a genetically crippled polio virus (incapable of causing polio) to kill the glioma cells, leaving adjacent normal cells alone. Reuters

oneworld.net: guides “These guides aim to start you thinking about the key topics of human rights and sustainable development.

You will find here a range of views from named writers around the globe. And you may find some of the views

surprising, unfashionable or unfamiliar, because OneWorld has a commitment to including points of view that are

ignored by the mass media. You won’t agree with them all, any more than we do. ” OneWorld

Danny Schechter: Where do you go when PBS says no?

Critical filmmakers like myself, who are shut out of

commercial TV for all intents and purposes, need robust

public television because it is often the only game in

town when you want a program you’ve made to be seen.

And when you do, you want it on their national program

service, what they call the “hard feed,” because that

guarantees it will be carried by all public stations

nationwide. If the keepers of the PBS gates turn you

down, you can still get your show on the air, but you

have to try to sell it, or more likely place it for free, on a

“soft feed” that gives stations the discretion to run it or

not. This can mean it’ll be on at different time periods,

making a national promotion campaign very difficult. You

have to lobby station by station across the nation like a

beggar selling his wares. The Media Channel

Finding News About China, a collection of sources assembled by James Miles, former BBC Beijing bureau chief.