Using $100 bills, $789 billion would create a pile 57 miles high. Note that the atmosphere begins seven miles above the Earth’s surface. RELATED: The House approved a $787 billion economic stimulus package Friday afternoon, with Democrats successfully promoting it as a boost for middle-class Americans and Republicans countering in vain that it will only stimulate wasteful government spending.The vote was 246 to 183, reflecting the Democrats’ considerable majority in the House and the Republicans’ deep dissatisfaction with the measure, whose estimated price tag has fluctuated daily and was finally placed at $787 billion on Friday. Not a single Republican […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR Danny Boyle, the director of the Oscar-nominated Slumdog Millionaire, says that filming in India presented a variety of difficulties, from language barriers to a limited crew size, but the on-location work allowed him to represent India’s “incredibly rich and complex society.” Slumdog Millionaire tells the story of an orphan boy who gets a shot at glory on the Indian version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire?. The film has garnered 10 Oscar nominations, including nods for best picture and director. Boyle’s other films include Trainspotting, 28 Days Later, Sunshine and Shallow Grave. RADIO TIMES Hour 1 During […]
CINEMA: Reign Of Blood
FRIDAY THE 13TH (2009, directed by Marcus Nispel, 97 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC Friday the 13th is the highest-grossing horror franchise in film history, banking over half a billion adjusted dollars. As successful as the films have been, Friday The 13th has been mocked, derided and dismissed, even by gorehounds, as a series that has been prey to the whim of its producers and never the brainchild of a auteur genre director like George Romero or John Carpenter. If none of the Friday the 13th films is a masterpiece, it is the core elements of the series […]
NO SURVIVORS: Buffalo Commuter Jet Crash Kills 48
NEW YORK TIMES: A Continental flight from Newark to Buffalo crashed into a house about five miles from Buffalo Niagara International Airport on Thursday night, killing 49 people, officials said. The plane carried 44 passengers and a crew of 4, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. All the people aboard the plane and one person in the house were killed in the crash. David Bissonette, the emergency coordinator for Erie County, speaking at a news conference about 4 a.m., said the plane made “a direct hit” on the house. “It’s remarkable that it only took one house,” he said. “It […]
TONITE: Werewolves Of Landon
I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF (1957, directed by Gene Fowler Jr., 76 minutes, U.S. PETS (1974, Raphel Nussbaum, 103 minutes, U.S. ANDREW’S VIDEO VAULT @ The Rotunda 4014 Walnut Street, Philadelphia PA Thursday February 12th 2008 8PM Free! BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC As the pillars of society begin to tremble, the double bill at Andrew’s Video Vault cautions against surrendering to our animal urges with two true drive-in classics, both sadly unavailable on DVD. Far better than it’s “Ripped From The Headlines” title would suggest, I Was A Teenage Werewolf is one of the masterworks of B-movie empire American […]
PAPERBOY: ‘Let Me Stand Next To Your Fire’ Edition
BY DAVE ALLEN Like time, news waits for no man. Keeping up with the funny papers has always been an all-day job, even in the pre-Internets era. These days, however, it’s a two-man job. That’s right, these days you need someone to do your reading for you, or risk falling hopelessly behind and, as a result, increasing your chances of dying lonely and somewhat bitter. That’s why every week, PAPERBOY does your alt-weekly reading for you. We pore over those time-consuming cover stories and give you the takeaway, suss out the cover art, warn you off the ink-wasters and steer […]
STAR WARS: U.S. And Russian Satellites Collide
BLOOMBERG NEWS: U.S. and Russian satellites collided over Siberia yesterday in the first crash between such objects at orbital speed, space agencies from both countries said. The collision occurred 491 miles (790 kilometers) above Siberia at 11:55 a.m. New York time yesterday, destroying an Iridium Satellite LLC communications satellite and a defunct Russian Cosmos 2251 craft, National Aeronautics and Space Administration spokesman John Yembrick said in an e-mail, without identifying the cause. It was the first crash between two intact space craft traveling at orbital speed, about 17,500 miles per hour, NASA spokeswoman Beth Dickey said by phone. While the […]
MR. PEANUT GOES TO WASHINGTON: Pleads 5th
LOS ANGELES TIMES: Stewart Parnell, the Peanut Corp. owner, refused to answer the congressional subcommittee’s questions Wednesday, repeatedly invoking his 5th Amendment rights. Internal company e-mails obtained by the subcommittee show the company’s president was alerted on numerous occasions to the fact that batches of the company’s products were infected with salmonella. Yet according to Parnell’s e-mail responses, he instructed staff to “turn the product loose.” At the hearing, Parnell said only: “Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, on advice of my counsel, I respectfully decline to answer your questions based on the protections afforded me under the U.S. […]
AT LAST: Rev. Al Green And Fat Possum Get Together
THIS JUST IN: Oxford, Mississippi based Fat Possum Records (Andrew Bird, Heartless Bastards, Wavves) has confirmed an exclusive license on the Hi Records catalogue. The first three releases under the Hi/Fat Possum deal, remastered versions of Al Green’s timeless Greatest Hits, I’m Still In Love With You and Let’s Stay Together, will be in stores March 31. Al Green has long been hailed as the first great soul singer of the 1970s. Green’s Hi Records output in the early ’70s melded his singing, often considered the last great Southern soul voice, with immaculate productions crafted by Green and producer Willie […]
CUTE BAND ALERT: The Feng Shui Of Fol Chen
[Photo by Juliana Paciulli] ASTHMATIC KITTY: Traffic was thick, thick, thick and Samuel Bing was unwell, strung out on the latest psychotropic fads: sleeplessness and feeling crummy. The Northern State was crawling like a funeral procession for Robert Moses. Above the overpasses, the clouds were lined with gristle. Even the horizon seemed to be sinking. So, it came just in time when Donna Donna transmitted her message over the open radio waves – a phantom broadcast from a station whose signal had long since dissolved into static. You could barely hear her voice between the Crazy Eddie ads, but Samuel […]
THE POLITICS OF DANCING: When One Man’s Terrorist Is Another Man’s Freedom Fighter
NEW YORK TIMES: To many Americans, Maya Arulpragasam, known as M.I.A., is the very pregnant rapper who gyrated across the stage at Sunday’s Grammy Awards. Yet in Sri Lanka, where she spent her childhood years, M.I.A. remains virtually unknown. And some who do know her work say she is an apologist for the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels fighting in the country’s long-running civil war. M.I.A. — who has been nominated for an Oscar for the song she co-wrote for the hit film “Slumdog Millionaire” — has branded herself through music videos and interviews as the voice of the country’s Tamil […]
HACKERY: McCain Fiddles While Rome Burns
PHOENIX BUSINESS JOURNAL: U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said Tuesday he is definitely running for reelection in 2010 and has begun using criticism of the $838 billion federal economic stimulus plan as a platform to raise money. McCain, 72, had given indications of a run for fifth term, but publicly told supporters in a fundraising e-mail Tuesday he is definitely seeking reelection. He also used the opportunity to criticize Democrats over the spending package. “The economic challenges currently confronting our nation are immense and unfortunately, the Democrats in Congress propose addressing these challenges through increased spending that wastes billions of […]
THE WAGES OF CONSERVATISM: The FDA Is A Joke
NEW YORK TIMES: The Peanut Corporation of America closed its processing plant in Plainview, Tex., on Monday night after a laboratory test indicated possible salmonella contamination, a development that threatens to widen one of the largest food recalls ever and raises more questions about why the government allowed the plant to operate. The company’s plant in Blakely, Ga., was identified a month ago as the source of a nationwide salmonella outbreak. And even though investigators soon determined that the company may have deliberately shipped contaminated products to some of the nation’s largest food makers, officials allowed the company’s plant in […]