Entertainment and sports

Matt Damon refuses to act in violent films. Jason Bourne, Pvt. James Ryan & Colin Sullivan unavailable for comment

Like "The Sopranos" before it, "Mad Men" gives urban professionals and the self-satisfied media who cater to them a cultural touchstone to be smug about

(Fanhouse)

No one ever said Mike Shanahan was stupid enough to work for Lil' Danny Snyder: Reports are that he turned down an offer to coach the Redskins

So you think you've seen the best commercial of all time? Really? This puts the others to shame

Responding to today’s blog, a reader

The protein diet/small brain piece?  YIKES!  I'm afraid my brain must be pea size by now, as my diet is so top heavy with protein.

I say " Small brain? Who the hell cares?!!  As long as my clothes are small too, I'm okay with a tiny brain.

What was I saying again? I forget.

Oh yes.  Diet=small brain.

Is this something chocolate can fix?

A rule of thumb and a bigger galaxy

The fact that there is now a major motion picture on this theme grants me peace of mind, owing to this rule of thumb: Anything predicted by a major Hollywood movie is certain not to happen.

European Southern ObservatoryBarnard's Galaxy -- it's really small, only 10 million stars.

A Cosmic Thought: Astronomers at the European Southern Observatory in Chile last week released stunning photos of Barnard's Galaxy, about 1.6 million light-years away, named for 19th-century stargazer E.E. Barnard. The bubble-like object in the upper left of the photo is a nebula fierce with hot-star formation. The cosmos is at least 14 billion years old, and not only are stars still forming, but nearby space is hot from the energy of young creation. Barnard's Galaxy is called a "dwarf galaxy" because it is a fraction of the size of the Milky Way and contains "only" 10 million or so stars. By the way, researchers increasingly think our Milky Way -- once thought to contain a few thousand stars, then a few million, then 25 billion, and as recently as five years ago thought to contain 100 billion stars -- increasingly looks like it contains 400 billion stars. Or so.

An English poet, a British admiral and Greek freedom

A prolific Romantic and satirical poet whose love life had shocked British society, Lord Byron threw himself behind the cause of Greek independence from the Ottoman Empire.

In 1824, at the age of 36, he sailed from Italy to help the Greeks. Byron's difficult, dangerous work helped to unify the divergent Greek forces, but in less than a year he was struck down by a fever and died. His death captured the imagination of Europe, and intensified support for Greek freedom.

The Ottoman Empire (also known as the Turkish Empire) called on modernized Egyptian forces to crush the Greek rebellion. Led by an Albanian, their mercenaries recaptured much of Greece.

On October 20, 1827, Admiral Edward Codrington, one of Nelson's captains and a hero of the Battle of Trafalgar, risked his career and his life to lead the Royal Navy against the Ottoman Navy to help free Greece. Along with French and Russian squadrons, whose commanders joined him, the Royal Navy destroyed the Ottoman Navy at the Battle of Navarino.

With this essential assistance the Greeks were able to win their freedom. On March 22, 1829 they created the free nation of Greece.

No photo of this one

MAN ARRESTED FOR BEING NAKED IN HIS OWN KITCHEN: “A woman and her 7-year-old daughter had cut across Williamson’s front yard and saw him through his kitchen window.” Why isn’t she charged with being a Peeping Tom? I’ll bet if the genders were reversed . . . .

Smaller Brain?

High Protein Diet Shrinks Brain

Researchers studying Alzheimer's disease found that, unexpectedly, a high protein diet apparently led to a smaller brain. Mice fed a high protein/low carbohydrate diet had brains five percent lighter that all the others

Slipping away

SEN. LAMAR ALEXANDER ACCUSES WHITE HOUSE OF 'ENEMIES LIST'...
'Street-brawling'...

Shea-Porter begins walk-back on stimulus, will other vulnerable Dems follow?

It is good to be King. From Paul

Former nurse's aide in US becomes Ugandan king

• AP – Charles Wesley Mumbere during an interview at his house in Kasese, Sunday, Oct 18, 2009 hours before …

• KASESE, Uganda – For years, Charles Wesley Mumbere worked as a nurse's aide in Maryland and Pennsylvania, caring for the elderly and sick. No one there suspected that he had inherited a royal title in his African homeland when he was just 13.

On Monday, after years of political upheaval and financial struggle, Mumbere, 56, was finally crowned king of his people to the sound of drumbeats and thousands of cheering supporters wearing cloth printed with his portraits.

$1,814,479.63 per job

Porkulus private-sector jobs saved or created in NH? 221.  Yes 221 for $401,000,000.00  http://hotair.com/archives/2009/10/21/porkulus-private-sector-jobs-saved-or-created-in-nh/

What got us here. (If he is correct, we will be here for a while)

in Architects of Ruin, Peter argues that the global financial crisis was caused by an unholy alliance of liberal activists and politicians.

Peter has graciously accepted our invitation to sketch the theme of his book for our readers. Peter writes:

For all the ink that has been spilled about the mortgage crisis in America, there remains a secret that almost all the major media has ignored: for all the talk of unsold condos in South Florida and McMansions sitting empty in California, the epicenter of this crisis is really in urban and minority neighborhoods.

Why is this story being ignored? Simple. By identifying the epicenter of the crisis we can find the culprits who helped get us all in this mess in the first place.

Studies show that those hardest hit by the financial crisis are poor and minority neighborhoods. A massive study by the Boston Federal Reserve Bank looked and hundreds of thousands of mortgages and foreclosures and discovered that "in the current housing crisis foreclosures are highly concentrated in minority neighborhoods." The study notes that this is a unique phenomenon, "even relative to past foreclosure booms." The study found that those in poor and minority neighborhoods were seven times more likely to lose their homes to foreclosure that then general population.

New Method To Help Keep Fruit, Vegetables And Flowers Fresh

A Georgia State University professor has developed an innovative new way to keep produce and flowers fresh for longer periods of time. Microbiologist George Pierce's method uses a naturally occurring microorganism -- no larger than the width of a human hair -- to induce enzymes that extend the ripening time of fruits and vegetables, and keeps the blooms of flowers fresh. The process does not involve genetic engineering or pathogens, but involves microorganisms known to be associated with plants, and are considered to be helpful and beneficial to them.

Remember this when they jump on your errors

Error Rate of Tax Returns Prepared by IRS's Free Assistance Program: 41%

Nuclear at 90%

TECHNOLOGY REVIEW: A Nuclear Power Renaissance? “Given pressures to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from fossil-fuel power plants, however, construction of nuclear plants could be poised to begin anew. The technology has grown more reliable and more efficient. Reactors now run 90 percent of the hours in a year, compared with less than 60 percent in 1979, effectively cutting the capital cost of a kilowatt-hour by about a third. Meanwhile, other sources of power have started looking a lot worse.”

Timely

WH News

PARTY! Obamas big on White House gigs...

WIRE: Higher jobless rates could be new normal...

Excuses wearing thin for president, media pals...

FoxNews Channel is not the real target, and the rest of the media need to wake up to the crosshairs on them, too. I don’t think the Alinsky playbook will work this time. But it’s telling that the White House feels otherwise.

Related: Obama’s War On Fox News Becomes A Quagmire.

Countrywide Strikes again.

Democrats lock Republicans out of committee room

By Susan Crabtree - 10/20/09 05:47 PM ET

Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.) locked Republicans out of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee room to keep them from meeting when Democrats aren’t present.
Towns’ action came after repeated public ridicule from the leading Republican on the committee, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), over Towns’s failure to launch an investigation into Countrywide Mortgage’s reported sweetheart deals to VIPs.