Larry’s List: All-You-Can-Eat Weekend Wrap-Up

Posted on Dec 13, 2009

What have you been doing all weekend? If the answer isn’t reading about Fox’s goofy polls, the man who hid 44 lizards in his pants and great moments in Orwellandia, hop on past the jump for the weekend list and catch up.

On a regular basis, Truthdig brings you the news items and other odds and ends that found their way to Larry Gross, director of the USC Annenberg School for Communication. A specialist in media and culture, art and communication, visual communication and media portrayals of minorities, Gross helped found the field of gay and lesbian studies.

Newer links are on top.

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What Is It With Fox News and Opinion Polls?
This is getting embarrassing. At least they should be embarrassed. But then they would have to understand what they’re doing wrong, wouldn’t they?

Obama Violates His Own Criteria for a ‘Just War’
President Obama, the Afghan war escalator, received the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway, and proceeded to deliver his acceptance speech outlining the three criteria for a just war, which he himself is violating.

Time’s Up for Psychiatry’s Bible
Books are by and large riding out the online revolution that is devastating the sales of many newspapers, magazines and other printed works. But this week we report on a volume that has outlived its usefulness.

Spanish Fan Calls Police Over Saxophone Band That Was Just Not Jazzy Enough
Jazzman Larry Ochs has seen many things during 40 years playing his saxophone around the world but, until this week, nobody had ever called the police on him.

Milestones in Airport Security
A German man was arrested Sunday as he tried to board a flight from New Zealand when officials discovered a small menagerie of rare lizards hidden in his underpants—44 in all.

Average American Consumes 100,000 Words a Day
A study released Wednesday from the University of California, San Diego, reports that the average American consumes a whopping 34GB of data and 100,000 words of information per day.

Milestones in Drug Testing, Pie Eating Division
Random drugs tests are to be introduced to the World Pie Eating Championships.

Great Moments in Orwellandia
Nursery-age children should be monitored for signs of brainwashing by Islamist extremists, according to a leaked police memo obtained by The Times [of London].

Population: The Issue Copenhagen Doesn’t Want to Discuss
According to the U.N., population growth is a driving force behind emission increases yet it will not be on the agenda at any of the upcoming climate talks.

Web Audience Grows for Arts Groups
Americans are increasingly choosing the Internet and other new media to enjoy the arts, a new national survey has found.

Reading Practice Can Strengthen Brain ‘Highways’
Intensive reading programs can produce measurable changes in the structure of a child’s brain, according to a study in the journal Neuron.

Relic Fever
The veneration of holy relics has long been an easy target for Protestants, atheists, and just about anyone who didn’t fall into the hard-core Catholic fold.

Spanish Speakers Unite to Unveil New Grammar Book
More than 500 years after Spaniards first set out to colonize distant lands, guardians of Spanish from 22 countries have finally drawn up joint rules for a language spoken by more than 500 million people.

Laid-Off Movie Critics, the New ‘In’ Focus Group
Hollywood has found an inventive use for all those unemployed movie critics out there: focus groups.

Daytime Soap Operas: Why the Bubble Burst
There is no joy in the soap-opera world this week. Soap devotees are slowly coming to the realization that their precious—if far-fetched—stories are now on the endangered TV species list.

Dogs vs. Cats: The Great Pet Showdown
The world is divided into “dog people” and “cat people,” each passionately believing that their preferred pet is superior.

The Horn of Africa is Dying. Who Cares?
For all its vivid detail, the picture painted by one after another speaker was almost too abstract and too distant—not to mention too evil—to fully take in.

Smile, Your Class May Be on YouTube
A student comes to the dean’s office to complain about a professor’s temper/political rants/harassment/dementia/use of profanity/racism/(you fill in the blank). ...

Tony Blair’s Taxi-Derived ‘45-Minute’ WMD Claim
The British are conducting an actual public investigation into the litany of false claims made by their government to justify the attack on Iraq.

Why Don’t the Powerful Get Grilled Like This?
Rachel Maddow today is receiving well-deserved praise for a devastating interview she conducted last night with Richard Cohen, an “ex-homosexual” therapist who is head of the “International Healing Foundation,” which purportedly helps gay people become straight.

Bionic Fingers Fitted to Concert Pianist
The world’s first bionic fingers were unveiled today after a set invented by a British firm was fitted to a former concert pianist.

Stereotypical Images Can Overwhelm a Nuanced Text
In a troubling corollary to the truism that a picture is worth 1,000 words, a new study suggests stereotypical imagery can largely negate the central point of a lengthy text.

Our Murderers in the Sky
War is hell, as the saying goes. Murder, on the other hand, is a crime. In this age of the “long war” pitting the United States against the forces of global terror, it is critical that the American people be able to distinguish between the two.

Obama’s Big Sellout
Barack Obama ran for president as a man of the people, standing up to Wall Street as the global economy melted down in that fateful fall of 2008.

The Millennials
Generations, like people, have personalities. Their collective identities typically begin to reveal themselves when their oldest members move into their teens and 20s and begin to act upon their values, attitudes and worldviews.

Israel Denies Bedouin Right to Elections
Some 35,000 Bedouin residents of Israel’s southern Negev have been denied the right to hold their first local council election after the Israeli parliament passed a law at the last minute to cancel this month’s ballot.

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