Blogs by Howard Kurtz, Fox News Live Shots & Boing Boing

Rahm Emanuel’s candidate may have won the presidency, but that didn’t dull Emanuel’s serrated edge.

NEW YORK They are, somewhat self-consciously, an odd couple, the Northern pol and the Southern belle, the prosecutor and the journalist, the man trying to recover from disgrace and the woman graciously forgiving his sins.

NEW YORK For more than a year, the bearded man consuming a shrimp salad at an Upper West Side cafe has been a prophet of doom, warning that the economy could slide into a “third depression” unless our leaders come to their senses and follow his advice.

There was a time in Washington when Jack Anderson was a hero, the columnist who kept unearthing Richard Nixon’s dark secrets, a Pulitzer winner who revealed the administration’s secret tilt toward Pakistan in its war against India.

With news and gossip leaping off every laptop screen, smartphone and Facebook page, the common wisdom these days is that traditional news outlets are doomed.

I can no longer file a story in our computer system without filling out a box, a small gray square that may well determine the future of serious journalism.

The president’s first problem was that the timing was off.

When I interviewed Glenn Beck two years ago, I told him that I found his remarks about the first Muslim member of Congress “horribly offensive.”

Rick Stengel may have his shoulder in a sling, but when it comes to the newsmagazine wars, he’s the last man standing.

Rick Stengel may have his shoulder in a sling, but when it comes to the newsmagazine wars, he’s the last man standing.

By Dominic Di-Natale, World Affairs Contributor
There was no better way to arrive at Camp Victory than by the Rhino, an armored bus lined with Kevlar so thick the vehicle’s suspension coils would pop quicker than prom queen’s garter.
The Rhino would run from the Green Zone (before it was renamed the IZ) through Baghdad’s affluent neighborhoods [...]

It was 30 years ago today that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published an article in its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) on a then-new and deadly syndrome that would later be known as AIDS. Since then, effective treatments have helped improve and prolong the lives of those infected.
“But as these improvements [...]

Surprising the most famous woman in television is no simple task. Somehow Oprah Winfrey’s team of dedicated producers pulled it off  with a star studded event that has the city of Chicago still buzzing with excitement. 
The special taping of Oprah’s “Farewell Spectacular” was without a doubt the hottest ticket in town on Tuesday night at the United Center.  More than 20,000 fans [...]

Authorities in the nation’s capital are telling counterparts across the country to be on the look-out for letters with al Qaeda-related wording and a suspicious white powder in them, after dozens of schools in Washington, D.C., began receiving such letters on Thursday.
As of Friday morning, the FBI reported that 39 letters, all originating from the [...]

MINNEAPOLIS-  There might finally be some good news for football fans.  NFL team owners and locked out players are talking again.  This time its in a federal courtroom in Minneapolis, with a judge mediating.   The last time the two sides met was in Washington, March 11th, but after more than two weeks, talks broke [...]

Legislation is working its way through the Texas statehouse that would allow future highways to have speed limits of up to 85 miles per hour. Texas already has about 500 miles of rural interstate that allow 80 miles per hour. None of those or any other existing roads would change.
The 85 mile per hour limit [...]

SELFRIDGE AIR NATIONAL GUARD BASE – The U.S .Department of Homeland Security unveiled its newest high-tech tool today to fight terrorism and secure America’s northern border.
The Operational Integration Center, referred to as OIC, allows security analysts to monitor a critical part of the Northern border 24/7 relying on cameras and radars along the [...]

CHICAGO-   Its not over until its over for Rod Blagojevich, and it looks like it won’t be over until sometime after April.
The former Illinois Governor was hoping a judge would cancel his upcoming retrial and drop more than a dozen charges against him, including fraud and racketeering, for allegedly trying to sell Barack Obama’s [...]

Israel admitted  for the first time that it is holding a Palestinian Engineer in prison. Dirar Abu Sisi, 42, the head of the Palestinian Power plant in Gaza, went missing in Ukraine on February 18th 2011.
The official announcement came Sunday, after an Israeli court decided to partially lift a gag order imposed on the case.
Fox [...]

The “Victoria”, The ship seized by Israel allegedly en route from Iran to militants in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday contained tons of weapons include six C-704 anti-ship missiles in ready-to-be launched containers, was presented today to the International press.
The Israeli Army has displayed the weapons that were recovered from the ship, an estimated amounts [...]

[Video Link.] A weekend of fear and mourning in Italy. Early this Sunday morning, an earthquake struck near Bologna: at least six killed (ceramic workers, and a hundred year old person), and big material damage in the region. The US Geological Survey heard the tremor: a magnitude-6.0 quake struck at 4:04 a.m. Sunday between Modena [...]

[Tim Pool: @timcast on Twitter, Ustream video feed.] In this post, embeds for some of the known live independent web video streams covering the NATO protests in Chicago today. Community Media Workshop has an even longer list of livestream feeds here. [Luke Rudkowski: @Lukewearechange on Twitter, Ustream video feed] [Occupied Air: @Occupied_Air on Twitter, Ustream [...]

Photo: C.S. Muncy “Occupy” movement participants and an array of protest groups are among those gathering in Chicago this wekeend to demonstrate outside the NATO summit. Sunday, protesters are ramping up for the largest demonstration of the weekend. So are police and Homeland Security agents. Today, thousands of demonstrators are marching to the convention center [...]

Congratulations to the winners of the 2011 Nebula Awards, especially to Jo Walton, who won for her magnificent novel, Among Others (see my review, here). Also congrats to Delia Sherman for her best YA book prize for The Freedom Maze (my review). * Novel Winner: Among Others, Jo Walton (Tor) * Novella Winner: ”The Man [...]

Last summer, Hifijohn successfully turned a giant jawbreaker on his lathe, making a beautiful, striped and striated shot glass (or egg cup) out of it: “My third attempt at turn a giant jawbreaker. I put some of my guitar playing songs to make the video a little bit more enjoyable.” new jawbreaker video (via JWZ)

Earlier today Gareth Branwyn had the idea that we should run an image gallery of the great clothes worn by people who come to Maker Faire Bay Area 2012 (taking place now). So Gar and I went out and snapped some photos of folks wearing interesting outfits. We’ll post another gallery later, because there are [...]

These delightful boxing felines were equipped with miniature boxing gloves and set to brawling by none other than legendary douchebag Thomas Edison, as a means of promoting his newfangled moving picture device in 1894. Thomas Edison – 1894 Boxing cats (Thanks, Isaak!)

Here’s Ella Smith at Maker Faire with her Zevrino, an Arduino-powered automatic cat feeder.

I’m here at Maker Faire in San Mateo. If you aren’t one of the 100,000 people here to celebrate The Greatest Show (and tell) on Earth, you can still experience it through our Maker Faire Live site, with five different video feeds. Gareth Branwyn and I will be interviewing makers on the Fishbowl Camera feed. [...]

The Swedish news show Uppdrag Granskning has posted an hour-long investigative journalism piece establishing the link between the giant Swedish telcoms company Teliasonera and oppressive regimes around the world. Teliasonera sold and supported network equipment that was used to spy on dissidents, journalists, political reformers, union leaders, and the general public in Belarus, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, [...]