Welcome to another edition of NB, in which linkage new and old come together to eat up your valuable time. Enjoy ∞ BooMan says Hillary Clinton is not going to win Texas … Christopher Hitchens writes of learning that pro-war articles he wrote prompted a young man named Mark Daily to enlist for service in Iraq, where he was killed … INTERNS NEEDED. Requirements: Must able able to lift 30 lbs. Type 40wpm+. Wide stance preferred … Bob Herbert on Ralph Nader: “It would have been impossible to believe during his heyday that Nader could be despised by many Democrats and progressives, that he would become a target of their ridicule and vitriol” … Stop the presses: white men rule! … In Afghanistan, flying kites is a way of life … Researchers say an ancient meteor blast peppered mammoths with “shrapnel” … E&P’s esteemed editor Greg Mitchell has a book on Iraq and the media coming out soon … “What are you puttin’ in my malt liquor, white boy?!” … Check out Alltop, a handy site listing headlines from top blogs, including S&R … Ex-Bush policy experts say the U.S. has been gearing up for a war with Iran for years, despite claiming otherwise … Leadville, Colorado could be deadville if rising levels of contaminated water burst from a tunnel and flood the town … Taylor Marsh writes, “Scott Kesterson was the only photojournalist in Afghanistan for quite some time. He’s put together a film.” See excerpts of At War here … Larisa Alexandrovna, one of the first on the Don Siegelman story, fears Karl Rove’s attack dogs are on the loose … Ethiopian Christians have long believed they possess the Ark of the Convenant. Smithsonian piece here, earlier National Geographic piece here … Another strong hint that John Edwards is leaning Obama … And finally… Roger wanted Rick out. Dave thought Nick was next. Bob gave them the hit and got sacked too. The soap opera that was Pink Floyd. ∞

A new program in Orange County has the locals squicking out over a supposed “toilet-to-tap” program. The program takes treated sewer water, runs it through the same reverse osmosis process that bottled water companies use to purify their artesian (or tap) water, and then injects it into a deep aquifer that provides water for Orange County. The idea is to recycle as much of the water as possible and, in the process, reduce the water needs of a very arid and highly populated region of the country, southern California. The problem is that a lot of locals are going “ewwwwwww!” at the process of drinking water that was once in someone’s toilet.

What these residents don’t realize is that nearly every drop of water they’ve ever drank was once someone’s, or something’s, toilet. Full story »

A tremendous number of people…work very hard at something that bores them. Even a rich man thinks he has to go down to the office everyday. Not because he likes it but because he can’t think of anything else to do. - W. H. Auden

An Austrian lawyer, Markus Groh, on vacation in South Florida, died from shark bite last month while scuba diving. (I’ll allow you a few moments to construct your tasteless jokes about cannibalism here.) Full story »

I feel sorry for rich kids.  Seriously.  Most of us tend to think that being born with a silver scepter in the mouth is the luckiest thing that could happen to a kid, but it’s not.  Oh, I suppose being born rich in a society with little opportunity for anyone other than those born to wealth would be a very lucky thing, indeed, but in a rich society, the luckiest thing that can happen to a kid is to be born smart and/or talented … and poor.

Being wealthy from birth is a curse. Full story »

On February 14 Silvestre Reyes, Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, crawled up in Dubya’s grille and dropped some righteous nard-stomping pro-democracy rhetoric on his punk ass. We were as happy as we were stunned to see a Democratic leader swinging an actual set of cojones in the face of Mr. President’s fragrantly anti-liberty pro-corporate full-monty assault on our freedoms.

Talk, as they say, is cheap. Full story »

If you know anything at all about the agency world, this new report tells you a whole lot of what you already know.

‘Agencies Don’t Get It,’ Survey Says
Feb 28, 2008Clients are placing more emphasis on mastering social media but find their agencies ill equipped to help them succeed in that space, according to a new survey.

TNS Media Intelligence/Cymfony polled more than 60 marketers in North America, France and the U.K. to gauge how they are faring navigating the world of social media. It asked them for feedback on their agencies’ abilities to help. TNS found, in its words, “Agencies don’t get it.”

So what’s the problem? More at Black Dog…

Scholars & Rogues has added a couple of new features to its lineup, and we hope the new additions will provide our readers with even more reason to check by each day to see what’s new. In addition, we’ve reshuffled the feature lineup a bit, so here’s what to look for.

• Monday: Nota Bene - Scholars & Rogues takes you around the Web for all kinds of interesting stories you may have missed.
• Tuesday: TunesDay - A new feature. Each Tuesday S&R’s team of music lovers will present an artist or band of the week (maybe more than one), or will perhaps examine a new development in the world of tuneage, or note an important historical landmark… The possibilities are endless. Tune in for the first installment tomorrow. Full story »