"Knight Rider" Disappoints

4th SW Quadrant\The Approval Matrix: Week of March 3, 2008


Garry Stevens of the blog, From the Box Seat, posted the following review:

I certainly wasn’t expecting a lot out of NBC’s Sunday night, made-for-tv "Knight Rider" movie. With that in mind, I went in expecting very little from Knight Rider - and was still somehow shocked at how absolutely terrible it was.

Surprisingly, KITT, voiced by Val Kilmer, was the least of the movie’s problems. The new and highly controversial model of the artificially intelligent auto was a Ford Shelby GT500KR Mustang, which when all is said and done, is a pretty sweet car. Of course, this advance in technology turned out to fall short of the the Two Thousand’s plain old bullet-proofiness when we learned that when KITT’s computer is shut down, he’s just as vulnerable as my 1992 Honda Civic.

As sheik as KITT was, everything impressive about the car was shown within the first 6 minutes of the movie. To say it went “downhill” from there would be an understatement.

Almost the entirety of the two hours of this debacle was dedicated to Sarah and/or Mike riding across the country, talking to a car. That’s it. In two hours, nothing happened. There were conversations about parents, about love, about careers and about emotions - all with a car. Conversely, there was no turbo boosting, passanger-door clothes-lining, ejection-seat jumping or slamming head-on through walls. As a matter of fact, there was no action at all. Lots of talky though.

However, according to the New York Times, “Knight Rider” (12.7 million) earned the highest ratings in the 18-to-49 age group for a made-for-television movie on any network in almost three years.

Bindi Irwin Dolls

4th SW Quadrant\The Approval Matrix: Week of March 3, 2008

By Celebrity Fashion Watcher

Sunday, 02/17/2008

Terri [Irwin] with the ‘Bindi Irwin Doll’ at Toy Fair 2008 held at The Javits Centre NYC Today [February 17, 2008]. Wild Republic, the nature-themed toy brand of K&M International, Inc., in a partnership with Australia Zoo, will launch a full product range that carries Bindi’s wildlife messages of nature preservation and conservation. The toy range is highlighted by the fully articulating Bindi doll and various Bindi Australia Zoo playsets, plush and bendables.

Bai Ling Blames Bust on Bad Break Up

4th SW Quadrant\The Approval Matrix: Week of March 3, 2008


By Binside TV

E! News reports the "Lost" actress [Bai Ling] blames the bust on a bad break up with her boyfriend before Valentines Day. The 37-year-old actress and scenester exclusively tells E! News that she split with her new boyfriend Wednesday before she was scheduled to fly from LAX to New Mexico to begin shooting a film, turning it into an "emotionally crazy" day for her.

She was dealing with the "huge problem of breaking up [before] Valentine's Day" when she was arrested for shoplifting, Ling said, adding, simply, "Wrong boyfriend."

Just before she was supposed to board an afternoon Southwest flight to Albuquerque, the actress, whose credits include guest roles on "Lost" and "Entourage," was detained by a gift shop employee for trying to walk out of the store without paying for $16 worth of in-flight entertainment—two magazines and two packs of AAA batteries. She was taken into custody by LAPD and booked on one count of misdemeanor shoplifting at nearby Pacific Station before being released on her own recognizance.

Tokio Hotel

4th SW Quadrant\The Approval Matrix: Week of March 3, 2008

Tokio Hotel Leaves "TRL" in New York City on Monday, August 4, 2008.

Tokio Hotel is a German rock band. The quartet has scored four number one singles, two number one albums have sold nearly 3 million CDs and DVDs in their homeland. So far they have had much chart success in Germany and Austria. They also had some chart success in France, Italy, Israel, Sweden, Belgium, and Switzerland. However, while still struggling for success in most English-speaking countries, the band has released English language versions of Scream and Ready, Set, Go! in the UK, and are currently enjoying exposure in Canada and the United States.
-- Wikipedia

Miley Cyrus [Hanna Montana] Oscar Presenter

4th SW Quadrant\The Approval Matrix: Week of March 3, 2008

Tomoneil posted the following on a L.A Times blog:

Miley Cyrus [Hanna Montana] isn't really a film star, of course. That "documentary" of hers in theaters right now is just an affordable alternative for tweens whose parents can't, or won't, pay gabillions for real concert tix. Does she really deserve a place on the stage at the Oscars, which presumably celebrate the best of cinema? Or is this just a stunt to draw more TV viewers?

And her appearances at award shows aren't over. According to E! News:

Fresh off her latest gig as an Oscar presenter, Miley Cyrus is ready to try her hand at hosting an awards show.

The Hannah Montana star and her father, Billy Ray Cyrus, will serve as cohosts of the 2008 CMT Music Awards, organizers announced Tuesday. In addition, the father-daughter duo will also perform at the Apr. 14 event.

(Photo courtesy of Disney)

Lily Allen Dropped from Agent Provocateur

4th SW Quadrant\The Approval Matrix: Week of March 3, 2008



By Daily Mail

19th February 2008

Lily Allen has been dropped as the face of Agent Provocateur. The Smile singer was reportedly dumped by the lingerie firm after a disagreement between the company's bosses over her pictures. Allen, 22, is said to be "gutted" after putting herself through gruelling gym sessions to get in shape for the ads.

Allen, who was to take over from Kate Moss, was snapped in a corset and stockings with a whip and was said to be "really proud of her new figure", according to a friend. But she was ditched after Joe Corre, 40, and Serena Rees, 39, who own the business and are divorcing, failed to agree if she was the right girl for the job. A company spokesman said no decision had been made and the photos may still be used.

Ladders Advertisement

4th SW Quadrant\The Approval Matrix: Week of March 3, 2008

GPS Navigator with a Breathalyzer

3rd SE Quadrant\The Approval Matrix: Week of March 3, 2008


Billed as the first in the world, NDrive's G400 is a GPS navigator with a breathalyzer built into the side. The fact that it costs 200€—just under $300—and that, according to Kit, who lives in Portugal, they're given away for free with the country's motorway toll widget...
-- Gizmodo

Ndrive G400
by GPSAndCo

Return of the Dunk Contest

3rd SE Quadrant\The Approval Matrix: Week of March 3, 2008

NBA Slam Dunk Contest Highlights 2008
Uploaded by samleskateur

Georgia the Wonder Kitty is Found

3rd SE Quadrant\The Approval Matrix: Week of March 3, 2008


A kitten that spent 25 days meandering through New York City’s tunnel system has been returned home.

Ashley Phillips, a 24 year-old librarian in the Bronx, says she first lost her cat while returning home from a vet visit. While waiting on the platform, little Georgia managed to slip out of her carrier.

Over the weekend, two subway workers heard that a black cat had been spotted under an east-side station. Track workers Efrain LaPorte and Mark Delassio said they found Georgia while walking through the area and making meowing sounds.

Six month-old Georgia meowed back. She had lost some weight during her adventure, but other than a scratch on her nose was no worse for the wear. -- ZooToo

On the "Saturday Night Live" Weekend Update segment that aired this past Saturday, it was mentioned that Georgia survived by hanging out with a subway break dancing crew. Ok, so you had to be there. It was actually very funny!

(Photo courtesy of ZooToo)

Barack Obama is Your New Bicycle.com

3rd SE Quadrant\The Approval Matrix: Week of March 3, 2008


Every time you click on the site a new saying appears, such as, "Barack Obama Lent You His Jacket," "Barack Obama Baked You a Pie,"and "Barack Obama Left a Comment on Your Blog."

Stuff White People Like

3rd SE Quadrant\The Approval Matrix: Week of March 3, 2008



From the About section of the Stuff White People Like blog:

This is a scientific approach to highlight and explain stuff white people like. They are pretty predictable.

Home Run Apple to New Mets Stadium

2nd NE Quadrant\The Approval Matrix: Week of March 3, 2008


We posted about this issue before:

Gothamist reports that the Home Run Apple will not be moved to the Mets’ new Citi Field baseball stadium when the team moves in 2009; however, fans can still sign a petition at SaveTheApple.com to prevent the Apple’s retirement. The Home Run Apple has been sitting behind the center field wall in Shea Stadium for 27 years.

However, it now appears that the Apple will be moving to the new stadium, but according to AOL," Mets officials said they did not know whether it would be the same fiberglass apple that has popped up like a champagne cork following Mets homers since 1980."

"The Logic of Life"

3rd SE Quadrant\The Approval Matrix: Week of March 3, 2008


From Publishers Weekly\via Amazon

Financial Times and Slate.com columnist Harford (The Undercover Economist) provides an entertaining and provocative look at the logic behind the seemingly irrational. Arguing that rational behavior is more widespread than most people expect, Harford uses economic principles to draw forth the rational elements of gambling, the teenage oral sex craze, crime and other supposedly illogical behaviors to illustrate his larger point. Utilizing John von Neumann and Thomas Schelling's conceptions of game theory, Harford applies their approach to a multitude of arenas, including marriage, the workplace and racism.

Contrarily, he also shows that individual rational behavior doesn't always lead to socially desired outcomes. Harford concludes with how to apply this thinking on an even bigger scale, showing how rational behavior shapes cities, politics and the entire history of human civilization. Well-written with highly engaging stories and examples, this book will be of great interest to Freakonomics and Blink fans as well as anyone interested in the psychology of human behavior.

"Sunday in the Park with George"

2nd NE Quadrant\The Approval Matrix: Week of March 3, 2008

"A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte."

A musical with book by James Lapine, based on the painting "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte." Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. George, a painter, has trouble connecting with his lover, Dot, when he thinks he has to choose between her and painting because he can't balance them both. The second act reveals that his great-grandson has similar problems, but he is able to start working through them when he returns to the island (now covered in condos) and is visited by a spectral vision of Dot.

Show Dates:
Opening 21 Feb 2008
Closing 15 Jun 2008

Performance Schedule:
Tuesday - Saturday @8pm
Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday @2pm

Theatre Information:
Studio 54
254 West 54th Street
New York, NY 10019

"August Wilson's 20th Century" at Kennedy Center

2nd NE Quadrant\The Approval Matrix: Week of March 3, 2008


By Broadway World

February 6, 2008

The most awarded African-American playwright in history, August Wilson's crowning achievement was his ten-play cycle, "August Wilson's 20th Century" in which each work is set in a different decade in the 1900's. The cycle, often titled the Pittsburgh Cycle because nine of the ten plays are set in Pittsburgh, chronicles the African-American experience in the 20th century. "August Wilson's 20th Century" will be presented in a series of staged readings at the Kennedy Center (2700 F St. NW Washington, DC 20566).

The Plays and Dates:
1900s: Gem of the Ocean (March 4-8)
1910s: Joe Turner's Come and Gone (March 6-8)
1920s: Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (March 9-11)
1930s: The Piano Lesson (March 12-15)
1940s: Seven Guitars (March 14-16)
1950s: Fences (March 16-19)
1960s: Two Trains Running (March 20-25)
1970s: Jitney (March 22-26)
1980s: King Hedley II (March 23-27)
1990s: Radio Golf (March 28-29)

Allen C. Guelzo's “Lincoln and Douglas”

2nd NE Quadrant\The Approval Matrix: Week of March 3, 2008

William Grimes of the New York Times wrote in his review of the book,"In his searching and illuminating “Lincoln and Douglas” the eminent Lincoln historian Allen C. Guelzo does the great service of bringing the debates back down to earth, placing them in the context of a brutal four-month senatorial campaign."

"The debates, Mr. Guelzo repeatedly emphasizes, were only part of an often dirty political campaign, not a series of Socratic dialogues."

Book Description from Amazon:

In 1858, Abraham Lincoln was known as a successful Illinois lawyer who had achieved some prominence in state politics as a leader in the new Republican Party. Two years later, he was elected president and was on his way to becoming the greatest chief executive in American history.

What carried this one-term congressman from obscurity to fame was the campaign he mounted for the United States Senate against the country's most formidable politician, Stephen A. Douglas, in the summer and fall of 1858. Lincoln challenged Douglas directly in one of his greatest speeches -- "A house divided against itself cannot stand" -- and confronted Douglas on the questions of slavery and the inviolability of the Union in seven fierce debates. As this brilliant narrative by the prize-winning Lincoln scholar Allen Guelzo dramatizes, Lincoln would emerge a predominant national figure, the leader of his party, the man who would bear the burden of the national confrontation.

Of course, the great issue between Lincoln and Douglas was slavery. Douglas was the champion of "popular sovereignty," of letting states and territories decide for themselves whether to legalize slavery. Lincoln drew a moral line, arguing that slavery was a violation both of natural law and of the principles expressed in the Declaration of Independence. No majority could ever make slavery right, he argued.

Lincoln lost that Senate race to Douglas, though he came close to toppling the "Little Giant," whom almost everyone thought was unbeatable. Guelzo's Lincoln and Douglas brings alive their debates and this whole year of campaigns and underscores their centrality in the greatest conflict in American history.

The Dubai Arch Bridge

2nd NE Quadrant\The Approval Matrix: Week of March 3, 2008
























By Popular Mechanics\Matt Sullivan

Published on: February 12, 2008

As if the Burg Dubai tower wasn't already taking the worldwide skyscraper race to new heights, this as-yet-unnamed span will be the world's largest arch bridge, with 2000 vehicles set to cross its 12 lanes—per hour, in each direction—when it's slated for completion in 2012. At 670 ft. tall, Dubai's next super structure will stand higher than the George Washington Bridge (604 ft.) but fall short of San Francisco's existing Golden Gate Bridge (746 ft.).


Images Courtesy of Fxfowle International

Cai Guo-Qiang's "Importune: Stage One"

2nd NE Quadrant\The Approval Matrix: Week of March 3, 2008

















For "Importune: Stage One," nine white Chevrolets are arranged within the Guggenheim -- one on the ground floor, another on the top ramp and seven dangling in mid-air. The work is meant to mimic the impact of a car bomb, with the nine cars representing the trajectory of one car ricocheting through the center of the museum.

David Heald - Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation New York
-- Washington Post

"Inopportune: Stage One"

Cai Guo-Qiang is internationally acclaimed as an artist whose creative transgressions and cultural provocations have literally exploded the accepted parameters of art making in our time.
This is especially true of Inopportune: Stage One, Cai’s largest installation to date, which presents nine real cars in a cinematic progression that simulates a car bombing, occupying the central atrium of the Frank Lloyd Wright rotunda.

This video documents the incredible installation process of Inopportune: Stage One, which Thomas Krens, Director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, says "may be the best artistic transformation of the Frank Lloyd Wright space we've
ever seen."
-- Guggenheim

“We’re Forgetting AIDS” amfAR’s Ads

1st NW Quadrant\The Approval Matrix: Week of March 3, 2008


By amfAR

January 30, 2008

Prevention is the focus of amfAR’s latest public service advertising campaign, designed to remind the public that AIDS remains the most devastating epidemic of our time. On a black background, red, gray, and white lettering announces a stark truth: “We’re Forgetting AIDS.”

The ads promote the theme “Prevention Is the Cure” by citing statistics showing that large numbers of people still engage in unprotected sex, and by urging people to fight the epidemic by protecting themselves and their partners.

London Mayor Joins Anti-Bottle Brigade

1st NW Quadrant\The Approval Matrix: Week of March 3, 2008

By Grist

February 20, 2008

London Mayor Ken Livingstone has joined the anti-bottle brigade, exhorting Londoners to drink from the sink and declaring that bottled water served to restaurant patrons costs 500 times more than tap water and is 300 times more damaging to the environment.

Launching his "London on Tap" blitz on Tuesday, Livingstone said using fewer bottles would help climate change.

Bottled water, he added, left a higher carbon footprint -- some imported brands travel from as far as New Zealand -- and he urged consumers not to be embarrassed about asking for tap water in restaurants.

"We need to do everything we can to lower these (carbon) emissions," he told reporters. "There is no need to buy the expensive bottled water that has become a bit of a fad in recent years."

Nabokov Estate Contretemps

1st NW Quadrant\The Approval Matrix: Week of March 3, 2008

(Vladimir Nabokov with his son Dimitri)

Nabokov's last novel lies in a Swiss vault, hailed by the few who have read it as his finest work – but before he died he ordered that the manuscript be destroyed.

Somewhere in Switzerland there’s a safety-deposit box that contains one of the most divisive literary manuscripts on earth. It’s been over 30 years since it was deposited there, and locking it away was less a decision than a a way of putting off the worst. If Vladimir Nabokov’s unambiguous request had been obeyed, the work, transcribed from 50 index cards on which the great writer noted down the bare bones of his final and incomplete novel, would have been immediately destroyed. But his executors – his beloved wife, Véra, and his adored son, Dmitri – vacillated.
-- Times Online

Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov (April 22 [O.S. April 10] 1899, Saint Petersburg – July 2, 1977, Montreux) was a multilingual Russian-American novelist and short story writer.

Nabokov wrote his first nine novels in Russian, then rose to international prominence as a master English prose stylist. He also made significant contributions to entomology and had an interest in chess problems.

Nabokov's "Lolita" (1955) is frequently cited as his most important novel, and is at any rate his most widely known one, exhibiting the love of intricate wordplay and descriptive detail that characterized all his works. Nabokov himself regarded his four-volume translation of Aleksandr Pushkin's Eugene Onegin as his other major achievement.
-- Wikipedia

(Photo courtesy of Philippe Halsman / Magnum Photos)

Rosewood Resorts Presents Adam Gopnik

1st NW Quadrant\The Approval Matrix: Week of March 3, 2008

It appears that this occurred last year. I wasn't able to find any current information on this, but here it goes anyway. I personally like Adam Gopnik. I've seen his "Lighting Up New York" documentary about ten times! (I use it for a class I teach.)


Rosewood Hotels & Resorts is proud to announce the newest chapter of its exclusive Hot Type Author Series: world-renowned writer Adam Gopnik. Known for his outstanding work at The New Yorker and his playful Parisian-inspired novels, Paris to the Moon and The King in the Window, Gopnik will be visiting Caneel Bay, A Rosewood Resort, in the U.S. Virgin Islands, January 27-31, 2007, to host a series of gatherings where guests will have the exclusive opportunity to discuss his past works, his adventures in Paris as well as his most recent book, Through the Children's Gate: A Home in New York with him.

ADAM GOPNIK

A writer for The New Yorker since 1986, Adam Gopnik has come to be known as one of the preeminent, wittiest, and most charming interpreters of contemporary life writing today.

Adam Gopnik has won the National Magazine Award for Essays and for Criticism an unprecedented three times, as well as the George Polk Award for Magazine Reporting. He lives now in New York with his wife, Martha Parker, and their two children, Luke Auden and Olivia Esme Claire.

Russians Claim North Pole Ocean Floor

1st NW Quadrant\The Approval Matrix: Week of March 3, 2008

Russians Carry Gun on Space Station

1st NW Quadrant\The Approval Matrix: Week of March 3, 2008

By WESH Orlando News

February 14, 2008

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station apparently have access to a gun.

Russian Cosmonauts carry a gun on their Soyuz space capsule, which is attached to the space station.

Every spacecraft carries survival gear for crash landings, and the Russian Soyuz has a kit that includes the gun.

But although the gun has been there for as long as the space station has been in orbit, its existence is kept quiet. NASA and Russian officials won't talk publicly about it.

[However]Former NASA engineer Jim Oberg, who is an author and journalist, wrote about the gun on his Web site. He said the gun has no place in an environment where people are under such high stress.

The Approval Matrix: Week of March 3, 2008

Vendors Jailed in LA for Grilling Bacon Hot Dogs

4th SW Quadrant\The Approval Matrix: Week of Feb. 25, 2008


By LA Weekly\Daniel Hernandez
February 6, 2008

As she speaks, a customer approaches, peering at her meat bin. "No bacon?" "No bacon," sighs apologetically, in accented English. "They don't let me." She means police and L.A. health-department inspectors...

The grilled bacon, twisted around a wiener, is topped with grilled onions and a mountaintop of diced tomatoes, ketchup, mustard and mayonnaise. Then one whole grilled green poblano chile is plopped impossibly on top.

[Palacios] would love to sell bacon-wrapped hot dogs — trust her — but a trip last year to the women's county jail, a trip she says officials orchestrated to "make an example" of her, finally pushed her to give up the bacon and illegal grilling device she used for so long. Instead, she prepares dogs the only way the county Environmental Health Department currently allows, by boiling or steaming. Not grilling. And grilling is the only way to make a classic L.A. bacon-wrapped hot dog.

Last May, she was sentenced to 45 days in county jail for repeatedly violating food codes. Once out, Palacios and her companeros on the streets of the Fashion District formed an advocacy group to protest what they call harassment on the part of police and inspectors, fully aware that they are fighting an uphill battle.

Nicholas Cage Sues Kathleen Turner

4th SW Quadrant\The Approval Matrix: Week of Feb. 25, 2008


Kathleen Turner has written an autobiography called "Send Yourself Roses," and Nicholas Cage is not happy. In fact, he's suing:

A "defamation, libel and slander" case had been issued at London's High Court, a courts spokesman said. It relates to claims made in her book, "Send Yourself Roses," over Mr Cage's behaviour when the pair co-starred in 1986 comedy "Peggy Sue Got Married." A spokesman for Mr Cage in Los Angeles said the action followed "false allegations that appear in a forthcoming autobiography", the Daily Telegraph reported.

In the book, Turner writes of Cage:

He caused so many problems. He was arrested twice for drunk-driving and, I think, once for stealing a dog. He'd come across a chihuahua he liked and stuck it in his jacket.
-- Huffington Post

Paparazzi Heckles Britney with Animal Noises

4th SW Quadrant\The Approval Matrix: Week of Feb. 25, 2008



By Gawker

Probably panicked that Britney Spears might, through some miracle, actually become a sober functioning human being, the paparazzi started heckling her and her parents, literally making high-pitched jungle animal noises. Some editors thought the paps were infiltrated by actual Crip and Blood gang members, as if that could somehow be worse than their actual behavior.

This video is slightly unrelated, but unbelievable nonetheless. Paparazzi "Heckles" Britney.

Seacrest to Produce Denise Richards’ Show

4th SW Quadrant\The Approval Matrix: Week of Feb. 25, 2008


Andy Dehnart posted on the reality tv blog Reality Blurred:

Ryan Seacrest is producing a reality series about Denise Richards’ life, a show that’s been the focus of a court battle this week with her ex-husband Charlie Sheen.

Seacrest told OK! Magazine, “We’ve been in talks about doing a series with her. I don’t know if the kids would necessarily be involved. It would be about her, if we do this, and her life. And what she wants to do with it, with her career.”

In court this week, “despite Sheen’s objections, a court commissioner greenlighted Richards’ plans for a reality show featuring her and Sheen’s two daughters, 3-year-old Sam and 2-year-old Lola,” according to E! Online. “There are unspecified ground rules, a source said, but otherwise Richards was ‘very happy.’ Richards was said to have needed Sheen’s permission to make the project work, but the Two and a Half Men star had shown no sign of being okay with the girls appearing on camera.”

Pedro Cockfight

4th SW Quadrant\The Approval Matrix: Week of Feb. 25, 2008

Animal rights groups are accusing Mets pitcher Pedro Martinez and Hall of Fame hurler Juan Marichal of fowl play after both were shown attending a cockfight in the Dominican Republic in a video posted on YouTube last week.

"Animal fighting has no place whatsoever among those who presume to be role models for youngsters," added [Wayne] Pacelle, [president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States]. "Not in this country, and not elsewhere."

Cockfighting is legal in the Dominican Republic, but illegal in 48 states in the U.S. Louisiana passed a law banning the blood sport that will go into effect in August. New Mexico, the other state where cockfighting is legal, has no pending legislation to ban the sport.
-- Daily News