March 31, 2010, 11:26 am

David Mills, Television Writer and Producer, Dies

By DAVE ITZKOFF (NY Times; Art Beat)

12:24 p.m. | Updated
David Mills, an Emmy Award-winning writer and producer for crime dramas like “The Wire” on HBO and “Homicide: Life on the Streets” on NBC died on Tuesday in New Orleans, a press representative for HBO said. The New Orleans Times-Picayune reported that Mr. Mills died from a brain aneurysm. HBO is about to broadcast the debut of a new series, “Treme,” on which Mr. Mills worked as a writer and producer.
After Mr. Mills made his television writing debut with “Homicide,” which his friend, David Simon, helped to create, he wrote for “NYPD Blue” and “ER.” He was also a co-writer and co-producer on “The Corner,” adapted from Mr. Simon’s book about drug abuse and poverty in Baltimore, which won three Emmys. Mr. Mills also created the NBC series “Kingpin,” about a Mexican drug cartel, which was shown in 2003.
HBO said Wednesday in a statement:

HBO is deeply saddened by the sudden loss of our dear friend and colleague David Mills. He was a gracious and humble man, and will be sorely missed by those who knew and loved him, as well as those who were aware of his immense talent. David has left us too soon but his brilliant work will live on.

Mr. Mills also chronicled his passion for music at his blog, Undercover Black Man. Before writing for television, he worked as a journalist and gained national attention for a 1992 interview with the hip-hop performer Sister Souljah in The Washington Post, in which she said, “If black people kill black people every day, why not have a week and kill white people?” When the Rainbow Coalition later invited Sister Souljah to speak at its convention, the group was criticized by Gov. Bill Clinton, then a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, who cited Mr. Mills’s interview.

Leave it to Vice President Joe Biden to celebrate a historic American event by swearing like a sailor. After announcing Barack Obama to the podium after a monumental Health Care reform bill gets passed, he whispers into the Commander-In-Chief's ear, "This is a BIG FUCKIN' DEAL!".

And, of course, the microphone picked up the audio. Nice move, Uncle Joe. Now it's all over the fuckin' internet so everybody's fuckin' kid will have an excuse use that kind of fuckin' language and fuckin' get away with it. WTF?

French Director NICHOLAS SCHMERKIN has won the Academy award for Best Animated Short with a brilliant & disturbing work called "LOGORAMA". I'm not even gonna set this one up. This is one of the most Avatarded pieces of art I've ever seen. Enjoy.  Watch it HERE.

Officials: 6 New Jersey Women Hospitalized after Botched Butt Jobs

NEWARK, N.J. (AP/ 1010 WINS)  -- Six women in New Jersey are recovering after they received buttocks-enhancement injections containing silicone used to caulk bathtubs.
State health officials say the women, from Essex County, apparently underwent cosmetic procedures from unlicensed providers.


John Montone reports (play audio)
 
Investigators have not determined if the cases are related.
No arrests have been made.
Instead of medical-grade silicone, the women received a diluted version of nonmedical-grade silicone.
State epidemiologist Tina Tan says there's the risk for more serious complications when infections are not treated early.

You wanted change: You got it! :
Your day just got shorter
thanks to Chile earthquake.

By Peter Becker

GateHouse News Service

Posted Mar 05, 2010 @ 06:03 PM

According to a NASA scientist, the Chilean earthquake has moved the Earth’s axis and shortened our day.

A minute change may have occurred. Researchers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., suggest that the Feb. 27 earthquake shortened the length of a day by about 1.26 microseconds. Consider that! We complain that there are not enough days in a week, and now each day may have been speeded up!

Our axis also may have been realigned by the movement of the Earth beneath - by about 3 inches.

There’s no cause for hysteria, but imagine the supermarket tabloid headlines:

GETTING DIZZY YET? EARTH SPIN SPEEDS UP

BETELGEUSE BECOMES NEW NORTH STAR; POLARIS FILES SUIT

HOLD ON TO YOUR HAT: WORLD ON A WHIRL

PENGUINS IN PANAMA; GATORS IN GREENLAND

Note that a microsecond is one-millionth of a second. It remains a wonderful feat of technology that we can measure that short of time.

Scientists also note that it is not the North-South axis that may have shifted, the one around which the world rotates and points to the northern sky immediately next to Polaris, what we know as the North Star. What may have been bumped is the “Earth's figure axis,” about which the planet’s mass is balanced. This axis and the North-South axis are offset by approximately 33 feet. In other words. Polaris didn’t lose any of its coveted star status.

It must also be noted that other earthquakes may have adjusted the rotation and axis as well, and may be a normal occurrence.

JPL scientist Richard Gross reported that the same computer model was used to estimate the magnitude 9.1 Sumatran earthquake on Dec. 26, 2004 that set off the giant tsunami.

While the recent Chilean earthquake was of lesser magnitude, it had more of an impact on the Earth because it was located in the mid-latitudes, not close to the equator. The fault that caused the quake in Chile dips into our planet at a steeper angle. Gross said that this would make the Chilean quake more able to budge the planet’s mass and axis. Gross stated that the data is still preliminary and under study.

Quakes on the “Third Rock from the Sun” seem to be on an increase, considering huge quakes in Chile and Taiwan, and another major aftershock in Haiti, all in the past week.

The universe, from a distance, appears so calm, with the glittering stars faithfully shining night after night, the constellations very much the same. They can give us a measure of comfort, but in reality the whole cosmos is forever on the move, and far from stable. Our sun is a constantly churning and boiling. Some stars (not the sun’s type, as far as we know) explode. Black holes form and whole stars are sucked right in. Asteroids strike and comets have landed. The vast asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter may have come from a planet that broke up.

The good news is that we can have a right, stable frame of mind and heart, and although our world around us may rock and roll, we need not be moved!

Last-quarter moon is on March 7. Anyone remember what happened in the daytime sky 30 years ago on March 7?

Write to Peter Becker at pbecker@wayneindependent.com.

Keep looking up!

Nude snow sculpture in Rahway leads police to request 'snowlady' cover-up

By Eliot Caroom/For the Star-Ledger

March 03, 2010, 5:30AM

 
Photos courtesy Conneran family

 A snowlady that Maria Conneran and her family sculpted in front of their Rahway home that attracted passers-by on Rahway's Colonia Boulevard to stop for pictures, but prompted an anonymous complaint to police who had the family cover up the sculpture with clothing.
RAHWAY --She was a frosty Venus de Milo, but one Rahway family’s snow-packed tribute to the Greek goddess of love and beauty was another person’s pornography.
Maria Conneran and her family worked feverishly to fashion their armless, nude snowlady from last week’s heap of snow, grabbing attention and photographs on Rahway’s Colonia Boulevard.
Not all the attention was good, however.

THINGS THAT MAKE YOU GO...WTF?

Among the visitors was a patrolman dispatched to the Conneran household after Rahway police received an anonymous complaint "of a naked snow woman," said Sgt. Dominick Sforza. She sure was, the family gleefully agreed.
"Curvaceous, bodacious and booty-licious," said Elisa Gonzalez, a court reporter who built the snow goddess with her daughter, Maria Conneran, 21 and son, Jack Shearing, 12.
"But she had a six-pack!" Conneran said.
Photo courtesy Conneran family

 A snowlady that Maria Conneran (pictured) and her family sculpted in front of their Rahway home that attracted passers-by on Rahway's Colonia Boulevard to stop for pictures, but prompted an anonymous complaint to police.
When the officer arrived, Gonzalez said, he was apologetic and appreciative of the snowlady and her assets.
"He said, ‘It’s very good,’" Gonzalez recalled.
Despite his appreciation, the officer then asked the family to dress the snowlady. Nonplussed, they complied with a green bikini top and a blue sarong around her ample hips.
 
Photo courtesy Conneran familyJack Shearing, 12, and his mother, Elisa Gonzalez with the nude snowlady.


"I thought she looked more objectified and sexualized after you put the bikini on," Gonzalez said.
Conneran and Gonzalez said the visit from police reminded them of former Attorney General John Ashcroft’s move to drape a semi-nude statue of the Spirit of Justice when he arrived to lead the U.S. Justice Department.
"(Our snowlady) looks like marble. It looks like a statue," Conneran said. "Are you going to go to the Met and cover up all the statues?"
William Torres, visiting the neighborhood from North Carolina, agreed the snowlady should have remained au naturel.
"They’re censoring art," Torres said. "To me ... that’s no different from what you see in a museum ... and its lifespan was short anyway."
Indeed. On Monday, the family took down the snowlady, because with the return of warmer weather, she was starting to melt away.
The Venus di Milo may be gone, but the Connerans said they will continue their work with the next snow. This was not their first foray into famous snow sculpture.
Last January, the family created a realistic bust of newly inaugurated President Obama.
 
People in a passing car stop to take a photo of a snow sculpture of a female torso on a lawn in Rahway.