Saturday, March 07, 2015

Media-Whore D'Oeuvres





Megyn Kelly, host of Fox News Channel's
AP Photo


"Fox News has the most trusted network and cable news coverage in the United States, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll released Monday. But network TV is much less trustworthy than it was in the days of Walter Cronkite, American voters say. In comparison rankings, 29 percent responded that they trust Fox News the most. CNN follows with 22 percent, CBS News and NBC News are at 10 percent, ABC News at 8 percent and MSNBC at 7 percent. Asked whether they trust the journalistic coverage of each network, 20 percent said they do 'a great deal' for Fox, and 35 percent said 'somewhat.' Comparing today’s programming with the heyday of network news, only 7 percent of those surveyed think the information presented now is more trustworthy, with 48 percent responding that it is less so and 35 percent answering that it is about the same. Among Republican voters, 58 percent say they trust Fox News the most, with 13 percent favoring CNN, 7 percent for NBC and CBS, 5 percent for ABC and 2 percent for MSNBC. With Democrats, CNN is the top choice with 32 percent, 15 percent for NBC, 14 percent for CBS and MSNBC, and 8 percent for ABC. Only 3 percent trust Fox News most. Forty-two percent of registered voters think NBC should allow Brian Williams to anchor 'NBC Nightly News,' while 35 percent think they should not give him another chance after his suspension." (Politico)






Keeping in Form



"The heartlessness of youth, the selfishness and cluelessness, are zero compared to creaky old age. They say that wisdom comes with age, but does it? Karajan was greater when his hair was pitch black, as was Mitropoulos when he still had hair. (I was happy to read in the Telegraph that the Greek was included among the five greatest, the others being Furtwängler, Karajan, Klemperer, and Kleiber.) Both Alexander the Great and Napoleon erred late rather than early on, but it was Plato speaking for Socrates who nailed it best in the Republic. He’s great on sex, although the word is never mentioned. This is Cephalus talking to Socrates about old age: 'I feel as if I had escaped from a mad and furious master.' Well, maybe Cephalus felt like that, but I sure don’t, nor does Jack Nicholson, who announced five years ago that he was through with chasing pussy but has kept on chasing, maybe not as desperately as before, but the hunt is always on. Cicero recycled Plato without attribution, but what the hell, the Romans always copied us Greeks, so what else is new? (And they will again in the near future, when Italy turns into the basket case that is modern Hellas.) Character is very important in old age, according to Cicero, and I agree with the old wop; he also mentions happiness from within. (Happiness from within until now meant going to bed alone and finding Ava Gardner in it.) Basically, old age is not for sissies, and those who complain about it nonstop are silly people and very boring. Yeats was muscle-bound and a would-be hero, but a bit strange about old age. To make up for it, he wished to collect mechanical songbirds that a Byzantine emperor once possessed. (I’d rather have a cutout of Betty Grable in a bathing suit circa 1945.)" (Taki)


FIT president Dr. Joyce F. Brown stands next to a Norman Norell dress worn by Lauren Bacall in Sex and the Single Girl in 1964.


"Lauren Bacall was a beautiful and stylish woman both on screen and off, and fortunately she donated a large portion of her personal collection of clothing and accessories to the Museum at FIT. The Master of Arts students in the School of Graduate Studies program in Fashion and Textile Studies: History, Theory, Museum Practice have created an exhibit from highlights of that collection called Lauren Bacall The Look, currently on display until April 4th. The more than seven hundred pieces donated to the Museum include accessories by Dior, Gucci, and Givenchy. And, as you can see, even the buttons on an otherwise simple Norman Norell coat were transformed into glamorous accessories to create a sexy 1960’s movie number. The exhibit previewed on Monday, March 2nd and Dr. Joyce F. Brown, President of the Fashion Institute of Technology, was on hand to view the students’ achievement." (NYSD)












A relief of a mythological creature in the Palace of Ashurnasirpal II in Nimrud, Iraq. Militants used bulldozers and other vehicles to vandalize the site. Credit DeAgostini/Getty Images 


       


"News that Islamic State fighters had bulldozed and vandalized the ancient city of Nimrud in northern Iraq provoked outrage on Friday, as archaeologists despaired that the militant group was systematically destroying priceless antiquities in a wellspring of civilization. Islamic religious scholars joined common cause with governments, museums and other international preservationists to denounce what they described as an odious affront. Al-Azhar, Sunni Islam’s leading religious institution, based in Cairo, called the destruction 'a major crime against the entire world' ... The Nimrud destruction came a week after Islamic State militants videotaped themselves marauding through Mosul’s museum, using sledgehammers and torches to destroy statues, artifacts and books. 'They’re taking us back to the dark ages, those people,' said Mohamed Alhakim, Iraq’s ambassador to the United Nations. 'They are thugs' ... Archaeologists and antiquities experts have also accused the Islamic State of profiting from many plundered antiquities. Some have said the looters take small objects that they can sell, and destroy those that are too heavy to be easily smuggled. Abdulamir al-Hamdani, an Iraqi archaeologist who specializes in Mesopotamia at the Department of Anthropology at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, said in a telephone interview that Mosul residents had seen Islamic State fighters removing artifacts in order to sell them. He expressed alarm that the next target could be the ruins of Hatra, about 68 miles southwest of Mosul, which is also within the area controlled by the Islamic State. Hatra, thought to have been founded in the third or second century B.C., became an important religious center that was ruled by a succession of Arabian princes, and is one of several Unesco World Heritage sites in the region. 'I’m really worried about Hatra now,' Mr. Hamdani said. 'ISIS has a plan to destroy them one by one.' Susan Ackerman, a religion professor at Dartmouth College, where the Hood Museum of Art is home to a number of Assyrian artifacts, said she feared that Khorsabad, another ancient Assyrian city north of Mosul, also was imperiled. Asked why Islamic State fighters would loot some artifacts and destroy others, she said, 'I don’t have much of an answer except to tell you they’re hypocrites.'" (NYT)



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