...and nobody showed up?

It isn't strictly accurate to say that I sat through the whole movie alone. Just as the previews started, two young women walked in giggling together and took seats three rows behind me. Afraid that they'd ruined the only story I had at that point -- What If Sarah Palin Starred in a Movie and No One Showed Up? -- I hoped they'd at least oblige me with an interview, and so they did.

Jamie Watkins, 22, is a Missouri native, which qualifies her as a real American. She only recently moved to Southern California, and her little sister, Jessie, age 18, was visiting for the first time.

"So, um, what made you come out here tonight?"

"We're going to Disneyland tomorrow," Jamie said, "but she just got here, so we decided we should go out."

"We looked online for the latest movie playing," Jessie added. "But all the Harry Potters were sold out, and then we saw 'The Undeafeated.' We don't even actually know what we're seeing."

"Well welcome to California," I said. "You're about to see a documentary about Sarah Palin."

"Oh, really?" they said, and started giggling again. I think they were expecting an action flick. When I returned to my seat, I thought maybe I'd talk to them after the movie, and get the perspective of two people who went in with no expectations. But they only lasted 20 minutes before walking out.

After that, it is strictly accurate to say that the theater was empty, except for me. On screen there were clips of a younger Sarah Palin helping to reform Alaskan governance. "In politics, you're either eating well or sleeping well," she said. I jotted this down: "And which of those are you doing now?"

Mind you, this empty theater was in Orange County - probably the biggest conservative stronghold in all of California. That Palin got her ass kicked by that godless Harry Potter, especially in The OC, does not bode well for the film.

Heard of Stuxnet? Neither had I until this afternoon. Here's a primer.



And here's an in-depth story from Wired about the guys who cracked it.

It was January 2010, and investigators with the International Atomic Energy Agency had just completed an inspection at the uranium enrichment plant outside Natanz in central Iran, when they realized that something was off within the cascade rooms where thousands of centrifuges were enriching uranium.

Natanz technicians in white lab coats, gloves and blue booties were scurrying in and out of the �clean� cascade rooms, hauling out unwieldy centrifuges one by one, each sheathed in shiny silver cylindrical casings.

Any time workers at the plant decommissioned damaged or otherwise unusable centrifuges, they were required to line them up for IAEA inspection to verify that no radioactive material was being smuggled out in the devices before they were removed. The technicians had been doing so now for more than a month.

Normally Iran replaced up to 10 percent of its centrifuges a year, due to material defects and other issues. With about 8,700 centrifuges installed at Natanz at the time, it would have been normal to decommission about 800 over the course of the year.

But when the IAEA later reviewed footage from surveillance cameras installed outside the cascade rooms to monitor Iran�s enrichment program, they were stunned as they counted the numbers. The workers had been replacing the units at an incredible rate � later estimates would indicate between 1,000 and 2,000 centrifuges were swapped out over a few months.

The question was, why?

A long read, but well worth the time.

I loathe Peter King. I think he embarrasses my home state of New York, and he's one of the biggest wastes of skin in Congress - and that's goin' some.

But even jerks like King get it right once in a while. Today is Pete King's day.

The chairman of the US House of Representatives Homeland Security committee has called on the FBI to investigate allegations of corruption and phonehacking made against News Corp.

New York congressman Peter King, the first Republican politician to call for a probe into the scandal, sent a letter to FBI director Robert Mueller over the allegations that the News of the World bribed a New York police officer to gain access to the private phone records of 9/11 victims. He wrote:

It is revolting to imagine that members of the media would seek to compromise the integrity of a public official for financial gain in the pursuit of yellow journalism.

The 9/11 families have suffered egregiously, but unfortunately they remain vulnerable against such unjustifiable parasitic strains. We can spare no effort or expense in continuing our support for them.

"Morphine, of Boston, Massachusetts, at your service."



That's a band that left the party way too soon.

As the News Of The World scandal inches its way to American shores like crude oil from a BP drilling platform, the Murdoch-owned media outlets in this country have, predictably, not said a word.

It�s been hard to watch The Wall Street Journal, still the global business-news leader, struggling with both hands tied behind its back to cover the incredible scandal now engulfing its parent.

The News of the World debacle�a five-alarm business story if there ever was one�is the acid test of my old paper�s independence. Of course, it�s not going well. This is a story it should be leading on, and, but for a certain feckless family that decided to go for the gold a few years ago, it would be.

If the phone-hacking scandal at the WSJ�s erstwhile sister paper (how does that sound?) was only about an *entire newsroom* gone out-of-control�paying cops for scoops, hacking phones of missing children and dead soldiers� families�that in itself is flood-the-zone material.

But then its media parent just up and closes the thing down after 168 years? Just shutters it, tossing 2.6 million readers to the four winds?

We�re looking at a story that not only exposed rampant corruption and cover-ups at the highest levels of London�s Metropolitan police and ties between media executives and high government officials; this story hasn�t just jeopardized a crucially important merger; it has shaken the British government, and threatens the inner circle one of the world�s most powerful and influential media companies.

Indeed, the story is creeping toward U.S. shores and the CEO of Dow Jones, Les Hinton. (If you want to know what�s happening, obviously go to the Guardian.)

Anybody here watch Fox News? (I don't because of health reasons - any more than a couple of minutes of Fox makes me want to vomit.) I'm willing to bet a dollar that they haven't had word one to say about it, either. Maybe after the investigations get started here they'll circle the wagons and start their patented mix of mendacity and character assassination. You know it's coming.

Murdoch is one shameless motherfucker: Phone hacking: 9/11 victims 'may have had mobiles tapped by News of the World reporters'

Mr Murdoch arrived in London yesterday, wearing a Panama hat and clutching a final copy of the News of the World, in a bid to save his crumbling organisation after the phone-hacking scandal saw the 168-year-old paper axed.

But he flew straight into another storm as it was claimed 9/11 victims may have had their mobiles tapped by News of the World reporters. And there was more bad news when it was revealed nine reporters �allegedly at the centre of the phone scandal and claims of police corruption could face jail, along with three officers.

After he spent time at News International�s Wapping HQ in East London, 80-year-old Mr Murdoch held crisis talks with Mrs Brooks, 43 - who denies any knowledge of the Milly phone tapping - at his home in Mayfair.

The pair chatted behind closed doors as a former New York cop made the 9/11 hacking claim. He alleged he was contacted by News of the World journalists who said they would pay him to retrieve the private phone records of the dead.

Now working as a private �investigator, the ex-officer claimed reporters wanted the victim�s phone numbers and details of the calls they had made and received in the days leading up to the atrocity.

A source said: �This investigator is used by a lot of journalists in America and he recently told me that he was asked to hack into the 9/11 victims� private phone data. He said that the journalists asked him to access records showing the calls that had been made to and from the mobile phones belonging to the victims and their �relatives.

�His presumption was that they wanted the information so they could hack into the �relevant voicemails, just like it has been shown they have done in the UK. The PI said he had to turn the job down. He knew how insensitive such research would be, and how bad it would look.

�The investigator said the �journalists seemed particularly interested in getting the phone records belonging to the British victims of the attacks.�

The Department of Justice better nail his ass to the wall over this. Simply unconscionable.

I just read a Guardian piece on the News Of The World phone hacking scandal dealing with how Murdoch is trying to contain the damage to the UK, and it brought back a thought that's been floating around in my head for the past couple of days.

What are the odds that Murdoch's thugs committed those same crimes in the name of Fox News as they did at News Of The World?

Any successful business will, either by design or happy accident, find a business model that works and replicate it in order to expand their market share - that's the reason that a Big Mac will taste the same in Los Angeles or Toronto or London as it does in New York. That's the reason that the interior of a TGI Friday's will look the same, in whichever city you decide to subject yourself to TGI Friday's. You find something that works and do it again and again.

If you look at Murdoch's empire, it's clear that he's done just that throughout its history. Minus basic style points, the Sun or News Of The World is the same as the New York Post is the same as the insane amount of print media News Corporation owns in Australia (by some accounts, Murdoch owns a whopping 70% of print media outlets in Oz). Every outlet relentlessly pushes Murdoch's right-wing ideology, they all influence the political climate of whichever city they're in, and they all work very hard to curry favor with major political parties in whichever country they operate.

The formula works. But Mickey D's didn't go worldwide by formulating the Big Mac and then letting individuals make their own version of Special Sauce. Murdoch has been successful because he'll buy a media outlet and re-make it in the image of all the other media outlets he owns. And that's where the questions arise about whether News Corp. has been pulling the same illegal crap here as they did in the UK.

There is one similarity that should raise big questions. Andy Coulson, one of the first to be arrested in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal, was a former News Of The World editor who left that job to take on the role of communications director for Prime Minister David Cameron - much like the late Fox News anchor Tony Snow left his gig at Fox News and took on the role of Press Secretary for George W. Bush.

That Murdoch employees get to move back and forth between jobs in media and government should send up red flags for anyone who abhors undue influence in government. And I've got to ask - if Murdoch has adopted these key parts of his business plan everywhere he sets up shop, is it unreasonable to suspect that the use of illegal means to collect information is in play as well?

I believe it would be unreasonable not to suspect it.

Too bad his organization's got half the pols in DC in his pocket, or this would be happening to his businesses here, too.

The mass-circulation tabloid at the center of the British phone hacking scandal is to be closed after a final, ad-free Sunday edition this weekend, according a statement by a top official at News Corp., James Murdoch, that acknowledged �serious problems� and �repeated wrongdoing.�

The move underscored the damage to News Corp., Rubert Murdoch�s vast and powerful media company, from allegations that one of its papers, News of the World, was involved in hacking cellphones belonging to not only a 13-year-old murder victim but also relatives of fallen soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. On Wednesday, a member of Parliament also raised allegations that nine years ago, News of the World had participated in efforts to disrupt a murder investigation.

The announcement that News of the World would close was so sudden that it was still advertising a subscription deal on its Web site.

The bottom line is this: News Corp. is a fundamentally corrupt organization that wields power way beyond that of what any media organization should be allowed. Murdoch has given journalism a black eye, and until he's run out of the media business nothing will change.

I was thinking that the right-hand column was looking a little empty, so I went link-hunting. Music, Entertainment, Sports, Business, and dead-tree-based media links now grace the column.

I'll add more stuff once I figure out something cool to add.

Update: Flipping back to the old theme for a while, until I get some resolution on the backend squirrelliness.

Jane Scott was proof.

She found her lifework on Sept. 15, 1964, the day four lads from Liverpool came to Cleveland. No one at the paper was interested in covering the Beatles, and Ms. Scott volunteered.

That night, amid a sea of screams, Ms. Scott was transformed. �I realized this was a phenomenon,� she told The Plain Dealer in 2002. �The whole world changed.�

Ms. Scott was fazed by little she encountered in her new world, though the language sometimes gave her a turn. Among the worst offenders were the Beastie Boys, who favored a particular epithet in telephone conversations with her. �I think when you�re talking to someone old enough to be your mother,� she told The Washington Post in 2002, �you don�t have to use that on the phone, do you?�

But what troubled Ms. Scott far more was her inability to share her passion with her peers.

�I finally convinced a friend to come see Deep Purple with me,� she told The Post in the same interview. �I called her before the show to confirm, and she said, �Oh, Jane, I can still remember dancing with Ben at Beta Theta Pi fraternity, and we danced, �When the deep purple falls over sleepy garden walls.� � �

�I thought: �Oh dear. I hate to tell you ...� � Ms. Scott continued. �I ended up taking her grandson.�

Jane Scott passed away Monday at the age of 92. What a rich, unlikely life she led.