MORNING BECOMES ECLECTIC: Wednesday's show will feature Stars, whose latest disc was well-reviewed on the Pitchfork. on Thursday, Kathleen Edwards is featured. If the show does not air on your local NPR station, you can always get it by streaming media or podcast from KCRW (thanks to Sylvia Hauser for the tip). ROXY MUSIC REUNITES for a new album, including Brian Eno, who left the band in 1973. ELVIS COSTELLO was interviewed at SXSW. MERLE HAGGARD was interviewed by Billboard. FIONA APPLE is emerging from the "Where are they now?" file through file-sharing, because Sony is refusing to sell her shelved album. You can also stream it via Scenestars. CATS AND DOGS should be brushing their teeth regularly. ALSO: Another Carnival of the Cats. Zippy the pit bull has broken out of death row. And a Belgian loves dogs in an unnatural way. TOASTED CHEESE SANDWICHES go gourmet in London. I WANT MY HDTV: High-definition television makes some celebs look better, others not so much. THE INCREDIBLES: Reviewed as only Jeff Goldstein can. GENE WILDER: Newsweek has an interview and excerpts from his forthcoming memoir. CULT OF THE iPod: The gadget has been banned by a Sydney private school because they lead to "social isolation". The New York Daily News does a "person on the street" piece asking Podpeople, "What are you listenting to?" NEW ORDER: The forthcoming Waiting for the Siren's Call is now streaming from overseas. PAULA ABDUL: Prosecutors are considering whether to file criminal charges against the alleged singer for an alleged hit-and-run freeway accident last December, officials said Thursday. Straight up? CBGB: Among the efforts to save the landmark New York punk venue is a collection of limited-edition treats from Gotham candy store Chocolate Bar. There is a toll-free number in the linked story, which also mentions the store's website (but there is no listing for the treats at the site yet). JOURNALISTIC ETHICS: Mickey Kaus (formerly of The New Republic and now with Slate) asks, "How is the American Prospect different from Armstrong Williams?" There is a difference insofar as Williams was paid by the government, but from the standpoint of the payee, Kaus may have a point. SIN CITY: A ton of advance reviews are up at Ain't-It-Cool News, almost all raves. There's a separate review from AICN semi-regular Neill Cumpston, who has a style all is own, and not a particularly family-friendly one at that. GIVE NUKES A CHANCE? Kenneth N. Waltz, perhaps the leading living theorist of the foreign policy realists, thinks we should stop worrying and learn to love the Bomb. IRAQ: You have to love Agence France-Presse. A March 21st story lede: "At least 45 people have been killed in insurgent attacks across Iraq as Washington defended its decision to go to war on the second anniversary of the US-led invasion." The next sentence: "Twenty-four Iraqi insurgents were killed and six coalition soldiers wounded in a firefight in a Baghdad suburb overnight..." Does that math work for the insurgents? ALSO: In The New York Times, John Burns reports there have been signs that the tide may be shifting in favor of the U.S. along Haifa Street in Baghdad (a/k/a "Purple Heart Boulevard"). Time magazine reports on the growing professionalism of The Iraqi Special Forces Brigade. KYRGYZSTAN: There is more heavy unrest over the parliamentary elections. President Askar Akayev on Monday ordered the Central Election Commission and Supreme Court to investigate alleged election violations and agreed to talk with the protesters. SHAWN COLVIN, LORRAINE BRACCO, TERRY BRADSHAW and other celebrities are inking deals with drug companies to talk about their depression. FEYNMAN LECTURES can be found here in both pdf and MP3 formats, for all you science geeks. PAUL WOLFOWITZ AND BONO discussed World Bank issues last week. Wonkette can only imagine what that sounded like. THE STATE OF ADVERTISING: The more things change, the more they stay the same? PLAYGIRL EDITOR stripped of her duties after she revealed how she voted Republican in the 2004 election. NEXT STOP, JURASSIC PARK: Scientists hope to clone a Woolly Mammoth with a body recovered from the Siberian tundra. DO COMPUTERS HELP EDUCATE KIDS? "The less pupils use computers at school and at home, the better they do in international tests of literacy and maths, the largest study of its kind says," according to the London Telegraph. TURTLE survives a fire, but its shell now bears the image of a devil's head. I CAN'T BELIEVE I HAVE TO EXPLAIN COKE AND PEPSI TO THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, but apparently I do. The Associated Press reports that the Coca-Cola Co. will launch a no-calorie version of its trademark soft drink called Coca-Cola Zero in the United States in June. The drink will be sweetened partly with a blend of aspartame and acesulfame potassium. The AP then reports "Purchase, N.Y.-based PepsiCo Inc. also has several different varieties of Pepsi and Diet Pepsi, including a one-calorie cola called Pepsi One, which is sweetened with Splenda." This is flat wrong. Splenda is made from sucralose, a modified version of sugar. Pepsi One is not sweetened with sucralose, as a glance at a bottle or can will reveal. Indeed, Pepsi One is sweetened with a blend of aspartame and acesulfame potassium, just like the new Coca-Cola Zero will be, assuming the AP got that right. The AP adds that Pepsi "Spokesman Dave DeCecco said Pepsi does not have any current plans for a zero-calorie version of Pepsi." Of course not; Pepsico already has Diet Pepsi and Pepsi One. Next time, the AP might have its reporter read a pop can, or ask someone to explain it to them.
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