Science: Astronomers have detected a black hole that is “18 billion times more massive than the Sun,” Space.com reports.
World: China, South Korea and the U.S. are readying for the implosion of North Korea, Bloomberg.com reports. All are drafting plans for military intervention should Kim Jong Il’s regime collapse, Bloomberg says.
Health: Migratory wildfowl are suspected of spreading the latest case of bird flu in Britain, The Guardian reports. This time swans have become infected.
Music: The New York Times reports that in a big challenge to iTunes, Sony BMG joins three other companies selling music on Amazon’s MP3 store.
Nation: A battle over evidence turns into an emotional courtroom drama in the sentencing of the Jose Padilla case, the Christian Science Monitor reports
O P I N I O N
Corporate greed is/has been wreaking havoc all over this country. Look what it’s done to the newspaper industry. Look what it’s doing to the entertainment industry.
Creative people are magnets for those who can make a buck off them. This is hardly new. Think Mozart. Think Van Gogh. Think even the Dixie Chicks. The latest chapter in this story without end involves the Writers Guild. Its demand of proper compensation for members’ work has Hollywood and the current TV season at a standstill. Now people are blaming the writers for ruining the awards season. Boo-hoo. No Golden Globes. And maybe, no Oscars. Waaaah!
Actor Tom Hanks, who is anxious over the possibility of the Oscars ceremony being canned, begged the corporate chiefs to come back to the bargaining table. “There are caterers and carpenters … and electricians and gaffers. There are a lot of people out there associated with the industry, for whom the sooner this work stoppage is over the better.”
Sorry Tom, you’ve made a big mistake. You’ve assumed that the CEOs have a heart. They don’t care that employees are suffering. It won’t matter to them until they take a hit in their paychecks!
Quote of the day: From the soon-to-retire head of Gannett’s newspaper division
Sue Clark-Johnson (see yesterday’s 5):
“We have something that all the other media out there want: our content. We have good content, and we have good relationships in our communities.”
Uh, Sue, step back from the grape Kool-Aid and no one will get hurt.
♣ Nation/world news tally in my local paper today: 1 2/5 pages
Feed me 5 Under the Radar
