More Dope For The Dopes -

Buoyed by their recently successful kill shot at American commercial newspapers by hiking up the cigarette taxes, Big Pharma is gearing up to introduce yet a new wave of taxes.

These latest prospective taxes would especially target Communications, such as mobile phone usage and Internet Email, fostering more social isolation, which would result in an expanded market for patented anti-depression medications and other such happy pills.

The ripple effects would include: additional "pain" clinics, drug-addicted prostitution and white slavery, as well as spreading more generalized Social Blight across the United States.

:: George Russell :: at Fox News ::

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Fringe: Up and Out (5#) -

Last night's episode of the series was pretty good as garden variety SF goes. It was about a newly emerged virus. Walter saves the day with the kind of improvised Mr Wizard horse radish solution which is one of this character's more endearing qualities.

But it disappointed in the absence of meta-story content. I am more interested in the meta-story or mythology of this series, than in any random weird incident. If they don't step up the pace of progress in unspooling the meta-story, I'll probably lose patience and bail out of it.

Kudos to writer Andrew Hanson and the LATimes for a good article covering it on this entry of their Show Tracker Blog.

# Elsewhere:

:: NYMag TV Vulture Blog ::

:: Television Without Pity recap and forum ::

# Coming Up:

"The Feb. 4 episode, Jacksonville, is the last new
episode until April. And it ends with a huge cliffhanger."

:: More details at the following
link, but there are spoilers, too! [io9]

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Glamour Cases (3#) -

when over-the-top isn't enough . . .

Retired judge Larry Seidlin has written a book about his investigation into the death of glamour model Anna Nicole Smith over whose remains he officiated a couple of years ago here in Broward County FL, according to reporter Tanya Alanez.

# Amanda Knox has been notified that she may be facing prosecution on slander charges for claiming she was beaten by the Perugia police during interrogation.

# Song stylist Amy Winehouse admitted in a Milton Keynes courtroom that she had behaved badly at the Christmas pantomime of Cinderella, but attributed it to heavy drinking. She was put on probation.

...

Mystery Author Dead & more (4#) -

Robert B Parker, author of the Spenser novels, passed away at his desk while he was at home in the Cambridge section of Boston. He was 77 years old.

# A research report reveals that 44% of visitors to Google News scan the headlines there without clicking through to the source newspapers' individual websites, according to TechCrunch.

+ A lot of newspaper websites are poorly designed; their screen pages contain too much extraneous material, take too long to load, and are mostly a big waste of time.

# Has news coverage of the Haitian earthquake situation turned into Disaster P*rn? Brendan O'Neill raises some troubling issues.

# Eulogy for Casper,
the commuting feline. He'll be missed.

...

Bookish: Best Ofs, Etc. (4#) -

Enchanted Ground? I had been looking for January Magazine's Best of 2009 Crime Fiction List since the beginning of the year without success. But, late last night, I happened to find it:

:: Part I :: - - - :: Part II ::

*****************************
The Millions has posted their Most Anticipated Books of 2010 Preview, a feature which I have enjoyed in the past. But this time round, the tone throughout seems somewhat hyperbolic and, at times, nearly hysterical.

The website started out as an apparent blog, but has since morphed into what appears to be an online magazine. When I discovered that they'd put my blog on their sidebar links, I added them to mine, but I recently discovered that they have de-linked me and I suppose I should reciprocate once again.

Isn't it possible to get through everyday life
anymore without offending anyone? Probably not.

:: Preview ::

*****************************
When the Public develops strange cravings . . .

Sherlockians can have their deerstalker caps.
Why can't Wallander fans have his ringtone?

Done! They're making it available.

...

VVM Possible Toe Tag (3#) -

Alt-Weekly Empire Facing Lien . . .

A California judge has authorized a lien against VVM's empire of Alt-Weekly newspapers, including Miami and Broward New Times, to satisfy a judgement involving the San Francisco Bay Guardian Indy.

This development could place
the VVM chain into involuntary bankruptcy.

:: SFGate :: - - [BGuard Blog] - - [BGuard Blog]

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Bookish: A Silver Lining (6#) -

Robert McCrum discerns a silver lining on the horizon for book publishers - as English language usage expands around the planet, so does the readership and market for English-language books.

# Michael Agger's review of
Jaron Lanier's You are Not a Gadget
and Paul Constant's take on it, too.

# Zac O’Yeah on some new favorite far-flung detectives.

# Mick Hume on Chandler's Philip Marlowe.

# Christopher Hitchins on Mystery author Stieg Larsson.

...