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‘Inglourious Basterds’ Teaser Trailer!

It was reported recently that we’d finally get our first look at Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds some time this week. Unexpectedly, this promise actually carried through and here now, is the first teaser trailer!

The trailer features Brad Pitt — using a much stronger, militant version of his Assassination of Jesse James accent — looking for 8 soldiers to help him kill the Nazis; he demands 100 Nazi scalps of each of them. That’s 800 f’n Nazi scalps, for those of you who refuse to learn math because it’s how the aliens will eventually control us and take over Earth. The trailer shows a lot of other stuff, too… including a little Hitler action for you all. I don’t want to ruin the whole party though, you’ll have to jump below to watch the trailer here a few hundred times, as I will be. No word on if all 800 scalpings will be featured, but I assume if they were, this movie would be far past a R-rating.

Inglourious Basterds follows two storylines during World War II. One storyline is about a young girl who witnesses her family’s execution before narrowly escaping; she then starts a new life as the operator of a theater. The other storyline follows a troupe of Jewish-American soldiers who set off on a special mission to slaughter the Nazis.

Along with Brad Pitt as Aldo Raine (the leader of the Jewish soldiers), Diane Kruger (National Treasure, Troy), Mélanie Laurent, B.J. Novak (The Offcie), Samm Levine (Freaks and Geeks), Mike Myers, and Til Schweiger (King Arthur) also star.

Tarantino made a promise that his movie would be ready for Cannes this year, which means it should be seen by May, but we regular folk will have to wait until August 21, 2009 to get our fill.

Trailer:

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Happy 200 Abe Lincoln and Chuck Darwin

Today, February 12, is the 200th birthday of two giants of the 19th century: Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin. That's right--they were born on the exact same day. There are two recent books that have discussed these two figures together, their similarities within their differences, so to speak.

The most recent is just out:
Adam Gopnik, Angels and Ages: A Short Book about Darwin, Lincoln, and Modern Life.
Here is its description:

On a memorable day in human history, February 12, 1809, two babies were born an ocean apart: Abraham Lincoln in a one-room Kentucky log cabin; Charles Darwin on an English country estate. It was a time of backward-seeming notions, when almost everyone still accepted the biblical account of creation as the literal truth and authoritarianism as the most natural and viable social order. But by the time both men died, the world had changed: ordinary people understood that life on earth was a story of continuous evolution, and the Civil War had proved that a democracy could fight for principles and endure. And with these signal insights much else had changed besides. Together, Darwin and Lincoln had become midwives to the spirit of a new world, a new kind of hope and faith.

Searching for the men behind the icons of emancipation and evolution, Adam Gopnik shows us, in this captivating double life, Lincoln and Darwin as they really were: family men and social climbers; ambitious manipulators and courageous adventurers; the living husband, father, son, and student behind each myth. How do we reconcile Lincoln, the supremely good man we know, with the hardened commander who wittingly sent tens of thousands of young soldiers to certain death? Why did the relentlessly rational Darwin delay publishing his “Great Idea” for almost twenty years? How did inconsolable grief at the loss of a beloved child change each man? And what comfort could either find—for himself or for a society now possessed of a sadder, if wiser, understanding of our existence? Such human questions and their answers are the stuff of this book.

Above all, we see Lincoln and Darwin as thinkers and writers—as makers and witnesses of the great change in thought that marks truly modern times: a hundred years after the Enlightenment, the old rule of faith and fear finally yielding to one of reason, argument, and observation not merely as intellectual ideals but as a way of life; the judgment of divinity at last submitting to the verdicts of history and time. Lincoln considering human history, Darwin reflecting on deep time—both reshaped our understanding of what life is and how it attains meaning. And they invented a new language to express that understanding. Angels and Ages is an original and personal account of the creation of the liberal voice—of the way we live now and the way we talk at home and in public. Showing that literary eloquence is essential to liberal civilization, Adam Gopnik reveals why our heroes should be possessed by the urgency of utterance, obsessed by the need to see for themselves, and endowed with the gift to speak for us all.

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Peanut Corp. owner Parnell not talking

Embattled Peanut Corp. of America owner, and Lynchburg area resident, Stewart Parnell, plead the Fifth today and refused to speak to a Congressional subcommittee investigated whether or not his company knowingly shipped peanuts infected with the salmonella bacteria, causing a national outbreak that has claimed nine lives, infected hundreds more, and led to the recall of 1,800 peanut products, the AP reports.
What’s more, a lab tester told the committee that the company had discovered the deadly bacteria as far back as 2006. The investigation also includes some revealing emails from Parnell, which showed he ordered infected products shipped and complained that the lab tests were “costing us huge $$$.“

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Koala saved from Australia's wildfires doing well

"Sam" the koala, the most famous furry survivor of Australia's worst-ever wildfires, is healing well thanks to the efforts of caretakers at a rescue shelter - and she even has a new boyfriend, "Bob." Sam, who captured hearts around the world after she was photographed drinking from a firefighter's water bottle, has also won the affection of "Bob," another koala whose paws were scorched in the weekend's inferno, caretaker Lynn Raymond said Thursday.

"Bob is her protector - as soon as she is moved, he's on the move, too. It really looks like he's making sure she's OK," Raymond said from the Mountain Ash Wildlife Shelter in Rawson, 100 miles (170 kilometers) east of Melbourne in Victoria state, where the deadly fires continue to burn. "They're good company for each other."

Neither koala is likely to be healthy enough for release for at least four months, and are being comforted by caretakers who salve their scorched paws every few hours.

Global interest in the fate of Sam has been intense since a photograph of firefighter David Tree offering her a bottle of water in a burned-out forest was splashed across the Internet, in newspapers and on television broadcasts. The telephone at the shelter has rung incessantly with callers eager for an update on the creature's condition.

"It's insane," Raymond said with a laugh. "(But) everybody has been absolutely wonderful."

Sam was found moving gingerly on scorched paws by a fire patrol Sunday. Tree crouched down and held out a bottle of water for her to drink, which she eagerly accepted, holding Tree's hand as he poured water into her mouth.

"You all right, buddy?" Tree asks in a video of the encounter as he approaches the koala. Later, as Sam gulps from the bottle, he quips: "How much can a koala bear?"

Often mistakenly called koala bears because they resemble a child's teddy bear, the marsupial is actually a somewhat ornery creature with a loud growl and sharp claws.

Sam, who suffered second- and third-degree burns to her paws, has been sharing a cage with Bob, who took an immediate interest in her when she arrived on Sunday, Raymond said.

Both Sam and Bob were given painkillers when they first arrived, but they're off the drugs now, Raymond said. The two are still receiving antibiotics and have their bandages changed regularly to stave off infections.

The koalas are likely to be in the shelter at least four months, depending on how quickly their burns heal, Raymond said. For now, though, the famously thirsty marsupial appears to be on the mend.

"I'm just looking at Sam now - she is fast asleep," Raymond said. "She's doing very, very well."

Written By KRISTEN GELINEAU
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First Lady Michelle Obama Cove

It's finally here! Michelle Obama's VOGUE photos (some of them anyway) have been released for early review. The First Lady apparently wore all J. Crew items from their upcoming Fall line - but don't bother rushing to their site, these clothes are not even in stores yet. J. Crew's head stylist assisted on the shoot and Mrs. Obama was very involved in the final style choices. You can read the full article here, but the issue won't hit stands until Tuesday, February 17th. Some are saying the cover isn't all that fabulous but I think it is down-to-earth and appropiate for the times. We all know if she was decked out in couture folks would have something to say about how "insensitive" it is of her to flaunt her wealth. What are your thoughts?