Here are the numbers from the United Nations on the breadth of devastation in Pakistan from the floods:

• 1,539 people have died and 17 million have been directly affected
• 1.2 million houses have been destroyed, leaving an estimated 8 million homeless
• 3.2m hectares of standing crops have been lost or damaged
• 2,055 people have been injured
• 1.6 million have received food aid
• 2 million people have received drinking water but “large numbers” have no access to water or sanitation
• Reports on increasing migration towards Sindh province from other affected areas [BBC]

According to the BBC, the UN has raised 70% of the $460m needed for emergency relief.

I stumbled across this unlucky fat fellow on East 6th Street on my way to breakfast this morning.  I would estimate that he was about two to three pounds.

Licensed Creative Commons 3.0 attribution

Below is an incredibly well-edited YouTube video of convicted serial killer Rodney Alcala, who went on a murder spree a few months after this appearance on the Dating Game in 1978.  The contestant, Cheryl Bradshaw, later refused to go on the date:

Though Alcala won the date with Bradshaw, she ultimately refused to go out with him, according to reports.

“One wonders what that did in his mind,” crime profiler Pat Brown said in an interview with CNN. “That is something he would not take too well. They don’t understand the rejection. They think that something is wrong with that girl: ‘She played me. She played hard to get.’ ”

Alcala became a killer just months after his appearance on the show, prosecutors said.

Watch the video (he apparently has never changed his hair):

Am I the only one who thinks Cheryl Bradshaw was *hysterical* in her appearance?  And kudos to her wisdom for backing out of this date, whatever the reason.

Right now everywhere in political circles the recently-deceased John Murtha is being toasted by friend and former foe alike.  He was a man’s man and a politician’s politician.  It was hard not to like the character he cut.

That said, I don’t miss the King of Pork Congressman Murtha, who felt no shame in the game that earned him his moniker; the white elephant of waste that is the $200 million John Murtha airport his true legacy.

Liberals sort of fell for Murtha when he became anti-war because he was continually trumpeted in the media as a real “hawk”.  He’s still loved for that.

However, Murtha’s ‘grasp at the swill for my constituents because it’s my Constitutional duty’ style of politics were foolish before and ruinous now that the country’s economic outlook is so dire.  If we don’t start capping people like Richard Shelby at the knees, as we should have done to Murtha, our entire standard of living is threatened.  We simply can’t afford to spend this way anymore, nor allow our government to be run so ineffectually.  The war, tax-cut and high spending policies of the last ten years have hurt this country’s finances greatly, and we haven’t woken up to the economic reality yet.  Our leaders won’t tell us how bad it is because they are all too much like Congressman Murtha, or Senator Shelby, and because the cold hard truth of it all does not get them re-elected.

But a toast to John Murtha the man, may he rest in peace.

New York Times obituary.

(AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Are children murdering more these days?  Yesterday I was wandering around Google News and happened across several headlines that jumped out at me:

11-year old Set Mom on Fire in Dispute Over Cigarettes, Police say – Samantha Watts and her 15-year-old boyfriend allegedly set her mother on fire after an argument over whether Samantha stole her mom’s cigarettes (ugh).

14-year old Admits Killing Parents in Dispute Over Chores – John Caudle, 14, didn’t want to do his chores, so he took his parent’s .22 caliber pistol, shot his mother, hid in the laundry room, and then shot his stepdad.  Then he spent the night playing video games.

Police: Son Asked Friend to Kill Parents – According to police, Timothy Chester had gotten into an argument with his parents. He left the home, but later returned with his friend, Victor Veliz, and they allegedly shot and stabbed them.  According to police, Timothy Chester said the plan was to not only kill his parents, but his sister and brother-in-law as well as Veliz’s family.

Teen who killed adopted mom with hammer sentenced to 16 years – “People always ask me why I did it,” said Heather D’Aoust, who at 14 hit her mother in the head almost 15 times with a claw hammer,  “Honestly, I don’t even know myself.”

Edlington child torturers: we attacked because we were bored – Two young brothers, ages 10 and 11, inflicted numerous injuries on two children during a sadistic 90-minute orgy of violence, torture and sexual abuse that began because they were bored and there was “nothing to do”, a court heard today.

Here is how people died this week:

1. Comic-Con Founder Shel Dorf Dies at Age 76 (ABC News)
2. Man dies of self-inflicted gunshot wound at Taylorsville gun range (Salt Lake Tribune)
3. Kentucky Man Dies While Scuba Diving in Florida (Fox News)
4. Lake County teen dies of complications from swine flu (Chicago Daily Herald)
5. Marine in own car dies after hitting Humvee (San Diego Tribune)
6. Marine from San Antonio dies in Afghanistan (Houston Chronicle)
7. Westmoreland County man dies after mobile home falls on him (Tribune Review)
8. Pioneering Loch Ness Monster researcher dies (STV.TV)
9. Lou Filippo dies at 83; boxing hall of famer played ring judge in ‘Rocky II’ (LA Times)
10. Man dies after pet dog bite (London Telegraph)

“Some of his erstwhile political enemies filled the airwaves Tuesday eulogizing him, a practice that might have baffled the irascible giant slayer: He was not above excoriating the recently deceased, including Orlando Letelier, the Chilean dissident assassinated in 1976, or the journalist I.F. Stone, who died in 1989.“  Ron Kampeas, JTA

That his many critics would now eulogize Robert Novak, who died of brain cancer this morning, is not surprising as people will do anything to be on television, particularly journalists.  But this blog is fundamentally against all the weepy revisionism and “yeah, buts” for Novak, one of the worst people there was in modern journalism.  Good riddance.

Is that harsh?  Unfortunately, so is Novak’s legacy.  He was a template of what was to become of American punditry and cable news, and his influence was fundamentally destructive to the United States.  You can read his big media defenders–who see his only failing as the Valerie Plame affair–to read his bright side.

The comments below focus on how corrosive the man was to the national discourse.

What is the legacy to which he most contributed?  A cable news industry that does little else but incite the worst in Americans’ passions, which has helped to condition a portion of the American electorate to willfully believe lies in obfuscated debates over our most pressing issues.

Novak paved and spit-shined the way for the Keith Olbermanns, Sean Hannitys and Glenn Becks, and their imitators. Here is a collection of words around the web about Bob Novak:

David Zurawick, Baltimore Sun:

Novak titled his 2007 memoir, “The Prince of Darkness,” and he was indeed a very dark force in cable TV news contributing mightily to the toxic culture of confrontation, belligerence and polarization that so defines cable TV and American political discourse today. There is no way to be nice about his impact on cable TV during its formative years – and his contributions for the worse to the tone and style of what passes for political conversation today.

Phil Bronstein, San Francisco Chronicle:

There was Robert Novak, screaming at someone — probably Michael Kinsley on “Crossfire” — like an enraged health care town hall meeting participant: “Death squads in El Salvador is a liberal MYTH!”

I haven’t been accused of being a liberal all that much, and, as Christiane Amanpour said so wonderfully in Iraq, “Wolf, I can only tell you what I can see,” but I can tell you reliably that Salvadoran death squads were as real as Scooter Libby and Evans and Novak.

At the time, I wanted to reach through the TV screen and strangle the guy into sensibility. Or have the two tragic dead men delivered, without benefit of makeup, on his front lawn.

It wasn’t a liberal-conservative thing. Death squads were a fact.

Whatever else Bob Novak did well, even superbly in his professional life — a great deal, I don’t doubt — at that moment he did a huge disservice to the truth and to the memory of thousands of people who died violently, painfully and without justification in El Salvador.

Jon Friedman, Marketwatch:

In Novak’s last prominent chapter, he was best known for reporting leaked information in 2003, identifying Valerie Plame as a CIA operative.

He hid behind his journalistic reputation when he allowed himself to be used by the likes of Karl Rove, Scooter Libby and other members of George W. Bush’s inner circle. Novak was content to watch as the nation had to experience an agonizing investigation to explore what had happened.

To me, that underlines everything I didn’t like about Bob Novak and his particular style of journalism.

Alex Pareene, Gawker:

Novak’s role, which he understood and embraced, was to act as a proxy for political attacks by conservative politicians. You leaked your smear to Novak, and he reported that “neutral” Republican sources said something nasty about McGovern or Joe Wilson or even Fred Thompson. He was also generally considered a mean old man and his brain tumor was diagnosed after he was hospitalized after he hit a pedestrian in his black corvette and kept driving, claiming to be unaware that he’d hit anything.

Matthew Cooper, The Atlantic:

[T]here was a lot in Novak not to like, a mean gruff manner visible to anyone on TV, a stiletto pen that seemed more about destroying than illuminating. I disagreed with his politics but it wasn’t his politics which were infuriating. It was his arch, cutting style that made him one of the journalists I wanted to avoid becoming. It was his behavior in the CIA leak case that made me think still less of him.

The United States is better off without journalists and pundits that practice their craft the way this destructive, mean man did.  He may have  had talents as a journalist, but they certainly won’t be the legacy of the man with the fakest teeth in cable news.

“[T]hey organized a kind of death squad to execute rivals who disputed with them the drug trafficking business [and Wallace Souza] would eliminate his rival and use the killing as a news story for his program.” – Police intelligence chief Thomaz Vasconcelos, Associated Press, 8/11/09

A murder victim Wallace Souza filmed for his Brazilian crime show before the police arrived.

Wallace Souza, the host of the Canal Livre crime show in Brazil’s lawless Amazonas region, consistently delivered graphic footage of murder victims well before the police arrived on the scene.  Souza, a state legislator, is now being probed for ordering the killings to help boost the ratings of his show, and he faces separate charges of drug trafficking and involvement with a gang.

Souza became a media personality after his career as a police officer ended in disgrace. He started Canal Livre in the 1990s on a station in Manaus, the capital of Brazil’s Amazonas state.

“The order to execute always came from the legislator and his son, who then alerted the TV crews to get to the scene before the police,” state police intelligence chief Thomaz Vasconcelos alleged to The Associated Press.  Vasconcelos further stated that the killings “appear to have been committed to get rid of his rivals and increase the audience of the TV show.”

Souza’s son, Rafael, has been jailed on charges of homicide, drug trafficking and illegal gun possession.  The elder Souza denies all charges.

Click here to read the latest developments.

Just a few days ago brother Malachy McCourt said Frank did not have long.  The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Angela’s Ashes died today from metastatic melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, according to Susan Moldow of McCourt’s publisher, Scribner.

I met Frank and took this shot of him at a tribute to Benedict Kiely (who had recently died) at Housing Works Bookstore Café in March 2007.   He was 76 and in good spirits.  I was very shy at the time, almost embarrassed, to take photographs of people I respected so much.  My camera was a cheap, 2.3 megapixel Fuji my sister Cheryl bought me for my birthday; it certainly didn’t look serious.  I had no confidence.  When Frank asked me why I was taking the shots, I told him it was for Wikipedia and he brightened.  We talked about the site, and he asked why we didn’t just use PR photographs.  I explained to him that we could only use work whose copyright was Creative Commons.

“David,” he said, “you mean to tell me you give all your photography away?  And don’t make a penny?  My mother might say you were a fool!”   He laughed to show he meant the comment good-natured.

I explained to him that I wasn’t a professional, but that the photography gives me a substantive excuse to go out and do things like meet him.

“Mr. McCourt,” I said, and he quickly corrected me to use Frank as I continued, “my life is far richer for moments like this, with you, than the $10 I would chase to have it published, which would only cheapen the experience.  This camera has given me an interesting life, but only because I’ve shared it.”

Colum McCann, Christy Kelly, Christopher Cahill and Frank McCourt by David Shankbone, March 2007

He looked at me for a moment, and then asked if I was going with the other writers, including Christopher Cahill and Colum McCann, on a bar crawl after the reading to celebrate the Irish poet Kiely (everyone was invited).  I was staying away from drinking at the time and told him my stomach didn’t feel right, so I would miss it.  Then he clasped my shoulder, and said:

“Too bad, it would be interesting to hear more.  Society has become so possessive.  People keep things that have no value unless they are shared.  That’s very respectable that you do what you do.”

Then I took a couple of shots, and he continued to mingle.  It was moments like that which fueled my energy to eventually photograph over 500 of the biggest names found on Wikipedia, and my confidence climbed.  Thank you, Frank.  Later that year I would photograph Malachy McCourt in his Manhattan apartment, where we got into heavy philosophical discussions that have never left me.   The McCourt family had a good impact on me at a time when it mattered, and I am thankful to them.

The portrait of Frank above, like all my photography, is licensed Creative Commons and available for reproduction.  Click on it to download a higher resolution version.

Here is the New York Times obituary.

Yesterday I walked over to one of my favorite mini-restaurants, Snack Dragon, to buy a couple of carne asada tacos.  The topic of Michael Jackson’s and Farrah Fawcett’s deaths were already on the lips of the two ladies eating rice and beans.  We all started talking about it.  Suddenly, one of the women said, “And then Liza Minnelli, too!  I can’t believe it!”

“Liza Minnelli?!” I replied, mouth agape.

“Yeah – you didn’t know about that?  They just announced she died today, too.”

“Holy shit,” I said, “the drag queen mascara is going to be running in the streets of Chelsea this gay pride.”  We all talked about June 25th, and the deaths of so many amazing people on one day.

I had earlier broken the news about Jackson to my mother.  She was floored.  When I returned home with tacos in hand, I called her immediately and said, “And did you hear about Liza Minnelli?!”

Of course, Liza Minnelli is alive and well.  It was only after I told my mother–”This is starting to feel like a terrorist attack!“–that I looked for information on Google about Minnelli and found nothing.

It turns out that the celebrity death rumor mill was in full swing yesterday, as pranksters preyed on the shock and raw grief of unassuming people.  The New York Daily News reported that Harrison Ford and Jeff Goldblum death rumors were circulating:

The rumors of Goldblum and Ford’s untimely deaths turned out to be false, and were in fact well-known Internet pranks that once made similar claims of Tom Hanks and Tom Cruise.

“Reports that Jeff Goldblum has passed away are completely untrue,” said the actor’s publicist in a statement Thursday night. “He is fine and in Los Angeles.”

According to Snopes.com, these stories are automatically generated with fake scenarios via prank websites. Users simply plug in any name – which in this case were Goldblum and Ford.

For Goldblum, it was suggested he fell to his death while filming a movie in New Zealand. Ford supposedly disappeared while on a boat in the French Riviera.

This kind of prank first appeared online in 2006, and targeted Hanks. Cruise was similarly reported “dead” in 2008.

It’s amazing how the Internet is reshaping our society in such a way that things like pulling pranks in the wake of tragic deaths are now completely common.  It’s true: nothing is sacred anymore.  We all better learn to live in that kind of world.

Michael Jackson Wikipedia article

This image on Wikipedia was dedicated to editor Realist2, who has worked hard at creating high quality articles on the entire Jackson family. Click on the image to see where it is used on Wikipedia.

The Michael Jackson Wikipedia article is one of the better biography articles on Wikipedia, and it is directly-related to the efforts of editor Realist2. On June 25th, 1.4 million people hit it.

I have no doubt that Michael Jackson knew that this editor was keeping the article as close to the core Wikipedia policy of “Neutral Point of View” as possible.  Realist2 is an example of the amazing work that happens on that site.  He took an interest in popular culture and turned himself into a scribe of popular culture.  That’s pretty cool.

Realist has worked on the articles about all of the Jacksons, and they owe him a debt of gratitude.  We all do.   I dedicated the image of a Michael Jackson impersonator at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival celebration of the 25th anniversary of Thriller in Realist’s honor.  Also pictured are cast members of the television program Step It Up and Dance!, who put on a show at the festival with the original choreographer of the Thriller video.

With its dedication, Realist2 was inducted into the Wikimedia Hall of the Greats, along with other people who have greatly improved the quality and scope of Wikipedia and its sister projects.