Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Jill Lepore: The New Economy of Letters (Chronicle of Higher Education)
Much of the best intellectual work is being done by journalists, not scholars, says Jill Lepore. Why? Journalists write for money...
Laura Helmuth: Fourteen Oddball Reasons You're Not Dead Yet (Slate)
A selection of underappreciated people, innovations, and ideas that save lives.
Paul Krugman: What Defunding Means (New York Times)
Yes: Republicans are willing to push the economy and the financial system to the edge of disaster in order to deny people like Ms. Stonebraker [health] coverage.
Paul Krugman: Toxiv Inequality (New York Times)
A couple of days ago the Times published a fascinating portrait of a society being poisoned by extreme inequality. The society in question is, in principle, highly meritocratic. In practice, inherited wealth and connections matter enormously; those not born into the upper tier are, and know themselves to be, at a huge disadvantage.
Mark Morford: 21 awesome features missing from the new iPhone (SF Gate)
5. Auto-tune Disabler. So fans of roughly 92 percent of pop music today can hear that their idols cannot actually sing a goddamn note.
Matthew Yglesias: MacDonald's Tries to Improve on Perfection (Slate)
McDonald's had a great run during the early recovery years as fast food served as an "affordable luxury" for cash-strapped families. In the most recent quarter, however, it reported anemic 0.2 percent same store sales growth. Now they're trying to shake things up with, among other things, a new set of steak-and-eggs breakfast options.
Emily Oster: I Wrote That It's OK to Drink While Pregnant. Everyone Freaked Out. Here's Why I'm Right (Slate)
When I was pregnant, I wondered, as many women do: Can I have a drink? It is well-known that drinking to excess during pregnancy is dangerous, and perhaps less well known but still true, that even one or two episodes of binge drinking can be harmful. But what about an occasional glass of wine with dinner?
Cody Martin and Sever R.: 6 Hilarious Video Game Glitches You Have to See to Believe (Cracked)
When a military computer makes an error, it can be catastrophic. When your Internet browser makes an error, it's fucking annoying. But when a video game makes an error ... well, that's a completely different situation. Because let's face it, the hilarious results can be even better than the game the developers were trying to create.
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Class Of 2013
Kennedy Center Honors
Acclaimed actress Shirley MacLaine and four musicians spanning rock, jazz and opera - Billy Joel, Carlos Santana, Herbie Hancock and Martina Arroyo - will receive this year's Kennedy Center Honors, considered the nation's highest honor for those who influence American culture through the arts.
The honorees were announced Thursday. In December, President Barack Obama will host the recipients at the White House, and Secretary of State John Kerry will host a dinner for them at the State Department. Top entertainers will salute the honorees in a gala performance Dec. 8 to be broadcast Dec. 29 on CBS.
In an interview, Santana said he was very grateful and happy to be in the company of luminaries and to receive an award he remembers watching almost every year with his family. The 66-year-old musician who was born in a small, remote town in Mexico and immigrated with his family to San Francisco said he set out to bridge cultures and music styles.
As a Mexican immigrant, Santana is unique among those who have received the cultural prize. Last year, the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts complained the Kennedy Center had long excluded Latinos. Of the more than 180 past honorees, only two have been Hispanic, the group said.
The criticism led to a revised selection process this year, including the solicitation of nominations from the public, and a new committee of artists and officials helped narrow the potential honorees.
Kennedy Center Honors
Replacing Roger Ebert At Chicago Sun-Times
Richard Roeper
The Chicago Sun-Times says it will replace Roger Ebert with the late famed movie critic's former colleague Richard Roeper.
The newspaper announced Thursday it has officially named Roeper its movie columnist, making him the centerpiece of its movie coverage.
Ebert died in April at age 70, after a long battle with cancer. Roeper appeared alongside the Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic for eight years on the television show "Ebert and Roeper."
Roeper will write movie criticism for the newspaper and host two weekly online video shows, one on Wednesdays and one on Fridays. Roeper started at the Chicago Sun-Times as a reporter in 1987.
Richard Roeper
"Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them"
J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling is to make her screenwriting debut by penning a series of spin-off films set in the magical world of the British boy wizard, she announced on Thursday, putting her in line for another huge payday.
The first film will be called "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" and will be based on a textbook of the same name used by Harry and his classmates at their school Hogwarts, Rowling said on her Facebook page.
Set in New York and featuring magical zoologist Newt Scamander -- the author of Harry's textbook -- it will be set 70 years before the events of the core Potter novels.
Rowling added: "Although it will be set in the worldwide community of witches and wizards where I was so happy for 17 years, 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them' is neither a prequel nor a sequel to the Harry Potter series, but an extension of the wizarding world.
J.K. Rowling
Acid Attack Victim Returning To Moscow
Bolshoi
The artistic director of Russia's Bolshoi Ballet is returning to Moscow from Germany following eight months and 22 operations on his eyes and face after an acid attack that nearly blinded him, the theatre's spokeswoman said.
Sergei Filin will fly in on Saturday and take part in the troupe's reunion after holidays on Tuesday, the spokeswoman said. She could not say what role he might play in the troupe in the future.
"The troupe hopes very much that Sergei will recover and come back," Katerina Novikova said. "To what extent he will be able to take part in the life of the troupe, that will become clear in the nearest future."
Novikova said in June Filin could not see out of one eye at all and vision in the second one was severely damaged. She had no fresh details on his health on Thursday.
Bolshoi
Nightly Newscast Eliminated
Shepard Smith
Fox News Channel is eliminating one of Shepard Smith's two daily newscasts and putting him in charge of a news team designed to quickly break in to other Fox shows when something big is happening.
Smith, the network's top news anchor, signed a new multi-year contract, the network said Thursday. He will keep his 3 p.m. Eastern newscast while the 7 p.m. show is eliminated.
Fox News Chairman and CEO Roger Ailes described Smith's new role as a quarterback able to call an audible when news is happening and get it on the air quickly. Except for Smith's show and Bret Baier's Washington report, Fox's evening schedule is driven by opinionated, personality-driven programming.
Fox is building a new studio, calling it the "Fox News Deck," for Smith to operate. The changes are likely to take place in October.
Shepard Smith
Clear Channel Deal
Warner Music
Radio station giant Clear Channel has signed a deal with Warner Music Group Corp. that will for the first time give a major recording company and its artists a cut of revenue generated from traditional radio station airplay.
The deal is similar to one Clear Channel cut with Taylor Swift and her Big Machine Label Group last year, and bypasses the regulatory environment in the U.S., where traditional radio stations aren't required to pay performers royalties for airplay.
It has long been assumed performers benefit from the radio exposure in the form of sales. But CD sales have been declining, making radio royalties more important.
Since the first deal with Big Machine, Clear Channel, the nation's largest radio group with 850 stations, has wrapped up similar arrangements with more than a dozen other independent labels and artists from Fleetwood Mac to Glassnote Records, the home of Mumford & Sons.
In exchange for a slice of traditional radio revenue, Clear Channel has in previous deals negotiated lower royalty rates for play on its digital radio platform, iHeartRadio, to help promote its growth.
Warner Music
Closes Probe
Bulgaria
The defector from communist Bulgaria was jabbed in the thigh with a poisoned umbrella tip in one of the most sensational assassinations of the Cold War.
Thirty-five years later, no one has been convicted of Georgi Markov's murder. Further dimming hopes the killing will ever be officially solved, Bulgaria's chief prosecutor on Thursday announced his office has closed its probe, saying the statute of limitations had been reached and it was leaving the case to British authorities.
The decision drew outrage from critics who say post-communist authorities have dragged their feet on evidence the KGB and Bulgarian secret police were involved.
In September 1978, Markov was waiting at a London bus stop when he was jabbed. The journalist and harsh critic of his country's communist regime in reports for the BBC and Radio Free Europe died four days later.
British government scientists discovered the umbrella had been used to inject a pinhead-sized pellet of the poison ricin into Markov's leg. The fatal pellet is one of the artifacts in a macabre crime museum - closed to the public - inside Scotland Yard headquarters, alongside letters from Jack the Ripper and other grim mementoes.
Bulgaria
Joining 'Today'
Carson Daly
NBC is seeking to reboot the "Today" show by adding Carson Daly, unveiling a new studio set that resembles a "hipster New York City apartment" and a sharper focus gleaned from studies of what viewers and lapsed viewers say they want.
The new look will debut next Monday, and NBC executives offered a studio tour Thursday. But the real work is in the content, and new NBC News President Deborah Turness - just five weeks into her job - has made a "Today" reboot a top priority.
Daly will be stationed in the studio's new "Orange Room," where he will provide continual updates on how the show's stories are trending online and what kind of feedback viewers are offering through social media.
The set's new anchor desk will be on a revolving platform that lets "Today" personalities look out over fans peering in through the street-side window. Al Roker has a new 82-inch touch-screen weather display to play with, there's a new orange couch and all manner of high-def screens and energy-friendly lights.
Carson Daly
Former Vegas Home Selling For $70M
Wayne Newton
The lavish estate that was home to "King of Las Vegas" Wayne Newton is on the market for $70 million.
It's an eyebrow-raising price tag, but the owners say it's a property fit for royalty. Indeed, they say they have already fielded inquiries from the Saudi Arabian noble family.
With creditors at his door, Newtown sold the property in 2010 for $19.5 million to CSD LLC, headed by investors Lacy and Dorothy Harber. He had lived there since 1968.
The 40-acre "Casa de Shenandoah" property several miles southeast of the Las Vegas Strip was listed by Sotheby's on Monday.
In flusher days, the "Danke Schoen" crooner's property featured flamingos, South African penguins and Arabian horses. Newtown outfitted it with gold-trimmed doors, serene pools and plush carpeting.
Wayne Newton
Early Works On Sale
Andy Warhol
More than 40 works by Andy Warhol went on display in Hong Kong Thursday for a sale aimed at introducing Chinese collectors to the American pop artist known for his Mao portraits.
The selling exhibition organised by Sotheby's gallery arm features earlier lesser well-known works by Warhol before he found fame with his colourful images of the former Chinese leader and Campbell's soup cans.
The works, primarily on paper, are valued at between US$15,000 and US$1 million, with "Ten One Dollar Bills" being the most expensive piece.
Other pieces from the artist's travels in Asia during the 1950s include a ballpoint pen sketch of a Hong Kong street scene, views of Bangkok, a drawing of a gold leaf shoe and a folding screen with colourful butterflies painted on it.
Andy Warhol
Reaches Milestone
'The Fantasticks'
The opening night of the musical "The Fantasticks" wasn't so fantastic.
The reviews were decidedly mixed, with the New York Herald Tribune critic only liking Act 2. The New York Times grudgingly enjoyed just Act 1 and its critic, Brooks Atkinson, sniffed that the show was "the sort of thing that loses magic the longer it endures."
Tom Jones, who wrote the book and lyrics as well as acted in it, was crushed. "What I thought was it was the end of the world," he says. At the opening-night party, the press agent called in to read the reviews and the mood grew "ghastly."
Jones spent the rest of the night drinking too much and wandering Central Park in despair and throwing up. "One thing I learned that night was never, ever eat Mexican food at an opening-night party," he recalls.
This Sunday, that little show - with a cast of eight, two musicians, a cardboard moon and guy who sprinkles confetti and makes us believe it's snow - will celebrate a staggering milestone: 20,000 performances, a number so silly that it looks like a typo. The magic has clearly endured.
'The Fantasticks'
In Memory
Ray Dolby
Ray Dolby, an American inventor and audio pioneer who founded Dolby Laboratories, has died at the age of 80.
The company said Thursday that Dolby died in his home at San Francisco. He had been living with Alzheimer's disease for several years and was diagnosed with acute leukemia this summer.
Dolby founded his namesake company in 1965 and grew it into an industry leader in audio technology. His work in noise reduction and surround sound led to the creation of a number of technologies that are still used in music, movies and entertainment today.
Dolby held 50 U.S. patents and won a number of notable awards for his life's work, including several Emmys, two Oscars and a Grammy.
He was awarded the National Medal of Technology from President Clinton and was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in the U.S. and the Royal Academy of Engineers in the UK, among many more honours. In 2012, the theatre that serves as home to the Academy Awards was renamed the Dolby TheatreSM and the Ray Dolby Ballroom was named in his honour.
"Ray really managed to have a dream job," said Dagmar Dolby, his wife of 47 years. "Because he could do exactly what he wanted to do, whichever way he wanted to do it, and in the process, did a lot of good for many music and film lovers. And in the end, built a very successful company."
Dolby was born in Portland, Ore., and his family eventually moved to the San Francisco Peninsula. It was there that he started his professional work at Ampex Corp. working on videotape recording systems while he was still a student.
After graduating from Stanford University, he left Ampex to study at Cambridge University. Following his time as a United Nations adviser in India, he returned to England and founded Dolby in London. In 1976 he moved to San Francisco where the company established its headquarters.
He is survived by his wife, Dagmar, his sons, Tom and David, their spouses, Andrew and Natasha, and four grandchildren.
Dolby and his wife were active in philanthropy and supported numerous causes and organizations. The Ray and Dagmar Dolby Regeneration Medicine Building at the University of San Francisco's Stem Cell Center and the Brain Health Center at California Pacific Medical Center were opened with their support.
Ray Dolby
In Memory
Marshall Berman
Marshall Berman, an author, philosopher and educator whose humanist writings on economics, art and culture were shaped by his early and lasting immersion in the works of Karl Marx, has died. He was 72.
Friend and fellow author Todd Gitlin says Berman died Wednesday of a heart attack.
Berman was on the editorial board of the leftist magazine Dissent and was a contributor to The New York Times, The Nation and many other publications. His best known book was "All That is Solid Melts Into Air," a history of modernism in which he passionately critiqued everything from Goethe's "Faust" to Jones Beach.
A native and longtime resident of New York City, he was a professor of political science at the City College of New York.
Marshall Berman
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