Mark Morford: The top 25 "Top 10? lists of 2014, topped (SF Gate)
Who loves Top 10/"Best of" lists? You do! Click rates prove it; from the NYT to Rodeo World to Cat Shaver Monthly, bedraggled media outlets of every pedigree gorge on this filler content this time of year. Doesn't matter if the topic is weed trimmers, ice balls or…
Henry Rollins: Slaying Dragons in Freedom Square (LA Weekly)
We somehow got on the topic of Vladimir Putin, a man I strongly dislike. My chat pal got slightly defensive, standing up for Putin, which I have never heard anyone besides George W. Bush do before. He told me Putin was good for Russia because he was better than Yeltsin, who let the people run amok! The logic ran something like this: "If you don't have someone strong in charge, all Russians will do is drink vodka and not work."
Robert Evans, Meredith, Mary, Sarah, Luke, Ted: 5 Ways Life as a Prostitute is Nothing Like You Expect (Cracked)
As a society, we have a weird relationship with prostitutes. Clearly there's a massive demand for what they do (and who knows how many more would participate if it were legal), yet we tend to treat the sex workers themselves like vermin. That's odd, considering that if there is ever a victim in the whole thing, it's the prostitutes themselves -- and that's only if they're doing it against their will. Otherwise, who are we angry at?
The German Shepherd (German: Deutscher Schäferhund) is a breed of large-sized working dog that originated in Germany. The breed's officially recognized name is German Shepherd Dog in the English language, sometimes abbreviated as "GSD", and was also formerly known as the Alsatian and Alsatian Wolf Dog in Britain. The German Shepherd is a relatively new breed of dog, with their origin dating to 1899. As part of the Herding Group, German Shepherds are working dogs developed originally for herding sheep. Since that time, however, because of their strength, intelligence, trainability and obedience, German Shepherds around the world are often the preferred breed for many types of work, including search-and-rescue, police and military roles and even acting. The German Shepherd is the second-most popular breed of dog in the United States and fourth-most popular in the United Kingdom.
Source
Alan J was first, and correct, with:
German Shepherd
Randall wrote:
Accordion to the AKC (American Kennel Club) it's the
German Shepherd
whoops... wrong slide, ahem, German Shepherd:
MY personal favorite has always been the Basset Hound
...but it's weird, check it out...
doesn't this basset hound
...look an awful lot like Fox News anchor, Brit Hume?
and speaking of Fox News "personalities" and what they look like, check it out...
Charles Krauthammer
and the Muppet, Sam the Eagle
or how about Steve Doocy
and Beavis?
and of course, Papa Bear himself, Bill O'Reilly
...is constantly being compared to:
Jim from CA, retired to ID, said:
Yorkshire Terriers are the 2nd most popular dog breed
Charlie replied:
Some inconsistency inn the lists, but it seems to be the German Shepherd.
DJ Useo said:
Well played, M. I am truly stumped.
I could guess, but I like all breeds of dogs.
I had a poodle dog when I was about 6 years old.
As a teenager I had a German shorthaired pointer.
Both were great companions.
MAM wrote:
German Shepherd
Deborah replied:
I believe it's the German Shepherd Dog…or the Golden Retriever. Just a WAG; too lazy to look it up.
Last day of R&R - tomorrow it's back to business. I already miss the lazy mornings.
Lois Of Oregon, took the day off.
Dale of Diamond Springs, Norcali took the day off.
As you all know the untimely passing of Terry was unexpected, even by
him. We all knew he had cancer but we all thought he had some years
left. So some of us who have worked closely with him over the years are
scrambling around trying to figure out what to do. My job, among other
things, is to establish communications with the Bartcop community and
provide email lists and groups for those who might put something
together. Those who want to play an active roll in something coming from
this, or if you are one of Bart's pillars, should send an email to
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Bart's final wish was to pay off the house mortgage for Mrs. Bart who is
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Anyone wanting to make a donation can click on this the yellow donate
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But - I need you all to help keep this going. This note
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CBS opens the night with a FRESH'2 Broke Girls', followed by a FRESH'Mike & Molly', then a FRESH'Scorpion', followed by a FRESH'NCIS: The Expendable One'.
Scheduled on a FRESHDave are Kathy Griffin, David Oyelowo, and Lera Lynn.
Scheduled on a FRESHLate, Late Show, with this week's middle-aged white guy guest host, Drew Carey, are Eric Idle, Tessa Thompson, and Lachlan Patterson.
NBC begins the night with a FRESH'Fluffing T-rump', followed by a FRESH'State Of Affairs'.
Scheduled on a FRESHJimmy Fallon are Bradley Cooper, Harry Connick Jr., and Big K.R.I.T. featuring Raphael Saadiq.
Scheduled on a FRESHSeth Meyers are Anna Kendrick, Timothy Spall, and Martha Stewart.
On a RERUNCarson 'The Scab' Daly (from 12/9/14) are Rivers Cuomo, Weezer, and Shawn Christensen.
ABC fills the night with a FRESH'The Bachelor'.
Scheduled on a FRESHJimmy Kimmel are Anne Hathaway, Chris Soules, and Heart.
The CW offers a RERUN'The Originals', followed by a RERUN'Jane The Virgin'.
Faux has a FRESH'Gotham', followed by a FRESH'Sleepy Hollow'.
MY recycles an old 'L&O: SVU', followed by another old 'L&O: SVU'.
AMC offers the movie 'Gladiator', followed by 'Breaking Bad', another 'Breaking Bad', and still another 'Breaking Bad'.
BBC -
[6:00AM] BBC World News
[7:00AM] BBC World News
[8:00AM] Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season 7 - Ep 11 - Parallels
[9:00AM] Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season 7 - Ep 12 - The Pegasus
[10:00AM] Doctor Who: The Christmas Invasion
[11:00AM] Doctor Who - Season 2 - Ep 1 - New Earth
[12:00PM] Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares US - Season 1 - Ep 10 - Dillon's
[1:00PM] Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares US - Season 4 - Ep 2 - Classic American
[2:00PM] MasterChef UK: The Professionals - Season 4 - Episode 1
[2:40PM] MasterChef UK: The Professionals - Season 4 - Episode 2
[4:00PM] Top Gear - Season 19 - Episode 1
[5:00PM] Top Gear - Season 19 - Episode 2
[6:00PM] Top Gear - Season 19 - Episode 3
[7:00PM] Top Gear - Season 19 - Episode 4
[8:00PM] Top Gear - Season 19 - Episode 5
[9:00PM] Top Gear: India Special
[11:00PM] Top Gear - Season 19 - Episode 1
[12:00AM] Top Gear - Season 19 - Episode 2
[1:00AM] Top Gear - Season 19 - Episode 3
[2:00AM] Top Gear - Season 19 - Episode 4
[3:00AM] Top Gear - Season 19 - Episode 5
[4:00AM] Top Gear: India Special - Season 17 (ALL TIMES EST)
Bravo has 'Vanderpump Rules', another 'Vanderpump Rules', followed by a FRESHVanderpump Rules', and 'Girlfriends' Guide To Divorce'.
Comedy Central has 'South Park', 'Tosh.0', 'Key & Peele', another 'Key & Peele', 'South Park', another 'South Park', still another 'South Park', and yet another 'South Park'.
Scheduled on a FRESHJon Stewart is Steven Brill.
Scheduled on a FRESH@Midnight are Ron Funches, Nikki Glaser, and Jon Daly.
FX has the movie '2012', then nothing but 'Mike & Molly'.
IFC -
[6:00AM] THE BIRTHDAY BOYS-ALL YOUR FAVORITES ARE BACK
[6:30AM] STIR OF ECHOES: THE HOMECOMING
[8:30AM] SWAMP THING
[10:30AM] THE FOG
[12:30PM] STIR OF ECHOES: THE HOMECOMING
[2:30PM] SWAMP THING
[4:30PM] THE FOG
[6:30PM] VALKYRIE
[9:00PM] THE MATRIX
[12:00AM] THE MATRIX RELOADED
[3:00AM] THE MATRIX RELOADED (ALL TIMES EST)
Sundance -
[6:00AM] The Approval Matrix-America's Hall Monitors
[6:30AM] Five Fingers
[8:15AM] Nowhere Boy
[10:15AM] The Red Violin
[1:00PM] Repo Man
[3:00PM] Law & Order-Aria
[4:00PM] Law & Order-Asylum
[5:00PM] Law & Order-God Bless the Child
[6:00PM] Law & Order-Untitled
[7:00PM] Law & Order-Narcosis
[8:00PM] Law & Order-High & Low
[9:00PM] Law & Order-Stiff
[10:00PM] Law & Order-Vaya con Dios
[11:00PM] Law & Order-Endurance
[12:00AM] Law & Order-Turnstile Justice
[1:00AM] Law & Order-Dissonance
[2:00AM] Law & Order-Standoff
[3:00AM] We Don't Live Here Anymore
[5:15AM] The Approval Matrix-Who Died and Made You Cool? (ALL TIMES EST)
SyFy has the movie 'Stargate', followed by the movie 'Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country'.
TBS:
Scheduled on a FRESHConan are Courteney Cox and Donald Faison.
Actor Patrick Stewart records photographers with his mobile phone while posing at the 26th Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival Awards Gala in Palm Springs, California, January 3, 2015.
Photo by Danny Moloshok
A three-pound weight hanging in a frame shifts forward gently in an electrical field generated by a V-shaped motor array - and its creator claims this is the first step towards a real, working Star Trek Warp Drive.
David Pares of the University of Nebraska at Omaha claims that his low-power array (it uses just 100 watts, and is housed in his garage) "compresses the fabric of space."
If true, it would be a gigantic leap forward for propulsion systems - and potentially the first step on Man's journey to other star systems.
Others claim that the system (where the weight is electronically isolated inside a Faraday cage) is not compressing space at all, but air.
Pares is confident that what he has found is genuinely new - with the weight drawn towards the motor by a force that has not been harnessed before.
US actress Carol Channing arrives for the Palm Springs International Film Festival Gala in Palm Springs, California, USA, 03 January 2015.
Photo by Paul Buck
"International affairs are increasingly determined by large and powerful organisations rather than governments."
Verdict: Probably true. Though it is sometimes hard to distinguish between non-state actors and state actors. Just look at the possibly-not-North Korean hackers who took down Sony or even ISIL.
"Iraq and Iran [will] develop long range missiles in the near future. Iran…could be testing such weapons by as early as the coming year, and cruise missiles by 2004."
A widely shared story is claiming that Jan. 4 is "Zero Gravity Day," a date when people on Earth will be able to experience weightlessness while on the planet. The bogus post now appearing on Facebook and other websites at first blush looks legitimate. It shows a Twitter message sent at 3:27 p.m. on Dec. 14, 2014, seemingly posted by NASA (@NASA) and accompanied by the agency's official familiar red, white and blue insignia. The 135-character message reads: "Jan. 4th, 9:47 a.m. PST, the long-awaited planetary alignment will cause a gravitational fluctuation that will leave you weightless for a short period of time #beready"
A Daily Buzz Live article then embellished that message, claiming, among other things, that a "rare planetary alignment" on Sunday (Jan. 4) will decrease gravity for five minutes, causing partial weightlessness.
The article attributed the details regarding this supposed alignment to the famous British astronomer Patrick Moore who supposedly stated,"At exactly 9:47 PST AM on Jan. 4, Pluto will pass directly behind Jupiter, in relation to Earth. This rare alignment will mean that the combined gravitational force of the two planets would exert a stronger tidal pull, temporarily counteracting the Earth's own gravity and making people virtually weightless."
According to the article, people on Earth could experience this "Jovian-Plutonian Gravitational Effect" by "jumping in the air at the precise moment the alignment occurred." If they did so, Moore supposedly said, they would experience a "strange floating sensation."
But this story is completely false. In fact, it is a repurposing of an old April Fools' Day joke told by Moore in 1976.
Director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (L), of the film "Birdman," holds his Director of the Year Award as he poses with presenter Michael Keaton, backstage at the 26th Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival Awards Gala in Palm Springs, California, January 3, 2015.
Photo by Danny Moloshok
Another airline passenger lost his cool while talking to customer service - only this time it was a monk.
Brother Noah of the Monastery of Christ in the Desert in New Mexico says he failed to stay peaceful while dealing with United Airlines on the phone, the New York Times reported.
In late November, Brother Noah's friend at the monastery, Brother John Baptist, flew to Malawi in southeastern Africa to see his sick mother on a $2,489 round-trip ticket, paid for by the monastery.
After arriving, Brother John Baptist realized he needed to extend his trip several weeks, so Brother Noah called on Dec. 10 to reschedule the return flight.
But United said the original purchase was fraudulent even though his friend already used half of the ticket.
TV host and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-Harold Hill) says he is leaving his Fox News talk show as he considers whether to seek the Republican nomination for president, a decision he expects to reach in the spring.
Huckabee said Saturday night's edition of "Huckabee" would be his last as he ponders his political future. The weekly show, which is taped with a live audience and features political commentary as well as interviews with guests and musical entertainment, has been on the air for more than six years.
"There's been a great deal of speculation as to whether I would run for president. And if I were willing to absolutely rule that out, I could keep doing this show. But I can't make such a declaration," he said at the end of Saturday's program.
"Now, I'm not going to make a decision about running until late in the spring of 2015, but the continued chatter has put Fox News into a position that just isn't fair to them - nor is it possible for me to openly determine political and financial support to justify a race. The honorable thing to do at this point is to end my tenure here at Fox. Now, as much as I have loved doing the show, I cannot bring myself to rule out another presidential run."
Shirley MacLaine, left, and Richard Linklater, winner of the Sonny Bono visionary award, pose in the press room at the 26th annual Palm Springs International Film Festival Awards Gala on Saturday, Jan. 3, 2015, in Palm Springs, Calif.
Photo by Jordan Strauss
As anyone who has grown up around snow knows, part of the fun of sledding is the risk of soaring off a jump or careening around a tree.
But faced with the potential bill from sledding injuries, some cities have opted to close hills rather than risk large liability claims.
No one tracks how many cities have banned or limited sledding, but the list grows every year. One of the latest is in Dubuque, Iowa, where the City Council is moving ahead with a plan to ban sledding in all but two of its 50 parks.
A study by Columbus, Ohio-based Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital found that between 1997 and 2007, more than 20,000 children each year were treated at emergency rooms for sledding-related injuries.
US actress Suzanne Somers arrives for the Palm Springs International Film Festival Gala in Palm Springs, California USA, 03 January 2015.
Photo by Paul Buck
Scientists are trying to figure out what's behind the deaths of seabirds that have been found by the hundreds along the Pacific Coast since October.
Mass die-offs of the small, white-bellied gray birds known as Cassin's aucklets have been reported from British Columbia to San Luis Obispo, California.
It's normal for some seabirds to die during harsh winter conditions, especially during big storms, but the scale of the current die-off is unusual.
The birds appear to be starving to death, so experts don't believe a toxin is the culprit, said Julia Burco, a wildlife veterinarian for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.
People visit ice sculptures illuminated by coloured lights during a trial operation ahead of the 31st Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival in the northern city of Harbin, Heilongjiang province, January 4, 2015. The winter festival will be officially opened on January 5, 2015.
Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon
The old Danish windmill, rebuilt piece by piece decades ago, is the pride of tiny Elk Horn. Now, residents on the western Iowa prairie are struggling to pay for repairs to get the structure's blades turning again.
Lisa Riggs, who's been the windmill manager for 38 years, noticed last spring that something was wrong with the 168-year-old windmill, dismantled in Denmark and reassembled stateside in 1975.
"After all these years, I could tell it didn't sound right," Riggs said. An inspection determined the region's hot summers and frigid winters had caused some of the mechanics that attach to the giant sails to shift. The blades were then halted.
The 60-foot-tall windmill is beloved in this town of 650 people, in part because of the tourism dollars it brings in. Elk Horn is about halfway between Des Moines and Omaha, Nebraska, about a seven-mile drive from Interstate 80. Thousands come for the windmill and nearby Museum of Danish America, and hundreds from Denmark also visit each year, drawn by the town's heritage, which has been featured in two recent television documentaries broadcast overseas.
Despite its popularity, it's tough for a little town to raise the $25,000 to $100,000 needed to repair the windmill, Riggs said.
An Indian Hindu Holy man carries a glass as he walks out of his tent to perform a ritual ahead of the annual month long Hindu religious fair "Magh Mela", in Allahabad, India, Sunday, Jan. 4, 2015. Hundreds of thousands of devout Hindus camp and take a bath at the confluence during the astronomically auspicious period of over 45 days that begins on Jan. 5, hoping to rid themselves of their sins and attain prosperity.
Photo by Rajesh Kumar Singh
Hollywood kicked off the New Year on a positive note, with three films vying closely for the weekend box-office title that nevertheless remained with "The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies" for the third straight week.
Peter Jackson's Middle-earth finale took in $21.9 million for Warner Bros. in North American theaters, according to studio estimates Sunday, narrowly edging out the Disney musical "Into the Woods" ($19.1 million) and Angelina Jolie's World War II tale "Unbroken" ($18.4 million) from Universal.
The first weekend of 2015 gave Hollywood the chance to begin turning the page on a rough 2014 in which box-office revenue slid 5 percent and attendance dropped to its lowest level in nearly 20 years. With a closely contested weekend at the multiplexes, overall business was strong, up 5.5 percent from the same weekend last year, according to box-office firm Rentrak.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Rentrak. Where available, the latest international numbers are also included. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
1. "The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies," $21.9 million ($52.5 million international).
2. "Into the Woods $19.1 million ($1 million international).
3. "Unbroken," $18.4 million ($2.3 million international).
4. "The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death," $15.1 million ($3.5 million international).
5. "Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb," $14.5 million ($26 million international).
6. "Annie," $11.4 million ($4.2 million international).
7. "The Imitation Game," $8.1 million ($6.5 million international).
8. "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1," $7.7 million ($5.3 million international).
9. "The Gambler," $6.3 million.
10. "Big Hero 6," $4.8 million ($20.2 million international).
A co-founder of Mercury Records and an innovator in the digital music industry has died. Irwin Steinberg was 94.
A Chicago native, Steinberg graduated from the University of Chicago and served in the Air Corps before beginning his career in the music business.
After starting up Mercury Records and serving at its helm for several years, he became chairman and CEO of Polygram Records, where he remained for more than 30 years.
He later taught courses on the music business at Columbia College of the Arts in Chicago and was a consultant to numerous digital music enterprises, including MusicMaker.
He is survived by his wife, Dominique Moyse, three children, four grandchildren and two sisters.
A great tit picks up sunflower seeds from a plastic bottle come bird feeder in the Mecsek Mountain near Pecs, 196 kms south of Budapest, Hungary, 04 January 2015.
Photo by Tamas Soki
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wrote:
took the day off.
has returned to semi-retired status.
