Recommended Reading
from Bruce
David Wong: 5 Ways Modern Men Are Trained to Hate Women (Cracked)
Throughout your day, you're going to come across women getting screwed over in varying degrees. On one end of the spectrum, there's the passive-aggressive way that announcers insist on calling female olympic athletes "girls," even though "Atomic Wonder Women" still feels like it falls short.
Henry Rollins: Totally Gay (LA Weekly)
Many of the competitors are taking a shot at Putin's homophobic stance with rainbow uniforms; Google remade its logo with rainbow colors, etc. It's a good gesture, but I bet it doesn't get to Putin at all. All these brightly clothed people soon will be gone, and Russia will resume its dull, dismal, backward ways - kinda like Mississippi.
Edward McCelland: Silver Medal Face (Slate)
The saddest-looking second-place finishers in Olympic history.
Ted Rall: Good Reasons to Hate Big Tech (Creators Syndicate)
We love computers and other electronics, but - not unlike an addict's opinion of his dealer - we hate the companies that sell them to us. Now our contempt for Silicon Valley is expanding to include tech workers.
Phil Plait: "ALERT: How to Fix a Major Security Flaw in Apple Mobile Devices" (Slate)
On Friday night (Feb. 21, 2014), Apple announced a major security flaw in their software for mobile devices. And I do mean major-it left users open to a "man in the middle attack". That's pretty bad. If you used an insecure WiFi connection (at a coffeehouse, hotel, or airport, etc.), this flaw could allow someone to interject themselves electronically into transactions you make on your iPhone or iPad, allowing them to access a lot of your information you thought was secure (like, say, credit card numbers).
Froma Harrop: Stop Insulting Minimum Wage Workers (Creators Syndicate)
Many insist that raising the minimum hurts consumers through higher prices. They may not be wrong, but consider the class implications of that argument. If the CEO were paid a few million less, consumers would benefit. No one ever says that.
Scott Burns: The Stealth Tax on Retiree Income (AssetBuilder)
The taxation of Social Security benefits is entirely a tax on middle class people who happen to be retirees.
Geordie Williamson: "Martin Amis: 'The press is more vicious than the populace'" (Guardian)
The author on the insanities of American gun laws, the viciousness of the tabloid press - and how Elizabeth Jane Howard brought him to literary life via Jane Austen.
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is taking care of business.
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Who Do You Think Will Win?
2014 Oscars
The Oscars are this coming Sunday, so now's the time to make your predictions of who will win what.
Send your guesses to Marty, by 11pm (est) , Saturday, 1 March, 2014.
Best Picture
"12 Years a Slave"
"American Hustle"
"Captain Phillips"
"Dallas Buyers Club"
"Gravity"
"Her"
"Nebraska"
"Philomena"
"The Wolf of Wall Street"
Actor
Christian Bale: "American Hustle"
Bruce Dern: "Nebraska"
Leonardo DiCaprio: "The Wolf of Wall Street"
Chiwetel Ejiofor: "12 Years a Slave"
Matthew McConaughey: "Dallas Buyers Club"
Actress
Amy Adams: "American Hustle"
Cate Blanchett: "Blue Jasmine"
Sandra Bullock: "Gravity"
Judi Dench: "Philomena"
Meryl Streep: "August: Osage County"
Supporting Actor
Barkhad Abdi: "Captain Phillips"
Bradley Cooper: "American Hustle"
Michael Fassbender: "12 Years a Slave"
Jonah Hill: "The Wolf of Wall Street"
Jared Leto: "Dallas Buyers Club"
Supporting Actress
Sally Hawkins: "Blue Jasmine"
Jennifer Lawrence: "American Hustle"
Lupita Nyong'o: "12 Years a Slave"
Julia Roberts: "August: Osage County"
June Squibb: "Nebraska"
Directing
David O. Russell: "American Hustle"
Alfonso Cuaron: "Gravity"
Alexander Payne: "Nebraska"
Steve McQueen: "12 Years a Slave"
Martin Scorsese: "The Wolf of Wall Street"
Original Song
Alone Yet Not Alone from "Alone Yet Not Alone" - Bruce Broughton and Dennis Spiegel
Happy from "Despicable Me 2" - Pharrell Williams
Let It Go from "Frozen" - Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez
The Moon Song from "Her" - Karen O and Spike Jonze
Ordinary Love from "Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom" - Paul Hewson, Dave Evans, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen
marty's picks:
Best Picture - American Hustle
Actor - Leonard DiCaprio
Actress - Cate Blanchett
Supporting Actor - Jared Leto
Supporting Actress - Lupita Nyong'o
Director - Alfonso Cuaron
Song - Let It Go (Frozen)
~
Marian's Oscar predictions
Picture - Twelve Years a Slave
Actor - Matthew McConaughey
Actress - Cate Blanchett
Supporting Actor - Jared Leto
Supporting Actress - Jennifer Lawrence
Original Song - "Let it Go" from Frozen (my grandkids fav)
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and warmer than seasonal.
Replacing Brooke Burke-Charvet On 'DWTS'
Erin Andrews
FOX Sports reporter Erin Andrews is expected to replace Brooke Burke-Charvet as co-host of ABC's "Dancing With the Stars," an individual with knowledge of the situation told TheWrap.
She'd come aboard as Tom Bergeron's co-host of the ABC dance competition series when its 18th season begins on March 17. ABC declined to comment Sunday.
Andrews will continue in her role at FOX Sports. "We are very excited for Erin and this opportunity for her but her FOX Sports responsibilities remain the top priority," a network representative told TheWrap.
She will be replacing Burke-Charvet, who was informed she had been fired on Friday after seven seasons as co-host.
Erin Andrews
Parting Ways With CNN
Piers Morgan
There have been times when the CNN host Piers Morgan didn't seem to like America very much - and American audiences have been more than willing to return the favor. Three years after taking over for Larry King, Mr. Morgan has seen the ratings for "Piers Morgan Live" hit some new lows, drawing a fraction of viewers compared with competitors at Fox News and MSNBC.
It's been an unhappy collision between a British television personality who refuses to assimilate - the only football he cares about is round and his lectures on guns were rife with contempt - and a CNN audience that is intrinsically provincial. After all, the people who tune into a cable news network are, by their nature, deeply interested in America.
CNN's president, Jeffrey Zucker, has other problems, but none bigger than Mr. Morgan and his plum 9 p.m. time slot. Mr. Morgan said last week that he and Mr. Zucker had been talking about the show's failure to connect and had decided to pull the plug, probably in March.
Crossing an ocean for a replacement for Larry King, who had ratings problems of his own near the end, was probably not a great idea to begin with. For a cable news station like CNN, major stories are like oxygen. When something important or scary happens in America, many of us have an immediate reflex to turn on CNN. When I find Mr. Morgan telling me what it all means, I have a similar reflex to dismiss what he is saying. It is difficult for him to speak credibly on significant American events because, after all, he just got here.
Piers Morgan
Won't Play At Rock HOF Induction
Kiss
Kiss won't rock and roll all night - or at any point during the day, either - when they are inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April, the band said Sunday.
The 40-year-old group is unable to agree on which lineup should perform during the April 10 ceremony in New York City, and has decided not to plug in at all.
The dispute concerns whether original members Ace Frehley and Peter Criss would join Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley in a live performance, or whether the current lineup of Stanley, Simmons, Eric Singer and Tommy Thayer would play instead.
In a message on its website, Kiss said it won't perform with any lineup, calling it "an emotional situation where there is no way to please everyone."
Kiss
Contestants Exhaust Spelling Bee Word List
Missouri
After 19 rounds in a Missouri county's annual spelling bee over the weekend, only two of the 25 contestants who started the competition remained.
Several hours and 47 rounds later, an 11-year-old and her 13-year-old adversary had used up all of the available words, forcing organizers of the Jackson County Spelling Bee to temporarily halt the showdown.
Sophia Hoffman, a fifth-grader at Highland Park Elementary School in the Kansas City suburb of Lee's Summit, and Kush Sharma, a seventh-grader at Frontier School of Innovation in Kansas City, buzzed through the list of words provided by the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Then they ran through a list of about 20 additional words bee officials picked out of their Merriam-Webster's 11th Edition during the lunch break, The Kansas City Star reported.
But bee officials decided not to pull more words from the dictionary because they worried one speller might get a tough word and the other a relatively easy one, which wouldn't be fair.
The contest will resume March 8 at an undetermined library site.
Missouri
Unviewed Best-Picture Nominees
Oscars
It may be one of the best years in recent memory for high-quality Hollywood film, but two-thirds of Americans have yet to see any of the movies nominated for the best picture Oscar, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Sunday.
Among other questions, the poll asked 1,433 Americans whether they had seen any of the nine best-picture nominees, plus two other films competing in other categories. The Academy Awards will be hosted by comedian Ellen DeGeneres on March 2.
Among those who responded to the online survey, Somali piracy thriller "Captain Phillips" was the most-watched film, at 15 percent. But 67 percent said they had yet to see any of the eleven films in the poll.
The outer-space drama "Gravity" was second with 14 percent, while crime caper "American Hustle" and "The Wolf of Wall Street," Martin Scorsese's portrait of 1990s greed and excess, each had been seen by 12 percent of those surveyed. The numbers include those surveyed who may have seen more than one of the nominees.
Oscars
NYC Tax Break
'The Tonight Show'
"The Tonight Show" made its return to New York City with a splashy opening sequence showcasing Grand Central Terminal, the Chrysler Building, Lincoln Center and Jimmy Fallon's glamorous new studio at Rockefeller Center - a fitting tribute to the place that helped foot the bill.
An unconventional 30 percent tax credit aimed at luring "Tonight" away from California after four decades is reportedly saving NBC more than $20 million a year.
The network said that while the show relocated to New York for creative reasons the move wouldn't have been possible without the tax credit.
The tax incentives were inserted into the state budget by Gov. Andrew Cuomo's administration in early 2013 as NBC was debating dropping the show's then-host, Jay Leno, for Fallon and potentially leaving Los Angeles to return to New York, where the show started in 1954.
The language of the 30 percent annual tax credit was remarkably specific: It would only benefit a show that had filmed at least five years in another state before moving to New York (check), spends at least $30 million in production costs (check) and films in front of a studio audience of at least 200 people (check). In other words: "The Tonight Show."
'The Tonight Show'
Ratings Hopes For Fox
Maria Bartiromo
Maria Bartiromo, whose high-profile Wall Street coverage earned her the nickname "Money Honey" during two decades on business channel CNBC, now takes aim at her former employer as host of a new morning show on the rival Fox Business Network.
"Opening Bell with Maria Bartiromo" will air from 9-11 am ET (1400-1600 GMT), replacing "Varney & Co" anchored by Stuart Varney, who moves to the following two-hour period.
Luring Bartiromo away from CNBC was a high-stakes gamble by Fox and Roger Ailes, chairman and CEO of Fox News, to boost the ratings of the six-year-old business channel.
Fox Business increased its ratings and added homes to which it is telecast but still trails CNBC. Over the last year, it averaged 54,000 for its 9 am to 5 pm schedule, according to Nielsen ratings data, compared with the 200,000 that CNBC averages. CNBC is seen in 95 million homes compared with 77 million for Fox Business.
Maria Bartiromo
The Affluent Choice
iPhone
New NPD Group research shows that the higher a US consumer's income, the higher the likelihood that Apple is his or her smartphone brand of choice, despite competition from other premium handsets.
According to the research and analytics firm, Apple's share of the US smartphone market grew to 45 percent over the past year, even though the market as a whole is being driven by demand for low to medium-cost handsets.
When NPD broke the data down to show smartphone ownership by income level, it found that the iPhone had a 33 percent market share among consumers with a $100,000+ income (Samsung represents 18%) and a 24 percent share of the $60,000-$100,000 annual income bracket, compared with Samsung's 20 percent.
However, at the other end of the income table, the roles are reversed, with 35 percent of smartphone owners earning under $30,000 having a Samsung handset (compared with Apple's 20 percent in this segment) and accounting for 27 percent of the market when it comes to those earning between $30,000 and $60,000.
iPhone
Source of Bluestone Rocks Identified
Stonehenge
Scientists have found the exact source of Stonehenge's smaller bluestones, new research suggests.
The stones' rock composition revealed they come from a nearby outcropping, located about 1.8 miles (3 kilometers) away from the site originally proposed as the source of such rocks nearly a century ago. The discovery of the rock's origin, in turn, could help archaeologists one day unlock the mystery of how the stones got to Stonehenge.
The work "locates the exact sources of the stones, which highlight areas where archaeologists can search for evidence of the human working of the stones," said geologist and study co-author Richard Bevins of the National Museum of Wales.
The Wiltshire, England, site harbors evidence of ancient occupation, with traces of pine posts raised about 10,500 years ago. The first megaliths at Stonehenge were erected 5,000 years ago, and long-lost cultures continued to add to the monument for a millennium. The creation consists of massive, 30-ton sarsen stones, as well as smaller bluestones, so named for their hue when wet or cut.
Stonehenge
Top 20
Concert Tours
The Top 20 Concert Tours ranks artists by average box office gross per city and includes the average ticket price for shows in North America. The previous week's ranking is in parentheses. The list is based on data provided to the trade publication Pollstar by concert promoters and venue managers.
1. (1) Beyonce; $1,798,401; $126.05.
2. (2) Justin Timberlake; $1,688,569; $114.36.
3. (3) Pink; $1,420,674; $86.06.
4. (4) Kanye West; $1,060,913; $88.69.
5. (5) Michael Buble; $906,640; $85.41.
6. (6) Drake; $860,486; $74.72.
7. (7) Trans-Siberian Orchestra; $715,752; $54.20.
8. (8) Keith Urban; $580,065; $64.61.
9. (9) Alejandro Fernandez; $515,315; $93.71.
10. (10) Zac Brown Band; $493,124; $63.62.
11. (11) John Mayer; $454,733; $61.84.
12. (12) Selena Gomez; $407,134; $48.47.
13. (13) Macklemore & Ryan Lewis; $352,469; $40.55.
14. (15) Jeff Dunham; $218,164; $47.36.
15. (17) Hillsong United; $203,470; $27.24.
16. (16) Florida Georgia Line; $200,944; $32.74.
17. (19) Paramore; $188,326; $37.43.
18. (New) The Band Perry; $184,654; $46.07.
19. (20) The Fresh Beat Band; $162,420; $40.14.
20. (New) "CMT On Tour"/Hunter Hayes; $155,564; $37.39.
Concert Tours
Weekend Box Office
'The Lego Movie'
Action-packed new releases couldn't stack up to 3-D hit "The Lego Movie," which took the No. 1 slot in its third weekend at the box office.
The Warner Bros. animated film bested Relativity Media's "3 Days to Kill" and Sony's "Pompeii" on their opening weekends.
Relativity Media's crime drama "3 Days to Kill," starring Kevin Costner and Amber Heard, came in second with $12.3 million in its first weekend at the multiplex.
"Pompeii," Sony's boiling gladiator drama starring "Game of Thrones" star Kit Harington, took third place with $10 million. There was a fairly even gender split for the Constantin-financed film, with the audience breaking down as 52 percent male and 48 percent female. The film's slot in the top five was steered mostly by viewers under 30.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Rentrak. Where available, latest international numbers are also included.
1."The Lego Movie," $31.5 million ($23.1 million international).
2."3 Days to Kill," $12.3 million.
3."Pompeii," $10 million ($22.8 million international).
4."RoboCop," $9.4 million ($17.7 million international).
5."The Monuments Men," $8.1 million ($13.6 million international).
6."About Last Night," $7.4 million.
7."Ride Along," $4.7 million.
8."Frozen," $4.4 million ($9 million international).
9."Endless Love," $4.3 million ($1.3 million international).
10."Winter's Tale," $2.1 million ($2.4 million international).
'The Lego Movie'
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