Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Marc Dion: My Grandmother Knew Lizzie Borden (Creators Syndicate)
If you've never heard an ex-sharecropper talk about giving one bale of every two to the "boss," or a pre-union coal miner talk about 14-hour, no-overtime shifts under the mountain, you can blab about the "free market" all you want and not know what the hell you're saying.
David Sirota: Pennies at the Register, Dollars In the Paycheck (Creators Syndicate)
It is much the same for Wal-Mart. According to a study by researchers at the City University of New York and the University of California, raising the wages of all of the retailers' employees to at least $12 an hour would cost the average customer just 46 cents more during their typical trip to the store. Over an entire year, that's just $12.50.
Mark Shields: Misconceptions on Abortion (Creators Syndicate)
How to reconcile these apparently contradictory positions? My suggestion: On the thorny, divisive issue of abortion, Americans are simultaneously pro-choice and anti-abortion.
Lenore Skenazy: That Time of Year Again (Creators Syndicate)
Anyway, all I want to do is rant about the way companies make us think today's kids are the least resilient, most ready-to-keel-over kids ever to stagger across a playground.
Lucy Mangan: net trolls and the currency of hate (Guardian)
What distresses and frightens me most, though, is how little it takes to trigger these avalanches of hatred. It seems to show that the gains we thought we'd made, the lives we think we lead, are built on a veneer of civilisation so thin that none of us - man, woman or child - can depend on it to bear any stress at all.
Ask a grown-up: in years to come, what will historians call our era? (Guardian)
Historian Dan Snow answers seven-year-old Ella's question.
Matt Damon: where did it all go right for the leftwing activist, devoted dad and intelligent action star? (Guardian)
Decca Aitkenhead meets Hollywood's Mr Nice to talk politics, parenting and his latest film Elysium.
Stacy Conradt: The Story Behind Saving Mr. Banks, Starring Tom Hanks as Walt Disney (Mental Floss)
When Walt Disney's daughters were young, they loved a little book about a magical (and slightly sadistic) nanny named Mary Poppins. He promised them that he would someday make a movie out of the series, and 20 years later, he delivered. But it was no easy task, which is what the upcoming film Saving Mr. Banks is about.
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Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Another May/Gray - June/Gloom kinda day.
Tomorrow's page may be late, thanks to this notice that was hung on the front door last week.
Kinda depends on whether So Cal Ed means today, Monday, 5 August, or tomorrow, Tuesday, 6 August.
Regardless, one day's gonna be late. Just not sure which one.
Peter Capaldi Named
'Doctor Who'
Peter Capaldi is going from spin doctor to "Doctor Who."
The BBC announced Sunday that the Scottish actor, best known as venom-spitting political fixer Malcolm Tucker in the sitcom "The Thick of It" and its film spin-off, "In the Loop," is the new star of "Doctor Who," the famed science fiction series soon to celebrate its 50th anniversary.
The identity of the new Doctor had been the subject of frantic speculation, and the revelation was made with fanfare befitting one of Britain's best-known shows - during a live suppertime television broadcast.
Capaldi is the 12th actor to play the Doctor, a galaxy-hopping Time Lord who travels in the Tardis, a time machine shaped like an old-fashioned British police telephone booth. At age 55, he's also the oldest since the first Doctor, William Hartnell.
Capaldi has a long list of movie, television and stage credits, from the 1983 film "Local Hero," to zombie thriller "World War Z," to the BBC's recent newsroom drama "The Hour." He is currently playing Cardinal Richelieu in BBC drama "The Musketeers." He's also an Oscar winner - he directed "Franz Kafka's It's a Wonderful Life," which won the Academy Award for best short film in 1995.
'Doctor Who'
ABC To Develop TV Shows
'Star Wars'
ABC television executives are talking with George Lucas' Lucasfilm studio about making TV shows based on characters developed by the studio that created the "Star Wars" franchise, according to the president of Disney's ABC Entertainment Group.
"We've started conversations with them," Paul Lee told a gathering of TV critics meeting Sunday in Beverly Hills. "I have an inkling in my mind, but they have a lot on their plate."
Disney bought Lucasfilm in October for $4.1 billion and has said it intends to make a seventh "Star Wars" film in 2015 and a new one every two or three years thereafter.
This autumn, ABC will begin airing "Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D," it's first network program based on Marvel comic book characters since Disney paid $4.2 billion to buy the comic book and film studio in 2009.
'Star Wars'
Abandoned Nests with Eggshells
Rare Dinosaur Find
Huge meat-eating dinosaurs that stalked a vast floodplain some 150 million years ago in what is now Portugal left behind traces of their progeny: eggshells.
Some of the eggshells, which belonged to two Jurassic-Era theropods, or a group of carnivorous dinosaurs
Because they are so delicate, dinosaur eggs are a relatively rare find. Paleontologists unearthed some of the most primitive Torovosaurus embryos ever found earlier this year, and there have been occasional dinosaur nursery finds, including a clutch of hundreds of dinosaur egg fragments.
Ribeiro and his colleagues found the eggshell fragments at two separate sites, both of which were part of the Lourinhă Formation, a geological formation known for its rich Jurassic dinosaur nest sites. During that time period, the area was a floodplain that cycled through dry seasons and monsoon rains.
Rare Dinosaur Find
Former Redneck Olympics Under Way
Maine
Despite being forced to changes its name, the event formerly known as the Redneck Olympic Games continued its tradition Saturday of holding unorthodox competitions like lawn mower races, mud runs and tire burnouts.
A full day of events was on tap during the Maine Redneck "Blank" Games. Organizer Harold Brooks changed the name under pressure from the International Olympics Committee, but noted that "everyone knows what the 'blank' stands for."
The idea behind the event, Brooks said, was to have what amounts to a great big outdoor picnic and pig roast for hardworking people who've earned the right to blow off some steam.
Being a redneck, he said, isn't about living in a trailer, or getting drunk.
"A redneck is someone who works hard. They say their neck is red because they work outside. A redneck can make fun of himself and have a good time," said Brooks, who's a general contractor.
Maine
DEA Continues Crackdown
Medical Marijuana
Last week, federal agents with the Drug Enforcement Administration raided a series of medical marijuana dispensaries in Washington state. Marijuana and employee cell phones were apparently the intended targets of the raid.
Surprisingly, for an agency that makes money from drug-money seizures, marijuana money was largely ignored. At one dispensary in Olympia, agents left $1,000 dollars in cash untouched, as well as the store's computers.
That the DEA should be launching any prolonged and costly investigations into state-sanctioned marijuana operations should be cause for outrage and alarm. That said, these most recent raids in Washington may not turn out to be as bad as they appear.
Mason Tvert, director of communications for the Marijuana Policy Project, told Takepart last May that the fed were targeting dispensaries and growing operations whose product was being sold across state lines.
Medical Marijuana
Time Warner Spat
CBS
CBS and Time Warner Cable can't work out their differences, so they want viewers to help settle the fight.
Three million Time Warner Cable customers in New York, Los Angeles, Dallas and other cities remained without access to CBS for a third day on Sunday, after the cable provider dropped the network in a spat over fees.
The two sides couldn't agree on the status of their talks either, with CBS saying on Sunday that no negotiations were taking place. A Time Warner representative, Maureen Huff, maintained that, "Talks continue."
Time Warner is trying to hold down costs as it fights to keep subscribers. In the most recent quarter, it lost 191,000 cable TV subscribers, ending with 11.7 million at the end of June.
Both companies nevertheless posted healthy quarterly earnings this week. Time Warner Cable Inc. grew its net income 6 percent to $481 million, as revenue rose 3 percent to $5.55 billion. CBS Corp. grew net income 11 percent to $472 million on stronger revenue.
CBS
Gets Trial Date
Sally Struthers
Actress Sally Struthers has a trial set for September on a criminal charge of driving under the influence in Maine.
Court records say the 66-year-old Struthers must be present for the trial. The York Weekly newspaper reports that jury selection is scheduled for Sept. 23 in York County Superior Court in Alfred.
Police arrested Struthers on Sept. 12, 2012, in the resort town of Ogunquit, where she was performing at the Ogunquit Playhouse in the musical "9 to 5." She has pleaded not guilty.
Sally Struthers
New Unmanned Drone Program
Bigfoot
It seems there's almost nothing a drone can't do these days: deliver pizza, spot giant "rivers of blood" in Texas, open up new frontiers of hunting in Colorado and maybe even solve the long-standing mystery of Bigfoot.
Idaho State University's Jeffrey Meldrum tells the Mountain Express he believes drones will provide an edge in hunting down the elusive Sasquatch. Assuming, of course, that the creature even exists.
Meldrum and the University of Idaho are collaborating with William Barnes on a venture called "The Falcon Project," which will use a camera attached to a 45-foot-long drone to look for evidence of Sasquatch.
There has been renewed interest in the alleged existence of the creature since a video surfaced last week that claims to show a bipedal ape roaming through the Canadian wilderness. The video has been clicked on more than 300,000 times since it was posted to YouTube on July 24. Of course, the video has generated its share of skeptics, who point out that the grainy footage is shot from a considerable distance and is far from conclusive.
Bigfoot
To Be Sold, Again
Newsweek
Newsweek is being sold for the second time in just a few years.
The owner of the International Business Times said it's buying what is now an online-only brand for an undisclosed sum from IAC/InterActiveCorp. The publication, which once had a fierce rivalry with Time magazine, ran its last print edition at the end of 2012.
Newsweek had been struggling for years when The Washington Post Co. sold it for $1 in 2010 to stereo equipment magnate Sidney Harman, who died the following year. Before he died, Harman placed Newsweek into a joint venture with IAC's The Daily Beast website, a move intended to help widen its online audience.
IBT Media said the purchase doesn't include The Daily Beast. It said the deal will close in the coming days, with IAC operating Newsweek during a transition period of up to 60 days.
Newsweek
Pennsylvania Sideburns Contest
Perry Burns
A sideburns contest honoring a U.S. Navy commodore known for his impressive facial hair is marking the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Lake Erie.
The Erie-Times News reports that the winner of the Perry Burns contest will be named this week. Judges will decide who sports the sideburns most like those of Oliver Hazard Perry, who defeated British forces in September 1813. He is considered a War of 1812 hero.
Historical portraits suggest that Perry wore long mutton-chop sideburns that extended toward his lips.
Erie residents say the town had a beard-growing contest marking the battle's 150th anniversary in 1963.
Perry Burns
Weekend Box Office
'2 Guns'
The action-packed "2 Guns" is No. 1 at the weekend box office.
The Universal film starring Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg pulled the trigger to capture the top spot with $27.4 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.
Fox's Japan-set superhero flick "The Wolverine" starring Hugh Jackman as the clawed warrior scratched out the No. 2 spot with $21.7 million in its second weekend, bringing the Marvel icon's total domestic haul to $95 million. "Wolverine" earned another $38.5 million in 67 international territories.
"The Smurfs 2" launched in the No. 3 position with $18.2 million. While Sony's kid-friendly computer-generated sequel based on the blue-hued cartoon franchise debuted below expectations in North America, "Smurfs 2" earned a bright $52.5 million in 43 international markets.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Where available, latest international numbers are also included. Final domestic figures will be released on Monday.
1. "2 Guns,"$27.4 million.
2. "The Wolverine," $21.7 million ($38.5 million international).
3. "The Smurfs 2," $18.2 million ($52.5 million international).
4. "The Conjuring," $13.7 million ($11.6 million international).
5. "Despicable Me 2," $10.4 million ($13.8 million international).
6. "Grown Ups 2," $8.1 million ($2.8 million international).
7. "Turbo," $6.4 million ($6.9 million international).
8. "Red 2," $5.6 million ($9.3 million international).
9. "The Heat," $4.7 million ($6.9 million international).
10. "Pacific Rim," $4.6 million ($53 million international).
'2 Guns'
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