Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Jill Filipovic: In Maryville, Anonymous must beware the risk of vigilantism (Guardian)
The Missouri case echoes Steubenville, where Anonymous helped bring rapists to justice, but we cannot be judge and jury.
Lucy Mangan: to the barricades, comrades. We'll fight them in the aisles at Waitrose (Guardian)
The sacred pact between the middle classes and government has been ruptured. And that can only spell trouble for our policy makers.
Oliver Burkeman: "This column will change your life: the truth about inefficiency" (Guardian)
'You don't procrastinate, or miss appointments, or fail to communicate with your spouse because you're an idiot who doesn't realise there's a better way. You do it because there's a hidden benefit you're getting.'
Marc Dion: Did the Republicans Forget the Rules? (Creators Syndicate)
Did you forget the rules, Fleepublicans? It's schoolyard simple. Don't pick a fight with someone unless you're sure you can win. If you do pick a fight with someone you think you can beat and realize you were wrong, then stand and take your whipping. Go down snarling and biting, like a fighting dog.
Terry Savage: Another Lesson, or Two, from Warren Buffet (Creators Syndicate)
Warren Buffett just made another $10 billion from the investments he made during the financial crisis of five years ago. That headline in the Wall Street Journal, and their analysis of Buffett's investment returns, likely caused a groan from most ordinary investors who perhaps dumped the stock funds in their 401(k) plans, fearing further disaster.
Scott Burns: Is It Time to Ignore the Rich? (AssetBuilder)
The top one percent of earners pulled in a whopping $1.5 trillion in 2010. They paid $355 billion in federal income taxes. That's an average tax rate of 23.4 percent.
Marilynn Preston: The Mediterranean Lifestyle: Jump in Wherever you are" (Creators Syndicate)
Here the stores are small, and choices are limited. Less is more. But in a short while I'll be back in the land of More is Never Enough. How will I keep it simple? How will I stay connected to what counts? That's my cue to stop, breathe, put on my running shoes and go find some goats, remembering my Epicurus: "Not what we have, but what we enjoy, constitutes our abundance."
Heather Long: Let's talk about failure (Guardian)
The most refreshing thing I've read recently is someone's 'anti-resume', their account of the bumps in their career.
Top 10 action movies (Guardian)
Yippee-ki-yay! It's action-movie time! From Die Hard to Deliverance, here's what the Guardian and Observer's critics think are the 10 best ever made.
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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 seasonal.
Hopes People Remember
Steve Buscemi
Dressed in dark colours and a black baseball cap, in person the 55-year-old Steve Buscemi cuts basically the same slight, rumpled figure we met a quarter-century ago in Jim Jarmusch's Mystery Train. He might be a roadie coming off a world tour. His famously exophthalmic eyes are a washed-out blue and he's tired, back home in Brooklyn after staying at his house in upstate New York. He likes to go there and hang out and do nothing, he says, maybe take a walk or do a bit of yardwork: he spent the weekend raking leaves. Self-effacing, friendly, polite, it's clear he's here under low-grade sufferance; interviews, he says in his quick, metallic, slightly strangulated way, "aren't my favourite thing to do".
He is a patient but mildly reluctant witness to his own life, but when the conversation turns to politics - with the Senate still days away from reaching a deal on the government shutdown - the reticence dissolves.
"I think the shutdown is ridiculous. I think the Republicans in Congress are holding the country hostage. I think it's criminal. I don't see why they're allowed to do it." Buscemi on politics livens up. "The Tea Party faction of the Republican party are holding the Republican party hostage. They've hijacked it. I don't understand their philosophy. I think that in their own hearts and minds there's a reason why they feel they're doing good. But I certainly don't agree with it. And I hope the shutdown effects change. I hope people remember this in the next cycle of elections."
If he expresses himself like that rare bird, the blue-collar liberal, it's no performance. He grew up five miles east of Park Slope, where we meet at a diner near his house, in a part he describes as "pretty far out, pretty deep into Brooklyn". There were six of them in a one-bedroom apartment: his parents slept on a sofa in the living room. His dad worked for the sanitation department and his mother gave up work as a waitress to look after their four boys. Steve is the second eldest: his older brother Jon is a cable guy for Time Warner, Michael is an actor and Kenneth, the youngest, works for the transit authority on the tracks. Buscemi says he was "always interested in acting", but "didn't feel that connected to the drama department. I felt more comfortable around jocks."
For the rest - Steve Buscemi
Winners Honored
Environmental Media Awards
TV's "House of Cards" and the movie "Promised Land" are being recognized for their eco-friendly messages.
The Netflix show and the Focus Features film were honoured by the Environmental Media Association Saturday night at its 23rd annual awards presentation. The organization aims to channel the power of celebrity and media to promote sustainable behaviours and ecological awareness.
The HBO documentary "Gasland Part II" and reality show "VICE" also won awards, along with the ABC comedy "Last Man Standing" and Nickelodeon's "Nick News with Linda Ellerbee."
Matt Damon accepted the Ongoing Commitment award and Hayden Panetierre received the Futures award at the private event, held at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, Calif.
Environmental Media Awards
House of Flowers Honoree
Diahann Carroll
At 78-years-old Diahann Carroll keeps a sense of humour.
"I don't think I realize what the passage of time really means until people talk about things that I did in the '50s and I wonder 'Who the hell are they talking about?,'" the actress, singer and Golden Globe-winner said while being honoured at a House of Flowers dinner Saturday evening.
Beverly Johnson, Angela Bassett, Regina King and Anika Noni Rose were in attendance to applaud Carroll and fellow honoree Cheryl Boone Isaacs, the first African American president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
"I certainly don't feel like an icon," said Carroll in an interview before dinner. "I've had long stretches of unemployment. This is not an easy game." Later in her acceptance speech she said, "I really appreciate knowing that you've heard my name and remember it. I don't even know if I would have been allowed to drive down this street back in the '50s. Being here has given me new passion."
Diahann Carroll
Warsaw Summit
Nobel Peace Laureates
Polish revolutionary leader Lech Walesa welcomed Nobel Peace Prize winners to Warsaw on Sunday for a three-day summit, 30 years after winning the prize himself.
"I hope that together, by using the huge potential of the Nobel Peace Prize, we can discuss the problems of the world and move to some collective action," the former president said.
Frederik de Klerk, the former South African president who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 along with Nelson Mandela in recognition of their work for the peaceful termination of the apartheid regime, said he hoped the conference would discuss moves to alleviate poverty and put an end to conflict.
The Dalai Lama, Irish peace campaigner Betty Williams and Iranian lawyer Shirin Ebadi are all expected to attend.
The American actress Sharon Stone will also pick up a Peace Summit Award for her work in the fight against AIDS.
Nobel Peace Laureates
Shining Example Suing for Disability
Boy Scouts
A Boy Scout leader who came under fire for pushing over an ancient boulder in a national park filed a suit last month claiming he was suffering permanent "disability" and "impairment" from an auto accident four years ago.
Glenn Taylor initially faced scrutiny after a video of him pushing over a Jurassic era rock formation in the Goblin Valley State Park in Utah went viral.
However Taylor is now facing additional scrutiny after it was revealed that he filed a suit claiming he has he endured "great pain and suffering, disability, impairment, loss of life" stemming from a 2009 car accident, according to ABC News affiliate KTVX-TV in Salt Lake City, Utah.
According to KTVX, Taylor said in the documents he has incurred an estimated $5,000 in medical related expenses.
Boy Scouts
Celebrates 40 Years
Sydney Opera House
The Sydney Opera House, world heritage-listed as "one of the indisputable masterpieces of human creativity", celebrated its 40th birthday Sunday with a flotilla of lifesavers, Aboriginal dancers and a gigantic cupcake.
Huge crowds packed the steps for a distinctively Australian performance on the glittering harbourfront, where three generations of Danish architect Jorn Utzon's family were the guests of honour.
A crew of surf lifesavers wearing their famous yellow-and-red caps and costumes arrived at the Opera House's Man O' War steps on one of Sydney's distinctive ferries, flanked by six of the association's dinghies and two tugboats.
They were met and led up the red-carpeted steps by Aboriginal dancers where a traditional smoking ceremony was held to spiritually cleanse the site accompanied by an indigenous dance ritual and didgeridoo.
Sydney Opera House
Europe's First Nuclear Plant Since Fukushima
Britain
Britain is set to sign a deal with France's EDF for the first nuclear plant to start construction in Europe since Japan's Fukushima disaster raised safety concerns worldwide, at a cost estimated at around $23 billion.
Under the deal, to be announced on Monday, the French state-controlled utility will lead a consortium, including a Chinese group, to construct two European Pressurized Water Reactors (EPRs) designed by France's Areva.
The project is a boost for the global nuclear industry, which has seen projects canceled since the 2011 Fukushima disaster.
Germany decided to phase out nuclear power, Italy scrapped a planned nuclear program and France has pledged to cut atomic power to 50 percent of its electricity mix from 75 percent today.
Britain
Rare Bourbon Theft
Kentucky
The theft of dozens of cases of rare, high-quality bourbon worth more than $25,000 from a local distillery appears to be an inside job, a Kentucky sheriff investigating the case, said on Saturday.
Police in Frankfort, Kentucky, who learned on Tuesday of the robbery, said it was unlikely someone outside the Buffalo Trace Distillery operation could take 65 cases totaling 195 bottles of 20-year-old Pappy Van Winkle bourbon.
The theft came as the U.S. bourbon industry and high-end makers of the distilled spirit in Kentucky and Tennessee have seen a rise in the whiskey's popularity in recent years.
The bourbon sells for $130 a bottle, "if you can get it" before the popular commodity sells out.
In addition to the prized bourbon, the thieves' thirst for the big score was rounded out with 27 bottles of 13-year-old Pappy Van Winkle Rye, according to the sheriff. A bottle of the rye whiskey retails for about $25.
Kentucky
Clock Ticks For Lemurs
Madagascar
Immortalised in the hit cartoon "Madagascar", real-life lemurs face extinction within 20 years short of drastic action to tackle the poverty driving islanders to poach the primates and destroy their habitat.
Each year that passes hastens the decline of the saucer-eyed primates, as the Indian Ocean island's people struggle for survival amid a drawn-out political crisis.
"As long as there is poverty, we can't expect to prevent the lemurs' extinction," said primatologist Jonah Ratsimbazafy from the University of Antananarivo.
Madagascar is home to 105 different species of lemur, accounting for 20 percent of the world's species of primate, in an area spanning less than one percent of the global habitat of all primates.
But crop burnings and wild fires destroy 200,000 hectares of Madagascar's forest a year. And the 13 percent of its natural forest that remains may disappear within a generation, according to Ratsimbazafy.
Madagascar
Scientists Tap Cow Burps
Argentina
Argentine scientists have found a way to transform the gas created by the bovine digestive system into fuel, an innovation that could curb greenhouse gases that cause global warming.
Using a system of valves and pumps, the experimental technique developed by Argentina's National Institute of Agricultural Technology (INTA) channels the digestive gases from bovine stomach cavities through a tube and into a tank.
The gases - which otherwise are commonly known as burps, or "eruptos" in Spanish - are then processed to separate methane from other gases such as carbon dioxide.
"Once you get it compressed, it's the same as having natural gas," said Guillermo Berra, head of INTA's animal physiology group.
Each head of cattle emits between 250 and 300 liters of pure methane a day, enough energy to keep a refrigerator running for 24 hours.
Argentina
Weekend Box Office
'Gravity'
Star power and Oscar aspirations are reigning at the box office, where the space adventure "Gravity" and the Somali pirate docudrama "Captain Phillips" are holding off all comers.
With $31 million over the weekend according to studio estimates Sunday, "Gravity" topped the box office for the third straight week, cementing its status as the juggernaut of the fall movie-going season. It also took in another $33.5 million overseas.
"Captain Phillips," starring Tom Hanks and directed by Paul Greengrass, also held in second place, taking in $17.3 million in its second week. The Sony film slid only 33 percent from its debut last weekend of $25.7 million.
The two movies and their veteran stars were able to keep three new wide releases at bay: the horror remake "Carrie" ($17 million for Sony and MGM), the Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger action flick "Escape Plan" ($9.8 million for Lionsgate), and the WikiLeaks drama "The Fifth Estate."
The last utterly flopped - a fate predicted by its subject, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange - taking in a paltry $1.7 million for Disney. It's the worst debut this year for a film in such wide release (1,769 theaters).
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Rentrak. Where available, latest international numbers for Friday through Sunday are also included. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
1. "Gravity," $30 million ($33.5 million international).
2. "Captain Phillips," $17.3 million ($9.1 million international).
3. "Carrie," $17 million.
4. "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs," $10.1 million ($5.1 million international).
5. "Escape Plan," $9.8 million ($9.4 million international).
6. "Prisoners," $2.1 million ($7.3 million international).
7. "Enough Said," $1.8 million.
8. "Fifth Estate," $1.7 million.
9. "Runner Runner," $1.6 million ($4.2 million international).
10. "Insidious Chapter 2," $1.5 million ($6.4 million international).
'Gravity'
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