Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: The Renminbi Runaround (nytimes.com)
China is playing games with its foreign-exchange policy at the world's expense.
NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF: Most Valuable Helper (nytimes.com)
Manute Bol was a great basketball player and even greater humanitarian. Here's a chance to remember him by building schools.
Mark Morford: BP welcomes you to the apocalypse (sfgate.com)
Please do not worry. Please do not fret about that one thing you always fret about, or that other thing, or even that third thing that might have something to do with erupting oil, dead pelicans and that sickening feeling in your gut that Something is Very Wrong Indeed.
Prudie: The Daily Bump and Grind (slate.com)
My employer forces us to dance when we do well at work. I'm sick of it!
Julia Keller: "Ray's way: Sci-fi's main man, in his own words" (Chicago Tribune)
But then you hear Ray Bradbury talk about being alive and suddenly you understand: Life is as thrilling, as risky, as wild and as wonderful as a ride on a rocket ship. Don't waste a second of it. And for heaven's sake, don't be jaded and cynical about it. That's like dumping a diamond down a garbage disposal.
Jeffry Bartash: Amazon, Barnes & Noble slash e-reader prices (MarketWatch)
Amazon.com on Monday slashed the price of the Kindle to $189 from $259 just hours after Barnes & Noble cut the cost of its competing electronic book reader.
Keith Phipps: Remember 'Dick Tracy'? (Slate.com)
It had Warren Beatty. Al Pacino. Madonna. Songs by Sondheim.
Jesse Kornbluth: Ruth Draper Invented the Stand-Up Monologue (Just Ask Lily Tomlin) (huffingtonpost.com)
Ruth Draper's plans included the century's most discerning figures: Noel Coward, John Gielgud, Katharine Hepburn. What were they cheering? A woman standing alone.
Legend of the lady in a brown party dress (timesonline.co.uk)
How did Ruth Draper bewitch Henry James and Sir John Gielgud? Hear for yourself, says Valerie Grove.
Bryan Young: 'Futurama' is Back! (huffingtonpost.com)
Just like 'The Twilight Zone' and 'Star Trek,' 'Futurama' is able to use science fiction and the unknown to deliver relevant critiques of society. Take for example the 11th episode of their last season on Fox, "Three Hundred Big Boys"; they were able to quite deftly explore the absurdity of George W. Bush's $300 tax refund.
The Weekly Poll
Summer Sabbatical
I've decided to take a short 'sabbatical' from the Poll thing for some R&R (fishing, easy hiking, campfires... that sort of thing) and spend some time contemplating the errors of my ways, haha... You might see, from time to time, trivia responses and the odd article or picture from me. I have a laptop and an 'air-card' so if I can get a cell signal, I can access the web. Do not despair though (yeah, right!)... I'm like a bad penny. I'll turn up again...
As always, Yer the Best!
BadToTheBoneBob
wrote:
replied:
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Mostly sunny and pleasant.
2011 Jazz Masters Award
Marsalis Family
America's first family of jazz can now claim the nation's highest jazz honor.
The National Endowment for the Arts announced Thursday that the Marsalis family is among its 2011 Jazz Masters Award recipients.
It's the first time in the program's 29-year history that the NEA is presenting a group award. The Marsalis family includes patriarch Ellis, a pianist and educator, and his four sons: trumpeter Wynton, saxophonist Branford, trombonist Delfeayo, and percussionist Jason.
The other 2011 Jazz Masters are flutist Hubert Laws, saxophonist David Liebman, composer and arranger Johnny Mandel, and record producer and author Orrin Keepnews.
Marsalis Family
Japan Court Blocks Protests
'The Cove'
A court Friday ordered protesters to keep away from a theater that plans to show the Oscar-winning documentary "The Cove," about a dolphin hunt in a Japanese village.
The movie shows scenes of the bloody but legal dolphin slaughter filmed using hidden cameras, and portrays local fisherman as rough goons. Nationalist groups say it shouldn't be shown because it is anti-Japanese, distorts the truth and has connections with an anti-whaling group labeled a terrorist organization by the government.
The dispute over the film developed into a debate over free speech after initial screenings were canceled by theaters to avoid noisy protests. After prominent publishers and directors voiced their concern, at least 22 theaters have now agreed to show it.
Yokohama New Theater, a small cinema in a city next to Tokyo which plans to show the film from July 3, has been targeted repeatedly by protesters with bullhorns and signs. There were no protests there Friday after the main group responsible received the court order.
'The Cove'
Invites 135 New Members
AMPAS
Adam Sandler, Bono and James Gandolfini are among 135 people invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Also on the list announced Friday are several Oscar winners from this year, including Mo'Nique, best supporting actress for "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire,'" Christoph Waltz, best supporting actor for "Inglourious Basterds," and Mark Boal, writer and producer of "The Hurt Locker."
The list also includes previous nominees such as Carey Mulligan, Anna Kendrick, Vera Farmiga, and "District 9" writers Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell.
Documentary makers Davis Guggenheim, who won for "An Inconvenient Truth," and Morgan Spurlock also are listed.
AMPAS
Expansion Marks Another Milestone
Cleveland Museum of Art
The Cleveland Museum of Art has given some of its prized treasures more elbow room to show off.
Galleries housing Egyptian, Greek, Roman, early Christian, Byzantine and African art open Saturday. The new space marks another milestone in an eight-year, $350 million expansion and renovation that began in 2005.
The museum's iconic 1916 neoclassical building holds items spanning 5,000 years. The galleries highlighting art from ancient Greece to the Medieval era surround those with Egyptian and African art.
It also has a different look, with some early visitors thinking the collection had changed. While the collection is largely the same, new surroundings give it an unfamiliar feel.
Cleveland Museum of Art
Wall Street Reform Bill Bans
Box Office Trading
Congress has driven a stake through the heart of movie box office futures trading.
An amendment banning the trading of derivatives based on box office results was approved just before 1 a.m. EST on Friday by a House-Senate conference committee for inclusion in the Wall Street reform bill (the Restoring American Financial Stability Act). It came after an entire day and night of discussion on the complex legislation.
Committee chair Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) said during a short discussion that while there had been controversy about movie futures, the House conferees were not going to exercise their option to alter the amendment banning movie futures trading. He said they were agreeing to the amendment as written by Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) for the Senate bill. (Lincoln's sister is film director Mary Lambert.)
The amendment was strongly supported by the major Hollywood studios and guilds. It was vigorously opposed by Veriana, an Arizona company that operates Media Derivatives, which wants to launch the Trend Exchange (MDEX); as well as Cantor Fitzgerald, owner of the Hollywood Stock Exchange, which wants to market a similar product through The Cantor Exchange; and some others, including Michael Burns, vice chairman of Lionsgate.
Box Office Trading
Astonished At Belgian Police Raid
Vatican't
The Vatican said Friday it was astonished and outraged that Belgian police investigating priestly sex abuse had conducted raids that also targeted the graves of two archbishops.
The Vatican summoned the Belgian ambassador to the Holy See to convey its anger over the raids, which also included the home and offices of the retired archbishop of Belgium. The ambassador was called in for a meeting with the Vatican's foreign minister.
On Thursday, police raided the home and former office of former Archbishop Godfried Danneels, taking documents and Danneels' personal computer. Police and prosecutors did not say if Danneels was suspected of abuse himself or simply had records pertaining to allegations against another person. He was not questioned.
Investigators also opened the graves of archbishops in the St. Rombouts Cathedral in Mechlin, north of Brussels, looking for possibly incriminating documents, said Jean-Marc Meilleur, spokesman for the Brussels public prosecutor.
Separately, police seized the records of an independent panel investigating sexual abuse by priests, some 500 cases in all. The victims are mostly men now in their 60s and 70s.
Vatican't
Author Reignites "Sahara" Litigation
Clive Cussler
You thought the epic legal battle over the 2005 box office flop "Sahara" was done, right?
Despite a March appellate court ruling in the long-running litigation between author Clive Cussler and Philip Anschutz's Crusader Entertainment, Cussler on Thursday reignited the dispute. He filed a new lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court claiming that the appeals court opened a window for him to recover $8.5 million owed on a contract with Crusader. Cussler is asking a judge to declare that his claim is valid and he is entitled to the money.
This should all sound familiar. Cussler has been feuding with Crusader (now Bristol Bay Prods) over "Sahara" since before the $195 million film was released to pitiful ticket sales.
After a nasty, circus-like trial, a jury awarded the Anschutz company $5 million but Cussler's lead lawyer, Bert Fields, argued that the decision was a win for Cussler because it left it open for an appeals court to find that Cussler was entitled to $8.5 million for, among other things, adaptation rights to a second novel.
Clive Cussler
New Troubles
Current TV
Al Gore, the world's pre-eminent environmentalist, has embarked on his toughest recycling challenge: his own cable channel.
For much of the past year, Current TV has been quietly undergoing an overhaul that will change just about everything but the struggling channel's name. Current declined comment for this story.
It's a revitalization project Gore & Co. embarked on after exhausting a more lucrative possibility: selling the channel. Current's founding partner, Joel Hyatt, spent much of 2009 shopping the network with a price tag that wildly overestimated the company's worth, confirmed sources at several media firms. Current even had extensive sale talks as far back as 2007 with Google, where Gore serves as a senior advisor.
Now the focus has shifted to fixing Current, perhaps with an eye toward a sale down the road. Last July, Hyatt was replaced as CEO by Mark Rosenthal, the former MTV Networks COO who is rebuilding the channel in the traditional mold Gore avowed to avoid, only to suffer the consequences.
Current TV
Tibetan Art Collector Sentenced
Karma Samdup
A Chinese court in the far western region of Xinjiang has sentenced a leading Tibetan collector of antiquities and environmentalist to 15 years in jail for robbing graves, his lawyer said on Friday.
Karma Samdup was sentenced on Thursday for excavating and robbing ancient tombs, a charge brought and dropped in 1998, lawyer Pu Zhiqiang said.
The philanthropist was arrested in southwestern Chengdu city in early January and taken to northwestern Xinjiang region for trial as that was where the charges originated.
Several artists and intellectuals have been detained or have disappeared in recent months in what activists say amounts to the broadest suppression of Tibetan culture and expression for years.
Karma Samdup
German Oracle
Octopus Paul
A 2-year-old octopus oracle - born in England, but raised in Germany - has predicted a German win over England in Sunday's World Cup game.
The mollusk named Paul chose a mussel out of a water glass marked with the German flag over a mussel in a glass with the English St. George's Cross, said Tanja Munzig, a spokeswoman for the Sea Life Aquarium in the western city of Oberhausen, on Friday.
Paul has proven to be a reliable oracle in the past - he predicted Germany's win over Australia and Ghana and its loss to Serbia. During the 2008 European Championship, he predicted 80 percent of all German games right, Munzig said.
Munzig said that even though Paul was born in England, "he now carries a German passport," because he has lived in Oberhausen for most of his life.
Octopus Paul
Gets Bionic Legs
Oscar the Cat
A cat which lost both back paws after a traumatic accident involving a combine harvester has regained a spring in its step after being fitted with prosthetic limbs.
In a groundbreaking surgery carried out by Noel Fitzpatrick, a Surrey-based veterinary surgeon, the custom-made implants "peg" the ankle to Oscar's foot and mimic the way in which deer antler bone grows through skin.
The prosthetic legs, called intraosseous transcutaneous amputation prosthetics (Itaps) were developed by a team from University College London, led by Professor Gordon Blunn.
Oscar's recovery will feature as part of a six-part BBC One documentary series, The Bionic Vet, starting later this month.
Oscar the Cat
In Memory
Fred Anderson
A saxophonist whose Chicago club is known as one of the cradles of contemporary jazz has died. Fred Anderson was 81.
His sons, Eugene and Michael Anderson, said their father died Thursday but declined to offer additional details.
The Louisiana-born Anderson performed in relative obscurity until the tenor saxophonist's rise to prominence came in the 1990s. Music companies began to release recordings of his work to favorable reviews and he became a regular on the jazz-festival circuit in the United States and Europe.
Anderson opened the Velvet Lounge in Chicago in 1982. At times, he did everything from collecting the $10 cover charge to jamming on stage to taking out the garbage.
Fred Anderson
In Memory
Bill Hudson
Bill Hudson, an Associated Press photographer whose searing images of the civil rights era documented police brutality and galvanized the public, died Thursday in Jacksonville, Fla. He was 77.
Hudson was in Birmingham, Ala., when black demonstrators defied a city ban on protests in 1963, and police turned their dogs on marchers, and again in Selma, Ala., when fire hoses were officers' weapon of choice.
Most enduring of Hudson's portfolio is a May 3, 1963, image of an officer in dark sunglasses grabbing a black boy by his sweater as he lets a police dog bury its teeth into the youth's stomach. The boy, Walter Gadsden, has his eyes lowered, with a look of passive calm.
In more than three decades of photojournalism, Hudson chronicled the Korean War as an Army photographer and bodies destined for autopsies at the Dade County Medical Examiner. But his most profound work came in his coverage of the civil rights movement in the 1960s.
The AP photograph of the police dog and boy appeared above the fold in The New York Times the next day, across three columns, and undoubtedly in numerous other papers. Many came to see it as a force in galvanizing public opinion on behalf of the civil rights advocates.
Hudson was born August 20, 1932, in Detroit and began his photographic career in the Army in 1949. He later shot photos for the Press-Register of Mobile, Ala., and the Chattanooga Times before joining the AP in Memphis, Tenn., in 1962. He left the AP in 1974, joining UPI.
Besides his wife, Patricia, Hudson is survived by a sister, Sharon Garrison, of Laguna Beach, Calif.
Bill Hudson
In Memory
Prescott Bush
Prescott S. Bush Jr., brother to one U.S. president and uncle to another, has died after a long illness, according to his family. He was 87.
Bush was the brother of former President George H.W. Bush and the uncle of former resident George W. Bush.
Bush was born in Portland, Maine, and grew up in Greenwich, Conn., later returning to live in Greenwich. He attended Phillips Academy Andover and Yale University.
After graduating Yale in 1944, Bush lived in Brazil, where he helped Pan American Airways build and operate airfields. He returned to the U.S. in 1949 to take a job with Pan Am in New York City and later went to work for the Wall Street insurance brokerage firm Johnson & Higgins, where he became a partner.
After retirement, he founded the United States-China Chamber of Commerce, a nonprofit organization that encourages U.S.-China trade and investment.
Bush leaves his wife of 66 years, Elizabeth, his son James Bush and daughter Kelsey Bush-Nadeau, and six grandchildren.
Prescott Bush
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