Laura Miller: 'The Hunger Games' vs. 'Twilight'
Is Katniss Everdeen the antidote to Bella Swan? That's a question guaranteed to irk fans of The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins' trilogy of dystopian young-adult novels, the latest of which, Mockingjay has currently captured the No. 1 spot on the nation's bestseller lists.
20 Questions: Tao Lin (popmatters.com)
American poet, novelist, short story writer, and artist Tao Lin's new book, Richard Yates releases this week. Lin tells PopMatters 20 Questions that he's never hired a hit man, or been on a spa vacation, or used Prozac. Honestly.
shathley Q: "For Tomorrow: William Gibson, 'Zero History' and The Present… The Interview"
William Gibson's recent 'Zero History,' rounds out a trilogy of novels that began in the wake of the 911 terror attacks, and spanned the decade. In a meditative encounter with PopMatters, Gibson shares his thoughts on 'Zero History,' the Bigend Trilogy, and the enduring present.
"The Last of the Imperious Rich: Lehman Brothers, 1844-2008" by Peter Chapman: A review by Steve Weinberg
As books about the collapse of Wall Street investment bankers rain down from publishers, one book focusing on Lehman Bros. places the history above the more recent scandal. For Peter Chapman, a Londoner who writes and edits for the Financial Times, the past is prologue. Finding the seeds of Lehman Bros.' destruction within a chronicle looking backward to 1844 is challenging, but ultimately worth the effort.
Ain't That a Shame
Four new lives of rock'n'roll greats try to map music legends to the world of fact. Review by Robert Christgau.
Paul Krugman: The Tax-Cut Racket (nytimes.com)
Republicans are threatening to force a tax increase on the middle class unless they get paid off with tax breaks for the wealthy. It's an offer Democrats must refuse.
GRETCHEN REYNOLDS: "Phys Ed: Can Exercise Make Kids Smarter? "(nytimes.com)
…evidence accumulates about the positive impact of even small amounts of aerobic activity. Past studies from the University of Illinois found that "just 20 minutes of walking" before a test raised children's scores, even if the children were otherwise unfit or overweight, says Charles Hillman, a professor of kinesiology at the university and the senior author of many of the recent studies.
Flint (MI) public housing authority, in an effort to fight crime in the projects, is considering a requirement for all current and prospective residents to take a drug test to keep their federally subsidized apartments.... Housing Commission Executive Rodney Slaughter said he wants a drug-testing program modeled after the city of Indianapolis, where public housing residents are required to take annual drug tests. If a resident tests positive, they would have 30 days to test negative or seek help...
Flint eyes drug tests for public housing | detnews.com | The Detroit News
Would you support such a policy in your community?
Bananas are naturally slightly radioactive, more so than most other fruits, because of their high potassium content, and the small amounts of the isotope potassium-40 found in naturally occurring potassium. Proponents of nuclear power sometimes refer to the banana equivalent dose of radiation to support their arguments. Banana shipments often set off the radiation monitors installed at US ports to detect illegal shipments of radiologic materials.
Source
James was first, and correct, with:
Bananas - who'd a thought?
Alan J answered:
Bananas
~ Tony in Philly responded:
bananas!
BadtotheboneBob replied:
Bananas... (Banana Whamma Gamma Rays, eh? Haha... I love it...)
Adam in NoHo responded:
It appears to be bananas.
If I don't know the answer right off, I just google the trivia question. Despite that, the right answers do not just pop up. It; still a matter of sifting through the results andprobably still making yet other queries.
What i'm trying to say, it can still be a bit of work to find the actual information you are looking for.
Charlie replied:
Bananas are valued for being high in potassium, but radioisotopes of said element are sufficiently abundant to trigger the detectors.
Ed in Laguna answered:
Bananas and Brazil nuts. Also Plutonium berries.
Sally said nothing.
MAM wrote:
Bananas are naturally slightly radioactive, more so than most other fruits, because of their high potassium content, and the small amounts of the isotope potassium-40 found in naturally occurring potassium.
Bananas packed for shipping.
Uncle Sky said:
Shipments of what fruit often set off the radiation monitors installed at US ports to detect illegal shipments of radiologic materials?
Not sure, but could it be the Tomari Strawberry, grown near the reactor?
And, Joe S answered:
Bananas
Some bananas set off my monitor.
CBS begins the night with a RERUN'CSI: The Original One', followed by '48 Hours', and another '48 Hours'.
NBC opens the night with a RERUN'Trump's Apprentice', followed by a RERUN'Parenhood'.
Of course, 'SNL' is a RERUN, hosted by Betty White, music by Jay-Z.
ABC starts the night with LIVE'College Football', then pads the left coast with some local crap and maybe an old 'Oprah'.
The CW offers local programming.
Faux has the traditional 'Cops', 'Cops', and 'America's Most Wanted'.
'Wanda Sykes' is a RERUN.
MY recycles an old 'House', followed by another old 'House'.
A&E has the movie 'The Fugitive', followed by the movie 'The Perfect Storm', and 'The Glades'.
AMC offers the movie 'True Lies', followed by the movie 'Airplane!', then the movie 'Airplane II: The Sequel'.
BBC -
[12:00 PM] Top Gear - Episode 8
[1:00 PM] Top Gear - Episode 7
[2:00 PM] Being Human - Episode 1
[3:00 PM] Being Human - Episode 2
[4:00 PM] Being Human - Episode 3
[5:00 PM] Being Human - Episode 4
[6:00 PM] Being Human - Episode 5
[7:00 PM] Being Human - Episode 6
[8:00 PM] Being Human - Episode 7
[9:00 PM] Being Human - Episode 8
[10:15 PM] The Graham Norton Show - Ep 3 Martin Clunes, Lee Mack,
[11:00 PM] Being Human - Episode 7
[12:00 AM] Being Human - Episode 8
[1:15 AM] The Graham Norton Show - Ep 3 Martin Clunes, Lee Mack,
[2:00 AM] Being Human - Episode 7
[3:00 AM] Being Human - Episode 8
[4:15 AM] The Graham Norton Show - Ep 3 Martin Clunes, Lee Mack,
[5:00 AM] The Graham Norton Show - Ep 5 Rob Brydon, Harry Connick Jr., Katherine Jenkins
[6:00 AM] The Graham Norton Show - Ep 6 David Tennant, Johnny Vegas, Alison Moyet (ALL TIMES EDT)
Comedy Central has the movie 'First Sunday', 'Dave Chappelle: Killin' Them Softly', and 'Katt Williams: American Hustle'.
FX has the movie 'Jumper', '2½ Men', another '2½ Men', still another '2½ Men', and yet another '2½ Men'.
History has 'Modern Marvels', 'Sniper: Deadliest Missions', and 'Sniper: Inside The Crosshairs'.
IFC -
[6:00AM] Death of a Cyclist
[7:30AM] Cache
[9:30AM] Safe Passage
[11:10AM] A Good Woman
[12:45PM] Cache
[2:45PM] Safe Passage
[4:30PM] A Good Woman
[6:05PM] Calendar Girls
[8:00PM] The Notorious Bettie Page
[9:35PM] The Center of the World
[11:05PM] Gothic
[12:35AM] The Notorious Bettie Page
[2:15AM] The Center of the World
[3:45AM] Gothic
[5:15AM] The Jon Dore Television Show
[5:45AM] The Grid (ALL TIMES EDT)
Sundance -
[6:25 AM] Madame Tutli Putli
[6:50 AM] Jump Tomorrow
[8:30 AM] Treeless Mountain
[10:00 AM] In Short 111
[11:05 AM] The Story
[12:35 PM] Madame Tutli Putli
[1:00 PM] SPECTACLE - Bono & The Edge (Episode 1, Season 2)
[2:00 PM] SPECTACLE - Neko Case, Sheryl Crow, Ron Sexsmith, Jesse Winchester (Episode 2, Season 2)
[3:00 PM] SPECTACLE - Levon Helm, Nick Lowe, Richard Thompson, Allen Toussaint
[4:00 PM] SPECTACLE - Elvis Costello (Episode 4, Season 2)
[5:00 PM] SPECTACLE - John Prine, Ray LaMontagne, and Lyle Lovett (Episode 5, Season 2)
[6:00 PM] Let's Get Lost
[8:00 PM] MAN SHOPS GLOBE - Cyprus (Episode 4, Season 2)
[8:30 PM] MAN SHOPS GLOBE - Sweden (Episode 5, Season 2)
[9:00 PM] ICONOCLASTS - Tom Ford on Jeff Koons (Episode 6, Season 1)
[10:00 PM] Pan's Labyrinth
[12:00 AM] Ichi the Killer
[2:15 AM] ICONOCLASTS - Tom Ford on Jeff Koons (Episode 6, Season 1)
[3:15 AM] Pan's Labyrinth
[5:20 AM] Treeless Mountain (ALL TIMES EDT)
SyFy has the movie 'Final Destination 2', followed by the movie 'Vancancy 2: The First Cut'.
Singer Debbie Harry looks backstage before a showing of the L.A.M.B. Spring/Summer 2011 collection during New York Fashion Week, September 16, 2010.
Photo by Lucas Jackson
"The Daily Show" host Jon Stewart is hosting a "million moderate march" in Washington - for people who think shouting is annoying - but faux political nemesis Stephen Colbert will be nearby to keep fear alive against those "dark, optimistic forces."
Colbert, host of Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report," and his arch enemy on the network plan to hold opposing political rallies on the National Mall just before the November elections.
Stewart interrupted his regular fake newscast Thursday night to announce a "Rally to Restore Sanity" on Oct. 30. He said it's for people too busy with their normal lives to go to other political rallies.
"We're looking for people who think shouting is annoying ... who feel that the loudest voices shouldn't be the only ones that get heard," Stewart writes in promotion for his rally. "Think of our event as Woodstock, but with the nudity and drugs replaced by respectful disagreement."
Nearby, Colbert also announced a "March to Keep Fear Alive" to restore "truthiness" to the nation on his show Thursday night. For those who don't know, truthiness was a 2006 word of the year that means "truth that comes from the gut, not books."
Singer Lady Gaga released a video on Friday urging members of the Senate and her "fellow Americans" to help repeal the military rule banning openly gay people from serving in the armed forces.
In her most overt political stance to date, Gaga, 24, described herself as "a voice for my generation" and urged her millions of fans to help overturn the policy which allows gay men and women to serve in the military as long as they keep their sexual orientation private.
The U.S. Senate is expected to vote on Tuesday on whether to begin debate on the annual Defense Department authorization bill, which includes language aimed at ending the Clinton-era "don't' ask, don't tell" policy. The vote is expected to be close. The U.S. House of Representatives has already voted to repeal it.
In the black and white video, which is over 7 minutes long, Gaga sits in front of an American flag wearing a demure dark tie, white blouse and dark blazer.
Actor William Shatner and his wife Elizabeth Anderson Martin pose at a CBS television fall season premiere event in Los Angeles, September 16, 2010.
Photo by Mario Anzuoni
Three years after beating breast cancer - a disease that rarely affects men - former Kiss drummer Peter Criss wants guys to know it can happen to them, too.
The rock star best known for the ballad "Beth" is participating in a walkathon for the American Cancer Society next month near his home at the Jersey Shore. He wants fans to sponsor him or join the walk themselves.
Criss, who played the Catman with the costumed rockers, asks supporters to register through his website .
The Oct. 17 event in Point Pleasant Beach already has raised more than $108,000 for the fight against breast cancer.
During a tour of Europe last year, Iran's undisputed master of Persian classical music performed a song with a distinctly modern theme - "Brotherhood in Arms" - calling on Iranians to unite.
The song is one of several composed by Mohammad Reza Shajarian that criticize the Iranian government's brutal crackdown after disputed presidential elections last year. Tens of thousands of Iranians, among them many artists, have fled the country to avoid imprisonment and even execution.
But political repression also leads to a flowering of the arts, Shajarian said.
"Arts is the language of protest," Shajarian, 69, said in Lebanon, where he recently performed. "The enemy became a blessing. That is, arts grow when there are pressures, political suffocation and tyranny."
The American Ballet Theatre and the New York City Ballet will perform in Cuba for the first time in half a century in November in homage to former prima ballerina Alicia Alonso on her 90th birthday, organizers said Friday.
Alonso, who founded Cuba's national ballet company in 1948, said it was "marvelous" that the New York-based ballet companies will perform during the Havana International Ballet Festival, which runs from October 28 to November 7.
The American Ballet Theatre will perform "Themes and Variations," a piece choreographed for Alonso by George Balanchine.
The last time the American Ballet Theatre performed in Havana was in 1960, two years before Washington imposed an embargo that is still in place.
A suburban Atlanta jury awarded $40,000 Friday to a man who says musician Kid Rock and his entourage beat him and smashed his cell phones during a 2007 fight at a Waffle House restaurant.
Harlen Akins sued Kid Rock, whose real name is Robert James Ritchie, and five members of his entourage over the fight. DeKalb County State Court Judge Johnny Panos on Thursday dismissed two of the defendants.
Akins sought $6,000 in medical fees and an unspecified amount in punitive damages. The jury decided not to award punitive damages, but gave him $40,000 in compensatory damages.
The jury saw a lot of provocation from both sides and couldn't attribute blame completely to either, said the foreman, who declined to give his name.
Russell Brand has been arrested following an altercation with a photographer.
The 35-year-old British actor-comedian was taken into custody Friday at Los Angeles International Airport for a misdemeanor charge of simple battery with bail set at $20,000, according to police. Los Angeles Airport Police spokeswoman Belinda Nettles said the victim, a paparazzo who was not identified, placed Brand under citizen's arrest.
The alleged attack involving the two-time MTV Video Music Awards host and "Get Him to the Greek" star was first reported by TMZ, which posted video of the altercation that occurred as Brand and his fiancee, "California Gurls" singer Katy Perry, were surrounded by paparazzi as they entered the terminal that houses Delta.
Back in England, Brand has built a reputation for his drug-addled past and hedonistic tendencies, and he's sought treatment for drug addiction and sex addiction. He detailed his storied history in his 2007 memoir "My Booky Wook." Brand is next set to star as Trinculo in a version of "The Tempest" and the title character in a remake of "Arthur."
Australian Jay Sloot "licked" the competition in Guinness World Records 2011. Sloot's tongue was measured to be 3.1 inches at its widest point.
Photo by Paul Michael Hughes
Former American Idol contestant Adam Lambert is accused of simple battery on a photographer on Miami Beach.
A police report says 38-year-old Victor Eras was taking pictures of the singer Thursday when Lambert started running toward him "in an aggressive manner."
Eras claims Lambert grabbed his back pack and wrestled him to the ground. The photographer did not suffer any injuries. He declined to comment to The Associated Press on Friday.
No arrests were made. A police spokesman says there will not be an investigation. The state attorney's office will review the report and decide if any charges will be filed. TMZ first reported the alleged attack.
A Christie's employee poses for photographs behind a Roman bronze helmet found with the use of a metal detector, at the auction house's offices in London, Monday, Sept. 13, 2010. The helmet is topped with a griffin. The face mask features perfectly arched eyebrows and an ancient gaze, framed by curls. And it is up for auction. Considered an extraordinary example of Roman metalwork, the mask was discovered in a field in northwestern England by a treasure-hunter armed with a metal detector. It is to be offered at auction Oct. 7 by Christie's, with a guide price of 200,000 to 300,000 pounds, euro 240, 000 to 360, 000 ($242,000 to 363,000).
Photo by Matt Dunham
Jailed British singer George Michael has abandoned an application for bail, the Press Association reported on Friday.
The 47-year-old was sentenced to eight weeks in prison this week for crashing his car while high on cannabis, and lawyers acting on his behalf had planned to ask for bail for the singer in an apparent bid to appeal against his sentence.
"The bail application has been abandoned," said a spokeswoman for Blackfriars Crown Court in London, where Michael had been listed to appear via video link from Pentonville Prison. His lawyer declined to comment on the decision.
Michael, who became famous as part of the band Wham! before launching a successful solo career, was banned from driving for two years in 2007 and sentenced to 100 hours of community service after admitting driving when unfit due to drugs.
A models displays a Cati Serra design during the Cibeles Madrid Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2011, in Madrid, Friday, Sept. 17, 2010.
Photo by Daniel Ochoa de Olza
TV's oldest daytime drama aired its final episode Friday, concluding a run that began in April 1956.
Always full of emotional turmoil, "World" was set in the mythical town of Oakdale, Ill., where there was no shortage of couplings, heartbreak, double-dealing and hairpin plot twists.
CBS announced in December that it was pulling the plug on the New York-based show, which ranked at the bottom of the ratings among network soaps. It wrapped production in June.
A Saola (pseudoryx nghetinhensis) is seen in a village in Bolikhamxay province in this handout photo dated August 2010. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), villagers in the central province captured the rare animal. The adult male died shortly after being photographed and before a technical team from IUCN could reach the remote area. This is the first confirmed sighting of a Saola, which is considered one of the rarest animals in the world, in more than ten years. Saola are secretive and have been likened to unicorns, in spite of their two horns.
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