Mary Beard: Election slogans (TLS)
This is an appeal to all you out there who are beginning to follow the election campaign […]. I am pleading with you to join me in deploring (no, I mean, interrogating) cheap election slogans - indeed spotting them in advance.
Mary Beard: A domestic interlude (TLS)
I am one of very many people who have a whole bank of cookery books, often gorgeously produced, that I love, but mostly never look at. Quite why we buy and give cookery books in such large numbers is something of a mystery. But it is more to do with the pleasure of food minus the calories than with actually cooking supper.
Steve Ryfle: Reign of Destruction (Criterion)
With deafening footfalls and an earsplitting roar, Gojira, known in the West as Godzilla, first thundered into Japan's movie houses on November 3, 1954. Six and a half decades later, the monster presides over an international entertainment franchise, having starred in thirty-two feature films produced in Japan and three (so far) in Hollywood, and top-lining three anime features, two animated television series, comic books, TV commercials, and more.
Jaws is a 1975 American thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg and based on Peter Benchley's 1974 novel of the same name. In the film, a giant man-eating great white shark attacks beachgoers at a New England summer resort town, prompting police chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) to hunt it with the help of a marine biologist (Richard Dreyfuss) and a professional shark hunter (Robert Shaw). Murray Hamilton plays the mayor, and Lorraine Gary portrays Brody's wife. The screenplay is credited to Benchley, who wrote the first drafts, and actor-writer Carl Gottlieb, who rewrote the script during principal photography.
Three full-size pneumatically powered prop sharks-which the film crew nicknamed "Bruce" after Spielberg's lawyer, Bruce Ramer-were made for the production: a "sea-sled shark", a full-body prop with its belly missing that was towed with a 300-foot (91 m) line, and two "platform sharks", one that moved from camera-left to -right (with its hidden left side exposing an array of pneumatic hoses), and an opposite model with its right flank uncovered. The sharks were designed by art director Joe Alves during the third quarter of 1973. Between November 1973 and April 1974, the sharks were fabricated at Rolly Harper's Motion Picture & Equipment Rental in Sun Valley, California. Their construction involved a team of as many as 40 effects technicians, supervised by mechanical effects supervisor Bob Mattey, best known for creating the giant squid in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
Source
Mark. was first, and correct, with:
Bruce.
Randall wrote:
Bruce
Alan J answered:
Bruce.
mj said:
I suspect someone among the prop master
Was a Monty Python fan. The shark was fondly referred to as Bruce.
Dave replied:
Bruce. They were collectively named after director David Spielberg's attorney, Bruce Ramer. The mechanical sharks kept breaking down in the Atlantic Ocean (where the young director naively demanded the film be shot), which caused many delays and budget overruns. The breakdowns caused Spielberg to decide to create tension in many scenes without the audience actually seeing the shark, which seemed to be lurking underwater and about to spring into action at any second. That strategy was genius. Only 10 days after release Universal had recouped the production costs and more theaters were asking to show the film. Jaws set a new record for the highest grossing film of all time and Steven Spielberg could then make any damn film he wanted to make.
Stephen F responded:
Bruce
zorch said:
Bruce was the sharks' name.
Cal in Vermont wrote:
They called them Bruce. It is said that because the three pneumatic sharks they employed were troublesome and therefore expensive, the production accountant allegedly named Bruce would holler "No more money!" in response to the need to fix sharks. Sometimes you gotta go big or go home. Big won the day happily for us all!
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~~~~~
BANDCAMP MUSIC THAT YOU PROBABLY DON'T HEAR ON THE RADIO
Music: "Mrs. Moto" from the album EP
Artist: The Surfrajettes
Artist Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Info: "Mrs. Moto" is track two of this three-track album
hurripilot (fan) wrote, "Fantastic music straight out of the golden age of instrumental guitar bands in the early 1960s. The Surfrajettes rule! Favorite track: 'Undercover Secretary.'"
• Boyd Rice plays such pranks as writing messages on the backs of paintings that he finds in hotel rooms. Often, he will leave instructions for finding buried treasure, mentioning the names of streets found in that city. He says, "I've done this all over the world." He and some friends once found a lot of doggie pants in a dumpster. (Pet owners put the pants on dogs in heat so that they don't do anything that will result in the birth of puppies.) He and his friends walked all around the neighborhood, putting doggie pants on every dog they could. One of his friends wanted fruit pie at a restaurant that advertised that it had fruit pie, but every time the friend asked for fruit pie, the servers at the restaurant said that they were out of fruit pie. Therefore, one day Mr. Rice and a number of his friends kept telephoning the restaurant and asking if it had fruit pie. The following day, he and his friends, including the friend who had long wanted fruit pie at the restaurant, went to the restaurant and sure enough, it had stocked many kinds of fruit pie. Mr. Rice's friend was very happy. In addition, Mr. Rice and a few artist friends named Laurie O'Connell, Steve Thomsen, and Jeffrey Vallance oncehad an art showat the Otis Art Institute on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles. They called themselves the Mezoic Group, from the word "Mesozoic." However, instead of exhibiting their own works of art, they exhibited paintings that they had bought at thrift stores. Actually, Mr. Rice regarded these paintings as real paintings. He says that "it was one of the best art shows I've ever seen. It was real people doing real paintings, and they turned out odder and more distorted than if someone were deliberately trying to create really unusual art." As you may expect, some of the people who came to the art show were angry. One person complained, "This is blasphemy! This gallery space should be given to serious people trying to say something worthwhile."
• When Frida Kahlo was a young student, she and some of her friends used to play practical jokes on and torment famous muralist Diego Rivera, whom she later married. Mr. Rivera even started to wear a pistol so that he could frighten his tormenters into behaving. Mr. Rivera was a man of great size and great passion and great impetuosity. At a party, he once decided that he did not like the record that was being played, so he shot the record player.
• Even as a boy, Renaissance painter Giotto di Bondone exhibited remarkable talent. He was apprenticed to the painter Cimabue (the nickname means "ox head"), and once, after Cimabue had painted a figure, Giotto painted a fly on the figure's nose. The fly was so realistic that Cimabue waved his hand at the fly to chase it away.
• When Hugh Troy was a student at Cornell, he once took a pair of galoshes that belonged to a professor and painted them to resemble human feet, then he covered them with lampblack. The next time it rained, the rain washed off the lampblack and the professor appeared to be walking in the rain in his bare feet.
Prejudice
• Georgia O'Keefe ran into prejudice when she created serious art at a time when many Americans did not think that women could create serious art. At the Art Institute of Chicago, seeing live models - nude - shocked her and made her want to stop taking anatomy lessons, and at the Art Students League in New York, a male student told her that she ought to be his live model. After all, he said, he was going to be a serious artist and she would end up teaching art to females. Another student painted over her art because she had not painted trees in the Impressionist style. Actually, Ms. O'Keefe did not care how the Impressionist painted trees - she was too busy creating her own style - a style that would make her a world-famous artist.
CBS begins the night with a RERUN'Mom', followed by a RERUN'Carol's Second Act', then a RERUN'All Rise', followed by '48 Hours'.
NBC starts the night with a RERUN'The Voice', followed by 'Dateline', then an old 'SNL'.
'SNL' is a RERUN, with Penelope Waller-Bridge hosting, music by Taylor Swift.
ABC fills the night with LIVE'College Football', then pads the left coast with local crap, and maybe a 'Dateline'.
The CW offers a buncha '2½ Men'.
Faux fills the night with LIVE'College Football', then pads the left coast with local crap.
MY recycles an old 'Major Crimes', followed by another old 'Major Crimes'.
A&E has 'Live PD", followed by a FRESH'Live PD: Rewind', then a FRESH'Live PD'.
AMC offers the movie 'Safe House', followed by the movie 'Independence Day'.
BBC -
[6:00AM] PLANET EARTH: THE BLUE PLANET - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 7-Tidal Seas
[7:00AM] PLANET EARTH: THE BLUE PLANET - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 1-The Blue Planet
[8:00AM] PLANET EARTH: THE BLUE PLANET - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 2-The Deep
[9:00AM] PLANET EARTH: THE BLUE PLANET - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 3-Open Ocean
[10:00AM] PLANET EARTH: THE BLUE PLANET - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 4-Frozen Seas
[11:00AM] PLANET EARTH: THE BLUE PLANET - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 5-Seasonal Seas
[12:00PM] PLANET EARTH: THE BLUE PLANET - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 6-Coral Seas
[1:00PM] PLANET EARTH: THE BLUE PLANET - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 7-Tidal Seas
[2:00PM] PLANET EARTH: THE BLUE PLANET - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 8-Coasts
[3:00PM] PLANET EARTH: BLUE PLANET II - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 1-One Ocean
[4:00PM] PLANET EARTH: BLUE PLANET II - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 2-The Deep
[5:00PM] PLANET EARTH: BLUE PLANET II - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 3-Coral Reefs
[6:00PM] PLANET EARTH: BLUE PLANET II - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 4-Big Blue
[7:00PM] PLANET EARTH: BLUE PLANET II - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 5-Green Seas
[8:00PM] PLANET EARTH: BLUE PLANET II - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 6-Coasts
[10:00PM] PLANET EARTH: BLUE PLANET II - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 1-One Ocean
[11:00PM] PLANET EARTH: BLUE PLANET II - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 2-The Deep
[12:00AM] PLANET EARTH: BLUE PLANET II - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 3-Coral Reefs
[1:00AM] PLANET EARTH: BLUE PLANET II - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 4Big Blue
[2:00AM] PLANET EARTH: BLUE PLANET II - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 5-Green Seas
[3:00AM] PLANET EARTH: BLUE PLANET II - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 6-Coasts
[5:00AM] PLANET EARTH: THE BLUE PLANET - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 4-Frozen Seas (ALL TIMES EDT)
Bravo has the movie 'Catch Me If You Can', followed by the movie 'Catch Me If You Can', again.
Comedy Central has the movie 'Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story', followed by the movie 'Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story', again.
FX has the movie 'Fast & Furious 6', followed by the movie 'Furious 7'.
History has 'The Curse Of Oak Island', followed by a FRESH'The Curse Of Oak Island: Digging Deeper'.
IFC -
[6:00A] Batman - Ring Around the Riddler!
[6:33A] Batman - The Wail of the Siren
[7:06A] Batman - The Sport of Penguins
[7:39A] Batman - A Horse of Another Color
[8:12A] Batman - The Unkindest Tut of All
[8:45A] Star Trek Generations
[11:30A] X-Men
[1:45P] X-Men 2
[4:30P] X-Men Origins: Wolverine
[7:00P] X-Men: The Last Stand
[9:30P] Contact
[12:45A] Star Trek: The Motion Picture: The Director's Edition
[3:45A] Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (ALL TIMES EST)
Sundance -
[6:20am] The Andy Griffith Show
[6:55am] The Andy Griffith Show
[7:30am] The Andy Griffith Show
[8:05am] The Andy Griffith Show
[8:40am] The Andy Griffith Show
[9:15am] The Andy Griffith Show
[9:50am] The Andy Griffith Show
[10:25am] The Andy Griffith Show
[11:00am] M*A*S*H
[11:30am] M*A*S*H
[12:00pm] M*A*S*H
[12:30pm] M*A*S*H
[1:00pm] M*A*S*H
[1:30pm] M*A*S*H
[2:00pm] M*A*S*H
[2:30pm] M*A*S*H
[3:00pm] M*A*S*H
[3:30pm] M*A*S*H
[4:00pm] M*A*S*H
[4:30pm] M*A*S*H
[5:00pm] M*A*S*H
[5:30pm] M*A*S*H
[6:00pm] M*A*S*H
[6:30pm] M*A*S*H
[7:00pm] M*A*S*H
[7:30pm] M*A*S*H
[8:00pm] M*A*S*H
[8:30pm] The Last Samurai
[12:00am] In the Heart of the Sea
[2:30am] The Last Samurai (ALL TIMES EST)
SyFy has the movie 'London Has Fallen', followed by the movie 'The Hitman's Bodyguard'.
For the fifth straight week, Jane Fonda led a throng of climate change protestors in Washington, D.C. But unlike the previous instances, the actress avoided arrest.
According to reporter Ted Johnson, who was on the ground covering the protest - which began at the U.S. Capitol building and concluded at the gates of the White House - Fonda left early. "Jane Fonda has now left, but gave a big hug to Ben and Jerry before she did," he reported via Twitter. Speculation for the early departure revolved around Fonda being potentially slapped with a longer stay in jail after racking up a number of misdemeanors in a short amount of time. Last week, she spent the night in jail after her fourth arrest. She reportedly faced weeks this time around.
Fonda led her largest crowd yet of demonstrators, which included Ben & Jerry's co-founders, Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield. It seems Fonda's march gained a number of followers on the way to the White House after a separate protest calling for the removal of President Donald Trump joined, according to reports.
The rest of the group stayed on the scene after Fonda left, including Cohen and Greenfield, but it did not appear they were doing anything illegal. One video posted to social media even showed authorities greeting the famous ice-cream makers.
Paris auctioneers will next week sell a newly-discovered canvas by the female Italian 17th century painter Artemisia Gentileschi amid a surge of interest in her extraordinarily dramatic work.
Leading auctioneers Artcurial will on Wednesday auction the painting "Lucretia" by Artemisia with a base estimate of between 600,000-800,000 euros ($660,000-$880,000), it told AFP Friday.
The painting was only recently discovered in a private collection in the French city of Lyon where it had been stored unrecognised for some 40 years, it said.
The painting depicts Lucretia, the ancient Roman noblewoman who killed herself after being raped, showing her bare-breasted and about to plunge a dagger into her upper chest.
Artemisia, who lived from 1593-1654, is now after a period of obscurity recognised as one of the greatest painters of the post-Caravaggio era and one of the few to match the great Baroque master's sense of drama and light.
A 33-year-old orangutan granted legal personhood by a judge in Argentina is settling into her new surroundings at the Center for Great Apes in central Florida.
Patti Ragan, director of the center in Wauchula, Florida, says Sandra is "very sweet and inquisitive" and adjusting to her new home. She was born in Germany and spent 25 years at the Buenos Aires Zoo before arriving in Florida on Nov. 5.
"She was shy when she first arrived, but once she saw the swings, toys, and grassy areas in her new home, she went out to explore," Ragan said. "She has met her caregivers here and is adjusting well to the new climate, environment, and the other great apes at the Center. This is the first time in over a decade that Sandra has had the opportunity to meet other orangutans, and she will meet them when she chooses. It is a new freedom for her, and one we are grateful to provide."
Judge Elena Liberatori's landmark ruling in 2015 declared that Sandra is legally not an animal, but a non-human person, thus entitled to some legal rights enjoyed by people, and better living conditions.
At the center, Sandra joins 21 orangutans and 31 chimpanzees rescued or retired from circuses, stage shows and the exotic pet trade.
Fox news host Sean Hannity (R-Propagandist) has demanded people "stop lying" about him after it was revealed he had been mentioned by two separate officials in their testimonies to the impeachment committee as it seeks evidence to remove Donald Trump from office.
Hannity was mentioned in the investigation into the president by both the former Ukrainian Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch and George Kent, a State Department Deputy Assistant Secretary who oversees the eastern-European country.
Both said in separate hearings that the state department reached out to Mr Hannity after it was claimed on his show that Ms Yovanovitch had "bad mouthed the president" - an unproven allegation that preceded her early dismissal.
Mr Kent told the enquiry: "I believe, to the best of my recollection, the counselor for the Department, UIrich Brechbuhl, reached out and suggested to Mr. Hannity that if there was no proof of the allegations, that he should stop covering them."
His comments in an interview last month corroborate claims from Ms Yovanovitch released earlier this week. In her own testimony she described being told secretary of State Mike Pompeo might reach out to the Fox News host personally over the claims.
For the last 50 years, Bradley Upton has prayed for forgiveness as he has carried the burden of one of the most horrific events in U.S. history against Native Americans, one that was perpetrated by James Forsyth, his great-great-grandfather.
Forsyth commanded the 7th Cavalry during the Wounded Knee Massacre on Dec. 29, 1890, when U.S. troops killed more than 250 unarmed Oglala Lakota men, women and children, a piece of family history that has haunted the Colorado man since he was a teenager.
This week Upton, 67, finally got an opportunity to express his contrition and formally apologize for the atrocities carried out by Forsyth to the direct descendents of the victims at their home on the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota.
During an event on Wednesday on the reservation, Emanuel Red Bear, a teacher and spiritual advisor, told descendents that they deserve Upton's apology.
A year ago, a neighbor's friend got Upton in contact with Basil Brave Heart, a Lakota elder. Brave Heart has worked on similar healing ceremonies and assisted Upton over the following year.
An Oklahoma woman whose sentence for failing to report her boyfriend's abuse of her children was far harsher than his for the abuse itself wiped away tears and hugged family and friends Friday as she was released after 15 years.
Tondalao Hall, 35, left a women's prison in McLoud, Oklahoma, after serving about 13 more years behind bars than her boyfriend, who pleaded guilty in 2006 but was released on probation with credit for time served.
The disparity of the sentences outraged women's rights advocates and brought further attention to Oklahoma's high rate of incarceration, particularly of women.
Hall was sentenced to 30 years in prison in 2006 after pleading guilty to failing to protect two of her children. The boyfriend, Robert Braxton Jr., pleaded guilty to abusing the children and was released on probation with the credit for the two years he already spent in jail.
The American Civil Liberties Union in 2017 filed a lawsuit challenging what it said was a disproportionate sentence because Braxton was also abusing Hall.
A newly emerging disease infects snakes and causes their skin to crust, eyes to cloud and faces to swell - and now, a stricken serpent has been spotted in California.
This is the first case of "snake fungal disease" seen in the state, according to a statement from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW). The infected California kingsnake was found in the Sierra Nevada in Amador County by a member of the public who brought the "emaciated and suffering" animal to a wildlife care center. Tattered skin clung to the animal's warped face, making the cloudy-eyed snake look more like a mummy than a living creature.
As of yet, officials don't know how the disease might impact snake populations in California. Right now, their top priority is to make sure humans don't spread the fungus to snakes across the state.
Scientists first characterized snake fungal disease in 2008 and learned that a fungus called Ophidiomyces ophiodiicola causes the infection, according to CDFW. Since then, researchers have found the infectious organism in 30 snake species in the U.S. and Europe, 23 U.S. states and one Canadian province. Snakes can pick up the fungus through abrasions in their skin or physical contact with infected snakes. A severe infection causes the skin to become bumpy and molt repeatedly, while the affected snake's face may become too disfigured for the animal to feed properly. The weakened snakes tend to rest in open areas, vulnerable to the elements and nearby predators.
Snake fungal disease poses a threat to dwindling snake populations, including the timber rattlesnake and the federally threatened eastern massasauga, according to the CDFW statement. Officials encourage the public to report any sightings of snakes with skin sores or unusual behavior, but avoid handling or disturbing the animals. Just this week, the fungus was detected in tissues from a dead Florida water snake found by the CDFW in Folsom, Sacramento County, according to the organization's report.
When the sword came down upon her head, the blade cut her to the bone. Scientists studying the Viking woman's fractured skull 1,000 years later still aren't sure whether the blow actually killed her - however, the trove of weapons buried with her make it clear that she died a warrior nonetheless.
That Viking, who lived and died around the year 900, was first excavated from a farm in Solør, Norway, in 1900. Her head rested on a shield, a bridled horse skeleton lay curled at her feet, and her body was boxed in by a sword, spear, battle-ax and arrows. When a quick analysis revealed the skeleton to be female, it was immediately interpreted as the first physical example of a shield-maiden - a mythical female warrior only referenced in medieval texts before then.
Now, for the first time, researchers at the University of Dundee in Scotland have used facial reconstruction technology to re-create that maiden's appearance - including the wound that may have ended her career.
Whether the wound was fatal or not, the new reconstruction suggests that this skeleton may be "the first evidence ever found of a Viking woman with a battle injury," archaeologist Ella Al-Shamahi, who hosts the new documentary, told The Guardian.
That's exciting news, especially for researchers trying to overturn the centuries-old assumption that Viking warriors were exclusively men. This stereotype took its own blow in 2017, when a Viking skeleton presumed for the past 70 years to be a man (because it had been buried with a trove of weapons) was proven to be a woman following a DNA analysis.
A Japanese bidder may be feeling the pinch after forking out $46,000 at auction for a snow crab -- a price that "probably set a new world record", local officials said Thursday.
The winter seafood delicacy is in season from this week in the western Tottori region, where the crustacean was snapped up for a final price of five million yen.
In Japan, buyers often pay eye-watering sums to secure a seasonal first at auction, from tuna to melons, with media attention guaranteed.
"I was surprised it went for such a high price," local government official Shota Inamono told AFP of the crab that weighed in at 1.2 kilogrammes (2.6 pounds) and measured 14.6 centimetres (5.7 inches) across.
According to Inamoto, the price exceeded last year's record price of two million yen, which was registered at the time in the Guinness World Records for most expensive crab.
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