Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Adam Todd Brown: 5 Recent Trends That Make It Hard to Trust the Police (Cracked)
If there's one thing I think we can all agree on, it's that, much like clowns, everybody loves a cop. And for good reason! After all, in the unfortunate event that one of us should fall victim to a crime, who are we going to call first? No matter what my N.W.A-based childhood understanding of law enforcement taught me, the answer, of course, is the police. There are some among us, though, who've developed a slightly less positive opinion of law enforcement.
Deborah Orr: I switched to the Co-op bank as an ethical alternative. What a joke (Guardian)
The demise of the Co-op and the behaviour of its chairman Paul Flowers are shocking. It's virtually impossible to be without a bank account, so why is it so hard to find a good one?
Adam Corner: Ad nauseam (Aeon)
The more we hate it, the more it agrees with us. How advertising turned anti-consumerism into a secret weapon.
Paul Krugman: When Thought Experiments Encounter the Unthinking (NY Times)
I'm always amazed at how many people doing economics - or lots of other things - are so rigid and humorless that they apparently can't grasp the point or usefulness of slightly whimsical thought experiments.
Alexis Petridis: "Pixies: 'We were off the planet'" (Guardian)
Black Francis and his fellow Pixies knew life would be tough when bassist Kim Deal quit the band in a Welsh coffee shop. They explain how they overcame a rash of bad reviews - and found fresh inspiration in outer space.
Charlie Jane Anders: Hunger Games: Catching Fire is a captivating tale of privilege and PTSD (io9)
The second Hunger Games movie builds on the emotional intensity of the first, telling a harrowing story of what happens when you win a deadly game by playing dirty. Catching Fire is the rare film that's better than the original book. Even if you've memorized Suzanne Collins' text, you'll get something new out of it.
Peter Bradshaw: "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire - review" (Guardian)
The sequel to the Hunger Games may smack of second helpings, but it nonetheless remains surprisingly tasty.
Heather Long: Total misfire: brands like CoverGirl and Subway miss point of Hunger Games (Guardian)
I'm a fan. Sure, movie adaptations are never as vivid as the books, but the fact that Jennifer Lawrence is proving to be as good of a role model for young women as she is an actress is giving this franchise that extra verve. But there's one thing that has left me cold about this film: the advertising surrounding it.
Terry Jones: Monty Python reunion: and now for something not completely different ... (Guardian)
We're dusting off the old scripts and giving them an update for our O2 show - who wants to end up like poor Neil Diamond, booed for trying too much new material?
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Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Cold and rainy, again.
"One Down, Five To Go"
Monty Python
And now for something completely different: A comeback show from the Monty Python gang, reuniting some four decades since they last performed on a British stage.
The veteran comedy group said Thursday they are staging a one-off show at London's O2 arena in July, which they promised will include "a little comedy, a lot of pathos, some music and a tiny bit of ancient sex."
Terry Gilliam joked that the five surviving Pythons - Terry Jones, John Cleese, Michael Palin, Eric Idle and himself - decided to do the show "to try to remind ourselves that we are funny and important and famous."
The five delighted reporters with gags and jokes, sitting behind the wrong name cards and answering questions addressed to another member. They also made plenty of references to their advanced age, saying medical attendants will be present during the show, which has the working title "One down, five to go."
That's in reference to the sixth member, Graham Chapman, who died of cancer in 1989.
Monty Python
Teens Prefer Paperbacks
Books
Children's storybooks are in no danger of becoming extinct, suggests a report on how kids and parents are embracing ebooks.
Based on the results of online surveys conducted for Booknet Canada, a non-profit industry organization that tracks sales and trends, it appears parents and children aren't eager to give up on the time-honoured tradition of flipping through paper books in favour of swiping around in digital content.
Of the more than 800 parents interviewed, about 41 per cent said they currently read ebooks. More than 200 teens between 14 and 17 were also polled (with their parents' permission) and 27 per cent said they were ebook readers.
Among teenagers, 29 per cent said they preferred reading ebooks, 37 per cent chose print and 34 per cent had no preference. The surveys suggest teens aren't rushing to embrace ebooks.
Books
Royal Wine Cellar
Israel
Archaeologists have uncovered the oldest known palatial wine cellar in the Middle East at a site in Israel.
The storage room stocked at least 3,000 bottles' worth of the intoxicating beverage in massive pottery jars, researchers report today (Nov. 22) at the annual meeting of the American Schools of Oriental Research in Baltimore. The ancient wine
The closest modern analogue is a Greek wine flavored with pine resin called retsina, study researcher Assaf Yasur-Landau of the University of Haifa, told reporters.
The find is important less for the wine's palate and more for what it reveals about the culture of the ancient Canaanites, a group that dominated what is now Israel and Lebanon.
Israel
Chew More, Eat Less?
Nutrition
People who increased the number of times they chewed their food before swallowing ate less over the course of a meal, in a new study.
Slow eaters tend to be slimmer. But researchers didn't know whether asking people to chew more would change the amount of food they ate.
They found meal sizes shrunk when adults chewed extra before swallowing - whether they were normal weight, overweight or obese.
Prospective study participants were asked to consume five portions of Totino's pizza rolls and count the number of times they chewed each roll. Researchers did not tell them what specifically was being tested in the study.
Nutrition
29 of 30 Activists Granted Bail
Greenpeace
All but one of the 30 people arrested following a Greenpeace protest against oil drilling in the Arctic were free on bail Friday after spending more than two months in Russian jails. The only one to be denied bail, an Australian activist, also was expected to be released after his appeal was heard.
The U.S. captain of the ship, veteran Greenpeace activist Peter Willcox, was among 18 freed on Friday. The others were released late Wednesday and Thursday.
All 30 still face hooliganism charges, which carry a sentence of up to seven years. They were detained after some of the activists aboard the Arctic Sunrise attempted to scale an offshore drilling platform owned by the state-owned natural gas giant Gazprom.
Also Friday, a U.N.-mandated tribunal in Hamburg, Germany, ordered Russia to immediately release the Greenpeace ship and its crew in return for a 3.6 million euro ($5 million) bond.
The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea also ordered Russia to allow the Dutch-flagged vessel and those detained to leave the country.
Greenpeace
Diary Sale Ban Extended
Malcolm X
A federal judge on Friday extended her ban on sales of a book containing Malcolm X's diaries until evidence in a court challenge can be heard next year.
U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain in Manhattan warned a lawyer for Third World Press that the company could face contempt of court proceedings if it fails to obey the order.
The judge blocked sales of the book Oct. 8 after heirs of Malcolm X sued the publisher, saying the Chicago company was infringing on their rights.
Attorney L. Londell McMillan told Swain that the book, "The Diary of Malcolm X," has been spotted for sale online despite her order.
Malcolm X
Board of Ed Drops Algebra II
Texass
The Texas Board of Education gave preliminary approval Thursday to dropping algebra II as a requirement for high school graduation, over the objections of critics who say the state is watering down its academic standards.
Eliminating the algebra II mandate for most students was part of a major overhaul of graduation, standardized testing and curriculum requirements unanimously approved by the Texas Legislature in May. The shake-up was meant to give students the flexibility to focus on career and vocational training - not just college prep courses.
Much of the debate over the changes has focused on the algebra II requirement. Many academic experts and school administrators said it's a key prerequisite for success both in college and beyond. But some trade groups argued that plenty of high-paying jobs are available without a college degree or high-level math.
The Board of Education, which is charged with implementing the overhaul for the start of the 2014-2015 school year, considered keeping the algebra II requirement despite the objections of lawmakers who approved the overhaul. In the end, though, the board didn't defy the Legislature.
Texass
Businesses Raided
Denver
Federal agents raided an unknown number of marijuana dispensaries and growing sites on Thursday in Colorado, confiscating piles of marijuana plants and cartons of cannabis-infused drinks just weeks before the state allows sellers of recreational marijuana to open their doors.
The action appeared to send a message that federal authorities would be keeping a close watch on the industry as a state law legalizing pot is implemented.
The raids, conducted on a frigid, snowy morning, were the first in Colorado since the U.S. Department of Justice said in August that it wouldn't interfere with state marijuana laws as long as the drug is kept away from children, the black market and other states, among other guidelines.
In a statement, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Denver said the criminal investigations unit of the Internal Revenue Service, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration and Denver authorities were involved in executing the sealed search and seizure warrants.
Denver
Zipped Harmlessly By Earth
Gamma Ray Burst
Astronomers call it the monster. It was the biggest and brightest cosmic explosion ever witnessed. Had it been closer, Earth would have been toast.
Orbiting telescopes got the fireworks show of a lifetime last spring when they spotted what is known as a gamma ray burst in a far-off galaxy.
The only bigger display astronomers know of was the Big Bang - and no one, of course, was around to witness that.
But because this blast was 3.7 billion light-years away, mankind was spared. In fact, no one on Earth could even see it with the naked eye.
A gamma ray burst happens when a massive star dies, collapses into a brand-new black hole, explodes in what's called a supernova and ejects energetic radiation. The radiation is as bright as can be as it travels across the universe at the speed of light.
Gamma Ray Burst
Duke Energy Pleads Guilty
Eagles
The government for the first time has enforced environmental laws protecting birds against wind energy facilities, winning a $1 million settlement Friday from a power company that pleaded guilty to killing 14 eagles and 149 other birds at two Wyoming wind farms.
The Obama administration has championed pollution-free wind power and used the same law against oil companies and power companies for drowning and electrocuting birds. The case against Duke Energy Corp. and its renewable energy arm was the first prosecuted under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act against a wind energy company.
An investigation by The Associated Press in May revealed dozens of eagle deaths from wind energy facilities, including at Duke's Top of the World farm outside Casper, Wyo., the deadliest for eagles of 15 such facilities that Duke operates nationwide. The other wind farm included in the settlement is also in Converse County and is called Campbell Hill. All the deaths, which included golden eagles, hawks, blackbirds, wrens and sparrows, occurred from 2009 to 2013.
A study in September by federal biologists found that wind turbines had killed at least 67 bald and golden eagles since 2008. Wyoming had the most eagle deaths. That did not include deaths at Altamont Pass, an area in northern California where wind farms kill an estimated 60 eagles a year.
Until Friday's announcement, not a single wind energy company had been prosecuted for a death of an eagle or other protected bird - even though each death is a violation of federal law, unless a company has a federal permit. Not a single wind energy facility has obtained a permit.
Eagles
Top 20 from Pollstar
Concert Tours
The Top 20 Concert Tours ranks artists by average box office gross per city and includes the average ticket price for shows in North America. The previous week's ranking is in parentheses. The list is based on data provided to the trade publication Pollstar by concert promoters and venue managers.
1. (1) Taylor Swift; $1,818,550; $81.53.
2. (New) Bon Jovi; $1,518,974; $93.32.
3. (2) Marc Anthony; $1,186,546; $85.53.
4. (3) "Honda Civic Tour"/Maroon 5/Kelly Clarkson; $916,079; $51.46.
5. (4) Depeche Mode; $913,053; $64.45.
6. (5) Bruno Mars; $879,719; $65.08.
7. (6) Michael Buble; $874,297; $83.94.
8. (7) Luke Bryan; $683,727; $38.52.
9. (8) John Mayer; $672,129; $51.97.
10. (9) Brad Paisley; $667,506; $61.35.
11. (10) Jason Aldean; $660,385; $38.81.
12. (11) Blake Shelton; $630,368; $41.54.
13. (12) Rascal Flatts; $565,984; $36.86.
14. (15) Steely Dan; $480,976; $90.05.
15. (13) Miranda Lambert; $480,951; $35.60.
16. (14) Selena Gomez & The Scene; $451,215; $51.22.
17. (16) Blue Man Group; $336,213; $50.51.
18. (New) Sarah Brightman; $330,085; $106.71.
19. (17) Fun.; $313,398; $38.97.
20. (18) Fall Out Boy; $234,545; $35.81.
Concert Tours
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