Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Gaby Hinsliff: I hate Page 3 but applaud the Sun's breast cancer campaign (Guardian)
Phwoar, what a timely medical reminder. That's the rather confused message we are presumably meant to take from Monday's Sun, which as a special treat for female readers promoted the Page 3 lovely to page one for a day - the twist being that for once all her clothes have unaccountably fallen off in aid of preventing breast cancer (geddit?). It's boobs, yes, but not as we know them. Which is strangely disorientating.
Mark Morford: How to Sucker a Billion Christians (SF Gate)
You do not mess with blind faith. Just a humble reminder. You do not question the dully codified stories of Christianity, or challenge them, or offer even remotely refreshing, alternative storylines with anything resembling intelligence, or humor, or deep intellectual curiosity.
Leo Benedictus: Who are the top celebrity tippers? (Guardian)
The $1,000 tip paid by Ellen DeGeneres and others for some pizzas at the Oscars ceremony was extravagant. But it pales besides what Johnny Depp once left a waiter.
Why does Hanif Kureishi think his creative writing students are talentless? (Guardian)
The author has a noble calling as professor of creative writing at Kingston University. So why does he think most people doing his course are wasting their time?
Alison Flood: David Walliams overtakes JK Rowling among readers in UK schools (Guardian)
Gangsta Grannies are now beating Harry Potter at the library issue desk, research shows.
M. Asher Cantrell: 4 People Whose Schemes Hilariously Blew Up In Their Faces (Cracked)
No one likes a jerk, everyone loves schadenfreude, and it's really satisfying when those two things dovetail into a steaming pile of karmic justice. So sit back, relax, and behold some recent situations where dickheads got the same crap they feed everyone else shoveled back to them.
Eddie Deezen: The Final Days of John Wayne (Neatorama)
He was, quite probably, the most popular and beloved movie star of them all. More than that, he was an American icon- ranking with Washington, Lincoln and Davy Crockett.
Zeon Santos: Business Baby Is The Latest Kid Meme Sensation (Neatorama)
Recently a proud father posted this picture of his multitasking son on Facebook, and when a family friend saw the meme potential in the image he decided to post it to Reddit with the caption "Look, tell Clyde he's a dumbass...and then fire him".
French Comedy Routine with Towels (Video)
Two guys, known as Les Beaux Frères, recently appeared on a French TV show 'Le plus grand cabaret du monde'. The comedy duo showed up on stage with nothing but towels and performed a tantalizing dance act.
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From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and warmer.
Access To The Military
Hollywood
If Hollywood wants to make a movie about anything having to do with the military, there is one man they have to woo first: Phil Strub, entertainment liaison at the Department of Defense since 1989.
Strub, a former Navy videographer, is now the sole person whose call it is to green light or deny a film's right to military cooperation on everything from accessing information and advisors to using the Air Force's planes or the Navy's ships.
For example, this summer's "Superman" reboot "Man of Steel" was initially denied Pentagon support because Strub found the script's portrayal of the military "cartoony," according to an article in Fortune Magazine by Soo Youn, who interviewed the elusive Strub.
As the story goes, "Warner Bros. asked Strub to reconsider, flying him to L.A. to meet screenwriter David S. Goyer, who modified his script to incorporate Strub's suggestions."
This year's Oscar-nominated "Captain Phillips," for example, used a U.S. military guided missile destroyer, an amphibious assault ship, several helicopters, and members of SEAL Team Six, who play themselves but are not on active duty - all courtesy of the U.S. Navy, who were able to work the shoot into their training.
Hollywood
Hosting MTV Movie Awards
Conan O'Brien
Comedian and late-night talk-show host Conan O'Brien will host this year's MTV Movie Awards, the unbuttoned show that irreverently honors Hollywood's best kisses and best fight scenes, the MTV network said on Wednesday.
It will be the first time that O'Brien, 50, has hosted the annual show, which will take place on April 13 at the Nokia Theatre in downtown Los Angeles and which serves as lead-in to the summer movie season.
"After eight years of intense negations, I am honored to announce I am hosting MTV's second most prestigious awards show," the flame-haired comedian quipped in a statement.
Nominations will be announced on Thursday. MTV, which is owned by Viacom Inc, said the show will also feature unseen clips from upcoming summer films.
Conan O'Brien
Advertising Fees Among TV's Priciest
'24'
Fox is seeking as much as $500,000 for a 30-second ad in the debut of "24: Live Another Day," a much-ballyhooed revival of its groundbreaking spy drama, and between $325,000 and $350,000 for a spot in subsequent episodes, according to people familiar with the situation.
Even at $325,000, an ad in the new "24? would be among TV's priciest. At $325,000 a commercial in "24: Live Another Day" would be the second-most expensive program on broadcast television, according to a Variety survey of ad prices for the 2013-2014 TV season, beaten only by NBC's "Sunday Night Football," which notches an average of $628,000 for a 30-second spot. A 30-second ad in ESPN's "Monday Night Football," at an average of $408,000, also costs more.
The prices for the limited "24" series, set to debut on Fox May 5th, suggest demand for the program has not waned since the original show went off the air in 2010. Fox sought between $200,000 and $280,000 for a 30-second spot in the series' last season, and pushed for as much as $650,000 for a 30-second ad in the original series finale.
The return of "24" is just the latest signal that broadcast-TV networks are reversing a longstanding policy of putting on lesser-quality programming in the summer months. For decades, based on business patterns that made sense when three broadcast networks soaked up much of the TV viewing in the U.S., CBS, NBC and ABC would largely use the summer to run specials, burn off failed pilots and play reruns.
'24'
Much More Common Than Realized
Alzheimer's
Nearly half a million elderly Americans likely died from Alzheimer's disease in 2010, a figure almost six times higher than previous estimates of annual deaths, according to a new study released on Wednesday.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has estimated that approximately 5 million people are living with Alzheimer's disease in the United States, and that 83,000 die from the condition each year.
"Many people do not realize that Alzheimer's is a fatal disease," said lead author Bryan D. James of the Rush Alzheimer's Disease Center in Chicago.
Current national estimates are based on death certificates, which tend to underestimate deaths from dementia, he and his colleagues write in the journal Neurology.
Alzheimer's
Journalists Charged With Terrorism
Al-Jazeera
Three Al-Jazeera journalists, including one Egyptian-Canadian, charged with terrorism-related offences, appeared in a makeshift court at a prison on the outskirts of Cairo Wednesday.
Mohamed Fahmy, a Canadian-Egyptian national who heads the Egypt bureau for Al-Jazeera English; Australian Peter Greste, a correspondent for the Qatar-based network; and Baher Mohamed, an Egyptian producer, are accused of working without accreditation and of assisting the Muslim Brotherhood, which Egypt has labelled a terrorist organization.
The three were arrested Dec. 29 and first appeared in the court set up at the Police Institute in Tora prison on Feb. 20. They have insisted they are not guilty of the charges against them.
Agence France Presse reports that Fahmy told the court Wednesday his right shoulder "has been broken for 10 weeks," and that he has been sleeping on the floor of his jail cell.
Al-Jazeera
Appoints AOL Lawyer
U.S. Patent Office
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has appointed a top lawyer at AOL Inc as its general counsel, the agency confirmed Wednesday.
Sarah Harris, AOL's deputy general counsel for intellectual property, will fill a post that has been empty since August 30, when the former general counsel, Bernard Knight, returned to private practice.
"We are thrilled to welcome Sarah Harris as the USPTO's new general counsel," said Michelle Lee, deputy director of the USPTO and deputy undersecretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property.
Lee, a former deputy general counsel at Google Inc, was appointed deputy director in December and holds the highest post in the agency.
U.S. Patent Office
Beyonce's Father Granted Cut In Child Support
Mathew Knowles
A judge approved a substantial cut in the amount of child support that Beyonce Knowles' father must pay because his income dropped after his superstar daughter fired him as her manager.
A ruling obtained by The Associated Press shows that a Los Angeles Superior Court judge cut the amount Mathew Knowles must pay to actress Alexsandra Wright from $12,000 a month to roughly $2,500 a month. The payments are for a son Knowles fathered with Wright while he was still married to Beyonce's mother.
Mathew Knowles sought a reduction in his child support payments, and a hearing was held earlier this year. Gordon agreed with Knowles' attorneys that his income had changed, but ordered him to pay $15,000 for Wright's legal fees.
Beyonce's mother filed for divorce in December 2009, about a month after Mathew Knowles was mentioned in Wright's paternity case. At the time, the pair had been married for nearly 30 years.
Mathew Knowles
Piano Hits Auction Block
'Help!'
Wealthy Beatles collectors who must own everything the band wore, played and looked at in their 1965 film Help! now have one more relic to covet: the piano John Lennon and Paul McCartney played while filming the movie is going up for auction. The songwriting partners composed the song "Help!" on a 1907 Bechstein Concert Grand, according to The BBC. Its current owner is the movie's director, Richard Lester, who also claims that McCartney played the instrument as he was composing "Yesterday." It is expected to go for £50,000 (over US $83,600) when it hits the block at Omega Auctions in Liverpool, England on March 20th.
Earlier this month, Omega Auctions announced that Lester would be putting up jackets that George Harrison and Ringo Starr wore in the movie in the same offering. The Fab Four also wore matching coats on the album cover, which are expected to sell for between $82,000 and $115,000. The auction will feature more than 200 more Beatles artifacts.
"As Beatles clothing goes, these have got to be amongst the Holy Grail for any Beatles collector," auctioneer Paul Fairweather said. "They feature on one of their most recognizable album covers and I have a feeling these could really fly off the block."
Incidentally, the date of the auction coincides with the 50th anniversary of the Beatles single "Can't Buy Me Love." Irony abounds.
'Help!'
Near Record
Great Lakes
Overall, winters may become milder as the planet warms, but this season has been a stunningly cold outlier for eastern North America. Case in point? The frozen Great Lakes.
Yesterday (March 4), the Great Lakes hit 91 percent ice cover, according to the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory. That's the most ice since the record of 94.7 percent was set in 1973, the lab said in a statement.
Except for Lake Ontario, nearly all the Great Lakes are frozen stiff, just like everyone on the East Coast. In fact, if the months of below-normal temperatures and freezing winds persist, the Great Lakes could meet or break their 1973 record, the lab said. The ice hasn't been this widespread since 1994, when 90.4 percent of the Great Lakes were under ice. The average ice cover is usually just above 50 percent, and only occasionally passes 80 percent, according to the lab.
The freeze could be good news for the region. Last year saw record low water levels in the Great Lakes, but the ice cover will help lessen evaporation, one of the biggest factors in lake water loss.
Great Lakes
Spare Tire Surprise
Amherst, Ohio
An Ohio woman took the car she bought seven months ago to a dealership to replace a flat tire this week and learned she has been driving around with eight pounds of marijuana in the spare.
Mechanics at the dealership in Amherst, Ohio, west of Cleveland made the discovery when they installed the spare tire and heard a "loud thumping" as the woman drove away, police said on Wednesday.
They found marijuana worth about $12,000 wrapped in plastic that had been stashed in the tire, according to Chief Deputy Dennis Cavanaugh of the Lorain County, Ohio Sheriff Department.
The car was purchased new in August.
Amherst, Ohio
Acoustic Properties
Stonehenge
Stonehenge has been the source of endless speculation since the strange formation of rocks was first discovered.
But a new theory may be the most interesting of all, with some now saying the rocks at Stonehenge were chosen because of their acoustic properties.
"There had to be something special about these rocks," archaeo-acoustic expert Paul Devereux told the BBC. "It hasn't been considered until now that sound might have been a factor."
Devereux led a project by the Royal College of Art in London, which attempts to understand how ancient humans perceived their world. The study results, published in the journal Time and Mind found that a number of the bluestone rocks at Stonehenge emitted sounds similar to bells when they are struck.
If the stone's sonic properties were a motivating factor for those who transported them approximately 200 miles to the Stonehenge site, it may help further explain why some historic artifacts have said the rocks had mystical properties. Earlier this month, researchers said they had pinpointed the exact location that a number of Stonehenge's bluestones were originally transported from. However, the new research has ultimately raised even more questions as to how exactly ancient humans were able to transport them over such a great distance.
Stonehenge
In Memory
Gail Gerber
Actress-dancer Gail Gerber, a vivacious blonde with a shapely figure and a flair for comedy remembered most for her appearances in a few beach and Elvis films during the mid-'60s, died from complications of lung cancer in Sharon, Conn., on March 2. She was 76.
A Canadian, Gerber moved to Hollywood after in 1963 and quickly snagged the lead role in the play "Under the Yum Yum Tree." She also appeared on TV series including "My Three Sons," "Perry Mason" and "Wagon Train." She made her film debut in "The Girls on the Beach" (1965), co-starring the Beach Boys, before her agent suggested she change her name and, as Gail Gilmore, she went on to appear opposite Elvis Presley in "Girl Happy" (1965) and "Harum Scarum" (1965). She then returned to the sands of Malibu to co-star with Edd "Kookie" Byrnes in "Beach Ball" (1965) before growing to gigantic proportions along with five other delinquent teenagers, including Beau Bridges and Tisha Sterling, who terrorize a town in "Village of the Giants" (1965).
Gerber had a minor role as a cosmetician in Tony Richardson's black comedy "The Loved One," and she met its screenwriter Terry Southern, who was riding high due to the success of his satirical novels "Candy" and "The Magic Christian" and the movie "Dr. Strangelove," which he co-wrote. The two hit it off immediately and, despite their marriages to others, became inseparable. Gail even abandoned her acting career in 1966 to live with him in New York, then Connecticut, where she remained his longtime companion until his death in 1995. During that time she taught ballet for more than 25 years.
Gerber was born in Edmonton, Alberta, and began studying ballet at age 7; at 15 she became the youngest member of Les Grandes Ballets Canadiennes in Montreal. Quitting the ballet troupe in the late 1950s and abandoning a husband who was a jazz musician, she moved to Toronto to work as an actress. She appeared on stage and in many live CBC television dramas. As part of the act of vaudeville entertainers Smith and Dale (who were the basis for the Sunshine Boys), she appeared on "The Wayne and Schuster Show" and "The Ed Sullivan Show" before heading for Hollywood.
Gail Gerber
In Memory
Geoff Edwards
Geoff Edwards' agent says the veteran TV game show host has died at age 83.
Fred Westbrook says Edwards died of complications of pneumonia Wednesday afternoon at a Los Angeles area hospital.
Edwards was the emcee of game shows including "Treasure Hunt" and "Jackpot." He also worked as a radio DJ and made appearances on TV series including "Petticoat Junction," ''I Dream of Jeannie" and "Diff'rent Strokes."
Geoff Edwards
While being a newscaster, he found himself involved in the year's biggest story not long after he arrived, being dispatched to Dallas to cover the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. While covering the story, he was present at Jack Ruby's shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald, and in fact, was interviewed by the NBC national correspondent on that network's coverage of the incident. [24 November 1963].
Geoff Edwards - Biography - IMDb
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