Dr. Dave Goldberg: "Will the universe end in a 'Big Rip'"? (io9)
There's overwhelming evidence that the universe is accelerating. This means that the future is going to be a relatively lonely place, with galaxies getting ever further from one another, and no hope (if there ever was any) of traveling between them. But could the accelerating universe be even more grim than that?
Paul Krugman: Building a Mystery (New York Times)
But it's no mystery why Bini Smaghi and Meltzer would find it all very puzzling - they personally got everything wrong. Bini Smaghi spent years sneering at anyone suggesting that Greece might need to write off some of its debts. Meltzer has been predicting runaway inflation for four years.
Annalee Newitz: Handy charts reveal why you've never heard of most female SF authors (io9)
Over at Strange Horizons, the editors have done their yearly assessment of the state of gender in genre publishing. The good news is that men and women are published in almost equal numbers. The bad news is that books by men are reviewed far more often. So when women get published, you rarely hear about them.
Niall Harrison: The 2012 SF Count (Strange Horizons)
VIDA started it. In 2010, they published the first iteration of "The Count", a straightforward analysis of how literary coverage is affected by gender. For a range of notable publications, VIDA calculated the proportion of books reviewed that were by women, and the proportion of reviewers that were women, and published pie charts illustrating their findings. They published similar analyses for 2011 and, most recently, for 2012. Each year, a consistent imbalance has been observed: more books by men are reviewed, and more book reviewers are men.
Charlie Jane Anders: "Summer Movie Preview: 33 Movies To Watch Out For" (io9)
Will this be the summer that all your favorite icons reach their true potential for greatness on the big screen? Or will all your favorite characters be stuck in generic tentpole films about angst and terrorism? We'll find out soon! Here's the complete guide to this summer's science fiction, fantasy and comic book films.
Liam Neeson's Pizza is Taken
"If you return my PIZZA, that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will ask nicely for my slices back."
Since margarine intrinsically appears white or almost white, by forbidding the addition of artificial coloring agents, legislators found that they could protect the dairy industries by discouraging the consumption of margarine based on visual appeal. Bans on adding color became commonplace in the U.S., Australasia, Canada and Denmark and, in some cases, those bans endured for almost 100 years. It did not become legal to sell colored margarine in Australia, for example, until the 1960s. The rivalry between the dairy industry and the oleomargarine industry persists even today.
Source
Alan J was first, and correct, with:
White
Jim from CA, retired to ID, said:
Margarine naturally appears white
Charlie wrote:
Though there are claims it is naturally black, most sources say it's white (some say gray).
Maurice replied:
Lard white
Adam answered:
'It's grey first then bleached to look white, then a natural flavor is added and a yellow dye.'
DanD responded:
Uh, Caucasian?
Sally said:
I am not even going to look this question up online because I remember it so well. It started during the war, the big one, WWII.
The first margarine was white, and had a little red packet enclosed in the container. We were instructed not to use the product until we 'worked in' the colored packet. And, that was not easy either! The fake butter was like Crisco, and it took a while to distribute the coloring evenly. It tasted nothing like butter, but did look similar after the fact.
This is what the rich folks used, LOL!
Amen sisters!
Marian responded:
black
Dale of Diamond Springs, Norcali, replied:
White as lard!!! My parents and grandparents remembered the Oleo. Enjoy Delrich with the easy-color squishpak!!!! YUCK!!!!!
MAM wrote:
Naturally appears white or almost white.
BttbBob replied:
My agent has reminded me that as I am a 'butter' guy, I am not required to answer questions about (Ack!) margarine. However, I will accede this once (only in the spirit of cooperation, mind you now) and say that dagnab awful stuff (I don't think ants will even eat it) is naturally white in color. There... I have done my duty... May I be excused now, Boss? Yes? Thank you...
~~~~~
I wouldn't think that my yard robins are very happy this morning, it being 34º and snowing. I should think that they prefer their worms to be soft and wiggly rather than frozen hard, dontcha know? Indeed, I went outside and didn't hear nary a happy, morning robin warble. No, I did not. No doubt, they are hunkered down in the pine trees muttering "WTF!", or some such thing...
~~~~~
Happy Birthday this day to:
Al Pacino (72) [
Al Pacino: From Scarface to The Godfather - YouTube ]
Rene Zellweger (43) [
Chicago - Nowadays (Finale) - YouTube (with Catherine Zeta-Jones) ]
Talia Shire (66) [
Talia Shire On Michael Corleone - YouTube ]
Meadowlark Lemon (80) Clown Prince of the Harlem Globetrotters [
Harlem GlobeTrotters tribute ( Best Moments) - YouTube ]
(I saw them do their funny stuff in my high school gym in '67... Amazing)
Jason Lee (42) His name was Earl... [
My Name Is Earl! Season 1 Trailer! - YouTube ]
Stu Cook (67) Bassist for Creedence Clearwater Revival [
Born On The Bayou - Creedence Clearwater Revival - YouTube ] (Live)
Born this day:
Ella Fitzgerald (1917-1996) [
Ella fitzgerald - Mack The Knife High quality - YouTube ] (very nice!)
Edward R. Murrow (1908-1965) [
Edward R Murrow vs Joe McCarthy - YouTube ]
Guglielmo Marconi (1874-1937) Father of Radio... in his honor, I give you...
Rush- Spirit Of The Radio - YouTube
"Begin the day with a friendly voice,
A companion unobtrusive
Plays that song that's so elusive
And the magic music makes your morning mood..."
April 25 Birthdays - Celebrities Born April 25 | Famous Birthdays
~~~~~
I don't know about you, but I'm about sick of this sequester bullshit... and giving tens of millions of our dollars to the Syrian rebels, too, fer that matter. I think we're up to about $250 million now thrown in that quagmire nightmare...
IMO, of course.
And, Joe S said:
I remember my mother putting a block of white "oleo" (we called it oly) on a bowl and sprinkling a packet of reddish/orangish powder over it and then mashing it all up and mixing the color all through it until it was yellow. As far as I can remember we never had anything so fancy as the product pictured below.
CBS opens the night with a FRESH'Big Bang Theory', followed by a FRESH'2½ Men', then a FRESH'Person Of Interest', followed by a FRESH'Elementary'.
Scheduled on a FRESHDave are Jim Parsons, a Top Ten List presented by the cover athlete of the Madden 25 video game, and Snoop Lion.
Scheduled on a FRESHCraig are Zac Efron and Anna Quindlen.
NBC begins the night with a FRESH'Community', followed by a RERUN'The Office', then a FRESH'The Office', followed by a FRESH'Parks & Recreation', then a FRESH'Hannibal'.
Scheduled on a FRESHLeno are Gwyneth Paltrow, JB Smoove, and Billy Ray Cyrus.
Scheduled on a FRESHJimmy Fallon are Susan Sarandon, Anthony Mackie, the National, and Aaron & Bryce Dessner.
Scheduled on a FRESHCarson 'The Scab' Daly are Kevin Bacon, Ron Finley, and Superhumanoids.
ABC starts the night with a FRESH'Wife Swap', followed by a FRESH'Grey's Anatomy', then a FRESH'Scandal'.
Scheduled on a FRESHJimmy Kimmel are Kaley Cuoco, Goran Visnjic, and Olly Murs.
The CW offers a FRESH'Vampire Diaries', followed by a FRESH'Beauty & The Beast'.
Faux has a FRESH'American Idol', followed by a FRESH'Glee'.
MY has an old 'White Collar', followed by another old 'White Collar'.
A&E has 'The First 48', another 'The First 48', followed by a FRESH'The First 48', then a FRESH'The Killer Speaks'.
AMC offers the movie 'The Devil's Own', 'Freakshow', another 'Freakshow', still another 'Freakshow', yet another 'Freakshow', 'Comic Book Men', and another 'Comic Book Men'.
BBC -
[6:00AM] BBC WORLD NEWS
[7:00AM] BBC WORLD NEWS
[8:00AM] THE GRAHAM NORTON SHOW - Season 9 - Ep 10 - Cameron Diaz, Kathy Griffin, Bear Grylls, Friendly Fires
[9:00AM] THE GRAHAM NORTON SHOW - Season 9 - Ep 11 - Kim Catrall, Jessie Wallace, Lee Mack, The Saturdays
[10:00AM] DOCTOR WHO - Season 5 - Ep 5 - Flesh and Stone
[11:00AM] DOCTOR WHO - Season 5 - Ep 6 - Vampires in Venice
[12:00PM] MERLIN - Season 2 - Ep 5 - Beauty and the Beast (Part 1)
[1:00PM] RAMSAY'S KITCHEN NIGHTMARES US - Season 2 - Ep 3 - Trobiano's
[2:00PM] RAMSAY'S KITCHEN NIGHTMARES UK - Season 2 - Ep 6 - Clubway 41
[3:00PM] RAMSAY'S KITCHEN NIGHTMARES REVISITED US - Season 4 - Ep 2 - Spanish Pavilion, Kingston Cafe, Capri, La Frite
[4:00PM] DOCTOR WHO: THE SNOWMEN
[5:00PM] DOCTOR WHO - Season 7 - Ep 6 - The Bells of Saint John
[6:00PM] DOCTOR WHO - Season 7 - Ep 7 - The Rings of Akhaten
[7:00PM] DOCTOR WHO - Season 7 - Ep 8 - Cold War
[8:00PM] DOCTOR WHO - Season 7 - Ep 9 - Hide
[9:00PM] ORPHAN BLACK - Season 1 - Ep 4 - Effects of External Conditions
[10:00PM] THE GRAHAM NORTON SHOW - Season 13 - Ep 3 - Gwyneth Paltrow, Lee Mack, Mo Farah, Hurts NEW
[11:00PM] DOCTOR WHO - Season 7 - Ep 9 - Hide
[12:00AM] ORPHAN BLACK - Season 1 - Ep 4 - Effects of External Conditions
[1:00AM] THE GRAHAM NORTON SHOW - Season 13 - Ep 3 - Gwyneth Paltrow, Lee Mack, Mo Farah, Hurts
[2:00AM] THE SCIENCE OF DOCTOR WHO
[3:00AM] THE TIMEY-WIMEY OF DOCTOR WHO
[4:00AM] DOCTOR WHO: BEST OF THE DOCTOR
[5:00AM] DOCTOR WHO: BEST OF THE MONSTERS (ALL TIMES EST)
Bravo has 'Tabatha Takes Over', 'Real Housewives Of OC', another 'Real Housewives Of OC', followed by a FRESH'Tabatha Takes Over'.
Comedy Central has last night's 'Colbert Report', last night's 'Jon Stewart', 'It's Always Sunny In Philly', another 'It's Always Sunny In Philly', 'Tosh.0', another 'Tosh.0', and 'Jim Norton: Please Be Offended'.
Scheduled on a FRESHJon Stewart is Sen. Joe Manchin.
Scheduled on a FRESHColbert Report is Bishop Gene Robinson.
FX has '2½ Men', followed by the movie 'Unstoppable', then a FRESH'Anger Management', '2½ Men', another '2½ Men', followed by a FRESH'BrandX With Russell Brand'.
History has 'Swamp People', another 'Swamp People', followed by a FRESH'Swamp People', then a FRESH'Chasing Tail', followed by another FRESH'Chasing Tail'.
IFC -
[6:00AM] Beyond the Gates
[8:30AM] The Objective
[10:30AM] The Cable Guy
[12:30PM] Beyond the Gates
[3:00PM] The Core
[5:45PM] Suicide Kings
[8:00PM] Boogie Nights
[11:15PM] House of 1000 Corpses
[1:15AM] Boogie Nights
[4:30AM] Onion News Network-Man-Horse Marriage
[5:00AM] Onion News Network-Fifth Anniversary
[5:30AM] Onion News Network-The Trial of TR-425 (ALL TIMES EST)
Sundance -
[6:00AM] Freaks and Geeks-Noshing and Moshing
[7:00AM] Roll Bounce
[9:00AM] Gigantic
[10:45AM] Man Shops Globe-Sweden
[11:15AM] Thumbsucker
[1:00PM] Roll Bounce
[3:00PM] Freaks and Geeks-Noshing and Moshing
[4:00PM] Gigantic
[5:45PM] Marathon Man
[8:00PM] Rectify-Two Hour Premiere
[10:00PM] The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
[1:15AM] The Girl Who Played With Fire
[4:30AM] Superheroes (ALL TIMES EST)
SyFy has the movie 'Catwoman', followed by the movie 'V For Vendetta'.
TBS:
On a RERUNConan (from 2/20/13) are Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi, Jenni "JWoww" Farley, Ken Marino, and Mark Normand.
Talk show host Jimmy Kimmel and fiancee Molly McNearney attend the TIME 100 Gala celebrating the "100 Most Influential People in the World" at Jazz at Lincoln Center on Tuesday April 23, 2013 in New York.
Photo by Evan Agostini
The Cannes Film Festival announced its most Hollywood-heavy jury lineup in years Wednesday, with a list that includes Oscar winners Nicole Kidman, Christoph Waltz and Ang Lee.
Veteran filmmaker Steven Spielberg, who is 2013's jury president, will make this an Oscar-winning quartet - a rare event for a festival that prides itself on celebrating less mainstream, independent cinema.
Other jurors include French actor Daniel Auteuil, Indian actress Vidya Balan, Scottish director Lynne Ramsay, and Japanese filmmaker Naomi Kawase.
They will all vote on the 19 nominated films, which include a sprinkling of works by old Cannes favorites like Roman Polanski, the Coen Brothers and Steven Soderbergh, to decide the winner of the coveted Palme d'Or. The festival's top accolade will be awarded on May 26.
Actress Amy Poehler arrives for the Time 100 gala celebrating the magazine's naming of the 100 most influential people in the world for the past year in New York, April 23, 2013.
Photo by Lucas Jackson
Academy Award-winning actor and director Ben Affleck is among six artists, writers, scientists and educators selected to receive honorary degrees from Brown University at next month's graduation ceremonies.
The Ivy League school in Rhode Island says Affleck will receive a doctor of fine arts during commencement exercises May 26. The Massachusetts native directed, produced and starred in "Argo," which won this year's Oscar for Best Picture.
Others getting honorary doctorates are author and MIT Professor Junot Diaz; retired Stanford University bacteriologist Stanley Falkow; Tougaloo College President Beverly Wade Hogan; medical doctor and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation President Risa Lavizzo-Mourey; and Miami Dade College President Eduardo Padron.
Sales for Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline" are up by 597 per cent a week after the tune became a source of comfort following the explosions at the Boston Marathon.
Nielsen SoundScan said Wednesday the song sold 19,000 tracks this week. It sold 2,800 tracks the previous week and 1.75 million tracks to date.
The crowd-pleasing song is a staple of Boston Red Sox games. It makes no specific mention of Boston or the Red Sox, but the team started playing it regularly at Fenway Park more than a decade ago and fans took to it.
Diamond released "Sweet Caroline" in 1969. It is addressed to Caroline Kennedy.
Television host Jimmy Fallon arrives with Nancy Juvonen for the Time 100 gala celebrating the magazine's naming of the 100 most influential people in the world for the past year, in New York, April 23, 2013.
Photo by Lucas Jackson
Alexandria, Va., and Knoxville, Tenn., are cities for readers, if not always the kinds of books your parents wanted you to read.
Alexandria and Knoxville ranked No. 1 and No. 2 on Amazon.com's annual list of U.S. cities buying the most books, newspapers and magazines per capita from the online retailer.
The list released Wednesday includes cities with populations of 100,000 or more. Alexandria, located just outside Washington, D.C., also topped the list last year.
Miami was No. 3. Next on the list were Cambridge, Mass.; Orlando, Fla.; Ann Arbor, Mich.; Berkeley, Calif.; Cincinnati; Columbia, S.C.; and Pittsburgh.
Now taking bets for the worst job in America. Any takers?
If you bet sewage plant operator, funeral director or dishwasher, you lose this round. No, even military generals and maids have a better balance of work environment, stress and hiring outlook than the job that sunk to the bottom of this year's Career Cast rankings with a clunk.
Newspaper reporter earned the number 200 position - landing below lumberjack - due to the company's assessment that print journalists suffer from high stress and a difficult work environment. Not to mention the ranking for their chance at a promising career future falls into the negatives.
Career Cast lists the average income of US newspaper reporters at $35,275, considerably less than the higher-ranked job of photojournalist. However, photojournalists still fall near the bottom of the job list at slot number 188, slightly behind radio and television broadcasters.
The best job in America, according to the list, is actuary . Despite all those probability calculations of death and destruction, the rankings indicate actuaries have a relatively low-stress work environment and a high chance of employment at a high wage.
Director Penelope Spheeris (L) and cast member Lara Flynn Boyle greet each other before a screening and panel discussion for the reunion of the cast of the 1992 movie "Wayne's World" at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Beverly Hills, California April 23, 2013.
Photo by Mario Anzuoni
An Italian artist decorated the Louvre museum's glass pyramid Wednesday for the first time in the iconic monument's history, in a protest against capitalism. The artwork, a huge three-looped infinity sign made of mirrors, faces due west onto France's business district, La Defense.
Michelangelo Pistoletto, one of the world's leading conceptual artists, covered one panel of the pyramid with the reflective symbol that's meant as a defiant political gesture: Politicians and society must look at follies of excess that led to the global financial crisis.
Pistoletto, one of the main exponents of "Arte Povera," an influential movement that uses poor and everyday materials in art to protest against consumerism, has no doubt as to his art's message.
"Politicians should look at themselves in the mirror, and learn to take responsibility for this terrible mess and think of the infinite future ahead for humanity," he told The Associated Press.
The installation continues deep inside the museum in more than a dozen separate works that the artist has "hidden" among the sprawling classical antiquities, made from mirrors and secondhand rags.
Cast members Dana Carvey (L) and Mike Myers pose before a screening and panel discussion for the reunion of the cast of the 1992 movie "Wayne's World" at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Beverly Hills, California April 23, 2013.
Photo by Mario Anzuoni
Jon Stewart is pretty great a skewering Donald Trump, and Donald Trump is pretty good at typing on an electronic device in order to post a short message on Twitter. Trump struggles in this asymmetrical warfare. On Wednesday, he lowered himself - a major feat in itself - to outing Jon Stewart as a Jew. "I promise you that I'm much smarter than Jonathan Leibowitz - I mean Jon Stewart @TheDailyShow. Who, by the way, is totally overrated," Trump tweeted. He then defended his hair, claiming it is not a wig.
The whole punchline of Trump's tweet is that Stewart is Jewish. As we've all learned over the past couple years, Trump is very fixated on the ethnic identity. He fake-ran for president on the platform that President Obama was maybe not an American citizen. At the Conservative Political Action Conference in March, Trump said we need less Latino immigrants and more European immigrants. As America's top public buffoon, Trump is not overrated.
Children of the American painter Mark Rothko, Kate Rothko Prizel (R) and Christopher Rothko attend the opening ceremony of the new Rothko Art Center in Daugavpils April 24, 2013. The center opened Wednesday in the artist's native town. It is considered to be a multi-functional contemporary arts complex, a cultural and educational institution, located in the former Artillery Arsenal building of the historic Daugavpils fortress, housing six original paintings by Rothko, according to arts center.
Photo by Ints Kalnins
The BBC is hoping to revive that simpler time with "Tweet of the Day" - an early-morning radio program dedicated to British birdsong.
The broadcaster announced Wednesday that veteran naturalist David Attenborough will host the 90-second show, which will feature the song of a different bird each weekday, along with background on the species' behavior, habits and place in literature and folklore.
The BBC said 265 different birds will be featured during the year-long series, which begins May 6 with a recording of the cuckoo and moves on to song thrushes, swifts and wood warblers.
The Beatles collarless suits from "A Hard Days Night" are displayed at Gotta Have it! auction house in New York, April 24, 2013. The online auction house will be auctioning off iconic items belonging to music legends such as; Michael Jackson, The Beatles, Jim Morrison and Elvis Presley through their www.gottahaverockandroll.com through May 3.
Photo by Brendan McDermid
Researchers have identified the voice of Alexander Graham Bell for the first time in some of the earliest audio recordings held at the Smithsonian Institution.
The National Museum of American History announced Wednesday that Bell's voice was identified with help from technicians at the Library of Congress and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California. The museum holds some of the earliest audio recordings ever made.
Researchers found a transcript of one recording signed by Bell. It was matched to a wax disc recording from April 15, 1885.
"Hear my voice, Alexander Graham Bell," the inventor said.
The experimental recording also includes a series of numbers. The transcript notes the record was made at Bell's Volta Laboratory in Washington. Other recordings from the time include lines from Shakespeare.
An idol of warrior god Aravan is kept in a chariot during the annual eunuch festival at Koovagam village, in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu April 24, 2013. Transgenders and transvestites gather in the village every year to participate in the reenactment of the tale of Indian epic Mahabharata, in which they play the bride of warrior god Aravan and later mourn his death through ritualistic dances, according to a villager.
Photo by Babu
A site near Stonehenge has revealed archaeological evidence that hunters lived just a mile from Stonehenge roughly 5,000 years prior to the construction of the first stones, new research suggests.
What's more, the site, which was occupied continuously for 3,000 years, had evidence of burning, thousands of flint tool fragments and bones of wild aurochs, a type of extinct giant cow. That suggests the area near Stonehenge may have been an auroch migration route that became an ancient feasting site, drawing people together from across different cultures in the region, wrote lead researcher David Jacques of the Open University in the United Kingdeom, in an email.
The new discovery may also identify the people who first erected structures at Stonehenge. A few gigantic pine posts, possibly totem poles, were raised at Stonehenge between 8,500 and 10,000 years ago, but until now there was scant evidence of occupation in the area that long ago. The new research suggests those ancient structures may perhaps have been raised to honor a sacred hunting ground.
The team uncovered roughly 350 animal bones and 12,500 flint tools or fragments, as well as lots of evidence of burning. Carbon dating suggested the area was occupied by humans from 7500 B.C. to 4700 B.C. - roughly 5,000 years prior to the erection of the first stones at Stonehenge.
A transgender goes into trance as they mourn the death of warrior god Aravan during the annual eunuch festival at Koovagam village, in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu April 24, 2013. Transgenders and transvestites gather in the village every year to participate in the reenactment of the tale of Indian epic Mahabharata, in which they play the bride of warrior god Aravan and later mourn his death through ritualistic dances, according to a villager.
Photo by Babu
The Columbus Zoo's recent additions include a monkey named after a quirky scientist character on the CBS comedy "The Big Bang Theory."
The colobus monkey named Dr. Sheldon Cooper was born March 3. A spokeswoman says zoo staff pick names based on themes, and they made the TV show the latest one because they're fans.
She says keepers joke it's too soon to tell whether the monkey will live up to his namesake's brilliance.
An inflatable sculpture "Complex Pile" by visual artist Paul McCarthy of the U.S. is displayed as part of an exhibition "Inflation!" at the site of an upcoming park in the West Kowloon cultural district in Hong Kong April 24, 2013. "The Park" as it will be called, will cover 14 hectares of landscaped public space devoted to the arts and culture and will open by phases starting from 2014/15, according to the official press release.
Photo by Bobby Yip
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How about a favorite TV show, movie, book, play, cartoon, or legal amusement?
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