Recommended Reading
from Bruce
David Bruce: Wise Up! Couples (athensnews.com)
Apparently, the Orange Bowl Marathon in Miami, Fla., is a very romantic race to run. In 1980, Ken Gomberg and Debra Faillace were running together when Mr. Gomberg proposed to her at the 25-mile mark. In 1981, Bob Godwin and Ann Conlin were running together when Mr. Godwin proposed to her at the 18-mile mark. Both couples ended up crossing the finish line while holding hands.
Mark Morford: Your momma sucks iPad (sfgate.com)
So there I was, giving my wonderful but happily technologically unconcerned septuagenarian mother her 147th semi-repeated lesson on how to do various relatively simple tasks on her beloved MacBook, because as default Apple tech support for my whole family, that's just how I roll.
Froma Harrop: How Much Cyber-Parenting Must Schools Do? (creators.com)
A boy has apparently sent filthy text messages to your daughter over the weekend. Both are sixth-graders at the same school. You, the girl's father, coach sports with the boy's father. What would you do?
Jeevan Vasagar, education editor: [British] Graduates warned of record 70 applicants for every job (guardian.co.uk)
Class of 2010 told to consider flipping burgers or shelf stacking to build skills as they also compete with last year's graduates.
Richard (RJ) Eskow: The War For Financial Independence: The Call to Surrender (huffingtonpost.com)
There's a new conventional wisdom forming in Washington, DC: the American dream of financial independence and security is gone. The ideal of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" is dead. Deal with it.
Jim Hightower: FRANKEN V. ROBERTS (jimhightower.com)
Way to go, Al! At last, there's a Democrat in the Senate who's acting like a real Democrat in the FDR mold, unafraid and unabashed to go right at the corporate powers who dominate our economy, environment, media, politics, and government. Al Franken, the new Minnesota senator who won the seat once held by the fighting populist, Paul Wellstone, is shaking up the Washington establishment on behalf of regular folks.
"From Eternity to Here: The Quest for the Ultimate Theory of Time" by Sean Carroll: A review by David Lindley
Stars as well as human beings are born, grow old, and die.
Jim Walker: Another view on 'The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists' (guardian.co.uk)
A life-long painter and decorator reveals how 'The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists' made him determined to be a good boss.
Richard Roeper: Chappelle's legacy takes another hit (suntimes.com)
Well, that's a new one. Spokespeople for celebrities often have to come up with creative explanations for their clients' troubles, e.g., the "checked into the hospital for exhaustion" routine.
Nosheen Iqbal: Portrait of the artist: Edward Albee, playwright (guardian.co.uk)
'Which artists do I admire? Good ones. Would I like to give any examples? Nope - they know who they are.'
The Weekly Poll
Summer Sabbatical
Poll returns 13 July!
BadToTheBoneBob
Going out on a limb here
wrote:
answered:
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Reader Answer
Caterpillar Identified
Hi Marty,
I love a challenge. This link will show your caterpillar is the 4th instar of the Anise Swallowtail, a western specialty. I thought it was some kind of swallowtail when I saw the pic on Tuesday, but assumed someone would have answered by now. There are several pics on the page, including one with the "horns" which are called osmeteria; these are glands that secrete a noxious substance to discourage predators but which are ineffective on teenage boys.
Hope the pics come over your dial-up OK.
Steve
Thanks, Steve!
Wow! That's it!
The kid has found 7 of them (so far).
Here's today's picture.
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
The first 6 days of January were warmer here than the first 6 days of July, and I'm not complaining.
Helms YouTube Competition
Ridley Scott
Hollywood directors Ridley Scott and Kevin Macdonald will pull together video from YouTube users for a documentary that captures for future generations the global community in one day, YouTube said on Wednesday.
The documentary, called "Life in a Day," will select footage from 20 people around the world who capture moments of their daily lives on July 24. They will be credited as co-directors on the film and flown to its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival held in January.
Macdonald, who made critically-acclaimed "The Last King of Scotland," will direct the feature-length documentary and Scott, who helmed Oscar-winning "Gladiator" and a host of hits such as "Blade Runner," "Alien," and "Thelma & Louise," will produce.
To participate, YouTube users must upload their footage to youtube.com/lifeinaday.
Ridley Scott
14 New Additions
California Hall of Fame
What do actress Betty White, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Barbra Streisand and "Avatar" director James Cameron have in common?
All four are among the 14 people who will be inducted into the California Hall of Fame -- the four-year-old institution honoring trailblazers who helped put the U.S. state on the world map.
The other 2010 inductees are tennis champion Serena Williams, country singer Merle Haggard, former Secretary of State George Shultz and 1960s California governor Pat Brown. Also included are author Anne Lamott, artist Wayne Thiebaud, investor John Doerr, banker A.P. Gianinni, 19th century blue jeans maker Levi Strauss, and historian Dr. Kevin Starr.
Past inductees include Hollywood studio founder Walt Disney, Jane Fonda, Tiger Woods and cowboy actor John Wayne.
California Hall of Fame
Headlining World Cup Closing Ceremony
Shakira
World Cup organizers promise a high-tech closing ceremony featuring pop star Shakira, compared to the more traditionally African ceremony which opened the tournament.
Organizing committee spokesman Jermaine Craig says Sunday's show at Soccer City will be "more youthful and a bit more technologically advanced" than the June 11 opening ceremony.
The closing ceremony is scheduled to start at 6:30 p.m. local time, two hours before the final match kicks off.
Colombian star Shakira will perform the official tournament anthem "Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)." Shakira also performed the song at a June 10 World Cup concert in Soweto.
Shakira
Calendar Girl
Betty White
Betty White is catapulting to true "IT girl" status with her very own calendar.
It's true. The 88-year-old actress is posing for her own 2011 calendar. Some of the photos are archival, others are Betty with animals and more than one month features Betty posing with shirtless, beefcake-type men.
The Betty White Calendar costs $12.99 and will go on sale in September.
Royalties will go to the Morris Animal Foundation where White serves as a trustee.
Betty White
Renewed For Second Season
"Hot in Cleveland"
Betty White's hot streak continues.
The ex-"Golden Girls" star's new TV Land sitcom, "Hot in Cleveland," has been picked up for a second season. The network has made a significant commitment to the show, ordering 20 episodes -- twice as many as season one. The second season is tentatively scheduled to debut in January next year.
The order also answers the question of whether co-star White would continue with the show. The 88-year-old actress initially agreed only to a single season, and expressed some reservations about diving full time into a series commitment.
"Hot in Cleveland" debuted last month to 4.8 million viewers, which TV Land touts as the most-watched sitcom telecast in cable TV history.
"Hot in Cleveland"
Turner Masterpiece Sets Record Auction Price
"Modern Rome -- Campo Vaccino"
Sotheby's sold a Turner masterpiece for 29.7 million pounds ($45.10 million) on Wednesday, a record for the artist at auction and eclipsing pre-sale expectations of 12-18 million pounds.
The painting "Modern Rome -- Campo Vaccino" was the top-selling work at the auctioneer's evening summer sale of Old Master and British paintings in London that produced nine artist records.
It took just 5 minutes for the British master's final painting of Rome to achieve the record, according to Sotheby's, with six bidders battling it out for a rare work that had come up for sale only once before in its 171-year history.
The previous record was 20.5 million pounds for Turner's view of Venice entitled "Giudecca, La Donna della Salute and San Giorgio" in April 2006.
"Modern Rome -- Campo Vaccino"
Fires Editor Over Tweet
CNN
CNN has fired an editor responsible for Middle Eastern coverage after she posted a note on Twitter expressing admiration for a late Lebanese cleric considered an inspiration for the Hezbollah militant movement.
Octavia Nasr later apologized for her tweet, but CNN's senior vice president for international newsgathering, Parisa Khosravi, said Wednesday that Nasr's credibility had been compromised.
The Atlanta-based Nasr worked at CNN for 20 years, starting as an assignment editor on the international desk. Her job was mostly off the air, but she occasionally would appear as an onscreen analyst during discussions of Middle Eastern news.
Lebanon's Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah died Sunday after a long illness. He was staunchly anti-American and linked to bombings that killed more than 260 Americans, a charge he denied.
Nasr later said in a blog that she had been referring to Fadlallah's attitude toward women's rights. The cleric had issued edicts banning so-called "honor killing" of women and giving women the right to hit their husbands if attacked first.
CNN
Disney Owes $269.2M
'Millionaire'
A federal jury on Wednesday awarded $269.2 million in damages to the creators of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" because they didn't get their fair share of profits from the popular Walt Disney Co. television game show.
The jury of five women and four men returned a unanimous verdict agreeing with a British TV production company, the London-based Celador International, which accused Walt Disney of using creative accounting to hide profits.
The trial was held before Judge Virginia Phillips in U.S. District Court in Riverside, about 60 miles east of Los Angeles.
The jury awarded $260 million in license fees and $9.2 million for merchandising claims, which were made based on $70 million in sales of a home edition of the game show.
'Millionaire'
Wins Verdict In 'Nash Bridges' Case
Don Johnson
A jury has awarded Don Johnson $23.2 million in profits from the TV series "Nash Bridges" and issued rulings that may mean even more money for the actor.
The jury award came after a two-week trial during which Johnson claimed he was owed millions in profits from the show, which aired for six seaons on CBS.
He sued three entertainment companies - Rysher Entertainment, 2929 Entertainment and Qualia Capital - in February 2009.
Jurors confirmed that Johnson's contract for "Nash Bridges" included a provision that made him a 50 percent owner in the show's copyright. That determination could mean more money for the 60-year-old actor in the coming years.
Don Johnson
Conductor To Leave Thailand
Mikhail Pletnev
A Thai court Wednesday granted permission for Russian conductor Mikhail Pletnev to leave the country temporarily following his arrest on charges of raping a 14-year-old boy, a spokesman said.
Pletnev, artistic director of the acclaimed Russian National Orchestra, was released Tuesday after he posted 300,000 baht (9,300 dollars) bail. He is required to report back to court in Thailand every 12 days.
The musician first shot to fame as a virtuoso pianist, winning the International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1978 at the age of 21.
He is a member of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's advisory council on culture and art and in 2005 won a Grammy award for best chamber music performance.
Mikhail Pletnev
Suit Filed
"Death at a Funeral"
A woman is demanding $20 million in damages from Sony Pictures, Chris Rock and other producers of the April comedy "Death at a Funeral," claiming they ripped off her 1995 book about the embarrassment she suffered at a funeral in Jamaica when she was stripped of her clothing.
The woman, Pamela Lawrence, is representing herself in court and has filed a lawsuit stuffed with outrageous claims, including racism, a plot to eradicate the female population of urban cities and allegations of inside jokes within the movie that were specifically intended to humiliate her.
Yes, many of the claims stretch reason, but Lawrence has also gone to extreme lengths to craft a 54-page complaint that almost looks and feels as if it was drawn up by a $500-an-hour attorney. She cites applicable laws and case citations (although none are required in complaints), copyright registrations, numerous exhibits and perhaps most impressively a frame work intended to bypass the legal pitfalls that typically trip up those asserting idea theft in Hollywood.
Two versions of "Death at a Funeral" have come out in the past three years. The first was a British comedy directed by Frank Oz and released as a modest hit in 2007. The second, a U.S. film directed by Neil LaBute and starring Chris Rock, Tracy Morgan and Martin Lawrence, came out earlier this year to lukewarm reviews and so-so box office. The plots of both movies center on a planned funeral service gone horribly wrong.
Pamela Lawrence claims these two films infringed her copyright on the book "Caught on Video ... The Most Embarrassing Moment de Funeral, July 11, 1994, Jamaican Volume 1."
"Death at a Funeral"
Art Show Could Land Curators In Prison
Russia
The curators of an art exhibit that mixed religious icons with sexual and pop-culture images face up to three years in prison in a case that is testing the tolerance of Russia's government and its dominant church.
A Moscow court is to issue a verdict on Monday in the trial of Yuri Samodurov and Andrei Yerofeyev, charged with debasing religious beliefs and inciting religious hatred for the 2007 show Forbidden Art.
The trial, which recessed late last month, was marred by rowdy shouts from ultranationalists and what Yerofeyev said were thinly veiled threats to kill him and Samodurov if they are found innocent.
"The state is trying to selectively censor art," Yerofeyev said, accusing the authorities of encouraging or supporting ultranationalists who took issue with the exhibit.
Amnesty International said a conviction would make the defendants Russia's only prisoners of conscience, and cultural figures have appealed to President Dmitry Medvedev to intervene and have the charges dropped.
Russia
2nd Judge Rescinds Purge Order
Newspapers
A second central Pennsylvania judge has rescinded court orders directing two newspapers to delete archived stories and other information about defendants, instances that raised concern over the potential for media censorship.
Centre County Judge Thomas King Kistler said the court also learned Wednesday from the defendants' attorney that three dozen other orders submitted by the lawyer's office to the court for approval also included the Centre Daily Times and The Daily Collegian student newspaper at Penn State - an unusual provision for an action typically demanded of public agencies.
The Times had received orders for five defendants. Kistler signed new expungement orders Wednesday on two of those cases and called the initial orders "an inadvertence."
Such orders typically direct the public agencies to clear a person's record when charges are dismissed, withdrawn or aren't applicable for someone who's a first-time offender who completes a rehabilitation program.
Newspapers
Government Ignoring
27K Wells
Leading environmental groups and a U.S. senator on Wednesday called on the government to pay closer attention to more than 27,000 abandoned oil and gas wells in the Gulf of Mexico and take action to keep them from leaking even more crude into water already tainted by the massive BP spill.
The calls for action follow an Associated Press investigation that found federal regulators do not typically inspect plugging of these offshore wells or monitor for leaks afterward. Yet tens of thousands of oil and gas wells are improperly plugged on land, and abandoned wells have sometimes leaked offshore too, state and federal regulators acknowledge.
Of 50,000 wells drilled over the past six decades in the Gulf, 23,500 have been permanently abandoned. Another 3,500 are classified by federal regulators as "temporarily abandoned," but some have been left that way since the 1950s, without the full safeguards of permanent abandonment.
Petroleum engineers say that even in properly sealed wells, the cement plugs can fail over the decades and the metal casing that lines the wells can rust. Even depleted production wells can repressurize over time and spill oil if their sealings fail.
27K Wells
Ending Early
'American Idol' Tour
The summer tour starring "American Idol" finalists is being cut short.
Eight shows on the American Idol Live! Tour have been canceled and others have been changed, according to a revised schedule released Tuesday by tour organizer LiveNation. The tour, which features the top 10 singers, was originally scheduled to end Sept. 16 in Portland, Maine, but is now slated to end Aug. 31 in Indianapolis.
'American Idol' Tour
Manicure Message
Lindsay Lohan
Less than 24 hours after Lindsay Lohan was sentenced to 90 days in jail and 90 days in rehab for violating probation on two DUIs, the talk isn't about her troubles, but about her fingernails.
The 24-year-old actress sported a colorful manicure in court Tuesday that included obscene messages on each of her middle fingers. Close-up photos taken by a courtroom photographer revealed the tiny letters, which made worldwide news Wednesday on entertainment websites.
Were the messages intended for the judge, who levied the harsh sentence Tuesday? Directives to the ever-present paparazzi who follow Lohan's every move? Perhaps a silent snub to her estranged father, who attended Tuesday's proceedings?
Lohan let her middle-finger messages speak for themselves until Wednesday afternoon, when she took to her Twitter account to clarify the purpose of the defiant digits.
"It had nothing to do w/court," Lohan wrote. "It's an airbrush design from a stencil."
Lindsay Lohan
Ventured Farther North Than Thought
Early Humans
Ancient man ventured into northern Europe far earlier than previously thought, settling on England's east coast more than 800,000 years ago, scientists said.
It had been assumed that humans - thought to have emerged from Africa around 1.75 million years ago - kept mostly to relatively warm tropical forests, steppes and Mediterranean areas as they spread across Eurasia.
But the discovery of a collection of flint tools some 135 miles (220 kilometers) northeast of London shows that quite early on man braved colder climes.
The researchers dated the artifacts to somewhere between 866,000 to 814,000 years ago or 970,000 to 936,000 years ago. That's at least 100,000 years before the earliest known date for British settlement, in nearby Pakefield.
Early Humans
Services For Euthanized Geese
Oregon
A memorial service is planned to mourn the 109 Canada geese euthanized to keep the birds from overrunning parks in an Oregon city.
The service will be held Thursday evening at the Galveston Bridge in Bend's Drake Park.
Growing numbers of geese have caused problems for years. Last year, the district spent $22,000 on cleaning up damage they caused.
District Board Chairman Scott Wallace says it is unfortunate the parks can't support all the geese.
Oregon
35 Years Later...
"Jaws"
After 35 years, people haven't tired of talking about or watching Steven Spielberg's quintessential summer movie "Jaws."
The shark-in-the-water thriller remains competitive on the Hollywood blockbuster list, having raked in over $470 million at box offices worldwide. Composer John Williams' ominous two-note "shark" theme is known by kids and adults of all ages, whether they've seen the movie or not.
The buzz is particularly strong on the original "Jaws" movie set -- the beaches and towns across Martha's Vineyard, which portrayed the fictional Amity Island in the 1975 film based on Peter Benchley's best-selling novel.
On the Vineyard, it's almost as easy find a resident who played an extra in the flick as it is to buy an ice-cream cone.
Most extras were kids back then, and paid $5 a day to swim in the ocean, play on the beach, and most importantly, run screaming from the water when Jaws -- more affectionately known by those involved with the movie as Bruce, a mechanical shark -- was approaching.
"Jaws"
In Memory
Harvey Fuqua
Singer, songwriter and record producer Harvey Fuqua, an early mentor of Marvin Gaye, has died. Fuqua was 80.
The Louisville, Ky., native founded the R&B-doo-wop group the Moonglows, which signed with DJ Alan Freed. The group's first single was the 1954 hit "Sincerely."
Fuqua added Gaye and others in 1958 to a reconstituted group Fuqua called Harvey and the Moonglows. It had the 1958 hit "Ten Commandments of Love."
He started Tri-Phi and Harvey Records in 1961, recording the Spinners, Junior Walker & the All Stars, and Shorty Long.
Motown Records founder Berry Gordy later hired Fuqua to develop recording talent.
Harvey Fuqua
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