Recommended Reading
from Bruce
London to Brighton Train Journey: 1953 - 2013 (YouTube)
Sixty years ago, the BBC filmed a train journey from London to Brighton, squeezed into just four minutes. Thirty years ago, we did it again. Now we are bringing it up to date, to see how much has changed - and how much is still the same. Here's all three journeys side by side
Andrew Harrison: "Rise of the new geeks: how the outsiders won" (Guardian)
From superhero movies to techy sitcoms to captains of industry, geeks have been running the show for years. But now that 'geek chic' is in the dictionary, and Topshop is selling 'dork' T-shirts, what is the future for nerd culture?
Andrew Harrison: The top 10 geek heroes (Guardian)
From computer visionary Steve Jobs to queen of the Victoria sponge Mary Berry, the most influential modern nerds.
Nicholas Wroe: "DJ Taylor: 'I set out with every intention of just being a novelist. But then I got diverted …'" (Guardian)
The author, biographer and critic talks to Nicholas Wroe about Norwich, the Booker prize and taking potshots at the literary establishment.
Review by Ian Thomson: Unspectacular vernacular (Financial Times)
A new take on a 700-year-old epic is short on precision.
Paul Krugman: "Send In The Clones (Unserious Entertainment Advice)" (New York Times)
Hey, if I can post music videos once a week, I guess I can recommend a TV show now and then. Just finished watching our DVR'd Season 1 of Orphan Black, and wow.
Ana Samways: Sideswipe (New Zealand Herald)
Sarah from the North Shore, who is 38 weeks' pregnant, had her first flat tyre. "Within 20 seconds of pulling over and flicking the hazard lights on, a blue ute stopped and a guy jumped out offering to help. Wheel was seized on, so off he went down the road to his house to get a sledgehammer. Meanwhile, two other men came over and offered to help too. Between them they managed to get the wheel off (brute force) and by the time my other knight in shining armour returned, the spare wheel was on. Moral of the story: If you get a flat tyre, simply be heavily pregnant and stand on the side of the road. Thanks guys."
David Bruce: Wise Up! Music (Athens News)
Jazz pianist Marion McPartland sometimes took requests, but sometimes fans made requests that were not in her current repertoire. While she was playing at New York's Tavern on the Green, a fan requested "Melancholy Baby." Because it was not in her current repertoire, she said, "We do that in the third set"-but at the Tavern on the Green she was playing only two sets.
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will be back in a few days - he's off Takin Care Of Business
took the day off.
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Michelle in AZ
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Team Coco
CONAN Highlight
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Even hotter. Ack.
Mark Twain Prize for American Humor
Carol Burnett
Tina Fey, Julie Andrews and Tony Bennett will honor Carol Burnett at the Kennedy Center's 16th annual ceremony for the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.
Tim Conway and Vicki Lawrence, cast members on The Carol Burnett Show, also will salute the TV legend in Washington. The event will broadcast Nov. 24 on PBS.
"I can't believe I'm getting a humor prize from the Kennedy Center. It's almost impossible to be funnier than the people in Washington," Burnett said in a statement>.
Fellow female comedians, including Amy Poehler, Rashida Jones, Maya Rudolph and Lucille Ball's daughter Lucie Arnaz, also will pay tribute to Burnett.
Carol Burnett
17th Season
'Dancing With the Stars'
Busy cancer patient Valerie Harper leads a class of 12 amateur hoofers in the upcoming 17th season of "Dancing With the Stars."
The cast was revealed Wednesday on ABC's "Good Morning America." For a show that has reached an increasingly older audience, ABC added an injection of youth with reality stars Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi of "Jersey Shore" and Ozzy's kid Jack Osbourne.
Other contestants on the new season of "Dancing," which premieres Sept. 16, are Bill Nye, the "Science Guy"; "Pretty Little Liars" actor Brant Daugherty; former NFL wide receiver Keyshawn Johnson; singer-actress Christina Milian; actress Elizabeth Berkley; "High School Musical" actor Corbin Bleu; "Glee" actress Amber Riley; country comic Bill Engvall; and "King of Queens" actress Leah Remini.
Although still a ratings winner for ABC in its 16th season, the celebrity dancing contest has seen its overall audience decline and grow older, an issue for networks that get higher commercial ad rates for younger viewers.
"Dancing" will now air once a week on Mondays rather than Mondays and Tuesdays.
'Dancing With the Stars'
TIFF Tribute
Roger Ebert
The late Roger Ebert will be honoured on the opening night of the Toronto International Film Festival.
Festival organizers will feature a video tribute to the legendary film critic prior to the world premiere screening of Wikileaks drama "The Fifth Estate" at Roy Thomson Hall on Thursday.
Festival co-founder Bill Marshall, former festival director Helga Stephenson and Canadian film producer Robert Lantos are among those slated to take part in the tribute.
Ebert's widow, Chaz, will be presented with a commemorative plaque.
Ebert had been a longtime fixture at the Toronto festival from its early days until recent years, when he could no longer speak after having his jaw surgically removed due to cancer.
Roger Ebert
Judges Announced
'American Idol'
"American Idol" is betting that a judges' remix with Jennifer Lopez, Harry Connick Jr. and Keith Urban will fare better with viewers than bickering divas Mariah Carey and Nicki Minaj did last season.
The rumored addition of Lopez and Connick as judges for season 13 was announced Tuesday by Fox. They'll join Urban to make up the talent show's first panel consisting solely of singers - a la NBC's successful 2011 upstart "The Voice."
Pop star and actress Lopez will be back on "American Idol" after a two-season run as judge in 2011 and 2012 that was a boon for the show and her career. Connick, a respected jazz singer and musician, proved adept as a mentor in several "Idol" appearances.
Urban's return to the contest was announced last month by Fox Chairman Kevin Reilly, who said the singer didn't get a chance to show his personality in his first turn as a judge. Urban appeared overwhelmed last season by the Carey-Minaj crossfire that drew complaints from some viewers.
Fox also announced that original judge Randy Jackson, who exited along with Carey and Minaj at the end of last season, will be back in a new role as in-house mentor to the contestants. Ryan Seacrest, also part of "Idol" from the start, will again host.
'American Idol'
Broadway Charity
Flea Market & Auction
A T-shirt worn onstage by Tom Hanks in "Lucky Guy" and Elphaba's broom prop used by Idina Menzel in "Wicked" are among the top items that will be auctioned off Sept. 22 at the annual Broadway Flea Market and Grand Auction.
Bidders will be able to snap up signed memorabilia from more than a dozen Broadway shows, meet-and-greet opportunities with stars and even win walk-on roles at "Chicago," ''Cinderella," ''Kinky Boots," ''The Lion King," ''Mamma Mia!," ''Once," ''The Phantom of the Opera" and "Rock of Ages." Other prizes include lunch with Angela Lansbury and Judith Light.
All proceeds go to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. Free and open to the public, the outdoor event takes place all day along West 44th Street and in Shubert Alley.
Broadway Flea Market & Auction
TV Networks Reject Anti-Rupert Ads
Australia
Australia's commercial television networks are refusing to run an advert which accuses Rupert Murdoch (R-Evil Incarnate) of printing "misleading crap" in his newspapers ahead of national elections, the activist group behind the ad said Wednesday.
Australian-born Murdoch (R-Carpetbagger), now a US citizen, owns mass-selling newspapers in his former homeland and his Sydney tabloid The Daily Telegraph has called for voters to "kick out" Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's Labor government in Saturday's polls.
"It was great when you could pick up the paper and get... well... news," says the man in the advert, produced by activist group 'GetUp!', as he stands on his front lawn to collect his newspaper -- and later using it to clean up his dog's droppings.
"But political bias presented as news is, well, misleading crap.
"Don't let the crap decide your vote. Stand up for what you want. Tell Rupert, 'We'll choose our own government'."
Australia
Brewster Projects Razed
Detroit
A backhoe crunched and gouged into a former low-rise row house in Detroit on Wednesday, marking the first official demolition work on a massive, vacant Detroit housing project once home to boxer Joe Louis and the Supremes before the musical trio became vital voices of "the Motown sound."
The mechanical jabs and spins were for the news cameras, but crews were quietly beginning to encircle the 18.5-acre site of the former Frederick Douglass Homes. They were doing the preparation work necessary to raze the entire graffiti-covered complex comprising several city blocks better known as the Brewster projects - a persistent, prominent symbol of abandonment and decay in a once-vital manufacturing city searching for its financial footing and larger recovery after decades of job and population losses.
For Detroit Mayor Dave Bing, the tear-down offers the chance to hit the reset button on what could be a valuable swath of real estate near the downtown of a city that recently became the largest in the nation to file for bankruptcy. Bing, a member of professional basketball's Hall of Fame and former steel supply company owner, knows such a project wouldn't be possible without the direct aid of the federal government - in this case, a $6.5 million emergency grant for the first phase of demolition and assurances that more could come for the rest of the work.
Work began on the complex's low-rise row houses, and the mid- and high-rise structures are expected to follow later this year and continue into 2014. The housing project consisted of four 15-story high-rise apartments, two 6-story mid-rise buildings and 96 low-rise row houses.
Detroit
China Overtakes The US
Diabetes
The percentage of adults in China with diabetes surpassed that of the United States in 2010, with almost 12 percent suffering from the disease, driven largely by economic prosperity, researchers said.
The overall prevalence of diabetes in China in 2010 was found to be 11.6 percent of adults -- 12.1 percent in men, and 11 percent in women, according to the study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
In the United States, about 11.3 percent of people over 20 have diabetes according to 2011 data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The disease was more common in China than in the United States even though the population was slimmer -- average body mass index, a ratio of height and body weight, was just 23.7 in China compared to 28.7 in the United States.
Diabetes has been rising in China along with the nation's economic growth. In 1980, the prevalence of diabetes was less than one percent of the population.
Diabetes
Mayor Attacked
Talkeetna, AK
A brutal assassination attempt on the mayor of Talkeetna, Alaska, has left a cat severely injured, and the perpetrator is still running free on four legs.
That cat was the mayor of this small town, a yellow tabby named Stubbs. And his attacker? An unidentified local dog.
CNN reported Stubbs is alive but suffering from a punctured lung, a fractured sternum and a large gash on his side after a dog bit him on Saturday evening. Stubbs has been mayor of Talkeetna for 16 years, and the news of the attack, much like the story of a town that elected a cat, is making international headlines.
Residents elected Stubbs, a cat with a short tail, as a write-in candidate after they decided they weren't impressed with the human candidates. He's become a tourist draw and he's earned more than 31,000 followers on Facebook.
Stubbs' medical bills exceed $2,000 so far, according to Alaska Dispatch, and a local general store has set up a fund for donations.
Talkeetna. AK
Majority Of Recipients Live In The 'Burbs
SNAP
When talking about food stamps (or SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, as it's now called), many people imagine that it's primarily an urban benefit-think Ronald Reagan's imaginary "welfare queen" living on the South Side of Chicago. That image still persists today: When talking about government nutrition assistance, news stories are often illustrated with images of single mothers of color or older retirees in large urban housing developments. Seldom do the suburbs-the land of cul-de-sacs, strip malls, and minivans-come into play in regards to SNAP.
But increasingly, the 'burbs are becoming the defining image of food stamps. The number of Americans living in suburbs who receive SNAP doubled between 2007 and 2011, and the majority recipients nationwide-55 percent-now live there, according to an analysis of American Community Survey data by the Brookings Institution.
"Many of the regions that saw the steepest increases in food stamp receipt were Sun Belt metro areas hit hardest by the collapse of the housing market and recession that followed," writes Elizabeth Kneebone, a fellow at Brookings' Metropolitan Policy Program and co-author of Confronting Suburban Poverty in America. This includes cities like Modesto, CA, Tampa, FL, and Riverside, CA, "where the number of suburban households receiving SNAP benefits more than tripled, as well as regions like Cape Coral, Las Vegas, and Atlanta, where suburban SNAP receipt more than doubled."
In 2007, the share of SNAP benefits was divided roughly in half between urban and suburban households. Just four years later, however, suburban households comprised 55 percent of all households receiving SNAP-a 100 percent increase over that time period. (The urban share increased by 69 percent over that period.)
SNAP
Prime-Time Nielsens
Ratings
Prime-time viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen for Aug. 26-Sept. 1. Listings include the week's ranking and viewership.
1. "Under the Dome," CBS, 11.12 million.
2. "America's Got Talent" (Wednesday, 9 p.m.), NBC, 9.85 million.
3. "America's Got Talent" (Tuesday), NBC, 8.7 million.
4. "NCIS," CBS, 8.47 million.
5. "60 Minutes," CBS, 8.36 million.
6. College Football: Georgia vs. Clemson, ABC, 8.14 million.
7. "Unforgettable," CBS, 6.94 million.
8. "Big Brother 15" (Wednesday), CBS, 6.36 million.
9. "Master Chef" (Wednesday, 9 p.m.), Fox, 6.33 million.
10. "Duck Dynasty," A&E, 6.3 million.
11. "NCIS: Los Angeles," CBS, 6.21 million.
12. "Big Brother 15" (Sunday), CBS, 6 million.
13. "America's Got Talent" (Wednesday, 8 p.m.), NBC, 5.96 million.
14. "American Ninja Warrior," NBC, 5.81 million.
15. "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," CBS, 5.74 million.
16. "Mike & Molly," CBS, 5.67 million.
17. "Master Chef" (Wednesday, 8 p.m.), Fox, 5.56 million.
18. "Undercover Boss," CBS, 5.29 million.
19. "Saturday Night Football Pregame," ABC, 5.192 million.
20. "Blue Bloods," CBS, 5.185 million.
20. "Person of Interest," CBS, 5.185 million.
Ratings
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