Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Lauren Davis: This gorgeous video lets you fly across the moon's surface without leaving your armchair (io9)
It has been decades since humans last visited the moon, but this video, created by the Center for Lunar Science and Exploration from real photographic images, lets you imagine that you're flying over the moon's surface. So sit back, relax, and let the moon take over your monitor for a few minutes.
Rufus Tower (YouTube)
A present for my cat 'Rufus'. He began to resent me due to painful ear drops to fix an infection. I would return from work and he would run from me! Now the ears are better I wanted to do something to show my gratitude for his putting up with my torture. Rufus loves boxes as all cats do so this is what I made for him. The music is from my brother Ollie's band, 'Parallel Lions', I hope you don't mind me using it bro. Enjoy. (here is a link to the music parallellions.bandcamp.com)
Mark Morford: God the Insufferable Jerk (SF Gate)
I am delighted to report God still appears to be a bit of an unbearable twit.
Democrats are so Extreme (Twitter)
They don't have to lie or suppress American Democracy to get elected...
Bonnie Kavoussi: "Paul Krugman: Republican Party's Base 'Is By And Large Elderly White People Arguing With Empty Chairs'" (Huffington Post)
"The Republican Party is where it is because that's where the base is," Krugman, the Nobel Prize-winning economist, said Sunday on ABC's "This Week." "And you watched that whole primary process; Republican candidates had to appeal to their base, which is by and large elderly white people arguing with empty chairs."
Froma Harrop: Romney Suffers from Pre-existing Positions (Creators Syndicate)
What Mitt Romney truly believes is anybody's guess. Whether Romney as president would act on those beliefs is also a guess. And we can't rule out the possibility that he doesn't have any beliefs outside of religion and investment strategies. Why he's running for president remains unclear, though commander in chief looks impressive on a nametag.
Andrew Tobias: Want To Know Who The Job Creators Really Are?
"Both [Bill Clinton] and Jimmy Carter have gone on to actively promote causes that have direct impact on the poor, needy and sick of this world. Their after-president works have been careers in themselves. … Carter and Clinton have made great legacies following their time at the top, and I know Obama will, too. Therein, in a nutshell, is the difference between Democrats and Republicans. I hope you'll pass this on because it's a point that needs to be made. The measure of the person isn't just what they do while their president, but after they're president."-- John Leeds
Bill Clinton speaks at the 2012 DNC (C-SPAN; YouTube)
Full Speech: 50 minutes.
Heydon Prowse: Why are payday loan companies free to shaft the poor? (Guardian)
Charging extortionate rates of interest, these companies are robbing the poor. I know, because I worked undercover for one.
Stefan Rahmstorf: You Think 2012 Is Hot? Wait Until 2013 (Slate)
Barring a volcanic eruption, next year will set records. But don't blame El Niño.
David Bruce's Amazon Author Page
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David Bruce's Blog
David Bruce has 42 Kindle books on Amazon.com with 250 anecdotes in each book. Each book is $1, so for $42 you can buy 10,500 anecdotes. Search for "Funniest People," "Coolest People, "Most Interesting People," "Kindest People," "Religious Anecdotes," "Maximum Cool," and "Resist Psychic Death."
"Doug's Most Shared Facebook Post" Today
wrote:
took the day off.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Bit cooler.
Honorees Announced
Kennedy Center
Years after playing a Washington newspaper reporter, Dustin Hoffman is returning to the nation's capital to share an honor with David Letterman - who appears surprised at how culturally important his Top 10 lists have been.
The actor and comedian are among seven people who will receive the 2012 Kennedy Center Honors, the performing arts center announced Wednesday. They join Chicago bluesman Buddy Guy, the surviving members of the rock band Led Zeppelin and ballerina Natalia Makarova.
The award is the nation's highest honor for those who have influenced American culture through the arts. It comes with a dinner with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and a reception hosted by President Barack Obama. The honorees will be saluted by fellow artists Dec. 2 in a show to be broadcast Dec. 26 on CBS.
The three surviving members of the Britain's Led Zeppelin - John Paul Jones, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant - are being honored for transforming the sound of rock and roll. They influenced many other bands with their innovative, blues-infused hits such as "Good Times Bad Times," ''Immigrant Song," ''Kashmir" and "Stairway to Heaven."
Kennedy Center
To Stop Making Film For Movies
Fujifilm
Japan's Fujifilm Holdings Corp will stop making film used to shoot motion pictures around next spring due to a fall in demand, Kyodo news agency said.
The film and camera maker has seen faltering demand for motion picture film due to increasing digitalization in the movie industry, especially since a hike in the film prices in July, the news agency reported.
Fujifilm will, however, continue making special film designed to preserve motion pictures for a long period, Kyodo said.
Fujifilm
UK Museum Revives First-Ever
Color Film
The earliest movies known to be shot in color have been revived by film archivists, who on Wednesday gave an audience at London's Science Museum a glimpse at cinema's first attempts to show us the world as we see it.
The obscure film segments were long considered failed prototypes, blurry flickers of color seen by no more than a handful of people before being consigned to an archive. But the National Media Museum in the northern England city of Bradford said digitization had effectively rescued the footage, unlocking remarkably modern-looking images created more than a century ago.
The scenes, screened at the Science Museum, ranged from roughly 5 to 40 seconds and showed a parrot, a London street scene, and three smiling children sitting around a table covered with a burgundy cloth batting at a goldfish bowl with large sunflowers.
Experts have dated the movie segments back to 1901 or 1902, when cinema was still in its infancy and inventors on both sides of the Atlantic were racing to produce ever-more realistic films. American inventor Thomas Edison led the way with peep-show-like Kinetoscope; the Lumiere brothers had wowed French audiences with moving images projected onto screens in 1895. The next challenge was to shoot a film in color.
Working in London, inventor-photographer Edward Turner devised a complex, three-color process which would shoot black-and-white negatives through red, green and blue filters alternating in rapid succession. The idea was to project three differently filtered frames at a time on to a screen to create the illusion of a single, colorful movie.
Color Film
A&E Renews For Fourth Season
"The Glades"
A&E Network has renewed "The Glades" for a fourth season.
The Florida Everglades-set drama, starring Matt Passmore, averaged 4.1 million total viewers in season 3, up 5 percent from the previous season in Live+7 viewing, A&E said.
Season 4 will begin production soon and will premiere in 2013. A&E is also in pre-production on the new scripted "Psycho" prequel series "Bates Motel," scheduled to air next year, and the second season of the scripted hit "Longmire," also expected next year.
"The Glades"
Hospital News
Kathy Bates
Actress Kathy Bates said on Wednesday she had undergone a double mastectomy after being diagnosed with breast cancer, nine years after a bout with ovarian cancer.
Bates, 64, the Oscar-winning star of 1990 thriller "Misery," told People magazine that doctors had given her a good prognosis following the recent surgery.
"After much consideration, I underwent a double mastectomy," Bates announced to the celebrity magazine website in a statement.
"Luckily, I don't have to undergo radiation or chemo. My family call me Kat because I always land on my feet and thankfully this is no exception.
Kathy Bates
Good Puti, Bad Puti
Pussy Riot
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on Wednesday called for three members of the punk band Pussy Riot to be freed, a sign that the women's release could be imminent since their case comes up for appeal on Oct. 1.
The band members were arrested for performing a raucous prayer inside Moscow's main cathedral asking Virgin Mary to save Russia from Vladimir Putin as he headed into the election that handed him a third term as president. They had already spent more than five months in jail when they were convicted in August of "hooliganism driven by religious hatred" and sentenced to two years in prison.
By being the one to call for the women's release, Medvedev, who has cultivated the image of a more liberal leader, could allow Putin to put the uncomfortable case behind him while not appearing weak.
The night before Medvedev spoke, state television aired a program denouncing Pussy Riot, as if to reinforce the message that the Kremlin still considers them despicable.
The program included the claim that the feminist band was financed by Boris Berezovsky, a tycoon who has lived in Britain since 2001 after a falling out with Putin and often serves as a Kremlin boogeyman. Berezovsky said Wednesday that he had nothing to do with the group, although he was "truly delighted by the actions and courage of the girls."
Pussy Riot
Marvel Comics Kills Off
Professor X
Professor X, the Marvel comic book character who formed and led the superhero mutant team known asX-Men, has been killed off.
The latest issue of comic book "Avengers VS. X-Men," out on Wednesday, saw the wheelchair bound and telepathic character, whose full name is Charles Xavier, get killed by Cyclops, a member of his very own X-Men team.
"When we first crafted 'Avengers VS. X-Men,' we didn't set out to kill any characters, but as the story progressed it became obvious that this had to be the last stand of Charles Xavier," Axel Alonso, editor-in-chief of Marvel Entertainment, said in a statement.
"Rest assured his death will reverberate across the Marvel Universe, leading into major launches like Uncanny Avengers and All-New X-Men this fall," Alonso added.
Professor X
Caballero Video To Recall DVDs
Ben & Jerry's
A movie studio has agreed to recall pornographic DVDs whose titles and packaging mimic those of Ben & Jerry's ice cream.
Caballero Video also agreed to stop marketing and to destroy materials used to make 10 titles in its "Ben & Cherry's" X-rated film series while a lawsuit against it is pending.
Ben & Jerry's Homemade Inc, a unit of London-based Unilever Plc, had sued Caballero on September 5 for trademark infringement.
It complained that DVD titles such as "Boston Cream Thighs," "Chocolate Fudge Babes," "Peanut Butter D-Cups" were too similar to its ice cream flavors Boston Cream Pie, Chocolate Fudge Brownie and Peanut Butter Cup.
Ben & Jerry's also said Caballero's packaging played off its own with images of puffy white clouds and grazing cows, just as the slogan, "Porno's Finest," punned on "Vermont's Finest."
Ben & Jerry's
Producer Faces Jail
Uganda
A police officer says the British producer of a play about the condition of Uganda's gays will be charged with "disobeying lawful orders" because his work was staged without authorization.
Detective Simon Kuteesa said late Tuesday that David Cecil, one of the producers of "The River and the Mountain," will appear in court Thursday. The charge carries a maximum sentence of two years.
Cecil said he was interrogated last week by officials who asked why he had staged the play before getting the approval of the Uganda Media Council. Cecil said the play was performed eight times in August at little-known theaters in the Ugandan capital.
The play's main character is a young businessman who loses friends - and then gets killed - after revealing he's gay.
Uganda
Interim Approval
Digital Domain
A bankruptcy judge approved on Wednesday a snap auction of Hollywood special-effects company Digital Domain Media Group Inc, but said he may reconsider what he called an "unprecedented" schedule setting up next week's sale.
The company that won an Academy Award for its work on "Titanic" filed for bankruptcy on Tuesday with only $50,000 in the bank and unable to meet Friday's payroll, its attorney, Robert Feinstein, told the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware.
After seven hours of nonstop arguments Judge Brendan Shannon called the case "deeply troubling" and said he was being asked to "call a bluff" on threats the company would be forced to close its doors without a quick sale.
While approving a loan to keep the company afloat and the proposed auction date, he also set a September 20 hearing to reconsider his decision.
Hours earlier he had said he would not allow the rushed sale, but relented after hearing evidence from an executive from Marvel Entertainment who said his studio would not support the company if its future was still uncertain beyond next week.
Digital Domain
Blocks Video
YouTube
YouTube has blocked a video attacking Islam's prophet Muhammad in Egypt and Libya, where angry protests were sparked by outrage at the video.
Ultraconservative Muslims enflamed by the video stormed the U.S. embassy in Cairo on Tuesday and replaced an American flag with an Islamic banner. Later Tuesday evening, protesters in Libya burned down the U.S. consulate in the Libyan city of Benghazi, killing the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three members of his staff.
The 14-minute video is a trailer to an amateurish, low-budget movie titled "Innocence of Muslims," which depicts Muhammad as a feckless philanderer who approved of child sexual abuse. Muslims find it offensive to depict Muhammad in any manner, let alone insult the prophet.
YouTube has elected to leave the video on its website, saying it doesn't violate its policies, but has blocked access to it in Egypt and Libya. The Google-Inc. video site took the unusual step Wednesday of publicly commenting on the video, a practice it typically eschews.
YouTube
Big Brother Is Watching
Online Monitors
Young actors in Hollywood have a new hurdle to overcome in their budding careers: Roving studio executives who patrol Twitter, Facebook Inc and other social media sites with the threat of legal action if the young thespians disclose too much.
Talent managers and casting agents say Disney Channel, Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network often monitor posts by cast members on these sites for messages that might harm their shows' prospects with fickle youthful viewers.
The networks order them to take down posts that might reveal too much about characters, plot twists, casting or comments that might offend advertisers.
Efforts to rein in the online habits of kids are part of a larger Hollywood campaign to restrict adults, too. And it could become an issue in February contract talks for the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), covering over 150,000 actors, said a lawyer for ad agencies that work with the channels.
Online Monitors
Bones Found?
King Richard III
Archaeologists searching for the grave of King Richard III say they have found bones that are consistent with the 15th century monarch's physical abnormality and of a man who died in battle.
A team from the University of Leicester said Wednesday the bones were beneath the site of the Grey Friars church in Leicester, central England, where contemporary accounts say Richard was buried following his death in the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485.
"We are not saying today that we have found King Richard III," Richard Taylor, the university's director of corporate affairs, told a news conference. "(But) this skeleton certainly has characteristics that warrant extensive, further detailed examination."
Taylor said the skeleton displayed spinal abnormalities consistent with contemporary accounts of Richard's appearance.
King Richard III
Painting Found At Flea Market
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
A woman who paid $7 for a box of trinkets at a West Virginia flea market two years ago apparently acquired an original painting by French impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir without knowing it.
The woman considered discarding the painting to salvage its frame, but instead made an appointment to have it evaluated in July by the Potomack Co. auction house in Alexandria, Va., said its fine arts director Anne Norton Craner.
When the woman pulled the painting out of a garbage bag she carried it in, Craner was nearly certain the painting was a Renoir with its distinct colors, light and brushwork. A plaque on the front labeled it "Renoir."
French handwriting on the back of the canvass included a label and number. Craner turned to the catalog by French gallery Bernheim-Jeune that's published all of Renoir's work.
Painting No. 24349 turns out to be Renoir's painting "Paysage Bords de Seine," which translates to Banks of the River Seine, Craner determined. It dates to about 1879 and measures 6 inches by 10 inches.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
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