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Larry Elliott: Born after 1960? Then you're probably poorer than your parents (Guardian)
Survey finds living standards for those considered to be in the prime of their working lives now dependent on inherited wealth.
Mark Sweney: Rowan Atkinson Comic Relief sketch prompts most complaints in 2013 (Guardian)
Spoof in which actor played archbishop of Canterbury led to 487 complaints, with Big Brother most complained about show.
Andres Serrano: I started buying the signs that homeless use to beg. Here's what happened (Guardian)
I purchased 200 signs from homeless people in New York City. The collection tells the story of poverty in America and the world.
Slavoj Žižek: The 'fake' Mandela memorial interpreter said it all (Guardian)
He claimed an 'attack of schizophrenia' rendered his signing unintelligible, but his performance translated an underlying truth.
Sadhbh Walshe: Shia LaBeouf's plagiarism may be a case of cultural 'affluenza' (Guardian)
The accusation isn't LaBeouf's first. It seems his meteoric rise to stardom makes him think he can take whatever he wants.
Charlie Jane Anders: The 10 best and 10 worst science fiction and fantasy movies of 2013 (io9)
This was a good year to argue about movies. A lot of films inspired powerful reactions, either positive or negative, among audiences. Some of 2013's movies are destined to be among our all-time favorites, while others will be reviled forever. Here are the 10 best and 10 worst science fiction and fantasy movies of 2013.
Alice Sola Kim: Bummed Out And Ugly (BuzzFeed)
On the occasion of Philip K. Dick's birthday.
Ryan Fuller: Teaching Isn't Rocket Science. It's Harder (Slate)
To solve engineering problems, you use your brain. Solving classroom problems uses your whole being.
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25 Movies Added
National Film Registry
Just in time for a new movie about the making of "Mary Poppins," the 1964 Disney classic starring Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke has been selected for preservation at the Library of Congress so future generations of Americans can see it.
On Wednesday, the library is inducting 25 films into the National Film Registry to be preserved for their cultural, historical or cinematic significance. This year's selections include Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction," the space race film "The Right Stuff," and Michael Moore's documentary confronting the auto industry, "Roger and Me."
The oldest films joining the registry this year are from the silent era. They include 1920's "Daughter of Dawn," which featured an all-Native-American cast of Comanche and Kiowa people, with a fictional love story and a record of Native American traditions of the time. The 1919 silent film "A Virtuous Vamp," a spoof on workplace romance, made Constance Talmadge an early film star. And "Ella Cinders" from 1926 featured the famous actress Colleen Moore.
Other notable selections this year include the 1956 science-fiction film "Forbidden Planet," which depicted humans as space travellers to another planet ahead of the real space race to the moon; the popular Western "The Magnificent Seven" from 1960; and the 1946 film "Gilda," which is the first in the registry featuring actress Rita Hayworth. Also included is the 1966 adaptation of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf," starring the real-life couple Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. The movie earned Oscar nominations for them both, a win for Taylor, and launched the screen-directing career of Mike Nichols.
National Film Registry
Anderson Cooper, Kathy Griffin Reunite
CNN New Years
Anderson Cooper and Kathy Griffin will join together for their seventh consecutive year to ring in the New Year for CNN.
"I'm so thrilled Anderson Cooper has agreed to be my assistant once again as I single-handedly host New Year's Eve on CNN for my global adoring audience," Griffin said in a statement.
"Wait…what? CNN hired her again? For real?" said Cooper in his own statement.
Those may be some very staged statements, but the show can be unpredictable. Griffin has developed a reputation for saying words you don't usually hear on CNN. After she used the F-word live in 2009, she said CNN would pull her off the air if she did it again.
CNN New Years
Tapped For Writers Guild Honor
Sam Simon
The Writers Guild of America West has named "The Simpsons" co-developer Sam Simon as its 2014 Valentine Davies Award honoree in recognition of his humanitarian efforts and community service on behalf of writers.
It's the second WGA honor for Simon in recent weeks. He received the WGA West's Animation Writers Caucus animation writing award earlier this month as a lifetime achievement honor recognizing his contributions to the craft of animation writing.
Simon will be honored for the Davies trophy at the WGA West's West Coast awards ceremony on Feb. 1 at the JW Marriott Los Angeles.
Simon is the founder of The Sam Simon Foundation, which has a mission to "save the lives of dogs to enrich the lives of people." The Foundation's Assistance Dog Program adopts at-risk dogs facing death in shelters and trains them as certified assistance dogs, which are placed as companions to aid the deaf and veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder.
He also continues to serve on the National Boards of international non-profit Save the Children and animal rights advocate PETA, which named its own Norfolk, Va., headquarters at The Sam Simon Center in February. In 2012, he donated his own ship - the Sam Simon - to Captain Paul Watson's Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.
Sam Simon
Genome Reveals Unknown Human Lineage
Neanderthal Woman
The existence of a mysterious ancient human lineage and the genetic changes that separate modern humans from their closest extinct relatives are among the many secrets now revealed in the first high-quality genome sequence from a Neanderthal woman, researchers say.
The Neanderthal woman whose toe bone was sequenced also reveals inbreeding may have been common among her recent ancestors, as her parents were closely related, possibly half-siblings or another near relation.
Although modern humans are the world's only surviving human lineage, others also once lived on Earth. These included Neanderthals, the closest extinct relatives of modern humans, and the relatively newfound Denisovans, whose genetic footprint apparently extended from Siberia to the Pacific islands of Oceania. Both Neanderthals and Denisovans descended from a group that diverged from the ancestors of all modern humans.
The first signs of Denisovans came from a finger bone and a molar tooth discovered in Denisova Cave in southern Siberia in 2008. To learn more about Denisovans, scientists examined a woman's toe bone, which was unearthed in the cave in 2010 and showed physical features resembling those of both Neanderthals and modern humans. The fossil is thought to be about 50,000 years old, and slightly older than previously analyzed Denisovan fossils.
The genetic analysis revealed the toe bone belonged to a Neanderthal. When compared with other Neanderthal mitochondrial DNA samples, this newfound fossil's closest known relatives are Neanderthals found in Mezmaiskaya Cave in the Caucasus Mountains about 2,100 miles (3,380 kilometers) away.
Neanderthal Woman
Adopts Amnesty
Russia
Russia's parliament on Wednesday approved an amnesty which lawyers said would free two jailed members of punk band Pussy Riot and enable 30 people arrested in a Greenpeace protest against Arctic oil drilling avoid trial.
The lower house of parliament passed the amnesty, which President Vladimir Putin proposed to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the passage of Russia's post-Soviet constitution.
Lawyers said the amnesty, which could enter into force this week, would lead to the early release of Pussy Riot members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina, whose two-year sentences over an anti-Putin protest in a cathedral have been criticized in the West as excessive.
Greenpeace said a last-minute amendment to the amnesty meant Russia would almost certainly end legal proceedings against 30 people who faced jail terms of up to seven years if convicted over a protest at an offshore oil platform in September. This would allow the 26 foreigners among them to go home.
Russia
Creator Sues AMC
'Walking Dead'
The creator of "The Walking Dead" is suing AMC, claiming the cable channel has denied him tens of millions of dollars in profit from the hit drama.
Oscar-nominated filmmaker Frank Darabont and Creative Arts Agency filed suit Tuesday in New York Supreme Court against defendants including AMC Network Entertainment.
AMC produced "The Walking Dead" in-house. The lawsuit alleges the New York-based company paid itself a deliberately low license fee to air the show as part of improper "self-dealing."
The suit contends the purpose was to minimize revenue that go into a pool of funds for the show's profit participants.
'Walking Dead'
Plagiarized Apology?
Shia LaBeouf
When Shia LaBeouf posted a 12-minute short film online on Monday, it drew plenty of attention - but also suspicion over its resemblance to a graphic comic.
On Tuesday, the actor apologized. "I'm embarrassed that I failed to credit @danielclowes for his original graphic novella Justin M. Damiano, which served as my inspiration," LaBeouf wrote on Twitter. LaBeouf's short, also about a film critic, was called "HowardCantour.com," and sites like Buzzfeed and Wired on Monday posted about the similarities in theme and dialog.
"Copying isn't particularly creative work. Being inspired by someone else's idea to produce something new and different IS creative work," LaBeouf wrote. "In my excitement and naiveté as an amateur filmmaker, I got lost in the creative process and neglected to follow proper accreditation."
He went on, "I was truly moved by his piece of work & I knew that it would make a poignant & relevant short. I apologize to all who assumed I wrote it. I deeply regret the manner in which these events have unfolded and want @danielclowes to know that I have a great respect for his work. I f--ed up."
The short, starring Jim Gaffigan, debuted at the Cannes Film Festival in 2012 last year. Buzzfeed still has the entire short online, even though it has been password protected on LaBeouf's site. Buzzfeed pointed out that part of LaBeouf's apology has similarities to a Yahoo Answers entry on the question, "Why did Picasso say 'good artists copy but great artists steal'?"
Shia LaBeouf
Time-Out For Patriarch
'Duck Dynasty'
"Duck Dynasty" patriarch Phil Robertson is off the hit A&E reality series indefinitely after disparaging gays as sinners akin to adulterers and swindlers, the network said.
A&E announced Wednesday what it called a "hiatus" for Robertson, 67, after he disparaged gays in the January edition of GQ magazine. He also said that, growing up in Louisiana before the Civil Rights movement, he never saw mistreatment of blacks.
In a statement, A&E said it was extremely disappointed to see Robertson's anti-gay remarks, which it said were based on his personal beliefs and do not reflect those of A&E Networks or the show. A&E called itself a supporter of the lesbian and gay community.
In the interview, he also said that in his Louisiana youth he picked cotton with African-Americans and never saw "the mistreatment of any black person. Not once."
"We're going across the field.... They're singing and happy. I never heard one of them, one black person, say, 'I tell you what: These doggone white people' - not a word!" Robertson told CQ.
'Duck Dynasty'
Settles Lawsuit Against Sony Music
'Weird Al' Yankovic
"Weird Al" Yankovic has settled a lawsuit that his company Ear Booker brought against Sony Music in March 2012.
The lawsuit was among many brought by musicians contending that record labels have breached contracts by improperly treating digital downloads as "sales" rather than "licenses." As a result, Yankovic only received about 15 percent of shared income off of digital hubs like iTunes instead of 50 percent. The difference was alleged to have resulted in Sony underpaying Yankovic at least $1.5 million.
Yankovic, a parodist who has won multiple Grammy Awards for best comedy recording, claimed to have turned up a lot more that was troubling in an audit.
Among the alleged breaches was improperly charging marketing costs for various VH1 and MTV specials, underpaying on domestic publishing royalties, failing to pay him for goods given or discounted to retailers, failing to properly account for streaming transmissions like ringbacks and underreporting synch income on music used on TV shows around the world.
'Weird Al' Yankovic
Auctioning Audubon Collections
Indiana Historical Society
An Indiana group devoted to telling the state's story will auction works by John James Audubon next spring to raise money to acquire and store items more relevant to its mission.
The Indiana Historical Society paid $4,000 for "The Birds of America" in 1933 and $900 for "Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America" in 1951. The two sets together are expected to fetch at least $3.3 million at the Sotheby's auction in April.
"That's a pretty good rate of return," society President and CEO John Herbst said Wednesday.
Proceeds from the auction will be used to establish an acquisitions fund that will allow the society to compete for items of Indiana interest, such as a Civil War letter written by a black soldier from southern Indiana that sold in March, Herbst said. The money also will pay to expand storage space to accommodate the society's collections for the next 30 years.
Indiana Historical Society
Dutch Rock Is Long-Lost Meteorite
Carbonaceous Chondrite
A hunk of rock found in a private collection is a rare meteorite, researchers have announced. The brown-black rock, which is small enough to fit in the palm of a hand, plummeted to Earth with a flash of light and a hissing sound on Oct. 27, 1873. It landed in a field near the Dutch village of Diepenveen.
But the tale of this space rock didn't come to light until 2012, when an amateur astronomer named Henk Nieuwenhuis came across it in the collections of a "Mrs. L. Kiers," according to the Naturalis Biodiversity Center, a museum in Leiden, Netherlands, which now has custody of the meteorite. Nieuwenhuis immediately realized that the rock, kept in a little wooden box, was from space. He could also tell that it was a rare carbonaceous chondrite, a subclass of meteorites that makes up less than 5 percent of all meteorites ever found.
Carbonaceous chondrites are special because they're very primitive. They contain unmelted pieces of the original ingredients of the solar system, formed from the cloud of dust and gas that eventually congealed into planets, moons and asteroids. In the early, chaotic days of the solar system, carbonaceous chondrites raining down on Earth may have brought with them elements such as hydrogen and nitrogen, and even organic material, scientists say. These ingredients were crucial for life's development on Earth.
The Diepenveen meteorite is the fifth meteorite ever found in the Netherlands. It weighs just 2.4 ounces (68 grams) and looks like an ordinary rock, but researchers from the Royal Netherlands Association for Meteorology and Astronomy (KNVWS) and geoscientists at Vrije Universiteit of Amsterdam have confirmed that it came from outer space.
Carbonaceous Chondrite
In Memory
Ronnie Biggs
Ronnie Biggs, a small-time British criminal who became a celebrity during a life on the run after his role in the Great Train Robbery of 1963, died on Wednesday at the age of 84.
Biggs gained notoriety 50 years ago as one of a 12-member gang that ambushed a Royal Mail night train and made off with 2.6 million pounds ($4.2 million), equivalent to about 40 million pounds today. He was caught and jailed the next year.
He became the most famous of the gang after escaping from London's Wandsworth Prison in 1965, where he was serving a 30-year prison sentence, by scaling a wall with a rope ladder and spending 36 years on the run.
He used his share of the loot for plastic surgery and passage to Australia. He later fled to Brazil via Panama and Venezuela.
Living in Brazil, Biggs flaunted his freedom, was photographed partying in a policeman's helmet and in exotic locations, and in 1978 recorded a song "No One is Innocent" with the British punk band the Sex Pistols.
Tanned and sporting his white hair in a ponytail, he regularly gave interviews to British newspapers, staying in the public spotlight while in exile and reveling in his notoriety.
The Great Train Robbery became one of the most celebrated events in popular memory of the 1960s, coinciding with the Profumo affair - a sex-and-spies scandal which rocked the British establishment - and the rise of the Beatles and other working-class heroes. It spawned several films.
Biggs became a folk legend to some Britons but remained an unrepentant villain to others.
Over the years he survived a kidnap by former commandos who wanted to sell him to the highest bidder.
He was pursued across the globe by his great adversary, London police detective Jack Slipper ("Slipper of the Yard" but dodged extradition from Brazil as he had a son with a Brazilian woman.
After years of surviving by hosting barbecues for tourists and on royalties from his books, an ailing and broke Biggs finally surrendered to British police in 2001 and returned to prison but was freed in 2009 on health grounds.
Biggs, who was born in south London, always said he never regretted his role in the robbery although the crime involved a violent attack on the train driver.
Biggs was last seen in public in August at a memorial service at Highgate cemetery in north London for Bruce Reynolds, the mastermind of the robbery, who died aged 81 in February.
Frail and using a wheelchair, Biggs was unable to talk after a series of strokes. He was the only one of about four remaining gang members who was well enough to make the event.
Ronnie Biggs
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