Steve Sailor: Tarantino Punches the Damn Dirty Hippies (Taki's Magazine)
… Tarantino's latest features two world-famous movie stars demonstrating why, indeed, they are famous. DiCaprio winningly portrays an insecure, voluble, emotionally needy actor who once starred as a taciturn cowboy on his own TV series but is now on a downward career arc. Pitt portrays his war-hero pal and stunt double, who is the world's coolest guy, a Steve McQueen character come to life.
Paul Waldman: This is the most important question Democratic presidential candidates must answer (Washington Post)
… if the filibuster remains in place, McConnell can say, "Sorry. You get nothing." The next Democratic presidency will be an abject failure, both substantively and politically. All the goals, all the ambitions, all the visions for change could turn to dust while McConnell cackles with glee. So Democrats need to decide whether that's an outcome they can live with.
Alexandra Petri: Your SoulCycle instructor reassures you about where your money is going (Washington Post)
Some bad news this week about Stephen Ross, who, to be clear, is a passive investor in our parent group, super passive. Like, if he were on a bike, he'd be way, way in the back, probably not even visible! He's hosting an extremely expensive Trump fundraiser, with tickets up to $250,000 a plate. People have been saying this feels at odds with our mission and the values we publicly espouse. But is it not, deeply and fundamentally, in line with our mission to feel as though you are moving vaguely forward when in fact you are not progressing at all?
Jason Bailey and Lucille Dryden Bailey: 'Dora and the Lost City of Gold,' Reviewed - by My Five-Year-Old and Me (FLAVORWIRE)
I don't mean to oversell Dora and the Lost City of Gold, which has its problems - the pace is a little draggy, there are [a] few too many winking acknowledgments to the show's devices (and eye-rolling reactions therein), and some fairly dodgy effects, particularly in the closing scenes. This certainly isn't a "You don't even have to have a kid to see it," mid-Pixar sort of affair. But parents who take their kids to see it will enjoy the in-jokes and little nudges, and will have a far better time than at the likes of, say, your average skull-crushing Illumination Entertainment nightmare.
Serving as the inspiration for Norman Bates (Psycho), Leatherface (The Texas Chain Saw Massacre), and Buffalo Bill (The Silence of the Lambs), this American murderer has had a lasting effect on American popular culture. What is his name?
Musth or must (a word from Indian languages meaning a state of enjoyment) is a periodic condition in bull (male) elephants characterized by highly aggressive behavior and accompanied by a large rise in reproductive hormones.
Testosterone levels in an elephant in musth can be on average 60 times greater than in the same elephant at other times (in specific individuals these testosterone levels can even reach as much as 140 times the normal). However, whether this hormonal surge is the sole cause of musth, or merely a contributing factor, is unknown.
Scientific investigation of musth is problematic because even the most placid elephants become highly violent toward humans and other elephants during musth.
Although it has often been speculated by zoo visitors that musth is linked to rut, it is unlikely there is a biological connection because the female elephant's estrus cycle is not seasonally-linked, whereas musth most often takes place in winter. Furthermore, bulls in musth have often been known to attack female elephants, regardless of whether or not the females are in heat.
The approved method in developed countries is to strictly isolate the elephant in a highly fortified secure pen for a period ranging from 1 to 2 months until the elephant emerges from musth on its own. Medication for swelling and pain, as well as tranquilizers, are often mixed into the elephant's food. During this one- to two-month period the elephant cannot be trained, allowed outside or permitted to see other elephants, and it must be fed, watered and cleaned by remote methods; it will attack any approaching keeper. Some Indian mahouts decry this method as crueler than simply starving and dehydrating the animal for a week, after which it recovers and can be safely reunited with the herd.
Source
Mark. was first, and correct, with:
Elephants.
Dave said:
Elephants. Specifically sexually mature bull elephants. Hormones change the bull's behavior making him more eager to mate and more aggressive toward other bulls. Similar to a Whitetail buck during the rut.
mj wrote:
Musth
Is a kind of super PMS like conditions of male elephants around breeding
season. I call it PMS because they become irrationally aggressive and
cranky. Kinda like someone I used to work for.
Alan J answered:
Male Elephants.
Randall responded:
bull elephants
Kevin K. in Washington, DC In Skaneateles, NY, replied:
That musth refer to male elephants. You might get aggressive too if your gonads were the size of Volkswagons.
Jim from CA, retired to ID, responded:
So, while animals have been noted to have gone into musth, the elephant is currently the only animal that undergoes such a periodic condition.
Deborah replied:
I'm pretty sure that elephants experience musth. It has something to do with breeding.
By a happy coincidence we found the movie "Being There" the other night. What a delightful, charming and funny movie. Ninety minutes of entertainment without hate and violence - I recommend a like escape from reality for everyone.
DJ Useo said:
You got me there. I don't have a clue.
Billy in Cypress U$A wrote:
The answer today is appropriately "bull elephants", i.e. "Musth or must is a periodic condition in bull elephants, characterized by highly aggressive behavior and accompanied by a large rise in reproductive hormones.Wikipedia"
John I from Hawai`i says,
"Male Elephant."
Daniel in The City answered:
Elephants
Cal in Vermont replied:
Elephants. Elephants can experience the condition of musth, or must. If enough weekends pass where an elephant has had zero luck, he simply must. You can tell because he comes into town yelling and trumpeting and stamping the simple homes of the locals flatter than a pita and cars and trucks into scrap metal. He will pull up a palm tree by the roots and swing it in every direction and wreck everything left undamaged. All this while 6 feet of the other end of the elephant, the end that must, is waving around like it had a mind of its own. As this great commotion recedes into the jungle and can be heard only occasionally when the wind is right and then heard not at all, the villagers figure he did. Things return to normal until the next time one of them must and so it goes!
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• In 1981, the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, revived Verdi's Un Ballo in Mashera. Unfortunately, the opening night performance was marred. First, the scheduled tenor and baritone didn't show up, then the Amelia, performed by Montserrat Caballé, left the stage before her scene with Romeo. Because of the confusion, the stage curtain descended, and the conductor, Bernard Haitink, picked up the telephone in an effort to find out what was going on. When the switchboard operator answered, he said, "Haitink here. Give me the stage manager." The operator answered, "I'm sorry; I can't do that - there's a performance going on." Mr. Haitink looked at the stage curtain and said, "That's what you think."
• Sometimes, high art is more disgusting than tabloid journalism. For example, in Richard Strauss' opera Salome, the severed head of John the Baptist is brought on a platter to the title character, who kisses its lips. At a 1978 production of this opera at Perth, Australia, a particularly gruesome head of the Baptist was created. It was to be brought out on stage, covered with a cloth. At the properly dramatic moment, Salome was to lift off the cloth, then shock the audience. At this particular production, however, a mistake was made. When Salome lifted off the cloth, the only thing to be seen on the platter was a stack of ham sandwiches.
• In 1935, opera tenor Luciano Pavarotti was born in Modena, Italy, and his first critic was the doctor who delivered him. Hearing the infant scream, the doctor marveled, "Such high notes!" The ability to produce high notes under stress came in handy in 1969, when he was singing on stage in La Bohème in San Francisco when an earthquake struck. According to a 1979 article in Time, Pavarotti "gripped the hand of his Mimi, Dorothy Kirsten, a little more tightly, but kept on singing at full voice and never missed a beat. The earthquake drew to a peaceful conclusion and so did the performance."
• Sir Rudolph Bing once said that opera singers do not fit easily into blue jeans. Soprano Rita Hunter once visited Disneyland, where she attempted to get through a turnstile leading out of Sleeping Beauty's Castle. Unfortunately, she got stuck. The day was hot, and as she and her family were waiting for a turnstile mechanic to arrive to help her, her daughter bought her an ice cream cone, then bought her another one. As Ms. Hunter was eating the second ice cream cone, she heard a Disney employee tell her daughter, "Jesus, sweetheart, don't feed her any more or we'll never get her out."
• Franco Corelli used to carry around hidden sponges on stage while singing so he could occasionally wet his lips. Birgit Nilsson remembers that during the 1961 revival of Turandot at the Metropolitan Opera, Mr. Corelli suddenly turned his back on the audience, reached into the front of his pants, and, in Ms. Nilsson's words, "began fooling around." Of course, she was understandably worried about what he was going to do, and she was understandably relieved when he finally pulled out the sponge he had been searching for and wet his lips.
• Long ago, women's underwear was held up by a button. While singing onstage in La Bohème, Frances Alda felt the button come loose and her pantalettes start falling down. Still singing, she stepped behind a sofa that was part of the scenery and let the underwear fall to the ground, then stepped out from behind the sofa. Unfortunately for Ms. Alda, tenor Enrico Caruso, who was on stage with her, saw what had happened, and he picked up the underwear and spread it out on the sofa for all the audience to see.
• During theatrical events such as opera, backdrops are used to depict scenes. While Eugene Goossens was conducting Die Götterdämmerung in Liverpool, two backdrops were used. The bottom one showed a fire; the top one showed flames consuming the gods in Valhalla. Unfortunately, during a performance, only the top backdrop appeared - the lower backdrop showing the fire was missing, revealing this sign painted on the wall: NO SMOKING.
• While Emma Albani was singing at a benefit night for herself at Covent Garden, an admirer threw a bouquet of flowers and a jewel case to her. Unfortunately, the jewel case struck her squarely on the forehead (greatly upsetting the gentleman who had thrown it), and Ms. Albani was forced to leave the stage. However, when she opened the jewel case and discovered that it contained a beautiful jewelled diadem, she was not angry with the gift giver.
• The plot of an opera by Thea Musgrave revolves around a corpse in a bed on stage. In a 1961 production at the London Opera Centre, director Anthony Besch refused to let anyone other than himself handle the "corpse" that the props department had created, but at one performance, he forgot about it until the last moment. As the curtain opened, Mr. Besch was discovered running across the stage and carrying the corpse to the bed.
CBS begins the night with a RERUN'NCIS', followed by a RERUN'FBI', then a RERUN'NCIS: The 3rd One'.
Scheduled on a FRESHStephen Colbert are Jada Pinkett Smith, Rep. Ayanna Pressley, and Goo Goo Dolls.
Scheduled on a FRESHJames Corden, OBE, are RuPaul, David Oyelowo, and Alfie Allen.
NBC starts the night with a FRESH'America's Got Talent', followed by a FRESH'Bring The Funny'.
Scheduled on a FRESHJimmy Fallon are Henry Golding, Jonathan Groff, and Rick Ross featuring Swizz Beatz.
Scheduled on a FRESHSeth Meyers are Danny McBride, Yvonne Strahovski, Marianne Williamson, and Nate Smith.
On a RERUNCarson 'The Scab' Daly (from 2/28/19) are Ben Barnes, Badflower, and Rory Culkin.
ABC opens the night with a FRESH'Bachelor In Paradise', followed by a RERUN'Bless This Mess', followed by a RERUN'black-ish'.
Scheduled on a FRESHJimmy Kimmel are Henry Winkler, Roselyn Sanchez, and Daniel Caesar.
The CW offers a FRESH'Pandora', followed by a FRESH'Mysteries Decoded'.
Faux has a RERUN'Spin The Wheel', followed by a FRESH'First Responders Live'.
MY recycles an old 'Chicago PD', followed by another old 'Chicago PD'.
A&E has 'The First 48', another 'The First 48', followed by a FRESH'Intervention', then a FRESH'60 Days In: Narcoland'.
BBC -
[6:00AM] STAR TREK: VOYAGER - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 9-Emanations
[7:00AM] STAR TREK: VOYAGER - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 10-Prime Factors
[8:00AM] STAR TREK: VOYAGER - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 11-State of Flux
[9:00AM] STAR TREK: VOYAGER - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 12-Heroes and Demons
[10:00AM] STAR TREK: VOYAGER - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 13-Cathexis
[11:00AM] STAR TREK: VOYAGER - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 14-Faces
[12:00PM] STAR TREK: VOYAGER - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 15-Jetrel
[1:00PM] STAR TREK: VOYAGER - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 16-Learning Curve
[2:00PM] STAR TREK: VOYAGER - SEASON 2 - EPISODE 1-The 37's
[3:00PM] STAR TREK: VOYAGER - SEASON 2 - EPISODE 2-Initiations
[4:00PM] STAR TREK: VOYAGER - SEASON 2 - EPISODE 3-Projections
[5:00PM] EARTHQUAKE (1974)
[8:00PM] OUTBREAK (1995)
[11:00PM] EARTHQUAKE (1974)
[2:00AM] OUTBREAK (1995)
[5:00AM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - SEASON 4 - EPISODE 25-In Theory (ALL TIMES EDT)
Bravo has 'Real Housewives Of OC', another 'Real Housewives Of OC', followed by a FRESH'Real Housewives Of OC', then a FRESH'Flipping Exes', followed by a FRESH'Watch What Happens Live'.
Comedy Central has 3½ hours of old 'The Office', followed by a FRESH'Alternatino With Arturo Castro'.
Scheduled on a FRESHThe Daily Show is Burna Boy.
Scheduled on a FRESHLights Out with David Spade are Dennis Miller, Jo Koy, and Punkie Johnson.
FX has the movie 'Spider-Man: Homecoming', followed by the movie 'Thor: The Dark World', then a FRESH'Pose'.
History has 'The Food That Built America', followed by a FRESH'The Food That Built America'.
IFC -
[6:00A] Admission
[8:30A] Post Grad
[10:30A] Ladybugs
[12:30P] The Pink Panther 2
[2:30P] The Pink Panther
[4:30P] Drillbit Taylor
[7:00P] We're the Millers
[9:30P] We're the Millers
[12:00A] Drillbit Taylor
[2:30A] The Pink Panther
[4:30A] Night Flight - Art Pop and Rock Muses
[4:45A] The Pink Panther 2 (ALL TIMES EDT)
Sundance -
[6:00am] The Andy Griffith Show
[6:30am] The Andy Griffith Show
[7:00am] Escape From the Planet of the Apes
[9:30am] Beneath the Planet of the Apes
[11:30am] Face/Off
[2:30pm] Last Action Hero
[5:30pm] Batman Forever
[8:00pm] Batman & Robin
[11:00pm] Eraser
[1:30am] Last Action Hero
[4:30am] The Andy Griffith Show
[5:00am] The Andy Griffith Show
[5:30am] The Andy Griffith Show (ALL TIMES EDT)
SyFy has the movie 'Hellboy II: The Golden Army', followed by the movie 'Blade: Trinity', then the movie 'Resident Evil: Retribution'.
TBS:
On a RERUNConan (from 7/18/19) is Tom Cruise.
Lady Gaga wants to inspire hope by giving back to communities who suffered heartrbreaking loss following the recent mass shootings.
On Friday, in a statement on Facebook, the Grammy Award-winning singer, 33, announced she will be funding 162 classrooms in Dayton, Ohio; El Paso, Texas and Gilroy, California.
"My heart goes out to those who were taken from us too soon and to their families, loved ones, and communities who are left to grieve," the star wrote. "Everyone has the right to laws that make them feel safe in their communities."
Gaga revealed that her Born This Way Foundation is partnering with DonorsChoose - a nonprofit organization that allows individuals to donate directly to public school classroom projects. Through this partnership, she will be funding 162 classrooms across the three cities.
"Today, I find hope in the work of DonorsChoose.org and I'm proud to partner with them and with Born This Way Foundation to fully fund the classroom project needs in Dayton, OH, El Paso, TX, and Gilroy, CA," she wrote. "14 classrooms in Dayton, 125 classrooms in El Paso, and 23 classrooms in Gilroy will now have access to the support they need to inspire their students to work together and bring their dreams to life."
John Oliver didn't report the news on Sunday night's episode of Last Week Tonight. Instead, he baked a cake. It all started with Turkmenistan's president Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, who may be missing or perhaps even dead. As Oliver noted, Berdimuhamedov hasn't been seen in weeks, but his government swears he's just on an adventure-filled vacation, even going so far as to release a video showing his vacation highlight reel, without him in it, including a recreation of a person driving circles around a burning crater. "You can't do doughnuts around a fire pit if you're dead," Oliver said, laughing.
According to Oliver, Berdimuhamedov is an authoritarian leader who has made Turkmenistan "one of the worst places to live in the world," which he notes is a high bar. "One of the worst places on Earth, that is quite a claim" says Oliver, "Especially considering the Earth also includes Syria, North Korea, and Twitter." Of course, "dangerous world leaders are currently a dime a dozen," Oliver noted. "It's just one of the many things that makes being alive right now simply great."
He is also a horse racer, although perhaps not a very good one, as he was involved in a fall in a horse race. Berdimuhamedov was reportedly so humiliated by the fall that he asked reporters to remove the footage and even searched journalists' bags for memory devices where video of the spill may be recorded. Naturally, Oliver showed it three times.
Berdimuhamedov's other "bizarre obsession" is in collecting Guinness World Records. Under his rule, Turkmenistan has become the record holder for titles like world's largest Ferris wheel, the highest density of buildings with white marble cladding, and world's largest horse head statue. ("Of course," Oliver noted.)
During his research, Oliver realized that Guinness works with authoritarian governments, including Turkmenistan, Saudi Arabia, and the police force in Dubai, to set records. According to Oliver, "authoritarians love getting Guinness World Records" as they help earn publicity and reinforce "a cult of personality" for the leaders.
Sarah Silverman's never hesitated to speak openly and empathetically about the heated debates swirling around some of her closest pals, namely Al Franken and Louis C.K. She's also confronted her own controversies head-on, having publicly condemned a 2007 episode of The Sarah Silverman Program in which she wore blackface. "I don't stand by the blackface sketch," she told GQ last year. "I'm horrified by it, and I can't erase it. I can only be changed by it and move on...That was such liberal-bubble stuff, where I actually thought it was dealing with racism by using racism. I don't get joy in that anymore. It makes me feel yucky. All I can say is that I'm not that person anymore."
It appears, however, that the instance is still impacting her career. During a new interview on The Bill Simmons Podcast (via Indiewire), Silverman revealed that she was just recently fired from a film due to the episode. "I recently was going to do a movie, a sweet part, then at 11 p.m. the night before they fired me because they saw a picture of me in blackface from that episode," she said. "I didn't fight it. They hired someone else who is wonderful but who has never stuck their neck out. It was so disheartening. It just made me real, real sad, because I really kind of devoted my life to making it right."
Silverman went on to speak about those online who revel in bringing up a person's past mistakes. "It's like, if you're not on board, if you say the wrong thing, if you had a tweet once, everyone is, like, throwing the first stone," she said. "It's so odd. It's a perversion. It's really, 'Look how righteous I am and now I'm going to press refresh all day long to see how many likes I get in my righteousness.'"
Silverman spoke about a similar issue last year, citing how she was piled on by "personal friends" and others for tweeting positively about the Roseanne reboot. She's also engaged directly with her trolls, even going so far as to cover the medical costs of one who opened up to her after she replied to an abusive slur they hurled her way.
The largest pay-TV providers in the U.S. saw video subscriber losses more than triple to 1.53 million in the second quarter, according to the latest report from Leichtman Research Group.
The tally marks is up dramatically from the 420,000 losses in the second quarter of 2018. LRG based the figures on its findings for companies representing 93% of the total marketplace.
True cord-cutting is taking place, but the video subscriber declines have also been accompanied by gains in broadband customers as many households shift toward streaming. That means top cable operators like Comcast and Charter can still forge profitable paths despite shedding traditional customers. The lack of broadband offerings at satellite companies, though, means the numbers for DirecTV and Dish Network are resonating more loudly.
DirecTV had 17.9 million subscribers at the end of the quarter, having dropped 778,000, while Dish Network had its best quarter since the end of 2014, dropping just 79,000.
On a 12-month basis, top pay-TV providers have now lost 5 million subscribers over the past five years, compared with losses of just shy of 1.1 million in the prior year.
The supermassive black hole at the heart of the Milky Way, Sagittarius A*, is relatively quiet. It's not an active nucleus, spewing light and heat into the space around it; most of the time, the black hole's activity is low key, with minimal fluctuations in its brightness.
Most of the time. Recently, astronomers caught it going absolutely bananas, suddenly growing 75 times brighter before subsiding back to normal levels. That's the brightest we've ever seen Sgr A* in near-infrared wavelengths.
"I was pretty surprised at first and then very excited," astronomer Tuan Do of the University of California Los Angeles told ScienceAlert.
"The black hole was so bright I at first mistook it for the star S0-2, because I had never seen Sgr A* that bright. Over the next few frames, though, it was clear the source was variable and had to be the black hole. I knew almost right away there was probably something interesting going on with the black hole."
But what? That's what astronomers are on a mission to find out. Their findings so far are currently in press with The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
Alaska scientists say the chances of a polar bear encounter have increased after research reveals the bears are arriving on shore earlier and staying on land longer, a report said.
Scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey found changes in sea ice habitat have coincided with evidence that polar bears' use of land is increasing, the Anchorage Daily News reported Saturday.
The polar bears come to land from the Beaufort Sea during the ice-melt season, when the sea ice breaks up in the summer and refreezes in the fall, scientists said.
The average duration of the ice-melt season has increased by 36 days since the late 1990s, researchers said.
The bears are arriving "a little bit ahead of schedule," said Todd Atwood, a research wildlife biologist leading the U.S. Geological Survey's polar bear research program.
Two gay penguins at the Berlin Zoo are soon to become parents after taking in an abandoned egg as their own.
Skipper and Ping, the two male emperor penguins, arrived in the Berlin Zoo in April as a couple. As soon as they arrived, said Berlin Zoo spokesman Maximilian Jaeger, they showed immediate baby fever.
"They kept trying to hatch fish and stones," Jaeger said to German news agency DPA.
Male emperor penguins warm the eggs in the wild, protecting their children from the elements after the mother penguin gives birth and hunts for food to replenish herself.
"The two male penguins are acting like exemplary parents, taking turns to warm the egg," Jaeger told DPA on Friday.
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