READING RAINBOW Returns Yea!!
‘Reading Rainbow’ Returns as App
By Margaret Bristol and Natalie Zutter
For 26 years, the beloved television show “Reading Rainbow” aired on PBS, each episode offering new adventures and series book recommendations. The show was critically acclaimed (26 Emmys!) and host LeVar Burton–not to mention an addictive theme song–became an integral part of its success.
Now, Burton (with his multimedia company RRKidz) has relaunched the “Reading Rainbow” brand for a whole new generation of young readers–readers used to consuming media on computers, tablets and mobile devices. The “Reading Rainbow” app is now available in the iTunes store, and with it comes a world of learning and books.
In a recent interview, Burton explained that after “Reading Rainbow” was cancelled in 2009, he wanted to continue to inspire kids in their love of reading. “‘Reading Rainbow’ the television show was really about using the prevailing technology of the day to reach kids and turn them on to books and literature and the adventures of reading,” he said. “If you want to reach kids today, you need to be on a mobile device.”
22 Orange Peanut Hut Hut
The Limits of Reason
Russian shot in quarrel over Kant’s philosophy
MOSCOW (AP) — An argument in southern Russia over philosopher Immanuel Kant, the author of “Critique of Pure Reason,” devolved into pure mayhem when one debater shot the other.
A police spokeswoman in Rostov-on Don, Viktoria Safarova, said two men in their 20s were discussing Kant as they stood in line to buy beer at a small store on Sunday. The discussion deteriorated into a fistfight and one participant pulled out a small nonlethal pistol and fired repeatedly.
Butt Pudding
McEveryboot
I want McEverything! Man orders every sandwich on McDonald’s menu to create $140 super-sub
By Lee Moran
He wanted McEverything!
A food fan ordered every single sandwich on the McDonald’s menu to create his very own $140 gut-busting super-sub.
He rolled into the chain’s eatery in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, 30 minutes before the end of breakfast service so he could order all 43 different sandwiches available.
He admitted that many will question why he spent $140.33 on the food – plus an extra dollar for the Diet Coke.
But he said: “The way I see it though is that with all the leftovers I have I’ve got all my breakfasts, lunches and dinners covered for the next week or so!”
Prince Jazzbo Gone
Reggae Toaster Prince Jazzbo Dies, Aged 62
By Ian Harrison
IN 1976 PRINCE JAZZBO would be immortalized on The Upsetters’ Lee Perry-produced classic Super Ape. He voiced the humid, dubbed up stream of consciousness track Croaking Lizard over the rhythm of Max Romeo’s Iron Shirt – referring to tribal war and the all-important natty dread skank, it remains an essential transmission from what many would hold to be the glory years of reggae and dub.
Though the success enjoyed by peers including Big Youth and U Roy would elude him, he would sustain a four-decades career as MC, producer and label owner. Born Linval Roy Carter in Clarendon 1951, Prince Jazzbo was first heard at Studio One in 1972, his first hit being the spontaneous, madcap Crab Walking, using Horace Andy’s Skylarking rhythm.
He’d also work with producers Bunny Lee and Glen Brown before hooking up with Perry, recording the admired, Vatican-bashing Natty Passing Thru’ LP (also known as Ital Corner) in 1976. From 1977 he ran the Ujama label – whose label famously carried a picture of jockeys riding a donkey and whose discography would come to feature something of a who’s-who of Jamaican vocalists, including Frankie Paul, Horace Andy, U-Roy and I-Roy, plus many more.
Amusingly, Jazzbo had dueled with the latter on vinyl in 1975 (this musical feud involved Jazzbo answering I-Roy’s demolishing Straight To Jazzbo’s Head with Straight To I-Roy’s Head – subsequent vinyl blows included Jazzbo Have Fe Run and Gal Boy I Roy, all, the story goes, with the encouragement of producer Bunny Lee). The two men would later make peace, recording the duet Live Together in 1990.
Apple Creepy Crow
Coulrophobia: The fear of clowns
Creepy Northampton clown terrifying residents by standing around on street corners staring at passers-by
A creepy and anonymous clown has been terrifying residents of Northampton by standing around on street corners and staring at passers-by.
The clown, who bears a striking resemblance to Pennywise from the 1990 film It, adapted from the Stephen King novel of the same name, first appeared on Friday 13th and was spotted again over the weekend.
According to the Northampton Herald and Post the clown has appeared in several locations in the Abington and Kingsley areas of the town. On each sighting, he or she has worn the same white face makeup, red wig, all-in-one suit and oversized bowtie.
He is also sometimes seen carrying a clown teddy.
The newspaper also reports that the clown knocked on someone’s door and offered to paint their window sills despite having no painting equipment. She reported the men to police for their suspicious behaviour stating they looked like clowns. The article stated: “A number of sightings of people dressed as clowns have also been reported across Northampton in recent weeks”.
The newspaper reported: “He doesn’t juggle. He doesn’t twist balloons into animal shapes. He just stares.”
Creepy Carlos The Booty-Grabber Accosts Queens Co-eds
Perv sneaks into off-campus St. John’s dorm in Queens, gropes female student: cops
By Kerry Burke , Jennifer H. Cunningham AND Thomas Tracy
A pervet sneaked into an off-campus dorm at St. John’s University in Queens and groped a female student on Friday, cop sources said.
The suspect, described as a heavyset Latino man who is not a St. John’s student, entered the dorm on Henley Road in Jamaica Hills at about 7:30 p.m. and grabbed the victim’s rear end, according to sources.
A student who lives at the St. John’s dorm said the pervert had been seen before — and been given a nickname. “There’s a guy around here always grabbing girls’ butts,” the female student said. “We call him ‘Carlos the Booty-Grabber.’”
Ameri-Man Booker
Shock as Man Booker prize plans to consider works by American writers
British authors say award will lose its distinctiveness and new talent will be ‘crowded out’
The British literary world has been stunned by news that the Man Booker prize is set to allow American writers to enter from next year, with authors questioning whether it would lose its “character” and even prevent the emergence of domestic talent.
The Man Booker, which currently allows entries from British, Irish and Commonwealth authors, is the most prestigious prize in British literature; past winners include Salman Rushdie, Iris Murdoch and JM Coetzee.
It emerged on Sunday that novels by US authors would be allowed from next year for the first time. Jim Crace, who is on this year’s shortlist for his novel Harvest, said: “In principle, I should believe in all prizes being open to everyone. But I think prizes need to have their own characters, and sometimes those characters are defined by their limitations.”
A Booker spokeswoman declined to comment on Sunday but said some changes to the prize were to be announced as early as this week.
Mr Crace said: “If you open the Booker prize to all people writing in the English language it would be a fantastic overview of English language literature but it would lose a focus. I’m very fond of the sense of the Commonwealth. There’s something in there that you would lose if you open it up to American authors.”
Broadcaster Melvyn Bragg added that he believes the prize may lose its “distinctiveness”.
#5 NYT #3
Dangling from 370 helium-filled balloons
PICTURE OF THE DAY
Aviator Jonathan Trappe set off on a world first crossing of the Atlantic Ocean dangling from 370 helium-filled balloons, but had to abort after 12 hours. Five others have died making similar attempts.
Ray Dolby Gone
from The San Francisco Chronicle
Ray Dolby, pioneering sound engineer, dies at 80
Sam Whiting
Ray Dolby, the inventor who took the hiss out of the soundtrack of our lives, died Thursday at his home in San Francisco. He was 80 and had been living with Alzheimer’s disease, compounded by a diagnosis of leukemia in July.
The name Dolby first became common decades ago when the sound wizard developed a system for eliminating the static noise on cassette tapes used for copying music from vinyl albums. The “Dolby” button on a cassette deck was a requirement for every college stereo. His influence also extended to film, where he helped bring “Star Wars” to life and created an entire industry devoted to the sound experience.
Now the imprint “Dolby” or “In Dolby” – or most recently “Dolby Atmos” – on a movie screen is a guarantee of sound quality known worldwide, and Dolby Laboratories, the San Francisco company he founded, has won just about every award there is, including the Oscar, the Emmy and the Grammy. The Dolby Theatre, the Hollywood home of the Academy Awards, is named for his company.
Y.M.C.A. Returned to Rightful Owner
Village People Singer Regains ‘Y.M.C.A.’ Right After Landmark Legal Fight
Golden years may get more golden for songwriters with hit records
The retirement outlook for musicians and songwriters just got a whole lot better. In 1978, a legal change allowed songwriters to take their share of a song’s copyright back from labels and publishers after 35 years. Well, 2013 was the first year the provision went into effect. And on September 13, the former lead singer of the Village People will become what’s thought to be the first hit artist to invoke so-called “termination rights.”
Victor Willis told the New York Times he’s not sure yet how he’ll try to capitalize on his newfound control over 33 songs, including “Y.M.C.A.” and “In the Navy.” But he noted that he’s considering blocking the Village People from performing his songs in the United States. The disco group still tours, though mostly without its early members. “I learned over the years that there are some awesome powers associated with copyright ownership,” Willis told theTimes. “You can stop somebody from performing your music if you want to, and I might object to some usages.”
Willis, who wore a police costume in the Village People’s prime, actually won his court case in May 2012, when a federal court judge dismissed a lawsuit filed against him by two music publishing companies. The publishers, Scorpio Music and Can’t Stop Production, had argued that Willis couldn’t reclaim his share of the songs without the approval of everybody else who co-wrote them. U.S. District Court Judge Barry Moskowitz in California disagreed.
The publishers also originally contended that Willis couldn’t use his termination rights because the songs were “works for hire” — essentially, because he was just an employee. The court’s decision didn’t rule on that argument, because the publishers’ lawyers eventually dropped it. Still, as the Times suggests, if publishers didn’t feel they could make a successful “work for hire” argument with the Village People, they’re going to have an even tougher time with more autonomous artists such as Bruce Springsteen and Parliament-Funkadelic.
BABOOM
Kim Dotcom Teases New Music Service… BABOOM
Earlier this week Kim Dotcom resigned as Mega director to focus on other projects, including his upcoming music service. TorrentFreak can now confirm that the new service will be called Baboom. While the official release is still a few months away Dotcom was kind enough to share an early teaser with us. “Artists never had more freedom, transparency and control,” he says.
December 2011, a month before the criminal proceeding against Megaupload became public, Kim Dotcom first revealed his plans to launch a new service to transform the music business.
At the time the project was called Megabox and the similarly named .com domain was seized by the U.S. Government. However, despite all the legal troubles, Dotcom continued development on the music platform.
It’s currently being prepared for a public launch, albeit under a different brand. Dotcom had decided initially decided to keep the new name a secret for a while, but after he resigned from Mega earlier this week there were several signs suggesting that it could be “Baboom.”
Faux Van Gogh Made Real
Vincent Van Gogh painting Sunset at Montmajour discovered in attic unveiled in Amsterdam
A Vincent Van Gogh painting that was discovered in a Norwegian attic has been unveiled in Amsterdam in what is the first discovery of a full-sized canvas by the Dutch master since 1928.
By Barney Henderson, and agencies
Sunset at Montmajour, a landscape of trees and sky in the south of France in Van Gogh’s familiar thick brush strokes was painted in 1888 but has been lying in the attic of a Norwegian collector who bought the painting in 1908 but dismissed it as a fake.
The painting was unveiled at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam on Monday, with Axel Rueger. the director, describing it as a “once in a lifetime experience”.
The painting was authenticated based on comparisons with Van Gogh’s techniques and a letter he wrote in which he described the painting.
It can be dated to the exact day it was painted because Vincent described it in a letter to his brother, Theo, and said he painted it the previous day – July 4, 1888.
He said the painting was done “on a stony heath where small twisted oaks grow”.
Researcher Teio Meedendorp said he and other researchers “have found answers to all the key questions, which is remarkable for a painting that has been lost for more than 100 years”.
The painting was listed among Theo van Gogh’s collection as number 180, and that number can still be seen on the back of the canvas. The work was sold in 1901.
Car Hackers Cool
from The San Jose Mercury News
Car hackers slam on brakes at freeway speeds
By Tom Krisher/Associated Press
DETROIT — As cars become more like PCs on wheels, what’s to stop a hacker from taking over yours?
In recent demonstrations, hackers have shown they can slam a car’s brakes at freeway speeds, jerk the steering wheel and even shut down the engine — all from their laptop computers.
The hackers are publicizing their work to reveal vulnerabilities present in a growing number of car computers. All cars and trucks contain 20 to 70 computers. They control everything from the brakes to acceleration to the windows, and are connected to an internal network. A few hackers have recently managed to find their way into these intricate networks.
In one case, a pair of hackers manipulated two cars by plugging a laptop into a port beneath the dashboard where mechanics connect their computers to search for problems. Scarier yet, another group took control of a car’s computers through cellular telephone and Bluetooth connections, the compact disc player and even the tire pressure monitoring system.
Uncle Funny Gone
Murray Gershenz, Record Store Owner and Character Actor, Dies at 91
Damian Dovarganes/Associated Press
For more than 50 years, Murray Gershenz ran a used record store in Los Angeles that was much more than a store. It was an international archive of more than 300,000 records that he loved, or that he hoped one day to hear and was convinced that someone else out there did, too.
“He told me, ‘If I could listen to every one of these records I would,’ ” his son Irving said.
But some people in Los Angeles take day jobs to finance secret dreams, and Music Man Murray, as both he and his store were called, was one of them. In 1938, when he was 16 and living in New York, he helped form the Bronx Playgrounds Operetta Club. They sang at the 1939 World’s Fair. When he was nearly 80, he started taking comedy classes in Los Angeles.
His much younger classmates wondered how he made it all look so easy. The dry delivery. The exasperated face. One evening a casting director spotted him, and soon enough there he was on “Will & Grace,” playing a character named Uncle Funny.
FALL OF FIVE Dominance
‘Fall of Five’ Dominates August
The fourth novel in the I am Number Four series by Pittacus Lore (a pseudonym for James Frey),The Fall of Five, dominated social media chatter in August, according to the social media tracking service CoverCake.
Speaking of The Fall of Five, which was published by HarperCollins on Aug. 27, Jeff Costello, v-p of CoverCake, said, “This book just kept picking up momentum all month as the release date approached. It had more than twice as many comments as its nearest competitor in the last week of the month.”
Costello also noticed a large percentage of people who referenced both The Fall of Five and Rick Riordan’s upcoming book, House of Hades, in the same comment. “We’ve never seen that happen before with two different authors and book series,” he added.
Kenneth Cole Cool #Footwear
‘Boots on the ground, let’s not forget sandals, pumps and loafers’: Designer Kenneth Cole faces backlash for tweeting ‘sick’ joke about US troops in Syria
Kenneth Cole has been accused of ‘mocking war to sell fashion’ after the designer posted a tweet making light of the U.S. government’s decision to take military action in Syria.
‘”Boots on the ground” or not, let’s not forget about sandals, pumps and loafers. #Footwear,’ the designer tweeted this afternoon.
The phrase ‘boots on the ground’ is used by President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry in regards to the controversial deployment of American troops on Syrian soil.
Hundreds of Twitter users angered by the designer’s statement are taking are no-holds-barred approach with their recriminations, labeling the tweet ‘awful’ and ‘insensitive’.
#5 WSJ #1
WALL STREET JOURNAL BEST-SELLERS
By The Associated Press
FICTION
1. “The Fall of Five” by Pittacus Lore (HarperCollins)
2. “The Cuckoo’s Calling” by Robert Galbraith (J.K. Rowling)
3. “How the Light Gets In” by Louise Penny (Minotaur Books)
4. “Mistress” by James Patterson, David Ellis (Little, Brown)
5. “Inferno” by Dan Brown (Doubleday)
6. “The Fault in Our Stars” by John Green (Dutton Books)
7. “Wonder” by R.J. Palacio (Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers)
8. “And the Mountain Echoed” by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead)
9. “The Surprise Attack of Jabba the Puppett” by Tom Angleberger (Amulet Books)
10. “Insurgent” by Veronica Roth (Katherine Tegen Books)
Secret Fore-Edges
Secret Fore-Edge Paintings Revealed in Early 19th Century Books at the University of Iowa
Summer by Robert Mudie / Special Collections & University Archives at the University of Iowa
A few days ago Colleen Theisen who helps with outreach and instruction at the Special Collections & University Archives at the University of Iowa shared an amazing gif she made that demonstrates something called fore-edge painting on the edge of a 1837 book called Autumn by Robert Mudie. Fore-edge painting, which is believed to date back as early as the 1650s, is a way of hiding a painting on the edge of a book so that it can only be seen when the pages are fanned out. There are even books that have double fore-edge paintings, where a different image can be seen by flipping the book over and fanning the pages in the opposite direction.
A Typical Day In The Life of Pittacus Lore
Sir David Frost Gone
Veteran broadcaster David Frost dies
LONDON – David Frost may be best remembered for his post-Watergate interviews with former President Richard Nixon, but the veteran British broadcaster was equally at ease as a satirist, game show host and serious political journalist.
In a television career that spanned half a century across both sides of the Atlantic, Frost interviewed a long list of the world’s most powerful and famous, including virtually every British prime minister and U.S. president of his time. He also was a gifted entertainer, a born TV host, and his amiable and charming personality was often described as the key to his success as interviewer.
Edmund de Waal @ Gagosian
Poetry Written in Porcelain
By CAROL VOGEL
Andrew Testa for The New York Times
LONDON — In England, Edmund de Waal is a celebrated potter, known for installations of impeccably made vessels in soft shades of celadon or white, many of them permanently displayed in places like the Victoria and Albert Museum here. But in the United States Mr. de Waal is known primarily as a writer whose 2010 family memoir “The Hare With Amber Eyes” became a surprise best seller. Despite countless rejections from publishers, it ended up selling more than 1.5 million copies, has been translated into 26 languages and was recently optioned for a movie.
Chronicling the journey of 264 Japanese netsuke — wood and ivory carvings of animals, plants and people, none larger than the palm of a hand — that Mr. de Waal inherited from his great-uncle Iggie, “The Hare With Amber Eyes” is a sweeping story that begins in Paris in 1871 and progresses through five generations of the Ephrussi family, whose collection of netsuke made its way to Vienna, where it was thought to have been confiscated by the Nazis, and decades later ended up in London. “My making and my writing is one thing,” Mr. de Waal explained, adding, “Pots turn into words, and words turn into pots.”
Like the netsuke, Mr. de Waal’s own work is three-dimensional, tactile and painstakingly fashioned, but in his own Minimalist and modern language. He produces objects like wafer-thin cylinders, plates and pitchers, carefully arranged to tell a story. While collectors like the cosmetics heir Ronald S. Lauder and Sotheby’s vice chairman Charles Moffett have purchased examples of Mr. de Waal’s porcelain, there has never been an exhibition of his work in the United States. But after the dealer Larry Gagosian read the memoir, he was curious to see Mr. de Waal’s art. “They’re really poetic installations,” Mr. Gagosian said of his decision to present a major show of Mr. de Waal’s porcelain at his Madison Avenue gallery, opening on Sept. 12.
We’re All Martians Now
Life On Earth Started On Mars, Say Scientists
There is growing evidence we are really Martians and that “life started on Mars and came to Earth on a rock”.
Images from NASA’s Curiosity rover on Mars
Life on Earth may have started millions of miles away on Mars, according to scientists.
An element believed to be crucial to the origin of life would only have been available on the surface of the Red Planet.
These “seeds” of life probably arrived on Earth in meteorites blasted off Mars by impacts or volcanic eruptions, Geochemist Professor Steven Benner claims.
Prof Benner, from The Westheimer Institute for Science and Technology in the US, said: “The evidence seems to be building that we are actually all Martians; that life started on Mars and came to Earth on a rock.”
Chimp The Artist
US chimp Brent wins Humane Society art competition
Brent, 37, created a delicate, vibrantly coloured work featuring daubs of violet, blue and yellow on paper.
The entries were judged by noted primate researcher and conservationist, Jane Goodall.
The prize in the contest, sponsored by the Humane Society of the US will benefit Chimp Haven, Brent’s sanctuary in the US state of Louisiana.
Cheetah and Ripley won second and third prizes in the competition that garnered 27,000 votes.
Brent is a retired laboratory animal, and the Humane Society says he is protective of an elder companion, named Grandma, and “loves to laugh and play”.
Pickled People-meter
The Pickle Index
IMAGE: Two heads of whole zha cai with chilli paste; photograph by Sjschen via Wikipedia.
Chinese officials, charged with moving 250 million rural farmers into cities over the next decade under the central government’s sweeping “National Plan for Promoting Healthy Urbanization (2011-20),” have developed a “pickle index” for measuring the movement of migrant workers.
According to the South China Morning Post, the country’s National Development and Reform Commission has found that sales of zha cai, a pickled mustard tuber, provide a better guide to population flows than often unreliable provincial statistical data. As an unnamed planner explained to the Economic Observer:
Under normal circumstances, urban consumption levels of convenience foods such as instant noodles and pickled mustard is essentially constant. Therefore, we can assume that volume changes are mainly caused by a city’s floating population.
Citi Bikes Encouraging Prublic Dunkeness
Riding Away From a Bar Crawl With Citi Bikes
By SHEILA MARIKAR
A couple of cocktails at the Wythe Hotel led to beers at Mable’s Smokehouse and a nightcap at Post Office, a dive-like whiskey bar. After four or five drinks, they undocked a pair of blue bikes and rode home over the Williamsburg Bridge.
As usual, Shawn sped ahead, and as they ascended over the East River, he turned around to see where his girlfriend was. That’s when he lost his balance, kicked his foot into a bridge railing and broke his toe.
“I really wasn’t that drunk,” said Shawn, 30, who uses the bike-share program about 20 times a week. (Shawn, like many of the people interviewed, asked that his full name not be used; drinking and cycling is not really something to toot your bike horn about.) “I’ve never blackout Citi Biked.”
John Lennon To Be Cloned From Rotted Tooth
Dentist Who Bought John Lennon’s Molar at Auction Wants to Use the Tooth to Clone the Late Singer
BY NICK PETRILLO
It looks like the plot has thickened in the never-ending tale of John Lennon’s decayed tooth. In an interview with The Sun, Canadian dentist Michael Zuk announced his intentions to extract and sequence the late Beatle’s DNA from his molar, a tooth that has become the most, erm, sought-after dental relic in rock music.
You may recall a peculiar enough story from a couple years ago, in which the dentist and avid tooth collector paid over $30,000 at auction for Lennon’s molar. The fabled tooth had been passed along for decades prior to Mr. Zuk’s purchase, first as a memento in the hands of Lennon’s housekeeper and later as an artifact resigned to the dreary existence of making publicity appearances at charity events. The tooth is currently in the possession of Kirsten Zuk, the dentist’s wife, who displays it alongside her art projects to raise awareness for cleft-palate surgery.
Dr. Zuk has even gone so far as to issue a press release on the matter, in which he declares that his ambitious dream might just be one of the “best decisions of his life.” More information on Dr. Zuk’s noble pursuit can be found on his new website, the eloquently titled and SEO-friendly johnlennontooth.com.