Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Froma Harrop: "What America Needs: Abject Defeat of Budget Games" (Creators Syndicate)
… America's leaders, Democrats and sane Republicans, must drive a stake in the heart of the idea that you can close down the government - and threaten economic meltdown by playing games with the debt ceiling - to win political concessions.
Susan Estrich: Shut Down Politics (Creators Syndicate)
Here's a big news alert: House Republicans oppose Obamacare. That's why they've shut the government down.
Paul Krugman: Shorting Out the Wiring (New York Times)
It's hard to believe now, but Bush was treated as a highly effective leader who knew what he was doing right up to Katrina, while Clinton - now viewed with such respect - was treated as a bungling interloper for much of his presidency. Even in the last few years there was a rush to canonize Paul Ryan as a superwonk, when it was quite obvious if you looked that politics aside, he was just incompetent at number-crunching. But I think the last two years have finally killed that presumption [of Republican competence].
Lenore Skenazy: The Airsoft 3 (Creators Syndicate)
But though this case is one that is making headlines because of the school's being so intrusive and harsh, the reality is that those guns look ridiculously realistic. I'd call 911 if I saw a kid trying to use or hide one, too. It is definitely fine for kids to play on their own property with whatever items their parents allow. But when the items look deadly, it's not overreach for a neighbor to be concerned. In fact, it's neighborly.
Brendan Reed: 5 Shocking Ways Enemies Worked Together During Times of War (Cracked)
War sucks dick. All the dicks, in fact. It cuts lives short, tears whole families apart, and it always seems to bring out the absolute worst in humanity. However, throughout history, there have been some people who've stared war's moral corruption right in the face and then punched its teeth out with the clenched fists of mercy and human courage.
Xavier Jackson, Douglas A. McDonnell: 6 Hilarious Pranks Pulled by Soldiers in the Middle of War (Cracked)
War is hell, but it is a hell that historically is made up almost entirely of young, high-testosterone males. And no matter what the setting, when you get a bunch of dudes together in the same place, shenanigans will ensue. That's why the horrific history of warfare is littered with wacky pranks that are alternately admirable and utterly insane, making us think that war is really just high school with bombs.
Froma Harrop: The Sports Cable Rip-off (Creators Syndicate)
Not long ago, an important New England Patriots game failed to appear on my cable lineup. There was a way to pay extra for it, but the heck with that.
Henry Rollins: The Essence of Punk Rock (LA Weekly)
Several nights ago, I went to the Echo to see La Sera and The Julie Ruin. I had been looking forward to this show for a while.
Lauren Davis: 13 Places on Earth People Believed Were Entrances to Hell (io9)
While in some belief systems, the afterlife can only be accessed by spiritual means, in others, the underworld could be accessed directly from the Earth. Here are 13 real spots that people have thought (and in a few cases, still do) lead straight to the lands of the dead.
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(Go A's) took the day off.
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Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Hot and dry.
Animation Exhibit
Detroit
The 128-year-old Detroit Institute of Arts has gained a reputation as a home for some of the world's most hallowed masterpieces: Paintings by Van Gogh and Picasso, the Rivera industry murals.
Things will look a bit different, though, over the next few months.
Vincent, Pablo and Diego will have company in the form of Mickey, Bart and Bugs.
"Watch Me Move: The Animation Show," which organizers call the "most extensive animation show ever mounted," has both iconic clips - featuring the aforementioned Mouse, Simpson and Bunny - as well as lesser-known works that span the past 100-plus years. The show brings together industry pioneers, independent filmmakers and contemporary artists, including William Kentridge and Nathalie Djurberg, alongside commercial studios such as Walt Disney, Aardman and Pixar.
The exhibit takes its name from American cartoonist and animator Winsor McCay's century-old short film "Little Nemo," which displays an on-screen message inviting viewers to "Watch Me Move."
Detroit
Global Vigils
Greenpeace
Rock stars and celebrities joined a worldwide vigil in support of 30 Greenpeace activists whose jailing by Russia after a protest against Arctic oil drilling sparked a new row between Moscow and the West.
British actor Jude Law, fashion designer Vivienne Westwood, The Clash guitarist Paul Simonon and Damon Albarn, frontman of British band Blur, joined about 1,000 people gathered outside the Russian embassy in London, as other protesters rallied in cities across the world.
Pressure has been mounting on Russia from activists and governments shocked by Moscow's decision to level piracy charges against Greenpeace's Arctic Sunrise crew.
Law said the activists "probably knew there would be an arrest involved and the threat of a conviction is probably part and parcel of the act of drawing attention to the drilling in the Arctic which we all know is an international problem which needs confronting."
But Russia displayed little inclination to show leniency Saturday as it hit out at both Greenpeace and the Dutch government under whose flag the environmental lobby group's ship sailed.
Greenpeace
Game Of Thrones Fan
Stevie Nicks
Stevie Nicks is a "Game of Thrones" groupie!
The Fleetwood Mac singer said watching the HBO show helped her through a dark time in her life (following a bout of pneumonia and the death of her mother) - and revealed she'd like to write music for the George R. R. Martin-created series.
"With my pneumonia and my mother's death I watched the entire first season of 'Game Of Thrones'- so that was great!" the legendary singer reportedly told the Herald Scotland, following a nearly-sold-out show in Glasgow. "That certainly took my mind off everything."
"The author is my age and it blows my mind that he's able to create this vast, interlinked world," she said. "As a songwriter I write little movies. But I can't imagine sitting down and writing even one small book.
"I would love to write some music for 'Game Of Thrones,'" she said.
Stevie Nicks
Baby News
Baby Boy Martinez
Oscar-winning actress Halle Berry has given birth to a son, her spokeswoman said Sunday. It is her second child and her first with French actor Olivier Martinez.
"Halle Berry and Olivier Martinez welcomed their son yesterday," the spokeswoman, Meredith O'Sullivan Wasson, told AFP in an email, without providing any further details.
Berry and Martinez, both 47, married in July, according to People magazine.
Berry has been married twice before and has a five-year-old daughter, Nahla, with Canadian model Gabriel Aubry.
Baby Boy Martinez
Falls For Fake Obama Story - Again
Fox "News"
The federal government shut down has caused a headache for tourists wanting to visit national parks and museums. And one of the more high-profile stories this week concerned a group of World War II veterans who had to literally pass government tape to gain access to the World War II Memorial on the National Mall.
In a story about the monument closure, Fox "News" host Anna Kooiman fell prey to a false report from a parody site, which claimed that President Obama had offered to keep the International Museum of Muslim Cultures open with cash from his own pocket.
"The Republican National Committee is offering to pay for it to keep it open so that the veterans from Honor Flight are going to be able to go and see this because who did it honor? It honored them," Kooiman said during a report on Friday. "It really doesn't seem fair, especially - and we're going to talk a little bit later in the show too about some things that are continuing to be funded. And President Obama has offered to pay out of his own pocket for the museum of Muslim culture out of his own pocket, yet it's the Republican National Committee who's paying for this."
On one hand, Media Matters points out that the National Report removed a disclaimer it once posted on its site acknowledging that the material contained within was parody.
On the other hand, the National Report currently contains a set of "news" headlines such as "Jesus Christ boycotts Hobby Lobby," and "Police barge into kindergarten classroom and taser multiple children 'for the check of it.'"
Fox "News"
US Scientists Boycott
NASA
NASA is facing an extraordinary backlash from US researchers after it emerged that the space agency has banned Chinese scientists, including those working at US institutions, from a conference on grounds of national security.
Nasa officials rejected applications from Chinese nationals who hoped to attend the meeting at the agency's Ames research centre in California next month citing a law, passed in March, which prohibits anyone from China setting foot in a Nasa building.
The law is part of a broad and aggressive move initiated by congressman Frank Wolf, chair of the House appropriations committee, which has jurisdiction over Nasa. It aims to restrict the foreign nationals' access to Nasa facilities, ostensibly to counter espionage.
But the ban has angered many US scientists who say Chinese students and researchers in their labs are being discriminated against. A growing number of US scientists have now decided to boycott the meeting in protest, with senior academics withdrawing individually, or pulling out their entire research groups.
NASA
Two Olympic Pools Of Beer
Oktoberfest
Germany wrapped up its world-famous Oktoberfest beer festival Sunday, reporting that 6.4 million visitors drank 6.7 million litre-sized Mass glasses -- more than twice the volume of an Olympic swimming pool -- of the amber nectar over 16 days.
The 180th edition of the Munich celebration of beer, lederhosen, dirndl dresses and oompah music was "extremely relaxed, folk festival fun for every taste", said its organiser Dieter Reiter.
In festival kitchens, 114 oxen and 58 calves fell victim to the appetite of revellers who also washed down with frothy beer other traditional foods like giant pretzels, pork and dumplings.
The number of visitors who needed medical attention during the gigantic beer fest fell 20 percent to 7,551, said the Red Cross, including 638 cases of alcohol poisoning and many people who suffered cuts from broken glass.
Oktoberfest
Turkey's Last Caliph
Abdulmecid II
A rare oil painting by Islam's last caliph, the whereabouts of which were unknown for decades, fetched 1.6 million lira ($804,000) at auction on Sunday.
An anonymous collector secured "Women in the Courtyard," by Abdulmecid II in 1899, after a hotly contested round of bidding. The asking price had been 1.2 million lira.
The painting depicts semi-naked women attended by harem eunuchs around a pool. The work pays homage to the Roman goddess Venus and is a clear nod to 19th-Century Orientalist painters, like France's Jean-Leon Gerome.
The existence of "Women in the Courtyard" was unknown until 1990, when its image appeared on the cover of an art magazine with little explanation, and it remained a secret in a private collection until its consignment to Alif Art, Keskin said.
Abdulmecid II
The Dark Side
Nobel Prizes
For more than 100 years, the Nobel Prizes have recognized the finest in human achievements, from literature and science to the Nobel Peace Prize, which is given "to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses," according to the last will and testament of founder Alfred Nobel.
But the origins of the Nobel Prizes, and the life of Alfred Nobel, tell a very different story, one tainted by the deaths of untold thousands of people.
Alfred Bernhard Nobel was born in 1833 in Stockholm, Sweden. His father, Immanuel Nobel, was an inventor and engineer who struggled financially for much of his life. Forced to declare bankruptcy, Immanuel left Sweden and began working in St. Petersburg, Russia, where he impressed the czar ith one of his inventions - submerged explosive mines that could thwart a naval invasion.
Finally achieving a measure of success, Immanuel brought his wife and eight children to St. Petersburg. His sons were given a formal education, and Alfred shined under strict Russian tutelage, mastering several languages as well as chemistry, physics, poetry and natural sciences.
Nobel Prizes
Chess Protest
San Francisco
At least for an afternoon, the chess players were back at the usual spot they've occupied for years along downtown San Francisco's busy Market Street.
But instead of hustling a dollar here and a dollar there with deft openings and clever traps, the mostly homeless players and their supporters were playing Sunday in defiance of a recent police crackdown and ban on the public games. And they were backed by a brass band and several homeless advocates who helped organize the three-hour "chess-in" under bright, blue skies on a hot San Francisco afternoon.
Earlier this month, police confiscated chess gear, tables and chairs at the site.
Police said the games had begun to attract illegal gambling and drug sales to the area adjacent to a cable car terminal, which is a popular tourist destination. Nearby merchants had also complained about an increase in illegal activity.
"Have the drug deals stopped because chess has been banned?" said Andrew Resignato, a San Francisco resident who would play a game along Market Street occasionally. "It was an excuse to move homeless people away from here."
San Francisco
Weekend Box Office
'Gravity'
The Sandra Bullock-George Clooney space drama "Gravity" rocketed to the top of the box office and into industry record books during its opening weekend.
The Warner Bros. adventure debuted with $55.55 million in North American ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday - the biggest October opening ever and the biggest openings for Bullock and Clooney.
Last week's top movie, Sony's "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2," rolled into second place with $21.5 million. The animated sequel features the voices of Bill Hader and Anna Faris and a cast of "foodimals," like tacodiles and shrimpanzees.
R-rated fare rounds out the top six. Twentieth Century Fox's "Runner Runner," starring Ben Affleck and Justin Timberlake, opened in third place with $7.6 million.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theatres, according to Rentrak. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
1. "Gravity," $55.55 million.
2. "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2," $21.5 million.
3. "Runner Runner," $7.6 million.
4. "Prisoners," $5.7 million.
5. "Rush," $4.8 million.
6. "Don Jon," $4.16 million.
7. "Baggage Claim," $4.12 million.
8. "Insidious Chapter 2," $3.87 million.
9. "Pulling Strings," $2.5 million.
10. "Enough Said," $2.15 million.
'Gravity'
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