November 2, 2015

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Entertainment November 2, 2015

Today in Movie Culture: 'Star Wars' Is Already in the Christmas Spirit, Movie Posters in Motion and More

Here are a bunch of little bites to satisfy your hunger for movie culture:

Star Wars of the Day:

C-3PO, R2-D2 and a lot of Stormtroopers are getting us ready for Christmas already with a new Duracell commercial:

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Movie Comparison of the Day:

Watch scenes from Mad Max: Fury Road side by side with similar scenes from the previous Mad Max movies:

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Movie Mashup of the Day:

This mashup shows the similarities between The Cabin in the Woods and The Hunger Games:

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Cosplay of the Day:

This kid’s Halloween costume of Rocket Raccoon from Guardians of the Galaxy is a little too real. Actually that might just be the real Rocket (via Mashable):

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Vintage Image of the Day:

As we wait for the U.S. release of SPECTRE, here’s Sean Connery filming a scene in his first James Bond movie, Dr. No:

Actor in the Spotlight:

Speaking of James Bond movies, the latest episode of No Small Parts celebrates the work of henchman character actor Richard Kiel:

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Supercut of the Day:

Watch a bunch of movie posters based on actual movie scenes come to life in this video by Whoispablo:

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Animated Short of the Day:

Speaking of posters in motion, here’s an animated short made out of movie posters come to life:

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Filmmaker in Focus:

For Press Play, Jacob T. Swinney presents the genius of Jim Jarmusch in only three minutes, focused on shots of his characters traveling:

Classic Trailer of the Day:

Today is the 25th anniversary of Jacob’s Ladder. Watch the original trailer for the creepy thriller, which stars Tim Robbins, below.

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Business November 2, 2015

TransCanada Puts U.S. Permit Application For Keystone XL Pipeline On Hold

TransCanada, the company applying to build the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline that is designed to run from Alberta, Canada, to the Gulf of Mexico, has suspended its U.S. permit application while it works with authorities to gain approval for its preferred route through Nebraska.

TransCanada has asked the State Department to pause its review of the application to build the project, the Associated Press reports.

The legal battle over the portion of the pipeline planned for Nebraska is ongoing, as we previously reported:

“The court battle is over where the pipeline will be located. An early proposed route through the environmentally sensitive Sand Hills region was widely criticized. But after the pipeline company TransCanada changed the route, Republican Gov. Dave Heineman approved it.

“Pipeline opponents have argued before the state Supreme Court that the governor did not have the authority to approve the new route. They say that under Nebraska law, only the state Public Service Commission can approve it. Justices are expected to announce their ruling in coming months.”

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Sports November 2, 2015

Royals Are Kings: Kansas City Wins First World Series In 30 Years

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The Kansas City Royals staged a dramatic Game 5 comeback to beat the New York Mets Sunday night, earning their first World Series title in 30 years and thrilling fans who have been desperate to win after last year’s crushing loss.

Transcript

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

It took 12 innings last night for the Kansas City Royals to beat the New York Mets and win the World Series 4 games to 1. As Frank Morris of Member Station QCUR reports, Kansas City is celebrating a victory that caps a long turnaround for both the team and the town.

FRANK MORRIS, BYLINE: Kansas City’s now a baseball town. Almost everyone was watching the game last night. Kate McDonald had it on in her front yard for all the neighbors and, really, anybody else.

KATE MCDONALD: You get the community feeling out here. And we have food and alcohol and fire.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #1: Fireworks.

MCDONALD: And our – none of our TV rooms are big enough to hold all of us.

(LAUGHTER)

MORRIS: They’re not big enough to hold the changing spirit of the city either.

EMILY RIEGEL: Like, yeah. Kansas City is excited to be Kansas City right now.

MORRIS: Emily Riegel is an avid Kansas University fan. She’s sitting next to Terri Daly, who’s wrapped in a Missouri University blanket. Normally these two teams are bitter rivals, but Daly says the Royals currently trump just about everything.

TERRI DALY: And I just feel like there’s kind of a kindness in the city that you feel because of that, that they are bringing us together.

MORRIS: On the other side of town in working-class Kansas City, Kan., people seemed just as unified and eager to celebrate the first World Series win in 30 years.

(CHEERING)

MORRIS: Kansas citizens are still celebrating today, of course, and places like this bootleg T-shirt stand are hopping.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: Congratulations, Royals.

MORRIS: Kenneth Speese is here stocking up on shirts and says it’s not just the win. It’s how the Royals won, coming from behind again and again, scrapping for everything.

KENNETH SPEESE: It was from the heart, Man, from the heart. Nobody in Kansas City tore up anything. Nobody got shot. You know, we all family, Man.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #2: How many?

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: Two.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #2: All right – just a few minutes.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: Thank you.

MORRIS: You can see that all over two today, including this small empanada shop where the Royals’ World Series most valuable player eats.

YVAN DUIN: Yeah, Salvador Parez is one of the – come almost every day to, you know, eat here.

ALEXANDRO HERNANDEZ: And I think we were kind of hoping he will be here right now (laughter). I don’t know.

MORRIS: Yvan Duin and Anna Hernandez plan to keep celebrating.

DUIN: So yeah, yeah. We have a party here, party there. And, well, tomorrow, we’re going to have a big, huge party.

MORRIS: The parade is tomorrow, and lots of people are looking forward to that. But really, civic pride has been swelling here for years now. The Royals are just the latest focal point. Kansas City’s riding pretty high these days and looking to turn this good baseball vibe into something that lasts longer than the World Series parade. For NPR News, I’m Frank Morris in Kansas City.

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Health November 2, 2015

In Reversal, Death Rates Rise For Middle-Aged Whites

Suicides and drug overdoses have contributed to a marked increase in the mortality rate for middle-aged whites.
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Suicides and drug overdoses have contributed to a marked increase in the mortality rate for middle-aged whites. iStockphoto hide caption

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A decades-long decline in the death rate of middle-aged white Americans has reversed in recent years, according to a surprising new analysis released Monday.

The cause of the reversal remains unclear. Researchers speculate it might be the result of the bad economy fueling a rise in suicides, plus overdoses from prescription painkillers and illegal drugs like heroin, and alcohol abuse.

“That could be just a volatile mix that could set off something like this,” says Angus Deaton, a professor of economics at Princeton University who conducted the research with his wife, Anne Case, another Princeton economist.

Deaton was awarded the 2015 Nobel Prize in Economics for his work on poverty.

Overall, the U.S. mortality rate has been falling by about 2 percent a year since the 1970s.

But the upsurge in suicides and drug overdoses among middle-age whites, among other trends, prompted Deaton and Case to look more closely at this group. They analyzed data from CDC and other sources, including other countries.

“Pretty quickly we started falling off our chairs because of what we found,” says Deaton, whose findings were published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The mortality rate among whites ages 45 to 54 had increased by a half-percent a year from 381.5 per 100,000 in 1999 to 415.4 in 2013, the most recent year for which data are available, the researchers found.

Even so, the mortality rate for middle-aged African-Americans was higher: 581.9 per 100,000 in 2013. Hispanics fared better with a mortality rate of 269.6 per 100,000 in the same year.

“There was this extraordinary turnaround” among whites, Deaton says, likening the reversal to a large ship suddenly changing directions.

Based on the findings, Deaton and Case calculated that 488,500 Americans had died during that period who would have been alive if the trend hadn’t reversed.

“We’ve been talking about this at various academic meetings and you look around the room and peoples’ mouths are just hanging open,” Deaton says.

“This is a deeply concerning trend,” says Dr. Thomas Frieden, who heads the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention but wasn’t involved in this research. “We shouldn’t see death rates going up in any group in society.”

The Princeton researchers analyzed data from other Western countries and didn’t see the same trend.

“It’s particularly important that they don’t see it in other countries,” says John Haaga, the acting director of behavioral and social research at the National Institute on Aging, which funded the research. “So something’s clearly going wrong with this age group in America.”

The trend appears to be being driven by increased mortality among those with the least amount of education.

“Those are the people who have really been hammered by the long-term economic malaise,” Deaton says. “Their wages in real terms have been going down. So they get into middle age having their expectations just not met at all.”

It remains unclear why the mortality rate only increased among whites and not African-Americans or Hispanics.

Deaton and others have a theory about the difference for whites.

“One possible explanation is that for whites their parents had done better economically and they had been doing pretty well. Then all of a sudden the financial floor dropped out from underneath them,” says Jon Skinner, a professor of economic and medicine at Dartmouth College who co-authored a commentary accompanying the article. “For African-American and Hispanic households things had never been that optimistic and so perhaps the shock wasn’t quite as great.”

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