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Entertainment September 22, 2015

Today in Movie Culture: Disney Parodies, The True Science of 'Ant-Man' and More

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

Movie Mashup of the Day:

Here’s the obligatory trailer mashup of Disney‘s animated The Jungle Book and their upcoming live-action remake (via Geek Tyrant):

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Movie Takedown of the day:

In anticipation of Pan, Honest Trailers reminds us how un-P.C. Disney’s Peter Pan is:

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Alternate Ending of the Day:

Big Hero 6 could have ended a whole lot sooner, according to the latest video by How It Should Have Ended:

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Movie Studio Parody of the Day:

While we’re on a roll with these Disney animated features, watch a student thesis film that offers a twisted spin on the brand (via io9):

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Vintage Images of the Day:

Anna Karina, from two angles, from 1967’s Anna. Happy 75th birthday to the French cinema icon!

Movie Science of the Day:

The Film Theorists explain why Ant-Man would have actually destroyed the world with his super powers:

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Supercut of the Day:

Yes, another dance scene supercut, but this one includes 100 movies all set to “Uptown Funk” (via Film School Rejects):

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Cosplay of the Day:

There weren’t enough women in Mad Max: Fury Road, so here’s Immortan Joan and War Girl, both photographed at DragonCon (via KamiKame):

Surreal Cartoon of the Day:

Animator Yoann Hervo made this weird tribute to the opening of The Simpsons and I can’t stop watching it:

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Classic Trailer of the Day:

Today is the 20th anniversary of the theatrical release of David Fincher‘s Se7en. Watch the original trailer for the movie, which stars Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt:

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Business September 22, 2015

Happy Birthday To Us All — Judge Rules Tune Is Public Domain

Good Morning to You Productions has won a lawsuit challenging the copyright of “Happy Birthday To You.” iStockphoto hide caption

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No more sitcom characters standing around a cake, singing “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow.” No more Applebee’s servers clapping along to “Happy happy birthday, from Applebee’s to you!”

Well, they can if they want, but not because they’d have to pay the copyright holders of the popular “Happy Birthday To You” song. A federal judge in Los Angeles has ruled that Warner/Chappell Music’s claim to the rights, which earned them an estimated $2 million dollars a year, is not valid.

Warner had been collecting royalties on the song since the 1980s when it bought Birch Tree Group, the successor to Clayton F. Summy Co., which claimed the original copyright.

According to the Los Angeles Times:

“Judge George H. King ruled Tuesday afternoon that a copyright filed by the Summy Co. in 1935 granted only the rights to specific arrangements of the music, not the actual song itself.

“‘Because Summy Co. never acquired the rights to the Happy Birthday lyrics,’ wrote King, ‘defendants, as Summy Co.’s purported successors-in-interest, do not own a valid copyright in the Happy Birthday lyrics.'”

To arrive at his decision, the judge considered a 1922 songbook which features a version of the birthday song called “Good Morning and Birthday Song,” written by sisters Mildred and Patty Hill. That iteration of the tune includes the familiar “happy birthday to you” lyrics and is listed as appearing through “special permission” of the Summy Company with no mention of a copyright.

The lawsuit was filed against Warner by two filmmakers making a documentary about the song’s origins. The publisher charged $1,500 to use it.

Health September 22, 2015

Rising Health Deductibles Take Bigger Bite Out Of Family Budgets

Note: Bars represent the average family premium for employer-based insurance.

Health care costs continue to rise, and workers are shouldering more of the burden.

The big reason? Skyrocketing deductibles.

More companies are adding deductibles to the insurance plans they offer their employees. And for those who already had to pay deductibles, the out-of-pocket outlays are growing.

Note: Bars represent the average family premium for employer-based insurance. Source: Kaiser Family Foundation survey hide caption

itoggle caption Source: Kaiser Family Foundation survey

Together that means that the average worker has to pay $1,077 before their health plan will cover any medical expenses, according to a survey released Tuesday by the Kaiser Family Foundation and The Health Research and Education Trust. That’s a 67 percent increase in five years.

The higher deductibles — combined with more modest but consistent increases in premiums — mean health cost for consumers are growing faster than income, and taking an ever larger bite out of household budgets.

“Deductibles have been going up so much faster than wages, almost seven times faster than wages,” said Drew Altman, president and CEO of the Kaiser Family Foundation. “When out-of-pocket costs are going up at a time when wages are flat, the pain level is still pretty high.”

He said higher deductibles are particularly difficult for people with chronic illnesses. “They may not get the health care they need if they have a very big deductible,” he said.

Nearly 2,000 employers were surveyed during the first half of 2015 about their health insurance benefits. The survey found that premiums rose about 4 percent. The average premium for family coverage obtained on the job is $17,545 annually, or $1,462 a month, the survey found.

The rise in 2015 continued a decade-long trend of relatively modest premium increases. Prior to 2005, insurance rates were rising at double-digit rates each year.

Still, smaller premium increases and higher deductibles are likely related.

“If you’re an employer … one of the things you can do to hold your premium down now — right away — is increase the deductible,” Altman says.

The premium slowdown is all but invisible to consumers, Altman says, because their own costs have risen so dramatically.

Entertainment September 21, 2015

Today in Movie Culture: 'Black Mass' Meets 'Nosferatu,' Mel Gibson in 'Mad Max: Fury Road' and More

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

Alternate Dimension Movie of the Day:

Here’s what Black Mass might have looked like if it was a silent horror film from the 1920s (via Cinematic Montage Creators):

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Alternate Casting of the Day:

Here’s what Mad Max: Fury Road might have looked like if Mel Gibson retained the title role (via Live for Films):

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Vintage Image of the Day:

It was 30 years ago today that George Clooney made his debut on TV’s The Facts of Life, in one of his first notable regular roles.

Movie Franchise Takedown of the Day:

While we patiently wait for Spectre to arrive, check out Mr. Sunday Movies’ look at the worst James Bond gadgets of all time:

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Toy of the Day:

Here’s another New York Comic-Con exclusive for those of you who really love the movie Mask (via Scott Wampler)

Character Actor of the Day:

The latest episode of No Small Parts puts the spotlight on Darlene Cates, best known as the mother in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?:

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Cosplay of the Day:

Check out the best of this year’s DragonCon, including parts of the annual parade, which is one of my favorite events here in Atlanta:

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Star Wars of the Day:

Artist Nina Levy drew a series featuring Star Wars characters riding dinosaurs on napkins for her kids’ school lunches, and they remind us that Star Wars: The Force Awakens needs to defeat Jurassic World as the biggest movie of the year. See more at Design Taxi.

Fan Poster of the Day:

Spanish artist David G. Fererro has created a bunch of art deco posters for Disney classics. The one for Peter Pan below I found appropriate to share as the negative reviews of Pan are surfacing. See the rest at Fashionably Geek.

Classic Trailer of the Day:

Today is the 40th anniversary of the release of Sidney Lumet‘s Dog Day Afternoon. Watch the original trailer for the movie, which stars Al Pacino, below.

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Business September 21, 2015

Former Peanut Company Executive Sentenced To 28 Years In Prison

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A former peanut company executive has been sentenced to 28 years in prison for his role in a salmonella outbreak that killed nine people and sickened dozens more.

Health September 21, 2015

FDA Revisits Safety Of Essure Contraceptive Device

The Essure contraceptive device is placed in the fallopian tubes, where it causes scarring that blocks sperm from reaching eggs.

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The Essure contraceptive device is placed in the fallopian tubes, where it causes scarring that blocks sperm from reaching eggs. Courtesy of Bayer HealthCare hide caption

itoggle caption Courtesy of Bayer HealthCare

After their third son was born, Tisha Scott and her husband decided they were done having kids. So Scott, 34, of Drakesville, Iowa, decided to get her tubes tied.

“As old married people, neither of us was really interested in using condoms for the rest of our life,” Scott says. “So that was the decision that we made because we knew that our family was complete.”

But instead of undergoing surgical sterilization, Scott’s doctor urged her to try something called Essure — the only available, nonsurgical permanent birth control option approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

Essure is a device comprising two tiny coils made of nickel-titanium alloy. Scott’s doctor inserted one into each of her fallopian tubes to permanently block them. Since Essure doesn’t require surgery, he said it would be a lot easier, quicker and safer.

“He felt if there was no reason to do surgery then we shouldn’t,” Scott says.

But almost immediately after the procedure Scott started getting an excruciating burning pain in her back and pelvis. “All of a sudden it hurt to have to move my body to get out of bed, to do anything,” she says.

The pain got worse and spread all over her body. Despite two operations and many tests and exams, Scott says she still lives in constant pain.

“It feels like you’ve been hit by a truck every day of your life,” she says. “For me, it’s been a nightmare. I mean, this device literally ruined my life.”

Scott is among thousands of women who blame Essure for a variety of complications, including pain, heavy bleeding, fatigue, hair loss and depression.

Because of complaints, the FDA has asked a panel of outside experts to take another look at Essure during a public hearing on Thursday.

“This device has been sold to tens of thousands — probably hundreds of thousands — of women as a very safe and easy way to permanently end any concerns about pregnancy,” says Diana Zuckerman, who heads the National Center for Health Research, a Washington-based watchdog group that has been studying Essure. “We know that’s not accurate,” she says.

Zuckerman says that Bayer, the company that makes Essure, didn’t fully inform the FDA about the problems the device can cause when it got the device approved in 2002. And while Essure is supposed to be 99 percent effective, Zuckerman says recent research suggests it may actually fail about 10 percent of the time.

“What we’d like to see is new research that’s carefully monitored that can actually tell us how often women have these serious complications from Essure and how often the product does not work to prevent pregnancy. That’s what we really need,” Zuckerman says.

Officials at Bayer defend the device.

“There’s a significant amount of data out there regarding the safety and efficacy of Essure,” says Edio Zampaglione, the company’s vice president for women’s health care.

Zampaglione acknowledges that the device can cause complications, but says they only occur rarely.

“What we believe and feel is that these women represent the small percentage of women who have had a bad experience with it,” Zampaglione says. “There’s nothing that we do or take in the medical world that is 100 percent adverse-event free,” he says.

For most women, Zampaglione says, getting sterilized with Essure is quick, easy, safe and totally reliable. That was the case for Jennifer Jenkins, 33, of Dallas. She got Essure about two years ago during a quick stop at her doctor’s office on her way to work.

“I had no problems,” Jenkins says. “My husband likes to say the only side effect I’ve experienced is that I haven’t been able to get pregnant, which has been a good thing.”

An earlier story on the questions surrounding Essure ran in Shots in July.

Sports September 20, 2015

When The Impossible Is No Obstacle: A Triumph Fit For A 'Ninja'

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For those who have never seen the show American Ninja Warrior: Imagine an Army obstacle course, redesigned by Dr. Seuss and a team of rock-climbing acrobats. Competitors have to thread their way through the daunting obstacles, completing a number of stages before they can hope to finish the whole thing.

That means leaping onto 2-inch ledges, climbing rope that stretches several stories in the air, grappling forward along hanging poles — and doing all of it under a time limit.

Since the show (based on a long-running Japanese show, Sasuke) first aired in 2009, not a single person has completed the course and won the American competition … until last week.

A busboy named Isaac Caldiero — who also happens to be a world-class rock climber — became the first of thousands to achieve what the show calls “total victory.” He completed all four stages of the course to win the million-dollar grand prize.

In fact, two people completed all four stages this season: competitor Geoff Britten finished the course first. But Caldiero had a faster time, and won the money — and the title.

In an interview with NPR’s Arun Rath, Caldiero puts it simply: “Heck, you’re talking to the first American Ninja Warrior.”

But it didn’t come easily, not least because competitors have to attack the course without getting to practice on it first, he says.

“I mean, all it takes is one slip and you’re done. One shot, one kill — you don’t get any rehearsal on any of these obstacles.”

This made things especially difficult on his final obstacle: a 75-foot rope climb.

“Even in my training, I had never done anything like that,” he says. “So all of a sudden, when it’s like, ‘You have to do this in 30 seconds,’ I was very nervous. I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, here we go.’ “

Yet, despite a brief scare as his arms slowed, Caldiero says his adrenaline carried him through. Now, though, he faces another difficult task: letting the news of his win sink in.

“It still to this day is unreal,” he says. “I’m still kind of in disbelief.”

And about that million-dollar prize?

“We considered ourselves to be rich and happy before all of this, so this is just a bonus,” Caldiero tells Rath, speaking of himself and his girlfriend, Laura Kisana. “You definitely aren’t going to see us out driving around in fancy cars and living it up. You know, we’re going to keep down to our roots, and we’re going to go rock climbing.”

Business September 20, 2015

Quiz: Are You Smarter Than A South African High School Student?

Do you keep up with international news?

This quiz will give you a chance to find out.

The Interschool Quiz made its debut in 1993. It’s a project of the Western Cape Branch of the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA), designed to boost interest in global matters. This year, 55 schools participated after ten days of reading articles from the Cape Times and special articles from the SAIIA online “Diplomatic Pouch” articles. The winning team earned a cash prize for their school and an invitation to the annual SAIIA Young Leaders Conference. All schools received books for their library.

P.S.: Don’t feel bad if you flame out. An NPR staffer who covers global topics scored a four out of 13.

Sports September 19, 2015

Not My Job: We Quiz The Owner Of The Chicago Cubs On Victory Parades

Owner Tom Ricketts of the Chicago Cubs talks with reporters before the home opener against the Philadelphia Phillies at Wrigley Field on April 4, 2014.

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Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images

Not My Job is the game where we quiz well-known people about things that they wouldn’t have any reason to know anything about. So we’ve invited Tom Ricketts, owner of the Chicago Cubs, to answer three questions about celebratory parades.

Transcript

PETER SAGAL, HOST:

And now the game where we ask knowledgeable people about things they know nothing about. It’s called Not My Job.

Chicago is a huge and diverse city with all kinds of people speaking dozens of language, but one that unites us all is our love for a sports team, one that represents the spirit of the city. I’m talking, of course, about the Chicago Bears.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: Meanwhile, there’s another very popular team called the Chicago Cubs, and Tom Ricketts is that club’s owner. Tom Ricketts, welcome to WAIT WAIT …DON’T TELL ME.

(APPLAUSE)

TOM RICKETTS: Thank you.

SAGAL: Now, just so we understand the story, for many years, the Cubs was owned by the Tribune Company, publishers of the Chicago Tribune. And you and you family decided to buy it. And why the Cubs? ‘Cause ou couldn’t afford a winning team?

(LAUGHTER)

RICKETTS: (Laughter) No, no – the Cubs are really close to our heart. I mean, we’re all – all my siblings and I are big Cubs fans. And there was, really, no other sports team we cared about.

SAGAL: So you’re from Nebraska, we know. But you’ve always been a Cubs fan. We understand you even met your wife at Wrigley Field, is that right?

RICKETTS: That’s 100 percent true. We used to sit in the center field bleachers, pretty much every Saturday and Sunday all through the summers. And I was at a game one afternoon and we were just sitting next to some girls who were talking about Omaha because they went to college there. And, actually, we used to sit in the same spot in center field every game because before the tyranny of the two-beer limit, you could buy as many beers as you wanted. So we would send one guy down with all the money, and he could hand them straight up to us in center field.

SAGAL: I’m sorry, just to interrupt.

AMY DICKINSON: Strategy.

SAGAL: Did you just refer to the two-beer limit? What you mean by that is you can buy two beers at once when you go to the stand.

RICKETTS: Correct.

BILL KURTIS, BYLINE: And per person, actually. Yes.

SAGAL: I can’t help but note that you actually own the team.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: If you wanted to do away with that ridiculous rule, you could you could wave your scepter and it would be.

ADAM BURKE: Over the years, how many drunk Cubs fans have there been who’ve yelled at a vendor – oh, yeah, well one of these days, I’m going to own this place, and…

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: So – I totally buy – so you met your wife, you started having beers with her.

RICKETTS: Yep.

SAGAL: And did you actually sit there and say to yourself, someday I’m going to own this place?

RICKETTS: (Laughter) No, not at all.

SAGAL: Really?

RICKETTS: Actually, in my business school application…

SAGAL: Yeah.

RICKETTS: …It asked for your dream job. And I wrote down owning a Major League Baseball team like the Cubs.

DICKINSON: No.

RICKETTS: True story.

DICKINSON: Oh, wow.

BURKE: Well, which one did you want to own?

(LAUGHTER)

RICKETTS: Well, at the time we lived above the Sports Corner bar right across the street from the ballpark, so was kind of (unintelligible).

PETER GROSZ: You lived above the Sports Corner between the L and Sheffield.

RICKETTS: Yeah, Sheffield and Madison.

GROSZ: I had improv team rehearsals there for, like, three years or something like that – not your apartment but in the…

(LAUGHTER)

GROSZ: …Sports bar.

BURKE: Wait, so you bought the Cubs just ’cause it was a convenient commute?

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: Here’s the thing I don’t understand. I love baseball. I would love to be a team owner maybe someday if this public radio thing gets it, but I’m just trying to imagine you. You’re living in Wrigleyville, and for those who have never been to a Cubs game, they’re great. It’s a great field. But after the game, the neighborhood is filled for hours and hours with the most obnoxious drunk people. And you’re like, I want this.

RICKETTS: Those were not obnoxious drunk people. Those are passionate fans.

SAGAL: There you go. Well done.

(APPLAUSE)

SAGAL: Yeah, I want to get back to something you said. You said that you put – and this is your business school applications, so obviously you’re a grown man, but you wrote down that your dream job is to own a baseball team, or the Cubs specifically. When I was a kid, my dream job was to play baseball. Did you have that dream? Did you want to be a player at some point in time?

RICKETTS: Yeah, absolutely, absolutely, as a kid and then, you know how it goes. You get to be 12 or 13 and some of the other kids get bigger and hairier and next thing you know you’re captain of the debate team.

SAGAL: Yeah.

(LAUGHTER)

RICKETTS: You just got to play the cards you’re dealth.

SAGAL: This is public radio. We know about that.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: I do want to ask you about your interactions with fans because Chicago has a pretty rabid fan base. Have you – you must have had at least the occasional moment in time where you were…

RICKETTS: No, honestly – 100 percent honest, like, I walk through the park just about every single game and I’ve had almost no issues with people. There’s a few people that, you know, once in a while they just misunderstand something about, like, why they can’t hear the radio in the bathroom or why beer costs nine bucks or something like that. But the – you know, generally, it’s been great.

SAGAL: Why does beer cost $9?

(LAUGHTER)

RICKETTS: Why does a starting pitcher cost $25 million?

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: I guess that’s a better question.

(APPLAUSE)

SAGAL: Wrigley, of course, is famous for its old, shall we say, fashion style, including the urinal troughs. Do you, as the owner, do you have, like, a luxury gold trough in your suite?

RICKETTS: You know, I don’t. I don’t, but I like that idea.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: Just for you. Like, 10 feet of urinal trough just for you your friends.

GROSZ: You just made beer cost 10 bucks.

(LAUGHTER)

GROSZ: Way to go, Sagal.

SAGAL: Tom Ricketts, we are so delighted to talk to you. We have asked you here to play a game we’re calling…

KURTIS: Wave to the left, wave to the right and don’t fall off the float.

SAGAL: So you are the owner of the Chicago Cubs and since we wanted to ask you about something you don’t know anything about, we thought we’d ask you about celebratory parades.

(LAUGHTER)

DICKINSON: Oh.

SAGAL: Answer two of these three questions correctly, you’ll win our prize for one of our listeners – Carl Kasell’s voice on their voice mail. Bill, who is Tom Ricketts playing for?

KURTIS: Thomas Foster of Minneapolis, Minn.

SAGAL: All right, here’s your first question.

RICKETTS: Yeah.

SAGAL: You may be familiar with the Stanley Cup. That’s a championship that has been won numerous times in recent years by a team here in Chicago. One of the great things about the cup is that the winning players on each hockey team that wins it gets to take it home. In 2008, a Red Wings player did what with it? A – he pawned to buy a really sweet new Fender electric bass; B – he put his baby daughter inside it where she promptly pooped; or C – he filled it full of Red Bull, drank the whole thing and was then hospitalized for taurine poisoning.

RICKETTS: Wow, you know, I imagine that number three’s happened more than once, so I’m going to go with B.

SAGAL: You’re going to go with B, the daughter. That’s exactly what happened.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL, APPLAUSE)

SAGAL: He had a baby daughter, put her in the cup, she immediately did what babies do and don’t worry. He says he had it cleaned. All right, that’s very good. Just weeks ago, sprinter Usain Bolt was celebrating his win in the 100 meters at the world championships with his victory lap around the stadium when what happened? A – a photographer plowed into him, knocking him flat with his Seway; B – a little bottle of steroids fell out of his pocket; or C – he stopped halfway around, calmly vomited, then kept going.

RICKETTS: I think Bolt’s too cool to throw up. I’m going to take A.

SAGAL: You’re going to take A, he was knocked over by a Segway.

RICKETTS: Yeah.

SAGAL: You’re right.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: OK, here’s your last question. We’ll see if you can go for perfect. In 2002, the town of Lauderhill, Fla., held a Martin Luther King, Jr., celebration. They didn’t entirely nail all the details, though. What went wrong? A – the banners they put up all read thank you Marty; B – all the pictures they used of Martin Luther King, Jr., were actually just of Martin Luther; or C – they presented a plaque to actor James Earl Jones, but the plaque read thank you James Early Ray.

(LAUGHTER)

DICKINSON: Oh, no, no.

RICKETTS: Wow, all those are bad. That would ruin a lot of celebratory parades. I’ll take C.

SAGAL: You’re going to take C. I’m glad that you somehow knew we would never dare to make that up. That is in fact what happened.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: They gave him a plaque and they looked down and they’re like, oh, my God. The organizers felt really, really, really, really bad about that. Bill, how did Tom Ricketts do on our quiz?

KURTIS: You know, he did just like the Cubs are going to do for the rest of the season.

SAGAL: There we go, perfect.

(APPLAUSE)

SAGAL: Tom Ricketts – he is the owner and chairman of the perhaps future world champion Chicago Cubs. Tom, thank you so much for joining us.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “A DYING CUBS FAN’S LAST REQUEST”)

STEVE GOODMAN: (Singing) Do they still play the blues in Chicago when baseball season rolls around? When the snow melts away, do the Cubbies still play in their ivy-covered burial ground?

SAGAL: In just a minute, Bill drinks several toasts to the pope in the Listener Limerick challenge. Call 1-888-WAIT-WAIT to join us on the air. We’ll be back in a minute with more of WAIT WAIT …DONT’ TELL ME from NPR.

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NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio.

Entertainment September 18, 2015