Here's today's stunning figure: The video game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 sold about 6.5 million copies the first day it went on sale. According to Activision Blizzard, which released the numbers today, that adds up to more than $400 million in sales in North America and the U.K.
Is it fair to blame the Occupy Oakland encampment for a murder on its doorstep?
That's the question everyone's debating today here in Oakland, after a young African-American man was gunned down by the campsite Thursday at about 5 p.m.
Penn State assistant coach Mike McQueary will not be at Saturday's game against Nebraska. During a press conference, Rod Erickson, the school's interim president, announced that McQueary had been placed under administrative leave.
As we had reported, the school said yesterday McQueary would not be at the game because it had received "multiple threats" against him.
The home of The Beatles is being remodeled — drastically.
EMI, until now one of the four remaining major labels, is being broken up and sold off by the megabank Citigroup. After an auction that took almost nine months, French media company Vivendi, which owns Universal Music Group, will buy EMI's recorded music division and Sony Corp. will pick up the publishing arm.
Half of the world's seafood is raised on farms, and some of those fish are bound to get sick at some point. So fish farmers, just like animal farmers, are keen on dumping antibiotics — sometimes in huge quantities — in those fish pens to keep the population safe.
A discerning eater might want to know if the shrimp that hits the plate is laced with drug residues, given that some can cause antibiotic resistance and cancer. But a new study says there's no way to find out, given the sketchy state of seafood import monitoring.
Look Out, Jackman's Back: That's right, the set list for Hugh Jackman, Back on Broadway includes a run at "Mack the Knife."
Credit Joan Marcus
Jackman (with Emily Tyra, left, Lara Seibert and Kearran Giovanni) has the moves of a serious song-and-dance man, says Back on Broadway director-choreographer Warren Carlyle.
Hugh Jackman has had one of the most bifurcated showbiz careers imaginable. He leapt to superstardom as the mutton-chopped mutant Wolverine in the X-Men movies and won a Tony Award as the gay Australian entertainer Peter Allen in The Boy from Oz. These days, he's starring in the robot-boxing film Real Steel and appearing on Broadway in a one-man show.
On July 28, officials sent in the Washington police to evict the marchers. The action was peaceful until someone threw a brick, the police reacted with force, and two bonus marchers were shot. The situation quickly spiraled out of control.
Credit AP
In 1932, a group of WWI veterans in Portland, Ore., rallied the Bonus Army to Washington to lobby for early payment of their promised bonuses. They set up camp along the Anacostia River that May. But by July, officials lost patience and went into the camp to evict the marchers. It turned violent. A soldier torched a tent, and the Army began torching everything still standing.
Credit AP
On July 13, 1932, Brig. Gen. Pelham D. Glassford, superintendent of the Washington, D.C., police, asked a group of war veterans on the Capitol grounds to raise their hands if they had served in France and were 100 percent American.
Credit Courtesy of Bill Linebarrier
Lillie Linebarrier and her band, the Friendly Bonus Expeditionary Force String Band, performed at the Bonus March.
Occupy Wall Street protests have sprung up in cities across the U.S. — and around the world. The common denominator between them is protesters' commitment to stay and camp out. They've pitched tents and built large, impromptu communities.
It's a form of protest that echoes throughout American history.
In 1932, another group of protesters set up encampments and vowed to stay until their voices were heard.
The fictitious band from This Is Spinal Tap performs live at CBGB's in New York in 1984. Nigel Tufnel, the guitarist played by Christopher Guest, favored amplifiers whose volume could be cranked up to 11.
