"When the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries failed to cut production quotas last month, the initial investor reaction was: Hallelujah! Lots more savings for energy buyers! Blowout Christmas spending by consumers! The celebrations may have been premature. True, the $1 decline in U.S. gasoline prices since April is the equivalent of a 1 percent rise in consumer spending power. Of course, some of that may be saved and not spent, at least initially. And in countries with fixed fuel taxes, including China, the economic effect will be greater. At the same time, U.S. auto makers may benefit from increased sales of low-mileage SUVs and light trucks, which are highly profitable. Net energy importers, including Japan, South Korea and other East Asian countries, also benefit from lower energy prices. China imports 60 percent of the 9.6 million barrels of oil it uses each day. Other energy importers helped by lower prices include India, Turkey and Western Europe. Pakistan, Egypt, India and other countries that subsidize energy costs will be able to reduce those expenses. Some of the benefit, though, is offset because the euro and other currencies are weak and oil is priced in more expensive U.S. dollars. But the list of oil losers may overpower the winners. Almost immediately, energy companies started to cut capital spending, which equaled 0.9 percent of U.S. gross domestic product in 2013, the largest share since the early 1980s. An index of oil-field service companies is down about 40 percent from its peak. General Electric has acquired more than $14 billion in oil and gas businesses since 2007, and three months ago said its “base case assumption” included Brent crude oil at around $100 a barrel. Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Immelt admitted that, with oil around $60, profits could be lower next year. Also harmed are oil-sands producers in Canada, where a lack of transportation had pushed prices to $48 a barrel by late November, well below all-in production costs of about $85. Canadian Oil Sands, the largest owner of the giant Syncrude oil sands joint venture, plans to cut its dividend by almost half." (Bloomberg)
Michael Rockefeller adjusts his camera before taking pictures of Papuan men in New Guinea.
"The public will finally get to see 'The Search for Michael Rockefeller' Feb. 1 when Netflix releases the documentary on one of the most compelling unsolved mysteries of the 20th century. The film confirms what The Post reported in 1968: Cannibals devoured the son of New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller. In 2007, filmmaker Fraser C. Heston (son of Charlton) discovered a lost cache of 16mm film shot by Milt Machlin, the editor of Argosy magazine who coined the phrases 'Bermuda Triangle' and 'the Abominable Snowman.' The footage was taken during Machlin’s expedition to New Guinea in 1969 in search of the lost scion, inspired by an eyewitness report that Michael Rockefeller was alive and being held against his will by Stone Age savages." (P6)
Tommy from "Pam & Tommy Lee: Hardcore Uncensored." (Photo: Courtesy of www.vivid.com)
"The Pam and Tommy sex tape is the most infamous stolen celebrity artifact on the planet, with a wink usually accompanying the word 'stolen.' It wasn't the first time a video of a famous person fornicating appeared in the public realm, and it certainly wouldn't be the last. But it was a porno that appealed to people who didn't usually watch pornos, a voyeuristic dive into the guileless intimacy between two tabloid darlings: Anderson, perennial Playboy cover model and star of Baywatch, and Lee, the hard-partying drummer from Mötley Crüe. Starting in the spring of 1996, as information trickled out about what was on the tape, everyone wanted to see it, whether to gawk at the home life of two superstars or condemn the empty-headed, sex-addicted narcissists who presumably leaked it themselves. The couple already had a reputation for carnal and pharmaceutical indulgence, but peeping on their love play offered an entirely new level of dirty, thrilling violation, as we leap-frogged PR flacks, centerfold photographers and even the paparazzi to land squarely in the most private of worlds. And yet the tape was, without question, physically and illegally taken from Anderson and Lee's home. Recording themselves in the spring and summer of 1995, the couple truly didn't know anyone else was ever going to see this, so their video has none of the self-conscious posturing of reality TV and social media. You will never see a celebrity flash a smile in public that is as genuine as Tommy Lee's after he money-shots all over his wife's chest at her request.This is not gonzo pornography – it's a 54-minute home video, depicting about eight minutes of the sex Americans are most likely to sanction: white, straight, married and in love. 'It's the greatest tape I have ever seen in my life,' Howard Stern said in late 1997. 'What's cool about it is that, like, you get to live their lives with them.' But what the Pamela Anderson-Tommy Lee sex tape taught us is that an unassuming individual could acquire a piece of content, offer it up to the Internet and watch it ricochet around the planet. How, exactly, this footage traveled from a locked safe to screens and store shelves worldwide warns of everything that was coming in the next two decades, everything that would shift in technology and culture and celebrity. Before Kim Kardashian, before TMZ, before RedTube, before the Fappening, there was Pam and Tommy. The tape took two years to go from bootleg to viral, and when it did it made an estimated $77 million in less than 12 months – and that's just on legitimate sales." (RollingStone)
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"Missy a/k/a Madame who is my 12-year-old Shih Tzu has been in heat for the past ten days or so. I never got around to getting her spayed, and she never had a litter. A few years ago I asked her vet if we should, and she said at her age it wasn’t necessary anymore. However. I now have Toby who came to join us from the Bide-a-Wee last August. He has what you could call indefatigable energy. A puppy. He’s a sweet little guy and his fur is so silky I’m amazed. He’s supposed to be a cross between a Shih Tzu and a Maltese. More of the latter although no yapping. Anyway, although he’s been 'altered,' Toby is quite excited about Madame’s current state of grace, and has been at Madame’s backside almost 24/7. In fact he’s obsessed, and of course animals are like porn actors, they do everything right there in the room for anyone present to see. In the broad daylight. And Toby has been just mad for Missy, especially in her current state; and Missy hasn’t minded it. I know it’s the 'heat' because Missy doesn’t ordinarily go for that kind of unrelenting attention from any dog. Yes a little tumble here and there, and then, drop it boy, and she leaves the scene. However, now it’s like she’s smitten. On Friday, when I was out at a lunch, my friend Barbara Preminger, who was here helping me out with my mail and stuff, called me about 2:30 in a state of panic. Toby had been mounting Madame and humping her. She was at his service. I’ve seen this go on before but I didn’t know how far it could go. It seems that Toby in his carnal fervor had penetrated Madame and was doin’ his thing, until he realized that he couldn't un-penetrate himself, and so he started screeching. Madame of course was only trying to help but what could she do ('I think I’ll have a dirty dry vodka martini please ...') while he’s screeching away. Barbara also didn’t know what to do. She tried pushing them apart but ... uh-uh, they weren’t parting ... and Toby kept up the screeching. So finally she went into my bathroom cabinet and got a jar of Vaseline and applied it 'forthwith' to the poor rake. And with one final screech, they were departed from each other. And the romance was put on the shelf for a few hours. That night I saw the same. They were locked back to back and just standing there like two dogs who couldn’t figure out which direction to move in. I moved them with my hands. He was relieved once again. Today, Sunday, the bloom appears to be off the rose and Toby’s nursing his wounds, so to speak, quietly." (NYSD)
Photograph © HBO/photofest.
"As previously mentioned, this is how you pick up strangers of the opposite sex in polite society. In places like Hollywood, nothing I’ve said counts. La-la land requires its very own key questions that are a sine qua non. 'What are you missing in your life?' is Hollywood pickup 101. The most important of all is 'What can I do to make your life better?' As the famous film director James Toback said to me, 'Anyone not responding to that is not worth picking up.' Being direct in California helps as much as it hinders at 5 Hertfort Street. Anything that doesn’t feel like a pickup line is a very good line. A hint of potential authenticity is a plus, and can sway the lady after a drink or two. As is the enticement by disappearance. Having come on strong on the romantic side, a very polite goodnight accompanied with the wish to see her again is very good. Women are curious and easily intrigued, and what better way to intrigue them than to leave them alone to think of you? Another sine qua non is to never, but never, ask about her boyfriend, husband, or lover. Pretend that she’s never had any of the three. Never give her time to think of him; women, unlike us, have a conscience. This is very important. And don’t talk about yourself. Ask her about herself instead. Her job, her dreams, her likes or dislikes. Always with jokes thrown in for good measure and with plenty of smiles." (Taki)
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