Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Tom Danehy: Tom says goodbye to Mike Hein, certain we will miss him more than he'll miss us (Tucson Weekly)
Mike's wife, Anne-Marie Russell, is leaving her job as executive director of the Tucson Museum of Contemporary Art to become director of an art museum in Florida. Mike, who apparently really enjoys Anne-Marie's company, has decided to go with her. They'll be moving to Sarasota, which is Spanish for Death, Plus Humidity.
Paul Krugman: Food for Thought (NY Times)
Most people don't live their lives obsessed with policy and world events, nor should they. In fact, a time when political or economic analyses are at the top of the agenda is almost surely a bad time, with everything going wrong, whereas a return to food-and-lifestyle is an indication of at least a partial return to normalcy.
ANAHAD O'CONNOR: Fish Oil Claims Not Supported by Research (NY Times)
The vast majority of clinical trials involving fish oil have found no evidence that it lowers the risk of heart attack and stroke.
Gail Collins: Indiana Loses Its Game (NY Times)
The Hoosier State is in a mess, and its residents should feel free to blame their governor.
April 1: The Shocking Truth About Global Warming (YouTube)
For years, 97% of scientists assured us that climate change was real. Today in the Hot Seat, we uncover the sordid lies behind their so-called "scientific consensus."
Chitra Ramaswamy: Waka, waka, waka … Google Maps brings Pac-Man back to play on city streets (Guardian)
Turn the world's most famous thoroughfares - or even the street where you live - into mazes and wolf down the dots.
THE TOP 15 SPOTS TO PLAY PAC-MAN IN GOOGLE MAPS (Wired)
While you're perusing a map in the browser, you can click on a Pac-Man icon in the lower left corner. Doing so lets you play Pac-Man right there in Google Maps, using real locations as your levels. You can run the little guy up and down city streets, gobbling up little dots while the ghosts give chase. Frankly, it's amazing.
R. Jason Benson, John Kolka, Justin Croft: "5 Disgusting Truths About Every Restaurant (From a Chef)" (Cracked)
Everybody knows a waiter with more industrial horror stories than the Hellraiser series. But how much of that stuff is real, how much is embellished, and how much of it was just a hallucination from eating last week's leftover specials?
Alan Fox: 6 Hilarious Ways Game Designers Are Screwing Over Pirates (Cracked)
Since the beginning of time (or thereabouts), creative people have been at war with other, less creative people who want to enjoy the creative people's work for free.
Adam Tod Brown: 5 Stories That Will Change Your Opinion Of Famous Companies (Cracked)
It's been said that corporations are people. That being the case, it should come as no surprise that like so many of us, they have some skeletons hiding in their closets -- dirty little secrets from their past that they'd prefer everyone just not talk about. That's never going to happen, of course.
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David Bruce has over 80 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
"Doug's Most Shared Facebook Post" Today
, wrote:
took the day off.
has returned to semi-retired status.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
David E Suggests
Hidden Messages
David
Thanks, Dave!
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
from Marc Perkel
BartCop
Hello Bartcop fans,
As you all know the untimely passing of Terry was unexpected, even by
him. We all knew he had cancer but we all thought he had some years
left. So some of us who have worked closely with him over the years are
scrambling around trying to figure out what to do. My job, among other
things, is to establish communications with the Bartcop community and
provide email lists and groups for those who might put something
together. Those who want to play an active roll in something coming from
this, or if you are one of Bart's pillars, should send an email to
active@bartcop.com.
Bart's final wish was to pay off the house mortgage for Mrs. Bart who is
overwhelmed and so very grateful for the support she has received.
Anyone wanting to make a donation can click on this the yellow donate
button on bartcop.com
But - I need you all to help keep this going. This note
isn't going to directly reach all of Bart's fans. So if you can repost
it on blogs and discussion boards so people can sign up then when we
figure out what's next we can let more people know. This list is just
over 600 but like to get it up to at least 10,000 pretty quick. So
here's the signup link for this email list.
( mailman.bartcop.com/listinfo/bartnews )
Marc Perkel
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and on the warm side.
'Frightening' Statue In Hometown
Lucille Ball
They don't love this Lucy. Locals are not happy with their statue of Lucille Ball in Celoron, N.Y.
A self-described "big fan of Lucy's" from Jamestown thinks the statue needs to be replaced with one befitting the comedy legend.
The Jamestown man, who wishes to remain anonymous, started a Facebook page titled We Love Lucy! Get Rid of this Statue.
Celoron Mayor Scott Schrecengost told the Jamestown Post-Journal that it would cost a lot of money - between $8,000 and $10,000 - to have the original artist recast the statue, which was unveiled in 2009.
Schrecengost told the newspaper that he has no interest in using taxpayer dollars to fix it. Instead, a fund has been set up to raise the money, according to the daily newspaper.
Lucille Ball
Deputy Ordered To Undergo Counseling
Snoop Dogg
A state trooper has been reprimanded for posing for a photo with Snoop Dogg at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, because the rapper has several convictions for drug possession.
Billy Spears was working security at the March event when Snoop Dogg asked to take a picture with him. The artist posted the image to Instagram with the comment, "Me n my deputy dogg."
Department of Public Safety and Transportation officials saw the posting and cited Spears for deficiencies that require counseling by a supervisor.
Spears' attorney says his client didn't know about the rapper's criminal record. Spears can't appeal the citation because it isn't a formal disciplinary action.
Snoop Dogg
Challenges National HQ
NY Boy Scouts
The Boy Scouts' New York chapter said Thursday that it has hired the nation's first openly gay Eagle Scout as a summer camp leader, a direct and public challenge to the national scouting organization's ban on openly gay adult members.
The Boy Scouts' national spokesman, Deron Smith, said there was no change in that policy, which has been highly divisive. As for any further response to the New York announcement, Smith said, "We are looking into the matter."
The challenge to the national headquarters was laid down by the Boy Scouts' Greater New York Councils, which announced the hiring of Pascal Tessier, an 18-year-old Eagle Scout. Tessier has been a vocal advocate of opening the 105-year-old organization to gay scouts and leaders.
"We received this application from this young man, and we found him highly qualified on all the merits," board member Richard G. Mason said by phone. The New York group, like some other local scouting councils, has said before that it is open to gay employees.
"We have an anti-discrimination policy, we believe in it very firmly, and we are executing on it," Mason said.
NY Boy Scouts
Still Has More Users Than Windows 8
Windows XP
How much has Windows 8 bombed with PC users? So much that an obsolete operating system that had its technical support cut off nearly a full year ago still has more global users.
Recall that it was on April 8th last year that Microsoft ended support for Windows XP, which meant that users stopped getting any more automatic updates and were no longer able to download Microsoft Security Essentials for their PCs anymore. Microsoft made a big push to get people to move away from XP for security reasons and upgrade to newer software, particularly to Windows 8 or 8.1.
Despite this push, however, the biggest gainer over the past year has been Windows 7… and it's not even close.
According to NetMarketShare, at this time last year Windows 8 and 8.1 had a combined market share of 11.3%, Windows 7 had a market share of 48.8% and Windows XP had a market share of 27.5%. One year later, NetMarketShare's numbers inform us that Windows 8 and 8.1 now have a combined market share of 14%, Windows 7 has a market share of 58% and XP has a market share of 16.9%.
Windows XP
Judge Ends Salvage Attempt
Maine
A treasure hunter's effort to salvage what he calls $3 billion in platinum from a World War II shipwreck off Cape Cod has been ended by a federal judge.
Greg Brooks' company Sea Hunters LP is no longer allowed to salvage additional items from the S.S. Port Nicholson, which was sunk by a Nazi U-boat in 1942, U.S. District Judge George Singal ruled on Wednesday.
Brooks said he believed the Port Nicholson carried platinum bars from the Soviet Union that were payment to the U.S. for war supplies. His treasure hunt had led to a criminal investigation and legal action by investors who paid him millions of dollars.
The judge also denied an attempt by a group of investors to win recovery rights, claims to what's on the ship if anything is found. The judge wrote that evidence suggests there's nothing valuable to salvage.
The judge essentially ended Sea Hunters' rights to any claim to potential treasure. He cited Sea Hunters' actions "including the filing of falsified documents on this court's docket and its inability to salvage any items of substantial value." He issued the ruling with prejudice, meaning it's permanent.
Maine
Leader Removed
Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah
A Utah tribal leader was ousted from office Thursday for accepting gifts from the Washington Redskins, which council members say wrongly linked their tribe to the NFL team's divisive name.
Members of the council of the Cedar City-based Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah said they voted unanimously to remove Chairwoman Gari Lafferty, who was accused of misconduct and ethical violations for taking an autographed football and a trip to Washington, D.C., to attend a Redskins game last year.
The council said in a statement that those gifts wrongly tied the tribe to a name some American Indians find derogatory.
In an interview Thursday, Lafferty said the team never asked her to endorse or advocate for the name. She said the tribal council was aware of both the signed football, which went to her son-in-law, and the trip, which came after the tribe responded to a survey from the team's Original Americans Foundation asking about tribal needs. The foundation donated three vans, two of which have arrived.
Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah
Sued Over Disease Study
Johns Hopkins
More than 750 plaintiffs are suing the Johns Hopkins Hospital System Corp. over its role in a series of medical experiments in Guatemala in the 1940s and 1950s during which subjects were deliberately infected with venereal diseases without their consent.
The lawsuit in Baltimore seeks $1 billion in damages for individuals, spouses and children of people infected with syphilis, gonorrhea and other sexually transmitted diseases through a U.S. government program between 1945 and 1956.
The suit claims officials at Johns Hopkins had "substantial influence" over the studies by controlling some panels that advised the federal government on how to spend research dollars. The suit also alleges that Hopkins and the Rockefeller Foundation, which is also named as a defendant, "did not limit their involvement to design, planning, funding and authorization of the Experiments; instead, they exercised control over, supervised, supported, encouraged, participated in and directed the course of the Experiments."
The suit, which includes 774 plaintiffs, says the experiments were conducted abroad in order to give "researchers the opportunity to test additional methods of infecting humans with venereal disease easily hidden from public scrutiny."
The suit says that orphans, children and mental patients were also deliberately infected without their consent, and that treatment was withheld from some subjects.
Johns Hopkins
Treasurer Urges Divestment
California
California's state treasurer sent a stern letter to the state's teachers' pension fund on Wednesday, asking that the fund's managing partner, Cerberus Capital Management, fully divest from the assault weapon manufacturer, Freedom Group.
Treasurer John Chiang said he was frustrated that the manufacturer of the assault weapon used in the 2012 killing of 20 children and seven adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut was still indirectly financed by the California State Teachers' Retirement System.
Chiang asked that Cerberus' leadership attend CalSTRS' Investment Committee meeting on Friday "to explain why the Freedom Group remains in its portfolio."
The pension fund does not want to sell about $375 million worth of two Cerberus funds at a loss without exhausting alternatives, the fund said. Disclosing the specific value of indirect holdings, such as Freedom Group, would violate the fund's private equity agreements.
California
Top 20
Global Concert Tours
The Top 20 Global Concert Tours ranks artists by average box office gross per city and includes the average ticket price for shows worldwide. The list is based on data provided to the trade publication Pollstar by concert promoters and venue managers.
1. One Direction; $5,775,520; $122.48.
2. Foo Fighters; $2,863,205; $86.13.
3. Violetta; $1,959,739; $77.11.
4. Fleetwood Mac; $1,637,797; $126.50.
5. Maroon 5; $1,463,500; $91.22.
6. Queen + Adam Lambert; $1,394,894; $108.24.
7. Enrique Iglesias/Pitbull; $1,130,916; $85.88.
8. Chris Brown; $1,073,882; $99.43.
9. Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band; $974,064; $87.82.
10. Lionel Richie; $805,878; $83.09.
11. Ricardo Arjona; $705,624; $94.35.
12. Ariana Grande; $606,677; $49.12.
13. Charlie Wilson; $571,859; $70.05.
14. Miranda Lambert; $533,897; $56.50.
15. Florida Georgia Line; $515,790; $53.06.
16. Eric Church; $501,038; $46.28.
17. Sam Smith; $491,223; $55.33.
18. Bryan Adams; $430,930; $60.15.
19. Blue Man Group; $398,833; $55.30.
20. The Tragically Hip; $381,535; $58.43.
Global Concert Tours
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