Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Suzanne Moore: Never mind the threat of Ukip, the electorate has been consumed with anger and alienated for years (Guardian)
For all those people who cling to the wreckage of Farage's party, most of us just can't be bothered.
David Weigel: Six Lessons From the Year's First Big Primary Night (Slate)
How to read the tea leaves for Mitch McConnell, the Tea Party, and much more.
Katy Waldman: A Restaurant's Priceless Answer to the Request That Servers "Show More Skin" (Slate)
Here is a happy story. Once upon a time, there lived a restaurant owner in Morgantown, West Virginia, by the name of Daniel McCawley. A customer wrote an Urbanspoon review (which has since been deleted) asking the waitstaff at Atomic Grill, McCawley's eatery, to "show more skin."
"39 Surprisingly Profound Quotes from Unexpected Sources" (Cracked)
"I never look back, darling. It distracts from the now." - Edna Mode, The Incredibles
Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett: Why women are hooked on violent crime fiction (Guardian)
Reading about grisly sex murders and mutilation is a safe way to explore the threats we sense in the world around us.
Henning Mankell: the importance of cancer research (Guardian)
Following his first round of chemotherapy, the Wallander author contemplates the medical professionals whose work has allowed some hopeful cancer sufferers moments of quiet contentment.
Joanna Blythman: The secret of the Mediterranean diet? There is no secret (Guardian)
Researchers claim that nitro fatty acids, formed when olive oil and vegetables are eaten together, are the key to the healthy Mediterranean diet. But such a reductionist approach to food and health is unhelpful.
Maxwell Yezpitelok, Peter File: The 6 Most Needlessly Terrifying Video Game Commercials Ever (Cracked)
… if the purpose of a video game commercial is to deeply terrify your young fan base so profoundly that they wouldn't dare forget your product, the creators of the following doses of nightmare elixir succeeded brilliantly.
The Best Commencement Speeches, Ever (NPR)
We've hand-picked over 300 addresses going back to 1774. Search by name, school, date or theme, and see our blog n.pr/ed for more.
David Bruce's Amazon Author Page
David Bruce's Smashwords Page
David Bruce's Blog
David Bruce's Lulu Storefront
David Bruce's Apple iBookstore
David Bruce has approximately 50 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
"Doug's Most Shared Facebook Post" Today
wrote:
is on sabbatical.
said:
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Reader Comment
Harvey Milk
The White House hosted a dedication ceremony May 22nd for the United States Postal Service's soon-to-be-released Harvey Milk Forever Stamp.
MAM
Thanks, Marianne!
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.
So - to let you know what's going on, the guestbook on bartcop.com is
still open for those who want to write something in memory of Bart.
I did an interview on Netroots Radio about Bart's passing
( www.stitcher.com/s?eid=32893545 )
The most active open discussion is on Bart's Facebook page.
( www.facebook.com/bartcop )
You can listen to Bart's theme song here
or here.
( www.bartcop.com/blizing-saddles.mp3 )
( youtu.be/MySGAaB0A9k )
We have opened up the radio show archives which are now free. Listen to
all you want.
( bartcop.com/members )
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
Thanks, Marc!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Partly cloudy and humid.
New Equipment To Detroit Firefighters
Denis Leary
Denis Leary, a longtime supporter of firefighters and the star of an acclaimed TV show in which he played one, was in Detroit on Thursday to present $260,000 worth of equipment to the bankrupt city's fire department.
The new gear was paid for by proceeds from "Burn," a documentary film about the city's firefighters that Leary executive-produced.
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan and Fire Commissioner Edsel Jenkins accepted the donation, which included carbon monoxide detectors and thermal imaging cameras and was made through the Leary Firefighters Foundation.
"Each time we are blessed with the ability to donate funds which will help the brave and courageous firefighters of this country, we do so with gratitude and admiration," said Leary, known for his starring role on "Rescue Me," which focused on New York City firefighters. "Every dollar makes a difference."
Denis Leary
Backs Cyprus's First Gay Pride Parade
Stephen Fry
British actor Stephen Fry has come out in support of Cyprus's first gay pride parade after a Christian group vowed to demonstrate and the church voiced its condemnation of homosexuality.
The actor, in comments to the Cyprus Daily published Thursday, called on every person on the island, regardless of their sexuality, to join the march in Nicosia on May 31.
Fry, who is openly homosexual, has campaigned for gay rights across the world, notably in Russia.
As an actor, he leapt to fame for his roles in British cult TV series "Blackadder", "Not the Nine O'Clock News" and "Jeeves".
Stephen Fry
Gets State Fossil
South Carolina
Thanks to the efforts of a history-obsessed third-grader, South Carolina now has a state fossil - the Columbian mammoth.
Opposition from creationist state legislators had stalled the initiative, but Gov. Nikki Haley made the state fossil official with her signature on Friday.
"That was history of South Carolina that would've been lost if I hadn't done something about it," 8-year-old Olivia McConnell told the Associated Press this week.
A bill to make Olivia's request official was first introduced in January to the state House, where it was passed and sent to the state Senate. Legislators in the state Senate, however, tried to tweak the bill.
South Carolina
Dino Skeleton
Creation Museum
A new exhibit of a 30-foot-long fossil skeleton of an Allosaurus, which resembles a Tyrannosaurus rex, is set to open at a Kentucky museum that asserts dinosaurs lived alongside humans a few thousand years ago.
A release from Answers in Genesis, the Christian ministry that owns the Creation Museum, said about 50 percent of the skeleton's bones were recovered when it was found in Colorado over a decade ago. Keeping with its Bible-themed approach, the Creation Museum says the dinosaur died in a worldwide flood about 4,300 years ago. Scientists say the last dinosaurs roamed the earth more than 60 million years ago.
Museum founder Ken Ham said the new exhibit "will help us defend the book of Genesis and expose the scientific problems with evolution." The new exhibit is called "Facing the Allosaurus," and has the skeleton as its massive centerpiece. It opens Saturday.
"Evolutionists use dinosaurs to reach children more than anything to promote their worldview," Ham said. "Our museum uses dinosaurs to help tell their true history according to the Bible."
Daniel Phelps, president of the Kentucky Paleontological Society, said in a release Thursday that the Creation Museum "has decided, without doing research, that the dinosaur fossil is evidence of Noah's flood."
Creation Museum
Airport Oopsy
Gregg Jarrett
A Fox News weekend anchor who was arrested after he allegedly became combative with police at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport may have taken a drug that didn't mix well with alcohol, a police report released Thursday suggests.
Gregg Jarrett, 59, was arrested Wednesday after police were called to the Northern Lights Grill in the airport's main terminal on a report of a customer who was "acting very intoxicated," the report said.
Officers arrived to find Jarrett sitting at the bar - swaying back and forth and using the bar for support - and unwilling or unable to answer questions.
The bar employee told police Jarrett seemed very intoxicated after just one drink. Jarrett allegedly told another customer he'd taken medication before his flight, but he denied that when questioned by police. He told police he'd been drinking vodka since 9 a.m., the report said.
Officers found gabapentin pills in his pocket. A search of Jarrett's bag showed he was just released from an alcohol and chemical dependency treatment facility, the report said.
Gregg Jarrett
Judge Reinstates Lawsuit Against Hometown Museum
Harper Lee
A federal judge has reinstated a lawsuit that "To Kill a Mockingbird" author Harper Lee filed against a museum in her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama.
U.S. District Judge William Steele signed an order Thursday granting Lee's request to reinstate her suit. Lee sought the reinstatement after her attorneys said settlement talks with the Monroe County Heritage Museum failed.
Lee sued in 2013, accusing the museum of taking advantage of her work by selling souvenirs and using the title of her book as its website address without compensating the author. The two sides filed notice of a settlement in February. That was never signed and the time for completing it ran out. The museum did change its website address.
The 88-year-old author lives in Monroeville.
Harper Lee
More H8
'Duck Dynasty'
A&E has declined to comment on new video of "Duck Dynasty" star Phil Robertson (R-Matthew 7:1) reviving past anti-gay remarks.
His comments are included in a sermon delivered at his church in West Monroe, Louisiana, on Easter Sunday. Robertson (R-Luke 6:37) includes homosexuals with other groups such as thieves and adulterers as hell-bound sinners.
Robertson (R-James 4:12) is the bearded patriarch of a clan that manufactures duck calls and became reality-TV stars. In December he set off a firestorm after GQ magazine quoted him linking homosexual behaviour to bestiality. He also made racist statements.
The video was posted Thursday by RadarOnline. It was posted to YouTube by the Whites Ferry Road Church on April 21.
'Duck Dynasty'
French Father
Andre Bamberski
A 76-year-old Frenchman has gone on trial for taking justice into his own hands after a decades-long mission to avenge his daughter's death.
Andre Bamberski is accused of ordering the kidnapping five years ago in Germany of retired doctor Dieter Krombach, who was tied up and dumped near a French courthouse to face charges in the 1982 death of Bamberski's 15-year-old daughter, Kalinka. Krombach was the girl's stepfather.
As a result of being dumped in France, Krombach is in prison serving a 15-year sentence that was upheld last month by France's highest appeals court. The 79-year-old German was accused of giving her a dangerous injection so he could rape her. A French court in 1995 had convicted him in absentia of "intentional violence that led to unintentional death" in the case.
But a German court, ruling on the same allegations after the 1995 French court decision, said the evidence was insufficient to prove Krombach's guilt, and refused to extradite him.
Krombach had a track record in Germany: He was suspended from practicing medicine after a 1997 conviction for drugging and raping a 16-year-old girl in his office. He pleaded guilty, and got a two-year suspended sentence.
Andre Bamberski
Wildfire Season
San Diego County
The nine fires that swept through San Diego County last week exposed a contradiction in California's preparations for what forecasters say could be a severe fire season.
The state is as ready as could reasonably be expected, given the challenges that lie ahead, analysts say, but the county where the fires hit is notably unprepared.
Fire department personnel, experts, and academics give state and federal agencies fairly high grades, saying they have learned many of the lessons from recent Western wildfires.
With high temperatures and drought prevailing in California, the issue carries perhaps even more urgency than usual this summer. If new fires break out in San Diego, other areas of the state - and perhaps the country - might have to step in.
"San Diego County's astonishing lack of professional firefighting units … means they are off-loading their responsibilities on other taxpayers across the state who pay to protect them and to protect them in landscapes that are fire-prone, fire-created," says Char Miller, professor of environmental analysis at Pomona College in Claremont, Calif.
San Diego County
US Military Closes
HAARP
The U.S. Air Force has notified Congress that it intends to shut down HAARP, a controversial Alaska-based research facility that studies an energetic and active region of the upper atmosphere.
Conspiracy theorists are abuzz about the news, given that HAARP (short for High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program) has long been the center of wild speculation that the program is designed to control the weather - or worse. In 2010, Venezuelan leader Huge Chavez claimed that HAARP or a program like it triggered the Haiti earthquake.
HAARP is a research program designed to analyze the ionosphere, a portion of the upper atmosphere that stretches from about 53 miles (85 kilometers) above the surface of the Earth to 370 miles (600 km) up. The program has been funded by the Air Force, the Navy, the University of Alaska and DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency).
HAARP operates out of the HAARP Research Station in Gakona, Alaska, where it has a high-power radio frequency transmitter that can perturb a small portion of the ionosphere. Other instruments are then used to measure the perturbations.
HAARP cost more than $290 million to build, much of it earmarked by late Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), who had great influence over the U.S. defense budget during his time in Congress. The site was host to numerous projects over the years, including the creation of the first man-made aurora in 2005. The site's generators now require remediation to meet the environmental standards set in the Clean Air Act, an expense no one seems keen to take on.
HAARP
Top 20
Concert Tours
The Top 20 Concert Tours ranks artists by average box office gross per city and includes the average ticket price for shows in North America. The previous week's ranking is in parentheses. The list is based on data provided to the trade publication Pollstar by concert promoters and venue managers.
1. (1) Justin Timberlake; $2,115,081; $114.98.
2. (2) George Strait; $1,628,548; $91.80.
3. (New) Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band; $1,478,686; $97.32.
4. (3) Paul Simon/Sting; $1,467,002; $130.59.
5. (4) Elton John; $1,444,960; $112.87.
6. (5) Cher; $1,135,412; $92.72.
7. (6) Jason Aldean; $633,805; $52.45.
8. (7) Kings Of Leon; $538,383; $55.20.
9. (8) Imagine Dragons; $485,121; $38.41.
10. (9) Lady Antebellum; $421,199; $58.71.
11. (10) Demi Lovato; $408,186; $46.49.
12. (11) Jeff Dunham; $277,070; $44.73.
13. (12) Darius Rucker; $246,508; $43.44.
14. (13) Brantley Gilbert; $219,613; $30.98.
15. (14) Jim Gaffigan; $203,616; $46.28.
16. (15) The Moody Blues; $190,333; $78.53.
17. (New) Tobymac; $190,321; $31.96.
18. (17) "Winter Jam"/Newsboys/Lecrae; $165,922; $13.59.
19. (16) The Band Perry; $159,472; $36.00.
20. (18) Justin Moore; $140,705; $33.27.
Concert Tours
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