Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Russian Flash Mob and Wedding Celebration (YouTube)
Puttin' on the Ritz
Night Light (Vimeo)
Animation by Quin Han. Just over 1 minute film.
Honest Trailers: Avatar (YouTube)
In a world designed by fat computer programmers, comes James Cameron's Avatar: a 3-hour cartoon about blue cat people begging for help from one white man. Pretty offensive when you think about it.
Tom Danehy: Welcome to Tom's official CD 8 special-election exit poll (Tucson Weekly)
Here are the results of the scientifically accurate exit poll I personally conducted to determine just how Ron Barber was able to apply the smack-down on Jesse Kelly in last week's special election to fill out the remainder of Gabrielle Giffords' term in the House.
Dahlia Lithwick: A Bill Seeking To Regulate Use of the Word 'Vagina' (Slate Satire)
It's time for the government to stop women from using anatomically correct terms.
Bonnie Kavoussi: "Paul Krugman: 'Ireland Is Romney Economics In Practice'" (Huffington Post)
"Ireland is Romney economics in practice," the Nobel-Prize winning economist and New York Times columnist said on the Colbert Report on Monday. "I think Ireland is America's future if Romney is president. They've laid off a large fraction of their public workforce, they've slashed spending, they've had extreme austerity programs, they haven't really raised taxes on corporations or the rich at all, they have 14 percent unemployment, 30 percent youth unemployment, zero economic growth."
David E. Drew: The Five Misconceptions About Teaching Math and Science (Slate)
American education has not declined and other surprising truths.
Kari Huus: "One Direction singer Zayn Malik: Global pop star, and Muslim" (MSNBC.MSN)
As the British-Irish boy band One Direction soared in the pop charts, making teen and tween girls around the world swoon and scream, band member Zayn Malik tweeted a message that would perplex a large segment of his fans, while being immediately recognizable to millions of others. "La ila ha ill lalla ho muhammed door rasoolalah." The 47-character tweet is a common declaration of faith among Muslims: "There is no god but God and Mohammad is the prophet of God."
David Bruce has 42 Kindle books on Amazon.com with 250 anecdotes in each book. Each book is $1, so for $42 you can buy 10,500 anecdotes. Search for "Funniest People," "Coolest People, "Most Interesting People," "Kindest People," "Religious Anecdotes," "Maximum Cool," and "Resist Psychic Death."
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Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Thick marine layer hung around til late afternoon.
SCOTUS Throws Out Fines
FCC
Broadcasters anticipating a major constitutional ruling on the government's authority to regulate what can be shown and said on the airwaves instead won only the smallest of Supreme Court victories Thursday.
The justices unanimously threw out fines and other penalties against Fox and ABC television stations that violated the Federal Communications Commission policy regulating curse words and nudity on television airwaves.
Forgoing a broader constitutional ruling, however, the court concluded only that broadcasters could not have known in advance that obscenities uttered during awards show programs on Fox stations and a brief display of nudity on an episode of ABC's "NYPD Blue" could give rise to penalties. ABC and 45 affiliates had been hit with proposed fines totaling nearly $1.24 million.
Broadcasters had argued that the revolution in technology that has brought the Internet, satellite television and cable has made the rules themselves obsolete. The regulations apply only to broadcast channels.
The broadcasters wanted the court to free them from all regulation of content around the clock. The court's 1978 Pacifica decision upheld the FCC's reprimand of a New York radio station for airing a George Carlin monologue containing a 12-minute string of expletives in the middle of the afternoon.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said in a brief opinion that she would have overturned the Pacifica ruling, which she called wrong even when it was decided. Justice Sonia Sotomayor did not take part in the current case because she was involved in an earlier version while sitting as an appeals court judge in New York.
FCC
European Union Lawmakers Reject
ACTA
European lawmakers rejected the global Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) on Thursday, signaling the European Parliament may soon use new-found rights to derail an international trade agreement.
The ACTA deal, in the pipeline since 2008, aims to reduce intellectual property theft by cracking down on fake consumer goods and medicines and digital file-sharing of pirated software and music.
The European Commission, the EU's executive body, has supported the treaty, which it says would target large-scale operations which enable illegal digital file-sharing.
The proposed legal crackdown has sparked furious protests, especially in Eastern Europe, by opponents who say it would censor free expression and criminalize people who download files for personal use.
Lawmakers from the 31-member trade committee said the vague wording of the law and disproportionate fines could do just that, which led them to oppose the bill.
ACTA
Topless Protest
Femen
A topless protest by Ukraine's Femen women's rights group livened up feeding time for Ukraine's Euro 2012 psychic pig, Funtik, as soccer fans waited to see who he would choose to win Thursday's quarter-final.
Ukraine's tournament mascot had been dozing in his pen in temperatures of 30 C but stirred and got up when he heard the familiar sound of the gate opening for his afternoon meal.
Funtik is daily given two bowls to eat from, each marked by the national flag of two teams playing each other at the finals. Those who have faith in his psychic powers say the bowl he eats from first will prove to be the winner on the night.
But even before a fan zone steward could bring in his food - a bowlful each for Portugal and the Czech Republic who clash in Warsaw - an activist for Femen barged into the pen.
Olexandra Nemchinova, 31, following the pattern of previous Femen bare-breast protests, threw off her blouse to reveal the words 'Fuck Euro 2012' on her torso and began shouting slogans denouncing the tournament being co-hosted by Ukraine and Poland.
Femen
International Book Festival
Edinburgh
The Edinburgh International Book Festival spreads its wings around the world this year with a debate among 50 noted international authors on how writing and the imagination are an essential component of society.
Details of this year's book festival, which runs from August 11 to 27 in tandem with the city's massive Fringe and the International Festival, were released on Thursday, with 800 writers from 44 countries taking part in 750 events.
The Edinburgh World Writers' Conference, staged in partnership with the British Council, will run every afternoon between August 17 and 21 with 50 leading international writers covering a range of topics from national literature through censorship and politics, style versus content and the future of the novel.
Inspired by a seminal writers' gathering in Edinburgh in 1962, the conference with a budget of some 500,000 pounds ($783,000), will go on to 13 other countries over the next year including Egypt, Australia, Russia, India and Canada.
Edinburgh
Group Wants Claritin Investigation
"Madagascar 3"
"Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted" may be a favorite of children nationwide, but the animated film's connection to a children's medicine is making some people downright sick.
The Public Health Advocacy Institute, along with 10 other organizations, called on the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to investigate pharmaceutical company Merck & Co. Inc.'s promotional campaign featuring characters from the DreamWorks Animation film on Tuesday.
Merck's campaign, which promotes its Grape-Flavored Chewable Children's Claritin allergy medicine, includes customized, "Madagascar 3"-themed packaging with free stickers inside; movie-ticket voucher promotions in such outlets as Walgreens drug stores; and downloadable games tying Children's Claritin to "Madagascar 3."
The health-advocacy institute is particularly concerned because DreamWorks has also licensed characters from "Madagascar 3" to food products targeted toward children, which "creates the impression that the medicine is candy and could lead children to over-consume the product at great risk to their health."
"Madagascar 3"
Worn Out Welcome
Bri$tol Palin
Bri$tol Palin tripped up with TV audiences after less than 750,000 people watched the first episode of her new reality show.
Palin, who found fame in 2008 as the accidentally pregnant unmarried daughter of Republican conservative U.S. vice-presidential contender Sarah Palin (R-Quitter), chronicled her life with her now three-year-old son Tripp in the Lifetime show "Life's a Tripp."
But according to audience figures on Thursday, just 726,000 watched the show when it debuted on Wednesday. By contrast, some 3.3 million watched the latest installment of MTV's "Teen Mom" reality series on Wednesday.
"Life's a Tripp" got unenthusiastic reviews from TV critics and proved no match with the U.S. public for the polarizing but charismatic Sarah Palin (R-Lunatic Fringe). The 2010 TV series "Sarah Palin's Alaska" attracted some five million viewers on its first outing, but was canceled after one season.
Bri$tol Palin
Triggers Positive Marijuana Tests
Baby Shampoos
Commonly used baby soaps and shampoos, including products from Johnson & Johnson, Aveeno and CVS, can trigger a positive result on newborns' marijuana screening tests, according to a recent study. A minute amount of the cleansing products in a urine sample - just 0.1 milliliters or less - was found to cause a positive result.
Researchers at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, began studying the issue after an unusually high number of newborns in their nursery began testing positive for marijuana exposure. Newborn screening for marijuana at hospitals, particularly among babies of women who are considered at high risk of drug use, is not uncommon: at U.N.C. Chapel Hill, 10% to 40% of newborns are tested.
Positive results can precipitate an investigation by child welfare authorities. "We really did this to help protect families from being falsely accused," study co-author Dr. Carl Seashore, a pediatrician in the U.N.C. Chapel Hill newborn nursery, told My Health News Daily.
Soaps that were specifically associated with false-positive marijuana test results include Johnson & Johnson's Bedtime Bath, CVS Night-Time Baby Bath, Aveeno Baby Soothing Relief Creamy Wash and Aveeno Baby Wash & Shampoo.
Baby Shampoos
Ellison Pays Cash
Lanai
Oracle Corp. CEO Larry Ellison has reached a deal to buy 98 percent of the island of Lanai from its current owner, Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie said Wednesday.
The sale price for the property, which comprises the vast majority of the island's 141 square miles, was not immediately clear. Lawyers for the seller redacted a copy of the sale agreement signed May 2, saying it includes confidential information that would competitively hurt Ellison and the seller if disclosed. The Maui News previously reported the asking price was between $500 million and $600 million.
The deal involves 88,000 acres of land, plus two resorts, two golf courses, a stable and various residential and commercial buildings, lawyers for Murdock told the utilities commission in its application.
Ellison plans to pay cash, and the deal should result in new jobs, economic stimulus and a reinvigorated local tourism industry, the application said.
Lanai
Pokes Polygamist Sect
DOJ
The U.S. Justice Department on Thursday sued two towns on the Utah-Arizona border that are dominated by a polygamist Mormon sect, citing religious discrimination and civil rights violations against residents who do not share the majority faith.
The lawsuit against the twin cities of Colorado City, Arizona, and Hildale, Utah, said the towns and their joint police department and utility providers had allowed the sect to unduly influence the provision of public services, including policing.
Most of the residents of the towns are members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a breakaway Mormon sect whose leader, Warren Jeffs, is serving a sentence of life plus 20 years in prison in Texas for raping two underage girls he wed in "spiritual marriages."
The complaint said the towns' joint police force failed to investigate crimes against non-FLDS members or refused to arrest FLDS individuals who had committed crimes against those who were not in the church, such as destroying crops on a farm of a non-FLDS member and trespassing on property occupied by non-FLDS members.
DOJ
Gene Studies Support Legend
'Queen of Sheba'
Cited in both the Bible and the Quran, the legendary African ruler the Queen of Sheba was said to have had a child with King Solomon of Israel.
Now scientists studying the genomes of people in Ethiopia say there is genetic evidence that may support this age-old tale.
The team found that the genomes of some groups of people in Ethiopia show mixing with non-African populations about 3,000 years ago, and bear striking similarities to those of populations in Israel and Syria.
"We found that some Ethiopians have 40 percent to 50 percent of their genome closer to the genomes of populations outside of Africa, while the remaining half of their genome is closer to populations within the African continent," study co-author Toomas Kivisild, from the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, said in a Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute news release.
'Queen of Sheba'
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) Roger Waters; $2,411,900; $105.77.
2. (2) Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band; $1,996,815; $91.18.
3. (3) Cirque du Soleil - "Michael Jackson: The Immortal"; $1,450,369; $111.31.
4. (4) Red Hot Chili Peppers; $769,687; $57.93.
5. (5) Lady Antebellum; $586,242; $50.53.
6. (6) The Black Keys; $506,081; $47.72.
7. (7) Miranda Lambert; $440,952; $38.54.
8. (8) Il Divo; $383,734; $94.58.
9. (9) Jeff Dunham; $327,411; $47.90.
10. (10) Eric Church; $281,899; $36.41.
11. (12) Rain - A Tribute To The Beatles; $179,646; $50.61.
12. (13) "Riverdance"; $174,270; $58.74.
13. (14) "Mythbusters"; $159,242; $51.54.
14. (15) Bassnectar; $157,428; $35.30.
15. (17) Yanni; $156,878; $59.56.
16. (16) Rise Against; $155,652; $36.11.
17. (18) Casting Crowns; $148,434; $29.45.
18. (19) The Moody Blues; $140,100; $64.78.
19. (20) Death Cab For Cutie; $128,745; $44.29.
20. (NEW) Trans-Siberian Orchestra; $121,393; $45.92.
Concert Tours
In Memory
LeRoy Neiman
Painter and sketch artist LeRoy Neiman, best known for evoking the kinetic energy of the world's biggest sporting and leisure events with bright quick strokes, died Wednesday at age 91.
Neiman was the official painter of five Olympiads and was a contributing artist at Playboy magazine for many years. His longtime publicist, Gail Parenteau, confirmed his death at a Manhattan hospital on Wednesday but didn't disclose the cause.
Neiman was a media-savvy artist who knew how to enthrall audiences with his instant renditions of what he observed. In 1972, he sketched the world chess tournament between Boris Spassky and Bobby Fischer in Reykjavik, Iceland, for a live television audience. He also produced live drawings of the Olympics for TV and was the official computer artist of the Super Bowl for CBS.
Neiman's paintings, many executed in household enamel paints that allowed him his fast-moving strokes, are an explosion in reds, blues, pinks, greens and yellows of pure kinetic energy.
He has been described as an American impressionist, but the St. Paul, Minn., native preferred to think of himself simply as an American artist.
He worked in many media, producing thousands of etchings, lithographs and silkscreen prints known as serigraphy.
But Neiman's critics said his forays into the commercial world minimized him as a serious artist. At Playboy, for example, he created Femlin, the well-endowed nude that has graced the magazine's Party Jokes page since 1957.
But it was the essence of a basketball or football game, swim meet or cycling event that captured his imagination most.
With his sketchbook and pencil, trademark handlebar mustache and slicked back hair, Neiman was instantly recognizable.
Neiman's decades-long association with Playboy began in 1953 following a chance meeting with Hugh Hefner. It was the start of what he called "the good life" and inspiration for much of his future work.
He regularly contributed to the magazine's "Man at His Leisure" feature, which took him to such places as the Grand National Steeplechase and Ascot in England, the Cannes Film Festival in France and the Grand Prix auto race in Monaco.
Neiman was a World War II veteran who participated in the invasion of Normandy and fought in the Battle of the Bulge. He was a self-described workaholic who seldom took vacations and had no hobbies. He worked daily in his home studio at the Hotel des Artistes near Central Park, which he shared with his wife.
Neiman also was a portraitist who captured some of the world's most iconic figures, Frank Sinatra and Babe Ruth among them, in a style that conveyed their public image.
Over the years, Neiman endowed a number of institutions, donating $6 million in 1995 for the creation of the LeRoy Neiman Center for Print Studies at Columbia University and $3 million to his alma mater, the Art Institute of Chicago, where he taught for a decade.
He also donated $1 million to create a permanent home for Arts Horizons, a community art center in Harlem.
Neiman earned numerous accolades. He was inducted into the New Jersey Boxing Hall of Fame and the International Boxing Hall of Fame. Other awards included a 2002 Friars Club Tribute and a 2004 Ellis Island Medal of Honor.
His works are in the permanent collections of many private and public museums. The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., was selected by Neiman to house his archives.
Neiman is survived by his wife of 55 years, Janet Byrne Neiman.
LeRoy Neiman
Sacramento to Long Beach
I-5
Here are some pics from our quick-trip to Sacramento, taken on the southbound return to Long Beach.
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