Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Lori Gregory-Garrott: They Call Me "the Devil" (Slate)
What it's like to be an escort at Mississippi's last abortion clinic.
Mark Morford: 101 ways not to raise your kid (SF Gate)
Met a great guy up at Wanderlust Tahoe this year, grizzled and sly, totally Burner-tastic, probably 50 but also sort of ageless, a dead ringer for Ted Nugent except not at all a monstrous libertarian bow-hunting idiot jackass you never want to be anywhere near.
Hadley Freeman: "Bitchy resting face: must it be taken so seriously?" (Guardian)
BRF started out as a joke, so why has it become yet another insult to hurl at women celebrities?
10 Missing Treasures You Should Really Be Looking For!
You'll need more than a map and a shovel to find these cultural gems. But trust us, it will be worth the effort.
Shane Nickerson: 11 things it took me 42 years to learn (Nickerblog)
As I round the corner towards the still youngish age of 42, I've had some time to reflect upon what's worked and what hasn't in my life. Periodically, I feel the need to share some of this wisdom. Usually this happens when I haven't been drinking much and my brain wants to dump information. Here we are.
Emily Upton: The Forgotten Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico, Norton I (Today I Found Out)
… his Imperial Majesty once managed to do the near impossible- stop a mob in their tracks. While the details of the act have likely been blown out of proportion over time, at one point a very small mob was attempting to attack a Chinese immigrant … Not to be one to let such shenanigans take place in his country, Emperor Norton I set himself between the Chinese man and the attackers.
Dear royal baby … some real-world advice (Guardian)
Do talk to Fergie, but not to Beatrice and Eugenie, take the tube, don't forget to abdicate - and find out who Les Dawson and Leon Trotsky were. We asked writers to pen a letter to the new Prince of Cambridge …
I Actually Like Grammar Nazis (Imgur)
David Bruce's Amazon Author Page
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David Bruce has approximately 50 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
answered:
wrote:
took the day off.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Team Coco
Conan
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Another marine layer, another nice day.
MLB Honors
Aretha Franklin
Aretha Franklin and Bo Jackson will be honored at the 2013 MLB Beacon Awards Luncheon next month.
Major League Baseball announced Thursday that Franklin and Jackson will receive awards on Aug. 24 at the Chicago Marriott Magnificent Mile before the annual Civil Rights Game. The White Sox will host the Rangers in this year's game.
Past recipients of MLB Beacon Awards include Hall of Famers Frank Robinson, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays and Ernie Banks, as well as Muhammad Ali, Harry Belafonte, Bill Cosby and Morgan Freeman.
The MLB Beacon Awards Luncheon is one of the events surrounding the Civil Rights Game that pay tribute to people who fight for equal rights.
Aretha Franklin
Sparks Controversy In Saskatoon
Joni Mitchell
Canadian singer / songwriter Joni Mitchell has courted controversy after openly criticizing Saskatoon. In an interview with The StarPhoenix on Wednesday, the 69-year-old described her hometown as an "extremely bigoted community" and likened it to the "Deep South," in response to another failed attempt by the city to honour one of its most famous residents.
There have been several failed attempts over the past decade to pay tribute to Mitchell, including a cultural centre, a statue, and a proposed art gallery wing which was to be named after her. However all of the proposals have fallen through and the star is now distancing herself from future projects after describing the situation as "laughable."
"I love Saskatoon. Don't get me wrong," she said. "I had such enjoyable teenage years there. I started to play the guitar and paint there. My gifts began there. But I cannot go through another one of these. If you want to do something, leave me out of it. Just do it."
The latest plans included a museum that would showcase a collection of Mitchell's personal items, including homemade dresses and scrapbooks that were originally her mother's. Now, however, Mitchell says that she wants it returned: "All I want is my stuff back. I just want my stuff back. I have place to store it. It won't be of any use to Saskatoon."
Joni Mitchell
To Grace 10-Pound Note
Jane Austen
Jane Austen will become the new face on England's 10-pound notes - in an attempt to add a little pride and fight the prejudice against women on the country's currency.
The Bank of England chose the chronicler of 18th century English country life as the new face of the note, bowing to critics who complained that the venerable institution was ignoring women on their currency.
The controversy began earlier this year when the bank announced it would replace the 19th-century social reformer Elizabeth Fry with wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill on the five-pound note. Though Churchill is still revered for his World War II leadership, the change led to protests because no other woman - besides Queen Elizabeth II - would be represented on Britain's currency.
Though few quibble with the hard work the monarch has done for Britain, women's rights advocates fiercely argued that counting the head of state among the luminaries sent the wrong message to young women. This, they said, suggested that the only way for women to get ahead was to be born into the right family.
Tens of thousands signed a petition. Lawmakers asked for reflection. Some argued that equality laws might be violated.
Jane Austen
Pakistan's New Hero
Burka Avenger
Wonder Woman and Supergirl now have a Pakistani counterpart in the pantheon of female superheroes - one who shows a lot less skin.
Meet Burka Avenger: a mild-mannered teacher with secret martial arts skills who uses a flowing black burka to hide her identity as she fights local thugs seeking to shut down the girls' school where she works.
The Taliban have blown up hundreds of schools and attacked activists in Pakistan's northwest because they oppose girls' education. The militants sparked worldwide condemnation last fall when they shot Malala Yousafzai, a 15-year-old schoolgirl activist, in the head in an unsuccessful attempt to kill her.
Action in the "Burka Avenger" cartoon series, which is scheduled to start running on Geo TV in early August, is much more lighthearted. The bungling bad guys evoke more laughter than fear and are no match for the Burka Avenger, undoubtedly the first South Asian ninja who wields books and pens as weapons.
The Urdu language show is the brainchild of one of Pakistan's biggest pop stars, Aaron Haroon Rashid - known to many as simply Haroon - who conceived of it as a way to emphasize the importance of girls' education and teach children other lessons, such as protecting the environment and not discriminating against others. This last point is critical in a country where Islamist militants wage repeated attacks on religious minorities.
Burka Avenger
Smear Campaign Alleged
'American Idol'
A group of 10 black former "American Idol" contestants have sued the Fox show, claiming that producers dug up their arrest histories to get them thrown off because of their race, according to TMZ.
The contestants say they were unfairly painted as criminals and sexual deviants - despite that none was ever charged with a crime for which they were arrested, according to the report. What's more - they say only blacks were targeted with the smear campaign.
Plaintiffs are Jaered Andrews (Season 2); Terrel and Derrell Brittenum (Season 5); Corey Clark (Season 2, pictured); Thomas Daniels (Season 6); Chris Golightly (Season 9); Ju'Not Joyner (Season 8); Jacob John Smalley (Season 2); Akron Watson (Season 6) and Donnie Williams (Season 3).
Each is suing for $25 million, and the group wants "American Idol" to implement a system to stop the behavior, TMZ reported.
'American Idol'
Warrant Out For Dog's Wife
Beth Chapman
Police in Colorado say an arrest warrant has been issued for the wife of TV bounty hunter Duane "Dog" Chapman after she was accused of verbally harassing a teenager.
The Colorado Springs Gazette reported Thursday that police in Monument, north of Colorado Springs, couldn't reach Chapman to issue a summons, so they obtained the warrant.
Chapman's Colorado attorney, Gary Lozow, says she will cooperate with police and expects to be exonerated.
Police Lt. Steve Burk says the alleged harassment took place July 10 at a lake. He declined to provide details.
Beth Chapman
Univision Blathers
'Piolin'
Univision Radio said on Thursday that Spanish-language talk show host Eddie "Piolin" Sotelo had agreed to leave the network after a decade-long run that won him national fame.
The statement came after Sotelo's show was abruptly removed from the air, shocking loyal listeners of the Mexican-born disc jockey known for helping propel immigrant supporters into the streets in 2006 to protest an anti-illegal immigration bill.
No reason was given for the decision to yank Sotelo's program, which was lagging in ratings behind another Mexican regional morning drive-time program and ranked sixth in the Los Angeles-Orange County market in June, according to Arbitron.
Univision said in the statement that Sotelo had broadcast his final show on Monday. The program was syndicated nationally to more than 50 stations.
The radio personality whose nickname means "Tweety Bird" played corny jokes and pranks on the air but also hosted politicians including President Obama to discuss issues such as immigration reform.
'Piolin'
Chump Change Fine
Halliburton
Halliburton Energy Services has agreed to plead guilty to destroying evidence in connection with the 2010 Gulf oil spill, the Department of Justice said Thursday.
Federal officials said in a news release that a criminal information charging Hallburton with one count of destruction of evidence was filed in federal court in Louisiana.
Halliburton has agreed to pay the maximum fine ($200,000), be on probation for three years and continue to cooperate with the government's criminal investigation, said the news release, which did not spell out the fine amount.
Halliburton was BP's cement contractor on the drilling rig that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. The blowout triggered an explosion that killed 11 workers and spilled millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf.
According to the news release, Halliburton conducted its own review of technical aspects of the well's design and construction. It also established "an internal working group to examine the Macondo well blowout, including whether the number of centralizers used on the final production casing could have contributed to the blowout."
Halliburton
Losing Fans
Russian Vodka
In a gay man's life, there are few things more cherished than vodka. That's why its hugely problematic that Russia - the supposed birthplace of "the little water" - has passed one anti-gay bill after another, effectively making being gay or even telling a child that gay people exist a punishable offensive. And now, Russian vodka companies could pay the price.
Over the past few months, Russian lawmakers have made that nation increasingly hostile to homosexuals. In June, for example, Czar President Vladimir Putin signed a law banning "gay propaganda," which not only prohibits gay pride marches but potentially sends people to prison for explaining homosexuality to children. That same month, Putin signed yet another law allowing police to jail tourists who are believed to be homosexuals. And in July, Stalin Putin signed a law that bans gay couples, among other constituencies, from adopting Russian children. BuzzFeed has a powerful series of photos starkly showing the state-sanctioned violence gay people routinely face there.
Bottom line: it's terrible to be a gay person in Russia, and LGBT folks lucky enough not to be living there are stuck helplessly watching as Moscow becomes increasingly hostile to gays. And that anger is manifesting itself in calls to boycott the 2014 Olympic games, which will take place in the southern Russian city of Sochi, as well as smaller, more accessible moves, like telling gay bars to dump their Russian vodka.
The face of the Russian vodka boycott is Dan Savage, the man known for permanently attaching Rick Santorum's name to frothy feces and the brain behind the It Gets Better anti-bullying project. Savage explains that vodka is a good place to start:
[B]oycott or no boycott there is something we can do right here, right now, in Seattle and other US cities to show our solidarity with Russian queers and their allies and to help to draw international attention to the persecution of gay men, lesbians, bisexuals, trans people, and straight allies in Putin's increasingly fascistic Russia: DUMP RUSSIAN VODKA.
Russian Vodka
Chews Up Sea Ice
Arctic Cyclone
Arctic scientists are watching in awe this week as a raging summer cyclone tears up what could become a record amount of rotting northern sea ice.
Arctic cyclones are driven by low-pressure systems in which winds of up to 100 km/h blow counter-clockwise in spiral more than 1,000 kilometres across. They occur in both winter and summer, but are usually stronger in winter.
Cyclones are not unusual in the Arctic, but seem to be changing in recent years, said David Barber, one of Canada's top sea-ice experts.
"These cyclones are not getting more frequent, but they are getting deeper - which means stronger," he said.
And they're getting harder on sea ice, which they break up through wave action associated with high winds and through rainfall, which darkens the ice and makes it absorb more solar energy. The storms also bring up water from the depths, which is actually warmer than surface water.
Arctic Cyclone
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) The Rolling Stones; $7,969,276; $346.09.
2. (2) Taylor Swift; $2,774,218; $86.95.
3. (3) Kenny Chesney; $2,167,270; $76.33.
4. (4) Fleetwood Mac; $1,367,517; $107.85.
5. (5) Dave Matthews Band; $1,241,722; $54.62.
6. (6) Justin Bieber; $1,165,093; $80.54.
7. (10) Jason Aldean; $1,017,425; $61.43.
8. (7) New Kids On The Block; $838,685; $66.04.
9. (8) Tim McGraw; $575,811; $36.47.
10. (9) Brad Paisley; $568,346; $36.19.
11. (11) Carrie Underwood; $520,651; $65.05.
12. (12) Widespread Panic; $396,997; $46.52.
13. (13) Barry Manilow; $350,088; $61.19.
14. (14) Motley Crue; $329,192; $75.94.
15. (15) Styx / REO Speedwagon / Ted Nugent; $208,359; $37.85.
16. (18) Bassnectar; $171,548; $34.95.
17. (19) Willie Nelson; $164,400; $54.31.
18. (20) Il Divo; $162,835; $81.55.
19. (22) Chicago; $147,311; $50.45.
20. (new) Juanes; $146,949; $53.31.
Concert Tours
In Memory
Virginia Johnson
In an era when even talking about sex was virtually taboo, Virginia Johnson had a way of putting research subjects at ease, persuading them to participate in groundbreaking investigations that changed the way human sexuality was perceived.
Johnson, half of the renowned Masters and Johnson team, was remembered Thursday as one of the key figures in the sexual revolution. Johnson, whose legal name was Virginia Masters, died Wednesday of complications from several illnesses at an assisted living center in St. Louis. She was 88.
"She has one of the most extraordinary lives of any American woman in the 20th century," said Thomas Maier, author of the 2009 book "Masters of Sex, the Life and Times of William Masters and Virginia Johnson, the Couple Who Taught America How to Love."
Johnson grew up in rural Missouri, near the small town of Golden City. By the late 1950s she was in her 30s and twice-divorced, raising two small children and looking for a job.
She landed work as a secretary in the medical school at Washington University in St. Louis. That's where she met Masters, an obstetrician-gynecologist who hired her as his assistant for his research into human sexuality, studies performed first at Washington University and later at the Masters and Johnson Institute in St. Louis.
It was a strange indoctrination: Masters convinced her that having sex with him was part of the job. They eventually became lovers and wed in 1971. (They divorced 20 years later.)
Over time, Johnson grew from an assistant to co-collaborator. They were a good fit together: Masters had impeccable academic and research credentials, a brilliant scientist but aloof and lacking in people skills. Maier said it was Johnson who managed to recruit the countless volunteers needed for the studies - graduate students, nurses, faculty wives and other participants for what was almost certainly the largest human sexuality experiment ever in the U.S.
In after-hours research, Masters and Johnson shattered basic precepts about female sexuality, including Freud's concept that vaginal - rather than clitoral - orgasm was the more mature sexual response for women.
She took the case studies and asked the uncomfortable questions. Hundreds of couples, not all of them married, participated in the observed research.
That research was later discussed in their 1966 book, "Human Sexual Response." And their 1970 book, "Human Sexual Inadequacy," explored a therapy they'd developed for men and women with sexual problems.
Both books were best-sellers translated into dozens of languages.
At the height of their careers, Masters and Johnson were huge celebrities, the topic of late-night talk show hosts and on the cover of news magazines.
"There was a lot of grief," Johnson's son, Scott Johnson, recalled. "There were threats, things of that kind. She was a very strong woman."
As Masters' health was in decline in the 1990s, and Johnson was caring for him, he announced he was divorcing her, leaving her to pursue a sweetheart of his youth. The Masters and Johnson Institute closed in 1994 after Masters retired. He died in 2001.
Scott Johnson said his mother also retired in the 1990s.
But their work still fascinates and resonates. Showtime will debut a TV series in September, "Masters of Sex," based on Maier's book.
Along with her son, Johnson is survived by her daughter, Lisa Young, and two grandchildren. Private funeral arrangements were pending.
Virginia Johnson
In Memory
Kongar-ol Ondar
Kongar-ol Ondar, a Tuvan throat singer credited with popularizing the centuries-old musical tradition of his homeland to Western audiences, died on Thursday after emergency surgery to treat a brain hemorrhage, friends said. He was 51.
Ondar died at a hospital in Kyzyl, the capital of Tuva, a Central Asian republic of Russia that borders Mongolia, said Sean Quirk, a longtime friend of the singer and manager of the Tuvan throat-singing ensemble Alash.
Throat singing involves simultaneously vocalizing one or more notes over a fundamental pitch, producing a distinct sound that can take years to attain. It is traditionally done by horse herders on the Tuvan and Mongolian steppes, where the music can carry great distances.
Ondar first came to the attention of Western audiences in 1993, when he was a last-minute addition to a group of Tuvan throat singers and horse herders invited to participate in that year's Rose Parade in Pasadena, California.
At the time, Tuvan throat singing was unknown in the United States to all but a tiny group of devoted fans, said Ralph Leighton, founder of the newsletter-turned-website Friends of Tuva, who made the invitation.
On his initial trip to the United States, Leighton said, Ondar performed for Frank Zappa, the Kronos Quartet and Ry Cooder, who was moved to include Tuvan throat singing in his score for the 1993 film "Geronimo."
"He was a showman but was true to his Tuvan roots," said Leighton. "He was able to bring Tuvan culture out to a big appreciative audience while also nurturing it at home."
Ondar was featured in the 1999 documentary film "Genghis Blues," which told the story of a blind California blues musician who traveled to Tuva to learn about throat singing.
Kongar-ol Ondar
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