Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Eddie Deezen: The Alfred Hitchcock Cameos (Neatorama)
Hitch made cameo appearances in 39 of his 52 surviving films (sadly, his second film The Mountain Eagle is lost). Hitch's cameos became his "signature" on his movies, in much the same way as an artist signs his paintings.
David Attenborough Observes Fangirls (YouTube)
David Attenborough observes the most dangerous species of all: homo screamius, more commonly known as Fangirls.?
Dog Diary vs. Cat Diary
8:00 am - Dog food! My favorite thing! 9:30 am - A car ride! My favorite thing! 9:40 am - A walk in the park! My favorite thing! … vs. My captors continue to taunt me with bizarre little dangling objects. They dine lavishly on fresh meat, while the other inmates and I are fed hash or some sort of dry nuggets. Although I make my contempt for the rations perfectly clear, I nevertheless must eat something in order to keep up my strength. …
Star Size Comparison HD (YouTube)
There are several videos circulating showing a comparison of the largest stars. I like these kind of things, and I wanted to try one myself. Probably because I also watched "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan as a kid. Actually my first Youtube upload. Hope you like it... [they did - it's been watched 10 million times.]
Will Game of Thrones end in ice or fire? Some fans already know … (Guardian)
Author George RR Martin has revealed that some fans have already guessed how his saga concludes. Stuart Jeffries offers his theories as to the most likely endings.
Charles Sturridge: "Directing Lauren Bacall: how I was handbagged by the screen legend" (Guardian)
In 1993, Lauren Bacall appeared in a film Charles Sturridge was shooting in Normandy. He recalls directing her by day, dining her by night - and the time he had to buy her an £800 Gucci handbag.
Tom Danehy: Tom cleans out his "column suggestion" box this week (Tucson Weekly)
I was speaking at a high-school class when a kid asked me where I get the ideas for my columns. I first explained that, as a columnist, I am blessed to live in a state with the absolute worst legislature in the entire country-a bunch of racist, sexist, anti-education inbred crackers who are bought and paid for by special interests and religious zealots.
C. Coville: 4 Things Nobody Tells You About Food Allergies (Cracked)
I'm one of those lucky people whose digestive system hates them with the power of a thousand burning pizza ovens. I hate going out to restaurants because I have to wrestle aside my social anxiety long enough to ask the waiter to list every possible ingredient in the taco special, just so I don't accidentally throw up all over him later while he's bringing the check. The list of food types my body hates is too long and boring to list here, but I will mention that I do have gluten sensitivity, which you might recognize as this year's favorite punchline of comedians who are running out of material.
David Bruce's Amazon Author Page
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David Bruce has approximately 50 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
wrote:
took the day off.
has retired(?).
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Team Coco
CONAN
Katy took a very solemn pic with Hillary, while Aubrey lurked in the background like a creeper.
Conan gets soaked by gallons of ice-cold water all for charity. That's *for* charity, Conan.
Conan jokes about iPhones, the Kardashians, Kobe Bryant, and more…
Our studio audience is filled with people looking to make a quick buck on various goods and services.
The warm weather pattern may bring much-needed rain to California, but it seems El Niño might be too weak this year.
Andy's new business is the very first modeling studio for seniors who want to be in pain medication ads.
When Aubrey was the maid of honor for a friend's bachelorette party, she might have gone overboard with the phallic party favors.
When Aubrey hurt herself filming "Life After Beth," the care she received in Merry Olde England seemed a bit suspect.
Kesha is obsessed with three things in life: cats, SkyMall magazine, & onesies.
Kesha is still adjusting to needing to watch her language on network TV. And of course, her private parts.
Cameron is a lesbian, but don't worry -- she considers herself very straight-accepting.
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. Seasonal. Summer.
New Spokesmodel for 'Meet the Press'
Chuck Todd
Embattled "Meet the Press" moderator David Gregory (R-Turdblossom's Favorite Dance Partner) is leaving NBC News and Chuck Todd (R-Hand Puppet) will replace him on the venerable Sunday morning public affairs program, NBC said Thursday.
Todd begins his new role on Sept. 7. He remains as NBC News' political director, but will relinquish his duties as Chief White House correspondent and anchor of MSNBC's "The Daily Rundown." He has been a frequent guest on "Meet the Press" as a political analyst.
The 42-year-old Todd came to NBC in 2007 after working for National Journal's "The Hotline," where he was editor-in-chief.
Gregory had been moderator since 2008. Before that, he was NBC's Chief White House Correspondent for the eight years of George W. Bush's residency. He had been with NBC News since 1995.
Chuck Todd
Together 48 Years
Gerber and Berlin
On the summer night Ellen Gerber and Pearl Berlin committed to spending their lives together, the No. 1 song was "When A Man Loves A Woman."
Lyndon B. Johnson was president. NASA had just landed the first unmanned probe on the moon.
June 2, 1966, is engraved in Roman numerals on the identical gold bands the women exchanged during a religious wedding at their Greensboro synagogue last year on the anniversary of that long-ago night. They followed three months later with a civil ceremony in Maine.
But under North Carolina law, they might as well be strangers.
That's why Gerber and Berlin are the lead plaintiffs in a lawsuit challenging the state's voter-approved constitutional amendment banning legal recognition of same-sex relationships.
Gerber and Berlin
'Word of Warcraft' To Memorialize
Robin Williams
Robin Williams' spirit will live on in the virtual world of Azeroth.
After thousands of fans petitioned the developers of the online role-playing video game "World of Warcraft" to memorialize Williams, the game's lead designer said Thursday that Blizzard Entertainment planned to create a character inspired by the actor, comedian and avid gamer, who was found dead on Monday of an apparent suicide at the age of 63.
Williams was a notable fan of the popular fantasy series, which is played online by about 6.8 million people.
"We haven't decided, but it will most likely be a character inspired by him or some of his favorite roles of the past," said lead game designer Ion Hazzikostas at a Thursday event in downtown Los Angeles unveiling the game's fifth expansion, "World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor."
Robin Williams
Princess Cruises Names Godparents
'Love Boat'
To help fete Princess Cruises' 50th anniversary next year, the company has tapped the cast of the iconic 1980s TV series "Love Boat" to serve as its global ambassadors.
It was the show that popularized the notion of cruising with its weekly plots of romantic escapades and amusing little adventures and misadventures aboard a luxury liner, represented by Princess Cruises.
Nearly 40 years after the airing of the first episode, and on the company's golden anniversary next year, the brand has named all six cast members of the "Love Boat" to serve as godparents for its newest ship, the Regal Princess.
That includes Gavin MacLeod (Captain Stubing), Fred Grandy (Gopher, the chief purser), Ted Lange (Isaac, the bartender), Bernie Kopell (Doc, the ship's doctor), Lauren Tewes (cruise director Julie) and Jill Whelan (Vicki, the captain's daughter).
'Love Boat'
British Police Search Home
Cliff Richard
Police searched the apartment of Cliff Richard, one of Britain's best-known entertainers, on Thursday in relation to allegations of a historical sexual offense involving an underage boy.
They said they were searching a property in Berkshire, southwest of London, after receiving "an allegation of a sexual nature dating back to the 1980s involving a boy who was under the age of 16 at the time."
Richard, 73, confirmed the property being searched was his and issued a statement denying the allegation.
Richard, one of Britain's longest-serving entertainers, was born Harry Webb in 1940 and in his earlier days was often called Britain's Elvis Presley.
Cliff Richard
Aged Veterans Voice Concerns
Japan
Tokuro Inokuma, a former Imperial Japanese Army soldier, got his first taste of the horrors of war in 1945 when he scrambled to gather up the scattered limbs of his fellow servicemen, blown apart by a U.S. air raid in Japan. He was 16.
One of a dwindling number of World War Two veterans, Inokuma now finds troubling echoes in Tokyo's policy shift away from the pacifist ideals adhered to after 1945.
"I find it quite dangerous ... This is the path we once took," said Inokuma, who fought in China soon after the deadly air strike, and survived two years in concentration camps in the then-Soviet Union following Japan's surrender.
Teru Hisato, a 91-year-old veteran who lost his right leg to a U.S. incendiary bomb in 1945 when he was guarding military supplies at a railway station in northern Japan, shares those concerns and doubts whether the policy shift makes Japan safer.
Hisato also wants Abe to refrain from visiting Yasukuni Shrine for war dead, seen by critics as a symbol of Tokyo's wartime aggression.
Japan
Weed Killer
Enlist
Faced with tougher and more resistant weeds, corn and soybean farmers are anxiously awaiting government decisions on a new version of a popular herbicide - and on genetically modified seeds to grow crops designed to resist it.
Critics say more study is needed on the effects of the herbicide and they are concerned it could endanger public health.
The Environmental Protection Agency is expected to rule this fall on Dow AgroSciences' application to market Enlist, a new version of the 2,4-D herbicide that's been around since the 1940s. It's partly a game of catch-up for the agriculture industry, as many farmers are dealing with weeds that have become resistant to glyphosate, an herbicide commonly used on corn and soybeans now.
An Agriculture Department decision on the company's genetically modified seeds also is expected this fall. In the department's final environmental review released last week, the USDA recommended approval. The agency said that if both the seeds and herbicide are approved, the use of 2,4-D could increase by an estimated 200 to 600 percent by the year 2020.
Enlist
Fire Stone: First Fire-Scorched Found
Petrified Wood
After serving nearly 30 years as a doorstop for a nuclear physicist, a hunk of petrified wood from Arizona has finally been recognized as a one-of-a-kind find. The 210-million-year-old piece of wood contains the first fossilized fire scar ever discovered, researchers reported here this week at the Ecological Society of America's annual meeting.
Evidence for ancient forest fires predates the dinosaurs, but the clues come from charcoal, not from marks on fossilized trees. Charcoal remains of Earth's oldest fires date back more than 400 million years. No one has ever spotted a fire scar on petrified wood before, said lead study author Bruce Byers, a natural resources consultant from Falls Church, Virginia. That's because the scientists who study petrified wood rarely cross paths with forest fire researchers, Byers suspects. But Byers thinks more fossil fire scars will be found.
"Seeing patterns in nature probably requires a mental search image for those patterns," Byers said. "Disciplinary divisions may be a barrier for sharing those patterns, but I think if people start looking, they will see those patterns."
Byers spent two decades staring at his father's 16-pound (7 kilograms) doorstop before realizing it might be from a fire-scarred tree. His father, Cleo Byers, was a nuclear physicist for Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, and took his children on hikes throughout the Southwest, Bruce Byers said. The rosy-pink stone came home with father and son 28 years ago, after a hiking trip near Utah's Bears Ears Buttes. The colorful chunk was collected on national forest land, where it's legal to take petrified wood, according to Byers, who has detailed the story on his blog. The petrified chunk likely came from the Chinle Formation, the same wood-rich rock layer that litters Arizona's Petrified Forest National Park with huge, crystallized trees.
Fire Stone
Feral Horse Fight Brewing
New Mexico
For decades, free-ranging horses have roamed this mountain village in New Mexico, galloping on residents' property, dashing along roads and attracting tourists and wildlife fans hoping to catch a glimpse.
Their presence has long defined Placitas. But the horses are now drawing the ire of some residents who say their growing numbers are hurting the delicate desert landscape because they eat what little vegetation there is amid an ongoing drought.
Horse advocates say the drought is to blame for damaging landscape and state officials have blocked their attempts to administer a female contraceptive to help control the horse population.
A round-up of some of the 125 or so horses by state authorities and a plan by federal officials to remove some from nearby federal land have raised the potential for a standoff between horses advocates and federal officials over the animals' fate.
New Mexico
Mom, Son Find Tusks 22 Years Apart
Wooly Mammoth
A man who was having little luck catching salmon decided to look for fossils over the weekend and found a wooly mammoth tusk in the same Alaska location where his mother found one 22 years ago.
Andrew Harrelson found the 12-foot fossilized tusk on Sunday in a bend of the Fish River near his home village of White Mountain about 63 miles east of Nome, the Alaska Dispatch News reported Wednesday.
Harrelson was 3 in 1992 when his mother, Luann Harrelson, spotted a 79-pound mammoth tusk fossil in the muck of the river. His father pulled it from the water and Andrew posed for a picture with it.
Harrelson's father, Daniel Harrelson, said villagers previously found mammoth teeth at the site.
Wooly Mammoth
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. (New) Katy Perry; $1,805,254; $119.16.
2. (1) Jason Aldean; $1,485,646; $54.88.
3. (2) Bruno Mars; $1,184,010; $88.65.
4. (3) Cher; $1,121,676; $90.02.
5. (4) Zac Brown Band; $1,061,892; $47.67.
6. (5) Dave Matthews Band; $1,059,266; $54.34.
7. (6) Michael Buble; $912,042; $88.19.
8. (7) Romeo Santos; $812,171; $82.14.
9. (8) Journey/Steve Miller Band; $760,936; $58.17.
10. (9) Cirque du Soleil - "Michael Jackson: The Immortal"; $705,980; $86.35.
11. (10) Motley Crue; $666,797; $52.28.
12. (11) James Taylor; $646,948; $71.92.
13. (12) Rascal Flatts; $547,137; $34.02.
14. (13) Brad Paisley; $521,533; $34.14.
15. (14) Tim McGraw; $476,912; $36.13.
16. (15) Florida Georgia Line; $452,135; $39.13.
17. (16) Backstreet Boys; $410,876; $49.34.
18. (17) Widespread Panic; $313,800; $44.81.
19. (18) Willie Nelson/Alison Krauss + Union Station feat. Jerry Douglas; $271,319; $58.14.
20. (20) Ringo Starr & His All Starr Band; $254,211; $64.60.
Concert Tours
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