Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Tom Danehy: Want a sneak peak of what Arizona will like with Ducey as Governor? Look to Kansas (Tucson Weekly)
Here is a cautionary tale for anybody out there who is brain-damaged enough to still be considering voting for Doug Douche-y for Governor. Four years ago, the Tea Party crazies stirred up the Honey Boo-Boo Patriots across the country with the dire warning that "There's a dusky-skinned fella' in the White House and he's tryin' to keep poor people from dying. We have to stop him."
Woman receives rape threats after recording 10 hours of harassment in New York (Guardian)
Actor Shoshana B Roberts recorded all the catcalls and remarks she got from passersby as she walked for 10 hours through New York.
Mira Sorvino: 'I'm not sure I'd take the Mighty Aphrodite role now' (Guardian)
She's won an Oscar, made a cult comedy, had four kids and become a UN ambassador. Now Mira Sorvino is ready to ride the new wave of TV drama.
How Pinkwashing is Creating More Cancer (YouTube)
Abby Martin speaks with Karuna Jaggar, executive director of Breast Cancer Action, about why the pink ribbon campaign isn't all it's cracked out to be.
Zombies vs Wildlife: Vultures (YouTube)
National Wildlife Federation's naturalist David Mizejewski talks about vultures in this new episode of Zombies vs Team Wildlife. Many birds feed themselves by scavenging on dead things. A sluggish zombie wouldn't stand a change against one or a flock of vultures. National Wildlife Federation works on protecting wildlife and wild places for our children's future. To learn more go to ?http://bit.ly/1366fHf
Lisa Marcus: Kevin Smith Shaves His Facial Hair, is Now Unrecognizable (Neatorama)
Film director Kevin Smith posted these pictures of himself to his Facebook page, one of which is the "after" picture of him having shaven his trademark facial hair. People familiar with Smith, what do you think? Does he look better with beard and mustache or without? And what on Earth would Silent Bob say? (Yeah, likely nothing.)
Amy Poehler Quizzes George R.R. Martin On Game Of Thrones Trivia (io9)
How well does George R.R. Martin know his own characters? On Late Night with Seth Meyers, Amy Poehler and Seth Meyers asked Martin to match lines from A Song of Ice and Fire with their appropriate characters-and the results are pretty damn adorable.
George R.R. Martin, Amy Poehler and Seth Play Game of Thrones Trivia - Late Night with Seth Meyers (YouTube)
Can you guess who said which famous Game of Thrones quote?
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David Bruce has approximately 50 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
wrote:
took the day off.
is semi-retired.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
David E Suggests
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
Every now & then, dear old Dad will ask me to look up something 'on the computer', and it's usually related to his service in WWII .
You know how in every WWII movie, there's a poor bastard in a jeep, with a strongbox, delivering the payroll across the frontline? Well, that was dear old dad. 77th Finance Disbursing.
He's the last man standing, and he'll be 90 in January.
He was the kid in the unit - the others were professional men - mostly accountants and lawyers. Fresh out of high school, he ended up there because he'd taken a typing class in high school - a class he took simply because that's where the girls were.
So, I found a reference in a google-book (Memorandum Opinions of the Judge Advocate General of the Army) about the court martial of his CO, and sent it to him.
Dad is a cool operator. Fly fishing and poker playing kind of cool. Not much rattles him.
But this google-book has really upset him. Says the Colonel was railroaded, the report is a steaming pile, and it's a tremendous miscarriage of justice.
Any ideas of where to start?
Any volunteers?
Marty
Hollywood Walk O'Fame
Kaley Cuoco
"The Big Bang Theory" actress Kaley Cuoco was joined by fellow cast members from the hit TV sitcom as she received a star on Hollywood's storied Walk of Fame.
Jim Parsons (Sheldon), Johnny Galecki (Leonard), Simon Helberg (Howard) and Kunal Nayyar (Raj), as well as the show's co-creator Chuck Lorre, were on hand for the star-unveiling ceremony on Tinseltown's famous sidewalk.
"This cast has changed my life in many ways," said the 28-year-old, who plays Penny in the series, which has been running since 2007 and is in its eighth season.
Cuoco was accompanied by her tennis player husband Ryan Sweeting to Wednesday's ceremony.
Kaley Cuoco
Now Under ABC News
'The View'
ABC's daytime chat show "The View," which has failed to catch fire following an overhaul this fall, is switching to the network's news side after being part of ABC's entertainment operation for 18 years.
ABC News President James Goldston on Thursday assigned Tom Cibrowski, the producer responsible for the "Good Morning America" rise to the top of the ratings, and colleagues Barbara Fedida and David Sloan to work on "The View."
Following the retirement of Barbara Walters from an on-air role at the show she started, ABC brought in Rosie O'Donnell, Nicolle Wallace and Rosie Perez to join holdover Whoopi Goldberg. A new production team was named led by Bill Wolff, Rachel Maddow's former producer.
Through the end of last week, "The View" has averaged 2.9 million viewers, similar to the 2.92 million average during the same period last year, the Nielsen company said. There's a sharper drop (712,000 to 652,000) among viewers aged 18-to-49 years old, a group prized by advertisers.
'The View'
Recognizes Palestinian State
Sweden
The Swedish government officially recognized the state of Palestine on Thursday and said there were signs European Union states would follow its lead.
The move drew praise from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and criticism from Israel, and has displeased the United States, Israel's principle supporter.
Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom told reporters her government hoped it would bring a new dynamic to efforts to end decades of Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
A total of 135 countries already recognize Palestine, including several east European countries that did so before they joined the EU.
Sweden
Inventor Needs Actual Operation
'Operation'
In 1964, John Spinello sold a university assignment to a toy invention firm for just $500. That game eventually became Milton Bradley's Operation.
Spinello, now 77, never saw an additional dime from the game - his original concept involved players inserting a metal wand into holes while trying avoid touching the sides of the holes, which would set off an alarm - but went on to lead what he called "a good life
He recently admitted to some friends, however, that he was struggling to pay the bills. He was facing oral surgery that would cost him about $25,000.
So those friends launched a crowdfunding site, hoping that longtime fans of the game will chip in and help out its creator.
The site is also selling a limited number of autographed Operation games for $50. ($60 for orders outside the U.S., to cover shipping costs.)
'Operation'
Dropped From Lawsuit
Gregg Allman
Gregg Allman has been dropped from a lawsuit by the family of a film worker killed by a train during shooting of a biographical movie about the Allman Brothers Band singer, attorneys said Thursday.
Lawyers for the parents of 27-year-old Sarah Jones said they decided to dismiss all claims against Allman and two other parties after reviewing thousands of documents and other evidence in the case. Jones, a camera assistant, died Feb. 20, during the first day of filming "Midnight Rider" when a freight train slammed into the movie crew on a railroad bridge in southeast Georgia. Six other workers were injured in the crash.
Allman, in his capacity as an executive producer of the movie based on his life story, was among 10 individuals and eight corporations named as defendants in May when Richard and Elizabeth Jones of Columbia, South Carolina, filed their lawsuit in Savannah. The couple is still seeking damages from others including director Randall Miller, railroad company CSX Transportation and Rayonier Performance Fibers, which owns the property surrounding the crash site.
Miller and three other filmmakers have also been indicted on criminal charges of involuntary manslaughter, a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison, and trespassing in rural Wayne County where the crash occurred. Sheriff's investigators concluded the filmmakers went onto the railroad bridge spanning the Altamaha River to shoot footage after CSX denied them permission.
Gregg Allman
Trial Needed
'Blurred Lines'
A jury should decide a claim by the children of Marvin Gaye that the 2012 hit song "Blurred Lines" improperly copied elements of their father's music, a federal judge ruled Thursday.
U.S. District Judge John A. Kronstadt made the ruling after reviewing conflicting analyses by experts hired by Robin Thicke and Pharrell, and by Gaye's children to evaluate "Blurred Lines" and Gaye's song "Got to Give it Up."
The judge determined there is a genuine dispute about whether several musical elements, including signature phrases, hooks, bass lines, keyboard chords and vocal melodies, are similar.
The court fight has lasted more than a year. A trial in scheduled for Feb. 10 in Los Angeles.
'Blurred Lines'
Ratings Low
ChuckTodd
For Chuck Todd (R-Right Wing Tool), the Sunday show ratings carousel continues.
After moving up to second place last Sunday, Todd took a step back on Oct. 26, falling back to third place behind "This Week" and "Face the Nation."
Airing a little over a week before the Nov. 4 midterm elections, "Meet the Press" drew 2,351,000 viewers and 508,000 25-54 viewers, Todd's lowest performance in both measurements since his Sept. 7 debut as the show's host. Since that date, Todd is down 22 percent in viewers and 38 percent in the demo.
"Fox News Sunday" with Chris Wallace ranked fourth, garnering 970,000 viewers and 396,000 demo viewers. "This Week" with George Stephanopoulos came in second place with 2,474,000 viewers and 701,000 demo viewers. "Face the Nation" with Bob Schieffer was the top Sunday show drawing 3,008,000 viewers and 818,000 viewers.
ChuckTodd
Police Investigation
56 Shots
French police opened an investigation on Wednesday following the death of a man in his 50s after he downed 56 shots during a drinking competition.
The man, who was not named, was attempting to beat the previous record of 55 shots in a bar in Clermont-Ferrand in central France on Friday.
The man was driven home in a drunken stupor and emergency services took him in later that night.
He died the next day in hospital after falling into a coma and suffering a heart attack, his daughter, a 21-year-old student, told AFP.
The bar manager told local daily La Montagne that the man was drinking "much too fast" and he advised him to stop after the first 30 or so shots.
56 Shots
Frescoes Turning White
Sistine Chapel
The Vatican revealed a closely kept secret Thursday: The Sistine Chapel's precious frescoes were starting to turn white from the air pollution caused by so many visitors passing through each day to marvel at Michelangelo's masterpiece.
Officials first noticed the whitening patina in 2010 and immediately launched an investigation. The damage wasn't visible from the ground, but close inspection showed pockets of frescoes covered with a powdery patina that caked them like cracked sugar icing.
While the exact origin is still unknown, officials said the powder consisted of calcium carbonate and calcium bicarbonate deposits, believed to have formed from the increasing levels of carbon dioxide and humidity passing through the chapel's porous plaster walls.
The patina was easily removed and no permanent damage occurred, said Ulderico Santamaria, who heads the museums' restoration laboratory. But officials warned that such calcium buildup can do lasting damage if left untreated.
Vatican officials have said the Sistine Chapel's new air conditioning and air filtration system, inaugurated this week, would prevent potential damage from the air pollution brought in by crowds nearing 6 million this year. But they never revealed that damage was already underway and that the new system was aimed at preventing further problems.
Sistine Chapel
Professor Punished
Bergen County Community College
A New Jersey professor suspended after he posted an online photo containing a quote from "Game of Thrones" has had his punishment rescinded by the college.
Francis Schmidt, who teaches art and animation at Bergen County Community College, said he was suspended for 11 days after posting a photo in January of his 7-year-old daughter wearing a T-shirt with a quote from the graphic HBO show that read: "I will take what is mine with fire and blood."
Patti Bonomolo, the school's director of human resources, said in a letter sent to Schmidt Sept. 29 that the school "may have lacked basis to sanction you" for the Google Plus social media post and that the punishment might have violated his constitutional rights.
The letter was published online by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, an organization that set Schmidt up with an attorney to handle the matter. School spokesman Larry Hlavenka Jr. on Thursday confirmed its authenticity.
"Rather than participating in protracted discourse resulting in an extended period of legal fees, a compromise definitively closes this matter - treating it as if it never occurred," Hlavenka Jr. said in a statement.
Bergen County Community College
Reported At Grand Canyon
Gray Wolf
A gray wolf was recently photographed on the north rim of the Grand Canyon in Arizona in what would be the first wolf sighting in the national park since the last one was killed there in the 1940s, conservation groups said on Thursday.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was sending a team to try to capture the animal in question in order to verify the sighting, though federal biologists are assuming that it is a wolf unless otherwise determined, a spokeswoman said.
The National Park Service also is looking into the authenticity of the photos in conjunction with the Fish and Wildlife Service, Park Service spokeswoman Alexandra Picavet said.
Several photos of the animal were taken over the weekend by a Grand Canyon park visitor who shared them with conservation activists and park staff, according to the Center for Biological Diversity, which made the findings public.
Officials for the center and Fish and Wildlife said the animal appeared to be wearing an inactive radio collar.
Gray Wolf
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