Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: Here Are 5 Big Things Paul Krugman Says He Got Wrong Over The Years (Business Insider)
New York Times columnist and Princeton economist Paul Krugman recounts the economic predictions he's gotten wrong and what he has learned in the process.
History exposes GOP immigration outcry as bogus (MSNBC)
Rachel Maddow reviews instances of Presidents Reagan and H.W. Bush taking executive action on immigration, contrary to anti-Obama Republicans who insist that President Obama's proposed action in the absence of a bill from Congress is unprecedented.
Michael Taylor: 6 Movies That Got Banned by Countries for Hilarious Reasons (Cracked)
#6. The Philippines Banned Every Movie Starring Claire Danes.
Tom Danehy: Tom tries to deal with the emotional fallout from the election (Tucson Weekly)
Well, the elections are over (except for the CD 2 recount) and my side lost in a big, ugly, painful way.
Pauli Poisuo: 5 Things No One Tells You About Dating Until It's Too Late (Cracked)
Do you like dating? Don't lie. You hate that shit, and so do I. It's an unpleasant precursor that you have to trudge through on your path to love and sex, a task not unlike having to wrestle an oiled Donald Trump before being allowed to enter a party.
Matthew Bourne: why I love Angela Lansbury (Guardian)
'Acting is tough and she's the real thing - she's 89 and still looking forward'.
Emma Brockes: 'Type A' personalities are overachieving monsters. Get out of my spin class and back to banking (Guardian)
Does anyone piss you off more than classist snobs who send back food, yell at the waiter and blame it on their personality? 'Type A' isn't a type - it's the ultimate humblebrag.
Shelley Acoca: Oscar-Winning Director Mike Nichols Dies At 83 (AP)
Mike Nichols, the director of matchless versatility who brought fierce wit, caustic social commentary and wicked absurdity to such film, TV and stage hits as "The Graduate," ''Angels in America" and "Monty Python's Spamalot," has died. He was 83.
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David Bruce has approximately 50 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
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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
Mostly overcast, but no rain.
2 New Subatomic Particles Discovered
CERN
Scientists at the world's largest smasher said Wednesday they have discovered two new subatomic particles never seen before that could widen our understanding of the universe.
An experiment using the European Organization for Nuclear Research's Large Hadron Collider found the new particles, which were predicted to exist, and are both baryons made from three quarks bound together by a strong force.
In a statement Wednesday, officials at the lab known by its French acronym CERN announced the discovery, which could shed more light on how things work beyond the "Standard Model" physics theory explaining the basic building blocks of matter. The results also were submitted to the publication Physical Review Letters.
The new particles are more than six times as massive as the protons that scientists have been deliberately crashing into each other in a 17-mile (27-kilometer) tunnel on the Swiss-French border near Geneva to see what they can discover about the makeup of the universe and its tiniest particles.
The heavier weight of the two particles is due in part to their "spins" in opposite directions which is "an exciting result," said Steven Blusk of Syracuse University in New York.
CERN
Larry Wilmore's Comedy Central Series Retitled
'The Nightly Show'
Larry Wilmore's Comedy Central show won't be titled The Minority Report; instead it will take a cue from one of the channel's flagship shows.
The new series was retitled The Nightly Show and will premiere on Jan. 19, according to The New York Times.
Wilmore, a former correspondent on The Daily Show, was named in May as the host of the forthcoming 11:30 pm show, which will take the place of The Colbert Report. When the comedian's show was first announced, the original title was The Minority Report With Larry Wilmore.
"It was never intended to be a show only about minorities," Wilmore told the newspaper. "It's a show about underdogs, and that happens in a lot of different forms, whether it's race, gender, or whatever."
'The Nightly Show'
Cancels Vegas Gig
Leno
Comedian Jay Leno canceled a planned appearance at a firearms trade show on the Las Vegas Strip after learning that a group representing victims of gun violence was gathering signatures urging him not to attend, his publicist said Thursday.
Leno made the decision when he was told the Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trade Show is hosted by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a group that lobbies for gun owners and manufacturers, said Dick Guttman, spokesman for the former NBC "Tonight Show" host.
"He thought it was a sporting group," Guttman said. "He understands that it caused concern. He fully understands the sensitivities."
A statement by the foundation expressed disappointment that Leno won't perform at the 2015 SHOT Show industry dinner in January.
The statement blamed the decision on pressure from an anti-gun lobby and "false statements about our industry and its commitment to genuine firearms safety."
Leno
Browsers Switch To Yahoo Search
Firefox
Firefox maker Mozilla announced Wednesday that it is switching to Yahoo as the default service for online searches done through the Web browser in the United States.
Google has been the default option for Firefox searches since 2004, but beginning next month that role in the US will go to Yahoo, according to Mozilla Corporation chief Chris Beard.
In Russia, Firefox will start using local search engine Yandex as its default service for online queries. Baidu will continue to be the default search engine in China.
Firefox, which is open-source and free, is reported by industry trackers to be the third most used Web browser in the world, behind Google's Chrome and Microsoft's Internet Explorer.
Firefox
Fails To OK New Textbooks
Texass
The Texas Board of Education couldn't muster the votes late Tuesday to grant preliminary approval for new history and social studies textbooks for classrooms across the nation's second-largest state, failing to act amid stinging criticism of the proposed books from both the right and left.
Academics and some liberal-leaning activists have complained for months that many of the books up for adoption overstate the influence of religion on early American democracy, including exaggerating biblical figure Moses' importance to the founding fathers. But conservative groups worry that many of the same books promote pro-Islam values.
The Republican-controlled board tried to pass nearly all of the 100 books and lesson software it was considering, but that failed 5-4 with four abstentions. One member wasn't present.
That sets up a potentially tense final vote Friday, when the board will have to approve the books or miss the deadline to get them to the state's 5 million-plus public school students by September 2015. Texas is such a vast textbook market that much of what is produced here can end up influencing materials used in other states.
Texass
Racial Divide In Arrest Rates
U.S.
As Ferguson, Mo., braces for the decision by a grand jury that is considering whether to indict a white police officer in the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager - which sparked protests over alleged police bias - there is evidence the St. Louis suburb isn't alone when it comes to racial disparity.
According to USA Today - which compared arrests reported by local police departments to the FBI in 2011 and 2012 with data from the 2010 U.S. census - at least 1,581 police departments arrest black people at a higher rate than Ferguson, where blacks are arrested nearly three times more than people of other races. (The FBI does not track arrests of Hispanics.)
That includes police departments in cities like New York, Chicago, Detroit, San Francisco and St. Louis. The St. Louis County Police Department arrested black people (113.7 per 1,000 residents) at more than three times the rate of nonblacks (32.4).
But just 173 of the 3,538 police departments included in USA Today's study arrested black people at a rate equal to or lower than other racial groups.
U.S.
Court Case
'Under God'
Attorneys offered contrasting interpretations of the Pledge of Allegiance during oral arguments Wednesday in a New Jersey family's lawsuit claiming a school district is discriminating against their child's atheist beliefs.
The lawsuit focuses on the words "under God" that were added to the Pledge in 1954 and that have survived legal challenges before. Earlier this year, Massachusetts' high court ruled in a similar lawsuit that the pledge is not discriminatory.
David Niose, an attorney for the American Humanist Association who is representing the unnamed family in the New Jersey case, said the Massachusetts' court's focus on the fact that the pledge was voluntary was "simply wrong."
The Aberdeen Matawan school district doesn't require that students say the pledge, and Bauman said there wasn't any evidence the student in question had been "bullied, ostracized or in any way mistreated."
But he also noted during his questioning of district attorney David Rubin that district policy requires parents whose children don't say the pledge to furnish an explanation in writing.
'Under God'
Letter Belongs To Buyer
Marilyn Monroe
A Los Angeles judge has ruled that a letter by Marilyn Monroe in which she described the difficulties of performing belongs to a buyer who purchased it at auction for $130,000.
City News Service reports the ruling Wednesday is in favour of the auction house Profiles in History and against 75-year-old Anna Strasberg, the widow of Lee Strasberg, who was Monroe's acting mentor.
Anna Strasberg once served as administrator of the Monroe estate and collects the actress' memorabilia. She sued the auction house, saying the letter was missing from her collection. She alleged it was stolen.
Profiles in History maintained the letter was actually a draft version that was found by a housekeeper at the Hotel Bel-Air and it was never sent to Lee Strasberg.
Marilyn Monroe
Future Of Collection
Cornelius Gurlitt
A Swiss museum and German officials plan to announce Monday what will happen to a priceless collection of long-hidden art bequeathed to the museum by German collector Cornelius Gurlitt.
Bavarian authorities in 2012 seized 1,280 items from Gurlitt's apartment in Munich while investigating a tax case. Gurlitt later reached a deal with the German government to check whether any of the works were looted from Jewish owners by the Nazis. Authorities say that deal is binding on any heirs.
Gurlitt died in May and designated Switzerland's Kunstmuseum Bern as the sole heir to his collection, setting off a six-month deadline for the museum to decide whether to accept the bequest.
The museum, Germany's culture minister and Bavaria's justice minister will hold a news conference on the topic Monday in Berlin.
Cornelius Gurlitt
Earliest Winter Closure On Record
Upper Mississippi
The shipping season on the upper Mississippi River will end on Thursday as ice surrounding locks and dams near Minnesota's Twin Cities forced the earliest winter closure on records that date back to 1969, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said.
"There's so much ice through the whole system," said Bryan Peterson, navigation manager for the Army Corps' St. Paul district. "They're getting the barges they can out and not risking getting stuck there all winter."
There were two tow boats waiting to pass lock and dam No. 2 near Hastings, Minnesota. Once they moved down river, no more vessels were expected, Peterson said.
The shipping season typically ends around the beginning of December on upper portions of the Mississippi River in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and Illinois. In 1989, no more vessels reached the Twin Cities after Nov. 24, Peterson said.
Upper Mississippi
Running A Raffle
Pope Frankie
Want a white Panama hat owned by the pope? Now is your chance.
Pope Francis is raffling off the Homero Ortega brand hat, a new four-wheel-drive Fiat Panda, bicycles, an espresso coffee machine, watches and other objects he has received as gifts in order to raise money for the poor.
A poster recently went up around the Vatican announcing the raffle of 13 objects as well as more than 30 unspecified "consolation prizes".
Tickets for the raffle cost 10 euros ($12.50) and the winners will be announced on Jan. 8.
Pope Frankie
In Memory
Maria del Rosario Cayetana Fitz-James Stuart y Silva
The Duchess of Alba, one of Spain's wealthiest and most colorful aristocrats and recognized as the world's most titled noble, has died. She was 88.
Maria del Rosario Cayetana Fitz-James Stuart y Silva was related to Winston Churchill and shared toys with the future Queen Elizabeth - they were born less than a month apart - while living in England as a girl.
Twice-widowed, the fabulously wealthy noble had an outspoken nature and a predilection for extravagantly colorful, almost hippy-style clothing even late in life. Known simply as Cayetana, she was for decades a mainstay of the gossip press.
She died at her Duenas Palace residence in Seville on Wednesday from pneumonia, a palace spokesman said. He declined to be identified, in line with palace policy.
The duchess, known for her frizzy white hair and squeaky voice, raised eyebrows nationwide and outraged her six children in 2011 when at the age of 85 she wed for a third time, marrying civil servant Alfonso Diez who was 25 years her junior.
With estates dotted across mainland Spain and on some of its islands, she was known for being able to crisscross the country without having to spend the night in a property that wasn't hers. She also had one of Spain's most dazzling art collections, including works by grand masters Goya, Rembrandt and Velazquez.
Forbes recently estimated her wealth to be in the region of 2.8 billion euros ($3.5 billion).
Fitz-James Stuart y Silva was born March 28, 1926, in the sumptuous Liria Palace in the center of Madrid.
A Grandee of Spain and the holder of six dukedoms, she could trace her noble lineage back 17 generations. She inherited her titles from her father, with whom she lived in London - where he was named Spanish ambassador - while hostilities raged in Spain's 1936-39 civil war. She took over the house of Alba, becoming its 18th leader as well as the 11th Duchess of Berwick, to mention just two titles, upon her father's death in 1953.
In late October 2011, weeks after her wedding to Diez, the Duchess slipped on a rug at her Seville palace and cracked her pelvis. She suffered a fall while visiting Rome with her husband in mid-April 2013, and was operated on there for a broken femur.
Guinness World Records said the duchess's more than 40 titles made her the world's most titled noble. She is succeeded by her son Carlos Fitz-James Stuart y Martinez de Irujo and also survived by sons Alfonso, Jacobo, Fernando and Cayetano, and daughter Eugenia.
Maria del Rosario Cayetana Fitz-James Stuart y Silva
In Memory
Mike Nichols
Mike Nichols, a nine-time Tony Award winner on Broadway and the Oscar-winning director of influential films such as "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf," "The Graduate," and "Carnal Knowledge," died on Wednesday at age 83.
The prolific director passed away at his home of cardiac arrest, his spokeswoman said. A private service for the family will be held this week, followed by a memorial at a future date.
No director had ever moved between Broadway and Hollywood as easily as Nichols, one of the few people to win the Oscar, Tony, Emmy and Grammy Awards.
Nichols, whose career first blossomed with a comedy partnership with Elaine May in the late 1950s, was married to Diane Sawyer, former anchorwoman of ABC's "World News Tonight" broadcast.
In memory of Nichols, marquees on Broadway theaters in New York will be dimmed on Friday evening for one minute.
Nichols was born Michael Igor Peschkowsky in Berlin, where his parents had settled after leaving Russia. He came to the United States at age 7 when his family fled the Nazis in 1939.
He grew up in New York feeling like an outsider because of his limited English and odd appearance - a reaction to a whooping-cough vaccine had caused permanent hair loss. As a University of Chicago student, he fought depression, but found like-minded friends such as May.
In the late 1950s, Nichols and May formed a stand-up team at the forefront of a comedy movement that included Lenny Bruce, Jonathan Winters and Woody Allen in satirizing contemporary American life. They won a Grammy in 1961 for best comedy album before splitting.
In the mid-1960s, Nichols became a directing powerhouse on Broadway with "Barefoot in the Park," the first of what would be a successful relationship with playwright Neil Simon. Later he would stage Simon's "The Odd Couple," "Plaza Suite" and "The Prisoner of Second Avenue."
Nichols also made an impact on American cinema with three influential movies in a five-year period.
The first, a 1966 adaption of the Edward Albee play "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf," starred Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. It was nominated for an Oscar in all 13 categories and won five of them, although Nichols did not take the best director award.
He followed that up a year later with "The Graduate," starring then little-known Dustin Hoffman as an aimless college graduate seduced by Anne Bancroft as an older woman before falling in love with her daughter. Nichols won an Academy Award for his direction and the movie, which became a 1960s cultural touchstone, thanks to several memorable lines and the music of Simon and Garfunkel.
In 1971, Nichols put out "Carnal Knowledge," which created a sensation because of its sexual nature. The manager of a movie theater in Georgia was arrested for showing the film and had to appeal his case to the U.S. Supreme Court before being exonerated.
Sometimes Nichols' movies did go off the road. "Catch-22," "Day of the Dolphin" and "The Fortune" were generally considered commercially unsuccessful and he did not make a feature film from 1975 until 1983, rebounding with "Silkwood," for which he was nominated for another Oscar.
In the second act of his movie career, Nichols also directed "Heartburn," Simon's "Biloxi Blues," "Postcards from the Edge," "Regarding Henry," "The Birdcage," "Primary Colors," "Charlie Wilson's War" and "Working Girl," which earned him another Oscar nomination.
He won an Emmy in 2001 for "Wit" and another in 2003 for "Angels in America," a TV miniseries about the AIDS epidemic.
In the mid-1980s, Nichols suffered a psychotic breakdown, which he said was related to a prescription sedative that made him so delusional he thought he had lost all his money.
Despite his urbane, intellectual manner, Nichols once had a reputation as an on-the-set screamer. Streep told The Hollywood Reporter, "He was always the smartest and most brilliant person in the room, and he could be the meanest, too."
The actress said that changed after Nichols married Sawyer, his fourth wife.
Nichols had three children from his earlier marriages.
Mike Nichols
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