Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Alan Moore: "Viewpoint: V for Vendetta and the rise of Anonymous" (BBC News)
As for the ideas tentatively proposed in that dystopian fantasy thirty years ago, I'd be lying if I didn't admit that whatever usefulness they afford modern radicalism is very satisfying. In terms of a wildly uninformed guess at our political future, it feels something like V for validation.
Buford Davis: City settles suit over police abuse of diabetic man (Henderson Press)
The Henderson City Council has voted unanimously to approve a $158,500 settlement to Adam Greene for civil rights violations at the hands of the Henderson Police Department. Another $99,000 was approved by the city attorney's office to be paid to Greene's wife, Brittany, the maximum amount allowed without approval from the City Council.
Abby Zimet: If You're Diabetic, You Might Want to Steer Clear of Nevada, Also the Police (Common Dreams)
The city council of Henderson, Nev. has approved a settlement of $158,500 after police brutally beat a man in diabetic shock after they stopped him for what they thought was drunken driving. Video shows five officers screaming at, pulling guns on and subduing Adam Greene as a sixth kicks him hard enough to break several ribs. Then they figured out he was ill. Who is it these guys work for again?
Marc Dion: It's Pretend Time in America (Creators Syndicate)
I wouldn't watch the Super Bowl if people didn't ply me with salsa and hot cheese dip.
Jim Carney: Q&A with Dickens scholar (Akron Beacon Journal)
When Ruth Schuldiner reads Charles Dickens, she is transported back in time. Schuldiner, 27, of Akron, Ohio, is working on her doctorate in English literature at the University of Oxford in England. She is focusing on Dickens, the author of such classics as "David Copperfield," "Great Expectations" and "A Tale of Two Cities." Dickens' 200th birthday was Tuesday.
Patrick Kingsley: For police blogger NightJack, it wasn't a fair cop (Guardian)
He won an Orwell prize for his writing. But since being identified against his wishes as NightJack, detective constable Richard Horton hasn't penned another word.
Carolyn Kellogg: 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' turns 50; does it stand up to time? (Los Angeles Times)
I wondered if I could read "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" as one might have 50 years ago. I would try to set aside five decades of history and cultural shifts, set aside all I casually knew about Kesey and his failure of promise. Since I'd missed it in the curves of my education and never read it as an adult, I might evaluate it purely on its merits. Could it hold up? Indeed it did.
Carolyn Kellogg: Concord Free Press gives away books for a donation to a charity of readers' choice (Los Angeles Times)
In less than four years, the Concord Free Press has given away thousands of books. Its founder, Stona Fitch, admits that it's not exactly a business model, but there's more to it than just freebies. In exchange for receiving a free paperback, the Concord Free Press asks that a charitable donation be made to a worthy cause of the reader's choosing.
Konstantin Kakaes: The Other Academic Freedom Movement (Slate)
How scientists broke through the paywall and made their articles available to (almost) everyone.
Roger Ebert: Review of "Addiction Incorporated" (PG; 3 stars)
"Addiction Incorporated," directed by Charles Evans Jr., doesn't tell a new story, although it closes very recently with Obama signing the legislation that DeNoble's research put into motion. It's an effective film, livened with animated rats, never boring, and entertaining when it shows Rush Limbaugh, the cigar enthusiast, fulminating against the Waxman hearings.
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
Cloudy and cool.
'The Artist' Named Best Picture
BAFTAs
Silent movie "The Artist" had a night to shout about Sunday, winning seven prizes including best picture at the British Academy Film Awards.
Britain's equivalent of the Oscars rewarded the French homage to old Hollywood over a homegrown favorite, espionage thriller "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy."
"The Artist," a black-and-white picture that has charmed audiences around the world since its Cannes debut in May, was named best film, and its rubber-limbed star Jean Dujardin took the male acting prize. Its filmmaker, Michel Hazanavicius, won prizes for directing and his original screenplay.
As predicted, Meryl Streep was named best actress for her depiction of Margaret Thatcher, Britain's first female prime minister, in "The Iron Lady." The film also won a well-deserved prize for hair and makeup.
The supporting actor prize went to Christopher Plummer, as an academic who makes a new start late in life in "Beginners." Octavia Spencer was named best supporting actress for her turn as a fiery maid in Deep South drama "The Help"
BAFTAs
South African Bank Notes To Bear Image
Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela's face will feature on all South Africa's bank notes to honor the former president's role in fighting apartheid, President Jacob Zuma said Saturday.
The announcement coincides with the 22nd anniversary of Mandela's release from prison after serving 27 years in jail for his opposition to white-only rule.
"It is a befitting tribute to a man who became a symbol of this country's struggle for freedom, human rights and democracy," Zuma said.
The new notes featuring Mandela, who became South Africa's first democratically elected president in 1994, will be in circulation by the end of the year.
Nelson Mandela
Man With An Opinion
Samuel L. Jackson
Samuel L. Jackson only voted for President Barack Obama because of the color of his skin, the Hollywood actor revealed in a profanity-laced interview in the March issue of Ebony magazine.
"I voted for Barack because he was black. 'Cuz that's why other folks vote for other people - because they look like them," Jackson said. "That's American politics, pure and simple. [Obama's] message didn't mean sh-t to me. In the end, he's a politician. I just hoped he would do some of what he said he was gonna do.
According to the New York Post, the "Pulp Fiction" legend repeatedly dropped the N-word during his cover story interview.
"When it comes down to it, they wouldn't have elected a [bleep]," Jackson said. "Because, what's a [bleep]? A [bleep] is scary. Obama ain't scary at all. [Bleeps] don't have beers at the White House. [Bleeps] don't let some white dude, while you in the middle of a speech, call [him] a liar" -- an apparent reference to Rep. Joe Wilson's "You lie!" outburst during Obama's health care address to a joint session of Congress in 2009.
Jackson continued, "A [bleep] would have stopped the meeting right there and said, 'Who the [bleep] said that?' I hope Obama gets scary in the next four years, 'cuz he ain't gotta worry about getting re-elected."
Samuel L. Jackson
Blues Museum Planned For Riverfront
St. Louis
A few blocks from the Mississippi River levee where a homeless W.C. Handy composed "St. Louis Blues" more than 100 years ago, the first national blues museum in the United States is taking shape.
While several regional blues museums have popped up around the country -- Memphis, Tennessee; Clarksdale, Mississippi; and Helena, Arkansas -- the St. Louis institution will be the first to tell the national story of the unique American musical form.
Organizers say it's time that St. Louis -- a city with a long musical tradition but without the high profile of Chicago, New Orleans or Memphis -- stepped up its visibility in the music world.
The National Blues Museum, which Museum chairman Rob Endicott said he hoped would open next year depending on the final design, would be a part of an ongoing public and private effort to revitalize the St. Louis riverfront.
Groundbreaking on the St. Louis riverfront is set for this year for a $500 million Gateway Arch park rehabilitation aimed at getting more people to walk around the city's downtown, long a maze of highways and empty blocks that discouraged pedestrians.
St. Louis
German City Ousts Mayor
Duisburg
Voters in the German city of Duisburg ousted their mayor in a ballot Sunday prompted by persistent anger at his refusal to quit following the deadly mass panic at the Love Parade techno music festival in 2010.
City authorities said 129,833 people voted to remove Adolf Sauerland from office in a recall ballot and only 21,557 wanted to keep him. His term was due to end in 2015.
Sauerland has long faced calls to take political responsibility for poor safety planning at the festival, where 21 people died. However, he repeatedly brushed aside suggestions that he should resign and said it was up to courts to decide who was responsible.
A previous attempt to force out Sauerland, a member of the conservative Christian Democrats in a region long dominated by the center-left, failed in September 2010 because opponents couldn't muster the necessary two-thirds majority in a vote by the city council.
Critics then gathered enough signatures to force the recall election. On Sunday, they easily obtained the 91,228 votes, a quarter of Duisburg's registered electorate, that they needed to force his departure.
Duisburg
Throws Employees Under Bus
Rupert
News Corp. said Saturday that it provided the information to the police that resulted in the arrest of five of its journalists earlier in the day.
In a statement, the company said: "The Management and Standards Committee (MSC) provided the information to the Elveden investigation which led to today's arrests."
The media conglomerate also confirmed that the police have searched not only the homes of the arrested, but their offices at News Corp. headquarters.
The statement came after the news Saturday morning that the British police arrested five journalists from the Sun tabloid, the most popular newspaper in the UK, on suspicion of making payoffs to police and public officials. Police officials were arrested as well.
The News Corp. statement suggested to some that the conglomerate was distancing itself from its own journalists, drawing the fire of the leader of a journalist union in the United Kingdom.
Rupert
Conservatives Love Him
Rupert
Sun arrests pile pressure on Murdoch media
Rupert Murdoch (R-Evil Incarnate) is under pressure over his Sun tabloid after the arrests of several senior staff in a corruption probe, but whistleblowers inside his media empire may pose more of a threat than the public outrage that forced the closure of its sister paper.
Murdoch closed his News of the World weekly after allegations last year it hacked the phone of a murdered schoolgirl prompted a public outcry. Advertisers cancelled contracts and Prime Minister David Cameron set up a inquiry into media practices.
In a sharp contrast to the mood that prevailed at the height of the NoW scandal last summer, the British minister responsible for the media on Sunday praised Murdoch for increasing British media plurality through his Sky satellite broadcasting network.
"Rupert Murdoch, through the investment he made in Sky for example, has massively increased choice in the UK and given us one of the most competitive broadcasting markets in Europe," Jeremy Hunt told the BBC.
He also praised newspapers, including the News of the World, for uncovering criminals and holding politicians to account.
Rupert
Excluded From Movie Screening
Dallas Schoolgirls
When 5,700 fifth-grade boys in Dallas' public schools recently went to see a movie about black fighter pilots in World War II, the girls stayed in school and saw a different movie instead.
A spokesman for the Dallas Independent School District said officials took only boys to see "Red Tails" Thursday because space at the movie theater was limited. Jon Dahlander told The Dallas Morning News that leaders of the district also thought boys would enjoy the movie more than girls.
"Red Tails" tells the story of the Tuskegee Airmen, the legendary pilots during World War II who become the first black aviators to serve in the U.S. military. The movie opened last month.
Some female students were shown a different movie instead: "Akeelah and the Bee," about an 11-year-old girl who competes in a national spelling bee.
Dallas Schoolgirls
Teabagger Councilman Likes Code Words
Confederate Flag
A Minnesota city councilman has a Confederate flag hanging outside his home and says he's not taking it down, no matter what people say.
"It's my house," West St. Paul Councilman Ed Hansen told the Pioneer Press. "What's the problem?"
Hansen, a first-term councilman elected in 2010, told the Pioneer Press he put the flag outside his house over the summer to no complaints. He said being an elected official should not matter one way or another.
"It represents sovereignty, individual rights and individual liberty," he told the newspaper. "It's my free speech, and that's my choice."
Confederate Flag
Hacker Claims Site Users Compromised
Manwin
A hacker claims to have compromised the personal information of more than 350,000 users after breaking into a disused website operated by pornography provider Brazzers.
Kate Miller, director of communications for site owner Manwin Holding SARL, said Saturday it was "currently investigating the issue" but that no credit card information has been leaked.
The breach is a potential embarrassment for Luxembourg-based Manwin, which runs some of the world's best-known pornography websites.
A small sample of the hundreds of thousands of pieces of user data allegedly compromised were posted to the Internet earlier this week. Emails, usernames, and encrypted passwords were divulged, and in some cases it was possible to infer porn users' full names and country of origin.
Manwin
Foreign Students Given Unearned Degrees
North Dakota
Hundreds of foreign students in a joint degree program at a North Dakota state university were admitted despite lacking credentials and awarded degrees without completing coursework, an audit of the program has showed.
According to a review of the procedures in place for certain international programs at Dickinson State University, just 10 of the 410 foreign students awarded joint degrees since 2003 actually fulfilled all required course work.
The majority of the degrees in question were granted to Chinese students, the remainder to Russian students, according to the report.
Most of the students' files were also missing general administrative paper work including enrollment transcripts, partner campus documents, course substitution forms and language proficiency evaluations, the report said.
The audit conducted by the North Dakota State University System and the State Board of Higher Education showed "seriously lacking controls and oversight" of these international degree programs.
North Dakota
Primate Actually Has Ultrasonic Scream
"Silent" Tarsier
The tarsier, a small primate best known for its bulging eyes and quiet demeanor, has a secret: It's actually incredibly loud, particularly if you're a dolphin.
Until recently, this fact was a mystery to humans because the tarsier has an ultrasonic scream, inaudible to human ears.
"It turns out that it's not silent. It's actually screaming and we had no idea," Humboldt State University evolutionary biologist Marissa Ramsier tells Live Science.
But why would a primate capable of making audible sounds at a lower frequency employ high-frequency cries? The most plausible explanation is that the pint-sized primates, about the size of an adult human's clenched fist, are most likely using the "silent" screams to coordinate with other tarsiers to avoid predators and find food.
The tarsiers now find themselves in an exclusive club in the animal kingdom. Bats, dolphins and whales are the best-known practitioners of ultrasonic communication, but some cats also use the high-frequency method to communicate with their baby kittens . Some rodents can also make use of ultrasonic frequencies .
"Silent" Tarsier
Weekend Box Office
'The Vow'
Love triumphed over action at the weekend box office with a No. 1 debut for the romantic drama "The Vow."
Studio estimates Sunday show that the love story starring Rachel McAdams and Channing Tatum took in $41.7 million to come in ahead of two new action tales and the first 3-D "Star Wars" reissue.
Landing a close second with $39.3 million was Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds' action thriller "Safe House." Coming in solidly at No. 3 was Dwayne Johnson's family action sequel "Journey 2: The Mysterious Island" with $27.6 million.
And adding to George Lucas' riches was the 3-D premiere of "Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace," which was No. 4 with $23 million. That raises the lifetime domestic total for "Phantom Menace to $454.1 million.
This was the first non-holiday weekend that four movies opened with more than $20 million each, said Paul Dergarabedian, analyst for box-office tracker Hollywood.com. The only other time when four new releases did that well was over Christmas weekend in 2008, he said.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Where available, latest international numbers are also included. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
1. "The Vow," $41.7 million ($9.7 million international).
2. "Safe House," $39.3 million ($10.2 million international).
3. "Journey 2: The Mysterious Island," $27.6 million ($25.5 million international).
4. "Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace" in 3-D, $23 million ($20.5 million international).
5. "Chronicle," $12.3 million.
6. "The Woman in Black," $10.3 million.
7. "The Grey," $5.1 million.
8. "Big Miracle," $3.9 million ($400,000 international).
9. "The Descendants," $3.5 million.
10. "Underworld Awakening," $2.5 million.
'The Vow'
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