Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Alison Flood: How Carrie changed Stephen King's life, and began a generation of horror (Guardian)
Writers and readers recall the shock of reading the debut novel about a high-school outcast who discovers paranormal powers, and reflect on its huge influence.
What I'm really thinking: the ghost writer (Guardian)
It's painful writing such tripe, but on the other hand I have what I always wanted: a comfortably paid writing job. Beware of what you wish for.
Oliver Burkemann: "This column will change your life: interestingness v truth" (Guardian)
'Even in the world of academia, most people aren't motivated by the truth. What they want, above all, is not to be bored.'
Ted Rall: College Is Expensive. Is It Any Wonder Students Turn to Porn? (Creators Syndicate)
The real sluts are the cash-whore trustees of Duke University, who are sitting on top of a $6 billion endowment , and the overpaid college and university officials who have jacked up tuition at twice the inflation rate year after year.
Emily Upton: Why Native Americans Didn't Wipe Out Europeans With Diseases (Today I Found Out)
While estimates vary, approximately 20 million people are believed to have lived in the Americas shortly before Europeans arrived. Around 95% of them were killed by European diseases. So why didn't 19 out of 20 Europeans die from Native American diseases?
Jurassic Park - No CGI. Also "Better" In Other Ways (YouTube)
"Michael T. Mann was impressed with the movie Jurassic Park, but wondered what it would be like if there were no computer-generated dinosaurs in it. So he re-edited several key scenes with more "conventional" special effects for the dinosaurs. That didn't seem to be as good as the original, so he messed with the ending of the movie just a little to make up for it. The result is quite ridiculous, even downright stupid, but you will laugh at some point or another. Don't miss the post-credit easter egg." - Neatorama
SydneyAmber S.: Harley Quinn-Do You Wanna Kill The Batman? (YouTube)
A Harley Quinn version of the song Do You Wanna Build A Snowman from Disney's Frozen.
Frozen | Do You Want to Build a Snowman? (YouTube)
Do You Want to Build a Snowman? - Kristen Bell, Agatha Lee Monn & Katie Lopez (from Frozen)
Miguel Jiron: "Paint Showers" (Vimeo)
Cosmos of paint unleash a storm of color.
Brenda Kennedy (Bruce's sister): A New Beginning ($2.99 Kindle Romance)
Afraid that her past would catch up with her, Angel lived a very private life. When she met the tall, dark, and handsome Dr. Mason Myles, she knew she wouldn't be able to resist him. He swept her off her feet with his sexy, dimpled smile and charm. Living on the run from a very abusive boyfriend, Jim Davis, Angel lived in fear that Jim would somehow find her. After she revealed her abusive past and fears to Mason, Mason vowed to protect her.
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David Bruce has approximately 50 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
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Michelle in AZ
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Gare Says...
Astrology
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.
So - to let you know what's going on, the guestbook on bartcop.com is
still open for those who want to write something in memory of Bart.
I did an interview on Netroots Radio about Bart's passing
( www.stitcher.com/s?eid=32893545 )
The most active open discussion is on Bart's Facebook page.
( www.facebook.com/bartcop )
You can listen to Bart's theme song here
or here.
( www.bartcop.com/blizing-saddles.mp3 )
( youtu.be/MySGAaB0A9k )
We have opened up the radio show archives which are now free. Listen to
all you want.
( bartcop.com/members )
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
Thanks, Marc!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny, windy and very dry.
Snowden & Greenwald
Amnesty International
Edward Snowden and reporter Glenn Greenwald, who brought to light the whistleblower's leaks about mass U.S. government surveillance last year, appeared together via video link from opposite ends of the earth on Saturday for what was believed to be the first time since Snowden sought asylum in Russia.
A sympathetic crowd of nearly 1,000 packed a downtown Chicago hotel ballroom at Amnesty International USA's annual human rights meeting and gave Greenwald, who dialed in from Brazil, a raucous welcome before Snowden was patched in 15 minutes later to a standing ovation.
The pair cautioned that government monitoring of "metadata" is more intrusive than directly listening to phone calls or reading emails and stressed the importance of a free press willing to scrutinize government activity.
Metadata includes which telephone number calls which other numbers, when the calls were made and how long they lasted. Metadata does not include the content of the calls.
"Metadata is what allows an actual enumerated understanding, a precise record of all the private activities in all of our lives. It shows our associations, our political affiliations and our actual activities," said Snowden, dressed in a jacket with no tie in front of a black background.
Amnesty International
DVF Award
Gloria Steinem
Nobody can really believe that Gloria Steinem has just turned 80 years old - and that includes Steinem herself.
"I don't believe it for a minute," quipped Steinem, the venerated women's rights activist, on Friday night at the annual DVF awards, where she was honored with a Lifetime Leadership Award.
Steinem said she spent her March 25 birthday in Botswana, riding elephants. "I had done it before, and I knew that on my birthday I wanted to be riding elephants," she said. But was it the best day of her life? No, because she says the best day of her life is yet to come.
The DVF Awards were created in 2010 by designer Diane von Furstenberg and The Diller-von Furstenberg Family Foundation to recognize and support "women who are using their resources, commitment and visibility to transform the lives of other women." Six women were honored Friday for their contributions.
Gloria Steinem
75th Birthday
Hugh Masekela
South African trumpeter and vocalist Hugh Masekela celebrated his 75th birthday with a little help from some old friends - Paul Simon and Harry Belafonte - in the city where he began what turned out to be a 30-year exile from his homeland.
Introducing Simon near the end of Friday night's concert at Jazz at Lincoln Center's Rose Theater, Masekela noted that millions of people "who had never heard of South Africa before were just charmed and turned around by the album he made" in 1986- "Graceland," which won Grammys for Album and Record of the Year.
Masekela did not perform on the singer-songwriter's groundbreaking world music album much of which was recorded in South Africa when he was still exiled because of his attacks on the apartheid regime. But he and his former wife, singer Miriam Makeba, joined Simon on his "Graceland" world tour which gave South African musicians global exposure.
Masekela and Simon then sang two of the album's biggest hits - "The Boy In the Bubble" and "You Can Call Me Al" - backed by his quintet of young musicians, all but one of them from South Africa.
Hugh Masekela
President | Godmother
Cristina Fernandez
Argentina's leftist president Cristina Fernandez on Saturday became the godmother of a lesbian couple's baby in a rare baptism performed by the Catholic Church, which is staunchly opposed to gay marriage.
A nominally Catholic country, Argentina has been a trailblazer for gay rights in the region since Peronist Fernandez legalized same-sex marriage in 2010.
Priest Carlos Varas baptized 2-1/2-month-old Uma in the Cathedral of Cordoba, Argentina's second largest city, under the watchful gaze of her beaming parents, Carina Villaroel and Soledad Ortiz.
"Father Varas told us he had been waiting for a couple like us, a gay one, and we happened to come and he accepted us," said Villaroel on Saturday. "There's really been a social change for Catholicism to have said yes to baptizing a child from a lesbian family."
Cristina Fernandez
States The Obvious
Nancy Pelosi
Ahead of the release of a Senate Intelligence Committee report that is expected to say the CIA misled the government and the American people about its interrogation techniques, Nancy Pelosi is placing the blame squarely on former Vice President Dick Cheney (R-Torture).
"I do believe that during the Bush-Cheney administration, Vice President Cheney set a tone and an attitude for the CIA," Pelosi said in an interview with CNN's "State of the Union" broadcast Sunday. "Many people in the CIA are so patriotic, they protect our country in a way to avoid conflict and violence. But the attitude that was there was very, um, I think it came from Dick Cheney. That's what I believe."
The report also "describes previously undisclosed cases of abuse, including the alleged repeated dunking of a terrorism suspect in tanks of ice water at a detention site in Afghanistan - a method that bore similarities to waterboarding but never appeared on any Justice Department-approved list of techniques."
Pelosi said she thinks Cheney, who has long defended the use of waterboarding and other interrogation techniques, is proud of the CIA's misrepresentation.
"I think he's proud of it," Pelosi said. "I think he's proud of it."
Nancy Pelosi
Goes Mainstream
Vaccine Denial
Kathleen Wiederman is not staunchly against vaccines. She simply believes it is better for her child to naturally battle an illness than to be vaccinated against it.
"Doctors don't know everything," said the 42-year-old recruiter, who prefers alternative medicine and gave birth at her home in the well-heeled Virginia suburbs without the aid of a pain-killing epidural.
Wiederman, who has a law degree, is among a growing number of Americans who oppose vaccines, raising concerns about a resurgence in contagious diseases like measles and whooping cough.
Vaccine hesitancy is increasingly common, and not only when it comes to infant and childhood immunizations, experts say.
Vaccine Denial
Germany Pulls Plug
"Wetten, dass..?"
It has seen wacky bets performed before millions and hosted an A-List of Hollywood stars, but after a three-decade run Germany's once top-rated TV variety show is getting the axe.
A victim of plummeting ratings, a fast-greying fan base and charges that its concept has grown stale, "Wetten, dass..?" ("Wanna Bet?") will screen for the last time in December after 33 years.
Such is the dated cult status of the silly-challenge show, once Europe's most successful programme, that Sunday newspapers gave front-page treatment to the public broadcaster ZDF's decision to pull the plug on it.
The show's concept is of ordinary people performing often bizarre tricks and stunts, while celebrity guests sponsor them and have to perform mildly humiliating acts if they lose.
"Wetten, dass..?"
New Mexico Dig
"E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial"
Searchers, accompanied by documentary filmmakers, plan to scour a New Mexico landfill in an attempt to unearth a legendary dump of millions of unwanted "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" video game cartridges rumored to have been buried at the site in the early 1980s, organizers said on Friday.
The suspected entombment in the small city of Alamogordo has become a point of intrigue for gamers over the past three decades, as the product tie-in to the classic 1982 movie "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" was a mammoth flop, remembered as having contributed to a sudden collapse of the video game industry in its early years.
The excavation, slated for the weekend of April 26, will be chronicled in a documentary led by Microsoft's Xbox Entertainment Studios, Microsoft said in a statement.
The video game "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" hit store shelves in winter 1982 as part of a $25 million deal with director Steven Spielberg to license his movie idea with Warner Bros, the then-owner of game manufacturer Atari Corp.
"E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial"
Woo Women
Watchmakers
A recent advert from luxury watchmaker Omega shows a large, technologically-advanced timepiece. So far, so typical. But this one is studded with diamonds and worn by actress Nicole Kidman. Called the Ladymatic, it's the future of the industry.
The bulk of the $50-billion Swiss watch market has for years been aimed at wealthy men drawn to high-tech, gadget-loaded timepieces they can wear as status symbols. These customers' interest has waned little despite economic fluctuations - though the recent financial crisis hurt sales, it was followed by a stronger rebound that was driven by demand in China.
Now however, sales of men's watches in China have slowed, and demand in the West is not enough to pick up the slack. Faced with only single digit growth prospects, top brands are looking to the other 50 percent of the population for inspiration.
"Women are the future of watches," says Jean-Claude Biver, head of LVMH's watch unit. "There's huge potential in women's watches that is only half exploited today."
Traditionally women have shown little inclination to buy the kind of mechanically complex, multi-functional pieces on which Swiss manufacturers have built their reputation for precision - this kind of engineering needs space and results in the big dials which women tend to shun for battery-powered, unobtrusive styles.
Watchmakers
Powerful Earthquake Leaves Astronomy Observatories Unscathed
Chile
The massive earthquake that struck Chile on Tuesday (April 1) left three main European-built observatories in the region relatively untouched despite causing damage and a tsunami along the country's western coast.
The powerful 8.2-magnitude earthquake struck about 60 miles (95 kilometers) northwest of the coastal city Iquique, causing several landslides and triggering a tsunami that rose some 7 feet (2.1 meters). The earthquake struck at 8:46 p.m. local time (7:46 EDT). A powerful 7.6-magnitude aftershock rattled the area late Wednesday night (April 2).
The European Southern Observatory (ESO) operates three major observatories in Chile, each with multiple telescopes: the Paranal Observatory, which is home to Europe's Very Large Telescope; the La Silla Observatory, which hosts various telescopes, such as the 2.2-m Max-Planck telescope, 1.2-m Swiss Telescope and the 1.5-m Danish Telescope; and ALMA and APEX, or the the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array and the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment. (Also in the Chajnantor region is Caltech's Chajnantor Observatory.)
The epicenter was located approximately 310 miles (500 km) from both the ALMA/APEX and Paranal sites.
However, none of the ESO facilities reported any damage.
Chile
Weekend Box Office
"Captain America: The Winter Soldier"
Continuing the success of their superhero franchise, "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" has set a record as the biggest domestic April release ever.
The Disney sequel debuted with $96.2 million topping the previous record holder, 2011's "Fast Five," which opened with $86.2 million. Last weekend "The Winter Soldier," which stars Chris Evans as the shield-wielding superhero, and Scarlett Johansson (whose sci-fi "Under the Skin" also debuted this weekend with $140,000) as Black Widow, commanded 32 international markets, gaining $75.2 million in its overseas bow.
Paramount's biblical saga "Noah," starring Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly and Emma Watson, took a drastic dip in its second weekend, earning $17 million after debuting with $44 million. Still, it sailed into second place, crossing the $70 million mark domestically, while pushing Lionsgate's young adult science-fiction thriller "Divergent," led by Shailene Woodley, to third with $13 million in its third week. Its stateside cume is now $114 million.
Freestyle Releasing's surprise hit "God's Not Dead" took the No. 4 slot with $7.7 million in its third weekend.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Rentrak. Where available, latest international numbers are also included. Final domestic figures will be released on Monday.
1."Captain America: The Winter Soldier," $96.2 million ($107.1 million international).
2."Noah," $17 million ($46 million international).
3."Divergent," $13 million ($11.1 million international).
4."God's Not Dead," $7.7 million.
5."The Grand Budapest Hotel," $6.3 million ($5.5 million international).
6."Muppets Most Wanted," $6.3 million ($1.9 million international).
7."Mr. Peabody and Sherman," $5.3 million ($11.2 million international).
8."Sabotage," $1.9 million.
9."Need for Speed," $1.84 million ($4.7 million international).
10."Non-Stop," $1.83 million ($2.5 million international).
"Captain America: The Winter Soldier"
In Memory
Mickey Rooney
Actor Mickey Rooney, the pint-sized screen dynamo of the 1930s and 1940s best known for his boy-next-door role in the Andy Hardy movies, died on Sunday at 93, the TMZ celebrity website reported.
Rooney, who was one of the biggest box office stars of the movies' studio era, had been ill for some time, TMZ said. It did not give a cause of death and a spokesman was not immediately available for comment.
Rooney, who spent almost his entire life in show business, teamed up with Judy Garland in the 1939 movie musical "Babes in Arms." He also starred with Elizabeth Taylor in 1944's "National Velvet," which launched Taylor's career.
Rooney was best known for his role as Andy Hardy, the popular all-American teenager, which he portrayed in about 20 movies.
Rooney was married eight times, the first time to screen beauty Ava Gardner. Asked once if he would marry all his eight wives again, he said, "Absolutely. I loved every one of them."
Mickey Rooney
In Memory
Peter Matthiessen
Peter Matthiessen, a rich man's son who rejected a life of ease in favour of physical and spiritual challenges and produced such acclaimed works as "The Snow Leopard" and "At Play in the Fields of the Lord," died Saturday. He was 86.
His publisher Geoff Kloske of Riverhead Books said Matthiessen, who had been diagnosed with leukemia, was ill "for some months." He died at a hospital near his home on Long Island in New York.
Matthiessen helped found The Paris Review, one of the most influential literary magazines, and won National Book Awards for "The Snow Leopard," his spiritual account of the Himalayas, and for "Shadow Country." His new novel, "In Paradise," is scheduled for publication Tuesday.
A leading environmentalist and wilderness writer, he embraced the best and worst that nature could bring him, whether trekking across the Himalayas, parrying sharks in Australia or enduring a hurricane in Antarctica.
He was a longtime liberal who befriended Cesar Chavez and wrote a defence of Indian activist Leonard Peltier, "In the Spirit of Crazy Horse," that led to a highly publicized, and unsuccessful, lawsuit by an FBI agent who claimed Matthiessen had defamed him.
Matthiessen became a Zen Buddhist in the 1960s, and was later a Zen priest who met daily with a fellow group of practitioners in a meditation hut that he converted from an old stable. The granite-faced author, rugged and athletic into his 80s, tried to live out a modern version of the Buddhist legend, a child of privilege transformed by the discovery of suffering.
Matthiessen was born in New York in 1927, the son of Erard A. Matthiessen, a wealthy architect and conservationist. "The Depression had no serious effect on our well-insulated family," the author would later write.
While at Yale, he wrote the short story "Sadie," which appeared in the Atlantic Monthly, and he soon acquired an agent. After graduation he moved to Paris and, along with fellow writer-adventurer George Plimpton, helped found The Paris Review. (Matthiessen would later acknowledge he was a CIA recruit at the time and used his work with the Review as a cover).
The magazine caught on, but Paris reminded Matthiessen that he was an American writer. In the mid-1950s he returned to the United States; socialized with Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning and other painters; operated a deep-sea fishing charter boat - and wrote.
In 1961, Matthiessen emerged as a major novelist with "At Play in the Fields of the Lord," his tale of missionaries under siege from both natives and mercenaries in the jungles of Brazil. Its detailed account of a man's hallucinations brought him a letter of praise from LSD guru Timothy Leary. The book was later adapted into a film of the same name, starring John Lithgow and Daryl Hannah.
He wrote many other books, including "Far Tortuga," a novel told largely in dialect about a doomed crew of sailors on the Caribbean, and "The Tree Where Man Was Born," a highly regarded chronicle of his travels in East Africa.
Although an explorer in the Hemingway tradition, Matthiessen didn't seek to conquer nature, but to preserve it. In 1959, he published his first nonfiction book, "Wildlife in America," in which he labels man "the highest predator" and one uniquely prone to self-destruction.
Matthiessen was married three times, most recently to Maria Eckhart, whom he wed in 1980. He had four children, two each from his first two marriages.
Peter Matthiessen
In Memory
John Pinette
Chubby stand-up comedian and hapless carjacking victim from the final episode of "Seinfeld," John Pinette has died. He was 50.
The Allegheny County Medical Examiner's office says Pinette died at a Pittsburgh hotel on Saturday.
Pinette appeared in movies including "The Punisher" and had a trio of stand-up shows released on DVD but was perhaps best known as the portly carjacking victim whose plight lands the "Seinfeld" stars before a judge for failing to help under a "good Samaritan" law.
The medical examiner's office says Pinette's death was from natural causes.
John Pinette
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