Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Jeff Bernard: Judge says flashing headlights is free speech (Associated Press)
Hauling a truckload of logs to a Southern Oregon mill last fall, Chris Hill noticed a sheriff's deputy behind him and flashed his lights to warn a UPS driver coming the other way. The deputy pulled over Hill on U.S. Highway 140 in White City and handed him a $260 ticket for improperly using his headlights, saying another deputy had seen the flashing lights from behind the UPS truck and alerted him to stop the log truck because of the signaling. Outraged, Hill decided to fight the ticket …
Ted Rall: Schools Should Teach Nowology (Creators Syndicate)
I keep waiting for someone to bring up Now. As in the study of now - what's currently going on in the fields of politics, history, literature, mathematics, science - everything. Can we call it Nowology?
Henry Rollins: Funny Memories of Joe Cole (LA Weekly)
An old friend of mine has a birthday today, April 10. His name was Joe Cole. He would have been 53 years old. He got shot to death at the end of 1991. It has become a ritual of mine on this day, to wonder what he would be like had he lived, what he would have made of himself. Although this speculation is just empty rattling, I can't help it.
Joe Donatelli: 5 Problems You Can't Blame on How You Were Raised (Cracked)
There is a considerable body of research, most of it collected through studying twins and adopted siblings, which says parents don't matter to the degree that moms and dads and the piano teacher industrial complex say they do. This research says that nature (genes) tends to outweigh nurture (parenting) when it comes to such things as character, health, and chances for success.
Glenn Fowler: "EYE SPY: Sydney City" (Vimeo)
"Get a beautiful, mesmerizing view of Sydney, Australia, as you've never seen it before. Sure, a helicopter could take video from above, but could it fly through trees and buzz rooftop spires like this? This video is the first in a series called "Eye Spy" that will show us different cities of the world. Melbourne, Chicago, Belgrade, and Edinburgh are in the works." - Neatorama
Kurt Loder: 'Only Lovers Left Alive': Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston Out for Blood (Creators Syndicate)
The new Jim Jarmusch movie unfolds in what might be an after-hours nightclub of the 1980s - a hermetic world where it's always dark but the pale-faced patrons wear shades anyway and could easily pass for vampires. Now they actually are.
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Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
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.
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
The kid & I played hooky and attended the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books at USC, then took a side trip to Chinatown for snacks.
He Gets It
Bernie Sanders
Vermont U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders warned that a growing number of Americans were losing faith in the political system at a New Hampshire site that often hosts presidential primary debates. But he said he is "many, many months" away from deciding on a White House run.
Liberal independent Sanders, 72, covered a raft of issues in an hour-long speech before taking questions from an audience of about 220 people at Saint Anselm College's New Hampshire Institute of Politics in Manchester, New Hampshire.
"What exists all over America today is that millions and millions and millions of people - working people, low income people, young people - they look at the political process and they say, 'Not for me,'" Sanders said in a speech that touched on the widening wealth and income gap in the United States, national security, health care and climate change.
"There are a lot of angry people out there."
Bernie Sanders
Looms Over Pulitzers
Edward Snowden
Hero or traitor? America is still polarized over Edward Snowden and whether the newspapers that exposed the extent of NSA's vast global spying network should be lauded or condemned.
Ten months later, the question on journalists' lips is whether America's most prestigious journalism prize, the Pulitzers, will honor them when the annual awards are announced Monday.
In arguably the most influential story of the decade, The Guardian and The Washington Post broke sensational new ground by exposing how the US government monitors the data of millions.
But the leaks embarrassed the government, strained relations with allies angered that Americans had been tapping into the private phone calls of leaders and sparked a debate within the United States on the merits and morality of mass surveillance.
Public opinion is at worst divided. Many believe Americans have a right to know what the government is doing. Others say Snowden is a traitor and a criminal who should be prosecuted.
Edward Snowden
Winners
GLAAD Media Awards
The groundbreaking ABC family drama "The Fosters" and Emmy-winning HBO movie "Behind the Candelabra" were among the big winners Saturday at the 25th annual GLAAD Media Awards, which recognizes accurate representations of the LGBT community.
Honorees for 12 of this year's 29 media categories were feted at Los Angeles' Beverly Hilton Hotel.
Iconic TV writer Norman Lear, who produced the hit 1970s sitcoms "All in the Family," "Sanford and Son" and "The Jeffersons," received the Pioneer Award. Jennifer Lopez picked up the coveted Vanguard Award while "Orange Is the New Black's" Laverne Cox was presented the Stephen F. Kolzak Award by actress Ellen Page.
Meanwhile, NBC's longrunning soap "Days of Our Lives" took home the prize for daily drama. The soap recently made television history by airing the first-ever male same-sex wedding in daytime.
Additional awards, including those in movie and TV comedy series categories, will be presented at the GLAAD Media Awards on May 3 in New York City.
GLAAD Media Awards
Celebrates 20th Anniversary
Turner Classic Movies
If Turner Classic Movies had only been endowed with films from the pre-1948 MGM library, it would have been the channel of cinefiles' dreams. If it had only had the pre-1950 Warner Bros. library, it would have been a 24/7 haven for film buffs. If it had only had the RKO Pictures library, it would have been a great channel.
But thanks to the foresight of Ted Turner, TCM launched on April 14, 1994 with the keys to all three of those vaults. Sure, Turner infuriated cineastes a few years before with his campaign to colorize classic black-and-white pics (shudder), but he more than made up for that misguided effort with the gift of TCM.
Commercial free, uncut, lovingly and smartly presented movies running 24/7, along with fantastic archival material, shorts ("One-Reel Wonders") and other carefully excavated gems - there's nothing not to like about TCM or its primary hosts, Robert Osborne (who's been there since day one) and Ben Mankiewicz (who's worked there since 2003).
TCM will mark its 20th anniversary on Monday with the 7 p.m. retrospective special "TCM: Twenty Classic Moments" and a slate of fan-favorite pics, including "Casablanca," "Citizen Kane," "The Maltese Falcon" and "Singin' in the Rain."
Turner Classic Movies
Anti-Kremlin Protest
Moscow
More than 10,000 people turned out in Moscow on Sunday for an anti-Kremlin rally to denounce Russian state television's news coverage, particularly of the crisis in neighboring Ukraine.
In promoting the Kremlin line, state television has portrayed the new pro-Western government in Ukraine as a "fascist junta" under the control of the U.S. government and determined to oppress Russian speakers in eastern Ukraine. The broadcasts have taken on a harsh anti-American tone.
Among those who spoke to the crowd was Andrei Zubov, a history professor who was fired from one of Moscow's most prestigious universities last month after criticizing Russia's military intervention in Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula. Zubov argued against the annexation of Crimea by comparing it with Nazi Germany's annexation of Austria on the eve of World War II.
Zubov told the crowd that by lying to the Russian people on television, the government was leading the country toward "an abyss."
Moscow
Anti-Whaling Ruling
Japan
The international court ruling against Japanese whaling last week may have given the government a convenient political out.
The Antarctic program was nearly bankrupt, but if the government had overhauled it on its own, it would have incurred the wrath of a strong pro-whaling lobby, and could have been criticized for caving in to foreign anti-whaling activists. Now officials can say the court forced their hand.
"It seemed to me they were anxious to lose," said Masayuki Komatsu, a former fisheries official known for his battles at the International Whaling Commission to defend Japanese hunts. He accused Japanese officials of losing "passion and love" for whaling and not fighting hard enough in court.
Though top Japanese officials called the ruling regrettable, they announced within hours that Japan would abide by it. A day later, the Fisheries Agency said Japan would skip the next Antarctic hunt.
Japan
High Fees
401(k) Retirement Accounts
It's the silent enemy in our retirement accounts: High fees.
And now a new study finds that the typical 401(k) fees - adding up to a modest-sounding 1 percent a year - would erase $70,000 from an average worker's account over a four-decade career compared with lower-cost options. To compensate for the higher fees, someone would have to work an extra three years before retiring.
The study comes from the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank. Its analysis, backed by industry and government data, suggests that U.S. workers, already struggling to save enough for retirement, are being further held back by fund costs.
Most savers have only a vague idea how much they're paying in 401(k) fees or what alternatives exist, though the information is provided in often dense and complex fund statements. High fees seldom lead to high returns. And critics say they hurt ordinary investors - much more so than, say, Wall Street's high-speed trading systems, which benefit pros and have increasingly drawn the eye of regulators.
401(k) Retirement Accounts
'Million Orchid' Project
Florida
Inside a small bright lab, nestled behind sprawling Banyan trees in Miami's Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, scientists and volunteers tend to tens of thousands of just-germinated orchids tucked in glass bottles.
Fifty thousand more with long verdant leaves wait in a nearby nursery. In the coming weeks, crews in bucket trucks, usually used to fix power lines, will lift the fragile plants onto trees that line south Florida's roads, hoping they will take root and re-establish the blanket of millions of brightly colored flowers that once covered the state.
"We want to bring back not just the orchids, but the insects that pollinate them," said Carl Lewis, who leads the Million Orchid Project as director of the botanic garden.
Decades of breakneck urban development and population growth all but destroyed the region's native orchid species. The vividly colored flowers were pulled from their perches by enthusiasts and dealers, who shipped them north to be sold in home stores and at spring farmer's markets.
The effort to reintroduce millions of orchids in Miami was inspired by a similar undertaking in Singapore that began in the mid-1990s, Lewis said.
Florida
The High Price Spread
Chocolate Toothpaste
American oral care company Theodent has created a luxury line of fluoride-free toothpastes made with a patented substance called Rennou, which is derived from the cacao plant -- the same plant used to make chocolate.
But the delicious-tasting toothpaste doesn't come cheap -- its extra-strength version will set you back $100. A cheaper, regular-strength version costs $10, but is currently sold out online.
The product is also available at Whole Foods Market.
Unlike traditional toothpastes that use fluoride to strengthen teeth, this cacao-derived paste is non-toxic and therefore safe if accidentally swallowed, the company boasts. In addition to the Rennou (its scientific name is theobromine), Theodent also contains calcium and phosphate to help build up the enamel on your teeth.
Chocolate Toothpaste
Stanford Researchers Map The World
Game of Thrones
The fourth season of HBO's hit series Game of Thrones kicked off this past week. 6.6 million people tuned into the premiere, making it the most watched single episode of an HBO show since the series finale of Sopranos. Based on author George R. R. Martin's fantasy novel series titled A Song of Ice and Fire, the show takes place in a mythical world consisting of four continents, one of which is Westeros. We've all seen the models of Westeros in the show's opening credit sequence, but a group of Stanford researchers have taken things to the next level by creating a series of geological maps that shows us how the landscape of Westeros might have evolved over time.
"We pieced this geologic history together from character observations, town names, official Game of Thrones maps, and the principles of geology learned here on Earth," the group wrote on its blog. "Using only limited data we were able to reimagine 500 million years of planetary evolution, including volcanoes, continents rising from the oceans, and ice ages (with guest appearance by white walkers and dragons)."
The map is a composite that shows many different stages of Westeros' geological development, but individual maps covering 500 million years can be found on the Stanfard website.
Game of Thrones
Weekend Box Office
"Captain America: The Winter Soldier"
"Captain America" continued to flex its Marvel muscle at the global box office, as "The Winter Soldier" took in $41.4 million domestically and $60.6 million overseas.
The strong second-week performance for the Walt Disney release in North America was enough to narrowly edge 20th Century Fox's "Rio 2" in a springtime battle of sequels. The animated Amazon jungle tale "Rio 2" debuted with $39 million, according to studio estimates Sunday, almost exactly the opening weekend total of the 2011 Oscar-nominated original.
The low-budget supernatural horror film "Oculus" took in $12 million for Relativity Media.
The football drama "Draft Day," starring Kevin Costner and directed by Ivan Reitman, debuted weakly with $9.8 million. Made with the cooperation of the National Football League, the Lionsgate release is the second movie this year, along with the thriller "3 Days to Kill," to attempt to restore the 59-year-old Costner to leading man status.
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," $41.4 million ($60.6 million international).
2."Rio 2," $39 million ($62.3 million international).
3."Oculus," $12 million ($1.3 million international).
4."Draft Day," $9.8 million.
5."Divergent," $7.5 million ($23.2 million international).
6."Noah," $7.5 million ($36.2 million international).
7."God's Not Dead," $5.5 million.
8."The Grand Budapest Hotel," $4.1 million ($7.2 million international).
9."Muppets Most Wanted," $2.2 million ($2.2 million international).
10."Mr. Peabody and Sherman," $1.8 million ($3.8 million international).
"Captain America: The Winter Soldier"
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