Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Free Ebook by David Bruce (Smashwords)
The Kindest People: Heroes and Good Samaritans (Volume 6)
Marc Dion: The End of the Line (Creators Syndicate)
I was standing in line at the pharmacy the other day, picking up one prescription for me and three for my mother. There were only six people in front of me in line, but a couple of them had questions about how they were paying and how much they were paying, so it took a while.
Paul Krugman: No Bain, No Gain (New York Times)
The sad truth is that the cult of balance still rules. If a Republican candidate announced a plan that in effect sells children into indentured servitude, the news reports would be that "Democrats say" that the plan sells children into indentured servitude, with each quote to that effect matched by a quote from a Republican saying the opposite.
Paul Krugman: The Class-Warfare Election (New York Times)
… like it or not, we have an election in which one candidate is proposing a redistribution from the top - which is currently paying lower taxes than it has in 80 years - downward, mainly to lower-income workers, while the other is proposing a large redistribution from the poor and the middle class to the top.
Mitt Romney's $ecret $tash (YouTube)
Why won't Mitt Romney disclose more information about his international dealings?
Christopher Rowland: Mitt Romney stayed at Bain 3 years longer than he stated (Boston Phoenix)
Government documents filed by Mitt Romney and Bain Capital say Romney remained chief executive and chairman of the firm three years beyond the date he said he ceded control, even creating five new investment partnerships during that time. […]The timing of Romney's departure from Bain is a key point of contention because he has said his resignation in February 1999 meant he was not responsible for Bain Capital companies that went bankrupt or laid off workers after that date.
Dylan Byers: Globe will not issue correction to Romney (Politico)
Boston Globe editor Martin Baron emails Mitt Romney communications director Gail Gitcho: "Dear Ms. Gitcho: We received your request late this afternoon for a correction regarding this morning's Globe story. Having carefully reviewed that request, we see no basis for publishing a correction. The Globe story was entirely accurate."
Robin Wells: Mitt Romney's offer of government of billionaires, for billionaires, by billionaires (Guardian)
In the Romney candidacy, the Republican party has found the apotheosis of the fact that it now represents solely the super-rich.
Froma Harrop: The Worst Financial Scandal Yet? (Creators Syndicate)
The public should understand that what they don't know can cost them. The illegal fixing of Libor, the interest rate to which much of the world's financial transactions are tied, took a ton of money out of ordinary folks' pockets and handed it to the select few. The beauty of such cons is that the little people don't even know they're being fleeced.
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."
wrote:
took the day off.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
PURPLE GENE'S MINI REVIEW
"WINCHESTER 73"
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Day 7
Gulf Fritillary
Came across some of Gulf Fritillary larva
on the back fence, so it looks like we'll have a third year of raising butterflies. : )
Click on any picture for a larger version.
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Lovely marine layer, so sun til mid-afternoon.
Springsteen, McCartney Silenced By Curfew
London
Concert organizers pulled the plug on rock stars Bruce Springsteen and Paul McCartney after the pair defied the sound curfew at London's Hyde Park, silencing their microphones at the tail end of the show.
Springsteen had already exceeded the 10:30 p.m. curfew by half an hour Saturday night when he welcomed McCartney on stage and the pair sang the Beatles hits "I Saw Her Standing There" and "Twist and Shout." But the microphones were turned off before they could thank the crowd, forcing them to leave the stage in silence.
A statement from concert organizer Live Nation said it was unfortunate that Springsteen's three-hour-plus performance was stopped "right at the very end," but it said that the curfew had been laid down by the authorities "in the interest of the public's health and safety."
Huge concerts in Hyde Park, a 350-acre (140-hectare) expanse of landscaped garden and parkland that abuts some of London's wealthiest neighborhoods, have increasingly caused friction between fans and the area's well-heeled residents, many of whom gripe about the late-night noise and nuisance.
London
Aging Anti-War Sculpture Prompts Debate
Paul Conrad
For decades the big, black mass of chain link that's piled up outside the Civic Center has alternately awed and inspired, annoyed and confounded, and, perhaps most often, simply divided residents of this otherwise famously tolerant beach town.
Nearly three stories high and shaped like an atomic bomb's giant mushroom cloud, "Chain Reaction" was sculpted out of copper, fiberglass and stainless steel as an enduring artistic statement against nuclear war. Its creator, the brilliant Los Angeles Times political cartoonist Paul Conrad, gave it to the city as a gift in 1991, and it has remained there, four blocks from the Pacific Ocean, ever since.
During that time, everyone from passing schoolchildren to inebriated rock concert patrons leaving the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium have climbed all over it. Others have mistaken it for a seal balancing a ball on its nose or the representation of a big tree. Armchair art critics have argued relentlessly over whether it's a work for the ages or just a meaningless hunk of junk.
Whatever it is, city officials say one thing has become certain: After 21 years of people climbing over it and salt air from the ocean eating away it, "Chain Reaction" is in danger of falling down.
The city's planning staff, estimating it could cost as much as $400,000 to fix, recently recommended that if proponents of the work can't raise that money by November the city should simply get rid of it. In the meantime, they've put a fence around it (chain link of course) to protect the public.
Paul Conrad
Feds To Reroute Ships To Protect Whales
SF Bay
Scientists studying the carcass of a 47-foot fin whale that washed up on a beach in the Point Reyes National Seashore last month found the creature's spine and ribs severed, likely from the propeller of one of the huge cargo shipsthat sail those waters.
There have been many victims of such accidents in recent years as migrating blue, fin and humpback whales have been lured close to California's shore by plentiful krill, the shrimp-like organisms they eat. All three species are endangered.
Now, after a two-year effort spurred by the uptick in accidents, federal maritime officials have approved a plan to protect whales in and around San Francisco Bay. It includes rerouting shipping traffic and establishing better ways to track whale locations.
The changes crafted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, shipping industry representatives, whale researchers and the Coast Guard will likely take effect next year, after a final review by the United Nations International Maritime Organization.
SF Bay
Gustav Or Ernst?
Klimt
A missing Klimt painting that was rediscovered this week is by Ernst Klimt, not his more famous brother Gustav, an expert on the Austrian symbolist painter said on Sunday, contradicting an art dealer who is preparing to sell it at auction.
Austria's Kronen Zeitung had reported that an early work by the celebrated Gustav Klimt had been found in a garage, after languishing unrecognised for years since being removed from the building where the Klimt brothers had a 19th century studio.
Art dealer Josef Renz, who has just bought the painting from a family living near the Austrian city of Linz, said the ceiling painting of a trumpet-playing cherub might have been done by the two brothers together if not by Gustav Klimt alone.
But Alfred Weidinger, art historian, Klimt specialist, and curator of the Schlossmuseum Belvedere in Vienna, told Reuters he recognised the painting as an early, historicist work by Ernst Klimt, who died in 1892, 26 years before Gustav.
Klimt
Not A Racist
Rupert
The New York Post is seeking to keep its top editor from having to answer questions in a bias lawsuit about his discussions with media mogul Rupert Murdoch (R-Evil Incarnate) over a published cartoon that appeared to liken President Barack Obama to a chimpanzee.
Calling the February 2009 cartoon "quintessential political speech entitled to the strongest protections of the First Amendment," the newspaper in a court filing late Friday night also said the discussions were irrelevant to the lawsuit brought by Sandra Guzman, a former associate editor.
In November 2009, Guzman, who is black and Puerto Rican, sued the Post, its editor Col Allan (R-Not A Citizen) and its parent News Corp for alleged discrimination and harassment on the basis of race, gender and national origin, saying she had been fired in retaliation for complaints over inappropriate conduct.
She also claimed to have objected to the cartoon, which referred to the $787 billion federal economic stimulus and depicted a policeman shooting a crazed chimpanzee, a play on an actual incident in Connecticut. Many people thought the animal was meant to depict Obama, and Murdoch later apologized to readers.
Rupert
Surveillance Operation Draws Criticism
FDA
The Food and Drug Administration's secret monitoring of its staff raised hackles in Congress on Sunday after lawmakers learned their own offices were apparently targeted by the surveillance operation.
Six current and former FDA scientists and doctors filed a lawsuit in January claiming the agency tried to repress warnings about potential corruption in device reviews.
Documents detailing the surveillance operation suggest it was large-scale and that the FDA kept a list of targets including lawmakers and their aides, The New York Times reported on Sunday.
"It is absolutely unacceptable for the FDA to be spying on employees who reach out to members of Congress to expose abuses or wrongdoing in government agencies," said Representative Chris Van Hollen of Maryland.
Van Hollen, who is a member of the Democratic leadership in the House of Representatives, was named in the documents as a target, the paper reported.
FDA
Annoys Right-Wingers
Madonna
France's far-right National Front said Sunday that it plans to sue Madonna after the singer showed a video at a Paris concert that contained an image of the party's leader with a swastika on her forehead.
The video has been shown at other concerts on the singer's tour, and the party has expressed its outrage before, warning that it would take action if the video were shown in France. On Saturday night, Madonna played it at the Stade de France.
National Front spokesman Alain Vizier said Sunday that the party would file a complaint in French court next week for "insults."
Party leader Marine Le Pen is briefly pictured in the video during a montage in which famous faces - or parts of faces - morph one into the next. Soon after Le Pen's face flashes up, Madonna's face follows with Hitler's mustache.
Madonna
More Religious TV
Hollywood
The Church of Scientology, the religion whose followers include actors Tom Cruise and John Travolta, plans to start a religious broadcasting center to promote its teachings over TV, radio and the Internet.
The center, located near the church's West Coast headquarters inHollywood, would occupy the nearly five-acre studio property the church bought last year from Los Angeles public TV station KCET for $42 million. The station would elevate the public profile of a religion that has mostly relied on pamphlets and books by its founder, L. Ron Hubbard, to proselytize for new members.
"The church plans to establish a central media hub for our growing world network of churches and to move into the production of religious television and radio broadcasting," said Karin Pouw, a spokeswoman for Church of Scientology International, in an email.
Scientology TV could be similar to Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network or the Trinity Broadcast Network. Trinity creates Christian programming at a production center in Irving, Texas, and airs it on TV stations and cable channels, said Rick Ross, whose non-profit Rick A. Ross Institute in Trenton, New Jersey, maintains an online archive of data on cults and controversial movements.
Hollywood
Cannibal Cult Arrests
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea police have arrested members of an alleged cannibal cult accused of killing at least seven people, eating their brains raw and making soup from their penises, a report said Friday.
The 29 people, who appeared in court this week charged with murder and cannibalism, were part of a 1,000-strong group formed to combat errant sorcerers who The National newspaper said had begun charging exorbitant fees.
The cost of a witch doctor revealing a cause of death or casting out an evil spirit was usually 1,000 kina ($475) cash, plus a pig and a bag of rice, but some were also demanding sex as payment.
Locals determined to get revenge on the profiteering witch doctors sought their own supernatural training from village chiefs, using their "possessed" bush knives to hunt down and kill seven people since April, the report said.
"We ate their brains raw and took body parts such as livers, hearts, penis and others back to the hausman (traditional men's houses) for our chief trainers to create other powers for the members to use," one of those arrested said.
Papua New Guinea
Could Fly, But....
Batman
Holy crash landing Batman! The crime-fighting caped crusader could fly but if he did, he would smash into the ground and probably die, a group of British physics students have calculated.
Dashing the dreams of comic fans across the world, four students from the University of Leicester said that while Batman could glide using his cape as he does in the 2005 film "Batman Begins", his landing would almost certainly prove fatal.
In a paper titled "Trajectory of a falling Batman", the group argued that if he jumped from a 150-metre (492-foot) high building, the 4.7 meter (15-foot) wingspan of Batman's cape would allow him to glide 350 meters (1148 feet).
However, he would reach a speed of 68 miles per hour (109 km per hour) before hitting the ground at a life-threatening speed of 50 mph.
Batman
Discovered In Canada
Ancient 'New York City'
Today New York City is the Big Apple of the Northeast but new research reveals that 500 years ago, at a time when Europeans were just beginning to visit the New World, a settlement on the north shore of Lake Ontario, in Canada, was the biggest, most complex, cosmopolitan place in the region.
Occupied between roughly A.D. 1500 and 1530, the so-called Mantle site was settled by the Wendat (Huron). Excavations at the site, between 2003 and 2005, have uncovered its 98 longhouses, a palisade of three rows (a fence made of heavy wooden stakes and used for defense) and about 200,000 artifacts. Dozens of examples of art have been unearthed showing haunting human faces and depictions of animals, with analysis ongoing.
Scientists estimate between 1,500 and 1,800 individuals inhabited the site, whose fields encompassed a Manhattan-size area. To clothe themselves they would have needed 7,000 deer hides annually, something that would have required hunting about 26 miles (40 km) in every direction from the site, Williamson said.
Despite its massive size, the site remained hidden for hundreds of years, likely escaping detection because its longhouses were primarily made of wood, which doesn't preserve well.
Ancient 'New York City'
Highest Paid
Young Celebrities
Singer Taylor Swift edged out teen heart-throb Justin Bieber as the highest-earning celebrity under 30, taking in $57 million, as women dominated the top spots on a list released by Forbes.com on Thursday.
Bieber, who brought in an estimated $55 million, was the only male among the top five earners, who included Rihanna at No. 3 with $53 million, followed by Lady Gaga and Katy Perry.
"We are seeing a convergence of these talented women who know how to work the system," said Dorothy Pomerantz, the Los Angeles bureau chief for Forbes.
Kristen Stewart, who was the highest paid actress last year with an estimated $34.5 million in earnings, captured the No. 7 spot and was the only actress in the top 10.
Young Celebrities
Weekend Box Office
"Ice Age: Continental Drift"
With Batman lurking, the prehistoric critters of "Ice Age: Continental Drift" ran off with the box office, earning $46 million in their opening weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday.
The animated film from 20th Century Fox is the fourth in the "Ice Age" series and the first in 3-D. The North America performance of "Continental Drift" was on par with previous "Ice Age" movies but well below the opening weekend of the second installment, "The Meltdown," which opened with $68 million in 2006.
In its second week of release, "Spider-Man" earned $35 million, pushing it past $200 million domestically. It earned nearly $67 million overseas over the weekend, bringing its worldwide gross is now $521.4 million.
Seth MacFarlane's R-rated comedy hit, "Ted," which stars Mark Wahlberg and a talking teddy bear, added $22.1 million in its third week for a total of $159 million for Universal Pictures.
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. "Ice Age: Continental Drift," $46 million ($95 million internationally)
2. "The Amazing Spider-Man," $35 million ($66.6 million)
3. "Ted," $22.1 million.
4. "Brave," $10.7 million.
5. "Magic Mike," $9 million.
6. "Savages," $8.7 million.
7. "Tyler Perry's Madea's Witness Protection," $5.6 million.
8. "Katy Perry: Part of Me," $3.7 million.
9. "Moonrise Kingdom," $3.7 million.
10. "Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted," $3.5 million.
"Ice Age: Continental Drift"
In Memory
Celeste Holm
Celeste Holm, a versatile, bright-eyed blonde who soared to Broadway fame in "Oklahoma!" and won an Oscar in "Gentleman's Agreement" but whose last years were filled with financial difficulty and estrangement from her sons, died Sunday, a relative said. She was 95.
In a career that spanned more than half a century, Holm played everyone from Ado Annie - the girl who just can't say no in "Oklahoma!"- to a worldly theatrical agent in the 1991 comedy "I Hate Hamlet" to guest star turns on TV shows such as "Fantasy Island" and "Love Boat" to Bette Davis' best friend in "All About Eve."
She won the Academy Award in 1947 for best supporting actress for her performance in "Gentleman's Agreement" and received Oscar nominations for "Come to the Stable" (1949) and "All About Eve" (1950).
Ronald Reagan appointed her to a six-year term on the National Council on the Arts in 1982. In New York, she was active in the Save the Theatres Committee and was once arrested during a vigorous protest against the demolition of several theaters.
But late in her life she was in a bitter, multi-year family legal battle that pitted her two sons against her and her fifth husband - former waiter Basile, whom she married in 2004 and was more than 45 years her junior. The court fight over investments and inheritance wiped away much of her savings and left her dependent on Social Security. The actress and her sons no longer spoke, and she was sued for overdue maintenance and legal fees on her Manhattan apartment.
The future Broadway star was born in New York on April 29, 1917, the daughter of Norwegian-born Theodore Holm, who worked for the American branch of Lloyd's of London, and Jean Parke Holm, a painter and writer.
Her first Broadway success came in 1939 in the cast of William Saroyan's "The Time of Your Life." But it was her creation of the role of man-crazy Ado Annie Carnes in the Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II's musical "Oklahoma!" in 1943 that really impressed the critics.
Her well-known films included "The Tender Trap" and "High Society" but others were less memorable. "I made two movies I've never even seen," she told an interviewer in 1991.
In her early 70s, an interviewer asked if she had ever thought of retiring. "No. What for?" she replied. "If people retired, we wouldn't have had Laurence Olivier, Ralph Richardson, John Gielgud ... I think it's very important to hang on as long as we can."
In the 1990s, Holm and Gerald McRainey starred in the CBS's "Promised Land," a spinoff of "Touched by an Angel." In 1995, she joined such stars as Tony Randall and Jerry Stiller to lobby for state funding for the arts in Albany, N.Y. Her last big screen role was as Brendan Fraser's grandmother in the romance "Still Breathing."
Holm was married five times and is survived by two sons and three grandchildren. Her marriage in 1938 to director Ralph Nelson lasted a year but produced a son, Theodor Holm Nelson. In 1940, she married Francis Davies, an English auditor. In 1946, she married airline public relations executive A. Schuyler Dunning and they had a son, Daniel Dunning.
During her fourth marriage, to actor Robert Wesley Addy, whom she married in 1966, the two appeared together on stage when they could. In the mid-1960s, when neither had a project going, they put together a two-person show called "Interplay - An Evening of Theater-in-Concert" that toured the United States and was sent abroad by the State Department. Addy died in 1996.
Funeral arrangements for Holm were incomplete. The family is asking that any memorial donations be made to UNICEF, Arts Horizons or The Lillian Booth Actors Home of The Actors Fund in Englewood, N.J.
Celeste Holm
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