Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Alex Godfrey: "Ice Cube: 'My son could recite Straight Outta Compton at two years old'" (Guardian)
The actor-rapper on his new film, Ride Along, the progress of the NWA biopic and how the old righteous fury still burns brightly.
David Erlich: "Jim Jarmusch: 'Women are my leaders'" (Guardian)
His new film, Only Lovers Left Alive, is a great romance between two vampires unanswerable to time. But Jarmusch doesn't want to live for ever - unless it's with Tilda Swinton or Patti Smith.
Peter Bradshaw: Nymphomaniac (Volumes 1 and 2) - review (Guardian)
An appealing odd-couple relationship is at the heart of this heartfelt study of sex addiction with few of the director's usual provocations.
Vonnegut's The Shapes of Stories: All Stories Ever Told Can Be Described in These 8 Simple Graphs (Neatorama)
In 1947, Kurt Vonnegut, then an anthropology student at the University of Chicago, wanted to write a master's thesis about how basically how every story ever told in history can be described. Vonnegut has a theory that every story basically belong to one of eight archetypal "shapes."
JENNIFER BOWEN HICKS: THE RUMPUS INTERVIEW WITH NANETTE VONNEGUT (The Rumpus)
The demons gave him the impetus. I do think people are born with the seed of genius, and it either gets worked or it doesn't. Probably his experiences [in WWII] gave him the impetus to create. Everything he wrote about stemmed from that.
Chris Connolly: 10 Gloriously Underhanded Sports Tactics
Basketball Hall of Famer Rick Barry epitomizes success in underhanded athletics. Immune to charges of "looking goofy" and "being a big sissy," Barry shot his free throws literally underhanded, using a cringingly uncool style that involved holding the ball in both hands and swinging it between his legs before lobbing it at the basket. But the technique was as successful as out was dorky. Barry retired in 1980 with a combined ABA/NBA average of 89.3 percent at the free-throw line - the best in history.
David Christopher Bell: 4 More B.S. News Stories That Clogged Your Facebook Feed (Cracked)
It turns out that the study by the Budget Office didn't conclude that Obamacare was "cutting" anything, but rather creating less need for people to hold down full-time jobs. However, "You May Be Able to Retire Earlier" doesn't sound quite as clickable as "ANTICHRIST DESTROYS U.S. ECONOMY," so we can see why sites would go with the latter option.
David Bruce's Amazon Author Page
David Bruce's Smashwords Page
David Bruce's Blog
David Bruce's Lulu Storefront
David Bruce's Apple iBookstore
David Bruce has approximately 50 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
wrote:
said:
answered:
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and warm.
Tipped Website Still Fell For Kimmel Prank
ABC
ABC News received advance warning of Jimmy Kimmel's prank about a wolf supposedly prowling the athletes' village in Sochi but didn't steer other news organizations away from it, the network said Friday. The talk show host's hoax was so realistic that despite the tip, even one of his own network's news websites posted a story suggesting the report was real.
Kimmel posted, through USA luger Kate Hansen's Twitter account, a video that depicted a wolf walking in the hallway outside of Hansen's Sochi dorm room. It was nearly 24 hours before Kimmel revealed it was a joke, shot with a rented wolf on a Los Angeles soundstage constructed to look exactly like the hallway outside Hansen's room.
ABC's entertainment division had no immediate comment on whether Kimmel sought approval in advance for the prank, or if anyone questioned whether it was a good idea. The comic has a history of trying to fool the media; last year, he staged a clip of a woman apparently set afire while twerking and posted it online, where news organizations jumped on the story.
An ABC News executive tipped in advance about the Hansen hoax alerted some of the network's shows to stay away from the story, but the word didn't spread widely enough. A network website posted a story for an hour assuming the wandering wolf was real before it was taken down, said ABC News spokesman Jeffrey Schneider.
Because it was an off-the-record tip, ABC News didn't feel it could report the story before Kimmel revealed it, and didn't believe it had a responsibility to warn other news organizations that they could be disseminating false information, he said.
ABC
Record Use For Military Families
Food Stamps
Military families, military retirees and others with shopping privileges on military bases redeemed nearly $104 million worth of food stamps at commissaries in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30. That's a 5 percent increase from 2012 and the highest it's ever been.
According to CNN Money, food stamp usage at military commissaries has more than tripled since the Great Recession in 2008.
That outpaces the growth in food stamp use by the general population, says CBS MoneyWatch.
"I'm amazed, but there's a very real need," Thomas Greer told CNN. Greer is a spokesman for Operation Homefront, a nonprofit that provides financial and emergency assistance to some of the country's lowest-paid service members.
Greer said that in 2013, Operation Homefront received 2,968 emergency requests for food help, nearly three times the number in 2008.
Congress recently cut funding for the food stamp program -- which impacts military and civilian families. Meanwhile, Military Times reports that the Pentagon is considering raising prices at commissaries.
Food Stamps
Steve Jobs, Snoopy, John Lennon
US Stamps
Steve Jobs, Snoopy, John Lennon and gay rights icon Harvey Milk will likely soon share a distinct American honor: their own US postage stamps.
Well, Snoopy will probably have to share the spotlight with Charlie Brown and the rest of the cast of the popular Peanuts comic, according to a secret planning document obtained by the Washington Post.
But it's the British Beatles icon John Lennon who will cause the real stir among stamp collectors: US postage stamps are only supposed to feature Americans. Which is perhaps the reason why a date has not yet been set for the stamp's release.
Which perhaps explains why Sesame Street and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer made the list of stamps set to be released in 2014 and 2015.
There will also be stamps to attract baby boomers featuring 1970's musical icons Janice Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and James Brown along with late talk show king Johnny Carson.
US Stamps
Location. Location. Location.
Girl Scout
Just about everyone loves Girl Scout Cookies. And one 13-year-old girl came out up with an ingenious strategy to significantly boost her sales: setting up shop outside a San Francisco medical marijuana dispensary.
In a major surprise to no one, it was a huge hit, with Danielle Lei selling 117 boxes in just two hours.
Danielle's mother Carol said she supervised the sale on Monday and that it was the second time she's allowed her two daughters to sell their Girl Scout Cookies outside of a Green Cross establishment.
"You put it in terms that they may understand," Carol said in an interview with Mashable, who first reported the story. "I'm not condoning it, I'm not saying go out in the streets and take marijuana [...] It also adds a little bit of cool factor. I can be a cool parent for a little bit."
Girl Scout
White House Bars Media From Meeting
Dalai Lama
The White House defended its decision Friday to bar reporters and photojournalists from a meeting between President Barack Obama and the Dalai Lama, while acknowledging the news media's legitimate interest in covering the two leaders' encounter.
Obama's meeting with the Dalai Lama drew harsh criticism from China even before the meeting took place, and the White House appeared to be taking steps to keep it low-key to avoid further aggravating Beijing. Obama hosted the Dalai Lama in the White House's Map Room, rather than the Oval Office, where the president traditionally brings a visiting leader for a photo.
At the same time, after declining media requests to photograph the meeting, the White House released its own photograph of the meeting produced by an official government photographer.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said he understood the media's interest in covering the meeting with the Dalai Lama, a prominent world figure. But he said the decision not to allow access was consistent with past meetings Obama has held with the Buddhist monk.
He added that it was the Dalai Lama's choice to depart the White House without speaking to reporters who had gathered in anticipation that he might make some remarks.
Dalai Lama
Ex-Editor Testifies
Rupert
Rebekah Brooks, the former editor of Britain's News of the World tabloid, laid bare her "car-crash" private life in emotional testimony Friday in her phone hacking trial.
The former editor of Rupert Murdoch's now-defunct Sunday newspaper spoke of her difficulties becoming a mother during her "roller-coaster" first marriage, and her affair with Andy Coulson, her former deputy, who is standing trial alongside her.
Giving evidence for a second day in the trial at the Old Bailey court in London, Brooks talked about royal stings and the huge deals for exclusives with celebrities such as football icon David Beckham.
Brooks edited Britain's biggest-selling newspaper between 2000 and 2003, before running its daily sister title The Sun until 2009.
The 45-year-old appeared close to tears and asked for a break as she began talking about her fertility treatment, which was halted by the flurry of work around the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Rupert
AMC Denies Lawsuit Over 'Walking Dead' Profits
Frank Darabont
AMC Networks has filed a 10-page response to the lawsuit initiated in December by Frank Darabont over profits and payments related to "The Walking Dead."
AMC flatly denies the allegations of self-dealing that are at the heart of Darabont's suit, filed in New York's State Supreme Court in December.
Darabont maintained that AMC improperly limited his profit participation in the series because it is also the production entity on the zombie drama that has become a runaway hit for the cabler. Darabont's suit maintains AMC pays a less than market rate to license the show, which he developed for the cabler but was dismissed from after its first season.
AMC's response, which is dry in comparison to the dramatic narrative sketched out in Darabont's complaint, asks the court to dismiss the suit and asks that plaintiffs cover its legal fees.
Frank Darabont
Books Vandalized In Tokyo Public Libraries
Anne Frank
Anne Frank's "The Diary of a Young Girl" and scores of books about the young Holocaust victim have been vandalized in Tokyo public libraries since earlier this year.
The damage was mostly in the form of dozens of ripped pages in the books. Librarians have counted at least 265 damaged books at 31 municipal libraries since the end of January.
Japan and Nazi Germany were allies in World War II, and though Holocaust denial has occurred in Japan at times, the motive for damaging the Anne Frank books is unclear. Police are investigating.
In the Nakano district libraries, the vandals apparently damaged the books while unnoticed inside reading rooms, according to city official Mitsujiro Ikeda.
At least one library has moved Anne Frank-related books behind the counter for protection, though they can still be checked out.
Anne Frank
US Ban
Bidis
US regulators Friday banned the sale and import of small cigarettes known as bidis made by an Indian company, their first such action since being given oversight of tobacco products in 2009.
Bidis are small, hand-rolled cigarettes that contain tobacco wrapped in leaves from a tendu tree, and may come in various flavors.
The move by the US Food and Drug Administration applies to four varieties made by Jash International, which an agency spokeswoman described to AFP as an Indian company with headquarters in Illinois.
The ban came about because the products were found to be substantially different from existing tobacco products on the market as of 2007, and did not meet new regulatory requirements, the FDA said.
The order applies to Sutra Bidis Red, Sutra Bidis Menthol, Sutra Bidis Red Cone, and Sutra Bidis Menthol Cone.
Bidis
Stolen Near Moab
Dinosaur Track
A three-toed dinosaur track has vanished from public lands in Utah, and Bureau of Land Management officials are looking for help recovering the fossil.
Someone chiseled the track of a theropod (a family of meat-eating dinosaurs that included T. rex) out of the ground on a Jeep trail near Moab called Hell's Revenge. The spot is known for its smattering of about 20 dinosaur tracks daing back 190 million years.
"They're priceless to us," said Rebecca Hunt-Foster, a paleontologist at the BLM field office in Moab. "You can't replace them."
The BLM became aware of the theft on Tuesday night, when a local outfitter who gave tours of the area noticed a triangular slab of rock about 1 foot long and 3 feet wide (30 by 90 centimeters) missing.
Dinosaur Track
Sightings Considered an 'Omen'
Giant Squid
Giant squid were once the stuff of sea monster legend.
With their eyes (the biggest in the animal kingdom) and tentacles (they're more predatory than previously believed), these sea-dwelling creatures eluded humans for centuries, making their first cameo just two years ago. Now, giant squid are turning up with regularity off the Japanese coast. And like Captain Ahab before him, one Japanese fisherman suspects something fishy: It must be "some kind of omen."
Such was the concern of Shigenori Goto, who "had seen no giant squid before in [his] 15-year fishing career." Two weeks ago, he caught a 13-footer at Sadogashima Island.
The strange occurrences began earlier this year. A giant squid was caught in a stationary net near Sadogashima Island; another was found in a similar situation in the town of Iwami a few days later. Then, on Jan. 19, tentacles-presumably from a giant squid-washed up off the shore of Kashiwazaki, another coastal city.
Giant Squid
In Memory
Garrick Utley
Veteran TV journalist Garrick Utley, whose far-ranging career included anchoring duties as well as reporting from more than 70 countries, has died of cancer at 74, NBC said Friday.
Utley began at NBC News in 1963, and for three decades handled a wide variety of assignments. Early on, he reported from Vietnam on the escalating conflict. In later years, he moderated "Meet the Press."
In between, Utley anchored "Weekend Today" and the Sunday "Nightly News," as well as two different newsmagazines in two different decades with four different titles.
"I may have been the only person at NBC News who did every type of programming as host or anchor," he told The Associated Press in 1993, adding that his versatility may have led to the network taking him for granted. "There's a risk in being the utility infielder."
That was shortly after he had left NBC to be the chief foreign correspondent for ABC News. He reported for CNN from 1997 to 2002.
In recent years, he was a senior fellow and professor of broadcasting and journalism at the State University of New York, Oswego.
In 2000, he published a memoir, "You Should Have Been Here Yesterday: A Life Story in Television News."
Standing a lanky 6-foot-6, Utley was known for his courtly and knowledgeable on-the-air manner. An opera buff, for a time he hosted PBS' "Live From the Met."
Born in Chicago in 1939, Utley was the son of Clifton and Frayn Utley, two pioneering journalists on local TV as well as other Chicago media outlets.
He is survived by his wife, Gertje, an art historian.
Garrick Utley
| CURRENT MOON lunar phases |
