Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Suzanne Moore: Working-class kids shouldn't have to be more middle class to 'fit in' (Guardian)
Wanna get on in life? Then welcome to Class Makeover, where we take an able but sadly working-class person and teach them how to feel comfortable in middle-class environments. You need to "fit in" because, ultimately, success is about appearing middle class. Or you will frighten the ponies.
Alison Flood: Neil Gaiman rounds on fans after Jonathan Ross withdraws from Hugo awards (Guardian)
Neil Gaiman has said that he is "seriously disappointed" at the way science fiction fans reacted to the news that Jonathan Ross was - for a brief moment - going to host the Hugos, an invitation which the Sandman author had passed on to the chat show host.
Stuart Heritage: Jennifer Lawrence, the star who can't stand up for falling down (Guardian)
Not content with falling up the stairs at the 2013 Oscars awards, this year Jennifer Lawrence tumbled to the ground as soon as she arrived.
David Renshaw: "Mø: from punk activist to pop star" (Guardian)
Danish singer Mø has ditched her DIY days for a whole new sound - but that doesn't mean she's selling out. She talks about rightwing politics, the fear of missing out and youth malaise.
Couch Gag for The Simpsons "Diggs" by Sylvain Chomet (YouTube)
Sylvain Chomet did The Triplets of Belleville and The Illusionist.
Meredith Woerner: First trailer for Sin City 2 is all sex, sex, murder, sex, car, sex (io9)
The very first trailer for Sin City: A Dame to Kill For is chockablock full of all the great things that reside in Sin City. Sexy dancing, sexy sexin, gambling, fist fighting, bruises, sexy ladies, and people looking pissed off in the front seats of cars. Here we go again!
Adam Todd Brown: 4 Celebrities Who Got Blacklisted for Doing the Right Thing (Cracked)
#4. Brian Dunkleman Rejects American Idol, Gets Treated Like One Anyway
Kevin Wang: Air marshal accused of taking upskirt pictures of passengers (CNN)
A witness spotted 28-year-old Adam Bartsch, who was on duty, taking pictures with his cell phone underneath women's dresses, police said. The witness grabbed Bartsch's phone and notified a Southwest Airlines flight attendant, a police report said.
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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
Sad, sad day.
Honorary Degree From Berklee
Harry Belafonte
Boston's Berklee College of Music has presented an honorary doctor of music degree to singer, songwriter and activist Harry Belafonte.
The entertainer was honoured Thursday night during a concert in his honour. He playfully stuck out his tongue upon receiving the degree.
Berklee students and faculty performed the celebration of Belafonte's life and music, from "Banana Boat Song" to "We are the World."
Belafonte was a confidante of Martin Luther King Jr. during the civil rights movement. In the 1980s he helped start the USA for Africa project to fight hunger, and also pushed for an end to apartheid in South Africa.
Harry Belafonte
Half Lean Democratic
Millennials
Most of America's young adults are single, don't go to church and while half say they have no loyalty to a political party, when pushed they tend to swing further left politically than those before them.
A new Pew Research Center survey out Friday showed that half of America's young adults, ages 18 to 33, consider themselves political independents, identifying with neither party. But asked which way they lean politically, half of the so-called millennials say they lean toward the Democratic Party, the highest share for any age group over the last decade.
In addition, young adults seem to be turning away from their predecessors' proclivity for religion and marriage. Almost two-thirds don't classify themselves as "a religious person." And when it comes to tying the knot: Only about 1 in 4 millennials is married. Almost half of baby boomers were married at that age.
When the self-identified Democratic millennials are combined with the self-described independents who lean Democratic, half - 50 percent - of the millennials are Democrats or Democratic-leaning while 34 percent are Republicans or Republican-leaning.
"They don't choose to identify, but they have strong views and their views are views that most people conventionally associate with the Democratic Party," Taylor said. "They believe in a big activist government on some of the social issues of the day - gay marriage, marijuana legalization, immigration. Their views are much more aligned with the Democratic Party."
Millennials
Star on Hollywood Walk O'Fame
Ray Parker Jr.
Ray Parker Jr.'s resume boasts several decades worth of work as a top-drawer studio musician, songwriter, producer and R&B hitmaker as a solo artist and a member of Raydio, yet he will forever be best known for his theme song to Ivan Reitman's 1984 "Ghostbusters," a song he threw together in a matter of hours, which went on to top the Billboard singles chart for three straight weeks. But for Parker, who receives a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on March 6, randomness is almost par for course.
"A lot of things in life happened by accident and I think a lot of the best things that have happened to me definitely did," Parker says.
Of course, long before he made "Who you gonna call?" an international catchphrase, Parker, who'll be 60 in May, was one of the first names on the Motown call sheet as a studio guitarist. At age 13, he played his first gigs at Detroit's legendary 20 Grand club, backing up the likes of the Spinners, the Temptations and Gladys Knight. He cut his first studio session - at the behest of legendary Motown songwriting team Holland-Dozier-Holland - at 16. And by 18, he was playing with Stevie Wonder on a national tour with the Rolling Stones.
Parker's stock as a studio player rose further when he moved to California, sleeping at Lamont Dozier's house and later following him from Motown to Hot Wax Records, where he played on his first No. 1 track, Honey Cone's "Want Ads."
Ray Parker Jr.
NY Auction
'Holy Grail Of Guitars'
The "holy grail of guitars" is among the hundreds of rare and vintage acoustic guitars going on the auction block in New York next month.
California collector Hank Risan is offering some of his musical instruments for auction by Guernsey's on April 2 and April 3. The 265 pieces from his collection are considered among the finest of vintage guitars to come to auction in terms of rarity, original construction and condition, the auction house says.
The earliest instrument in Risan's collection dates to 1840; the newest is a 2000 re-creation of a 1930 Martin masterpiece, an OM-45 Deluxe. Both the re-creation and the original will be in the auction.
"The OM-45 Deluxe is the holy grail of guitars," Guernsey's President Arlan Ettinger said. Only 14 were ever made.
Among other highlights are a 1900 Manuel Ramirez Flamenco and a 1939 D'Angelico New Yorker.
'Holy Grail Of Guitars'
Sees Media As Enemy
NRA
The head of the powerful US gun lobby railed against American media Thursday, saying it was biased and lying about the heated debate on regulating weapons.
"One of America's greatest threats is the national news media that fails to provide a level playing field for the truth," NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre (R-Too Mentally Ill For Military Service) told an annual conference of conservatives just outside Washington.
Congress failed to pass a hotly contested gun control law last year, despite a series of recent mass shootings that shocked the nation.
LaPierre, whose group counts about five million members, said the media "hate us, just for saying out loud and sticking up for what we believe, as if we had no right."
NRA
"Hell and Heaven Metal Fest"
Mexico
A Mexican state's decision to cancel a two-day heavy metal concert with top bands like Kiss, Twisted Sister and Guns 'N Roses is drawing fire from fans and organizers, who say they suspect that political motives, corruption or discrimination are behind the move.
The Mexico state government says the March 15-16 "Hell and Heaven Metal Fest" concert planned for a fairground just east of Mexico City did not have adequate safety plans, posing a risk to concert-goers. The web pages of all three of the metal bands still showed the concert on their tour schedules.
The state sent about 300 riot police to surround the fairgrounds Friday in the township of Texcoco. The state civil defense office, and its federal counterpart, said in a statement that it had cancelled the organizers' plans "for 70,000 to 80,000 people and 50 musical groups, because safety conditions for potential concert-goers were not ensured." It cited a lack of fire safety and evacuation plans, and inadequate planning for fireworks.
But concert organizers noted that the same fairgrounds are used each year for the Texcoco International Horse Fair, which is essentially a big concert drawing crowds nearly as large, with groups that perform songs directly related to violence, like narco corridos, which celebrate the exploits of drug cartel leaders.
Mexico
Asked To End Partnership With Barbie
Girl Scouts
America's top doll, Barbie, finds herself in controversy once again, this time over a business partnership between her manufacturer, Mattel, and the Girl Scouts.
On Thursday, two consumer advocacy groups often critical of corporate advertising tactics - the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood and the Center for a New American Dream - criticized Barbie as a flawed role model for little girls and launched a petition drive urging the Girl Scouts of the USA to end the partnership. The Girls Scouts said they would not do so.
Just a few weeks ago, Mattel incurred widespread criticism - as well as some accolades - for letting Barbie be featured in Sports Illustrated's annual swimsuit edition.
The Girl Scouts' partnership with Mattel, announced last August, includes a Barbie-themed activity book, a website, and a Barbie participation patch - the first Girl Scout uniform patch with corporate sponsorship.
Girl Scouts
Ground Refreezes at Shrinking Lakes
Alaska
Alaska's bushy willows can temporarily counteract some of the effects of climate change in one of the world's most quickly warming places, researchers have discovered.
Bushwhacking through dense willow thickets, with branches that tear flesh and conceal marauding bears and moose, is a rite of passage for cross-country trekkers in Alaska. At Alaska's shrinking Twelvemile Lake, the heavy shade provided by willows growing on the lake's newly exposed margins chills the ground enough for new permafrost to form, researchers have discovered. However, modeling of the conditions that encourage new permafrost growth suggests the icy ground will only last another 70 years because of global warming, according to the study, published Feb. 14 in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
Twelvemile Lake is one of millions of lakes that pepper Alaska's permafrost. (Permafrost is soil with ice that stays frozen for more than two years.) Some of these lakes are shrinking, while others are expanding, according to analyses of satellite images and aerial photos snapped since the 1950s. Earlier studies suggest that melting permafrost plays a role in the shifting lake sizes. For example, lakes may drain away when the shallow permafrost below them thaws, like opening the drain in a tub. But where permafrost is thicker and melts more slowly, lakes may grow as the melting ice adds to their extent.
Twelvemile Lake isn't the only disappearing Arctic lake where scientists have seen new permafrost appear, but the phenomenon is more common farther north, where almost all the ground is frozen solid. In central Alaska, where the permafrost is patchy and discontinuous, the reasons for new ice were less clear.
Alaska
Letter Home Deciphered
Ancient Egyptian Soldier
A newly deciphered letter home dating back around 1,800 years reveals the pleas of a young Egyptian soldier named Aurelius Polion who was serving, probably as a volunteer, in a Roman legion in Europe.
In the letter, written mainly in Greek, Polion tells his family that he is desperate to hear from them and that he is going to request leave to make the long journey home to see them.
Addressed to his mother (a bread seller), sister and brother, part of it reads: "I pray that you are in good health night and day, and I always make obeisance before all the gods on your behalf. I do not cease writing to you, but you do not have me in mind," it reads.
Polion says he has written six letters to his family without response, suggesting some sort of family tensions.
The letter was found outside a temple in the Egyptian town of Tebtunis more than a century ago by an archaeological expedition led by Bernard Grenfell and Arthur Hunt. They found numerous papyri in the town and did not have time to translate all of them.
Ancient Egyptian Soldier
In Memory
Sheila MacRae
Sheila MacRae , a veteran stage, film and TV performer best known for playing Alice Kramden in the 1960s re-creation of "The Honeymooners," has died. She was 92.
The actress died Thursday at the Lillian Booth Actors Home in Englewood, N.J., MacRae's granddaughter, Allison Mullavey, told The Associated Press on Friday.
"She had a great life, my mom, she really did. She was quite a broad," said her daughter, actress Heather MacRae. "Fascinating, almost like an Autie Mame character."
A singer, dancer and actress, MacRae was married to "Oklahoma!" and "Carousel" star Gordon MacRae for 26 years, and they appeared together in 1964 on "The Ed Sullivan Show" when the Beatles were featured.
"My mother referred to herself as the last Mrs. Kramden," Heather MacRae said.
After her divorce from Gordon MacRae, she was married to Ronald Wayne, who produced Gleason's show, her daughter said. They later divorced.
Sheila MacRae played the role of Madelyn Richmond on the soap opera "General Hospital" and was host of "The Sheila MacRae Show."
A native of London, England, Sheila MacRae emigrated to America with her parents during World War II.
Survivors include children Heather and William "Gar" MacRae, six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Daughter Meredith died in 2000 and son Robert in 2010, Heather MacRae said.
Sheila MacRae
In Memory
Bartcop
Way back in the dewy early days of the Internet, back when it was still the World Wide Web and people actually prefaced a website address by saying "W-W-W", there were not many places that were readily available to rage against the machine, indulge in the growing art that came to be known as 'snark', and generally vent at the world.
For some there were bulletin boards or listservs, where like-minded people congregated and traded stories and quips and information that was gleaned from between the lines of what eventually became known as the 'Mainstream Media.' Speaking for myself, a cheery group of us lived daily on Salon's Table Talk, which you might say became the training ground for more than a few "somewhat popular bloggers."
And then there was Bartcop.com.
Bartcop was a snarky, no-holds barred, riotous - at times mean-spirited, but never untruthful - oasis of hilarity and vitriol, where politicians and a compliant media were called out for their bullshit. Along with Media Whores Online ('The Horse"), no journalist was ever again safe from having their stories fact-checked online and then held up to ridicule.
Bartcop was the brainchild of Terry R. Coppage, based out of his beloved and sometimes mocked Tulsa, Oklahoma home. Terry was fearless in a way that other media critics couldn't be for a simple reason: he wasn't angling to move up the fawning beltway food chain with a guest spot at The Washington Post. He didn't pull punches and he called bullshit for what it was: "bullshit."
The site was crude, the graphics sometimes even cruder (I have a special place in my heart for his animated gif of Tim Russert repeating "Clinton's cock" over and over and over again), but most importantly it dispensed with the niceties with a wicked grin with a well-placed deflating shiv between the ribs.
Terry Coppage, "Bartcop," passed away this past Wednesday due to complications from the flu, pneumonia, and leukemia at the age of 60.
Before Terry passed away he wrote a last post to go up in the event of his passing or inability to write again. You can read it here.
Terry left behind a wife with a mortgage and medical bills that she can't handle. He asked, after years of giving it away for free on Bartcop, for his readers to help her out with donations in this time of sorrow and need.
We here at Raw Story, and speaking personally for myself, encourage everyone to help her out to the best of your ability.
Without Terry "Bartcop" Coppage, many of us never would have started the blogs and websites and even moved up the Beltway food chains if it weren't for him showing us the way. What you're reading here is because of him.
Terry Coppage was a pioneer, and he will be greatly missed…
BartCop
The BRAD BLOG : In Memoriam: Terry 'BartCop' Coppage
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