Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: The Piketty Panic (NY Times)
New scholarship by the French economist is a bona fide phenomenon, and the right is terrified.
Jessica Valenti: When you call a rape anything but rape, you are just making excuses for rapists (Guardian)
From college campuses to Game of Thrones, why the sudden urge to re-name sexual assault?
Ian Ury, Ryan Menezes: 5 Iconic Pop Culture Moments That Weren't in the Original (Cracked)
#5. The Iconic "Always Be Closing" Speech from Glengarry Glen Ross
Paul Laity: Pelican books take flight again (Guardian)
As the non-fiction Penguin imprint relaunches, Paul Laity tells the story of the blue-spined books that inspired generations of self-improvers - and transformed the publishing world.
Couch Gag from "What To Expect When Bart's Expecting" (YouTube)
Take a journey into Homer's brain and push the boundaries of animation. Directed by Michael Socha.
Rebecca Onion: Taking Rube Goldberg Seriously (Slate)
What fictional inventions say about American ingenuity.
Rebecca Schuman: How a "Failed Intellectual" Became One of the Internet's Favorite Nihilists (Slate)
And yet for all Jarosinski's Wisconsin politeness in person, just the other day he admonished me, and 66,000 of my best friends: "Hate yourself like nobody's looking. They're not."
Rebecca Schuman: Needs Improvement (Slate)
Student evaluations of professors aren't just biased and absurd-they don't even work.
Ria Misra: How To Read Terry Pratchett's Discworld Series, In One Handy Chart (io9)
Figuring out just where to start Terry Pratchett's sprawling, character-dense Discworld series can be a little daunting. Fortunately this chart, lets you figure out just how to follow your favorite storylines and characters as they move from book to book.
David Bruce's Amazon Author Page
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David Bruce has approximately 50 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
wrote:
, took the day off.
responded:
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
DAvid E Suggests
Oil
David
Thanks, Dave!
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Reader Suggestion
Re: George Clooney
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
Mostly sunny day and a windy, rainy night.
"Gentlemen's Agreement"
Silicon Valley
Google, Apple, Intel and Adobe Systems have settled a class-action lawsuit alleging they conspired to prevent their engineers and other highly sought technology workers from getting better job offers from one another.
The agreement announced Thursday averts a Silicon Valley trial that threatened to expose the tactics deployed by billionaire executives such as late Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs and former Google Inc. CEO Eric Schmidt to corral less affluent employees working on a variety of products and online services. Had they lost, the companies also faced the prospect of paying as much as $9 billion.
The trial had been scheduled to begin May 27 in San Jose, Calif.
Terms of the settlement aren't being revealed yet. Those details will be provided in documents that will be filed in court by May 27, according to Kelly Dermody, an attorney representing the workers who contended they were cheated out of bigger paychecks.
The 3-year-old case revolves around a "gentlemen's agreement" that the companies forged to retain employees. Internal emails excavated during the pre-trial proceedings showed Google, Apple and other major technology employers agreed not to recruit each other's workers to help protect their own interests.
Silicon Valley
Releasing Condors in California
Yurok
Yurok tribal tradition holds the California condor as sacred, with ancient stories saying the giant birds fly closest to the sun and are the best messengers to carry prayers.
Now, after five years of research, the far northern California-based tribe has received permission to release captive-bred condors into the Redwood Coast, where the giant bird hasn't soared for more than a century.
Yurok officials signed a memorandum of understanding last month with state and federal agencies and a condor conservation group, allowing for test releases as a final assessment of whether the region can support the endangered birds.
The first releases could come in the next one to three years, tribal biologist Chris West said. Meetings will begin in July to work out protocols and select a release site.
Yurok
Jackson Changes Name Of Trilogy Finale
'Hobbit'
The final installment of the blockbuster "Hobbit" film trilogy has been given a new name, director Peter Jackson announced on Thursday.
The movie was to have been released this year under the title, "The Hobbit: There and Back Again," but has been re-named "The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies," the New Zealand filmmaker said on his Facebook page.
It is due for release in America on December 17, bringing to a climax the story started in 2012's "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" and last year's "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug."
"There and Back Again" was the subtitle of the classic epic fantasy book by J.R.R. Tolkien, published in 1937. It was followed in the mid 1950s by the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, which Jackson also made into a blockbuster franchise, before the "Hobbit" films.
'Hobbit'
Ups GMO Ante
Vermont
Vermont has raised the stakes in the debate over genetically modified foods by becoming the first state to pass a bill requiring that they be labeled as such in the grocery aisle, making the move despite the opposition of the powerful U.S. food industry.
Americans overwhelmingly favor such requirements for foods containing genetically modified organisms, but the industry fears a patchwork of state policies. The Vermont bill says genetically modified foods "potentially pose risks to health, safety, agriculture, and the environment" and includes $1.5 million for implementation and defense against lawsuits expected from the food and biotech industries.
The national Grocery Manufacturers Association, the food industry's main trade group, said it's evaluating how to respond. Options could include a legal challenge, labeling only foods that are sold in Vermont or making a wholesale change nationwide to avoid multiple labeling systems.
A national New York Times poll in January 2013 found that 93 percent of respondents said foods containing GMOs should be labeled. Twenty-nine other states have proposed bills recently to require GMO labeling, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
More than 60 countries require such labeling, according to the Vermont Right to Know campaign.
Vermont
Looking For Uncle Sugar
NRA
Several potential Republican contenders for president will court gun-rights supporters at the NRA's annual convention Friday.
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum are set to speak at the convention's leadership forum, a kind of political pep rally and strategy meeting the NRA considers one of its premier events of the year.
They'll be speaking to thousands of NRA members at a time when the gun lobby is arguably stronger than ever. And each possible 2016 candidate is expected to highlight his own role in pushing back gun-control measures.
Addressing the same forum in 2013, Santorum thanked the crowd for fighting back when "freedom was under assault" following Sandy Hook. That's when gun-control efforts, including background checks for all gun purchasers and a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, were defeated in Congress.
An Associated Press-GfK poll in December found that 52 percent of Americans favored stricter gun laws, 31 percent wanted them left as they were, and 15 percent said they should be loosened.
NRA
Search Warrants Extend
Overseas Email
Internet service providers must turn over customer emails and other digital content sought by U.S. government search warrants even when the information is stored overseas, a federal judge ruled on Friday.
In what appears to be the first court decision addressing the issue, U.S. Magistrate Judge James Francis in New York said Internet service providers such as Microsoft Corp or Google Inc cannot refuse to turn over customer information and emails stored in other countries when issued a valid search warrant from U.S. law enforcement agencies.
If U.S. agencies were required to coordinate efforts with foreign governments to secure such information, Francis said, "the burden on the government would be substantial, and law enforcement efforts would be seriously impeded."
The ruling underscores the debate over privacy and technology that has intensified since the disclosures by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden about secret U.S. government efforts to collect huge amounts of consumer data around the world.
Overseas Email
Denies Fluffing Rahm
CNN
A public records request that revealed more than 700 emails between between the producers of CNN's Chicagoland series and the office of mayor Rahm Emanuel's office showcase a cozy relationship.
On Friday, The Chicago Tribune published a report detailing those close ties while CNN issued a statement denying that the Chicago mayor's office had "editorial control" over the content of the series.
Emails obtained and highlighted by the Tribune show director Marc Levin writing to a senior advisor to the mayor: "Our need for deeper access -- a real, honest look behind closed doors -- is not born of a desire to expose the mayor's weaknesses, but instead to show the best of who he really is and what he's doing."
On Jan. 19, The Hollywood Reporter reported that William Morris Endeavor, which represented series directors Levin and Mark Benjamin, had recused itself from the show in order to sidestep a conflict of interest. Rahm Emanuel is the brother of WME co-CEO Ari Emanuel.
CNN
Gay Veteran Denied
Idaho
Madelynn Taylor, 74, served six years in the United States Navy. When she passes away, she says, she wants to be buried with the ashes of her late wife, Jean Mixner, in the Idaho State Veterans Cemetery.
But there's a problem. Because gay marriage isn't recognized in Idaho, Taylor's wish has been denied, even though the cemetery allows opposite-sex spouses to be buried or interred with veterans, KBOI.com reports.
"I'm not surprised," Taylor said to KBOI.com. "I've been discriminated against for 70 years, and they might as well discriminate against me in death as well as life.
"I don't see where the ashes of a couple old lesbians is going to hurt anyone," she continued. The couple were first married in 1995 and then legally married again in California in 2008. Mixner died in 2012.
"I could take the same documents and get buried in Arlington if I needed to, with no problems," Taylor told KHOU.com. "But here they said it's a state veterans cemetery, not a national cemetery. So we have to go by the state laws. So, we gotta change the state laws."
Idaho
Expelling US Military Group
Ecuador
Ecuador's government has ordered everyone in the U.S. Embassy's military group, about 20 Defense Department employees, to leave the country by month's end, The Associated Press has learned.
The group was ordered to halt operations in Ecuador in a letter dated April 7, embassy spokesman Jeffrey Weinshenker said Thursday.
The expulsion does not affect the embassy's U.S. military attache, said an American official, who insisted on not being quoted by name because he was not authorized to disclose the information. He said Friday that the group's members had not yet left the country.
President Rafael Correa publicly complained in January that Washington had too many military officers in Ecuador, claiming there were 50, and said they had been "infiltrated in all sectors." At the time, he said he planned to order some to leave.
Ecuador
Made Medal Before War Began
Russia
Who would have thought that one of the more controversial details to emerge from the annexation of Crimea would come from a simple medal presentation for "heroes"?
Reports first emerged on the Facebook page of Volodimir Prosin, a historian and journalist from the Luhansk region of Ukraine, showing photographs and documents about a medal being awarded by the Russian government to former Ukrainians. On one side of the silver medallion is a raised image of the outline of the Crimean peninsula. The controversy, though, is on the flipside of the coin.
On that side, there's an emblem of the Russian Federation's ministry of defense. Below that, this inscription: "For the return of Crimea 20.02.14 - 03.18.14."
Yet how could the dates of Crimea's "liberation" have begun on February 20th?
An image of the medal was quickly removed from the Russian defense ministry's website after the ceremony on March 25, but the damage was done. How could Crimea have been "liberated" in an operation beginning on February 20, the day on which a bloody assault against the Maidan protesters began in Kiev, killing nearly 100 people? Even more perplexing is that Viktor Yanukovych was still officially the president of Ukraine and Crimea on February 20. So how could this operation have begun on that day, while he was still president-or more importantly, why?
Russia
Why Sean Hannity Can't Win a Media Feud
Jon Stewart
Other than the not-inconsequential egos of cable-news personalities, it's hard to see Fox News' end game in its recent tit-for-tat squabbles with "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart
Stewart has had a field day lampooning Hannity's support of renegade rancher Cliven Bundy, which prompted Hannity to shoot back with his customary guilt-by-association approach, slamming Stewart for bringing the singer Yusuf Islam to his "Rally to Restore Sanity."
But that's where "The Daily Show's" crack research team ensures that these kinds of exchanges aren't really a fair fight. Because not only was Stewart able to retaliate with his own you-associate-with-crazy-musicians clip - putting Hannity together with Ted Nugent - but then a litany of Hannity segments that appear to expose his righteous indignation as partisan hackery, his commitment to principle dictated by whose ox is getting gored in any particular situation.
As with any host who stakes out sides as vigorously as Hannity does, the tale of the tape is not always his friend - riddled with contradictions that, as Stewart noted, betray his "blind partisan impulses." And while these sorts of media feuds ostensibly benefit both parties - scoring points with their respective bases - in this case, Hannity is simply preaching to a choir that surely dismisses Stewart for his liberalism every bit as much as Hannity does, while Stewart is painting a broader, more damning portrait of Fox News hypocrisy for a younger audience that almost surely sees Hannity only when his more out-there moments earn him exposure on Stewart's (or Stephen Colbert's) program.
Jon Stewart
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