Recommended Reading
from Bruce
The impossible texting & driving test (YouTube)
More and more traffic accidents are due to texting. If we want to reduce the 1.2 million traffic victims worldwide each year, we have to act. How do you convince youngsters not to text while driving? Prove them it is a very bad idea: oblige them to text while driving! See how Belgian learner drivers reacted when they were told they had to pass the mobile phone test in order to get their driver's license.
Paul Krugman: Plutocracy, Paralysis, Perplexity (The New York Times)
Before the Great Recession, I would sometimes give public lectures in which I would talk about rising inequality, making the point that the concentration of income at the top had reached levels not seen since 1929. Often, someone in the audience would ask whether this meant that another depression was imminent. Well, whaddya know?
Paul Krugman: The 91 Percent Solution (New York Times)
… a top marginal tax rate of 91 percent, a third of the work force in unions, and a minimum wage much higher relative to the average wage than it is today. Propose a return to those conditions now, and everyone on the right would predict utter disaster. What we actually had was unprecedented prosperity.
Sahil Kapur: "Krugman: Obama May Lose Re-Election" (Talking Points Memo)
There may not be much President Obama can do to improve the economy between now and the election, but telling a clear story about why it remains weak could mean the difference between victory and defeat this November. Nobel Prize-winning economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman fears the Obama team is getting that critical narrative wrong.
Tommy Tomlinson: No one is hurt by gay marriage (Charlotte Observer)
A few weeks ago, House Speaker Thom Tillis (R-Cornelius) said something both sad and wise. He said he thought Amendment One will pass on May 8, but it'll be overturned 20 years from now because the next generation will be more tolerant of gay marriage. Tillis wasn't courageous enough to actually oppose the amendment - he voted to put it on the ballot - but he was brave enough to say out loud what seems obvious to me, and to anyone who looks at history.
James Fallows: 'Even Jimmy Carter' (Atlantic)
Mitt Romney informs us that the raid that took out Osama bin Laden one year ago was no big deal, because "even Jimmy Carter would have given that order." Grrrrr. … Jimmy Carter is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy who spent ten years in the uniformed service of his country. As far as I can tell, this is ten years more than the cumulative service of all members of the Romney clan.
America the Fixable (Atlantic)
A series of articles detailing possible solutions to definite problems.
Alexis Madrigal: "The Perfect Milk Machine: How Big Data Transformed the Dairy Industry" (Atlantic)
Dairy scientists are the Gregor Mendels of the genomics age, developing new methods for understanding the link between genes and living things, all while quadrupling the average cow's milk production since your parents were born.
Jeffrey Mirel and Simona Goldin: "Alone in the Classroom: Why Teachers Are Too Isolated" (Atlantic)
Educators spend most of their time distanced from their colleagues. Instead of forcing them to compete with each other, we should help them find new ways to work together.
Marjorie Perloff: Poetry on the Brink (Boston Review)
Reinventing the Lyric.
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."
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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
Marine layer burned off around noon.
Unites With NOW
Media Matters
"Start listening to Rush Limbaugh." That was the unexpected message representatives from Media Matters for America and the National Organization for Women delivered to NOW chapter leaders in a secret, narrowly focused strategy session Wednesday night.
In audio of the NOW/MMFA strategy webinar obtained exclusively by The Daily Caller, the liberal organizations plotted the best ways to get the radio giant and veritable burr in their collective saddles off the air.
The key, according to Media Matters online outreach director Jay Carmona, is to target Limbaugh at the local level - specifically advertisers in local radio markets - but with an eye on his national sponsors.
The catch, however, is that women who are active with NOW and the men who support them - whom Limbaugh often needles as the NAGs (National Association of Gals) and the "new castrati" - are actually going to have to listen to his radio show in order to identify and target those local advertisers.
Media Matters
TODAY
Free Comic Book Day
Buoyed by a pair of big budget superhero films this summer, retailers and publishers are poised to give away free comics at events aimed at building communities among long-time fans and at capturing new readers.
Free Comic Book Day is held annually on the first Saturday in May.
It is more than a marketing move by comic book publishers and retailers aimed at drumming up new readers. It's also become a chance for readers to find a sense of community with fellow fans who are blending the appeal of caped crusaders and arch-villains on screens with the printed page.
Free Comic Book Day
2012 Library of Congress Gershwin Prize
Bacharach-David
President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama will honor songwriters Burt Bacharach and Hal David, a duo whose pop melodies and lyrics regularly hit the charts in the 1960s and early 1970s despite competition from more socially revolutionary performers.
Bacharach and David on Wednesday will receive the 2012 Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. Obama has honored Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder with the prize.
Performers at the White House will include Sheryl Crow, Lyle Lovett and Diana Krall.
Bacharach-David
Bus Tour Brings Fake RI Town To Life
'Family Guy'
Quahog, R.I., the fictional hometown of Peter Griffin and his dysfunctional "Family Guy" relatives, is coming to life.
The show will meld with reality this weekend when a local tourism council sponsors an all-day bus tour highlighting the Rhode Island institutions featured - for better or worse - on the Fox network's hit series.
Fans will get to visit the bar in Johnston known as The Drunken Clam, a "Family Guy" neighborhood haunt, and drive past a downtown Providence skyscraper off which the often clueless, almost always politically incorrect character jumps in one episode because he's "immortal."
The show, created by Seth MacFarlane, who attended the Rhode Island School of Design, pretty accurately depicts a slew of real-life Rhode Island places, including the iconic Van Wickle Gates at Brown University and the Breakers mansion in Newport. It takes generous liberties with others.
'Family Guy'
Always A Class Act
Nugent
The rocker, hunter and political activist sat down with Jeff Glor in his first on-camera appearance since being interviewed by the Secret Service for comments about President Barack Obama made during recent a National Rifle Association meeting in St. Louis.
The cordial interview from Nugent's Texas ranch took a bizarre turn when Glor hinted that for Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney to win he'll need support from moderates. Nugent said he was not moderate and ...
"Call me," Nugent continued in a raised, irritated voice, "when you meet someone who does that more than I do. Because that's really moderate. In fact, you know what that is? That's extreme. ... I'm an extremely loving, passionate man, and people who investigate me honestly, without the baggage of political correctness, ascertain the conclusion that I'm a damned nice guy. ... And if you can find a screening process more powerful than that, I'll [expletive]. Or [expletive]. How's that sound?"
Glor explained later the second part of the tirade was directed to a female CBS producer who was off-camera.
Nugent blamed his energy on a kidney stone, which was removed right after the interview in an emergency room.
Nugent
Survivors Seek New Probe
Kent State
Survivors of the shooting of 13 students by the Ohio National Guard during an anti-war demonstration at Kent State University in 1970 called on Thursday for a new probe into the incident that came to define U.S. divisions over the Vietnam War.
Four students were killed and nine wounded in the shootings on May 4, 1970 that followed days of demonstrations on the campus after disclosures of a U.S.-led invasion of Cambodia that signaled a widening of the war in Southeast Asia.
On the eve of the 42nd anniversary of the shootings, four students wounded that day asked U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate digitally enhanced audio evidence they believe proves an officer ordered the guardsmen to fire on the unarmed students.
A command to fire has never been proven and guardsmen said they fired in self-defense. Criminal charges were brought against eight guardsmen, but a judge dismissed the case. Wounded students and families of those slain later received a total of $675,000 after civil lawsuits.
In 2010, Alan Canfora, one of the wounded students and director of the nonprofit Kent May 4 Center, asked the Justice Department to review the enhanced recording, which was taken 250 feet from the guardsmen when they fired their shots in 1970.
Canfora and other audio specialists say the enhanced recording shows a clear military order to fire seconds before the shooting. The troops fired 67 shots over 13 seconds.
Kent State
Gives $35 Million To Museum
Dinosaur
American industrialist David Koch (R-Greedy Bastard), a major supporter of conservative causes, said on Thursday his lifelong fascination with dinosaurs drove his $35 million donation to renovate the National Museum of Natural History's dinosaur hall.
The gift was the largest single donation in the Washington-based museum and research institution's 112-year history, the Smithsonian Institution said.
The current display on dinosaurs and paleontology has gone mostly unchanged for 30 years, and the Koch donation will cover most of the planned $45 million renovation, said Randall Kremer, a spokesman for the museum.
The Smithsonian Board of Regents agreed to name the updated 25,000-square-foot exhibition space after Koch. The museum already has the David H. Koch Hall of Human Origins, which opened in 2010.
Dinosaur
3 Employees Lose Jobs
NBC
Three employees of NBC or an NBC-owned television station have now lost their jobs because of editing changes to a call made to police by George Zimmerman on the night he shot Trayvon Martin.
Lilia Luciano, an NBC News correspondent based in Miami, is no longer working at the network, spokeswoman Amy Lynn said. Her departure came as a result of an investigation into her March 20 "Today" show report on the Martin case.
Each of the reports on either "Today" or NBC's Miami station WTVJ involve editing of Zimmerman's phone call to a dispatcher that emphasizes his identification of Martin as a black male. Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer in Sanford, Fla., is charged with second-degree murder in the death of 17-year-old Martin, a case that has increased racial tensions.
In the report involving Luciano, audio of the police phone call was edited to insert a reference to Martin's race that had been made later in the conversation.
Last month, an NBC News producer was fired in connection with a March 27 "Today" show report where a tape of the call was edited to suggest that Zimmerman volunteered to police that "this guy looks like he's up to no good. He's black."
NBC
Fox Changes Name Of Film
'Neighborhood Watch'
"Neighborhood Watch" will now be known as just "The Watch."
Fox said Friday that the name of the film starring Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn as suburban neighborhood watch volunteers who uncover an extraterrestrial plot was changed in light of the shooting of an unarmed black teenager in Florida.
"As the subject matter of this alien invasion comedy bears no relation whatsoever to the recent tragic events in Florida, the studio altered the title to avoid any accidental or unintended misimpression that it might," the studio said in a statement.
Fox previously pulled early promotional materials for the movie because of the Trayvon Martin case.
'Neighborhood Watch'
Discovery Offers New Insight
'The Little Prince'
Newly-discovered draft pages of Antoine de Saint-Exupery's "The Little Prince" - that may shed new, political insight on the classic book - have been put on display at a Paris auction house for the first time.
Following their surprise discovery in private hands two months ago in France, the handwritten pages about the young, curious prince who embarks on interplanetary adventures, will be auctioned off later this month after a rare public viewing.
"It's incredible. No one knew they even existed two months ago, and now someone can own them," auction specialist Benoit Puttemans said Thursday. "They're the only pages from 'The Little Prince' in the world apart from the manuscript in the New York (Morgan) library."
The text comprises of near unreadable, annotated writings on two translucent paper sheets, that, when put to the light both read "Fidelity Onion Skin" - the watermark on Saint-Exupery's signature paper.
The first page contains a piece of text that's partly retained in chapter 19 of the published work. But the second leaf of the work is completely original.
'The Little Prince'
Top 20
Concert Tours
The Top 20 Concert Tours ranks artists by average box office gross per city and includes the average ticket price for shows in North America. The previous week's ranking is in parentheses. The list is based on data provided to the trade publication Pollstar by concert promoters and venue managers.
1. (2) Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band; $2,031,105; $91.27.
2. (1) Cirque du Soleil - "Michael Jackson: The Immortal"; $1,964,316; $114.02.
3. (3) Elton John; $1,295,560; $115.62.
4. (4) Jason Aldean; $612,055; $44.34.
5. (6) The Black Keys; $585,650; $46.90.
6. (5) Brad Paisley; $575,452; $52.97.
7. (7) Lady Antebellum; $521,178; $48.74.
8. (8) Blake Shelton; $363,257; $47.81.
9. (9) Miranda Lambert; $351,353; $45.15.
10. (10) Jeff Dunham; $300,316; $44.70.
11. (11) Eric Church; $268,807; $35.21.
12. (12) Kelly Clarkson; $194,813; $55.72.
13. (15) "Mythbusters"; $171,648; $52.35.
14. (13) "Gigantour" / Megadeth; $170,897; $48.20.
15. (16) Rise Against; $163,621; $33.76.
16. (14) Rain - A Tribute To The Beatles; $152,933; $50.28.
17. (17) Peter Frampton; $131,036; $64.55.
18. (18) The Moody Blues; $129,298; $59.90.
19. (19) "Winter Jam" / Skillet; $127,436; $11.18.
20. (20) Casting Crowns; $126,485; $28.60.
Concert Tours
In Memory
Charles Higham
Celebrity biographer Charles Higham, who wrote about the lives of Lucille Ball, Errol Flynn, Katharine Hepburn, Howard Hughes and others, has died in Los Angeles at age 81.
Friend Todd McCarthy tells the Los Angeles Times that Higham died of an apparently heart attack April 21 at his Los Angeles home.
Higham was the author of dozens of biographies, many of them sensational tomes detailing political and sexual intrigue.
In 1980's "Errol Flynn: The Untold Story," Higham wrote that the matinee idol was a Nazi spy.
Flynn's ex-wife Nora Eddington Black denounced the allegation, writing the Times that Higham lacked documented proof.
Higham defended the book, but he told the New York Times that he had no documents saying Flynn was a Nazi agent.
Charles Higham
In Memory
Adam Yauch
Adam Yauch, the gravelly voiced Beastie Boys rapper and the most conscientious member of the seminal hip-hop group, has died. He was 47.
Yauch's representatives confirmed that the rapper died Friday morning in New York after a nearly three-year battle with cancer.
Also known as MCA, Yauch was diagnosed with a cancerous salivary gland in 2009. At the time, Yauch expressed hope it was "very treatable," but his illness caused the group to cancel shows and delayed the release of their 2011 album, "Hot Sauce Committee, Pt. 2."
He hadn't performed in public since 2009 and was absent when the Beastie Boys were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last month.
The Brooklyn-born Yauch created the Beastie Boys with high school friend Michael "Mike D" Diamond. Originally conceived as a hardcore punk group, it became a hip-hop trio soon after Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz joined. They released their chart-topping debut "Licensed to Ill" in 1986, a raucous album led by the anthem "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!)".
In the seven studio albums that followed, the Beastie Boys expanded considerably and grew more musically ambitious. Their follow-up, 1989's "Paul's Boutique," ended any suggestion that the group was a one-hit wonder. Extensive in its sampling and sonically layered, the album was ranked the 156th greatest album ever by Rolling Stone magazine in 2003.
The Beastie Boys would later take up their own instruments - a rarity in hip-hop - on the album "Check Your Head" and subsequent releases.
The trio of white Jewish kids established themselves as one of the most respected groups in hip-hop at a time when white rappers were few.
Yauch also went under the pseudonym Nathanial Hornblower when working as a filmmaker. He directed numerous videos for the group, as well as the 2006 concert film "Awesome: I F----- Shot That!" He also co-founded the film distribution company Osciolloscope Laboratories, named after his New York studio.
Yauch is survived by his wife, Dechen Wangdu, and his daughter, Tenzin Losel Yauch.
Adam Yauch
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