Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Pauli Poisuo: 5 Sneaky Moments in Adulthood No One Ever Sees Coming (Cracked)
#5. The Moment You Tell Your First Dad Joke
Paul Krugman: Who Wants a Depression? (NY Times)
"Sadomonetarism," the interests of the 0.01 percent and the politicization of economics.
Timothy Egan: Let 'Em Eat Dirt (NY Times)
Somehow, we've arrived at a moment when a kid playing by himself, Internet-free and helicopter-parentless, is a surprising thing. Huck Finn may be deep in the American DNA, but he's disappeared from the summer landscape, replaced by the boy in the bubble. No dirt, no unplanned moments, and no time for discovery.
Alexis Petridis: If Arctic Monkeys must avoid tax, they should do it in style (Cracked)
Rock stars should take a look at Robert Plant. He took time out at Led Zeppelin concerts to blame fans for his multimillionaire woes.
Alexis Petridis: "Quiz: What do these celebrities do for the UN?" (Guardian)
Emma Watson has joined the list of celebrities working for the UN. But do you know what roles Ronan Keating, Celine Dion and others already play?
Bud Cort: 'Harold and Maude was a blessing and a curse' (Guardian)
He freaked out audiences with a bizarre turn in Hal Ashby's tender romance, then vanished after studio rows, weirdo typecasting and a couple of car crashes. Alex Godfrey tracks down the star.
Deborah Blum: 4 Toxic Moments in History
It should have been a perfect murder. In 1850, Count Hyppolyte de Bocarmé and his wife, Countess Lydie, had a plan to kill her brother for his money. Their weapon: nicotine.
Game of Thrones, Season 4 - VFX making of reel (Vimeo)
"When you watch an episode of Game of Thrones the visual effects don't really leap out at you or appear too obvious, except for the intro and the dragons of course, but there are a surprisingly large number of visual effects peppered throughout the show, and without those visual effects Game of Thrones just wouldn't look right." - Neatorama
Adam Tod Brown: Why Robin Thicke Is the New Vanilla Ice (Cracked)
Robin Thicke's new album sold 54 copies in Australia last week. Stare at that number long and hard, just like Robin Thicke would want you to, ladies. It's way smaller than you thought it would be, huh? He did way better in the UK, though, where he sold 530 copies. Things aren't much better stateside, where sales dropped an astonishing 86 percent compared to his last album.
David Bruce's Amazon Author Page
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David Bruce has approximately 50 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
"Doug's Most Shared Facebook Post" Today
wrote:
took the day off.
has retired.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
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.
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
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Bit less humid.
Elon Musk Donation
Nikola Tesla
The billionaire owner of Tesla Motors is giving $1 million to a New York museum dedicated to preserving the legacy of the inventor who inspired its name.
The Tesla Science Center announced Elon Musk's donation on what would have been Nikola Tesla's 158th birthday.
The museum is being built on the 16-acre site of Tesla's Wardenclyffe laboratory in Shoreham, Long Island. The Serbian scientist began an unfinished project there to send messages and electricity around the world wirelessly.
Musk co-founded PayPal and also runs space contractor SpaceX. His donation comes after a request from Tesla fan and museum backer Matthew Inman of TheOatmeal.com.
Nikola Tesla
Comcast-TWC Merger
FCC
The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday opened up public comment on the proposed merger between Comcast and Time Warner Cable, which means that you have until August 25th to let the commission know your take on the deal. Comcast issued a press release shortly after public comments opened informing us that the deal will bring "considerable consumer benefits" to everyone without any loss of competition because, hey, it's not like Comcast and TWC ever bothered trying to compete with one another in the first place.
We suspect a lot of you feel differently about this merger, however, and might want to send the FCC a different message than the ones Comcast and TWC executives are sending. For those people, we've created a quick step-by-step guide for giving the FCC a piece of your mind.
For those of you who are simply opposed to the merger and don't care if the message you send to the FCC is copy-pasted, The Free Press has set up an online petition you can sign where you can ask the FCC to "take the necessary steps to block this merger."
If you'd like to send the FCC an individual filing, though, follow the steps found here.
FCC
Millions Swarm San Diego Surf
Anchovies
David Checkley studies fish for a living, and even he was at a loss for words when trying to describe swimming with millions of anchovies off the coast of San Diego Tuesday (July 8).
The school of fish measured about 50 feet (15 meters) wide and 325 feet (100 m) long, and could have contained anywhere from 1 million to 100 million fish, he said.
No one knows why the anchovies came so close to shore, Checkley said. The fish typically prefer cool water, and San Diego's surf hit 74 degrees Fahrenheit (23 degrees Celsius). Anchovy eat small zooplankton, and Checkley said it's unlikely they were searching for food close to shore. The sheer size of the group also means the fish would have quickly gobbled through any food, he added.
The Northern anchovy school was the largest group of anchovies ever seen offshore of La Jolla in the last 30 years, as far as scientists can determine. However, researchers with NOAA's Southwest Fisheries Science Center in La Jolla are also checking their archives for pictures of similar surfing anchovies.
Anchovies
Ruling Rankles Catholics
Louisiana
Catholics are decrying a recent Louisiana Supreme Court decision that reaches into the most sanctified of church places, the confessional booth.
The ruling revives a lawsuit that contends a priest should have reported allegations of sexual abuse disclosed to him during private confessions and opens the door for a judge to call the priest to testify about what he was told. The lawsuit was filed by parents of a teen who says she told the priest about being kissed and fondled by an adult church parishioner.
If the priest were called to testify, Catholic groups say it could leave him choosing between prison and excommunication.
Catholic groups and a national organization that tracks church sex abuse cases said Thursday they weren't aware of any other cases in which a priest has been compelled to discuss what's said during a confessional. The local Catholic diocese said that the ruling violates constitutional separations between church and state and it will seek U.S. Supreme Court intervention.
Louisiana
No Bar Fight
Jesse Ventura
Former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura testified Friday that he was not involved in a confrontation or fight with a military sniper who wrote in his book that he decked the former pro wrestler after an argument in 2006 at a California bar.
Ventura testified Friday in his defamation lawsuit against the estate of author Chris Kyle, a former U.S. Navy SEAL who was fatally shot last year at a Texas gun range. In his autobiography, Kyle had claimed he punched Ventura and knocked him over after Ventura made disparaging remarks about the SEALs.
Ventura told the jury he posed for pictures - some of which were shown in court - and signed autographs for younger SEALS in the bar that night, but he doesn't recall arguing with them and was not involved in a confrontation. He also said he doesn't recall seeing anyone else fight. He said he didn't know Kyle before that night and has no idea if Kyle was even there.
Kyle is regarded as the deadliest military sniper in U.S. history. In his bestselling autobiography, he included details about a 2006 incident in which he says he punched a guy he called "Scruff Face," later identified as Ventura, after the man allegedly said the SEALs "deserved to lose a few."
Ventura has said the story was made up so Kyle could gain notoriety for his book. Ventura claims it harmed his reputation, and now his attorneys are tasked with proving that Kyle's account about that night was false and that Kyle either knew it was false or recklessly disregarded the truth.
Jesse Ventura
Judge Rules Legislature Broke Laws
Florida
The Florida Legislature illegally drew the state's congressional districts to primarily benefit the Republican Party, a judge has ruled, and has ordered them redrawn.
Circuit Judge Terry Lewis said in a 41-page ruling Thursday that legislators relied on GOP political operatives who worked in secret to craft the final political maps adopted in 2012. In doing so Lewis rejected arguments from top legislative leaders that they had done nothing wrong during the process.
The ruling is not expected to disrupt this year's elections because the Legislature is expected to appeal the decision to the state Supreme Court. But ultimately the changes could affect the political careers of Florida's congressional delegation, which is currently dominated by Republicans.
The landmark decision comes in the first serious test of the "Fair Districts" amendments adopted by the state's voters in 2010. Those standards said legislators could no longer draw up districts to favor incumbents or a political party, a practice known as "gerrymandering."
Part of the evidence used by Lewis to make his decision was never presented publicly. It was kept secret because of legal challenges brought by one of the consultants involved. But Lewis said that evidence convinced him that the political operatives engaged in a "conspiracy to influence and manipulate the Legislature into a violation of its constitutional duty."
Florida
Sue Own Government
Korean 'Comfort Women'
Cho Myung-ja ran away from home as a teenager to escape a father who beat her, finding her way to the red light district in a South Korean town that hosts a large U.S. Army garrison.
After she escaped home in the early 1960s, her pimp sold her to one of the brothels allowed by the government to serve American soldiers.
On June 25, sixty-four years after the Korean War broke out, Cho joined 122 surviving comfort women, as they were called, in a lawsuit against their government to reclaim, they say, human dignity and proper compensation.
The suit comes as an embarrassing distraction for the South Korean government, which has pushed Japan to properly atone for what it says were World War Two atrocities including forcing women, many of them Korean, to serve as sex slaves for its soldiers.
The women claim the South Korean government trained them and worked with pimps to run a sex trade through the 1960s and 1970s for U.S. troops, encouraged women to work as prostitutes and violated their human rights.
Korean 'Comfort Women'
Poachers Killing Vultures To Hide Evidence
Africa
Poachers have killed so many vultures in southern Africa that at least four species now face the threat of extinction, according to a report issued last week by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and eleven other environmental organizations. The loss of the scavenging birds could speed the spread of diseases throughout the continent, the report warns.
Poachers don't target the vultures directly. Instead, they use cyanide and other poisons to kill the birds and hide evidence of their crimes. That's because park rangers and other law-enforcement officials use the sight of circling scavengers as an indication that an animal has died.
Investigating the birds could reveal evidence of a newly poached rhino, elephant or other animal. By poisoning the carcasses of slain animals-which the vultures consume - poachers hide their crimes, giving them more time to flee the scene, according to the report.
Poachers have poisoned nearly 1,500 vultures in southern Africa over the past two years, the report states. One of the worst cases occurred in Namibia last August when as many as 600 vultures died after feeding on a single poisoned elephant carcass.
The birds breed very slowly-usually raising only one chick a year-so each death can have a decades-long impact. Some species have seen population declines of 50 percent, while others have dropped by as much as 97 percent over the past 30 years.
Africa
Pipeline Spill
North Dakota
A pipeline has leaked 1 million gallons of oil drilling saltwater into the ground at a North Dakota Indian reservation, and some of the byproduct ended up in a bay that feeds the lake that provides the reservation's drinking water, company and tribal officials said.
Cleanup at the Fort Berthold reservation site continued Thursday, two days after the leak was discovered. It was expected to last for weeks, said Miranda Jones, the vice president of environmental safety and regulatory at Houston-based Crestwood Midstream Services Inc.
Jones said the leak at the underground pipeline, owned by Crestwood subsidiary Aero Pipeline LLC, likely started over the Fourth of July weekend. The pipeline was not equipped with a system that sends an alert when there is a leak, she said, and the spill was only discovered when the company was going through production loss reports.
An unknown amount of the fluid entered Bear Den Bay. That bay leads to Lake Sakakawea, which provides water for the reservation, occupied by the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara tribes in the heart of western North Dakota's booming oil patch. But company and tribal officials said the spill has been contained and has not affected the lake.
The number of saltwater spills in North Dakota has grown with the state's soaring oil production. North Dakota produced 25.5 million barrels of brine in 2012, the latest figures available. A barrel is 42 gallons. There were 141 pipeline leaks reported in North Dakota in 2012, 99 of which spilled about 8,000 barrels of saltwater. About 6,150 barrels of the spilled saltwater was recovered, state regulators said.
North Dakota
In Memory
John Seigenthaler
John Seigenthaler, the journalist who edited The Tennessean newspaper, helped shape USA Today and worked for civil rights during the John F. Kennedy administration, died Friday at his Nashville home at age 86, his son said.
In his wide-ranging career, Seigenthaler also served on Robert Kennedy's presidential campaign and founded the First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University in Nashville.
A statement from his son, broadcast journalist John Seigenthaler Jr., said his father died "peacefully at home," where he was recovering after a recent medical treatment.
Seigenthaler began his journalism career in 1949 as a cub reporter for The Nashville Tennessean. He worked as a reporter and assistant city editor until 1960, when he took a job as administrative assistant to Robert Kennedy, who became attorney general in 1961 during the presidency of his brother.
While working for Kennedy, Seigenthaler served as chief negotiator with the governor of Alabama during the 1961 Freedom Rides organized by civil rights activists seeking to integrate interstate buses. During that crisis, he was attacked and knocked unconscious by a mob of Klansmen in Montgomery, Alabama, as he tried to aid a young protester who was being pursued by the rioters.
"I never saw anything in my life. Never will ever again to compare with the violence on that parking lot at that Greyhound station," Seigenthaler told The Associated Press in an interview in January.
Back at The Tennessean, he added the title of publisher to his resume in 1973. And in 1989, he became chairman, publisher and chief executive officer.
Also in the 1980s, he became the first editorial director as the Gannett Co. launched USA Today. He held the post for almost a decade. Gannett also owns The Tennessean.
After he retired from The Tennessean in 1991, Seigenthaler founded the First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt. The mission of the center - an independent affiliate of the Arlington, Virginia-based Freedom Forum - is to create national discussion, dialogue and debate about First Amendment issues.
In July 2002, Vanderbilt named the First Amendment Center's building The John Seigenthaler Center. And in August 2001, the university created a scholarship for minority students in Seigenthaler's name after he gave Vanderbilt $2 million.
Seigenthaler worked in a variety of roles following his retirement. He served on the advisory boards of schools of journalism and communications at American University, the University of Tennessee and the University of Maryland.
He was among the first to raise questions about the accuracy of Wikipedia, writing an opinion piece about how he was defamed by a hoax biography posted on the site. The controversy led Wikipedia to change its procedures for posting content.
He is survived by his wife, the former Dolores Watson, a professional singer, and their son, John Jr. The younger Seigenthaler is a former weekend anchor for NBC News in New York and joined Al Jazeera America in 2013.
John Seigenthaler
In Memory
Charlie Haden
Bassist Charlie Haden, who helped change the shape of jazz more than a half-century ago as a member of Ornette Coleman's groundbreaking quartet and liberated the bass from its traditional rhythm section role, died Friday in Los Angeles. He was 76.
Haden's wife of 30 years, singer Ruth Cameron, and his four children were by his side when he died after a prolonged illness, said publicist Tina Pelikan of ECM Records.
Haden's career was marked by the triumph of beauty over suffering. He turned to the bass after losing his singing voice to polio as a teenager when he was performing with the Haden Family country band.
The onset of post-polio syndrome in late 2010 forced him to stop performing publicly, although he played at home to his favorite recordings as well as with visiting musician friends such as guitarist Pat Metheny and pianist Alan Broadbent.
During his career, Haden's lyrical bass playing could be heard in a broad range of musical genres, ranging from jazz to country to world music.
"I want to take people away from the ugliness and sadness around us every day and bring beautiful, deep music to as many people as I can," Haden said in a 2013 interview The Associated Press shortly before receiving a Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award.
At the time, the Recording Academy cited Haden as "an all-American jazz musician best known for his signature lyrical bass lines and his ability to liberate the bassist from an accompanying role."
The Grammy recognition - as well as being named a Jazz Master in 2012 by the National Endowment for the Arts - was a far cry from the reception Haden received in the late 1950s as a member of Coleman's revolutionary quartet.
The quartet's 1959-60 engagement at New York's Five Spot club was one of the seminal moments in jazz history as musicians heatedly debated this new music dubbed "free jazz" that challenged the bop establishment by liberating musicians to freely improvise off of the melody rather than the underlying chord changes.
Haden found a kindred spirit in Coleman, whom he met after relocating to Los Angeles in 1957. The quartet - with trumpeter Don Cherry and drummer Billy Higgins - released the aptly named album "The Shape of Jazz to Come" in 1959.
But even as a member of Coleman's quartet, Haden drew on the harmonies and melodies he learned playing country music as a child.
Haden saw the common link between jazz and country - both are poor people's music related to "the struggle for independence, identity and to be recognized," he said in a 2009 AP interview following the release of his first country album, "Rambling Boy" on which he returned to his roots, playing songs by the Carter Family and other traditional country musicians.
He recorded the 2009 album with his wife, son Josh, triplet daughters, Rachel, Petra and Tanya, and son-in-law, actor Jack Black - as well as Elvis Costello, Vince Gill and Rosanne Cash.
Haden was born on Aug. 6, 1937, in Shenandoah, Iowa, and soon began performing with his parents and siblings as the youngest member of the Haden Family band, which had its own radio show and was popular on the Midwest country circuit.
But polio weakened his vocal cords and ended his singing career at age 15, leading him to focus on the bass. He became interested in jazz after hearing Charlie Parker perform with Jazz at the Philharmonic, and headed to Los Angeles to study music and began performing with such local musicians as pianist Hampton Hawes and saxophonist Art Pepper before meeting Coleman.
After making a series of groundbreaking recordings with Coleman's band, including the double quartet "Free Jazz" in 1961, Haden collaborated with pianist-composer Carla Bley to form the Liberation Music Orchestra in 1969, which blended experimental big band jazz with world folk music, including songs of the Spanish Civil War.
He formed the Los Angeles-based Quartet West - with saxophonist Ernie Watts, pianist-arranger Broadbent and drummer Larance Marable - that played more mainstream, bop-oriented tunes, inspired by the film noir world of the 1940s.
Haden was a three-time Grammy winner - receiving a best jazz instrumental performance award for his 1997 album with Metheny "Beyond the Missouri Sky" and best Latin jazz album honours for "Nocturne" (2001) and "Land of the Sun" (2004) with Cuban pianist Gonazalo Rubalcaba.
Haden founded the jazz studies program at the California Institute of the Arts in 1982 in which he emphasized the spirituality of improvisation.
Charlie Haden
In Memory
Dave Legeno
David Legeno, the British MMA star and movie actor best known as Harry Potter's lycanthrope nemesis Fenrir Greyback, is dead following a desert hiking outing. He was 50.
His remains were found by two unrelated hikers early Sunday morning "in a remote wash" near Death Valley's famed Zabriskie Point, according to a statement Friday from the Inyo County Sheriff's Department.
Officials say Legeno apparently died of "heat-related issues" and there were no signs of foul play. The Inyo County coroner is performing an autopsy to determine the official cause of death.
A former bouncer, with experience in wrestling and boxing, Legeno took up professional mixed-martial arts at age 42 and adopted the ring name of The Enforcer.
He parlayed his fighting skills and imposing body into a movie career, landing bit parts as tough guys in such films as Guy Ritchie's Snatch (2000) and Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins (2005) before scoring the Potter role, which stretched over the franchise's final three films.
Greyback, the vicious Voldemort-following werewolf, first terrorized Hogwarts in 2009's Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince before being defeated by Ron Weasley and Neville Longbottom in the climactic battle of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2.
Legeno, whose credits also included Elizabeth: The Golden Age and Snow White and the Huntsman, is survived by a daughter.
Dave Legeno
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