Recommended Reading
from Bruce
The Truth About Amsterdam (youtube.com)
By a guy from the Netherlands.
Bill O'Reilly is a Complete Idiot (politicalirony.com)
Is he really this stupid? Really?
TRAVIS R. WRIGHT: It ain't anger! (metrotimes.com)
The infuriated Lewis Black is only telling the truth. Just ask him.
Tom Danehy: When it comes to these items in the news, Tom gets confused
Some things I just don't understand ...
A woman in Sierra Vista was convicted of stealing $3,500 from a Buena High School student account. She was sentenced to three years in prison.
NFL player Donté Stallworth (with the lame-ass apostrophe) consumed four giant tequila drinks at a Miami nightclub, became way past legally drunk, got in his SUV, and ran down and killed a 57-year-old man. Stallworth served 24 days in jail.
Please explain that to me.
Garrison Keillor: The art of summer fun
Last week, we got several perfect days in a row in St. Paul -- fresh and sweet in the morning, afternoons balmy, and evenings you could sit outdoors until midnight and talk extravagantly about life as you did when you were 25. St. Paul was perfect, and so of course one felt the urge to get out of town.
"Golden Dreams: California in an Age of Abundance, 1950-1963 (Americans and the California Dream)" by Kevin Starr: A review by Benjamin Schwarz
It was a magnificent run. From the end of the Second World War to the mid-1960s, California consolidated its position as an economic and technological colossus and emerged as the country's dominant political, social, and cultural trendsetter. Thanks to wartime and Cold War defense spending, a flourishing consumer economy, and a seemingly ever-expanding tax base, the state was at the forefront of the single greatest rise in prosperity in American history.
"The Beats: A Graphic History" by Harvey Pekar: A review by Richard Meltzer
Written principally by Harvey Pekar, Mr. Graphic Splendor himself, and edited by some Ivy League academic, it contains more factual errors than any prior Beat book of comparable length. ... Doesn't anyone fact-check anymore? As if such hokum weren't enough, the graphics really pile on the embarrassment. ... What a cheesy, pointless book.
Martha Woodall: "iPhone iconoclast: Teen whiz shakes up Apple's world (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
As a baby, Ari Weinstein was mesmerized by light switches. By 2, he had mastered the family TV, stereo, and VCR and soon was taking apart mechanical toys. At 6, he disassembled an old computer, reassembled it, and rejoiced when it still worked.
John Letzing: What's to become of Microsoft's answer to the iPod? (MarketWatch)
Microsoft Corp.'s quarterly earnings report last week featured a number of grim statistics, including a relatively overlooked, albeit steep decline related to its Zune portable media player-potentially adding more uncertainty to the embattled product's future.
Ten things I can't live without (guardian.co.uk)
We all surround ourselves with too many possessions, but couldn't we get rid of most of them? Leo Hickman pares back.
ALASTAIR MACAULAY: Merce Cunningham, Dance Visionary, Dies (nytimes.com)
Merce Cunningham, the revolutionary American choreographer, died Sunday night at his home in Manhattan. He was 90.
EMILY BOBROW: REMEMBERING MERCE (moreintelligentlife.com)
It would be hard to overestimate Merce Cunningham's contribution to the world of dance.
Howard Reich: Herbie Hancock & Lang Lang: breaking musical barriers (Chicago Tribune)
The walls separating jazz, classical and pop music have been weakening for years, but they're about to be dealt another blow.
Omar Kholeif: Gaga for Fame (popmatters.com)
Recently dubbed the new "princess of Pop," 'Rolling Stone' has said that Lady Gaga is on the verge of being the "defining Pop Star of the year," and earlier offered her the cover of the coveted annual Hot List Edition.
The Weekly Poll
Current Question
The 'Resistance is Futile' Edition
Sunday, on Meet the Press, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said of Iran..."We believe as a matter of policy it is unacceptable for Iran to have nuclear weapons... So we are united in our continuing commitment to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons... First, we're going to do everything we can to prevent you from ever getting a nuclear weapon. But your pursuit is futile, because we will never let Iran--nuclear-armed"...
Do you think Obama would use the military option to prevent a nuclear armed Iran?
Send your response to
answered:
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny but cooler.
Plagiarism Problem
Journal Retraction
A scientific journal has retracted a controversial paper claiming to have created the first human sperm from embryonic stem cells.
The journal's editor told the science publication Nature that the study by scientists at Britain's Newcastle University was retracted because two paragraphs in its introduction had been plagiarized.
Newcastle University blamed the plagiarism on a research associate who has left the institution, and said the science behind the research, and its conclusions, were not in question.
Graham Parker, editor of Stem Cells and Development, said on the journal's Web site that the sperm study "is being retracted," without explaining why. But the scientific journal Nature quoted him as saying that half of the introduction paragraphs were plagiarized from a 2007 review in the journal Biology of Reproduction.
Journal Retraction
2 New Pieces
Mozart
The huge musical puzzle that is Mozart is about to be expanded by two potentially important pieces.
More than two centuries after his death, two additional works have recently been identified as being composed by the Austrian master. While the pieces might have been played before, Sunday will be the first time they will be performed as compositions of the popular prodigy.
The venue is Salzburg, Amadeus' birthplace and the city that nurtured his early musical career. The International Mozarteum Foundation will officially present the piano pieces at a hotly awaited event that will feature a live performance by Austrian pianist Florian Birsak.
Officials, protecting the works like state secrets after officially announcing their discovery last week, have said only that they were created by a young Mozart and are contained in a manuscript owned by the Mozarteum for more than 100 years.
Mozart
Times Mid-Movie Bathroom Breaks
RunPee.com
The mid-movie dash to the restroom can turn us into calculating Hussein Bolt wannabes: Ah, this looks like a lull - time to dash.
When we return to our seats, we pray the answer to "What did I miss?" isn't "Darth Vader is really Luke's father" or "the girlfriend is really a guy."
The Web site RunPee.com can help with such anxious guess work.
The site provides recommended opportunities to race to the restroom. It tells you when the action or romance wanes, and gives you a cue ("Baby O.J. is taken from Bruno") for your exit.
The site tells you how long you've got and even summarizes what you missed. Since early July, RunPee.com is available as an iPhone app, too.
RunPee.com
Guard Queen Elizabeth II
Sikh Soldiers
Queen Elizabeth II has switched bearskin hats for turbans outside Buckingham Palace, where Sikh soldiers have begun guarding the monarch and her treasures, Britain's defense ministry said Friday.
Signaler Simranjit Singh and Lance Cpl. Sarvjit Singh are the first Sikhs to take part in patrols outside the queen's residence and to stand watch over the Crown jewels at the Tower of London across town.
Guard duties are usually carried out by the Guards of Household Division, famed for their bearskin hats and crimson coats that attract picture-taking tourists in their thousands. The ministry said the Sikh soldiers instead wore turbans and blue uniforms.
Other army regiments often help carry out guard duties at Britain's Buckingham Palace when the Household Division is on operations. The ministry said the two soldiers are the first of the 90 Sikhs in Britain's army to be handed the task.
Sikhs routinely guarded Queen Victoria - a colonial ruler of India. At the time of World War I, Sikhs formed about 20 percent of the British army, but numbers dwindled following India's independence.
Sikh Soldiers
Sued Over Kindle Deletion
Amazon
A high school student is suing Amazon.com Inc. for deleting an e-book he purchased for the Kindle reader, saying his electronic notes were bollixed, too.
Amazon CEO Jeffrey P. Bezos has apologized to Kindle customers for remotely removing copies of the George Orwell novels "1984" and "Animal Farm" from their e-reader devices. The company did so after learning the electronic editions were pirated, and it gave buyers automatic refunds. But Amazon did it without prior notice.
The lawsuit seeking class-action status was filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Seattle on behalf of Justin D. Gawronski, 17, a student at Eisenhower High School in Shelby Township, Mich., as well as Antoine J. Bruguier, an adult reader in Milpitas, Calif.
The lawsuit said Amazon never disclosed to customers that it "possessed the technological ability or right to remotely delete digital content purchased through the Kindle Store."
Amazon
LAPD Donation
AEG
The people who staged Michael Jackson's memorial service have donated $90,000 to build a tribute to fallen Los Angeles police officers.
Anschutz Entertainment Group, which owns Staples Center in Los Angeles, donated money received from the sale of 18 luxury suites to guests at the July 7 Jackson memorial.
The company says the decision to donate the money was made before a dispute developed over city funds spent to provide security and other services during the memorial.
Karen Wagener, president of the Los Angeles Police Foundation, says it will be used to help fund a $620,000 memorial - a brass wall expected to be unveiled in September at the site of a new downtown police headquarters.
AEG
Mexico Shuts Beach
Cancun
Surprised tourists found their little piece of Cancun beach paradise ringed by crime-scene tape and gun-toting sailors on Thursday.
Environmental enforcement officers backed by Mexican navy personnel closed off hundreds of feet (dozens of meters) of powder-white coastline in front of a hotel accused of illegally accumulating sand on its beach.
Mexico spent $19 million to replace Cancun beaches washed away by Hurricane Wilma in 2005. But much of the sand pumped from the sea floor has since washed away, leading some property owners to build breakwaters in a bid to retain sand. The practice often merely shifts sand loss to beaches below the breakwaters.
"Today we made the decision to close this stretch of ill-gotten, illegally accumulated sand," said Patricio Patron, Mexico's attorney general for environmental protection. "This hotel was telling its tourists: 'Come here, I have sand ... the other hotels don't, because I stole it.'"
Cancun
$22,500 Per Song
Downloading
A Boston University student has been ordered to pay $675,000 to four record labels for illegally downloading and sharing music.
Joel Tenenbaum, of Providence, R.I., admitted he downloaded and distributed 30 songs. The only issue for the jury to decide was how much in damages to award the record labels.
Under federal law, the recording companies were entitled to $750 to $30,000 per infringement. But the law allows as much as $150,000 per track if the jury finds the infringements were wilful. The maximum jurors could have awarded in Tenenbaum's case was $4.5 million.
Last month, a federal jury in Minneapolis ruled a Minnesota woman must pay nearly $2 million for copyright infringement.
Downloading
Charged With Multiple Felonies
Police Chiefs
Two Ohio police chiefs accused of snooping on the surrogate mother for actors Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick were charged with several felonies on Friday.
Special prosecutor T. Shawn Hervey said the men conspired to take items from the woman's eastern Ohio home to sell to celebrity photographers.
At an arraignment Friday, Martins Ferry Police Chief Barry Carpenter was charged with two counts of burglary, one count of receiving stolen property, one count of theft in office, one count of unauthorized use of property or services and one count of tampering with evidence.
Bridgeport Police Chief Chad Dojack, 30, was charged with two counts of complicity to burglary and one count of complicity to receiving stolen property.
Police Chiefs
In Memory
Harvey Frand
Harvey Frand, an Emmy-winning producer who was the "man behind the curtain" on the Syfy hit "Battlestar Galactica," died July 23 in Los Angeles after a brief hospitalization for respiratory problems. He was 68.
Frand's series-producing career began in 1982 with "The Devlin Connection," Rock Hudson's final series. Other credits include 34 episodes of the 1985-89 version of "The Twilight Zone," "The Lazarus Man," "The Pretender" and "Strange World." He produced more than 20 pilots and movies of the week.
A native of Philadelphia, Frand began in television at NBC News. Later, as an executive at Warner Bros., he oversaw production on "Harry O," the 1973 series starring David Janssen. Frand went to San Diego to check in with the company and, because there was no on-site producer, stayed to work with the cast and crew. After that, he was hooked on the role of producer.
Frand also produced the 1974-75 Broadway revival of Tennessee Williams' "Sweet Bird of Youth" starring Christopher Walken and Irene Worth, who won a best actress Tony for her performance.
Frand is survived by Bill Bowersock, his domestic partner of 32 years. In lieu of flowers, donations in his name can be made to the Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles' Alive Music Project.
Harvey Frand
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