Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: Secret Deficit Lovers (NY Times)
What if they balanced the budget and nobody knew or cared? O.K., the federal budget hasn't actually been balanced. But the Congressional Budget Office has tallied up the totals for fiscal 2014, which ran through the end of September, and reports that the deficit plunge of the past several years continues. You still hear politicians ranting about "trillion dollar deficits," but last year's deficit was less than half-a-trillion dollars - or, a more meaningful number, just 2.8 percent of G.D.P. - and it's still falling.
Hadley Freeman: "Jason Bateman: 'My dirty secret? Playing the straight man. Because he gets to be in every scene'" (Guardian)
He was a child star who went off the rails in his 20s and was saved by his role in Arrested Development. Now Jason Bateman is one of Hollywood's top comedy actors - and incredibly nice with it.
John Patterson: "Will Arnett: 'I'm done with super-dumb'" (Guardian)
The Arrested Development star has spent a decade perfecting cocky, clueless idiots. This year, he's made two movies that have taken $500m and are, he says, more grounded in the real world. Even if they do star Lego men and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Peter Bradshaw: The Maze Runner review - jog on (One Star; Guardian)
Celibate chiselled YAs in awful future dystopia battle to prove they are exceptional and divergent. Again.
John Patterson: The Maze Runner and the blight of 'Young Adult' movies (Guardian)
The latest movie franchise to pander to teenagers' sense of anguish is a weak new entry into an already overcrowded genre.
Christina H: 5 Weird Things That Apparently Make You Cool Now (Guardian)
I've never been cool in my life. A lot of people claim this about themselves, but what they really mean is that they weren't part of the stereotypical popular crowd -- cheerleaders, sports stars, party people, taking the drugs, having the sex.
Joey White: 14 Moms Confess the Weirdest Things Their Kids Have Ever Said or Done (Twenty-Two Words)
When comedians Shayna Ferm and Tracey Tee became moms, they didn't quit comedy, but their material definitely changed. The duo started a monthly show in Denver called The Pump and Dump where they commiserate with other moms about the daily ups and downs of parenting.
David Bruce: Birthday On The Beach (YouTube)
Filmed at La Guayunga Hostel in Quito, Ecuador. Special Thanks to everyone at Guayunga Hostel. David Bruce is not the guy who writes "From Bruce."
David Bruce: Free Spirit Video (YouTube)
David Bruce's Amazon Author Page
David Bruce's Smashwords Page
David Bruce's Blog
David Bruce's Lulu Storefront
David Bruce's Apple iBookstore
David Bruce has approximately 50 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
wrote:
took the day off.
is semi-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.
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
Sunny with a nice breeze.
Apologized For Coverage
Keith Olbermann
Keith Olbermann, a liberal television host whose MSNBC show focused in 1998 on President Bill Clinton's affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, once apologized to Clinton for his coverage, according to documents released on Friday.
Olbermann sought the president's forgiveness for "whatever part I may have played in perpetuating this ceaseless coverage," according to a White House email describing his apology.
The email was included in a new batch of previously unreleased Clinton administration documents that was made public by the Clinton Presidential Library.
"I'll be heading back to my previous career in sports as quickly as possible," added the commentator, whose career has shifted several times between political television and sportscasting jobs.
In response, a White House aide suggested at the time that Clinton should send Olbermann the standard thank-you note for public correspondence.
Keith Olbermann
Misogynist CEO
Microsoft
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella apologized Thursday night and said he was wrong for saying that women don't need to ask for a raise and should just trust the system to pay them well.
Nadella was blasted on Twitter and in blog posts for his comments, which were made earlier Thursday at an event for women in computing. Tech companies hire many more men than women. And beyond the tech industry, women are typically paid less than men.
He had been asked to give his advice to women who are uncomfortable requesting a raise. His response: "It's not really about asking for the raise, but knowing and having faith that the system will actually give you the right raises as you go along." Not asking for raise, he added, is "good karma" that would help a boss realize that the employee could be trusted and should have more responsibility.
His interviewer at the event, Maria Klawe, president of Harvey Mudd College and a Microsoft director, had told him she disagreed, which drew cheers from the audience. She suggested women do their homework on salary information and first practice asking with people they trust.
Microsoft
Ex-Wife Sues
Glocks
After working decades to build a wildly successful firearms company, Gaston Glock conspired with associates to push out his ex-wife and business partner of almost 50 years and steal millions of dollars she was entitled to, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday in federal court in Atlanta.
They participated in a worldwide racketeering scheme over decades aimed at taking money from Helga Glock, who was divorced from her husband in 2011, through various criminal methods, including improper royalty payments, laundering money through fraudulent billing companies, and sham lease and loan agreements, the lawsuit claims.
The lawsuit details what it claims are the exploits of a man who regularly engaged in unscrupulous business practices and kept a stash of "fun money" used to "cavort with women around the world," going so far as to buy homes for some mistresses in the Atlanta area.
Helga Glock's lawsuit asks for a jury trial and seeks potential total damages of approximately $500 million, as well as attorney fees. She also asks a judge to remove Gaston Glock and others from their roles in the company, reorganize the companies owned by Glock and restore a larger ownership interest for Helga Glock.
Helga and Gaston Glock met in 1958 and married in 1962. They started a company in 1963 that eventually became a gun manufacturer called Glock Ges.m.b.H. in 1983, according to the lawsuit. Gaston Glock established a U.S. subsidiary of the company in Smyrna, just outside Atlanta, in 1985.
Glocks
Most Deleted Album Of All Time
U2
No one can forget the moment they looked on in their iTunes and saw the U2's Songs of Innocence show up without warning. Many weren't happy, and many were upset enough to use Apple's instructions to delete the album. Apple is now saying that more than 81 million people have "experienced" the album with 26 million people downloading it in its entirety.
According to Billboard, Eddy Cue, Apple's senior VP of internet software and services said that 26 million iTunes users have downloaded Songs of Innocence since the September 9th release exclusive to Apple's 500 million global iTunes customers. Cue adds that 81 million Apple customers "experienced" songs.
To do the numbers simply: From the 81 million that came into contact with the Innocence album, and the 26 million that actually downloaded it, 55 million chose not to get the full U2 experience.
Despite Apple paying $100 million for exclusive rights to give away and stream the U2 album from the September 13th release date until the October 13th free download deadline, the fact that such a large number of users opted out of the free album promotion can't feel too good for anyone involved.
U2
Fighting Lawsuit
Michael Keaton
Imagine this scenario: On February 22, 2015, Michael Keaton accepts an Oscar for best acting performance for his work in Birdman. (He's commanding such buzz that on Wednesday, The New York Times mentioned the word "front-runner.") Then, just a week later on March 2, Keaton appears at a federal trial over the issue of whether he ruined a movie.
The possibility is very real. And Keaton's lawyers are working hard to ensure it doesn't come to fruition.
The film that he allegedly ruined was The Merry Gentleman, his 2008 directorial debut about a young woman who escapes her abusive husband and then enters a complicated relationship with a suicidal hit man. In April 2013, Keaton by the production company for allegedly not living up to his contractual obligations on the film.
According to the complaint, Keaton was difficult during the editing process, going fly fishing when he should have been working on the film and then delivering an unsatisfactory cut. As he worked on a re-edit, the producer had the screenwriter cut an alternative version, which the producer liked better. Then, the 2008 Sundance Film Festival came, and Keaton allegedly told the festival's director that he would only attend if his version was screened. The producers said they felt no choice but relent. Then came more fights over choice of music and Keaton's appearance on ABC's Good Morning America, where he reportedly couldn't confirm a description of the plot.
Since the lawsuit was filed, there's been a tremendous amount of legal fireworks, including a judge's decision not to enforce a settlement agreement around the time of Sundance festival because the producers may have been under duress; Keaton's counterclaims against Paul Duggan for interfering with his contractually-promised final cut by getting involved in the editing of Merry Gentleman; and then an unsuccessful argument by Keaton that the lawsuit should be dismissed because Tom Bastounes, one of the minority owners of the production company (also an actor in the film), hadn't consented to the filing of the lawsuit.
Michael Keaton
Newcombe Lifts Lid
'Party Boy'
Australian tennis legend John Newcombe has lifted the lid on "party boy" George W. Bush and the drink-driving revelation that clouded his 2000 US presidential election campaign.
Bush, who served as resident from 2001 to 2009, admitted to the drink-driving arrest that he kept secret for nearly 25 years just days ahead of the poll, after the story broke on US networks.
The incident occurred in 1976 near his family's Kennebunkport summer home in Maine, and followed a night's drinking with Wimbledon champion Newcombe, who was also in the car.
Newcombe has kept quiet since on exactly what happened but told Melbourne commercial radio station SEN late Thursday that he was with the Bush family that night as a guest of George H. W. Bush, who was then director of the CIA.
'Party Boy'
Opens Chemical Flood Gates
EPA
After nearly a year of intense public comments and industry lobbying, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Gina McCarthy is expected to announce the approval of Dow Chemical's Enlist Duo herbicide for use on millions of acres of US farmland this week.
Enlist is a new weed control system consisting of genetically modified (GM) corn and soybeans designed to withstand applications of the new Enlist Duo herbicide, which is composed of glyphosate (the active ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup) and 2,4-D, a component of Vietnam-era defoliant Agent Orange.
Dow Chemical created the Enlist system in response to the evolution of so-called 'superweeds' caused by the over-application of glyphosate on genetically modified crops. Farmers have applied increasing amounts of herbicides to control weeds since the approval of GM crops in the late 1990s, causing what many have described as a 'pesticide gusher'. With the addition of the more powerful chemical 2,4-D, Dow hopes to allow farmers to eradicate the herbicide-resistant weeds from their fields, at least in the short term. They also stand to steal some market share away from Monsanto, whose patent on Roundup Ready crops expires next year.
More than 86 percent of corn and soybean growers in the southeastern United States and 61 percent in the Midwest reported hard-to-control weeds on their farms, according to Dow. This represents an incredible number of herbicide-resistant weeds evolving after just 19 years of farming genetically modified crops in the United States.
EPA
34-Months For Broadway Scam
'Rebecca'
A former New York businessman was sentenced to nearly three years in prison Friday after admitting to defrauding the producers of Broadway production "Rebecca - The Musical" through an elaborate scheme involving nonexistent foreign investors.
Mark Hotton, 49, was sentenced to 34 months in prison and ordered by U.S. District Judge John Koeltl in Manhattan to pay $68,000 in restitution to the play's producers and forfeit an additional $500,000.
Hotton pleaded guilty last year to two counts of wire fraud in connection with schemes to defraud a Connecticut real estate company as well as the Broadway musical.
A gothic thriller based on the 1938 Daphne du Maurier novel, "Rebecca" was slated to debut onstage in 2012 but was canceled because of the financing shortfall and scandal.
'Rebecca'
Force Family From Missouri Home
Brown Recluse Spiders
A family was driven from their suburban St. Louis home by thousands of venomous spiders that fell from the ceiling and oozed from the walls.
Brian and Susan Trost bought the $450,000 home overlooking two golf holes at Whitmoor Country Club in Weldon Spring in October 2007 and soon afterward started seeing brown recluse spiders everywhere, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. Once when showering, Susan Trost dodged a spider as it fell from the ceiling and washed down the drain.
She told St. Louis television station KMOV-TV in 2012 the spiders "started bleeding out of the walls," and at least two pest control companies were unable to eradicate the infestation.
At a civil trial in St. Charles County in October 2011, University of Kansas biology professor Jamel Sandidge - considered one of the nation's leading brown recluse researchers - estimated there were between 4,500 and 6,000 spiders in the home. Making matters worse, he said, those calculations were made in the winter when the spiders are least active.
The jury awarded the couple slightly more than $472,000, but the former owners declared bankruptcy, the insurance company still didn't pay anything and the couple moved out two years ago.
Brown Recluse Spiders
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