Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: Pollution and Politics (NY Times)
Like Obamacare, Republicans went on the attack over the E.P.A.'s proposed regulations to curb emissions of ozone. And we know why.
Mark Morford: Ferguson, Bill Cosby, and the fantastic lie of your utter powerlessness (SF Gate)
The system is designed to protect the police. Always. Every time.
Mark Morford: The five kinds of gratitude (SF Gate)
Gratitude is all the rage. It's the new meditation. The new kombucha. Books, studies, experts say cultivating it as a sort of daily offering has all sorts of health benefits, can make you happier, taller, smarter, makes dolphins leap and flowers explode. Is it true? Probably. Sure. With, perhaps, one caveat: Which kind of gratitude are you offering? Does it matter? Let us ponder the five kinds*, and find out:…
Scott Burns: The Contentment Factor (AssetBuilder)
… the sources of our happiness change over time. The young find their happiness in excitement. Older people find their happiness in contentment- enjoying small moments rather than big events.
Julia Belluz: Surprisingly simple tips from 20 experts about how to lose weight and keep it off (Vox)
I did more than 20 interviews with leading nutrition researchers. I distilled what they told me, for you.
Jill Lawless: P.D. James, Acclaimed Crime Writer, Dies At 94 (AP)
"Doyle and Christie are genre writers - clever, yes, but one must suspend considerable disbelief right from the get-go when reading their works," said author Anita Shreve. "No such acrobatics are necessary with a James novel."
Adam Tod Brown: 5 Things No One Tells You About Driving Through the Desert (Cracked)
You know what sucks about doing comedy in Los Angeles? Doing comedy in Los Angeles. Really just kind of a nightmare all around. So when the opportunity to get the hell out of town and tell jokes in a new place presents itself, I usually go for it. And that's the abridged story of how I found myself taking a 24-hour round-trip car ride (in a Ford Focus, the Cadillac of Fords named after something I don't have) to Albuquerque, New Mexico, last week.
Matt Farmer, Blair Dodge, A.C. Grimes: 7 Promotional Stunts by Musicians That Backfired Hilariously (Cracked)
There is a reason famous people are surrounded with a thick wall of publicists and advisers: most celebrities need an entire army just to save them from themselves. But for some reason, musicians never get the memo on this, judging by how often their spectacularly bad ideas make the wrong kind of headlines: …
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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
Still sunny and way warmer than seasonal.
Leaving La Scala
Daniel Barenboim
One of Daniel Barenboim's focuses after leaving the role of music director for Milanese opera house La Scala next month will be opening an academy for the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra of Israeli and Palestinian musicians in Berlin.
The Argentine-born Israeli conductor said Friday that besides training the next generation of young musicians from the region, he hopes the academy can form human connections that can one day help stanch the worsening Middle East conflict.
"I am convinced, and this is why I make so much effort, that the only thing we can do is to find ways to create contacts between human beings, without politics," Barenboim told reporters. "Politics doesn't work, because this is a human conflict. There are two peoples who don't want to live on the same ground."
The academy will open in Berlin in 2016, in a building designed by Frank Gehry, which is being constructed next to the Staatsoper, where Barenboim is music director.
Daniel Barenboim
Magicians Stage Effort To Restore Grave
Houdini
Nestled next to the late Lewins, Blums and Levys in a spooky old cemetery in New York City lies the final resting place of America's most legendary magician, interred under a granite monument that bears his stage name in bold letters: Houdini.
It is an impressive tribute to the man who grew up as Ehrich Weiss and died on Halloween of 1926 of complications from appendicitis. Over the years, the site has been venerated, vandalized, thieved and forsaken, but a group of magicians now wants to officially end the mystery of who will care for the grave.
"Houdini was a visionary. He was an inventor, an escape artist, and he gave back to society in so many ways," said Dorothy Dietrich, a magician who runs a Houdini museum in Scranton, Pennsylvania. "It's the least we can do to give back in some small way for all he's given to us."
Dietrich serves on a national Society of American Magicians committee working to raise money to restore Houdini's gravesite and allow for the permanent care of the monument at Machpelah Cemetery in Queens. It will cost about $1,200 annually to maintain the grounds, plus thousands more for restoration.
Houdini
Fails to Reverse 'Rotten Tomatoes' Rating
Kirk Cameron
Kirk Cameron is determined to save Christmas, but can he save his movie from the Tomatometer? The Christian film star noticed last week that the website Rotten Tomatoes, which collates critic and audience ratings of films, was showing a "rotten" score for his new movie Kirk Cameron's Saving Christmas. In an effort to get Saving Christmas into the "fresh" zone, he instructed his followers on Facebook to rate the movie themselves and "send the message to all the critics that WE decide what movies we want our families to see!" (h/t to Uproxx for the story.) As Uproxx points out, Cameron's directive to "storm the gates of Rotten Tomatoes" was a little disingenuous, considering that audience ratings are open to anyone who signs up for a free account.
If you've spent any time online, you can guess what happened next. Cameron's Facebook followers dutifully gave Saving Christmas five-star ratings, boosting its audience score to 94 percent. Within a day, internet users outside of Kirk Cameron's network started noticing what was happening, and began submitting their own votes. "The haters and atheists are coming out of the woodwork, attempting to hammer your good work (they rallied to drop your rating super low)," Cameron wrote in a follow-up post. Because when Kirk Cameron's Facebook friends vote up the movie, they're doing God's work, but when other people voice their own opinions, it's a "rally" of "haters?" Either way, it's a violation of what sites like Rotten Tomatoes are trying to do, which is to inform movie audiences by compiling people's honest reactions to movies. After all the noise, the audience rating for Saving Christmas is currently hovering around 30 percent.
The critics' rating, meanwhile, remains unaffected by the kerfuffle, and has stayed consistent at 8 percent. Despite Cameron's us-versus-them rhetoric, most critics have reacted to Saving Christmas with a resounding "eh," saying that the film is poorly made and lacks broad appeal. "As a movie, Saving Christmas is not good," writes The Austin Chronicle's Kimberley Jones. "But as a teaching aid for congregants about having their fruitcake and eating it, too? Sure, why not. Go nuts, guys."
Kirk Cameron
Sells For Double Presale Rstimate
"Ukrainian Proverb"
A wintry William Kurelek painting that the artist gave to a Toronto woman as thanks for her homemade apple strudel and jam has sold for more than double its presale auction estimate.
"Ukrainian Proverb" sold Friday for $41,400 at Consignor Canadian Fine Art's fall online sale. The presale estimate was $15,000 to $20,000.
Measuring 25 by 11 centimetres (not including the frame), the piece depicts a child sprawled on his stomach in the snow, holding a net while a white rabbit scurries away in the foreground and another runs towards the horizon. The child is wearing green snowpants and mittens and a bright orange jacket - a colour that's also on the frame and appears often in the work of the artist, who died in 1977.
Inscribed in the lower part of the composition is a Ukrainian proverb, written in English and Ukrainian (Kurelek had Ukrainian roots): "He who chases two rabbits at the same time catches neither." Kurelek also wrote on the back of the intricately carved wooden frame, which he made himself: "Value, $400, mixed media, 1974."
"Ukrainian Proverb"
Exhibition "Bout" In Moscow
Mickey Rourke
Hollywood actor Mickey Rourke returned to the boxing ring Friday at the age of 62, defeating a fighter less than half his age in an exhibition bout.
Rourke sent 29-year-old Pasadena native Elliot Seymour to the canvas twice in the second round before the referee stopped the fight.
The bout at a Moscow concert hall was Rourke's first fight in 20 years. He took a break from acting in the early 1990s, finishing a three-year pro boxing career with six wins and two draws.
He has said he plans to hold another four fights in Russia.
Rourke, who had said he lost 35 lbs (16 kilograms) to prepare to the fight, was much thinner than in his best-known cinematic fighting persona, when he bulked up to play the title character in 2008's "The Wrestler." His shorts bore his ring nickname from the 1990s, Marielito, with a Spanish-language message reading "always handsome."
Mickey Rourke
Hindu Ritual
Nepal
Sword-wielding Hindu devotees in Nepal began slaughtering thousands of animals and birds in a ritual sacrifice on Friday, ignoring calls by animal rights activists to halt what they described as the world's largest such exercise.
More than 80 percent of Nepal's 27 million people are Hindus, but unlike most of their counterparts in neighboring India, they frequently sacrifice animals to appease deities during festivals.
Authorities deployed hundreds of police personnel to make sure there were no clashes between activists and the devotees.
Tens of thousands of people flocked to the ceremony, which is held every five years at the Gandhimai temple near the border with India. About 500,000 animals are killed during the event, rights group Humane Society International estimates.
Nepal
More Art Identified As Looted
Kunstmuseum Bern
The Jewish Claims Conference said Friday it has already identified a painting stolen by the Nazis among a newly published inventory of hundreds of works that belonged to late German collector Cornelius Gurlitt, and pushed for more time to investigate others.
Executive vice president Greg Schneider said in an email to The Associated Press that a Pissaro among about 250 artworks found in Gurlitt's Salzburg property matched one on a looted-art list.
Switzerland's Kunstmuseum Bern, which inherited the collection, posted lists of the Salzburg works and some of the 1,280 others found in Gurlitt's Munich apartment online Thursday.
While some of the Munich works were already known, it was the first look for many at the art Gurlitt kept in the house he owned in Austria. It includes works by Breughel, Monet, Renoir and Picasso.
Kunstmuseum Bern
Secret Manned Mission?
Mars
Conspiracy theorists have gone wild over a 'confession' from a woman who claims to be a former NASA employee that she saw human beings on Mars in 1979.
The woman, called 'Jackie', called in to American radio station Coast to Coast AM with the claim - which reignited gossip over a 'secret space programme' kept from the general public.
Jackie claims to have seen space-suited humans via a live video feed from Mars - but that the information was covered up by NASA bosses.
Jackie claimed to have been part of a 'downstairs' team working on downlink telemetry from the Viking Lander - the first vehicle to send back images from the surface of Mars.
Mars
Drops Ban On 'Adults Only' Film
Egypt
An Egyptian court has revoked a government ban on a film by Lebanese star Haifa Wehbe that had been deemed sexually provocative, judicial sources said on Wednesday.
In April, Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab suspended screening of "Halawet Rooh" (Beauty of Soul), a movie said to have been inspired by Monica Bellucci's 2000 hit, "Malena".
That decision came just days after the Egyptian-made movie was released for adult only audiences.
On Tuesday, a Cairo court accepted an appeal filed by the movie's producer, Mohammed al-Sobky, asking for the ban to be revoked, a judicial source said.
Egypt
In Memory
Bob Baker
Bob Baker, the founder of one of America's oldest puppet theatres, died Friday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 90.
The cause of death was kidney failure, his biographer, Gregory Williams, said.
The Bob Baker Marionette Theater captivated children and adults with its ornate wooden puppets and props. The theatre was a vestige of the days when marionettes were widely used on stage and television and playhouses dotted the streets of downtown Los Angeles.
Baker discovered puppetry as a child and described being immediately transformed. "He couldn't talk about anything else when he came home to his mother and he knew what he wanted to do," Williams said.
At an early age, he began constructing his own puppets and performed. He worked in animation for Walt Disney and others before starting his own theatre company with his partner, Alton Wood.
Baker's credits included orchestrating marionette work on more than 250 films, such as "GI Blues" and "Escape from Witch Mountain."
He performed until he was 86 and began having physical difficulties.
Williams said Baker lost both his family home and his theatre to a mortgage lending company and that there were ongoing issues to be settled with his estate. The company has a lease on the theatre house until March, at which point it will be extended month to month.
Bob Baker
In Memory
Roberto 'Chespirito' Gomez Bolaños
Mexican actor and screenwriter Roberto Gomez Bolanos, one of Latin America's most beloved comedians, whose slapstick acts charmed fans from Spain to Argentina for over four decades, died on Friday at the age 85.
Broadcaster Televisa, for whom Gomez Bolanos worked for much of his career, said he died at home in the seaside resort of Cancun. Known as "Chespirito," a word play on 'Little Shakespeare' for his diminutive stature and his prolific scripts, Gomez Bolanos created some of the region's most enduring comic characters.
His show "El Chavo del Ocho," about a naive kid from a poor neighborhood who hid inside a barrel, is widely viewed as the catalyst that helped transform Televisa into a major international company.
Gomez Bolanos was also known for his character "El Chapulin Colorado" (The Red Grasshopper), a clumsy hero in a red overall and yellow trunks which inspired Bumblebee Man, the Spanish-speaking character from the American animated sitcom The Simpsons.
The comedian stopped recording material in the 1980s, but his shows are still aired regularly today.
As a young man, Gomez Bolanos dreamed of being an engineer, and fell into comic acting by accident. He was writing show scripts for Televisa, and had to stand in when the actor playing one of the characters he had written did not show, he once told Reuters.
Coining catchphrases that made their way into the lexicon of many countries across Latin America, Chespirito's shows were exported to 90 countries and translated into dozens of languages, from Japanese to Portuguese. Critics panned Chespirito, saying his sketches were repetitive, promoted the misuse of language and encouraged bullying - the obese child in one of his shows was constantly taunted and harassed for his girth.
Chespirito, an avid soccer enthusiast, also made several movies and acted in a number of plays. His live shows filled stadiums.
Despite his age, Chespirito kept in contact with his fans. In May 2011 he joined Twitter, becoming an instant hit. He had 6.61 million followers by the time of his death.
Roberto 'Chespirito' Gomez Bolaños
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