Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Marc Dion: Beheading the Prisoners (Creators Syndicate)
In 1565, a Turkish army laid siege to Malta, then an outpost of Christianity in the Mediterranean. Muslims and Christians had been battling all over the Mediterranean for hundreds of years. The Christians were on the defensive at the time.
Kristi Harrison, David Christopher Bell: 4 Terrible Lessons the Brian Williams Scandal Taught Us (Cracked)
You've probably already heard that intensely likeable news anchor and perpetual Guy Smiley impersonator Brian Williams has spent the last 12 years telling a whopper about his coverage of the Iraq war. Like that kid who insisted that at his old school he was able to swing AROUND the cross bar on the swingset, you just had to be there to see him do it, Williams has done the journalistic equivalent with a war anecdote.
Frank Bruni: College's Priceless Value (NY Times)
Higher Education, Liberal Arts and Shakespeare.
JEFFREY M. ZACKS: Why Movie 'Facts' Prevail (NY Times)
THIS year's Oscar nominees for best picture include four films based on true stories: "American Sniper" (about the sharpshooter Chris Kyle), "The Imitation Game" (about the British mathematician Alan Turing), "Selma" (about the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965) and "The Theory of Everything" (about the physicist Stephen Hawking).
Christopher Solomon: Leaving Only Footsteps? Think Again (NY Times)
ONE of the most popular places for backcountry skiing in North America is Teton Pass in Wyoming, high above the adventure playground of Jackson Hole.
Mirrors of Bergman (Vimeo)
Created by kogonada for the Criterion Collection.
Scott Burns: Couch Potato Investing Trumps "Expert" Investing, Once More (AssetBuilder)
Couch Potato investors trumped the big dogs again! In 2014, the basic Couch Potato Portfolio, a 50/50 mix of two low-cost index funds, returned 8.16 percent while the Morningstar average for all "moderate allocation" funds was only 6.21 percent.
Scott Burns: Exactly How To Be A Couch Potato Portfolio Manager (AssetBuilder)
There are a lot of Couch Potatoes out there. As soon as a column on "the Couch Potato Portfolio" appeared, readers called and wrote. "OK", they seemed to be saying, "I've done my part. I hit the Mute button. Now will you tell me EXACTLY how to do this?"
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David Bruce has approximately 50 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
wrote:
took the day off.
has returned to semi-retired status.
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, still way too warm for the season.
"Citizenfour"
Laura Poitras
For most Oscar nominees, the weeks before the February 22 ceremony are a whirlpool of stress.
But Laura Poitras, up for best documentary for "Citizenfour," insists it is like going for a healthy walk -- compared to what she went through to get here.
When former National Security Agency (NSA) consultant Edward Snowden, who revealed the massive scope of US intelligence surveillance, contacted the filmmaker, she found her life turned into a spy novel.
The most risky time was when she went to meet him in Hong Kong, with journalist Glenn Greenwald, the second person contacted by Snowden.
"I took some extreme precautions," she said, adding that she had a separate computer which she only consulted from public places.
Laura Poitras
FXX Pilot Airs At 1:30 a.m.
Winter Dragon
It's not often that The Hollywood Reporter misses a chance to review a new television series, but then again, TV networks don't usually premiere a series at 1:30 a.m. That's what happened on Monday when FXX debuted Winter Dragon, based upon the massively popular fantasy book series Wheel of Time. There's a reason why the pilot quietly arrived in the wee hours of the morning on Feb. 9 instead of a later date, and while many WOT fans were taken by surprise, a just-launched lawsuit against Harriet McDougal, widow of WOT author Robert Jordan, contends she knew the deal despite her comments posted online indicating otherwise.
WOT is a 14-volume series with a sprawling list of characters and the sort of fantasy mythology that lends comparison to the works of J.R.R. Tolkien or George R.R. Martin. Given the success of Game of Thrones and the fact that this Hugo Award-nominated adventure has topped the New York Times best-seller list, it's hardly a surprise that rights have suddenly become quite hot, with major Hollywood studios circling the property.
The 1:30 a.m. airing has led to much discussion on forums like Reddit about what's happening, and the prevalent theory holds that it had something to do with the reversion of rights on Feb. 11 in the event that a show was never released. This appears to be true, though the finer details will be fussed over in a lawsuit filed on Thursday in California federal court.
According to the complaint, ManetherenLLC struck a deal in 2004 with Jordan (real name: James O. Rigney) for a film and television rights option to WOT for $35,000, giving the company until Jan. 11, 2013, to release something lest rights revert. Manetheren says it paid an additional $130,000 for extensions to the options term plus gave the author's company another $465,000 thereafter. The reversion date was extended to this past Wednesday.
After the bizarre 1:30 a.m. airing of Winter Dragon, a statement from McDougal, the author's widow, was posted on Facebook.
Winter Dragon
Sues CBS
Victoria Rowell
Former soap opera actress Victoria Rowell has sued CBS and producers, saying they have kept her off the air as retaliation for advocating the casting of more black people.
The 55-year-old Rowell, who's black, is best known as a star of "The Young and the Restless" for 17 years. She played Drucilla Winters, an illiterate thief and prostitute, who, at Rowell's urging, "transformed herself through an adult literacy program into a positive figure," according to the lawsuit, filed in federal court in Manhattan.
The lawsuit alleges that though more black characters were added to the show over the years, the producers "treated them, including Ms. Rowell, as second-class citizens."
Rowell says she clashed with the producers in 2005 over their refusal to let her write and direct episodes of the show. Two years later, she decided to leave the show after the producers created a story line in which her character went insane.
Victoria Rowell
Demand Secular Education
Turks
Secular Turks opposed to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday boycotted schools and took to the streets to demand a secular education and denounce a claimed creeping Islamisation of the schools system.
The protests were led by Turkey's largest religious minority the Alevis, who adhere to an offshoot of Shia Islam, as well as leading education union Egitim Sen.
Secular Turks and Alevis in particular have been angered by the compulsory religion lessons used in schools under a system that has been amended by the ruling Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP).
Alevis are upset that the compulsory classes prioritise Sunni Islam, the dominant religion of Turkey which is practised by almost all the current ruling elite.
Alevis have traditionally been champions of secularity in Turkey, believing it to be the best way to protect their own rights in the majority Sunni Muslim country.
Turks
SOF Pleads Guilty
'Rambo'
A former U.S. soldier accused of recruiting an international team of military-trained snipers to carry out contract killings for a drug cartel pleaded guilty in New York federal court on Friday.
Joseph Manuel Hunter, 49, who prosecutors said was known as "Rambo," faces between 10 years and life in prison when he is sentenced in May for conspiring to murder a law enforcement officer and two other charges.
Hunter was one of five former soldiers charged in 2013 with agreeing to provide security and surveillance for two purported Colombian cartel leaders.
Those leaders, however, were actually informants for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
Prosecutors said Hunter had worked as a killer-for-hire since leaving the Army in 2004 and arranged for several murders, though the details of any killings are not publicly known.
'Rambo'
140 Whales
New Zealand
About 140 pilot whales that stranded themselves on a remote stretch of New Zealand beach have died, but conservation workers and volunteers are hoping the remaining 60 or so will survive after they managed to get them refloated, an official said Saturday.
The geography of Farewell Spit on the South Island seems to work against whales, which regularly become stranded there. The stranding of 198 whales on Friday was one of the largest in recent years and prompted 80 workers and volunteers to help out.
By late Saturday, 140 of the whales had died, said Department of Conservation area manager Andrew Lamason.
He said the workers and volunteers worked throughout the day to keep the surviving whales watered and covered before refloating them during Saturday night's high tide.
He said the surviving whales had moved to deeper water. But he cautioned that while hopes for their survival were high, whales had been refloated in the past only to return and get stranded again.
New Zealand
It's Back, With A Twist
Plague
If you thought the film Contagion was frightening, this medical plot twist may scare you even more-because it's real.
Back in November, the island nation of Madagascar confirmed 119 cases of plague, including 40 deaths. But the bad news recently took a disturbing turn: "The fleas that transmit this ancient disease from rats to humans have developed resistance to the first-line insecticide," Margaret Chan, director-general of the World Health Organization, said in a new report.
You probably recognize the infectious disease as the one known as the "Black Death," which during the 14th century became a devastating epidemic that claimed an estimated 50 million lives throughout Europe, Asia, and Africa. Caused by the bacteria Yersinia pestis, the disease spreads from rodents to humans via infected fleas. Those infected generally develop bubonic plague-exhibiting swollen lymph nodes and flu-like symptoms-or, if it spreads to the lungs, the deadlier advanced form, pneumonic plague. Caught early, antibiotics can effectively treat the disease; left untreated, however, plague kills 30 to 60 percent of those infected.
A November 2014 study conducted by the health research center Institut Pasteur in Madagascar found conclusive evidence that more than 80 percent of the fleas tested were resistant to Deltamethrin, the insecticide referenced in the WHO report. Out of the 32 flea populations examined, only two demonstrated susceptibility to the insecticide. The report's authors conclude, "In the…re-emergence of plague…in Madagascar, Deltamethrin is ineffective against fleas. Its use in Madagascar should be stopped and the control program for plague diseases needs to change to another insecticide."
Plague
Music Row Condo Onslaught
Nashville
The onslaught of high-end condo developments along Nashville's storied Music Row looks to be coming to an end - at least for now.
City planning officials are recommending a moratorium on new projects seeking to raze or significantly alter buildings that helped build up Nashville's reputation as the capital of country music.
The moratorium could run for a year and a half while officials work on a comprehensive plan to balance growth with the history of Music Row, city planning commission spokesman Craig Owensby said Friday.
The panel's decision came Thursday as it took up the latest proposal to turn Music Row structures into a condo complex. Owensby said commissioners decided to recommend a blanket moratorium rather than continue to evaluate individual proposals. The Nashville Metro Council has the ultimate say over planning decisions.
Nashville
Dancers Find Salvation
Samba
When she sways to the sensual beat of samba, Megumi Kudo also heals the wounds in her mother's heart from a huge earthquake that shattered their home city in Japan 20 years ago.
This year's festive menu for the Carnival in Rio de Janeiro has special poignancy for the Kudos, with daughter Megumi set to perform as a "passista" dancer with the famed Salgueiro school this weekend, continuing a tradition that has now spanned two generations.
Megumi's samba-teaching and costume-designing mother Taeko will watch proudly in Rio's packed sambadrome -- after the pair first dance together in a smaller group.
"I remember the day the earthquake struck. At our house, a door was damaged and would not open," Taeko reflected in a soft voice, recalling the January 17, 1995 Great Hanshin earthquake in the southern Japanese city of Kobe.
Samba
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