Recommended Reading
from Bruce
David Sarno: Don't Take Warren Buffett's Bracket Challenge (Slate)
You'll get $1 billion if you fill out a perfect NCAA bracket. Don't do it.
Marc Dion: Stop Bullying Me! (Creators Syndicate)
Michele Bachmann, R-Old Testament, is doable. A little chunky in the calves, but I'd hit that all night. You know what I'm sayin'? Five up high! I'd wear that out.
Corey Robin: The responsibility of adjunct intellectuals (Al Jazeera America)
Writers and academics who fret over the fate of public intellectuals may think they are debating vital questions of the culture. But their discussions are myopically focused on the writing habits of a rapidly disappearing elite. The vast majority of potential public intellectuals do not belong to the academic 1 percent. They are not forsaking the snappy op-ed for the arcane article. They are not navigating the shoals of publish or perish. They're grading.
Scott Burns: Should Your Child Go To Harvard? (AssetBuilder)
I'll read anything Malcolm Gladwell writes. He makes any subject fascinating. He provides unsuspected insights. And he does it all with beautifully lucid prose. Who knew that Goliath didn't stand a chance against David?
John Harris: Teachers: life inside the exam factory (Guardian)
Long hours, endless targets, worried children: as Michael Gove shakes up our schools, we find out why teachers are quitting in droves.
What I'm really thinking: the dinner lady (Guardian)
'I break up fights and mop up grazed knees. I'll wrap up a tooth for the tooth fairy and sympathise over a dead pet.'
Lucy Mangan: hope springs eternal (Guardian)
When the sun finally came out for the first time in months, even I was full of the joys of spring. But a visit to the garden centre with my mother soon put paid to that.
Anonymous: Dear Neighborhood Graffiti "Anarchists" (Stranger)
Way to go, tagging your deep message of "fire to the prisons" on the historic, family-owned, inexpensive apartment building. I did notice meanwhile that the new development of soul-sucking, corporate-owned shitbox condos right across the street was neither tagged nor set fire to.
?ignoramusky: When the Owner is Gone (YouTube)
"It's a house rule: the dog is not allowed on the bed. Apparently, the cat is, which is not fair at all. But that's the man of the house's rules. He set up a camera to see what happens when he is gone, and found that a man's rules only apply when a man is around. Ignoramusky provides the perfect soundtrack. When the cat's away, the mice will play!"- Neatorama
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From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
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Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and hot.
Most Expensive Channels
Cable
Love "The Walking Dead," but hate "SportsCenter"? Too bad.
Cable providers pay only a fraction as much for AMC - the network that airs TV's top-rated drama - as they do for ESPN. And they pass their fees on to you, the consumer.
Many consumers are worried that bills will only go higher if Comcast, the country's biggest cable provider, is allowed to buy Time Warner Cable.
The average cable bill in the United States has increased about 4.5 percent annually over the past 15 years to more than $90 today, according to the Federal Communications Commission. One major reason is the increase in the prices networks charge cable providers to carry their programming - known in the industry as carriage fees.
ESPN charges the most per subscriber by far - $5.54 - taking up on average about 6 percent of basic cable bills, according to numbers SNL Kagan compiled exclusively for TheWrap.
Cable
More Cancel Concerts
SeaWorld
Proposed legislation that would ban the use of orcas as amusement-park acts in California could turn up the heat on musical groups that can earn a 25 percent to 50 percent premium playing such venues.
One park operator that has been the target of criticism for its orca shows is SeaWorld Entertainment, which owns SeaWorld San Diego. The company dismisses the bill as problematic. "This proposed legislation is severely flawed on multiple levels, and its validity is highly questionable under the United States and California constitutions," says spokesman Nick Gollattscheck.
SeaWorld, headquartered in Orlando, Fla., operates 11 amusement parks around the country. At least three offer live or DJ'd music events -- Busch Gardens Tampa, SeaWorld Orlando and Adventure Island Tampa. The concerts typically feature retro acts like Chubby Checker, Glenn Miller Orchestra and The Osmonds or country groups. In February and early March, the company hosted its 15th annual Bands, Brew & BBQ series in the Busch Gardens Tampa and SeaWorld Orlando locations.
In the wake of the furor unleashed by Blackfish, however, at least 10 of the series' 18 originally scheduled bands, including Willie Nelson, REO Speedwagon and Heart, backed out. Joan Jett, whose song "I Love Rock 'n Roll" opened an orca show called "Shamu Rocks," wrote to SeaWorld president Jim Atchison in December to ask the company to stop using her music.
SeaWorld
Posts 'History of the Quidditch World Cup' Online
J.K. Rowling
J.K. Rowling has posted the first of her two-part "History of the Quidditch World Cup" on Pottermore.com, her digital platform devoted to the world of Harry Potter.
The 2,400-word history of the game played by witches and wizards on flying broomsticks is featured in the Harry Potter series. The second part of the history will be published next Friday.
The "History of the Quidditch World Cup" is one of Rowling's longest pieces of original content posted on Pottermore since its April 2012 launch.
The first part of Rowling's Quidditch History includes background about the tournament, information about how it works and examples of controversial tournaments, including an 1877 match played in Kazakhstan's Ryn Desert, now known as the Tournament That Nobody Remembers. The second part will feature recaps of some of the notable World Cup games held every four years since 1994.
J.K. Rowling
Endows Three Chairs
George Lucas
George Lucas returned to the USC campus and the building that bears his name on Thursday to honor three filmmakers and teachers with chair endowments in the School of Cinematic Arts. Bruce Block, Michael Fink and Alex McDowell were the recipients of this honor.
Bruce Block received the Sergei Eisenstein Endowed Chair for Cinematic Design. Block is a producer of movies including "As Good as It Gets," "Something's Gotta Give" and "The Holiday," and directs documentaries, commercials, IMAX movies and NASA simulations. His book, "The Visual Story," is used by film students across the world - it has been published in six languages.
Fink, honored with the George Mélies Endowed Chair in Visual Effects, began his work with visual effects with 1977's "The China Syndrome." Some of his credits include "Blade Runner," "Avatar" and "Life of Pi." He won an Oscar for his visual effects work in 2008 for "The Golden Compass."
McDowell, the third and final recipient of the night, received the William Cameron Menzies Endowed Chair in Production Design. McDowell credits in production design include "Fight Club," "Minority Report" and "Man of Steel."
Lucas said he endowed these chair to honor these artists and told the crowd, "don't forget the basics, don't get enamored with new technology because it's not new. Just the medium we're working in is new, but that doesn't change anything. The art that we do is exactly the same. The goal that we have is exactly the same as Will Cameron Menzies, Mélies and… Eisenstein. It's beyond technology, it's the art of movies."
George Lucas
Back In Jail
Chris Brown
Chris Brown was arrested Friday and will be held without bail on a warrant issued by probation officials in the latest legal entanglement for the R&B singer who has struggled to put his 2009 attack on Rihanna behind him.
The warrant was issued by the judge overseeing Brown's case after he was informed Friday morning that the singer had been discharged from rehab "for failure to comply with rules and regulations of the program." No further details were released, but more information will be presented to Superior Court Judge James R. Brandlin when Brown appears in his courtroom on Monday afternoon.
Sheriff's officials said Brown was co-operative when he was arrested at a Malibu treatment facility where he had been staying and transported to a jail facility in downtown Los Angeles.
Brown had been ordered to remain in rehab for anger management treatment. A January letter from the facility stated that the singer was also being treated for bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and past substance abuse.
Chris Brown
Kiss Miffed
Paul Stanley
Paul Stanley of Kiss wants to shout it out loud: The band is miffed at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for not inducting members Eric Singer and Tommy Thayer along with the original lineup.
Kiss is scheduled to be inducted into the Rock Hall on April 10 in New York City. But Stanley said in an interview Friday with The Associated Press that he doesn't think the Rock Hall is being fair and that the organization has altered their rules for other acts.
"We have continuing issues with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, starting with the fact that they chose to only induct the original lineup when that's hardly the case with other bands," he said from Los Angeles.
"In the Grateful Dead's case, (they) also inducted a writer who never played an instrument," said Stanley, referring to Robert Hunter's inclusion when the band was inducted in 1994. "Or they've inducted rap artists, or they've inducted people who have been in the band for seven years as opposed to ... 25 years or 20 years - whatever their criteria of this week is."
The original members from 1973 - Stanley, Gene Simmons, Peter Criss and Ace Frehley - are scheduled for induction. Criss left the band in 1980 and Frehley left in 1982. Other members joined during the 1980s, but the current lineup includes Singer, who joined in 1992, and Thayer, who came on board in 2003.
Paul Stanley
Responds To Mayor
Kevin Spacey
Kevin Spacey on Saturday tweeted a Photoshopped image of himself between Toronto mayor Rob Ford and his brother in response to the siblings' criticism that he won't take photos with them.
Rob and Doug Ford complained earlier this week that they were told they could not have their picture taken with the actor when Spacey and Rob Ford appeared on "Jimmy Kimmel Live" on Mar 2.
The embattled mayor said he wouldn't know Spacey "if I ran over him." Ford's brother called the actor "an arrogant SOB." The pair made the comments on their show on YouTube named after the mayor's supporters.
Along with the photo he tweeted, Spacey said, "When did Mayor Ford start doing what people tell him to do? All you had to do was ask, guys. Here's your pic."
Kevin Spacey
Daughter Makes Request
MLK
A lawyer for Martin Luther King Jr.'s daughter on Friday argued that a lawyer for her father's estate should be disqualified from participating in a dispute over the ownership of King's Bible and Nobel Peace Prize.
The slain civil rights icon's estate, controlled by his sons, is locked in a legal dispute with his daughter, the Rev. Bernice King, over ownership of the items. The Martin Luther King Jr. Estate Inc., which is run by Martin Luther King III and Dexter Scott King, wants to sell the items, while Bernice is opposed to the sale.
The Bible and peace prize medal are being held in a safe deposit box controlled by the court pending the outcome of the dispute.
Ron Gaither, a lawyer for Bernice, argued William Hill and his law firm should not be involved in the case because he was appointed by a judge to help in a similar 2008 dispute between the King children and the entities they control.
Bernice's lawyers said in a court filing that "Hill played a vital and substantial role in adjudicating a multitude of disputes that arose between the parties." They argued that gives Hill a unique advantage in the current case and puts Bernice at a disadvantage.
MLK
Model Sues Playboy
Liz Dickson
What do you get by adding a Playboy model, a photo shoot and an inconveniently-placed golf tee together? A whole-lotta pain and a $500,000 lawsuit, of course.
Model Liz Dickson is suing Playboy Enterprises after a golf-themed photo shoot went horribly wrong, Gawker reports.
Dickson, was asked to pose with her buttocks partially exposed for the 2012 Playboy Golf Finals at the Ike golf course in City of Industry, Calif., last March.
The Playboy model had to lie on her stomach and insert a golf tee between the cheeks of her buttocks, according to CBS. A golf ball was placed on top. Nothing Dickson couldn't handle.
The idea was to get a photo of a man seemingly teeing off Dickson's behind.
Liz Dickson
Britain Reburies Soldiers
World War I
Scotsman William McAleer had been in France barely two months when, just before sunrise on Sept. 25, 1915, he was among thousands of other troops who launched the British army's largest attack so far of World War I.
By the next day, the 22-year-old private from a seaside town in Fife was dead. Almost 60,000 British troops died in the Battle of Loos, and a third disappeared with no known grave.
On Friday, McAleer and 19 other still unidentified British soldiers were reburied with full military honors in a ceremony in this sleepy northern French village, close to where they fell in battle. The ceremony was a reminder of the horrors of a war that devastated this continent 100 years ago - and as a reminder of why many Europeans today are so wary of seeing a new conflict on their eastern flank in Ukraine.
The Battle of Loos was a failed attempt to break through the German line. It was memorialized in English poet Robert Graves' autobiography "Good-bye to All That." Rudyard Kipling's son John also died here, and is buried at another British cemetery nearby. It was Kipling who proposed the phrase "Known Unto God" for unidentifed casualties that is engraved on limestone tombstones across the Western Front.
First World War remains still turn up regularly, during construction projects or in the spring planting season. More than 700,000 soldiers killed in the Great War were never found, their remains now part of the earth along the 600-kilometer-long (360-mile-long) route of the Western Front.
World War I
Long-Planned Move
ICANN
The U.S. government is relinquishing its control of the Internet's address system in a shift that may raise questions about the future direction of online innovation and communications.
The decision announced Friday begins a long-planned transition affecting the stewardship of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN. That's a not-for-profit agency launched in 1998 by the U.S. Commerce Department to govern the system that assigns website addresses and directs Internet traffic.
Although other countries have had a say in how the Internet is run, the U.S. government retained veto power over ICANN.
The Commerce Department hopes to end its ICANN oversight by the time its contract expires in September 2015.
ICANN
In Memory
David Brenner
David Brenner, the gangly, toothy-grinned "Tonight Show" favorite whose brand of observational comedy became a staple for other standup comedians, including Jerry Seinfeld and Paul Reiser, died Saturday. He was 78.
Brenner, who had been fighting cancer, died peacefully at his home in New York City with his family at his side, according to Jeff Abraham, his friend and publicist.
Brenner's standup routines became a favorite of "Tonight Show" host Johnny Carson starting in the 1970s.
His 150-plus "Tonight Show" appearances turned the former documentary filmmaker into a hot comedian. Brenner was a regular on other TV talk shows and game shows and starred in four HBO comedy specials. He also briefly hosted his own syndicated talk show in 1987.
He moved with the times, trading routines about the humor of everyday life for jokes about social and political issues. He appeared on MSNBC and Fox News Channel cable programs as well as talk shows.
Brenner worked steadily through 2013 doing standup. A four-day gig last December included a New Year's Eve show at a King of Prussia, Pa., casino-resort in which he showcased young comedians.
David Brenner
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