Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Marc Dion: Sanctuary Now! Sanctuary Forever! (Creators Syndicate)
Everybody hates the big federal government these days, but there are things it does well. One of them is to step in (sometimes with bayonets fixed) when your local government is stupid, vicious, greedy, venal or corrupt.
Lenore Skenazy: How Could You Live Without… (Creators Syndicate)
If you've been wondering what to do with all that extra cash you're so sick of, I picked up some ideas at the Luxury Technology Show in Manhattan last week. Otherwise, you might not be aware of some must-haves such as the smart pillow.
Stephen King on Donald Trump: 'How do such men rise? First as a joke' (The Guardian)
He's written novels with eerily similar plotlines - but how did Trump become president? The only way to find out: inject a panel of fictional voters with truth serum...
Hadley Freeman: From Miami Vice to Curb Your Enthusiasm, there's a box set for every political era (The Guardian)
What I'm really thinking: the failed novelist (The Guardian)
Years of work and emotional investment wasted, I finally gave up, to save my sanity. But I'm scarred.
Clive James: 'Helen Hunt! Holy smoke, what an artist!' (The Guardian)
I long for the days when Jack Nicholson could deliver a speech without flashing his ivory like a leopard set to charge.
Michael Greger, M.D.: The Five Most Important Dietary Tweaks (Nutritionfacts.org)
According to the Global Burden of Disease study, the worst five things about our diet are: we don't eat enough fruit, we don't eat enough nuts and seeds, we eat too much salt, too much processed meat, and not enough vegetables.
Michael Gregor: How Many Meet the Simple Seven? (Nutritionfacts.org; YouTube)
Michael Gregor: Nation's diet in crisis (Nutritionfacts.org; YouTube)
Harley Quinn and Lady Joker 2015 © R&R (YouTube)
Lady Joker and Harley Quinn cosplay 2015 © R&R (YouTube)
Harley Quinn and Joker cosplay 2016 © R&R (YouTube)
Marvel vs DC cosplay 2015 (YouTube)
My Little Pony: Equestria Girls cosplay 2016 © R&R (YouTube)
Gravity Falls cosplay 2016 (YouTube)
Team Rocket - "Double-Trouble" - Pokémon cosplay (YouTube)
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David Bruce has over 80 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
answered:
took the day off.
has returned to semi-retired status.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
from Marc Perkel
Patriot Act
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
HIGH NUNERS AND OTHER REPUBLICAN DOPES
THE FIX IS IN.
THE OTHER STATE.
THE HAMMER IS STARTING TO FALL.
GET READY TO RUMBLE!
MAKE AMERICA SPOOKY AGAIN.
TRICKLE GATE.
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Pretty spring day.
Accepts 2016 Nobel Prize
Bob Dylan
After months of uncertainty and controversy, Bob Dylan finally accepted the 2016 Nobel Prize for Literature at a jovial, champagne-laced ceremony on Saturday, the Swedish Academy announced.
The academy, which awards the coveted prize, ended prolonged speculation as to whether the 75-year-old troubadour would use a concert stopover in Stockholm to accept the gold medal and diploma awarded to him back in October.
They were handed to Dylan at a "private ceremony in Stockholm" attended by 12 academy members, Sara Danius, the academy's permanent secretary, said in a blog post.
"Spirits were high. Champagne was had," Danius confided.
The first songwriter to receive the prestigious award, Dylan joins a celebrated group of laureates including Thomas Mann, Samuel Beckett, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Doris Lessing.
Bob Dylan
Oink. Oink. Oink
O'Really
Bill O'Reilly (R-Pig), a star Fox News commentator propagandist, has been accused of harassment by at least five employees of the network, which has paid millions to resolve their claims, The New York Times reported Saturday.
It said Fox had paid the five women a total of $13 million in exchange for their silence and agreeing not to pursue litigation against the news channel, a favorite among conservatives.
While two of the cases were previously known, the Times said it had unearthed three more cases of harassment, two of a sexual nature and one alleging abusive behavior by O'Reilly.
They have accused O'Reilly of using his powerful position at Fox to pressure them for sexual favors.
In a carefully worded statement posted on his website, O'Reilly did not actually deny any of the allegations, but said his prominence made him "vulnerable to lawsuits from individuals who want me to pay them to avoid negative publicity."
O'Really
Wall Statue To Stay Until 2018
'Fearless Girl'
The popular bronze statue of a young girl staring down a bull on Wall Street will stay in place until March 2018, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Monday.
Initially installed on March 7 for one week, the "Fearless Girl" sculpture appeared in media around the world, seen by many as a defiant symbol of women's rights under the new administration of President Donald Trump, who has bragged about sexually assaulting women.
The exhibit of artist Kristen Visbal's work was first extended until April 2 and is now set to run until next year's International Women's Day on March 8.
De Blasio, an outspoken Trump critic, said the statue "means so much to the people of New York," especially the city's women and girls.
The relevant municipal agencies voted in favor of keeping the statue, he said.
'Fearless Girl'
China Opposes India Hosting
Dalai Lama
China said on Friday it opposes plans by Indian government officials to host Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama in a sensitive border region controlled by New Delhi but claimed by Beijing.
Indian government representatives told Reuters in early March that officials would meet the Dalai Lama while he is on a religious trip to Arunachal Pradesh from April 4-13 and that as a secular democracy they would not stop him from traveling to any part of the country.
China claims the region in the eastern Himalayas as "South Tibet", and it has denounced foreign and even Indian leaders' visits to the region as attempts to bolster New Delhi's territorial claims.
The trip by the Dalai Lama, whom the Chinese regard as a dangerous separatist, is expected to ratchet up tensions between New Delhi and Beijing over strategic issues such as China's growing ties with India's arch-rival Pakistan.
Dalai Lama
AT&T, Comcast, Verizon Promise Not To Sell
Customer Data
Comcast, Verizon and AT&T have promised not to sell personal information or browsing history collected from customers following the decision by the United States Congress to reverse online privacy protections passed under President Barack Obama.
All three companies issued statements Friday in attempts to quell concerns from consumers that their internet activity may now be collected and sold to third-parties without their permission.
"We do not sell our broadband customers' individual Web browsing history," Comcast chief privacy officer Gerard Lewis wrote in a blog post. "We did not do it before the FCC's rules were adopted, and we have no plans to do so."
To some degree, the assessment from the telecommunications industry members is correct. The decision by the Congress and Senate blocked Federal Communications Commission rules passed in October 2016 that were not set to go into effect until December 2017. The delay was designed to allow telecom companies time to comply, but effectively nothing has changed other than the loss of the promise of more privacy in the future.
At the same time, the flat out dismissal of consumer concerns seems to ignore the reason the FCC passed the Broadband Consumer Privacy Rules in the first place: the commission deemed the data collection policy of telecom companies to be too intrusive and overreaching.
Customer Data
Anti-Occupation Peace Demo
Jerusalem
Several hundred mostly Jewish protesters marched in Jerusalem late Saturday to denounce nearly 50 years of Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories, police said.
The demonstration's organisers and media estimated that some 2,000 people marched from west Jerusalem to near the Old City's Jaffa Gate to a platform bearing both Israeli and Palestinian flags.
The event was organised by the secular left-wing opposition party Meretz and the Arab-dominated Joint List, parliament's third largest bloc with 13 seats, and NGOs hostile to the occupation of Israeli territories since the June 1967 war.
Slogans such as "Jews and Arabs are not enemies" and "No to a government of annexation" were among chants heard in Hebrew and Arabic.
The protest came at a time when those who back the creation of a Palestinian state find it harder for their voices to be heard under a government considered to be the most right-wing in Israeli history.
Jerusalem
Already Too Late For Coastal Ice
Greenland
Almost 99 percent of Earth's land ice is locked up in the form of gigantic ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland. Scientists estimate that if the Greenland ice sheet, which covers nearly 80 percent of the island, were to melt entirely, global sea levels would rise by over 20 feet.
The good news is that this is unlikely to happen anytime soon. The bad news, if the findings of a study published Friday in the journal Nature Communications are to be believed, is that the glaciers and ice caps that dot the edges of the Greenland's coast are unlikely to recover from the melting they are currently experiencing.
The study, based on remote sensing data gathered by the European Space Agency's CryoSat-2 satellite and a high-resolution topographic model of Greenland's surface, identifies 1997 as the year when this tipping point was reached. Since then, the authors of the study say, the smallest glaciers and ice caps on the coast have been unable to regrow lost ice.
For the study, the researchers focused on 12 areas around the island, and discovered that the ice caps in these areas had been losing mass since 1997. They also found that, for the last 20 years, this mass loss had been exactly equal to the amount of meltwater runoff lost to sea.
These observations led them to conclude that the deep snow layer that normally captures coastal meltwater filled to capacity in 1997. As a result, the new meltwater, which cannot be absorbed by this tightly packed snow, flows over it and out to sea.
Greenland
Ex-Power Rangers Sentenced
Ricardo Medina
An actor best known for his role in the "Power Rangers" children's television series who admitted stabbing his roommate to death with a sword during an argument was sentenced on Thursday to six years in California state prison.
Ricardo Medina, 38, pleaded guilty earlier this month to one count of manslaughter stemming from the Jan. 31, 2015, incident.Prosecutors say Medina stabbed Josh Sutter with a sword multiple times as the two men argued about the actor's girlfriend at their apartment in Palmdale, north of Los Angeles.
Following the fatal confrontation Medina called 911 and remained at the scene until sheriff's deputies arrived.
Medina was arrested at the time of Sutter's death but released within days after prosecutors asked for further investigation into the high-profile case.
Medina played the Red Lion Wild Force Ranger on the popular "Power Rangers Wild Force" children's television series.
Ricardo Medina
Balks At Tillerson
Germany
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (R-Bought & Paid For) reassured his nervous European counterparts over Washington's commitment to NATO on Friday and pressed them again to spend more on defense, triggering a rebuke from Germany.
Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said it was neither "reachable nor desirable" for Germany to spend the agreed NATO target of two percent of member states' economic output on defense. NATO allies have until 2024 to do that.
"Two percent would mean military expenses of some 70 billion euros. I don't know any German politician who would claim that is reachable nor desirable," Gabriel told the first meeting of NATO foreign ministers attended by Tillerson.
"The United States will realize it is better to talk about better spending instead of more spending," he said, noting that humanitarian, development and economic aid to stabilize countries and regions should also count.
Germany
In Memory
Gary Austin
Gary Austin, the founder of the influential improvisational theater troupe The Groundlings, died on Saturday at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles following a long illness. He was 75.
Austin had been battling cancer for several years, but remained active teaching and performing. His daughter, Audrey Moore, told Variety the Austin was surrounded by family members and friends who were serenading him.
Austin was a widely admired improvisational teacher of thousands of students, along with being a writer, director, and musical performer. His improvisational teaching technique involved creating scenes based on arbitrary suggestions with performers committing to agreement by performers on the premise of the story - no matter how far-fetched - and then performing to reflect the truth of the scene and characters.
His students included "Saturday Night Live" cast members Laraine Newman and Phil Hartman, Mindy Sterling, Helen Hunt, Paul Reubens, Jennifer Gray, and Helen Slater. Hunt, acknowledged Austin during her acceptance speech after winning the best actress Academy Award in 1998 for "As Good as It Gets," saying, "I would like to thank my acting teachers - Lurene Tuttle, Gordon Hunt, Larry Moss, Gary Austin - for giving me a way to learn about myself and the world and a way to express myself." His other students included Oscar nominees Lindsay Crouse and Pat Morita.
Austin, a native of Oklahoma, earned a degree in theater arts at San Francisco State in 1964 and broke into show business by becoming a stage manager for the improvisational comedy group The Committee. He started working with Second City's Del Close to develop characters, improvised with the Comedy Store Players, and performed stand-up.
In 1972, he formed the Gary Austin Workshops, which began to perform at various venues in Hollywood. He founded The Groundlings in 1974, which moved into its current Melrose Avenue headquarters in 1975. Austin directed portions of Lily Tomlin's Emmy-winning comedy special that year for producer Lorne Michaels, who asked him subsequently to come to New York to direct the cast of "Saturday Night Live," but Austin opted to remain in Los Angeles to work with The Groundlings.
Reubens created his signature Pee-wee Herman character at the Groundlings in 1978, wearing a too-small gray suit that Austin used when he was auditioning for nerdy characters.
Austin left The Groundlings in 1979 due to creative differences, but returned to direct shows in 1990 and on several other occasions. He also wrote and performed two solo shows, "Church" and "Oil," and had been recording an album of his songs with his wife, Wenndy McKenzie, and Matt Cartsonis.
Aside from McKenzie and Moore, Austin is survived by a sister, two brothers, a grandson, and three great-grandchildren. Funeral arrangements are pending. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made at youcaring.com/garyaustin-787562 .
Gary Austin
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