Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Susan Estrich: Senator Meek? (creators.com)
If you'd told me a year ago that Democrats would find themselves within striking distance of picking up a Senate seat in Florida, running an African-American congressman no one outside his district had ever heard of, I'd probably have asked you what you were smoking.
Brad Hirschfield: Is Homosexuality an Abomination? Wrestling with Leviticus 18:22 (huffingtonpost.com)
The issue of homosexuality is among the most polarizing issues in our society. Without addressing what the "right" answers are, there is no question that there are few issues over which we hurt each other more than how we address homosexuality in general and, far more importantly, gay men and women in particular. How can we stop hurting each other?
Matthew Lewin: I know what might drive a teacher to violence (guardian.co.uk)
Pupils have always cruelly baited teachers. I should know - I did it myself.
Targets not tests are bad for children (guardian.co.uk)
Teachers should have boycotted the way SATs are taught, not the tests themselves, says Deborah Orr.
Anya Kamenetz: Are For-Profit Colleges Peddling Subprime Education? (huffingtonpost.com)
Some argue that these colleges are peddling yet another false promise of the American Dream (in this case, the college diploma part of the dream, rather than the homeownership part) to those who are truly not qualified to take advantage of it.
Kira Cochrane: Why do so many women have depression? (guardian.co.uk)
Novelist Allison Pearson is the latest in a long line of high-profile women to talk publicly about their depression. So what's wrong?
Dr. Maoshing Ni: "Fats: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" (huffingtonpost.com)
If a fat doesn't move at room temperature then it will stay that way inside your body and clog up your arteries. Lard and butter will do just that. So what you really want are oils because at room temperature they remain liquid and fluid and generally have beneficial properties for your health.
David Katz, M.D.: Obesity, Demystified (huffingtonpost.com)
I believe most people understand that epidemic obesity is overwhelmingly accounted for by too many calories in, too few calories out. But in many quarters, there is surprising resistance to that notion.
"Knut Hamsun: Dreamer & Dissenter" by Ingar Sletten Kolloen: A review by William H. Gass
Once the only Knut Americans knew was Knute Rockne. Although the lesser-known Knut was born a generation before the celebrated one, and obtained a Nobel Prize in literature, our better-known Knute won a record number of football games for the University of Notre Dame.
JESSICA AMAYA : "The Whole Ten Years: The Oranges Band remembers its first decade" (citypaper.com)
The Oranges Band turns 10 years old this year. Given the on-again/off-again nature of playing in a rock band, especially during a decade when the music business has been completely reinvented, 10 years feels like a long time.
Steve Appleford: Deftones have a new member, a new album and a new perspective (Los Angeles Times)
Hard rock thrives on conflict and chaos, and no band has found more beauty and soaring aggression within those ingredients than Deftones.
Merce Cunningham's last dance (guardian.co.uk)
In 2008, choreographer Merce Cunningham took his troupe to an old car plant in California. There, he made a film with Tacita Dean that he didn't live to see. She relives three extraordinary days.
Roger Ebert: Review of "EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP" (UNRATED; 3 1/2 stars)
The widespread speculation that "Exit Through the Gift Shop" is a hoax only adds to its fascination. An anonymous London graffiti artist named Banksy arrives to paint walls in Los Angeles. He encounters an obscure Frenchman named Thierry Guetta, who has dedicated his life to videotaping graffiti artists.
The Weekly Poll
Current Question
The 'To Serve Man' Edition (Thanks, Rod)...
...aliens are out there and Earth had better watch out, at least according to Stephen Hawking. He has suggested that extraterrestrials are almost certain to exist - but that instead of seeking them out, humanity should be doing all it that can to avoid any contact... He suggests that aliens might simply raid Earth for its resources and then move on...
Don't talk to aliens, warns Stephen Hawking - Times Online
Despite that, should we seek out new life and new civilizations? (Thanks, Gene)
A.) Sure! ... Yoo Hoo! Here we are! Stop by for dinner! (haha).
B.) No way! ... Move along now, ALF, nothing to see here (especially cats).
C.) Que Sera Sera ... (sang Doris, sweetly)
Send your response to
wrote:
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Link from RJ
Animals in Danger
Hi there
A News story but very much of the moment... thanks for taking a look.
BadtotheboneBob Recommends:
Obama at U of M
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny day and another windy night.
Playing Reno's Artown Festival
Joan Baez
Folk music legend Joan Baez is among the performers slated to play at Reno's 15th annual Artown festival, which is expanding to Virginia City for the first time for a three-day "Americana" celebration at the historic mining town.
Organizers unveiled the list Thursday of more than 400 events to be spread over each day of July including theater, dance, music, visual arts, multicultural events and children's workshops.
Nearly two-thirds of the events are free at various venues around town, many at Wingfield Park on a downtown island in the Truckee River surrounded by a kayaking and whitewater rafting park.
About 300,000 people attended last year. Officials estimate Artown has had an economic impact on the city in the neighborhood of $100 million since it began in 1996 with about 100 events spread over three weeks.
Joan Baez
40 Years After Kent State
Clas of 1970
Forty years later, Gary Lownsdale is still haunted by what he felt and what he saw in the last days of his senior year.
Shock and outrage over the May 4 National Guard slayings of four Kent State University students, on the other end of Ohio from his University of Cincinnati campus. Then fear and confusion as schools across the state and much of the country saw the demonstrations against the expansion of the Vietnam War into Cambodia swell into angry, combative confrontations.
One by one, colleges closed and students were ordered to pack up and leave, some amid the acrid smell of tear gas as police and armed soldiers stood guard. TV helicopters buzzed overhead. Rumors and reports were rampant, of undercover FBI agents infiltrating students, or violent radicals converging to escalate the protests.
For some graduating seniors of the Class of 1970, there would be no joyful mortarboard tosses, posing for photos with proud parents, or late-night celebration parties. They lost the chance to cram for final exams for a last boost to GPAs, or to say their good-byes to favorite professors and former roommates.
Until now. This spring, Lownsdale and other members of the Class of '70 will return to Cincinnati - or to Boston, or to Athens, Ohio - for the festive commencements they never had. Some will be accompanied by their parents, now elderly, or by grown-up children. Maybe they will find a chance to heal some old wounds.
Class of 1970
Takes Direct Aim At Anti-Government Rhetoric
Obama
In a blunt caution to political friend and foe, President Barack Obama said Saturday that partisan rants and name-calling under the guise of legitimate discourse pose a serious danger to America's democracy, and may incite "extreme elements" to violence.
The comments, in a graduation speech at the University of Michigan's huge football stadium, were Obama's most direct take about the angry politics that have engulfed his young presidency after long clashes over health care, taxes and the role of government.
Obama drew repeated cheers in Michigan Stadium from a friendly crowd that aides called the biggest audience of his presidency since the inauguration. The venue has a capacity of 106,201, and university officials distributed 80,000 tickets - before they ran out.
"What troubles me is when I hear people say that all of government is inherently bad," Obama said after receiving an honorary doctor of laws degree. "When our government is spoken of as some menacing, threatening foreign entity, it ignores the fact that in our democracy, government is us."
Obama
Birth Of The Cool
Miles Davis
So, if Miles Davis could tour the wide-ranging exhibit in his honour at the Montreal Musem of Fine Arts, which items would the jazz legend be most likely to linger over?
Well, according to Erin Davis, the son of the musical giant, his trumpets and keyboards would be right up there.
But so would his flashy duds.
"Those are his most personal things," Davis told reporters on Thursday, a day before the opening of a three-month exhibit that pays tribute to his late father.
The exhibit, "We Want Miles: Miles Davis vs. Jazz," features 350 works and is divided into eight sections, leading up to his death in September 1991 at the age of 65.
Miles Davis
Considering Sale
Moonie Times
Executives at the Washington Times are looking into a possible sale of the newspaper, which has slashed staff in recent months in order to cut costs, The Washington Post reported on Saturday.
The daily newspaper, started in 1982 by Unification Church founder the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, is in discussions with a number of parties interested in either buying the paper or becoming a partner with it, Nicholas Chiaia, a member of the paper's board of directors said in a statement, the Post reported.
Late last year, the newspaper eliminated its sports department as part of a cut of at least 40 percent of its staff to try stem losses amid advertising cuts and declines in readership that have plagued much of the newspaper industry.
Moonie Times
National Archives Exhibit
Civil War
Beyond the famous battles of the Civil War, there was chaos.
The governor of Kansas was frantically pleading for ammunition to quell guerrilla warfare, citizens in Missouri were appealing to Army officials when a U.S. flag was ripped from a church rooftop, and citizens in Virginia were asking the governor for arms to fight Union sympathizers.
Stories like these emerge from documents that go on rare public view Friday at the National Archives in Washington as the nation prepares to mark the 150th anniversary of the Civil War.
Many documents on display are reproductions, though some originals also are on view, along with touch-screen interactives. They are arranged by theme to tell such stories as secession and slavery, international connections to the war and how some women fought disguised as men.
Civil War
3 Arrests In Death
"El Magnifico"
Police have arrested three people on suspicion of killing a young magician known as "El Magnifico" who has performed on "The Tonight Show."
Anaheim Police announced the arrests Friday, two days after 19-year-old Adrian Ramos was gunned down during a robbery attempt while walking home from a class at Fullerton College.
Ramos, who called himself "El Magnifico," performed at charity events, at Hollywood's Magic Castle and had also made a number of TV appearances, including alongside Jay Leno on "The Tonight Show."
Police say 20-year-old Aquiles Sanchez, 20-year-old Edgar Raul Salgado and a 15-year-old are being held on suspicion of homicide.
"El Magnifico"
Manson Follower
Bruce Davis
The LA County district attorney asked the California governor Friday to reverse a parole board decision recommending the release from prison of Bruce Davis, a former Charles Manson follower who participated in two killings.
Davis, 67, has been in prison since 1972 after being convicted in the murders of musician Gary Hinman and stuntman Donald "Shorty" Shea. He was not involved in the Manson family's infamous murders of actress Sharon Tate and six others in 1969.
District Attorney Steve Cooley (R-Publicity Whore) wrote to Gov. Arnold $chwarzenegger, saying he believes Davis remains an unreasonable parole risk and a danger to the public. The governor can accept or reverse the panel's recommendation.
Davis' lawyer, Michael Beckman, said his client is totally rehabilitated and meets state requirements for parole.
He said that at his most recent parole hearing in January, he accepted responsibility for the murders of Hinman and Shea even though he didn't kill anyone himself.
Bruce Davis
More Pervs
Benny The Rat
Pope Benedict XVI cracked down Saturday on the scandal-plagued Legionaries of Christ, announcing that a papal envoy would take over and reform the conservative order that has been discredited by revelations that its founder sexually abused seminarians and fathered at least one child.
Benedict also ordered a special commission to study the Legionaries constitutions and said a Vatican expert would investigate its lay arm, Regnum Christi.
The decisions were made after five Vatican investigators reported back to Benedict and other Vatican officials about an eight-month global inquiry into the order to determine its future after its founder was so thoroughly discredited by revelations of his double life.
In a statement, the Vatican excoriated the Rev. Marciel Maciel for creating a "system of power" built on silence, deceit and obedience that enabled him to lead a double life "devoid of any scruples and authentic sense of religion" and allowed him to abuse young boys unchecked.
Benny The Rat
Website Begins Shutting Down
Lala
Online music site Lala.com, which was purchased by Apple in December, began shutting down on Friday.
A brief message on the Lala.com website said the Palo Alto, California-based service will be shut down on May 31 and was no longer accepting new users.
Lala, which boasts a playlist of more than eight million tunes, hosts users' digital music collections on the Web, allowing access from varied locations in what it describes as "music in the clouds."
Lala launched in 2006 as an online vision of a vintage San Francisco record store where people tipped each other off to artists, shopped for CDs and traded used ones.
Lala
Film Permits
NYC
For the first time ever, television and film productions that come from all over the world to shoot in the city will have to pay for the City Hall permits that have always been free, a major change in policy that Mayor Michael Bloomberg's administration blames on budget woes.
Senior Bloomberg administration officials summoned representatives from Hollywood studios, advertising and labor unions on Tuesday to tell them about the proposed $300 fee for films, commercials, music videos and television series.
To be sure, $300 is a barely noticeable budget line in most multimillion-dollar television and screen projects, and most major cities - including Los Angeles, New York's major film competitor - already charge permit fees. But the change is an about-face in policy for a city that has long prided itself on uniquely providing free permits and other perks to lure projects to shoot in the iconic Big Apple.
Permits have been free since the city established a film office in 1966.
NYC
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