Recommended Reading
from Bruce
ERIN GLORIA RYAN: Irrelevant Homophobes Newly Enraged Over JC Penney Ad Showing Lesbian Couple Being Happy (Jezebel)
One Million Moms, a hateful collective of a few thousand insufferable busybodies, has once again called for its members to break out the torches and pitchforks and attack JC Penney. At issue is a single page in the department store chain's May catalog that depicts a lesbian couple doing horrible, abominable things like smiling, hugging, and wearing wedding rings. Wait'll they see the gay bacchanalia that is the summer footwear section.
Connie Schultz: Go, Rachel, Go (Creators Syndicate)
After she finished taking Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers to task for voting against that act, [Alex] Castellanos smiled. "It's policy," he said, looking at Rachel. "And I love how passionate you are. I wish you were as right about what you're saying as you are passionate about it. I really do." Maddow's response: "That's really condescending."
Susan Estrich: "Mitt Romney: Conservative Extremist?" (Creators Syndicate)
One of the first things I teach my undergraduate students is how to listen to the campaign talking heads and figure out what the poll said. That is, the poll that led to the strategy that led to the talking points that you're hearing from the various campaign talking heads almost in unison. This week, for example: Mitt Romney, conservative extremist.
John Dickerson: The Most Important Voters of 2012 (Slate)
They're white, they're working-class, and they live in Ohio. And Romney has to win them over.
Froma Harrop: Romney Must Choose (Creators Syndicate)
You have to wonder why some gay advocates - like a few believers in birth control, global warming and evolution - remain loyal Republicans even as the right wing drags their party back to the beginning of the 20th century, if not the 19th. While governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney planted himself mostly in the future. The likely Republican presidential pick has since renounced his modern views to appease the party's powerful social conservatives.
It's OK If You're A Republican - IOKIYAR (YouTube)
It's OK If You're A Republican. Rachel Maddow on the hypocrisy of the Republican Party. It's OK to cheat on your wife and/or engage in illegal acts if you're a Republican, and still keep your seat in elected office, but if you're a Democrat, you must resign!
Matthew Yglesias: Nooks, Books, and Schnooks (Slate)
Is Microsoft's new alliance with Barnes & Noble folly? Or could it hurt Apple and Amazon?
Porn Sites vs. Religious Sites: Which Are Riskier For Web Users? (Huffington Post)
In this latest report, Symantec's analysis found that religious sites had more than triple the average number of threats per infected site than pornographic sites; an average of 115 threats had been found on religious sites while an average of 25 had been found on pornographic sites. According to the report, this may be the case because "pornographic website owners already make money from the Internet and, as a result, have a vested interest in keeping their sites malware-free -- it's not good for repeat business."
Jill Harness: 5 Science Experiments Gone Wrong (Neatorama)
Every day, scientists are striving to make our lives better and to better understand our lives through a range of experiments on just about every subject. Unfortunately, not all of these projects work out so well. These five experiments have all gone wrong, whether due to the errors of the scientists, the unexpected behavior of the subjects or because the public reaction destroyed what may have actually been an advantageous advance in the field.
Eddie Deezen: The Story of 'I Dream of Jeannie' (Posted on Neatorama)
Although a comedy series, it wasn't the funniest TV show ever to hit the airwaves. The episodes weren't deep, meaningful, or insightful. And the comedic performances certainly weren't brilliant, unlike Lucille Ball in 'I Love Lucy' or Jackie Gleason in 'The Honeymooners.' But 'I Dream of Jeannie' is unquestionably a television classic.
David Bruce has 42 Kindle books on Amazon.com with 250 anecdotes in each book. Each book is $1, so for $42 you can buy 10,500 anecdotes. Search for "Funniest People," "Coolest People, "Most Interesting People," "Kindest People," "Religious Anecdotes," "Maximum Cool," and "Resist Psychic Death."
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Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and breezy.
Fans to Launch Kirk & Picard to Edge of Space
Star Trek
Top Honor At Beard Awards
"Modernist Cuisine"
Six volumes, 2,438 pages, 46 pounds and $625 added up to two hefty awards Friday for Nathan Myhrvold's cookbook, "Modernist Cuisine."
The massive and much lauded tome on the science of food and cooking by a former chief technology officer of Microsoft was named cookbook of the year by the James Beard Foundation, a nod to the growing influence over food culture being wielded by the so-called molecular gastronomy movement.
"Modernist Cuisine" also took home a second Beard award in the category of cooking from a professional point of view.
The foundation's awards honor those who follow in the footsteps of Beard, considered the dean of American cooking when he died in 1985. The ceremony was held in New York, where the Beard Foundation is based. Friday's ceremony honored winners in media and publishing; a separate ceremony on Monday will be held for chefs and restaurants.
"Modernist Cuisine"
Renewed By TNT
"Southland"
TNT's cop drama "Southland" has been renewed for a fifth season, the network said Friday. The 10-episode season will premiere in February 2013.
The series, which stars Michael Cudlitz as Los Angeles police officer John Cooper, who struggled to beat an addiction to painkillers following back surgery, featured a number of notable guest appearances its fourth season, including Lucy Liu, Lou Diamond Phillips and C. Thomas Howell.
The series was initially aired by NBC but was cancelled by the network before finding a second home at TNT.
"Southland"
Farm Kids Remarkably Immune To Allergies
Amish
Amish children raised on rural farms in northern Indiana suffer from asthma and allergies less often even than Swiss farm kids, a group known to be relatively free from allergies, according to a new study.
"The rates are very, very low," said Dr. Mark Holbreich, the study's lead author. "So there's something that we feel is even more protective in the Amish" than in European farming communities.
What it is about growing up on farms -- and Amish farms in particular -- that seems to prevent allergies remains unclear.
Researchers have long observed the so-called "farm effect" -- the low allergy and asthma rates found among kids raised on farms -- in central Europe, but less is known about the influence of growing up on North American farms.
The researchers surveyed 157 Amish families, about 3,000 Swiss farming families, and close to 11,000 Swiss families who did not live on a farm -- all with children between the ages of six and 12.
Amish
Tried In Absentia
Sarah Ferguson
The trial of Britain's Duchess of York for allegedly taking part in the secret filming of two orphanages in Turkey has been adjourned so the plaintiffs can evaluate a proposed out-of-court settlement, Turkey's state-run news agency said.
Sarah Ferguson faces charges of going "against the law in acquiring footage and violating privacy" of five children at one of the orphanages, the Anadolu Agency said. If convicted, she could receive a maximum sentence of 22 1/2 years in prison.
Ferguson, the former wife of Britain's Prince Andrew, allegedly made an undercover trip to Turkey in 2008 during which she secretly visited the two state-run orphanages along with two British TV journalists. An indictment filed against Ferguson in January said the two journalists are being separately investigated.
The footage of the five children was filmed at the Saray Rehabilitation and Care Center orphanage on Sept. 22, 2008 near Ankara and shown that year on the British ITV program "Duchess and Daughters: Their Secret Mission." The filmed images appeared to show the children tied to their beds or left in cribs.
Sarah Ferguson
Mali Islamists Attack UNESCO Site
Timbuktu
Malian fighters from the Ansar Dine Islamist group attacked and burned the tomb of one of the town's saints, classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, residents and a regional official said on Saturday.
The militants broke off doors, windows and wooden gates from the grave and burned them, they said, in the first reported attack on a shrine in Mali.
Some Islamists view shrines as idolatry but traditional Muslims, especially Sufis, see shrines as part of accepted Islamic custom. Salafists have attacked several Sufi shrines in Egypt and Libya in the past year.
Timbuktu has 333 tombs of holy saints among which 16 are classified as UNESCO World Heritage Sites including that of Sidi Mahamoud Ben Amar, a learned scholar considered the most sacred in Timbuktu, Haidara said.
Timbuktu
Threatens ABC Over Upcoming Series
CBS
CBS is hoping a legal warning shot shatters rival network ABC's plans for its reality show "The Glass House."
Attorneys for CBS sent ABC executives a letter Friday warning that "The Glass House" is "strikingly" similar to CBS' show "Big Brother." The network notes that ABC may be benefiting from the fact that 18 former "Big Brother" staffers and executives are now working on the planned ABC show.
"Glass House" would feature contestants who are constantly filmed and eliminated from a home they share, and viewers will be able to influence many of their actions, according to a description of the series released Monday. "Big Brother," which has aired on CBS since 2000, has similar features.
Attorneys for CBS noted that the former "Big Brother" staffers now working on the show, including "Glass House" Executive Producer Kenny Rosen, all signed nondisclosure agreements and are likely violating them by working on the new series.
CBS
Estate Sues Burberry
Humphrey Bogart
The estate of Humphrey Bogart is suing British-based clothes company Burberry over use of the Hollywood icon's name in what it said was an advertising campaign.
But Burberry has filed a countersuit, insisting it did not breach Bogart's rights by using a photo of Bogart wearing one of its trenchcoats in the movie "Casablanca," and seeking damages from the actor's estate.
Both companies filed their legal action in the United States on Wednesday, a couple of weeks after the estate raised the issue with the classic English clothing company.
The Bogart Estate filed its action in Los Angeles, saying Burberry used the trench coat picture from the final scene of Oscar-winning 1942 classic "Casablanca," on Twitter and Facebook, without its permission.
But Burberry counter-sued in New York, saying the photo was licensed from photo agency Corbis for editorial use. It said Burberry first contacted it about the issue on April 10.
Humphrey Bogart
Keep Off Beaches
Peru
Peru's government declared a health alert along its northern coastline on Saturday and urged residents and tourists to stay away from long stretches of beach, as it investigates the unexplained deaths of hundreds of dolphins and pelicans.
At least 1,200 birds, mostly pelicans, washed up dead along a stretch of Peru's northern Pacific coastline in recent weeks, health officials said, after an estimated 800 dolphins died in the same area in recent months.
The Agriculture Ministry said preliminary tests on some dead pelicans pointed to malnourishment. Oscar Dominguez, head of the ministry's health department, said experts had ruled out bird flu.
"We're starting from the hypothesis that it's because the birds are young and unable to find enough food for themselves, and also because the sea temperature has risen and anchovies have moved elsewhere," said Deputy Agriculture Minister Juan Rheineck.
Peru
Civil War Shipwreck In Ga. Port
CSS Georgia
Before government engineers can deepen one of the nation's busiest seaports to accommodate future trade, they first need to remove a $14 million obstacle from the past - a Confederate warship rotting on the Savannah River bottom for nearly 150 years.
Confederate troops scuttled the ironclad CSS Georgia to prevent its capture by Gen. William T. Sherman when his Union troops took Savannah in December 1864. It's been on the river bottom ever since.
Now, the Civil War shipwreck sits in the way of a government agency's $653 million plan to deepen the waterway that links the nation's fourth-busiest container port to the Atlantic Ocean. The ship's remains are considered so historically significant that dredging the river is prohibited within 50 feet of the wreckage.
So the Army Corps of Engineers plans to raise and preserve what's left of the CSS Georgia. The agency's final report on the project last month estimated the cost to taxpayers at $14 million. The work could start next year on what's sure to be a painstaking effort.
And leaving the shipwreck in place is not an option: Officials say the harbor must be deepened to accommodate supersize cargo ships coming through an expanded Panama Canal in 2014 - ships that will bring valuable revenue to the state and would otherwise go to other ports.
CSS Georgia
Researchers Say They Have New Clue
The Lost Colony
A new look at a 425-year-old map has yielded a tantalizing clue about the fate of the Lost Colony, the settlers who disappeared from North Carolina's Roanoke Island in the late 16th century.
Experts from the First Colony Foundation and the British Museum in London discussed their findings Thursday at a scholarly meeting on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Their focus: the "Virginea Pars" map of Virginia and North Carolina created by explorer John White in the 1580s and owned by the British Museum since 1866.
"We believe that this evidence provides conclusive proof that they moved westward up the Albemarle Sound to the confluence of the Chowan and Roanoke rivers," said James Horn, vice president of research and historical interpretation at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and author of a 2010 book about the Lost Colony.
Attached to the map are two patches. One patch appears to merely correct a mistake on the map, but the other - in what is modern-day Bertie County in northeastern North Carolina - hides what appears to be a fort. Another symbol, appearing to be the very faint image of a different kind of fort, is drawn on top of the patch.
The American and British scholars believe the fort symbol could indicate where the settlers went. The British researchers joined the Thursday meeting via webcast.
The Lost Colony
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