Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Marc Dion: Accidental Death Is Better (Creators Syndicate)
My father, who had some oddly streetwise ways of dispensing comfort, would sometimes look at me when I'd done something particularly bad, back when I was, say 9 years old. "I'm not gonna punish you for that," he'd say, examining the new jacket I'd ripped while chasing the dog through the woods. "I know it had to be an accident because no one would do anything that stupid on purpose."
David Rheinhart: 5 Historical Figures Who Made James Bond Look Like a Pussy (Cracked)
You might assume that history's most influential leaders were just ordinary people born at the right place, at the right time, to the right sperm. And that is largely correct. But some of those folks clawed their way up from mundanity simply by having balls so immense that science has only recently, reluctantly, demoted their status from "dwarf planets" to "large moons."
Lucy Mangan: we're off on holiday - time to sort my life out (Guardian)
When did life get so small, so stupid, so out of control? Is it age? The age I am, or the age we live in? It can't all be having a child. Can it?
Oliver Burkeman: "This column will change your life: mise en place" (Guardian)
Don't just make a plan. Doing it in the meticulous, focused spirit of mise en place makes a difference.
What I'm really thinking: the safari camp host (Guardian)
'Having to listen to you regular safari-goers describe every African country you've visited is tedious.'
Terry Savage: Elder Financial Abuse -- Near You? (Creators Syndicate)
Elder financial abuse is being called the fastest growing area of crime in America. And it may be happening in your family if you aren't paying attention to a caregiver - or a relative - who, under the guise of being helpful, is syphoning off an elderly person's life savings.
Cheryl Fargo: Inflammation and Food (Creators Syndicate)
Inflammation is the body's method of healing itself in response to an injury or exposure to a harmful substance. However, inflammation is not always beneficial.
Nancy Messieh: 10 Cool […] Amateur Movies on YouTube (makeuseof.com)
The art of the short film may be the most underrated film style today, although with our 21st century attention spans, they are the ideal way to pass 5 or 10 minutes of spare time. YouTube is brimming with both amateur and award winning short films in every language imaginable.
David Bruce's Amazon Author Page
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David Bruce's Blog
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David Bruce has approximately 50 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
"Doug's Most Shared Facebook Post" Today
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
Hotter.
'Historic' Sick Leave Bill
California
A measure to grant California workers mandatory sick leave that passed the state legislature early on Saturday appeared poised to become law after Governor Jerry Brown lauded it as a historic achievement.
The bill would require employers to provide at least three days of annual paid sick leave to workers, who would accrue the time off at a rate of one hour per 30 hours worked.
If Brown signs the measure into law, California will join Connecticut as the only states mandating paid sick leave, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
The bill passed the state Senate with a 22-8 vote late Friday and the Assembly early Saturday morning with a 52-25 vote.
California
Two California Cities To Give Up
Military Vehicles
Two Northern California cities have made plans to rid themselves of armored vehicles built to withstand roadside bombs that their police got for free from the U.S. Defense Department, in a move that follows criticism of the police handling of protests in Missouri as too militarized.
Officials in San Jose and Davis took steps to jettison their so-called Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles this week.
Also in recent days, a sheriff in New Jersey said he would stop the acquisition of a similar vehicle, and two police departments in North Carolina announced plans to hold forums to hear concerns about law enforcement's militarization.
In Davis, a college town near the California state capital of Sacramento, officials say residents' unease over the mine-resistant vehicle was heightened by controversy over a university police officer's pepper spraying of seated protesters in 2011.
The police force in Albuquerque, New Mexico, also has moved to give up a mine-resistant vehicle.
Military Vehicles
Filming Resumes
'Star Wars'
Harrison Ford will reprise his role as Han Solo for "Star Wars: Episode VII." Lucasfilm Ltd.
Han Solo is back! Actor Harrison Ford has returned to the "Star Wars: Episode VII" set after a break to recover from leg surgery.
"Filming restarted earlier this week at Pinewood Studios in the U.K.," according to The Hollywood Reporter, citing unnamed sources. The production had been on hold for two weeks.
Now that Ford has recovered from surgery, filming is back on track in the U.K., and both Disney and Lucasfilm confirmed earlier that the hiatus will not affect the film's Dec. 18, 2015, release date.
'Star Wars'
Hit Historic Low
Album Sales
The record industry has just had its worst week in decades. For the first time since Nielsen SoundScan began keeping track in 1991, album sales failed to reach the four-million-sold mark this week, totaling just 3.97 million. The week's top seller, Wiz Khalifa's Blacc Hollywood contributed just over 90,000, but after that, the Top 10 featured three other debuting albums that averaged only 31,000 each, Billboard reports. It's worth noting, though, that this week's numbers do not include the post-VMA sales bump for many artists. Those will be tallied on next week's charts.
Falling below the four million mark was inevitable, as sales totaling more than five million records sold have been a rarity so far in 2014. In fact, one of this summer's biggest sellers was a soundtrack featuring previously available Seventies hits (Guardians of the Galaxy) that sold at the same pace as a Now! compilation. If not for that soundtrack's surprise success, album sales may have dipped below four million weeks ago. By comparison, during this same week in 2014, album sales totaled 4.88 million.
The music industry has struggled in recent years as consumers have shifted from physical CDs to MP3s, but even the digital side has been hit hard in 2014: Digital album sales are down 11.7 percent for the year, and à la carte downloads are down another 12.8 percent according to Billboard. Illegal downloading has no doubt eroded much of those digital sales, but it's the emergence of legal streaming sites like Spotify and Pandora that has also chipped away at overall sales. Taylor Swift's "Shake It Off" had 544,000 digital sales this week partly because the track isn't available on Spotify, forcing fans to download the song (or watch it on YouTube, where it has already accrued 46 million views).
While the music industry has struggled to capture even five million units sold per week in 2014, things look slightly more optimistic in the months to come thanks to new releases from bona fide album movers like Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga & Tony Bennett, Lil Wayne, Foo Fighters and Pink Floyd. Those albums, and Adele's eventual LP, will help resuscitate things. However, if current trends continue, 2015 promises to be an even gloomier year sales wise for the music companies.
Album Sales
Campaign Manager Resigns
Turtlehead
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's campaign manager resigned Friday amid fallout from a scandal in Iowa involving a presidential campaign he worked for in 2012. Jesse Benton said he didn't want to become a distraction as McConnell tries to win a tough re-election campaign in Kentucky.
Benton's resignation, effective Saturday, comes barely two months before Kentucky voters choose between McConnell, a five-term incumbent and the top-ranking Senate Republican, and Democratic challenger Alison Lundergan Grimes.
In Iowa this week, former state Sen. Kent Sorenson pleaded guilty to federal charges stemming from his switch of support from one Republican presidential candidate to another before the 2012 Iowa caucuses. He received thousands of dollars in "under the table payments" before switching loyalties from candidate Michele Bachmann, whose Iowa campaign he headed, to candidate Ron Paul, then lied to federal investigators about the money, the Justice Department said.
Prosecutors refused to say which campaign paid Sorenson. A representative for Bachmann didn't immediately return voice and email messages seeking comment Friday. A phone message for Paul also wasn't immediately returned.
Benton, a tea party insider, worked as a top aide to Paul. On Friday he said that he has been the target of "inaccurate press accounts and unsubstantiated media rumors" about his role in past campaigns that are "politically motivated, unfair and, most importantly, untrue."
Turtlehead
Charges Dropped
Philip Seymour Hoffman
The Manhattan district attorney has dropped drug-selling charges against a jazz musician and friend of late film star Philip Seymour Hoffman, who died of an accidental drug overdose in February, the New York Times newspaper reported.
Montreal-born Robert Aaron Vineberg, 58, was arrested after police traced what they believed to have been the source of the heroin suspected of killing the Oscar-winning actor. Vineberg was charged with intent to sell heroin.
The charges were dropped on Thursday because of "evidentiary issues that have come to light", the Times quoted assistant district attorney Jon Veiga as saying.
The district attorney said in an Aug. 14 letter that two police officers who first interrogated Vineberg after his arrest had not read him his Miranda rights -- which include the right to remain silent and the right to an attorney -- , rendering his statements to them unusable in court, the newspaper said.
Philip Seymour Hoffman
MTV Awards Date
Miley Cyrus
A homeless man who was chosen by Miley Cyrus to accept her MTV Music Video Award on Sunday has turned himself in on a probation violation and was free after posting bail, authorities in Oregon said on Friday.
Jesse Helt, 22, made headlines at Sunday's VMAs show when Cyrus opted not to collect the video of the year award for her hit "Wrecking Ball," sending Helt in her place as a way to draw attention to youth homelessness.
Helt had a warrant for his arrest on a probation violation for criminal trespass since November 2011 after he failed to report and comply with probation supervision, Polk County Director of Community Corrections Martin Silbernagel said.
Helt's probation officer said this week that local authorities had been looking for Helt in Salem, Oregon, after his mother told the Oregonian newspaper that Cyrus had given Helt money to fly home.
Helt turned himself in on Thursday evening and was released about 90 minutes later after posting the state-required 10 percent of his $25,000 bail, a spokeswoman for the Polk County Sheriff's Office said.
Miley Cyrus
Exposed in New Report
Outrageous Lies
C. David Heymann's posthumously released account Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio's torrid marriage was favorably reviewed after its July release, but Newsweek's David Cay Johnston is now contesting the authenticity of the book and much of the author's entire biographical catalog.
"For 30 years, I watched with astonishment and then bemusement as major publishers gave C. David Heymann big advances," Johnston wrote in a story printed Thursday in Newsweek
Newsweek's critical examination does more than just cast a shadow doubt on Heymann's juiciest discoveries, it flatly refutes them. Johnston argues "Joe and Marilyn," for example, published earlier this Summer (nearly two years after the author's death
"In 'Joe and Marilyn,' Heymann drew heavily on the rich trove of books about the Yankee Clipper and the iconic blonde," wrote Johnston. "He also cited interviews with writer George Plimpton; Pierre Salinger, the Kennedy White House press secretary; and [Jack] Newfield. All three men were dead by 2005."
"Plimpton, in a tape recording in Heymann's own archive, declined to be interviewed. Salinger, in a letter also in the Heymann archive, said Heymann wrote 'dramatic lies' and refused to cooperate. We already know that Newfield wrote a column in the Post denouncing Heymann. Despite this, Heymann 'quoted' all three men in his book," continued Johnston, "Long after they had been buried."
Outrageous Lies
Catching On
Sesame
Sesame is gaining a foothold in parts of the southeast United States, where cotton has long been king, as farmers take advantage of its drought tolerance and a recently developed trait that lets them bring it in with typical ag equipment.
Thousands of acres from Arkansas to Florida and Georgia were planted in sesame this year - sometimes joining a rotation of cotton, soybeans and corn and at times spread in fields too far away from irrigation lines.
The nation's traditional sesame-growing region is in Oklahoma and Texas west of Interstate 35. It yields between 350 pounds and 850 pounds per acre a year, according to Erick Scott, a territory agronomist for Texas-based Sesaco Corp., which promotes the crop and develops new strains. The problem is the area only gets 16 to 20 inches of precipitation per year.
But in the southeast, where rainfall can exceed 50 inches annually, sesame flourishes.
Sesame
CURRENT MOON lunar phases |