Recommended Reading
from Bruce
My Mum's a Pole Dancer
An explanation.
A friend of mine witnessed an act of incredible kindness today (Imgur)
A $400 good deed.
Paul Krugman: That Bad Ceiling Feeling (New York Times)
… why am I feeling so despondent, and why do so many other progressives, like Noam Scheiber, feel the same? Because of the way Obama negotiated. He gave every indication of being more or less desperate to cut a deal before the year ended - even though going over the fiscal cliff was not at all a drop-dead moment, since we could have gone weeks or months without much real economic damage.
Shelley Bridgeman: Do you have charity fatigue? (New Zealand Herald)
I've had a few memorable encounters over the years. Most notable was the young Greenpeace guy outside the National Bank who asked if I had a few minutes to spare. "Not at the moment, thank you," I replied. All would have been well if my progress hadn't immediately been impeded by a busy road and a red light at a pedestrian crossing.
Barack Obama: Our Journey Together
"You could spend all week drilling down through this timeline of the last four years. A lot confronted; a lot accomplished."-Andrew Tobias
Mark Morford: The Good, Hard Spanking of 2012 (SF Gate)
Bet on the Nazi socialist Kenyan?Is it not refreshing? Is it not all kinds of wonderful to be reminded that all the spittle-flecked hate and hissing resentment in the world still can't defeat intelligence, wisdom, flawed but honest integrity?
ED PARK: Rated P. G. (BOOKFORUM)
The master humorist's letters tell a different kind of story.
From Etta James to Ravi Shankar: Notable arts deaths of 2012 (Independent)
The art world has been rocked by a series of high profile deaths this year. From Whitney and Etta to Maeve, Gore and Ravi, the shocks kept coming. Here we round up the obituaries of some of the most-celebrated and greatly-missed artists, musicians, writers and filmmakers who died in 2012.
David Bruce's Amazon Author Page
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David Bruce has approximately 50 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
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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
Still sunny but cold.
Buys Current TV From Al-Gore
Al-Jazeera
Al-Jazeera, the Pan-Arab news channel that has struggled to win space on American cable television, has acquired Current TV, Al Gore confirmed Wednesday.
Gore and his partner Joel Hyatt announced the sale in a statement.
"Current Media was built based on a few key goals: To give voice to those who are not typically heard; to speak truth to power; to provide independent and diverse points of view; and to tell the stories that no one else is telling," Gore and Hyatt said.
"Al-Jazeera has the same goals and, like Current, believes that facts and truth lead to a better understanding of the world around us."
Al-Jazeera
MusiCares Person Of The Year
Bruce Springsteen
U.S. rocker Bruce Springsteen has been named MusiCares' 2013 Person of the Year in recognition of his artistic achievements as well as his philanthropic work, the Recording Academy said on Wednesday.
Springsteen, 63, will be honored at a February 8 gala in Los Angeles hosted by comedian Jon Stewart and held in conjunction with the annual Grammy Awards, the recording world's most prestigious honors which will be handed out on February 10.
"The Boss" has actively supported many charities over the years, including those focused on homelessness, hunger and helping veterans, and last year he participated in benefit concerts to aid victims of superstorm Sandy.
Among top music stars slated to perform at the MusiCares gala are Sting, Neil Young, Jackson Browne, Kenny Chesney, Faith Hill, Elton John, Tim McGraw and Patti Smith.
Bruce Springsteen
Sets Record
'Wicked'
Oz has reclaimed the box office crown on Broadway.
The Broadway League reported Wednesday that the nine-year-old "Wicked" took in a whopping $2,947,172 over nine performances last week, which is the highest single-week gross of any show in Broadway history.
It squeaked by the old record set by "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark," which earned $2,941,790 over nine performances last year during the holidays. Back then, the webslinger had swiped the title from "Wicked."
Both shows' haul reflect the use of premium seating, in which producers charge higher prices for certain days and certain seats. But making the "Wicked" feat more impressive is the fact that it is performed at the Gershwin Theatre, has about 100 seats less than the 1,930-seat Foxwoods Theatre, home of the superhero musical.
'Wicked'
Hospital News
Bobby Womack
Bobby Womack has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member told the BBC in a recent interview the diagnosis comes after he began having difficulty remembering his songs and the names of people he's worked with.
The soul singer has cut a wide path through the music business as a performer and songwriter in his 50-year career and recently launched another act with "The Bravest Man in the Universe," the Damon Albarn-produced comeback album that recently made several best-of lists.
Alzheimer's is a degenerative brain disease characterized by memory loss. It's the latest health problem for the 68-year-old singer, who's also been fighting cancer and other maladies.
Bobby Womack
Hires Armed Guards
Journal News
A suburban New York newspaper that ignited a furor by publishing the identities of thousands of residents who hold gun licenses has hired armed security to guard its staff after receiving an intimidating e-mail, a police report said.
Among a "large amount of negative correspondence" that White Plains, New York-based Journal News has received since publishing permit holders' names was one e-mail in which the sender "wondered what would get in her mail next," according to a Clarkstown, New York, police report obtained by Reuters on Wednesday.
The editor, Caryn McBride, told police the newspaper hired a private security company whose "employees are armed and will be on site during business hours," the report said. The guards are protecting the newspaper's staff and Rockland County offices in West Nyack, New York.
Police told McBride the e-mail did not contain an explicit threat that could compel authorities to take action against the sender. The menacing e-mail was reported to police on December 28.
The Journal News first published an interactive map listing the names and addresses of thousands of gun permit-holders in Westchester and Rockland counties, just north of New York City, on December 24.
Journal News
Rapper Must Pay $1.2M
Ryan Leslie
A Grammy-nominated rapper whose music files disappeared when his laptop was stolen was ordered to pay nearly $1.2 million to a German man who claims to have found the computer in a forest.
Rapper and R&B singer Ryan Leslie, who was nominated for a Grammy award in 2011, offered a reward of $20,000 for his missing backpack after it was taken from a car chauffeuring him between performances in Cologne, Germany, in 2010.
When no one turned in the backpack, which contained the laptop, an external hard drive, jewelry, and cash, Leslie increased the reward to $1 million for any of the files, or intellectual property, stored on the computer and hard drive, according to his attorney.
After a month of false leads, a German man named Armin Augstein contacted police saying he had found the laptop, DeStefano said. Augstein said he found the backpack in a garbage bag in a forest, and decided to bring it home. He then found Leslie's passport, searched his name on the Internet, and found out about the reward, DeStefano said.
Leslie refused to pay Augstein the $1 million because his music files had been corrupted, DeStefano said today. Augstein then filed a lawsuit seeking the full reward.
Ryan Leslie
Not Sorry
Padre Pedophile
A suspended Pittsburgh-area priest will serve more than eight years in prison for collecting thousands of images of child pornography on his computer, books and compact discs.
The sentence the Rev. Bartley Sorensen received Wednesday was more than the five-year mandatory minimum he sought but less than the 10-year maximum he faced.
The 63-year-old Roman Catholic priest was arrested by Allegheny County authorities in December 2011 after an employee at St. John Fisher Parish in Churchill noticed him looking at a photo of a pantsless young boy on his computer.
Federal officials took over the investigation after a computer search turned up thousands of child pornography images, some of them sadomasochistic.
Sorensen pleaded guilty in May. At his sentencing, he expressed remorse to everyone but the young boys depicted in the pornography.
Padre Pedophile
Making Us Hungry-and Fat?
Corn Syrup
Grocery store aisles are awash in foods and beverages that contain high-fructose corn syrup. It is common in sodas and crops up in everything from ketchup to snack bars. This cheap sweetener has been an increasingly popular additive in recent decades and has often been fingered as a driver of the obesity epidemic.
These fears may be well founded. Fructose, a new study finds, has a marked affect on the brain region that regulates appetite, suggesting that corn syrup and other forms of fructose might encourage over-eating to a greater degree than glucose. Table sugar has both fructose and glucose, but high-fructose corn syrup, as the name suggests, contains a higher proportion of fructose.
To test how fructose affects the brain, researchers studied 20 healthy adult volunteers. While the test subjects consumed sweetened beverages, the researchers used fMRIs (functional magnetic resonance imaging) to measure the response of the hypothalamus, which helps regulate many hunger-related signals, as well as reward and motivation processing.
Subjects showed substantial differences in their hypothalamic activity after consuming the fructose-sweetened beverage versus the one sweetened by glucose within 15 minutes. Glucose lowered the activity of the hypothalamus but fructose actually prompted a small spike to this area. As might be expected from these results, the glucose drink alone increased the feelings of fullness reported by volunteers, which indicates that they would be less likely to consume more calories after having something sweetened with glucose than something sweetened with more fructose.
Corn Syrup
Over-The-Counter
The Pill
Unlike women in the U.S., Canada and much of Europe, most women in the world can access the birth control pill without a prescription, according to a new study.
As medical organizations and other groups push to ease the prescription requirements for the Pill in the U.S. and elsewhere, "we can start to use this information to... get a sense of the safety of women having access to this method where no prescription is required," said Kari White, who studies birth control at the University of Alabama in Birmingham.
The Pill is generally considered safe, said White, who was not involved in the new work, and some studies have shown that, without a doctor's input, women can accurately screen themselves for risk factors to steer away from using the Pill if it's not appropriate for them.
In a survey of government health officials, pharmaceutical companies, family planning groups, medical providers and other experts in 147 countries Dr. Daniel Grossman, of Ibis Reproductive Health in Oakland, California, and his colleagues found that women in the U.S. and 44 other countries need a prescription to get birth control pills.
The group reported in the medical journal Contraception that while another 56 countries had laws requiring prescriptions, in practice women could access the contraception over-the-counter.
The Pill
1000 Stolen
Meteorites
Authorities in southern North Carolina have made one arrest following the theft of 100 meteorites from a science education center and are searching for a second suspect.
The Asheville Citizen-Times reports that 29-year-old Brian Koontz of Balsam Grove is charged with breaking and entering, larceny and injury to personal property. He's being held at the Transylvania County jail.
Video surveillance shows two thieves breaking into the Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute near Rosman around 3 a.m. on Christmas Eve.
The thieves took meteorites that were on loan to the institute. They also took television monitors, overhead video projectors, a microscope and other scientific instruments.
Meteorites
DNA Sample In Gourd
Louis XVI
It's been more than 200 years since King Louis XVI was beheaded by French revolutionaries, but a team of scientists believes a recently discovered gourd contains traces of his blood.
According to the BBC, the scientists say a dried, hollowed-out squash that had been kept by an Italian family as a souvenir contains a handkerchief that was dipped in the king's blood by a spectator.
A message on the outside of the calabash reads: "On January 21, Maximilien Bourdaloue dipped his handkerchief in the blood of Louis XVI after his decapitation."
According to the findings published in Forensic Science International, analysis of DNA taken from the blood revealed it to be similar to DNA from a mummified head believed to belong to Henri IV, Louis' 16th-century predecessor.
Results of a 2010 test on the gourd were inconclusive, but the genetic connection to Henri's remains led the scientists to conclude the blood found inside the gourd is indeed that of the king's.
Louis XVI
In Memory
Patti Page
American pop singer Patti Page, whose 1950 hit "Tennessee Waltz" topped the charts for months, has died in Southern California, her manager said on Wednesday. She was 85.
Nicknamed "The Singing' Rage," Page sold more than 100 million albums in her 67-year career, which included 1950s chart toppers "(How Much Is That) Doggie in the Window," "I Went to Your Wedding" and "All My Love (Bolero)."
She died on Tuesday in a nursing home in Encinitas, north of San Diego, after suffering congestive heart failure, her manager, Michael Glynn, told Reuters.
Page won a Grammy for her 1998 album "Live at Carnegie Hall: The 50th Anniversary Concert" and will be honored with a lifetime achievement Grammy in February. She had expected to attend the ceremony, Glynn said.
Page was born in Oklahoma as Clara Ann Fowler in 1927 and was known for her light, every-girl voice. Her first big hit was "With My Eyes Wide Open, I'm Dreaming," which peaked at No. 11 on the charts in 1950.
Eight years later, Page scored her penultimate top-10 song, "Left Right Out of Your Heart," as rock 'n' roll was emerging as the dominant trend in popular music.
Her final big hit was "Hush ... Hush Sweet Charlotte" in 1965. The song served as the theme of a film of the same name starring Bette Davis.
Her reputation was burnished in recent years when rock group The White Stripes covered her 1952 song "Conquest" on their Grammy-winning 2007 album "Icky Thump."
She was married three times, most recently in 1990.
Page is survived by her two children, and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Patti Page
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