Recommended Reading
from Bruce
David Bruce: Wise Up! Insults (Athens News)
Hollywood producer Joseph Schenck saw Katherine Hepburn and Otto Preminger dining together, so he stopped by and said, "Miss Hepburn, how come in all these years in Hollywood, we never met?" Not liking to be interrupted, Ms. Hepburn replied, "Mr. Schenck, I consider that one of the great achievements of my life."
Barbie Throughout Art History
"In the Western tradition, it has always been about Barbie. Venus? Actually Barbie. Mona Lisa? It was Barbie. The model for the Statue of Liberty? Barbie. So French artist Jocelyne Grivaud created many Barbie images as great artists should have composed them. Content warning: nudes." - Neatorama
Matthew Yglesias: E-Textbooks Should Be Free-Textbooks (Slate)
How the Gates Foundation and Apple could team up to destroy the evil textbook cabal and save schools billions.
Andrea Chang and Wailin Wong: Apple sets out to transform textbooks (Los Angeles Times)
Apple Inc. has already transformed the music, mobile phone and personal computing industries, and now the tech giant says its next chapter will be about reinventing textbooks.
David Kravets: Supreme Court rules Congress can re-copyright public domain works
Congress may take books, musical compositions and other works out of the public domain, where they can be freely used and adapted, and grant them copyright status again, the Supreme Court ruled Wednesday.
The Myth of Japan's Failure
"By many measures, the Japanese economy has done very well during the so-called lost decades, which started with a stock market crash in January 1990. By some of the most important measures, it has done a lot better than the United States." -- Eamonn Fingleton
Will Oremus: Can Retirement Kill You? (Slate)
Are people more likely to die after they stop working?
Roger Ebert: We Need to Talk About Tilda
When she was not yet five years old, Tilda Swinton told me, she saved the life of her brother. At least that's what everyone told her, and praised her for, and only little Tilda knew that soon after he was brought home from the hospital she intended to murder the baby.
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 Suggestions
Michelle in AZ
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and summery.
Hope Linda >^..^< 's unplanned vacation is a short one!
Ron Paul Action Figures
2012 Campaign
Would you pay $95 for a Ron Paul action figure? Revolution PAC, the super PAC supporting Paul's candidacy, is betting on it.
Earlier this week, the group unveiled a pair of limited edition, talking action figures: a "Commander-in-Chief" Paul, replete with the Texas Republican in a replica of one of his oversized suits, clutching a copy of the Constitution; and a "Super Hero" Paul donning Superman-like spandex. All proceeds, of course, go directly to the group's efforts to net Paul the Republican nomination.
The Paul-supporting PAC isn't alone in pushing campaign merchandise. Each of the remaining GOP candidates has dedicated online stores with (mostly) standard swag. And online stores for the now-defunct campaigns of Michele Bachmann, Jon Huntsman, Rick Perry and Herman Cain live on. Even Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow, the super PAC supporting Stephen Colbert, is selling t-shirts. ("T-shirts are the bumper-stickers of the torso," the PAC explains on its website.)
Gingrich's store, for example, offers a "small-pet" bandana ($7.50). RonPaulSwag.com--an online store that supports the Revolution PAC--carries hundreds of Paul-promoting items, including posters, nickel-plated cufflinks (regularly $29.99 but yours today for $19.99!) and a "Ron Paul is My Homeboy " hoodie. ("We are always seeking ways to make liberty sexy with our unique mix of apparel and accessories," the store's mission states.)
It's worth noting that the official campaign stores for each candidate are bound by federal fundraising laws-meaning that each purchase counts toward a customer's overall contribution limit of $2,500 per election. The super PAC-run stores have no such limit.
2012 Campaign
Dutch Master Sells For $2M
Elizabeth Taylor
A 17th-century portrait that once hung in the living room of Elizabeth Taylor's California home - and was only recently reattributed to the Dutch master Frans Hals - sold at auction Wednesday for $2 million.
"Portrait of a Man," painted in the early 1630s, went to a buyer bidding by phone at Christie's sale of Old Masters.
Its presale estimate had been $700,000 to $1 million.
The auction record for Hals is $13.9 million for his "Portrait of Willem van Heythuysen, seated on a chair and holding a hunting crop." It sold at Sotheby's in 2008.
Elizabeth Taylor
Resigns From NY Transit Board
Nancy Shevell
Paul McCartney's new bride is stepping down from the board of the authority that runs New York City's public transit system.
Nancy Shevell married the Beatles great in October. She announced her resignation from the board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority at its meeting Wednesday.
Shevell had been on the MTA's board since 2001 and was one of its longest-serving members. Her term expired last year, but she had stayed on pending a new appointment by New York's governor.
Nancy Shevell
Finally Admitting New Patients
Television Fund
The Motion Picture and Television Fund (MPTF) will immediately begin admitting people to the long-term care unit on its Wasserman campus in Woodland Hills, the organization said on Wednesday.
The announcement represents a victory for the grassroots group, Saving the Lives of Our Own, which has been agitating for three years for the facility to open its doors to new patients.
After announcing plans to close the facility in 2009, the MPTF stopped admitting new patients. Facing fierce public pressure from campus residents, patients and their families, the MPTF abandoned its closure plans last year.
The number of patients has dwindled from nearly 150 when the closure plans were first announced to just 29 patients.
First priority for admission will be given to former MPTF long-term care residents who moved off campus in 2009. MPTF's long-term care unit, when fully occupied, will allow for 40 residents.
Television Fund
Rupert-Backed Music Startup Bankrupt Before Launch
Beyond Oblivion
Beyond Oblivion, a digital music startup backed by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp and investment bank Allen & Co Director Stanley Shuman has filed for bankruptcy protection after spending millions of dollars building a service that never saw the light of day.
Journalists were given a preview of the New York start-up service that aimed to give away a limitless library of digital music with devices that had the Beyond Oblivion software pre-installed.
Such a plan would have had music licensing costs running at tens of millions dollars even before it achieved any scale.
Beyond Oblivion owed creditors between $100 million and $500 million, with estimated assets of less than $10 million, according to a Chapter 11 filing at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York.
News Corp originally paid $9.2 million for a 23 percent stake in Beyond Oblivion in April 2010, according to company regulatory filings. At that time Shuman, a News Corp director emeritus, had an 18 percent stake. News Corp said in the filing that Shuman did not receive compensation for his Beyond Oblivion board service.
Beyond Oblivion
Punitive Damages
Garth Brooks
Garth Brooks has won his lawsuit against an Oklahoma hospital that failed to build a women's health center in honor of his late mother.
Jurors ruled Tuesday evening that Integris Canadian Valley Regional Hospital in Yukon must pay Brooks $1 million. That includes Brooks' $500,000 donation plus $500,000 in punitive damages.
Brooks said he thought he'd reached a deal in 2005 with the hospital's president and sued after learning the hospital wanted to use the money for other construction projects.
Jury member Beverly Lacy said she voted in favor of Brooks because she thought the hospital went back on its word. As far as the punitive damages, she said: "We wanted to show them not to do that anymore to anyone else."
Garth Brooks
Trouble In Texas
Armie Hammer
Authorities say Hollywood actor Armie Hammer was arrested at a border patrol checkpoint in West Texas after a drug sniffing dog discovered marijuana in his car.
The 25-year-old, who starred with Leonardo DiCaprio in "J. Edgar," spent about a day in jail before paying a $1,000 bond.
Arrest records show he had 0.02 ounces of marijuana, three medicinal marijuana cookies and one brownie when arrested Nov. 30 in Sierra Blanca, a few miles from the Mexican border.
El Paso's district attorney declined to prosecute because a felony requires more than 4 ounces of actual marijuana. The county attorney could pursue lesser charges since the case is going back to the local sheriff, but Hammer's lawyer Kent Schaffer says no charges have been presented.
Armie Hammer
Plan To Publish Excerpt Halted
Mein Kampf
A British publisher says he's putting on hold plans to print excerpts of Adolf Hitler's infamous memoir "Mein Kampf" in Germany under the threat of legal action from the state of Bavaria.
In a notice posted Wednesday on the website of his weekly magazine "Zeitungszeugen," publisher Peter McGee said his plans to reproduce three 16-page segments of "Mein Kampf" with critical commentary starting Thursday were being postponed as he sought "legal clarity."
In the meantime, he says he'll print the commentary on the book along with the regular magazine, which reproduces historical newspapers from the Nazi era alongside expert analysis.
Bavaria, which holds the rights to "Mein Kampf" in Germany, said McGee's original plans violated copyright laws.
Mein Kampf
1970 Mercedes Recovered - In Parts
John Travolta
A man who stole John Travolta's vintage 1970 Mercedes-Benz convertible is serving a jail term and been ordered to pay the actor $50,000 in restitution, court records show.
D L Rayford Jr. was sentenced to serve 16 months in jail after pleading no contest to grand theft auto on Jan. 5, nearly three weeks before authorities announced his arrest on Wednesday. Rayford and Michael T. Green were arrested last month on suspicion of taking the car and each was charged with grand theft auto.
Travolta parked the convertible on a residential street in Santa Monica, California, for about 10 minutes in September when it was stolen. The Oscar-nominated actor had the car keys with him while he stopped in at a nearby Jaguar dealership and returned to find the car missing.
Police recovered the vehicle after arresting Rayford and Green, who has pleaded not guilty to two counts of grand theft auto. Robert Conley, a public defender representing him, did not return a phone message seeking comment Wednesday.
John Travolta
Out-Of-$tate Ca$h
Wi$con$in
Wisconsin's polarizing governor is fighting attempts to recall him with money from out-of-state donors, who helped him bring in more than $12 million since last year.
An Associated Press analysis of campaign finance reports Republican Gov. Scott Walker (R-Fistula) filed Monday showed 61 percent of the $4.1 million he raised during the five-week reporting period came from out of state.
Many of the contributions came from big donors, including $250,000 from conservative Texas financier Bob Perry and a total of $750,000 from three people in Missouri. More than half of Walker's money came from people who donated $20,000 or more, such as Michael Bidwill, president of the NFL's Arizona Cardinals, who gave $25,000.
The $12.1 million Walker has raised since January 2011 breaks the previous record for fundraising by a candidate for state office in Wisconsin. Walker set the earlier record when he raised $10 million on his way to victory in 2010.
Walker's latest efforts take advantage of a state law that allows targets of a recall to ignore the usual $10,000 per-donor cap and raise unlimited amounts until an election is set. Walker has been traversing the country raising money and speaking at gatherings of conservatives from Texas to New York and Tennessee.
Wisconsin
Retiring Meal Tray Prayer Cards
Alaska Airlines
Alaska Airlines is ending decades of giving passengers prayer cards with their meals, saying Wednesday the decision was made out of respect for all passengers.
Airline spokeswoman Bobbie Egan said the airline heard from customers who preferred not to mix religion with transportation. The decision reflects respect for the diverse religious beliefs and cultural attitudes of Alaska Airlines' customers and employees, the company said in announcing the change.
The cards began as a marketing ploy 30 years ago to differentiate the regional airline from its competitors. The company admits the idea was borrowed from another airline.
Since 2006, when the airline stopped offering meals to customers in the main cabin, the cards have only appeared on meal trays in first class.
For a long time, Alaska Airlines got more positive comments than negatives ones. But lately, opinion has shifted.
Alaska Airlines
Poachers Threaten
Venus Flytrap
The Venus flytrap's precarious survival in the wild along the coast of the Carolinas faces an added threat from poachers looking to cash in by uprooting and selling them.
Three people were arrested this week and charged with uprooting an endangered species without permission, a misdemeanor. North Carolina wildlife enforcement officer Matt Criscoe says they took about 200 of the bug-eating plants, which they expected to sell for about 10 cents apiece.
Those prices are well below the 25 cents per plant poachers have pocketed in recent years for Venus flytraps yanked from the sandy coastal soil, said spokeswoman Debbie Crane of the state chapter of the nonprofit group The Nature Conservancy. The plant's only wild habitat is in areas within 100 miles of the coast of North Carolina and South Carolina
Once the plants pass through the hands of middlemen and unscrupulous business operators, they can sell for as much as $15 each at roadside stands and on Internet sites, Crane said.
Each year, poachers in North Carolina look to cash in by ripping up wild ginseng, galax, Venus flytraps and insect-eating pitcher plants. Yet the perennial problem is only lightly punished. The state legislature last summer increased the penalties from $10 to $25 and required flytrap dealers to get state permits.
Venus Flytrap
Six New Breeds To Debut
Westminster Dog Show
Six new breeds of dogs, including Mexico's hairless Xoloitzcuintli, the Finnish Lapphund and the Norwegian Lundehund, will be competing in the 2012 Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show next month.
They will join other newcomers, the Cesky Terrier, the American English Coonhound and the Entlebucher Mountain Dog, along with 179 other breeds and varieties vying to be named Best in Show on Feb 14 at the annual New York event that started in 1877 with 1,201 dogs.
Before being included in the show, the breed must meet American Kennel Club (AKC) rules including having sufficient numbers in the United States, a certain geographical distribution and a parent club that makes sure they are following responsible breeding practices and meet certain characteristics.
Among the more striking newcomers is the Xololitzcuintli, the national dog of Mexico, which was previously known as the Mexican Hairless and comes in three sizes.
Westminster Dog Show
In Memory
Dick Tufeld
Dick Tufeld, a radio and TV announcer best known as the voice of the robot in the 1960s television show "Lost in Space," has died. He was 85.
Tufeld's career included announcing for the 1950s radio show "Space Patrol." He also worked on hundreds of commercials, sports and news programs and TV shows ranging from "The Time Tunnel" to "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea."
However, Tufeld is perhaps best known for voicing the "Lost in Space" robot, whose warnings of "Danger, Will Robinson!" became a catchphrase.
An obituary released by his family says services will be held Friday at Mt. Sinai Hollywood Hills.
Dick Tufeld
In Memory
Nicol Williamson
Nicol Williamson, the British actor best known for his role as the wizard Merlin in theim 1981 film "Excalibur," has died of esophageal cancer, his son said Wednesday. He was 75.
His son Luke said the actor died Dec. 16 in Amsterdam, where he had lived for more than two decades.
Williamson had dozens of film credits to his name but won more plaudits for his stage acting. Playwright John Osborne once described him as "the greatest actor since Marlon Brando."
He was nominated for a Tony Award in 1966 for his role in Osborne's "Inadmissible Evidence" and again in 1974 for Anton Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya." He also was nominated three times for acting honors at the British Academy Film Awards, Britain's equivalent of the Oscars.
In films, he was an acclaimed wizard Merlin in John Boorman's "Excalibur" and also played Little John to Sean Connery's Robin Hood and Audrey Hepburn's Lady Marian in the 1976 movie "Robin and Marian."
Nicol Williamson won rave reviews for his theater work but never warmed to the acting scene, which Luke described as self-congratulatory and insincere.
"Dad didn't play that game," he said. "One of the tremendous things about Nicol was that he was always straight up with you."
Luke Williamson said his father was also survived by his wife, Jill Townsend. Williamson's death was first confirmed by his son Wednesday on his father's website.
Nicol Williamson
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