Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Mark Morford: 10 amazing truths you already suspected (sfgate.com)
Volume III! Muslim punks, lonely Chinese, very pink labia.
Froma Harrop: Taxing Bankers Is Only a Start (creators.com)
Tax the bankers' profits, tax their bonuses, tax their golf scores. I mean it. Take their windfall, and give it to the taxpayers who bailed them out.
THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN: More (Steve) Jobs, Jobs, Jobs, Jobs (nytimes.com)
The most striking feature of Barack Obama's campaign for the presidency was the amazing, young, Internet-enabled, grass-roots movement he mobilized to get elected. The most striking feature of Obama's presidency a year later is how thoroughly that movement has disappeared.
Kira Cochrane: "Natasha Walter: 'I believed sexism in our culture would wither away. I was entirely wrong'" (guardian.co.uk)
The author of 'The New Feminism' talks about challenging the resurgence of sexism in her new book, 'Living Dolls' - and not being an angry feminist.
Scott Timberg: "Philip K. Dick: A 'plastic' paradox" (latimes.com)
The Berkeley boho spent his final years in Orange County, which suited him fine, his daughter says.
Dana Goodyear: "Kid Goth: Neil Gaiman's Fantasies" (The New Yorker)
"Gothic horror was thoroughly out of fashion in children's literature when, in the early nineteen-nineties, the writer Neil Gaiman began to work on "Coraline," a book aimed at "middle readers"-aged nine to twelve...
Robert W. Butler: "Straight-up country: Musical genre's love affair with alcohol"
Drinking has always been a popular subject for country musicians, even more so than for rock 'n' rollers, rappers or even bluesmen.
Igor Toronyi-Lalic: Alan Gilbert takes on the toughest job in music (timesonline.co.uk)
The conductor Alan Gilbert is trying to restore the New York Phil to its former glory: under the watchful eye of his mum.
Will Self: The return of Massive Attack (timesonline.co.uk)
The band's gritty, sexy and subversive sound has wallpapered lifestyle TV. Can their new album escape that fate?
Robin Henry: British actress Jean Simmons dies (timesonline.co.uk)
The star of such classic films as 'Guys and Dolls' and 'Spartacus' has died, following a long battle with lung cancer.
Don't give up the day job - how artists make a living (guardian.co.uk)
As they await their big break, today's young artists are having to make ends meet with day jobs. How are they coping, asks Laura Barnett.
Interview by Laura Barnett: "Portrait of the artist: Ian Rickson, director" (guardian.co.uk)
'My low point? Realised that, despite non-stop work, I earned less last year than a 19-year-old marketing assistant.'
David WBruce: Wise Up! Problem-Solving (athensnews.com)
At age 16, while on a European tour with the New York City Ballet, Allegra Kent exhibited excellent problem-solving and acting skills. When chocolate ice-cream cake was served at a party, she wandered from group to group, eating three pieces of the cake while pretending that each piece was her first piece.
The Weekly Poll
Current Question
The 'Sublime Prime Time Programming' Edition
Which TV network has the best prime time programming line up?
1.) ABC
2.) CBS
3.) NBC
4.) Fox
5.) FX
6.) PBS
7.) Other
Send your response to
wrote:
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Reader Suggestions
Michelle in AZ
Link from Claudia
see you at the FEMA camp
Just another item that demonstrates how useless it is to get into those letter-of-the-law conversations. The Constitution is a grand old document but they've been ignoring it for years. The only real momentum is backwards.
FBI Replaced Legal Process with Post-It Notes to Obtain Phone Records
Thanks, Claudia!
Reader Comment
Broken Link
Hi ,
While I was looking for some interesting and useful websites, I ran across this page of suprmchaos.com: http://www.suprmchaos.com/bcEnt-Thu-041405.index.html and I found it very helpful.
However, I did notice that one of the links you suggest isn't working properly. The link in question is this one: http://www.ivf.com/stress.html . You'll find a similar resource published here and here.
I know that it takes a lot of time keeping any website up-to-date, and I hope you'll find this helpful.
Keep up the good work!
Best regards,
Jack
P.S. If you happen to be interested in some teachers' aid websites, please check out my other websites: Tired Teacherīs Website: and Media Center Internet Index:
Thanks, Jack!
That link is 2 computers and 1 server change ago, so it may take a while, but I'll get around to it.
Link from Claudia
mobile web
Some Lessons from the AT&T/Facebook Switcheroo Over the weekend, there was an odd story about people using AT&T's wireless network trying to log in to Facebook and suddenly finding themselves logged in to somebody else's Facebook account. What could have caused such a strange phenomenon to occur? What does it tell us about the innards of the mobile web, and what lessons might it convey for network and application design?
For the full Deep Link, which goes into considerable technical detail - mobile web
Thanks, Claudia!
Reader Question
symbols, numbers and letters
Hey Marty,
When I read down about three quarters of today's (now yesterday's) BCE page, the printing went askew all the way down from there. Just symbols, numbers and letters which made no sense to me.
My question is: Is it you, or is it me (my computer)?
Just thought you'd like to know (I hope).
Well, at least the trivia question survived, so now I'll return to it...
Later,
Sally :)
Thanks, Sally!
Everything looked fine from here, although BadtotheboneBob mentioned having the same problem last week.
Anybody have any ideas?
Wikipedia Trying To Delete
Church of Reality
Wikipedia is trying to delete the Church of Reality again.
Here's the link to vote to stop it . Vote KEEP. You have to click the EDIT link and add lines to vote. Wikipedia has been in a censorship war with the
Church of Reality for years and has started it up again. This is the always fabulous Marc Perkel's church.
Your support is appreciated.
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Rocker Takes On Namesake Politician
Joe Walsh
Another musician is claiming that a political candidate is tone deaf to the nation's intellectual property laws. And this one has an amusing twist.
Joe Walsh of the Eagles isn't happy that a Republican congressional candidate in Illinois has co-opted his song "Walk Away" and added new lyrics. The candidate's name? Also Joe Walsh.
Now Peter Paterno, the musician's LA-based lawyer, has sent a letter to the politician, demanding he cease using the song. The letter begins by schooling politician Joe Walsh that it "might be beneficial" for him to learn a thing or two about the United States Copyright Act:
Joe Walsh v. Joe Walsh follows a litany of legal disputes between musicians and Republican politicians over the past year. John McCain last year apologized to Jackson Browne as part of a settlement over the presidential candidate's use of "Running on Empty" in his campaign. Joe Walsh's "Eagles" bandmate, Don Henley, is also battling with Congressional candidate Charles DeVore over the use of songs in a campaign.
Joe Walsh
Tops USA In Cable Ratings
Rupert News Channel
Fox Rupert News Channel last week won the cable ratings race for the first time since November 2008, drawing 3.21 million total viewers in primetime.
Boosted by its coverage of the Massachusetts special election, FNC beat USA Network by some 19,000 viewers during the week ended January 24, according to Nielsen live-plus-same-day ratings data.
Fox Rupert News' primetime lineup for Tuesday, January 19, accounted for three of ad-supported cable's 10 most-watched programs, as "The O'Reilly Factor" drew 5.23 million viewers at 8 p.m., followed by "Hannity" (6.81 million) and "On the Record with Greta van Susteren" (6.4 million).
The last time Fox Rupert News won the ratings crown was a little more than 14 months ago, during the week of the 2008 presidential election (November 3-9). In that seven-day stretch, Fox Rupert News averaged 3.54 million total viewers.
Rupert News Channel
"I Create Music" Expo
ASCAP
Producer Quincy Jones, pop guitarist John Mayer and retired soul singer Bill Withers will headline performing rights group ASCAP's annual songwriters convention in Hollywood on April 22-24, organizers said.
The trio will share the secrets of their success and craft during Q&A sessions at the fifth annual "I Create Music" Expo, once again taking place at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel.
A preliminary lineup of panelists this year includes jazz guitarist Kenny Burrell, Aerosmith and Bon Jovi songwriter Desmond Child, Prince protegees Wendy & Lisa, country star Phil Vassar, and ASCAP's Oscar-winning president Paul Williams.
ASCAP
Circling The Drain
'Ugly Betty'
It's ugly news for all the fans of "Ugly Betty." ABC says the series will be canceled after this season.
A critical and popular success with its premiere in fall 2006, "Ugly Betty" has struggled in recent years with audience erosion.
ABC is promising that the series will conclude its run in a fashion that will satisfy its fans. ABC says eight episodes are left.
'Ugly Betty'
Highest-Grossing Movie Worldwide
"Avatar"
Sci-fi spectacular "Avatar" has surpassed "Titanic" to become the highest-grossing movie worldwide, distributor 20th Century Fox said on Tuesday.
The worldwide total for the James Cameron movie stands at $1.859 billion after Monday's sales, beating the $1.843 billion haul racked up by "Titanic" in 1997-1998, said Greg Brilliant, spokesman for the News Corp-owned studio.
"Avatar" broke the seemingly insurmountable record set by "Titanic" in little over six weeks, handing Cameron the remarkable feat of directing the world's two biggest movies of all time.
It has reigned at the top of North American box office for six weeks. It has also led the field in France, China, Germany and Russia.
"Avatar"
Next Movies In 3D
"Harry Potter"
Warner Bros. will release the next two "Harry Potter" films in 3D, a move underscoring the post-"Avatar" rush for extra-dimensional box office returns.
Studio executives around town have been scrutinizing film slates for opportunities to expand forays into 3D releasing. Warners has been testing footage from its upcoming "Clash of the Titans" -- converted into 3D by an outside vendor -- and the tests have gone so well that the studio has decided to release not only "Titans" but also the two-part "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" in 3D.
Conversion expenses have been coming down, so each film will cost just $5 million to change into 3D. Warners also will absorb an additional $5 million expense per picture to pay for 3D glasses for exhibitors handling the movies.
"Harry Potter"
History Channel Orders Series
Larry the Cable Guy
History is partnering with "Blue Collar Comedy" star Larry the Cable Guy for a new series set to premiere this year.
In "Only in America With Larry the Cable Guy" (working title), Larry explores the country, immersing himself in different lifestyles, jobs and hobbies that "celebrate the American experience," the cable channel said.
Larry the Cable Guy
Pleads Guilty
Cameron Douglas
The hard-luck son of Michael Douglas pleaded guilty on Wednesday to dealing large quantities of methamphetamine and cocaine while holed up in a trendy Manhattan hotel where he was arrested last year.
Cameron Douglas, 31, told a judge that a New York contact first asked him if he could score the drugs in 2006. After that, "I began supplying on a regular basis."
In addition to conspiracy to distribute drugs, Douglas pleaded guilty to heroin possession - a charge stemming from allegations that his girlfriend tried to smuggle him the drug in an electric toothbrush while he was under house arrest.
He faces a minimum 10-year prison term at sentencing on April 27.
Cameron Douglas
Cinemas Strike Over Dubbing Law
Catalonia
Cinemas in Spain's northeastern region of Catalonia will close for a day on Monday in protest against a new law requiring that 50 percent of all foreign films screened there be dubbed into Catalan.
The region, which includes Barcelona, Spain's second largest city, accounts for about one-fifth of the country's box office but just two percent of movies from the United States or other nations were dubbed into Catalan in 2008.
The last time the Catalan government tried to introduce similar regulations, in 1998, it was forced to back down after studios threatened to withdraw distribution in the region.
Dictator Francisco Franco banned dubbing into Catalan as well as into Spain's other regional languages, Galician and Basque, shortly after he came to power in 1939 in a bid to promote national unity but since his death in 1975 use of the three languages has flourished.
Catalonia
DUI In LA
Adrian Pasdar
"Heroes" TV actor Adrian Pasdar has been arrested for allegedly driving drunk and veering across lanes on the San Diego Freeway in West LA.
A California Highway Patrol report says Pasdar was pulled over shortly before 3 a.m. Wednesday after officers saw his Ford F-150 truck doing 94 mph and straddling two lanes on Interstate 405.
The 44-year-old actor was booked for investigation of driving under the influence of alcohol. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department says he was taken to county jail and released at about 8:30 a.m. on $15,000 bail.
Pasdar plays Nathan Petrelli on NBC's "Heroes." He's married to Dixie Chicks singer Natalie Maines.
Adrian Pasdar
They'll Plead 'Republican' And Skate
Connected Conservative Activists
Four days before James O'Keefe was charged in a plot to tamper with the office phones of Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu, the conservative activist promised his audience at a luncheon they would be hearing about a project he was working on in New Orleans.
Democrats are calling it "Louisiana Watergate," but neither the FBI nor federal prosecutors are saying what O'Keefe and three other young conservative activists were up to when they were arrested Monday.
Authorities said two of the defendants posed as telephone repairmen in hard hats, fluorescent vests and tool belts and asked to see the phones at Landrieu's office; one of them had a tiny camera in his helmet. A third man is alleged to have waited outside in a car with a listening device to pick up transmissions. O'Keefe used his cell phone to try to capture video of the scene inside, authorities said.
O'Keefe and Joseph Basel, 24, formed their own conservative publications on their college campuses - O'Keefe at Rutgers University in New Jersey, Basel at the University of Minnesota-Morris.
A third defendant, Stan Dai, 24, was editor of George Washington University's conservative paper as an undergraduate there. He later was an assistant director of a program funded by federal intelligence agencies that taught students at Trinity Washington University about careers in intelligence, according to university president Patricia McGuire. He left the post in October 2008.
The fourth man, Robert Flanagan, 24, wrote for the blog of the Pelican Institute, which is based in New Orleans. Flanagan is the only one of the four from Louisiana. His father is the acting federal prosecutor for western Louisiana.
Connected Conservative Activists
Washed Out To Sea
Lucky Dog
A dog had a lucky escape when a Polish boat rescued him from an ice floe that had carried him more than 100 miles up a river and out onto the icy waters of the Baltic Sea.
"My crew saw... a shape moving on the water and we immediately decided to get closer to check if it was a dog or maybe a seal relaxing on the ice," Jan Joachim, senior officer aboard the Baltica, told Reuters Television. "As we got closer to the ice floe we saw that it was a dog struggling not to fall into the water."
Ship engineer Adam Buczynski managed to scoop the dog off the floe onto an inflatable dinghy and wrapped him in a blanket.
"He didn't even squeal. There was just fear in his big eyes," said Buczynski.
Lucky Dog
Pakistan President's Daily Goat Ritual
Asif Ali Zardari
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari has a black goat slaughtered at his house almost every day to ward off "evil eyes" and protect him from "black magic," a newspaper reported Wednesday.
A spokesman for the president told the Dawn newspaper the goats were slaughtered as an act of Sadaqah -- meaning "voluntary charity" in Islam whereby one gives out money or the meat of a slaughtered animal to the poor to win Allah's blessing and stave off misfortune.
"It has been an old practice of Mr Zardari to offer Sadaqah. He has been doing this for a long time," the spokesman, Farhatullah Babar, told the paper.
Pakistan is a predominantly Muslim country where many of the well-off offer Sadaqah. Though Muslim, many people also follow certain superstitious practices.
Asif Ali Zardari
PETA Proposes Robotic Woodchuck
Groundhog Day
An animal rights group wants organizers of Pennsylvania's Groundhog Day festival to replace Punxsutawney Phil with a robotic stand-in.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals says it's unfair to keep the animal in captivity and subject him to the huge crowds and bright lights that accompany tens of thousands of revelers each Feb. 2 in Punxsutawney, a tiny borough about 65 miles northeast of Pittsburgh. PETA is suggesting the use of an animatronic model.
But William Deeley, president of the Inner Circle of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club, says the animal is "being treated better than the average child in Pennsylvania." The groundhog is kept in a climate-controlled environment and is inspected annually by the state Department of Agriculture.
Deeley says PETA isn't interested in Phil from Feb. 2 on, and is looking for publicity.
Groundhog Day
In Memory
Ruth Proskauer Smith
Ruth Proskauer Smith, a reproductive rights pioneer, has died at the age of 102.
In 1969, Smith helped form the first steering committee of the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws.
In recent years, Smith remained involved with NARAL Pro-Choice New York.
Her father, Joseph M. Proskauer, served on the New York State Supreme Court and was an adviser to Gov. Alfred E. Smith. Her mother, the former Alice Naumburg, helped found the Euthanasia Society of America, a right-to-die group.
Even after her 102nd birthday, Smith led a regular seminar at a program for retired professionals.
Ruth Proskauer Smith
In Memory
Zelda Rubinstein
Zelda Rubinstein, the 4-foot-3-inch character actor best known as Tangina, the psychic who tries to calm a family inhabiting a haunted house in the 1982 horror film "Poltergeist," has died. She was 76.
Rubenstein made her film debut in the 1981 comedy "Under the Rainbow" and went on to roles in "Sixteen Candles," "Southland Tales" and the TV show "Picket Fences." She returned for both "Poltergeist" sequels.
The Pittsburgh native also appeared as the mother figure in a high-profile mid-1980s AIDS public awareness campaign and was an outspoken activist for the rights of little people.
Zelda Rubinstein
In Memory
Louis Auchincloss
Louis Auchincloss, a prolific author of fiction and nonfiction whose dozens of books imparted sober, firsthand knowledge of America's patrician class, has died. He was 92,
He wrote more than 50 books, averaging about one a year after the end of World War II, and crafted such accomplished works as the novel "The Rector of Justin" and the memoir "A Writer's Capital," not to mention biographies, literary criticism and short stories. He was a four-time fiction finalist for the National Book Award, his nominated novels including "The Embezzler" and "The House of Five Talents."
Auchincloss lived up to the old world ideal of being "useful," bearing the various titles of writer, attorney, community leader and family man. He was a partner at the Wall Street firm of Hawkins, Delafield & Wood and the father of three. He served as president of both the Museum of the City of New York and the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
He was also a cousin by marriage to Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and she worked with him when she was a book editor late in her life. He described her as "a shrewd and imaginative editor of prose, and she has impeccable taste in illustrations. She's always done things very well, ever since she was a little girl."
He was born in New York in 1917, his ancestors having arrived from Scotland more than a century before. Auchincloss' grandmother knew Edith Wharton and his father was a Wall Street lawyer. The family and their servants lived in a brownstone a block from the Park Avenue residence that Louis Auchincloss later loved.
Louis Auchincloss
In Memory
Howard Zinn
Howard Zinn, an author, teacher and political activist whose leftist "A People's History of the United States" became a million-selling alternative to mainstream texts and a favorite of such celebrities as Bruce Springsteen and Ben Affleck, died Wednesday. He was 87.
Zinn died of a heart attack in Santa Monica, Calif., daughter Myla Kabat-Zinn said. The historian was a resident of Auburndale, Mass.
Published in 1980 with little promotion and a first printing of 5,000, "A People's History" was - fittingly - a people's best-seller, attracting a wide audience through word of mouth and reaching 1 million sales in 2003. Although Zinn was writing for a general readership, his book was taught in high schools and colleges throughout the country, and numerous companion editions were published, including "Voices of a People's History," a volume for young people and a graphic novel
"A People's History" had some famous admirers, including Matt Damon and Affleck. The two grew up near Zinn, were family friends and gave the book a plug in their Academy Award-winning screenplay for "Good Will Hunting." When Affleck nearly married Jennifer Lopez, Zinn was on the guest list.
Oliver Stone was a fan, as well as Springsteen, whose bleak "Nebraska" album was inspired in part by "A People's History." The book was the basis of a 2007 documentary, "Profit Motive and the Whispering Wind," and even showed up on "The Sopranos," in the hand of Tony's son, A.J.
Born in New York in 1922, Zinn was the son of Jewish immigrants who as a child lived in a rundown area in Brooklyn and responded strongly to the novels of Charles Dickens. At age 17, urged on by some young Communists in his neighborhood, he attended a political rally in Times Square.
Eager to help wipe out the Nazis, Zinn joined the Army Air Corps in 1943 and even persuaded the local draft board to let him mail his own induction notice. He flew missions throughout Europe, receiving an Air Medal, but he found himself questioning what it all meant. Back home, he gathered his medals and papers, put them in a folder and wrote on top: "Never again."
He attended New York University and Columbia University, where he received a doctorate in history. In 1956, he was offered the chairmanship of the history and social sciences department at Spelman College, an all-black women's school in then-segregated Atlanta.
During the civil rights movement, Zinn encouraged his students to request books from the segregated public libraries and helped coordinate sit-ins at downtown cafeterias. Zinn also published several articles, including a then-rare attack on the Kennedy administration for being too slow to protect blacks.
He was loved by students - among them a young Alice Walker, who later wrote "The Color Purple" - but not by administrators. In 1963, Spelman fired him for "insubordination." (Zinn was a critic of the school's non-participation in the civil rights movement.) His years at Boston University were marked by opposition to the Vietnam War and by feuds with the school's president, John Silber.
Zinn retired in 1988, spending his last day of class on the picket line with students in support of an on-campus nurses' strike. Over the years, he continued to lecture at schools and to appear at rallies and on picket lines.
Besides "A People's History," Zinn wrote several books, including "The Southern Mystique," "LaGuardia in Congress" and the memoir, "You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train," the title of a 2004 documentary about Zinn that Damon narrated. He also wrote three plays.
Zinn's longtime wife and collaborator, Roslyn, died in 2008. They had two children, Myla and Jeff.
Howard Zinn
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