Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Mark Morford: The tragic death of the good read (SF Gate)
Has this happened to you? Have you, whilst attempting to read an actual, dead-tree novel or lengthy magazine article, inadvertently swiped at the page with your finger, expecting a Delete tab to appear? Maybe you've tapped a photo hoping to expand it, or pinch-zoomed a page to make the font bigger, or glanced to the top of a page to see what site you're on, only to realize you're holding, you know, paper. "Silly me!" you chuckle to yourself, awkwardly.
Andrew Tobias: An Easy Action Step That Could Help
If we all took an hour to vote November 4 - even though most Americans usually don't vote in mid-term elections - we could at least wrest the climate-change gavel out of the hands of a climate change denier by flipping the House blue. That would be a start.
Years of Living Dangerously Trailer (YouTube)
From the damage wrought by Hurricane Sandy to the upheaval caused by drought in the Middle East, this groundbreaking documentary event series provides first-hand reports on those affected by, and seeking solutions to, climate change. Coming in 2014.
J.F. Sargent: 5 People Who Accidentally Filmed Real-Life Action Scenes (Cracked)
The big issue with found-footage horror films is that after a certain point it becomes absolutely insane that the characters are still filming. Am I right, folks? Am I right? I know, you're just ecstatic that someone finally has the balls to point this out, but please hold your applause for the end.
Kira Cochrane: Gender-flips are a simple and smart way to turn sexism on its head (Guardian)
Australian comedy duo Bondi Hipsters have gone viral by subverting Miranda Kerr's GQ photoshoot - and even Jennifer Lopez has got in on the act.
Tanya Gold: "For Peaches Geldof: a gruesome grunt of synthetic grief" (Guardian)
Peaches Geldof has died a digital death. But she knew too well how we all so enjoy a celebrity downfall.
Alison Flood: Sherman Alexie young-adult book banned in Idaho schools (Guardian)
Free speech organisations step in after The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is pulled from high-school reading lists for 'filthy words' and anti-Christian content.
Jennifer Rankin: "Tom Weldon: 'Some say publishing is in trouble. They are completely wrong'" (Guardian)
Ahead of the London Book Fair, the UK head of Penguin Random House insists his industry has coped with the digital revolution better than any other.
David Bruce: 250 Music Anecdotes (Various Formats - $1)
For various reasons, people decide to make their living creating music. The Mississippi Sheiks' Walter Vinson, who used to work as a field hand, had a very good reason for quitting and taking off with his guitar to play country blues: "I'm not going to spend the rest of my life behind a mule that's farting."
David Bruce: 250 Music Anecdotes (Kindle Edition - $1)
David Bruce: 250 Music Anecdotes (Paperback Edition - $10)
David Bruce's Amazon Author Page
David Bruce's Smashwords Page
David Bruce's Blog
David Bruce's Lulu Storefront
David Bruce's Apple iBookstore
David Bruce has approximately 50 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
"Doug's Most Shared Facebook Post" Today
wrote:
, said:
answered:
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.
So - to let you know what's going on, the guestbook on bartcop.com is
still open for those who want to write something in memory of Bart.
I did an interview on Netroots Radio about Bart's passing
( www.stitcher.com/s?eid=32893545 )
The most active open discussion is on Bart's Facebook page.
( www.facebook.com/bartcop )
You can listen to Bart's theme song here
or here.
( www.bartcop.com/blizing-saddles.mp3 )
( youtu.be/MySGAaB0A9k )
We have opened up the radio show archives which are now free. Listen to
all you want.
( bartcop.com/members )
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
Thanks, Marc!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Hot. Record setting hot.
Tricked Into Narrating Geocentrism Documentary
Kate Mulgrew
"Orange Is the New Black" star Kate Mulgrew threw her fans for a loop this week when they discovered her narration in a trailer for a "documentary" called "The Principle," which argues that Renaissance-era astronomer Copernicus was way off about the Earth revolving around the Sun.
"Everything we think we know about our universe is wrong," Mulgrew says at the beginning of the film's trailer (above). The documentary promises to trace the history of cosmology and introduce "new discoveries of Earth-oriented alignments in the largest structures of our visible universe."
As it turns out, however, Mulgrew - who played Capt. Kathryn Janeway on "Star Trek: Voyager" for seven seasons - does not believe "everything we think we know about our universe is wrong," at all.
In fact, it sounds like she believes that anything "The Principle" executive producer Robert Sungenis believes is wrong - which makes sense - because he's a noted Holocaust denier, creationist, geocentrist, and crazy person. He is also author of the book "Galileo Was Wrong: The Church Was Right, Volume I, The Scientific Evidence for Geocentrism."
"I am not a geocentrist, nor am I in any way a proponent of geocentrism," Mulgrew wrote on Facebook on Tuesday.
Kate Mulgrew
Auction Hits $1 Million Mark
Space Memorabilia
An emblem that traveled with U.S. astronauts on the 1969 Apollo moon flight and a check list from that historic mission were the top-selling items in a sale of space memorabilia, Bonhams auction house said on Wednesday.
Nearly 300 space enthusiasts and collectors, ranging in age from their late 20s upwards, from 17 countries on four continents bid by telephone, Internet or in person in New York on Tuesday.
An American flag carried by Aldrin into lunar orbit brought in $47,500, double its low estimate, and an Apollo 11 flight plan sheet sold for $37,500.
Another popular item was the Mercury Era spacesuit. It fetched $43,750, five times its low estimate, after lengthy bidding. The spacesuit was from the start of the U.S. human space exploration program, the Mercury Project, that launched the first American into space. The last flight was in 1963.
Space Memorabilia
Return to TV
'Tom and Jerry'
"Tom and Jerry," the classic cat and mouse antagonizers created by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera over 70 years ago, return to television Wednesday with two brand new, 11-minute shorts as part of a half-hour premiere on Cartoon Network.
In the spirit of treasuring the multi-generational childhood gem, TheWrap spoke with two key people behind the new Warner Bros. Animation show - creative executive Jay Bastian and story editor Jim Praytor - to talk about the similarities and differences from the classic toon that began making audiences laugh in 1940.
For starters, Tom and Jerry will not be limited to that familiar suburban home setting. The new series, produced in conjunction with Renegade Animation, will introduce three new environments: A laboratory, a witches cabin and even a detective scenario in which the famous "frenemies" will have to put their differences aside to solve mysteries together.
Here's why they have returned, why they'll probably never get a live-action movie like "The Smurfs," and why Tom "isn't an a-hole," no matter what he does to Jerry.
'Tom and Jerry'
Wins Birgit Nilsson Prize
Vienna Philharmonic
The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra added a prestigious feather to its cap Wednesday, with the Birgit Nilsson Foundation picking it as this year's winner of its $1-million prize named after the late Swedish soprano.
It is the first time an orchestra has been chosen since the prize was launched in 2009. Then, the choice fell on opera star Placido Domingo, who was personally chosen by Nilsson and honoured three years after her death. Conductor Riccardo Muti was picked three years later.
Birgit Nilsson Foundation president Rutbert Reisch said the choice of the orchestra fit the award's criteria for artists "who have made the biggest contribution to classical music."
The Birgit Nilsson prize adds to the list of honours accorded to the Viennese ensemble, which is recognized as one of the world's greatest. In 1999, Nilsson was made an honorary member in recognition of the Philharmonic's close co-operation with one of the 20th Century's greatest sopranos.
Vienna Philharmonic
Four Years Later
BP
Birds, fish, dolphins and turtles are still struggling in the Gulf of Mexico, four years after the worst oil spill in US history, a leading wildlife group said Tuesday.
The 2010 BP spill spewed 4.9 million barrels of oil into the waters off Louisiana, also sullying the coastlines of Mississippi, Alabama, Texas and Florida.
A report issued by the National Wildlife Federation summarized recent scientific studies on 14 different types of creatures affected by the spill.
Overall, dolphins have been stranding at three times the historic rate, with some 900 washing up dead or dying from 2010 until 2013, the report said.
About 500 dead sea turtles have been found annually in the area, also a rate much higher than that seen in years prior to the disaster.
BP
Fans 'Dechief' Gear
Cleveland
Some Cleveland Indians fans are making a statement by stripping their hats and jerseys of the iconic caricature that's been associated with the Ohio baseball team for more than 50 years.
"I'm not comfortable with Chief Wahoo so last October, I took a seam ripper to my hat and posted the photo online," said fan Keith Good, 32, who grew up about an hour from Cleveland.
Keith Good posted this image to Twitter of a Cleveland Indians hat that's been "de-chiefed."
Good was one of the first proponents of what's now called "dechiefing," a growing movement in which fans fed up with the logo post photos of their Indians gear with Wahoo-shaped cutouts on social media.
Most are diehard fans who adore the team and just don't approve of the logo. Good said he wouldn't be surprised if a similar movement takes hold with the Washington Redskins - another team whose name has been controversial.
Cleveland
Evangelism Booms
Rwanda
Jean-Claude Zamwita's family abandoned the solemn organ music and stained glass windows of the Catholic church in 2006, eight years after the genocide in Rwanda, and started visiting an evangelical church with tambourines and drumming.
Such churches have been springing up across Rwanda, partly because the traditional churches, notably the Catholic Church, were largely discredited by the role played by some of their clerics during the killings.
Since the end of the genocide, which left some 800,000 people -- essentially Tutsis -- dead, Rwandans have increasingly turned to pentecostal churches or in some cases to Islam.
Rwanda is still dotted with the ruins of Catholic churches where the faithful seeking shelter were massacred, sometimes with members of the clergy acting in complicity with the killers.
Rwanda
New Technology Unwraps
Mummies
Our fascination with mummies never gets old. Now the British Museum is using the latest technology to unwrap their ancient mysteries.
Scientists at the museum have used CT scans and sophisticated imaging software to go beneath the bandages, revealing skin, bones, preserved internal organs - and in one case a brain-scooping rod left inside a skull by embalmers.
The findings go on display next month in an exhibition that sets eight of the museum's mummies alongside detailed three-dimensional images of their insides and 3-D printed replicas of some of the items buried with them.
The museum has been X-raying its mummies since the 1960s, but modern CT scanners give a vastly sharper image. Just like live patients, the mummies chosen for the exhibition were scanned at London hospitals - though they were wheeled in after hours.
The eight mummies belong to individuals who lived in Egypt or Sudan between 3,500 B.C. and 700 A.D. They range from poor people naturally preserved in sand - the cheapest burial option - to high-ranking Egyptians given elaborate ceremonial funerals.
Mummies
'Predator' Connection
Jean-Claude Van Damme
Did you know that a certain terror from outer space was originally going to be played by the Muscles From Brussels?
It's been great cocktail-party fodder for years, and now we have actual video proof of Jean-Claude Van Damme's (brief) involvement with the 1987 sci-fi action classic "Predator."
Van Damme had been hired to play the title creature, a now-iconic movie monster that had a decidedly different - and rather impractical - design when the martial-arts maven came aboard.
"With great pomp and ceremony, [director] John McTiernan slams down a bunch of designs [of the Predator], and they were awful," says special effects wizard Steve Johnson in an interview posted this week by Stan Winston School, recalling an early meeting with the "Predator" crew. "It was ahead of its time, but the head did suck," he adds with a laugh.
A fame-hungry Van Damme, "just off the boat from Brussels," rose to the challenge, though the gig ended up being plagued with major misunderstandings and a general lack of communication.
Jean-Claude Van Damme
In Memory
Lacey Holsworth
Lacey Holsworth, the 8-year-old cancer patient who lived up to her Twitter name @adorablelacey, has died, according to her family. Holsworth became friends with Michigan State's Adreian Payne
Holsworth's family announced her passing via social media:
Holsworth suffered from neuroblastoma, cancer discovered in 2011 after she suffered pain while dancing. Doctors found tumors on her kidney and spine severe enough to restrict her movement. During their many public appearances together, Payne would often carry Holsworth, including a trip up the ladder to cut down the nets after Michigan State's Big Ten championship victory.
Lacey Holsworth and Adreian Payne. Special to Yahoo Sports.
Payne and Holsworth appeared frequently together, most recently at a slam-dunk championship last week in Dallas. Payne's Twitter account
Lacey Holsworth
From BartCop Entertainment Archives - Thursday, 27 March, 2014
MSU's Payne, his 'princess' lean on each other through life's struggles | The Detroit News
Thanks, BadtotheboneBob
In Memory
James Hellwig (The Ultimate Warrior)
The Ultimate Warrior put on his signature airbrushed trench coat, shook the white ring ropes, and, for a few fleeting minutes, the wrestler billed as hailing from Parts Unknown was back home in the wrestling ring.
"Speak to me, Warriors!" he bellowed on Monday night's "Raw", back on TV after an 18-year absence.
He soaked up the applause from a New Orleans crowd chanting his name and pulled out a neon mask that replicated the face paint he wore in the ring for every main event battle with Hulk Hogan and Randy "Macho Man" Savage in the 1990s. Warrior cut a promo to show how much he appreciated his return to the WWE.
Less than 24 hours later, Warrior, one of the most colorful stars in pro wrestling history, was dead. He was 54.
After ending his estrangement with the company, Warrior was in the spotlight again earlier this week, making appearances at WrestleMania 30 and on "Monday Night Raw," and he was inducted into the WWE Hall of fame.
The Ultimate Warrior personified the larger-than-life cartoon characters who helped skyrocket the WWE into a mainstream phenomenon in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The Ultimate Warrior became the first wrestler to defeat Hogan in a WrestleMania match in 1990 when he used his finishing running splash for the pin. He won the championship in front of 67,678 fans at Toronto's SkyDome in a match billed as "The Ultimate Challenge."
The Ultimate Warrior would defeat Savage the next year at WrestleMania.
Savage, who died in 2011, Hogan and Warrior were all enormous personalities with gaudy costumes and memorable catchphrases. They led the WWE's transformation from a promotion running weekend arena shows and Saturday morning TV into one booking events at the largest stadiums around the world with millions watching every Monday night. More than 5.1 million viewers watched Warrior's final appearance Monday night on "Raw."
The WWE said Warrior, who legally changed his name from James Hellwig to his wrestling moniker, died Tuesday. Scottsdale, Ariz., police spokesman Sgt. Mark Clark said he collapsed while walking with his wife to their car at a hotel and was pronounced dead at a hospital.
The Ultimate Warrior had a falling out with the WWE over various issues, including money, and did not appear on its TV shows after July 8, 1996, until last weekend.
James Hellwig (The Ultimate Warrior)
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