Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Mark Morford: How to stay relevant (sfgate.com)
Technofreaky whipsaw culture leaving you in the e-dust? Try this
A good ending (guardian.co.uk)
Is there such a thing as an easy death? Cancer nurse Trea McNally believes so - if we learn to manage the process properly. She talks to Diane Taylor.
Anne Applebaum: Why Is the Right Doing So Well in Europe? (slate.com)
For a start, they don't spend like drunken sailors.
An ugly carnival (guardian.co.uk)
Antony Beevor recounts the brutal treatment meted out to thousands of French women after D-day.
Roger Ebert: Vincent P. Falk and His Amazing Technicolor Dream Coats
You might never have heard of Vincent P. Falk, but if you've been a visitor to Chicago you may well have seen him. He has performed for the patrons on every single tour boat cruising the Chicago River.
The Top 10 Female Athletes to FollowŠon Twitter (bleacherreport.com)
Male athletes are getting all the Twitter love, so I decided to give some to the chicks.
"Dickson Baseball Dictionary 3RD Edition" by Paul Dickson: A review by Nick Stillman (powells.com)
Maine is on the northern edge of a pocket of the country that breeds obsessive fandom for the Boston Red Sox and venom for the New York Yankees. That place is known as Red Sox Nation, and my introduction to its treacherous emotional terrain came early.
Why we all need our own secret slang (guardian.co.uk)
Laura Barnett on a secret language she first used at school - and still does to this day.
RICHARD ROEPER: Meter mess has an upside for some of us (suntimes.com)
In the movies, parking is rarely a problem, unless it's for comedic effect. Whether the film is set in Smalltown USA or Manhattan, if someone is racing to the courtroom or the church, there's always a spot available right in front.
Timothy Greenfield-Sanders: "Sandra Bernhard: Original Portrait Series" (huffingtonpost.com)
This is the debut of my new portrait series on the Huffington Post. Last week Sandra Bernhard sat for me to commemorate her upcoming revival of "Without You I'm Nothing: The 20th Anniversary."
Richard Chang: David Choi has more subscribers on YouTube than Miley Cyrus (The Orange County Register)
It's a late May weekday afternoon, and the sun is beginning to bake the asphalt and concrete in Garden Grove. David Choi is hanging out with his parents in their modest music shop, simply called Grace Music. A variety of violins hang from the walls, and numerous Autoharps are also on display.
David Bruce: Wise Up! Wisdom (athensnews.com)
A student asked Zen master Qianfeng where the road that leads directly to Nirvana is located. Qianfeng used his staff to draw a line in the dirt in front of him, then said, "The road begins right here."
The Weekly Poll
The 'Talking Heads' Edition (No, not the band, ya weirdo...)
Which TV network do you view the most for national/international news?
(Feel free to cite individual programs/personalities that you particularly like)
1.) CNN
2.) MS-NBC
3.) FNC
4.) ABC
5.) CBS
6.) PBS
Send your response to
said:
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Overcast morning, partially sunny afternoon.
Didn't want to mess with a converter box, so splurged and bought a new TV, only to find I also needed a new antenna.
Set it up today, and out of a possible 31 stations, only lost 3. One is a Jesus channel from behind the Orange Curtain, so bfd, but, the other 2 are the local ABC O&O, and the local NBC O&O.
Went to DTV.gov and looked at the maps. Seems the area where I live was thrown to the cable/satellite dogs, and left with no over-the-air-options.
I grew up with cable - well, it started as a community antenna, and grew.
The system was turned on the day I was born, but that's another story.
One of the advantages of moving to the big city was rabbit-ear TV that provided a signal comparable to cable.
I have Dish, but without local channels because it costs extra. I refuse to pay for a local signal to be re-processed by a 3rd party so I can watch my local TV stations.
Cripes, I buy flour & bake my own cookies, why would I want to buy a re-processed signal?
If the broadcaster is incapable of getting their signal to a reasonable receiver, they ain't in broadcasting anymore - they're simply providing content for cable.
Radio Blacklisting
musicFIRST
Which top-selling artist purportedly had his new single yanked from some radio station playlists in retaliation for supporting royalties for musicians?
No one involved will name the recording artist, but his no-play treatment by several radio stations is alleged in a complaint filed with the Federal Communications Commission. It claims recording artists are being threatened and intimidated.
In the filing, the musicFIRST Coalition says the top-selling artist - there are hints it could be U2 frontman Bono - recently released a new album and spoke during April in support of an effort to require radio stations to pay musicians royalties similar to those paid to songwriters.
Soon after, it said, "several stations within a major radio broadcast group notified the artist's label that they would no longer play his single on the air."
Representatives for musicFIRST refused to identify the artist. The complaint said artists asked to remain unidentified "to protect against further reprisal."
musicFIRST
26 New Episodes
'Futurama'
Comedy Central says it's bringing the animated comedy "Futurama" back from past cancellation for 26 new half-hour episodes.
The satiric sci-fi series, set in "New New York City" in the third millennium, will resume production more than six years after ending its four-season run on the Fox network in 2003.
In 2008, those original 72 episodes were supplemented by four extended length adventures.
The new episodes, produced as before by Matt Groening and David X. Cohen, are expected to air on Comedy Central beginning in mid-2010. Twentieth Century Fox Television could license the new series for a broadcast network.
'Futurama'
Approves New Contract
Screen Actors Guild
Members of the Screen Actors Guild overwhelmingly approved a two-year contract with Hollywood studios on Tuesday, ending a year-long standoff that pitted top stars against each other and slowed production.
The union, which represents about 120,000 performers, was bitterly divided over the proposed deal, with SAG president Alan Rosenberg leading a hardline faction that demanded better terms, especially for work carried on the Internet.
SAG said 78 percent of members voted to approve the contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents the Hollywood studios. The margin was wider than expected.
Screen Actors Guild
Plans To Rebuild
Christopher Lloyd
Christopher Lloyd plans to rebuild on the Southern California site where wildfire destroyed his house last fall.
Lloyd's $11 million house was among hundreds lost in the fires that swept the state. He spoke about the home while in Montana promoting a new movie, "Call of the Wild 3D."
Lloyd says the fires were an "awesome" experience and left the neighborhood looking like a war zone.
The actor, who played the scientist sidekick to Michael J. Fox's character in the "Back to the Future" movies, says he had been preparing to sell the house so most of his belongings were in storage. Still, he says he lost some pictures, family memorabilia and other personal items.
Christopher Lloyd
Wedding News
Spicer - Tyson
Former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson has married for the third time, tying the knot with girlfriend Lakiha Spicer in Las Vegas, the owner of a wedding chapel said on Tuesday.
The wedding comes about two weeks after his 4 year-old daughter, Exodus, from another woman died in what police described as an accident at her Arizona home. The youngster was choked by a cord from a treadmill.
Tyson's marriage to Spicer took place on Saturday in a private ceremony at the La Bella Wedding Chapel, its owner Shawn Absher told Reuters.
Tyson's union with Spicer is his third marriage. He was previously married for one year to actress Robin Givens and for five years to a doctor, Monica Turner.
Spicer - Tyson
Karma's A Bitch
Carrie Prejean
Miss California USA Carrie Prejean, who stirred up trouble for herself when she said gays shouldn't be allowed to marry, got two dreaded words from pageant poobah Donald Trump on Wednesday: "You're fired."
Trump and other pageant leaders said Prejean was being sacked not because of the remarks but because she hadn't been holding up her end of the agreement she signed when she entered the pageant.
"I told Carrie she needed to get back to work and honor her contract with the Miss California USA Organization and I gave her the opportunity to do so," Trump said in a statement. "Unfortunately it just doesn't look like it is going to happen."
Pageant officials said Prejean would be replaced by the Miss California pageant's first runner-up, Tami Farrell, 24, who was crowned Miss Teen USA in 2003. They had announced last month that Farrell was being named a special ambassador to fill in for Prejean at any events she didn't attend.
Carrie Prejean
Visited Oklahoma City
Jessica Alba
Photos have surfaced that appear to show Jessica Alba defacing Oklahoma City property with posters of a great white shark, and police are investigating.
Police discovered the posters glued to a downtown bridge and elsewhere, including a billboard displaying a United Way advertisement.
Police Sgt. Gary Knight said Wednesday that investigators have not interviewed Alba, who co-starred in the "Fantastic Four" movies as well as "Sin City" and "Good Luck Chuck." She's in Oklahoma filming "The Killer Inside Me," which co-stars Casey Affleck and Kate Hudson. (A 1976 adaptation of the Jim Thompson novel starred Stacy Keach.)
Photos that apparently show Alba gluing posters and posing before the defaced billboard were posted to the site of blogger White Mike, but later removed. According to the site, the posters are designed to raise awareness of the dwindling population of great white sharks.
Jessica Alba
J.D. Salinger's Nemesis
Fredrik Colting
Meet the man being sued by J.D. Salinger: Fredrik Colting, alias John David California.
"Yes, John David California and I are the same man," Colting acknowledged Wednesday in a telephone interview from his home near Gothenburg, Sweden.
California/Colting is the author of "60 Years Later," a spinoff of "The Catcher in the Rye" that Salinger alleges is a copyright infringement.
Colting had kept his name hidden from the public, but he was identified in court papers filed in New York last week. Colting's identity was first reported Wednesday by the investigative website thesmokinggun.com.
Fredrik Colting
Bush League Waste
Border Fence
Nearly six months after the U.S.-Mexico border fence ordered by the Bush administration was supposed to be finished, its completion is in limbo while a judge waits answers to questions about private property in the fence's path.
About 630 miles of the promised 670-mile-long vehicle and pedestrian barrier is complete, with the unfinished portion in deep south Texas where opposition is fierce and the government has struggled to get the land it needs.
The biggest unfinished segment is a 13-mile stretch that runs east of Brownsville through rich farmland toward the Gulf of Mexico.
Government possession of several pieces of farmland needed for that final stretch was suspended last month by the judge.
Government lawyers are now scrambling to meet the judge's orders and provide written answers to landowners' most basic questions: What precisely is the government taking, and how will property owners access the thousands of acres of land stranded between the border fence and the Rio Grande?
Border Fence
What Global Warming?
Oceans
In Washington state , oysters in some areas haven't reproduced for four years, and preliminary evidence suggests that the increasing acidity of the ocean could be the cause. In the Gulf of Mexico , falling oxygen levels in the water have forced shrimp to migrate elsewhere.
Though two marine-derived drugs, one for treating cancer and the other for pain control, are on the market and 25 others are under development, the fungus growing on seaweed, bacteria in deep sea mud and sea fans that could produce life-saving medicines are under assault from changing the ocean conditions.
Researchers, scientists and Jacques Cousteau's granddaughter painted a bleak picture Tuesday of the future of oceans and the "blue economy" of the nation's coastal states.
The hearing before the oceans subcommittee of the Senate Commerce Committee was expected to focus on how the degradation of the oceans was affecting marine businesses and coastal communities. Instead, much of the testimony focused on how the waters that cover 70 percent of the planet are already changing because of global warming.
Oceans
What Global Warming?
Wind
The wind, a favorite power source of the green energy movement, seems to be dying down across the United States. And the cause, ironically, may be global warming - the very problem wind power seeks to address.
"It's a very large effect," said study co-author Eugene Takle, a professor of atmospheric science at Iowa State University. In some places in the Midwest, the trend shows a 10 percent drop or more over a decade. That adds up when the average wind speed in the region is about 10 to 12 miles per hour.
There's been a jump in the number of low or no wind days in the Midwest, said the study's lead author, Sara Pryor, an atmospheric scientist at Indiana University.
Wind measurements plotted out on U.S. maps by Pryor show wind speeds falling mostly along and east of the Mississippi River. Some areas that are banking on wind power, such as west Texas and parts of the Northern Plains, do not show winds slowing nearly as much. Yet, states such as Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Kansas, Virginia, Louisiana, Georgia, northern Maine and western Montana show some of the biggest drop in wind speeds.
Wind
Cable Nielsens
Ratings
Rankings for the top 15 programs on cable networks as compiled by Nielsen Media Research for the week of June 1-7. Day and start time (EST) are in parentheses:
1. "Jon & Kate Plus 8" (Monday, 9:30 p.m.), TLC, 4.24 million homes, 5.94 million viewers.
2. "Burn Notice" (Thursday, 9 p.m.), USA, 4.17 million homes, 5.99 million viewers.
3. "Royal Pains" (Thursday, 10 p.m.), USA, 4.11 million homes, 5.56 million viewers.
4. "Jon & Kate Plus 8" (Monday, 9 p.m.), TLC, 3.92 million homes, 5.46 million viewers.
5. Auto Racing: NASCAR-Poconos (Sunday, 1:59 p.m.), TNT, 3.89 million homes, 5.48 million viewers.
6. "NASCAR Post Race Show" (Sunday, 6:02 p.m.), TNT, 3.71 million homes, 5.34 million viewers.
7. "WWE Raw" (Monday, 10 p.m.), USA, 3.56 million homes, 5.05 million viewers.
8. "WWE Raw" (Monday, 9 p.m.), USA, 3.17 million homes, 4.53 million viewers.
9. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Monday, 5 p.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.15 million homes, 3.96 million viewers.
10. "NCIS" (Monday, 8 p.m.), USA, 3.11 million homes, 3.92 million viewers.
11. "NCIS" (Wednesday, 8 p.m.), USA, 3.1 million homes, 4.04 million viewers.
12. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Tuesday, 5 p.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.06 million homes, 4.06 million viewers.
13. "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" (Sunday, 9 p.m.), USA, 3.036 million homes, 4.01 million viewers.
14. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Saturday, 9:30 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.035 million homes, 3.74 million viewers.
15. "Penguins of Madagascar" (Saturday, 10 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.033 million homes, 3.89 million viewers.
Ratings
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