Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Mark Morford: The best worst president ever (SF Gate)
"Obama is the worst thing to ever happen to this country," declares the wealthy, rakish, silver-haired Newport Beach white guy to his small group of perfectly tanned 50-something females sitting just a few feet away from us at a stunning restaurant patio overlooking the sun-kissed California coastline, just off of Highway 1, as he sipped his pinot and adjusted his wraparound Ray Bans, flush from the economy's spectacular recovery that has benefitted his exact demographic most of all, …
Jessica Valenti: Women like sex. Stop making 'health' excuses for why we use birth control (Guardian)
When 99% of the female population uses contraception, it's sad that we can't just come out and say that we use it for sex. And that we like the sex - a lot.
Alison Flood: Authors' incomes collapse to 'abject' levels (Guardian)
ALCS survey finds median annual earnings for professional writers have fallen to £11,000, 29% down since 2005.
Alison Flood: Harry Potter makes first appearance for seven years as he turns 34 (Guardian)
Harry Potter, last seen waving his children onto the Hogwarts train at the end of the seventh and final novel in JK Rowling's record-breaking series, has just made his first appearance in seven years as a 34-year-old with "threads of silver" in his black hair.
Steve Alcorn: "Elizabeth Harrower: Australia's buried literary treasure is unearthed" (Guardian)
After four masterful novels, the career of the writer described as Australia's F Scott Fitzgerald mysteriously ended - only to be revived 40 years later.
Robert Evans, Andy, Sara Steele: 5 Horrifying Things Only Garbagemen Know About Your Town (Cracked)
Severed human limbs, priceless watches, and live puppies -- you'd be shocked at the shit people throw in the trash (including actual shit). Yeah, it turns out that being a garbage collector is a way weirder job than you'd think.
Miley Cyrus's new video unleashes her arthouse wild side (Guardian)
Cyrus, in perhaps the most shocking move of her career so far, remains fully clothed. Mind you she was in hospital recovering from an allergic reaction to antibiotics at the time the video was made.
Sean Hutchinson: 15 Things You May Not Have Known About 'The Shawshank Redemption' (Mental Floss)
Darabont wrote the script in eight weeks before pitching it to Castle Rock Entertainment. He decided to drop the "Rita Hayworth" part of the novella because actresses sent their resumes in for consideration thinking it was a Rita Hayworth biopic. During the casting process, Darabont even received a call from an agent who represented a supermodel; he swore the script was the best she had ever read and that she'd be perfect for the (non-existent) part of Hayworth.
Working With Victor Borge
Victor Borge died on December 23, 2000, a few days before his 92nd (or, according to some, 91st) birthday. The great pianist Leonid Hambro collaborated on stage with Borge for a decade, touring the world and doing a long run on Broadway. Prior to that, Hambro was principal pianist for the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, and also had a busy schedule doing radio concerts on WQXR in New York and recording albums. We asked him how the collaboration came about.
David Bruce's Amazon Author Page
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David Bruce has approximately 50 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
wrote:
took the day off.
has retired.
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.
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
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Bit less humidit.
Russian Asylum Is Almost Up
Edward Snowden
Former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden has petitioned to extend his asylum in Russia. His current one-year reprieve expires on July 31.
"The procedure is very simple if a citizen of any country would like to stay and live in Russia. In this case we are talking about Snowden, so we have fulfilled the procedure to receive temporary asylum," Snowden's lawyer Anatoly Kucherena said Wednesday. "We have submitted documents to prolong his stay in Russia... The decision lies with the Federal Migration Service."
The whistleblower whose 1.7 million leaked agency documents have fueled dozens of investigative reports on the intelligence community, including Glenn Greenwald's reporting on the NSA's PRISM program, fled to Russia in June 2013, eventually receiving a one-year grant of temporary asylum that began in August. Though Snowden told NBC's Brian Williams he seeks amnesty back home, the U.S. charged him with espionage and theft of government property and does not appear willing to strike a deal.
Stateside, Snowden's leaks have continued their ripple effect, contributing to this week's revelation in The Intercept that the NSA and FBI spied on prominent Muslim-Americans between 2002 and 2008.
Edward Snowden
Approves Route For Canal Linking Oceans
Nicaragua
A Nicaraguan committee approved a proposed route on Monday for a $40 billion shipping channel across the Central American country that would compete with the Panama Canal.
The committee of government officials, businessmen and academics approved a 172 mile (278 km) route from the mouth of the Brito river on the Pacific side to the Punto Gorda river on the Caribbean that was proposed by executives from the HK Nicaragua Canal Development Investment Co Ltd (HKND Group).
The Hong Kong-based HKND group, which is leading the project, is headed by Chinese lawyer Wang Jing, who also heads Chinese company Xinwei Telecom Enterprise Group.
The proposed canal would pass through Lake Nicaragua, Central America's largest lake, and will be between 230 meters and 520 meters (755 feet to 1,706 feet) wide and 27.6 meters (90 feet) deep, said HKND engineer Dong Yunsong.
Nicaragua
Cooks Up $50,000
Potato Salad
All Zack Danger Brown wanted to do was make potato salad and find a few dollars for ingredients. He has amassed 4,000 supporters, and at one point on Tuesday, about $50,000 in financial support from a campaign on Internet fundraiser Kickstarter.
"Basically I'm just making potato salad. I haven't decided what kind yet," the 31-year-old Ohio man wrote on the campaign page.
He was initially asking for $10 to make the picnic side dish but word quickly spread about his endeavor, which became a global sensation.
User comments have asked Brown to donate the excess amount of cash to a charity, but that violates Kickstarter's terms to prevent backers from unknowingly donating to causes they do not support.
Potato Salad
Returned 8 Months Later
Lost Phone
Oklahoma farmer Kevin Whitney thought his iPhone was lost for good when it fell into a grain elevator last year. Eight months later, his phone was returned unscathed after a trip to Japan.
Whitney, the manager of the Apache Farmers Co-Op in Chickasha, Oklahoma, lost his phone in October after it slipped out of his shirt pocket as he was unloading grain from a truck into a silo holding roughly 290,000 bushels of grain.
The phone traveled to another Oklahoma grain facility before going down the Arkansas and Mississippi rivers to a depot in Convent, Louisiana. From there, the grain was loaded onto ships bound for another grain depot on the island of Hokkaido, Japan.
In late May, Whitney received a phone call from Eric Slater with the Zen-Noh Grain Corporation.
Lost Phone
Hospital Head Fired Over Denied Abortion
Poland
Warsaw's mayor said Wednesday she fired the head of a maternity hospital who refused to perform or facilitate an abortion of a badly deformed fetus for reasons of conscience.
The case - which saw the recently delivered baby put under intensive care with major brain and skull deformity - has stirred wide debate in Polish media, raising questions about the boundaries of faith in public life in a country that is traditionally Catholic but increasingly becoming secular.
Mayor Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz said she fired obstetrician Bogdan Chazan, a declared Catholic, over the case. She said a review showed that Chazan refused to perform an abortion toward the end of the legally-allowed period and failed to advise the woman on where an abortion was available and on the approaching deadline.
Pregnancies in Poland can be terminated before the 24th week if the fetus is in seriously poor health. A doctor can refuse for reasons of conscience, but has a legal obligation to direct the patient to another doctor.
Poland
John Wayne Heirs Sue University
Duke vs. Duke
John Wayne's heirs are taking Duke University to court to assert the family's right to market bottles of bourbon branded with the late movie star's nickname, Duke.
A federal lawsuit filed last week is the latest salvo in a long-running legal duel between the North Carolina university and California-based John Wayne Enterprises over commercial products featuring the name. The late actor used the moniker since childhood, when he adopted the name of the family dog.
Lawyers for the university say allowing the Wayne estate to use the name could cause confusion and "diminish, dilute and tarnish" the value of the name, for which both parties hold trademarks.
The bourbon is labeled with an image of Wayne holding a rifle with "Duke" emblazoned over it in bold letters. The phrase "A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do" is included on the back side of the bottle.
Duke University is named for a wealthy family of Durham tobacco barons who in the early 1900s endowed what had been a small rural college affiliated with the Methodist church. It made the first legal move against the Wayne heirs when it opposed their 2005 trademark application to use the name Duke for a restaurant. When the actor's family filed last year to use the name to market alcoholic beverages, the university objected once again.
Duke vs. Duke
Reverses Decision
DC Entertainment
DC Entertainment has reversed an unpopular decision that generated a "maelstrom" of backlash, agreeing Wednesday to allow the Superman logo to be used on a memorial statue of a Toronto boy who was starved to death.
Five-year-old Jeffrey Baldwin died in 2002 after being severely neglected by his grandparents, but a coroner's inquest last winter into his death caught the attention of Ottawa resident Todd Boyce.
Boyce was moved by Jeffrey's plight, and raised money to build a statue of the boy. He was especially affected by testimony from the boy's father that in happier times Jeffrey loved Superman and wanted to fly just like the superhero.
The statue's artist, Ruth Abernethy - known for a Glenn Gould bronze statue on a bench on Front Street in Toronto and a bronze of Oscar Peterson outside the National Arts Centre in Ottawa - designed it with Jeffrey standing on a bench, wearing a Superman costume like he did one Halloween.
DC Entertainment initially refused Boyce permission to use the logo on the memorial, but gave Boyce the OK on Wednesday, two days after The Canadian Press first reported the denial.
DC Entertainment
Defamation Case Begins
Jesse Ventura
Jesse Ventura brought his defamation lawsuit before home-state jurors Tuesday in a bid to punish the estate of late "American Sniper" author Chris Kyle, who bragged in an autobiography that he decked the former Minnesota governor during a barroom scrap almost a decade ago.
In opening statements in federal court, Ventura attorney David Bradley Olsen said the punch never happened and that Ventura never made disparaging comments about servicemen, as Kyle claimed.
Kyle estate attorney John Borger countered that the jury would get the real story from Kyle via testimony videotaped before his death.
Ventura, a former Navy SEAL and wrestler who was Minnesota governor from 1999-2003, alleges Kyle defamed him in his best-selling book. Ventura pursued the claim even after Kyle was killed last year at a Texas gun range, saying it was important to clear his name.
In a three-page subchapter of his book, Kyle - also a former SEAL and regarded as the deadliest sniper in U.S. military history - describes a 2006 bar fight in Coronado, California, in which he said he punched a man knocking him to the ground. Kyle identified the man in the autobiography only as "Scruff Face" but whom he later said was Ventura. Kyle claimed Ventura was speaking loudly against resident George W. Bush, the Iraq War and Navy SEAL tactics. Kyle claimed Ventura said the SEALS "deserve to lose a few."
Jesse Ventura
Huge Trove of Dinosaur Footprints Discovered
Alaska
A "world-class" dinosaur track site discovered in Alaska's Denali National Park shows that herds of duck-billed dinosaurs thrived under the midnight sun.
"We had mom, dad, big brother, big sister and little babies all running around together," said paleontologist Anthony Fiorillo, who is studying the dinosaur tracks. "As I like to tell the park, Denali was a family destination for millions of years, and now we've got the fossil evidence for it."
The dinosaur track site, near Cabin Peak in the park's northeast corner, has thousands of tracks from hadrosaurs, or duck-billed dinosaurs. Many of the deep tracks contain preserved skin and "nail" impressions from the plant-eating hadrosaurs.
Fiorillo and his collaborators also found traces from birds, clams, worms and bugs intermingled with the dinosaur tracks. Other dinosaur denizens who left behind footprints in Denali were ceratopsians, therizinosaurs and the flying reptiles called pterosaurs. Ferns and redwood cones complete the picture of a rich Cretaceous ecosystem.
Alaska
Weakening 10 Times Faster Now
Earth's Magnetic Field
Earth's magnetic field, which protects the planet from huge blasts of deadly solar radiation, has been weakening over the past six months, according to data collected by a European Space Agency (ESA) satellite array called Swarm.
The biggest weak spots in the magnetic field - which extends 370,000 miles (600,000 kilometers) above the planet's surface - have sprung up over the Western Hemisphere, while the field has strengthened over areas like the southern Indian Ocean, according to the magnetometers onboard the Swarm satellites - three separate satellites floating in tandem.
The scientists who conducted the study are still unsure why the magnetic field is weakening, but one likely reason is that Earth's magnetic poles are getting ready to flip, said Rune Floberghagen, the ESA's Swarm mission manager. In fact, the data suggest magnetic north is moving toward Siberia.
Scientists already know that magnetic north shifts. Once every few hundred thousand years the magnetic poles flip so that a compass would point south instead of north. While changes in magnetic field strength are part of this normal flipping cycle, data from Swarm have shown the field is starting to weaken faster than in the past. Previously, researchers estimated the field was weakening about 5 percent per century, but the new data revealed the field is actually weakening at 5 percent per decade, or 10 times faster than thought. As such, rather than the full flip occurring in about 2,000 years, as was predicted, the new data suggest it could happen sooner.
Earth's Magnetic Field
Prime-Time Nielsens
Ratings
Prime-time viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen for June 30-July 6. Listings include the week's ranking and viewership.
1. "America's Got Talent" (Tuesday), NBC, 11.14 million.
2. "Under the Dome," CBS, 9.41 million.
3. "60 Minutes," CBS, 8.59 million.
4. "NCIS," CBS, 8.13 million.
5. "The Big Bang Theory" (Monday, 9:30 p.m.), CBS, 7.03 million.
6. "Night Shift," NBC, 6.87 million.
7. "The Big Bang Theory," CBS, 6.479 million.
8. "The Bachelorette," ABC, 6.476 million.
9. "America's Got Talent" (Wednesday), NBC, 6.38 million.
10. "The Big Bang Theory" (Monday, 9 p.m.), CBS, 6.37 million.
11. "Unforgettable," CBS, 6.2 million.
12. "Big Brother" (Sunday), CBS, 6.01 million.
13. "NCIS: Los Angeles," CBS, 5.82 million.
14. "24: Live Another Day," Fox, 5.72 million.
15. "Big Brother" (Wednesday), CBS, 5.67 million.
16. "Master Chef," Fox, 5.434 million.
17. "Rizzoli & Isles," TNT, 5.428 million.
18. "Macy's Fourth of July Fireworks," NBC, 5.37 million.
19. "Dateline NBC Mystery," NBC, 5.27 million.
20. "Taxi Brooklyn," NBC, 5.24 million.
Ratings
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