Recommended Reading
from Bruce
The Paul Ryan Watch
He's been in Congress for nearly 13 years, but Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has only seen two of his bills pass into law during that time. Ryan, who Mitt Romney has tapped as his running mate, passed a bill into law in July 2000 that renames a post office in his district.
Mark Morford: Mitt Romney vs. dead potted plant (SF Gate)
It is not very easy to care about Mitt Romney.
Scott Burns: How We Missed Truly Golden Years for the Social Security Trust Fund (AssetBuilder)
A single Washington decision, in 1983, would have nearly doubled the value of the Social Security Trust Fund. That decision would also have made the retirement of today's workers far more secure.
Justin Peters: The USA Crushed Every Other Country in the Medal Count. Why Is America So Awesome at the Olympics? (Slate)
The big question is why China doesn't do well in track and field. China only won five athletics medals this year, four in racewalking and one in women's discus. If the Chinese start taking track as seriously as they take table tennis, America is in trouble.
Justin Peters: Team USA Wins Women's Basketball Gold, Again. America Yawns and Flips to Wrestling, Again. (Slate)
The U.S. has won seven of the 10 gold medals ever awarded in women's basketball and has lost one Olympic game in the past 30 years. And yet, few people seem to care.
Oliver Thring: The codes that tell you what your waiter is really thinking (Guardian)
Are you QF or a VNP? Whatever happens, steer clear of DBC.
Kate Mossman: Of Monsters and Men: 'We found we could bond better by telling each other fairytales' (Guardian)
The Icelandic band have charmed audiences in Europe and America with their extremely loud brand of otherworldly folk rock.
Annalee Newitz: "'Bourne Legacy' WTF?" (io9)
In the end, conspiracy thrillers like the Bourne series depend on a compelling central character, and possibly a mesmerizing bad guy. Yes, a film like "Bourne Legacy" is definitely an action film, but it's also a psychological suspense story. It's about what's happening inside Aaron's mind, as well as how many bridges he can climb and how many intelligence agents he can piss off. When we aren't given any reasons to care about Aaron, or even to be curious about what's in his mind, the whole movie falls apart.
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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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Michelle in AZ
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Hope the marine layer returns before I melt.
Displeased With Willard
Silversun Pickups
The Silversun Pickups want Republican Mitt Romney's presidential campaign to immediately stop the use of the rock group's song "Panic Switch." And the Romney campaign has no problem with that.
The Los Angeles-based band's attorney sent a cease and desist letter to Romney on Wednesday. A news release says neither the band nor its representatives were contacted for permission to use the 2009 alternative rock hit and the group "has no intention of endorsing the Romney campaign."
"We don't like people going behind our backs, using our music without asking, and we don't like the Romney campaign," Silversun Pickups lead singer Brian Aubert said in the statement. "We're nice, approachable people. We won't bite. Unless you're Mitt Romney! We were very close to just letting this go because the irony was too good. While he is inadvertently playing a song that describes his whole campaign, we doubt that 'Panic Switch' really sends the message he intends."
Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul said in an email that the song was inadvertently played during the setup for one event before Romney arrived. The band learned about it in a tweet from Romney's North Carolina stopover.
Silversun Pickups
Global Activists Gear Up
Pussy Riot
The global campaign to free Pussy Riot is gaining speed: Supporters of the punk provocateur band are mobilizing this week in at least two dozen cities worldwide to hold simultaneous demonstrations an hour before a Russian court rules on whether its members will be sent to prison.
Friday's rallies will ride a wave of support for the three women who have been in jail for more than five months because of an anti-Putin prank in Moscow's main cathedral. Calls for them to be freed have come from a long list of celebrities such as Madonna and Bjork. Protests have been held in a number of Western capitals, including Berlin, where last week about 400 people joined Canadian electro-pop performance artist Peaches to support the band.
In one of the most extravagant displays, Reykjavik Mayor Jon Gnarr rode through the streets of the Icelandic capital in a Gay Pride parade this weekend dressed like a band member - wearing a bright pink dress and matching balaclava - while lip-synching to one of Pussy Riot's songs.
Although the band members and their lawyers are convinced that the verdict depends entirely on the will of President Vladimir Putin, and prosecutors have asked for a three-year sentence, activists hope their pressure will ease punishment or even free the women.
Amnesty International has declared the women prisoners of conscience and collected tens of thousands of petitions to be sent to the Russian government. So far, though, the human rights group said it has been blocked from delivering them. Two boxes containing 70,000 petitions were taken to the Russian Embassy in Washington on Tuesday, but a Russian diplomat carried them outside and dumped them on the sidewalk, Amnesty International spokeswoman Sharon Singh said.
Pussy Riot
Shilling For Priceline
William Shatner
William Shatner's Priceline Negotiator isn't a goner, after all. He just went surfing.
Seven months after a commercial showed the Negotiator plunging off a cliff and into apparent oblivion, the company is resurrecting him in a new 30-second TV and online spot set to debut Thursday.
A clever parody of a world-weary spy who vanishes to start a new life, the commercial opens with Shatner standing on a beach, gazing somberly at the ocean. A company man (actor Allan Louis) approaches him.
"You've been busy for a dead man," he tells Shatner. "After you jumped ship in Bangkok, I thought I'd lost you."
"Surfing is my life now," replies Shatner, who is formally dressed in a business suit, shirt and tie. But his pants legs are rolled up and he's got a surfboard tucked under his arm.
William Shatner
Hospital News
Mayim Bialik
Actress Mayim Bialik is telling fans on Twitter that she'll keep all her fingers after a car accident in the Hollywood area of Los Angeles sent her to the hospital.
Los Angeles police spokesman Richard French says the 36-year-old actress's left hand and thumb were cut severely. Bialik's husband typed for her that she's in pain but her hand will remain intact.
Police say another car made a left turn and crashed into Bialik's vehicle shortly before noon Wednesday.
The three occupants of the other car suffered minor injuries and left the scene on their own.
Mayim Bialik
Another Round
Mel "Sugar Tits"Gibson
Mel "Sugar Tits" Gibson (R-Fickle) has fired another volley in his seemingly never-ending war of words with screenwriter Joe Eszterhas over their abandoned film project "The Maccabees."
In an interview with Coming Soon, Gibson unloads both barrels on his former partner Eszterhas, saying the screenwriter took forever to turn in a script - and when he did, it was "heinous."
During the interview, Gibson insisted he had provided Eszterhas with plenty of fodder for the script in the form of story ideas, imagery and dialogue - little of which made it into the final (and, according to Gibson, hastily assembled) script.
Gibson went on to suggest that Eszterhas somehow intended to sabotage him by allegedly dragging his feet on the script.
Mel "Sugar Tits"Gibson
Megadeth Singer
Dave Mustaine
Dave Mustaine -- the lead singer of Megadeth -- believes Barack Obama "staged" the massacre in Aurora, CO in a sick, twisted plot to pass a gun ban.
Mustaine made the comments on stage at an August 7 performance in Singapore ... when he told the crowd, "Back in my country, my president ... he's trying to pass a gun ban, so he's staging all of these murders, like the 'Fast And Furious' thing down at the border ... Aurora, Colorado, all the people that were killed there ... and now the beautiful people at the Sikh temple."
He continued, "I don't know where I'm gonna live if America keeps going the way it's going because it looks like it's turning into Nazi America."
Obviously, Mustaine is not an Obama fan ... and recently bashed the President during an interview with Alex Jones ... saying, "With all of the proof about his birth certificate being fake. And you see the signs in Kenya that say 'the birthplace of Barack Obama.' Hello?! C'mon, guys. How stupid are we right now?"
Dave Mustaine
Nugent Drummer Pleads Not Guilty
Nick Brown
The drummer for rocker Ted Nugent has pleaded not guilty to operating under the influence of intoxicants, driving to endanger, theft and assault following a joyride in a golf cart after a concert in Maine.
The plea was entered Wednesday on the behalf of 55-year-old Nick Brown by his defense lawyer.
Brown is accused of stealing a golf cart from a concert venue and driving recklessly on a footpath after Nugent's concert on July 8 on the Bangor waterfront.
The Bangor Daily News said Brown, of Cave Creek, Ariz., remains free on $4,000 bail. His next court date has not been scheduled.
Nick Brown
Drops Wrongful Death Lawsuit
Joe Jackson
Michael Jackson's father has dropped a wrongful death lawsuit filed against the former doctor who was convicted of causing the singer's death.
Court records show Joe Jackson's request for a dismissal was granted Monday. The filings do not elaborate on a reason for dropping pursuit of the case, but two attorneys handling the case were recently ruled ineligible to practice law in California.
The Jackson family patriarch initially filed the lawsuit against Conrad Murray in June 2010, on the anniversary of his son's death. A federal judge refused to hear it and it had to be re-filed in state court in Los Angeles.
He had been seeking damages for a variety of issues, including loss of income and support, emotional distress, and pain and suffering.
Joe Jackson
Carlyle Group To Buy
Getty Images
Private equity firm Carlyle Group LP agreed to take over photo agency Getty Images Inc from Hellman & Friedman LLC in a $3.3 billion deal, betting on growing demand for online images as the media industry shifts away from print.
As websites from companies like Facebook Inc and Groupon Inc commission as many images as magazines and television outlets do, Carlyle sees an opportunity to boost the business further globally and through new products.
"We will harness Carlyle's financial resources and global network to help take Getty Images to the next stage of product innovation and global growth," Carlyle Managing Director Eliot Merrill said on Wednesday.
Carlyle will acquire a stake of just over 50 percent in Getty, the largest supplier of stock photos, video and other digital content, while Getty management owns the rest, increasing its stake from just over 30 percent. The deal values Getty at $3.3 billion, including debt.
Getty Images
Looking For Temporary Male Model
'Price is Right'
Men, do you have what it takes to be a model on "The Price is Right"?
CBS said Wednesday that the game show known for its female models will add a male one for a week.
"The Price is Right" will hold its "first-ever search" for the right man in an online competition, the network said. Viewers will choose the winner in October.
He'll get a weeklong stint on the show hosted by Drew Carey.
'Price is Right'
Pigs & Squatters Threaten
Nazca Lines
Squatters have started raising pigs on the site of Peru's Nazca lines - the giant designs best seen from an airplane that were mysteriously etched into the desert more than 1,500 years ago.
The squatters have destroyed a Nazca-era cemetery and the 50 shacks they have built border Nazca figures, said Blanca Alva, a director at Peru's culture ministry.
She said the squatters, the latest in a succession of encroachments over the years into the protected Nazca area, invaded the site during the Easter holidays in April and that Peruvian laws designed to protect the poor and landless have thwarted efforts to remove them.
The Nazca lines known as geoglyphs, declared a UNESCO world heritage site in 1994, were produced over a period of a thousand years on a 200 square mile (500 square km) stretch of coastal desert.
Ancient Nazcans formed the figures by scraping away the desert's dark iron-oxide pebbles to reveal the white soil underneath, which hardened as unearthed limestone was exposed to morning dew.
Nazca Lines
In Memory
Harry Harrison
American author Harry Harrison, whose space-age spoofs delighted generations of science fiction fans, has died, a friend said Wednesday. He was 87.
Irish sci-fi writer Michael Carroll said in a telephone interview that he learned of Harrison's passing from the author's daughter, Moira, earlier in the day. He said Harrison died in southern England, but didn't have much further detail.
Harrison was a prolific writer whose works ranged from tongue-in-cheek inter-galactic action romps to dystopian fantasies, with detours through children's stories and shambolic crime capers. Carroll said most of the works delivered a stream of sly humor with a big bucket of action.
Harrison was best known for his "The Stainless Steel Rat" series, starring the free-spirited anti-hero Slippery Jim DiGriz, a quick-witted conman who travels the universe swindling humans, aliens and robots alike. His 1966 work, "Make Room! Make Room!" - a sci-fi take on the horrors of overpopulation - inspired the 1973 film "Soylent Green" starring Charlton Heston.
Born in Stamford, Connecticut, in 1925, Harrison served in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II before working freelance as a commercial artist and eventually embarking on a long career as one of science fiction's leading writers, turning out more than 70 books and short stories. Among them was "Bill, the Galactic Hero" a send-up of Robert Heinlein's hard-edged "Starship Troopers," and "The Technicolor Time Machine," which took aim at Hollywood. Other works included anthologies, collections, and children's stories - including one particularly goofy tale about an intergalactic guerilla force of mutant pigs.
Harrison is survived by Moira and a son, Todd. Harrison's wife, Joan, died in 2002. Funeral arrangements were not immediately available.
Harry Harrison
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