Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Mark Shields: Why Newt Scares Republicans (Creators Syndicate)
Proving that character is destiny and that American politics can indeed be personal, Newt Gingrich loses to Barack Obama among the majority of voters who are women by two to one, 60 percent to 31 percent. What you are now seeing is not some liberal conspiracy to sink Gingrich, but instead panic in the GOP ranks and the determination of many of the party's office-seekers to avoid the devastating across-the-board Republican defeat they fear the nomination of Newt Gingrich will make inevitable.
Steve Lopez: A peculiar parking pattern (LA Times)
A high number of cars parked at downtown L.A. meters carry disabled placards that let owners park for free.
Steve Lopez: It's time for a crackdown on abusers of disabled placards (LA Times)
Los Angeles needs to take tough action, and California should at least require that the drivers get a doctor's signature every two years. Physicians could be more discriminating too.
Amy Sancetta, "In The Era Of Big Boxes, A Day For The Little Guy" (Huffington Post)
The idea started with Jim Black, a resident of Chagrin Falls, a close-knit village in Cleveland's eastern suburbs that is part artist colony and part bedroom community. Black posted the email to a group of his friends. "Let's show our support for one of our local businesses," he wrote. "I challenge everyone to spend AT LEAST $20 at the hardware on the 21st."
Scott Burns: The "Good Life" Is Also a Long Life (Assetbuilder)
The most recent examination in the United States, for instance, found that the most affluent people could expect to live 4.5 years longer than the least affluent. If that doesn't sound like much to you, consider this- the 4.5-year difference is greater than the broad gain in life expectancy for the entire population since 1980. What might be called 'the longevity gap' will continue to grow as the gap between the affluent and everyone else continues to widen.
Susan Carpenter: Award-winning young-adult novelist John Green has leveraged the Web to build a rabid fan base (Los Angeles Times)
While watching one of his recent YouTube videos, it's immediately clear that John Green isn't just an author. He's a multimedia darling playing to 1,000-seat auditoriums of screaming fans.
David L. Ulin: Stephen King knows us all too well (Los Angeles Times)
On the afternoon of New Year's Eve, I spent half an hour or so discussing Stephen King with my colleague David Lazarus on Patt Morrison's radio show. The news peg, such as it was, involved the decision by the New York Times to include King's new novel, "11/22/63," on its list of the 10 best books of 2011. But the bigger question had to do with King's merit as a writer, which, almost 40 years after he began to publish, remains a source of conversation, if no longer quite debate.
Noelene Clark: "Kate Beckinsale: 'Underworld' role was a 'personal experiment'" (LA Times)
The role of Beckinsale 's Selene has a reputation as one of Hollywood's few female action heroes focused more on stunts than on sex appeal.
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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Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
BadtotheboneBob
Suriname
From the 'The More the Merrier' File...
An expedition to a tiny South American country has revealed more than 40 species that scientists believe to be new to science. The expedition to the pristine tropical forests of Suriname was led by the charity Conservation International... One of the new finds - an armored catfish that has bony plates covered with spines all over its body to defend itself from the giant piranhas the inhabit the same waters... (Giant piranhas? Oh, joy... Anyone for a dip?)
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Marine layer moved in. Overcast most of the day.
Scoff at Fox News' Accusations
Muppets
Bouncing off of the success of their box-office hit, The Muppets are flexing their new celebrity status just like any other stars: with a media scuffle. After being accused by Fox Business News' Eric Bolling of being just another example of Hollywood's liberal agenda, the Muppets held a press conference last week at the May Fair Hotel in England to address the claims.
"Oh yeah, it's so dangerous," Kermit the Frog mocked.
Bolling said that "The Muppets" were engaging in "class warfare" by making the villain of their movie a successful businessman named Tex Richman. His guest that day, Dan Gainor of the conservative Media Research Center, said of liberal Hollywood and the left media, "they hate the oil industry- they hate corporate America."
"It's a funny thing- they were concerned about us having some prejudice against oil companies and that I can tell you is categorically not true. And besides if we had a problem with oil companies why would we drive in around the whole film in a gas-guzzling Rolls Royce?" Kermit asked.
"That's almost as laughable as accusing Fox News..you know…of being news," Ms. Piggy said.
Muppets
Campaigns For Kucinich
Willie Nelson
Country music icon Willie Nelson has come to Ohio to sing out in support of an old friend, U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich (koo-SIH'-nich).
Nelson performed a sold-out benefit for the congressman on Sunday in Lorain, about 25 miles west of Cleveland. The star previously campaigned for Kucinich during his long-shot bids for president.
Redistricting has thrown Kucinich into a congressional primary battle with another veteran Democrat, Marcy Kaptur.
Willie Nelson
Joining 'Downton Abbey'
Shirley MacLaine
Oscar-winning actress Shirley MacLaine is joining Britain's popular television series "Downton Abbey."
The 77-year-old will join the cast when they start filming next month.
She will play the mother of Lady Grantham, portrayed by Elizabeth McGovern, in the third season of the hit period drama, which took Golden Globe and Emmy prizes for best miniseries or TV movie.
Gareth Neame of Carnival Films, which produces the show, said Monday that MacLaine's character will be a "wonderful combatant" for Maggie Smith's Dowager Countess.
Shirley MacLaine
Visiting "The Simpsons"
Julian Assange
Controversial WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will be a guest character and voice on animated TV comedy "The Simpsons," playing a neighbor of the family after they move from their home in fictional Springfield.
Assange's "brief" guest starring role will be on the show's February 19 program, which marks the 500th episode of "The Simpsons," said Antonia Coffman, a spokeswoman for the show airing on the Fox television network in the United States.
In the episode, the Simpsons -- Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, Maggie and their pets -- leave home and move to a rugged and isolated area where the find themselves living next to Assange, who portrays himself.
Simpsons executive producer Al Jean told Entertainment Weekly magazine that the show's creative team realizes Assange is "controversial," but that in putting together the show they avoided delving into his "legal situation." Instead, the writers made sure the appearance was satirical. Assange recorded his lines remotely from Britain.
Julian Assange
Boys Call Truce
Spawn
Fantasy industry giants Neil Gaiman and Todd McFarlane finally called a truce in their long-running legal feud over who owns which characters in the Spawn universe, according to court documents.
Gaiman and McFarlane have been sparring for a little more than a decade over royalties from a handful of characters from the Spawn comic book series. Their attorneys filed a joint notice Friday in federal court in Madison saying they've reached a deal.
Jeffrey Simmons, one of Gaiman's attorneys, said terms of the agreement were confidential. A jury had already found Gaiman a 50 percent owner of content in two Spawn issues and the first three issues of a Spawn spin-off. Simmons said reiterating that declaration would block any appeal.
"This is intended to put an end to the whole thing. It's fair to say both parties are pleased to have this resolved," Simmons said.
Spawn
Sued Over "Eye Of The Tiger"
Noot
Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich (R-Shameless) faces a lawsuit over his use of "Eye of the Tiger," the theme song to the movie "Rocky III," court documents show.
The claim for copyright infringement, lodged on Monday by Rude Music Inc in an Illinois federal court, relates to Gingrich's use of the song at his political rallies.
Rude Music Inc is owned by Frank Sullivan, who co-wrote the Grammy-award winning song. In addition to Gingrich, the complaint names his campaign, Newt 2012 Inc, and the American Conservative Union, an advocacy organization, as defendants.
The complaint states that the violation it alleges is intentional since Gingrich is "sophisticated and knowledgeable" concerning copyright laws. Rude Music Inc has requested the court to order an end to unauthorized use of the song by the defendants, and to award Rude Music Inc damages.
Noot
Activists Seek To Purge 'Deniers'
Weathermen
Concerned that too many "deniers" are in the meteorology business, global warming activists this month launched a campaign to recruit local weathermen to hop aboard the alarmism bandwagon and expose those who are not fully convinced that the world is facing man-made doom.
The Forecast the Facts campaign - led by 350.org, the League of Conservation Voters and the Citizen Engagement Lab - is pushing for more of a focus on global warming in weather forecasts, and is highlighting the many meteorologists who do not share their beliefs.
"Our goal is nothing short of changing how the entire profession of meteorology tackles the issue of climate change," the group explains on their website. "We'll empower everyday people to make sure meteorologists understand that their viewers are counting on them to get this story right, and that those who continue to shirk their professional responsibility will be held accountable."
According to the Washington Post, the reason for the campaign can be found in a 2010 George Mason University surveys, which found that 63% of television weathermen think that global warming is a product of natural causes, while 31% believe it is from human activity.
So far, the campaign has identified 55 "deniers" in the meteorologist community and are looking for more. They define "deniers" as "anyone who expressly refutes the overwhelming scientific consensus about climate change: that it is real, largely caused by humans, and already having profound impacts on our world."
Weathermen
Flash Flesh For Banned Actress
Naked Activists
A fleshy rebellion is spreading hot and fast across the cybersphere, as a growing number of activists are stripping down in support of Iranian actress Golshifteh Farahani, who was reportedly banned from her homeland after posing topless for French magazine Madame Le Figaro.
Farahani -- who had earlier been banned from leaving her country for appearing in the 2008 Leonardo DiCaprio/Russell Crowe film "Body of Lies" -- appeared without a shirt, but with her hands covering her breasts, to protest Iran's restrictive policies toward women. The actress, who's now based in Paris, told the press that she was subsequently advised by the Iranian government that she is no longer welcome within her former country's borders.
But there might be a happy -- or at least sexy -- ending to the sad tale of gender oppression. Since world of Farahani's predicament broke, a movement has sprung up, with supporters encouraging others to post Farahani's topless photo as a "PicBadge" of the actress' photo-shoot to their Facebook profiles.
Other, more daring, supporters have gone so far as to post their own skin-baring portraits as a show of solidarity for the banished thespian. A Facebook page in support of Farahani has so far amassed 3,422 "likes," and boasts numerous photos of pro-Farahani-partisans posing in the buff.
"This page has been formed, in order to support Golshifteh's move, in order to say NO to relegion, tradition, culture and anti women's law," a statement on the Facebook page reads. "Viva freedom !!!"
Naked Activists
Wiping Out Everglades Mammals
Pythons
A burgeoning population of huge pythons - many of them pets that were turned loose by their owners when they got too big - appears to be wiping out large numbers of raccoons, opossums, bobcats and other mammals in the Everglades, a study says.
The study, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that sightings of medium-size mammals are down dramatically - as much as 99 percent, in some cases - in areas where pythons and other large, non-native constrictor snakes are known to be lurking.
Scientists fear the pythons could disrupt the food chain and upset the Everglades' environmental balance in ways difficult to predict.
Tens of thousands of Burmese pythons, which are native to Southeast Asia, are believed to be living in the Everglades, where they thrive in the warm, humid climate. While many were apparently released by their owners, others may have escaped from pet shops during Hurricane Andrew in 1992 and have been reproducing ever since.
Burmese pythons can grow to be 26 feet long and more than 200 pounds, and they have been known to swallow animals as large as alligators. They and other constrictor snakes kill their prey by coiling around it and suffocating it.
Pythons
Relics Returned
Iraq
A 6,500-year-old Sumerian gold jar, the head of a Sumerian battle axe and a stone from an Assyrian palace were among 45 relics returned to Iraq by Germany on Monday.
The items were among thousands stolen from Iraq's museums and archeological sites in the mayhem that followed the U.S.-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein in 2003.
The tiny gold jar, dating to 4,500 BC, the bronze axe head, clay tablets bearing cuneiform script, a metal amulet and other artifacts were seized by German police at public auctions and turned over to Iraqi officials in a ceremony at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Alexander Schonfelder, deputy head of the German diplomatic mission in Iraq, said German law dictated that any artifacts taken from Iraq after 1990 should be returned.
Iraq
In Memory
Camilla Williams
Camilla Williams, believed to be the first African-American woman to appear with a major U.S. opera company, has died. She was 92.
Williams died Sunday at her home in Bloomington, her attorney, Eric Slotegraaf, said Monday. She died of complications from cancer, said Alain Barker, a spokesman for the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where Williams was a professor emeritus of voice.
Williams' debut with the New York City Opera on May 15, 1946, was thought to make her the first African-American woman to appear with a major U.S. opera company and came nearly nine years before Marian Anderson became the first African-American singer to appear at New York's more prestigious Metropolitan Opera.
In her City Opera debut, Williams sang what would become her signature role, Cio-Cio-San, in Puccini's "Madama Butterfly." She displayed "a vividness and subtlety unmatched by any other artist who has assayed the part here in many a year," according to a New York Times review of the performance.
She also appeared with the City Opera that season as Nedda, in Leoncavallo's "Pagliacci." The following year she performed the role of Mimi, in Puccini's "La Boheme," and in 1948 she sang the title role of Verdi's "Aida."
Williams first appeared overseas in 1950 on a concert tour of Panama, the Dominican Republic and Venezuela. She also appeared as Cio-Cio-San with the London Sadler's Wells Opera in 1954 and later that same year as the first black artist to sing a major role with the Vienna State Opera.
Williams, the daughter of a chauffeur, was introduced to "Madama Butterfly," Mozart and other classical works at age 12 while growing up in Danville, Va. A Welsh voice teacher came to the segregated city to teach at a school for white girls and taught a few black girls at a private home. By that time she had been singing at Danville's Calvary Baptist Church for four years.
A graduate of Virginia State College, she was teaching third grade and music in Danville schools in 1942 when she was offered a scholarship from the Philadelphia Alumni Association of her alma mater for vocal training in Philadelphia, where she studied under Marion Szekely-Freschl and worked as an usher in a theater.
A lifetime member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, she performed in her hometown of Danville in 1963 to raise funds to free jailed civil rights demonstrators and sang at the 1963 civil rights march on Washington, D.C., immediately before the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his "I Have a Dream" speech. She also sang at King's Nobel Peace Prize ceremony the following year. The Chicago Defender lauded her in 1951 for bringing democracy to opera.
In 1950 she married Charles Beavers, a fellow Danville native and a defense attorney whose clients included Malcolm X. He died in 1970. The couple did not have children.
Williams retired from opera in 1971 and taught at Brooklyn College, Bronx College and Queens College until becoming the first African American professor of voice at Indiana University. In 1983, as a guest professor at Beijing's Central Conservatory, she became that school's first black professor. She retired from teaching in 1997.
A memorial service has been scheduled at the First United Methodist Church in Bloomington on Feb. 18.
Camilla Williams
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