Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Kid Goat Learning How To Jump (YouTube)
"You don't really need to 'teach' a baby goat to jump, but the interaction looks like a lot of fun for both teacher and student!" -- Neatorama
Lauren Holliday: Sugar-coated (Orlando Weekly)
Orlando College students are hooking up with rich older men through sugar-daddy websites. Is it modern romance, or just an easy way to the sweet life?
Mark Shields: Religion Provides Added Value to U.S. (Creators Syndicate)
I must have missed something, but, tell me, have you seen a lot of soup kitchens, food pantries and homeless shelters being opened lately by Facebook or Goldman Sachs or General Electric?
Amanda Marcotte: Obama Punks the GOP on Contraception (Slate)
Obama needs young female voters to turn out at the polls in November, and hijacking two weeks of the news cycle to send the message that he's going to get you your birth control for free is a big win for him in that department. I expect to see some ads in the fall showing Romney saying hostile things about contraception and health care reform, with the message that free birth control is going away if he's elected. It's all so perfect that I'm inclined to think this was Obama's plan all along.
Terry Savage: First Comes Love -- but Before Marriage, a Financial Heart-to-heart (Creators Syndicate)
Valentine's Day is just around the corner, and this column is meant to serve as a reminder. First, remember to buy a card for your valentine before they're all sold out. And second, don't get so caught up in the romantic season of hearts and flowers that you pop the question before you know you're financially compatible!
Matthew Yglesias: Chipotle Is Apple (Slate)
The burrito chain is revolutionizing food: Why doesn't it get more respect?
Suzanne Moore: Despite its promises, this government can't make you happy. In times of austerity, you are on your own (Guardian)
The happiness agenda is just a way of making huge social problems seem personal.
Ken Murray: How doctors choose to die (Guardian)
When faced with a terminal illness, medical professionals, who know the limits of modern medicine, often opt out of life-prolonging treatment. An American doctor explains why the best death can be the least medicated - and the art of dying peacefully, at home.
Patrick Barkham and Laura Barnett: How to die: 'doctors see things differently to most people' (Guardian)
British medics share their reaction to Ken Murray's essay on the treatment doctors choose when given a terminal diagnosis.
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
Bosko Suggests
Unusual Bridges
Have a great day,
Bosko.
Thanks, Bosko!
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Some rain, some sun, and a whole lotta wind.
Valentine's day always makes me flinchy. Been in 2 fairly serious car accidents, and they both occurred on February 14th.
Obama Honors Achievements
Arts and Humanities
President Barack Obama on Monday honored several artists, writers and organizations for their contributions to the nation, and pledged to make the arts and humanities a priority for as long as he is in the White House.
Obama bestowed eight National Medal of Arts and nine National Humanities Medals during a ceremony in the White House East Room. Among this year's recipients were actor Al Pacino, poet Rita Dove and the United Service Organization, which holds performances for American service members stationed around the world.
Before awarding the medals, Obama said the arts have the power to bring together people of different backgrounds and beliefs. And he urged the honorees to help mentor a new generation of artists and scholars, saying their role in the nation's future would be equally as important as the next generation of engineers and scientists.
For the whole list: Arts and Humanities
American Society of Cinematographers
ASC Awards
Emmanuel Lubezki, who has taken home most of this season's cinematography awards for his work on Terrence Malick's "The Tree of Life," won the feature film award from the American Society of Cinematographers on Sunday night in Hollywood.
Lubezki won the award once before, for "Children of Men" in 2006. He was considered the odds-on favorite coming into the ceremony, though fellow nominee Guillaume Schiffman won the cinematography award for "The Artist" at the BAFTA Awards earlier on Sunday.
Other feature film nominees included Robert Richardson for "Hugo," Jeff Cronenweth for "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" and Hoyte van Hoytema for "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy."
The ASC's three television categories went to Martin Ruhe for "Page Eight" in the motion picture/miniseries category; Jonathan Freeman for "Boardwalk Empire," episode 21, in the one-hour series category; and Michael Weaver for the "Suicide Solution" episode of "Californication" in the half-hour series category.
The American Society of Cinematographers is not a guild or union, but an invitation-only professional organization of about 350 top cinematographers.
ASC Awards
In 3 Days
Eight Fundraisers
President Barack Obama's upcoming West Coast fundraising trip will feature a musical lineup worthy of Grammy gold.
Obama campaign officials say the Foo Fighters, fresh off winning five Grammys on Sunday, will perform at a Los Angeles fundraiser on Wednesday. In San Francisco on Thursday, the president's supporters will hear a performance by the former frontman for Soundgarden, Chris Cornell.
And on Friday, Seattle band the Head and the Heart will perform at a fundraiser in Bellevue, Wash.
Obama is holding eight fundraisers during a three-day trip to Wisconsin, California and Washington state to benefit the Obama Victory Fund, a joint fundraising account for the president's re-election campaign and the Democratic National Committee. The president raised more than $220 million in 2011 in preparation for the general election race.
Eight Fundraisers
Earns Nearly $2 Million Annually via YouTube
Jimmy Kimmel
Nighttime talkshow host Jimmy Kimmel is the latest mainstream performer who's found it possible to make a mint without solely relying on traditional broadcasting and promotional channels.
His solution? YouTube.
Kimmel's channel, called JimmyKimmelLive , features clips and recaps -- typically running under five minutes each -- from every episode of the comedian's popular late-night talkshow. Kimmel's channel has more than 300,000 subscribers and many of the videos have acquired millions of views on top of his substantial broadcast television audience on ABC.
It is YouTube's 98th-most-viewed partner channel of all-time, according to site information. YouTube's partnership program invites creators of extremely popular videos to monetize their uploads via ad-hosting or rentals while splitting the income with YouTube.
For Kimmel, the double-dipping is paying off -- his YouTube channel generates between $1 million and $2 million annually, "a person close to the show" tells The Wall Street Journal.
Jimmy Kimmel
Big Audience
Grammy Awards
Sunday's Grammy Awards telecast made sweet music in the ratings, delivering for CBS its largest audience since 1984 and beating last year's viewership by 50 percent.
More than 39.9 million viewers flocked to the broadcast, making it the second most-watched Grammys in history, according to preliminary Nielsen Co. figures released Monday. That exceeds last year's Oscars broadcast, which was seen by 37.6 million viewers.
Helping stoke interest in this year's Grammys broadcast was recording sensation Adele, who emerged as the night's big winner with six trophies. Her album, "21," was by far the year's best seller and one of its most critically acclaimed.
But the broadcast was an attention-getter not only for the awards dispensed but also for its role as a memorial to Whitney Houston, a six-time past winner. The superstar singer died unexpectedly Saturday, just hours before she was supposed to appear at a pre-Grammy gala.
Grammy Awards
Dog Wins Its Breed
Martha Stewart
Lifestyle guru Martha Stewart is not the only star in her household. Her Chow Chow dog, GK, won its breed at the 136th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show on Monday.
The Club holds its annual two-day event at Madison Square Garden in New York. This year 2000 dogs representing 185 breeds and varieties from across the U.S. are vying to be named Best in Show on Feb 14.
GK, whose registered name is CH Pazzazz's Genghis Khan #8, competed in the Non-Sporting Group. He now advances to the Best in Group competition Monday night.
Stewart co-owns GK with Karen Tracy of Leighton, Pa. Leighton also owns GK's mother, who won the breed at Westminster last year.
Martha Stewart
Statue Draws Flak
Carla Bruni-Sarkozy
Residents are blasting a plan to erect a statue with a face resembling that of France's Italian-born first lady in an effort to honor this small town's immigrants from Italy.
Opponents say that Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, the elegant former top model from Turin, Italy's moneyed class, has no link to this blue-collar town east of Paris.
Mayor Jacques Martin, a big supporter of President Nicolas Sarkozy, denies claims by Socialist rivals that the likeness of the first lady is a political move - and said Monday that he stands by his plan.
The 8-foot-tall (2.5-meter) statue will go up in a square in the Little Italy development under way to pay homage to Italian immigrants who settled here. Men often worked as masons and women in the feather business.
Elizabeth Cibot, the sculptor, said the statue was originally conceived as a male stone mason. "Then it became a woman and then Mr. Martin (the mayor) suggested to me and we discussed working on the face of Madame Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, who is Italian, who has a beautiful face so that was enough to decide on her."
Carla Bruni-Sarkozy
To Face The Serfs
Rupert
Rupert Murdoch will face hostile and angry staff when he arrives in Britain this week seeking to face down a growing rebellion within his newspaper business and end the talk that his flagship Sun could close following a string of arrests.
Those close to the media mogul expect the 80-year-old to show far more composure and calculation when he addresses journalists on a hostile newsroom floor, compared with his conduct last July when he suddenly shut the News of the World paper in the face of public revulsion over phone hacking.
Unlike in July, readers and, most importantly, advertisers have shown little reaction to news over the last two weeks that nine current and former senior staff have been arrested and questioned over payments made to police and other officials.
Politicians, who spectacularly turned on Murdoch following the admission that his journalists hacked into the phones of murder victims and Britain's war dead, have also held back in the knowledge that calling for the closure of the biggest selling newspaper would be a dangerous move to make.
But despite the different scenario, Murdoch is still under huge pressure. The FBI and other American government agencies have stepped up their hunt for signs of illegality at a U.S.-based company. A case brought under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act could result in fines of millions of dollars.
Rupert
Labor Scrutiny
Apple
Apple Inc said on Monday that a U.S. non-profit labor group has begun an "unprecedented" inspection of working conditions at its main contract manufacturers, including Foxconn's plants in southern China, as the maker of the IPhone continues to grapple with persistent image problems there.
The world's most valuable technology corporation had agreed to let the D.C.-based Fair Labor Association monitor conditions at the factories of its suppliers, hoping to counter criticism that it was glossing over problems at these facilities.
The group began on Monday to interview thousands of employees, inspect manufacturing areas, dormitories and do an extensive review of documents relating to employment, Apple said.
Critics say the biggest blemish on Apple in recent years has been signs of harsh working conditions at its manufacturing partners, particularly in China.
Working conditions at Foxconn, whose flagship unit is Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industries group, has in particular been a constant thorn in the company's side.
Apple
Vermont Man Denies Theft Of Writings
Robert Frost
A Vermont thrift store employee pleaded not guilty on Monday to stealing letters and holiday cards written by the poet Robert Frost and selling them for $20,000, police said.
Timothy Bernaby was arraigned on grand larceny charges in White River Junction, Vt., about 100 miles north of Frost's grave in Bennington, Vt., which is marked with the epitaph "I had a lover's quarrel with the world."
A donor mistakenly dropped off the memorabilia, including Frost's hand-written Christmas cards and other correspondence, to a Listen Community Services thrift store in White River Junction where Bernaby worked, police said.
Authorities are investigating the buyer of the documents, who may be linked to an illegal memorabilia trading network, Detective Michael Tkac said.
Robert Frost
Domestic Violence Arrrest
Marston Hefner
Authorities say Hugh Hefner's 21-year-old son has been arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor domestic violence in California.
County jail records show Marston Hefner was released Monday after posting $20,000 bail.
Police Lt. Rick Aversano told the Los Angeles Times that officers were called Sunday to the Pasadena home and arrested Hefner after determining his girlfriend had minor injuries consistent with an assault.
Marston Hefner is one of two adult sons of the Playboy founder and his former wife, ex-Playmate Kimberly Conrad Hefner.
Marston Hefner
Offering To Pay Web Users...
Google
Less than a month after announcing a controversial new privacy policy that shares user data across all its sites with no opt-out option, Google is introducing a system to monitor all online activity of those who participate in a program called Screenwise. In exchange for unrestricted access to information on your every online move, the search and software giant is offering financial compensation.
By signing up for Screenwise and installing a browser plugin (only Google Chrome is supported at present), you'll be given $5 in store credit on Amazon. For every three months you continue to provide Google with browsing data, you'll earn an addition $5 gift card, up to a total of $25. Only those over 13 can participate and, perhaps not surprisingly, signups are currently on hold due to overwhelming interest.
For those willing to make their online lives a completely open book, Google plans to offer a more elaborate tracking system that utilizes special hardware. The device, which connects to your broadband router, will monitor the online activity of all computers in your home. This program, which isn't available yet, will compensate participants $100 for signing up and $20 a month for up to a year.
While the idea of getting paid to browse the web might sound win-win, it's important to note that Screenwise will track private browsing data in its Chrome extension (though supposedly won't link it to you directly) and will share data with third-parties should you opt for the hardware-based option.
Google
Customers Surprised By 'Unlimited Data' Limits
AT&T
Mike Trang likes to use his iPhone 4 as a GPS device, helping him get around in his job. Now and then, his younger cousins get ahold of it, and play some YouTube videos and games.
But in the past few weeks, there has been none of that, because AT&T Inc. put a virtual wheel clamp on his phone. Web pages wouldn't load and maps wouldn't render. Forget about YouTube videos - Trang's data speeds were reduced to dial-up levels.
The reason: AT&T considers Trang to be among the top 5 percent of the heaviest cellular data users in his area. Under a new policy, AT&T has started cutting their data speeds as part of an attempt to manage data usage on its network.
So last month, AT&T "throttled" Trang's iPhone, slowing downloads by roughly 99 percent. That means a Web page that would normally take a second to load instead took almost two minutes.
Verizon doesn't slow down the "5 percent" unless the cell tower their phone is connected to is congested at that moment, and it slows them down by the minimum amount necessary. By contrast, once AT&T has decided to throttle your phone, it will be slow for the rest of the billing cycle, even if it's 3 a.m. and there are no other cellphones competing for the capacity of that particular cell tower.
AT&T
For Valentine's Day
Museum of Broken Relationships
What becomes of a garden gnome hurled in fury at a windscreen during a stormy breakup?
Or a teddy bear that was once a Valentine's Day present? A wedding dress from a marriage gone awry? An ax that smashed through household furniture?
All are on display at the Museum of Broken Relationships in the Croatian capital, each with written testimonies telling tales of passion, romance and heartbreak.
On Valentine's Day, the museum sees its visits almost double.
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