Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: Economics and Elections (NY Times)
What mainly matters is income growth immediately before a vote. Can anything be done about this weakness?
JENNY WILKINSON: Sexually Assaulted at UVA (NY Times)
IN 1997, I was sexually assaulted by a fellow student at the University of Virginia. At a closed hearing, the university's committee on sexual assault found him responsible. His punishment? A letter in his file.
Paul F. Campos: The Real Reason College Tuition Costs So Much (NY Times)
What cannot be defended, however, is the claim that tuition has risen because public funding for higher education has been cut. Despite its ubiquity, this claim flies directly in the face of the facts.
Andrew Tobias: Spring Cleaning
The first thing to say about storage bins is - just throw it all out instead. You'll never get around to dealing with all that stuff, you'll just be paying monthly rent for years . . . for decades . . . and if the monthly storage fee rises (and it will), what are you gonna do? Move it all? Where?! 000 heirloom in your bin will have cost you $18,000 to store ($30,000 before taxes).
Frank Bruni: Bigotry, the Bible and the Lessons of Indiana (NY Times)
All of us, no matter our religious traditions, should know better than to tell gay people that they're an offense. And that's precisely what the florists and bakers who want to turn them away are saying to them.
Serena Bramble: "Watch: All of Sterling Archer's Literary References: A Video Essay" (PressPlay)
Secret Agent. Asshole. Book nerd? Sterling Archer, the modern take-down of James Bond on Adam Reed's cult animated show Archer, is many things, but that last detail has always been a quirk in the show, with literary references spouted out almost as often as jokes about oral sex.
SUPERCUT: Sterling Archer's Best One-Liners (Extended Version)
The best one liners from everyone's favorite international spy.
David Bruce: Wise Up! Bible (Athens News)
Ellen C. Waller, a Quaker, asked the children in her class to check and make sure that they had the Revised Version of the Bible, from which she was teaching. One child said that she had the wrong version of the Bible, because it wasn't "Revised" - it was "Holy."
David Bruce's Amazon Author Page
David Bruce's Smashwords Page
David Bruce's Blog
David Bruce's Lulu Storefront
David Bruce's Apple iBookstore
David Bruce has over 80 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
, wrote:
, took time from his birthday celebrations to answer:
has returned to semi-retired status.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Reader Question
Re: Nightly Show
I'm wondering why you don't have a TV listing for the Nightly Show that replaced Colbert.
Fond regards~ d
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"What we think, or what we know, or what we believe is, in the end, of little consequence. The only consequence is what we do." - John Ruskin -
Thanks, Doug!
Don't know why, but Comedy Central doesn't list the guests scheduled on Larry Wilmore's show on their schedule, but they do for both Jon Stewart & @Midnight.
Clicking on the link to The Nightly Show, the page only displays the guests for the show that just aired.
And, the e-page is uploaded earlier than when Comedy Central gets around to updating the current day's schedule.
Would gladly include Larry's guests if I could find timely listings.
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.
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
Sunny and seasonal - almost.
Visited Edward Snowden
John Oliver
John Oliver sat down with National Security Agency contractor turned whistleblower Edward Snowden on HBO's "Last Week Tonight" for a wide-ranging interview that was funny and, at times, surprisingly tense.
Oliver, who flew to Moscow to conduct the interview, grilled Snowden on the leaked documents.
The comedian and former "Daily Show" correspondent pointed out that Snowden's actions led to the disclosure of sensitive information beyond the NSA's controversial government surveillance program, including the revelation that the United States was monitoring al-Qaida in northern Iraq.
"The New York Times took a slide, didn't redact it properly, and in the end it was possible for people to see that something was being used in Mosul on al-Qaida," Oliver said.
John Oliver
Makeover For Statue
Lucille Ball
They may have loved "I Love Lucy" but many in Lucille Ball's western New York hometown have no affection for her life-size statue in a local park.
Since the bronze sculpture was unveiled in 2009 in Lucille Ball Memorial Park in the village of Celoron, the statue has been blasted by critics who say it bears little or no likeness to the popular 1950s sitcom actress and comedian.
Village officials told The Post-Journal of Jamestown that they've talked to the sculptor about making changes to the statue's face, but the artist wants as much as $10,000 to alter his artwork. Other sculptors have quoted a price tag of about $5,000.
The statue was commissioned privately by a couple who hired a sculptor from neighboring Jamestown, 60 miles south of Buffalo. The 400-pound statue was installed in August 2009 in a park Celoron, where Ball spent much of her youth.
Lucille Ball
150 Years Ago
Appomattox Court House
The site where Robert E. Lee surrendered his Confederate army to Ulysses S. Grant 150 years ago on Thursday, effectively ending the United States' bloodiest war, is proof that history's biggest turning points can occur in the smallest places.
Ceremonies, re-enactments by thousands in Union and Confederate uniforms, and bell ringing will commemorate the Army of Northern Virginia's surrender at the village of Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865, ending four years of fighting that cost 620,000 lives.
The handful of buildings had been a backwater with a few score inhabitants when Lee's exhausted and badly outnumbered army was cut off by Grant's forces, said Ernie Price, chief of education services at the small Appomattox Court House National Historical Park, about 3 miles (5 km) east of the town of Appomattox.
The surrender of Lee's 28,000 men at Appomattox Court House meant that the United States would remain intact and abandon the system of slavery that had propped up the southern economy. Increased wartime production of munitions and uniforms also helped the nation lay the groundwork for its growth into an industrial giant over the next century, he added.
Appomattox Court House
Ghostly Faces And Invisible Verse Found
The Black Book of Carmarthen
Ghostly faces and lines of verse previously invisible to the naked eye have been uncovered in the oldest surviving medieval manuscript written entirely in Welsh.
"The Black Book of Carmarthen," dating to 1250, contains texts from the ninth through 12th centuries, including some of the earliest references to Arthur and Merlin.
In 1904, Sir John Williams, the founder of the National Library of Wales, bought the book, which measures 6.7 by 5 inches (17 by 12.5 centimeters). Only recently did Myriah Williams and Paul Russell, a professor at Cambridge's department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic (ASNC), examine the pages of the book.
Using UV light and photo-editing software, Williams and Russell revealed glimpses of some of the erased doodles. For instance, page fol. 39v of the newly visible work includes ghostly faces and a line of text accompanying them, which date to the 14th or 15th century, Williams said. On the following page, fol. 40v, a full verse, possibly dating to the 13th century, came to light. "There is one more drawing so far that we are still working on," Williams said.
The Black Book of Carmarthen
Revenue Grab
Nintendo
Nic Truong of Mississauga, Ont. has a dream job: he plays video games and posts clips of them on YouTube for his fans.
But now, Nintendo is asking YouTubers like Nic to hand over at least 40 per cent of their ad revenue for any video starring Mario or Link.
Truong, better known as TetraNinja, has built a following of more than 800,000 on YouTube by providing play-by-play commentary on video games. These clips are called "Let's Plays," and they're some of the most popular gaming-related videos on the internet.
YouTube videos generate money for the uploaders in several ways, but most of them are tied to ads - either "pre-roll" ads that play before the clip, or banners that are superimposed on them. But a video creator needs to surpass a certain threshold before they get a cut of the ad revenue.
Since Google already claims 50 per cent of the total ad revenue generated by videos, the creator and Nintendo's share would be divvied up from the remaining 50 per cent.
Nintendo
Glaciers To Shrink
Canada
The glaciers of western Canada, one of the world's most picturesque mountain regions, are likely to largely melt away over just three generations, scientists said on Monday.
By 2100, the glaciers of Alberta and British Columbia are set to shrink by 75 percent in area compared to 2005 levels, and by 70 percent in volume, according to their predictions.
But in two out of the three regions that were studied, the decline could be even more dramatic -- over 90 percent.
The study, published in the journal Nature Geoscience, was headed by Garry Clarke, a professor at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.
Canada
Just Call Him Juan
Jeb Bush
Likely Republican presidential contender Jeb Bush (R-Terry Schiavo), who was popular among Spanish-speaking voters while Florida governor, marked himself as "Hispanic" on a 2009 voter registration application, The New York Times reported on Monday.
The newspaper posted a fuzzy copy of the form, which it said it obtained from the Miami-Dade County Elections Department. The circle marked "Hispanic" was checked. The next circle said "White, not Hispanic" and was not checked.
"My mistake! Don't think I've fooled anyone!" Bush wrote on Twitter on Monday, responding to a message from his son calling him an "honorary" Latino.
A Bush spokeswoman said it was unclear how the error was made. "The governor's family certainly got a good laugh out of it," spokeswoman Kristy Campbell said. "He is not Hispanic."
Jeb Bush
UN Peacekeepers Targeted
Lebanon
A confidential Spanish military report on the death of a Spanish UN peacekeeper in Israeli shelling in Lebanon said he was manning a post that appeared to have been targeted, a newspaper reported Sunday.
El Pais cited extracts from the report which drew on testimony from soldiers following the January 28 incident when the Israeli military shelled border areas following a Hezbollah attack that left two Israeli soldiers dead.
Corporal Ivan Lopez Sanchez, who was stationed nearby, told investigators that the UN position was clearly targeted.
"Every time, they corrected the trajectory from Majidiye to the 4-28" post, where the UNIFIL peacekeepers were stationed, he said.
Another Spanish soldier, Sergeant Julio Xavier Garcia, echoed Sanchez, saying the shells initially fell about 500 metres (yards) north of the UN post and then they "corrected the trajectory towards the position."
Lebanon
Radiation Detected Off Canada's Coast
Fukushima
Radiation from Japan's 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster has for the first time been detected along a North American shoreline, though at levels too low to pose a significant threat to human or marine life, scientists said on Monday.
Trace amounts of Cesium-134 and Cesium-137 were detected in samples collected ON Feb. 19 off the coast of Ucluelet, a small town on Vancouver Island in Canada's British Columbia, said Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution scientist Ken Buesseler.
The levels the group detected are extremely low. For example, swimming in the Vancouver Island water every day for a year would provide a dose of radiation less than a thousand times smaller than a single dental X-ray, Woods Hole said.
Buesseler said he expects similar low cesium levels to gradually reach other North American shores, possibly extending along the U.S. West Coast from Washington state to California.
Fukushima
Record Strandings
Sea Lions
A record 2,250 sea lions, mostly pups, have washed up starving and stranded on Southern California beaches so far this year, a worsening phenomenon blamed on warming seas in the region that have disrupted the marine mammals' food supply.
The latest tally, reported on Monday by the National Marine Fisheries Service, is 20 times the level of strandings averaged for the same three-month period over the past decade and twice the number documented in 2013, the previous worst winter season recorded for Southern California sea lions.
Scientists believe the animals are suffering from a scarcity of natural prey that has forced nursing mothers to venture farther out to sea for food, leaving their young behind to fend for themselves for longer periods of time.
The shift in the food chain around the marine mammals' principal rookeries off Southern California is believed to be triggered by warming waters linked to unusually weak winds along the West Coast.
Sea Lions
Most Reliable Predictor Of Water Use
Los Angeles
Lush lawns and vibrant trees suggest that some California households are dragging their feet when it comes to water conservation.
Wealthier neighborhoods in Los Angeles are less likely to cut back on their water use, according to experts. It appears some would rather keep their deep-green grass as beautiful as ever - even as California battles with the fourth year of its historic drought.
Stephanie Pincetl, director of the California Center for Sustainable Communities at UCLA, conducted a study of residential water consumption in the city of Los Angeles to uncover what drives water use and which strategies curb it most effectively.
"Wealth was the most reliable predictor of water use. The wealthy used more than three times the water of nonwealthy people," she said in an interview with Yahoo News.
Los Angeles
In Memory
Julie Wilson
Julie Wilson, a musical theatre actress and cabaret star who earned a Tony Award nomination and was cheered for her ability to harness the songs of Stephen Sondheim and Cole Porter, has died. She was 90.
Christopher Denny, Wilson's friend, said she died Sunday in New York after having suffered two strokes over the last several days.
Wilson's most famous stage role was the 1988 Peter Allen musical "Legs Diamond," for which she earned a Tony Award nomination. Her other Broadway credits include "Park" in 1970, "The Girl in the Freudian Slip" in 1967 and was a replacement for the role of Babe Williams in the original run of "The Pajama Game."
But it was as a singer - known for her interpretations of such songwriters as Sondheim, Kurt Weill, Jerome Kern and Porter - that made the biggest impressions, from recordings like "Julie Wilson Sings the Cy Coleman Songbook" to her live sets at the Oak Room in the Algonquin Hotel.
Wilson was born Oct 21, 1924, in Omaha, Nebraska, and recorded several albums, including "My Old Flame," ''Live From the Russian Tea Room" and "Julie Wilson at the St. Regis."
She is survived by her son, actor, writer, and producer Holt McAloney.
Julie Wilson
In Memory
Tom Towles
Tom Towles, the moustached character actor who popped up in several Rob Zombie's movies, has died. He was 71.
Towles' spokeswoman Tammy Dupal said in a statement Monday that the actor who appeared in "House of 1000 Corpses" and "The Devil's Rejects" died April 2 in Pinellas, Florida, from complications following a stroke.
Towles' memorable roles included a serial-killer sidekick in 1986's "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer" and an obnoxious zombie apocalypse survivor in the 1990 remake of "Night of the Living Dead."
His other film credits included Zombie's 2007 remake of "Halloween," ''Grindhouse," ''The Pit and the Pendulum" and director Michael Mann's "Miami Vice."
Towles TV credits included "Seinfeld," ''NYPD Blue," ''L.A. Law," ''ER," ''Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," ''Star Trek: Voyager" and "Firefly."
Tom Towles
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