Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: Europe's Economic Suicide (New York Times)
… it's hard to avoid a sense of despair. Rather than admit that they've been wrong, European leaders seem determined to drive their economy - and their society - off a cliff. And the whole world will pay the price.
Paul Krugman and Robin Wells: "Economy killers: Inequality and GOP ignorance" (Salon)
By failing Econ 101, Republican leaders failed the country and repeated the errors that caused the Great Depression.
Beverly C. Lucey: Only a Pawn in the Game (The Irascible Professor)
What I would love to see in schools everywhere: parents who do not want their students to be taking these [standardized] tests every year, being able to opt out for an alternative --namely; chess. From third grade through high school, each year parents or students would be given the choice.
James Ball: How will the new [English] law on cookies affect internet browsing? (Guardian)
Websites track visitors' activity, but will legal changes to users' consent make a difference to the 'Guardian' or other sites?
Toni Morrison: 'I want to feel what I feel. Even if it's not happiness' (Guardian)
Nobel prize-winning author Toni Morrison talks to Emma Brockes about being a single mother, the death of her son and why love doesn't last.
Jessa Crispin: The Posthumous Star (The Smart Set)
Finding fame in life is tough enough. Finding it after death is a different beast altogether.
Terry Savage: What If You Owe Taxes? (Creators Syndicate)
Q: I just found out that I will owe income taxes, but I don't have the money! What can I do?
Marilyn Preston: Is It Wellness or Weakness? "The Biggest Loser" Wins Me Over (Creators Syndicate)
I've never been a fan of "The Biggest Loser," the wildly popular weight-loss reality show on NBC. […] Until now. Now I think the show should win the Nobel Prize.
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
Finally - sunny & seasonal!
Begging For Arts Bucks
Alec Baldwin
Alec Baldwin and musician Ben Folds are in Washington to press for increased funding for the arts that have been cut in recent years as Congress and the White House have searched for ways to reduce spending.
In an interview Monday with The Associated Press, Baldwin says many parts of the country need federal funding for the arts to make sure people have access to affordable theater, dance and music that can enrich their lives.
With just under $147 million in federal funding for the National Endowment for the Arts this year, Baldwin says the nation has fallen far short of its high of $175 million in 1992.
Folds, who is a judge on NBC's "The Sing-Off," says he would be busing tables if it weren't for his arts education.
Alec Baldwin
'Late Late Show' Going To Scotland
Craig Ferguson
Craig Ferguson is going back to Scotland and taking "Late Late Show" viewers along for the trip.
CBS says the Scotland-based episodes will air the week of May 14. While there, Ferguson explores Edinburgh and Glasgow. He also returns to his hometown of Cumbernauld, with stops at his childhood home and high school.
On the trip, taped last month, he's joined by actors Mila Kunis, Michael Clarke Duncan and Rashida Jones, as well as author-humorist David Sedaris.
Music will be performed by local Glasgow rock band The Imagineers.
Craig Ferguson
Opening School In Nepal
Joanna Lumley
British actress and activist Joanna Lumley was due to arrive in Nepal on Monday to open a school built by her Gurkha charity, the British embassy said.
The 65-year-old star of television show "Absolutely Fabulous" is on her second visit after leading a successful campaign for Gurkha soldiers who serve in the British army and their families to be allowed to settle in Britain.
Lumley will touch down in Kathmandu before heading to the country's western hills to open a school built under the supervision of the British-based Gurkha Welfare Trust, the embassy said in a statement, without giving further details.
The actress is vice-patron of the charity and her impassioned lobbying in Britain earned her the adoration of the Gurkhas, who turned out in their thousands to greet her when she toured the country on her first visit in 2009.
Joanna Lumley
British Library Buys
St. Cuthbert Gospel
The British Library has paid 9 million pounds (US$14.3 million) to acquire the St. Cuthbert Gospel, a remarkably well-preserved survivor of seventh-century Britain described by the library as the oldest European book to survive fully intact.
The palm-sized book, a manuscript copy of the Gospel of John in Latin, was bought from the British branch of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits), the library said Tuesday.
The book measures 96 mm (3.8 inches) by 136 mm (5.4 inches) and has an elaborately tooled red leather cover. It comes from the time of St. Cuthbert, who died in 687, and it was discovered inside his coffin when it was opened in 1104 at Durham Cathedral.
Cuthbert's coffin arrived in Durham after monks had removed it from the island of Lindisfarne, 330 miles (530 kilometers) north of London, to protect the remains from Viking raiders in the ninth and 10th centuries.
St. Cuthbert Gospel
Court Upholds Convictions In Extortion Plot
John Stamos
A U.S. appeals court on Monday upheld the convictions and sentences of a Michigan couple who tried to extort $680,000 from "Full House" actor John Stamos.
Allison Coss and Scott Sippola were convicted in 2010 of concocting an elaborate plot to extort money from Stamos by threatening to release pictures of him at a party where there were strippers and cocaine. The defendants were each sentenced to four years in prison.
Coss and Sippola challenged their convictions, claiming the extortion law was vague and therefore unconstitutional. Selling the pictures to tabloids may have been wrong, but it was not illegal, they argued.
But the Cincinnati-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit rejected their appeal. The threat to sell the photos was wrongful because Coss and Sippola had no right to $680,000 from Stamos, the court concluded.
John Stamos
Pleads Not Guilty
Bobby Brown
Bobby Brown has pleaded not guilty to drunken driving and other charges stemming from his arrest last month in Los Angeles.
City News Service says an attorney entered pleas Monday on Brown's behalf to misdemeanor counts of DUI, driving with an illegal blood-alcohol content and driving on a suspended license. He could face up to six months in jail if convicted.
Brown didn't attend the Superior Court arraignment in Van Nuys.
Bobby Brown
5-Week Trial
JPL
A former computer specialist with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory was laid off because he was combative and didn't keep his skills sharp - not because he advocated for his belief in intelligent design while at work, an attorney said Monday in a case that plays on the tensions over the origins-of-life concept.
David Coppedge, who worked on NASA's Cassini mission exploring Saturn and its many moons, sued JPL for wrongful termination in a case that has generated intense interest among proponents of intelligent design - the idea that life is too complex to have evolved through evolution alone.
Closing arguments ended Monday after a five-week trial. The case will be decided by Superior Court Judge Ernest Hiroshige, who must first review written arguments from both sides and could take months before announcing a verdict.
Coppedge, a self-described evangelical Christian, claims he was demoted then let go for engaging his co-workers in conversations about intelligent design and handing out DVDs on the topic while at work. Coppedge lost his team leader title in 2009 and was let go last year after 15 years on the mission.
Coppedge, who began working for JPL as a contractor in 1996 and was hired in 2003, is active in the intelligent design sphere and runs a website that interprets scientific discoveries through the lens of intelligent design. His father authored an anti-evolution book and founded a Christian outreach group.
JPL
Sues Over Trick
Teller
Teller, the silent half of the magic and comedy duo Penn & Teller, has sued a Dutch entertainer for threatening to sell the secret behind Teller's signature, copyrighted illusion known as "Shadows."
According to a complaint filed April 11, Gerard Dogge, known professionally as Gerard Bakardy, posted a video on Google Inc's YouTube in which he performed the trick, which he called "The Rose & Her Shadow."
At the end of the video, Dogge offered to sell the trick, and threatened to place print advertisements offering to sell it for $3,050, the complaint said.
The lawsuit was filed in the federal court in Las Vegas, where Penn & Teller regularly perform. It seeks a permanent halt to any copyright infringement, plus damages. Teller's lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
According to a certificate of copyright registration filed with the complaint, the illusion was copyrighted in 1983 by Teller, a pseudonym for Raymond Teller.
Teller
Strippers In Nun Gear
Berlusconi
Girls in nun costumes and one wearing a mask of footballer Ronaldinho stripped for Silvio Berlusconi, a witness said Monday at the former Italian premier's trial for having sex with an underage prostitute.
Model Imane Fadil said the first time she went to a party she was given 2,000 euros ($2,600) in cash by Berlusconi, who told her: "Don't be offended."
That night she said she saw two young women in nun costumes with "black tunics, white veils and crosses" stripping in front of the then prime minister.
One of the two was Nicole Minetti, now a regional councillor for Berlusconi's People of Freedom party in Milan, Moroccan-born Fadil said.
The Corriere della Sera daily has reported that Berlusconi last year paid a total of 127,000 euros ($165,000) to three witnesses -- Minetti and two other girls -- when the trial against him had already started.
Berlusconi
Militaries Vie For Edge
Arctic
To the world's military leaders, the debate over climate change is long over. They are preparing for a new kind of Cold War in the Arctic, anticipating that rising temperatures there will open up a treasure trove of resources, long-dreamed-of sea lanes and a slew of potential conflicts.
By Arctic standards, the region is already buzzing with military activity, and experts believe that will increase significantly in the years ahead.
Last month, Norway wrapped up one of the largest Arctic maneuvers ever - Exercise Cold Response - with 16,300 troops from 14 countries training on the ice for everything from high intensity warfare to terror threats. Attesting to the harsh conditions, five Norwegian troops were killed when their C-130 Hercules aircraft crashed near the summit of Kebnekaise, Sweden's highest mountain.
The U.S., Canada and Denmark held major exercises two months ago, and in an unprecedented move, the military chiefs of the eight main Arctic powers - Canada, the U.S., Russia, Iceland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland - gathered at a Canadian military base last week to specifically discuss regional security issues.
The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that 13 percent of the world's undiscovered oil and 30 percent of its untapped natural gas is in the Arctic. Shipping lanes could be regularly open across the Arctic by 2030 as rising temperatures continue to melt the sea ice, according to a National Research Council analysis commissioned by the U.S. Navy last year.
Arctic
Costume Grabs $228,000 At Auction
'Captain America'
Captain America isn't just saving the nation from bad guys - the patriotic superhero is also apparently saving the country's auction houses from the still-grim economy.
An auction of memorabilia from the 2011 film "Captain America: The First Avenger" and other big-screen Marvel offerings grossed $1.1 million over the weekend, with a costume from the film accounting for about a quarter of the haul.
The "Captain America sellers: the Captain America Hero Costume, which was used in all scenes following the "invasion montage" in the movie. The costume fetched $228,000 at this weekend's sale.
It's also a fair sight more than the $20,000 - $30,000 that the costume was expected to take in prior to the auction.
'Captain America'
Cardboard Cathedral To Be Built
New Zealand
New Zealand's Anglican church will build a temporary cathedral made of cardboard in earthquake-devastated Christchurch as it works towards a permanent replacement for its 131-year old landmark destroyed last year.
The Victorian-era, Gothic-style cathedral, which dominated the city's central square, was badly damaged in the February 2011 quake, and is being demolished.
The replacement, an A-frame structure designed by Japanese architect Shigeru Ban, will be built on the site of another historic church, which was also destroyed in the 6.3 magnitude quake.
The temporary cathedral will be made of cardboard tubes, timber beams, structural steel and a concrete pad, and is intended to last more than 20 years. It is expected to be finished in time for Christmas services in December.
Ban is known for his reinforced paper and cardboard structures and designed a similar "paper church" after the 1995 Kobe earthquake in Japan.
New Zealand
Nipped Noot
Penguin
At least one penguin at the St. Louis Zoo appears to be a feisty opponent of Newt Gingrich.
The Republican presidential candidate is sporting a small bandage on his finger after getting nipped by a small penguin during his tour of the zoo on Friday. Gingrich was in St. Louis to speak during the National Rifle Association's annual meeting.
During his visit to the popular zoo in Forest Park, he was treated to a behind-the-scenes visit with two Magellanic penguins. One of them nipped Gingrich on the finger.
Zoo spokeswoman Susan Gallagher says a small bandage was all the medical care required.
Penguin
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