Paul Krugman: Tattoos, Incompetence, and the Heritage Foundation (NY Times Blog)
The book notes that tattoos and such play a role as signals of criminal identity, which work precisely because they make it hard to participate in non-criminal society. But there's more: criminals actively cultivate a reputation for incompetence at non-criminal business, designed to reassure both their colleagues and the victims of their extortion that they won't break their implicit contracts by going legit.
Paul Krugman: "Thorstein Veblen in Brooklyn (Trivial)" (NY Times Blog)
I'm perfectly OK with topknots and tattoos, but obviously a lot of employers won't be. So where do all these people work? They can't all be baristas … But that, surely, is part of the point. Probably not an original observation, but surely one main goal of personal styling is to make it clear that the person so styled is not, in fact, part of the workaday bourgeois world, that he or she doesn't work at a 9-5 office job during the week and put on trendy attire for the weekend.
Oliver Sacks: My Periodic Table (NY Times)
At the start of the year, in the weeks after I learned that I had cancer, I felt pretty well, despite my liver being half-occupied by metastases. When the cancer in my liver was treated in February by the injection of tiny beads into the hepatic arteries - a procedure called embolization - I felt awful for a couple of weeks but then super well, charged with physical and mental energy.
Emine Saner: The outrageous fortune of Benedict Cumberbatch (Guardian)
Five years ago, Sherlock propelled him into the stratosphere. Now he's photobombing the Oscars and selling out Hamlet a year in advance. Friends and co-stars reveal why the world is wild for Benedict Cumberbatch.
Cornelius Heyer, Ivan Farkas: 5 Inspiring Pieces Of Good News No One Is Reporting (Cracked)
As we've mentioned once or twice before, the news media is hopelessly addicted to doom and gloom. And that's easy to understand, since the horrifying and grotesque parts of our world tend to also be the biggest attention grabbers (a fact that we here at Cracked happen to be well familiar with, because nothing says "comedy" quite like your imminent and inescapable demise).
On March 30, 1965, the thunderegg was designated as the Oregon state rock by a joint resolution of the Oregon Legislative Assembly. While thundereggs can be collected all over Oregon, the largest deposits are found in Crook, Jefferson, Malheur, Wasco and Wheeler counties. The world's largest thunderegg, a 1.75 ton specimen, is housed by the Rice Northwest Museum of Rocks and Minerals in Oregon.
Source
Randall was first, and correct, with:
the THUNDEREGG
Alan J wrote:
Thunderegg Agate.
STEPHEN F replied:
Thunder Egg
Deborah said:
Oregon's state rock is the Thunderegg. It's unimpressive on the outside, but the inside is amazing.
Limestone Lois Of Oregon said:
What do you get when you cross AC/DC with a chicken? A THUNDEREGG! Which is the state rock here in beautiful Oregon, on account of we all have trouble distinguishing between rocks and eggs. Just like these stinking squirrels who actually stole rocks out of my chickens nests. Squirrels eat ANYTHING! Hope the little fucks break all their teeth. Bonus Joke my daddy told me fifty years ago: Have you ever heard of the OOOHHH-AAAAHHHH bird? It's a two inch bird that lays a four inch egg.
Dale of Heated Diamond Springs, Norcali responded:
Thunderegg is one of the coolest names for a rock. I still possess a few of these agates and rose crystals surrounded by silica. When my sister lived in Parkdale, Oregon in the early 70's, we used to go stone and mushroom hunting around the base of Mt. Hood. Wild asparagus, too. Sure found stoned! Dumb as a rock.
PS - Thanks Marty for allowing me the space to vent and clear some of the shit floating around my addled brain.
PPS - Lois - If I throw my loose change in an old dirty sock for a while, KR might show up by Xmas!
DJ Useo answered:
I was close with "some kind of geode", but my wife, Patricia told it's the THUNDEREGG.
She is well into gems. A good choice for state rock.
MAM wrote:
Thunderegg ~ an agate-filled nodule-like rock, similar to a geode.
Patriot Act NSA Spying Unconstitutional Section 215 National Security Letters Must End
My name is Marc Perkel and I have decided to announce that I will not comply with the so called "Patriot Act" laws requiring me to disclose information about my customers. If I receive a national security letter I will immediately photograph it, post it online everywhere I can, and then make a video of me burning it. I will then await my arrest. If you want to put me in jail then come get me mother fucker.
CBS begins the night with a RERUN'NCIS', followed by a FRESH'Zoo', then a RERUN'NCIS: The 3rd One'.
The programming geniuses at CBS are filling Dave's hour with reruns of 'Hawaii Five-0'.
Scheduled on a FRESHJames Corden, OBE, are Trevor Noah, Odette Annable, and Eric Idle.
NBC starts the night with a FRESH'America's Got Talent', followed by a FRESH'Hollywood Game Night'.
Scheduled on a FRESHJimmy Fallon are Danny DeVito, Simon Pegg, George Ezra, and Donn T.
Scheduled on a FRESHSeth Meyers are Billy Eichner, Julie Klausner, and Vintage Trouble.
On a RERUNCarson 'The Scab' Daly (from 2/25/15) are Evan Peters, the Re-Licked Project, and Sierra Katow.
ABC opens the night with a RERUN'Fresh Off The Boat', followed by a RERUN'black-ish', then a FRESH'Extreme Fat Shaming'.
Scheduled on a FRESHJimmy Kimmel are Armie Hammer, Natasha Leggero, and Big Talk.
The CW offers a RERUN'The Flash', followed by a RERUN'iZombie'.
Faux has a FRESH'Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader?', followed by RERUN'Knock Knock (Not So) Live'.
MY recycles an old 'L&O: CI', followed by another old 'L&O: CI'.
A&E has 2 hours of old 'Storage Wars', followed by a FRESH'Storage Wars', then another FRESH'Storage Wars', followed by a FRESH'Big Smo', then another FRESH'Big Smo'.
AMC offers the movie 'The Dark Knight', followed by the movie 'Fantastic 4: Rise Of The Silver Surfer'.
BBC -
[6:00AM] Cash in the Attic - Season 18 - Ep 39 - Andrews
[7:00AM] Cash in the Attic - Season 18 - Ep 40 - Griffith
[8:00AM] Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares UK - Season 2 - Ep 7 - Oscars
[9:00AM] Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares US - Season 2 - Ep 12 - Casa Roma
[10:00AM] Doctor Who - Season 6 - Ep 10 - The Girl Who Waited
[11:00AM] Doctor Who - Season 6 - Ep 11 - The God Complex
[12:00PM] Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season 3 - Ep 23 - Sarek
[1:00PM] Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season 3 - Ep 24 - Menage a Troi
[2:00PM] Planet Earth: Frozen Planet - Ep 2 - Spring
[3:00PM] Planet Earth: Frozen Planet - Ep 3 - Summer
[4:00PM] Planet Earth: Frozen Planet - Ep 4 - Autumn
[5:00PM] Planet Earth - Ep 7 - Great Plains
[6:00PM] Planet Earth - Ep 8 - Jungles
[7:00PM] Planet Earth - Ep 9 - Shallow Seas
[8:00PM] Planet Earth: Africa - Ep 1 - Kalahari
[9:00PM] Planet Earth: Africa - Ep 5 - Sahara
[10:00PM] Planet Earth: Africa - Ep 6 - The Future
[11:00PM] Planet Earth: The Making of Africa NEW
[12:00AM] Planet Earth: Africa-Ep 1 - Kalahari
[1:00AM] Planet Earth: Frozen Planet-Ep 2 - Spring
[2:00AM] Planet Earth: Frozen Planet-Ep 3 - Summer
[3:00AM] Planet Earth: Frozen Planet-Ep 4 - Autumn
[4:00AM] Planet Earth-Ep 7 - Great Plains
[5:00AM] Planet Earth-Ep 8 - Jungles (ALL TIMES EST)
Bravo has 'Real Housewives Of NYC', followed by a FRESH'NYC Social', then a FRESH'Real Housewives Of NYC', and 'Real Housewives Of OC'.
Comedy Central has 2 hours of old 'Tosh.0', 'Drunk History', followed by a FRESH'Another Period'.
Scheduled on a FRESHJon Stewart is Tom Cruise.
Scheduled on a FRESH@Midnight are Whitney Cummings, Nick Thune, and Brendon Walsh.
FX has the movie 'Oblivion', followed by a FRESH'Tyrant'.
History has 2 hours of old 'Counting Cars', followed by a FRESH'Counting Cars', then another FRESH'Counting Cars', followed by a FRESH'Leepu & Pitbull'.
IFC -
[6:00AM] WHITEST KIDS U'KNOW
[6:15AM] RUN FAT BOY RUN
[8:30AM] I SPY
[10:45AM] BLUES BROTHERS 2000
[1:30PM] THE BLUES BROTHERS
[4:30PM] PULP FICTION
[8:00PM] BAD BOYS
[10:45PM] SHAUN OF THE DEAD
[1:00AM] BAD BOYS
[3:45AM] I SPY (ALL TIMES EST)
Sundance -
[6:00AM] The Approval Matrix-Do's & Don'ts
[6:45AM] Amistad
[10:00AM] City of Angels
[12:15PM] Less Than Zero
[2:30PM] Crash
[5:00PM] The Manchurian Candidate
[8:00PM] Conan the Barbarian
[10:30PM] Conan the Barbarian
[1:00AM] The Manchurian Candidate
[4:00AM] Lions for Lambs (ALL TIMES EST)
SyFy has the movie 'Jurassic Park III', followed by the movie 'Face Off', then 'Geeks Who Drink', and 'Reactor'.
TBS:
On a RERUNConan (from 3/30/15) are Will Forte, Justin Willman, and Mac DeMarco.
Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, Christina Applegate, Steele Stebbins, Skyler Gisondo, Chris Hemsworth and Ed Helms seen at the New Line Cinema presents the Premiere of "Vacation" held at Regency Village Theatre on Monday, July 27, 2015, in Westwood, Calif.
Photo by Eric Charbonneau
A federal judge on Monday rejected Citizens United's (R-Fascists) effort to block New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman from demanding that the conservative group disclose more information about its major donors.
U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein in Manhattan refused to impose a preliminary injunction to stop Schneiderman from requiring registered charitable organizations such as Citizens United from disclosing names, addresses and total contributions of big donors before soliciting funds in the state.
Citizens United is a nonprofit that advocates for limited government, free enterprise and strong families. It was also the plaintiff in the landmark 2010 U.S. Supreme Court case that allowed unlimited independent spending by corporations and labor unions in election campaigns.
The group argued that Schneiderman's interpretation of a 2006 state regulation on donor disclosures violated its First Amendment free speech and association rights, invaded the privacy of donors who wished to remain anonymous, and risked a backlash against donors who supported controversial causes.
Stein, however, said Schneiderman's policy was substantially related to the important government interests of enforcing charitable solicitation laws, and protecting residents from illegitimate charities.
Malaysian martial arts actress Michelle Yeoh poses with her new wax figure at Madame Tussauds in Hong Kong, Monday, July 27, 2015. The wax figure is featuring a scene from the movie "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon".
Photo by Kin Cheung
Crouched in a shallow square grid dug into the red African earth, American graduate student Sarah Edlund uses a hand brush to scrape soil into a dustpan.
She is uncovering scraping tools of a different kind -- implements fashioned from quartz that were used 100,000 years ago to prepare animal hides.
"We have found a lot of quartz and this is important because it is not natural to this area ... It must have been brought here," Edlund said as she topped up her bucket with soil before taking it to a sifting device, where the dirt is separated from the quartz and other potential scientific treasures.
The two-metre-by-two-metre grid was pegged out just a month ago, but the site - Swartkrans - has been excavated for decades, yielding hundreds of hominid fossils and shining a light on our evolutionary past stretching back almost 2 million years.
Swiss army helicopters have crossed the Franco-Swiss border in an unexpected incursion - to help thirsty Swiss cows.
The aerial operation to scoop up water caught authorities responsible for Rousses Lake in the Jura mountains by surprise last Thursday. The helicopters also startled swimmers and fishermen enjoying the beaches of the lake in eastern France.
Christophe Mathez, deputy mayor of the Les Rousses commune, said officials had "no idea this operation would occur" - and that the Swiss neither requested authorization or nor warned before descending.
Swiss media reported that the country's military did ask for permission - but from the French air force, not local authorities or the police.
The Swiss army has been pumping water for livestock from its own Neuchatel and Joux lakes since last week, according to a statement from the Swiss Department of Defense. The federal government is bankrolling the operation, expected to continue no longer than August 4, with military aid disaster relief funds.
Alan Kalter, Paul Williams and Frankie Valli at the Starkey Hearing Foundation So The World May Hear Awards Gala in St. Paul, on Sunday, July, 26, 2015.
Photo by Andy King
A hidden tunnel complex that formed Britain's first line of defence in World War II opened to the public this week after six decades buried as a forgotten time capsule.
The underground labyrinth is inside the White Cliffs of Dover, an iconic symbol of England on its southeastern tip and a natural coastal defence at the closest point to continental Europe.
The tunnel network, 75 feet (23 metres) down inside the chalk cliffs, supported the 185 troops and their four officers who manned three gun batteries and slept in bunks.
The digging began after prime minister Winston Churchill visited Dover in July 1940 and was enraged to see enemy German ships sailing unopposed through the straits between Britain and Nazi-occupied France.
Puddle of Mudd singer Wes Scantlin faces charges of drunken driving and fleeing police after a chase in Minnesota that reached speeds of about 100 mph.
Scantlin appeared Monday in Renville County court on charges of felony fleeing police in a motor vehicle; refusing to submit to a chemical test; and DWI. He was released after posting bail.
The 43-year-old was caught early Sunday by a sheriff's sergeant. A preliminary breath test measured his blood-alcohol content at 0.31 per cent, nearly four times the legal limit for driving.
The Star Tribune in Minneapolis reports Scantlin was performing over the weekend in Royalton, about 100 miles north from where he was stopped.
Al Kooper, who was backing Bob Dylan the night he went electric, plays at the Newport Folk Festival on Sunday, July 26, 2015, during a celebration of the 50th anniversary of Dylan's performance in Newport, R.I.
Photo by Michelle R. Smith
Bangladesh has only about 100 tigers living in the world's largest mangrove forest, far fewer of the endangered animals than previously thought, following a recent survey, a top forestry official said Monday.
Some 440 tigers were recorded during the previous census conducted in 2004 in the World Heritage-listed Sundarbans, one of the world's last remaining habitats for the big cats.
But experts said better methodology was the reason for the huge drop in the numbers, saying hidden cameras used this time around, rather than pug marks, gave a much more accurate figure.
Tapan Kumar Dey, the government's wildlife conservator, said analysis of camera footage from the year-long survey that ended in April found numbers ranged between 83 and 130, giving an average of 106.
Cheech Marin and Natasha Rubin at the Starkey Hearing Foundation So The World May Hear Awards Gala in St. Paul, on Sunday, July, 26, 2015.
Photo by Andy King
More than a quarter million sockeye salmon returning from the ocean to spawn are either dead or dying in the Columbia River and its tributaries due to warming water temperatures.
Federal and state fisheries biologists say the warm water is lethal for the cold-water species and is wiping out at least half of this year's return of 500,000 fish.
Elsewhere in the region, state fisheries biologists in Oregon say more than 100 spring chinook died earlier this month in the Middle Fork of the John Day River when water temperatures hit the mid-70s. Oregon and Washington state have both enacted sport fishing closures due to warm water, and sturgeon fishing in the Columbia River upstream of Bonneville Dam has been halted after some of the large, bottom dwelling fish started turning up dead.
Efforts by management teams to cool flows below 70 degrees by releasing cold water from selected reservoirs are continuing in an attempt to prevent similar fish kills among chinook salmon and steelhead, which migrate later in the summer from the Pacific Ocean.
The fish become stressed at temperatures above 68 degrees and stop migrating at 74 degrees. Much of the basin is at or over 70 degrees due to a combination that experts attribute to drought and record heat in June.
Researchers may never solve the recent deaths of 18 endangered whales whose carcasses were found floating near Alaska's Kodiak Island, a scientist working on the case said Monday.
Samples taken from one of the 10 fin whales were at least a week old, which could throw off test results, said Kate Wynne, a marine mammal specialist for the University of Alaska Sea Grant Program. The carcasses of eight humpback whales also were found.
The carcasses of the marine mammals were discovered between Memorial Day weekend and early July. Most of the animals were too decomposed for sampling.
Both species of whales feed close together, and scientists speculate the animals might have eaten something toxic in waters that were significantly warmer than average at the time. One test came back negative for one toxin that would be present in harmful algal blooms, and another test is still pending, Wynne said.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also is looking into the deaths of a slightly larger number of whales over a larger area. NOAA is requesting the deaths to be designated nationally as an unusual mortality event, which would free of federal funding for further studying the deaths, NOAA spokeswoman Julie Speegle said.
A Maiko, an apprentice geisha, performs a traditional dance in front of a tank with goldfish at the Art Aquarium exhibition in Tokyo July 27, 2015. Several thousand goldfish are displayed in dozens of uniquely shaped tanks, using LED lights, projection mapping and music in a show that was produced by Japanese designer Hidetomo Kimura.
Photo by Thomas Peter
A small city of tents, trailers and thousands of visitors appears almost every August in the Utah desert to watch cars, motorcycles and anything with wheels rocket across gleaming white sheets of salt at speeds that can top 400 mph.
But wet weather has forced the cancellation of Speed Week for the second straight year and revived a debate about whether nearby mining is depleting the Bonneville Salt Flats of their precious resource.
Racers say they have worried for decades that mining is draining an aquifer that helps replenish the flats each year, leaving smaller amounts of the smooth, hard salt that makes for a nearly glass-like surface for cars hurtling across the landscape.
Federal land managers who oversee the flats say they don't have any evidence that the salt is being depleted and point to the anomaly of heavy rains around the time of the event this year and last year.
"The main international racetrack used to be 13 miles in length," said Stuart Gosswein with Save the Salt, a group of race aficionados that has raised the alarm. "Now we can't even find 7 miles."
True-crime writer Ann Rule, who wrote more than 30 books, including a profile of her former co-worker, serial killer Ted Bundy, has died at age 83.
Rule died at Highline Medical Center at 10:30 p.m. Sunday, said Scott Thompson, a spokesman for CHI Franciscan Health. Rule's daughter, Leslie Rule, said on Facebook that her mother had many health issues, including congestive heart failure.
Ann Rule's first book, "The Stranger Beside Me," profiled Bundy, whom she got to know while sharing the late shift at a Seattle suicide hotline. She has said she had a contract to write about an unknown serial killer before her co-worker was charged with the crimes.
Rule, who went to work briefly at the Seattle Police Department when she was 21, began writing for magazines like "True Detective" in 1969. A biography on her author website says she has published more than 1,400 articles, mostly on criminal cases.
Rule said she was fascinated by killers' lives, going back to their childhood to find clues about why they did what they did.
After attending numerous workshops on crime topics from DNA to arson, local law enforcement, the FBI and the Justice Department started turning to Rule for her expertise on serial murders.
Rule was born in 1931 in Lowell, Michigan, to a schoolteacher and a football, basketball and track coach. They moved around a lot when she was a kid, travelling from Michigan, to Pennsylvania, Oregon and California because of her father's coaching career.
She earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Washington in creative writing, with minors in psychology, criminology and penology.
In April, prosecutors filed charges against two of her sons, alleging they took thousands of dollars from her.
Three-months-old White Bengal tigers are pictured in their enclosure at a private zoo in Borysew, Poland, Sunday, July 26, 2015. They were rejected by their mother after birth and have been bottle-fed by the zoo staff.
Photo by Czarek Sokolowski
You have reached the Home page of BartCop Entertainment.
Do you have something to say?
Anything that increased your blood pressure, or, even better, amused or entertained?
Do you have a great album no one's heard?
How about a favorite TV show, movie, book, play, cartoon, or legal amusement?
A popular artist that just plain pisses you off?
A box set the whole world should own?
Vile, filthy rumors about Republican hypocrites?
wrote:
replied:
has returned to semi-retired status.
