Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: Scots, What the Heck? (NY Times)
The very bad economics of independence.
Robert Gonzalez: CDC Statistics Show What Happens When You Don't Vaccinate (io9)
The latest figures: Between January 1 and August 29 of this year, nearly 600 confirmed measles cases were reported to the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. The resurgence is the greatest the U.S. has seen since the disease was eliminated from the country in 2000.
Laura Barton: "Sam Shepard: 'America is on its way out as a culture'" (Guardian)
As his seminal 1980 play, True West, is revived in London, the influential playwright reflects on the diminishing global role of the US, and the deaths of his friends Philip Seymour Hoffman and Robin Williams.
Robert Evans, Greg Spyridis: "5 Ways Movies Get Gunfights Wrong (Based on Experience)" (Cracked)
Everybody knows action movies are fake, but that doesn't change the fact that they're responsible for approximately 100 percent of our education on the subject of guns and combat. That's why the average person's knowledge of those things is hilariously, sometimes fatally, wrong.
Nick Patch: Bill Murray shows up at Toronto 'Ghostbusters' screening, answers fan questions (Winnipeg Free Press)
Bill Murray was equal parts funny and philosophical on Friday, when he materialized after a Toronto screening of "Ghostbusters" on Friday and proceeded to answer his devoted fans' questions for nearly an hour.
Ohio State Marching Band "TV Land" - Halftime vs. Virginia Tech: 9-6-14 (YouTube)
"The OSU marching band ("The Best Damn Band in the Land") opened their season with an impressive show featuring your favorite TV shows from way back when and today during halftime at the Virginia Tech game Saturday. Just wait 'til you see them drive the Batmobile across the field! But then, after watching the rest of the show, I'm not sure what part I'm most impressed with." - Neatorama
24 Football Teams That Lost Before The Game Even Started (YouTube and Buzzfeed)
"The first football game of the season often starts with a grand entrance, whether you're in the preschool league or the NFL. However, there are many more Little League and high school teams than pro teams, and they are supported by volunteers, so the odds of mayhem are higher for the younger players. In this compilation by Buzzfeed of clips from America's Funniest Videos, 24 different teams make their grand entrance and run into unexpected consequences." - Neatorama
Dragon Con 2014 "Ain't No Mountain High Enough Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell" Cosplay Music Video (YouTube)
"Videographer RealTDragon was in my backyard last weekend, using the power of his camera to cause Dragon Con cosplayers to burst a rousing chorus of "Ain't No Mountain High Enough." More of this, please." - io9
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David Bruce has approximately 50 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
wrote:
answered:
has retired.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
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
Hot & humid.
Replacing Craig Ferguson
James Corden
British actor James Corden will replace Craig Ferguson as host of "The Late Late Show" on CBS next year, part of a complete overhaul of the network's late-night talk show lineup put in motion by the impending retirement of David Letterman.
The network said Monday it had picked Corden, who won a Tony Award in 2012 for his role in the play "One Man, Two Guvnors" and appears in the movie "Begin Again" with Keira Knightley and Mark Ruffalo. Corden is also in the upcoming film "Into the Woods" with Meryl Streep and Johnny Depp. He hosts a sports-oriented game show in Britain, and also acts in and writes the BBC series "The Wrong Mans."
Ferguson has hosted "The Late Late Show," which airs at 12:35 a.m. ET, for 10 years. He said he would be leaving shortly after Letterman announced his retirement and he was passed over to be his successor, with Stephen Colbert getting that job sometime next year. Ferguson will leave the show in December, CBS said.
Corden's hiring recalls that of the Scottish-born Ferguson, who was relatively unknown in the United States before CBS gave him the job. Corden is also another white male in a late-night talk world dominated by them. CBS said it was considering several different options for a show when Ferguson said he was leaving; it offered no details on the type of program Corden will do, and also did not say where it will be based.
James Corden
Seven Decades
Iowa
Two Iowa women in their 90s celebrated seven decades they have spent together as a couple by getting married over the weekend in a small ceremony.
Vivian Boyack, 91, and "Nonie" Dubes, 90, exchanged vows at the First Christian Church in Davenport on Saturday. The couple then enjoyed a reception dinner with close friends and relatives, many of whom had been prodding them to marry since gay marriage became legal in Iowa in 2009.
"I felt like I was in a dream and that I would wake up and it was not going to be true," Boyack said. "We do hope we have a few more years, but if we don't it's a real closing for us."
The couple, who do not plan a honeymoon, have been inundated with phone calls and flowers from well-wishers, she said.
Iowa
Wedding News
Burtka - Harris
Kim Kardashian and Kanye West aren't the only ones who tied the knot this year in Italy. So did Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka.
The "How I Met Your Mother" star and his actor-chef groom were married Saturday in Italy. They'd been dating for 10 years and are parents to 3-year-old twins, Gideon and Harper. The grooms wore custom Tom Ford tuxedos and Elton John performed at the reception.
Harris, 41, just won a Tony Award for his role in "Hedwig and the Angry Inch." He has been in several Broadway productions, including "Assassins," ''Proof" and as the exuberant master of ceremonies in "Cabaret."
Burtka, 39, played Tulsa in the Bernadette Peters-led revival of "Gypsy," was seen off-Broadway in "The Play About the Baby" and is also a chef.
"How I Met Your Mother" producer Pam Fryman officiated at the wedding. Same-sex marriages are not allowed in Italy so it was not legally binding in that country.
Burtka - Harris
No Broadway Dimming Of Lights
Joan Rivers
Despite being a long champion of New York theatre, Joan Rivers will not be memorialized by the dimming of Broadway's lights.
The Broadway League, which represents theatre owners and producers, has decided that Rivers did not meet the criteria for the honour.
Rivers, who died Thursday at 81, was known primarily as a TV actress and comedian, though she often attended Broadway and off-Broadway shows and earned a Tony Award nomination.
Rivers wrote and starred in the 1971 quick-to-close "Fun City," was in Neil Simon's "Broadway Bound" in 1988, and wrote and starred in "Sally Marr.And Her Escorts" in 1994, where she earned her Tony nod.
Joan Rivers
Intern Class Action Lawsuit
CBS & David Letterman
ICM Partners might be happy to hear today that they are now not the latest industry enterprise to be hit with an interns lawsuit. ICM might be happy about that but CBS and The Late Show With David Letterman will not. While the agency fights to shut down a potentially sprawling complaint from ex-interns, the network and the late night show have been walloped with a class action of their own. Late last week, Mallory Musallam filed a class action complaint against CBS Broadcasting, CBS Corporation and the retiring late night host's Worldwide Pants Inc. for herself and everyone who has ever been an intern on the show. "Named Plaintiff has initiated this action seeking for herself, and on behalf of all similarly situated employees that also worked on The Late Show with David Letterman, all compensation, including minimum wages and overtime compensation, which they were deprived of, plus interest, attorneys' fees, and costs," says the jury demanding filing in New York Supreme Court (read it here).
Claiming that the production company and CBS intentionally wrongfully classified the interns that work on the CBS late night show, Musallam says their actions were and are a violation of New York State labor law. Musallam was an intern at the Late Show from September 2008 to December that year. While citing different statutes, Musallam's action is very similar in tone and allegations to past intern legal moves that have hit the media and entertainment industry since the potentially game-changing June 11, 2013, ruling that unpaid interns on the Darren Aronofsky-directed Black Swan were actually employees. Earlier this year, former ICM interns Kimberly Behzadi and Jason Rindenau struck the agency with a class action of their own. Late last week, ICM's lawyers filed a motion to have the action dismissed.
CBS & David Letterman
Elephant In The Room
Cities
With climate change still a political minefield across the nation despite the strong scientific consensus that it's happening, some community leaders have hit upon a way of preparing for the potentially severe local consequences without triggering explosions of partisan warfare: Just change the subject.
Big cities and small towns are shoring up dams and dikes, using roof gardens to absorb rainwater or upgrading sewage treatment plans to prevent overflows. Others are planting urban forests, providing more shady relief from extreme heat. Extension agents are helping farmers deal with an onslaught of newly arrived crop pests.
But in many places, especially strongholds of conservative politics, they're planning for the volatile weather linked to rising temperatures by speaking of "sustainability" or "resilience," while avoiding no-win arguments with skeptics over whether the planet is warming or that human activity is responsible.
The pattern illustrates a growing disconnect between the debate still raging in politics and the reality on the ground. In many city planning departments, it has become like Voldemort, the arch-villain of the Harry Potter stories: It's the issue that cannot be named.
Cities
Tortured To 'The Point Of Death'
CIA
The CIA tortured Al-Qaeda suspects "to the point of death" by drowning them in water-filled baths, Britain's Daily Telegraph reported on Monday, ahead of the publication of a US Senate report on interrogation techniques.
The paper quoted one security source as saying the torture of at least two suspects, including the alleged mastermind of the September 11 attacks Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, went far beyond the waterboarding admitted by the Central Intelligence Agency.
"They weren't just pouring water over their heads or over a cloth," the paper quoted the source as saying, adding: "They were holding them under water until the point of death, with a doctor present to make sure they did not go too far."
A second source cited by the paper also spoke of the treatment meted out to Mohammed, who is in US military custody in Guantanamo Bay, as well as alleged USS Cole bomber Abd al Rahim al-Nashiri, who is also being held at the detention camp on Cuba.
"They got medieval on his ass, and far more so than people realise," the source, said to be familiar with the still-classified accounts of the torture, was quoted as saying.
CIA
Hundreds Of Millions Seized
"Highway Interdiction"
This weekend, The Washington Post published a deeply reported look at "highway interdiction," a controversial tactic that has allowed police to seize hundreds of millions of dollars from motorists without formally charging anyone with a crime. Typically, police will stop a driver under suspicion of drug trafficking, seize their cash as evidence, and refuse to return it without a legal challenge. Only one in six seizures were challenged, typically because of the high cost of legal assistance.
Hundreds of millions of dollars seized, all without pressing charges
But the legal justification is only part of the practice. As private consultants sought to expand the practice, they turned to surprisingly familiar methods, including an encrypted chat room where officers could brag about their latest hauls, share tactics, and spread private information about juicy targets passing through other jurisdictions. Known as the Black Asphalt Electronic Networking and Notification System, the chat room has over 25,000 members spread across the country, most of whom are law enforcement officers. Until recently, it was hosted at a DEA intelligence center, but has never received any official government oversight. Within the system, officers are encouraged to brag about particularly big hauls, and the member with the highest seizure total at the end of the year is dubbed a "Royal Knight."
In other words, it's Reddit for the highway interdiction, turning an otherwise sketchy practice into a game of online oneupmanship. If highway cops aren't encouraged to make seizures within their department, they can get that encouragement online, with plenty of other interdiction-happy cops cheering them on. And the encouragement works: seizures have more than tripled since 2000. Any dissenting voices, worried about the legal or moral implications of grabbing cash based on the thinnest tissue of reasonable suspicion, are kept out of the conversation entirely.
"Highway Interdiction"
Landmark Deal
'The Simpsons'
"The Simpsons" will come to Soho - a leading Chinese media, search, gaming, community and mobile service group - in a landmark deal that will make the series officially available in China for the first time.
This multi-year deal with Twentieth Century Fox Television Distribution includes the show's 26th season, which premieres in the U.S. on Sept. 28. The show, which has been licensed to more than 180 countries and reaches more than 190 million weekly viewers, will be subtitled in Mandarin.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
"Woo hoo!" said "Simpsons" executive producer Al Jean. "Now we can reveal Springfield is actually in Guangdong province."
'The Simpsons'
Keeping It Classy
'Fox & Friends'
Banter by two Fox News Channel hosts about video showing football player Ray Rice hitting his future wife has come under fire.
The "Fox & Friends" hosts, Brian Kilmeade and Steve Doocy, made their on-air comments Monday while discussing newly released video showing Rice hitting Janay Palmer in an elevator in February.
Kilmeade said that the lesson to be learned was, in his words, "take the stairs."
Doocy responded that the message is to remember that elevators include cameras.
'Fox & Friends'
Failure For NFL
Blaming The Victim
Whenever there's an allegation of domestic abuse, defenders of the accused bring up due process. In light of Ray Rice being cut by the Baltimore Ravens on Monday, hours after TMZ published a video of the running back assaulting his wife in an elevator, consider the completely undue process Janay Palmer has endured over the past several months. Consider how much hurt and humiliation it took for this sorry semblance of a resolution to be reached:
Palmer was victimized by her then fiancé punching her in the face.
She was immediately victimized again, by Rice failing to comfort or console her or even cover up her exposed legs as she lay unconscious in an opened elevator. Rice, who crouches for a living, didn't even bend over to look at her.
She was victimized by the Ravens rushing not to assist her, a member of their football family who had been assaulted, but to their star player. Palmer's assault was termed a "distraction."
She was victimized by being forced to sit up in front of the media and apologize for her role in being punched in the face.
She was victimized by Rice's lawyer's disgusting "complete hypothetical," wherein it was suggested that it was she who instigated and Rice who defended himself.
Blaming The Victim
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