Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Robert Evans, Anonymous: 6 Horrifying Things I Learned as a Paramedic (Cracked)
The ambulance can be a dangerous place, even if you're not a patient. It's just not safe to barrel through traffic in a hollow metal box filled with needles and oxygen tanks. But the EMTs and paramedics who man (and woman) our ambulances gladly risk it all in the pursuit of their civic duty ... and some hilarious anecdotes about butt stuff.
Paul Krugman: Death by Typo (NY Times)
So let's be clear about what's happening here. Judges who support this cruel absurdity aren't stupid; they know what they're doing. What they are, instead, is corrupt, willing to pervert the law to serve political masters. And what we'll find out in the months ahead is how deep the corruption goes.
Barbara Ellen: Faint-hearted feminists? What's Salma Hayek's problem? (Guardian)
What is it about the word 'feminist' that makes women flinch?
Alyssa Kai: If punk is the ultimate anti-establishment scene, why is it still run by all these white men? (Guardian)
As a trans woman in punk, I try to find beauty in a faux-inclusive scene that's never perfect - and occasionally awful.
Steven Pinker: 'Twitter can hone your skills as a writer' (Guardian)
The linguist and author on social media, publishing his genome and sex with a robot.
What Book Changed Your Mind? (Chronicle of Higher Education)
The Chronicle Review asked 12 scholars what nonfiction book published in the last 30 years has most changed their minds-not merely inspired or influenced their thinking, but profoundly altered the way they regard themselves, their work, the world.
Robert Evans, Dimitra Nikolaou: 7 Ways My Modern Country [Greece] Turned Into a Dystopia Overnight (Cracked)
Total economic collapse: we all know it happens, but we're much more used to dealing with the concept via Robocop. There are, however, real people out in the world who have watched the bottom fall out of their national economy. Greece started the 2000s with record wages and falling unemployment.
Clive Thompson: "A Sad Fact of Life: It's Actually Smart to Be Mean Online" (Wired)
People like it fine when I'm genial, but when I make a caustic joke or cutting comment? Social media gold. This is pure anecdata, of course. Still, it made me wonder if there was any psychological machinery at work here. Is there a reason that purse-lipped opinions would outcompete generous ones?
David Bruce's Amazon Author Page
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David Bruce has approximately 50 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
"Doug's Most Shared Facebook Post" Today
wrote:
took the day off.
is back to semi-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 and dry.
Obama Pushes To Reclassify ISPs As Utilities
Net Neutrality
Despite the drubbing he and his party took last week in the midterm elections, Barack Obama has decided to come out swinging on the issue of net neutrality. In a statement released on Monday, Obama reemphasized his commitment to preserving net neutrality and offered up his own plan that would reclassify Internet service providers as utilities under Title II of the 1996 Telecommunications Act. The surprise statement was an implicit rebuke of current Federal Communications Commission chairman Tom Wheeler (D-Comcast), who this year proposed allowing ISPs to create Internet "fast lanes" that would let them charge content providers more money to ensure their traffic got delivered more quickly than traffic on the "standard" Internet.
"The time has come for the FCC to recognize that broadband service is of the same importance and must carry the same obligations as so many of the other vital services do," Obama said. "To do that, I believe the FCC should reclassify consumer broadband service under Title II of the Telecommunications Act - while at the same time forbearing from rate regulation and other provisions less relevant to broadband services. This is a basic acknowledgment of the services ISPs provide to American homes and businesses, and the straightforward obligations necessary to ensure the network works for everyone - not just one or two companies."
Of course, Obama has no direct say in what the FCC ultimately decides to do, as he can really only add public pressure on the commission to change its stance. Nonetheless, this is the kind of high-profile embrace of net neutrality that many advocates have been waiting for and it comes as particularly surprising because it was Obama's call to appoint a longtime cable company lobbyist to run the FCC in the first place.
Net Neutrality
Levels Not Seen Since Great Depression
Economic Inequality
It's 2014, but when it comes to wealth inequality in the United States, it's starting to look a lot like 1929.
In the late 1920s, the top 10 percent of Americans possessed 84 percent of the country's wealth. Since then, wealth inequality in America has followed a U-shaped trajectory, declining through the Great Depression until the mid-1980s, then steadily increasing since then. Now, the richest Americans have a share of the country's wealth almost big enough to rival those in the late 1920s, according to a new study.
The study, from Emmanuel Saez of the University of California at Berkeley and Gabriel Zucman of the London School of Economics, uses a greater variety of sources to paint its picture of wealth inequality in the US than other recent analyses.
According to an analysis of data sourced through 2012 - including detailed data on personal income taxes and property tax - Professors Saez and Zucman found that the richest 0.1 percent of Americans have as much of the country's wealth as the poorest 90 percent. Both groups control roughly 22 percent of total wealth, but while the average wealth of the bottom 90 percent is $84,000, the top 0.1 percent were comprised of 160,700 families with net assets above $20 million, according to their study.
An even closer look at their data has shown that while the growth of the American middle class has been restricted by modest income growth and soaring debt -thanks in large part to the 2008 mortgage crisis - the super-rich have been making significant gains in income and wealth.
Economic Inequality
Firing Up Charity Hit 30 Years On
Bob Geldof
Musician and philanthropist Bob Geldof, who in 1984 inspired a generation of rock stars to record a charity single for Africa, will raise money to combat Ebola with a new version of the song.
Geldof, frontman for Irish new wave band The Boomtown Rats, pulled together the Band Aid supergroup for "Do They Know It's Christmas?" three decades ago to help those affected by famine in Ethiopia.
Geldof confirmed at a conference in London that the song would be re-recorded. The new line-up is expected to include boy band One Direction and singers Ed Sheeran and Sam Smith, British media reports said.
The original song, which raised 8 million pounds ($11 million), featured some of the era's biggest acts including U2's Bono, George Michael and David Bowie. It has been re-recorded twice in 1989 and 2004.
Bob Geldof
Two Paintings Fetch Over $76 Million
Mark Rothko
A pair of paintings by iconic abstract expressionist artist Mark Rothko sold Monday for a whopping $76.5 million, the auction house Sotheby's said.
Rothko's "Untitled," a blue and purple oil painting from 1970 sold for $39.9 million. It was estimated to earn up to $20 million.
"Untitled (Yellow, Orange, Yellow, Light Orange)," an oil painting created in 1955, fetched $36.6 million and was expected to sell for as much as $30 million.
The paintings came from the private collection of Rachel "Bunny" Mellon, heir to the Listerine mouthwash fortune, who died in March.
Mark Rothko
Worsening Watery Dead Zones
Global Warming
Global warming is likely playing a bigger role than previously thought in dead zones in oceans, lakes and rivers around the world and it's only going to get worse, according to a new study.
Dead zones occur when fertilizer runoff clogs waterways with nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorous. That leads to an explosion of microbes that consumes oxygen and leaves the water depleted of oxygen, harming marine life.
Scientists have long known that warmer water increases this problem, but a new study Monday in the journal Global Change Biology by Smithsonian Institution researchers found about two dozen different ways - biologically, chemically and physically - that climate change worsens the oxygen depletion.
The researchers looked at 476 dead zones worldwide- 264 in the United States. They found that standard computer climate models predict that, on average, the surface temperature around those dead zones will increase by about 4 degrees Fahrenheit (slightly more than 2 degrees Celsius) from the 1980s and 1990s to the end of this century.
The largest predicted warming is nearly 7 degrees (almost 4 degrees Celsius) where the St. Lawrence River dumps into the ocean in Canada. The most prominent U.S. dead zones, the Gulf of Mexico and the Chesapeake Bay, are projected to warm 4 degrees (2.3 degrees Celsius) and nearly 5 degrees (2.7 degrees Celsius) respectively.
Global Warming
Gov't Defends Repairman Ruse
FBI
An elaborate FBI ruse to shut off the Internet in three luxury Las Vegas suites and then send undercover agents into the rooms to fix the problem was a legitimate law enforcement practice, an assistant U.S. attorney wrote in a court filing defending the practice.
The filing was in response to a defense motion to throw out evidence in an illegal gambling case against eight Asian gamblers, who contended the ruse circumvented their right to keep law enforcement officers out of their suites. The response from U.S. Attorney Daniel G. Bogden and two other government lawyers was filed Monday in federal court in Las Vegas.
Defense lawyers said in their motion that Assistant U.S. Attorney Kimberly Frayn, the prosecutor in the case, advised the FBI not to go through with the ruse because it would be "a consent issue." The defense said that conversation was recorded by a Caesars Palace security employee.
In its filing, the government did not address the defense contention that she advised against it.
FBI
Thief With Good Intentions
Salah Salahadyn
The man who masterminded the theft of a $5 million Stradivarius violin admitted Monday that he used a stun gun to attack a musician carrying the 300-year-old instrument, saying he intended to sell it to help people he believed were wrongly evicted from an apartment building he managed.
A judge rejected that argument from Salah Salahadyn, calling it a "Robin Hood" mentality, and sentenced him to seven years in prison.
Salahadyn, 42, stole the violin in January as Frank Almond, a concertmaster at the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, walked to his vehicle carrying the instrument following a performance. Court documents say Salahadyn told an acquaintance that stealing a Stradivarius violin was his dream crime because of the instrument's value and the ease of grabbing it from a musician.
"I knew it was wrong," Salahadyn told the judge. "But I felt that the ends would be justified, but they weren't."
Salah Salahadyn
Ebola Quarantine
Lara Logan
Media trollop Lara Logan of CBS News is being quarantined in a South Africa hotel for three weeks as a precaution after visiting an American-run hospital treating Ebola patients in Liberia for a "60 Minutes" report that aired Sunday.
CBS said Monday that Logan's 21-day self-quarantine will end this Friday. Neither Logan nor the four other CBS employees in South Africa have shown any sign that they are infected with the virus.
Logan, speaking in a "60 Minutes Overtime" web interview from the room where the CBS crew put its report together, admitted to some cabin fever as she waits out her stay. She said the South African government had given the crew permission to work at the hotel.
The "60 Minutes" report detailed her precautions while in Liberia, including being hosed down with a chlorine solution, having her temperature taken frequently and making sure not to touch people. A CBS security worker traveled with the crew with the responsibility of watching everyone's interactions to minimize any chance they could be infected.
Lara Logan
Mormon's Anti-Harry Reid Blog
"Good Riddance"
A Mormon bishop in Los Angeles apologized Sunday for the tone of a blog saying Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was unworthy to enter the faith's temples, but stood by his criticism of Reid's stands on some issues.
Mark Paredes' blog, titled "Good Riddance to Harry Reid, the Mormon Senate Leader," drew criticism from the church and Mormon Democrats after it was published Wednesday in a Jewish newspaper.
He called Reid an "embarrassment" to the church and expressed his belief that Democrats' support of same-sex marriage, abortion rights and gambling runs contrary to positions of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The church, in a statement, said it was "entirely inappropriate" for church officers to use their titles while publishing such political views.
Reid will lose his position as Senate majority leader in January after Republicans took control of the Senate in Tuesday's election. No other Mormon has held a higher elective national office.
"Good Riddance"
Ending Russian Broadcast
CNN
Turner says it's alerted CNN's cable and satellite distributors in Russia that it will cease broadcasting in that country at the end of this year.
"Turner International is assessing its distribution options for CNN in Russia in light of recent changes in Russian media legislation, a Turner rep said in a statement. "We are bringing our existing distribution relationships to an end while we do that. We hope to re-enter the market in due course, and will notify our partners of any update about resuming these services," the rep continued, adding, "The CNN Moscow bureau operation remains unaffected."
In July, president Vladimir Putin signed a new law that goes into effect on January 1, 2015, banning advertising on all subscription channels. Russia's Roskomnadzor told Tass news agency, "CNN shareholders should be asked about the reasons behind the stop of broadcast."
CNN, begun in 1980 by Ted Turner, launched CNN International in 1985 and began broadcasting in Russia in the early '90s. Since then, CNN broadcasts have been distributed there largely over cable and satellite networks.
CNN
Bronze Bell Revealed
HMS Erebus
Divers recovered a bronze bell from the wreck of the HMS Erebus, a British ship that was missing for nearly 170 years after an ill-fated expedition to the Canadian Arctic.
In 1845, British Royal Navy officer and explorer John Franklin led more than 100 men on a quest to find a Northwest Passage connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. But they never completed their mission; in 1846, their ships - the HMS Erebus and HMS Terror - became trapped in ice near King William Island in northern Canada.
The weeks and months that followed were grim. Many of the crewmembers died of some combination of exposure, starvation, scurvy and lead poisoning. Some may have resorted to cannibalism. Search parties looking for the missing crew turned up empty, though a few graves were later found. The fate of the ships, meanwhile, remained a mystery until this past September.
Underwater archaeologists dove to the shipwreck seven times over two days during the so-called 2014 Victoria Strait Expedition. They took photos and measurements of the wreck, and during the last dive, they recovered the bell. After reviewing the data they collected during that intensive investigation, Parks Canada officials felt confident in saying they had found the HMS Erebus.
The bell is clearly marked with the Royal Navy's broad arrow symbol, and the date 1845 is also embossed on its surface.
HMS Erebus
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