Recommended Reading
from Bruce
My Good Deed of the Day (Cartoon)
Thank You Hater! - by Clever Pie and Isabel Fay (YouTube)
Sample satiric lyrics:
They call you hater well they're just jealous
Your constructive pearls of wisdom give me thrills I can't deny
How will we know if you don't tell us
We could improve our Youtube channels by "f**king off and dying"?
Angie and Chad: E.T. Phone Home! (YouTube)
On June 11, 1982, the Steven Spielberg movie 'E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial' opened nationwide. For its 30th anniversary, Angie and Chad visited the locations where E.T. was filmed to see what they look like today and to record this song, to the tune of the Maroon 5 song "Payphone."
Human Rights Record of United States in 2011 (China Daily)
Editor's note: The State Council Information Office of the People's Republic of China published a report titled "The Human Rights Record of the United States in 2011" on Friday. Following is the full text: …
Suzanne Moore: Instead of being disgusted by poverty, we are disgusted by poor people themselves (Guardian)
Empathy has crashed. No more cruel to be kind. We must simply be cruel.
Froma Harrop: A Modern Economy Has Universal Health Care (Creators Syndicate)
For now, let's drop the talk about wanting a liberal America or a conservative America. What we truly need is a modern America. No country can be modern spending twice what its rich competitors do on health care while leaving millions without any coverage.
William Saletin: Back in the Gay (Slate)
Does a new study indict gay parenthood or make a case for gay marriage?
Alice Hines: J.C. Penney's 'Frumpy' Customers Demand Stores Remain Frumpy (Huffington Post)
Donna Jones, 46, of Mikado, Mich., calls herself "frumpy and proud." Until a few months ago, the technical writer and mother of three found clothes she liked at J.C. Penney stores. But since new CEO Ron Johnson took over the company in November and began dolling it up, Jones has avoided her local store at the Alpena, Mich., mall.
Michael Casey: "One Man's Escape From Debt-Collection Hell (Excerpt)" (Huffington Post)
"I'm not a religious person," he said, "but it is as if Satan said, 'I want to be on earth,' and God asked him, 'What are you going to be?' And he said, 'I'm going to be a bank.' "
Jacques Peretti: Why our food is making us fat (Guardian)
We are, on average, 3st heavier than we were in the 60s. And not because we're eating more or exercising less - we just unwittingly became sugar addicts.
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
Sunny & 70°.
HBO Apologizes
"Game of Thrones"
HBO and producers of "Game of Thrones" apologized Thursday for a scene that depicted former resident George W. Bush's severed head on a spike.
The scene first aired last year and was repeated on a DVD release in March. But in a particularly bad piece of timing for HBO, stories about it spread online this week, when the network premiered a documentary on Bush's father, former President George H.W. Bush.
Bush's head was one of several on spikes in a scene where King Joffrey reveals to his fiancée the severed head of her father, who he had judged disloyal.
The former president's features on the prosthetic head were partially obscured by long, scraggly hair and the picture flashes by quickly. But in a commentary included with the DVD, producers Dan Weiss and David Benioff pointed out the Bush head.
The producers said they often order prosthetic body parts in bulk for "Game of Thrones" because it can be too expensive to make new ones. It wasn't until the scene was shot that someone pointed out the resemblance to Bush, they said.
"Game of Thrones"
Final Turn As Playboy Jazz Fest MC
Bill Cosby
Bill Cosby is retiring as master of ceremonies of the annual Playboy Jazz Festival after more than 30 years.
This weekend's festival at the Hollywood Bowl will be his last turn at the show's helm.
Cosby has been a fixture at the gathering of jazz luminaries since the first Los Angeles festival was held in 1979.
Hugh Hefner says in a statement that Cosby's comedic talent and passion for jazz have made an immeasurable contribution to the success of the festival.
Bill Cosby
To Meet British DJ
Aung San Suu Kyi
Aung San Suu Kyi will find time in her tour of Europe to meet a British radio DJ nicknamed "The Hairy Cornflake" whose shows kept her spirits up while under house arrest, he said Thursday.
During her visit to Britain next week she will still find time to meet Dave Lee Travis, a radio disc jockey who rose to fame in the 1970s, he told The Times.
Suu Kyi said last year that a BBC World Service music show presented by Travis had made her "world complete" when she was under house arrest in Myanmar for most of the last 22 years.
The heavily bearded broadcaster, who became known to listeners as "The Hairy Cornflake" because he used to present a breakfast show on BBC Radio One, told the paper he was "really desperate to meet her".
Aung San Suu Kyi
New Monopoly
"The Godfather"
USAopoly, in collaboration with Paramount and Hasbro, has introduced a Monopoly gamed based on "The Godfather," replacing Uncle Pennybags with Vito and Michael Corleone.
The original Monopoly game is all about aggregating wealth and property, and then taking more from your rivals. So it's the Mafia, without the murder or the pasta.
Some of the new properties include Moe Green's Casino, Hyman Roth's home and the Corleone Long Island Home - all recognizable haunts to diehard fans of Francis Ford Coppola's films (or Mario Puzo's novel).
The new game figurines include a dead fish, a bottle of Genco olive oil and a horse's head.
"The Godfather"
Jury Rejects Baldwin
Costner
A federal jury has rejected claims that Kevin Costner and his business partner duped fellow actor Stephen Baldwin and a friend out of millions of dollars from a BP contract for using oil cleanup devices in the aftermath of the 2010 Gulf of Mexico spill.
The panel deliberated for less than two hours Thursday before delivering the verdict against a lawsuit brought by Baldwin and his friend, Spyridon Contogouris Their lawyer had asked the eight-member jury to award the plaintiffs more than $17 million in damages. The jury gave them nothing.
Contogouris and Baldwin sold their shares in Ocean Therapy Solutions for $1.4 million and $500,000, respectively. Baldwin testified he would have held out for much more if he had known BP had committed to ordering 32 centrifuges.
Costner
Accused Of Hacking Fox, PBS
Ryan Cleary
A 20-year-old Briton suspected of links to the hacking group Lulz Security is accused of cracking into websites for a Fox reality TV show, a venerable news show and other sites to deface them or steal personal information, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.
A federal grand jury indicted Ryan Cleary on conspiracy and hacking charges for allegedly hacking sites for the talent competition "The X-Factor," the site for "PBS NewsHour," Sony Pictures and others.
The indictment filed Tuesday alleges Cleary and his co-conspirators would identify security vulnerabilities in companies' computer systems and use them to gain unauthorized access and, often, cause mayhem.
In a separate and similar case filed against Cleary in the United Kingdom in 2011, he faces allegations that he and others hacked a law enforcement agency, the Serious Organized Crime Agency, and various British music sites - all while he was still a teenager.
Cleary was taken into custody in March and remains in custody in the United Kingdom, said Laura Eimiller, FBI spokeswoman.
Ryan Cleary
More Allegations of Pageant Rigging
Miss USA
Miss USA 2012 Oliva Culpo may be carrying a cool demeanor beneath her pageant crown but the allegations over whether she won the title fair and square are as heated as ever.
Less than two weeks after one of the 50 women who lost to Culpo, Miss Pennsylvania Sheena Monnin, resigned her title and charged that the pageant was a "fraud," a second contestant has come forward to back Monnin's claims that the pageant's finalists were selected in advance.
The contestant, who is remaining anonymous, told FOXNews.com that she too heard Miss Florida Karina Brez reveal the list of finalists backstage before the top 15 finalists were announced on stage, the same allegation made by Monnin in a Facebook post the day after the June 3 pageant.
"I saw Florida backstage and she was very, very flustered and upset…at that point she was able to reveal to me at least four of the five names who went on to be the top girls," the contestant told the website in an exclusive interview. "She couldn't remember the fifth because she was so upset. Several of the girls then started hearing through the grapevine about a list; a lot of people were upset."
Miss USA
NYC Police Investigate Brawl
Brown-Drake
New York City police investigated a report Thursday of a bar brawl involving hip-hop stars Drake and Chris Brown and their entourages in which bottles flew and five people were injured.
Brown tweeted a photo of himself with a cut chin, then later removed it, as well as other messages about the fight, including epithets and taunts. A representative later released a statement saying Brown, his girlfriend and friends were the victims of a "brutal attack."
At least five people were injured during the fight at the club W.i.P. (Work in Progress) in Manhattan's SoHo neighborhood early Thursday, police said. A 25-year-old man suffered a serious cut to the head, two other men and two women suffered minor cuts. At least three were hospitalized.
Police were looking at surveillance footage and talking to patrons who witnessed the melee. No arrests have been made and no complaints filed.
Neither star was on scene when police arrived around 4 a.m. Thursday. It's not clear what prompted the fight. Both Brown and Drake at one time dated singer Rihanna.
Brown-Drake
TV Series Condemned
"American Colony"
A TV documentary series about an Anabaptist community in Montana offers a "distorted" and contrived image, bishops representing the Hutterite faith in the U.S. and Canada said Thursday.
John Stahl, Peter Entz and John Waldner, bishops for the three sects encompassing the roughly 50,000 Hutterites and 500 colonies in North America, said in a joint statement they are "deeply disappointed" in National Geographic Channel's "American Colony: Meet the Hutterites."
The 10-part series that began airing last month promised a rare inside look at Hutterite colony life, focusing on the King Ranch Colony.
"What was promised by the producers to be a 'factual documentary' is, in fact, a distorted and exploitative version of Hutterite life," the bishops said, one that paints all Hutterites in a "negative and inaccurate way."
"American Colony" depicts members of the 59-member King Ranch commune, located more than 100 miles from Billings, Mont., as drinking alcoholic beverages and cursing. Some parents are shown questioning their faith's tenets, while a restless teenager flouts rules on dress and dating.
"American Colony"
Toughens Penalties
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan toughened penalties for desecrating its state symbols on Thursday in a bid "to bring up patriotic feelings" after repeated cases of spoofs being played at ceremonies in place of the central Asian nation's anthem.
In March, the Kazakh shooting team demanded an apology after a phoney national anthem from the comedy film "Borat" -- a scathing parody of Kazakhstan -- was played instead of the real one at a medal award ceremony in Kuwait. The ceremony was later rerun.
Shortly before that, Ricky Martin's racy hit "Livin' La Vida Loca" was performed instead of the national anthem to a confused audience that included the local governor before the start of a skiing competition in a northern Kazakh region.
The Senate voted overwhelmingly to double penalties for desecrating state symbols, which also include the national flag and emblem, to a maximum of 1.236 million tenge ($8,300).
A separate bill passed by the Senate obliged Kazakh athletes to know the lyrics and music of Kazakhstan's anthem, a law that would apply to Kazakh athletes competing in the London Olympics.
Kazakhstan
Plan PR Campaign
U.S. bishops
U.S. Catholic bishops announced plans on Thursday for an ambitious public relations drive to soften and shape their image and reach out to the younger generation using social media.
The recent Vatican crackdown on the largest organization of U.S. nuns turned into a public relations "debacle" for the bishops, said Cardinal Sean O'Malley of Boston.
He complained that the Vatican's decision to put bishops in charge of rooting out "radical feminist" elements within the nuns' group was linked in the secular media to unrelated events, such as the bishops' investigation of the Girl Scouts, with negative consequences for the church's image.
The bishops are looking into concerns that the Girl Scouts sometimes work with groups that promote access to contraception. The U.S. church's image also has been hurt sex abuse scandals.
U.S. bishops
Firms Keep Quiet
Cyber Attacks
Scores of U.S. companies have not disclosed breaches of their computer systems, even though eight months have passed since U.S. securities regulators issued guidelines on disclosing cyber attacks, according to leading security experts.
Calling for more rigorous rules and enforcement, these experts told the Reuters Global Media and Technology Summit in New York they know of many cyber intrusions, thefts and other digital security issues that were kept quiet.
"There have been lots of breaches in every industry that have never been publicized," said Shawn Henry, the FBI's former top cyber cop, who joined a new cyber security company, CrowdStrike, in April.
Henry said the FBI was working on 2,000 active cyber cases when he retired from the agency in March. "There's only a handful of cases that anybody has ever heard about," he said.
The U.S. Office of Management and Budget said in March that a total of 107,655 security incidents were reported in fiscal 2011 by federal, state and local governments, commercial enterprises, U.S. citizens and international cyber organizations. Federal agencies are required to report such incidents, but corporate reports are voluntary.
Cyber Attacks
Top 20
Concert Tours
The Top 20 Concert Tours ranks artists by average box office gross per city and includes the average ticket price for shows in North America. The previous week's ranking is in parentheses. The list is based on data provided to the trade publication Pollstar by concert promoters and venue managers.
1. (New) Roger Waters; $2,509,731; $105.62.
2. (1) Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band; $1,996,815; $91.18.
3. (2) Cirque du Soleil - "Michael Jackson: The Immortal"; $1,486,039; $111.22.
4. (4) Red Hot Chili Peppers; $778,385; $58.10.
5. (6) Lady Antebellum; $579,776; $52.28.
6. (7) The Black Keys; $527,948; $47.26.
7. (8) Miranda Lambert; $421,429; $42.14.
8. (New) Il Divo; $383,734; $94.58.
9. (10) Jeff Dunham; $304,097; $46.46.
10. (11) Eric Church; $282,121; $36.01.
11. (12) Kelly Clarkson; $210,376; $55.51.
12. (14) Rain - A Tribute To The Beatles; $179,646; $50.61.
13. (13) "Riverdance"; $172,503; $59.86.
14. (18) "Mythbusters"; $159,242; $51.54.
15. (17) Bassnectar; $157,428; $35.30.
16. (19) Rise Against; $155,652; $36.11.
17. (16) Yanni; $149,211; $59.68.
18. (20) Casting Crowns; $147,140; $29.12.
19. (21) The Moody Blues; $131,997; $61.43.
20. (New) Death Cab For Cutie; $128,745; $44.29.
Concert Tours
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