Recommended Reading
from Bruce
LA Clippers v San Antonio Spurs | NBA Playoffs 2012 Highlights | CPUvCPU (YouTube)
The average Brit knows as much about the NBA as the average American knows about Arsenal and FIFA, which is why it's hilarious to hear one of the Queen's own announce a game between "the Clappers" (sic) and the Spurs.
Paul Krugman: Egos and Immorality (New York Times)
If Wall Streeters are spoiled brats, they are spoiled brats with immense power and wealth at their disposal. And what they're trying to do with that power and wealth right now is buy themselves not just policies that serve their interests, but immunity from criticism.
Froma Harrop: Bain and Our Screwed-Up Culture (Creators Syndicate)
I don't see how buying a company, piling on $420 million of extra debt, immediately pulling tens of millions out of the business to pay off investors - all the while slashing the workers' pay - and then leaving the wounded patient to die in liquidation nine years later can be deemed honorable. This is what Bain did to American Pad & Paper as it turned a $5 million investment into a $100 million take.
David Weigel: Save Us, Soros! (Slate)
Conservative mega-donors are purging the GOP. Why aren't liberal tycoons doing the same for Democrats?
Connie Schultz: Catholic Leaders Must Dial Down the Rhetoric (Creators Syndicate)
On Monday, Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio - where Rick Santorum gave his I-almost-won primary speech earlier this year - announced it was canceling all student health care insurance because the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act requires coverage for "women's health services."
The New (Ab)Normal
"Portion sizes have been growing. So have we. The average restaurant meal today is more than four times larger than in the 1950s. And adults are, on average, 26 pounds heavier. If we want to eat healthy, there are things we can do for ourselves and our community: Order the smaller meals on the menu, split a meal with a friend, or, eat half and take the rest home. We can also ask the managers at our favorite restaurants to offer smaller meals."
The 11 Worst Fast Food Restaurant Names (BuzzFeed)
This is what the Food Court in Hell must look like.
B.J. Epstein: "Harry Potter and the Ivory Tower: Children's Literature and Academia" (Huffington Post)
Many view children's literature as beneath them. But, wait, here's a sneaky little problem: what about all the 'grownups' who read and enjoy Rowling's work and other children's books? Shouldn't we explore why these works appeals to adults who are apparently supposed to know better?
Alison Baverstock on Best Practices for Self-Publishing (Smashwords Blog)
… to me the thing that matters is the quality of the content you are making available - it needs to be worth the reader's time. Ebooks offer the writer a linear process for making work available as readers can sample, buy and recommend within a very short space of time - and all in the same space. But this sheer speed means you need to take care that the work you decide to share is at its peak form, and is ready to represent the writer you want to be.
Richard Dawkins: Why I want all our children to read the King James Bible (Guardian)
The good book should be read as a great work of literature - but it is not a guide to morality, as the education secretary Michael Gove would have us believe.
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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Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Bosko Suggests
Confluences
Have a great day,
Bosko.
Thanks, Bosko!
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
BadtotheboneBob
Earliest music instruments
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Not a lot of sun, and on the cool side.
50th Anniversary
Centralia, PA
Fifty years ago on Sunday, a fire at the town dump ignited an exposed coal seam, setting off a chain of events that eventually led to the demolition of nearly every building in Centralia - a whole community of 1,400 simply gone.
All these decades later, the Centralia fire still burns. It also maintains its grip on the popular imagination, drawing visitors from around the world who come to gawk at twisted, buckled Route 61, at the sulfurous steam rising intermittently from ground that's warm to the touch, at the empty, lonely streets where nature has reclaimed what coal-industry money once built.
It's a macabre story that has long provided fodder for books, movies and plays - the latest one debuting in March at a theater in New York.
Yet to the handful of residents who still occupy Centralia, who keep their houses tidy and their lawns mowed, this borough in the mountains of northeastern Pennsylvania is no sideshow attraction. It's home, and they'd like to keep it that way.
Centralia was already a coal-mining town in decline when the fire department set the town's landfill ablaze on May 27, 1962, in an ill-fated attempt to tidy up for Memorial Day. The fire wound up igniting the coal outcropping and, over the years, spread to the vast network of mines beneath homes and businesses, threatening residents with poisonous gases and dangerous sinkholes.
Centralia, PA
Apologize For Nazi-Era Crimes
German Doctors
Germany's medical association has adopted a declaration apologizing for sadistic experiments and other actions of doctors under the Nazis.
In the statement adopted earlier this week in Nuremberg, the association said many doctors under the Nazis were "guilty, contrary to their mission to heal, of scores of human rights violations and we ask the forgiveness of their victims, living and deceased, and of their descendants."
In addition to performing pseudo-scientific experiments on concentration camp inmates, German doctors also were key to the Nazi's program of forced sterilization or euthanasia of the mentally ill or others deemed "unworthy of life."
The medical association says "these crimes were not the actions of individual doctors but involved leading members of the medical community" and should be taken as a warning for the future.
German Doctors
DNA Study Seeks Origin
Appalachia's Melungeons
For years, varied and sometimes wild claims have been made about the origins of a group of dark-skinned Appalachian residents once known derisively as the Melungeons. Some speculated they were descended from Portuguese explorers, or perhaps from Turkish slaves or Gypsies.
Now a new DNA study in the Journal of Genetic Genealogy attempts to separate truth from oral tradition and wishful thinking. The study found the truth to be somewhat less exotic: Genetic evidence shows that the families historically called Melungeons are the offspring of sub-Saharan African men and white women of northern or central European origin.
And that report, which was published in April in the peer-reviewed journal, doesn't sit comfortably with some people who claim Melungeon ancestry.
Beginning in the early 1800s, or possibly before, the term Melungeon (meh-LUN'-jun) was applied as a slur to a group of about 40 families along the Tennessee-Virginia border. But it has since become a catch-all phrase for a number of groups of mysterious mixed-race ancestry.
Appalachia's Melungeons
Lower Payouts For Runners-Up
"American Idol"
Coming in second on "American Idol" may still be a path to superstardom, but it no longer offers guaranteed paychecks worthy of the next pop idol or rock star.
Wednesday night's runner-up, 16-year-old Jessica Sanchez, doesn't have a definite shot at producing an album and could be paid as little as $30,000 in advances for recording singles, according to the "Idol" contract she and other Season 11 contestants signed earlier this year.
The agreement appears to be the first time in "Idol's" history that producers are not offering the show's runner-up an album deal that in previous years came with a guaranteed advance of at least $175,000, an Associated Press review of the Fox show's contracts reveals.
The analysis covers eight of "Idol's" 11 seasons during which contracts filed for contestants under the age of 18 were available. The contracts were reviewed by judges in accordance with a California law that requires at least 15 percent of a minor entertainer's earnings be set aside for their benefit once they reach adulthood.
The reduced royalty advance covers the period immediately following the show. In addition to recording new music, the series' winners and finalists are obligated to perform in a concert tour and lend their likeness to a Walt Disney World Resort attraction in Florida.
"American Idol"
Butler Did It
Vatican Leaks
Vatican police arrested Friday a man -- reportedly the pope's butler -- on allegations of having leaked confidential documents and letters from the pontiff's private study to newspapers.
The man was caught in possession of secret documents, the Vatican said, but it would not confirm the suspect's identity, age, or when he had been arrested.
But informed sources said the man was Paolo Gabriele, 46, who had been working as a butler in the papal apartments since 2006. One source said the pope was "saddened and shocked" by this "painful case."
Il Foglio newspaper and ANSA news agency named the detained man as Gabriele, a member of the small team which works daily in Pope Benedict XVI's apartments.
The Italian daily said he is likely to be used by the Vatican as "a handy scapegoat" for several others suspected of being involved in leaking documents, some of which ended up in a new book on the tiny state published a week ago.
Vatican Leaks
Suspected DUI
Jenna Jameson
Former adult film star Jenna Jameson has been arrested in Southern California for investigation of driving under the influence after she struck a light pole with her vehicle.
Police say Jameson had driven her vehicle into a light pole early Friday in Westminster. She suffered minor injuries but refused medical treatment.
A police statement says a field sobriety test was conduct and there were signs of intoxication. Jameson was booked and later cited and released.
Jameson crossed into the mainstream after publishing a popular autobiography in 2004. She has twin sons with mixed martial arts star Tito Ortiz, who two years ago claimed Jameson was addicted to the painkiller Oxycontin.
Jenna Jameson
License Suspended When Carjacked
Marvin Winans
Records show Detroit pastor and gospel singing icon Marvin Winans' driver's license was suspended and there was a warrant out for his arrest when he was carjacked last week.
The Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press report that the state suspended Winans' license May 9 after he failed to pay two December traffic tickets. The News says records show the arrest warrant was issued March 15 for his failure to appear at court for driving on a suspended license.
Winans said in a statement Thursday that notices weren't received because he had changed addresses, and staffers were working to resolve the issues before the carjacking.
Winans, who delivered singer Whitney Houston's eulogy in February, was attacked May 16 while pumping gas in Detroit. Three young men have been charged.
Marvin Winans
Temporary Restraining Order Granted
Jeff Goldblum
A judge on Friday granted Jeff Goldblum a temporary restraining order against a woman who has been repeatedly ordered to stay away from the actor in recent years.
Goldblum's attorneys obtained the order against Linda Ransom, 49, after she repeatedly went to the actor's home three times this month. A previous stay-away order against Ransom from 2007 has expired and police claim she has told them that she will not stop trying to meet Goldblum unless a restraining order is in place.
The filings state Ransom has been arrested three times for violating previous restraining orders. Goldblum first alerted authorities to her in 2001 after she attended one of his acting classes and then started waiting outside his home.
A judge will consider whether to grant Goldblum, who has starred in films as "The Fly," ''Jurassic Park" and "Independence Day," a three-year restraining order during a hearing on June 12.
Jeff Goldblum
LAPD Seeks Manson Family Recordings
Charles "Tex" Watson
Police want to review audio recordings of conversations between a Manson family member and his attorney as detectives search for information about unsolved killings.
Los Angeles detectives seeking the material are merely practicing due diligence after receiving a tip that the recordings and other items in the estate of now-deceased lawyer Bill Boyd, who once represented Charles "Tex" Watson, were becoming available, LAPD spokesman Andrew Smith said.
The audio recordings were previously made available by Watson to the co-author of his book, "Will You Die for Me? The Man Who Killed for Charles Manson Tells His Own Story." The book contains no information on unsolved murders.
Boyd, a lawyer hired to represent Watson by his parents, conducted a long fight to prevent his extradition to California from Texas, where Watson went after the murders.
Police requested about eight hours of recordings of Boyd and Watson that were made when Watson returned to Texas after the killings, according to KNBC-TV. The request was made in a letter dated March 19 and was included in a U.S. bankruptcy filing involving Boyd's law firm in Texas, the station said.
Charles "Tex" Watson
In Memory
Robert Finkel
Emmy Award-winning TV director and producer Robert Finkel has died. He was 94.
Publicist Dale Olson said Friday that Finkel died April 30 of age-related complications at his home in Beverly Hills, Calif.
In his long career, Finkel produced TV series with Andy Williams, Jerry Lewis, Phyllis Diller and other stars. Finkel won a Peabody Award for a show with Julie Andrews and directed sitcoms including "Barney Miller" and "The Bob Newhart Show."
Finkel also produced specials with Bing Crosby, Elvis Presley and John Denver, among others.
A Pittsburgh, Pa., native, Finkel is survived by family members including his daughter, Terry.
Robert Finkel
In Memory
Al Gordon
An Emmy Award-winning comedy writer who spent much of his career working for legendary comic Jack Benny has died in Los Angeles. Al Gordon was 89.
His son, Neil, tells Los Angeles Times that Gordon died Wednesday of age-related causes at a Los Angeles hospital.
Gordon began his comedy-writing career after World War II and teamed with Hal Goldman. They shared two Emmys with fellow Benny writers and a third with Sheldon Keller for a Carol Channing special.
Gordon also wrote for the TV shows of the Smothers Brothers, Flip Wilson, Carol Burnett, Tony Orlando and Barbara Mandrell. His sitcom work included "That's My Mama," ''Carter Country," ''Hello, Larry," ''Three's Company" and "227."
Al Gordon
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