Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: We Don't Need No Education (New York Times)
In the remarks Mr. Romney later tried to deny, he derided President Obama: "He says we need more firemen, more policemen, more teachers." Then he declared, "It's time for us to cut back on government and help the American people."
Paul Krugman's 13 Best GOP Zingers (Politico)
"All he does is make scary noises about the deficit, with mood music, with organ music in the background about how ominous it is, and then propose a plan that would in fact increase the deficit." - May 3, 2012, speaking with TPM about Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI)
Tom Danehy: A view of NCAA baseball from the broiling bleachers (Tucson Weekly)
Some 2,513 insane people (and I) paid American money to sit in the midday sun in Tucson on a weekday in June to watch a baseball game.
Andrew Tobias: Republican Economics in a Nutshell
Are we really going to forsake the Clinton/Obama approach and try this stuff again? The Koch brothers are betting $400 million that we will. That Karl Rove, Rush Limbaugh, Rick Santorum, Donald Trump, and the rest - even that great economic thinker Herman Cain - will be able to persuade 50.01% of the electorate to go back to George W. Bush economics. But "on steroids," as former President Clinton has taken to describing the Romney/Ryan vision.
Katie Roiphe: The Subversive Graduation Speech (Slate)
Dear graduates: None of you is special.
Roger Ebert: Promethian panspermia
Intelligent Design is the disguise by which Creationists are attempting to infiltrate American schoolrooms and textbooks with their theology. I have no problem at all that they believe God created the heavens, earth and Man, and on the seventh day, he rested. They can even believe that this happened around 10,000 years ago, as about 46% of Americans do.
ESTHER INGLIS-ARKELL: What human traits were evolved only for sexual attractiveness? (io9)
Some traits get passed down because they help animals stay alive. Some traits get passed down because they enhance fertility. And some traits get passed down because they just make creatures more sexually attractive.
Jon Henley: How Barbara Arrowsmith-Young rebuilt her own brain (Guardian)
She realised that part of her brain was not functioning properly so she devised a series of cognitive exercises to develop it. The results changed her life - and now she has helped thousands of children with learning disabilities.
David Barnett: "Maurice Sendak's British editor: 'I have lost a very, very great friend'" (Guardian)
Judy Taylor Hough was instrumental in bringing Sendak's work to the UK. And it wasn't easy. On the day of his US memorial, she talks about their relationship.
Maureen Johnson: THE ADVENTURE OF THE RANDOM HOUSE
By popular demand* I bring you the Random House/FedEx story. This happened not *too* long ago. This is partially by memory, but I did write it down afterwards, because it was so great.
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."
wrote:
answered:
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Not a lot of sun, but still nice.
Two State Democrats Banned From Speaking
Michigan
Their job may be to give a voice to their constituents, but two Michigan state representatives had to do that job silently today after they were banned from speaking on the House floor.
Representatives Lisa Brown and Barb Byrum, both Democrats, were barred from participating in debates Thursday because they were "disrupting decorum" during debate on Wednesday over three bills that would put restrictions on abortions, said Ari Adler, spokesman for House Speaker Jase Bolger.
The cause of Brown's gag order was this statement, which she made during a floor speech opposing a bill that would prohibit abortions after 20 weeks: "I'm flattered that you're all so interested in my vagina, but no means no."
Byrum's speaking privileges were revoked after the state congresswoman shouted multiple times at the Legislature's chairman that she should be given a chance to speak on her amendment, a chance she was not given during debate Wednesday.
"This is yet another example of this Republican majority's misogynistic and cowardly tactics," Brown said in a statement. "Regardless of their reasoning, this is a violation of my First Amendment rights and directly impedes my ability to serve the people who elected me into office."
Michigan
Marking Gay Pride Month
Pentagon
Last summer, gays in the military dared not acknowledge their sexual orientation. This summer, the Pentagon will salute them, marking June as gay pride month just as it has marked other celebrations honoring racial or ethnic groups.
In the latest remarkable sign of change since the military repealed the "don't ask, don't tell" policy, the Defense Department will soon hold its first event to recognize gay and lesbian troops. It comes nine months after repeal of the policy that had prohibited gay troops from serving openly and forced more than 13,500 service members out of the armed forces.
Details are still being worked out, but officials say Defense Secretary Leon Panetta wants to honor the contributions of gay service members.
This month's event will follow a long tradition at the Pentagon of recognizing diversity in America's armed forces. Hallway displays and activities, for example, have marked Black History Month and Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month.
Pentagon
Knighthoods, CBE, OBE and MBE's
Birthday Honors List
Kate Winslet has been honored by Queen Elizabeth II for her titanic contribution to the arts.
The actress, who won a best actress Academy Award in 2009 for "The Reader" and made her breakthrough as the feisty Rose in 1997 blockbuster "Titanic," has been named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire, or CBE, in the queen's Birthday Honors List, published Saturday.
Actor and director Kenneth Branagh was made a knight and will be known as Sir Kenneth. A respected Shakespearean actor whose films as a director range from "Henry V" and "Hamlet" to the comic-book fantasy "Thor," Branagh said he felt "humble, elated, and incredibly lucky" to get the honor. It puts him in a pantheon of theatrical knights alongside the late Sir Laurence Olivier, whom Branagh played in "My Life With Marilyn."
The honors are bestowed by twice yearly by the queen - at New Year's and on her official birthday in June - but recipients are selected by civil servants from nominations made by the government and the public.
Songwriter and philanthropist Richard Stilgoe, who wrote lyrics for Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Cats," ''Starlight Express" and "The Phantom Of The Opera," was awarded a knighthood.
Birthday Honors List
Completed Tightrope Walk
Nik Wallenda
Nik Wallenda, a member of the famed "Flying Wallendas" family of aerialists, completed a historic tightrope crossing through the mist over Niagara Falls Gorge on Friday, stepping from a 2-inch wire onto safe ground in Canada to wild cheers from a crowd of thousands.
Wallenda made the walk from the U.S. side of the falls to the Canadian side, a journey of 1,800 feet over treacherous waters and rocks, in a little more than 25 minutes.
More than a century ago, an aerialist known as the Great Blondin walked a high wire strung farther down the gorge, but a trek over the brink of the falls had never before been attempted.
ABC, the television network that broadcast the event with a five-second delay, occasionally interviewed him along the walk, asking him about conditions and how he was coping.
Nik Wallenda
California Teacher of The Year Gets Layoff Notice
Michelle Apperson
This may not be the year after all for one California Teacher of the Year. Sixth-grade teacher Michelle Apperson received the Sacramento City Unified School District award, only weeks after getting a pink slip.
"It hurt to receive the slip," Apperson told ABC News, "but I'm grateful to see they do honor hardworking, dedicated professionals."
The Sutterville Elementary School teacher is one of the latest teachers on the verge of losing her job because of California budget cuts.
District spokesman explained to KXTV that the notifications were based on seniority not performance, and mandated by the state.
Michelle Apperson
Loses "Hangover" Lawsuit
Louis Vuitton
Louis Vuitton on Friday lost its lawsuit against the Warner Brothers studio for using a knock-off handbag in its popular 2011 comedy "
The case stemmed from a scene in which the character Alan Garner, played by Zach Galifianakis, is shown in an airport with a bag that looks a Louis Vuitton bag, but which the French company said is made by Diophy, which makes products with a design similar to Louis Vuitton's "toile" monogram.
Louis Vuitton, part of LVMG Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA, claimed it was harmed by the misrepresentation and the resulting confusion to customers.
It also said it was harmed in particular by a statement by Garner to a friend, "Careful ... that is a Louis Vuitton," that became "an oft-repeated and hallmark quote from the movie." The "Louis" is mispronounced as "Lewis."
U.S. District Judge Andrew Carter in Manhattan found that Warner Brothers, part of Time Warner Inc, should not be held liable. He said it was unlikely that many filmgoers would have noticed that the bag, which was on screen for less than 30 seconds, was a knock-off, or that they would have thought Louis Vuitton approved of Warner Brothers' use of the Diophy bag.
Louis Vuitton
Mystery Solved
"Forest Boy"
Berlin police say an English-speaking teenage boy who wandered into the city nine months ago saying his name was Ray and that he had been living in the forest for the last five years has been spinning a tale.
After publishing his picture earlier this week, police said Friday a former girlfriend identified him as a 20-year-old from the Netherlands who was reported missing last September.
When confronted with the details, police say the boy confirmed the story.
An official, speaking on condition of anonymity because she wasn't authorized to release personal details, said the boy's real name is "Robin" but wouldn't give his last name.
It wasn't immediately clear what will happen now, but police say they are checking into whether he could be charged with fraud.
"Forest Boy"
Can Cause Earthquakes
Fracking
Geologists and politicians have been arguing for several years about whether hydraulic fracturing of shale to release natural gas can cause earthquakes. Finally, a comprehensive study has settled the question: Yes, fracking can. However, the number of earthquakes linked to fracking operations is very small; many more temblors are linked to conventional oil and natural gas extraction.
Furthermore, the greatest risk of earthquakes due to fracking does not come from drilling into deep shale or cracking it with pressurized water and chemicals. Rather, it comes from pumping the wastewater from those operations back down into deep sandstone or other formations for permanent disposal, instead of storing it in tanks or open ponds at the surface. In January, wastewater injection was blamed for earthquakes that had just occurred in Youngstown, Ohio, on Christmas Eve and again on New Year's Eve, measuring 2.7 and 4.0 on the Richter scale, respectively. Wastewater injection is also commonly used during conventional oil and gas production.
The National Research Council report, "Induced Seismicity Potential in Energy Technologies," was released today. It documents earthquakes associated with a full range of underground energy technologies, but doesn't determine any kind of "rate" at which they might occur. It associates a number of earthquakes with conventional oil and gas wells, more so when those wells are somewhat drained and are injected with water or gas to force out the remaining, hard-to-get fuel. The report also links earthquakes to geothermal energy (tapping into hot underground reservoirs of steam or water) and so-called enhanced geothermal (forcing water into hot underground rock, to turn it to steam). Two related technologies were investigated as well: wastewater injection, as noted, and carbon sequestration and storage. Only one sequestration project exists worldwide thus far, so data for the technique are meager. The report includes a map showing the sites of induced quakes.
The report notes that enhanced geothermal might also create an imbalance. In recent years several worrisome earthquakes have been linked to geothermal operations, including a 3.4 magnitude temblor in Basel, Switzerland, and smaller quakes close to an operation known as The Geysers in Santa Rosa, Calif.
Fracking
Tourism Board Touts Sandusky
Ohio
An Ohio tourism board tweet meant to promote a Father's Day deal in the Lake Erie town of Sandusky instead directed followers to news about the sex abuse trial of former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky.
The tweet was sent out this week by the Lake Erie Shores & Islands tourism office. It included the hash tag "Sandusky".
Anyone who clicked on the "Sandusky" hash tag got the latest updates from the Pennsylvania trial, not the town known for its waterfront location and the Cedar Point amusement park.
Tourism office director Joan Van Offeren says they won't be using the Sandusky hash tag again until well after the trial ends.
Ohio
Estate For Sale
Merv Griffin
The California desert home of the late media mogul Merv Griffin has been put up for sale for $9.5 million.
The Desert Sun reported Friday the 39-acre property in La Quinta features a 5,000-square-foot home, an equestrian compound with a racetrack and a lagoon.
The Moroccan-style estate was put up for the sale this week and is the latest celebrity home in the Palm Springs area to hit the market.
Merv Griffin
Futurama-Inspired Vacuum Tube Travel
Vactrains
Ever since society embraced the airplane, the world has been on the look out for the next great form of transportation. Monorails proved a flop. High-speed rail is struggling to gain acceptance. But could a network of vacuum tubes not unlike those seen in the animated series Futurama really be the next big thing in global travel? To find out, a recent BBC column looked into "vactrain technology," finding a lot of promise and a lot of hurdles.
Dubbed "space travel on Earth," the new tech combines the idea of maglev - trains that are suspended by magnets - with vacuum tubes. By removing air resistance and friction from the equation, the new vactrains could reach speeds of up to 4,000 miles per hour. You could travel from New York to Los Angeles in only 45 minutes, or from New York to London in an hour. At those speeds, you would arrive at your destination at a time before you left.
Vactrains trade large, crowded vehicles for a more intimate, automobile-like setting. According to Daryl Oster, the owner of ET3, a company that licenses vactrain technology, a 51-inch diameter capsule that is 16 feet long could accommodate six people. Smaller and larger capsules would also be possible.
The unusual travel tech has proven successful in a laboratory setting, but has yet to make its way into the real world. The biggest barrier to the technology is, predictably, the cost. A 350mph local system would cost about $2 million per mile to install. Once built, however, the system would cost very little to operate - according to Oster, the cost of travel will be less than a penny per mile.
Vactrains
In Memory
Yvette Wilson
Yvette Wilson, a comic who was featured on the 1990s sitcom "Moesha" and its spinoff, "The Parkers," has died.
Her manager, Holly Carter, says Wilson died of cervical cancer on Thursday. Wilson was 48 and lived in Hollywood, where Carter said she had managed a music label and worked in real estate in recent years.
Wilson portrayed Andell Wilkerson, owner of the popular hangout The Den on "Moesha." The UPN sitcom starred the singer Brandy.
Wilson was a standup comic and was featured on "In Living Color." She also appeared in the movies "Poetic Justice" and "House Party 3."
Yvette Wilson
| CURRENT MOON lunar phases |
