Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Mark Morford: Diets for the Lost and Mortified (SF Gate)
Oh, how weak we have become. How whiny and wretched, tormented and convinced -- convinced! -- we simply cannot do even the most mildly difficult thing all by ourselves, lest we break, wail and beg for medication.
Naomi Wolf: How the US uses sexual humiliation as a political tool to control the masses (Guardian)
Believe me: you don't want the state having the power to strip your clothes off. History shows that the use of forced nudity by a state that is descending into fascism is powerfully effective in controlling and subduing populations.
Susan Estrich: The Buffet [Romney?] Rule (Creators Syndicate)
If you haven't heard of the Buffett Rule, you will. It's already emerging as one of the key themes of the presidential race, and if it isn't already known as the Romney Rule, it will be soon.
Will Oremus: Hell Phone (Slate)
Is there any way to stop the scourge of text message spam?
Lauren Davis: How would robotic prostitutes change the sex tourism industry? (io9)
Machines have already changed the face of manufacturing industries, but what happens when prostitutes find themselves replaced by robots?
Charlie Brooker: Some people are gay in space. Get over it (Guardian)
Video game players can now identify their characters as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. Which is wonderful, unless you're a sad homophobe.
The records shops that shaped our lives (Guardian)
They were tiny, tatty - and terrific. For Record Store Day on Saturday, our pop writers remember the shops where they first fell in love with music.
Decca Aitkenhead: "Irvine Welsh: 'I'm the same kind of writer as I am a drinker. I'm a binger'" (Guardian)
The 'Trainspotting' author has returned to Renton, Sick Boy and Begbie with Skagboys, a prequel to his best-selling debut novel. He explains why he continues to explore those 'dark places.'
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."
And, see the hole in this record, you put the who-ha that Marty showed a few days ago in it to play on a regular turns-table. "What's a turns-table," you ask? If you don't know, you are too young for this quiz! :)
wrote:
took the day off.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
BadtotheboneBob
Save the River Porpoises!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and seasonal.
Bare-Bones Reopening
Oaksterdam University
A California school known as the "Princeton of Pot" has reopened after a federal raid, but with a bare-bones staff of volunteers to teach the art of cannabis cultivation, after the crackdown crimped its funding and forced it to lay off 25 paid employees.
The raid earlier this month on Oaksterdam University, which offers courses on the growing and dispensing of marijuana, turned the Oakland-based school into the latest flashpoint between federal law enforcement and medical cannabis advocates in states where pot has been decriminalized for medicinal purposes.
School assets were seized in the raid, making it impossible to pay teachers or the landlord for now, according to the school's founder, Richard Lee, a prominent marijuana advocate who gave more than $1.3 million to fund a failed 2010 California ballot initiative seeking to legalize pot for recreational use.
As a result, 25 employees have been let go, along with 20 other employees at businesses that had been related to the school. The school will operate without actual marijuana plants in the building, executive chancellor Dale Sky Jones said.
"They have not knocked us out, just down," she said. "The only way we can survive is to dissociate ourselves from the plant and become a First Amendment (freedom of speech) organization."
In a sign of some of the local support 5-year-old Oaksterdam enjoys, representatives of San Francisco Bay-area elected officials and union leaders for medical cannabis workers attended a news conference at the school on Wednesday.
Oaksterdam University
Current TV's Latest
Gavin Newsom
California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom is getting a new platform for sharing his made-in-San Francisco values - a national cable television talk show.
Current TV, the liberal-leaning cable channel co-founded by former Vice President Al Gore, announced Wednesday that it had retained the telegenic Democrat to host a weekly hour-long program during which he will chat up "notables from Silicon Valley, Hollywood and beyond."
"The Gavin Newsom Show" is scheduled to premiere in May during an as-yet undetermined time slot, Current spokeswoman Laura Nelson said.
Newsom, who knows both Gore and Current CEO Joel Hyatt, approached the network with the idea for the program, the lieutenant governor's spokesman, Francisco Castillo, said. He cleared it with his lawyers to make sure it would not pose a conflict with his elected office, Castillo said.
Gavin Newsom
Beats Jay-Z On Forbes List
Sean "Diddy" Combs
Rapper Sean "Diddy" Combs topped a list of hip hop's wealthiest artists compiled by Forbes on Wednesday, beating out contemporaries Jay-Z, Dr. Dre, Birdman and 50 Cent.
Combs' net worth was estimated at $550 million, including high returns from his investment in Ciroc vodka as well as clothing lines Sean John and Enyce, record label Bad Boy, marketing company Blue Flame and numerous tech start-ups.
The "I'll Be Missing You" rapper, 42, beat out hip hop mogul Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter, who came in at No. 2 with a net worth of $460 million.
Pioneering rapper Dr. Dre, 47, who has worked with top artists including Eminem and 50 Cent, took the No. 3 position, with a net worth of $260 million, a bulk of which comes from his headphone company, Beats Electronics, which he co-owns with Interscope Records founder Jimmy Iovine.
Sean "Diddy" Combs
Ticket Dodging, Geek-Style
Physics
A University of California San Diego scientist was able to use his math and physics knowledge to argue his way out of a $400 traffic ticket.
In a paper titled "The Proof of Innocence," senior research scientist Dmitri Krioukov successfully appealed his failure-to-stop ticket by explaining that he may have appeared to an officer that he didn't stop when he actually did, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The calculations were very simple and took five to ten minutes, and writing the four-page paper took a few hours, Krioukov said.
According to Krioukov's calculations, a car moving at a constant speed can appear to move in the same way as a car that is moving quickly and briefly stops before accelerating again.
Physics
Pulling A Fast One On Foreign Ownership
Rupert
News Corp., the owner of the Fox television network, said Wednesday that it suspended the voting rights of some stock owned by foreigners to comply with a U.S. law that restricts the foreign ownership of broadcast licenses.
The company said it discovered a potential violation as it was preparing to renew licenses for its 27 owned-and-operated TV stations.
The suspension affects half the voting rights of non-U.S. owners of News Corp.'s Class B shares, the class of stock with voting rights. The more widely traded Class A shares carry no votes in important decisions such as board member elections.
Under U.S. law, non-U.S. stockholders cannot own or control more than 25 percent of companies that have broadcast station licenses. News Corp. said it reviewed its foreign ownership before it applied to renew licenses and found that 36 percent of its Class B voting shares were held by non-U.S. stockholders.
The suspension would be felt greatest by a key Murdoch backer, Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, who holds 7 percent of Class B shares.
Rupert
The War On Women
Megan Carpentier
Plenty of pundits on both sides of the ideological aisle have weighed in on the country's ongoing abortion debate and the transvaginal ultrasound mandates passed by several states-what some people argue is part of the GOP's so-called "war on women." But few have actually gone through the procedure-which is why Megan Carpentier, executive editor of the progressive news site Raw Story, decided to have a "completely unnecessary transvaginal ultrasound" and document the experience for readers.
"It was vigorously uncomfortable," Carpentier wrote , partly "because the technician has to press the wand directly against the areas she wants to get an image of-your uterus, Fallopian tubes and ovaries-so there's more movement and more direct contact with pressure-sensitive areas of your body."
Carpentier even shot a video of the procedure and uploaded it to YouTube.
She concluded: "It's not a choice to be made at a distance by elected officials with an ideological axe to grind, little medical knowledge and a belief that it's acceptable to require doctors to put unnecessary instruments inside women's bodies in an effort to achieve in practice what they can't constitutionally pass into law: an end to abortion."
Megan Carpentier
Whiter Shade Of Pale
"The Bachelor"
Two black men are taking "The Bachelor" and "The Bachelorette" to court with a lawsuit that claims the reality shows are blocking contestants of color from starring roles.
Nathaniel Claybrooks and Christopher Johnson filed a federal lawsuit in Nashville Wednesday. It says the popular TV shows are engaged in a pattern of racial discrimination that intentionally excludes people of color.
The two men say that after 10 years and a combined total of 23 seasons of "The Bachelor and The Bachelorette," neither of the shows has featured a single person of color in a central role.
"The Bachelor"
Author Faces Civil Suit
'Three Cups of Tea'
After making a $1 million deal to settle allegations that he misused his charity's money and resources, author Greg Mortenson now must face accusations that he fabricated parts of his best-selling books "Three Cups of Tea" and "Stones Into Schools."
A hearing is set for Wednesday in federal court in Great Falls on claims that Mortenson lied about how he came to build schools in Central Asia after losing his way in a failed mountaineering expedition and being nursed back to health in a Pakistani village.
The lawsuit - filed by two California residents, a Montana man and an Illinois woman who bought the books - list more than two dozen alleged fabrications and accusations of wrongdoing by Mortenson, publisher Penguin Group, co-author David Oliver Relin and the Central Asia Institute.
In "Three Cups of Tea," Mortenson tells how he resolved to build schools in Central Asia after wandering into a poor Pakistani village, then follows him as he expands his school-building efforts. The 2006 book was conceived as a way to raise money and tell the story of his institute, founded by Mortenson in 1996. The book and tireless promotion of the charity by Mortenson, who appeared at more than 500 speaking engagements in four years, resulted in tens of millions of dollars in donations.
The plaintiffs say Mortenson and the others purposely presented the lies as the truth to trick readers into buying the books and donating to the charity. They accuse Mortenson and the others of racketeering, fraud, deceit, breach of contract and unjust enrichment. A First Amendment expert calls the lawsuit absurd, regardless of whether the books contain fabrications.
'Three Cups of Tea'
Thanks Ex-Manager
Leonard Cohen
Leonard Cohen read an impassioned and sometimes funny statement in court Tuesday, during the sentencing of his former manager and onetime lover, Kelley Lynch.
Lynch was found guilty last week of breaching restraining orders and making scores of harassing emails and phone calls to the "I'm Your Man" singer.
She was sentenced to 18 months in prison, including alcohol and anger management programs and mental evaluations, with reports every three months on her progress.
In his statement, Cohen thanked his tormentor... for exposing her thievery through the trial.
"I want to thank the Defendant Ms. Kelley Lynch for insisting on a Jury Trial, thus exposing to the light of day her massive depletion of my retirement savings and yearly earnings, and allowing the Court to observe her profoundly unwholesome, obscene and relentless strategies to escape the consequences of her wrongdoing," the statement reads.
Leonard Cohen
Judge Won't Dismiss Suit
'Desperate Housewives'
A judge has refused to dismiss Nicollette Sheridan's lawsuit over the demise of her role on "Desperate Housewives."
City News Service says Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Elizabeth Allen White urged the parties Wednesday to continue settlement talks but set a new trial for Sept. 10.
A jury deadlocked 8-4 in favor of Sheridan's claim after a trial last month.
Sheridan sued ABC/Disney and series creator Marc Cherry for $6 Million for wrongful termination after her character, Edie Britt, was killed off in a 2008 episode. She seeks punitive damages.
'Desperate Housewives'
Rejects Bid To Restart Marin Project
Lucasfilm
A company owned by George Lucas on Wednesday rejected a move by Marin County officials to persuade the filmmaker to resurrect a plan to build a massive film studio north of San Francisco.
The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday passed a resolution commending the "Star Wars" creator and calling on him to move forward with the controversial Grady Ranch project.
Nearly 30 speakers praised the studio project and contributions by Lucas to the community at the meeting, the Marin Independent Journal reported.
Lucasfilm spokeswoman Lynne Hale told The Associated Press on Wednesday that it was too late for the company to reconsider.
The company said it hopes to sell the Lucas Valley property to a developer interested in building low-income housing. Officials said the company is in talks with two cities offering substantial incentives to build the studio.
Lucasfilm
Rant Released
Mel "Sugar Tits" Gibson
Mel Gibson shouted terrifying epithets at his houseguests during a rampage at his home in Costa Rica in December, according to a recording obtained by TheWrap.
Houseguest and screenwriter Joe Eszterhas provided the recording, and told TheWrap on Wednesday that he released the recording because "Gibson called me a liar. And I also have some reason to believe he's creating a PR blitz questioning my truthfulness."
During the rampage, Gibson shouts at Eszterhas for not having delivered a script of "The Maccabees," their joint movie project.
But mostly the recording captures an unhinged, angry Gibson storming around his Costa Rica property, knocking over a totem pole. According to Eszterhas and his family, Gibson also threw a cellphone.
Mel "Sugar Tits" Gibson
Museum Burns Art In Protest
Italy
The director of a contemporary art museum in Italy is burning paintings to protest a shortage of funds.
Antonio Manfredi set aflame Wednesday night a painting by Neapolitan artist Rosaria Matarese outside the Casoria Contemporary Art Museum, which is housed in the basement of a public school in the hinterland of Naples.
A day earlier he burned a painting by a French artist. Both artists had given their consent.
Italy's museums have been strapped for funds for decades, but art world officials say the economic crisis has aggravated the plight. Officials of the center-left Democratic Party appealed to the government Wednesday for funds for the museum.
Italy
Rare Ancient Statue
Female Gladiator
A small bronze statue dating back nearly 2,000 years may be that of a female gladiator, a victorious one at that, suggests a new study.
If confirmed the statue would represent only the second depiction of a woman gladiator known to exist.
The gladiator statue shows a topless woman, wearing only a loincloth and a bandage around her left knee. Her hair is long, although neat, and in the air she raises what the researcher, Alfonso Manas of the University of Granada, believes is a sica, a short curved sword used by gladiators. The gesture she gives is a "salute to the people, to the crowd," Manas said, an action done by victorious gladiators at the end of a fight.
The "precise real-life" details of the statue suggest the depiction was inspired by an actual person, a real woman who fought, Manas told LiveScience in an interview.
The rarity of such statues likely reflects the idea that female gladiators in ancient Rome were scarce. They were banned by Emperor Septimius Severus in A.D. 200 with only about a dozen references to them in ancient writing surviving to present day. The only other known depiction of them is a carved relieffrom the site of Halicarnassus (now in the British Museum) that shows two female gladiators fighting. There have been claims made in the past of burials of female gladiators being uncovered, but none has attracted widespread support among scholars.
Female Gladiator
Sentence Commuted
Prada
The life of a mutt that's been on doggy death row for more than a year has been spared by a judge following an outcry from animal lovers and the acceptance of a last-ditch proposal to keep the dog alive.
Now Prada, the 4-year-old pit bull mix that inspired thousands of strangers across the globe to sign a petition to save the dog's life, could be headed to Animal Planet fame.
The dog was declared vicious and ordered to be euthanized after escaping from her home and attacking several dogs in an upscale Nashville neighborhood in January 2011. It usually doesn't take long to carry out such an order, but Prada's owner fought a lengthy legal battle, vowing to never stop until she saved her dog.
Nicole Andree, a 35-year-old real estate agent who rescued Prada when the dog was 4-weeks-old, asked a judge to spare her beloved companion if she agreed to send the animal to the Villalobos Rescue Center in New Orleans. The rescue center is featured in Animal Planet's reality TV show "Pitt Bulls and Parolees," which puts ex-convicts and abused dogs together so both man and animal can be rehabilitated. She said her dog would be in good hands with Tia Torres, who runs the Villalobos Rescue center.
Davidson County Circuit Court Judge Joe Binkley Jr. signed the order sparing Prada after city attorneys said they would not object to the plan to transfer ownership of the dog to Torres so it could live at the rescue center.
Prada
In Memory
Dick Clark
Dick Clark, the ever-youthful television host and tireless entrepreneur who helped bring rock 'n' roll into the mainstream on "American Bandstand," and later produced and hosted a vast range of programming from game shows to the New Year's Eve countdown from Times Square, has died. He was 82.
Spokesman Paul Shefrin said Clark had a heart attack Wednesday morning at Saint John's hospital in Santa Monica, where he had gone the day before for an outpatient procedure.
Clark had continued performing even after he suffered a stroke in 2004 that affected his ability to speak and walk.
Long dubbed "the world's oldest teenager" because of his boyish appearance, Clark bridged the rebellious new music scene and traditional show business, and equally comfortable whether chatting about music with Sam Cooke or bantering with Ed McMahon about TV bloopers. He thrived as the founder of Dick Clark Productions, supplying movies, game and music shows, beauty contests and more to TV. Among his credits: "The $25,000 Pyramid," ''TV's Bloopers and Practical Jokes" and the American Music Awards.
For a time in the 1980s, he had shows on all three networks and was listed among the Forbes 400 of wealthiest Americans. Clark also was part of radio as partner in the United Stations Radio Network, which provided programs - including Clark's - to thousands of stations.
The original "American Bandstand" was one of network TV's longest-running series as part of ABC's daytime lineup from 1957 to 1987. It later aired for a year in syndication and briefly on the USA Network. Over the years, it introduced stars ranging from Buddy Holly to Madonna. The show's status as an American cultural institution was solidified when Clark donated Bandstand's original podium and backdrop to the Smithsonian Institution.
Clark joined "Bandstand" in 1956 after Bob Horn, who'd been the host since its 1952 debut, was fired. Under Clark's guidance, it went from a local Philadelphia show to a national phenomenon.
As a host, he had the smooth delivery of a seasoned radio announcer. As a producer, he had an ear for a hit record. He also knew how to make wary adults welcome this odd new breed of music in their homes.
Clark endured accusations that he was in with the squares, with critic Lester Bangs defining Bandstand as "a leggily acceptable euphemism of the teenage experience." In a 1985 interview, Clark acknowledged the complaints. "But I knew at the time that if we didn't make the presentation to the older generation palatable, it could kill it."
He was born Richard Wagstaff Clark in Mount Vernon, N.Y., in 1929. His father, Richard Augustus Clark, was a sales manager who worked in radio.
Clark idolized his athletic older brother, Bradley, who was killed in World War II. In his 1976 autobiography, "Rock, Roll & Remember," Clark recalled how radio helped ease his loneliness and turned him into a fan of Steve Allen, Arthur Godfrey and other popular hosts.
Clark began his career in the mailroom of a Utica, N.Y., radio station in 1945. By age 26, he was a broadcasting veteran, with nine years' experience on radio and TV stations in Syracuse and Utica, N.Y., and Philadelphia. He held a bachelor's degree from Syracuse University. While in Philadelphia, Clark befriended McMahon, who later credited Clark for introducing him to his future "Tonight Show" boss, Johnny Carson.
In the 1960s, "American Bandstand" moved from black-and-white to color, from weekday broadcasts to once-a-week Saturday shows and from Philadelphia to Los Angeles. Although its influence started to ebb, it still featured some of the biggest stars of each decade, whether Janis Joplin, the Jackson 5, Talking Heads or Prince. But Clark never did book two of rock's iconic groups, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Elvis Presley also never performed, although Clark managed an on-air telephone interview while Presley was in the Army.
Clark kept more than records spinning with his Dick Clark Productions. Its credits included the Academy of Country Music and Golden Globe awards; TV movies including the Emmy-winning "The Woman Who Willed a Miracle" (1984), the "$25,000 Pyramid" game show and the 1985 film "Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins." Clark himself made a cameo on "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" and a dramatic appearance as a witness on the original "Perry Mason." He was an involuntary part of Michael Moore's Academy Award-winning "Bowling for Columbine," in which Clark is seen brushing off Moore as the filmmaker confronts him about working conditions at a restaurant owned by Clark.
He was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes in 1994 and served as spokesman for the American Association of Diabetes Educators.
Clark, twice divorced, had a son, Richard Augustus II, with first wife Barbara Mallery and two children, Duane and Cindy, with second wife Loretta Martin. He married Kari Wigton in 1977.
Dick Clark
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