Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: Off and Out with Romney (New York Times)
[Romney and Bain] bought and sold them - sometimes restructuring them in ways that added jobs, often in ways that preserved profits but destroyed jobs, and fairly often in ways that extracted money for Bain but killed the business in the process. And recently the Washington Post added a further piece of information: Bain invested in companies that specialized in helping other companies get rid of employees, either in the United States or overall, by outsourcing work to outside suppliers and offshoring work to other countries.
Andrew Tobias: How We Win
We do have other advantages: we're right on the issues and we have a spectacular candidate (I can't wait for the debates). Not to mention the bumper stickers. GM LIVES; BIN LADEN DIES - all that.
Terry Eagleton: What would Rousseau make of our selfish age? (Guardian)
300 years after Rousseau's birth, the great Enlightenment philosopher would surely be horrified by modern Europe.
Mark Hill: "5 Popular Forms of Charity (That Aren't Helping)" (Cracked)
#5. Most Awareness Campaigns Are a Waste of Time
Scott Burns: "It's 2012: Do You Know Where Your First Million Is?" (AssetBuilder)
Work. Some people love it. Others are addicted. Still others find it amusing: they can watch it being done for hours. But here's the big question: How much money would you really need to have a choice about working? The answer: It depends.
Henry Rollins: If It's Too Loud, You Are Indeed Too Old (LA Weekly)
I also noted that if one wanted to see what a dumbed-down mass population looks like, how it votes, metes out its foreign policy, moves its wealth and takes care of its citizens, just look to the south in America. I said that if that's what they wanted for their country [Canada], all they have to do is devalue education and it won't be long before they are enjoying an upward spike in gun homicides and an overflowing prison system.
Steve Lopez: Man's 10 years of newspaper ads pay respects to late beloved wife (LA Times)
Retired criminal defense attorney Joe Ingber remembers his late wife, Eileen, on her birthdays and on the anniversary of the day she died of cancer in 2002.
Eddie Deezen: "' Psycho': Alfred Hitchcock's Scariest Film"
"Psycho" was to be Hitchcock's last black and white film. The reasons for this were 1) he thought the film would be "too gory" if filmed in color, 2) he wanted it to be as inexpensive as possible, and 3) he knew so many low budget films were lousy and made a lot of money, and wanted to see how a very good black and white film would do at the box office.
Ryan Gilbey: "Jean-Claude Carrière: 'If you want fame, don't be a screenwriter'" (Guardian)
Legendary French writer Jean-Claude Carrière has crafted strange, wonderful films with directors from Buñuel to Godard. He talks here about the art of creating cinematic enigmas?
Charlie Jane Anders: 10 Rules of Blockbuster Movies that Hollywood Forgot (io9)
The thing is, Hollywood already knows how to make blockbuster movies that make money - they've just forgotten some of the fundamentals in the rush to claim dates in the crowded summer schedules. Here are 10 rules that Hollywood knew, but has forgotten.
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
Michelle is on vacation
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Reader Suggestion
Frederick Douglass
A Little Late, But Worth Listening To
The Most Powerful 4th Of July Speech Is One You've Probably Never Heard
Ten years before the Civil War, the city of Rochester, NY asked Frederick Douglass to speak for its July 4, 1852 celebration. Douglass accepted, but rather than join in the 'celebration,' Douglass took it in an unexpected direction.
In this clip, Danny Glover performs part of that speech
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Marine layer so thick the sun never broke through.
EU Parliament Rejects
ACTA
The European Parliament overwhelmingly defeated an international anti-piracy trade agreement Wednesday after concern that it would limit Internet freedom sparked street protests in cities across Europe.
The vote - 39 in favor, 478 against, with 165 abstentions - appeared to deal the death blow to the European Union's participation in a treaty it helped negotiate, though other countries may still participate without the EU.
Supporters had maintained that ACTA, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, was needed to standardize the different national laws that protect the rights of those who produce music, movies, pharmaceuticals, fashion goods and other products that often fall victim to piracy and intellectual property theft. EU officials said, too, that protecting European ideas was essential to the economic growth the continent so badly needs.
But opponents feared the treaty would lead to censorship and snooping on the Internet activities of ordinary citizens. Alex Wilks, who directed the anti-ACTA campaign for the advocacy group Avaaz, said the agreement would have permitted private companies to spy on the activities of Internet users and would have allowed users to be disconnected without due process.
Beyond the EU and 22 of its member countries, eight other countries also signed the agreement - the U.S., Australia, Canada, Japan, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, and South Korea - though none has yet ratified it. The EU vote will not affect them.
ACTA
Lost Bet
Stephen Hawking
Renowned British physicist Stephen Hawking said Wednesday the Nobel Prize should be given to Peter Higgs, the man who gave his name to the Higgs boson particle.
Former Cambridge University professor Hawking also joked that the discovery had actually cost him $100 in a bet.
In an interview with the BBC Wednesday, Hawking, who has motor neurone disease, said: "This is an important result and should earn Peter Higgs the Nobel Prize.
"But it is a pity in a way because the great advances in physics have come from experiments that gave results we didn't expect.
"For this reason I had a bet with Gordon Kane of Michigan University that the Higgs particle wouldn't be found. It seems I have just lost $100."
Stephen Hawking
Reveals First Love
Frank Ocean
Both Anderson Cooper and Frank Ocean made revelations about their sexuality this week, but Ocean's could end up being the more significant announcement.
Ocean - the rising R&B singer behind the single "Novacane" and the self-released album "nostalgia, ULTRA," which critics heralded as among the best of 2011 - announced on his Tumblr page Wednesday that his first love was a man. He also tweeted a link to the post.
Earlier this week, CNN's Cooper acknowledged that he was gay. But the admission from the 24-year-old Ocean - who is part of the hip-hop collective Odd Future and was prominently featured on Jay-Z and Kanye West's "Watch the Throne" album - is noteworthy because he inhabits the world of rap, where anti-gay sentiments have long been part of the regular vocabulary. Gay epithets are often used in lyrics - one of Lil Wayne's catch phrases is "no homo."
"I think it's definitely important and it really signifies that there is a changing of the face of hip-hop," said Chuck Creekmur, founder of the leading website allhiphop.com. He called Ocean's announcement "a sign of the times," noting Cooper's announcement and President Barack Obama's recent support of gay marriage.
Frank Ocean
Mississippi Hometown
William Faulkner
Five decades after his death, William Faulkner still draws literary pilgrims to his Mississippi hometown, the "little postage stamp of native soil" he made famous through his novels.
Oxford inspired the fictional town of Jefferson that was a frequent setting for his stories, and it's commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Nobel laureate's death Friday with several events that include a tag-team reading of his novel, "The Reivers," beginning about daybreak.
Roughly 25,000 people a year visit Faulkner's antebellum home, Rowan Oak, which is now owned by the University of Mississippi. The author's meticulous handwriting appears on the walls of his downstairs office. Using pencil, he outlined events of his 1954 novel, "A Fable."
Oxford's lure is similar to that of Key West, Fla., for fans of Ernest Hemingway and Salinas, Calif., for devotees of John Steinbeck.
William Faulkner
NC Renovation
Whirligigs
The eccentric vision of a self-taught North Carolina artist famed for his whimsical, wind-powered whirligigs is getting an overhaul that's as much about engineering as it is about art.
Just as more traditional conservators might study an artist's canvas and paints, the 16-member team working in a former downtown auto parts warehouse pores over pieces of reflector and debates whether to use more modern bearings to replace old-fashioned grease fittings on Vollis Simpson's spinning sculptures.
They're restoring about 30 whirligigs - wind-driven creations constructed from motor fans, cotton spindles and other recycled parts - that stand as high as 50 feet. Simpson built the contraptions over the years on land near his machine shop in Lucama, about 35 miles east of Raleigh in North Carolina's coastal flatlands. But at 93, his knees no longer allow him to climb and maintain his creations.
With the help of approximately $2 million in grants and donations, a few organizations in nearby Wilson are building the Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park. It's scheduled to open in November 2013. Between now and then, the team is sprucing up whirligigs that have spent decades in the elements, including more than a few hurricanes.
The whirligigs - some weighing as much as 3 tons with hundreds of moving parts - are folk art or outsider art, works created by someone without a formal background in art. Simpson also has no formal engineering degree either, but he's built tow trucks to move houses. He once built a motorcycle from a stolen motor and a bicycle when he was an Air Force staff sergeant on Saipan during World War II.
Whirligigs
Long-Time Voice Feels Burned
Chuck E. Cheese
The actor who has been the voice of the Chuck E. Cheese family entertainment chain for the past 19 years says he was surprised to learn he had been replaced by a rock-and-roll version of the mouse-like character.
The company, whose food, rides, arcade games and entertainment are targeted at younger children, denied this. It said in a statement that although voice actor Duncan Brannan was not used in a new song involving a revamped character, he remained a part of its marketing.
CEC Entertainment Inc said Brannan was not fired, but "rather, we simply chose to utilize new voice talent for the original music we have written as part of a TV advertising campaign ..."
"After serving as the voice of Chuck E. Cheese since 1993 and taking the character through so many stages, changes, and evolutions this comes as a complete surprise to me," Brannan said.
Chuck E. Cheese
Spain Police Recover
Codex Calixtinus
Spanish police recovered on Wednesday a priceless 12th-century religious manuscript known as the Codex Calixtinus, which was stolen from a cathedral last year. The find came a day after four suspects were arrested in connection with the theft, the Interior Ministry said.
The richly-decorated Codex was found in a garage close to the cathedral from where it was taken in the northwestern city of Santiago de Compostela. The tome is considered the first guide for people making the ancient Christian pilgrimage known as the Camino de Santiago, the Spanish name for the Way of St. James.
The find came after police arrested an electrician who previously worked at the cathedral, his wife and son, and another woman on Tuesday. The ministry said police found some €1.2 million ($1.5 million) as well as other valuable religious works at houses belonging to the detainees.
Codex Calixtinus
Music Fees Could Drive Clubs Back Underground
Berlin
New music licence fees could threaten the livelihood of Berlin's legendary all-night clubs, or drive them underground in a return to the heady post-Wall 1990s, the city's tourism body said Wednesday.
The head of the public-private marketing group Visit Berlin, Burkhard Kieker, said the German capital's renowned nightlife remained one of its biggest draws and warned against a planned hike in levies on discos.
GEMA, the country's feared music rights agency which has a reputation in the industry as one of Europe's most aggressive in collecting royalties, announced in April plans to impose a 10-percent levy on all cover charges for bars and clubs as part of a reworking of its usual fee structure.
The German Hotel and Restaurant Association estimates that GEMA payments will rise as a result by an average of 400 to 600 percent from January 1 and warned that many locations will go out of business.
Kieker said he was not worried about Berlin losing its appeal to ravers from across Europe and around the world, but said club operators may have to get creative like in the years just after the Wall fell.
Berlin
Tussle Over Archives
Algeria
When French soldiers and administrators left Algeria after more than a century of colonial rule, they did not go empty-handed.
They took historical artifacts, books and maps, a national heritage that still sits in French libraries and archives today and which Algeria says its former colonial master should return.
France and Algeria this week mark the 50th anniversary of the July 5, 1962, independence declaration that ended French rule. Each side will reflect on the problems that entangle them.
Algerians want Paris to apologize for decades of colonial servitude and the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people who fought for independence. France wrestles with its legacy in the form of a huge community descended from Algerian migrants that struggles to integrate into French society.
Set against these problems, the missing archives are not the most serious issue weighing on French-Algerian relations. But the tussle captures the deep sense of both grievance and mutual dependence that remains between the two countries half a century after they broke apart.
Algeria
Britain's Serious Fraud Office Fines
Oxford Press
Oxford University's publishing arm has agreed to pay $3.5 million to settle two cases of improper payments to government officials in east Africa, Britain's Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and the World Bank said on Tuesday.
Oxford Publishing Limited, agreed to pay 1.9 million pounds after the SFO initiated court action. Its parent company Oxford University Press (OUP) admitted "improper behaviour".
The World Bank conducted a separate investigation into OUP's Tanzania and Kenya-based subsidiaries which it said paid off government officials for two text books contracts relating to World Bank-financed education projects.
OUP said it would also pay an additional £2 million to not-for-profit organisations for teacher training and other educational purposes in sub-Saharan Africa.
Oxford Press
Rep. Stands For Reprehensible
The Other Joe Walsh
Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Deadbeat Dad)'s Facebook page is flooded with negative comments today after the Illinois Republican said his opponent, Iraq War veteran Tammy Duckworth (D-Veteran), was not a "true" hero because she often makes reference to her military service on the campaign trail.
Duckworth lost both her legs after an RPG attack in Iraq brought down the Black Hawk helicopter she was piloting in 2004. Walsh never mentions his own military service on the campaign stump. He never had any.
"My God, that's all she talks about," Walsh (R-Chickenhawk) said of Duckworth'smilitary career in a video recorded at Walsh's town hall speech Sunday and posted by Think Progress. "Our true heroes, the men and women who served us, my God, that's the last thing in the world they talk about. That's why we are so indebted and in awe of what they have done."
"We are about four months from Election Day and the people of Illinois have no idea where Tammy Duckworth stands on these issues," he said.
The Other Joe Walsh
Amid GPS Boom, Nostalgia Finds A Place
Paper Maps
Used to be, Dad would stuff a half-dozen maps in the glove box before setting out with the family on a road trip to see the waterfalls at Yosemite or the granite faces of Mount Rushmore. Colorful maps bearing the logos of the oil companies that printed them - names like Texaco, Gulf, Esso - once brimmed from displays at filling stations, free for the taking.
But of the more than 35 million Americans expected to travel by car this Fourth of July, a good chunk will probably reach for technology before they're tempted to unfold - and in a tradition that used to bind Americans as tightly as a highway cloverleaf, try to refold - a paper road map.
Websites like MapQuest and Google Maps simplified trip planning. Affordable GPS devices and built-in navigation on smartphones downright transformed it - and transportation agencies around the country are noticing, printing fewer maps to cut department costs or just acknowledging that public demand is down.
The drop in sales began around 2003, when affordable GPS units became the go-to Christmas present, said Pat Carrier, former owner of a travel bookstore in Cambridge, Mass.
Paper Maps
In Memory
Eric Sykes
Eric Sykes, the widely-acclaimed British comedy actor and writer, died Wednesday. He was 89.
Sykes was one of the most popular comic actors of his generation, appearing in shows in London's West End into his 80s. He began his career writing scripts for BBC shows, co-writing 24 episodes of the classic radio comedy "The Goon Show" with the late Spike Milligan.
He appeared in the "Sykes and A " sitcom about a brother and sister living together in west London, which ran in the 1960s and 1970s. He went on to write and act in theater shows and movies, including an appearance in "The Others" starring Nicole Kidman and in the Harry Potter film "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire."
Sykes also wrote scripts for Peter Sellers and other major British actors.
Manager Norma Farnes said that Sykes died following a brief illness and was with his family when he passed away, but did give the cause of his death or specify if Sykes had been at home or in a hospital.
Sykes was survived by his wife, Eith Eleanore Milbrandt, and his four children.
Eric Sykes
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