Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Kansas City Parking Garage Transformed Into Giant Bookshelf
Here's a fun way to make a parking garage look like less of an eyesore-paint it over to look like a giant bookshelf, housing classic novels such as The Invisible Man, The Lord Of The Rings and….
Mark Morford: How to make love to a boson (SF Gate)
I am thrilled to announce, we think we are getting closer to a fundamental understanding of something we cannot, shall not, will not ever really get all that close to understanding, by nature of the fact that if you could get all that close to it, it wouldn't be the thing you think it is in the first place. Isn't life grand?
JIM ZARROLI: Options Slim, Older Job Seekers Try Starting Fresh (NPR)
Deborah Klein sits in a parked car, a pile of envelopes on her lap. She's looking for work as a pharmacy technician, and has come to a faded strip mall near Waterbury, Conn., to drop off resumes with employers.
William Shatner explores the meaning of Star Trek fandom in the Get a Life! trailer (io9)
After seeking out his fellow Star Trek commanding officers in The Captains, William Shatner is back with another documentary, this time focused on the fans. From the trailer, William Shatner's Get a Life! (named for his infamous SNL sketch) looks like an affectionate examination of Star Trek fandom and why the franchise has meant so much to so many.
Esther Inglis-Arkell: How to Win a Three-Way Gunfight (io9)
Truels are things guaranteed to make any Western fifty percent better - by adding a third person to a duel. Each person can choose his or her target, and the worst person might very well be the winner - provided they play it smart. Learn how to win yourself a truel, gunslinger-style.
Alex Clark: "Adrien Brody: The quiet American" (Guardian)
Since winning his Oscar at 29, Adrien Brody has refused to be typecast. He talks about his unexpectedly diverse career, the debt he owes his parents and how to run away from a gorilla.
Dana Stevens: "Katy Perry: Part of Me" (Slate)
Why do I care whether a pop singer I never voluntarily listen to hits it big with a cute ditty about how awesome it is to spend your Friday nights doing stupid, dangerous shit? Maybe because I have a daughter who's a born ham, someone who, like the younger Katy Perry we see in old home video footage in Part of Me, has dreams of standing on a stage one day doing something-singing, dancing, playing an instrument-in front of a cheering crowd. If and when that time comes, I want her to know she has options besides spraying whipped cream out of her bra.
Henry Rollins: Some of the Best Times of My Life (LA Weekly)
Being young and feeling exiled from others never bothered me. Solitude is an excellent soundtrack for music -- that's how I think about it. Music sounds different when you're alone. It's hard to make the experience as magic if there's anyone else around. The great listening partner is rare.
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
Infographic
Sleepless In America
Day 3
Gulf Fritillary
Came across some of Gulf Fritillary larva
on the back fence, so it looks like we'll have a third year of raising butterflies. : )
Click on any picture for a larger version.
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
BadtotheboneBob
Chaplains
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and seasonal.
Marine Parasite Named After
Bob Marley
A tiny blood-sucking parasite that infests fish on Caribbean coral reefs has been named after Jamaican reggae icon Bob Marley.
Arkansas State University marine biologist Paul Sikkel discovered the parasite off the U.S. Virgin Islands a decade ago but it was only recently unveiled as "Gnathia marleyi" as an homage to the singer.
Sikkel says he dubbed the tiny crustacean due to his "respect and admiration" for Marley, who died in 1981.
The National Science Foundation says the creature is a new species within the family of gnathiids, parasites commonly found on coral reefs that are ecologically similar to blood-sucking ticks on land. It infests some fish that inhabit reefs of the shallow eastern Caribbean.
Bob Marley
Gets Clear Channel Radio Show
Jack Abramoff
Disgraced Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff has a new talk radio show to offer advice on reforming politics.
Premiere Networks, part of Clear Channel Media, announced Wednesday that "The Jack Abramoff Show" has debuted on XM Satellite Radio's "Talk Radio" channel. It airs Sundays from 5 to 8 p.m.
Abramoff went to federal prison for corruption. He says he may be the nation's "most controversial radio host" because he was involved in the money-based political culture he says needs an overhaul.
Abramoff was released from prison in 2010, then spent six months working at a Baltimore pizzeria.
Jack Abramoff
Walker Art Center
Internet Cat Video Film Festival
Nominations are open for the world's first Cannes for cats. The al fresco Internet Cat Video Film Festival will unspool -- in the space of an hour or so, given how short cat videos can be -- on August 30 on the grounds of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
"While enjoyed by a broad online audience of millions, cat videos are normally viewed alone. Until now," wrote organizer and "self-proclaimed borderline cat lady" Katie Czarniecki Hill on the Walker's blog pages.
"This activity is free, open to the public and cat-friendly... Cool chicks, dudes and dog-lovers are, of course, also welcome."
Nominations can be submitted until July 30 via bit.ly/O1kfDM.
Internet Cat Video Film Festival
West-Eastern Divan
Daniel Barenboim
Pope Benedict XVI is celebrating his name day with a private concert of Beethoven symphonies conducted by maestro Daniel Barenboim and performed by the West-Eastern Divan, an orchestra of musicians from Israel and Arab countries who hope to further the cause of peace.
Benedict, who invited Italian President Giorgio Napolitano and his wife as his guests, took in the music Wednesday evening in a courtyard of the papal summer retreat at Castel Gandolfo, in the hills outside Rome. July 11 is the feast day of St. Benedict. The Argentine-born Israeli conductor founded the orchestra in 1999 with the late Palestinian scholar Edward Said.
In a speech, Benedict said "music unites people beyond every division."
Daniel Barenboim
Donates Piano
Barry Manilow
Singer Barry Manilow has donated a new Yamaha piano to launch a music instrument drive at Kentucky's largest school district and is offering free tickets to an upcoming performance to anyone else who makes a donation.
The instruments will go to help students at Jefferson County Public Schools in Louisville.
WHAS-TV reports that those who donate a new or gently used musical instrument will receive two free tickets for Manilow's July 27 concert in Louisville. Donated instruments can be dropped off at The Louisville Palace through July 27.
The Manilow Music Project provides musical instruments to high schools and middle schools and music scholarships to universities.
Barry Manilow
Keep Adding Newscasts
Local TV
Defying trends that have hurt the news industry, the average broadcast television station in the United States has added nearly an hour's worth of newscast time to its day over the past three years, a study released Wednesday found.
On weekdays, a typical station airs five and a half hours of local news, according to an annual survey by the Radio Television Digital News Association and Hofstra University. Affiliates of ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox show more news than independent stations.
Morning is the biggest growth period for the local stations. If the network affiliates air a local newscast prior to programs like "Today" or "Good Morning America," for example, they are pushing earlier and earlier to 4:30 a.m. and even 4 a.m. for starting times.
Fox affiliates were the most likely to have added news in 2011, followed by CBS stations, the survey said. Stations in the West were much less likely to add news than elsewhere in the country.
Local TV
Leaving Bush House
BBC
At noon London time on July 12, 2012, Britain will slip silently into a new era of radio history. At the top of the hour, the BBC World Service - once the voice of the British empire - will transmit its last radio news bulletin from its imposing home, Bush House in central London.
For more than 70 years the art-deco building was the beating heart of the British Broadcasting Corporation's overseas service and a bastion of press freedom around the world.
Setting off a wave of nostalgia, the BBC has decided to move the operation to a gleaming new office in London as part of its efforts to bring all of its broadcasting teams under one roof.
With a warren of meandering corridors, soaring halls and marble stairs, the majestic Bush House has already been mostly abandoned, with the last team of journalists due to leave officially on Thursday after the final bulletin.
BBC
Lawmakers Vote To Increase Internet Control
Russia
Russia's lower house of parliament approved a law on Wednesday that the opposition says could be used to censor the Internet and crack down on one of the last forums of open political debate under President Vladimir Putin.
His United Russia party says the law, passed in the third and final reading by the State Duma, is needed to combat child pornography. It will create a single register of websites containing information deemed harmful or illegal from November 1.
But the new law has caused alarm among the opposition and the Russian version of online encyclopedia Wikipedia closed its web pages on Tuesday for a day in protest.
Opposition leaders said the new law could be used to shut down websites such as Facebook and Twitter without a court order and that it was meant to stymie their protest movement, which uses social network sites to arrange anti-Putin demonstrations.
Russia
Fighting Back
"Copyright Trolls"
It's a common tactic for pornography producers trying to protect their product from online piracy: They sue unknown "John Does" who illegally download movies, then go to Internet providers to learn their true identities and collect.
Hundreds of porn companies have filed thousands of lawsuits across the country in recent years. Often, representatives will call up the defendants, offering quick settlements of $1,000 or $5,000 to avoid facing $150,000 claims and the embarrassment of being publicly outed.
Some defendants in the lawsuits are pushing back, arguing that they're being squeezed for quick settlements even when they claim to have never downloaded anything.
Henry and other critics call the lawsuits "copyright trolls," a tactic used to extract quick cash settlements from people who have no connection to any downloaded movie but want to avoid having their names associated with porn.
Two of the companies, K-Beech, Inc., and Third Degree Films, both of Chatsworth, Calif., did not return repeated emails seeking comment. Contact information for the other three companies named in Barker's suit - Patrick Collins, Inc., of Canoga Park, Calif., Malibu Media of Malibu, Calif., and Raw Films of London - could not be located.
"Copyright Trolls"
Theme Park Stalled
DreamWorks
Shrek might find a home in the swamps of northern New Jersey.
The Hollywood studio that created the green ogre and the wisecracking zoo animals of "Madagascar" announced Wednesday it had agreed to license its characters, storytelling and technology for a theme park at a long-stalled and vacant megamall in the Meadowlands.
DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey "Sparky" Katzenberg, in a joint statement with the mall developer, said the indoor theme park 10 miles west of New York City would create "a unique and innovative family entertainment experience."
The company says at this time its only involvement will be licensing the rights to its characters and storytelling. The American Dream mall in East Rutherford would be the first wholly themed DreamWorks park. Dreamworld, a theme park in Australia, features some DreamWorks characters but not exclusively.
The studio was looking for a U.S. presence and thought the mall site near New York would be a good fit, one that could become an international tourist attraction, a DreamWorks spokesman said. The company previously had plans for a theme park in Dubai, but that project fell through.
DreamWorks
Ditches Viacom
DirecTV
DirecTV said its customers were left without Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central and 14 other channels on Wednesday after Viacom Inc demanded that its networks be dropped from DirectTV's lineup in a dispute over fees.
DirecTV's contract with Viacom, which had been in place for the last seven years, expired at midnight Tuesday.
The standoff is the latest between media companies and cable and satellite TV providers over the cost of content. These providers pay a fee to media companies that allows them to carry channels such as MTV.
On July 1, AMC Networks, the company behind shows such as "Breaking Bad," "The Walking Dead" and "Mad Men," was removed from the Dish Network after the two companies failed to reach a new contract.
The purchase of television programs is the single biggest cost for distributors, who have fought back in recent years against what they consider unreasonable "carriage fee" increases by content producers like Viacom.
DirecTV
Husband Appointed Temporary Conservator
Zsa Zsa
Zsa Zsa Gabor's husband will serve as her temporary conservator under an agreement reached with the ailing actress' daughter and approved by a judge Wednesday.
Attorneys announced a settlement between Frederic von Anhalt, Gabor's husband of 25 years, and her daughter Constance Francesca Hilton during a hearing. Superior Court Judge Reva Goetz approved the provisions, which call for financial oversight by several attorneys and allow Hilton to visit with her mother weekly.
Von Anhalt will continue to make medical decision about his wife's care. He smiled after his appointment and outside the courthouse declared "Victory!" and said he was happy with the outcome.
Gabor's husband and daughter have argued for years as each has accused the other of financial mismanagement related to Gabor's wealth. Hilton asked to be named her mother's conservator in March and said she was concerned the actress wasn't being properly treated.
Zsa Zsa
High Court
Phil Ivey
Poker pro Phil Ivey's divorce case has the Nevada Supreme Court considering whether judges should oversee cases involving people from whom they've accepted campaign contributions.
The state high court heard 45 minutes of arguments Tuesday in Carson City on a lawsuit by Ivey's ex-wife, Luciaetta Ivey, alleging decisions by a Family Court judge who handled the couple's divorce were tainted by a $5,000 campaign donation.
In Nevada, where individuals can contribute up to $10,000 to a judicial candidate, allegations have been raised for years that judges favor people and law firms that donate.
Ivey, 35, winner of eight World Series of Poker medallions, was granted an uncontested divorce in 2009 by Clark County Family Court Judge William Gonzalez after seven years of marriage. According to published reports, the couple's community property was valued at $8 million in 2008.
In 2011, Luciaetta Ivey asked the judge to force her ex-husband to pay required spousal support. She lost a bid to disqualify Gonzalez after learning that Phil Ivey contributed $5,000 in April 2010 to the judge's re-election campaign and that Ivey's lawyer also contributed time and money to Gonzalez's re-election.
Phil Ivey
New TV Programming
NKorea
North Korea is tapping into some American-style movie inspiration by showing the film icon Rocky Balboa pounding his Soviet rival.
State TV on Wednesday ran taped footage of young leader Kim Jong Un at a concert that played a rendition of the famous "Rocky" theme song and showed clips of the pumped-up American film character boxing against his Cold War rival Ivan Drago.
Appearing to glorify a popular American entertainment icon is an unusual move for Pyongyang, which regularly unleashes invective at its former wartime enemy.
The band also played "My Way" popularized by Frank Sinatra.
NKorea
Developer Getting Loan For Horses
Wayne Newton
Amid a court battle over their stalled development plan, a company planning to turn entertainer Wayne Newton's Las Vegas estate property into a tourist attraction told a state court judge it will borrow $1 million for upkeep of the "Danke Schoen" crooner's 51 Arabian horses.
Clark County District Court Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez decided Tuesday not to give her backing to the loan sought by CSD LLC, saying she hadn't had time to fully review it.
The battle over the loan and the judge's rulings on other issues relating to Casa de Shenandoah illustrated a deteriorating relationship between the former Las Vegas Strip headliner and his estranged CSD business partner, Steven Kennedy, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
CSD attorney Charles McCrea Jr. depicted the loan as necessary for CSD to pay an estimated $37,000 a month to board and feed the horses, as Gonzalez ordered last month. McCrea told the judge that CSD has put $30 million into the project and has no operating budget for the horses.
Kennedy bought the sprawling compound for $19.5 million in June 2010 with the intent of building the Newtons a new $2 million home on the grounds and converting the gold-trimmed main house into a public "Graceland West" venue.
Wayne Newton
Sketches Unveiled
Caravaggio
A collection of more than 1,000 sketches, some of which are thought to have been by 16th century Italian artist Caravaggio, were unveiled at Milan's Sforzesco Castle on Wednesday.
If proved authentic, the drawings could be worth up to 700 million euros ($870 million), art historians say, and would add to the Italian city's rich artistic collection, which includes Leonardo da Vinci's "Last Supper".
The collection of up to 1,200 sketches found in the studio of Caravaggio's master Simone Peterzano, now held within the castle's walls, are owned by the city of Milan. The pieces were originally bought by the municipality in 1924 from St. Luke's Academy, a late 16th century workshop that acquired the collection from the Church of San Celso, also in Milan.
Caravaggio, whose real name was Michelangelo Merisi, often ended up in jail, and killed a man in a fight in Rome. The Pope issued a death warrant for him, and he died on a Tuscan beach under mysterious circumstances in 1610 after he had supposedly received a pardon.
The collection is available for public viewing online at the city of Milan website.
Caravaggio
In Memory
Marion Cunningham
Award-winning cookbook writer Marion Cunningham, an advocate of home cooking who also hosted a U.S. television series, has died in California after suffering from Alzheimer's disease. She was 90.
She was born Marion Enwright on February 11, 1922 in Los Angeles and married Robert Cunningham, an attorney in Walnut Creek. For much of her life, she struggled with agoraphobia, an anxiety disorder dealing with the fear of open spaces and public places.
But later in life she began attending cooking classes given by renowned chef and food writer James Beard, who died in 1985. In cooking, she found a hobby that would become her hallmark.
Cunningham began writing cookbooks at age 57 when asked to revise a version of "Boston Cooking-School Cookbook" that was first published in 1896 by Fannie Merritt Farmer. The result was Cunningham's 1979 edition of "The Fannie Farmer Cookbook," which was reissued again in 1990.
She went on to author more books with titles such as "The Breakfast Book," and "Cooking with Children," that highlighted her specialty in creating meals at home.
Cunningham also penned articles in magazines such as Bon Appetit and Food & Wine and for a time hosted her own TV series, "Cunningham & Company," on the Food Network.
In 1993, she received the Grand Dame award from Les Dames d'Escoffier and one year later was named Scholar-in-Residence by the International Association of Culinary Professionals.
Marion Cunningham
| CURRENT MOON lunar phases |
