Recommended Reading
from Bruce
David Auerbach: Blame Apple (Slate)
Five reasons why celebrities and civilians should never trust Apple with nude photos, or any data at all.
Emily Bazelon: A Huge Abortion Win in Texas (Slate)
But will it last?
Graham Turner and Cathy Alexander: Limits to Growth was right. New research shows we're nearing collapse (Guardian)
Four decades after the book was published, Limit to Growth's forecasts have been vindicated by new Australian research. Expect the early stages of global collapse to start appearing soon.
AsapSCIENCE: The Science of Laziness (YouTube)
Why are some people so lazy? Is there a couch-potato gene?
Bryan Roche: "Ignore the IQ test: your level of intelligence is not fixed for life" (The Conversation)
… even as we become better educated and more skillful at the types of tasks measured on IQ tests (a phenomenon known as the "Flynn effect", after James Fylnn who first noted it) our IQs stay pretty much the same. This is because the IQ scoring system takes into account the amount of improvement expected over time, and then discounts it. This type of score is called a "standardised score" - it hides your true score and merely represents your standing in relation to your peers who have also been getting smarter at about the same rate.
Mark Morford: "Burning Man 2014: The photo gallery" (SF Gate)
It's become an annual thing. It's become sort of mandatory, in fact. My little gallery apparently gets linked up across the entire Hearst website family (not just SFGate). Translation: I have no idea what sort of person will see this thing, what they will think of me or my sundry adventures in the land of debauchery and dust, wonder and love, fire and excess.
Robert Evans, Fernando Ramirez: 5 Insane Things That Will Destroy Our Power Grid (Cracked)
Let's be honest: Without electricity, most of us wouldn't want to continue living. The power lines crisscrossing this great nation fill our homes with refrigerated meats, video game consoles, and air conditioning. The electric grid might very well be America's most valuable resource, so you'd expect it to be reasonably well-protected against terrorists, Internet sociopaths, and rodents.
Directed by Hiroshi Kondo: Eye Know (Vimeo)
"Tokyo-based filmmaker Hiroshi Kondo takes footage of the lights in his hometown and transforms it into a luminous, kaleidoscopic display. This Vimeo Staff Pick, entitled Eye Know, features music by composer Ayako Taniguchi." - Neatorama
The Most Hilarious Dashcam Video Ever (Neatorama)
"We've seen some wild dashcam videos from Russia, such as insurance scams, road rage, street justice, and a driving cat. They are often terrifying and thrilling. This one, though, is just plain funny. It starts out ugly. Then SpongeBob SquarePants and Mickey Mouse show up." - Neatorama
David Bruce's Amazon Author Page
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"Doug's Most Shared Facebook Post" Today
wrote:
took the day off.
has retired.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
from Marc Perkel
BartCop
Hello Bartcop fans,
As you all know the untimely passing of Terry was unexpected, even by
him. We all knew he had cancer but we all thought he had some years
left. So some of us who have worked closely with him over the years are
scrambling around trying to figure out what to do. My job, among other
things, is to establish communications with the Bartcop community and
provide email lists and groups for those who might put something
together. Those who want to play an active roll in something coming from
this, or if you are one of Bart's pillars, should send an email to
active@bartcop.com.
Bart's final wish was to pay off the house mortgage for Mrs. Bart who is
overwhelmed and so very grateful for the support she has received.
Anyone wanting to make a donation can click on this the yellow donate
button on bartcop.com
But - I need you all to help keep this going. This note
isn't going to directly reach all of Bart's fans. So if you can repost
it on blogs and discussion boards so people can sign up then when we
figure out what's next we can let more people know. This list is just
over 600 but like to get it up to at least 10,000 pretty quick. So
here's the signup link for this email list.
( mailman.bartcop.com/listinfo/bartnews )
Marc Perkel
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Hot. Humid. Unpleasant.
Now A Professor
Thomas Dolby
Before composing his 1982 synth-pop hit "She Blinded Me With Science," Thomas Dolby sketched out the story line for the music video. That's not just rock-and-roll trivia - it's one of the experiences Dolby can lean on as he teaches film and music students at Johns Hopkins University, a school known more for medical science and research than the arts.
Not bad for a guy whose formal education ended at age 16.
"When I saw the arrival of music videos, I thought it was actually a new opportunity for me to, you know, break through. And I was very lucky that I caught the crest of that wave," Dolby said last week. "'She Blinded Me With Science' was really, truly a soundtrack for a music video."
The wacky video, about a home for demented scientists, became a favourite on MTV, then about a year old, helping propel the song to No. 5 on Billboard's U.S. charts. Dolby, 55, released three more albums over the next 10 years that cemented his reputation as an electronic music pioneer.
Thomas Dolby
Newest Additions
'The View'
Actress Rosie Perez and Republican Party media "operative" Nicolle Wallace are joining ABC's daytime chat show, "The View."
The network said Wednesday that the two will join Whoopi Goldberg and Rosie O'Donnell on the panel for the show's new season, beginning Sept. 15.
Goldberg is the only holdover on the program, where creator Barbara Walters retired from an onscreen role this spring and longtime producer Bill Geddie left after learning a new offscreen boss was taking over.
Perez is an actress and choreographer who has appeared in the movies "Do the Right Thing" and "Fearless." Wallace, a political analyst for MSNBC, was communications chief for resident George W. Bush's re-election campaign and was an adviser on John McCain's 2008 campaign.
'The View'
HBO Re-Airing - In High-Definition
'The Wire'
Some of us have been waiting for this for years, and now HBO has confirmed it: The Wire is being remastered and will be rebroadcast in high definition. News of the series' return to television popped up in a promo captured by Arthur Gies, and HBOWatch found some listings in the TV Guide for it. We contacted HBO and confirmed the story, however the network says that despite an initial target to air them in September, "we're still reviewing the episodes for quality assurance so the timing has shifted."
Possibly complicating the issue is the question of moving the series from the 4x3 aspect ratio it aired in to widescreen 16x9. In a 2007 interview with CreativeCow, the show's DP Dave Insley said the show was framed in 16x9 from the start for future-proofing (like Seinfeld), but that series creator David Simon "thinks that 4x3 feels more like real life and real television and not like a movie." That means issues like the recent The Simpsons marathon -- where zooming and cropping older episodes ruined some old sight gags -- shouldn't be an issue, but no one knows exactly how the show will look yet (there is a widescreen transfer in SD currently available on Amazon Prime). Other shows, like Twilight Zone, Twin Peaks and Star Trek: The Next Generation have been remastered in HD and stayed 4x3, so leaving it as-is could also be an option.
'The Wire'
Weed for the Poor Program
Berkeley
Next August, low-income Berkeley, California residents will be able to receive free, high quality medical marijuana from dispensaries to help with the laundry list of ailments for which California allows pot to be prescribed. And while prohibitionists and non-hippies alike have argued it's a bad idea, it's actually an expansion of a system already in place to provide medical marijuana for people who can't afford it.
As The New York Times explains, an ounce of marijuana can set a person back $400, and several people rely on "compassion" (a nickname for free medical marijuana) to treat various illnesses. David Theisen, a 56-year-old line cook who lost his job and uses cannabis for insomnia, told The Times "I can't afford to buy it, but my need isn't any less than anyone else's."
In July the Berkeley City Council voted - unanimously - to mandate that the city's three medical marijuana dispensaries allocate two percent of their product to donate to low-income residents. Low-income translates to $32,000 a year or $46,000 a year for a family of four. The reaction to the rule was either mocking or concern. The Washington Post noted "Berkeley out-Berkeleys Berkeley." An editorial in The San Francisco Chronicle argued that pot isn't medicine and the city should "use the cash equivalent of this requirement to expand job training, build housing or subsidize child care."
But those criticisms ignore the fact that, despite California's lax laws, marijuana is a medicine. At the same time, because it's not legal on a federal level, insurance companies don't cover it. As The Times notes, that leads to a situation where people who would benefit from marijuana can't afford it. "There are some truly compassionate cases that need to have medical marijuana," Tom Bates, Berkeley's mayor, told The Times. "But it's expensive. You hear stories about people dying from cancer who don't have the money."
Berkeley
Film Crew Denied Access To Tracks
Gregg Allman
CSX Transportation twice denied producers of a biographical movie about singer Gregg Allman permission to shoot on its railroad tracks before a freight train slammed into the film's crew in south Georgia, killing one worker and injuring six, the company said in court documents.
Legal filings in Chatham County State Court mark the first time Florida-based railroad operator CSX has made any publicly available statement about the Feb. 20 crash involving one of its trains and the crew of the movie "Midnight Rider." Lawsuits have been filed against CSX and the film's producers by the parents of Sarah Jones, a camera assistant killed in the collision, and two injured crew members. Director Randall Miller and two other top executives on the production have also been indicted on criminal charges.
In its response Tuesday to the Jones family's lawsuit, attorneys for CSX denied the company was negligent or otherwise responsible for the crash that killed her. The film workers, including actor William Hurt in the role of the Allman Brothers Band singer, was shooting on a railroad bridge spanning the Altamaha River in rural Wayne County when a train travelling 55 mph plowed through them and a hospital bed placed on the tracks as a prop.
The railroad company also sued the film's producers in the same court for trespassing. CSX Transportation said that days before the crash the filmmakers twice asked for permission to shoot on its train tracks and the company "unequivocally denied each request in writing, citing a company policy which prohibits filming on CSXT's property due to safety and security reasons."
The lawsuit said filmmakers decided to trespass onto the railroad's property "despite knowing that CSXT had twice, in writing, denied them permission."
Gregg Allman
Admits Driving While Intoxicated
David Cassidy
Seventies heartthrob David Cassidy has pleaded guilty to a misdemeanour charge of driving while intoxicated in upstate New York.
Cassidy was charged last summer in the town of Schodack, near Albany. The Times Union reports he pleaded guilty Wednesday in exchange for a tentative sentence of a conditional discharge that includes 50 hours of community service in Florida, his home state.
Sentencing was set for Nov. 5 and depends on a pre-sentence report.
In March, a judge in Los Angeles sentenced Cassidy to three months in rehab and five years of probation in a drunken-driving case stemming from a January arrest for an illegal turn.
David Cassidy
Japan To Target
Minke Whales
Japan plans to resume its slaughter of minke whales in the Antarctic Ocean next year, an official said Wednesday, despite an order from the UN's top court to stop all whaling in the area.
Tokyo was forced to abandon its 2014-15 hunt in March when the International Court of Justice (ICJ) said the annual expedition was a commercial activity masquerading as research.
But a new policy announced by the pro-whaling government on Tuesday hopes to bypass this ruling by giving the controversial mission a more scientific focus.
Whaling vessels will collect "data necessary to calculate the number of whale catch allowed (once commercial whaling resumes)," and "construct a model of the Antarctic Ocean ecosystem," an official of the Japan Fisheries Agency told AFP.
Minke Whales
Dolphin Virus
Florida
A measles-like virus that is blamed for killing hundreds of dolphins on the U.S. East Coast has spread into a Florida lagoon where hundreds of manatees, brown pelicans and dolphins already died mysteriously in recent years.
The Indian River Lagoon, south of the Kennedy Space Center, was the scene of the unexplained deaths in 2012 and 2013 and is now threatened by cetacean morbillivirus, which is related to the virus that causes measles in humans.
Megan Stolen, a research scientist from the Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute, said on Tuesday that the disease was new to Florida's Intercoastal Waterway, which includes the Indian River Lagoon, but that the deaths appear to be over.
She said 14 dead dolphins, including nine calves, had been found in August north of Kennedy Space Center and that another four dolphins were found dead on a nearby beach.
Florida
Twice the Risk
Melanoma
Airline pilots and cabin crews appear to have twice the risk of developing the skin cancer melanoma compared to the general population, a new review of past studies finds.
This higher risk may be due to the increased exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation at higher altitudes, the researchers said. "At 9000 meters [about 30,000 feet], where most commercial aircraft fly, the UV level is approximately twice that of the ground," they said.
For the study, Dr. Martina Sanlorenzo of the University of California, San Francisco, and her colleagues pulled data from previous studies that examined rates of melanoma among pilots and cabin crew. The researchers found 19 such studies, which were published between 1990 and 2013, and included more than 266,000 participants altogether.
An analysis of the studies' findings showed that the rate of melanoma is more than double among pilots and cabin crew compared with the general population. Flight-based workers were also 40 percent more likely to die from melanoma compared to the general population, according to the results published today (Sept. 3) in the journal JAMA Dermatology.
Melanoma
Strong Life After Death
Windows XP
When Windows 8 launched in 2012, Microsoft struggled to convince users that they should make the switch. The new UI was unfamiliar and unresponsive, the critical reaction was skeptical at best and most importantly, there wasn't really anything wrong with Windows 7. In fact, two years later, Windows 7 still has an enormous lead over Windows 8, but with the latest software update, Microsoft has finally started turning users around on the new OS.
According to the latest data from StatCounter, Windows 8.1 became the fourth most popular operating system over Windows 8 in August with a 7.46% market share. OS X barely topped out Windows 8.1 with 7.82%, but perhaps unsurprisingly, both were beat out by an OS which was officially retired back in April: Windows XP.
Despite a massive decline since last August, Windows XP still retained a 12.92% share of the global market last month. At this rate, it's going to be a race to see if Windows 8.1 can overtake the dead OS before Windows 9 hits the market within the next few months.
According to Russian hacker group WZOR, Microsoft is planning to introduce a substantial upgrade offer for Windows XP users when Windows 9 comes out in an attempt to lure them away from an operating system which is now more vulnerable than ever to malicious attacks. If Windows 9 is as feature-rich as the leaks have suggested, it might finally be enough to bury Windows XP once and for all.
Windows XP
Prime-Time Nielsens
Ratings
Prime-time viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen for Aug. 25-31. Listings include the week's ranking and viewership.
1. "Emmy Awards," NBC, 15.59 million.
2. "America's Got Talent" (Tuesday), NBC, 9.52 million.
3. "America's Got Talent" (Wednesday, 9 p.m.), NBC, 9.46 million.
4. "NCIS," CBS, 8.99 million.
5. "60 Minutes," CBS, 7.16 million.
6. "Big Brother" (Wednesday,) NBC, 6.88 million.
7. "NCIS: Los Angeles," CBS, 6.71 million.
8. "Under the Dome," CBS, 6.6 million.
9. College Football: Florida St. vs. Oklahoma St., ABC, 6.03 million.
10. "Unforgettable," CBS, 6.02 million.
11. "Big Brother" (Sunday), CBS, 5.86 million.
12. "Big Brother" (Thursday), CBS, 5.7 million.
13. "Blue Bloods," CBS, 5.68 million.
14. "Extant," CBS, 5.67 million.
15. "America's Got Talent" (Wednesday, 8 p.m.), NBC, 5.55 million.
16. "Master Chef," Fox, 5.47 million.
17. "Hawaii Five-0," CBS, 5.22 million.
18. Auto Racing: Sprint Cup, Atlanta, ESPN, 5.21 million.
19. "Rizzoli & Isles," TNT, 5.16 million.
20. "Bachelor in Paradise," ABC, 5.07 million.
Ratings
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