Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: Those Revolting Europeans (New York Times)
The French are revolting. The Greeks, too. And it's about time.
Amy Sutherland: Paul Krugman: Economist and sci-fi buff (Boston Globe)
I was never into novels much. It was probably a source of pleasure that I missed, and then as you get older it's harder to go out of your comfort zone. And now reading is less of an escape for me, especially since I've learned how to find concerts on YouTube. I'll sit down and say, '"Do I want to read a book or do I want to watch a Peter Gabriel concert from 1993?'' I want to watch the Peter Gabriel concert.
SHANKAR VEDANTAM: Put Away The Bell Curve: Most Of Us Aren't 'Average' (NPR)
"We looked at researchers, we looked at entertainers, we looked at politicians, and we looked at collegiate as well as professional athletes," Aguinis said in an interview. "In each of these kinds of industries, we found that a small minority of superstar performers contribute a disproportionate amount of the output."
Brian Palmer: Was Edvard Munch a One-Hit Wonder? (Slate)
Plus: What's so great about 'The Scream,' anyway?
James Sturm: Why I'm Boycotting 'The Avengers' (Slate)
Because Jack Kirby has never been given the credit he's due.
Evan Sawdey: "20 Questions: Fionn Regan" (Guardian)
The Mercury Music Prize-nominated folk artist Fionn Regan has lead a lot of living in a very short while, and while his new album has been getting raves, it's here that he reveals a strong affinity for Dylan Thomas, how his stabs at art are very much informed by his love of music, and why he might be "cruising for a bruising" in those oxblood Doc Martens ...
Roger Ebert: The Perfect Audience
In a back row of the Virginia Theater in Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, you will see a raised platform just the right size to hold a reclining chair. This is my throne at Ebertfest. Because of havoc wrought by surgery to my back and right shoulder, I cannot sit comfortably in an ordinary chair. Here I recline at the side of my bride, looking upon the packed houses.
Roger Ebert: Review of "Bernie" (3 ½ stars; rated R)
I would buy a used coffin from this man. In Richard Linklater's droll comedy "Bernie," Jack Black plays an East Texas funeral director named Bernie Tiede, and it is surely one of the performances of the year. I had to forget what I knew about Black. He creates this character out of thin air, it's like nothing he's done before, and it proves that an actor can be a miraculous thing in the right role.
Customer Reviews: Veet for Men Hair Removal Gel Creme 200 ml (UK Amazon)
Being a loose cannon who does not play by the rules the first thing I did was ignore the warning and smear this all over my knob and bollocks. The bollocks I knew and loved are gone now. In their place is a maroon coloured bag of agony which sends stabs of pain up my body every time it grazes against my thigh or an article of clothing. I am suffering so that you don't have to. Heed my lesson. DO NOT PUT ON KNOB AND BOLLOCKS. (I am giving this product a 5 because despite the fact that I think my bollocks might fall off, they are now completely hairless.)
Jon Bream: Bird-loving singer of Florence + the Machine has seen her career soar (Star Tribune (Minneapolis)
Like Adele, she's tall and British, with a big voice and a singular name. Like Adele, she's scored two hit albums. But, unlike Ms. Rolling in the Deep, the frontwoman of Florence + the Machine may be one of the hardest-gigging women on either side of the Atlantic.
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
Sunny with a nice breeze.
US TV Licenses Safe
Rupert
Rupert Murdoch faces limited risk of losing News Corp's broadcast permits in America, even amid screaming headlines in Britain that the media mogul is unfit to run a major company.
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has the power to deny a license renewal if it finds the license is not being used by people of good "character" who will serve "the public interest."
But former FCC officials and other experts say the agency has been loath to use that power in the past, and is highly unlikely to challenge News Corp's 27 Fox U.S. television licenses despite calls from a Washington-based ethics watchdog to do so.
"As a result of Reagan-era deregulation and broadcaster-friendly legislation in 1996, it is very, very hard for the FCC to take away a license," said communications lawyer Andrew Schwartzman.
Murdoch is no stranger to tussles with the FCC. He battled the agency in the mid-1990s over whether his TV stations were actually foreign-owned.
The Australian-born Murdoch took purchased a special act of Congress to attain U.S. citizenship in 1985 to meet FCC rules requiring U.S. broadcasters be controlled by U.S. nationals. But the rules also stipulate that only 25 percent of a U.S. TV station can be owned by foreign investors.
Rupert
Shame on anyone who thinks any of Mr. Murdoch's US media entities would ever engage in the corporate-wide-and-board-approved actions
of his British operations.
Nah, entirely different corporate mentality.
They'd never transfer anyone from the London office stateside, well, except for James Murdoch, who rode herd on the hacking.
Nah, no way they'd ever hack or tap anybody here.
Super-patriot Rupert, who obeys all the laws, really knows what is best for all of us.
Of course, there's currently no hint of too much foreign ownership, either - well, since they've negated a nice chunk of voting stock owned by non-citizens a couple of weeks ago.
Nothing to see here, citizen. Move along.
By Julia Ioffe
Vladimir the Unstable
On Monday, just before noon, Vladimir Putin will get into a black limousine with black windows, and, flanked by a flock of cops on motorcycles -- his cavalry -- sweep into the city from the west, through empty, ghostly streets. He'll pass St. Basil's iconic domes, and drive through the Spassky Gate of the Kremlin walls, step out of the limo onto a red carpet -- the first proof that he was in that car at all -- salute the guards and go inside, to a grand, chandeliered room, where he will take the oath of office. He will have performed this ritual for the third time.
There will be no cheering crowds, no waving flags along his route. Instead, the images the world will see of Putin's inauguration will be the walk down the opulent hall, the man with his hand on the Russian constitution, and the violent protests of the previous afternoon. We'll see the images that, in the era of Twitter and Facebook, have become instantly iconic: the black police batons slicing over the barricades and through the smoke to hack at protesters; the police special forces officer dragging a young woman by her neck; the police officer huffing after battle, his face streaming with blood. We'll see the videos of the rocks flying and the bottles flying and the smoke bombs flying and the batons raining down on people's kidneys. We'll see the photos of toppled port-a-potties serving as makeshift barricades, of kicking young men, bellies and rumps exposed, being dragged by the police into waiting armored incarceration vans.
What the world won't see is the peaceful, buoyant march down Bolshaya Yakimanka Street, just south of the Kremlin, which brought out at least 70,000 people on a day when many Muscovites had abandoned the city for the holiday weekend. They chanted "Russia without Putin!" and carried the witty posters that have marked this winter's protest movement. It was a largely pointless event: Aided by fraud or not, Putin had already won, and won in a landslide. Everything he's done and said in the last five months indicates that the man is not looking for an exit strategy. He will try his damndest to serve the full, six-year term -- at least. During his recent address to the Russian parliament last month, his last as prime minister, someone asked Putin if it wouldn't be a bad idea to strike "in a row" from the Russian constitution. That formulation is what necessitated the elaborate loop-de-loop of Putin stepping down to become prime minister for four years, while a seat-warmer named Dmitry Medvedev tried to make Russians and the rest of the world believe that he wasn't really a seat warmer. "I think it's reasonable," Putin said in response to the tee-ball suggestion. "We should probably think about it."
And yet on Sunday, people came out in droves. "I'd be ashamed not to go," one young woman told me. "My grandchildren will ask me, 'And what did you do when this was happening in Russia?' I had to go so that I wouldn't be embarrassed by my answer." An older woman, a semi-retired courier missing most of her teeth said, "If not me, who? You get it." The point was to show Putin that, on the eve of his sumptuous, champagne-soaked inauguration, as another young protester told me, "He may have won, but he didn't win. He didn't win us."
When the cheering, chanting, motley phalanx -- of hipsters, nationalists, anarchists, pensioners, and the middlest of the middle class -- finished its parade route, it found its way onto Bolotnaya Square -- the site of the day's rally, as well as of two previous such events -- was blocked by a column of OMON special police, and a column of the radical Left Front activists. The corridor to get to Bolotanaya shrank steadily, especially when Sergei Udaltsov, the Left Front leader and organizer of the protest, called for a sit-in with anti-corruption crusader Alexey Navalny. People didn't have a chance to sit for long. In an instant, there was shoving and pushing and the people who had just been sitting were up, elbowing and screaming in panic. It was all downhill from there: the smoke bombs, the rocks, the glass bottles, the tear gas, the blood, the spreading of violence into the surrounding streets as nationalists and anarchists went chanting down the avenues, and the police chased them into cafes and metro stations to twist them into headlocks and into overflowing police vans.
Vladimir the Unstable
Talking Retirement
Alex Trebek
What is "two"?
This is the number of years Alex Trebek may have left as the host of "Jeopardy," he told Fox News' Chris Wallace. Trebek, 71, says he has been "thinking about retiring" after 28 years with the game show phenomenon.
Trebek said he may spend his remaining years on charity work. He is active with the humanitarian group World Vision and has embarked on several U.S.O. tour to support troops overseas.
"But I'm torn because I enjoy doing the show so much," he told Wallace. "A lot of people have been telling me, 'Alex, you've got to go for at least 30. You've just done 28. Now, at least do two more.' So that has a nice ring to it. Put in your 30 and go help people."
Alex Trebek
High-Tech Spying
Big Brother
One of the running jokes in the 1980s was how the former Soviet Union spied on its private citizens. As comedian Yakov Smirnoff used to joke: "In Soviet Russia, TV watches you!" But here in America, we were all safe from the prying eyes of the government.
Fast forward to 2012, when the U.S. government actually has the tools and capabilities to spy on all its citizens. These eyes go well beyond red light cameras. Right now, the government is tracking the movements of private citizens by GPS, reading private citizens' emails, and possibly even reading what you're saying on Facebook. It does so all in the name of law enforcement and Homeland Security, of course - but whether or not that makes you feel safer is up to you.
Many of us are aware that little of what we say on social networks is really private. But you'd think your emails would be safe from prying eyes - especially those of your government. Not so, once the government completes work on a top-secret Utah data center reportedly built to spy on civilian communications .
The $2 billion facility, slated to be complete by September 2013, is allegedly designed to be able to filter through yottabytes (10^24 bytes) of data. Put into perspective, that's greater than the estimated total of all human knowledge since the dawn of mankind. If leaked information about the complex is correct, nothing will be safe from the facility's reach, from cell phone communications to emails to what you just bought with your credit card. And encryption won't protect you - one of the facility's priorities is breaking even the most complex of codes.
For more - Big Brother
Settles NYC Child Support Fight
Linda Evangelista
In the midst of a trial that brought tales of the high life and high fashion to family court, supermodel Linda Evangelista and a billionaire French businessman have reached an agreement to end their child support fight, their lawyers said Monday.
Evangelista, Francois-Henri Pinault and their attorneys were mum about the details, which they planned to give to a magistrate on Tuesday.
The settlement came in the midst of a trial over how much, if anything, Pinault should pay toward the care of their 5-year-old son. Pinault is the CEO of a company that owns Gucci, Yves St. Laurent and other top-flight fashion lines; he's now married to actress Salma Hayek.
Both Pinault and Evangelista had testified at the trial, answering questions that delved into her career, his high-flying finances and his limited relationship with the boy. Evangelista had been due to continue testifying Monday.
The two sides negotiated all weekend and into Monday morning, according to a person familiar with the negotiations. The person spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private talks.
Linda Evangelista
2 Women Battle Over Estate
Gary Coleman
Gary Coleman's ex-wife wants a judge to award her the child TV star's estate.
Shannon Price testified Monday in 4th District Court that even though the two divorced in 2008, they kept living together and presented themselves to the public as married until his death May 28, 2010.
The "Diff'rent Strokes" actor was taken off life support after suffering a head injury in a fall at his home, according to a copy of his death certificate in court records. He was 42.
Another woman, Anna Gray, says Coleman named her a beneficiary and executor of his estate in 2005. Gray managed Coleman's affairs for a number of years and was his ex-girlfriend.
The trial started Monday and was to continue Tuesday.
Gary Coleman
Arrested For DUI
Matthew Fox
Actor Matthew Fox, star of the television series "Lost," has been charged with drunken driving in Oregon.
Police in Bend say the 45-year-old who lives in the Central Oregon city was stopped early Friday after an officer noticed a motorist failing to signal properly or stay within a lane of traffic.
During the stop, the officer decided Fox was driving under the influence and took him to the Deschutes County Jail.
Fox was released Friday after he was booked into custody. He has a court appearance scheduled for June 17.
Matthew Fox
Missing Hollywood Executive
Gavin Smith
The son of a Hollywood studio executive who has been missing for a week said Monday that his father had not used his cellphone or credit cards, leaving no clues to his disappearance.
Gavin Smith, a 57-year-old film distribution executive for 20th Century Fox, was last seen on Tuesday night driving away from a friend's house in the community of Oak Park, north of Los Angeles, in his black Mercedes.
Police have issued a missing person bulletin for Smith - also known for playing on UCLA's 1975 national championship basketball team under legendary coach John Wooden - and asked for the public's help in finding him.
Evan Smith, a forward for the University of Southern California basketball team, said family members have since been unable to "ping" the missing man's cellphone, which appears to be off, and that his credit cards have not been used since Tuesday night.
Gavin Smith
Conservatives Love Censorship
"America's Got Talent"
A conservative television watchdog group has urged advertisers to boycott hit TV show "America's Got Talent", saying the addition of shock jock Howard Stern to the panel of judges will "likely result in a sharp increase in explicit content."
A week before Stern makes his debut on the NBC show, the Parents Television Council (PTC) said on Monday it had written to 91 companies who have previously run commercials or sponsored "America's Got Talent" asking them to place their ads elsewhere.
The PTC said Stern, a radio DJ with satellite broadcaster SiriusXM, has a reputation for "sleaze and misogyny" and a "decades-long penchant for profanity."
"The risk of associating your hard-earned corporate brand image with such 'shock' is not worth the cost involved - a cost not just in terms of wasted media dollars, but also in terms of countless millions of dollars in customer goodwill," PTC president Tim Winter wrote in the letter.
"America's Got Talent"
Cello Broken In Accident
Stradivarius
A Stradivarius cello housed at the Spanish Royal Palace was broken in an accident, an official said Monday. The instrument could be worth more than $20 million.
A National Heritage official declined to specify what went wrong. She refused to comment on an El Mundo newspaper report that the instrument fell off a table during a photo session. She confirmed it happened about three weeks ago. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in line with department policy.
The damage sustained: a piece that joins the neck of the 17th-century instrument to the body of it broke and fell off the rest of the cello. That piece was not original but rather a replacement installed in the 19th century.
The official said the cello can and will be repaired.
The heritage official declined to say how much the cello was worth. She said it was part of a set of instruments - two violins and a viola were the others - that were known as "the Quartet." They got this name because they were commissioned at the same time.
in Spain - Yahoo! News
Stradivarius
Daddy's Elegant Dinners
Oh, Silvio
Young women simulated oral sex with a Greek statue at a party hosted by former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, a witness said on Monday at a trial where he is accused of paying for sex with an underage prostitute.
Chiara Danese, a 20-year-old beauty contest winner, had tears in her eyes as she told a Milan court that Berlusconi asked the women to play sex games with a nude statue of the ancient fertility god Priapus.
"He touched the girls while they simulated oral sex with the statue," she said.
"Then Berlusconi, whom the girls called 'daddy' and he called 'my babies', also had them kiss him in his private parts. The girls meanwhile chanted 'thank God for Silvio'. I and (fellow guest) Ambra were shocked."
Berlusconi, who denies the charges, says he was only helping the young women out of generosity and accuses magistrates of mounting a politically biased campaign against him. He says his parties were "elegant, convivial dinners".
Oh, Silvio
In Memory
Michael "Iron Man" Burks
Alligator Records says Arkansas bluesman Michael "Iron Man" Burks has died after collapsing at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. He was 54.
The record label says Burks collapsed Sunday after returning from a European tour. He was pronounced dead at an Atlanta hospital. A spokesman for the record label says Burks died of a heart attack.
Born in Milwaukee in 1957, Burks moved with his family to Camden, Ark., in the early 1970s. He and his father built Camden's Bradley Ferry Country Club, a 300-seat juke joint that hosted blues and R&B performers.
He released three albums with Chicago-based Alligator Records and headlined blues festivals worldwide. Burks was well known at the King Biscuit Blues Festival in Helena-West Helena.
Michael "Iron Man" Burks
| CURRENT MOON lunar phases |
