Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Pick Out Your Favorite Car Magnet (Barackobama.com)
Everyone appreciates options. Any one of these Obama 2012 car magnets makes for a stylish ride. And they look great on the fridge, too. Made in America. Donate $10 or more today and we'll send you your favorite.
Republican Logic, Applied to Water Safety (Joeydevilla.com)
"If you were forcibly pushed into the water, don't worry. If it was a legitimate pushing, your body will find a way to shut out the water and survive the drowning."
Paul Krugman: Obstruct and Exploit (New York Times)
Think of it as a two-part strategy. First, obstruct any and all efforts to strengthen the economy, then exploit the economy's weakness for political gain. If this strategy sounds cynical, that's because it is. Yet it's the G.O.P.'s best chance for victory in November.
Paul Krugman: Revenge of the Three-Legged Stool (New York Times)
So, does Romney think we're stupid? Hey, he also thinks we'll buy into his promises to slash taxes by $5 trillion but make up the revenue by closing unspecified loopholes in a way that doesn't raise taxes on the middle class - which turns out to be arithmetically impossible. So the answer is, yes, he thinks we're stupid.
Mark Shields: Third Term Anyone? (Creators Syndicate)
In his convention speech, Bill Clinton did something rare in U.S. politics: He treated his audience like they were grown-ups capable of understanding policy and able to process political arguments he frames that rise above the intellectual level of a bumper sticker or a wall poster. He even commended - by name and for cause - Republican presidents who had used government to bring justice and progress to the nation's people.
Dalya Alberge: "Untouchable: how did a French comedy about disability become a global hit?" (Guardian)
After "The Artist" comes yet another unlikely box-office smash from France. The people behind it reveal why they think it captured audiences' hearts around the world.
Iain M Banks: Science fiction is no place for dabblers (Guardian)
The very fact that entirely respectable writers occasionally feel drawn to write what is perfectly obviously science fiction - regardless of either their own protestations or those of their publishers - shows that a further dialogue between genres is possible, especially if we concede that literary fiction may be legitimately regarded as one as well.
Roger Ebert: "Toronto #1: Good films are back in season"
The Toronto Film Festival is universally considered the opening of Academy Awards season, and the weary moviegoer, drained after a summer of exhausted superheroes and franchises, plunges in it with joy. I've been attending since 1977, and have watched it grow from a bootstrap operation, with the schedule improvised from day to day, into one of the big four (with Cannes, Venice and Berlin).
LIZZIE WIDDICOMBE: TEEN TITAN (New Yorker)
The man who made Justin Bieber.
David Bruce's Amazon Author Page
David Bruce's Lulu Storefront
David Bruce's Smashwords Page
David Bruce's Blog
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."
"Doug's Most Shared Facebook Post" Today
wrote:
answered:
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Bosko Suggests
Star-Shaped Forts
Have a great day,
Bosko.
Thanks, Bosko!
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Reader Comment
Sept.11th
Conan O'Brien
"Serious Jibber-Jabber"
Conan conducted a serious, 48-minute web-only interview with presidential biographer Edmund Morris.
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Too hot to be pleasant.
Most 'Dangerous' Cyber Celebrity
Emma Watson
Emma Watson is the favorite celebrity bait for cyber criminals trying to lure Internet users.
McAfee said Monday that the "Harry Potter" star is the "most dangerous" celebrity to search for online. That's because many sites use Watson to trick users into downloading malicious software or to steal personal information.
When searching for the 22-year-old Watson, there's a one-in-eight chance of landing on a malicious site.
This is the sixth time the Intel-owned security technology company has conducted the study, which was last year topped by Heidi Klum. Female celebrities are far more likely to be utilized by cyber criminals: late-night host Jimmy Kimmel was the only male in the top 20.
Others among the riskiest celebrities to search online are Jessica Biel, Eva Mendes, Selena Gomez and Halle Berry.
Emma Watson
It's Called Sarcasm
Nicki Minaj
It's official: Nicki Minaj did not endorse Mitt Romney in a recent rap.
The flamboyant rapper confirmed Monday on Twitter that she was taking literary license when she referenced the Republican nominee for president. Some took her words to mean she was backing President Barack Obama's opponent.
Not Obama, though, who told radio station WPYO-FM in Orlando, Fla., that he didn't think it was a Romney plug, adding: "She likes to play different characters."
In her tweet, Minaj thanked Obama for understanding "my creative humor and sarcasm," then noted: "the smart ones always do ... (asterisk)sends love & support."
Nicki Minaj
Fest Held Despite Pressure
Pussy Riot
A music festival to support jailed members of the Russian band Pussy Riot went forward despite official pressure to cancel it, organizers said Monday.
Olga Kurnosova said city officials had tried to force her to stop Sunday's show in St. Petersburg - President Vladimir Putin's hometown - and firefighters had threatened to close down the Glavklub hall, claiming safety violations ahead of the concert.
About 1,000 people attended the "Free Pussy Riot Fest" headlined by the Russian rock protest bands DDT and Televizor, whose songs have long riled Soviet authorities and Putin's Kremlin.
Proceeds from the show will be donated to Pussy Riot and other activists in jail under Putin, organizers said.
Pussy Riot
Visits Jordan
Angelina Jolie
The U.N. refugee agency says its special envoy, actress Angelina Jolie, is in Jordan to visit Syrians who fled the civil war in their country.
UNHCR spokesman Ali Bebe says the Hollywood star arrived Monday and is to visit Jordan's first tent city for Syrian refugees on Tuesday morning.
Jolie will be accompanied by U.N. refugee chief Antonio Guterres and Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh on the visit to the Zatari camp, which hosts about 27,000 Syrians displaced by the 18-month conflict.
The UNHCR in April promoted Jolie from serving as its goodwill ambassador to special envoy due to her work for the agency. Jolie has contributed $5 million to U.N. efforts aiding refugees worldwide.
Angelina Jolie
Makes Pop History At Paris Opera
George Michael
Singer George Michael has become the first international popstar to perform in Paris' Opera Garnier, a venue more known as a stage for classical music and opera.
The British star performed Sunday evening, as part of his "Symphonica Tour," to support French AIDS charity Sidaction. He was cheered on by a roll call of celebrities including "The Artist" actress Berenice Bejo, fashion designer Jean Paul Gaultier and Charlie Chaplin's actress granddaughter Dolores Chaplin.
The concert was followed by a star-studded gala dinner which hoped to raise several hundred thousand euros for the fight against AIDS.
George Michael
Wedding News
Lively - Reynolds
Ryan Reynolds wed Blake Lively in Mount Pleasant, S.C., on Sunday night at Boone Hall Plantation, according to a person familiar with the ceremony who requested anonymity because that person wasn't authorized to speak on the matter.
While it is Lively's first marriage, Reynolds was previously wed to Scarlett Johansson. Their divorce was finalized last summer after three years of marriage.
Lively and Reynolds both starred in last year's "Green Lantern." Lively was previously linked to her "Gossip Girl" co-star Penn Badgley and to Leonardo DiCaprio.
Lively - Reynolds
Loses Claim Vs Warhol Over Banana
Velvet Underground
A federal judge has dismissed part of The Velvet Underground's lawsuit accusing the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts of violating its rights to an iconic banana image used on the rock band's best-known album.
While Velvet Underground's trademark case remains untouched, U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan in Manhattan rejected its request for a court order that the Warhol Foundation had no copyright claim to the banana image.
Nathan said the Warhol Foundation's agreement not to sue for copyright infringement over Velvet Underground's use of the image eliminated any copyright dispute for her to resolve, according to a decision released Friday evening.
Velvet Underground sued in January for damages and an injunction after reading about plans by the Warhol Foundation to license the banana image for cases, sleeves and bags for Apple Inc's iPhone and iPad.
Velvet Underground
$20M In Slander Case
Steve Wynn
A jury on Monday awarded casino mogul Steve Wynn $20 million in his slander case against "Girls Gone Wild" founder Joe Francis, who claimed the creator of some of Las Vegas' most upscale resorts threatened to kill him over a gambling debt.
Witnesses disputed Francis' claims during a four-day trial, including Grammy winning record producer Quincy Jones, who Francis said told him about Wynn's threats and showed him a stack of emails that contained them.
In siding with Wynn, the jury determined that there was clear and convincing evidence that Francis slandered the casino mogul and knew his allegations were false when he made them. Francis had claimed Wynn threatened to hit him over the head with a shovel and have him buried in the desert.
Neither Wynn nor Francis was present in court Monday morning when the verdict was read.
Wynn's attorney on Friday had asked the panel to award the billionaire $12 million plus punitive damages to send a message that false statements that travel far in the Internet age will not be tolerated. A second phase of the trial to decide punitive damages will begin on Tuesday.
Steve Wynn
Pleads Guilty
Jarrod Wyatt
A northern California man accused of ripping out the heart and tongue of a friend after the two had taken hallucinogenic drugs has pleaded guilty to murder, four days before his case was set to go to trial.
Jarrod Wyatt, 29, of Crescent City, Calif. accepted a plea deal in which he will serve a 50-years-to-life prison sentence in the March 2010 death of his sparring partner, 21-year-old Taylor Powell, Del Norte County prosecutors told The Associated Press.
Police officers discovered Wyatt naked and covered in blood head-to-toe when they arrived at a house in Requa, Calif., in March 2010.
Powell's body was found by officers on the couch. His chest had been cut open, while his heart, tongue and the skin of his face was removed. Court documents say that Powell's heart and tongue had been removed while he was still alive.
The two had ingested hallucinogenic mushrooms before Wyatt attacked and killed Powell, according to witnesses. While intoxicated, the two believed that they were involved in a struggle between God and the devil. Powell's heart was discovered by police charred in a wood-burning stove, Dr. Neil Kushner, who performed the autopsy, told The Times Standard.
Jarrod Wyatt
Web Outage
GoDaddy
Thousands and possibly millions of websites hosted by GoDaddy.com went down for several hours on Monday, causing trouble for the mainly small businesses that rely on the service.
A Twitter feed that claimed to be affiliated with the "Anonymous" hacker group said it was behind the outage, but this couldn't be confirmed. Another Twitter account, known to be associated with Anonymous, suggested the first one was just taking advantage of an outage it had nothing to do with.
GoDaddy spokeswoman Elizabeth Driscoll said the outage began shortly after 1 p.m. EDT. By around 5:50 p.m. EDT, the GoDaddy.com website and sites hosted by the company were back up and running. Driscoll had said the company was investigating the cause.
GoDaddy.com hosts more than 5 million websites, mostly for small businesses. Websites that were complaining on Twitter about outages included MixForSale.com, which sells accessories with Japanese animation themes, and YouWatch.org, a video-sharing site.
GoDaddy
Ancient Eskimo Village Discovered
Nunalleq
BBC reports that a 500-year old Alaskan Eskimo settlement was recently discovered eroding from under the permafrost, and it's giving researchers the ability to study a culture that went through its own dramatic climate change centuries ago.
Researchers report that under the frozen site are the ancient ruins belonging to the Yup'ik Eskimo society. The Yup'ik?which are still represented in Alaska today?were one of the last Eskimo societies to be contacted, and in their heyday, were among the Arctic's most powerful and well-represented cultures.
The University of Aberdeen has been rescuing thousands of artifacts from the site, most of which are characterized as "exquisitely preserved" after centuries of being encased in frost. They include everything one would expect from village life including animal furs, woven grass, figurines and even human hair.
The site is known as Nunalleq and is believed to have been inhabited between AD 1350 and AD 1650. During that time, the area reportedly suffered what's termed as "The Little Ice Age." In contrast to our climate issues, the Yup'ik were subjected to rapidly falling temperatures and expanding ice caps.
Nunalleq
In Memory
Mario Armond Zamparelli
Internationally renowned artist Mario Armond Zamparelli, best known for creating the distinctive logos and images for reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes' many companies, has died at age 81.
Zamparelli's daughter Marisa Zamparelli tells The Associated Press the artist died Saturday at a Southern California hospital.
During an 18-year association with Hughes, Zamparelli created corporate designs, images, logos and posters for the billionaire's airlines, Las Vegas casinos, his movie studio and other holdings.
Among them were the bright yellow, mini-skirted uniforms Hughes Airwest famously decked out its female flight attendants in in the 1970s
Zamparelli, who began his career as an illustrator, also did numerous oil paintings.
Among them is what is believed to be the only authorized portrait Hughes sat for.
Mario Armond Zamparelli
In Memory
Ron Taylor
Ron Taylor, a beloved Australian marine conservationist who helped film some of the terrifying underwater footage used in the classic shark thriller "Jaws," has died after a long battle with cancer, a close family friend said Monday. He was 78.
Taylor, who had suffered from leukemia for two years, died on Sunday at a hospital in Sydney, said Andrew Fox, who worked with Taylor on shark conservation efforts for decades.
Fox said Taylor had mixed feelings about his work on "Jaws," which terrified beachgoers but ultimately helped draw attention to the intimidating yet often threatened animals.
Taylor and his wife, Valerie, spent years filming great white sharks and trying to persuade a wary public that the much-feared creatures were beautiful animals worthy of respect. Their stunning up-close images of sharks drew the attention of "Jaws" director Steven Spielberg, who asked the couple to capture footage of a great white for his 1975 blockbuster.
The Taylors shot much of the now-classic sequence in which the shark tears apart a cage holding one of the main characters.
They filmed off South Australia, using a miniature shark-proof cage with a very short diver inside in an attempt to make the real sharks look as large as the 25-foot mechanical shark used in the movie. While filming, a great white became tangled in the shark cage's cables and began thrashing violently as it tried to escape.
Fox's father, Rodney Fox, who famously survived a near-fatal great white shark attack in 1963, assisted on the shoot. Andrew Fox said both men were affected by criticism that the movie reinforced the notion that great whites were death machines. ("It is as if God created the devil and gave him - JAWS," the narrator in the film's theatrical trailer warned in an ominous voice.)
"That's something that Dad and Ron talked about a lot along with (late Jaws author) Peter Benchley," Andrew Fox said. "All of them ... felt a sense of shame, in a way, that they made so many people terrified of sharks and going in the water."
But in later years, Fox said, they came to realize that "it's actually the movie 'Jaws' that spawned people wanting to learn about great whites."
Taylor, a Sydney native, had a long love affair with the ocean but started out as a spearfisherman. In the 1950s, he had a change of heart in the midst of a spearfishing competition.
"I just thought, 'What am I doing down here killing these poor, defenseless marine creatures?'" he told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. in 2005. "So I just packed up, went home - didn't even weigh my fish in - and never went back to another spearfishing competition."
He and Valerie went on to shoot several documentaries, including "Shark Hunters" and the TV series "Inner Space," narrated by William Shatner. In "Operation Shark Bite," Valerie wears a chain mail suit the couple designed to ward off damage from shark attacks, escaping without injury despite sharks chewing on her arm. (The suit was too small for Ron.)
In 2003, Taylor was named a Member of the Order of Australia, one of Australia's highest civilian honors, for his conservation work. Valerie received the same honor in 2010.
Taylor is survived by his wife.
Ron Taylor
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