Blog Heap of Links for the day 3 June 2012

…the new communist leaders realized the propaganda value of the “napalm girl” in the photo…. She was forced to quit college and was trotted out to meet foreign journalists. The visits were monitored and controlled, her words scripted. “I wanted to escape that picture,” she said. “I became another kind of victim.”

The "word" on Richard Dawson, who has died at the age of 79, is that he set out to be Peter Sellers or Jack Lemmon and was frustrated that he wound up being Bill Cullen…. I had one brief (very brief) encounter with Mr. Dawson around 1983…. [I knew turning to ME for this would be the right link to do.]

The legendary Dick Beals — a star of radio, cartoons and more commercials than just about anyone — has died in a Southern California nursing home at the age of 85.

Doc Watson, who died Tuesday at age 89, never had a hit record, and none of his albums ever went gold. This truth, a shame considering his talent, his influence on the guitar and the beauty of his dynamic baritone, should serve as inspiration to any musician interested in the long game, in making music that endures not because of its shock value or its keen marketplace vision but because within its measured tones lies universal truth.

The cross-country cycling trip started last October in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, to raise money and awareness for the ASPCA and local shelters. Ted bikes, while his cat Pikachu ("Pika" to his friends) rides behind in a covered, secure cat shelter…. Back on the road this month, Ted and Pika will make their way with the help of friends, old and new. Just a few days ago via Instagram, Ted posted a map and an upbeat plea for shelter on the road. "Do you know anyone along this route? This is the path I'm taking north into Colorado, if you know anyone I could stay with on the way, hit me up!"

Let's put it this way: if you can build a $100 billion company by using the Internet to replace the college yearbook--imagine what you can do if you use the Internet to replace college. That's what is just beginning to happen. It all became official when the Massachusetts Institute of Technology appointed as its new president the guy who is responsible for MITx, the school's free online education program.

Louisiana… preparing to shift tens of millions in tax dollars out of the public schools to pay private industry, businesses owners and church pastors to educate children.