Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: Will China's Economy Hit a Great Wall? (NY Times)
The case for crisis seems compelling - but I said that in 2011, too.
Paul Krugman: What to Expect When You're Expecting Brexit (NY Times)
The thing is, an ugly Brexit should be easily avoidable. If the border infrastructure isn't there, then just postpone the event until it is - or, if that's impossible for some political reason, settle for minimal enforcement, basically a customs union in practice though not in principle, while things get sorted out. And there's no reason not to believe that things will in fact be worked out - no reason, that is, except everything that has happened between Britain and the E.U. so far.
Helaine Olen: Should federal workers walk off the job? (Washington Post)
It says everything about the lowly state of the American worker that it has taken weeks for the idea that federal employees working without pay maybe should refuse to work to begin creeping into our civic discourse.
Helaine Olen: Why Elizabeth Warren turned out to be so likable, after all (Washington Post)
Warren talked about how state laws encourage monopolies in the hearing aid business, running up the price with the result few who need them can afford them. Warren initiated legislation that allows for hearing aids to be sold over the counter, something that will likely reduce the cost by hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars. She followed up with her ongoing struggle to pass a bill that would allow holders of student loan debt to refinance at significantly lower interest rates.
Andrew Tobias: Against a far more powerful adversary, judo master Putin is winning.
Whether Trump is a witting or unwitting Putin tool, he has already done enormous damage.
Alexandra Petri: The dubious splendor of a thousand hamburgers (Washington Post)
This is the frustration of Trump. He is given access to the best of everything and he wants McDonald's. He is given access to the best information and he watches Fox News. It is not the thing itself, but the suspicion that he thinks this is as good as it gets, despite all suggestions to the contrary.
Tom Danehy: Tom has some questions about sports, music and politics. (Tucson Weekly)
It's a New Year and I've got some new questions:
• When the economy is roaring along (as we've been told), why would the stock market go down? It's never been a secret that I prefer real science and math to economics.
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Presenting
Michael Egan
answered:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
from Bruce
Anecdotes
• Eric Carle, author and illustrator of the children's book The Very Hungry Caterpillar, loves animals. He once had a cat named Fifi, and when he was preparing string beans, he noticed that Fifi was deeply interested in the string beans. He threw a string bean down the hall, and Fifi chased it and retrieved it and begged him to throw it again. The game continued until Fifi looked tired to Mr. Carle, and then he stopped throwing the string bean. Fifi took the string bean, put it in one of Mr. Carle's shoes, and then curled around the shoe and took a nap. Each time Mr. Carle prepared string beans they played this game. And once while Mr. Carle and his wife were taking a walk to a park, they came across a turtle that was marching down a concrete sidewalk. Thinking that the sidewalk was no place for a turtle, they picked it up, carried it to the park, and released it. They then enjoyed the park. On their way back home, they came across the turtle, which was again on a sidewalk, walking toward the spot where they had first discovered it. Mr. Carle and his wife looked at each other and smiled. They picked up the turtle, carried it to the place where they had first found it, and put it down on the sidewalk. The turtle then walked to a bush and vanished.
• Eric Carle, author and illustrator of many children's books, observes animals closely. At the zoo, he was watching the penguins and noticed that they were weirdly still and quiet. They were also closely observing something. Mr. Carle looked, and he saw a snake on a rock. Snakes and penguins come from different worlds, and it seemed to Mr. Carle as if the penguins were trying to figure put what a snake was and the snake was trying to figure out what penguins were. Mr. Carle told the zoo director about the snake and discovered that the snake was an escapee. The zoo director told him, "The reptile enclosure is on a different floor and quite a distance from the penguin pen. It's a mystery to me how the snake could get from one to the other." Mr. Carle went with the zoo director to the penguin pen. The zoo director saw the snake, and then he smiled and shook Mr. Carle's hand.
• On September 15, 2007, a bear was walking on the Rainbow Bridge on Highway 40 near Donner Summit in the Sierra Nevada, near Lake Tahoe. Some oncoming cars frightened the bear, and it jumped over the railing and off the side of the bridge, which was 80 feet above ground. Fortunately, it managed to grab a ledge and pull itself to safety on a concrete girder beneath the bridge. Although it was safe, it was also stranded. Officials did not take action that day, but the next day when they saw that the bear was still on the concrete girder, sleeping, they formed and executed a plan. They slung a net beneath the bear, shot the bear with a tranquilizer, and then used poles to shove the bear into the net, which they lowered to the ground. When the bear regained consciousness, it wandered off into the woods.
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© Copyright Bruce D. Bruce; All Rights Reserved
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Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
JD is on vacation.
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
More rain, but it's the last storm o' the week.
Louisville Renames Airport
Muhammad Ali
Louisville visitors will fly "like a butterfly" after the city renames its airport after hometown great Muhammad Ali.
After Wednesday's vote on a recommendation by a working group that studied renaming for more than a year, the city announced the airport will become the Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport, instead of Louisville International Airport.
Heavyweight champion boxer Ali labeled himself "The Greatest of All Time," and was among the most famous and beloved athletes on the planet. Ali was known not only for his athletic prowess but also for his social activism. He died in 2016 after decades with Parkinson's disease.
Ali's widow, Lonnie Ali, expressed her support for the name change: "I am happy that visitors from far and wide who travel to Louisville will have another touch-point to Muhammad and be reminded of his open and inclusive nature, which is reflective of our city."
Though the airport's name will change, the airport's three-letter International Air Transport Association Location Identifier, SDF, will not.
Muhammad Ali
Celebrating 97th Birthday
Betty White
Betty White has become one of America's sweethearts and is beloved by pop culture enthusiasts all over the world. This week, the former Golden Girls star is celebrating her 97th birthday, and she's doing it in style.
TMZ reports that Betty White is planning to ring in another year surrounded by her best friends as she hosts a poker night in honor of her 97th birthday. The Hollywood icon will be hoping for some good luck in the cards on Thursday night as she and her pals gather around the table to place their bets.
According to sources, Betty has had the same circle of poker playing friends for years, and that she's been playing cards with them for decades. So, why should her 97th birthday be any different?
White has always been big on being young at heart, no matter what age she may be, and she's proven that with her comedic roles, sweet gestures, and a life well lived.
Betty was born in 1922 and has enjoyed a career in the entertainment business for eight decades. The former child star made a name for herself by starring on hit shows such as The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Golden Girls, and Hot In Cleveland.
Betty White
Super Bowl
Gladys Knight
Legendary singer Gladys Knight will perform the national anthem before Super Bowl LIII on Feb. 3, the NFL and CBS announced Thursday.
"I am proud to use my voice to unite and represent our country in my hometown of Atlanta," the 74-year-old Knight said.
Knight is enshrined in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and has won seven Grammy awards. She also has had two No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 singles during her career: "Midnight Train to Georgia" and "That's What Friends Are For."
Deaf activist Aarron Loggins will sign both the anthem and "America The Beautiful."
Gladys Knight
Obituary Censorship
Courier Journal
The Louisville Courier Journal apologized to a Kentucky family after the paper refused to run a paid obituary mentioning the dearly departed's less-than-fond feelings about President Donald Trump (R-Compromised).
Frances Irene Finley Williams passed away on Nov. 21 and loved ones said they wanted to make it clear that the 87-year-old believed Trump had a bad impact on her final years.
The homemaker was critical of Trump's temper, immigration policies, views on women's rights and ethical standards, her daughter, Catherine Duff, and son, Art Williams, told NBC News on Thursday.
The family paid their local newspaper, the Courier Journal, $1,684 to publish an obit that Williams' family thought was routine.
"Her passing was hastened by her continued frustration with the Trump administration," the obit said.
The paper balked and said it wouldn't run the submitted obit unless the Trump line was removed.
Courier Journal
Trevor Project
Marlon Bundo
LGBTQ support organization the Trevor Project sent 100 copies of a book about a gay romance between rabbits to the school where Second Lady Karen Pence teaches, according to The Hill. The illustrated book about two gay bunnies, A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo?, was written by a worker for Last Week Tonight with John Oliver and published by the show last year.
The children's book spoofs one created by Karen Pence and her daughter Charlotte, titled Marlon Bundo's A Day in the Life of the Vice President. Oliver's text, which features Marlon Bundo falling in love with a male bunny and the two getting married, takes a jab at Mike Pence's anti-LGBT stances. It depicts the vice president as a stink bug. The proceeds from sales were donated to the Trevor Project and AIDS United, a nonprofit whose "mission is to end the AIDS epidemic in the United States."
Earlier this week, news reports noted that the Second Lady was starting a job at Immanuel Christian School in Northern Virginia.
A parent agreement posted by the school says that it can "refuse admission to an applicant or to discontinue enrollment of a student if the atmosphere or conduct within a particular home, the activities of a parent or guardian, or the activities of the student are counter to, or are in opposition to, the biblical lifestyle the school teaches. This includes, but is not limited to contumacious behavior, divisive conduct, and participating in, supporting, or condoning sexual immorality, homosexual activity or bi-sexual activity, promoting such practices, or being unable to support the moral principles of the school."
Amit Paley, the CEO of the Trevor Project, which offers suicide prevention services for LGBTQ youth, noted in its announcement about the book shipment that "lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth from rejecting families are more than eight times more likely to attempt suicide than their straight peers."
Marlon Bundo
New Way The Human Brain Marks Time
"Curb Your Enthusiasm"
With a little help from HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm," University of California, Irvine neurobiologists have uncovered a key component of how the human brain marks time.
Using high-powered functional MRI on college students watching the popular TV show, they were able to capture the processes by which the brain stores information related to when events happen, or what is known as temporal memory. The study appears in Nature Neuroscience.
The researchers identified a new network of brain regions involved in these processes, confirming in humans the results of rat studies reported last summer by Nobel laureate Edvard Moser and colleagues, who pinpointed the nerve cells in the same areas that give each moment a distinctive signature. A News & Views article in Nature Neuroscience highlights how these findings fit together.
Michael Yassa, director of UC Irvine's Center for the Neurobiology of Learning & Memory and senior author on the study, said the research may further understanding of dementia, as these temporal memory regions are the first to experience age-related deficits and also show some of the first pathological hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease, most notably tangles.
The researchers found that when subjects had more precise answers to questions about what time certain events occurred, they activated a brain network involving the lateral entorhinal cortex and the perirhinal cortex. The team had previously shown that these regions, which surround the hippocampus, are associated with memories of objects or items but not their spatial location. Until now, little had been known about how this network might process and store information about time.
"Curb Your Enthusiasm,"
Top 20
Global Concert Tours
The Top 20 Global Concert Tours ranks artists by average box office gross per city and includes the average ticket price for shows Worldwide. The list is based on data provided to the trade publication Pollstar by concert promoters and venue managers. Week of January 16, 2019:
1. Taylor Swift; $7,548,732; $122.31.
2. Jay-Z / Beyoncé; $6,924,232; $130.85.
3. U2; $5,077,164; $132.53.
4. Ed Sheeran; $4,772,081; $92.06.
5. Drake; $3,971,659; $114.95.
6. Bruno Mars; $3,669,353; $139.73.
7. Eagles; $3,518,043; $176.21.
8. Roger Waters; $3,237,377; $72.42.
9. Elton John; $2,634,281; $131.95.
10. "Springsteen On Broadway"; $2,131,481; $509.07.
11. Metallica; $2,102,667; $127.46.
12. Justin Timberlake; $2,093,349; $125.21.
13. Phil Collins; $2,092,876; $150.65.
14. Journey / Def Leppard; $1,865,317; $102.49.
15. Fleetwood Mac; $1,686,299; $131.75.
16. Maroon 5; $1,457,314; $103.96.
17. Luis Miguel; $1,432,395; $103.23.
18. Sam Smith; $1,389,724; $101.92.
19. Marc Anthony; $1,271,766; $102.29.
20. Paul Simon; $1,221,189; $109.67.
Global Concert Tours
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