Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: Trumpfrastructure Is a Scam (NY Times Blog)
What this means is that we aren't talking about a program to build infrastructure so much as a plan to convert what should have been public projects into private ventures, presumably with big tax breaks.
Nesrine Malik: Trump has lowered the bar so far we'll need a submarine and a digger to find it (New Statesman)
Who gets a cheer for keeping Guantanamo Bay open?
Tom Danehy: Kids These Days (Tucson Weekly)
I want to tell you about this kid named Emily. She's a special kid, but she also represents what could turn out to be a special generation. Emily the Person is a tough kid-strong-willed, opinionated and completely unafraid to speak her mind.
George Steinmetz: Photos of Africa, taken from a lawn chair (Ted)
George Steinmetz's spectacular photos show Africa from the air, taken from the world's slowest, lightest aircraft. Join Steinmetz to discover the surprising historical, ecological and sociopolitical patterns that emerge when you go low and slow in a flying lawn chair.
John Harris: The punk rock internet - how DIY rebels are working to replace the tech giants (The Guardian)
Around the world, a handful of visionaries are plotting an alternative online future. Is it really possible to remake the internet in a way that's egalitarian, decentralised and free of snooping?
Jake Nevins: Just another pretty face: should Hollywood stop giving bad guys a face-lift? (The Guardian)
Casting glamorous actors as killers, cult leaders and disgraced skaters they do not physically resemble is problematic.
Lindy West: Why We Need More 'Ugly' People On TV (Jezebel)
Because I am the most tedious person in the history of dad's-girlfriends, the other day I found myself yelling at a 12-year-old girl, "'UGLY' IS A CONSTRUCT." (Past good-time hits have included, "ALL BODIES ARE GOOD BODIES," "NEUTRALITY HELPS THE OPPRESSOR," "NO, THE PRETTY LITTLE LIARS MAIN CAST ISN'T MOSTLY WHITE 'BECAUSE NO BLACK PEOPLE TRIED OUT,'" and "[an entire rush hour commute on the school-to-prison pipeline].") She rolled her eyes at me magnificently-in top pre-teen form-but upgraded the boy she'd been grousing about from "ugly" to "just not as cute as everyone thinks." I took it as a win. Nailed it.
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Presenting
Michael Egan
took the day off.
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Reader Comment
Current Events
Ewww!
Kiss me, Daddy!
My speculation--it's not Nikki Haley that Predator is having an affair with but Dumbbunny Hope Hicks:
She's not above having affairs with rich, older, married men (Lewandowski). As that affair ended, Predator told her she was the best piece of tail Lewandowski would ever have, (Envy? Come on line?) Everyone says he treats her like a daughter. He has said wildly inappropriate, sexual stuff about Ivanka. So Ivanka is the WH "wife" and he's having an affair with Dumbbunny Hicks right under Melanoma's nose. Power and money win again, And she's so smitten that he won't even have to pay her hush money. Wolff, in Fire & Fury, said her family is worried about her --that's it's like she has fallen prey to a cult.
When she said the emails wouldn't come out, she didn't mean SHE would do anything (she's not smart enough to do that--NO one anywhere I've read has called her smart--naive, but not smart) but that she thought (wrongly) that Daddy or his minions would see that they never came out. (And can't you just hear her call him that in intimate moments? Ohh, DADDY!)
Linda >^..^<
We are all only temporarily able bodied.
Thanks, Linda!
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
from Marc Perkel
Marc's Guide to Curing Cancer
So far so good on beating cancer for now. I'm doing fine. At the end of the month I'll be 16 months into an 8 month mean lifespan. And yesterday I went on a 7 mile hike and managed to keep up with the hiking group I was with. So, doing something right.
Still waiting for future test results and should see things headed in the right direction. I can say that it's not likely that anything dire happens in the short term so that means that I should have time to make several more attempts at this. So even if it doesn't work the first time there are a lot of variations to try. So if there's bad news it will help me pick the next radiation target.
I have written a "how to" guide for oncologists to perform the treatment that I got. I'm convinced that I'm definitely onto something and whether it works for me or not isn't the definitive test. I know if other people tried this that it would work for some of them, and if they improve it that it will work for a lot of them.
The guide is quite detailed and any doctor reading this can understand the procedure at every level. I also go into detail as to how it works, how I figured it out, and variations and improvements that could be tried to enhance it. I also introduce new ways to look at the problem. There is a lot of room for improvement and I think that doctors reading it will see what I'm talking about and want to build on it. And it's written so that if you're not a doctor you can still follow it. It also has a personal story revealing that I'm the class clown of cancer support group. I give great interviews and I look pretty hot in a lab coat.
So, feel free to read this and see what I'm talking about. But if any of you want to help then pass this around to both doctors and cancer patients. I need some media coverage. I'm looking for as many eyeballs as possible to read these ideas. Even if this isn't the solution, it's definitely on the right track. After all, I did hike 7 miles yesterday. And this hiking group wasn't moving slow. So if this isn't working then, why am I still here?
I also see curing cancer as more of an engineering problem that a medical problem. So if you are good at solving problems and most of what you know about medicine was watching the Dr. House MD TV show, then you're at the level I was at when I started. So anyone can jump in and be part of the solution.
Here is a link to my guide: Oncologists Guide to Curing Cancer using Abscopal Effect
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
JAIL TO THE CHIEF!
MEMO TO TRUMP: SHUTUP!
BOOT MAX!
MURDER FOR PROFIT.
GOOD MOVE MORAN!
WHITE CHRISTIANS GO 'APE SHIT'.
TEARING DOWN THE WALL!
STOP IT!
EVERYTHING HITS THE FAN!
YUM!
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Another perfect summer day in the middle of winter.
Facts You Probably Never Knew
Groundhog Day
You probably know the gist of Groundhog Day: Each Feb. 2, America's most famous groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil, emerges from his burrow, and looks for his shadow. If he sees it, the legend goes, six more weeks of winter lie ahead. And if he doesn't see his shadow, there will be an early spring.
But where does the zany tradition of Groundhog Day come from - and why?
Before Punxsutawney Phil makes his 2018 prediction Friday morning, here are four fun Groundhog Day facts you may not have known.
The roots of Groundhog Day can be traced back to a Christian holiday called Candlemas Day.
Each year, on the midpoint between the winter solstice and the spring equinox, members of the clergy would bless and distribute candles needed to get people through the remaining winter days. Tradition went that winter would drag on if Candlemas Day dawned sunny and clear, but spring would come soon if the weather was cloudy.
Groundhog Day
Nazca Lines
Peru
A truck driver plowed over Peru's renowned Nazca Lines, damaging the UNESCO World Heritage Site, officials said.
The truck driver apparently ignored warning signs when he entered the ancient archaeological site in southern Peru's desert plains on Saturday night, according to a press release from the country's Ministry of Culture.
The unauthorized vehicle left "deep tracks" across a 50-meter by 100-meter (164-foot by 328-foot) area of the site, affecting the surface and damaging three of the geoglyphs. The driver, identified by authorities as 40-year-old Jainer Jesus Flores Vigo, was detained that night near the city of Nazca and later released, the ministry said.
The Nazca Lines were etched into the arid ground by the region's ancient inhabitants approximately 2,000 years ago. They stretch across an area of about 280 square miles, depicting animals, plants, mythical creatures and geometrical figures, according to the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization, which declared the area a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994.
Peru's Ministry of Culture said it's working in coordination with Nazca's prosecutor's office on the investigation, as authorities pursue charges against the truck driver.
Peru
Cutting 10,000 Jobs
Fujifilm
Japanese technology firm Fujifilm on Wednesday announced 10,000 job cuts by March 2020 at its Fuji Xerox subsidiary, which it said was facing an "increasingly severe" market environment.
In a major shake-up, Fujifilm also announced it would be combining Fuji Xerox with US giant Xerox, bringing both companies under its umbrella to create what it said was the world's largest "document solutions company" by revenue.
As part of a cost-cutting package that it hopes will save 50 billion yen ($460 million), Fujifilm announced "personnel reductions of 10,000 people domestically and overseas" at Fuji Xerox.
Founded in 1934, Fujifilm became synonymous with the photography business but has since expanded into cosmetics and medical equipment.
Fuji Xerox, which manufactures printers and copiers for offices mainly in Asia and the Oceania regions, employs around 46,000 people in total.
Fujifilm
Ancient Human Skeletons
Mexico
Ten human skeletons, arranged lying on their sides in a circle with their arms intertwined, have been unearthed in an ancient burial pit to the south of Mexico City. The roughly 2,400-year-old bones represent the first time anything like this has been discovered, according to a statement from the National Institute of Anthropology and History, or INAH.
Two of the skeletons have been identified as female and another one as male; the rest are still being studied. Most of them belonged to adolescents, but the researchers have also identified one skeleton as that of an adult, another of a child between three and five years old and another of a baby about one month old, according to the INAH statement. While the cause (or causes) of death remains unclear, their careful positioning suggests a mysterious ritualistic component to the burial.
Archaeologists made the discovery on the lands of the Pontifical University of Mexico, or UPM. The "spiral of human bones" was the most unusual finding that any INAH archaeologist has made since beginning field work in the area more than a decade ago, according to the institute's statement.
The bodies had been buried with cajetes and tecomates-earthenware bowls and pots of various sizes-and in some cases were "holding" stones or ceramic spheres. Some of the skeletonsshowed evidence of deliberate, ritualistic deformation of their skull shape and teeth-a widespread practice among a number of indigenous cultures, according to the BBC. Members of many ancient empires would elongate their skulls by using wooden boards to flatten the foreheads of infants, whose skulls are still relatively soft and pliable, according to Atlas Obscura.
The bones correspond to Mexico's Pre-Classical period, which predates the Aztec Empire, according to National Geographic. Tlalpan, the ancient village associated with the burial, appeared to exist for approximately 500 years, according to the statement.
Mexico
Quakes Tied To Wastewater
Oklahoma
A new study finds that a major trigger of man-made earthquakes rattling Oklahoma is how deep - not just how much - fracking wastewater is injected into the ground.
Scientists analyzed more than 10,000 wastewater injection wells where 96 billion gallons of fluid - leftover from hydraulic fracturing - are pumped yearly. The amount of wastewater injected and the depth are key to understanding the quake outbreak since 2009, they reported in Thursday's journal Science . The quakes included a damaging magnitude 5.8 in 2016, the strongest in state history.
State regulators could cut about in half the number of man-made quakes by restricting deep injections in the ground, said lead author Thea Hincks, an earth scientist at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom. Companies drilling for oil and gas should not inject waste within 600 to 1500 feet (200 to 500 meters) of the geologic basement. That's the stable harder rock deep underground usually made of metamorphic and igneous rocks.
That region is usually crisscrossed with earthquake faults. The closer you get to the faults, the more likely you are to trigger them, said Stanford University geophysicist Matthew Weingarten, who wasn't part of the study.
Previous studies had pinpointed the amount of fluids injected into wells as an issue. Gernon said volume does trigger earthquakes, but when volume levels were reduced the number of quakes didn't drop as much as had been expected. That's because where the stuff is put matters slightly more, he said.
Oklahoma
Slashes Daily Water Allowance
Cape Town
After months of pleading with residents in Cape Town, South Africa, to slash their water use, the city this week cut the daily usage limit from 23 to 13 gallons, but extended the day when most people's taps are expected to run dry.
City officials on Tuesday pushed back "Day Zero," when tap water to businesses and residences will be completely turned off, from April 12 to April 16. The move offered some sense of hope even as the drought-stricken metropolis of nearly 4 million people scrambles to ration its dwindling water supply.
As of Thursday - when daily water allowances were slashed by nearly 50 percent - roughly half of the city's residents were not taking measures to conserve water, according to a tweet from Defeat Day Zero.
That estimate is similar to figures released by the city last week, stating that only 55 percent of city residents were curbing their daily water usage to less than 23 gallons, which was then the daily limit.
On Thursday, the city's dams were reported to be 25.9 percent full and dropping at a rate of 1 percent each week. Once the dams reach a collective level of 13.5 percent, the city said that taps will be shut off and residents will be allocated just 6.6 gallons of water a day, which they have to line up to collect.
Cape Town
He's Ready
Mount Rushmore
President-for-now Trump (R-Crooked) appeared to be in a jovial mood at a GOP retreat in West Virginia on Thursday, boasting about how his administration has "fulfilled far more promises than we've promised." And without quite saying so himself, he claimed Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, once told him that he is "the greatest president in the history of our country."
"And I said, 'Does that include Lincoln and Washington?'" Trump recalled. "And he said, 'Yes.' I said, 'I love this guy.'"
A spokesman for Hatch told a reporter for the Guardian newspaper that the senator has said Trump "can be" the greatest president ever to hold the office, but never said he "is" the greatest ever.
Trump's remarks at the annual gathering of Republican members of Congress at the Greenbrier Resort in White Sulphur Springs, W.V., came a day after the train taking lawmakers there hit a dump truck, killing the driver of the vehicle.
Mount Rushmore
Turkey Assault
Syria
For 3,000 years, the lion sculptures of Syria's Ain Dara stood as testaments to the Iron Age. But as Turkish bombardment pounds the region, they have little left but their paws.
Syrian and Kurdish authorities have blamed the damage squarely on Ankara's nearly two-week offensive on Afrin, a Kurdish-controlled pocket of northwest Syria that borders Turkey.
Perched on a hilltop in northern Syria, the neo-Hittite temple of Ain Dara dates back to the Aramaic era from around 1,300 to 700 BC, and is named after a village located in Afrin.
The identify of the deity worshipped there has not been officially determined, but one theory is that it is Ishtar, the goddess of love.
Until last week, the temple stood as "one of the most important monuments built by the Aramaeans in Syria during the first millennium BC", according to Syria's department of antiquities.
Syria
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.
1. Paul McCartney; $5,318,859; $134.58.
2. Bruno Mars; $2,892,381; $107.64.
3. Guns N' Roses; $2,115,178; $139.92.
4. Lady Gaga; $1,684,135; $113.56.
5. Dead & Company; $1,590,747; $107.73.
6. Depeche Mode; $1,546,580; $86.83.
7. Jay-Z; $1,499,286; $101.76.
8. Neil Diamond; $1,378,424; $115.82.
9. The Weeknd; $1,279,709; $89.62.
10. Elton John; $1,259,819; $125.05.
11. The Killers; $1,033,153; $74.05.
12. Tim McGraw / Faith Hill; $991,652; $85.53.
13. Foo Fighters; $990,177; $90.18.
14. Little Mix; $984,689; $55.69.
15. Enrique Iglesias / Pitbull; $964,762; $89.58.
16. Katy Perry; $955,877; $98.93.
17. Trans-Siberian Orchestra; $889,185; $60.45.
18. Imagine Dragons; $803,991; $60.97.
19. Scorpions; $725,624; $96.16.
20. Chris Stapleton; $693,403; $52.08.
Global Concert Tours
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