from Bruce
Anecdotes
Animals
• This story is from the year 2011: Regina Mayer wanted a horse, but her parents would not get her one. Therefore, the teenager, who lives on a farm in southern Germany in the hamlet of Laufen, which is very close to the Austrian border, used what was available and started riding a cow named Luna, even teaching it to jump over a hurdle. The 15-year-old Regina says about Luna, “She thinks she’s a horse.” Teaching Luna took many hours and many treats, but now the two take long rides together. At first, Regina simply put a halter on Luna and took her for a walk, and then gradually she got her accustomed to other riding equipment. After six months, Regina climbed up on Luna’s back. Regina says, “She was really well behaved and walked normally. But after a couple of meters, she wanted me to get off! You could see that she got a bit peeved.” But now Luna understands commands such as the German equivalents of “go,” “stand,” and “gallop.” Anne Wiltafsky, a cow expert near the Swiss city of Zurich, gave Regina advice when requested. Ms. Wiltafsky says about cows, “Especially younger ones can jump really well.” She also pointed out that cows can be “unbelievably devoted” to people. Martin Putzhammer, a 17-year-old neighbor of Regina, says, “At first I thought it was kind of weird — a kid on a cow? Had to get used to it, but once I did I thought it was pretty funny.” Regina still hopes to get a horse one day, but she says about Luna, “She’ll stay my darling.”
• 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.
• In Denali, Alaska, a St. Bernard named Grizzly Bear saved his owner from a real grizzly bear. Mrs. David Gratias discovered a grizzly bear cub in her backyard. Knowing that the mother grizzly bear must be near and would protect her cub, she immediately headed back to her house. Unfortunately, the mother grizzly bear was just around the corner of the house and mauled her. Fortunately, Grizzly Bear saved her life by attacking the grizzly bear, biting it and staying in between it and Mrs. Gratias, who passed out. When she awoke, Grizzly Bear was licking her face, and the grizzly bear and her cub had disappeared. Grizzly Bear was named the Ken-L Ration Dog Hero of the Year for 1970.
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© Copyright Bruce D. Bruce; All Rights Reserved
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Presenting
Michael Egan
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION
BANDCAMP MUSIC
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION OF BANDCAMP MUSIC
Track: "Revenge of the Fuzz"
EP: COP SHOP
Artist: Cop Shop
Artist Location: Adelaide, Australia
“Veterans of various scrappy rock bands in Adelaide, Cop Shop formed out of a passion for instrumental music and a desire to eliminate the need for a singer — because none of them can sing!”
Price: Name Your Price (Includes FREE) for four-track EP
Genre: Rock Instrumental. Surf Instrumental.
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Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
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One Mom
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Michael Egan
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION
Recommended Reading
Andrew Tobias: Joe, Noah, and Tucker
But first: I think we’re gonna win Ohio [and flip Republican Ron Portman’s Senator position to a Democrat].
Yes, aided by the disgraced former president’s endorsement, JD Vance won almost a third of Republican primary voters (leaving, by my math, more than two-thirds who preferred someone else).
(And, yes, five years ago Vance, a “never-Trumper,” called Trump “noxious, reprehensible, and an idiot.”)
But Tim Ryan is so good … and so right for the Ohio electorate . . . and for the women of Ohio who might not be happy with the prospect of Mitch McConnell controlling their reproductive decisions … that my money’s on him.
Indeed, we could flip not only that Ohio seat but also Republican seats in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Florida.
Republicans have 20 seats to defend this November; Democrats, 14.
Our House majority, as everyone knows, will be tougher to defend, let alone expand — but it is absolutely doable.
Join your local chapter of the League of Women Voters! Join Field Team 6! Join Vote Forward! Fund the Party!
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Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
Reader Comment
Current Events
Linda >^..^<
We are all only temporarily able bodied.
Thanks, Linda!
that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Another day, another plumber. Sigh.
Honoring Rep. John Lewis
Beloved Benefit
Maroon 5 and Usher will headline a benefit concert in Atlanta to honor the legacy of the late U.S. Rep. John Lewis.
The Grammy Award-winning pop band and singer will perform during the Beloved Benefit at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium on July 7, concert officials announced Thursday. The event was rescheduled from its initial date in February due to COVID-19 concerns.
NBC Sports host and correspondent Maria Taylor will serve as the event’s emcee.
Along with Usher and Maroon 5’s performances, the benefit concert will feature a program filled with inspiring community stories. The money raised will be distributed to several nonprofit beneficiaries that prioritize economic and community development.
The Beloved Benefit was inspired by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision of a beloved community where people work together to solve social issues ranging from racism and poverty along with hunger and homelessness.
Beloved Benefit
World Food Prize
Cynthia Rosenzweig
A NASA climate research scientist who has spent much of her career explaining how global food production must adapt to a changing climate was awarded the World Food Prize on Thursday.
Cynthia Rosenzweig, an agronomist and climatologist, was awarded the $250,000 prize in recognition of her innovative modeling of the impact of climate change on food production. She is a senior research scientist at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and serves as adjunct senior research scientist at the Columbia Climate School at Columbia University, both based in New York.
Rosenzweig, whose win was announced during a ceremony at the State Department in Washington, said she hopes it will focus attention on the need to improve food and agricultural systems to lessen the effects of climate change.
“We basically cannot solve climate change unless we address the issues of the greenhouse gas emissions from the food system, and we cannot provide food security for all unless we work really hard to develop resilient systems,” she told The Associated Press during an interview ahead of the ceremony.
The Des Moines-based World Food Prize Foundation award recognized Rosenzweig as the founder of the Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project. The organization draws scientists from around the world and from many disciplines to advance methods for improving predictions of the future performance of agricultural and food systems as the global climate changes.
Cynthia Rosenzweig
Rereleasing 'God Save The Queen'
Sex Pistols
The Sex Pistols are re-releasing their anti-royalist hit God Save The Queen to coincide with Her Majesty's Platinum Jubilee.
The punk anthem was first released in 1977 at the same time as the Queen's Silver Jubilee, and despite being banned by the BBC and every independent radio station reached number two in the UK singles charts.
To mark the Queen's Platinum Jubilee in June - when HRH Elizabeth II will celebrate 70 years on the throne - 4,000 copies of God Save The Queen will be re-released through Virgin Records, along with 1,977 copies of the rare A&M version.
The lyrics to the anti-authoritarian single — sung by John Lydon — called the Royal Family a "fascist regime".
The track was famously kept off the top spot in the singles charts by Rod Stewart's I Don't Want To Talk About It, with rumours that the charts had been manipulated to prevent the Sex Pistol's anti-establishment anthem from reaching number one.
Sex Pistols
World Video Game Hall of Fame
Ms. Pac-Man
More than 40 years after blazing a trail for female video game characters, Ms. Pac-Man was inducted Thursday into the World Video Game Hall of Fame, along with Dance Dance Revolution, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Sid Meier’s Civilization.
The Hall of Fame considers electronic games of all types each year — arcade, console, computer, handheld and mobile. Inductees are recognized for their popularity and influence on the video game industry or pop culture over time.
The Ms. Pac-Man arcade game was released in 1981 as Midway’s follow-up to Pac-Man, which entered the hall as part of the inaugural class in 2015. The Pac-Man sequel reimagined the main character to acknowledge the original game’s female fans, according to the hall. After selling 125,000 cabinets within the first five years, it became one of the best-selling arcade games of all time.
There was nothing inherently gendered about early video games, said Julia Novakovic, senior archivist at the hall. But “by offering the first widely recognized female video game character,” she said, “Ms. Pac-Man represented a turn in the cultural conversation about women’s place in the arcade, as well as in society at large.”
The Class of 2022 was chosen from a field of finalists that also included Assassin’s Creed, Candy Crush Saga, Minesweeper, NBA Jam, PaRappa the Rapper, Resident Evil, Rogue, and Words with Friends. It is the eighth class to be inducted since the World Video Game Hall of Fame was established at The Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, New York.
Ms. Pac-Man
Virus Cases Grow
White House Correspondents' Dinner
On Saturday, comedian Trevor Noah stood before a ballroom of 2,600 journalists, celebrities and political elites at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, and asked: What are we doing here?
“Did none of you learn anything from the Gridiron Dinner? Nothing,” Noah said, referring to another elite Washington gathering in April, after which dozens of attendees tested positive for the coronavirus. “Do you read any of your own newspapers?”
By Wednesday, Noah’s chiding remarks at what he called “the nation’s most distinguished superspreader event” were beginning to appear prophetic as a growing number of attendees, including a string of journalists and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, said they had tested positive for the virus.
The growing number of cases presented another sign of an official Washington that has largely returned to pre-pandemic routines, even as officials still urge Americans to take precautions, and has decided to live with the result.
Journalists across several major news organizations reported testing positive. Among those were Jonathan Karl, ABC News’ chief Washington correspondent, who shook hands with Biden during the dinner, and Steve Herman, chief national correspondent at Voice of America. CNN reported that those infected also included staff members from its network, as well as NBC News, CBS News and Politico.
White House Correspondents' Dinner
Seat Flipped
Michigan
A Democratic legislative candidate in Michigan won a special election for a heavily Republican seat over a GOP opponent who made controversial comments about rape, Russia’s war in Ukraine and other issues, narrowing Republicans’ state House majority.
Carol Glanville defeated Robert “RJ” Regan by 11 percentage points Tuesday in a Kent County district that her Republican predecessor carried by 26 points in 2020.
Regan had been denounced by GOP leaders since shortly after his upset victory in a four-person primary. In March, while advocating for decertifying the 2020 presidential election during a livestream hosted by a conservative group, Regan responded to a panelist who said it is too late to do anything that her attitude is like what he tells his three daughters: “Well if rape is inevitable, you should just lie back and enjoy it. That's not how we roll. That's not how I won this election. We go right at it.”
Regan said he regretted using the analogy but claimed it was taken out of context by members of his own party and reporters. He also had called Russia’s invasion of Ukraine a “fake war just like the fake pandemic" and had shared antisemitic social media posts.
Michigan
Killing Public Education
Texass
Texas Governor Greg Abbott is often the tip of the spear for the great conservative project in America, which makes him a good bellwether for which parts of the American system the GOP will attack next. Abbott now has his sights set on public education.
The Austin American-Statesman reports that Abbott on Wednesday said Texas “will resurrect” a 1982 Supreme Court case requiring states to provide free public education to all children, including the children of undocumented immigrants.
“Texas already long ago sued the federal government about having to incur the costs of the education program, in a case called Plyler vs. Doe,” Abbott said on a conservative talk radio show. “And the Supreme Court ruled against us on the issue. … I think we will resurrect that case and challenge this issue again, because the expenses are extraordinary and the times are different than when Plyler versus Doe was issued many decades ago.”
Public education has been increasingly demonized by the right, particularly surrounding sex, gender, and racial issues. Conservative candidates running in contested primaries have been hammering the issues of critical race theory and gender education in state-run schools to rounds of applause, while singing the values of private education. State legislatures are passing bills that hamstring school discretion over how to educate children, arguing that parents should be the ones controlling curriculums. The backlash has grown to the point that some on the right are questioning whether public schools should exist at all.
It seems ludicrous, but it’s clear that after the Supreme Court’s draft decision on Roe v. Wade leaked earlier this week, conservatives are plotting out which other cases they can turn out to advance their broader goals. Justice Alito’s draft decision on Roe specifically referenced both Lawrence v. Texas, which legalized sodomy, and Obergefell v. Hodges, which legalized same-sex marriage, saying that “none of these rights has any claim to being deeply rooted in history.” Abbott, meanwhile, is licking his chops over Plyler vs. Doe. Conservatives control the Supreme Court by a 6-3 margin. The GOP sees the draft decision on Roe as a green light to abuse their advantage as much as possible.
Texass
Covertly Siphoning Earth's Water?
The Moon
There are water molecules and ice up on the Moon, so how did they get there? Asteroid and comet collisions are likely to have produced some of it, but a new study suggests another source of lunar water: the Earth's atmosphere.
Hydrogen and oxygen ions escaping from our planet's upper atmosphere and then combining on the Moon could have created as much as 3,500 cubic kilometers (840 cubic miles) of surface permafrost or subsurface liquid water, scientists say.
The thinking is that hydrogen and oxygen ions are driven into the lunar surface as the Moon passes through the tail of the Earth's magnetosphere (the teardrop-shaped bubble around Earth affected by its magnetic field). That occurs five days in every lunar month.
Because of the Sun's solar wind pushing against this bubble, some of Earth's magnetic field lines are broken: only tethered to the planet at one end.
There's no Moon magnetosphere, so as the ions smack into the lunar surface, permafrost is created, the researchers suggest. Some of that frost, through a variety of geological processes, could be driven below the surface and turned into liquid water.
The Moon
| CURRENT MOON lunar phases |
