from Bruce
Anecdotes
Deafness
• Ludwig Bemelmans, author/illustrator of the Madeline series of children’s books, had an Uncle Joseph who was both deaf and a priest. Believers from far away traveled to him to confess because he would watch them until their lips had stopped moving, then say a prayer of absolution of sins.
• Deaf people sometimes are asked to dine at the homes of their hearing friends. In such cases, when prayers are said at the beginning of meals, the deaf person will bow her head but unobtrusively keep her eyes open during the prayer so she can tell when the prayer has ended.
Death
• As Zen Master Chuang-tzu was dying, he learned that his disciples wanted to give him an expensive funeral. Summoning his disciples, he told them, “The heavens and the earth will serve me as a coffin and a coffin shell. The sun and moon and stars will decorate my bier. All creation will be at hand to witness the event. What more need I than these?” Hearing this, his disciples responded that they were afraid the birds would eat his body. Chuang-tzu replied, “Above the ground my flesh will feed the crows and kites; below the ground, the ants and cricket-moles. Why rob one to feed the other?” Smiling, he said, “I shall have Heaven and Earth for my coffin. The sun and moon will be the jade symbols hanging by my side. All the planets and constellations will shine as jewels around me. All beings will be present as mourners at the wake. What more could I need? Everything has been taken care of.”
• Preacher Will D. Campbell does not suffer fools gladly. He once met an up-and-coming Southern Baptist, with whom he discussed a proposed expansion of the federal death penalty. Mr. Campbell asked him, “You do believe in the Commandment ‘Thou shalt not kill,’ don’t you?” The man replied that he did. Mr. Campbell then asked him, “Surely you are opposed to this death penalty expansion?” The man replied, “Absolutely not. We sent a letter to the White House in support.” Mr. Campbell then told the man, “You are a hypocrite and a jackass.”
• Psychiatrist Viktor Frankl was able to help a man who was having a hard time recovering from the death of his beloved wife two years before. He asked the man what would have happened if he had died before his wife. The man replied that his wife would have suffered horribly. Dr. Frankl then pointed out that “such a suffering has been spared her, and it was you who have spared her this suffering — to be sure, at the price that now you have to survive and mourn her.” Because of Dr. Frankl’s words, the man was able to accept his suffering.
• Rabbi Rabinowitz, who was both poor and pious, lived above a grocery store in New York City. To let people know where he lived, a sign hung outside the grocery store. When the good rabbi died, he was given a decent funeral, but not enough money was available for a tombstone. Therefore, members of the rabbi’s congregation used the sign from the grocery store as a gravestone: “Rabbi Rabinowitz is upstairs.”
• When Wilson Mizner lay dying, a minister told him, “Part of my trade is giving such spiritual consolation as I may to those in extremity. Without offense, please let me say that if there is anything I can tell you in this hour or anything you’d care to say to me, I shall be only too happy to oblige.” Mr. Mizner replied, “Much obliged, Padre, but why bother? I’ll be seeing your boss in a few minutes.”
• Cardinal de Polignac once told Marie Anne, the Marquise de Deffand, about the martyrdom of St. Denis, who after being beheaded, carried his head a full league to an area of Paris that is now named after him. The Cardinal sensed that she didn’t believe him, so he asked, “Do you deny he carried his head a full league?” She replied, “Oh, no. I question only the first step.”
• While on a trip to the Holy Land, Mark Twain visited the reputed grave of Adam. In Innocents Abroad, Mr. Twain writes, “There is no question that he is actually buried in the grave which is pointed out as his — there can be none — because it has never yet been proven that that grave is not the grave in which he is buried.”
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© Copyright Bruce D. Bruce; All Rights Reserved
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Presenting
Michael Egan
U.S.A. took the day off.
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION
BANDCAMP MUSIC
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION OF BANDCAMP MUSIC
Music: "And So Will You"
Album: BUT I MIGHT HAVE
Artist: Grin Scraped Thin
Artist Location: Phoenix, Arizona
Record Company: MT Threat Productions
Record Company Location: Phoenix, Arizona
Info: Cynicism, much?
“Phoenix, AZ based charitable record label collective, MT Threat Productions, is proud to debut the five-song EP, BUT I MIGHT HAVE. Every piece of music and merch produced or promoted by MT Threat will have a portion of the proceeds devoted to charity. Currently, our projects are supporting the non-profit clinic, Phoenix Allies for Community Health.”
Price: $1 (USD) for track; $7 (USD) for five-song EP
Genre: Punk.
Links:
BUT I MIGHT HAVE
Grin Scraped Thin on Bandcamp
MT Threat Productions
MT Threat Productions on YouTube
Other Links:
David Bruce's Amazon Author Page
David Bruce's Smashwords Page
David Bruce's Blog #1
David Bruce's Blog #2
David Bruce's Blog #3
David Bruce's Apple iBookstore
David Bruce has over 140 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
New Venture
Michael Egan
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION
VIDEO
BRUCE'S VIDEO RECOMMENDATION
New Rule: Progressophobia | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO)
Other Links:
David Bruce's Amazon Author Page
David Bruce's Smashwords Page
David Bruce's Blog #1
David Bruce's Blog #2
David Bruce's Blog #3
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Bonus Links
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
Some welcome fog out there tonight.
‘The Beatles: Get Back’
Peter Jackson
Director Peter Jackson’s long-in-the-making Beatles documentary will debut in three two-hour episodes over three days – November 25, 26 and 27 – exclusively on Disney+.
The Walt Disney Studios, Apple Corps Ltd. and WingNut Films Productions Ltd. announced the dates for The Beatles: Get Back, a Disney+ Original documentary series directed by Jackson that Disney says features a “wealth of tremendous footage Peter Jackson has reviewed, which he has spent the past three years restoring and editing..”
The Beatles: Get Back takes audiences back in time to the band’s intimate recording sessions during a pivotal moment in music history. The documentary was compiled from over 60 hours of previously unseen footage shot in January 1969 by Michael Lindsay-Hogg and more than 150 hours of unheard audio, all of which has been restored.
Jackson is the only person in 50 years to have been given access to these private film archives. The Beatles: Get Back chronicles John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr as they plan their first live show in over two years – what would be the famous rooftop performance – capturing the writing and rehearsing of 14 new songs originally intended for release on an accompanying live album.
Peter Jackson
Notable American Women
US Mint
Poet and author Maya Angelou, America’s first woman in space and a revered Cherokee Nation leader are among female trailblazers whose likenesses will appear on the U.S. quarter.
The new four-year American Women Quarters Program celebrates women’s accomplishments and contributions to the United States’ development and history, according to the U.S. Mint.
Under the program, the mint will issue up to five new designs each year from 2022 to 2025. Honorees will be from a variety of fields and from ethnically, racially and geographically diverse backgrounds, the mint says.
Those chosen for the first year are:
— Angelou, celebrated poet and memoirist
— Wilma Mankiller, the Cherokee Nation’s first female principal chief
— Adelina Otero-Warren, a leader in New Mexico’s suffrage movement
— Sally Ride, the first U.S. woman in space
— Anna May Wong, the first Chinese American Hollywood film star
US Mint
Named After Sci-Fi Heroines
New Beetle Species
As researchers like Michigan State University entomologists Sarah Smith and Anthony Cognato are reminding us, there's still plenty to discover right here on Earth.
Working in Central and South America, the duo discovered more than three dozen species of ambrosia beetles—beetles that eat ambrosia fungus—previously unknown to science. Smith and Cognato described these new species on June 16 in the journal ZooKeys.
The Spartans also selected an unusual naming theme named in deference to the female beetles who have helped their species survive and thrive by boldly going where they hadn't before.
Many of the new species are named for iconic female science fiction characters, including Nyota Uhura of "Star Trek"; Kara "Starbuck" Thrace from the 2000s "Battlestar Galactica" TV series; and Katniss Everdeen from "The Hunger Games" books and movies.
Other names were selected because the duo just liked the characters and found them inspiring. For example, the C. scully beetle was named after Dana Scully, Gillian Anderson's character on "The X-Files."
New Beetle Species
Outrunning Broadcast TV
Streaming
A new monthly Nielsen measurement called The Gauge shows just how much the pandemic has catalyzed streaming among a broad ranger of consumers with May usage across all television homes climbing to 26% of time spent on TV — outpacing broadcast, with an audience share of 25%.
The streaming video data included SVOD and AVOD. Streaming and broadcast now account for half of television time. Cable accounted for 39%, and “other” viewing for 9%.
“The past year has categorically shifted the television viewing landscape. Even as people begin to dive back into their pre-pandemic activities, based on the changes many made to enable streaming coupled with the variety of newly introduced services, we expect people to keep sampling and exploring their options. Maybe just as importantly, as production ramps back up, new content will enter the space, driving additional traction,” says Brian Fuhrer, SVP, Product Strategy at Nielsen.
Among the top streamers, Netflix tied with YouTube/YouTube TV at 6%; Hulu came in at 3%; Amazon Prime Video at 2%; and Disney+ at 1%.
Nielsen has been under scrutiny for many years for being too encumbered by its traditional methodology to fully reflect the streaming era. Marketers have complained of not having visibility into streaming platforms taking share from linear TV. Networks at the same time have insisted that Nielsen has undercounted their viewership.
Streaming
Only Four?
Defendant
A fourth Capitol riot defendant was charged Thursday with firearms violations in connection with the January 6 attack. The new charges add weight to claims that rioters used weapons during the mob violence and come after dozens of riot defendants have already been charged with wielding other "deadly or dangerous" weapons.
The defendant, Guy Reffitt, of Wylie, Texas, was charged with two new crimes in a superseding indictment Thursday, which alleged that he transported a rifle and a semi-automatic handgun to D.C. and that he carried the semi-automatic handgun while on U.S. Capitol grounds January 6.
Reffitt had already been facing three other charges for alleged obstruction of an official proceeding, entering and remaining in a restricted area and obstruction of justice. In the original affidavit filed when he was arrested in January, prosecutors said Reffitt had told his family that he'd brought his gun to D.C. and had "stormed the Capitol," but they hadn't previously charged him with a firearms violation.
Reffitt's wife told prosecutors he is a member of a "Three Percenters" militia — a group that likens present-day U.S. government to the oppression of British authorities during the Revolutionary war — and in an April court filing, the government said that Reffitt had spoken over Zoom with two other Three Percenter militia members on January 10, and told them he had been carrying a .40 firearm on his side January 6.
After the attack, prosecutors also alleged Reffitt threatened his family when his son participated in an interview with the FBI. According to Reffitt's son, Reffitt told his kids that if they turned him in, they would be traitors, "and you know what happens to traitors… traitors get shot," he allegedly said.
Defendant
Lots of People
Kids
A substantial number of U.S. adults don’t want children and are plenty happy about it, new research out Wednesday suggests. The survey found that more than one-fourth of respondents identified as intentionally child-free and that there were no major differences in personality or life satisfaction between them and parents or people who did want kids.
Though the child-free life has been written about for decades, including recently, there’s not too much known about the people who choose it—including how many of these people there really are. In the U.S. since the 1970s, there has been national data available on how often women don’t have children, but a lack of children isn’t the same thing as being child-free. There are many potential parents who simply haven’t had the opportunity or resources to have children yet, for instance, or who are unable to have children but still desire them. So Michigan State University researchers Jennifer Watling Neal and Zachary P. Neal, who are married to each other, wanted to approach the topic from a different angle.
“Past surveys have used data about fertility to identify childfree people, but the choice to be childfree has nothing to do with fertility. Past surveys also tend to focus on women of childbearing age, and leave out men and older adults,” Jennifer Neal, an associate professor in psychology at MSU, told Gizmodo in an email. “This study is different because we identify childfree people by actually asking them if they ever want to have children, and we include men and women of all ages.”
Ultimately, they found that 27% of respondents considered themselves to be child-free, being clearly distinguished from parents and other non-parents. And after controlling for demographic factors like age, education status, and gender, the team “also found that these childfree people are just as satisfied with their lives as parents, childless people, or people who plan to have kids,” Jennifer Neal said.
Kids
Third Largest Diamond?
Botswana
A diamond believed to be the third largest ever found has been put on display in Botswana.
The stone - weighing 1,098 carats - was shown to President Mokgweetsi Masisi, two weeks after the diamond firm, Debswana, unearthed it.
The huge gem is only slightly less heavy than the world's second-largest diamond which was also found in Botswana in 2015.
Botswana is Africa's largest producer of diamonds.
An estimate of the stone's potential cost has not yet been released but in 2017, the second-largest diamond ever found, Lesedi La Rona, was sold for $53m (£39.5m).
Botswana
‘Living Fossil’
Coelacanth
The coelacanth — a giant weird fish still around from dinosaur times — can live for 100 years, a new study found.
These slow-moving, people-sized fish of the deep, nicknamed a “living fossil,” are the opposite of the live fast, die young mantra. These nocturnal fish grow at an achingly slow pace.
Females don’t hit sexual maturity until their late 50s, the study said, while male coelacanths are sexually mature at 40 to 69 years. And maybe strangest of all, researchers figure pregnancy in the fish lasts about five years.
Coelacanths, which have been around for 400 million years, were thought extinct until they were found alive in 1938 off South Africa. Scientists long believed coelacanths live about 20 years. But by applying a standard technique for dating commercial fish, French scientists calculated they actually live close to a century, according to a study in Thursday’s Current Biology.
Coelacanths are so endangered that scientists can only study specimens already caught and dead.
Coelacanth
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