from Bruce
Anecdotes
Mothers
• When she was a young girl, Nancy Lieberman-Cline loved basketball, and she often traveled the subway into Harlem to play pick-up games. However, her mother didn’t think Nancy had a future in basketball, so she used a screwdriver to puncture her basketball. (Previously, her mother had made her stop playing tackle football against the neighborhood boys, which is why young Nancy started playing basketball in the first place.) The stratagem didn’t work. Nancy grew up to play basketball at Old Dominion University, then played professionally in the United States Basketball League (USBL), a minor league composed of men who had played basketball in college. She also played against the Harlem Globetrotters and helped train tennis star Martina Navratilova.
• In 1978, just before the all-around finals of the Commonwealth Games in Edmonton, Canada, a ladybug flew onto gymnast Elfi Schlegel’s leg. Her mother was delighted because she felt that this was a good-luck omen, so she put the ladybug in a jar with some air holes punched in the lid. In fact, young Elfi won the all-around, and during the press conference afterward, her mother told the reporters about the ladybug and showed them the jar. The ladybug received a lot of media attention, and when Elfi and her mother returned home to Toronto, many cards and presents were waiting for them—all with a ladybug theme. Today, even though Ms. Schlegel is grown up, ladybugs are her good-luck charm.
• Bela Karolyi is a celebrated women’s gymnastics coach. When future Olympic gold medalist Shannon Miller was eight years old, she attended one of Mr. Karolyi’s gymnastics camps. Shannon’s mother, Claudia, wanted a photograph of herself and Mr. Karolyi. He was agreeable, and a secretary took the photograph. Unfortunately, when the photograph was developed at a one-hour service, Mr. Karolyi’s head was not in the shot. Therefore, Claudia drove back to Mr. Karolyi’s camp and asked for another photograph. He laughed, and the second photograph, which was not taken by the secretary, turned out well.
• Dame Lilian Braithwaite and Joyce Carey, her daughter, were English actresses. During World War II, they shared an apartment in London at a time when the Nazis were regularly bombing the city. One night, an explosion waked up Ms. Carey, and she discovered that her bed was covered in rubble. She lay in bed for a moment, terrified of what she might find when she went to her mother’s bedroom. Just then, she heard her mother’s theatrical tones coming from the next room: “WELL! REALLY!”
• When they were able to afford it, comedians George Burns and Gracie Allen had a swimming pool constructed at their house. The children quickly learned to swim, but Gracie never went in the pool. However, Gracie began to worry about what their children would think if she didn’t learn to swim, so she took swimming lessons. One day, she told the children, “Watch this,” then she jumped into the water and swam the length of the pool. After that, she never swam again.
• Only the United States President can appoint a Supreme Court Justice. Jane, Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s daughter, wrote in her 1973 high school yearbook that someday her mother would become a United States Supreme Court Justice. Jane added that if necessary, she herself would appoint her mother to the Supreme Court. In 1993, President Bill Clinton saved Jane the trouble by making Ms. Ginsburg the second woman to sit on the Supreme Court.
• Actress Laurette Taylor’s mother, Elizabeth Cooney, was illiterate. Early in her life, she was suspicious of reading and writing, and she sometimes threw her husband’s books into the fireplace. Later, however, she changed her mind about literacy. Shortly before she died, she gave her daughter a surprise—she demonstrated that she had learned to read and write.
• Even when he was ten years old, Ken Griffey, Jr., was a superior baseball player—so superior that the parents of players on other teams thought that he was older than ten and therefore should not be allowed to play. Young Ken’s mother, Alberta, started to carry his birth certificate to games so that she could prove his age when it was challenged.
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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: "Thundermug"
Single: This is a one-sided single
Artist: Humanga Danga
Artist Location: Ghent, Belgium
Info: “If reverb was a crime, we’d all be doing time.”
“Humanga Danga” is Maori for “Construction Industry”
Stefan Valenberghs: Lead guitar
Jonas Eliano: Rhythm Guitar & Keys
Bart Steyaert: Bass
Louis Van der Linden: Drums & Percussion
Kahuna Cole, a fan, wrote, “HD is once again keeping it surfy and fun as they rip holes in the water with their brand of instrumental surf! Just as much fun for dancing on the sand as on the ballroom floor!”
Price: €1 (EURO) for one-track single
Genre: Instrumental Rock.
Links:
“Thundermug”
Humanga Danga on Bandcamp
Humanga Danga on YouTube
Humanga Danga Official Website
Other Links:
Bruce’s Music Recommendations: FREE pdfs
David Bruce's Smashwords Page
David Bruce's Blog #1
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David Bruce's Blog #3
David Bruce's Apple iBookstore
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Stephen Suggests
New England’s Fishing Industry
New Venture
Michael Egan
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION
Republican
Other Links:
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David Bruce's Blog #1
David Bruce's Blog #2
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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
He did it again tonight - WTF does David Muir (ABC) keep referring to Liz Cheney as 'Congressman'?
Pissant word games or just not real bright?
Gets Own Stamp
Pete Seeger
Pete Seeger, the banjo-playing folk singer whose music was indelibly intertwined with his social activism, was honored Thursday as the latest American musician to appear on a U.S. postage stamp.
The forever stamp, which features a color-tinted, black-and-white photograph taken in the early 1960s showing Seeger in profile singing and playing his five-string banjo, went on sale at post offices nationwide, according to a U.S. Postal Service spokesperson.
A special ceremony was planned for the evening in Newport, Rhode Island, the site of the Newport Folk Festival, where Seeger was a performer and for a time a member of the board. This year’s three-day festival starts Friday.
Seeger, a Harvard dropout who died in 2014 at age 94, wrote or co-wrote “If I Had a Hammer,” “Turn, Turn, Turn,” and “Where Have All the Flowers Gone.” He is also credited with popularizing “We Shall Overcome,” an anthem of the civil rights movement.
He won multiple Grammy Awards, was inducted into both the Songwriters and Rock and Roll halls of fame, and earned the National Medal of the Arts and the Kennedy Center Honors.
Pete Seeger
Honorees
Kennedy Center
It’s going to be a “Beautiful Day” for the band U2 and four other artists when they receive this year’s Kennedy Center Honors in December.
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts announced Thursday that the Irish rock band along with actor George Clooney, singers Gladys Knight and Amy Grant and composer Tania León are being honored this year.
The center generally honors five people annually for influencing American culture through the arts. But bands and other groups sometimes get honors, too. Disco-funk band Earth, Wind & Fire was the most recent, in 2019, the year the long-running children’s TV show “Sesame Street” was honored. The Eagles were honored in 2016 and Led Zeppelin in 2012.
This is the 45th year of the honors, which will include a gala performance Dec. 4 in Washington featuring top entertainers. The show will be broadcast on CBS at a later date.
Kennedy Center
'Hit Me With Your Best Shot'
Pat Benatar
Rocker Pat Benatar's recent setlists are missing one of her most popular songs: "Hit Me With Your Best Shot."
The reason, she told USA Today in an interview published Thursday, is directly related to current events.
"We're not doing 'Hit Me With Your Best Shot' and fans are having a heart attack," Benatar said, "And I'm like, 'I'm sorry, in deference to the victims of the families of these mass shootings, I'm not singing it.' I tell them, 'If you want to hear the song, go home and listen to it.'"
Lyrics of the 1980 song suggested it was about a physical fight: "Put up your dukes, let's get down to it," she sang in the first verse. But she then sings in the chorus, "Hit me with your best shot. Fire away."
"(The title) is tongue in cheek, but you have to draw the line. I can't say those words out loud with a smile on my face, I just can't," Benatar said. "I'm not going to go on stage and soap box — I go to my legislators — but that's my small contribution to protesting. I'm not going to sing it. Tough."
Pat Benatar
Flight Patterns
Celebrity Jets
The celebrities are not doing a good job of persuading all of us unwashed masses that they’re handling their wealth responsibly. Last week, in the middle of a summer that’s seen the weather across vast swathes of the planet resemble the air just above a low-boiling pot of soup, Kylie Jenner posted a photo showing her and Travis Scott posing between their matching private jets. In reaction to the post, people started sharing records of Jenner’s private flights, digging up tweets showing her jet taking off and landing to run errands that required as little as three minutes in the air.
These tweets come from Jack Sweeney, the creator of the automated Celebrity Jets Twitter account, which, as its name implies, gives us a way to watch our demigod rulers’ behavior in despair via posts that track the private flights of various celebrities along with their financial and environmental cost.
Aside from spotting the especially egregious three minute Jenner flight, Celebrity Jets includes a wealth of information about other frequent, short private flights by jets owned by everyone from Taylor Swift, Mark Wahlberg, Oprah Winfrey, Floyd Mayweather, and Steven Spielberg to Kenny Chesney, Drake, Kim Kardashian, and Blake Shelton.
A typical example of one of these posts sees Spielberg’s jet flying for approximately 24 minutes last Tuesday, using 1,437 pounds of jet fuel and producing 2 tons of CO2 emissions in the process. On Monday, in another example, one of Drake’s private flights lasted about 52 minutes, burned 10,190 pounds of jet fuel, and created 16 tons of CO2 emissions. Most of the celebrities whose names appear on the tracker take these kind of flights regularly.
Celebrity Jets
All But 10
Contraception
One-hundred and ninety five Republicans have voted against a House bill codifying the right to contraceptives into federal law.
The Right to Contraception Act passed the Democrat-controlled House 228-195 on Thursday, and it now faces an uncertain future in the Senate. The bill affirms an individual’s right to access and use contraceptive methods, health care providers’ right to prescribe them, and allows for the Justice Department and individuals harmed by the refusal of contraceptives to seek legal recourse.
The right of married couples to buy and use contraceptives was established by the 1965 supreme court case Griswold v. Connecticut. The understanding of that decision subsequently has been expanded to include unmarried individuals.
Every Democrat and eight Republicans, including Reps. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo) and Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), voted in favor of the Right to Contraception Act. Two Republicans voted “present.” The vast majority of the party, however, opposed the bill. Rep. Kat Cammack (R-Fla.) accused its supporters of being a “real piece of work” who are looking to “solve a problem that doesn’t exist” and “allow more abortions.”
Contraception
Now Listed As Endangered
Monarch Butterflies
The monarch butterfly fluttered a step closer to extinction Thursday, as scientists put the iconic orange-and-black insect on the endangered list because of its fast dwindling numbers.
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature added the migrating monarch butterfly for the first time to its “red list” of threatened species and categorized it as “endangered” — two steps from extinct.
The group estimates that the population of monarch butterflies in North America has declined between 22% and 72% over 10 years, depending on the measurement method.
“What we’re worried about is the rate of decline,” said Nick Haddad, a conservation biologist at Michigan State University. “It’s very easy to imagine how very quickly this butterfly could become even more imperiled.”
Haddad, who was not directly involved in the listing, estimates that the population of monarch butterflies he studies in the eastern United States has declined between 85% and 95% since the 1990s.
Monarch Butterflies
Reality Doesn’t Exist Until
Quantum Pseudo-Telepathy Experiment
Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman once famously declared that “nobody understands quantum mechanics,” although a new experiment involving quantum entangled particles does at least help to illustrate one of the key principles of this mystifying branch of physics. Using a trick called quantum pseudo-telepathy, the exercise confirms that reality does not exist in a fixed state until it is measured.
The idea that physical objects can exist in multiple states simultaneously is known as wave-particle duality and is demonstrated by the famous double slit experiment. Using this iconic set-up, scientists have established that photons (light particles) spread out through space like a wave when no one is watching, but “collapse” to a single fixed point the moment they are observed.
The ability to pull a concrete reality from the quantum ether in this way raises the possibility of overcoming the constraints of classical statistics. To illustrate this point, physicists have designed a number of theoretical games in which players have a limited probability of winning as long as they are unable to communicate with one another, but which can be consistently conquered using quantum pseudo-telepathy.
When such a game is played in the real world, the two players’ nine-square grids must differ in at least one square, which means that it is statistically impossible to win more than eight times in nine rounds. In the quantum realm, however, Alice and Bob may be able to win every time.
This is because quantum mechanics eliminates the necessity for each square to contain a fixed value before the round is played, allowing a “1” or “-1” to emerge only once the referee has made a selection. The entire grid is therefore completely fluid until it is observed, and can be reconfigured with each new round.
Quantum Pseudo-Telepathy Experiment
Seems to Occupy 2 Time Dimensions
New Phase of Matter
A new phase of matter has been observed in a quantum computer after physicists pulsed light on its qubits in a pattern inspired by the Fibonacci sequence.
If you think that's mind-boggling, this weird quirk of quantum mechanics behaves as though it has two time dimensions, instead of one; a trait that scientists say makes the qubits more robust, able to remain stable for the entire duration of the experiment.
This stability is called quantum coherence, and it's one of the main goals for an error-free quantum computer – and one of the most difficult to achieve.
The work represents "a completely different way of thinking about phases of matter," according to computational quantum physicist Philipp Dumitrescu of the Flatiron Institute, lead author of a new paper describing the phenomenon.
Quantum computing is based on qubits, the quantum equivalent of computing bits. However, where bits process information in one of two states, a 1 or a 0, qubits can be both simultaneously, a state known as quantum superposition.
New Phase of Matter
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