from Bruce
Anecdotes
Overconfidence
• Overconfidence cost Dan O’Brien a shot at an Olympic gold medal in 1992. As a world-class decathlete, Mr. O’Brien appeared to be a cinch to win a medal at the Olympics in 1992; however, first he had to qualify at the United States Olympic Trials. There he made a crucial error. In the pole vault competition, athletes need not compete at lower heights. They can start competing at a higher height, but of course they must clear the first height at which they begin to compete. Mr. O’Brien did not compete at 14 feet, 5 1/2 inches, or at 14 feet, 9 inches, or at 15 feet, 1 inch, or at 15 feet, 5 inches. Instead, he waited to start competing until the bar was set at 15 feet, 9 inches. Unfortunately, on his two first attempts, he slammed into the bar. Only three attempts are allowed, and Mr. O’Brien was so rattled by his first two misses that on his third attempt he went under the bar! This gave him zero points for the pole vault and kept him from making the Olympic team. However, Mr. O’Brien is made of tough stuff. He trained for four more years, made the 1996 U.S. Olympic team, and won the gold medal in the decathlon.
• In 1969, the Boston Celtics were coached by center Bill Russell, whose knees were so worn out that he could not practice. Nevertheless, the Celtics made it to the NBA Finals, where they faced the Los Angeles Lakers. The series went to seven games, and the seventh game was held in Los Angeles. The Lakers were immensely confident that they would win, and nets suspended from the ceiling held 5,000 balloons in anticipation of a big victory celebration after the Lakers won. The balloons were never released as the Celtics held on for a 2-point victory and their eleventh NBA championship in thirteen seasons.
People with Handicaps
• Jean Little, the author of Little by Little, had major problems with her eyesight. She was cross-eyed with weak eyes, and to read a book—one of her favorite activities—she had to have her face so close to the page that her nose touched it. One day, she planned to attend a basketball game at which some of her friends would play. Unfortunately, some of their players were either away or ill, so they were short-handed for the game, meaning that they would lose by default despite being a superior team with superior players. However, Ms. Little volunteered to go on the court as a player since all she had to do was to stand there while the other women actually played the game. When Ms. Little arrived in uniform, the referee actually looked through the rulebook to see if there was a rule against allowing a “blind” player on the court. She couldn’t find any such rule, so Ms. Little was allowed to play. At halftime, her team was ahead, but near the end of the game the score was tied because no one had to guard Ms. Little, who simply stood on the court. However, the ball came directly toward Ms. Little, who managed to grab it. Of course, everyone stopped playing because they were wondering what the “blind” woman would do with the ball. One of the players on Ms. Little’s team yelled, “Jean, throw it here.” Ms. Little threw the ball in the direction the voice was coming from, the player on her team grabbed the ball, and shot a last-second shot that went through the hoop. Because of Ms. Little’s assist, her team won the game.
• Aimee Mullins was born without fibula bones in her legs, and her parents decided to have her legs amputated rather than have her use a wheelchair the rest of her life. She learned to use prosthetic legs and became a track sprinter at Georgetown University—despite being disabled, she competed against able-bodied athletes. During the Big East Championships, she ran into a problem. The weather was hot, and her perspiration lubricated the silicon sleeves that held on her sprinting legs. In fact, during the 100-meter race, one of her legs almost fell off. She begged her coach, Frank Gagliano, to take her out of the 200-meter race, but he told her, “So what if your leg falls off? Ya pick it up, ya put it on, ya finish the godd*mned race! Now get out there and run!” Ms. Mullins was stunned then, but she says today, “I had proposed to him the worst-case scenario—my leg coming off, me falling in front of thousands of people—and he made it seem so simple. You pick up and you still go on—advice you can use pretty much anywhere in life.”
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© Copyright Bruce D. Bruce; All Rights Reserved
***
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Presenting
Michael Egan
U.S.A. replied:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION
BANDCAMP MUSIC
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION OF BANDCAMP MUSIC
Music: "Amazonic Hully Gully"
Album: MISIÓN TANGO SURF
Artist: Didi Wray & Liga Americana Del Surf
Artist Location: Argentina
Info:
Didi is a female guitar player and composer from Argentina.
Didi is the creator of Tango Surf Music, a strong Surf Rock infused with Argentinian Tango.
“bigbman67, a fan, wrote: “It's so hard to choose one track as a favorite! The entire album, start to finish is an incredible listen. As for all the surf music I've purchased this year, which is more than the norm, this album stands alone! Favorite track: ‘St. Katharina Twangwest.’”
Price: $1 (USD) for track; $10 (USD) for 13-track album
Genre: Tango Surf Music. Instrumental.
Links:
MISIÓN TANGO SURF
Didi Wray on Bandcamp
Didi Wray on YouTube
Didi Wray Official Website
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
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Thom Hartmann
Abortion: Is the Texas GOP the Dog that Caught the Car? - by Thom Hartmann - The Hartmann Report
Stephen F
Thanks, Stephen!
New Venture
Michael Egan
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
More computer issues - if I disappear for a few days, you've been warned.
National Civil Rights Museum
Michelle Obama
Former first lady Michelle Obama and The Poor People’s Campaign have been chosen to receive Freedom Awards from the National Civil Rights Museum in Tennessee.
The museum said Wednesday that Obama and campaign’s two leaders, the Rev. William Barber and the Rev. Liz Theoharis, will be honored during a virtual ceremony on Oct. 14.
The awards are given out annually by the museum, located in Memphis. The museum is situated on the grounds of the former Lorraine Motel, where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was fatally shot on April 4, 1968.
Obama is a lawyer and writer who became the first Black first lady when her husband, former President Barack Obama, was elected in 2008. She has been an advocate for healthy families, service members, higher education and international adolescent girls’ education.
The Poor People’s Campaign works to combat systemic racism, poverty, ecological devastation, militarism and religious nationalism, the museum said in a news release.
Michelle Obama
Back After 40 Years
ABBA
ABBA is releasing its first new music in four decades, along with a concert performance that will see the “Dancing Queen” quartet going entirely digital.
The forthcoming album “Voyage,” to be released Nov. 5, is a follow-up to 1981's “The Visitors,” which until now had been the swan song of the Swedish supergroup. And a virtual version of the band will begin a series of concerts in London on May 27.
“We took a break in the spring of 1982 and now we’ve decided it’s time to end it,” ABBA said in a statement Thursday. “They say it’s foolhardy to wait more than 40 years between albums, so we’ve recorded a follow-up to ‘The Visitors.’”
The group has been creating the holographic live show, using motion capture and other techniques, with George Lucas’ special-effects company, Industrial Light & Magic.
The show will come 50 years after the founding of the group that consisted of two married couples for most of its existence, and whose name is an acronym of the first names of its members, Agnetha Fältskog, 71, Björn Ulvaeus, 76, Benny Andersson, 74, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad, 75.
ABBA
Bans Men Not Masculine Enough From TV
China
China’s government banned effeminate men on TV and told broadcasters Thursday to promote “revolutionary culture,” broadening a campaign to tighten control over business and society and enforce official morality.
President Xi Jinping has called for a “national rejuvenation,” with tighter Communist Party control of business, education, culture and religion. Companies and the public are under increasing pressure to align with its vision for a more powerful China and healthier society.
Broadcasters must “resolutely put an end to sissy men and other abnormal esthetics,” the TV regulator said, using an insulting slang term for effeminate men — “niang pao,” or literally, “girlie guns.”
That reflects official concern that Chinese pop stars, influenced by the sleek, girlish look of some South Korean and Japanese singers and actors, are failing to encourage China’s young men to be masculine enough.
Broadcasters should avoid promoting “vulgar internet celebrities” and admiration of wealth and celebrity, the regulator said. Instead, programs should “vigorously promote excellent Chinese traditional culture, revolutionary culture and advanced socialist culture.”
China
Judge Formally Denies Motion
SAG-AFTRA Health Plan
A federal judge formally has denied a motion by the SAG-AFTRA Health Plan and its trustees to dismiss a class action lawsuit brought against them by the late Ed Asner and nine other members of the union.
They claim that changes to the Plan’s eligibility requirements earlier this year “illegally discriminate based on age and violate the Age Discrimination and Employment Act of 1967” and are a breach of their fiduciary duty under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
U.S. District Court Judge Christina A. Snyder issued a tentative decision Monday to deny the Plan’s motion to dismiss, which she has now denied formally. The ruling was the last victory for Asner, who died on Sunday, in a case that bears his name: Edward Asner et al v. the SAG-AFTRA Health Plan et al.
In a statement, the Plan said, “We are confident that the courts will ultimately reject this meritless litigation.”
SAG-AFTRA Health Plan
TikToker Rallies
Texass
An anti-abortion group could’ve gotten away with enabling Texans to snitch on their neighbors, if it weren’t for those meddling TikTok teens!
A “hacktivist” posting on the video sharing app under the username Sean Black has created a script that abortion-rights supporters can use to flood a Texas “whistleblower” website soliciting information on people seeking abortions with fake reports.
In case you missed it, a Texas abortion law went into effect overnight on Wednesday after the U.S. Supreme Court voted to not act on the law. The new law bans abortion of fetuses over six weeks old — despite the fact that many women don’t know they are pregnant that early — and allows abortion providers, people who seek abortions and even those who drive people to receive an abortion to be sued and potentially pay damages of at least $10,000.
An anti-abortion group called Texas Right to Life recently launched a website for people to report those who have violated the new law.
“To me the McCarthyism era tactics of turning neighbors against each other over a bill I feel is a violation of Roe V Wade is unacceptable. There are people on TikTok using their platform to educate and do their part. I believe this is me doing mine,” Black told Motherboard, Vice’s tech vertical.
Texass
Drug Dealers Buy Immunity
Sackler Family
Among the families who lost children and other loved ones in the nation’s opioid crisis, many had held out hope of someday facing OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma and its owners in a courtroom.
That prospect all but vanished Wednesday after a bankruptcy judge conditionally approved a settlement worth an estimated $10 billion. It was a deal that left many of those families feeling they didn’t get what they really wanted.
There was no apology from members of the Sackler family who own Purdue Pharma, they weren’t forced to give up all of their vast fortune, and there was no chance to confront them face-to-face about the lives lost to opioids.
Instead, the individual victims, thousands of state and local governments and other entities that sued Purdue Pharma agreed to a deal in which the Sacklers will pay $4.5 billion and give up ownership of the company, which will be reorganized.
The company’s profits and the Sacklers’ contribution will go toward fighting opioid addiction through treatment and education programs. Also, victims of drug addiction can receive payments ranging from $3,500 to $48,000.
Sackler Family
Oink. Oink. Oink.
California
Larry Elder (R-Poseur), the top Republican candidate in California's gubernatorial recall election, disclosed during episodes of his radio show in 2011 that he was accused twice for sexual harassment, CNN reported on Thursday.
Elder - who denied both allegations at the time - said in one instance that an employee accused him of hitting on her while he was working as an attorney at a private practice in the 1980s. He claimed that the woman was too ugly for the allegations to be true, CNN reported.
"This woman who tried to break the contract, not to compete and then accused me of hitting on her," Elder said in one episode of his radio show, according to CNN. "That's how - that's how she put it. If you had seen her, you would know that the picture would be a complete defense. I'm just saying."
According to CNN, Elder also disclosed an incident where, as a television host, he encouraged a guest to show off a butt tattoo in front of two camerawomen.
Under California's recall system, Elder could become governor of California with only around 20% to 30% of the vote if at least 50% of voters vote "yes" to remove Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom from office. Elder is one of 46 candidates who will be on the ballot for voters in favor of ousting Newsom.
California
Jurassic Sale
Big John
There are things in this world that money can’t buy, but, apparently, a giant dinosaur skeleton isn’t one of them.
A massive 66-million-year-old triceratops fossil, fittingly named Big John, will go under the gavel in France this fall. This isn’t just any old horned dinosaur, either. According to auctioneers Binoche et Giquello, Big John is the world’s largest triceratops and stretches a whopping 26 feet from tip to tail.
The herbivore’s skull alone is impressive. Measuring 8 feet 7 inches long and 6 feet 7 inches wide, it accounts for almost a third of the body and weighs more than 1,500 pounds. The two largest horns, meanwhile, span 3 feet 7 inches long and have a diameter of 11.8 inches at the base. These thick horns were reportedly strong enough to withstand 16 tons of pressure. They also happen give the ancient beast a particularly daunting presence.
Back when Big John roamed the Earth, he lived in Laramidia. This island continent once stretched all the way from present-day Alaska to Mexico. The dinosaur’s life came to an end in an ancient flood plain that was part of the Hell Creek rock formation in South Dakota. That’s where he was eventually discovered by geologist Walter W. Stein in May 2014.
Big John’s bones were excavated the next year, and taken to Italy where they were painstakingly restored. Having been preserved in mud, the 200 or so fossils stayed in surprisingly good condition. Despite being millions of years old, the dinosaur is presented with a 75 percent complete skull and a 60 percent complete body.
Big John
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