Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Josh Marshall: Are We Really That Great? (TPM)
Massacres like this rarely happen anywhere else in the world. There's no other country without at least low-level warfare where these massacres are routine. They are routine here in the United States. They have become almost a cliche of early 21st century American culture. We let this happen. […] It is unknowable, unstoppable. It's part of something in the human condition we can grieve but never truly understand. Our public sentiments are learned helplessness and evasion.
Nick Wing: The Las Vegas Massacre Was A Ritual Sacrifice To The Second Amendment (Huffington Post)
The gun rights crowd's mask comes off after the latest horrific mass shooting.
Christina Cauterucci: "Pro-Life" Congressman Caught Telling His Extramarital Boo to Get an Abortion (Slate)
Hypocrisy sucks, but unveiling it can feel as satisfying as taking a gigantic gulp of ice-cold nervous sweat from the brow of a very bad man. Such is the sensation that the reporters at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette must be experiencing in the wake of the marvelous scoop they published Tuesday afternoon: Rep. Tim Murphy, a vocally anti-abortion congressman from Pennsylvania, asked his own girlfriend to terminate a pregnancy this year.
Josh Marshall: This Bears Watching (TPM)
[Virginia GOP Governor candidate Ed] Gillespie is the kind of Republican who you'd normally expect to see saying Republicans need to expand their support among growing demographic groups. He's not a Steve King type you wouldn't be surprised to see going full race-baiting Trumper in Virginia. But he's clearly decided this is his path to victory, a doubling down on Trumpism and the Trump base. It certainly seems possible that he might win.
Gwilym Mumford: 'I loathe these people': Rick and Morty and the brilliant backlash against TV's bad fans (The Guardian)
The Back to the Future-parodying animation has ushered in an awful new age of TV trolls - and, in a remarkable move, its creators are finally fighting back.
Stuart Heritage: Bricking it: why the Lego movie franchise is on shaky foundations (The Guardian)
The Lego Ninjago Movie can't hope to live up to the standard of either the original film or Lego Batman. Has quality already been sacrificed to quantity?
Alexis Petridis: Tom Petty: the rock star who was a music fan as much as a musician (The Guardian)
He was the master of mainstream rock songwriting with heart and brains, with a back catalogue that rang through the ages.
Jake Nevins: "Late-night TV on Trump's Puerto Rico visit: 'What planet is this man from?'"(The Guardian)
Colbert, showing footage of the president grading his administration's performance in Florida, Texas and Puerto Rico an "A+", responded: "You know you can't give yourself an A+. That's not how grades work."
Rachel Withers: The Mountain Between Us Wants You to Know That the Dog, Who Is a Very Good Boy, Survives (Slate)
No word yet on whether Kate Winslet makes it through. Not that it matters. The most important character is going to be fine.
David Bruce's Amazon Author Page
David Bruce's Smashwords Page
David Bruce's Blog
David Bruce's Lulu Storefront
David Bruce's Apple iBookstore
David Bruce has over 80 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
Presenting
Michael Egan
answered:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
David E Suggests
Wheelchairs
David
Thanks, Dave!
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
Team Coco
CONAN
from Marc Perkel
Patriot Act
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
"ARE YOU LONESOME TONIGHT?"
LOVE IN THE DEEP BLUE SEA.
TAKE YOUR STINK AND SHOVE IT!
BLACK AND WHITE AND RED ALL OVER.
THE FIXER.
TRUMP-SHIT!
DONALD TRUMP IS AN ADDICT!
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Looks like we're gonna have another heat wave.
2018 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Nominees
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on Thursday unveiled its nominees for the 2018 induction class with a collection of acts covering a range of musical bases and tastes and shining a light on the best of British.
The 19-strong longlist reads like a British invasion with U.K. acts Radiohead, Depeche Mode, Kate Bush, Dire Straits, Judas Priest, the Moody Blues and Eurythmics among the contenders for the Rock Hall. It's the first appearance for all of them, with the exception of Depeche Mode, who earn back-to-back nominations.
Also earning a mention for the first time are Nina Simone, Rage Against the Machine and Sister Rosetta Tharpe, while this crops marks the fifth nomination for J. Geils Band, the fourth for LL Cool J and the Meters, the third for the Cars, MC5 and the Zombies and the second for Bon Jovi, Rufus featuring Chaka Khan and Link Wray.
The public has until Dec. 5 to cast votes on the final inductees via the Rock Hall's site. The top five acts selected will comprise a "fans' ballot" that will make an impression along with those of the 800 artists, historians and music industry professionals who make up the Rock Hall voting body.
Nominees
Points Out One Way Trump Shows 'True Leadership'
J.K. Rowling
The creator of a magical community thinks President-for-now Donald Trump (R-Crooked) is living in a fantasy world.
After Trump lashed out at NBC News on Twitter Wednesday, J.K. Rowling summed up the president's response to "fake news" in a single tweet, posting an image that showed all of Trump's tweets about NBC and pairing it with a hilarious caption.
"His harshest critics must acknowledge that @realDonaldTrump shows true leadership in the war on reality," she wrote.
Rowling's tweet comes a day after the president tossed rolls of paper towels into a crowd of Hurricane Maria survivors during his first visit to Puerto Rico after the storm devastated the U.S. island territory two weeks ago.
The author also called the commander-in-chief a "tiny, tiny, tiny little man" in May after he shoved aside Montenegro's Prime Minister at the NATO summit in order to shove his way to the front of a crowd.
J.K. Rowling
Excavation Recovers Bronze Arm
Antikythera Shipwreck
A little over two weeks of diving in September turned up a bronze statue arm, other statue fragments, pottery and ship fragments that have sat at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea for two millennia, according to an announcement made todayby the team of archaeologists and divers in charge of excavating the Antikythera shipwreck.
Bronze statues from Greek antiquity are incredibly rare, and many of those we do have were found in isolation-but that's not the case at this excavation. "What we as archaeologists are most fascinated by is that with Antikythera, we have a situation, a whole archaeological context, that allows us to explore these ancient bronzes in a much more comprehensive way than is usually possible, particularly with these underwater finds," Jens Daehner, an associate curator for ancient sculpture at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles and who is not affiliated with the excavation, told Newsweek.
Last month's finds are due to add to that store of bronzes, according to the new announcement. The largest statue fragment recovered so far is a bronze right arm. But the excavating team also believes that metal-detector readingsgathered during the dives promise at least seven more bronze statues, currently still buried under rock and dirt.
Divers-professional and otherwise-have spent more than a century exploring the wreck, which is particularly famous for the Antikythera mechanism it carried, which was an early calculator for astronomical events. But the shipwreck has also been the source of some of the few bronze statues remaining from antiquity.
The statues that have been recovered so far would have been about 300 years old when the ship sank, during the first century B.C. "These are not new statues that were just shipped somewhere after a commission," Daehner says. "They would have been on the ships for other reasons-they were looted or sold off or brought over to Italy, where there was a whole context of collecting that formed during that period."
Antikythera Shipwreck
Syfy Acquires
'Futurama'
Syfy is venturing into animation, acquiring the cult Matt Groening series Futuramafrom Twentieth Television. It marks the first fully animated series in Syfy's lineup.
Under the multi-year non-exclusive deal, Syfy will have access to all 140 HD episodes of the series, which will debut in a special weekend stunt beginning Saturday, November 11. It will continue airing regularly in primetime on Mondays and Tuesdays from 8PM-2AM ET and on Saturday mornings from 8-11AM ET.
First airing on Fox from 1999-2003, Futurama was brought back in 2007 with four direct-to-DVD movies that subsequently aired as 30-minute episodes on Comedy Central. Based on their success, Comedy Central ordered new seasons of the series which debuted in June 2010. Over the course of its run, Futurama has earned six Emmy Awards, including two for Outstanding Animated Program, seven Annie Awards, two Environmental Media Awards and two WGA Awards. You can watch a trailer from the first season below.
Created by Groening and developed by Groening and David X. Cohen, Futurama is produced by The Curiosity Company in association with 20th Century Fox Television.
Futurama joins Syfy's series roster, which includes The Expanse, The Magicians and Channel Zero, along with the upcoming graphic novel adaptation Happy! set for premiere December 6, and Superman prequel Krypton slated to premiere in 2018. Syfy's development slate includes a series order for an adaptation of George R.R. Martin's space opera novella Nightflyers and a pilot pickup for a reboot of the 1990 cult classic Tremors.
'Futurama'
Decades Of Sexual Harassment
Harvey Weinstein
One of Hollywood's most famous film producers sexually harassed aspiring actresses over almost three decades, according to an explosive expose in the New York Times.
Harvey Weinstein, 65-year-old creator of Miramax and producer of films including Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, Shakespeare in Love and Scream, announced on Thursday afternoon that he was taking time off from Weinstein Company in the light of the allegations.
Actresses Ashley Judd and Rose McGowan were among at the women to have accused Weinstein of inappropriate behaviour.
"Women have been talking about Harvey amongst ourselves for a long time, and it's simply beyond time to have the conversation publicly," said Judd.
Eight women told the New York Times that Weinstein would appear nearly or fully naked in front of them, requiring them to be present while he bathed or repeatedly asking for a massage or initiating one himself.
Harvey Weinstein
Forced To Publicly Praise T-rump
Rex
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson held a press conference Wednesday just so he could tell people he thinks the president is "smart," becoming the latest in a string of officials who appeared to find it necessary to publicly praise the leader.
Tillerson spoke briefly from the Treaty Room in the White House about his loyalty to the administration and President-for-now Donald Trump (R-Buffoon). The press conference came after a report from NBC News that said Tillerson called Trump a "moron" in July and was approached by Vice President Mike Pence about how to handle disagreements with the president.
Trump expressed his displeasure with NBC in a tweet shortly before Tillerson spoke Wednesday:
Tillerson said NBC "erroneously reported" that Pence had to convince him to stay. He did not deny that he called Trump a "moron."
It's not the first time an official working under Trump has used a public appearance to praise the president. During a visit to Puerto Rico to survey damage from Hurricane Maria, Trump asked Jenniffer González-Colón, the island's representative to Congress, to repeat "nice things" she had said about Trump in interviews.
Rex
Not Protected By Anti-Discrimination Law
Transgender Workers
The Justice Department has announced that an anti-discrimination law does not protect transgender workers, potentially opening people up to discrimination in the workplace because of their gender identity.
It is the latest announcement by the Trump administration that specifically targets transgender people.
Earlier this year, Donald Trump (R-Odious) signed a directive reinstating a ban on transgender individuals from serving in the military. Transgender troops had been able to serve openly since the Obama administration lifted the ban in 2016.
In a memo dated Wednesday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions (R-Evil Elf) rescinded another Obama-era action aimed at expanding rights for transgender people.
The Justice Department under Barack Obama had interpreted the Civil Rights Act to protect transgender workers. But according to Mr Sessions, "Title VII's prohibition on sex discrimination encompasses discrimination between men and women but does not encompass discrimination based on gender identity per se, including transgender status."
Transgender Workers
She Died
159 Hours Of OT
Japan's public broadcaster has revealed that one of its reporters died from overwork.
NHK said that labor officials had concluded that the 31-year-old political reporter died from heart failure caused by spending long hours on the job.
Japan, known for its 'salaryman' culture and punishing work hours, has struggled for years to tackle the impact of overwork on employees' health. A government study published last year found that one in five workers is at risk of working themselves to death.
Excessive hours are such a big problem that there's even a Japanese word for death by overwork: karoshi.
According to a news story published by NHK, Miwa Sado had worked 159 hours of overtime in the month before her death.
159 Hours Of OT
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. U2; $7,458,959; $114.10.
2. Coldplay; $7,003,572; $89.27.
3. Guns N' Roses; $4,835,288; $101.05.
4. Celine Dion; $3,739,668; $142.00.
5. Lady Gaga; $3,466,727; $118.04.
6. Depeche Mode; $3,028,294; $79.27.
7. Dead & Company; $2,117,213; $73.47.
8. Roger Waters; $1,804,793; $121.70.
9. Bruno Mars; $1,780,059; $96.07.
10. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers; $1,613,912; $96.74.
11. Ed Sheeran; $1,355,202; $84.36.
12. Neil Diamond; $1,305,562; $103.04.
13. Enrique Iglesias / Pitbull; $1,259,920; $94.87.
14. Queen + Adam Lambert; $1,243,344; $97.91.
15. Kendrick Lamar; $1,220,753; $89.49.
16. Tim McGraw / Faith Hill; $1,209,043; $84.55.
17. Ariana Grande; $1,165,632; $74.73.
18. Tool; $1,134,726; $76.95.
19. Florida Georgia Line; $1,048,080; $51.70.
20. Jerry Seinfeld; $1,005,081; $124.11.
Global Concert Tours
| CURRENT MOON lunar phases |
