Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Joe Bob Briggs: Why China Wins (Taki's Magazine)
Since 1973 they've [the Chinese have] been gathering information, doing research about just how they want to interact with the non-Chinese parts of the world, and now that they're approaching the fifty-year mark on that project, they're ready to reassert themselves. They're starting by making friends with every nation in the world, regardless of whether that nation is free or authoritarian, socialist, atheist, or religious, regardless of whether that nation has anything to offer China.
Alison Flood: Spanish publisher subverts court gag by using Don Quixote to recreate banned book (The Guardian)
Describing the suspension of the book's sale as a "disproportionate and anachronistic measure … to prevent people from reading the story", the Booksellers Guild of Madrid has launched the website Finding Fariña, which uses a digital tool to trawl through the text of Don Quixote to find and highlight the 80,000 words that make up Fariña, allowing users to read the book despite the ban.
Joe Bob Briggs: I Got Your Aromatic Injection Right Here (Taki's Magazine)
My next question is, "What makes the octopus Spanish? Did it have eight red bullfighter's capes hanging over its tentacles? Does the restaurant serve octopi captured exclusively within the three-mile territorial limit of the coastline of Spain? Was it caught by a Colombian fishing boat, thereby touched only by Spanish-speakers? Is it prepared in some special way passed down by generations of Basque grandmothers? Would it taste different if it were, say, a Portuguese octopus?"
Jordan Weissman: The Stock Market Tanked Because Donald Trump Is Risking a Trade War With China (Slate)
Remember how Republicans used to rant and rave about how President Obama was kneecapping the economy by creating a nebulous sense of "economic uncertainty"? Well, this is what real uncertainty looks like.
Daniel Politi: Thanks to Parkland Teens, One Number Will Now Be Associated With Marco Rubio: $1.05 (Slate)
"So, this is how much we're worth to the Florida government," explained Stoneman Douglas freshman Lauren Hogg. "It's our price tag." At a Feb. 21 town hall event on gun violence, Rubio unashamedly defended accepting money from the NRA. "There's money on both sides of every issue in America," Rubio said. "I will always accept the help of anyone who agrees with my agenda."
Mary Elizabeth Williams: "American scam: My kid and I are both supposed to go broke paying for college? Forget it" (Salon)
I've learned what many students and parents already know: The student loan system is a quasi-criminal shell game
Oliver Burkeman: Why you should invest your time as wisely as your money (The Guardian)
If you're passionate about something, the only way to make it happen is to do a bit of it now, however busy you are.
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Presenting
Michael Egan
said:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
from Marc Perkel
Marc's Guide to Curing Cancer
So far so good on beating cancer for now. I'm doing fine. At the end of the month I'll be 16 months into an 8 month mean lifespan. And yesterday I went on a 7 mile hike and managed to keep up with the hiking group I was with. So, doing something right.
Still waiting for future test results and should see things headed in the right direction. I can say that it's not likely that anything dire happens in the short term so that means that I should have time to make several more attempts at this. So even if it doesn't work the first time there are a lot of variations to try. So if there's bad news it will help me pick the next radiation target.
I have written a "how to" guide for oncologists to perform the treatment that I got. I'm convinced that I'm definitely onto something and whether it works for me or not isn't the definitive test. I know if other people tried this that it would work for some of them, and if they improve it that it will work for a lot of them.
The guide is quite detailed and any doctor reading this can understand the procedure at every level. I also go into detail as to how it works, how I figured it out, and variations and improvements that could be tried to enhance it. I also introduce new ways to look at the problem. There is a lot of room for improvement and I think that doctors reading it will see what I'm talking about and want to build on it. And it's written so that if you're not a doctor you can still follow it. It also has a personal story revealing that I'm the class clown of cancer support group. I give great interviews and I look pretty hot in a lab coat.
So, feel free to read this and see what I'm talking about. But if any of you want to help then pass this around to both doctors and cancer patients. I need some media coverage. I'm looking for as many eyeballs as possible to read these ideas. Even if this isn't the solution, it's definitely on the right track. After all, I did hike 7 miles yesterday. And this hiking group wasn't moving slow. So if this isn't working then, why am I still here?
I also see curing cancer as more of an engineering problem that a medical problem. So if you are good at solving problems and most of what you know about medicine was watching the Dr. House MD TV show, then you're at the level I was at when I started. So anyone can jump in and be part of the solution.
Here is a link to my guide: Oncologists Guide to Curing Cancer using Abscopal Effect
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
THE TOUGHEST GUYS ON EARTH.
THE RACISTS!
WHY DO REPUBLICANS KEEP ELECTING MORANS?
HE FALLS TO PIECES!
THE JEFF SESSIONS.
"DAVID HOGG IS MAD AS HELL".
"SON OF A DOG"
'EWWW' 'DISGUSTING'!
"GET A BRAIN! MORANS"
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and clear, but on the cool side.
World Cities Go Dark
Earth Hour
The Sydney Opera House, the Eiffel Tower and Moscow's Red Square were among the world landmarks to go dark Saturday, as part of a global campaign to raise awareness about the impacts of climate change.
Earth Hour, which started in Australia in 2007, is being observed by millions of supporters in 187 countries, who turned off their lights at 8:30 p.m. local time in what organisers describe as the world's "largest grassroots movement for climate change".
"It aims to raise awareness about the importance of protecting the environment and wildlife," Earth Hour organiser WWF Australia chief Dermot O'Gorman told AFP.
Moscow's Red Square also fell dark and the Russian section of the International Space Station dipped its lights, the Ria Novisti news agency said.
Earth Hour
Pupils Work For Greener Future
Navajo Country
In the heart of Arizona's high desert, one of America's greenest schools is protecting the planet and its endangered culture by drawing inspiration from Native American values.
Classes at the STAR School, on the edge of the vast Navajo Nation reserve, are divided between English and -- when the fast-paced curriculum allows -- the local native language, known as diné.
In kindergarten, a teacher shows a handful of toddlers traditional weaving, while the children of elementary school age, some in traditional braids, discuss the rudiments of fiction writing or computing.
The school's stellar name -- an acronym for "Service to all Relations" -- emphasizes the Navajo philosophy that every living thing is connected, from the smallest plant to the largest mammal.
The STAR, which caters to pupils of up to the end of middle school, generates all its electricity from two wind turbines and 300 solar panels.
Navajo Country
Newly Discovered Journal
Renia
An insight into the horrors of life in Nazi-occupied Poland has been revealed in a newly discovered journal that has drawn comparison to Anne Frank's diary.
Writings kept by then teenager Renia Spiegel from 1939 until 1942 detailed what life was like as the Nazis invaded large parts of Europe.
Renia, a Jewish student, had been separated from her parents and sister and was hiding in an attic in a Jewish ghetto.
The journal, which is almost 700 pages, was lost in 1942 and reappeared in New York in the late 1960s, according to the New York Post.
It was in possession of Renia's younger sister, Elizabeth Bellak, 87, who is hoping to share her story with the entire world.
Renia
Flat-Earther Blasts Into Sky
Homemade Rocket
A flat-Earth conspiracy theorist named Mike Hughes finally lifted off our spherical planet's surface into the skies aboard a self-made, steam-powered rocket Saturday (March 24).
"Mad" Mike believes, of course mistakenly, that the Earth is flat, and his plan since November 2017 has been to launch himself upwards of 1,800 feet, with the goal of making it high enough to prove the planet's flatness, though that's down the line, he has said.
In a video by Noize TV yesterday, Hughes is seen stepping into the top cone of the rocket, with his helmet-covered head facing the heavens, the desert mountains in the background. The rocket was nestled into scaffolding attached to Hughes' "Flat Earth" plastered truck.
The launch comes after two failed attempts - one was canceled after the Bureau of Land Management caught wind of his plans to shoot the rocket from public lands and promptly shut him down; and in another attempt on Feb. 3, the flat-Earther's rocket never left the pad (on private land). (Noise TV livestreamed the painful-to-watch 11-minute event.)
This time, Hughes, a 61-year-old limo driver, crafted a ramp from a mobile home so that he could launch from a vertical angle that would allow him to return to Earth on private land owned by Albert Okura. In Saturday's success, the rocket took off straight into the air, reaching 1,875 feet (572 meters) above the Mojave Desert near Amboy, California, before making a "hard landing which sheared off the nose cone," he posted on his Facebook page.
The cone, with Hughes inside, fell back to Earth attached to a parachute. He was dropping at 350 mph (560 km/h) before pulling his parachute; that wasn't enough to slow him to a reasonable speed, and so Hughes had to pull a second parachute before crashing into the desert, as seen in the Noize TV livestream.
Homemade Rocket
Booming Online
Luxury Goods
A boom in online luxury goods sales is finally convincing high-end watchmakers, long sceptical that customers would pay thousands to buy intricate timepieces on the web, to step up their investments in e-commerce.
Courting younger shoppers, brands large and small are joining an online push sweeping the luxury goods world, where web sales are already major growth drivers for fashion labels.
"We didn't realise the speed at which millennials would take to buying cars or watches online," said Jean-Claude Biver, head of LVMH's watch business, in an interview at the Baselworld watch trade fair.
LVMH's Tag Heuer, a label long associated with motor racing, is looking to fully build out its own shoppable sites over the next 18 months, Biver added. Tag already operates online stores in five countries including the United States and Britain, and has a partnership in China with JD.com, the company said.
Tech-savvy shoppers in Asia have partly inspired a drive to do more - China overtook the United States last year as the leading source of traffic to luxury watch websites, according to consultancy DLG.
Luxury Goods
Hit Parts of Europe
Orange Snow
A rare phenomenon that occurs just once about every five years is turning the snow orange in eastern Europe.
The orange snow is a result of sand storms from the Sahara Desert mixing with rain and snow, according to the BBC.
People have taken to social media to post photos of the orange-tinted snow, which is falling in countries like Russia, Ukraine, Bulgaria and Romania. Skiers posted photos of the colored snow at a resort near Sochi, Russia.
Steven Keates, a meteorologist who works for the U.K.'s national weather service, known as the Met Office, told The Independent that the orange snow is caused by sand being lifted up into the upper layers of the atmosphere and spreading out due to the wind and weather patterns.
Keates also said the orange snow phenomenon has previously been seen in other regions around the world.
Orange Snow
Weekend Box Office
'Pacific Rim: Uprising'
It took six weeks but "Black Panther" has finally been unseated as the top film at the North American box office. The monsters vs. robots science-fiction sequel "Pacific Rim: Uprising" dethroned the superhero sensation with $28 million in ticket sales over the weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday.
But the result for "Pacific Rim: Uprising," a Universal Pictures-Legendary Entertainment release that cost $150 million to make, was soft - at least domestically. Like the recently released "Tomb Raider," its biggest business was in China. "Pacific Rim: Uprising" debuted there with $65 million for Legendary, which the Chinese conglomerate Wanda Group acquired in 2016.
And even though "Black Panther" slid to second place with $16.7 million in its sixth weekend, Ryan Coogler's film notched another box-office milestone. It's now the highest-grossing superhero film ever in North America, not accounting for inflation. The film's $631 million in domestic ticket sales has surpassed the $623 million of 2012's "The Avengers." ''Black Panther" also becomes the fifth highest grossing film of all-time, rising above "Star Wars: The Last Jedi."
Yet the record-breaking hit of "Black Panther" has been followed by a string of lackluster performers, including "Tomb Raider," ''A Wrinkle in Time" and "Red Sparrow." ''Pacific Rim: Uprising" may have taken down the champ, but a blockbuster heir to "Black Panther" is yet to be found. Next weekend, Steven Spielberg will try with his big-budget virtual-reality spectacle "Ready Player One."
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to comScore. Where available, the latest international numbers also are included. Final three-day domestic figures will be released Monday.
1. "Pacific Rim: Uprising," $28 million ($122.5 million international).
2. "Black Panther," $16.7 million ($12.9 million international).
3. "I Can Only Imagine," $13.8 million.
4. "Sherlock Gnomes," $10.6 million.
5. "Tomb Raider," $10.4 million.
6. "A Wrinkle in Time," $8 million.
7. "Love, Simon," $7.8 million.
8. "Paul, Apostle of Christ," $5 million.
9. "Game Night," $4.2 million.
10. "Midnight Sun," $4.1 million.
'Pacific Rim: Uprising'
In Memory
Jose Abreu
Jose Abreu, the award-winning founder of a program that pulled thousands of Venezuelan children from crime and poverty through music, died on Saturday, aged 78.
Abreu founded the globally acclaimed El Sistema, or The System, in 1975 in a garage with just nine musicians. From that, the network expanded to 300 choirs and orchestras that received awards from the Royal Swedish Academy and UNESCO.
Abreu was born on May 7, 1939, in the small Andean city of Valera. He began his musical studies at nine and moved to Caracas to study composition.
"Abreu has given life to a musical system with which young people can be safe from the dangers of the street, of crime, of drugs," said Simon Rattle, director of the Berlin Philharmonic, according to the El Sistema website.
Gustavo Dudamel has become the public face of El Sistema in recent years, often conducting free concerts in Caracas' grimy downtown area.
He has spoken out strongly in support of anti-government protests that last year rocked Venezuela for four months, leaving more than 120 people dead, including an 18-year-old musician from the Venezuela National Youth Orchestra.
Jose Abreu
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