Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Yo Zushi: In sexual misconduct cases, we must not confuse accusation and proof (New Statesman)
When it comes to the serving of justice, how appropriate is it to demand a quick fix?
Anna Leszkiewicz: Pixar has always been a boys' club (New Statesman)
Rashida Jones is right: Pixar has failed to give women and people of colour as much creative control as white men.
Ryan Gilbey: What Daddy's Home 2 tells us about career-ruining Hollywood scandals (New Statesman)
In Mark Wahlberg and Mel Gibson, the festive romp offers two case studies with different outcomes.
Henry Rollins: Art Should Be for Everyone, Not Just Those Who Can Afford It (LA Weekly)
Last week, Salvator Mundi, a painting said to be from the hand of Leonardo da Vinci, sold at Christie's for $450 million. The painting is, apparently, of Jesus Christ. It also looks a little like the Mona Lisa. JC seems to be ever so slightly smiling, but you can't figure out where the smile is coming from. Considering that there's no photographic record of the man, the portrait is a perfect example of artistic license.
What I'm really thinking: the new resident in a retirement home (The Guardian)
A friend asked, 'What do you like most about living here?' I thought long and hard. 'I can't think of anything.'
What I'm really thinking: the older man offered a seat on the bus (The Guardian)
To accept the seat is to accept that new status - elderly, needy, requiring care - a status I am not yet ready to embrace.
Fiona Sturges: The Sex Robots Are Coming: seedy, sordid - but mainly just sad (The Guardian)
The sex-doll industry is going from strength to strength in the drive to make the figures more lifelike, but where will it end?
Hadley Freeman: It wasn't feminist theory that cured my anorexia - it was having something to eat for (The Guardian)
I was extremely lucky to have found a wonderful doctor who understood me and who I couldn't outsmart.
Vanessa Thorpe: "A hero reborn: 'China's Tolkien' aims to conquer western readers" (The Guardian)
The world's most popular kung fu fantasy series is finally set to become a UK bestseller.
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Presenting
Michael Egan
said:
took the day off.
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
KEEP THEM GUESSING.
WHAT SEX IS GOD?
"TOTAL BS."
FIVE FIBS A DAY.
QUIT WHILE YOUR HEAD STILL WORKS.
DO SOMETHING FATSO!
THE BIG DICK IN THE SKY.
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Back to sunny and seasonal.
Swerves From Nuclear Armageddon To Climate Change
Robert Jay Lifton
Robert Jay Lifton has spent his life trying to understand some of the most unfathomable milestones of the 20th century.
The famed psychiatrist and author started his career in the mid-1950s studying Chinese government-sponsored brainwashing, or "thought reform." In the '60s, he began interviewing survivors of the atomic bombs dropped on Japan, becoming obsessed with how the human mind copes with the possibility of nuclear annihilation. By the late '70s, he turned his focus to the doctors responsible for the Nazi regime's human experiments, men who occupy a uniquely revolting niche in popular culture.
At 91 years old, he has arrived at his most daunting subject yet: climate change. In his latest book, The Climate Swerve, Lifton examines humanity's struggle to understand what's happening, how to deal with it, and why powerful people and institutions sabotage attempts to avoid destruction of the planet.
"The climate threat is the most all-encompassing threat that we human beings face," Lifton said in an interview last month. He walks hunched with a cane now, but sports a mop of long, wavy white hair. He peered through dark, thick-rimmed glasses out the window of a book-stacked office in his modest Upper West Side apartment, located just blocks from Trump Tower. "The nuclear threat is parallel to it in many ways … but the climate threat includes everything."
In other parts of the world, little doubt exists over the similarities between nuclear weapons and climate change, which Lifton calls the "apocalyptic twins." The Marshall Islands served as a U.S. testing site for atomic weapons throughout the 20th century. The Pacific archipelago nation bears the scars of that experience today, with entire islands vaporized in hydrogen bomb blasts and high rates of cancer linked to radioactive contamination. Now the country struggles with rapidly rising sea levels, which swallow large habitable areas, make storms more destructive, and salinate freshwater supplies necessary to farm breadfruit, a staple crop.
Robert Jay Lifton
Baffled By Christian Support
Archbishop of Canterbury
The Archbishop of Canterbury has said he does not understand why fundamentalist Christians in the US support Donald Trump (R-Corrupt).
The Most Rev Justin Welby said he "really genuinely" had no explanation for how the US President-for-now has secured such a significant support base amongst church-goers.
He made the admission as described the Mr Trump's attitude towards women as "completely unacceptable".
The Archbishop has previously accused Mr Trump of being part of a group of leaders from a "nationalist, populist, or even fascist tradition of politics".
Archbishop of Canterbury
Are Magic Mushrooms Next?
California
As California prepares for the legalisation of recreational marijuana in 2018, one man is pushing for the state to become the first to decriminalise magic mushrooms.
Kevin Saunders, a mayoral candidate for the city of Marina, just south of the San Francisco Bay, has filed a proposal that would exempt adults over the age of 21 from any penalties over possessing, growing, selling or transporting psychedelic psilocybin mushrooms.
If he can get 365,880 voter signatures by the end of April 2018, the California Psilocybin Legalization Initiative will be placed on the statewide ballot.
Saunders thinks that now is the right time because, he says, the drug can help bridge the current political divide and restore a sense of community.
So far, they have about 1,000 signatures, but plan to ramp up signature-gathering efforts in early December at college campuses and events like the medical marijuana summit The Emerald Cup. Eighty-five thousand signatures will trigger hearings at the state capitol.
California
Heart Pickled In "Cognac"
Frederic Chopin
The heart of Frederic Chopin, among the world's most cherished musical virtuosos, may finally have given up the cause of his untimely death.
The prolific 19th-century Polish-French pianist and composer died at the age of 39, of what had long been believed to be tuberculosis (TB).
However, in 2008, Polish medical experts raised the possibility that Chopin -- whose health had always been very frail -- had actually suffered from cystic fibrosis (CF).
The genetic respiratory illness clogs the lungs with sticky, thick mucus and sufferers on average generally do not survive past their late 30s.
Now, Polish scientists, who were the first to use modern technology to study Chopin's heart -- preserved for the last 168 years inside a crystal jar in what appears to be cognac -- believe they are a step closer to an accurate diagnosis.
Frederic Chopin
Fox "News" Is 'Much More Important'
CNN
Donald Trump's (R-Crooked) favorite news network is "much more important" than the often critical CNN, the president-for-now tweeted Saturday.
Just days earlier, Trump's Justice Department filed a contentious lawsuit to block AT&T's purchase of CNN's parent company, Time Warner. The action raised concerns that the federal government is trying to silence CNN's critical coverage of the president, rather than fears about a powerful media monopoly.
Bloomberg reported that Trump confidant Rupert Murdoch (R-Evil Incarnate), head of 21st Century Fox, asked AT&T Chief Executive Officer Randall Stephenson twice in the last six months if CNN was going to be up for sale.
The president also accused CNN of spreading "fake news" around the world, saying CNN International represents America "very poorly." CNN snapped back that it's not the network's job to represent the U.S. to the world - it's the president's.
Jake Tapper noted that the timing of Trump's tweet about CNN coincided with Russian President Vladimir Putin's signing of a law that allows American media outlets in Russia to be registered as "foreign agents." The law is in retaliation for the U.S. government's request that the American office of the Russian TV network RT be registered as a foreign agent.
CNN
Chemical Company's Response Worries
Chemours Co.
Americans have grown accustomed to hearing apologies from everyone from cheating car-makers to cheating presidents, but a Fortune 500 chemical company with a pollution problem in North Carolina is following a different model: don't apologize, don't explain.
For six months, Wilmington, Delaware-based Chemours Co. has faced questions about an unregulated chemical with unknown health risks that flowed from the company's plant into the Cape Fear River, which provides drinking water for hundreds of thousands of people.
The company has said virtually nothing in its own defense about chemicals it may have discharged for nearly four decades, and it skipped legislative hearings looking into health concerns.
Earlier this month, North Carolina environmental regulators said they might fine Chemours, revoke its license to discharge treated wastewater into the nearby river and open a criminal probe. State officials said the company chose silence over reporting a chemical spill last month as required.
New tests have detected the chemical GenX, used to make Teflon and other industrial products, at levels beyond the state's estimated but legally unenforceable safety guidepost in 50 private water wells near Chemours' Fayetteville plant and at a water treatment plant in Wilmington, about 100 miles (62 kilometers) downstream. There are no federal health standards addressing GenX and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency classifies it as an "emerging contaminant" to be studied.
Chemours Co.
Lead Bullets
California Condor
An effort to bring one of the world's largest birds back from the brink of extinction is expanding after northern Arizona and southern Utah found some success in getting deer hunters to use ammunition not made of lead.
A group working to protect the endangered California condor is setting its sights on small-game and varmint hunters as lead continues to threaten the birds that feed on animal carcasses. The group has enlisted the help of a social scientist to target its messaging to a broader set of hunters that are not always after big game.
"We have hope for success, it all comes down to this change in hunter tradition - and to change your traditions takes a long time," said Chris Parish of the Peregrine Fund, which tracks the condors in the Southwest U.S. "It's not an overnight change."
The condors nearly went extinct in the 20th century because of lead poisoning, hunting and habitat destruction. The last of them were rounded up and bred in captivity to recover the species. The Southwest population started with six birds released from Vermilion Cliffs in 1996, and it now stands at 82.
California Condor
Coral Transplant Raises Survival Hopes
Great Barrier Reef
Coral bred in one part of the Great Barrier Reef was successfully transplanted into another area, Australian scientists said Sunday, in a project they hope could restore damaged ecosystems around the world.
In a trial at the reef's Heron Island off Australia's east coast, the researchers collected large amount of coral spawn and eggs late last year, grew them into larvae and then transplanted them into areas of damaged reef.
When they returned eight months later, they found juvenile coral that had survived and grown, aided by underwater mesh tanks.
"The success of this new research not only applies to the Great Barrier Reef but has potential global significance," lead researcher Peter Harrison of Southern Cross University said.
Harrison said his mass larval-restoration approach contrasts with the current "coral gardening" method of breaking up healthy coral and sticking healthy branches on reefs in the hope they will regrow, or growing coral in nurseries before transplantation.
Great Barrier Reef
Weekend Box Office
'Coco'
Pixar's "Coco" sang its way to the fourth best Thanksgiving weekend ever with an estimated $71.2 million over the five-day weekend, a total that easily toppled Warner Bros.' "Justice League."
Still, the most profitable movie currently at the box office might be the Lionsgate family release "Wonder," directed by Stephen Chbosky. Starring Jacob Tremblay and Julia Roberts, the film - which carries a production budget of $20 million - has made $69.4 million. It slid just 19 percent in its second week, with $22.3 million in ticket sales.
A number of specialty releases with Oscar ambitions also hit theaters over the weekend. Of them, Sony Pictures Classics' "Call Me By Your Name" came out with the best per-screen average: $101,219 in four theaters. Not since "La La Land" has a film so packed theaters in specialty release. The movie, starring Timothee Chalamet and Armie Hammer, is about a young man's coming of age in 1980s Northern Italy.
"Darkest Hour," with Gary Oldman as Winston Churchill, debuted with $176,000 on four screens. The expanding releases of Greta Gerwig's "Lady Bird" ($4 million on 791 screens) and Martin McDonaugh's "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri" ($4.4 million on 614 screens) also drew crowded theaters.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to comScore. Where available, the latest international numbers for Friday through Sunday are also included. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
1. "Coco," $49 million ($30.7 million international).
2. "Justice League," $40.7 million ($72.2 million international).
3. "Wonder," $22.3 million.
4. "Thor: Ragnarok," $16.8 million.
5. "Daddy's Home 2," $13.3 million.
6. "Murder on the Orient Express," $13 million.
7. "The Star," $6.9 million.
8. "Bad Moms Christmas," $5 million.
9. "Roman J. Israel, Esq." $4.5 million.
10. "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri," $4.4 million.
'Coco'
In Memory
Rance Howard
Rance Howard, actor and father of actor-director Ron Howard and actor Clint Howard, died Saturday. He was 89.
Howard appeared in several of his older son Ron's films, including Apollo 13, Parenthood, Splash, How the Grinch Stole Christmas and A Beautiful Mind. He also appeared in Alexander Payne's Nebraska, and has several movies yet to be released, including The Christ Slayer and Apple Seed.
Howard also appeared on the small screen on shows such as Bones, NCIS: Los Angeles, Seinfeld, and of course, Happy Days, on which starred Ron starred.
Ron recently spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about his father. At the Nov. 14 premiere of Howard's Broken Memories, Ron said he was proud of his dad, calling his performance "the role of his career to date" and sharing what inspired him most about his father.
At the premiere, Ron's daughter, actress Bryce Dallas Howard, also had nothing but praise for her grandfather, calling him the "greatest human being on the planet."
Howard's wife, Judy, died in January. He is survived by his sons, Bryce and another granddaughter, Paige.
Rance Howard
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