Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Jonathan Chait: The Mueller Investigation Is in Mortal Danger (New York Mag)
It is almost a maxim of the Trump era that the bounds of the unthinkable continuously shrink. The capitulation to Moore was a dry run for the coming assault on the rule of law.
Adam Roberts: Arthur C Clarke at 100: still the king of science fiction (The Guardian)
2001: A Space Odyssey, Childhood's End, Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World … one hundred years after his birth, the British writer is the undisputed master
Dana Stevens: The Top 10 Movies of 2017 (Slate)
The 10 pieces of flotsam I kept clinging to during this tempestuous year.
Jordan Weissmann: Senate Republicans Made a $289 Billion Mistake in the Handwritten Tax Bill They Passed at 2 a.m. Go Figure. (Slate)
On the bright side, this mammoth screw-up will make it harder for the House to simply pass the Senate's bill if the GOP's conference committee hits a wall. Republicans have to enact something that fixes this, lest they tick off the very donors this legislation was meant to appease.
What I'm really thinking: the mediator (The Guardian)
We need to be impartial, non-judgmental and endlessly patient, but I feel like telling them to stop behaving like five-year-olds.
Hadley Freeman: "When Harry met Meghan: it's every Richard Curtis movie rolled into one" (The Guardian)
Stop me if you've heard this one before: a charming English posho wants to find love, but British girls just don't come up to snuff.
Lucy Mangan: "Why I'm no longer ashamed of my antidepressants" (Stylist)
Was it when I found myself crying on the plumber that I realised things had to change? Or was it when I found myself secretly going back to bed once everyone else had left the house and trying to sleep the day away? Or when I met up with friends I hadn't seen for a year, thought I was doing a wonderful job of acting normally, but couldn't fail to notice the concerned glances they were exchanging over my head?
Hadley Freeman: "Adam Gopnik: 'You're waltzing along and suddenly you're portrayed as a monster of privilege'" (The Guardian)
Interspersed with essays about 9/11 and gentrification he wrote about, for example, Charlie Ravioli, three-year-old Olivia's imaginary friend who was always too busy to meet her, and the death of her pet fish, Bluie, all in his elegant, accessibly highbrow style.
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David Bruce has over 80 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
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 MOBSTER PRESIDENT.
TRUMP HUMPS THE STUMP.
WHAT WOULD A REPUBLICAN DO FOR DONALD TRUMP?
FOLLOW THE YELLOW BRICK ROAD. HEE HAW!
BABY RAPERS STICK TOGETHER.
HERE WE GO AGAIN.
"THAT SEEMS REASONABLE, RIGHT?"
DUCKY BOY IS READY TO DO SOME GOVERNMENT BUSINESS.
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
The skunk is back.
Winners Warning
Nobel Peace Prize
Mankind's destruction caused by a nuclear war is just one "impulsive tantrum away", the winners of the Nobel Peace Prize, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), warned on Sunday as the United States and North Korea exchange threats over the nation's nuclear tests.
"Will it be the end of nuclear weapons, or will it be the end of us?" ICAN head Beatrice Fihn said in a speech after receiving the peace prize on behalf of the anti-nuclear group.
North Korea's leader Kim Jong-Un has exchanged warlike threats with US President Donald Trump (R-Tantrum), who has ordered a military show of force.
ICAN, a coalition of hundreds of NGOs around the world, has worked for a treaty banning nuclear weapons which was adopted in July by 122 countries.
In an apparent snub of the ICAN-backed treaty, the three western nuclear powers -- the US, France and Britain -- broke with tradition by sending second-ranking diplomats rather than their ambassadors to Sunday's ceremony.
Nobel Peace Prize
Tells Ajit Pai He Has No Honor
Ron Swanson
Ron Swanson has no time for Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai (R-Verizon) and his bid to repeal net neutrality.
Swanson, the lovable curmudgeon from NBC's "Parks and Recreation," is no fan of public officials who misuse their power. So Nick Offerman, the actor who plays Swanson, offered up a few choice words for Pai on Thursday.
Apparently, Pai is a fan of Swanson and the show, and showed off a signed "Ron Swanson Pyramid of Greatness" poster in a segment for Vice News. Offerman said this "felt strange" to him, given Pai's stance on net neutrality, so he "went to see Ron Swanson to ask if he'd care to weigh in."
Offerman's tweet included a screenshot of a text message, purportedly from Swanson.
"I'm flattered that my pyramid of greatness has inspired you," says the text. "I will remind you that the top category is Honor. Sadly, based on your duplicitous handling of the net neutrality issue, and the way you are willfully ignoring the public you claim to serve, I feel you may need that term defined. Which means, of course, that you don't have it."
Ron Swanson
Corrects Story (!)
Fox "News"
Fox "News" updated a story that erroneously claimed one of Roy Moore's (R-Perv) accusers had "forged" evidence she'd presented to bolster her claim against him.
Beverly Young Nelson said in a press conference with attorney Gloria Allred in November that the Republican Alabama Senate candidate had sexually assaulted her in the late 1970s when she was a teen and he was in his 30s. Nelson produced a yearbook signed by Moore last month as proof he had known her.
In a Friday press conference, Allred said Nelson had noted beneath the inscription when and where she recalled Moore writing it. Nelson also confirmed she had made the notes during an interview with ABC's Tom Llamas.
In response, Fox News ran a headline Friday stating: "Roy Moore accuser admits she forged part of yearbook inscription attributed to Alabama Senate candidate," according to the Internet Archive, which preserves websites. The Fox headline echoed alt-right websites The Gateway Pundit and Breitbart, which ran with "Gloria Allred Accuser **ADMITS** She Tampered With Roy Moore's Yearbook 'Signature'" and "Roy Moore Accuser Beverly Nelson Admits She Forged Yearbook," respectively.
Moore shared a tweet from Fox containing the misleading headline; however, while Fox has since deleted its tweet, Moore has not deleted his. President Trump also seized on the yearbook comments to attack Nelson at a Florida rally.
Fox "News"
Trademark Battle
Comic Con
A jury on Friday sided with San Diego Comic-Con in a court battle with a rival pop-culture convention in Utah over rights to use the phrase "comic con."
The panel decided that Salt Lake Comic Con used the trademarked phrase without permission, though they didn't do so willfully. The panel awarded the California event $20,000, far less than the $12 million they'd sought.
"From the beginning all that we asked of the defendants was to stop using our Comic-Con trademarks," the San Diego Comic Convention said in a statement. "Today we obtained a verdict that will allow us to achieve this."
Utah co-founder Dan Farr told Salt Lake City TV station KUTV they plan to appeal.
Lawyers for the well-known San Diego convention argued during the trial that the upstart event in Salt Lake stole their name to benefit from their reputation built over years of hard work, Salt Lake City-based newspaper The Deseret News reported .
Comic Con
Diplomat Quits With Fiery Letter
Elizabeth Shackelford
A distinguished U.S. diplomat who was seen as a rising star at the State Department resigned after writing a searing letter to Secretary Of State Rex Tillerson (R-Exxon), accusing him of gutting the department and damaging America's standing across the world.
Elizabeth Shackelford, who served as a political officer based in Nairobi for the U.S. mission to Somalia, lamented in a Nov. 7 letter obtained by Foreign Policy the "stinging disrespect" President-for-now Donald Trump's (R-Corrupt) administration had shown the diplomatic corps and how it was "driving" the department's most experienced staff away in growing numbers.
"The cost of this is visible every day in Mission Somalia, my current post, where State's diplomatic influence, on the country and within our own interagency, is waning," Shackelford wrote.
She said she was "shocked" when Tillerson, who stepped down as ExxonMobil CEO to serve as Trump's secretary of state, told department employees that advancing human rights across the globe "creates obstacles to our ability to advance our national security interests."
If Tillerson is unable to "stem the bleeding" and preserve the department's mission, she added, "I would humbly recommend you follow me out the door."
Elizabeth Shackelford
Your Tax Dollars At Work
Patagonia
The House Committee on Natural Resources has joined Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke's fight against Patagonia, accusing the American outdoor retailer of lying in order to sell merchandise.
On Friday, the committee - which is chaired by Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah) - posted an image to Twitter that reads, "Patagonia Is Lying To You ... A corporate giant hijacking our public lands debate to sell more products to wealthy elitist urban dwellers from New York to San Francisco."
That the post comes from an official government account has raised both ethical and legal questions.
Walter Shaub, the former director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, said the federal government "officially and publicly calling a company a liar for political reasons is a bizarre and dangerous departure from civic norms."
Shaub also wrote that the "attack" on Patagonia "sure looks a lot like a violation" of House committee rules dealing with social media communication.
Patagonia
'Soul-Crushing' Video
Polar Bear
Video footage captured in Canada's Arctic has offered a devastating look at the impact climate change is having on polar bears in the region, showing an emaciated bear clinging to life as it scrounged for food on iceless land.
The scene was recorded by the conservation group Sea Legacy during a late summer expedition in Baffin Island. "My entire Sea Legacy team was pushing through their tears and emotions while documenting this dying polar bear," photographer Paul Nicklen wrote on social media after publishing the footage this week.
The bear, which was not old, probably died within hours of being captured on video, said Nicklen. "This is what starvation looks like. The muscles atrophy. No energy. It's a slow, painful death."
The film-makers drew a direct line between the bear's state and climate change. "As temperatures rise and sea ice melts, polar bears lose access to the main staple of their diets - seals," the video noted. "Starving, and running out of energy, they are forced to wander into human settlements for any source of food."
The association echoed a 2015 study from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature that ranked climate change as the single most important threat to the world's 26,000 polar bears. Researchers - who described the bears as the canary in the coal mine - found a high probability that the population would decrease 30% by 2050 due to the changes in their sea ice habitat.
Polar Bear
Could Face Extinction
Right Whales
An already dire situation for North Atlantic right whales became even worse in 2017.
This species of whale is among the most endangered animals in the world, and if significant actions to recover their populations aren't taken soon, they could face extinction, researchers at the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration said this week.
The warning follows a year of low reproduction levels and high mortality rates for the rare whales, NOAA officials announced at a New England Fishery Management Council meeting Tuesday, according to The Associated Press.
All of 2017's right whale deaths occurred off the coast of New England and Canada, officials said, and were frequently caused by human activity. Many of the whales were killed after being hit by a boat or tangled up in fishing gear.
Only about 450 North Atlantic right whales remain, according to the NOAA, and 17 of them were killed this year. Of the remaining population, as few as 100 are breeding females.
Right Whales
Weekend Box Office
'Coco'
The animated family film "Coco" has topped the box office for a third time on a quiet, pre "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" weekend in theaters.
Disney estimated Sunday that "Coco" added $18.3 million, which would bring its domestic total to $135.5 million.
The weekend's sole new wide release was the Morgan Freeman film "Just Getting Started," which launched to a meager $3.2 million from 2,161 theaters and barely made the top 10.
This quiet period before "Star Wars" has allowed some of the indie and prestige titles to thrive in limited releases and expansions, like James Franco's "The Disaster Artist." The film, about the making of one of the worst films of all time, "The Room," expanded to 840 locations in its second weekend in theaters. It managed to bring in $6.4 million, landing it in fourth place.
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," $18.3 million ($55.3 million international).
2."Justice League," $9.6 million ($15.4 million international).
3."Wonder," $8.5 million ($11.4 million international).
4."The Disaster Artist," $6.4 million ($1 million).
5."Thor: Ragnarok," $6.3 million ($3.1 million international).
6."Daddy's Home 2," $6 million ($11.6 million international).
7."Murder on the Orient Express," $5.1 million ($20.1 million international).
8."The Star," $3.7 million.
9."Lady Bird," $3.5 million.
10."Just Getting Started," $3.2 million.
'Coco'
In Memory
Johnny Hallyday
Johnny Hallyday, who has died aged 74, was the singer who helped bring rock'n'roll to France, where he sold more than 110 million records, rivalled the Eiffel Tower in popularity and acquired the status of an unabashedly Gallic - and consistently inexportable - Elvis Presley.
Although Hallyday was often described as his country's Elvis, the most popular of its rock stars and as swaggering as the King, he was also France's David Bowie, Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen and Bono, a chameleonic rocker who endured cultural changes that he alternately spurned and spurred.
He sang against long-haired peaceniks one year ("long of hair, short of ideas"), likened hippies to Jesus Christ the next, appeared in more than 30 films and - decades after his emergence on the pop music scene - was chosen to perform at an anniversary concert for the victims of the 2015 Charlie Hebdo terrorist attack in Paris.
Sporting a bright baritone voice that switched occasionally from French to English, he recorded songs that were initially little more than French variations on English-language hits, including The Animals' "The House of the Rising Sun" ("Le Pénitencier"), Chubby Checker's "Let's Twist Again" ("Viens Danser le Twist") and Jimi Hendrix's "Hey Joe".
Although he performed few original tracks in his early years, he ushered in a cultural revolution in France, where pop music had long been dominated by the gentle ballads of chanteurs Edith Piaf and Charles Aznavour.
He was initially condemned by President Charles de Gaulle and other political leaders who saw his rock covers as an expression of cultural imperialism. But Hallyday became a favourite of French presidents such as Jacques Chirac, who reportedly helped him and his wife adopt a baby, and Emmanuel Macron, who praised Hallyday in a statement for bringing "a part of America into our national pantheon".
The cultural exchange seemed to work only one way, however. Referred to by USA Today as "the biggest rock star you've never heard of", Hallyday was largely unknown in the Anglo-Saxon world, attracting scant attention in US and UK, where he recorded in the 1960s and learned from guitarists Jimmy Page and Hendrix.
Hallyday was born in Nazi-occupied Paris in 1943, with the decidedly unhip name of Jean-Philippe Léo Smet. His mother was French and his father, an alcoholic who abandoned the family, was Belgian.
He was raised mainly by an aunt, a former silent-film actress who toured Europe with her two ballerina daughters and a young Jean-Philippe. The boy began singing and playing the guitar under the wing of an American, Lee Ketcham, in a family act called the Hallidays. He turned to rock music after seeing Presley's 1957 movie musical "Loving You".
Making his recording debut in 1960, he took the name Johnny from the 1954 western film Johnny Guitar and adopted the last name Hallyday after a misspelling by his record company, Vogue.
Hallyday was married five times, including a 1965 marriage to French pop star Sylvie Vartan that ended in divorce. He had a son from his first marriage, singer David Hallyday, and a daughter, Laura, from a relationship with actress Nathalie Baye. He and the former Laeticia Boudou, his wife of 21 years, had two adopted daughters, Jade and Joy.
Johnny Hallyday
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