Mary Beard: Books worth the bucks (TLS)
My calculations are pretty obvious. If it will take me thirty minutes to get to the University Library (and let's say ten minutes to order up the book in advance), then thirty minutes for faffing (wrong book, meeting mate, can't find bicycle place), and thirty minutes to get back home, plus the reading time - then anything under ฃ25 on Abe is clearly the sensible, economical choice.
Mary Beard: Boris Johnson and the Classics (TLS)
It's odd to witness a little Twitter storm, such as erupted on Christmas Eve, on the subject of Boris Johnson reciting from memory some lines of the Iliad. I spotted a tweet, which - accompanying a clip of his performance a few years ago in Australia - said "your move Labour". I replied to point out that if you know Greek (as Johnson certainly does) learning Homer is not a particularly difficult thing to do. After all the poem's orality makes spouting it quite easy; that is the point.
Greg Sargent: A deceptively edited video of Joe Biden signals what's coming (Washington Post)
If you thought the 2016 election was awash in disinformation and lies, get ready: The 2020 election is going to make that affair look like a knitting session.
A video that was edited in a monumentally dishonest fashion to make Joe Biden sound racist just circulated all over Twitter. Distressingly, some reporters and people with large Twitter followings tweeted out the video, before others drew their attention to the full context, causing them to backtrack.
Brave New World is a dystopian novel by English author Aldous Huxley, written in 1931 and published in 1932. Largely set in a futuristic World State, inhabited by genetically modified citizens and an intelligence-based social hierarchy, the novel anticipates huge scientific advancements in reproductive technology, sleep-learning, psychological manipulation and classical conditioning that are combined to make a dystopian society which is challenged by only a single individual: the story's protagonist. Huxley followed this book with a reassessment in essay form, Brave New World Revisited (1958), and with his final novel, Island (1962), the utopian counterpart. The novel is often compared to George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949).
The novel opens in the World State city of London in AF (After Ford) 632 (AD 2540 in the Gregorian calendar), where citizens are engineered through artificial wombs and childhood indoctrination programmes into predetermined classes (or castes) based on intelligence and labour.
Source
Mark. was first, and correct, with:
Brave New World.
Mac Mac said:
Brave New World
Randall wrote:
Brave New World
Alan J answered:
Brave New World.
Cal in Vermont replied:
Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World".
zorch responded:
Brave New World.
Dave wrote:
Brave New World. That was a good read.
Deborah replied:
Hmmm, that's probably Aldus Huxley's "Brave New World."
Cool and misty, low fog over some fallow fields, muted sun shining through tree silhouettes - a lovely winter day in NorCal.
Joe S said:
Oh wow. Brave New World. I looked it up, I had no idea. I read that book in high school, probably in my sophomore year, so about 1959-1960. Probably haven't thought about it since then. I have no recollection of the novel, I remember nothing about it other than I read it. I may have to check it out from the library and read it again. It will be like reading it for the first time.
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BttbBob has returned to semi-retired status.
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Info: Hard Blues Trio is part of the Brazilian blues-rock scene.
Dani Ela (bass/vocals)
Juliano Rosa (guitar/vocals)
Alexandre Becker (drums)
"Their powerful Blues-influenced sound has a modern identity with lyrics in Portuguese and English. P้ Na Estrada [Foot on the Road] is their very first album."
" the song is a metaphor about the need to face the tough times, presenting the dilemma of braving the storm with hope for better days" - from Google Translate.
If you want a great education, study under people who really know their stuff. After graduating from art school, Judy Chicago noticed that art galleries featured work that was highly polished and highly crafted. She wanted to learn to do that, and she remembered what sculptor John Chamberlain had often advised her: "What I should do is go to auto-body school. Those are the guys who really know how to paint." Ms. Chicago did exactly that. Her class consisted of herself and 250 men. She says, "I learned not only how to spray-paint, but about respect for the object - that I was actually creating a physical object." For her final examination, she spray-painted a Chevrolet truck.
Near the end of Ted Shawn's life, Norbert Vesak visited him. Mr. Shawn told him, "Remember, I always said that my heart always beats in 3/4 time? Well, now I even walk in 3/4 time." Mr. Shawn then used the furniture to help support himself as he walked across the room, saying, "You see? Chair, two, three / Table, two, three / Doorway, two, three / Banister, two, three." Years later, Mr. Vesak saw Katherine Hepburn in the play West Side Waltz: A Play in พ Time. At the end of the play, Ms. Hepburn's character used a walker to get across a room - "clunk, two, three / clunk, two, three" - and she pointed out that now she even walks in waltz time!
Dance teacher Nicolas Legat once saw dance pupil Jack Spurgeon writing down something after class, and he was astonished to learn that Mr. Spurgeon was writing out the complete dance lesson he had just been through. Mr. Legat shook his head and said, "You should never write down classes; just keep creating them." By the way, Mr. Legat made jokes while teaching ballet. Sometimes, a pupil would perform several pirouettes and shower onlookers with drops of sweat. At such times, Mr. Legat would recommend an umbrella.
Ballerina Patricia Bowman worked with choreographer/dancer L้onide Massine, but he made her angry because he kept talking about Alexandra Danilova and how she did certain steps. When Ms. Bowman finally met Ms. Danilova, she joked and said she hated her, because Mr. Massine had kept talking about how she did certain steps. Ms. Danilova replied that when she worked with Mr. Massine, all he could talk about was how Ms. Bowman had done certain steps - "Patsy did this, and Patsy did that! So, I hate you, too!"
While in Paris, young Mary Garden looked for a good singing teacher, but they seemed to be in short supply as many of the teachers she considered had freak methods, including one man who asked her to open the front of her dress as she sang - perhaps to study the way she breathed. But one day she and her mentor, Mrs. Duff, visited Professor Trabadello, who told her, "Sing for me in a normal, natural way - as if you were singing by yourself at home." Hearing this, Ms. Garden turned to Mrs. Duff and said, "This is my teacher."
Lilli Lehmann taught the young Geraldine Farrar. Once, to test her pupil's character, she asked her to show up for a lesson at 6 a.m. Ms. Farrar did show up, with only three hours sleep following her performance the previous night. By the way, Ms. Lehmann and Lillian Nordica once left the Metropolitan Opera at the same time on a rainy day. Ms. Lehmann looked at Ms. Nordica's carriage, then revealed her boots and said, "You ride? I walk," before setting out into the rain.
When jazz musician Duke Ellington was very young, his mother used to surreptitiously follow him to school to make sure he was safe. Mr. Ellington said in later life, "She didn't think I saw her, but I did." In addition, when school ended, she would be waiting for him at the school door so she could walk him home.
This is it. The epic primetime event that brings you the matchup you've been waiting for: Ken Jennings, Brad Rutter and James Holzhauer. The three biggest winners in Jeopardy! history return to the stage for a showdown to decide - once and for all - who is the greatest of all time.
Starting on Tuesday, January 7, at 8 p.m. EST on ABC, Ken, Brad and James will compete in a series of one-hour shows. Each show is a stand-alone match consisting of two complete Jeopardy! games. The winner of each match will be decided by their total point score of the two games. The first to win three matches receives $1 million and, more importantly, the title of Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time. The two non-winners will each receive $250,000.
The winner will get $1 million, with $250,000 for each runner-up.
Alex, the answer is--"Linda has been a fan of this game show since her childhood. She loves Alex, but she adored Art Fleming. She and her mother saw a taping of it in New York." And the question is--"What is JEOPARDY!, Alex?"
Linda >^..^<
We are all only temporarily able bodied.
CBS fills the night with LIVE'NFL Playoffs', then pads the left coast with local crap and maybe an old '48 Hours'.
NBC opens the night with 'Dateline', followed by a RERUN'SNL' (from 01/18/14 with Drake).
'SNL' is a RERUN with Chance the Rapper.
ABC starts the night with the RERUN'Brad Paisley Thinks He's Special', followed by a RERUN'The Goldbergs', then another RERUN'The Goldbergs', followed by '20/20'.
Jimmy Kimmel
The CW offers a RERUN'Riverdale', followed by a RERUN'Nancy Drew'.
Faux has some LIVE sports-thing TBA, then pads the left coast with local crap.
MY recycles an old 'Major Crimes', followed by another old 'Major Crimes'.
A&E has 'Live PD', followed by a FRESH'Live PD: Rewind', then a FRESH'Live PD'.
AMC offers the movie 'Night At The Museum: Battle Of The Smithsonian', followed by the movie 'Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen'.
BBC -
[6:00AM] PLANET EARTH: THE BLUE PLANET - The Blue Planet
[7:00AM] PLANET EARTH: THE BLUE PLANET - The Deep
[8:00AM] PLANET EARTH: THE BLUE PLANET - Open Ocean
[9:00AM] PLANET EARTH: THE BLUE PLANET - Frozen Seas
[10:00AM] PLANET EARTH: THE BLUE PLANET - Seasonal Seas
[11:00AM] PLANET EARTH: THE BLUE PLANET - Coral Seas
[12:00PM] PLANET EARTH: THE BLUE PLANET - Tidal Seas
[1:00PM] PLANET EARTH: THE BLUE PLANET - Coasts
[2:00PM] PLANET EARTH: THE BLUE PLANET - The Blue Planet
[3:00PM] PLANET EARTH: THE BLUE PLANET - The Deep
[4:00PM] PLANET EARTH: THE BLUE PLANET - Open Ocean
[5:00PM] PLANET EARTH: THE BLUE PLANET - Frozen Seas
[6:00PM] PLANET EARTH: BLUE PLANET II - One Ocean
[7:00PM] PLANET EARTH: BLUE PLANET II - The Deep
[8:00PM] PLANET EARTH: BLUE PLANET II - Coral Reefs
[9:00PM] PLANET EARTH: BLUE PLANET II - Big Blue
[10:00PM] PLANET EARTH: BLUE PLANET II - Green Seas
[11:00PM] PLANET EARTH: BLUE PLANET II - Coasts
[12:00AM] PLANET EARTH: BLUE PLANET II - One Ocean
[1:00AM] PLANET EARTH: BLUE PLANET II - The Deep
[2:00AM] PLANET EARTH: BLUE PLANET II - Coral Reefs
[3:00AM] PLANET EARTH: BLUE PLANET II - Big Blue
[4:00AM] PLANET EARTH: BLUE PLANET II - Green Seas
[5:00AM] PLANET EARTH: BLUE PLANET II - Coasts (ALL TIMES EST)
Bravo has 2 hours of old 'Chrisley Knows Best', followed by the movie 'Couples Retreat'.
Comedy Central has the movie '21 Jump Street', followed by the movie 'Broken Lizard's Super Troopers'.
FX has the movie 'The Secret Life Of Pets', followed by the movie 'Despicable Me 3'.
History has 'Ancient Aliens', followed by a FRESH'Ancient Aliens: Declassified'.
Sundance -
[6:30am] The Andy Griffith Show
[7:00am] The Andy Griffith Show
[7:30am] The Andy Griffith Show
[8:00am] The Rifleman
[8:30am] The Rifleman
[9:00am] The Rifleman
[9:30am] The Rifleman
[10:00am] The Rifleman
[10:30am] The Rifleman
[11:00am] The Rifleman
[11:30am] The Rifleman
[12:00pm] The Rifleman
[12:30pm] Gladiator
[4:00pm] The Patriot
[7:30pm] Gladiator
[11:00pm] The Patriot
[2:30am] In the Heart of the Sea
[5:00am] Law & Order (ALL TIMES EST)
SyFy has the movie 'Edge Of Tomorrow', followed by the movie 'ET: The Extra-Terrestrial'.
Actor Sam Waterston was among those arrested Friday in the latest weekly D.C. climate protest led by Jane Fonda, his co-star in the Netflix series Grace and Frankie.
This was Waterston's second arrest. He also was arrested in October when he and other demonstrators blocked First Street on the east side of the Capitol, as they did in Friday's protest.
Fonda was not arrested, but has been on five previous occasions, including one where she spent the night in a D.C. jail. Last fall, she moved to Washington temporarily to help organize the weekly rallies and demonstrations, called First Drill Fridays, as a way to call attention to the need for urgent action on climate change.
Also participating in Friday's rally were Iain Armitage, the star of the series Young Sheldon, and director Josh Fox.
Fonda plans to continue to lead the protests through next week, as she has to return to work on Grace and Frankie. Another Grace and Frankie co-star, Lily Tomlin, was arrested when she took part in the demonstrations last week.
Teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg has changed her Twitter name to Sharon in a joking reference to a clip from Celebrity Mastermind.
This week, an episode of the BBC show aired in which British actor Amanda Henderson was asked which Swedish climate change activist wrote No One is Too Small To Make A Difference.
The question left 33-year-old Henderson stumped, and after a short hesitation she replied: "Sharon?"
Shortly after the clip was shared on Twitter, where it has since been viewed more than four million times, "Sharon" began trending on the social media platform.
In response, Thunberg - who turned 17 on Friday and who is known for her witty social media retorts - changed her Twitter handle to Sharon, leading to "Happy Birthday Sharon" to start trending.
A report by an external investigator hired by PBS claims former talk show host Tavis Smiley spent decades engaged in sexual relationships with subordinates and guests on his show, and committed acts of verbal abuse, inappropriate touching, and made unwanted sexual comments.
The report was unsealed as part of legal documents filed in connection with ongoing lawsuits related to Smiley's dismissal. The 500-page report on his alleged misconduct was filed by Smiley's legal team as part of its breach of contract legal claims. PBS has countersued and asked for $1.9 million in production advances to be returned.
The report and legal actions stem from a 2018 decision by PBS to end its relationship with Smiley, who fronted the L.A.-produced late-night talker Tavis Smiley for nearly 14 years. PBS said in 2018 it had "uncovered multiple, credible allegations of conduct that is inconsistent with the values and standards of PBS."
Smiley has denied all of the allegations, and claimed that he had stopped all consensual relationships with employees 10 years before the allegations surfaced. He also accused PBS of racial bias.
In a ruling Thursday, Smiley lost a bid to have PBS's action tossed, arguing that the conduct they claim against him predated his current contract. D.C. Superior Court Judge Yvonne Williams disagreed, and said that PBS had also claimed more recent misconduct.
On Friday, the 47-year-old actress announced the birth of her daughter with her husband, Benji Madden, whom they decided to name Raddix. Aside from the announcement on Instagram, the notoriously private Diaz said she would not be sharing any more information or photos of Raddix in order to protect her privacy.
This is the first child for both Diaz and 40-year-old Madden.
Diaz and Madden have been married since January 2015. Diaz has talked about potentially having kids before, and has said she wasn't particularly looking to be a mother before she married the Good Charlotte guitarist.
Astrophysicist Ron Mallett believes he's found a way to travel back in time - theoretically.
The tenured University of Connecticut physics professor recently told CNN that he's written a scientific equation that could serve as the foundation for an actual time machine. He's even built a prototype device to illustrate a key component of his theory - though Mallett's peers remain unconvinced that his time machine will ever come to fruition.
To understand Mallett's machine, you need to know the basics of Albert Einstein's theory of special relativity, which states that time accelerates or decelerates depending on the speed at which an object is moving.
Based on that theory, if a person was in a spaceship traveling near the speed of light, time would pass more slowly for them than it would for someone who remained on Earth. Essentially, the astronaut could zip around space for less than a week, and when they returned to Earth, 10 years would have passed for the people they'd left behind, making it seem to the astronaut like they'd time traveled to the future.
But while most physicists accept that skipping forward in time in that way is probably possible, time traveling to the past is a whole other issue - and one Mallett thinks he could solve using lasers.
A Kentucky man who claimed to have skinned four of his neighbors' dogs to make a "doggy coat" has been charged with animal torture.
Jonathan D. Watkins, 38, was arrested in the Floyd County community of David on Dec. 23 after a neighbor called authorities, news outlets reported.
The neighbor told police that Watkins came to his home to ask for a cigarette and was covered in blood. The neighbor said when asked, Watkins said he had been skinning dogs, according to an arrest citation.
The neighbor didn't believe him initially because he knew Watkins had had mental health issues in the past, but later saw what looked like animal skins and dog carcasses on Watkins ' front porch, the citation said. The neighbor told police that he was missing two dogs and thought another neighbor was missing two dogs as well.
A state trooper who responded found Watkins at his home with a knife and what appeared to be blood on his clothing. When the trooper asked where the blood came from, Watkins replied, "I'm making myself a doggy coat," according to the arrest citation. Watkins told the trooper that he stabbed the dogs and then skinned them.
A retiring Wisconsin English teacher cited for defecating in a public park for two years told authorities he was "being an idiot" and that he did it for convenience and to be disrespectful.
Jeffrey S. Churchwell, who is retiring from Milton School District later this month, will have to pay $365 in fines plus $5,705 in restitution to the Public Works Department, which cleaned up after him.
The Janesville Gazette reported Tuesday it found out about the case through an open records request of sheriff's office reports. The reports indicated Churchwell had been defecating outside of and on a building at Natureland Park in the town of Whitewater, sometimes several times per day, since 2017.
Authorities caught Churchwell on Oct. 8 when a deputy spotted Churchwell's vehicle and stopped him as he drove into the park. That day, sheriff's deputies had already spoken to a worker at the Walworth County Highway Shop who complained about someone defecating on a park building and leaving used toilet paper behind. The worker showed deputies photos from trail cameras that showed a man defecating in the park. The pictures also showed Churchwell's car parked nearby and a partial plate number, which was used to identify Churchwell.
When the deputy pulled over Churchwell driving into the park, the retiring teacher said he didn't know why he was being stopped. But deputies asked if it would help to show him pictures of why he was being stopped, Churchwell hung his head and said, "going to the bathroom." Asked what that meant and if it was in a park bathroom, Churchwell responded "a No. 2" by the park building without a bathroom. He also acknowledged he occasionally defecates in the park on the way to school.
A university laboratory began tests Friday on skeletal remains found beneath an 18th century home in the hopes of identifying the three people believed to be soldiers killed during the Revolutionary War.
In December, while homeowners were renovating their house in Ridgefield, the remains were discovered in a grave under the foundation.
"These bones are so robust, they're dense, they're thick with muscle attachments (and) they're long," said Nick Bellantoni, emeritus state archaeologist of the Connecticut Museum of Natural History. "Who exactly they are, we are hoping the forensic work will show."
While much remains unknown, researchers believe the remains belonged to men and possibly date to the Battle of Ridgefield, which occurred in April 1777. The way the men were buried in a haphazard grave also lends credibility to the idea that they were victims of the Battle of Ridgefield.
If confirmed, Bellantoni said that would make them the first remains from a Revolutionary War soldier recovered in Connecticut.
The Amazons, a mythical race of female warriors that inspired fictional heroes such as Wonder Woman and Xena the Warrior Princess, may have been more than ancient Greek lore.
The Institute of Archaeology at the Russian Academy of Sciences announced the discovery of a tomb where four women were buried alongside a slew of battle weapons about 2,500 years ago. The findings were published by the Akson Russian Science Communication Association last Wednesday.
The Scythian women represented three generations of female warriors. The eldest was buried with a ceremonial headdress consistent with Amazon myths.
Valerii Guliaev led the archaeological expedition at a burial ground in the Russian village of Devitsa. She said in a news release that other Amazons have been discovered, but this is the first time the women ranged so widely in age.
The youngest was a girl researchers estimated was 12 or 13. Two women were 20 to 29 and 25 to 35 years old. The eldest woman was 45 to 50 years old. The average life expectancy for a woman during that time was 30 to 35 years.
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said:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
