Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: The G.O.P.'s Doomsday-Machine Politics (NY Times)
Now Republicans are threatening to blow up children's health care.
Tom Danehy: Doug Ducey is the Education Governor like Donald Trump is the Stable Genius President (Tucson Weekly)
…in the past, I would have said that there's no such thing as an uptight, stick-up-the-butt, über-Catholic, crooked-at-business millionaire politician with a sense of humor. That would have been unfair and, as it turns out, untrue. Because there is an uptight, stick-up-the-butt, über-Catholic, crooked-at-business millionaire politician with a sense of humor. I found that out just the other day when Arizona Governor Doug Ducey declared himself "the Education Governor."
Marina Hyde: Everyone says I hate you … pinpointing the exact moment Woody Allen became toxic (The Guardian)
One actor after another is coming out denouncing the director. When did the honour of being in one of his films lose its lustre?
Keza MacDonald: Iconoclasts review - retro-futuristic binge-worthy brainteaser (The Guardian)
Mega Drive graphics belie the brains behind this puzzle-filled 2D platformer in which you play a misfit mechanic dismantling a religious techno-dystopia.
Anne Billson: "'Hagsploitation': horror's obsession with older women returns" (The Guardian)
Hollywood horror was once replete with meaty roles for older women. Now the Insidious franchise is resurrecting the tradition - but is this really something to celebrate?
Guy Lodge: The 10 film performances that deserve more awards attention this year (The Guardian)
The many guilds and academies are forgetting a number of impactful turns, including from Sally Hawkins and Michael Fassbender.
Jake Nevins: "Carrie Brownstein: 'It's OK to make art for the sake of making people laugh'" (The Guardian)
The musician, author, and co-creator of Portlandia talks about Sleater-Kinney's place in the feminist movement and arguments her show is 'ruining Portland.'
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Presenting
Michael Egan
took the day off.
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
David E Suggests
computing history
David
Thanks, Dave!
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
Reader Comment
Current Events
Linda >^..^<
We are all only temporarily able bodied.
Thanks, Linda!
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
JD took the day off.
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Running really late.
Things Revealed
Stormy Daniels
In Touch magazine printed its full 2011 interview with former adult film actress Stephanie Clifford on Friday. Clifford, whose stage name is Stormy Daniels, talked at length about her previous relationship with President Donald Trump.
And there is one detail that many found pretty Jaws-dropping - Trump is terrified of sharks, she said.
According to Clifford, she once met Trump for a date in his bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Over dinner Clifford learned something rather interesting about the then-reality show personality.
"The strangest thing about that night - this was the best thing ever," she said. "You could see the television from the little dining room table and he was watching Shark Week and he was watching a special about the U.S.S. something and it sank and it was like the worst shark attack in history. He is obsessed with sharks. Terrified of sharks. He was like, 'I donate to all these charities and I would never donate to any charity that helps sharks. I hope all the sharks die.' He was like riveted. He was like obsessed. It's so strange, I know."
Stormy Daniels
Guest Goes Off The Rails
Fox "News"
A guest on Fox News defended white supremacists over undocumented immigrants on Thursday evening.
"The white supremacists are American citizens," Mark Steyn, a regular guest on the network, told Tucker Carlson. "The illegal immigrants are people who shouldn't be here."
Steyn, who Carlson introduced as an "actual thinker," was speaking about a segment on CNN in which Chris Cuomo ripped the Trump administration for making undocumented immigrants seem like "monsters" and "villains" while ignoring the threat posed by white supremacists.
"That may be well and true," Steyn said, but added that it was "irrelevant" because the white supremacists were citizens.
"The organizing principle of nation-states is that they're organized on behalf of their citizens, whether their citizens are cheerleaders or white supremacists or whatever," he said. "You're stuck with them."
Fox "News"
Now Begins At 24
Adulthood
Adulthood does not begin until 24, scientists have concluded because young people are continuing their education for longer and delaying marriage and parenthood.
The traditional definition for adolescence is currently between and the ages of 10 and 19, which marked the beginnings of puberty and the perceived end of biological growth.
But, writing in the Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, scientists from the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne argue the timings needs to be changed.
They point to the fact that the brain continues to mature beyond the age of 20, and many people's wisdom teeth do not come through until the age of 25.
And people are also getting married and having children later, with the average man entering their first marriage aged 32.5 and women 30.6, an increase of eight years since the 1970s.
Adulthood
"Game of Thrones" Ice Hotel
Finland
A "Game of Thrones"-themed ice hotel complete with a bar and a chapel for weddings has opened in northern Finland in a joint effort by a local hotel chain and the U.S. producers of the hit TV series.
Lapland Hotels said Friday they chose "Game of Thrones" to be the theme for this season's Snow Village, an annual ice-and-snow construction project covering 20,000 square meters (24,000 sq. yards) in Kittila, 150 kilometers (93 miles) above the Arctic Circle.
Snow Village operations manager Janne Pasma told Finnish national broadcaster YLE that he was a huge fan of the series and it was "a dream come true" that HBO Nordic agreed to go along with his team's initiative.
HBO Nordic spokeswoman Nina Palmroos said "Game of Thrones" fans from all over the world have been "completely overwhelmed" by the hotel.
The hotel, which stays open until early April, suggests that guests stay only one night due to below-zero temperatures.
Finland
Astronaut Replaced
NASA
Jeanette Epps, 46, a former CIA agent turned astronaut, was about to become the first African-American to embark on a mission lasting several months at the International Space Station.
It's still unclear why, but plans for her June liftoff suddenly changed, and another astronaut was chosen in her place, NASA has announced.
"A number of factors are considered when making flight assignments; these decisions are personnel matters, for which NASA doesn't provide information," US space agency spokeswoman Brandi Dean said in an email to AFP on Friday.
"Epps has returned to the active astronaut corps at Johnson Space Center to assume duties in the astronaut office," Dean added.
Epps was supposed to blast off aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket from Kazakhstan in June, to serve as a flight engineer on the ISS as part of Expedition 56, and remaining on board for Expedition 57. Each expedition's tour of duty typically lasts three months.
NASA
Border Patrol
Water Bottles
US border patrol agents are routinely sabotaging water supplies left for migrants in the Arizona desert, condemning them to death, humanitarian groups have said.
Travellers attempting to cross into the US from Mexico regularly die of dehydration, as well as exposure to extreme heat or cold, so aid groups leave water bottles and emergency stocks such as blankets at points throughout the Sonoran desert.
But the water supplies were vandalised 415 times between 2012 and 2015, which amounted to more than twice a week on average, a report by Tucson-based groups No More Deaths and La Coalición de Derechos Humanos, said.
Overall, 3,586 gallons of water intended for thirsty migrants was sabotaged, data collected by the groups suggested
According to the No More Deaths and La Coalición de Derechos Humanos, the water bottles were dumped, confiscated and slashed as part of a strategy to make the crossing more deadly and thus discourage people from crossing from Mexico.
Water Bottles
On The Verge
Cape Town
Surrounded by beautiful stretches of ocean, it's hard to believe Cape Town could become the first major city in the world to run out of water. Ominously named "day zero," April 21 - 92 days from today - is when the taps will be turned off.
At the Voëlvlei Dam, water levels are critically low, sitting at less than 20 percent, reports CBS News' Debora Patta. It's one of Cape Town's main sources of water - a source that it is on the brink of running completely dry within a matter of weeks.
Three years of successive drought have devastated the city's water supplies. The local government has brought in severe restrictions forcing people to look for alternative supplies like a natural spring tapped for public use.
Cape Town's four million residents are now only allowed 23 gallons of water per person per day. Next month that goes down to 13 gallons. Compare that to the average American who uses around 100 gallons daily.
Thirteen gallons doesn't allow for much - a 90-second shower, a quick toilet flush, basic dishwashing, weekly laundry, and a large bottle of drinking water.
Cape Town
Rare Books
Maine
In what feels like a scene from a Stephen King story, tragedy has struck a rare book dealer in Bangor, Maine. Countless priceless first editions and some original manuscripts have been destroyed in a flood.
On Wednesday, The Bangor Daily reported that the Maine bookstore, Gerald Winters & Son suffered a tragic loss. Primarily operating as a bookstore that specifically specializes in rare King books and paraphernalia, the store lost close to 2,000 books manuscripts in a small flood.
The owner, Gerald Winters, has been collecting Stephen King books for decades, which includes some original author manuscripts. Though Winters prices are unknown, the first edition of Pet Cemetery, signed by the author goes from $350 to $500 on eBay right now.
Winters also dealt in rare George R.R. Martin and J.R.R. Tolkien books, too. If one could procure the first edition of say, the original version of 1937 The Hobbit before Tolkien made extensive changes which altered the character of Gollum and the origin of the One Ring, that person would be several thousand dollars richer.
As of this writing, Winters wasn't able to assess his financial losses. However, Stephen King did comment that: "I'm horrified. As a book lover, my heart goes out to him. I will eventually reach out and see if I can help in any way."
Maine
Found Off Australia
'Mordor Under the Sea'
Today in news best suited for sneaky little Hobbitses and Shire-folk, scientists unveiled a map of a faraway volcanic realm that has a distinct look of Mordor about it. Unfortunately for any ring bearers, the molten landscape has probably been hidden underwater for millions of years.
The "Tolkienesque" region of submarine volcanoes buried beneath the sea south of Australia was discovered by a team of researchers from the University of Adelaide in Australia, the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) in Australia. The team employed 3D seismic reflection, a geo-mapping technique that uses seismic waves to measure subsurface structures. With this technology, the researchers identified 26 separate volcanoes buried roughly 820 feet (250 meters) beneath seabed sediment. Some of the ancient volcanoes reach up to 2,000 feet (625 m) in height and are surrounded by several lava features never before studied underwater, the study said.
"The technology we have used is similar in many ways to what is used to produce ultrasound images of babies, but for the Earth," study author Nick Schofield, a senior lecturer at the University of Aberdeen's School of Geosciences, said in a statement released Wednesday (Jan. 17). "By using this technique, we have a unique insight into a landscape that has remained hidden for millions of years."
In the study, which was published in the November 2017 edition of the American Geophysical Union's journal Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, researchers dated the volcanoes to the Eocene epoch, which took place roughly 50 million to 33 million years ago. The network of remarkable lava flows surrounding the volcanoes - known collectively as the Bight Basin Igneous Complex - was likely created during an undersea eruption roughly 35 million years ago, the study said.
Across these miles of terrain, the flows branch into pathways, rise into plateaus, plunge into trenches and spread into elliptical-shaped "islands" of hardened lava. Researchers compared these islands to land-based lava features known as "kipukas," isolated hills or plots of slightly elevated land that become completely encircled by lava after eruptions. Features like these have never been described by underwater seismic data before, the study said, so this new study gives researchers a fresh look at the behavior of submarine eruptions.
'Mordor Under the Sea'
In Memory
Dorothy Malone
Dorothy Malone, star of the big and small screen with "Written on the Wind," "Basic Instinct" and "Peyton Place," died on Friday morning in Dallas of natural causes. She was 92.
Working in the Golden Age of Hollywood, the striking blonde actress won an Oscar for best supporting actress for her performance in Douglas Sirk's melodrama "Written on the Wind," which she starred in with Rock Hudson, Lauren Bacall and Robert Stack. Among her more notable early roles was the bookshop proprietress in "The Big Sleep" opposite Humphrey Bogart.
After years of smaller roles, the Oscar helped her secure roles in larger projects like "Too Much, Too Soon," "Man of a Thousand Faces," and "Warlock." She would frequently work with Hudson throughout the 1960s, as she played opposite him twice more in "The Tarnished Angels" and "The Last Sunset."
After years in the film business, Malone waded into television with a starring role on prime-time soap opera "Peyton Place" from 1964 to 1968. She later revived her Constance MacKenzie character in TV movies based on the series, 1977's "Murder in Peyton Place" and 1985's "Peyton Place: The Next Generation." She also appeared in a number of miniseries, including "Rich Man, Poor Man" and Condominium."
Malone's last on-screen appearance may be one of her most famous, playing a mother convicted of murdering her family in 1992's "Basic Instinct," alongside Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone.
Originally Dorothy Maloney, the star was born in Chicago but grew up in Dallas, attending Southern Methodist University. She was discovered there by a talent scout while acting in a school play, and soon after was signed to a studio contract.
She was married and divorced three times, to actor Jacques Bergerac, Robert Tomarkin and Charles Huston Bell. She is survived by two daughters she had with Bergerac, Mimi and Diane.
Dorothy Malone
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