Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: The Triumph of Fiscal Hypocrisy (NY Times)
What we can learn from Trump's deficitpalooza.
Mary Beard: How do we review television - intelligently? (TLS)
I confess that I am still banging on about my nudes programme. But the responses to it have raised wider issues, and issues of reviewing that are central to the concerns of the TLS. So here goes.
Mary Beard: Making Love in Public? (TLS)
But I nearly forgot the dedication … I always remember that one of the old Duckworth publisher, Colin Haycraft's most oft-repeated jokes was to say book dedications were "like making love in public", and this was followed up by horror stories of those who phoned (it was the days of phoning) at the very last minute to have the dedication changed to the new inamorato/a, and either just made the deadline or just missed it.
Dan Callahan: "Burt Lancaster: Body and Soul" (Criterion)
All six feet two of Burt Lancaster is spread out next to Deborah Kerr as they kiss each other on the beach in From Here to Eternity (1953). This is one of the most famous movie love scenes, parodied and copied many times afterward, and it is telling that Kerr is basically on top of Lancaster at first in the surf as the tide flows over and away from them.
Andrew Tobias: Compare the Prayer
Watching Trump defile [the recent] Prayer Breakfast, then curse and preen and slander and lie at the White House, the contrast with 1999 was . . . how else to put it? . . . of biblical proportions.
Adam Gopnick: THE SERIOUSNESS OF GEORGE STEINER (New Yorker)
Steiner challenged his readers but never condescended to them. He assumed that they cared as much as he did. He was the real thing, the last of the great middle-European intellectual journeyers, one with Benjamin and Cioran and the other exiles, for whom books were the one constant country and reading them a matter of life and death. With him gone, we can only reread his writing, determined to honor the intensity of his commitment by intensifying our own.
David Bruce, etc.: Cupcakes Are Not a Diet Food (Amazon)
Free Kindle ebook.
David Bruce's Amazon Author Page
David Bruce's Smashwords Page
David Bruce's Blog #1
David Bruce's Blog #2
David Bruce's Blog #3
David Bruce's Lulu Storefront
David Bruce's Apple iBookstore
David Bruce has over 140 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
Presenting
Michael Egan
took the day off.
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION
BANDCAMP MUSIC
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION OF BANDCAMP MUSIC
Song: "Now Come, Fire" from the album IN A QUIET PLACE
Artist: Wolfmen
Artist Location: Athens, Ohio
Info: "Wolfmen are an experimental rock quartet from Athens, OH. Members include Seth Alexander (drums, percussion), Alex Shinn (bass guitar) Bobby Lucas (keys), and Daniel Spencer (vocals, guitars, electronics). As purveyors of the avant-garde, Wolfmen write songs where sonic experimentation meets passionate and poetic lyrical expression."
All songs written and performed by Wolfmen.
Lyrics and arrangements by Daniel Spencer.
Price: Name Your Price (Includes FREE). Songs cannot be bought separately.
Genre: Experimental Rock
Links:
Wolfmen on Bandcamp
IN A QUIET PLACE
Other Links:
FREE BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATIONS PDF
FREE YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIND PDFS
FREE davidbrucehaiku PDFs #1-#10
FREE davidbrucehaiku PDFs #11-?
David Bruce has over 140 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
New Venture
Michael Egan
from Bruce
Anecdotes
• A controversy arose in 2010 about a mosque being erected near Ground Zero - that is, near the site of the former World Trade Center, which was destroyed in the infamous 11 September 2001, terrorist attack. Actually, the "mosque" would have been a community center with a prayer room rather than a mosque, but most people railing against the "mosque" did not know that. In the United States, of course, the First Amendment guarantees the freedom of religion, but many people railing against the "mosque" seem not to know that. Two women who do understand that, and who understand something that Roger Ebert writes ("Where one religion can build a church, so can all religions") are a couple of strippers near the 9-11 site. Cassandra is a stripper at New York Dolls. At first, she was concerned that the call to the five daily prayers of Islam would annoy the neighbors, but once she learned that no loudspeakers would be used, she said, "I don't know what the big deal is. It's freedom of religion, you know?" And Chris, a stripper at the Pussycat Lounge (and a Red Cross volunteer who helped 9-11 survivors, and a woman who lost eight firefighter friends and neighbors on 9-11) said, "They're not building a mosque in the World Trade Center. It's all good. You have your synagogues and your churches. And you have a mosque." Mr. Ebert writes, "Cassandra and Chris reflect American values more instinctively and correctly on this issue, let it be said, than Sarah Palin, Howard Dean, Newt Gingrich, Harry Reid and Rudy Giuliani, who should know better."
• At a family gathering that included nine-year-old Joan, the niece of drama critic Alexander Woollcott, the rich patriarch of the family looked around, smiled, and announced to all, "I will give $50,000 to the parents of my first great-grandchild." Excited by the offer, Joan asked, "Grandfather, does it have to be legitimate?" Joan was quite a character. She was the second oldest child, and she started school at the same time as her older sister because she did not want to be parted from her. They went through 1stgrade together, but the school authorities decided to keep Joan back because of her age, although she had passed first grade. Joan did not agree with the decision. She went to the 2nd-grade classroom, and even after she was sent to the 1st-grade classroom, she kept showing up in the 2nd-grade classroom, sitting at an empty desk, and laying her 2nd-grade homework in front of her. One day she showed up at school with a bouquet of flowers. The 1st-grade teacher said to her, "Joan, dear, what perfectly lovely flowers!" Joan replied, "Thank you, but they are not for you." Joan then went to the 2nd-grade classroom and presented the flowers to the 2nd-grade teacher. After a few weeks, the school authorities gave up and let Joan stay in the 2nd grade.
• Doug Butler teaches the craft of farriery (equine hoof care, including making horseshoes and fitting them to the hooves of the horse). When his son wanted to learn the craft, he told him, "Get a hundred pieces of steel and turn them into a toe bend and then bring them back to me." His son did that; it took him several days. Next Mr. Butler told his son, "On each of the ends, make a heel." He did that - for a total of 200 heels. What was the result of all that work? Mr. Butler says, "By the time he got to number 195, he could make a good heel." Mr. Butler's mentor was a Scottish master blacksmith named Edward Martin. In Colorado, Mr. Martin judged a horseshoe-making contest in which Mr. Butler competed. When Mr. Martin arrived, he did not just judge the contest; he also made horseshoes. The competition organizers told him, "You don't have to make the shoes. You're the judge. We flew you over here from Scotland, and we don't expect you to make the horseshoes." Mr. Martin replied, "If you can't make the shoes, you've got no right to judge." Mr. Butler says, "So he made them, in a lot less time than it took us, and they were better than any that we made. So we had great respect for anything he would say to us. There was no murmuring about his judging."
***
© Copyright Bruce D. Bruce; All Rights Reserved
***
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
Reader Comment
Current Events
Linda >^..^<
We are all only temporarily able bodied.
Thanks, Linda!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
JD is on vacation.
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Anybody interested in predicting the Oscar winners?
Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, and Music (Original Score).
You can find all the nominees listed and pictured here.
Respond before noon (pst), Sunday (Feb. 9).
Titles Pulled Over Government Demands
Netflix
Netflix released its first Environmental Social Governance report Friday, based on a framework from the non-profit Sustainability Accounting Standards Board.
Netflix says in the report that it has removed a total of nine different TV shows and movies since the service launched. The company says that, going forward, it will reveal all government takedown demands annually.
Of the nine takedown demands, five came from the government of Singapore's Singapore Infocomm Media Development Authority, including the movies The Last Hangover, The Last Temptation of Christ, the documentary The Legend of 420, and the TV series Cooking on High and Disjointed. The Singapore requests began in 2018, with The Last Hangover being removed just this year.
In Vietnam in 2017, Netflix removed the film Full Metal Jacket due to a demand from the Vietnamese Authority of Broadcasting and Electronic Information. Also in 2017, Netflix removed Night of the Living Dead in Germany, due to a request from the German Commission for Youth Protection.
And then there was Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj. In 2019 Netflix removed one episode of the show in Saudi Arabia after receiving a written demand from the Saudi Communication and Information Technology Commission.
Netflix
Quits Smoking
Keith Richards
Rolling Stones rocker Keith Richards has revealed he has finally given up smoking - which he once said was harder to do than quitting heroin.
The guitarist, 76, said in an interview with a US radio station that he had managed to pack in his nicotine habit late last year, not long after he decided to cut down on drinking.
"I've given up smoking... since October," he told Q104.3 New York's Jim Kerr. Richards said last year that he was trying to quit smoking but admitted that he was finding it tough.
"Lou Reed claimed nicotine was harder to quit than heroin. It is."
He added: "Quitting heroin is like hell, but it's a short hell. Cigarettes are just always there, and you've always done it. I just pick 'em up and light 'em up without thinking about it."
Keith Richards
Fire at California Plant
Vinyl
A fire at a Banning, California manufacturing plant could wreak havoc on the global supply of vinyl records, Pitchfork reports. On Thursday, Apollo Masters Corp., which has produced the lacquer discs used to make masters for vinyl production for decades, was devastated in a fire that took 82 firefighters and nearly three hours to control. Per the Desert Sun, employees were reportedly inside the building when the fire broke out, but none were injured.
In a statement on its website, Apollo Masters wrote, "It is with great sadness we report the Apollo Masters manufacturing and storage facility had a devastating fire and suffered catastrophic damage. The best news is all of our employees are safe. We are uncertain of our future at this point and are evaluating options as we try to work through this difficult time. Thank you for all of the support over the years and the notes of encouragement and support we have received from you all." A representative for Apollo did not immediately return Rolling Stone's request for further comment.
In an interview with Pitchfork, Third Man Records co-founder Ben Blackwell said the Apollo fire "will present a problem for the vinyl industry worldwide." He noted that Apollo was one of just two companies that make lacquer discs, and that the other, MDC in Japan, "already had trouble keeping up with demand before this development."
"I imagine this will affect everyone, not just Third Man Pressing and Third Man Mastering, but to what extent remains to be seen," Blackwell said. He added: "I don't want to be an alarmist. But I'm attempting to be realistic as opposed to Pollyannish."
Vinyl
Warmer Than Most Of Texas
Antarctic Peninsula
Global warming is hitting the world's coldest places. It's the first week of February, and the weather in the Antarctic Peninsula on Thursday was sunny and a preliminary record-breaking 64.9 degrees Fahrenheit - warmer than most of Texas.
The temperature recorded in the northwest part of the continent on Thursday is 1.4 degrees hotter than the its hottest recorded temperature. Argentina's National Meteorological Service said the continent's last record was 63.5 degrees Fahrenheit on March 24, 2015.
In Texas on Thursday, Dallas saw a high of 52 degrees Fahrenheit, while many northern areas in the state saw up to three inches of snow, according to The Weather Channel. It's important to note that it's summer in the Southern Hemisphere, and winter in the Northern Hemisphere.
The Antarctic Peninsula is one of the fastest-warming places on Earth. On Elephant Island, just slightly north of the peninsula, chinstrap penguins have suffered a 60% decline because of the increasing temperatures, researchers have found. Researchers have also discovered that the average temperature there has increased by more than 5 degrees Fahrenheit in five decades - a rate that is five times the global average.
Antarctic Peninsula
Criticizes Response
Senate Report
Republican congressional leaders' refusal to publicly acknowledge Russian election interference in 2016 contributed to a watered-down response by the Obama administration in the midst of the presidential campaign, a Senate report released Thursday found.
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Quisling), and the Senate majority leader, reacted skeptically after receiving an intelligence briefing in September 2016 about the Russian interference, a former Obama administration official said in the report. "You security people should be careful that you're not getting used," McConnell told Lisa Monaco, the White House homeland security adviser under President Barack Obama, at the time, according to the report.
The bulk of the report focuses its criticism on the Obama administration and the "heavily politicized environment" that prevented a more forceful response to the Russian interference in the 2016 campaign. But the inclusion of McConnell's skepticism in a report from a Republican-led Senate committee could give the accusations new life.
The response to Russia's meddling presented a difficult political calculus for McConnell: A public acknowledgment before the election might have deterred Moscow and improved voters' trust in the outcome, but none of that was assured, and it also could have cost Republicans the White House.
Senate Report
Stolen Works Found In Paris
Banksy
A man was charged Friday after two stolen Banksy artworks were recovered in Paris.
An image of a masked rat wielding a box cutter -- the alter ego the elusive British artist often uses -- disappeared from outside the Pompidou Centre in September, a year after Bansky "blitzed" the French capital with murals.
The museum, which houses Europe's biggest collection of modern art but does not have a Bansky, had filed a police complaint for destruction of property.
The man charged with "stealing a cultural asset" is one of three men arrested in and around Paris earlier this week.
Two works by Banksy were recovered in follow-up searches by the police but the stencilled work on the back of a sign for the Pompidou's car park is still missing.
Banksy
'Fuzzball' Clouds
Australia
A person lounging on a patch of grass dreaming up images in the clouds will typically have only the familiar puffs and streaks to work with. But a satellite passing overhead can see an entirely different canvas.
On Jan. 29, an instrument on NASA's Aqua satellite captured a photo of cloud forms that look like bursting fuzzballs near the west coast of Australia, according to NASA's Earth Observatory, which released the image Friday (Feb. 7). These fuzzballs, or actinoform clouds, are impossible to see from the ground, because they are just so big, sometimes stretching as far as 180 miles (300 kilometers) across, which is a little over the width of Florida.
A
Actinoform clouds have arms called "actiniae" that reach out in all directions, but the clouds can take on various shapes, such as a more leaf-like structure, according to the Earth Observatory. The clouds sometimes appear to be lined up and sometimes scattered about the sky, as they are in this new image.
Actinoform clouds were first captured by NASA's Television Infrared Observation Satellite V in 1962, but not much is known about how they form; previously, scientists saw a link between actinoform cloud formation and the use of aerosols, according to the observatory. But in this case, the clouds over Australia were found to be so far from land that it's difficult to point to aerosols as the cause, Garay said.
Australia
Lost Spanish Gold Mines?
Ecuador
Stefan Ansermet was deep in Ecuador's tangled southeastern jungles, a hard two-day hike from the nearest village, when he stumbled into a clearing. The change in vegetation was so subtle that everyone else on his team tromped straight through, unaware, but Ansermet was intrigued.
Over the next four days in mid-November, Ansermet, a geologist and explorer, kept returning to the remote area, finding clues that confirmed his suspicions: The narrow clearing stretched a mile and a half and had been carved into the side of the mountain at points. There was a large, chiseled stone embedded in the trail.
But it's where this road in the middle of nowhere might lead that has Ansermet and his colleagues excited.
For more than two decades, Ansermet's boss, Keith Barron, has been searching for two Spanish conquest-era gold mines lost in Ecuador's forests.
The two mines, Logroño de los Caballeros and Sevilla de Oro, were established around 1562 and abandoned 40 years later after a smallpox epidemic killed the indigenous workforce and the Spaniards came under prolonged attack from local tribes. At one point the conquistadors who owned the mine appealed to the Spanish crown to send African slaves to keep the enterprises alive, but by that point the empire was bankrupt.
Ecuador
Blue-Tinted Vision
Blue Pill
Many men take the erectile dysfunction drug sildenafil, the active ingredient in Viagra, without problems. But in rare cases, they may experience an odd side effect: changes in eyesight, including blue-tinted vision, that last for several weeks, according to a new report.
The report, published Friday (Feb. 7) in the journal Frontiers in Neurology, describes the cases of 17 men who visited a hospital in Turkey with vision problems that persisted for more than 24 hours after they'd taken sildenafil.
The problems reported included blurred vision, sensitivity to light, reduced eyesight and changes to color perception, including "intensely blue-colored vision," a side effect known as cyanopsia. Those with cyanopsia also reported "red-green colorblindness," in which red and green hues appear to be brownish, the report said. None of the patients had a history of eye disease or colorblindness.
While it's known that sildenafil can cause temporary vision changes, including blurred vision and cyanopsia, these side effects typically disappear within 3 to 5 hours. Persistent vision changes, like those seen in this report, are much rarer. Fortunately, the vision problems for all of the men described in this report went away after 21 days.
Blue Pill
| CURRENT MOON lunar phases |
