Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: Warren, Bloomberg and What Really Matters (NY Times Column)
Dems should be talking about financialization and fraud.
Mary Beard: Will Brexit see the exit of the Parthenon Marbles? (TLS)
The "Elgin Marbles" question, with its rights and wrongs, will no doubt be played out for many years (and I shall be there, worrying, as usual). But let's not imagine that the EU as an institution has much interest in this. It is more interested in the bigger picture of the current antiquities trade. And we should not lose sight of that. We will be debating the Marbles for possibly decades, but we can actually do something about the modern antiquities trade, and stop some of its worst aspects (as the EU suggest). What are our priorities?
Mary Beard: The Long History of the Whodunnit (TLS)
In the rhetorical schools the students were then asked to plead the case on either side. But it wasn't just educational. It looks like some famous "cases" were also pleaded, and discussed, as part of Roman elite after-dinner. The upper-crust party might well end, in other words, with different guests taking different sides in this and other such cases.
Mary Beard: How to write about Roman emperors, virtuous and vil (TLS)
What I really want to do is ask how we can understand the politics and culture of autocracy in the Roman empire. Just to give one example: there is now a tendency to look at the famous anecdotes of (in particular) the early emperors as either true or not true. Did Caligula really build a bridge of boats across the Bay of Baiae? Did Domitian really have a juvenile habit of killing flies (chapter three here)? My questions are going to be, not whether these tales are true or not, but why were they told, and what we can learn from them about how the Roman emperor was talked about and why.
Mary Beard: Life in the library … forty years ago (TLS)
You could smoke in the library - or rather, a bit like on an aeroplane, there was a smoking table, which meant that the whole place was a bit of a fug. I can't remember when this was actually abolished at the ICS (mid 80s), but I do recall that smoking went on longer in the Warburg Library, which eventually seemed to provide a home for every nicotine-addicted academic in the country, until they finally cleared the air and abolished it too.
Oliver Burkeman: Do you love doing the same thing over and over? Here's why it doesn't make you boring (The Guardian)
We don't always need new distractions - there's a value to experiencing something more than once.
Oliver Burkeman: Overwhelmed? Here's how to stop your to-do list going stale (The Guardian)
Focusing on a few tasks until they're finished is the best tactic.
David Bruce's Amazon Author Page
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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
Music: "The End of the World" from the album DOOM-WOP
Artist: Prom Queen
Artist Location: Seattle, Washington
Info: "xxx - It's my party and I'll die if I want to -- xxx ~ Lesley Gorey"
The album includes the excellent song "Blonde."
R(a fan) wrote, "This is really finger-snapping. 'Blonde' says most of it, and what that doesn't say, 'End of the World' picks up. It should be our new national anthem. Favorite track: 'End Of The World.'"
Produced by Leeni Queeno
Prom Queen on Facebook
Lyrics on GENIUS
Price: $1 (USD) for song; $10 (USD) for 10-track album
Genre: Retro Pop, Girl Group Sound, Sad Doo Wop
Links:
Prom Queen on Bandcamp
DOOM-WOP
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
David E Suggests
Ladies Men
David
Thanks, Dave!
from Bruce
Anecdotes
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
Reader Recommendation
Fruit & Nut Tree Information
I'm not a shill. A former employee of Dave Wilson was the speaker at our 4-hour Master Gardener training. For many years I've been practicing according to the speaker's theories without knowing it. I just followed my instincts. I think this is a way to survive in today's world, on several levels. How do the fruit, nut, vegetable industries prepare for the future?
Reader Comment
Current Events
The link in my text that you posted today took me to Jan 29, not Feb 19. So I went back to the Feb 20 page & clicked on previous page--was taken to Jan 29 again, not Feb 19. Went to the archives page, found the link for Feb 19 & clicked on it--was taken to the Jan 29 page!
Somehow, nothing I'm doing is getting me to the Feb 19 page. I would like to read it if possible.
Linda >^..^<
We are all only temporarily able bodied.
Thanks, Linda!
I re-uploaded the page from another computer, but my Chrome browser keeps going to the January page, too.
Then I fired up the old IE browser, and it's there.
If anyone else is having trouble with Wednesday's page, just let me know & I'll send you a copy by email.
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
JD is on vacation.
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Overcast but no rain - yet.
Reunion Special Officially A Go
'Friends'
It's official. Months after the 25th anniversary of the launch of Friends, the cast will be reuniting exclusively for an untitled unscripted special for HBO Max. It will be directed by Ben Winston and produced by Fulwell 73 (The Late Late Show with James Corden) and Warner Bros. Unscripted & Alternative Television.
Series stars Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry, and David Schwimmer will return to the iconic comedy's original soundstage, Stage 24, on the Warner Bros. Studio lot in Burbank to film the reunion special. The sextet also will serve as executive producers alongside Friends creators Kevin Bright, Marta Kauffman and David Crane.
The special, along with all 236 episodes of the Emmy-winning 1994-2004 NBC series, will be available to subscribers at the launch of HBO Max in May.
As Deadline reported earlier this month, following tough negotiations, the Friends cast reached an agreement in principle with series' producer Warner Bros. TV to do the hourlong special. According to sources, each of the six stars will be paid in the $3 million-$4 million range for the reunion.
The special is designed to help launch Friends reruns on HBO Max. The streamer shelled out $425 million for rights to the hugely popular sitcom, which has emerged as one of Netflix's biggest hits.
'Friends'
Resigns From Board
Caroline Kennedy
Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of President John F. Kennedy, has stepped down as honorary chair of an advisory board of an institute at a Harvard University graduate school named in honor of her father, the school confirmed.
The Harvard Kennedy School thanked her and another former member of the Institute of Politics advisory committee for their service.
"I am extremely grateful for the extraordinary dedication and commitment she has shown to Harvard Kennedy School over many years," Kennedy School Dean Douglas Elmendorf said in the statement. "Caroline's role at the Institute of Politics will always be prized and remembered."
Kenneth Duberstein, a lobbyist and former chief of staff to President Ronald Reagan, resigned as chairman of the panel.
The Kennedy School did not address the reasons for the resignations, first reported by The Washington Post.
Caroline Kennedy
Colleagues Defend
Cavuto
President Donald Trump (R-Unfit) again griped about Fox "News"/Fox Business Rupert Murdoch's state-TV host Neil Cavuto, a day after going on an extended rant at a rally about Cavuto and one of his guests who was critical of Trump's debate performances.
Trump tweeted on Friday, "So @TeamCavuto has very bad ratings on @foxnews with his Fake guests like A.B.Stoddard and others that still haven't figured it all out. Will he get the same treatment as his friend Shepherd [sic] Smith, who also suffered from the ratings drought?"
Smith asked to be let out of his Fox News contract last October. He handily beat his competitors in the 3 p.m. ET timeslot.
Trump's Twitter comment echoes those he made in an extended rant about Cavuto at a rally in Colorado on Thursday evening. Earlier in the day, Trump had griped on Twitter about Cavuto and one of his guests, A.B. Stoddard, who had called Trump's debate performances "disastrous" and "cringeworthy."
At the rally, as Trump chided the media, he added: "Fox is not that much better. All of their high-rated shows are the ones that like Trump. All of their loser shows, like Cavuto, are the ones that don't like Trump. How is Shepard Smith doing? He had the lowest ratings and now Neil Cavuto took his place." Actually, Bill Hemmer took Smith spot, and Trump himself congratulated him when the announcement was made in December.
Cavuto
Appetite Control
Junk Foods
Emerging evidence in humans suggests a typically Western high-fat, high-sugar 'junk food' diet can quickly undermine your brain's appetite control.
After indulging in a week-long binge of waffles, milkshakes and similarly rich foods, researchers in Australia found young and healthy volunteers scored worse on memory tests and experienced a greater desire to eat junk food, even when they were already full.
The findings suggest something is amiss in the hippocampus - a region of the brain that supports memory and helps to regulate appetite. When we are full, the hippocampus is thought to quieten down our memories of delicious food, thereby reducing our appetite.
Over the years, extensive research on juvenile mice has found the function of the hippocampus is very sensitive to 'junk food', but this has only recently been observed in young and healthy humans.
Now, in this latest study the team has found that not only do such high-fat, high-sugar diets impair memory in humans, they also appear to directly affect our ability to control our appetite.
Junk Foods
Inmate Confesses
California
A California inmate serving a life sentence for murder confessed in a letter that he beat to death two child molesterswith another inmate's cane hours after a prison counselor ignored his urgent warning that he might become violent.
In a letter to the Bay Area News Group, Jonathan Watson, 41, said he clubbed both men in the head on Jan. 16 at the California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison in the small central California city of Corcoran.
The first attack occurred after Watson became enraged that one of the sex offenders was watching a children's television show,the East Bay Times reported Thursday.
Prisoner David Bobb, 48, died that day. Graham De Luis-Conti, 62, died three days later at a hospital. Both were serving life sentences for aggravated sexual assault of a child under 14.
Days before the attack, Watson said his security classification was changed and he was transferred from a single-person cell to a lower-security dormitory pod at the Central Valley facility. Watson called the switch a "careless" mistake and said he left "quite a paper trail" protesting it.
California
Back To Drought
California
San Francisco and Sacramento have not seen a drop of rain this February, and climate scientists are expecting that disturbing dry trend to hold, in what is typically one of the wettest months of the year for California.
"This hasn't happened in 150 years or more," said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA's Institute of the Environment and Sustainability. "There have even been a couple wildfires - which is definitely not something you typically hear about in the middle of winter."
Combined with warmer than average temperatures, the state is parched, and there is no moisture in the forecasts. "The dryness has picked up as the season has gone on," said Swain.
The year began with snowpack at 90% of its historical average. But less than two dry, warm months later, it's hanging in at just 52% of average.
Last year's snowpack at this time was more than 125% of average, an indicator of what Swain calls "precipitation whiplash". California has long weathered these wet and dry cycles. The state's future in the climate crisis looks warmer and drier not because of a lack of rain, but because of the extra heat drawing moisture out of the ecosystem. That heat is a major contributor to reduced snowpack, both as less snow falls, and as more of it melts more quickly. Climate science points to a California bound for a future that looks less like endless extreme drought alone.
California
First King
Rome
Archaeologists said on Friday they had discovered an ancient cenotaph that almost certainly commemorated the legendary founder of Rome, Romulus, buried in the heart of the Italian capital.
The small chamber containing a simple sarcophagus and round stone block was originally found at the start of the last century beneath the Capitoline Hill inside the old Roman forum.
However, officials say the significance of the find has only just become clear following fresh excavations and new research.
Alfonsina Russo, the head of the Colosseum Archaeological Park, said the site probably dated back to the sixth century BC, and was located in the most ancient part of the city which was directly linked in historical texts to Rome's first king.
The shrine is buried beneath the entrance to the Curia, one of the meeting places for Roman senators which was subsequently converted into a church - a move that protected it from being dismantled for its stones as happened to other forum buildings.
Rome
Captured Individually
Atoms
To understand how atoms unite to turn into molecules, we need to catch them in action. But to do that, physicists must force atoms to pause long enough for their exchanges to be recorded. That's no easy task, and one physicists from the University of Otago have only just recently achieved.
Until now, the best physicists could do to understand the finer points of various atomic interactions was to calculate correlations based on averages among a crowd that's been chilled down to the point that they all share an identity.
This crowd-sourced version of atomics provides plenty of useful insights, but can't capture key details on the bump and grind of collisions between separate particles that sends some scattering and others merging.
The atoms in this case were all of the rubidium variety, which bond to form molecules of dirubidium, but just two atoms are not enough to achieve this.
Using a special camera to magnify the changes, the team captured the moment the rubidium particles came close together, revealing the rate of loss wasn't anywhere near as common as expected.
Atoms
46,000 Years Old
Horned Lark
On Jacquelyn Gill's first day doing field work at the Siberian permafrost caves during the summer of 2018, a local fossil hunter approached her with a dead bird in his hands. The translator hadn't yet arrived, but from the freshly dead look of the bird, Gill assumed it had just recently flown into the cave and died. A modern bird was of little interest to her team, which had flown to this remote region and trekked for miles to study remnants of the last ice age. The man, however, was persistent in offering her the dead bird.
Finally, the translator showed up and revealed what the fossil hunter was trying to tell Gill: The bird was ancient, one of the first frozen bird carcasses ever found in a late Pleistocene permafrost deposit.
In the boreal forest 30 kilometers east of the remote town of Belaya Gora in Siberia, north of the Arctic Circle, the international ban on the ivory trade has driven fossil hunters to blast a network of tunnels into the permafrost using firehoses, looking for preserved mammoth tusks and rhino horns. But the legal ancient ivory trade doesn't just uncover bones; it has revealed a wealth of paleontological treasures from a frigid era, from mammoths to ancient horses to the entire, shaggy head of an extinct wolf. This week, scientists have published a description of the bird-an approximately 46,000-year-old female horned lark, a bird still common across the Northern Hemisphere today-telling the story of a vastly different ecosystem from the one where the fossil hunters dig today.
Prior to Gill's visit, the fossil hunters, who are legally permitted to dig the tunnels, invited researchers to come see the wealth of finds they'd uncovered. One of the hunters had found the bird 150 meters into a tunnel, around 7 meters underground. Scientists brought the bird back to a lab in the Centre for Palaeogenetics in Stockholm, Sweden, where they carbon-dated the specimen, determining its age based on the ratio of radioactive carbon molecules in its tissue, and sequenced its genome. They, too, were shocked by how well-preserved the sample was.
Horned Lark
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