Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: Bumbling Into a Trade War (NY Times Column)
What Trump doesn't know can hurt us - and help China.
Joe Bob Briggs: Invasion of the Anti-Tourists (Taki's Magazine)
A stroll down Bleecker Street, once a haven for bars, nightclubs, Off Broadway theaters, Mafia hangouts, beatnik cafés, and weird secondhand shops, has recently become treacherous due to these little makeshift flash mobs that congregate in front of nondescript buildings for no apparent reason, blocking the sidewalk and gawking at their Svengali-like performance-art gurus. Welcome to the Anti-Tourist Walking Tour.
Joe Bob Briggs: Let's Name the Segregated Universities (Taki's Magazine)
Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, was founded by a minister in order to train other ministers. Just like Harvard and Princeton. The difference is that Harvard and Princeton are both listed on all the "best universities in the world" rankings, and Liberty always has an asterisk next to its name.
Joe Bob Briggs: The Electoral College Works, Leave It Alone (Taki's Magazine)
Let's all dogpile on the Electoral College. It's undemocratic, it's outdated, it's un-American. The New York Times (surprise, surprise) believes it should be abolished and we should go to a straight-up popular vote. Because (this is the part they don't tell you when they make this argument)...
Julia Belluz: I asked the experts how to eat healthy on a budget. Here's what they told me. (Vox)
It's no secret that income and time can be barriers to buying and preparing healthy foods. But if you can find the time, far and away the most effective way to eat healthier on a budget is to simply cook at home.
Todd VanDerWerff: Ready Player One is a truly awful book. I'm really looking forward to the movie. (Vox)
Some bad books can become good movies (and vice versa). Let's talk about why.
Peter Bradshaw: "Here to Be Heard: The Story of the Slits review - rise of the punk pranksters" (The Guardian)
This baggy documentary charts the career of the tough-talking all-female rockers who redefined the concept of 'girl bands.'
David Bruce's Amazon Author Page
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David Bruce has over 80 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
Presenting
Michael Egan
took the day off.
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Reader Comment
Current Events
Does this work on bears too?
Wonder if this fool has shared his plan with Betsy DeVos. Terrorist? Bear? Chuck a stone. This ought to work out real well:
The superintendent of Pennsylvania's Blue Mountain School District told state lawmakers that students could protect themselves in an active shooter situation by throwing rocks, according to WNEP. "Every classroom has been equipped with a five-gallon bucket of river stone," Dr. David Helsel told the state's House Education Committee last week. "If an armed intruder attempts to gain entrance into any of our classrooms, they will face a classroom full students armed with rocks and they will be stoned." Hesel said that he "just had the idea of river stone," claiming that "they're the right size for hands, you can throw them very hard and they will create or cause pain, which can distract." According to Hesel, the rocks are seen as a last resort, with more secure entrances and children learning how to properly barricade doors as the primary responses in an active shooter situation.
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
THERE IS A SPECIAL PLACE IN HELL FOR THIS GUY.
THE ONLY THING THAT STOPS A BAD KID WITH A GUN IS A GOOD KID WITH A BUCKET OF ROCKS!
THE MAN WHO WILL START WORLD WAR THREE.
LEAKED!
THE CHEERING SQUAD!
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Running late.
Hits Decade High
US Music Sales
Music sales soared anew last year in the United States backed by the rise of streaming, bringing revenue to a level last seen a decade ago, the industry said Thursday.
The Recording Industry Association of America said that revenue grew a robust 16.5 percent in 2017, marking the first time since 1999 at the dawn of online music that the business has expanded for two years in a row.
Recorded music sales in the world's largest music market from all formats totaled $8.7 billion, returning to the revenue level seen in 2008 even if it is still 40 percent below the pre-internet peak.
The growth was almost entirely attributable to the public's embrace of streaming, with subscriptions to paid platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal and the new service of retail giant Amazon growing 56 percent to 35.3 million users.
The biggest loser in the rise of on-demand streaming has been digital downloads on iTunes and elsewhere, which tumbled 25 percent. Physical sales also fell but were propped up the continued resurgence among audiophiles of vinyl, for which revenue jumped 10 percent.
US Music Sales
Not Happy
William Shatner
"Star Trek" legend William Shatner set his phasers on Facebook after a sponsored ad circulating on the social media platform's Messenger service falsely claimed he had died.
A Twitter user alerted Shatner to the premature news of his death on Wednesday afternoon, the day before the actor turned 87. Shatner responded by asking Facebook to investigate.
"What's up with you allowing this Acocet Retail Sales ad to pass your muster?" Shatner asked. "Thought you were doing something about this?"
The fake ad came at a tricky time for Facebook, which is currently catching heat over a huge data breach - for which CEO Mark Zuckerberg finally apologized on Wednesday.
Rob Leathern, Facebook's director of product management, responded to Shatner more than two hours later to reveal that the offending ad and page had been "removed" from the social media platform.
William Shatner
Deletes Facebook
Elon Musk
Elon Musk has deleted the Facebook pages of SpaceX and Tesla, apparently because he was dared to.
Mr Musk claimed that he wasn't aware that his companies had pages on the site and that he would remove them. Soon after, both pages disappeared - taking their combined more than 5 million likes with them.
The deletion came after a conversation in which Mr Musk responded to a post by WhatsApp's co-founder that called on people to delete Facebook. "What's Facebook?" Mr Musk wrote.
One of his followers replied to say: "Delete SpaceX page on Facebook if you're the man?"
Mr Musk said he would take up the dare. And soon after, the pages of both of his companies had disappeared.
Elon Musk
Marines To Train
Australia
The United States will deploy a record number of Marines to train in Australia, the Australian defense minister said on Friday, as Washington seeks to counter what it describes as Chinese aggression in the region.
Payne said 1,587 U.S. Marines will spend six months training in Australia's remote north, an increase of nearly 27 percent on its 2017 rotation for the program known as the Force Posture Initiatives.
"The U.S. military plays a vital role in underwriting security and stability across the Indo-Pacific, and the Force Posture Initiatives will be an essential component in preserving stability and security over the coming decades," Defence Minister Marise Payne said in a statement.
The deployment, first introduced in 2011 as part of a U.S. "pivot" to Asia, has emerged as a key indicator of Washington's commitment to the region under U.S. President Donald Trump and his willingness to counter Chinese influence in a region where tensions have spiked amid disputes over the South China Sea.
In a move likely to irk Beijing, the U.S. Marines will train with personnel from Australia, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, some of which also have claims in the South China Sea.
Australia
FBI Investigated
Sessions
The FBI investigated Attorney General Jeff Sessions for possible false statements to Congress, according to published reports.
ABC News first reported that Andrew McCabe, the former deputy FBI director fired last week by Sessions, authorized an investigation into Sessions last year about whether Sessions misled Congress when he denied having any contacts with Russians during the 2016 presidential election.
The Justice Department later acknowledged that Sessions had had two encounters with the then-Russian ambassador, Sergey Kislyak. That led congressional Democrats to seek an FBI investigation into whether Sessions had knowingly made false statements.
Sessions stepped aside in March 2017 from overseeing the Justice Department's investigation into possible ties between Russia and the Trump campaign. Sessions' deputy, Rod Rosenstein, is now in charge of the probe by special counsel Robert Mueller, who was appointed last May and who interviewed Sessions earlier this year.
The Justice Department said Sessions' answer was not misleading because he had not been asked about meetings he had with Russian officials while he was a Republican senator from Alabama. Sessions withdrew from the Russia investigation the day after his contacts with Kislyak were disclosed. Sessions said he could not oversee an investigation into a campaign in which he was involved.
Sessions
Russian Connections
Bolton
In the latest chilling confluence of Russia and the U.S. government, a startling 2013 Russian video has emerged featuring Donald Trump's pick to become national security adviser, John Bolton, promoting Russian gun rights for a Kremlin-connected banker who is reportedly being investigated by the FBI.
The Bolton video was distributed by a gun rights group co-founded by Russian citizen Alexander Torshin, according to National Public Radio, which unearthed the video. Torshin is a lifetime member of the National Rifle Association, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin and the deputy governor of the Bank of Russia.
Torshin, who also served in the Russian government, is the focus of an investigation by the FBI to determine if he illegally funneled Russian funds to Trump's campaign through the NRA, McClatchy has reported. It's illegal to use foreign funds to influence federal elections.
The U.S. Federal Election Commission launched a similar probe to determine if the NRA was acting as a conduit for illegal Trump campaign funds, Politico reported.
Torshin, who served as the deputy speaker of Russia's Parliament for more than a decade and was on Russia's National Anti-Terrorism Committee, reached out to members of the Trump campaign through the NRA, according to McClatchy. He also hosted dinners for NRA executives during their trip to Moscow in 2015.
Bolton
US Quietly Dropped
Assault Charges
The United States has quietly dropped assault charges against 11 bodyguards of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who were accused of attacking protesters in Washington last year.
The Superior Court in Washington confirmed Thursday that charges against four were dropped last November and another seven on February 14.
No reasons were given for government prosecutors' decision to seek dismissal of the cases.
But an official with close knowledge of the case said: "the decision was made for evidentiary reasons," suggesting there were questions over the identification of those involved in the May 16, 2017 melee.
Nineteen members of Erdogan's security detail were indicted over the daylight attack in front of the Turkish ambassador's residence, which took place while Erdogan was in Washington.
Assault Charges
Cambridge Analytica
HUD
A top official at the Department of Housing and Urban Development previously worked at the controversial political data firm Cambridge Analytica, but that job is not listed on his official bio on the agency's website.
Matthew Hunter was the director of political affairs at Cambridge Analytica, which is at the center of a scandal for taking private information from more than 50 million Facebook users largely without their permission.
The firm worked for Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, as well as those of other Republicans such as Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Ben Carson, the current HUD secretary.
Hunter isn't the only Cambridge Analytica employee working as a Trump political appointee. As HuffPost reported Thursday, Kelly Rzendzian, a special assistant to the secretary at the Department of Commerce, worked at SCL Group - Cambridge Analytica's parent company - from March 2016 through February 2017. The résumé she used to apply for the government job says she worked at Cambridge Analytica at that time.
There is, of course, nothing wrong necessarily with hiring people who worked at Cambridge Analytica. The firm is facing multiple investigations over its data harvesting practices, but these specific individuals don't face any known allegations.
HUD
Entering Retrograde Again
Mercury
At the end of this week, shortly after 7:00 Thursday evening Eastern time, the planet Mercury will enter apparent retrograde motion, marking the beginning of a three-week span of misfortune down on Earth. At least, that is, according to proponents of astrology, who have made the phrase "Mercury in retrograde" (or the more grammatically correct "Mercury retrograde") an increasingly buzzy phrase over the past few years.
Retrograde motion is when a planet appears, when observed from Earth, to reverse direction. This happens due to an optical illusion caused by differences in orbit. In the realm of astrology, retrograde motion has negative connotations. Because Mercury is the planet said to rule communication, those who are astrologically inclined expect frequent misunderstandings, scheduling problems and disagreements with friends during this period. Since Mercury is the fastest planet in our solar system, it enters apparent retrograde motion between three and four times a year, for about three weeks at a time. The frequency makes it an ideal scapegoat for any sort of misfortune, so much so that there is a whole website devoted to the question of whether today is one of those days - the aptly named www.ismercuryinretrograde.com - that one can visit to seek validation on a particularly bad day.
Retrograde motion is not new to astrology or astronomy. In fact, it was one of the earliest mysteries that confounded ancient stargazers. Yet, public interest in the subject is experiencing a relatively new boom, as evidenced by Google queries for the question "is Mercury in retrograde," which has seen considerable viral growth since 2009.
So, what exactly is the reason for this newfound popularity?
Astrology is quite popular among young Americans, with more than half of 18-24-year-olds believing that it is a science, according to a National Science Foundation poll conducted in 2014. But, while some scientific studies may appear to be linked to astrology - for example, a recent study showed the demonstrated effects of birth season on personality - there are no scientific studies showing that who a person is has anything to do with their natal chart. Yet as evidenced by the plethora of memes, appsand horoscopes found across the web, astrology is a cultural mainstay for the internet age, regardless of whether it is "real" or not.
Mercury
| CURRENT MOON lunar phases |
