Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: Turmoil for Turkey's Trump (NY Times Column)
Incompetence at the top doesn't really matter, until it does.
Ben Ratliff: "Dead Man: Earth, Wind, and Fire" (Criterion)
Whatever else can be said about the significance of Neil Young's strange and sensitive music for Dead Man, or about its place in the history of film soundtracks, recedes, I think, before the brilliance of Jim Jarmusch's initial intuition to hire him, and not someone else, to play solo electric guitar over a quiet, slow-moving film about physical pain, flight, indigenous-American forbearance, and eternity that takes place almost entirely outdoors. Jarmusch got the right person to do the right thing.
Doru Pop: "Beyond the Hills: Offscreen Cinema" (Criterion)
Beyond the Hills (2012) tells the story of a real-life Romanian tragedy that attracted international media attention in 2005: the death of a young woman submitted to a shockingly medieval exorcism at a small monastery in Moldavia. The monastery was located near director Cristian Mungiu's hometown, so it is not by chance that this third feature by one of the most important filmmakers in contemporary European cinema explores this incident.
Bilge Ebiri: Where Are You, Romeo? (Criterion)
In its broad strokes, Graduation paints a portrait of a casually corrupt society that viewers familiar with the New Romanian Cinema will recognize all too well. The story follows Romeo, a well-respected middle-class doctor, as he attempts to save the scholarship to a British university his daughter, Eliza (Maria Dragus), has been offered, in the wake of a horrific incident: the girl was sexually assaulted and injured on her way to school. Both the injury and the trauma interfere with Eliza's ability to take her final exams.
Mary Beard: Did that wedding make a difference? (TLS)
You don't have to think that a revolutionary flame had been ignited. But how can it not be a step in a good direction to see a royal marriage ceremony that didn't parade itself as 99% white? And shouldn't we applaud, at least a little, the change in the colour range that might be expected on such occasions? In fact, some of the mothers who were on the radio this morning were particularly moving when they talked about how their children had for the first time seen 'themselves' at such a royal extravaganza.
Mary Beard: From the Louvre to Yorkshire Sculpture Park (TLS)
But one complaint. It was not unreasonable to need to go to the loo. But why, oh why, a 15 minute queue? I can half forgive museums and theatres which are dealing with Victorian provision, but surely when you have built your nice new pyramid (in the Louvre's case) why not have enough women's loos? Is it because most architects are men (yes…I suspect)? It's one thing that makes me think entirely unisex loos would be a good idea: it would make men realise about the painfulness of queuing.
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Presenting
Michael Egan
replied:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Reader Comment
Current Events
Where is Melanie?!
Wonkette says Predator is continuing to gaslight us:
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
Reader Suggestions
Current Events
How can this be? My husband and I can access each other's phones but would never NEVER be so presumptuous as to delete emails, etc. Where is the respect for privacy?
Oy.
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
CIRCLING THE DRAIN.
DEBUNKING TRUMPS LIES IS 'CLASSIFIED INFO' LEAK.
THE LIAR!
IT RUNS IN THE FAMILY.
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sun broke through mid-afternoon.
'The Happytime Murders'
'Sesame Street'
"Sesame Street" creators on Thursday filed a lawsuit against STX Entertainment, alleging that its marketing campaign for "The Happytime Murders," an R-rated Melissa McCarthy film featuring naughty and foul-mouthed Henson puppets, tarnishes the "Sesame Street" brand.
The film centers on the story of a puppet cast from a 1980s television show that begins to get murdered one by one, prompting a police investigation that ropes in McCarthy's character and her puppet partner to look into the homicides.
The trailer, released recently, and other promotional materials make clear the film is not kid-friendly, showing scenes of drug use, sex, and other foul behavior by puppets with a tagline that reads: "No Sesame. All Street."
But "Sesame Street" creators are incensed at the reference, arguing in the lawsuit that it will confuse audiences and harms the "Sesame Street" brand. The marketing campaign "seeks to capitalize on the reputation and goodwill of 'Sesame Street,'" the suit says. "While the trailer at issue is almost indescribably crude, 'Sesame' is not trying to enjoin defendants' promotion or distribution of their movie. It is only defendants' deliberate choice to invoke and commercially misappropriate 'Sesame's' name and goodwill in marketing the movie - and thereby cause consumers to conclude that 'Sesame' is somehow associated with the movie - that has infringed on and tarnished the 'Sesame Street' mark and goodwill."
Filed in New York, the lawsuit also contains screen captures of social media reactions. One tweet read, "I'll never look at muppets/sesame street the same way." According to the suit, Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit behind the television show, sent a letter on May 18 to in-house counsel of STX and the Jim Henson Company, which is a producer on the film, demanding they stop making references to "Sesame Street" in the marketing materials.
'Sesame Street'
'I Did Not Have Scandals as President'
Obama
President Barack Obama took a light swing at his successor during a tech conference in Las Vegas on Wednesday. His eight years in office were scandal free, he told the audience.
"I didn't have scandals, which seems like it shouldn't be something you brag about," Obama joked.
President-for-now Donald Trump's (R-Crooked) presidency has thus far been racked with scandalous allegations, but Obama later hedged his barb. "But actually," he said, "if you look at the history of the modern presidency, coming out of the modern presidency without anybody going to jail is really good. It's a big deal."
The reason his presidency was relatively controversy free, he said, was because he was accepting of bad news. "No one in my White House ever got in trouble for screwing up as long there wasn't malicious intent behind it," he said.
Obama also discussed his process for making difficult decisions while in the White House. "I used to describe the nature of the presidency as having to make decisions about issues that nobody else could solve or are basically insolvable or at least not perfectly solvable," he said. "By definition, if a problem had an obvious solution to it, somebody else would have solved it before it got to me." He described his time in the situation room and the capture of Osama bin Laden as examples of those decisions. He "was usually working on probabilities," he explained "whether it was the bin Laden raid, or do we bail out Chrysler when it's hugely unpopular and it's not sure the auto company will make it, or, how do we approach dealing with Ebola?"
Obama
Bond #25
Daniel Craig
After so much back and forth as to whether Daniel Craig will or won't return for the next James Bond movie, the Hollywood gatekeepers of 007 officially announced some news on the untitled Bond 25.
Craig will indeed star in the follow-up to Spectre under the direction of Steve Jobs helmer Danny Boyle - and filming will begin this Dec. 3. Boyle's T2 Trainspotting screenwriter John Hodge wrote the original screenplay for Bond 25, which will mark Craig's fifth time as agent 007 after Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, Skyfall, and Spectre.
The news comes after EON Productions and MGM reached a deal with Universal Pictures to release the film worldwide. MGM will handle a U.S release on Nov. 8, 2019 through its new joint venture with Annapurna Pictures, and Universal will handle international distribution. As is traditional with Bond films, Bond 25 will get an early U.K. release on Oct. 25, 2019.
Last time we saw Craig's 007 in Spectre, he was facing off against an iconic villain of the franchise, Blofeld, by way of Christoph Waltz. Léa Seydoux played "Bond Girl" Madeleine, while Ralph Fiennes played the new M, Ben Whishaw played Q, and Naomie Harris played Moneypenny.
Boyle succeeds Sam Mendes, who directed both Skyfall and Spectre but expressed his fatigue in various interviews.
Daniel Craig
Fish Market Buys Freedom
70-Pound Octopus
A 70-pound octopus named Fred not only has eight arms, but possibly nine lives. Last week, a fish market in Morro Bay, California saved Fred from being served up for someone's supper,
Giovanni DeGarimore, owner of Giovanni's Fish Market, makes his living selling fish and other forms of seafood. But he recently decided against selling octopus products after learning about how intelligent the animals are.
DeGarimore told the San Luis Obispo Tribune he met a friendly octopus while diving in Fiji. "Essentially, we played a game of hide-and-seek for 15 minutes under the ocean," he said.
On May 14, DeGarimore's dock manager told him a local crab fisherman was selling a 70-pound octopus, putting DeGarimore in an awkward position. He said he no longer wanted to financially reward those who capture octopuses, but also didn't want to cut up such "a beautiful animal."
So DeGarimore bit the bullet and purchased the octopus for what he says was a couple of hundred dollars.
70-Pound Octopus
Would Still Support
Blinders On
There's very little President-for-now Donald Trump (R-Philanderer) could do to lose the backing his pro-life supporters-including, hypothetically, having paid for an abortion himself.
In an interview on Politico's podcast "Pulse Check," Marjorie Dannenfelser, the head of the anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony List, said such a revelation would hardly shake her faith in the president: She would treat the news the way she would if she heard it about anyone else.
"I would go, I would sit down, I would talk with them and hear what happened," Dannenfelser said. "I think every person that we deal with in politics is just as human as you and I sitting here, so I would want to know the circumstances. And I would take it from there."
Trump scored major points with the pro-life movement this week, when he announced a domestic gag rule that would block health care providers from receiving federal family-planning funds if they provide their patients with information about abortion. The president made the announement during his keynote address at SBA List's 11th annual Campaign for Life Gala Tuesday night, calling it a "bold action to protect religious liberty."
The same night, Dannenfelser lauded Trump as "the most pro-life president" the country has ever seen, a dramatic reversal from her stance on candidate Trump during the 2016 election. At the time, Dannenfelser led the group in actively discouraging pro-life conservatives from voting for Trump, saying they were "disgusted" by the candidate's treatment of women like former Fox News host Megyn Kelly and ex-2016 GOP candidate Carly Fiorina, and warning voters that Trump couldn't be trusted to champion a pro-life agenda.
Blinders On
Not Under Threat Anymore
Grizzly Bear
State wildlife officials have approved Wyoming's first grizzly bear hunt in 44 years.
The decision allows hunters to shoot and kill as many as 22 grizzlies in total in a wide area to the east and south of Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks.
It comes after the Trump administration decided to de-list the animal as a threatened species in the region, an idea formerly proposed in 2016, under the Obama administration.
The region, which also includes parts of Montana and Idaho, is home to around 700 of the bears.
Slow to reproduce, grizzlies number fewer than 2,000 in the lower 48 states, compared to an historic high of 100,000 before widespread shooting, poisoning and trapping had reduced their numbers to just several hundred by 1975, when they were placed under federal protection.
Grizzly Bear
Mysterious Furry Creature
Montana
Is it a wolf? A new kind of hybrid dog species? A relative of Bigfoot? This mysterious furry creature shot in Montana has even wildlife experts puzzled.
The animal was shot on a ranch outside Denton on May 16, but looks as if it came out of the Ice Age. It looks almost like a wolf, except some features are a bit off. It has long grayish fur, a large head and a snout; but its ears were too large, its legs and body too short, and its fur uncharacteristic of that common to a wolf, the Great Falls Tribune reports.
"We have no idea what this was until we get a DNA report back," Bruce Auchly, information manager for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, told the newspaper.
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) took the creature in to do DNA tests, and are working to identify this enigma of an animal.
Several wolf experts looked at photos of the beast and doubted that it was a purebred wolf. Many members of the public agreed. "Social media was quick to pronounce the animal as everything from a wolf to a wolf hybrid to something mythical," Montana FWP says.
Montana
Getting His Own 'Star Wars' Movie
Boba Fett
An upcoming "Star Wars" standalone movie will reportedly focus on one of the franchise's most popular villains: Boba Fett.
James Mangold, director and co-writer of "Logan," will direct the yet-untitled film for Disney, The Hollywood Reporter noted. He will co-write it with Simon Kinberg, the screenwriter behind several "X-Men" films. Kinberg, who was a producer on "Logan," will also be a producer of the Boba Fett film.
Disney has not yet confirmed the report and there is no information on release dates, cast or when in the "Star Wars" timeline the film will take place. A movie based on Boba Fett has been in development on and off for a number of years, with several names reportedly attached to it, including "Chronicle" director Josh Trank.
The bounty hunter played a small but key role in the original trilogy, helping Darth Vader track down the protagonists in Cloud City in "The Empire Strikes Back." There, Han Solo was frozen in carbonite for Boba Fett to deliver to Jabba the Hutt.
The Hollywood Reporter also reported that a long-rumored film about Obi-Wan Kenobi was in development with Stephen Daldry, director of "Billy Elliott," in talks to direct.
Boba Fett
Massive Ice Highways
Antarctica
Scientists have found huge valleys linking the smaller West Antarctic Ice Sheet to the massive East Antarctic Ice Sheet, hidden deep under the ice.
Three canyons - named Foundation Trough, Patuxent Trough and Offset Rift Basin - slice through the mountain ranges that divide the two major regions of the frozen continent. Foundation is 217 miles (350 kilometers) long (about the distance from Los Angeles to Las Vegas) and 22 miles (35 km) wide. Patuxent is a bit shorter and half Foundation's width. Offset is half Foundation's length but just as wide. Each of them provides a highway for ice to flow from the larger, stabler East Antarctic Ice Sheet into the smaller, less stable West Antarctic Ice Sheet. And each of them was completely unmapped and unseen under the ice until a recent survey mission, which was described online May 4 in the journal Geophysical Research Letters .
That's because the two major ice-mapping satellites orbiting Earth have big blind spots in the center of Antarctica. The inclination of their orbits prevents them from seeing into the ice of the southernmost continent. So, between 2015 and 2017, an international team of researchers started flying planes with sensitive mapping instruments on board over the Antarctic gap in order to fill in the blind spot in Earth's ice maps.
This finding is a big deal because it offers scientists a framework for figuring out how the more landlocked ice of the Eastern Ice Sheet might behave as the climate changes.
Right now, researchers said, the mountain ranges dividing Antarctica's east and west hold back the eastern ice. But ice already flows between them, through these valleys.
Antarctica
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