Recommended Reading
from Bruce
RAPHAEL SATTER AND JILL LAWLESS: Pound Plunges as UK Votes to Leave EU (AP)
The British pound plunged to a 31-year low Friday as British voters choose to leave the EU in a historic referendum. The figures delivered a deep shock to financial markets, overturning earlier anticipation of a narrow victory for "remain."
Garrison Keillor: "Life is short: Skip the self-pity, grand quests and inevitable despair" (Chicago Tribune)
I saw one of my novels at a yard sale last week, and it appeared to have been used as a coaster. The interior was quite pristine, but there were rings on the cover where wet glasses had been set. It was on sale for 35 cents. Had I known I was only writing a coaster, maybe I wouldn't have worked so hard on the themes and motifs, the connotations and so forth, but that's just the way life is. There's a lot of wastage. No way around it.
Garrison Keillor: The shame of the graduation speaker (Washington Post)
The father of the graduate is a footman at the festivities, a porter, a supernumerary. Through cunning and perseverance, he has accumulated the pots of gold required to raise a girl nowadays, supply the wardrobe and the array of lotions and emollients, pay the string of retainers and therapists, foot the bill for class trips and team sports and top-flight electronics, and now, as the daughter processes through the crowd in the gymnasium, as the mother quietly weeps, the father sits, holding a spare hankie.
Jonathan Jones: Is David Hockney right to say painting is an old man's art? (The Guardian)
At 78, the artist is working harder than ever as he prepared to exhibit 83 new works in London. But does experience make every artist better with the years?
Michael Hann: Yes, Led Zeppelin took from other people's records - but then they transformed them (The Guardian)
Life as a Zeppelin fan would be much easier if they had come up with every idea themselves. But they always turned their borrowings into something greater than the source.
"Once upon a time…" Lucy Mangan explores our enduring love of Roald Dahl (Stylist)
Once upon a time there was a writer who charmed, amused and terrified children with his stories. Now, 100 years after his birth, why do we still worship Roald Dahl?
Adam Frank: Yes, There Have Been Aliens (NY Times)
To give some context for that figure: In previous discussions of the Drake equation, a probability for civilizations to form of one in 10 billion per planet was considered highly pessimistic. According to our finding, even if you grant that level of pessimism, a trillion civilizations still would have appeared over the course of cosmic history.
Nell Frizzell: "Punky in pink: the riot grrl overturning rebel woman stereotypes with glitter" (The Guardian)
Margaret Meehan's collages and sculptures turn ostracised, forgotten women into defiant modern feminists - giving voice to the fringe with prosthetics and paint.
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Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
from Marc Perkel
Patriot Act
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
"LOUIE, LOUIE…"
WHEE HAW!
A GOOD CRISIS SHOULD NEVER GO TO WASTE!
THE END OF AN ERROR
WHAT A FREAKING ASSHOLE!
HEAL THYSELF!
BE BOPP WILL FOOL YA!
HOMOSEXUALITY IS A SIN?
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Running late, again. Sigh.
Nazi Golf Balls
Lee Nelson
British comedian Lee Nelson (real name Simon Brodkin) walked up to the podium on Friday where Donald Trump (R-Grifter) was giving a speech about his revamped Scottish Trump Turnberry golf course, and began to apologize.
Nelson, posing as an employee in a Trump Turnberry pullover, said he had forgotten to hand out new red golf balls that were a part of the course's reopening.
"I forgot to hand them out before," Nelson told the crowd. "I'm very sorry, Mr. Trump."
The golf balls were imprinted with black swastikas and left to pockmark the grass around Trump's podium.
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee gave his speech surrounded by symbols of Nazism.
Lee Nelson
Abandons Chicago Museum Plan
George Lucas
"Star Wars" creator George Lucas announced Friday that he has abandoned plans to build his art museum in Chicago, blaming delays over a lawsuit from a parks group opposed to development along the city's prized lakefront.
The filmmaker said in a statement he would take his Lucas Museum of Narrative Art to his home state of California, but he did not name a specific location. He blamed Chicago's Friends of the Parks group for suing to stop construction on what is currently a parking lot for the NFL football stadium Soldier Field.
"No one benefits from continuing their seemingly unending litigation to protect a parking lot," Lucas said. Friends of the Parks said it was unfortunate that Lucas wouldn't consider an alternate Chicago site away from the lake.
The 17-acre site just south of the Chicago Bears' home stadium would have erased a parking lot and added 4.5 acres of new parkland, according to designs released in September. Supporters defended it as an improvement that would have transformed an asphalt expanse into green space with dazzling landscape design by renowned Chicago architect Jeanne Gang.
The museum, wherever it ends up, will showcase popular art Lucas has collected since college, including illustrations by Norman Rockwell, Maxfield Parrish and N.C. Wyeth, as well as works by Lucas's visual effects company, Industrial Light and Magic.
George Lucas
Transgender Members
Pentagon
The Pentagon plans to announce the repeal of its ban on openly serving transgender service members next month, U.S. defense officials said.
The repeal would come five years after a 2011 decision to end the U.S. military's ban on gays and lesbians serving openly, despite fears - which proved unfounded - that such a move would be too great a burden in wartime and would undermine readiness.
The disclosure came the same week that the U.S. Army formally welcomed its new secretary, Eric Fanning, who became the first openly gay leader of a military service branch in U.S. history.
One of the U.S. officials said parts of the repeal would come into effect immediately. But the plan would also direct each branch of the armed services to implement new policies affecting everything from recruiting to housing for transgender troops, the official said.
Pentagon
Auction Earns $500,000
Whitney Houston
An auction of Whitney Houston's memorabilia has earned more than $500,000 despite a judge blocking the sale of an Emmy Award won by the late singer.
Heritage Auctions says the top bid in Friday's auction was $20,000 for a pair of Nike Air Jordan sneakers given to Houston by NBA great Michael Jordan. A Dolce & Gabbana fur coat worn by Houston on stage sold for more than $16,000.
The auction featured several costumes worn by Houston, as well gold records and other items the Grammy-winning singer accumulated before her death in 2012 at age 48.
A federal judge on Thursday blocked Heritage Auctions from selling Houston's 1986 Emmy trophy, which she won for a Grammy performance. The company returned the trophy to Houston's family.
Whitney Houston
Man Misidentified
Iwo Jima
One of the six men long identified in an iconic World War II photograph showing the raising of the American flag at Iwo Jima was actually not in the image, the Marine Corps announced Thursday after conducting an investigation prompted by the claims of two amateur historians.
The Marines formed a review panel earlier this year after the two history buffs studied a number of photos shot during two flag-raisings atop Mount Suribachi during an intense battle between American and Japanese forces in 1945. They claimed the identifications made by the Marines of the six men in the famous photo by Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal included mistakes, and after the review, the Marine Corps agreed.
A panel found that Private First Class Harold Schultz, of Detroit, was in the photo and that Navy Pharmacist's Mate 2nd Class John Bradley wasn't. Bradley had participated in an earlier flag-raising on Mount Suribachi, and his role took on a central role after his son, James Bradley, wrote a best-selling book about the flag raisers, "Flags of Our Fathers," which was later made into a movie directed by Clint Eastwood.
James Bradley declined to comment Thursday when reached by phone. However, he told the AP in May that the Marines' decision to investigate the matter led him to believe his father confused the first and second raisings of the flag.
The Marines now agree that Schultz, who died in 1995 at age 70, helped raise the flag, along with Harlon Block, Rene Gagnon, Ira Hayes, Franklin Sousley and Michael Strank.
Iwo Jima
Climate Change Fueling Rise In Attacks
Sharks
Shark attacks are on the rise in the U.S.-but it's not because sharks are getting fiercer.
The increase in attacks-59 last year, up from 31 in 2011-is connected to climate change, experts say. According to a study by Progress in Oceanography, climate change is pushing sharks and other marine species northward. At the same time, warm weather means people are more likely go swimming, a potentially fatal combination. According to the Florida Program for Shark Research, seven people have died from shark attacks since 2005.
"Each year we should have more attacks than the last because there's more humans entering the water, and more hours spent in the water," said George Burgess, director of the Florida Program for Shark Research. "What you see is more of a human activity than a shark activity."
Most shark attacks take place in Florida, California and Hawaii, where tourists often visit beaches. The number of tourists in Florida, where the most shark attacks take place, has risen every year since 2009, to 106 million last year. Meanwhile, there's also been a gradual increase in the number of sharks in the water.
Sharks
240 Gators
Disney
In the last decade, trappers have captured and killed 240 alligators on Disney's sprawling Central Florida property where a toddler was fatally attacked last week, state records show.
The gators ranged in size from just under 4 feet to a monstrous 13 feet in January 2015.
Compared to the number of alligators trapped statewide in the same period - more than 73,000 between 2006 and 2014 - the number bagged on the resort's 25,000 acres represents just a fraction of a population estimated at over a million in Florida's 67 counties. Despite the gators' presence, Disney had no warning signs posted on the rolling acres dotted with ponds, wetlands and the large lagoon where 2-year-old Lane Graves was dragged from shore.
Under a management plan registered with the state, Disney obtained a 10-year permit beginning in 2009 to trap up to 300 gators under 4 feet in length within a targeted area.
Disney's property is considered a targeted harvest area, where alligators are numerous enough to be trapped under one permit. Alligators in Florida are federally protected but managed under a state program that allows nuisance gators, typically larger than 4 feet, to be killed with a permit. Gators become more active in the spring and summer, their mating and nesting seasons. Mating season was just winding down when Lane was attacked.
Disney
Troubling Sign
Pink Snow
Pink snow may be aesthetically pleasing, but scientists have found that it is indicative of the rapid pace of global warming.
This snow, which thrives in high-latitude and high-altitude regions, is found in areas comparable to the Arctic, where Chlamydomonas nivalis algae, which is normally green, has a chemical reaction to the UV rays from the sun and takes on a reddish-pink hue.
Scientists have been aware of rose-tinted snow since 1818, but they initially misunderstood its origins, believing it came about as a result of iron deposits left behind by a meteor. However, subsequent findings from the same year suggested that a kind of algae, not extraterrestrial iron, is to blame for the nontraditional hues. More contemporary findings have corroborated this notion.
This pink snow, sometimes referred to as blood or watermelon snow in the Arctic regions, is harmful despite its quirky facade. The algae expedites the melting of the Arctic, which is already happening at a faster rate than expected, due, in part, to global warming, a new study shows.
This study, which is included in the Nature Communications journal and published Wednesday, contains findings based on 40 samples taken from 16 Arctic glaciers in regions like Greenland, Norway and Iceland. It shows that the red algae darkens the snow, causing it to melt at a faster rate because it absorbs more light and heat. This is due to the algae-laden-snow's low albedo, which relates to a surface's ability to reflect and absorb light and heat. The lighter a surface, the higher the albedo. White surfaces, like pure snow, have a high albedo and can therefore maintain a cooler temperature. Lower albedo is responsible for accelerating the melting of ice caps and the discomfort you feel when you wear black on a summer day.
Pink Snow
Top 20
Global Concert Tours
The Top 20 Global Concert Tours ranks artists by average box office gross per city and includes the average ticket price for shows Worldwide. The list is based on data provided to the trade publication Pollstar by concert promoters and venue managers.
1. Beyonce; $5,840,123; $125.18.
2. Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band; $3,592,694; $120.87.
3. Maroon 5; $2,198,012; $58.39.
4. Justin Bieber; $1,773,541; $100.23.
5. Kenny Chesney; $1,457,719; $61.59.
6. Black Sabbath; $1,334,109; $94.72.
7. Ricky Martin; $1,195,556; $77.99.
8. Rihanna; $1,189,886; $88.46.
9. Iron Maiden; $1,057,916; $64.08.
10. The Who; $998,737; $88.62.
11. Luke Bryan; $806,888; $67.91.
12. Carrie Underwood; $744,908; $67.06.
13. Dixie Chicks; $650,474; $60.62.
14. Little Mix; $649,659; $48.87.
15. Bryan Adams; $607,653; $66.15.
16. Mariah Carey; $598,330; $65.62.
17. Selena Gomez; $586,331; $67.57.
18. Andre Rieu; $563,828; $79.08.
19. Jason Aldean; $528,115; $59.41.
20. James Taylor; $474,081; $77.76.
Global Concert Tours
In Memory
Bernie Worrell
Bernie Worrell, the ingenious "Wizard of Woo" whose amazing array of keyboard sounds and textures helped define the Parliament-Funkadelic musical empire and influenced performers of funk, rock, hip-hop and other genres, has died.
Worrell, who announced in early 2016 that he had stage-four lung cancer, died Friday at age 72. He died at his home in Everson, Whatcom County, Wash., according to his wife, Judie Worrell.
Throughout the 1970s and into the '80s, George Clinton's dual projects of Parliament and Funkadelic and their various spinoffs built upon the sounds of James Brown and Sly and the Family Stone among others and turned out some of the most complex, spaced out, political, cartoonish and, of course, danceable music of the era, elevating the funk groove to a world view.
With a core group featuring Worrell, guitarist Eddie Hazel and bassist Bootsy Collins, P-Funk maintained an exhausting and dazzling pace of recordings, from the hit singles "Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof off the Sucker)" and "Flash Light" to such albums as "One Nation Under a Groove" and "Funkentelechy Vs. the Placebo Syndrome." And the studio music was just a starting point for the live shows, costumed spectaculars of wide-brimmed hats, war paint, dashikis, military gear or perhaps a white sheet with only a fig leaf underneath.
Worrell was among the first musicians to use a Moog synthesizer, and his mastery brought comparisons to Jimi Hendrix's innovations on guitar. Anything seemed possible when he was on keyboards, conjuring squiggles, squirts, stutters and hiccups on Parliament's "Flash Light" that sounded like funk as if conceived by Martians. On Funkadelic's "Atmosphere," his chatty organ prelude, like a mash-up of Bach and "The Munsters," set up some of Clinton's more unprintable lyrics.
Worrell's contributions as a keyboardist, writer and arranger didn't bring him a lot of money, the source of much legal action and fierce criticism of Clinton, but fellow musicians paid attention. He played with Talking Heads for much of the 1980s and was featured in their acclaimed concert documentary "Stop Making Sense." Worrell also contributed to albums by Keith Richards, Yoko Ono, Nona Hendryx, Manu Dibango and the Pretenders. In 2015, he was a member of Meryl Streep's backing group in the movie "Ricki and the Flash."
Meanwhile, he toured frequently on his own and released such solo records as "Funk of Ages," and "Blacktronic Science" and most recently "Retrospectives." His other credits ranged from co-writing the soundtrack for the 1994 film "Car 54, Where are You?", based on the old TV sitcom, to his brief membership in Paul Shaffer's band on "Late Show with David Letterman."
In 1997, Worrell, Clinton and more than a dozen other P-Funk members were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
A native of Long Branch, New Jersey, he was a musician virtually from the time he could speak, trained to play piano at age 3 and giving public performances by age 10 with the Washington Symphony Orchestra. While at the New England Conservatory, in Boston, he became interested in synthesizers through listening to a group not otherwise known for its contributions to funk, the British progressive rock band Emerson, Lake & Palmer,"
Worrell met Clinton in the early 1970s and performed with him off and on through the following decades even as P-Funk had imploded by 1980 amid reports of drug abuse and unpaid royalties. He would remember P-Funk's prime as stressful, "circuslike," but worth it once the music began.
Bernie Worrell
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