• In the early days of the 20th century, the editor of a small-town newspaper in Indiana wanted to delay the afternoon edition of the paper until he received word of who had won the Indianapolis 500. In those days, the fastest form of communication was the telegraph, so the editor made arrangements for him to be telegraphed the name of the winner. Being nervous about holding up the afternoon edition of the newspaper, the editor telegraphed his correspondent, reminding him that the afternoon edition was being held up. The correspondent telegraphed back, “WILL OVERHEAD WINNER.” In telegram language, this meant that the correspondent would send the name of the winner by telegram when it was available. Unfortunately, the editor didn’t realize that, and the afternoon edition of the newspaper appeared with the headline “Will Overhead Wins Race” with a short article about a racer named Will Overhead coming out of nowhere to win the Indianapolis 500.
• As an early 20th-century newspaperman, Ben Hecht was a picture chaser. Camera equipment back then was difficult to lug around, and so picture chasers would sneak into houses and steal photographs of people in the news so they could print them in their newspaper. Often, Mr. Hecht would pretend to be a census taker or a bill collector to get into a house so he could steal a photograph from a mantel or off a wall. However, the champion picture chaser in Chicago was a man by the name of Leroy T. Benzinger. He would knock on a door, and when the lady of the house answered, he would take out his glass eye. After the lady of the house had fainted, he would walk into her house and steal the photograph his newspaper needed.
• Anne Royall, a feminist and muckraker, knew how to get an interview. President John Quincy Adams did not want to give her an interview, so she followed him. He went to the Potomac River, took off his clothes, then went swimming. Ms. Royall came out of her hiding spot, sat down on his clothes, and declined to leave until after he had answered all her questions. As a muckraker, she made Francis Scott Key so angry that he, Joseph Gales (publisher of the Washington Intelligencer), and John Eaton (Secretary of War under President Andrew Jackson) had her arrested as a common scold. In court, she was found guilty of the charge, but the judge declined to give her the prescribed punishment — being dipped on a dunking stool. Instead, he fined her $10.
• As a young reporter in Chicago, Charles MacArthur interviewed Spanish novelist Blasco-Ibáñez, author of Blood and Sand (which was later made into a movie starring Rudolph Valentino), for the Tribune. Mr. MacArthur interviewed the celebrated author in his hotel room, where Mr. Blasco-Ibáñez was lounging in bed. Immediately, Mr. Blasco-Ibáñez launched into vociferous criticism of all things Chicagoan. The next day, Mr. MacArthur’s story appeared on the front page of the Tribune. He had written a few words about the celebrated author’s tirade against Chicago, but most of the article’s 1,000 words were devoted to a description of Mr. Blasco-Ibáñez’ toes, which had been clearly visible as he lay in bed.
• David F. Day and Gerald Letcher went West together in 1878. Soon, they decided to start a newspaper in Ouray, Colorado. Thinking about a name for the newspaper, Mr. Day said that the name must be solid and honest — like the famous prizefighter Bill Muldoon. Therefore, they named the newspaper The Solid Muldoon. Soon, the newspaper was one of the most widely read in the West, largely because of the crusading spirit of Mr. Day, who stood up for the rights of the people. Although Mr. Day faced as many as 47 libel suits at one time, none of the people suing him for slander ever received as much as a penny.
Capnomancy (otherwise known as libanomancy) signifies a method of divination using smoke. This is done by looking at the movements of the smoke after a fire has been made. A thin, straight plume of smoke is thought to indicate a good omen whereas the opposite is thought of large plumes of smoke. If the smoke touches the ground, this is thought to be a sign that immediate action must be taken to avoid catastrophe.
The first recorded use of capnomancy was in ancient Babylonia where the ceremony was performed at religious dates throughout the year using cedar branches or shavings. In Ancient Greece priests would burn animal sacrifices and then perform Capnomancy over the smoke produced by the fire.
Capnomancy has been reportedly used as late as 2003 in New England, where citizens would practice the ritual by using smoke plumes from chimneys. Other modern variations of the ritual involve burning cedar sticks, incense or candles with ribbons tied around them. Hands are sometimes used to manipulate the smoke with practitioners reading the shapes that are then produced.
Source
Alan J was first, and correct, with:
Smoke.
Cal in Vermont said:
Smoke. A reading of omens can be had by observing the smoke issuing from a fire made of chicken entrails and tea leaves.
Randall wrote:
smoke
Mark. answered:
Smoke.
Dave responded:
Smoke. Maybe that is the way that Trump makes his decisions? Or does he use the magic 8 ball?
zorch replied:
Capnomancy uses smoke.
Jacqueline said:
Looking at the movement of smoke from a fire for 'fortune telling'.
Deborah, the Master Gardener wrote:
Smoke. How on-the-nose, given the fires burning all over the west. I won’t miss it when it’s gone.
Billy in Cypress U. $. A. replied:
"Smoke" is the answer today. What does it say about California today?
P.S.
Yes, it is September 11th again.
This year we have experienced a continuous attack from "Yomama Been tRumpen" and we are fast approaching 200,000 dead Americans at a current rate of about 1,000 per day without all the bodies having been discovered and identified.
The question is simple and paramount:
“Can we save ourselves?”
Jim from CA, retired to ID, responded:
smoke rising from a fire
Mac Mac said:
Smoke
Barbara, of Peppy Tech fame wrote:
The answer is smoke - sadly, something the entire west coast of the U.S. is very familiar with currently. The air quality is so bad in the San Francisco Bay Area that we have been advised to stay indoors as much as possible. I'm feeling so sad for the folks that have lost their homes or businesses due to the fires!
John I from Hawai`i says,
Smoke
Daniel in The City answered:
Smoke
Rosemary in Columbus responded:
Smoke or movement of smoke
Joe ( -- Vote Blue, No Matter Who -- ) replied:
Well of course all us history majors know the substance is library books at F.451. And the very sad thing there's a lot of that going on out West.
Stephen F took the day off.
Roy, the Texas Snowflake, keeping his distance in Tyler took the day off.
mj took the day off.
Micki took the day off.
Leo in Boise took the day off.
David of Moon Valley took the day off.
Kenn B took the day off.
Dave in Tucson took the day off.
DJ Useo took the day off.
Kevin in Washington DC took the day off.
George M. took the day off.
Michelle in AZ took the day off.
Doug in Albuquerque, New Mexico, took the day off.
-pgw took the day off.
Gary K took the day off.
Harry M. took the day off.
Roy the (now retired) hoghead (aka 'hoghed') ( Without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring production deadlines or dates by which bills must be paid. ~Frank Zappa ) took the day off.
Ed K took the day off.
DAngelo took the day off.
Jon L took the day off.
Saskplanner took the day off.
Gateway Mike took the day off.
Steve in Wonderful Sacramento, CA, took the day off.
MarilynofTC took the day off.
Paul of Seattle took the day off.
Brian S. took the day off.
Gene took the day off.
Tony K. took the day off.
Noel S. took the day off.
James of Alhambra took the day off.
BttbBob has returned to semi-retired status.
~~~~~
Info: “The West Samoa Surfer League was founded in Ulm, Germany in 2012 after the well-known The Space Rangers split up. So far, the band has released 3 EPs and a 7inch. Mainly on tour in Germany the band was already in France, Italy, Czech Republic, UK and in the USA.”
Surf Cookie Records is a Surf record label based in Thessaloniki, Greece and run by Mike Surf.
Price: €1 (EURO) for track; €4 (EURO) for four-track EP
Grand Sumo's Aki Basho, LIVE tonight at 1:10am (pt) on NHK (over-the-air on channel 28.3 in the LA-area).
Tonight, Saturday:
CBS begins the night with LIVE'NWSL Soccer', followed by a FRESH'Love Island', then pads the left coast with local crap, and maybe an old '48 Hours'.
NBC fills the night with LIVE'2020 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs', then pads the left coast with local crap and maybe an old 'Dateline'.
Of course, 'SNL' is a RERUN, with Jennifer Lopez hosting, music by DaBaby.
ABC fills the night with LIVE'College Football', then pads the left coast with local crap.
The CW here fills the night with a LIVE'LGBTQ Telethon'.
Faux fills the night with LIVE'MLB Baseball', then pads the left coast with local crap.
MY has 'Weather Gone Viral', followed by 'Storm Of Suspicion'.
A&E has 'Live Rescue', followed by a FRESH'Live Rescue: Rewind', then a FRESH'Live Rescue'.
AMC offers the movie 'The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaugh', followed by the movie 'Braveheart'.
BBC -
[6:00AM] WEIRD WONDERS
[7:00AM] WEIRD WONDERS
[8:00AM] WEIRD WONDERS
[9:00AM] WEIRD WONDERS
[10:00AM] WEIRD WONDERS
[11:00AM] WEIRD WONDERS
[12:00PM] WILD INDIA
[1:00PM] PLANET EARTH: FROZEN PLANET - THE EPIC JOURNEY
[2:00PM] PLANET EARTH: FROZEN PLANET - THE LAST FRONTIER
[3:00PM] PLANET EARTH: FROZEN PLANET - TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH
[4:00PM] PLANET EARTH: FROZEN PLANET - WINTER
[5:00PM] PLANET EARTH: FROZEN PLANET - SPRING
[6:00PM] PLANET EARTH: FROZEN PLANET - SUMMER
[7:00PM] PLANET EARTH: FROZEN PLANET - AUTUMN
[8:00PM] ANIMAL BABIES - SAFARI BABIES
[9:10PM] PLANET EARTH: FROZEN PLANET - TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH
[10:20PM] PLANET EARTH: FROZEN PLANET - WINTER
[11:30PM] PLANET EARTH: FROZEN PLANET - SPRING
[12:30AM] PLANET EARTH: FROZEN PLANET - SUMMER
[1:30AM] PLANET EARTH: FROZEN PLANET - AUTUMN
[2:30AM] ANIMAL BABIES - SAFARI BABIES
[3:40AM] PLANET EARTH: FROZEN PLANET - THE EPIC JOURNEY
[4:50AM] PLANET EARTH: FROZEN PLANET - THE LAST FRONTIER (ALL TIMES ET)
Bravo has the movie 'He's Just Not That Into You', followed by way too many hours of 'Chrisley Knows Best'.
Comedy Central has the movie 'Dumb & Dumber', followed by the movie 'The Longest Yard'.
FX has the movie 'Deadpool', followed by the movie 'Deadpool 2', then the movie 'Deadpool 2', again.
IFC -
[6:00am] Saved By The Bell
[6:30am] Saved By The Bell
[7:00am] Saved By The Bell
[7:30am] Saved By The Bell
[8:00am] Saved By The Bell
[8:30am] Saved By The Bell
[9:00am] Saved By The Bell
[9:30am] Saved By The Bell
[10:00am] Saved By The Bell
[10:30am] Saved By The Bell
[11:00am] Saved By The Bell
[11:30am] Saved By The Bell
[12:00pm] Public Enemies
[3:00pm] Casino
[7:00pm] The Shining
[10:15pm] Final Destination
[12:30am] Final Destination 2
[2:30am] Final Destination 3
[4:30am] Grindhouse Presents: Death Proof (ALL TIMES ET)
Sundance -
[6:00am] the andy griffith show
[6:30am] the andy griffith show
[7:00am] the andy griffith show
[7:30am] the andy griffith show
[8:00am] the andy griffith show
[8:30am] the andy griffith show
[9:00am] the andy griffith show
[9:30am] the andy griffith show
[10:00am] the andy griffith show
[10:30am] the andy griffith show
[11:00am] hogan's heroes
[11:30am] hogan's heroes
[12:00pm] hogan's heroes
[12:30pm] hogan's heroes
[1:00pm] hogan's heroes
[1:30pm] hogan's heroes
[2:00pm] hogan's heroes
[2:30pm] hogan's heroes
[3:00pm] hogan's heroes
[3:30pm] hogan's heroes
[4:00pm] hogan's heroes
[4:30pm] hogan's heroes
[5:00pm] the blues brothers
[8:00pm] ferris bueller's day off
[10:30pm] crocodile dundee ii
[1:00am] the shakiest gun in the west
[3:30am] the reluctant astronaut (ALL TIMES ET)
SyFy has the movie 'Transporter 3', followed by the movie 'Walking Tall'.
John Fogerty says that Donald Trump (R-Fortunate Son)’s use of his song Fortunate Son at campaign rallies is “confounding, to say the least,” given that the lyrics to the song were inspired by rich people who were able to avoid the draft during the Vietnam war.
When the song was played at Trump’s rally in Michigan on Thursday, a number of journalists tweeted that it didn’t appear that the campaign grasped the meaning of the lyrics.
In an Instagram post, Fogerty said that he wrote the song in 1969, at the height of the Vietnam war, when he had already been drafted and had served in the military.
He said that the “inspiration for the song” was the disparity in those who were drafted and those who were getting deferments. “Back in those days we still had a draft, and something I was very upset about was the fact that people of privilege, in other words rich people or people of position, could use that to avoid the draft and not be taken into the military,” Fogerty said. “I found that very upsetting that such a thing could occur.”
In the Instagram post, Fogerty also recited the first lines of Fortunate Son: “Some folks are born, made to wave the flag. Ooh they are red, white and blue. But when the band plays Hail to the Chief, they point the cannon at you.”
Saturday Night Live will be back in the studio for its 46th season next month.
The venerable NBC sketch comedy series will return on October 3 and will air live from Studio 8H in 30 Rock.
This comes nearly seven months since the show’s last in-studio appearance on March 7, hosted by Daniel Craig. The show pivoted to three at-home performances during the spring.
The network didn’t give too much detail about the show’s return and whether there would be any audience, guest hosts or musical performances from the studio. One thing that could probably be expected is Maya Rudolph, in some form, playing Kamala Harris, while Jason Sudeikis recently teased that he’d be up for playing Joe Biden again.
Casey McQuiston’s 2019 novel Red, White & Royal Blue—yes, this is a story about Willie Nelson smoking up on the roof of the White House, please bear with us—opens with a lovely little passage about the White House roof. (See? It’s relevant.) There’s a piece of paneling up there, McQuiston writes, that can be gently peeled back to reveal a message:
In the secret history of First Families—an insular gossip mill sworn to absolute discretion about most things on pain of death—there’s no definite answer for who wrote it. The one thing people seem certain of is that only a presidential son or daughter would have been daring enough to deface the White House. Some swear it was Jack Ford, with his Hendrix records and split-level room attached to the roof for late-night smoke breaks. Others say it was a young Luci Johnson, thick ribbon in her hair. But it doesn’t matter. The writing stays, a private mantra for those resourceful enough to find it [...]
The date was Sept. 13, 1980. Carter was in the thick of his reelection campaign against Ronald Reagan. In Iran, 52 American hostages had endured more than a year of captivity.
Nelson was in the middle of a set at the White House. Recalls Chip, “In the break I said, ‘Let’s go upstairs.’ We just kept going up till we got to the roof, where we leaned against the flagpole at the top of the place and lit one up.’”
The scripted series about “Tiger King’s” Joe Exotic starring Nicolas Cage has been set up at Amazon for development, Variety has learned.
Variety exclusively reported the project was in the works from CBS Television Studios and Imagine Television in May. Amazon Studios has now boarded the project and will produce along with CBS TV Studios and Imagine TV.
The series is is based on the Texas Monthly article “Joe Exotic: A Dark Journey Into the World of a Man Gone Wild,” by Leif Reigstad. The story centers around Joe Shreibvogel (Cage), a.k.a. Joe Exotic, an eccentric exotic zookeeper in Oklahoma who fights to keep his park — even at the risk of losing his sanity. The series will live in the lion’s den with Joe, explore how he became Joe Exotic, and how he lost himself to a character of his own creation.
The role marks the first regular television role of Cage’s career. He has long been praised for his film work, having won the Academy Award for best actor for “Leaving Las Vegas” and getting a nomination in the same category for “Adaptation.” He is also known for his starring roles in films like “Moonstruck,” “Raising Arizona,” “Face/Off,” and the “National Treasure” and “Ghost Rider” films. He also recently lent his voice to the Oscar-winning animated film “Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse.” His upcoming films include “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent” and “Pig.”
It's impossible to deny — humans are destroying the natural environment at an unprecedented and alarming rate. According to a new report out Tuesday, animal populations have declined by such a staggering amount, that only an overhaul of the world's economic systems could possibly reverse the damage.
Nearly 21,000 monitored populations of mammals, fish, birds, reptiles and amphibians, encompassing almost 4,400 species around the world, have declined an average of 68% between 1970 and 2016, according to the World Wildlife Fund's Living Planet Report 2020. Species in Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as global freshwater habitats, were disproportionately impacted, declining, on average, 94% and 84%, respectively.
Every two years, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) releases its landmark report, revealing how far species populations have declined since 1970 — an important marker for the overall health of ecosystems. The latest report indicates that the rate populations are declining "signal a fundamentally broken relationship between humans and the natural world, the consequences of which — as demonstrated by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic — can be catastrophic."
The report blames humans alone for the "dire" state of the planet. It points to the exponential growth of human consumption, population, global trade and urbanization over the last 50 years as key reasons for the unprecedented decline of Earth's resources — which it says the planet is incapable of replenishing.
Donald Trump (R-Grifter)’s businesses have brought in $1.9bn in revenue over the first three years the president was in office, according to Forbes.
The president agreed when he took office that he would not take a salary for the position and would also not be actively involved in his business. But Mr Trump has still profited the last three years through his company’s many ventures, as he held onto ownership of his assets while moving into the White House.
Mr Trump’s golf courses and clubs brought in the most revenue for the president over the last three year, raking in a total of $753M. The Trump National Doral golf resort in Miami, Florida, was the most lucrative out of all the golf courses, bringing in $228m in revenue from 2017 to 2019.
Mar-a-Lago, where the president often travels to when leaving the White House, brought in $69m between 2017 to 2019.
This comes as the president has visited his Trump-owned golf courses and clubs more than 295 times since entering the White House. Mr Trump has also used taxpayer dollars to pay for rooms for members of his staff and Secret Service at clubs like Mar-a-Lago when staying there, sparking criticism for how the presidency has boosted his profits.
"You're a modern day moron" was Elon Musk's blunt response to criticism from former US labor secretary Robert Reich on Twitter Wednesday.
Tesla's chief executive was responding to allegations by the Clinton-era cabinet member that he was a "modern day robber baron" — a term referring to US capitalists in the 19th century who gained their wealth through exploitation — for forcing pay cuts on employees as the coronavirus pandemic hampered the company's ability to make and sell cars.
"Tesla forced all workers to take a 10 percent pay cut from mid-April until July," Reich, who's garnered a reputation for spicy political takes during Donald Trump (R-Crooked)'s presidency, said Tuesday. "In the same period, Tesla stock skyrocketed and CEO Elon Musk's net worth quadrupled from $25 billion to over $100 billion."
Musk, whose wealth is largely tied to equity in his companies, including Tesla, countered that "all Tesla workers also get stock, so their compensation increased proportionately. You are a modern day moron."
As Tesla was forced to close its only US car factory in March because of local shelter-in-place rules, Musk sparred with county leaders online and even filed a lawsuit against them. When allowed to restart production, Tesla told employees they wouldn't be forced to return to work if they were worried about exposure. However, two workers told the Washington Post that they were sent termination notices after not returning.
Often it's the most minute scientific measurements that are the most important, and researchers have developed a new, super-small device that's capable of detecting magnetic fields even when they're extremely faint.
The device, a new kind of superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID), is just 10 nanometres high, or around a thousandth of the thickness of a human hair. It's made from two layers of graphene – making it one of the smallest SQUIDs ever built – separated by a very thin layer of boron nitride.
These fascinating devices are already used in fields as diverse as medicine and geology, and they effectively get electrons working as quantum bits. This latest SQUID design should make the tiny instruments even more useful to scientists, thanks to its ability to detect very weak magnetic fields.
"Our novel SQUID consists of a complex, six-layer stack of individual two-dimensional materials," says physicist David Indolese from the University of Basel in Switzerland.
Ever since it floated through our cosmic neck of the woods, the interstellar visitor 'Oumuamua has intrigued and perplexed scientists. Now, a new theory has emerged that the cigar-shaped space rock might actually be a dust bunny.
Here on Earth, "dust bunnies" are clumps of accumulated dust and debris held together by static electricity that float around under furniture, pushed by passing breezes. But, the scientists behind a new study suggest that 'Oumuamua, the first interstellar object ever spotted in our solar system, could be (basically) a scaled-up dust bunny.
The study, led by Jane Luu, an astronomer at the University of Oslo in Norway, suggests that the interstellar space rock could have formed from dust blown off the nucleus of a comet outside of our solar system. This rock, an accumulation of rock and dust from the comet, would be pushed through space by solar radiation and eventually take a short tour of our solar system.
In the new research, Luu and her team suggested that a large chunk of rock may have once broken off the comet's nucleus and, as dust and gas particles flowed away from the nucleus, they would attach themselves to the rocky fragment, eventually forming 'Oumuamua. Over time as the fragment grew larger, the gas flowing away from the comet would eventually push the dusty rock out into space.
You have reached the Home page of BartCop Entertainment.
Do you have something to say?
Anything that increased your blood pressure, or, even better, amused or entertained?
Do you have a great album no one's heard?
How about a favorite TV show, movie, book, play, cartoon, or legal amusement?
A popular artist that just plain pisses you off?
A box set the whole world should own?
Vile, filthy rumors about Republican hypocrites?
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
