Mary Beard: Lucretius goes to Cheltenham (TLS)
Later in the day, I had great fun in a debating session, chaired by Sebastian Faulks, on the question of who is the worst parent in literature. I championed Euripides' Medea; Derek Owusu took Okonkwo from Achebe's Things Fall Apart; Nina Stibbe chose Linda Radlett from Mitford's The Pursuit of Love (a figure single-handedly responsible for decades of late twentieth-century bad parenting); James Marriott sponsored Hamlet's stepfather Claudius (hilariously turning Elsinore into a house owned by a pair of baby boomers, Claudius and Gertrude, with their awkward, jobless millennial son). And who won the accolade of worst parent? Okonkwo.
Mary Beard: A 'new' gallery in the Fitzwilliam Museum, and a subtle LGBT tribute (TLS)
Two portraits in the new arrangement caught my eye. They are of two seventeenth-century physicians: Sir John Finch (1626-82) and Sir Thomas Baines (1622-80, illustrated above), both by Carlo Dolci, hung to face each other. Vicky Avery, one of the Museum's keepers, pointed out to me that this pair had both been students at Christ's College, and their joint memorial stands in the college chapel - commemorating their "animorum connubium" (their marriage of souls), and explaining that they were buried together "so that those who had while alive mingled their … souls, might … in death mingle their sacred ashes" (just one urn is shown).
On January 31, 1945, the only American soldier court-martialled and executed for desertion since the American Civil War faced a firing squad. What is his name?
Aversion to happiness, also called cherophobia or fear of happiness, is an attitude towards happiness in which individuals may deliberately avoid experiences that invoke positive emotions or happiness.
One of several reasons why cherophobia may develop is the belief that when one becomes happy, a negative event will soon occur that will taint that happiness, as if punishing that individual for satisfaction. This belief is thought to be more prevalent in Eastern cultures. In Western cultures, such as American culture, "it is almost taken for granted that happiness is one of the most important values guiding people's lives". Western cultures are more driven by an urge to maximize happiness and to minimize sadness. Failing to appear happy often gives cause for concern. The value placed on happiness echoes through Western positive psychology and through research on subjective well-being.
Source
Randall was first, and correct, with:
Happiness
Mark. said:
Fear of happiness.
Alan J answered:
Happiness.
Dave wrote:
Happiness. Some people don't want to participate in activities that may cause joy or happiness because they feel being happy will necessarily cause something bad to happen to them to balance the books, so to speak. While it is a phobia, cherophobia isn't listed as a mental disorder.
I, on the other hand, look forward to that happy day when Donald Trump is driven from office. And I'm not fussy about how its done either. I'd settle for the 25th amendment invoked for the mental illness preventing Trump from insuring the laws are properly enforced, his humiliating impeachment/conviction, Trump's humiliating defeat in the 2020 election, or croaking (from natural causes). Anything but I want his ass gone. Now. Today. It would make me very happy indeed.
zorch responded:
Cherophobia is the fear of happiness. It is also the fear of Cher.
Cal in Vermont replied:
Happiness. I do not fear the happiness I will harbor when the Epoch of tRumpf crashes down around him and his buddies and henchmen and minions and family members and associated flying monkeys.
Deborah said:
Cherophobia is the fear of happiness. I wouldn't wish that on anyone.
Successfully signed up for Medicare online this week, mere days before I become eligible for the benefits. I've been trying for months to do so online, even with SSA tech support, to no avail. I guess the stars aligned. Hours later we lost electricity for 20 hours.
Today I have an interview with the UC Extension office, for the purpose of acceptance into the UC Master Gardener program for 2020. This has been on my bucket list for decades. I'm excited about the prospect of achieving a long-desired goal.
Meanwhile, it's Friday! TGIF!
Your Snowflake Libtard friend, Roy, in Tyler, TX wrote:
Cherophobia is the fear of being happy!?! I have the cure! If you wake up in the morning happy, and you dread being happy, just turn on the news and watch for about 10-15 minutes. You will then find that even the tiniest shred of happiness is melting away, only to be replaced with fear & dread, followed by hatred and a soothing anger, working its way up to absolute festering rage. But if that's what you're shooting for, wouldn't that make you happy again? Shit, now you have to start all over again!!
PS: Is Big Pharma working on a drug to treat this? Could be worth a bundle!
Jim from CA, retired to ID, responded:
fear of happiness
Rosemary in Columbus wrote:
Fear of being happy
Billy in Cypress U$A said:
Cherophobia starts with a happy term (cher- or cheer) and adds fear (-phopia) so that combines to be the fear of happiness.
Kevin K. in Washington, DC, answered:
Fear of happiness.
DJ Useo replied:
You stumped me agin, but I look forward to the answer tomorrow.
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BttbBob has returned to semi-retired status.
~~~~~
BANDCAMP MUSIC YOU WILL PROBABLY NEVER HEAR ON THE RADIO
Music: "Long View" from the album TALK TO YOUR BABIES
Artist: Rachel Mousie (pronounced MOO-sie)
Artist Location: Cincinnati, Ohio
Info: "I like to sing and write songs. I play the keys and use a looping station to create live harmonies and hand percussion rhythms. Sometimes when I'm practicing my cat sits on my lap and gives me feedback in the form of cat sounds. Once I find a way to incorporate that I'll have it all figured out."
Lyrics:
We are all complicit in
We are all compliant with
We are all contributing
We are all in line for the last show
Miles worth of mourning
Someone keeps a record
For those who are still to
Come into this place we failed to keep safe
And I can take you under my
And I can take you under my view
Long view
Price: $1 (USA) for song; $10 (USA) for album
If you are OK with paying for it, you can use PAYPAL or CREDIT CARD
• Chris Van Allsburg started his professional artistic life as a sculptor, then began illustrating children's books. He has won two Caldecott Medals, including one for The Polar Express, and he has illustrated a Caldecott Honor book: The Garden of Abdul Gasazi. When he branched out from sculpture to make his first picture book, The Garden of Abdul Gasazi, he used pencil because that was what he used to create sketches for his work in sculpture. Mr. Van Allsburg says, "At the time, there were not many books illustrated with pencil drawings (there still aren't). When the book came out, many people complimented me on how creative and original they thought I was for having chosen to illustrate the book with charcoal pencil drawings. The truth was, I couldn't have done it any other way."
• Children's picture book creator Ezra Jack Keats became famous when his book The Snowy Day won a Caldecott Medal. He wore celebratory underwear while accepting the prize - his undershirt and underpants were decorated with Caldecott insignia and mottos.
Censorship and Free Speech
• One of the things that Jenny Holzer has wanted to do in her career is to take art to the people, and so she has worked with the written word and has worked to put her words in places where people can see them. One early project was her series of truisms, which have appeared on T-shirts and the JumboTRON at Candlestick Park in San Francisco and the Spectacolor board in Times Square, as well as many other public places. Many of her truisms provoke thought - for example, "SLIPPING INTO MADNESS IS GOOD FOR THE SAKE OF COMPARISON," "FATHERS OFTEN USE TOO MUCH FORCE," and "ABUSE OF POWER COMES AS NO SURPRISE." One truism resulted in censorship. In 1982, Ms. Holzer had an exhibit in the lobby of New York's Marine Midland Bank. One truism was "IT'S NOT GOOD TO OPERATE ON CREDIT." When a bank employee noticed this truism, the exhibit was shut down.
• Lesbian cartoonist Jennifer Camper's postcard "Answers" was once seized by the United States Postal Service, which deemed it in violation of laws banning the use of mails for "obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, vile, or indecent things." In the cartoon on the postcard, a man crudely propositions a lesbian. In response to the man's invitation to engage in fornication, the woman says such things as these: "No, but do you have a sister at home?" "Sorry, sweetheart, but your tits are too small." "Naw - my girlfriend would kill me."
• In 1917, Mexican artist José Clemente Orozco visited the United States, taking with him over 100 watercolor paintings and drawings. However, customs officials examined his artwork and declared that much of it was immoral, lewd, and offensive. Of course, Mr. Orozco protested, pointing out the figures in the works of art were not even nude. Nevertheless, the customs officials confiscated over 60 of his watercolors and tore them up.
• José Vasconcelos hired many muralists to create art in buildings in Mexico City. However, some of the murals were controversial, and unfortunately, many Mexicans didn't like them. In fact, a few Mexicans disliked some murals so much that they destroyed them. For a while, the muralists painted while armed with pistols to discourage would-be censors.
• To understand this joke, you have to know that Adolf Hitler was once an artist. The Dutch used to make fun of the Nazis by raising their arm and saying, "Heil Rembrandt." Whenever a Nazi asked what they were doing, they would reply, "You have your painters; we have ours."
Children
• Brian Brooks is the artist who gave the cult character Emily the Strange (who is sullen and thirteen years old) much of her style and personality. Emily the Strange, of course, appears on T-shirts and other merchandise. For example, one T-shirt shows Emily the Strange in a pose much like Uncle Sam's recruiting pose, but Emily's message is "I WANT YOU to leave me alone." A cult character that Mr. Brooks created by himself is Oopsy Daisy, who attempts to stay out of trouble - but with little success. A best-selling Oopsy T-shirt shows the character and the words, "Oopsy, I said the F-word." Even when he was a kid, Mr. Brooks knew what he wanted to do: create art and have people appreciate it. At age 12, he even had his own company, Brooks Publishing Limited. Unfortunately, it was a fictitious company because it had no business. At the time, the audience for his art consisted of three people: his mother and his two brothers. However, he worked hard at creating art, and by the time he finished high school, his file cabinet held over 2,000 of his drawings, organized in chronological order.
CBS begins the night with a RERUN'NCIS', followed by a RERUN'All Rise', then '48 Hours'.
NBC fills the night with LIVE'College Football', followed on the East Coast by 'Dateline'.
On the left coast, football will be followed by a LIVE'SNL', followed by 'Dateline'.
'SNL' is FRESH with David Harbour hosting, music by Camila Cabello.
ABC fills the night with LIVE'College Football', then pads the left coast with local crap.
The CW offers '2½ Men'.
Faux fills the night with LIVE'MLB Playoffs', then pads the left coast with local crap.
MY recycles an old 'Major Crimes', followed by another old 'Major Crimes'.
A&E has 'Live PD', followed by a FRESH'Live PD: Rewind', then a FRESH'Live PD'.
AMC offers the movie 'Independence Day', followed by the movie 'Jaws'.
BBC -
[6:00AM] ERASER (1996)
[8:30AM] MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE (1996)
[11:00AM] ERASER (1996)
[1:30PM] ENDER'S GAME (2013)
[4:00PM] FANTASTIC 4: RISE OF THE SILVER SURFER (2007)
[6:00PM] HANCOCK (2008)
[8:00PM] TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY (1991)
[11:00PM] TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY (1991)
[2:00AM] ENDER'S GAME (2013)
[4:30AM] HIDDEN HABITATS - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 14-Them & Us
[5:00AM] WEIRD WONDERS - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 5 (ALL TIMES EDT)
Bravo has the movie 'Something Borrowed', followed by the movie 'The Devil Wears Prada'.
Comedy Central has the movie 'Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story', followed by the movie 'Talladega Nights: The Ballad Of Ricky Bobby', then the movie 'Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story'.
FX has the movie 'Men In Black III', followed by the movie 'Men In Black III', again.
History has the movie 'Meeting Gorbachev', followed by a FRESH'Ancient Aliens: Declassified'.
IFC -
[6:00A] Batman - That Darn Catwoman
[6:33A] Batman - Scat, Darn Catwoman
[7:06A] Batman - Penguin Is a Girl's Best Friend
[7:39A] Batman - Penguin Sets a Trend
[8:12A] Batman - Penguin's Disastrous End
[8:45A] Rambo III
[11:00A] Rambo: First Blood Part II
[1:15P] First Blood
[3:15P] Transporter 3
[5:30P] Ender's Game
[8:00P] Taken
[10:00P] Taken
[12:00A] First Blood
[2:00A] Rambo: First Blood Part II
[4:15A] Inescapable (ALL TIMES EDT)
Sundance -
[6:00am] The Rifleman
[6:30am] The Rifleman
[7:00am] The Rifleman
[7:30am] The Rifleman
[8:00am] The Rifleman
[8:30am] The Rifleman
[9:00am] The Rifleman
[9:30am] The Rifleman
[10:00am] The Rifleman
[10:30am] The Rifleman
[11:00am] M*A*S*H
[11:30am] M*A*S*H
[12:00pm] M*A*S*H
[12:30pm] M*A*S*H
[1:00pm] M*A*S*H
[1:30pm] M*A*S*H
[2:00pm] M*A*S*H
[2:30pm] M*A*S*H
[3:00pm] M*A*S*H
[3:30pm] M*A*S*H
[4:00pm] M*A*S*H
[4:30pm] M*A*S*H
[5:00pm] M*A*S*H
[5:30pm] M*A*S*H
[6:00pm] M*A*S*H
[6:30pm] M*A*S*H
[7:00pm] M*A*S*H
[7:30pm] M*A*S*H
[8:00pm] The Karate Kid
[11:00pm] The Karate Kid Part II
[1:30am] The Karate Kid Part III
[4:00am] The Karate Kid (ALL TIMES EDT)
SyFy has the movie Jeepers Creepers 3', followed by the movie 'Banana Splits'.
California's latest wildfire is impacting Hollywood productions.
The Saddleridge fire, which broke out in Sylmar near the 210 freeway Thursday night, has caused ABC's Bless This Mess, NBC's Perfect Harmony and Freeform's Good Trouble to shut down production Friday (Oct. 11). Party of Five, SWAT, LA's Finest and Penny Dreadful: City of Angels also called off filming. The fire has already burned more than 4,700 acres and destroyed 25 homes in the San Fernando Valley.
Bless This Mess, starring Dax Shepard and Lake Bell, and The Fosters spinoff Good Trouble were both set to film in Santa Clarita, and Perfect Harmony was scheduled to be in Chatsworth this morning - but because of highway closures as a result of the raging fire, the filming areas were no longer accessible to cast and crew. In addition, public safety personnel are cautioning against traveling in the region.
Others projects have been affected by the fire, too. According to the California Film Commission, Showtime's Homeland was supposed to film on the 118 freeway today but selected an alternate location instead and Warner Bros.' movie The Little Things had been set to film on the 5 and 14 freeway HOV connectors today and tomorrow.
A spokesperson for the Santa Clarita film office confirmed its filming cancellations, adding that a car commercial also had to shift production this morning due to the fire. While air quality has often been a problem in the past, the commission's representative noted that though it's been windy, it hasn't been smokey in the area - and that the reason for the production shutdowns today is mainly freeway accessibility.
Well, that didn't take long. After recently revealing she moved to Washington, DC with the intention to get arrested, Jane Fonda was hauled in by police for protesting on Capitol Hill on Friday. The 81-year-old actress and political activist was demonstrating to demand the government take action to battle climate change.
WUSA9 reporter Mike Valerio shared videos of Fonda, in a checkered newsboy cap and red coat, being arrested on the steps of the Capitol Building. She was protesting with over a dozen other people.
Fonda wants lawmakers take action to address the climate crisis, which she calls "an existential threat."
Her focus will apparently shift every Friday, ranging from the Green New Deal to fresh water and forests. Fonda is living in Washington for nearly four months and plans to get arrested every Friday until she has to begin filming her Netflix show, Grace and Frankie, early next year.
The two-time Oscar winner said she was inspired by 16-year-old Swedish high school student and climate activist, Greta Thunberg. "It so traumatized her that she stopped speaking and eating," Fonda explained. "And when I read that it rocked me, because I knew that Greta had seen the truth. And the urgency came into my DNA the way it hadn't before."
Austrian writer Peter Handke's Nobel literature prize win on Thursday sparked outrage in Albania, Bosnia and Kosovo, where he is widely seen as an admirer of late Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic.
In the 1990s, Handke emerged as a vocal defender of the Serbs during the bloody collapse of the former Yugoslavia, even comparing them to Jews under the Nazis, a remark he later retracted.
His 1996 travelogue "A Journey to the Rivers: Justice for Serbia", caused a storm, and in 1999 he returned Germany's prestigious Buechner prize in protest at NATO's bombing of Belgrade.
"Never thought would feel to vomit because of a Nobel Prize," Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama wrote on Twitter.
The Muslim member of Bosnia's joint presidency Sefik Dzaferovic labelled the decision to award Handke "scandalous and shameful".
Fox News anchor Shepard Smith, both a critic of President Trump (R-Individual #1) and a target of his scorn, announced Friday that he was leaving the network.
Smith's colleague Neil Cavuto, who follows Smith in the weekday lineup at the conservative news network, was visibly shaken after the announcement.
"Whoa," said Cavuto. "I'm Neil Cavuto and, like you, I'm a little stunned and a little heartbroken. I don't know what to say."
White House correspondent John Roberts was also shocked, saying, "I'm just trying to compile my thoughts too. I walked out here to do the hit and suddenly got hit by a subway train. Holy mackerel."
Smith was the least popular anchor among Fox News viewers as of a November 2018 poll and a target of Trump. On Wednesday evening, Attorney General William Barr (R-Made) met with Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch (R-Evil Incarnate) in the wake of Trump's criticism of the network over its polling.
When Eric Schmidt was asked on a radio show in 2014 why Google was supporting an ultra-conservative climate-denying pressure group in Washington, the then chairman of the internet giant offered an unequivocal response: it was wrong and Google was not going to do it again.
"The consensus within the company was that that was some sort of mistake and so we're trying to not do that in the future," Schmidt told NPR. People who opposed or questioned climate science were making the world "a much worse place", he added, and Google "should not be aligned with such people".
But five years later, Google still funds more than a dozen organisations that deny the climate crisis and oppose political action to try to solve it. Among them is the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), the group that launched the notorious Cooler Heads Coalition two decades ago, a group of conservative and libertarian pressure groups dedicated to dispelling the "myths" of global heating.
For Google, providing financial backing to groups such as CEI and the Cato Institute - staunch free marketeers - has nothing to do with climate science, and everything to do with its effort to curry favour with conservatives on its most pressing issue in Washington: protecting an obscure section of the US law that is worth billions of dollars to the company.
The law - known as section 230 of the Communications Decency Act - was established in the 1990s, at a time when the internet was in its infancy, and helped to give rise to internet giants, from Google to Facebook, by offering legal immunity to the companies for third party comments, in effect treating them as distributors of content and not publishers. Section 230, in effect, allowed Google and Facebook to be shielded from the kinds of libel laws that can ensnare other companies, such as newspapers.
Sanderlings, red-headed woodpeckers and great gray owls are just a few of the North American bird species projected to be threatened by climate change in the coming decades, according to the latest assessment depicting an increasingly dire situation for the continent's avian wildlife.
"Two thirds of birds in North America are at risk from climate change, to large range losses, potentially extinction, and this is especially so if we continue on the current trajectory," says Brooke Bateman, senior climate scientist for the National Audubon Society, which carried out the report.
The October 10 report, titled "Survival by Degrees: 389 Bird Species on the Brink," details the projected range losses for more than 600 bird species in North America under climate change scenarios of 1.5, 2 and 3 degrees Celsius of warming. Under the Paris Climate Agreement (which President Trump announced the U.S. would pull out of in 2017) nations around the world agreed to take measures to keep global temperature increases due to climate change under 2 degrees and to try to limit temperature rise to 1.5 C, though there are doubts that many nations will follow through on their commitments.
This newest report comes on the heels of a disturbing study last month, which showed that North America has lost 3 billion birds - nearly a third of its total avian population - over the past half century, findings that illustrated an "imminent disaster," according to lead author Ken Rosenberg.
And Thursday's report shows how much worse the situation may get in coming decades, with nearly 400 species of North American birds projected to be threatened by the worsening effects of climate change.
It looks like a block of mud and smells (some say) like pungent vegetables. Nonetheless, the latest addition to the collection at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago is a wondrous thing - a visitor from across the cosmos that fell to Earth earlier this year as a meteorite.
This piece of the so-called cosmic mudball meteorite - dubbed Aguas Zarcas, for the region of Costa Rica where it landed - weighs about 4 lbs. (1.8 kilograms). Unlike many rocky or metallic meteorites, it has a distinctive aroma that is somewhat like that of cooked Brussels sprouts, Field Museum representatives said in a statement.
This odor comes from organic compounds such as amino acids. Billions of years ago, malodorous meteorites like this were likely what seeded Earth with the building blocks for life, and Field Museum scientists will study the smelly space rock for clues about the materials that shaped our solar system, according to the statement.
Aguas Zarcas fell to Earth on April 23, blazing across the skies over Costa Rica's Alajuela province as a spectacular fireball, The Meteoritical Society reported. The meteorite broke apart during entry; one fast-moving piece weighing about 41 ounces (1,162 grams) smashed into a house, and another fragment weighing around 10 ounces (280 g) struck a doghouse, according to the report.
The mudball is a type of stony meteorite known as a carbonaceous chondrite; these make up only about 4% of all meteorites that reach Earth, said Philipp Heck, the Robert A. Pritzker Associate Curator of Meteoritics and Polar Studies at the Field Museum. They're an unusually rare type, because in most parent asteroids, intense heating over time changes the asteroid's chemistry and destroys amino acids, Heck told Live Science in an email.
A pair of "Jesus Shoes" are on sale for $4,000 - and for that price, the lucky owner can literally walk on water. The shoes were designed by Brooklyn-based creative arts company MSCHF and they come with holy water in the soles.
MSCHF bought a normal pair of Nike Air Max 97 sneakers at market value, the company's head of commerce, Daniel Greenberg, confirmed to CBS News. A plain pair of men's Air Max 97s go for about $160, but MSCHF completely revamped the shoe and added a golden Jesus on a crucifix as a shoelace charm.
MSCHF also sourced holy water from the River Jordan, which was blessed by a priest in Brooklyn and added it to the soles of the sneaker.
The new "Jesus Shoes" went on sale for $1,425 Tuesday and sold for that price within a minute, Greenberg said. The buyer has now listed the sneaker on the resale website StockX for $4,000.
Greenberg said the company does not personally know the buyer of the Jesus Shoe, but they are aware that person listed the sneaker on StockX.
Archeologists excavating what may have been an ancient Roman drinking den in the ruined city of Pompeii said Friday they have unearthed a well-preserved wall painting of gladiators in action, complete with realistically gory wounds.
The 3ft by 4.5ft fresco is located in the Regio V site, in the northern section of Pompeii's archaeological park, in an area not currently accessible to visitors.
It was found on a wall beneath the stairwell of what was probably a tavern, or wine shop.
As part of a multi-million project founded by the European Union, Pompeii is currently undergoing its most extensive excavations since the 1950s, with archeologists removing tons of debris from long-buried areas of the city.
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