Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: Real America Versus Senate America (NY Times)
Some of us are more equal than others, and they like Trump.
Paul Waldman: Republicans' campaign promises are already vanishing into thin air (Washington Post)
It's almost as if they never meant anything in the first place.
Greg Sargent: Can the Democratic majority that won the House endure through 2020? (Washington Post)
One of the biggest stories of the election was the big shift to Democrats among college-educated whites, a marginally Republican-leaning constituency that has been badly alienated by President Trump.
Randy Schultz: Gov. Rick Scott took responsibility? No, he took $300 million (Sun-Sentinel)
When the federal investigation of Rick Scott's former hospital company became public in 1997, the board of Columbia/HCA forced him out. Scott left with $300 million in stock, a $5.1 million severance and a $950,000-per-year consulting contract for five years. What does Scott call that? Taking responsibility.
Mary Beard: New periodicals (TLS)
Here is another little bit of academic nostalgia. When I was a graduate student and young lecturer, the 'new periodicals' stand in the library was one of the most popular places to hang out. As the new issues of journals, or individual fascicles of journals, came in - everyone wanted to be the first to get a look.
Mary Beard: Will prison help you love grannies? (TLS)
We have become appallingly self-contradictory in relation to prisons. On the one hand we expose and deplore the dreadful conditions in the prison estate (overcrowding, under-staffing, filth, self-harm, suicide, violence, Class A drugs, etc etc). On the other hand (and often on the opposite page of the newspaper) the main way we now use to show that we are taking any kind of 'unacceptable' behaviour seriously is to give it a custodial sentence (or to increase the sentence).
Ben Walters: John Waters: why the auteur of outrage won't joke about the Manson murders (The Guardian)
The film-maker who built a career on bad taste makes fun of gay political correctness - but one subject remains off-limits.
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Presenting
Michael Egan
replied:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
from Bruce
Anecdotes
• Major league umpire Bill Klem wore an inside chest protector, which afforded less protection than an outside chest protector, although Mr. Klem maintained that umpires could avoid injury by weaving with the ball. Even so, he once had his collarbone broken while umpiring. When it healed, a hole was left in his chest which you could stick your finger in. Later, fellow umpire Jocko Conlan had his collarbone broken while working a game. Mr. Klem told him, "You've got to weave." Mr. Conlan had roomed with Mr. Klem, and so he knew where the hole left by Mr. Klem's broken collarbone was located. He stuck his finger in the hole and said, "How did you get that?" Mr. Klem replied, "I didn't weave either, that day."
• When Quaker humorist Tom Mullen went into a hospital to have his colon removed, he met a nurse who had undergone the same medical procedure and so was able to answer his questions and joke with him about the procedure. With no colon, the patient must wear a bag into which the feces collect. Mr. Mullen asked what he should do if the bag broke, and the nurse replied, "Stand downwind." The nurse also said that men have an advantage over women in undergoing this procedure: "Both men and women wear bags, but we women have to find shoes to match."
• President Abraham Lincoln was besieged by people asking to be appointed to various offices; unfortunately, there were many more people than offices. Once, he suffered from a mild form of smallpox, and the office-seekers were afraid to come near him. President Lincoln enjoyed their absence, but he told a friend, "Is it not too bad that now, while I have something to give to everybody, no one comes near me."
• Lesbian comedians Robin Tyler and Patty Harrison used to do a routine about faith-healer Brother Ripoff. As Brother Ripoff, Ms. Tyler would say to Ms. Harrison, who was playing an ill lesbian looking for healing, "This woman's come to me and she's a lesbian and she wants to be healed. I'm going to put my hand on her and I'm going to heal her. Hallelujah! You are now healed - and you're still a lesbian!"
• Before George Burns and Gracie Allen were married, Mr. Burns had a rival. Once, Ms. Allen was ill and in a hospital, and Mr. Burns was supposed to tell her beau the news. Mr. Burns didn't do that, so the beau didn't send flowers - but Mr. Burns filled her hospital room with baskets of flowers.
• A friend once said to country comedian Jerry Clower, "I see you got the furniture disease." Mr. Clower asked what the furniture disease was, and his friend told him, "Your chest has done dropped down into your drawers."
• Comedian Groucho Marx frequently suffered from depression. According to his friend Dick Cavett, "He needed a Groucho to cheer him up. He was the only person who couldn't have one."
• Some women visited a sick friend and told her, "We will remember you in our prayers." The woman replied, "Just wash the dishes in the kitchen. I can do my own praying."
• Richard Pryor got a lot of comedic material from his own life. After suffering a heart attack, he joked about the lengths he would go to in order to get new material.
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Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
THE "SCAM ARTIST."
THEY MADE TUCKER CRY.
THE CRIMINALS!
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Running late and caught a cold. Ack.
Rally
Pittsburgh
Michael Keaton and Tom Hanks joined several hundred people Friday at rainy Point State Park to rally for peace, compassion and unity in the face of tragedy.
The rally, officially called Stronger than Hate: A Gathering of Compassion, Unity and Love, began with a minute-long moment of silence for the 11 killed in the Oct. 27 mass shooting at the Tree of Life Congregation in Squirrel Hill.
Hanks, who has been in Pittsburgh researching and filming a movie on the life of Fred Rogers, spoke to the crowd huddled under umbrellas. Keaton, a Pittsburgh native, joined him in praising the city for its strength and unity.
He appeared on stage with Joanne Rogers - wife of the late Fred Rogers. The Taylor Allderdice High School choir sang "Won't You be my Neighbor," the theme song of Mister Rogers. Hanks and Joanne Rogers joined in, sharing an umbrella on stage.
"This was a tough one," Keaton said. "When I was in California watching all this occur, the feeling of helplessness was extraordinary. This one really hurts. When this happens in places of worship, like at the Tree of Life or the church in South Carolina - any place of worship - that pain runs really, really deep."
Pittsburgh
Sparkling White Bear Woman
Joni Mitchell
This week in Los Angeles, a collection of the musical elite gathered to celebrate and pay tribute to Saskatoon-raised Joni Mitchell, one of the most influential artists of our time.
But among all that star power was a childhood friend from Saskatoon, who personally delivered a cultural honour gifted to Joni Mitchell in the form of a traditional Saulteaux name.
For the Yellow Quill First Nation, Joni Mitchell is Kawasapizit Wabiski Makawko-ike, or Sparkling White Bear Woman.
"The feeling in that theatre and the numbers of people and the intergenerational aspect of the audience and the singers who have all obviously been influenced by Joni, it was just absolutely wonderful," Sharolyn Dickson said in an interview with CBC Radio's Saskatoon Morning.
Dickson and Mitchell became friends when they were little girls attending school together in Saskatoon, and it was her job to deliver the traditional Indigenous name - a responsibility that was handed to her at the naming of the Joni Mitchell Promenade earlier this year.
Joni Mitchell
Takes Aim
Ice Cube
Rap legend Ice Cube on Friday released a new politically charged song with President-for-now Donald Trump (R-Yeti Pubes) squarely in the crosshairs.
A cut from the gangsta rap pioneer's album set for a December 7 release, the song "Arrest the President" does not explicitly mention Trump but touches on some of his administration's scandals including its controversial immigration policies and the probe into collusion with Russia.
"Arrest the president, you got the evidence/That n***a is Russian intelligence/When it rains it pours," Ice Cube raps.
"Did you know the new white was orange? Boy, you're showing your horns," the rapper continues, referring to Trump's oft-mocked skin tone.
"Let's meet at the White House/Run in and turn the lights out."
Ice Cube
Wildfire Burns Down Sets
California
The fires ravaging Southern California are wreaking havoc on locations used for several hit TV shows.
The Old West town featured in scenes of the HBO drama Westworld, located at Paramount Ranch in Agoura Hills, Calif., has burned down in the Woolsey fire, one of two fires burning in Southern California.
Over the years, the ranch has starred in many productions besides Westworld, including The Love Bug; Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman; The X-Files; Weeds; and The Lake House.
The fire also jeopardized King Gillette Ranch, which is down the road from Paramount Ranch and also part of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. The park was the longtime home of The Biggest Loser and currently a location being used by Comedy Central's "Drunk History." Co-host Derek Waters took to Instagram on Friday to announce the show was shutting down production and evacuating.
Another piece of movie history, Malibu Creek State Park in nearby Calabasas, is also in jeopardy due to the fires. The 20th Century Fox studio purchased the 2,000-acre site expressly for filming in 1946. The park got its close-up in movies such as the Best Picture Oscar-winning How Green Was My Valley, the original Planet of the Apes with Charlton Heston, Elvis Presley's Love Me Tender, and The Seven Year Itch, one of Marilyn Monroe's most iconic films. The TV classic M*A*S*H was also filmed on the ranch; the mountains immortalized in the show's opening scene were aflame on Friday.
California
Likely Detonated Sea Mines
Solar Storm
An analysis of recently declassified U.S. military documents confirms suspicions that, during the late stages of the Vietnam War, a powerful solar storm caused dozens of sea mines to explode. It's a stark reminder of the Sun's potential to disrupt our technological activities in unexpected ways.
As part of Operation Pocket Money, the U.S. Navy planted a series of Destructor sea mines near strategic ports off the coast of North Vietnam. A few weeks later, on August 4, 1972, crew members aboard U.S. Task Force 77 aircraft suddenly observed a batch of explosions south of Hai Phong. In all, some 20 to 30 explosions were documented in just 30 seconds. Another 25 to 30 patches of muddy water were also observed, indicative of further explosions.
It was a bizarre occurrence, as there was no reason why the mines should have gone off. Almost immediately, U.S. officials began to contemplate extreme solar activity as the cause, as revealed in newly declassified U.S. Navy documents. New research published last month in Space Weather, a publication of the American Geophysical Union, agrees with this 46-year-old assessment, while providing new details about this particularly nasty solar storm, which disrupted more than just naval mines. The study's authors, led by Delores Knipp from the University of Colorado and Brian Fraser from the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, say the historical event should serve as a call to action.
The bombs that exploded were magnetic sea mines, a weapon that dates back to the First World War. When a ship passes above, the mine senses a change to the magnetic field density, triggering a detonation. Within days of the August 1972 incident, U.S. military officials began to wonder if solar activity might have been responsible for the unanticipated mine detonations.
As RMIT senior lecturer Brett Carter reports in The Conversation, scientists in the 1970s were already aware of the Sun's potential to trigger magnetic field changes-they just weren't sure if it was strong enough to induce the mines into detonating. As part of its investigation, the U.S. military sent officials to the Space Environment Laboratory at the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) near Boulder, Colorado. After consulting with scientists, the investigators concluded with a "high degree of probability" that solar storm activity was responsible for the seemingly spontaneous destruction of the magnetic mines.
Solar Storm
Rabies
Utah
A Utah man who allowed bats in his home and to land on his hands has died in what is the state's first recorded rabies death in more than 70 years.
The first signs that Gary Giles, 55, had fallen ill came in October when he began suffering from intense back and neck pain. He went to the emergency room on Oct. 19 and was diagnosed with a likely pulled muscle, but his condition quickly deteriorated. Giles began suffering from numbness and tingling in his arms, followed by muscle spasms, seizures and delusions, his loved ones said on a GoFundMe page created to offset medical and funeral costs.
It is believed that Giles likely contracted rabies from bats that he and his wife, Juanita, welcomed into their home.
"The bats never hurt us, and we were always catching them in our hands and releasing them outside, because you hear all the time about how bats are good for the insect population, and you don't want to hurt them," Juanita told KSL.com. "The bats would lick our fingers, almost like they could taste the saltiness of our fingers, but they never bit us."
Rabies can be transmitted through saliva that comes in contact with broken skin, according to the Humane Society of the United States. Juanita Giles said she and her family have gotten vaccinated for rabies since her husband's diagnosis.
"I had no clue," she said of the risk. "We would wake up in the night and they would be walking on our bed."
Utah
TV Performance Cancelled Over T-Shirt
BTS
An appearance on Japanese TV by Korean band BTS has been cancelled after one of their members was photographed wearing a t-shirt depicting an atomic bomb, alongside the English words "PATRIOTISM OUR HISTORY LIBERATION KOREA".
The photograph of Jimin, believed to be taken around 2013, went viral on Japanese social media, as it was claimed the t-shirt depicted a mushroom cloud over the city of Nagasaki.
Broadcaster TV Asahi issued a statement apologising to viewers for the cancelled appearance, which was due to take place Friday, and said it had talked with the band's recording company to try to learn why he wore the t-shirt. Company spokesperson Shinya Matsuki declined further comment.
The Korean Peninsula was colonised by Japan from 1910 to 1945, with the country's liberation only occurring after Japan was defeated in WWII. The historical legacy of this period is extremely sensitive for both countries and continues to impact their relationship: million of Koreans suffered during the occupation, while over 200,000 people died when the US dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Arguably the best-known exponents of K-pop internationally - the genre itself celebrated for its wild visuals, cutting-edge fashion and intricate choreography - BTS are the first Korean act to crack the US Top 40, hitting number 11 in August with their track "Idol". They also spoke at the UN earlier this year.
BTS
Not Just the Flu
Seasons
You probably know when flu season happens, but what about chicken-pox season or gonorrhea season? Well, according to a new review study, a whole host of infectious diseases have "seasons" during which their activity peaks.
The study, which reviewed information from dozens of scientific papers, found evidence of seasonality in at least 69 different infectious diseases.
These diseases ranged from common maladies such as pneumonia and Salmonella infections to relatively rare diseases such as Ebola and African sleeping sickness.
Some of the best-described seasonal infectious diseases in the U.S. are flu, which (as you might know) peaks in winter; chicken pox, which peaks in spring; and gonorrhea, which peaks in the summer and autumn.
The study even found evidence that certain chronic diseases have a seasonal component. For example, some studies suggest that hepatitis B infections rise in spring and summer in certain parts of the world. And early research suggests that HIV/AIDS may also be seasonal in certain areas in Africa, where seasonal nutritional deficiencies may affect the progression of HIV to AIDS. [27 Devastating Infectious Diseases]
Seasons
Ancient DNA
South America
DNA from a 9,000-year-old baby tooth from Alaska, the oldest natural mummy in North America and remains of ancient Brazilians is helping researchers trace the steps of ancient people as they settled the Americas. Two new studies give a more detailed and complicated picture of the peopling of the Americas than ever before presented.
People from North America moved into South America in at least three migration waves, researchers report online November 8 in Cell. The first migrants, who reached South America by at least 11,000 years ago, were genetically related to a 12,600-year-old toddler from Montana known as Anzick-1 (SN: 3/22/14, p. 6). The child's skeleton was found with artifacts from the Clovis people, who researchers used to think were the first people in the Americas, although that idea has fallen out of favor. Scientists also previously thought these were the only ancient migrants to South America.
But DNA analysis of samples from 49 ancient people suggests a second wave of settlers replaced the Clovis group in South America about 9,000 years ago. And a third group related to ancient people from California's Channel Islands spread over the Central Andes about 4,200 years ago, geneticist Nathan Nakatsuka of Harvard University and colleagues found.
People who settled the Americas were also much more genetically diverse than previously thought. At least one group of ancient Brazilians shared DNA with modern indigenous Australians, a different group of researchers reports online November 8 in Science.
Genetically related, but distinct groups of people came into the Americas and spread quickly and unevenly across the continents, says Eske Willerslev, a geneticist at the Natural History Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen and a coauthor of the Sciencestudy. "People were spreading like a fire across the landscape and very quickly adapted to the different environments they were encountering."
South America
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