Marc Dion: There's No Such Thing (Creators Syndicate)
There is such a thing as treason. There is such a thing as obstruction of justice. There is such a thing as inviting a foreign government to help you fix an American election. Those things are as real as a convenience store owner's identification of the man who robbed his cash register at gunpoint. Of course, if the convenience store owner isn't allowed to testify, his identification isn't gonna count for much. So don't call Trump's legal troubles a "witch hunt." His crimes can be seen and touched. They exist.
Froma Harrop: China's Environmental Malpractice Hurts Everyone (Creators Syndicate)
It is not my intention to blame all the world's environmental ills on China. China is by far the world's biggest emitter of carbon dioxide gases, but the United States is well ahead of the 1.4 billion-person country on per capita emissions. But we and other Western countries have at least been reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and China's keep growing.
Froma Harrop: Democratic Attacks on Sanders Are Long Overdue (Creators Syndicate)
Trump was the official Republican candidate, and Sanders still wouldn't back the Democratic one. In the weeks leading up to the Democratic National Convention, he withheld his endorsement of Clinton, insisting that certain demands be met. Some of his delegates chanted, "Lock her up!" right on the convention floor.
Froma Harrop: Bloomberg Is Showing Democrats a Good Time (Creators Syndicate)
Oh, happy day, then, that former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg is tapping his vast fortune to make defeating Trump central to his mission. Bloomberg is vying for the Democratic nomination, and his candidacy is gaining strength. But he's now focused on getting under Trump's skin.
Lenore Skenazy: A Bruise Is Not Always Abuse (Creators Syndicate)
"Taking her to our own hospital was the single most harmful decision that we made for our baby." So said a dad who worried he'd accidentally injured his newly adopted infant by rolling into her when they both dozed off. He took her to the hospital just to make sure she was fine. Turns out she had suffered a minor fracture that is common in babies and heals on its own. That was in May. Two weeks later, child protective services declared him a child abuser and took the baby from him and his wife.
Nightjars are medium-sized nocturnal or crepuscular birds in the subfamily Caprimulginae and in the family Caprimulgidae, characterised by long wings, short legs and very short bills. They are sometimes called goatsuckers, due to the ancient folk tale that they sucked the milk from goats (the Latin for goatsucker is Caprimulgus), or bugeaters, due to their insectivore diet. Some New World species are called nighthawks. The English word 'nightjar' originally referred to the European nightjar.
Nightjars are found around the world except in New Zealand and some islands of Oceania. They are mostly active in the late evening and in early morning or at night, usually nest on the ground, and feed predominantly on moths and other large flying insects.
Most have small feet, of little use for walking, and long pointed wings. Their soft plumage is cryptically coloured to resemble bark or leaves. Some species, unusual for birds, perch along a branch, rather than across it. This helps to conceal them during the day.
Source
Mark. was first, and correct, with:
Bird.
Randall wrote:
a Nightjar is a bird
Alan J answered:
Birds.
Mac Mac said:
Large nocturnal bird AKA nighthawks
Dave responded:
Bird. In Michigan, where I live, the Eastern Whip-poor-will migrates here to breed. As with all insect feeding birds, the Nightjars go south after they raise their brood, as insects are not to be found here 6 months of the year.
I've heard their singing, but I don't think I've ever seen one, because they are active in the night time catching flying moths and beetles.
Cal in Vermont replied:
A bird.
Jim from CA, retired to ID, said:
small to large nocturnal birds
zorch wrote:
A nightjar called a goatsucker is a chupacabra. The other Nightjar is a common Nighthawk.
Deborah responded:
A nightjar is a nocturnal bird. I've never seen one, but then, I've never looked.
Another spring-like day on tap, with colder weather moving in tomorrow. Dog school this morning, bike ride this afternoon, then reading. That Master Gardener book won't read itself.
John I from Hawai`i says,
Birds
DJ Useo replied:
A nightjar is a bird. I never ate one, but I understand they taste like chicken. ;)
Daniel in The City said:
Birds
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• Elizabeth Gurney Dimsdale, a Quaker, once saw some small boys trying to ring a doorbell. She kindly rang the doorbell for them, but immediately the small boys ran away. She hesitated, and then she ran away, too.
Christmas
• A few Christmas stories: 1) Brian Hyland's father liked some company at his home in Brick, New Jersey, during the holidays, but not too much and not too long. Therefore, to get rid of company when he got tired of it, he recorded a severe-winter-weather advisory on the Weather Channel and kept it for Christmas. When he felt that it was time for his company to go home, he played the tape and advised everyone to leave right away so that they would be safe at home before the winter storm struck. Brian says, "People grabbed their coats and high-tailed it out of there." 2) When Hailey Thompson of Westlake Village, California, was little, her father used to run around the house outside ringing sleigh bells loudly on Christmas Eve while her mother told her and her brothers that Santa Claus was flying over their house to deliver presents to the children in the neighborhood. 3) The father of Jonathan Alpert, who is the author of the syndicated column No More Drama, used to disguise his voice by putting wax paper in his mouth and then telephone kids in the neighborhood to say, "Ho ho ho! This is Santa Claus. Have you been a good boy this year? What would you like for Christmas? Don't forget to leave me cookies and milk." One year the wax paper did not disguise his voice well enough, so a neighborhood boy said to him, "Mr. Alpert, I know this is you. The real Santa called an hour ago."
• A nurse once told K. Lynn Wieck, who is also a nurse, about working with leukemia patients at a time when nearly all of them died (things are different now) and when hospitals did not allow children to visit (things are different now). She was caring for a 32-year-old man whom she knew would soon die. It was the Christmas season, and she says, "I asked him what he wanted for Christmas that day and he told me that all he wanted was to see his children. I made a decision I have never regretted." The nurse talked to the man's wife and had her bring the children to the hospital the next day, when the nurse, after her strict supervisor had left, allowed the wife and children to visit the seriously ill man. The nurse saw the young children, who were happy to be with their father, who had a wide smile on his face. The family was able to truly visit and create good memories. The day after the visit, with his wife by his side, the father died.
• Reporter Omar Villafrancais correct when he writes, "Santa speaks all languages - even the ones that can't be heard." For example, in December of 2010 Santa spoke in American Sign Language to over 150 children who came to see him at the Shops at Willow Bend in Plano, Texas. Mesquite Lawrence Elementary schoolteacher Sarah Schubert said, "This is truly the best thing that happens to our kids all year long. They came up to me this morning and said, 'You know that Santa can sign with us?' I mean, they get that!" Santa told Mr. Villafranca, "I sign to them and say, 'Come up and see Santa Claus,' and their eyes and their mouths are just open wide and they go, 'Wow!' And sometimes they just run and their expression is just, it's - it's priceless." Weston Teel, who is eight years old, asked Santa for a bubblegum machine and a popcorn machine.
CBS starts the night, as usual, with '60 Minutes', followed by a RERUN'NCIS', then a RERUN'FBI', followed by a RERUN'NCIS: The 3rd One'.
NBC opens the night with a RERUN'America's Got Talent: The Champions', followed by a RERUN'Ellen's Game Of Games', then another RERUN'Ellen's Game Of Games'.
ABC begins the night with a RERUN'America's So-Called Funniest Home Videos', followed by another RERUN'America's So-Called Funniest Home Videos', then a RERUN'Shark Tank', followed by another RERUN'Shark Tank'.
The CW offers a RERUN'Batwoman', followed by a RERUN'Supergirl'.
Faux fills the night with LIVE'Super Bowl', followed by a FRESH'The Masked Singer'.
MY recycles an old 'How I Met Your Mother', followed by another old 'How I Met Your Mother', then an old 'Big Bang Theory', followed by another old 'Big Bang Theory', then still another old 'Big Bang Theory', followed by yet another old 'Big Bang Theory'.
A&E has 'Live PD', another 'Live PD', and still another 'Live PD'.
BBC -
[6:00AM] MONTY PYTHON'S FLYING CIRCUS - Light Entertainment War
[6:45AM] MONTY PYTHON'S FLYING CIRCUS - The Nude Man
[7:30AM] MONTY PYTHON'S FLYING CIRCUS - The Buzz Aldrin Show
[8:15AM] MONTY PYTHON'S FLYING CIRCUS - The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Goes To the Bathroom
[9:00AM] SHERLOCK - The Empty Hearse
[11:00AM] SHERLOCK - The Sign of Three
[1:00PM] SHERLOCK - His Last Vow
[3:00PM] JACK THE GIANT SLAYER (2013)
[5:30PM] NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM: BATTLE OF THE SMITHSONIAN (2007)
[8:00PM] DOCTOR WHO - Ep 6
[9:10PM] THE EE BRITISH ACADEMY FILM AWARDS 2020
[11:40PM] NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM: BATTLE OF THE SMITHSONIAN (2007)
[2:10AM] DOCTOR WHO - Ep 6
[3:20AM] MONTY PYTHON'S FLYING CIRCUS - Intermission
[4:00AM] STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE - Equilibrium
[5:00AM] STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE - Second Skin (ALL TIMES EST)
Bravo has 3 hours of old 'Real Housewives Of Atlanta', 'Shahs Of Sunset', and the movie 'Enough'.
IFC -
[7:15A] The Mist
[10:00A] AVP: Alien vs. Predator
[12:00P] Anaconda
[2:00P] Here Comes the Boom
[4:30P] Tropic Thunder
[7:00P] Old School
[9:00P] Tropic Thunder
[11:30P] Old School
[1:30A] Here Comes the Boom
[4:00A] Life of Brian (ALL TIMES EST)
Sundance -
[6:00am] Law & Order
[7:00am] Law & Order
[8:00am] Law & Order
[9:00am] Law & Order
[10:00am] Close Up With The Hollywood Reporter - Writers
[11:00am] Roots
[1:15pm] Roots
[3:30pm] Roots
[4:45pm] Roots
[6:00pm] Roots
[7:15pm] Roots
[9:30pm] Roots
[10:45pm] Roots
[1:00am] Rosewood
[4:00am] Close Up With The Hollywood Reporter - Writers
[5:00am] Hogan's Heroes
[5:30am] Hogan's Heroes (ALL TIMES EST)
A prankster took a swipe at Donald Trump (R-Guilty) and declared the U.S. Senate to be "dead" on its Wikipedia page after Senate Republicans voted to block witnesses from testifying in the impeachment trial of the president.
After the GOP lawmakers' move effectively ensured Trump's acquittal over the Ukraine scandal, a moderator called Flyboyrob2112 edited the Senate's lengthy page introduction to just read:
The United States Senate was formerly the upper chamber of the United States Congress, which, along with the United States House of Representatives - the lower chamber - comprised the legislature of the United States. It died on January 31, 2020, when senators from the Republican Party refused to stand up to a corrupt autocrat calling himself the president of the United States, refusing to hear testimony that said individual blackmailed Ukraine in order to cheat in the 2020 presidential election.
According to the page's revision history, the user changed the text some four times. The mocking copy remained live for around one minute each time, before another user changed it back to its original version.
Hours after Senate Republicans voted to block any witnesses from being called in the impeachment proceedings against President Trump, a morose Bill Maher welcomed Democratic candidate Pete Buttigieg to his HBO talk show but also wondered aloud several times if things like the upcoming election really have relevance now.
"I don't know if voting matters," the comedian said at one point during Friday night's edition of Real Time with Bill Maher.
Maher also described the Senate's cynical move as a finish line moment for American experiment that began in 1776: "I feel like anything we talk about tonight is almost moot. We're going to talk about politics in Iowa and who's going to win and I feel like we're talking about a world that doesn't exist anymore.We're in a post-democracy world."
Maher had already opened the show with a downbeat welcome: "Good news: the impeachment trial is almost over. The bad: so is rule of law in America."
On the GOP: "It's a done deal. This is going to happen. Trump will be acquitted on Wednesday. Republicans have nothing left to do but dot the i's, cross the t's, and f*ck the u's."
Pamela Anderson and her new husband, movie mogul Jon Peters have split less than two weeks after their secret wedding.
"I have been moved by the warm reception to Jon and my union," the actress and activist, 52, said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter. "We would be very grateful for your support as we take some time apart to re-evaluate what we want from life and from one another. Life is a journey and love is a process. With that universal truth in mind, we have mutually decided to put off the formalization of our marriage certificate and put our faith in the process. Thank you for respecting our privacy."
A source told THR that the couple had not yet filed the legal paperwork for a marriage certificate after their Jan. 20 wedding.
News of the split comes just eight days after Anderson posted her first photo of she and Peters, 74, as a married couple to her Instagram Stories. In the photos, Anderson was beaming in the black and white shot, smiling next to Peters, who wore shades.
"Pamela has never seen her full potential as an artist. She has yet to shine in a real way. There is much more to her than meets the eye, or I wouldn't love her so much," Peters told THR after the nuptials. "There are beautiful girls everywhere. I could have my pick, but - for 35 years - I've only wanted Pamela."
Sunday is shaping up to be a unique day for reasons other than the Super Bowl and Groundhog Day: It's also a rare palindrome.
While various forms of palindrome dates are fairly common, 02/02/2020 has the unique distinction of reading the same backward and forward when written out in eight digits in multiple date systems, according to University of Portland professor Aziz Inan.
"We are so lucky to have such a special palindrome date occurring in our lifetime because it's so rare," Inan told USA TODAY Saturday.
For starters, it's an eight-digit palindrome: 02022020. Many palindrome dates are only symmetrical if you write the date with seven digits (1-10-2011) - or in some cases even fewer (9-10-19).
But even more rare, according to Inan, is that Sunday's date is an international palindrome: It works whether you write the date as "Month/Day/Year" or "Day/Month/Year," as many countries do.
Scientists have found warm water beneath Antarctica's "doomsday glacier," a nickname used because it is one of Antarctica's fastest melting glaciers. While researchers have observed the recession of the Thwaites Glacier for a decade, this marks the first time they detected the presence of warm water - found at a "vital point" beneath the glacier.
"The fact that such warm water was just now recorded by our team along a section of Thwaites grounding zone where we have known the glacier is melting suggests that it may be undergoing an unstoppable retreat that has huge implications for global sea-level rise," David Holland, director of New York University's Environmental Fluid Dynamics Laboratory and NYU Abu Dhabi's Center for Global Sea Level Change, which conducted the research, said in the news release.
"Warm waters in this part of the world, as remote as they may seem, should serve as a warning to all of us about the potential dire changes to the planet brought about by climate change," he said.
The collapse of the 74,000-square-mile Thwaites - which some scientists see as the most vulnerable and significant glacier in the world when it comes to sea-level-rise - could release a mass of water roughly the size of Florida or Great Britain. Its melting would raise global sea levels by more than three feet, enough to potentially overwhelm vulnerable populations, the researchers said.
Explosive new documents show the US government knew a weather map used by Donald Trump (R-Unfit) was doctored, despite publicly defending the president's false claims about a hurricane striking Alabama.
In September last year, Mr Trump repeatedly claimed wrongly that Alabama would "most likely" be struck by Hurricane Dorian, a category five storm which devastated the Bahamas.
After being rebutted by experts, Mr Trump doubled down by showing off a doctored National Hurricane Center (NHC) map, which featured the projected path of Dorian with an additional Sharpie-drawn line around a corner of Alabama.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) leadership later backed Mr Trump against its own scientists when it released an unattributed statement defending the president's claims and criticising a National Weather Service (NWS) tweet which said Alabama would "NOT see any impacts from the hurricane".
NOAA staff were also warned against contradicting the president and told not to "provide any opinion about the issue". But a trove of emails requested by Buzzfeed and released by NOAA late on Friday shows the true extent of the anger and confusion among scientists at the response to Mr Trump's false claims.
For Alyssa Watrous, the medication mix-up meant a pounding headache, nausea and dizziness. In September, Watrous, a 17-year-old from Connecticut, was about to take another asthma pill when she realized CVS had mistakenly given her blood pressure medication intended for someone else.
Edward Walker, 38, landed in an emergency room, his eyes swollen and burning after he put drops in them for five days in November 2018 to treat a mild irritation. A Walgreens in Illinois had accidentally supplied him with ear drops - not eye drops.
For Mary Scheuerman, 85, the error was discovered only when she was dying in a Florida hospital in December 2018. A Publix pharmacy had dispensed a powerful chemotherapy drug instead of the antidepressant her doctor had prescribed. She died about two weeks later.
The people least surprised by such mistakes are pharmacists working in some of the nation's biggest retail chains.
They struggle to fill prescriptions, give flu shots, tend the drive-through, answer phones, work the register, counsel patients and call doctors and insurance companies, they said - all the while racing to meet corporate performance metrics that they characterized as unreasonable and unsafe in an industry squeezed to do more with less.
The new decade has brought along a SARS-like, pneumonia-causing coronavirus that's already sickened at least 9,000 people and killed over 200 worldwide. If you're scared about threats like the Wuhan virus, then there's one very easy thing you can start doing for the sake of your health and others-stop touching your face!
When we rub our faces all willy nilly, we can contaminate our bodies with the potentially dangerous germs picked up from surfaces our hands recently touched. These fomites-another name for infectious surfaces or objects-can carry invisible bits of poo and snot left behind by a person careless about their hand washing.
And while, yes, you've probably been told not to touch your face since you're a kid, it's apparently wisdom that is often forgotten (including by this author).
A small study in 2015 estimated that people touch their face on average 23 times an hour, with a little less than half of these touches involving the "mucosal" areas of our face, like our mouth, nose, and eyes. Another study in 2013 found that people on public transit touch surfaces where germs could be located an average 3.3 times an hour, while also touching their mouths and noses an average 3.6 times an hour. These parts of our face are incidentally the perfect conduit for countless germs, including the new coronavirus, to enter and infect the body.
Currently, the Wuhan virus isn't something to fear for people living in most of the world, including North America-but diseases like the flu are definitely here. In what might be considered a mild season in the U.S. this year, the flu virus has already sickened more than 19 million people, hospitalized over 180,000, and killed upwards of 10,000.
Conservationists working around the largest volcano on the Galapagos Islands say they have found 30 giant tortoises partially descended from two extinct species, including that of the famed Lonesome George.
The Galapagos National Park and Galapagos Conservancy said Friday that a young female has a direct line of descent from the Chelonoidis abingdonii species of Pinta Island. The last of those tortoises was Lonesome George, who died in June 2012 and was believed to be over 100 years old.
Another 11 males and 18 females were from the Chelonoidis niger line of Floreana Island.
The 45-member expedition was working around the Wolf Volcano on Isabela island. It said pirates and whalers had taken tortoises from other islands in the archipelago and left them near the volcano.
Those found during the new expedition were hybrids descended from both the extinct and other species.
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