Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Susan Estrich: The Mueller Report 2.0 (Creators Syndicate)
My friend Jack Corrigan, one of the smartest politicos/lawyers I know, saw it right away. He called it "the key punch-pulling passage in the report." It occurs on page two of volume two, where Robert Mueller says he and his team "determined not to apply an approach that could potentially result in a judgment that the President committed crimes." They chose a standard that would not force them to conclude that the president committed crimes.
Connie Schultz: This Could Be Melania Trump's Barbara Bush Moment (Creators Syndicate)
Countless doctors and children's advocates have sent letters to the Trump administration about the dangers of these long-term separations. Nearly 8,000 mental health experts signed a petition with this warning: "To pretend that separated children do not grow up with the shrapnel of this traumatic experience embedded in their minds is to disregard everything we know about child development, the brain, and trauma." Journalists have chronicled how, after just three months' separation, some of these young children no longer recognize their parents. Grieving parents describe bright and engaged kids changed by the wounds of trauma. Donald Trump's response: Let's do it again.
Marc Dion: Folding Chair Politics (Creators Syndicate)
Only disaster, theft, corruption, sexual misconduct, physical violence, madness and unwise public statements make politics interesting, in small towns or anywhere else on the map. Right now, American national politics are interesting because of all of those things, which means that the government is poorly run. If it weren't poorly run, it would be a matter of gray-faced elected officials and unseen bureaucrats paying for new bridges in Alabama, and slowly reducing the national debt. That kind of government is as interesting as paying your bills at the end of the month, another process that's only interesting if you're in some kind of trouble.
Mark Shields: America's Urgent Need for Baseball Today (Creators Syndicate)
In America today and in its capital city of Washington, D.C., we see, sadly, that with enough money and influence, the fix can be put in. A widely used passenger plane model - whose safety standards were certified by the manufacturer - had to be grounded after separate crashes took 346 lives. According to the sworn testimony of the president's personal attorney, in the closing days of the last White House campaign, a six-figure hush money payoff went to the current president's alleged mistress. Citizens learn that the game is not on the level.
Ted Rall: Democrats' Refusal to Impeach Could Be the Death of Them in 2020 (Creators Syndicate)
"The general sentiment of mankind is that a man who will not fight for himself, when he has the means of doing so, is not worth being fought for by others, and this sentiment is just," Frederick Douglass said in 1857. "The poet was as true to common sense as to poetry when he said, 'Who would be free, themselves must strike the blow.'" Do not call for a battle that you are not willing to fight for. To do otherwise is to earn contempt.
Susan Estrich: Uncle Joe Joins the Race (Creators Syndicate)
There's hope for those of you 75 or over. There is still time to be president of the United States. After all, Biden would be 78 at the inauguration. Bernie Sanders, his elder, would be 79. An 80-year-old in the White House? And, of course, Trump, should he win again, would be a youthful 74.
Lenore Skenazy: High Schoolers Can Handle This? (Creators Syndicate)
Judi Galasso, who co-teaches the class today, told Julie Carr Smyth of the Associated Press that, "in 2019, no school board in America would approve a class like this, but in Worthington, there's no way you could get rid of it." The school's principal, Pete Scully, told Smyth: "In 2019, our teachers generally are like, 'You know what? Let's redirect to a different topic, because that one sounds like it's loaded with land mines.'" Scully says, "The idea of poli-rad is, you know what, let's explore all those land mines and talk about them." Unlike some college professors, who find themselves unable to discuss a controversial topic without being accused of endorsing it, at Worthington, there seems to be a solid understanding that there is a difference between studying radicalization and actually radicalizing students.
Froma Harrop: The Liberal Media Is Not Always the Liberal's Friend (Creators Syndicate)
Not long ago, the Affordable Care Act was considered radical. A preference to merely strengthen it should not be cause for eviction from the progressive home. A liberal media obsessed with social media lends skewed importance to those who are good at it.
Genetically Modified Humans? DNA Hacking, What it Means to be Human, The End of Sex (Blue Zones)
Scientists have already genetically modified human embryos, our DNA is becoming as editable and hackable as other types of code, and the race in genetic engineering is moving at a furious pace. We recently interviewed Jamie Metzl, PhD, one of the world's top futurists and geopolitical experts, on the coming genetic revolution and what we should be doing now to prepare.
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Presenting
Michael Egan
replied:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
from Bruce
Anecdotes
• Following a liver transplant on 5 December 2005, Glenis McGrath got an extra added bonus: the return of her eyesight. Ms. McGrath, who moved to Brisbane, Australia, from Dubbo, Australia, for the transplant, said, "The how or why of what's happened cannot be explained, but doctors are now busy documenting my amazing recovery. I'm just so happy to be able to see again and to have a donor liver that's giving me a whole new chance at life.My excited doctors told me to go out and tell the world, and I certainly haven't needed any encouragement to share the good news.It just goes to show what can be achieved through medical technology, the power of prayer, and sheer determination." Ms. McGrath had endured 20 years of pain, deteriorating health, and bowel and bile duct surgery before the transplant. She said, "Whenever things seemed too much, I'd say, 'You go, girl - get on with it.' There was no point giving up or feeling sorry for myself. I was prepared to fight every step of the way because there's just so much to live for." She almost did not get a liver transplant: "I lived in Brisbane for six months before receiving the call that a liver was available. After [I was] prepped for surgery, doctors said the donor liver was too fatty so I was sent home. I was absolutely devastated and returned to Dubbo not knowing what was likely to happen with my health. Fifteen months ago an alarming deterioration in my liver function and eyesight prompted a quick move back to Brisbane. Doctors were unsure about what could be done, and two months ago I reached the point where I could barely see at all. The Royal Blind Society was preparing to train me to use a guide dog, then after another hospitalization I found myself back on the transplant list." After the transplant, she spent a lot of time in intensive care. She said, "Then an amazing thing happened - a nurse came into my room, and I could see her face. At first I thought it was my imagination, but later when they took me outside in a wheelchair I could see flowers, trees, and colors. It was absolutely amazing, and stunned medical staff were over the moon. Perhaps it was the transplant or the massive vitamin A doses I had been given in an attempt to combat the blindness. Being able to see is a wonderful gift that is allowing me to return to my passion of painting. I used to paint five days a week - it was my life."
• In 2003, fourth-grader Souad (Arabic for "luck") Barry received a special gift from her younger brother, Obie, age seven: a bone-marrow transplant that cured her sickle-cell disease. In 2004, the children's mother, Titi Barry, held a big party for 200, including people from as far away as Africa, at the Lomax AME Zion Church in Arlington, Virginia, to celebrate her daughter's cure. Titi said, "I was praying and I was telling God if this works, I will praise Him and invite all the people involved." Before the transplant, Souad suffered. She said, "The pain would wake me up. It was mostly in my stomach." Her family tried to ease her pain. Souad said, "They would rub my body and use a hot washcloth." In July 2002, her health was very bad, and she needed three blood transfusions - in three days. Getting the money for the $400,000 procedure was difficult. The salaries of father Oumar Barry, an airline worker, and Titi Barry, a sonographer, could not cover it. Titi said, "I didn't understand. Our insurance company didn't want to pay because they said it was experimental." She wrote to many nonprofit organizations to ask for money for the procedure, but she said, "I received 10 responses. All of them said it was the end of the year and they didn't have funds." Fortunately, she learned that the procedure could be done free at the Children's Hospital and Research Center in Oakland, California, so Titi and her children went to Oakland while Oumar stayed in Arlington and worked. Titi said, "It was hard because we didn't know anybody there. But I said if I had to sleep on the street, I will do it because we'd been through so much already." Previously, Souad had protected her brother from playground bullies. Souad said, "He's always playing basketball. One day, this boy wanted to take his ball and I pushed him away." Now Obie helped his sister. Titi said, "Obie had seen Souad have crises. He asked me, 'If I give my blood, will Souad feel better?' I said 'Yes.' Then he said, 'Okay, I'll do it!'" After the bone-marrow transplant, Souad felt better and was free from sickle-cell anemia. She wants to learn gymnastics. She said, "I want to learn to do a cartwheel."
• On 22 November 2011 in western Pennsylvania, fire broke out at the home of Charlene McMasters, age 74. She said, "I don't know what it was, but I remember something woke me up. I noticed smoke and I rushed to get my handbag and I went to the window and screamed and screamed." Justin Ritchie, her 14-year-old neighbor, woke up when he heard first his dog barking and then her screaming. New Castle Assistant Fire Chief David Joseph said about Justin, "He went out and saw this woman hanging out of the window. … It was Charlene, and her house was on fire," Justin saw a rickety wooden ladder and leaned it against the wall so that she could climb out of her window. He warned her that the ladder was rickety, but she replied that she didn't care. She took two steps down the ladder, it broke, and she fell. She said, "I came crashing down and fell a long way." She broke some ribs in the fall and was taken to a hospital. She said, "I got a walker, a good therapy session, and I will heal. I can't thank this young man enough. I don't know what would have happened had he not come to my rescue." She added, "I'm grateful to be alive. It was quite an ordeal."
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Reader Comment
Current Events
Seriously?
This is the way to greet guests? Orange Oaf and his Enabling Wife stand on the red carpet while their guests stand to the side like second-class humans?! Classless, no manners, Trash.
Linda >^..^<
We are all only temporarily able bodied.
Thanks, Linda!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
JD is on vacation.
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
The city threw a block party - actually, 30+ blocks party.
Shut down Pacific Ave. from 2nd Street to Willow (26th St.), then turning west on Willow to Magnolia.
All kinds of live music - Mariachis, Hip-Hop, and even Rock 'n Roll.
"Alien: The Play"
Sigourney Weaver
Sigourney Weaver helped make a New Jersey high school's encore stage production of "Alien" a special event.
"Alien: The Play" had drawn widespread praise after videos and images of the performances at North Bergen High School were posted online.
Among those applauding the show was Weaver, who played the character Ellen Ripley in the 1979 movie that spawned a franchise, and the film's director, Ridley Scott, who applauded the students' creativity and the show's elaborate sets and special effects.
Weaver had taped a YouTube video this year in which she called the production "incredible." But she was at the school Friday to watch the encore performance herself, telling the crowd before the curtain rose that "this is the night I've been waiting for."
Sigourney Weaver
No $69 Bets
Jeopardy!
It's a tumultuous time for America's most nominally reserved game show, as the fervently nerdy Jeopardy! community reckons not only with Alex Trebek's recent cancer diagnosis, but also with the earth-shattering, record-breaking run of sports bettor juggernaut James Holzhauer. Employing a strategy of aggressive wagers and lightning-fast buzzer skills, Holzhauer has become the game's latest super-champion, steadily creeping up on the winnings records set by Ken Jennings with his legendary 74-game streak back in 2004. (And please consider this your standard disclaimer that both men's runs were only enabled by a 2003 rule change that eliminated the five-episode limit on champions, a divergence from decades of earlier precedent.)
But while Holzhauer's wins have brought increased attention back to America's last true meritocracy of any worth, it's also accidentally revealed a horrifying truth lurking at the very center of the show's heart. Dear readers, please steel yourselves: We regret to inform you that both Kennings and Holzhauer have confirmed that contestants are no longer allowed to wager $69 as their Final Jeopardy bets.
Perhaps the decision to ban the Funny Sex Number is merely in keeping with the show's overall ethos, which focuses on singular dominance over the joys of pleasures shared. But it's still a bit of a bummer, especially given that this is a show that once allowed a contestant to trick Trebek into saying "Turd Ferguson" on the air.
Holzhauer went on to say that $69 is only one of five apparently banned wager amounts, and while it initially seemed possible he was only joking, we won't say our minds didn't race to certain possibilities. Might the humble $420 bet now be off the table? What of $80,085, or its inverted sister, $58,008? (Amounts which, until Holzhauer's run, were rarely seen on the show's scoreboards at all.)
But then we actually did some digging on this-would you be surprised that both Jeopardy! fans and former contestants are active Reddit participants?-and came up what appears to be the list of the other four problem numbers, three of which are associated with white supremacy groups, because of course the fucking neo-Nazis would find a way to take some of the joy out of Jeopardy! The numbers $14, $88, and $1488 (all associated with neo-Nazi propaganda) were all banned from the show last year, allegedly after a contestant accidentally bet the latter number as part of an effort to hit a particular target score. $666 is also out, although $420 is actually fine. So feel free to get high while watching Jeopardy!, friends; just don't do it with the devil, or any racist trivia-loving pieces of shit you might unfortunately happen to know.
Jeopardy!
National Comedy Center
Lucille Ball
The archives of the Lucille Ball Desi Arnaz Museum, including Ball's handwritten notes and family photographs, will be digitally preserved by the National Comedy Center.
Located in Ball's Jamestown, NY hometown, the Center is undertaking the project to mark the 30th anniversary of her death. Most of the material has not been exhibited before, and the trove of production papers and telegrams will be gradually added to the exhibit.
The National Comedy Center opened last summer near the existing Lucille Ball Desi Arnaz Museum. It celebrates all comedy as an art form and stages grand exhibitions of famous comedians and their material. It is the first state-of-the-art museum dedicated to telling the story of comedy in America.
It celebrates comedy's great minds and unique voices, from Ernie Kovacs to Charlie Chaplin to Dave Chappelle. Exclusive collections and exhibits give fans a look behind-the-scenes look at the creative processes of comedy.
Lucille Ball
Returns to U.S.
Geneva Bible
A 400-year-old Bible - one of 321 rare items stolen from the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh in the 1990s - has been returned after a transoceanic journey.
The rare Geneva Bible was discovered in the Netherlands in the possession of Jeremy Dupertuis Bangs, the director of the Leiden American Pilgrim Museum, who had acquired the book for the museum. Bangs told CNN he bought the 1615 book from what he thought was a "reputable dealer in antiquarian books."
For the last several years, Bangs has been collecting books that are listed as belonging to people who lived in the colony of Plymouth from 1620 to 1691. His intention was to have the collection displayed in an exhibition celebrating the 400th anniversary of the landing of the Mayflower.
Last year, Bangs said he was contacted by Pittsburgh's district attorney informing him that the book may be a stolen artifact.
After several months of back and forth to prove the request for the book's return was legitimate, Bangs contacted his local law enforcement - and an expert in stolen art returned the book to the American embassy in The Hague.
Geneva Bible
Impending Asteroid Strike Simulation
NASA and FEMA
NASA, FEMA, and other national and international agencies are once again gearing up for a hypothetical asteroid impact preparedness scenario. They hope to learn the best strategies for responding to a potential strike, starting from the moment a threatening asteroid is first detected by astronomers.
Next week marks the start of the International Academy of Astronautics Planetary Defense Conference. As part of this conference, NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office will team up with other partners to perform a "tabletop exercise" on how they'd handle the news of a (fictional) asteroid on a collision course with Earth.
Again, the following is fictional.
On March 26, 2019, astronomers discover an asteroid in the night sky, far dimmer than Pluto to their telescopes. They name it 2019 PDC. Initially, it appears that the asteroid's eccentric orbit bring it within approximately 18 times the Moon's distance from the Earth, with a chance of hitting the Earth at one in 50,000 in 2027.
Though just a drill, these are the kinds of calculations that astronomers must make when a real asteroid comes close to Earth. The fictional 2019 PDC describes a "potentially hazardous asteroid," the kind that orbits close to Earth and that could have a catastrophic impact if it actually struck the planet. Scientists recently performed a similar simulation to this one, monitoring a nearby asteroid as though it were an actual threat. The new simulation instead will focus less on the scientific questions, and more on governmental response.
NASA and FEMA
Airdropping Poisoned Sausages
Australia
The Australian government wants to kill two million feral cats by next year - and it wants to do it by airdropping poisonous sausages. There are currently an estimated 2 to 6 million free-roaming cats across the country, and officials say they are threatening native wildlife populations.
According to the Australian government, the goal is to "reduce the impact of feral predators and increase the resilience of our native species," because cats "damage the productivity of Australia's farming sector." The government wants to kill two million wild cats by 2020, which it says are a major contributor to the extinction of at least 27 mammals since their introduction to the country by Europeans, possibly in the 1700s.
Part of the plan to cull the rising cat population is to bait the cats with lethal sausages made of kangaroo meat, chicken fat, herbs, spices and a poison called 1080, which is deadly to animals, according to the New York Times. The sausages are dropped from airplanes into areas with high stray cat populations. The cats allegedly die within 15 minutes of consuming the sausage.
Some parts of Australia are taking the issue a step further, offering rewards for slain cats. The state of Queensland is offering $10 AUS ($7 USD) per feral cat scalp. PETA and other organizations condemned the policies when they were announced, but Australian officials have supported them.
The plan initially received intense backlash when it was first announced in 2015. But now, even PETA Australia "in principle recognized that feral cats hunted wildlife to a point at which species can no longer survive," according to the NYT.
Australia
Nearly 1,600 Internet-Beaming Satellites
SpaceX
The Federal Communications Commission has approved SpaceX's plans to fly a fleet of internet-transmitting satellites, Starlink, at a "lower orbit than originally planned," the Verge reported on Saturday.
SpaceX originally planned to launch 4,425 Starlink satellites (its long-term plan is to launch nearly 12,000) to ranges between roughly 690-825 miles (1,110 to 1,325 kilometers). That plan won the FCC's approval in early 2018. But the company later decided based on test data that it would like 1,584 of those satellites to orbit at the much lower height of around 340 miles (550 kilometers). SpaceX argued that lower elevation would allow it to cut latency down to 15 milliseconds and cut the total number of satellites by 16 without reducing coverage, the Verge wrote. It also said the lower altitude would allow any satellites that lose orbit to begin burning up quickly instead of clogging Earth orbit with space junk, something that was the concern of a recent NASA study.
Competing satellite internet firm OneWeb and satellite operator Kepler Communications both filed against the plan, claiming that Starlink could cause signal interference at the lower elevation and potentially even pose a collision risk. In its approval, the FCC found that "the modification proposed by SpaceX does not present significant interference problems and is in the public interest."
The FCC added that SpaceX claims "because all its satellites have propulsion and are maneuverable to prevent collisions, they are considered to pose zero risk to any other satellites in this orbital region," as well as that the company says "operating satellites at the 550 km altitude will ensure a 100% success rate of post-mission disposal within 5 years, even assuming worst-case conditions." It also concluded that SpaceX's estimate of collision risks in the case a satellite's propulsion systems become inoperable "is well within accepted boundaries... even with worst-case assumptions that go well beyond any realistic scenario."
While beaming down the web from satellites sounds like a good idea on paper, numerous other companies have run into problems with their own similar projects. Facebook's Project Athena, after failing to get drones to work properly, turned to satellites with an aim of launching one by early 2019 (it hasn't). Google is working on Project Loon, which aims to transmit LTE to remote regions of the world with hot air balloons, but it has run into numerous crashes, and is facing a major patent lawsuit. Amazon has announced its own initiative.
SpaceX
Treatment May Be Doing More Harm
Peanut Allergy
An experimental immunotherapy treatment that introduces peanut protein in small doses to those who suffer peanut allergies to desensitize their immune system may actually increase risk of anaphylaxis, a new study has shown.
More than 50 million people in the US suffer from allergies - an overreaction by the immune system to a substance that doesn't affect most other people - and this is on the rise. Some are harmless, some go away as you get older, and some are both life-long and life-threatening, like nut allergies.
Around 8 percent of children and 4 percent of adults suffer a food allergy, causing 200,000 emergency room visits a year. There are currently no FDA-approved treatments to either prevent or reduce food allergy symptoms, and for peanut sufferers particularly, the only option is to vigilantly avoid the nut and carry an epinephrine injector at all times.
Oral immunotherapy treatment is an emerging experimental treatment that attempts to desensitize the immune system over time by repeated, increasing doses. The aim is not necessarily to eliminate the allergy but to reduce the likelihood that accidental exposure may become fatal. In clinical trials, it has been deemed successful as patients undergoing treatment have passed supervised food challenges with no reaction.
Their results, published in The Lancet, found that those who were treated with peanut oral immunotherapy had a 22 percent risk of anaphylaxis compared to a 7 percent risk for those who hadn't received treatment - that's three times more likely. Sufferers were also 8 percent more likely to use their EpiPen if they'd had the treatment, twice as likely as those who hadn't.
Peanut Allergy
The Secret History of Continents
Diamonds' Flaws
Tiny flaws in diamonds hold the secret to the formation of the first continents.
In a new study, researchers used inclusions - imperfections derided by jewelers but valuable to scientists - to trace diamond formation. They found that the sulfide minerals inside the inclusions were last at the surface of the planet 2.5 billion years ago, before the rise of oxygen in the atmosphere.
The findings reveal the history of the continents and mantle where the diamonds form, said study leader Karen Smit, a research scientist at the nonprofit Gemological Institute of America. The diamonds in the study, found in West Africa, indicate that the ancient continents in that region formed by subduction, a process in which one slab of crust pushes under another.
Smit and her colleagues were studying the nitrogen in diamonds from the Zimmi region of Sierra Leone when they noticed that speck-size inclusions of sulfides in the diamonds showed signs of having existed in the mantle before the diamonds formed, meaning they were trapped within the crystallizing diamonds and carried up to the surface with them. They began investigating the isotopes of sulfur within the inclusions. Isotopes are variations of atoms with differing numbers of neutrons in their nuclei.
What they found revealed that the inclusions were very old indeed. Oxygen shields the sulfur from certain reactions with ultraviolet light, so researchers can tell whether sulfur formed in an oxygen-rich or low-oxygen environment. These isotopes formed in the atmosphere before there was much oxygen in the atmosphere, around 2.5 billion years ago, Smit said. The diamonds themselves are much younger than that, and formed around 650 million years ago.
Diamonds' Flaws
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