Marc Dion: Trump's Prison Colony (Creators Syndicate)
President Donald Trump wants to buy the island of Greenland from Denmark. Denmark won't sell, and they turned him down rudely. Trump said he won't go to Denmark because they turned his offer down without even giving him a chance to borrow the purchase price from the Russian mob. In addition, he turned them down because he is a petulant child. But Trump ain't no dope, nossireebob. He had plans for Greenland. It was going to be America's prison colony.
Ted Rall: As Long as Enemies of the State Keep Dying Before Trial, No One Should Trust the State (Creators Syndicate)
The official narrative of billionaire accused pedophile Jeffrey Epstein's death shifted faster than a New York subway rider when a homeless guy plops down next to them on a hot day. First, they said Epstein had been on suicide watch, and then that he hadn't. Prisons are full of cameras, yet there's still no video of Epstein's death. Then, suicide watch or not, they claimed he'd been checked on every 30 minutes. Then more like every three hours. The medical examiner said his injuries were consistent with strangulation by a second person, but then thought better of it and ruled Epstein's convenient demise a suicide. Epstein's suicide - the first at the Manhattan Correctional Facility since 1998.
Mark Shields: Making Debates Really Matter (Creators Syndicate)
Here are my immodest suggestions to make the upcoming presidential candidates of some real value to the people in making our presidential decisions. First, no more audiences. Put the candidates in a television studio - just like Kennedy and Nixon were - where there are no cheers or boos from the crowd to which candidates play. Then, pose the following:
Lenore Skenazy: Utah Parents Free to Raise Free-Range Kids (Creators Syndicate)
Utah's law says that letting your kids play outside, walk to school, wait briefly in the car (under some circumstances) or come home with a latchkey is not neglect unless something else seriously bad is going on. The bill passed both houses unanimously last year, and Gov. Gary Herbert signed it into law, saying: "We believe that parents know and love their children better than anybody. ... Responsible parents should be able to let kids be kids without constantly looking over their shoulders for approval."
Froma Harrop: On Setting Vehicle Efficiency, California Will Win (Creators Syndicate)
I don't own a Honda CR-V. And I have no financial interest in the company. Let me say that right off the bat. But this compact SUV offers stunning proof that the more stringent standards are utterly doable. The 2017 CR-V not only met the Obama administration's 2022 target for fuel economy but also did so years before the deadline.
Froma Harrop: No, There Will Be No Big Infrastructure Plan (Creators Syndicate)
Now, how can these Senate Republicans say that, gee, they want better roads, bridges and ports, but their constituents can't have them because of soaring deficits largely caused by the tax cuts they voted for? Easy. They deny nearly every reputable economist's conclusion that the tax cuts put America in a very deep fiscal hole.
The ampullae of Lorenzini (sing. ampulla) are special sensing organs called electroreceptors, forming a network of jelly-filled pores. They are mostly discussed as being found in cartilaginous fish (sharks, rays, and chimaeras); however, they are also reported to be found in Chondrostei such as reedfish and sturgeon. Lungfish have also been reported to have them. Teleosts have re-evolved a different type of electroreceptors. They were first described by Stefano Lorenzini in 1678.
These sensory organs help fish to sense electric fields in the water. Each ampulla consists of a jelly-filled canal opening to the surface by a pore in the skin and ending blindly in a cluster of small pockets full of special jelly. The ampullae are mostly clustered into groups inside the body, each cluster having ampullae connecting with different parts of the skin, but preserving a left-right symmetry. The canal lengths vary from animal to animal, but the distribution of the pores is generally specific to each species. The ampullae pores are plainly visible as dark spots in the skin. They provide fish with an additional sense capable of detecting electric and magnetic fields as well as temperature gradients.
Source
Mark. was first, and correct, with:
Cartilaginous fish such as sharks, rays, and chimaeras.
Dave said:
Fish. In some fish, sharks and rays for example, are able to sense electrical fields. This enables those fish to find prey hidden under the sand. It is also thought that sharks can sense the earth's magnetic field which helps them accurately migrate long distances.
Alan J answered:
Sharks, Rays, and Chimaeras.
Randall wrote:
sharks and rays
Mac Mac replied:
The ampullae of Lorenzini (sing. ampulla) are special sensing organs called electroreceptors, forming a network of jelly-filled pores. They are mostly discussed as being found in cartilaginous fish (sharks, rays, and chimaeras); however, they are also reported to be found in Chondrostei such as reedfish and sturgeon.
Kevin K. in Washington, DC, responded:
Sounds fishy to me.
Jim from CA, retired to ID, said:
The Ampullae of Lorenzini are special sensing organs called electroreceptors, forming a network of jelly-filled pores. They are mostly discussed as being found in cartilaginous fish (sharks, rays, and chimaeras); however, they are also reported to be found in Chondrostei such as reedfish and sturgeon.
Deborah wrote:
I was thinking Gulf Fritillaries, but then I searched and discovered that sharks and rays are the answer.
Summer continues to bake us. Since that's what we expect, it's no big deal. Still, the early morning cool is most welcome.
zorch answered:
They're found on sharks.
Cal in Vermont replied:
Ampullae of Lorenzini are part of a sensory network that enables sharks to quickly find and eat surfers.
Barbara, of Peppy Tech fame said:
I had no idea what the answer was, but I found this online: They are mostly discussed as being found in cartilaginous fish (sharks, rays, and chimaeras); however, they are also reported to be found in Chondrostei such as reedfish and sturgeon. Who knew? :-)
Joe S wrote:
Sharks! It's SHARKS!! And can I tell you there are no sharks in the Great Lakes? There aren't and no salt. No sharks, no salt. And can I tell you how to prevent being eaten by a shark? It's easy, don't go where sharks are. That's my words of wisdom for tonight.
See? Don't do that.
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BttbBob has returned to semi-retired status.
~~~~~
Sam Andrew played guitar in the bands Big Brother and the Holding Company and the Kozmic Blues, both of which backed up vocalist Janis Joplin. He remembers that a critic once wrote, "Janis Joplin has true melisma in her singing." She looked up the word "melisma" and discovered that it was a technique used in much Gospel and choir music. According to the online Free Dictionary, melisma is "A passage of several notes sung to one syllable of text, as in Gregorian chant." Mr. Andrew remembers, "After she had learned what it meant, Janis didn't stop saying the word 'melisma' for a week. That's the way she was about praise. She couldn't get enough of it." Not everyone enjoyed her singing. Early in her career, the police showed up as she was rehearsing with Big Brother because they had received a report about a screaming woman. Of course, some of Janis' life was wild and crazy; after all, she died of an accidental heroin overdose and alcohol. She was often photographed with a bottle of Southern Comfort in her hand, and she frequently mentioned the brand in interviews. She told the New York Times Magazine, "I had the chick in my manager's office photostat every god*amn clipping that ever had me mentioning Southern Comfort, and I sent them to the company, and they sent me a whole lotta money. How could anybody in their right mind want me for their image? Oh, man, that was the best hustle I ever pulled - can you imagine getting paid for passing out for two years?" In addition to giving Janis money, the company gave her a lynx coat. Janis also told the New York Times Magazine, "Man, I'd rather have ten years of superhypermost than live to be seventy sitting in some godd*mn chair watching TV."
One winter while Walter Damrosch was conducting at the Metropolitan Opera, he and his family stayed at the Cambridge Hotel on Fifth Avenue, where their waiter, Roberto, taught them about hospitality and wine. For example, he criticized a host who had ordered only one bottle of wine. Roberto said, "There are five of them, and he orders the dinner. Then I show him the wine card. He orders one bottle - one bottle for five! I fool him. I open another bottle. I shame him into behaving like a gentleman!" Later, after a performance in which Lillian Nordica had sung a fine performance of Elsa in Wagner's Lohengrin, Mr. Damrosch gave a late supper party. His daughter Gretchen was supposed to be asleep in bed, but she stayed awake and counted the popping of corks. She remembered, "There were eight people, and so far only one cork had popped. Bing, a second one. Good. Was two for eight better than one for five? Bang, and a third bottle was opened. I lay back greatly relieved, and relaxed. I must tell Roberto at breakfast. Nothing wrong with my father!"
Glen Campbell has many souvenirs from his long career in show business, including many photographs of himself with many notabilities. He also has a souvenir from his drinking days. He had given up drinking, but during a relapse he was stopped for driving drunk - and for a hit-and-run accident. He then proceeded to knee a police officer in the thigh. As a result, he spent 10 days in jail while wearing pink underwear. Glen's wife, Kim, says, "Sheriff Joe Arpaeo from Phoenix, Arizona, is famous for making all the inmates wear pink underwear, and I have a pair signed by the sheriff. Glen straightened up after that." Glen agrees: "Yep. I finally got broke from sucking eggs, as they say."
As a young woman, Courtney Love, who was later the lead singer of Hole, wanted to marry fellow musician Rozz Rezabek, and she occasionally proposed to him. One night, they were sitting in a train boxcar and drinking champagne, and again she proposed to him. The two, however, found out that they were not alone. They had woken up a wino who grumbled, "Oh, go ahead. Marry her."
Composer Arthur Sullivan enjoyed drinking. In fact, one day he was so inebriated that he found it difficult to tell his house from the other houses on his street. Therefore, he kicked the metal shoe scraper on each top step he came to. Eventually, he murmured, "E flat," then went to his door and let himself in.
CBGB's is well known as a venue for early performances by such bands as the Ramones, Talking Heads, and Blondie. People under age 18 could get in to hear the bands, but their hands were stamped "Nobooze foyouz."
CBS starts the night with '60 Minutes', followed by a FRESH'Big Brother', then THE SERIES FINALE'Instinct', followed by a RERUN'NCIS: The Expendable One'.
NBC fills the night with LIVE'NFL Preseason Football', then pads the left coast with local crap, and maybe a RERUN'America's Got Talent'.
ABC begins the night with a RERUN'America's Funniest Home Videos', followed by a FRESH'Celebrity Family Feud', then a FRESH'$100,000 Pyramid', followed by a FRESH'To Tell The Truth'.
The CW offers a RERUN'Penn & Teller: Fool Us', followed by a RERUN'Masters Of Illusion', then another RERUN'Masters Of Illusion'.
Faux has a RERUN'Last Man Standing', followed by another RERUN'Last Man Standing', then a RERUN'The Simpsons', followed by a FRESH'What Just Happened??! With Fred Savage', then a RERUN'Family Guy', followed by a RERUN'What Just Happened??! With Fred Savage'.
MY recycles an old 'Cops', followed by another old 'Cops', 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 the movie 'Pirates Of The Carribean: Dead Man's Chest', followed by the movie 'Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World's End'.
AMC offers the movie 'Lethal Weapon 2', 'Fear The Walking Dead', followed by a FRESH'Fear The Walking Dead', then a FRESH'Preacher'.
BBC -
[6:00AM] PLANET EARTH: THE MAKING OF BLUE PLANET II
[7:00AM] PLANET EARTH: BLUE PLANET II - SEASON 2 - EPISODE 4-Big Blue
[8:00AM] PLANET EARTH: BLUE PLANET II - SEASON 2 - EPISODE 5-Green Seas
[9:00AM] PLANET EARTH: ENCHANTED KINGDOM
[11:00AM] COLOMBIANA (2011)
[1:30PM] THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION (1994)
[4:30PM] THE DA VINCI CODE (2006)
[8:00PM] THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION (1994)
[11:00PM] THE DA VINCI CODE (2006)
[2:30AM] COLOMBIANA (2011)
[5:00AM] STAR TREK: VOYAGER - SEASON 2 - EPISODE 15-Threshold (ALL TIMES EDT)
Bravo has 'Real Housewives Of Potomac', followed by a FRESH'Real Housewives Of Potomac', then a FRESH'Married To Medicine', and 'Southern Charm'.
Comedy Central has the movie 'Broken Lizard's Super Troopers', followed by the movie '21 Jump Street'.
FX has the movie 'The Martian', followed by a FRESH'The Weekly', and another 'The Weekly'.
History has 'American Pickers', followed by a FRESH'American Pickers: Bonus Buys'.
IFC -
[6:15A] The Three Stooges
[6:30A] Animal House
[9:00A] Star Trek - The Man Trap
[10:10A] Star Trek - Wolf in the Fold
[11:20A] Star Trek - The Trouble With Tribbles
[12:30P] Star Trek - A Private Little War
[1:40P] Star Trek - Spectre of the Gun
[2:50P] Star Trek - The Savage Curtain
[4:00P] Fast Times at Ridgemont High
[6:00P] Police Academy
[8:15P] Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment
[10:15P] Up in Smoke
[12:15A] Cheech & Chong Still Smokin'
[2:15A] Animal House
[4:45A] Pee-wee's Playhouse - To Tell the Tooth
[5:15A] Pee-wee's Playhouse - Dr. Pee-Wee & the Del Rubios
[5:30A] Pee-wee's Playhouse - Tons of Fun (ALL TIMES EDT)
Sundance -
[6:00am] Law & Order
[7:00am] Law & Order
[8:00am] Law & Order
[9:00am] Law & Order
[10:00am] Law & Order
[11:00am] Law & Order
[12:00pm] Outbreak
[3:00pm] Runaway Bride
[5:30pm] You've Got Mail
[8:00pm] Cast Away
[11:00pm] Cast Away
[2:00am] The Blue Lagoon
[4:30am] M*A*S*H
[5:00am] M*A*S*H
[5:30am] M*A*S*H (ALL TIMES EDT)
SyFy has the movie 'Captain America: Civil War', followed by the movie 'Captain America: The Winter Soldier'.
For the second year in a row, Scarlett Johansson is the world's highest-paid actress.
According to Forbes, the 34-year-old movie star raked in $56 million between June 1, 2018 and June 1, 2019, before fees and taxes. A big chunk of Johansson's paycheck came from Marvel. She secured an eight-figure sum for her upcoming Black Widow spinoff, which was rumored to be $15 million. She also received a back-end payment for Avengers: Endgame estimated to be around $35 million, per Forbes. (Avengers: Endgame grossed $2.8 billion.)
Coming in second on Forbes's annual list of highest-paid actresses is Sofia Vergara. The Modern Family star earned an estimated $44.1 million. Reese Witherspoon ($35 million), Nicole Kidman ($34 million) and Jennifer Aniston ($28 million) round out the top five. New arrivals on the list are Elisabeth Moss and Margot Robbie, placing seventh and eighth respectively.
While $56 million is quite the accomplishment, the figure would barely crack the top 10 on Forbes's list of highest-paid actors. Johansson would come in at no. 8, behind her Avengers: Endgame co-stars Chris Hemsworth ($76.4 million) and Robert Downey Jr. ($66 million), who land at no. 2 and no. 3 respectively, but ahead of Chris Evans ($43.5 million), who currently occupies the eighth spot. Dwayne Johnson nabbed the top spot with $89.4 million.
Johansson has discussed pay equality before, but said it felt "icky" complaining about her situation as she has been fortunate to earn a great living.
The 80th Anniversary of The Wizard of Oz is Sunday. To celebrate, Google has added a fun easter egg to google search that will sweep you up in a tornado and send you to Oz.
To access it, simply do a Google search for "Wizard of Oz." When you do, you'll see a pair of ruby slippers sparkling on the right side of the page, under the movie poster search results for the film.
Tap the slippers to have them tap their heels together, spin you around in a tornado, and then bring you back to a now black and white version of your search results.
If you're a fan of the iconic film, you'll remember that the original starts in black and white and transitions to color when Dorothy travels to Oz.
Once you select a search result, your screen will be returned to normal.
Aretha Franklin had almost of $1 million in uncashed checks in her possession at the time of her death, according to newly filed court papers. The checks were discovered during an inventory of Franklin's possessions, adding a new twist to the battle over the Queen of Soul's estate.
An inventory following her death found that Franklin had a check for $702,711.90 from Sound Exchange and Screen Writers Guild as well as uncashed checks to her publishing company, Springtime Publishing, from EMI, BMI, Carlin Music and Feel Good Films in the amount of $285,944.27. In total, $988,656.17 in uncashed checks were found.
Franklin, who died on Aug. 16, 2018 at the age of 76, left behind four sons, Clarence, Edward, Teddy and Kecalf. Originally, no will was found and under Michigan law, her estate was set to be divided equally between her children. But nine months after her death, three handwritten wills -- two from 2010 and one from 2014 -- were found in her house.
The discovery of the wills, if valid, would change the distribution of Franklin's assets. Each of the brothers have retained their own legal teams. The authenticity of the found documents is under review by a handwriting expert.
While Kecalf and the other brothers agreed to the appointment of his cousin Sabrina Owens as the personal representative of the estate, he has since expressed displeasure with her work.
The chief executive of the e-commerce firm Overstock.com stepped down Thursday over his relationship with an alleged Russian intelligence operative jailed for meddling in US politics.
Patrick Byrne only recently admitted that he had a close relationship with Maria Butina for three years, during the period when she beguiled top Republican and National Rifle Association officials with talk of strengthening Moscow-Washington relations and her flair with guns.
He said in an eccentric company statement last week that he had been pulled into the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election by the deep state" and "men in black", charging that the FBI probe was "political espionage" more than law enforcement.
On Thursday he resigned, saying he had become "already far too controversial" to run the company and that he did "not wish to disrupt possible strategic discussions" over its future.
Butina is serving 18 months in jail after becoming the only Russian arrested and convicted in the sprawling three-year investigation into Russia election meddling.
An avowed Republican activist and supporter of U.S. President Don-Old Trump (R-Churl), who was born in Mexico but lived in the United States illegally for more than 20 years, was found guilty on Friday of identity theft and five counts of alien voter fraud.
A federal court jury in Sacramento, California, returned the guilty verdict against Gustavo Araujo Lerma, 64, after several hours of deliberation, capping a five-day trial in which defense lawyers presented letters of thanks from Trump and top Republican Party officials.
The case posed an ironic twist to Trump's oft-repeated but unsubstantiated claim that millions of non-citizens fraudulently cast ballots against him in 2016, skewing the popular vote in favor of his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, while he won in the Electoral College.
Lerma, who also was found guilty of passport fraud, faces up to 22 years in prison when he is sentenced on Nov. 26, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of California announcing the verdict.
According to evidence presented at trial, Lerma was born in Mexico in 1955 but in the early 1990s he fraudulently assumed the identity, including Social Security number, of a Puerto Rico-born U.S. citizen, Hiram Velez, who died in 1997.
Nasa is investigating claims one of its astronauts accessed their estranged partner's bank account while on board the International Space Station, it has been reported.
The New York Times reported that Nasa is examining what could be the first allegation of a crime committed in space.
Astronaut Anne McClain has acknowledged accessing the bank account of her ex-partner Summer Worden while on the space station.
However, she denies any wrongdoing and insists she was checking her former spouse had enough money to pay for the care of Ms Worden's son, who the pair had been raising together before their break-up.
Ms Worden, an Air Force intelligence officer, married Ms McClain in 2014 but then filed for divorce in 2018.
Authorities in the Russian region of Chechnya on Friday inaugurated what they said was the largest mosque in Europe in a pomp-filled ceremony attended by local and foreign officials.
Named after the Prophet Mohammed, the marble-decorated mosque has capacity for more than 30,000 people and has been described by the Chechen authorities as the "largest and most beautiful" mosque in Europe.
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, an ally of President Vladimir Putin, said the mosque -- located in Shali, a town of 54,000 just outside the regional capital Grozny -- was "unique in its design, and majestic in its size and beauty".
Kadyrov, who was appointed by Putin to rule the Muslim-majority region in 2007, has spearheaded a revival of Islam in Chechnya, including by building opulent mosques.
Kadyrov has been criticized by rights groups for widespread rights abuses in the region, allegations he denies.
A new U.S. government management plan unveiled Friday clears the way for coal mining and oil and gas drilling on land that used to be off limits as part of a sprawling national monument in Utah before President Donald Trump downsized the protected area two years ago.
The plan released by the Bureau of Land Management would also open more lands to cattle grazing and recreation and acknowledges there could be "adverse effects" on land and resources in the monument.
But while allowing more activities, the plan would also add a few safeguards for the cliffs, canyons, waterfalls and arches still inside Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument that weren't in a proposed plan issued last year.
Among them are opening fewer acres to ATVs and cancelling a plan that would have allowed people to collect some non-dinosaur fossils in certain areas.
The BLM says no land will be sold from the 1,345 square miles (3,488 square kilometers) that were cut from what had been the 3,000 square miles (7,770 square kilometers) of the monument.
Why is it that you can remember the name of your childhood best friend that you haven't seen in years yet easily forget the name of a person you just met a moment ago? In other words, why are some memories stable over decades, while others fade within minutes?
Using mouse models, Caltech researchers have now determined that strong, stable memories are encoded by "teams" of neurons all firing in synchrony, providing redundancy that enables these memories to persist over time. The research has implications for understanding how memory might be affected after brain damage, such as by strokes or Alzheimer's disease.
The work was done in the laboratory of Carlos Lois, research professor of biology, and is described in a paper that appears in the August 23 of the journal Science. Lois is also an affiliated faculty member of the Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute for Neuroscience at Caltech.
Led by postdoctoral scholar Walter Gonzalez, the team developed a test to examine mice's neural activity as they learn about and remember a new place. In the test, a mouse was placed in a straight enclosure, about 5 feet long with white walls. Unique symbols marked different locations along the walls -- for example, a bold plus sign near the right-most end and an angled slash near the center. Sugar water (a treat for mice) was placed at either end of the track. While the mouse explored, the researchers measured the activity of specific neurons in the mouse hippocampus (the region of the brain where new memories are formed) that are known to encode for places.
To study how memories fade over time, the researchers then withheld the mice from the track for up to 20 days. Upon returning to the track after this break, mice that had formed strong memories encoded by higher numbers of neurons remembered the task quickly. Even though some neurons showed different activity, the mouse's memory of the track was clearly identifiable when analyzing the activity of large groups of neurons. In other words, using groups of neurons enables the brain to have redundancy and still recall memories even if some of the original neurons fall silent or are damaged.
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wrote:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
