Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Marc Dion: Psst! You Wanna Buy Some Grass? (Creators Syndicate)
It's getting more and more dangerous to be dangerous. It used to be that a couple of joints and a leather jacket would do it for you. Now you gotta join a gang and kill somebody to be dangerous. Wait until the government legalizes prostitution. My guess is that a trip to the legalized brothel will cause a sudden deflation of desire in even the hardiest of men. "All right, so you have your intercourse request form, and I see you've filled out your sexual preferences form," the clerk will say. "Proceed to window No. 3 for a tall blonde in a Nazi uniform," the clerk will continue, "and have a nice day." You will shuffle off to sin with the lustful attitude of a man buying lawn fertilizer in a strip mall.
Froma Harrop: America's Wealth Floods Into Already Wealthy Cities (Creators Syndicate)
The decision to split the second headquarters between New York City and affluent northern Virginia, a center for the federal government and the future home of a big Virginia Tech campus, points to what should be a disturbing trend: The rich regions are getting richer faster. Amazon's drawn-out search for another command post to rival the home base in Seattle appears to have been a stunt. The company had officials from 238 cities across the country working their tails off to attract the online behemoth. Being chosen could have been a game changer for some on its list of 20 finalists, such as Columbus, Indianapolis and Pittsburgh.
Ted Rall: By Law, the President Should Have to Give Daily Press Conferences (Creators Syndicate)
There will be those who argue that the president is too busy to meet the press. Fortunately, there is ample proof that Donald Trump, like Barack Obama and George W. Bush before him, has more than free time to make himself available. He, like most former presidents, plays the hours-long, fake sport of golf.
Connie Schultz: Could This Be Our Millennial Moment? (Creators Syndicate)
Every student who knocks on my office door on Kent State's campus has likely noticed the illustrated bumper sticker affixed right above the door handle. The drawing depicts an older white man of a certain age wearing a suit and glasses and holding a lit pipe. He looks to be of an earlier era. "Mad Men," maybe, or "Father Knows Best." The message, over his right shoulder: "Old people are ruining your life. VOTE."
Paul Waldman: Trump's battle to destroy the Mueller investigation is officially doomed (Washington Post)
President Trump's long struggle to destroy Robert S. Mueller III's investigation into the Russia scandal is officially over. The president himself might not quite realize it yet, and he probably doesn't understand why it happened. But he has lost that conflict, and the reason is simple: His attempts to fight Mueller were so ham-handed and so public that it made it impossible for him and his administration to shut Mueller down.
Lenore Skenazy: Surveillance Parenting (Creators Syndicate)
After you bring that bouncing baby of yours home from the hospital, forget about hand-knit booties. Today's trendy tots are sporting the Smart Sock 2. This $299 sock contains sensors that track your baby's heart rate and blood oxygen level from your phone. Thanks to a sock filled with "the same technology used in hospitals," you now have the ability to monitor your healthy baby with the level of scrutiny she would have gotten if she'd been born without a liver. Promises the ad copy, "Peace of mind in parenting is closer than you think." Yeah - if you throw out the sock.
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Presenting
Michael Egan
answered:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
from Bruce
Anecdotes
• If famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright had a weakness, it was his designs for furniture. When he designed the Johnson Wax Administrative Building in Racine, Wisconsin, he also designed three-legged chairs that unfortunately tipped over frequently, spilling the occupant onto the floor. The company president asked him why he had not put four legs on the chairs, and Mr. Wright replied, "You won't tip if you sit back and put your two feet on the ground because then you have five legs holding you up. If five legs won't hold you, then I don't know what will!" Earlier in his career, Mr. Wright designed chairs for another building he had designed: the Larkin Company Administration Building in Buffalo, New York. His chairs were called "suicide chairs" because they tipped over so frequently. Although Mr. Wright thought - correctly - of himself as a genius, even he admitted that his chairs were far from comfortable. He once said, "I have been black and blue in some spot, somewhere, almost all my life from too much intimate contact with my own early furniture."
• As a youth, Marvel Comics maven Stan Lee worked in a movie house on Broadway. Once, first lady Eleanor Roosevelt visited the theater, and Mr. Lee had the privilege of showing her to her seat. He walked down the aisle with his head held high, and he tripped over the leg of a patron and fell. Mrs. Roosevelt put her hands on his shoulders and asked if he was all right. (He was fine - except for his pride.)
• Language can be ambiguous. While a priest was giving a homily in a Catholic school, a little boy started talking. Not wanting the homily to be interrupted, a Sister asked one of her young pupils, "Go up there and tell him to stop talking." The young pupil walked past the talking boy, went up to the priest who was giving the homily, and said, "Sister said you should stop talking."
• The funniest typo that ever occurred in a work by children's book writer Phyllis Reynolds Naylor appeared in a short story titled "The Twelve Days of Christmas." Instead of reading, "Marvin Migglesby sat by the fire roasting chestnuts and feeding them to the dog," the last line read, "Marvin Migglesby sat by the fire roasting the dog."
• In 1952, the Oklahoma Sooners had a wonderful football team, but way too many fumbles, especially in the first half, led to a loss against Notre Dame, although the Sooners were favored to win. At halftime, an Oklahoma drum major threw a baton high in the air, but missed catching it when it came down, and it tumbled crazily on the ground. A fan told Oklahoma coach Bud Wilkinson, "I see you coach the band, too."
• Hugh Laing once was in the middle of a dance with Alicia Markova in Aleko when she fainted - she was so graceful that the faint seemed part of the dance. Mr. Laing did not stop dancing, but he gathered Ms. Markova in his arms, danced offstage and gave her to some people who could help her, then danced onstage again.
• Early in her career, choreographer Agnes de Mille danced in the play The Black Crook. One night, her partner accidentally kicked her and broke her nose. Ms. de Mille reported, "The sound, a kind of wet scrunch, carried to the back of the theater, but, I am proud to say, neither of us missed a step."
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© Copyright Bruce D. Bruce; All Rights Reserved
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Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
MOVING RIGHT ALONG.
ANOTHER DISASTER ARRIVES IN CALIFORNIA.
REPUBLICANS ARE THE SPAWN OF SATAN!
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Saw 3 flocks of geese - all flying north.
Seems like the wrong direction this time of year, but it is California.
Post-Super Bowl Episode
CBS' 'Late Show'
Stephen Colbert is headed back to the Super Bowl.
CBS will air a special episode of The Late Show on Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 3. Colbert's show will air following stations' late local news, about 11:35 p.m. ET/8:35 p.m. PT. The network previously announced that its new talent competition The World's Best, hosted by James Corden, will air immediately after Super Bowl LIII.
The Late Show had the post-game spot the last time CBS aired the Super Bowl in 2016, which resulted in Colbert's most-watched episode ever (20.55 million viewers). It will probably come in considerably under that this time out, since it will be 90 minutes removed from the end of the game.
Earlier this year, a special Tonight Show on Super Bowl Sunday drew 8.41 million viewers and a 2.6 rating among adults 18-49 following local news on NBC stations.
CBS will also give post-NFL showcases to Magnum P.I. and The Late Late Show with James Corden. The Magnumremake will air right after the network's coverage of the AFC Championship game, around 10 p.m. ET/7 PT Sunday, Jan. 20. A special Late Late Show will follow the local news later that night.
CBS' 'Late Show'
Free, Ad-Supported Movies
YouTube
YouTube is borrowing a page from Vudu's playbook, in a manner of speaking. AdAge has confirmed that the Google video service quietly started adding free, ad-supported movies to its "Movies & Shows" section in October. The roughly 100-title collection largely revolves around old or unspectacular movies that are long past their money-making prime, such as Legally Blonde, Agent Cody Banks and the original Terminator. However, that makes it an easy fit -- studios can rake in some ad revenue (YouTube hasn't said how it shares ad money) from people wanting to watch a classic during a sleepy afternoon.
Company product management director Rohit Dhawan hinted that there could one day be a way for advertisers to sponsor individual movies. You could watch the first movie in a franchise when its sequel hits theaters, for instance. Whether or not that happens will depend on how studios evolve their digital strategies. They're used to paid services, but ad-supported movies are relatively new.
As AdAge observes, this could be in part about creating a more tempting target for advertisers. YouTube knows some companies are reluctant to run ads alongside some of its user-uploaded video, especially after incidents where ads were linked to hate speech clips. This would give nervous companies a 'safe' place to advertise that could reflect well on their brands.
YouTube
British Knighthood
Ralph Lauren
Ralph Lauren will be the first American designer to be honoured as Honorary Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (KBE).
The 79-year-old designer, who just celebrated 50 years in business, will receive the honour as a recognition of his key roles in "fashion, business and philanthropy."
In addition to an acknowledgement of his career in fashion, the award also recognises Lauren as a philanthropist and for his work advocating on behalf of cancer patients.
The knighthood means Lauren can choose to be referred to as Ralph Lauren KBE, as well as be named alongside other notable American recipients of the honour, including former presidents Dwight D Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, and George H W Bush.
Ralph Lauren
Holiday Gift Guide
Goop
Gwyneth Paltrow has released her annual holiday gift guide and many of the items she's recommended are as extravagant and strange as you would imagine from the Goop founder.
To make it easy to find gift inspiration for everyone in your life, Goop broke the guide into 12 categories - including "The Host," "The One-Step-Aheader's," "The Travellers," and "The Guys."
Apart from the outrageously priced gifts such as a $22,560 (£17,583) pair of Vram earrings or a $139,000 (£108,000) RV "that's nicer than most homes without wheels," many of the presents make you question who would actually want them this holiday season.
For $295 (£229), your loved ones can have the chance to visit farmswhere cannabis is grown and "learn the different life cycles of the plant."
Goop also recommends some $50 (£38) 24K gold rolling papers which can be given as a stocking stuffer to round out the theme.
Goop
What Sort Of Underwear, Exactly
Ireland
Ladies! What does your underwear say about you? Are you a red-thonged saucy minx, or do you keep all those ungainly wobbly bits tucked in with some flesh-toned spanks: all tease, no please? Your knicks can speak volumes about how you get your kicks, and that's why we've designed our new "Defendant Drawers". This high-waisted pair of pants in virginal white cotton are sure to wow the jury and get your rapist convicted.
This week, women across Ireland posted pictures of their underwear online alongside the hashtag #ThisIsNotConsent, after a defence barrister in a rape trial referenced the teenage complainant's knickers in their closing speech. The 17-year-old's pants were shown to jurors to consider as evidence that the girl could have been "attracted to the defendant and was open to meeting someone and being with someone". Defence counsel Elizabeth O'Connell told a court in Ireland: "You have to look at the way she was dressed. She was wearing a thong with a lace front".
Did they really have to look at the way this girl was dressed though? Women's underwear has been referred to time and time again in rape trials. The CPS allegedly dropped a rape case in 2014, citing the accuser's Spanx underwear in the reasoning. Women, it seems, can be wearing absolutely anything and have it used against them when they speak out against sexual assault. Let us not forget the Toronto police officer who, in 2011, told schoolchildren: "Women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimised".
One of the most persistent myths about sexual violence is that it is connected to the clothes of a victim. We also know that in approximately 90 per cent of sexual assaults, survivors know the perpetrator prior to the attack, and attacks are most likely to occur in the victim's or perpetrator's home, workplace or vehicle. Is a woman's underwear considered when she is raped in her pyjamas?
We've got to ask ourselves more than just how the "evidence" of this particular girl's underwear was considered admissible in a rape trial, which was used entirely to discredit the validity of her case or even to strengthen that of the accused. We also have to ask ourselves when we will no longer tolerate discussions of this sort at all.
Ireland
Italian Supervolcano
Campi Flegrei
When one thinks of Naples and volcanoes, the mind goes straight to Mount Vesuvius, the volcano responsible for the destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum in 79 CE and a stark reminder of the immense power of nature ever since. But a more worrying volcano exists just to the west of the city, Campi Flegrei. Also referred to as the Phlegraean Fields, this supervolcano has a large crater (caldera) that's 13 kilometers (8 miles) across. A potential eruption would be deadly and catastrophic.
New research, published in Science Advances, has shown that the magma reservoir underneath Campi Flegrei has begun to fill up. This build-up phase will likely lead to a large-volume eruption in the distant future, and while the danger is not imminent, it shows that the supervolcano needs to be kept under constant surveillance. About 1.5 million people live next to or right on top of the caldera.
The new assessment shows that the chemical composition of the magma entering the caldera has changed lately. Volatile substances, in particular, are being separated from the magma, which is increasing the pressure within the caldera.
The team studied rocks and minerals from the area that formed during one of the 23 eruptions that have taken place on this site in recent geological history. The focus is clearly on the two major ones, 39,000 and 15,000 years ago, which formed the caldera and led to part of it ending up underwater. Several minor eruptions contributed to the landscape of the region, and the researchers were curious to see whether they could learn about the future of the supervolcano from its recent past.
In 1538, an eight-day eruption led to the formation of Monte Nuovo (literally "new mountain"), a cinder cone volcano, and was the first eruption in modern times to be described by many people. The researchers studied the rocks before and after the eruption and saw the distinct changes. The more modern rocks were similar in composition to the ones that tend to form before major eruptions.
Campi Flegrei
Bacteria-Spreading Menaces
Bubbles
Innocent-looking bubbles can serve as a launching pad to spread bacteria from water into the air, according to a new study.
The study, published Nov. 15 in the journal Physical Review Letters, found that bacteria can manipulate the physics of bubbles in a way that enhances the microbes' spread. For example, bacteria-covered bubbles can last for a much longer time than clean bubbles, even though the bubble's surface thins out over time. Then, once they burst, these thinner bubbles create many more droplets, which are launched into the air at a faster rate compared with clean bubbles.
The researchers first discovered the effect of bacteria on bubbles somewhat by chance. Initially, they were studying the physics of clean bubbles, but a beaker of water was accidentally left open during a move to a new lab. When the researchers later used this water in experiments, they observed that the bubbles acted differently than they expected.
When the researchers discovered that the water had been contaminatedwith bacteria, they turned their attention to studying the effects of bacteria on bubbles, using high-speed imaging.
They found that, when bubbles were contaminated with E. coli, they lasted 10 times longer than clean bubbles before bursting. This means the contaminated bubbles lasted for minutes as opposed to seconds. Further investigations revealed that the bubbles lasted longer because the bacteria were secreting substances that acted to reduce the bubble's surface tension, making it more elastic, the researchers said.
Bubbles
Baked Into Money and Screws
Fake Moon Dust
How do you start a colony on the moon? Can you ship everything the colonists need from Earth? That's how NASA handled brief excursions to the lunar surface in the late 1960s and early 1970s, but astronauts couldn't haul that much with them - certainly not enough to sustain themselves over the long term.
Technology has improved since then, but most plans for a sustainable lunar base assume that its residents will use local resources, rather than hauling everything from Earth.
So that's why the European Space Agency (ESA) created a whole bunch of fake moon dust (fake "regolith" in technical terms) and used it to 3D print small screws, gears and even a fake coin.
These printed materials weren't carbon-based plastic or metal, according to a statement from the ESA, but rather a sort of lunar ceramic.
In other words, all these little gadgets had production histories closer to the dinner plate in your cupboard than the screws holding that cupboard together.
Fake Moon Dust
How Do They Remember
Squirrels
Few things symbolize the onset of fall quite so well as the sight of a squirrel scampering around a park, industriously burying nuts. As the weather cools and the leaves turn, squirrels engage in this frantic behavior to prepare for the upcoming shortages of wintertime.
But have you ever wondered how effective the squirrel's outdoor pantry project could really be? After going to all that effort to conceal its winter stash, how does the squirrel actually find the buried treasure again, when it's needed most?
First, let's backtrack slightly, because the way that squirrels bury their food yields some interesting clues. Animals that store food to survive the winter don't just do so randomly: They typically use one of two strategies. Either they larder-hoard - meaning they store all their food in one place - or they scatter-hoard - meaning they split up their bounty and stash it in many different locations.
Most squirrel species are scatter-hoarders - hence the characteristic dashing they do between different piles of buried food. "This style of food storing probably evolved because it reduces the risk of suffering a major loss," said Mikel Maria Delgado, a postdoctoral fellow at the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of California, Davis, who has studied squirrel behavior for severalyears. In other words, the more widely dispersed the food, the lower the risk that a hungry competitor will discover the squirrel's entire supply and destroy it in one go.
In recent research published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, Delgado showed that squirrels will arrange and bury their stash according to certain traits, such as the type of nut. This is known as "chunking," and research shows that in other species, such behavior allows animals to mentally organize their hoard, which may help them remember where it is later on.
Squirrels
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