Garrison Keillor: What goes on in Minneapolis on a winter night
I drove to the grocery the other night and there, near checkout, saw a freezer case with the sign, "Artisan Ice Cubes," a bold new step in our march toward Preposterosity. I asked the checkout guy if maybe the sign meant to say "Artesian" and he wasn't interested. Word usage is not his responsibility. To me, artisanal ice is in the same category as organic non-GMO ice cubes. I'm a Minnesotan and I appreciate the beauty of frost and snow but an ice cube is an ice cube.
Almonds are out. Dairy is a disaster. So what milk should we drink? (The Guardian)
Both Emery and Specht emphasize that whether it's coconut, soy or oat, consumers should drink whatever plant milk is most appealing to them and not fret over sustainability shortcomings, which are chump change compared with the environmental harms from dairy. "Drink what you want," says Emery. "If you're going with plant milk instead of animal milk, you've already addressed most of the environmental problems that your animal milk habit was causing."
Stephen King: The Oscars are still rigged in favor of white people (Washington Post)
Discussions of arts and culture, like discussions of politics, have become increasingly acrimonious and polarized in recent years. Lines of belief are drawn with indelible ink, and if you step over them - wittingly or otherwise - you find yourself in the social-media version of the stocks and subject to a barrage of electronic turnips and cabbages.
"Once upon a time there was an engineer,
Choo-Choo Charlie was his name we hear.
He had an engine and it sure was fun,
He used _______?_______, to make his train run."
Named for an English agricultural pioneer, what British rock band won their sole Grammy Award (the inaugural Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance Vocal or Instrumental) in 1989 for their album Crest of a Knave?
Jethro Tull are a British rock band formed in Blackpool, Lancashire, in 1967. Initially playing blues rock and jazz fusion, the band later developed their sound to incorporate elements of hard rock and folk rock to forge a progressive rock signature. The band is led by vocalist/flautist/guitarist Ian Anderson, and has featured a revolving door of lineups through the years including significant members such as guitarists Mick Abrahams and Martin Barre, keyboardist John Evan, drummers Clive Bunker, Barriemore Barlow, and Doane Perry, and bassists Glenn Cornick, Jeffrey Hammond, John Glascock, and Dave Pegg.
The group first achieved commercial success in 1969, with the folk-tinged blues album Stand Up, which reached No. 1 in the UK, and they toured regularly in the UK and the US. Their musical style shifted in the direction of progressive rock with the albums Aqualung (1971), Thick as a Brick (1972) and A Passion Play (1973), and shifted again to hard rock mixed with folk rock with Songs from the Wood (1977) and Heavy Horses (1978). After an excursion into electronic rock in the early-to-mid 1980s, the band won its sole Grammy Award with the 1987 album Crest of a Knave. Jethro Tull have sold an estimated 60 million albums worldwide, with 11 gold and five platinum albums among them. They have been described by Rolling Stone as "one of the most commercially successful and eccentric progressive rock bands".
Source
Jethro Tull (baptized 30 March 1674 - 21 February 1741, New Style) was an English agricultural pioneer from Berkshire who helped bring about the British Agricultural Revolution. He perfected a horse-drawn seed drill in 1700 that economically sowed the seeds in neat rows, and he later developed a horse-drawn hoe. Tull's methods were adopted by many great landowners and helped to provide the basis for modern agriculture.
Source
Mark. was first, and correct, with:
Jethro Tull.
Stephen F said:
Jethro Tull
Jon L wrote:
One of my faves, Jethro Tull.
Alan J answered:
Jethro Tull.
mj replied:
I'm going with
Ian Anderson's bunch, Jethro Tull.
Mac Mac responded:
Jethro Tull
Dave wrote:
Jethro Tull. Original member Ian Anderson has been the one constant for Jethro Tull, which reformed for a 50th anniversary tour recently (and which may still be going on). The British band first formed in 1967 and has played various styles of pop music over the years. One of the only rock bands that commonly featured a flute (Ian Anderson's), the Grammy Award was controversial because most metal head fans didn't consider the 20 year old band 'heavy metal' or hard rock, and the category was invented so more recently formed heavy metal bands like Metallica could finally win something. Their agent advised them that they had no chance to win so nobody in the band was at the Grammy ceremony that night to accept the award. The band's last studio album was the 2003 Jethro Tull Christmas Album, which was their biggest seller since Crest of a Knave.
Jim from CA, retired to ID, responded:
Jethro Tull
Micki
Jethro Tull.
Deborah wrote:
That would be Jethro Tull. I favor their 70s albums more than the Grammy winner, but no matter: That's some talent in that group.
Day 3 of husband's 10-day business trip. The two younger dogs post themselves to watch doors and windows for him. This morning the youngest decided he wanted the old dog's food before old dog was done. The ensuing scrap sounded worse than it was, and so off to the dog park we go, so they can all blow off steam. It's like having 6 y.o. kids.
Daniel in The City answered:
Jethro Tull
Harry M. replied:
Jethro Tull
Michelle in AZ responded:
Jethro Tull
Billy in Cypress U$A said:
Jethro Tull
DJ Useo wrote:
"Jethro Tull" is the answer. A band I adore. In fact, I have all the studio albums, plus.
BttbBob answered:
Jethro Tull...
Yeah, I'm a fan... Saw them in San Antonio, Jan. '75, and was absolutely astounded at Ian Anderson's musical talent. He had a rack of instruments; electric and acoustic guitars, flute, clarinet, sax, mandolin, harmonicas, that he alternated playing between and sometimes while he sang... not mention while he leaped his tall lanky self all around with his long hair flying about... I had never seen anything like it...
~~~~~
Memo to David of Moon Valley - Thanks for the shout out... Just for you is this...
Waugoshance Light, northern Lake Michigan, which marked the SW entrance to the Straits of Mackinac. It's 170 years old and was deactivated in 1912... I've been this close, and closer, while running a CG boat... It's been featured on the Science Channels, 'Mysteries of the Abandoned'... a pretty eerie place, I'm tellin' ya...
Kevin K. in Washington, DC, took the day off.
Roy, my favorite Human Scum Snowflake friend in Tyler, TX took the day off.
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Song: "The Last Thing on My Mind" from the album SKY BLUE
Artist: Townes Van Zandt
Artist Location: Fort Worth, Texas
Info: SKY BLUE is an album of 11 previously unreleased songs by the late Townes Van Zandt
nicholas hamnett (a fan) wrote, "I've always felt it a nonsense to rate artists of any sort competetively. That said: Townes Van Zandt is THE GREATEST POETIC SONGWRITER OF ALL TIME, and given my local pub now has Townes on the juke box, it's confirmation that his music is no longer just the cult listening of the few."
Price: $1 (USD) for track; $7 (USD) for 11-track album
I just posted an extensive look at the history of Sweethearts candy. It traces their history from apothecary lozenges to their production on early candy machines to their dominance of the candy aisles around Valentine's Day. Because conversation hearts are returning this year, I thought it might make a fun addition.
• Poet and essayist Tess Gallagher once had a horse that was named Angel Foot by her Uncle Porter, who wrote her, "Your filly is born. I have named her Angel Foot for the white on her hind foot where God must have held onto her when he dipped her into the black." Angel Foot played tricks on her owner. For example, she would gallop toward a barbed-wire fence, pretending not to see it, and then would stop suddenly with her nose close to the wire. One of Ms. Gallagher's friends asked her for a photograph of her sitting on the back of Angel Foot. He was waiting for a lung transplant, which he never got but which could have saved his life. Ms. Gallagher thinks that as he was waiting for the lung transplant, he needed "spirit-signs." She believes that such spirit-signs are comforting
Art
• The German artist George Grosz influenced a number of American artists, including Jack Levine. The American Institute of Arts and Letters once debated about whether to give Mr. Grosz or another artist an award. Member after member of the institute gave the opinion that Mr. Grosz had been great in his youth, but that in his later life he was not what he had been. Mr. Levine rose and spoke to defend Mr. Grosz: "Who of us, with the exception of maybe Jonathan Swift, is what he was?"
• According to an old tradition, no one touches the person of the Pope. While painting a portrait of Pope John XXIII, American artist Bernard Godwin frequently rearranged the Pope's clothing, making the Pope's secretary and valet gasp, but the Holy Father simply smiled.
Auditions
• When Patricia Birch was a soloist for the Martha Graham Dance Company, she auditioned for the part of Anybody in Jerome Robbins' West Side Story. When Mr. Robbins asked her if she could dance, she replied, "A little," so he left her with an assistant who would teach her the part so she could audition for it. By the next morning, however, Mr. Robbins had learned that she really was a dancer, so he told her, "I'm don't know what you're trying to pull here, but I'm on to you. Give me a triple knee turn!" The audition that followed was grueling, but she got the part.
• When Merrill Ashley auditioned for the School of American Ballet, the whole thing took about 10 minutes, with dance teacher Antonina Tumkovsky twisting Merrill's legs around to see how flexible she was presently and how flexible she might become. She did pass the audition, was accepted into the SAB, and later found out that the report on her audition said, "Good feet, rather nice" - which was high praise for an audition at this particular school.
Authors
• Lincoln Child, an editor at St. Martin's Press, invited Douglas Preston, a writer of columns about the American Museum of Natural History in New York, to write a history of the museum. Mr. Preston agreed, and the result is his book Dinosaurs in the Attic. Mr. Child wanted to have a real behind-the-scenes tour of the museum. Mr. Preston agreed, reluctantly, because Mr. Child did not have the security clearances needed to visit much of the museum. However, Mr. Preston decided to give him a tour at midnight because, he thought, no one would be around to check whether Mr. Child had the necessary security clearances. However, a museum guard appeared and boomed, "Who's there?" Mr. Preston thought that he was on the verge of being fired, but Mr. Child's quick wits came to the rescue. He told the security guard, "Thank God, you've finally found us! We've been wandering around for hours looking for the exit! How in the world do you get out of this place?" The adventure had a good result. While in the museum, with lightning flashes from outside the skylight making visible the dinosaur bones inside, Mr. Child said to Mr. Preston, "This is the scariest building in the world. Doug, we have to write a thriller set in a museum like this." They did. The thriller was titled Relic, and it introduced the character Aloysius X.L. Pendergast, who stars in a series of mysteries.
CBS opens the night with a FRESH'Young Sheldon', followed by a FRESH'The Unicorn', then a FRESH'Mom', followed by a FRESH'Carol's Second Act', then a FRESH'Evil'.
Scheduled on a FRESHStephen Colbert are Samantha Bee and Michael Stipe.
Scheduled on a FRESHJames Corden, OBE, are Antonio Banderas, Rob Lowe, and Kesha.
NBC begins the ight with a FRESH'Superstore', followed by the SERIES FINALE'The Good Place', then a FRESH'L&O: SVU'.
Scheduled on a FRESHJimmy Fallon are J.J. Watt and Louis Tomlinson.
Scheduled on a FRESHSeth Meyers are Leslie Jones, Max Greenfield, Taika Waititi, and Chris Coleman.
On a RERUNLilly Singh (from 1/13/20) is Madelaine Petsch and Mena Massoud.
ABC starts the night with a FRESH'Station 19', followed by a FRESH'Grey's Anatomy', then a FRESH'A Million Little Things'.
Scheduled on a FRESHJimmy Kimmel are Renee Zellweger, Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson, and Caroline Polachek.
The CW offers a FRESH'Supernatural', followed by a FRESH'Legacies'.
Faux has a FRESH'Last Man Standing', followed by a FRESH'Outmatched', then a FRESH'Deputy'.
MY recycles an old 'L&O: CI', followed by another old 'L&O: CI'.
A&E has 'The First 48', followed by a FRESH'The First 48', then a FRESH'Alaska PD', followed by a FRESH'60 Days In'.
AMC offers the movie 'I Am Legend', followed by the movie 'Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen'.
BBC -
[6:00AM] MAN VS. WILD - Siberia (Part 1)
[7:00AM] MAN VS. WILD - Land of Ice (Part 2)
[8:00AM] MAN VS. WILD - Namibia (Part 1)
[9:00AM] MAN VS. WILD - Zambia (Part 2)
[10:00AM] MAN VS. WILD - Jungle Swamp (Part 1)
[11:00AM] MAN VS. WILD - Castaway (Part 2)
[12:00PM] MADAGASCAR - Island of Marvels
[1:00PM] MADAGASCAR - Lost Worlds
[2:00PM] MADAGASCAR - Land of Heat and Dust
[3:00PM] PLANET EARTH: BLUE PLANET II - One Ocean
[4:00PM] PLANET EARTH: BLUE PLANET II - The Deep
[5:00PM] PLANET EARTH: BLUE PLANET II - Coral Reefs
[6:00PM] PLANET EARTH: BLUE PLANET II - Big Blue
[7:00PM] PLANET EARTH: BLUE PLANET II - Green Seas
[8:00PM] PLANET EARTH: BLUE PLANET II - Coasts
[9:00PM] SEVEN WORLDS, ONE PLANET - North America
[10:30PM] PLANET EARTH: BLUE PLANET II - One Ocean
[11:30PM] PLANET EARTH: BLUE PLANET II - Coral Reefs
[12:30AM] SEVEN WORLDS, ONE PLANET - North America
[2:00AM] PLANET EARTH: BLUE PLANET II - The Deep
[3:00AM] PLANET EARTH: BLUE PLANET II - Big Blue
[4:00AM] PLANET EARTH: BLUE PLANET II - Green Seas
[5:00AM] PLANET EARTH: BLUE PLANET II - Coasts (ALL TIMES EST)
Bravo has 'Below Deck', 'Project Runway', followed by a FRESH'Project Runway', then a FRESH'Watch What Happens: Live'.
FX has the movie 'Logan', followed by the movie 'Transformers: The Last Knight'.
History has 'Swamp People', another 'Swamp People', followed by a FRESH'Swamp People', then a FRESH'Alone: The Beast'.
IFC -
[6:45A] The Three Stooges - Pardon My Scotch
[7:15A] The Three Stooges - Uncivil Warriors
[7:45A] Saving Private Ryan
[11:45A] Gladiator
[3:15P] Tropic Thunder
[5:45P] National Lampoon's European Vacation
[7:45P] National Lampoon's Vacation
[10:00P] National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
[12:15A] Vegas Vacation
[2:15A] The Incredible Burt Wonderstone
[4:30A] Pee-wee's Playhouse - Why Wasn't I Invited
[5:00A] Pee-wee's Playhouse - Tons of Fun
[5:30A] Pee-wee's Playhouse - School (ALL TIMES EST)
Sundance -
[6:20am] The Andy Griffith Show
[6:55am] The Andy Griffith Show
[7:30am] The Andy Griffith Show
[8:00am] The Andy Griffith Show
[8:30am] The Andy Griffith Show
[9:00am] The Andy Griffith Show
[9:30am] The Andy Griffith Show
[10:00am] The Firm
[1:00pm] Law & Order
[2:00pm] Law & Order
[3:00pm] Law & Order
[4:00pm] Law & Order
[5:00pm] Law & Order
[6:00pm] Law & Order
[7:00pm] Law & Order
[8:00pm] Law & Order
[9:00pm] Law & Order
[10:00pm] Law & Order
[11:00pm] Law & Order
[12:00am] Law & Order
[1:00am] Law & Order
[2:00am] Dirty Harry
[4:15am] The Andy Griffith Show
[4:50am] The Andy Griffith Show
[5:25am] The Andy Griffith Show (ALL TIMES EST)
SyFy has the movie 'Ghost In The Shell', followed by the movie 'Hancock'.
TBS:
Scheduled on a FRESHConan are Jonathan & Drew Scott.
Teen climate activist Greta Thunberg said on Instagram on Wednesday she has applied to register her name and that of the Fridays For Future movement she founded in 2018, which has gone global and catapulted her to international fame.
The move would allow legal action against persons or companies trying to use her name or the movement's which are not in line with its values, she said.
"I assure you, I and the other school strikers have absolutely no interests in trademarks. But unfortunately it needs to be done," she said on the social network.
Thunberg said she had also applied to trademark "Skolstrejk for klimatet", school strike for the climate in Swedish - the wording on the placard she has held since she started her one-person protest outside the Swedish parliament in 2018, for whih she missed school.
ABC News has suspended its chief national correspondent, Matt Gutman, after he mistakenly reported on live television that all of late basketball star Kobe Bryant's children had died in Sunday's helicopter crash.
Gutman corrected the report on a later broadcast to clarify that the only members of the Bryant family who died in the crash were Kobe and his daughter, Gianna. Seven others also perished in the crash.
Gutman's original remarks were made before the official identities of the victims had been confirmed. He has since apologized for the error.
"Today I inaccurately reported it was believed that four of Kobe Bryant's children were on board that flight. That is incorrect. I apologize to Kobe's family, friends and our viewers," Gutman tweeted Sunday.
The publisher of Jeanine Cummins' "American Dirt" has canceled the remainder of the author's book tour, citing security concerns.
"Jeanine Cummins spent five years of her life writing this book with the intent to shine a spotlight on tragedies facing immigrants," Bob Miller, president and publisher of Flatiron Books, said in a statement to the Associated Press Wednesday. "We are saddened that a work of fiction that was well-intentioned has led to such vitriolic rancor. Unfortunately, our concerns about safety have led us to the difficult decision to cancel the book tour."
While the much-anticipated "American Dirt" has been championed by high-profile celebrities, like Oprah, who picked the novel for her latest book club pick, it has also been the the subject of continued criticism from Latinos and other people of color since its release Jan. 21. Many of its critics have censured the book for what they argue is a stereotypical and opportunistic narrative about immigration, and some have even suggested that Cummins lifted elements of the story from Latino writers.
The book is about a Mexican bookstore owner who migrates toward the U.S. border with her son after her journalist husband and other family members are killed by a ruthless drug cartel.
Eighty-three prominent writers from diverse backgrounds, including Jennine Capó Crucet, Alexander Chee, Nicole Chung and Lilliam Rivera, signed a letter addressed to Oprah Wednesday, urging the media mogul to rethink her promotion of the novel.
The masked woman nervously approaches her target, shuffles into position and then unleashes a flurry of lashes -- proving herself as the newest member of the first female flogging squad in Indonesia's Aceh province.
The new recruit initially needed some coaxing to punish the offender -- an unmarried woman caught in a hotel room with a man.
Such behaviour constitutes a morality crime in Aceh, the only region in the world's biggest Muslim-majority nation that imposes Islamic law -- known as Sharia. Those found guilty of breaches are often publicly whipped with a rattan cane.
But despite her reticence, she persevered and delivered her first flogging.
Here, public whipping remains a common punishment for scores of offenders for a range of charges including gambling, adultery, drinking alcohol, and having gay or pre-marital sex.
The days of Antarctica's Pine Island glacier are numbered, but no one really knows what that number is. New models could help shed some much-needed light on the matter.
In the past four decades, this slow-moving monstrosity of ice has contributed more to sea level rise than any other glacier on Earth, and recently, scientists have noticed signs it might be accelerating and thinning unusually fast.
Predicting where and how a glacier of this scale could recede is notoriously difficult. While they might look like simple, solid slabs of ice from above, these structures actually hide extremely complicated and dynamic flow systems that we still don't know enough about.
Using high-resolution satellite observations from the European Space Agency (ESA), researchers at the University of Bristol have tracked the ebbs and flows of Antarctica's largest glacier, and their results are quite the surprise.
Donald Trump Jr (R-Damaged), an avid trophy hunter who has been accused of killing an endangered animal under controversial circumstances, will speak at the world's largest trophy hunting convention in Nevada next week, according to reports.
The first son and top campaign surrogate to Donald Trump (R-Shameless) was set to attend the Safari Club International's annual three-day convention in Reno, Nevada, where he was scheduled to speak on 8 February.
In addition to the speech, Mr Trump Jr also planned to sell a trophy hunting trip with him in Alaska.
For $17,000 (£13,067), attendees of the convention can bid to hunt black-tailed deer native to the region with him, according to Safari Club International.
Other features of the event include an estimated 870 exhibits selling everything from animal heads to hides, as well as 300 hunting trip opportunities across the country, with bids ranging between $1,650 (£1,268) and $100,000 (£76,860).
Silicon Valley DNA testing company 23andMe, which has raised nearly $800 million in funding and was last valued at $2.5 billion, cut 14% of its workforce last week.
The cause is a slowdown in sales of its direct-to-consumer DNA kits, which run $100, $200, or $500 depending on how much information you want about your ancestry, genetic composition, health and wellness, carrier status, and vulnerability to certain diseases.
It isn't just 23andMe. DNA tests went boom in 2018, with the number of consumers who had bought one doubling to 26 million; now sales have gone bust.
MIT Technology Review estimates that the largest DNA test players sold just 4 million to 6 million DNA tests in 2019, an industry growth rate of 20%, the slowest year for the industry ever.
But 23andMe, with its hefty valuation and unicorn status, has perhaps the most pressure on it, with backers that include GlaxoSmithKline and Fidelity. And what's particularly troubling is that its star CEO Anne Wojcicki (sister of YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki and ex-wife of Google cofounder Sergey Brin) does not know what the precise problem is or how to fix it.
The number of people wearing face masks in public (and at the Gizmodo office) has ballooned in recent weeks-a highly visible sign of the fears sparked by the coronavirus that's hit China hard and has the potential to spread far and wide. But while masks may offer a comforting feeling of protection, just how useful are they at truly preventing the spread of disease?
The logic behind wearing a face mask is simple enough. The Wuhan virus, formally called 2019-nCoV for the time being, is a coronavirus capable of spreading from person to person through close contact. Though it's still not clear as to how contagious the virus is, or even whether it can spread before symptoms show up, infected victims often have symptoms like coughing and a runny nose that make the virus easier to spread through airborne droplets.
To be clear, the threat of Wuhan virus to people living in the U.S.-including in places like New York City or central Texas, where face mask shortages at drug stores have been reported-is largely abstract for now. Yes, the reported toll of the virus is climbing by leaps and bounds in China by the day, but the U.S. has only seen a handful of cases, all from travelers (and none in Texas or New York). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention continues to state that the risk of Wuhan to the U.S. is low.
It's debatable as to how effective masks truly are against viruses like 2019-nCoV. A 2014 review by Canadian researchers looked at high-quality studies testing whether surgical masks or respirators could protect health care workers against the SARS virus, a close relative of Wuhan, or the RSV virus, a common source of respiratory illness. They came away with a verdict right down the middle: three studies found a protective effect and three found no effect.
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