Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Hadley Freeman: Actors are lining up to condemn Woody Allen. Why now? (The Guardian)
Here's a sentence for our times: Margaret Atwood recently had to defend herself against claims that she is a bad feminist. For those of us who experienced our feminist awakening when we read The Handmaid's Tale, a headline like "Margaret Atwood faces feminist backlash" causes as much of a mind-melt as the consecutive words "President Trump" still do.
Svetlana Mintcheva: Caravaggio killed a man. Should we therefore censor his art? (The Guardian)
To remove art because it is tainted by the sins of its maker sets an impossible standard for art institutions. Yet that is what is happening.
Jonathan Jones; Why have mildly erotic nymphs been removed from a Manchester gallery? Is Picasso next? (The Guardian)
Creativity has never been morally pure. Not so long ago, in the 90s, art was deliberately shocking and some were duly shocked to visit galleries and be shown Myra Hindley, unmade beds and toy Nazis. Now the tables have turned, and it's cool to be appalled by - in this case - art made over a century ago. I can't pretend to respect such authoritarianism. It is the just the spectre of an oppressive past wearing new clothes - and if we fall for the disguise we sign away every liberal value.
Jonathan Jones: Picasso's 'Annabel' - the rights and wrongs of renaming paintings (Guardian)
Richard Caring - owner of Annabel's - has decided to retitle the artist's Girl with a Red Beret and Pompom after his Mayfair club. It's an arrogant move, but we shouldn't be religious about the names we pin on art.
Josh Marshall: The GOP and Big Lie Politics (TPM)
The fact that the minutiae of Hillary Clinton's email practices were being litigated in public may add to the injustice of the situation. But it really doesn't help with or resolve that quandary. All we can say in retrospect is that the surest evidence counter-intelligence investigators weren't operating from political motives is that they consistently did not do the things that would have harmed Trump politically, even though there were decent, legitimate arguments for doing so.
Eric Tucker: New FBI Texts Reveal Admiring View Of Then-Director James Comey (TPM)
The day in July 2016 that FBI Director James Comey defended to Congress the bureau's decision in the Hillary Clinton email probe, two FBI officials traded admiring texts about his verbal dexterity - and mocking jibes at the lawmakers questioning him.
Cameron Joseph: Trump's Shutdown Threat Shows He'll Just Keep Hurting GOP's Electoral Prospects (TPM)
Trump has mostly managed to stay out of his own way and stick to the script in the last few weeks, and that's helped his party recover with independent voters. But his off-script moments regularly remind swing voters why many don't like him while further infuriating Democrats, driving their election enthusiasm ever-higher. After a surprisingly disciplined stretch it appears he's returning to his old ways once again - and that should alarm Republicans already facing a tough election map.
Susan Heavey: FEMA Contractor Failed To Deliver Millions Of Meals To Puerto Rico: Lawmakers (Reuters)
Democrats say documents show a company contracted to bring 30 million meals to the island delivered just 50,000.
Arwa Mahdawi: Did you see the showering rat video? It explains why Trump won (Guardian)
But, like I said, keeping up with super-speed outrage cycle can be exhausting; so, I'm going to help you out. I've summed up the week in internet indignation so you can adjust your anger levels accordingly. Enjoy!
This Artist Has Created a Miniature Scene Every Single Day Since 2011 (Twisted Sifter)
Since April 20th, 2011, Japanese artist Tatsuya Tanaka has created and published a miniature artwork every single day. The aptly titled project, Miniature Calendar, combines photography, art direction, a continually growing collection of miniatures, and every day objects repurposed and reimagined into something entirely different yet instantly recognizable. Tanaka has not only continued with the daily ritual, creating over 2,000 scenes in the process, but he has continued to evolve and elevate his craft, finding new ways to see the world around him and stay creative.
David Bruce's Amazon Author Page
David Bruce's Smashwords Page
David Bruce's Blog
David Bruce's Lulu Storefront
David Bruce's Apple iBookstore
David Bruce has over 80 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
Presenting
Michael Egan
replied:
took the day off.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Reader Comment
Current Events
The DC Council
The DC Council is my new hero--I grabbed their graphic & attached it:
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
from Marc Perkel
Marc's Guide to Curing Cancer
So far so good on beating cancer for now. I'm doing fine. At the end of the month I'll be 16 months into an 8 month mean lifespan. And yesterday I went on a 7 mile hike and managed to keep up with the hiking group I was with. So, doing something right.
Still waiting for future test results and should see things headed in the right direction. I can say that it's not likely that anything dire happens in the short term so that means that I should have time to make several more attempts at this. So even if it doesn't work the first time there are a lot of variations to try. So if there's bad news it will help me pick the next radiation target.
I have written a "how to" guide for oncologists to perform the treatment that I got. I'm convinced that I'm definitely onto something and whether it works for me or not isn't the definitive test. I know if other people tried this that it would work for some of them, and if they improve it that it will work for a lot of them.
The guide is quite detailed and any doctor reading this can understand the procedure at every level. I also go into detail as to how it works, how I figured it out, and variations and improvements that could be tried to enhance it. I also introduce new ways to look at the problem. There is a lot of room for improvement and I think that doctors reading it will see what I'm talking about and want to build on it. And it's written so that if you're not a doctor you can still follow it. It also has a personal story revealing that I'm the class clown of cancer support group. I give great interviews and I look pretty hot in a lab coat.
So, feel free to read this and see what I'm talking about. But if any of you want to help then pass this around to both doctors and cancer patients. I need some media coverage. I'm looking for as many eyeballs as possible to read these ideas. Even if this isn't the solution, it's definitely on the right track. After all, I did hike 7 miles yesterday. And this hiking group wasn't moving slow. So if this isn't working then, why am I still here?
I also see curing cancer as more of an engineering problem that a medical problem. So if you are good at solving problems and most of what you know about medicine was watching the Dr. House MD TV show, then you're at the level I was at when I started. So anyone can jump in and be part of the solution.
Here is a link to my guide: Oncologists Guide to Curing Cancer using Abscopal Effect
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
THE DICTATOR.
'TRUMPS FIRST KLEPTOCRAT'
WHAT A 'CROCK'.
JESUS GIVES A FLU SHOT.
"SOMETHING HAPPENING HERE…"
GIDDY UP!
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Way too warm, dry and windy.
Reportedly Refused Meeting
Adam Rippon
Openly gay Olympic figure skater Adam Rippon apparently gave Mike Pence (R-Mother) the cold shoulder last month when the vice president asked for a meeting.
USA Today reported Wednesday that, according to two sources, Rippon declined a meeting with Pence that the vice president tried to arrange with the help of the U.S. Olympic Committee.
Pence will lead the official U.S. delegation to the 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony on Friday.
Rippon publicly criticized the vice president in a Jan. 17 USA Today story.
"You mean Mike Pence, the same Mike Pence that funded gay conversion therapy?" Rippon told the paper. "I'm not buying it."
Adam Rippon
Final World Tour
Ozzy Osbourne
British hard rocker Ozzy Osbourne has revealed a string of North American concerts as part of his "No More Tours 2" tour.
With a title that makes reference to his "No More Tours" run in the 1990s, which ultimately did not end in retirement, this tour will be a continent-hopping album, with previously announced dates in Mexico, South America and Europe.
After two late-April shows in Florida, the tour will open on May 5 in Mexico and head throughout South America through May 20. On June 1 it will pick up in Russia, then head to Finland, Sweden, the UK, and on to Prague, Paris, Florence, Copenhagen and many more European cities through July 5.
The North American tour leg kicks off on August 30 and runs through October 13, hitting both US coasts and heading to Canada for one show in Toronto.
The tour comes five decades after Osbourne launched his musical career as part of Black Sabbath.
Ozzy Osbourne
Run For US Public Office
Scientists
Donald Trump's (R-Crooked) rejection of science and his administration's plans to reverse environmental regulations is inspiring a record number of scientists to run for political office.
Although they generally see politics and science as separate fields and are normally happy to simply engage in arguments, while remaining focused on their research, scientists are stepping out of the lab and onto the campaign trail.
"I think that we've never, at least not in my lifetime, seen political rhetoric divide us so completely as a nation," Grant Kier, a conservation scientist and geophysicist running for Montana's statewide Congressional seat, told The Independent. "We have fundamental issues from healthcare, to natural resources, to energy production that are absolutely essential for the future of our state and our country, and we need sound science and evidence for how we approach those things. Not partisan rhetoric."
Mr Kier says that he was inspired to run for office soon after incumbent Rep Greg Gianoforte took office last year. Montana saw massive wildfires during that time, and Mr Kier says his elected representative failed to understand the causes - drought, or early snow melt caused by warmer springs, for example - behind those blazes, and their connection to climate change concerns.
All told, there are more than 60 candidates for federal office from science, technology, engineering, and math backgrounds running in 2018, according to the political action committee 314 Action, whose report was first noted by the Huffington Post. Another 200 are running for state legislature, and another 200 are running for local school boards on top of that.
Scientists
100 Percent Rotten Tomatoes Score
'Black Panther'
Early viewers of the Marvel film "Black Panther" can't stop purring about it ? and they want you to claw your way into theaters ASAP. Just look at the Rotten Tomatoes rating.
The early Rotten Tomatoes score for the film was already 100 percent after the first 55 reviews went up Tuesday.
"Black Panther" doesn't roll out in North American theaters until Feb. 16, so the 18th movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe could lose scoring steam by next week. But for now, it doesn't look like it.
As per Rotten Tomatoes, critics are saying that the film "elevates superhero cinema to thrilling new heights while telling one of the MCU's most absorbing stories ? and introducing some of its most fully realized characters."
'Black Panther'
Spiked
Suicides
Widespread media coverage may have contributed to a 10% increase in suicides following Robin Williams' highly publicized death, according to a new study.
In the four months after Williams' death by suicide in August 2014, CDC data revealed that there were 18,690 deaths by suicide in the U.S. - significantly more than the 16,849 suicides that past data and trends would have predicted for that time period, according to an analysis published Wednesday in PLOS ONE.
"When you looked at the data, you didn't need statistics to see that something happened," says study author David Fink, a doctoral candidate in epidemiology at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. "You see this very large spike in August that you can just tell is off."
The study is among the first to examine the impact of celebrity suicide in the U.S. (One paper in 1996 paper focused on Nirvana singer Kurt Cobain's death two years earlier.) While the research doesn't prove that Williams' death, and the resulting news coverage and social media response, caused the observed spike in suicides, a number of parallels suggest that it at least played a part, Fink says.
For one thing, the jump was particularly significant among men ages 30 to 44, a demographic similar to the actor's. A disproportionate number of the victims also died by strangulation, as many news outlets reported that Williams did, according to the paper.
Suicides
Redraw Map
Pennsylvania
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday let a court-ordered redrawing of congressional districts in Pennsylvania proceed, raising Democratic hopes that a revamped map might yield them several more seats this fall.
Justice Samuel Alito, who handles emergency appeals from Pennsylvania, rejected the request from GOP legislative leaders and voters to put on hold an order from the state Supreme Court intended to produce new congressional districts in the coming two weeks.
The decision comes just four days before the Republican-controlled Legislature's deadline for submitting a replacement map for Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf to consider. So far, there has been a notable lack of bipartisan movement on getting such a deal.
Pennsylvania's congressional delegation has been 13-5 in favor of Republicans during the three election cycles since the GOP-drawn 2011 map took effect, and experts have said those 13 seats are several more than would have been produced by a nonpartisan map.
Democrats have about 800,000 more registered voters than Republicans and hold all three elected statewide row offices, but Republicans enjoy solid majorities in both chambers of the Legislature.
Pennsylvania
'Inoculate Yourself'
Flu
An evangelical Christian adviser to Donald Trump has suggested people do not need a winter flu vaccine and urged believers to "inoculate yourself with the word of God" against the disease.
Gloria Copeland told followers in a video that "we don't have a flu season" and they should "not [accept] it when somebody threatens you with 'Everybody's getting the flu!'"
"We've already had our shot" thanks to God who "bore our sicknesses and carried our diseases", Ms Copeland said in the clip promoting her ministry's Miracles on the Mountain healing event.
Along with her husband Ms Copeland established Kenneth Copeland Ministries (KCM) five decades ago. The megachurch-style organisation has branches across the globe including in Latin America, Africa and Asia.
The Copelands sit on Mr Trump's evangelical executive advisory board, according to a campaign press release archived by the University of California at Santa Barbara.
Flu
Snow Shuts Down
Eiffel Tower
The Eiffel Tower turned away tourists on Tuesday as snow swept across northern France, causing traffic chaos in Paris during the French capital's first real dose of wintry weather this season.
The Meteo France weather service put the greater Paris region on alert for snow and black ice on roads, among 27 departments it expected to be on alert across the country until midday Wednesday.
The weather caused major gridlock across the city, with more than 700 kilometres (430 miles) of traffic jams recorded at 7:30 pm local time (1830 GMT) on Tuesday, local information service Sytadin said.
Paris bus services were cancelled on Tuesday evening, according to the RATP transport authority, and school transport would not run on Wednesday in several areas.
Meteo France says the snowfall will intensify overnight Wednesday, with temperatures expected to fall as low as minus 10 degrees Celsius (14 degrees Fahrenheit), leaving five to 10 centimetres (two to four inches) in most areas on alert.
Eiffel Tower
First Modern Briton
"Cheddar Man"
The first modern Briton had dark skin and blue eyes, London scientists said on Wednesday, following groundbreaking DNA analysis of the remains of a man who lived 10,000 years ago.
Known as "Cheddar Man" after the area in southwest England where his skeleton was discovered in a cave in 1903, the ancient man has been brought to life through the first ever full DNA analysis of his remains.
In a joint project between Britain's Natural History Museum and University College London, scientists drilled a 2mm hole into the skull and extracted bone powder for analysis.
Their findings transformed the way they had previously seen Cheddar Man, who had been portrayed as having brown eyes and light skin in an earlier model.
"It is very surprising that a Brit 10,000 years ago could have that combination of very blue eyes but really dark skin," said the museum's Chris Stringer, who for the past decade has analysed the bones of people found in the cave.
"Cheddar Man"
In Memory
Mickey Jones
Mickey Jones, whose bearded, grizzled face added texture to scores of shows from The Rockford Files to Justified and dozens of films including Sling Blade and National Lampoon's Vacation and whose drumming still beats away on oldies radio, died today following a lengthy illness. He was 76.
Although he'll most likely be recognized from his appearances in National Lampoon's Vacation, Sling Blade and, to sitcom fans, Flo, Jones got his start in show business seated at a drum kit, playing for 1960s hitmakers including Trini Lopez ("If I Had a Hammer"), Johnny Rivers ("Secret Agent Man") and Kenny Rogers and the First Edition ("Ruby, Don't Take Your Love To Town" and "Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)".
Jones even toured with Bob Dylan, drumming during the now-legendary 1966 performance at the Manchester Free Trade Hall when a newly electric Dylan was chastised as "Judas!" by an audience member.
During his tenure with the First Edition, Jones appeared on the early 1970s variety show Rollin' on the River, giving him a first taste of the TV career that would span decades. His role on Flo, a spinoff of Alice that aired from 1980-81 on CBS, was followed by V, M*A*S*H, Home Improvement (he recurred as Pete Bilker), Baywatch, Entourage, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Workaholics - a small sampling of his TV credits.
Typically cast as a biker, hippie or blue-collar worker, Jones as recently as 2015 recurred on FX's Justified as pot dealer Hot Rod Dunham.
Movie appearances included roles in Sling Blade, Tin Cup, Total Recall and The Last Best Sunday - again, among many others.
Mickey Jones
In Memory
John Perry Barlow
John Perry Barlow, the cantankerous poet, lyricist for the Grateful Dead and fighter for a free and open internet, died overnight at age 70, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which he co-founded in 1990, confirmed Wednesday.
Amir Bar-Lev, the filmmaker who directed "Long Strange Trip," the 2017 Martin Scorsese-produced documentary about the Grateful Dead, first reported Barlow's death, writing on Twitter that Barlow died in his sleep. The cause of death wasn't reported, but he was known to have been is poor health since he suffered a heart attack in 2015.
To music lovers, Barlow, who met Grateful Dead co-founder and guitarist Bob Weir in high school in Colorado, was known as the man behind the words on such Dead anthems as "Cassidy" "Estimated Prophet," "Black-Throated Wind," "Hell in a Bucket," "Mexicali Blues," "The Music Never Stopped" and "Throwing Stones."
In Silicon Valley and the halls of government and academia, however, Barlow was best known as the intellectual force behind the Electronic Frontier Foundation, or EFF, which he co-founded in 1990 with Mitch Kapor, the founder of Lotus, the software company behind the spreadsheet Lotus 1-2-3.
Barlow wrote in 1990 that he met Kapor through The Well, the original online community. The EFF was "started by a visit from the FBI," which wanted his help tracking down a band of "info-terrorists" believed to have stolen some Apple code, but Barlow quickly concluded that the agent who visited him "was hardly alone in his puzzlement about the legal, technical, and metaphorical nature of datacrime," he wrote.
Kapor read Barlow's post about the "surreal" meeting on The Well, and it turned out that had also been interviewed by the FBI, Kapor said in a 1994 interview archived on his personal website. "When I had my interview, I wound up feeling sorry for these guys, and gave them a computer tutorial," Kapor said.
The offspring of their collaboration was the EFF. Barlow and Kapor gathered heavy hitters in the burgeoning tech industry, hired a lawyer and a press agent and announced the creation of the EFF in July 1990, Barlow wrote.
John Perry Barlow
| CURRENT MOON lunar phases |
