Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Josh Marshall: "Summa Stormietica (or Maybe Trump Sent Stormy Dick Pics)" (TPM)
So there you have it. Daniels wants out of the agreement and claims it's null and void. Whether it's null and void or not she's making sure the corpse of this agreement is dead and dismembered and lying somewhere in the gutter. Because she's revealed the key details. So the cat is out of the bag. And one imagines that Cohen and President Trump will be hard pressed to enforce the agreement under current circumstances.
Greg Sargent: Trump doesn't have America's best interests at heart (Washington Post)
… in many of these cases - such as his pardon of Arpaio; his lack of transparency and nonstop self-dealing; his refusal to safeguard our democracy against foreign interference - Trump is objectively putting other imperatives before the national interest.
Greg Sargent: Mueller is casting a wide net. We now know the target is Trump. (Washington Post)
Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III is now directly gunning for President Trump - and not just on one front. It appears that Mueller is investigating whether Trump himself committed misconduct or possible criminality on two fronts, and possibly more.
Andrew Tobias: Why Is This Man Still President?
We are under attack. We are losing. Our commander-in-chief refuses to defend the Constitution to which he took an oath. Most Republicans in Congress are at least publicly okay with that. It's time for them to step up.
Paul Krugman: Testing His Metal (from 2002)
Just a few days ago, some supporters of George W. Bush hoped that he would show his mettle by standing up to steel industry demands for tariff protection. Instead he capitulated, with a cravenness that surprised even his critics.
Helaine Olen: The Parkland kids are revealing America's failings for all to see (Washington Post)
When presented with a set of circumstances more horrific than anything the vast majority of us will never experience, it was the kids - the ones who spent too much time on social media, the ones not raised like French or German or Chinese children - who stepped up and assumed leadership. They let us know the adults had been failing them for a long time.
OSCAR SONG DEMO - "Why Not Me?" (YouTube)
We were asked to write a song for this year's Academy Awards… Unfortunately, it wasn't chosen because it was "financially and logistically impossible", so for fun we thought we'd share the rough storyboards of what would have been a fully shot, star-studded music video of exorbitant cost. All vocals and visuals are temp, so please use your imagination and enjoy!
Dr. Michael Gregor, MD: How to Prevent Gut Inflammation (NutritionFacts.org)
When you count all the little folds, the total surface area of our gut is about 3,000 square feet. That's larger than a tennis court. Yet, only a single layer of cells separates our inner core from the outer chaos. The primary fuel that keeps this critical cell layer alive is a short-chain fatty acid called butyrate, which our good bacteria make from the fiber we eat. We feed the good bacteria in our gut, and they feed us right back.
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David Bruce has over 80 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
Presenting
Michael Egan
took the day off.
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
David E Suggests
Signage
David
Thanks, Dave!
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
"WHERE CAN I CAUSE TROUBLE NOW?"
"…BUT AS REALITY TV IT IS RIVETING."
"THEY HAVE BECOME A TERRORIST ORGANIZATION."
"I SHOT THE TARIFF."
"EVOLUTION IN ACTION."
THE DEATH OF STALIN.
YADA-YADA!
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Overcast but no rain.
International Women's Day
Barbie Dolls
This International Women's Day, Barbie is honoring accomplished role models with their very own dolls.
From aviator Amelia Earhart to USA Olympic snowboarder Chloe Kim, Barbie created 17 realistic-looking dolls inspired by impactful women from all different backgrounds and occupational fields.
The lineup includes three historical figures and 14 modern-day women. In addition to Kim, the modern-day dolls include Wonder Woman filmmaker Patty Jenkins, wildlife conservationist Bindi Irwin, championship boxer Nicola Adams, windsurfer Çagla Kubat, chef Hélène Darroze, volleyball champion Hui Ruoqi, and designer and entrepreneur Leyla Piedayesh.
Professional golfer Lorena Ochoa, journalist Martyna Wojciechowska, soccer player Sara Gama, actress and philanthropist Xiaotong Guan, ballerina Yuan Tan, and fashion designer and entrepreneur Vicky Martin also got dolls created in their likenesses.
In addition to the modern-day Sheroes, Barbie introduced dolls of three impactful women from history this year: aviator Amelia Earhart, artist Frida Kahlo, and mathematician Katherine Johnson.
Barbie Dolls
Performs Private Concert
Yo-Yo Ma
Seven siblings who were rescued from a squalid Southern California home earlier this year received a special treat last week: a private performance by Yo-Yo Ma.
The world-renowned cellist reportedly performed for seven of the 13 siblings at a hospital in Corona, California, on Friday. The special visit came roughly two months after authorities said the siblings were found shackled and malnourished in the home of their parents, David and Louise Turpin, capping years of abuse.
The hospital showcased his visit in a photo posted to Twitter on Monday.
In addition to visiting with the Turpin siblings, Ma visited a local Corona middle school and performed with its orchestra program on Friday morning.
Though Ma made no mention of his visit with the Turpin siblings on social media, he posted photos of his visit with the middle school students on Facebook, writing: "Very grateful to have been able to share music and spend time with the people of Corona."
Yo-Yo Ma
Study Says
Amelia Earhart
A new study may hold a clue to solving the decades-old mystery of what happened to American aviator Amelia Earhart, who famously went missing without a trace more than 80 years ago.
Bones found on a remote island in the South Pacific in 1940 that were originally thought to belong to a man are now being considered as Earhart's, according to the study "Amelia Earhart and the Nikumaroro Bones" authored by Richard L. Jantz, a professor for University of Tennessee's Department of Anthropology, and published in the journal "Forensic Anthropology."
The bones were found when a working party brought to the island for the Phoenix Island Settlement Scheme found a human skull, the study states. When the officer in charge of the settlement scheme learned of the discovery, he ordered a more thorough search of the area, and additional bones were found. Also found were a shoe "judged to have been a woman's," a box designed to carry a Brandis Navy Surveying Sextant manufactured in 1918, and a bottle of Benedictine, an herbal liqueur drink.
Jantz argues that when Dr. D. W. Hoodless of the Central Medical School in Fiji examined the bones in 1941, "forensic osteology was not yet a well-developed discipline" and could have affected the sex assessment of the bones found on the Nikumaroro Island, or Gardner Island, in the western Pacific Ocean.
The bones themselves have been lost, but by comparing measurements of the bones found on the island to Earhart's body composition using modern techniques, Jantz determined that Hoodless' assessment of the sex of the bones "cannot be assumed to be correct" and that Earhart is "more similar to the Nikumaroro bones than 99 [percent] of individuals in a large reference sample."
Amelia Earhart
Oldest Message In A Bottle
Australia
A message in a bottle written 132 years ago and found on an Australian beach by a group of walkers including the parents of Formula One star Daniel Ricciardo has been verified as the world's oldest known missive of its kind.
The rectangular bottle was discovered half-buried in sand dunes near Wedge Island, some 160 kilometres (99 miles) north of Perth, in January.
It took weeks of sleuthing using Google Translate, online research and archival digging before the unusual find was confirmed as an authentic bottle thrown from a German ship into the Indian Ocean.
It was one of thousands of bottles used in a long-term German oceanographic experiment to better understand global ocean currents and find faster, more efficient shipping routes, the Western Australian Museum said.
The previous oldest known message in a bottle was found in Germany 108 years and 138 days after it was thrown into the North Sea by a marine biologist in 1906.
Australia
'We Know The Trump Administration Is Full Of Liars'
Jerry Brown
In a blistering response to the Department of Justice challenging his state's immigration laws, California Governor Jerry Brown has dismissed the lawsuit as an act of political theatre from an administration in disarray.
The Trump administration has challenged a set of California laws that limit cooperation with federal law enforcement, which Attorney General Jeff Sessions called a "rejection of law" that "creates an open border system".
In response, Mr Brown said the lawsuit embodied "the mendacity of Washington" and suggested that the administration was discredited by Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian election interference and potential coordination with the Trump campaign, which has already produced guilty pleas from multiple former campaign aides.
"We know the Trump administration is full of liars. They've pled guilty already to the special counsel", Mr Brown told reporters.
"The Trump White House is under siege. Mueller is closing in. There are more indictments coming", he added.
Jerry Brown
Lawyer Tries To Silence
Stormy Daniels
President-for-now Donald Trump's (R-Philanderer) lawyer is trying to silence adult-film star Stormy Daniels, obtaining a secret restraining order in a private arbitration proceeding and warning that she will face penalties if she publicly discusses a relationship with the president, NBC News has learned.
The new pressure on Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, comes a day after she filed a lawsuit in a Los Angeles court alleging that a nondisclosure agreement she made to keep quiet about an "intimate" relationship with Trumpis invalid because he never signed it.
Tuesday's lawsuit says that Trump attorney Michael Cohen - who brokered the agreement with Clifford during the presidential campaign - attempted to "intimidate" Clifford and "shut her up" by initiating what it calls a "bogus arbitration proceeding" against her in Los Angeles on Feb. 27.
On that day, Cohen obtained a temporary restraining order against Clifford from the private arbitrator, a retired judge, which bars her from disclosing "confidential information" related to the nondisclosure agreement signed in October 2016, according to a copy of the order obtained by NBC News.
The "hush agreement," as it's called in the suit, refers to Clifford as Peggy Peterson and another individual as David Dennison. In one of the documents, the true identity of Dennison is blacked out, but Avenatti said the individual is Trump.
Stormy Daniels
U.S. Army Mishandled
War Dogs
The U.S. Army confirmed on Monday that it had mishandled retired bomb-sniffing war dogs and said it would comply with recommendations in a Defense Department Inspector General's report that called for reforms.
In a report released on Friday, the Inspector General said that canine heroes, which saved the lives of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan while working with brigade combat teams to sniff out roadside bombs, were mistreated by the Army after they returned to the United States.
The report said that some dogs were left in kennels for up to 11 months, beyond a deadline for giving them away for adoption or re-using them in the military or other government agencies. It said they were mistreated through lack of care and attention, and others may have been put down.
Contrary to military rules, new owners were not screened before the Army allowed them to adopt the dogs. It said that some dogs with histories of biting were given to families with children, and others were given to owners who lacked the ability or resources to care for them.
In some cases, the report said, soldiers who wanted to adopt dogs with which they had worked were not told they had the right to do so. An investigation was started after soldiers who had handled the war dogs complained about their fate.
War Dogs
A Great Movie
'The Big Lebowski'
As he zeroes in on the day on which he can finally smother net neutrality with a pillow, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai took to Twitter on Tuesday to celebrate the 20th anniversary of The Big Lebowski, a movie that's going to be harder, and more expensive to stream when net neutrality goes away.
Tuesday's homage from Pai also included a link on the film to your aunt's favorite weekly newsletter, Parade Magazine.
As The A.V. Club notes, Pai has tweeted references to Lebowski on a number of occasions, the references sometimes more forced than others.
Pai has been the driving force behind the effort kill net neutrality, something the FCC accomplished in December via a partisan 3-2 vote. The beginning of the end for net neutrality is currently scheduled for the not-too-distant future of April 23, 2018.
The repeal of net neutrality could pave the way for tiered internet speed access, meaning consumers and companies would be charged more for faster internet. And, to put it in terms maybe Pai would understand, paying more money is something that the Dude just wouldn't abide, man.
'The Big Lebowski'
Contains a Mineral That's Never Been Seen Before
Tiny Diamond
A schist in the hand may be quite continental, but diamonds are a geologist's best friend.
For proof, look no further than a recently mined diamond that contained a mineral that had never been seen in nature - until now.
The discovered mineral - called calcium silicate perovskite (CaSiO3)- was found trapped inside a diamond excavated from South Africa's Cullinan mine (most famous for yielding the world's largest diamond in 1905, part of which now adorns the crown jewels of the United Kingdom). The finding, published online today (March 7) in the journal Nature, provides an important clue to the puzzle of how Earth's inner structure behaves.
While rare to human eyes, calcium silicate perovskite may be shockingly ordinary deep inside the Earth - in fact, it's thought to be the fourth most abundant mineral inside the planet, especially prevalent in slabs of oceanic crust that have plunged into the planet's mantle at tectonic boundaries.
Despite the mineral's theorized prevalence, however, previous studies have never yielded observable evidence of its existence. It's thought to occur deep inside Earth's mantle, however - some 700 kilometers (435 miles) below the planet's surface, the researchers said.
Tiny Diamond
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