Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Igor Bobic and Daniel Marans: Democrat Holds Slim Lead In Pennsylvania District Trump Won By Nearly 20 Points (Huffington Post)
Democrat Conor Lamb declares victory early Wednesday, but the special U.S. House race may end up with a recount.
Suzanne Moore: Only the truly ignorant would rank universities according to graduate earnings (The Guardian)
The government thinks education can be bought and sold like a vacuum cleaner - how spectacularly stupid can you get?
Josh Marshall: Is The Stormy Story More Damaging Than We Thought? (TPM)
I'm told that in her 60 Minutes interview with Anderson Cooper Daniels suggests that Trump, how to say this, likes it when women aren't nice to him, treat him in perhaps denigrating ways.
Only Slightly Exaggerated | Travel Oregon (YouTube)
Based on actual events. More or less.
Joseph Epstein: FRIVOLOUS, EMPTY, AND PERFECTLY DELIGHTFUL (Claremont)
"I'm all for strewing a little happiness as I go by," Wodehouse wrote to William Townsend, and he did so in ample measure. He would have been pleased to learn that for his readers the gift of that happiness has yet to stop giving.
BEN MATHIS-LILLEY: Chuck Schumer's Statement on the Meltdown of the Executive Branch Is So Feeble It's Almost Impressive (Slate)
Can I say for certain that Democratic Party leaders would be better off politically if they stated the plain truth about the goon circus of racists, embezzlers, and ding-dongs that is running the country rather than occasionally projecting a limp theatrical air of disappointment that the administration is not committed to finding bipartisan solutions or whatever? No, but I can say that reading statements like the ones above, and like this …
Jordan Weissman: Martin Shkreli Is Going to Jail and I Can't Even Bring Myself to Enjoy It (Slate)
Altogether, Shkreli's downfall is a perfect fable for our time. In America, it's fine to screw patients. Just don't screw investors.
Paul Waldman: "Shocker: Democrats' predictions about the GOP tax cut are coming true" (Washington Post)
How many times do we have to play this game? When a new policy debate emerges, Democrats try to make an argument that has some connection to reality, while Republicans make absurd claims in the knowledge that even if they get debunked in the occasional "news analysis" piece, on the whole they'll be treated with complete seriousness, no matter how ridiculous they are.
Helaine Olen: Betsy DeVos's disastrous interview shows the limitations of being rich (Washington Post)
So it's perhaps not surprising that Trump didn't realize - or perhaps didn't care - that DeVos was manifestly unqualified to head up education policy for the United States. But if there were any doubt among anyone else, Sunday night's performance should have finally put an end to the idea that wealth is a qualification for anyone to weigh in on - never mind have actual authority over - areas in which they have no expertise.
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Presenting
Michael Egan
said:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
David E Suggests
Design Process
David
Thanks, Dave!
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
Reader Comment
NorCal Fires
An Update on NorCal fires' survivors
This is heart-breaking. One of the fires burned homes of some of my personal training clients from my days at the Spa at Silverado; riding my bike past the devastation makes me cry.
And #45 couldn't be bothered to visit Santa Rosa, Napa, Santa Barbara, Montecito, et al…he was here for his precious wall, to raise funds for his re-election campaign (not in my lifetime) and to trash our state.
Personal note: My husband and I, separately and jointly, have lived in/visited 45 of 50 states, and have lived in the Republic of Korea (south), and Japan. We've traveled through Europe and Canada. We moved to California in 1986, and I achieved a personal goal I set in 1967, as a young teen in South Jersey, on board with the Summer of Love. We moved in 1986 from Texas to Lompoc, and in 1998 moved to Vacaville. I've never wanted to live anywhere else but this state. And now we have the pResident of the U.S., the (supposed) leader of the free world, trashing our state, our leadership, and by extension its citizens. I'm offended and outraged; I can only imagine how you who were born here feel.
Okay, I'm off my soapbox. Time for tamale pie (because it's Pi day, after all) and a beer. Happy Hump Day.
Reader Comment
Current Events
Borowitz
Choice Borowitz--satire so true it could be the truth:
3/14/18 WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)-In a freewheeling conversation with reporters after his departure from the State Department on Tuesday, Rex Tillerson said that he "really hopes" that Donald Trump finds out that he is being impeached on Twitter.
"I mean, the way I see it playing out, he's up at 3 A.M., starting a new feud with Oprah or someone, and that's when he finds out," Tillerson said. "My only regret is that I won't be there to see it."
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
WHAM! BAM! THANK YOU MA'AM!
R.I.P. STEPHEN. THE STARS ARE WAITING TO PARTY.
THE TORTURER.
THE FEDS BOGART A CURE!
'IT'S ABHORRENT.'
"HIS HANDS ARE SMALLER THAN WE THOUGHT?"
DOTTING THE I's AND CROSSING THE T's.
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
More rain.
The Man Whose Voice
Stephen Hawking
Stephen Hawking's computer-generated voice is so iconic that it's trademarked -- The filmmakers behind The Theory of Everything had to get Hawking's personal permission to use the voice in his biopic. But that voice has an interesting origin story of its own.
Back in the '80s, when Hawking was first exploring text-to-speech communication options after he lost the power of speech, a pioneer in computer-generated algorithms was working at MIT on that very thing. His name was Dennis Klatt.
As Wired uncovered, Klatt's work was incorporated into one of the first devices that translated speech into text: the DECtalk. The company that made the speech synthesizer for Hawking's very first computer used the voice Klatt had recorded for computer synthesis. The voice was called 'Perfect Paul,' and it was based on recordings of Klatt himself.
In essence, Klatt lent his voice to the program that would become known the world over as the voice of Stephen Hawking.
Klatt was an American engineer who passed away in 1989, just a year after Hawking insisted on keeping 'Perfect Paul' as his own. He was a member of MIT's Speech Communication Group, and according to his obituary, had a special interest in applying his research in computational linguistics to assist people with disabilities.
Stephen Hawking
Museum Groundbreaking
George Lucas
Legendary filmmaker George Lucas was joined by local officials Wednesday morning for the ceremonial groundbreaking at the future site of the $1.5-billion Lucas Museum of Narrative Arts in Exposition Park.
The planned five-story building will house works by painters such as Edgar Degas, Winslow Homer and Pierre-Auguste Renoir; illustrations, comic art and photography by artists such as Norman Rockwell; and storyboards, props and other items from popular films.
At Wednesday's ceremony, Lucas's wife, Mellody Hobson, thanked leaders such as Mayor Eric Garcetti for being "like a dog with a bone" in his determination to bring the museum to Los Angeles.
Lucas, who attended film school at USC, has described his vision for the 300,000-square-foot museum as one that focuses on the art of visual storytelling.
The new museum is being built near the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and the California Science Center. Construction is expected to be complete in 2021.
George Lucas
Estate Sues
Harper Lee
The estate of "To Kill a Mockingbird" author Harper Lee has sued the producer of an upcoming Broadway adaptation, arguing that writer Aaron Sorkin's script deviates too much from the beloved novel about race relations in the Depression-era U.S. South.
The lawsuit filed on Tuesday in federal court in Alabama asks a judge to resolve a contract dispute with producer Scott Rudin by giving the estate final say on whether Sorkin's script departs from the spirit of the 1960 novel or alters its characters.
The estate's representative, Tonja B. Carter, alleges that the script alters several characters, including protagonist Atticus Finch, who is portrayed as being initially naive to racism. The script also "did not present a fair depiction of 1930s small-town Alabama" by tying it to today's social climate, according to the suit.
Carter said Sorkin, an Oscar winner and the creator of Emmy-winning TV series including the political drama "The West Wing," added two characters to the script and told trade magazine Playbill that the book as written "doesn't work at all" as a play.
The play is set to open in preview on Nov. 1 in New York and stars Jeff Daniels as Finch, a lawyer who defends a black man against a false rape charge in the racially charged 1930s South.
Harper Lee
Chris Cuomo Moving To Prime-Time
CNN
CNN is sending Chris Cuomo into battle against the two current giants of cable television news, Sean Hannity and Rachel Maddow.
The network said Wednesday that they are shifting the morning show co-host into a prime-time slot at 9 p.m. EDT, to debut later this spring at a date not yet specified. The change will shave Anderson Cooper's current two-hour show into one.
CNN has struggled in prime-time as viewers retreated into partisan corners. Cuomo, the brother of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, has found a niche with sharp questioning of Trump administration officials and maintains an active social media presence.
Cuomo's spot on "New Day" will be filled by CNN's John Berman, who joins current co-host Alisyn Camerota.
CNN
History Dogs CIA Nominee
Torture
CIA director nominee Gina Haspel could face a tough confirmation battle after a number of lawmakers raised questions Tuesday about her past involvement in torture of detainees.
A veteran of the Central Intelligence Agency's black operations, Haspel, 61, was nominated by President Donald Trump to lead the top US espionage body, after he named current CIA director Mike Pompeo to be secretary of state.
Haspel is widely respected in the intelligence community as a disciplined, non-political field agent who took on hardship positions and unsavory jobs. From that she rose to manage the global clandestine network before becoming deputy director one year ago.
But her history during the US "war on terror," overseeing interrogations in CIA black sites later exposed as torture, has already set back her career once and could stand in the way again.
"The torture of detainees in US custody during the last decade was one of the darkest chapters in American history," said Republican Senator John McCain, who himself was tortured as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam.
Torture
How Much Less They Pay Workers
Companies
As Congress chips away at bank regulations established by the 2010 Dodd-Frank law, another part of the measure is exposing the extreme income inequality between bosses and their workers.
The law requires publicly traded companies to calculate the ratio of their chief executive officer's compensation to the median pay of the companies' employees. After a series of delays, firms are finally disclosing their pay ratios in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Some of the numbers are shocking. The staffing firm ManpowerGroup paid its chief executive $11.9 million last year - 2,483 times the average employee's earnings. The firm noted in its disclosure that most of its employees are temps who work only part of the year, making just $4,828 on average.
ManpowerGroup's ratio is the most lopsided of any disclosed as of Tuesday morning, according to Proxy Insight, a company that tracks SEC disclosures for investors. Excluding firms with no employees, the average ratio among the more than 263 disclosures to date is 77 to 1, with CEO pay averaging $7.2 million compared to $93,000 for the typical worker.
Other notable ratios for big firms include the appliance maker Whirlpool Corporation, which paid its CEO 356 times what it paid its average worker, and the health insurance company Humana, whose top executive earned 344 times more than the median salary for employees.
Companies
Private Planes
Zinke
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke (R-Elitist) on Tuesday swung back at critics of his use of private planes that the government has paid for, accusing one senator of slinging "insults" and "innuendos."
During a Senate committee hearing to discuss the administration's proposed budget for his department, Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) asked Zinke if he thought it was "a mistake" to have chartered a flight from Las Vegas to his home state of Montana, which cost taxpayers more than $12,000.
"Insults, innuendos are misleading," said Zinke, visibly agitated. "I never took a private jet anywhere."
For his trip to Montana he flew on a Beechcraft King Air 200, a twin turbo-prop aircraft.
Zinke has billed taxpayers for his use of private planes two other times. In September, Zinke characterized the controversy surrounding these flights as "a little BS." His use of chartered and government aircraft is under investigation by both Interior's Office of the Inspector General and the Office of Special Counsel.
Zinke
Just How Screwed
Coral Reefs
An experiment carried out at One Tree Island in Australia's Great Barrier Reef offers a stark warning of the growing risks that corals face as the oceans become more acidic with time. Ocean acidification due to the burning of fossil fuels could pose a severe risk to the integrity of these marine structures, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature.
For the study, marine scientists pumped carbon dioxide-infused seawater across a patch of Australia's Great Barrier Reef to simulate how acidic the oceans will likely be in the next few decades and almost certainly before the end of the century.
The experiment allowed scientists, for the first time, to step outside of their laboratory and directly observe how an acidified ocean can eat away at coral skeletons. In this setting, the research team found that the heightened acidity suppressed coral reef growth by around a third, compared to average.
No long-term or irreversible harm was done to the vivid coral in this 400 meter-square area - as the experiment was temporary, a small amount of acidified water was used, and normal seawater has since rinsed the reef clean.
The oceans are gradually growing more acidic because there's now significantly more carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere today than at any point in the last 800,000 years. This gas naturally dissolves into the ocean, and once there, carbon dioxide reacts with water to form carbonic acid, increasing the water's acidity (or lowering the pH).
Coral Reefs
9 Days, 12 Hours
Iditarod
A Norwegian musher won the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race early on Wednesday, notching the third victory ever for his home country in the 46-year history of the annual 1,000-mile (1609-km) trek across Alaska's wilderness.
Joar Leifseth Ulsom, the dogsled driver, arrived at the finish line shortly after 2:30 a.m. local time (1030 GMT) after nine days and 12 hours to become the second Norwegian to win the 1,000-mile Iditarod. Countryman Robert Sorlie won twice before - in 2003 and again in 2005.
Ulsom was greeted by Nome's mayor and crowds of fans who lined Nome's snow-covered Front Street, including one waving a Norwegian flag.
Deep snow and warmer weather, with temperatures at times topping the freezing mark, slowed the pace of this year's race. Last year, three-time winner Mitch Seavey set a record of eight days, three hours, 40 minutes and 13 seconds in hard-packed conditions.
Ulsom, driving a team of eight dogs, jumped into first place on Monday when he passed French native Nicolas Petit on the Bering Sea ice. Petit, who had held a comfortable lead, went astray as he ventured into blowing snow and lost the trail, forcing him to backtrack.
Iditarod
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