Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Mark Morford: New iPads are here! If you live long enough, that is (SF Gate)
… science, that bastion of lies and liberal conspiracy, is now suggesting that the planet has transformed and upheaved so much during humanity's short stay, we've actually ushered in an entirely new geologic epoch. It's true. Geoscientists now say that we've "decisively" exited the Holocene era, a roughly 12,000-year epoch that was defined by a very slow, natural warming period (a response to the previous cooling epoch), and are currently aswim in the roiling, people-fueled magma of the so-called Anthropocene - AKA, the Age of Humans. AKA the age of OMG WTF Have We Done.
Al Gore: The Case for Optimism on Climate Change (TED)
Why is Al Gore optimistic about climate change? In this spirited talk, Gore asks three powerful questions about the man-made forces threatening to destroy our planet - and the solutions we're designing to combat them. (Featuring Q&A with TED Curator Chris Anderson)
Anthropocene (Encyclopedia of Earth)
The Anthropocene defines Earth's most recent geologic time period as being human-influenced, or anthropogenic, based on overwhelming global evidence that atmospheric, geologic, hydrologic, biospheric and other earth system processes are now altered by humans.
Chris Mooney: Scientists say humans have now brought on an entirely new geologic epoch(Washington Post)
A group of 24 geoscientists […] released a bracing assessment, suggesting that humans have altered the Earth so extensively that the consequences will be detectable in current and future geological records. They therefore suggest that we should consider the Earth to have moved into a new geologic epoch, the "Anthropocene," sometime circa 1945-1964.
Christopher Ingraham: Why smart people are better off with fewer friends (Washington Post)
When smart people spend more time with their friends, it makes them less happy.
Andrew Tobias: Better For The Planet, Your Wallet, and Your Health
Walk or bike. Eat less meat. Vote Democrat. Better for the planet (Congress is currently controlled by Republicans who believe the climate crisis is a hoax) … your wallet (both the economy and the stock market do markedly better under Democrats) … and your health (Republicans oppose stem cell research, clean-air-and-water regulation, food safety inspection, and - with 62 votes to repeal rather than improve it - affordable healthcare).
David Wong: 10 Simple Facts To Make You Feel Better About This Election (Cracked)
The moment you saw this article was about the election, did you find yourself tensing up, ready to scour it for a sentence you disagree with?
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Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
from Marc Perkel
Patriot Act
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
VOTE FOR A REPUBLICAN AT YOUR OWN PERIL!
SOMEONE HAS TO DO IT!
"OLD DOGS, CHILDREN AND WATERMELON WINE".
FREE THE CLOWN!
"BLOW UP THE TV, THROW AWAY THE PAPER, GO AND FIND JESUS ON YOUR OWN"
A BIGGA, BIGGA, A HUNKA, A HUNKA BURNING WORLD!
JUDGE SARAH? GOD FORGIVE THEM!
THE REST IS HISTORY!
CONSERVATIVES ARE PATHETIC HUMAN BEINGS!
''THE ZOMBIE-EYED GRANNY STARVER!
YEP!
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and warmer.
Adult Health
US
A fresh study has revealed that only 2.7 percent of the US adult population meet the standard for what constitutes a "healthy lifestyle."
The research, conducted jointly by Oregon State University and the University of Mississippi, assessed adults according to four general barometers that could help define healthy behavior: a good diet, moderate exercise, recommended body fat percentage and being a non-smoker.
The results uncovered that a total of 71 percent of adults did not smoke, 38 percent ate a healthy diet, 10 percent had a normal body fat percentage, and 46 percent were sufficiently active, yet only 2.7 percent of all adults had all four healthy lifestyle characteristics. Sixteen percent had three, 37 percent had two, 34 percent had one, and 11 percent had none.
Additionally, women were found more likely to not smoke and eat a healthy diet, but less likely to be sufficiently active; and adults 60 years and older had fewer healthy characteristics than adults ages 20-39, yet were more likely to not smoke and consume a healthy diet, and less likely to be sufficiently active.
While experts say that more research is needed to identify ways to increase the adoption of multiple healthy lifestyle characteristics among adults, Ellen Smit, senior author on the study and an associate professor in the OSU College of Public Health and Human Sciences, said these the findings of the research were not encouraging from the perspective of public health.
US
Karma's A Bitch
Gun Sense
The mother of a 4-year-old boy who shot her as they were riding in a pickup truck should face a misdemeanor charge, authorities said Tuesday as they released details of the shooting for the first time.
The mother, 31-year-old Jamie Gilt, put a loaded .45-caliber handgun underneath the front seat of her pickup on March 8 and the weapon slid into the back seat where her son Lane was riding in a child booster seat, Putnam County Sheriff's Capt. Gator DeLoach said.
The boy had recently learned how to unbuckle himself, got out of his seat and picked up the gun. He fired through the front seat, hitting his mother in the back. There was also a dinosaur toy on the floor near where the gun would have slid, according to a police report.
Gilt was apparently a gun lover who made numerous social media postings about gun rights, including one about teaching her 4-year-old to shoot. DeLoach wouldn't talk about that at a news conference, saying investigators only focused narrowly on what happened March 8. He wouldn't confirm Gilt's gun advocacy or the reports that she had taught Lane how to shoot.
A community Facebook page listed under Jamie Gilt for Gun Sense was filled with posts advocating for gun rights, including a quote that said "My right to protect my child with my gun trumps your fear of my gun."
Gun Sense
Navy Tugboat Found
California
The discovery of a century-old shipwreck off the San Francisco coast has resolved one of the U.S. Navy's greatest maritime mysteries. And for Violet Pammer, it resolved the question of what happened to her Uncle Harvey.
"I grew up with Uncle Harvey's picture hanging on the wall. We never knew what happened," said Pammer, a Northampton, Pennsylvania, resident and the great-niece of Harvey Reinbold, boatswain of the USS Conestoga. "It was supposed to be his last voyage."
The Conestoga, a tugboat, had a crew of 56 when it departed the Golden Gate on March 25, 1921, on its way to Pearl Harbor and eventually American Samoa.
When the Conestoga failed to arrive at Pearl Harbor as scheduled, the Navy launched what was the greatest search and rescue effort of the 20th century, surpassed only years later by the search for Amelia Earhart. There had been some thought that a garbled communication received near Hawaii might have come from the Conestoga, but nothing was found. There was little expectation that the newly refurbished Conestoga would sink so soon into her voyage. In June 1921, the Navy declared the Conestoga and her crew lost.
On Wednesday, researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Navy announced they have found the Conestoga in the waters of the Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary about 30 miles off the coast.
California
Museum Apologizes
Cleveland History Center
An Ohio museum is encouraging breastfeeding after a Pennsylvania mother's Facebook post drew a flurry of responses.
Emily Locke, of Beaver Falls, said Monday that she was breastfeeding her 9-month-old at the Cleveland History Center over the weekend when an employee told her it violated the museum's policy. When Locke refused to move, another employee approached her and told her she had to move to a private area.
Center Director Angie Lowrie told cleveland.com on Tuesday that the museum doesn't prohibit breastfeeding and that the employees have been disciplined.
"We are a family institution and welcome to all," she said. "It is a safe place to come with a family, and women have every right to feed their children."
Locke accepted Lowrie's apology and said she may visit the museum again someday.
Cleveland History Center
Victim May Testify
Hastert
A federal court transcript says that an alleged sex abuse victim could testify next month at former U.S. Speaker Dennis Hastert's (R-Sweaty Wrestler™) sentencing in a hush-money case.
It's the first time that the court has referenced sex abuse in the case.
Hastert pleaded guilty in October to violating bank laws in seeking to pay $3.5 million in hush money to some referred to in the indictment only as "Individual A." The Associated Press and other media outlets, citing anonymous sources, have reported that Hastert wanted to hide claims that he sexually molested someone.
Prosecutors tell the judge that they recently learned an alleged victim, referred to as "Individual D," is deciding whether to testify at the April 27 sentencing.
The transcript also says that a sister of another alleged victim wants to testify.
Hastert
Zygotes Count More Than Women
Alabama
A proposed Alabama constitutional amendment would legally define a fetus as a person from the moment of fertilization, effectively banning abortion in the state.
The bill, sponsored by Rep. Ed Henry, R-Decatur, is similar to ballot measures voted down in Mississippi, Colorado and North Dakota in recent years. The Oklahoma Supreme Court in 2012 ruled a similar amendment unconstitutional.
"To me, science makes it clear that it (life) begins at fertilization," Henry said.
Dr. Jim Belyeu, an OB/GYN who spoke in support of the bill, called a fetus "totally separate" from the mother.
"The mother only contributes the egg and the incubator," Belyeu said.
Alabama
Five Killed In Delaware
Bald Eagles
Five bald eagles have died in Delaware, state officials said on Tuesday, weeks after 13 of the U.S. national birds were determined to have been killed by humans in neighboring Maryland.
The Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control said it was investigating what killed the eagles, but would not comment publicly on possible causes.
Three of the eagles were still alive and very ill when they were discovered at the weekend, Sgt. John McDerby of the Delaware Fish and Wildlife Natural Resources said in a statement. They died a short time after their rescue.
"We don't know how many eagles may have been affected, so we are asking the public to notify us immediately should they see birds that appear sick," McDerby said.
Bald Eagles
Israeli Firm Helping FBI
iPhone
Israel's Cellebrite, a provider of mobile forensic software, is helping the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation's attempt to unlock an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino, California shooters, the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reported on Wednesday.
If Cellebrite succeeds, then the FBI will no longer need the help of Apple Inc , the Israeli daily said, citing unnamed industry sources.
The two sides were set to face off in court on Tuesday, but on Monday a federal judge agreed to the government's request to postpone the hearing after U.S. prosecutors said a "third party" had presented a possible method for opening an encrypted iPhone.
Cellebrite, a subsidiary of Japan's Sun Corp, has its revenue split between two businesses: a forensics system used by law enforcement, military and intelligence that retrieves data hidden inside mobile devices and technology for mobile retailers.
iPhone
'Spill the Beans'
T-rump
GOP frontrunner Donald Trump has set his sights on his main Republican rival, Ted Cruz, threatening in a late night tweet to "spill the beans" on Cruz's wife, Heidi.
The tweet comes on the heels of a new anti-Trump Super PAC, Make America Awesome, releasing a Trump attack ad that features a racy image of the billionaire's wife, Melania, from her past modeling days.
The digital ad has been running in Utah and Arizona for the last several days, according to the group. The ad targets the conservative voting bloc of female Mormon voters and ran along with two other anti-Trump ads targeting both male and female Mormon voters.
In a tweet, Ted Cruz, said that the ad had nothing to do with him.
Pic of your wife not from us. Donald, if you try to attack Heidi, you're more of a coward than I thought. #classless
T-rump
In Memory
Rita Gam
Rita Gam, a glamorous actress who starred in such exotic films as Saadia with Cornel Wilde, Sign of the Pagan with Jack Palance as Attila the Hun and Nicholas Ray's biblical King of Kings, died Tuesday. She was 88.
Gam, who was director Sidney Lumet's first wife and a bridesmaid at Grace Kelly's 1956 wedding to Prince Rainier, died of respiratory failure at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, publicist Nancy Willen said.
Gam also appeared opposite Gregory Peck in Night People (1954) and Shoot Out (1971), in William Dieterle's Magic Fire (1955), with Victor Mature in Hannibal (1959) and with Jane Fonda in Alan J. Pakula's Klute (1971).
She and her co-star Viveca Lindfors shared the Silver Bear for best actress at the 1962 Berlin International Film Festival for their roles as the women in the hotel room in Tad Danielewski's No Exit, based on the play by Jean-Paul Sartre.
Born in Pittsburgh on April 2, 1927, Gam was raised in New York City. A founding member of The Actors Studio, she landed a role on Broadway in 1946 in A Flag Is Born, written by Ben Hecht, then made her movie debut in The Thief (1952) opposite Ray Milland.
Gam was a leading member of the Minnesota Theater Company during the opening season (1963) of the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis with Zoe Caldwell, Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy.
In 2003, she was in the rotating cast of the off-Broadway stage reading of Wit & Wisdom. Among her other notable stage productions were Hamlet with Dan Mason and Broadway's There's a Girl in My Soup with Gig Young.
On television, Gam appeared on such shows as Lux Video Theatre, Family Affair, McMillan & Wife, Mannix and The Rockford Files. More recently, she produced the documentary series World of Film, which examined the movie business around the world, and the PBS travel series series World of Beauty.
Gam was married to Lumet (12 Angry Men, Dog Day Afternoon) from 1949 until their divorce in 1955; he went on to wed socialite Gloria Vanderbilt a year later. She then was married from 1956-63 to Thomas Guinzburg, who served as the first managing editor of The Paris Review and president of Viking Press.
Soon after Gam and Kelly signed contracts with MGM, they roomed together with another girl in a one-bedroom apartment in Hollywood. They remained close until Kelly's death in 1982.
Survivors include her daughter, film producer Kate Guinzburg, who partnered with Michelle Pfeiffer in Via Rosa Productions; her son, novelist Michael Guinzburg; and granddaughters Michelle, Olivia and Louisa.
Rita Gam
In Memory
Ken Howard
Ken Howard, the current national president of SAG-AFTRA who came to fame as the supportive inner-city high school basketball coach on the 1970s CBS drama The White Shadow, died Wednesday. He was 71.
Howard, who got laughs as Hank Hooper, the CEO of Kabletown, the cable company that buys NBC from General Electric, on the sitcom 30 Rock, died at his home near Los Angeles, the guild said. No cause of death was announced.
Howard won a supporting actor Emmy Award in 2009 for portraying the absent father Phelan Beale (the uncle of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis) in the HBO telefilm Grey Gardens. He accepted his trophy four days before winning the Screen Actors Guild presidency.
The imposing 6-foot-6 actor played lawyer Garrett Boydston on the ABC primetime soap Dynasty and its spinoff, The Colbys, in the 1980s and was the retired police detective father of a forensic pathologist (Jill Hennessy) on the 2001-05 NBC drama Crossing Jordan.
In 1970, Howard received a Tony Award for best featured actor in a play for his performance as a phys-ed teacher at a Catholic boarding school for boys in Robert Marasco's long-running thriller Child's Play.
Most recently, he appeared in two 2015 films - as the father of the bride (Kaley Cuoco) in The Wedding Ringer and as a mop executive in David O. Russell's Joy.
On The White Shadow, Howard starred as Ken Reeves, an NBA player who suffers a career-ending knee injury and takes over as head basketball coach at Carver High, a fictional school in South Central Los Angeles.
Growing up on Long Island, Howard had been the only white player on his high-school basketball team and was given the nickname "The White Shadow." He pitched his idea for the series to the late writer-producer Bruce Paltrow, the husband of a friend, actress Blythe Danner.
CBS was interested but wanted the series to be funny in the vein of Welcome Back, Kotter and to avoid such serious issues as teens dealing with sex, drugs and crime.
"And we said, "Why do you think we are doing the show? That's all the stuff that is out there, the demons, that these kids are dealing with,'" Howard recalled in a 2005 interview. "And we were figuring out what we wanted to do as we were confronted with this stuff. ... So the next thing you know, we are breaking all kinds of ground. I mean, we were dealing with [venereal disease] and teenage pregnancy and drugs and gambling ... we figured, why not?"
A stockbroker's son, Howard was born on March 28, 1944, in El Centro, Calif., and raised in the town of Manhasset, N.Y. After high school, he captained the basketball team at Amherst College and was a member of an a capella group before attending the Yale School of Drama.
He left school after two years and made his Broadway debut in 1968 in the original production of Neil Simon's Promises, Promises. He soon was appearing in such productions as the Tony-winning musical 1776 (as Thomas Jefferson), Child's Play and as the neighbor Tom in Alan Ayckbourn's Norman Conquests trilogy.
His first onscreen appearance came opposite Liza Minnelli in Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon (1970). He reprised his role as Jefferson for the 1972 film version of 1776 and later appeared, often as authority figures, in such films as Oscar (1991), Clear and Present Danger (1994), At First Sight (1999), Michael Clayton (2007) and The Judge (2014).
Howard was elected the 25th and final president of SAG in September 2009 and, after pushing for a merger with the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, was re-elected in September 2011.
Survivors include his wife, retired stuntwoman Linda Fetters Howard, and three stepchildren.
He earlier was married to actress Louise Sorel (Days of Our Lives) and Margo Howard, the daughter of Eppie Lederer, who dispensed advice as the syndicated newspaper columnist Ann Landers. Both marriages ended in divorce.
Ken Howard
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