Jeanne Lenzer and Shannon Brownlee: Pandemic Science Is Out of Control (Slate)
Today, just shy of two months since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic, the media are once again flooded with cures, patients such as Michigan state Rep. Karen Whitsett are being quoted with claims that hydroxychloroquine "saved my life," and doctors are prescribing drugs that have not been shown to be effective. Only this time, it's the 21st century, the age of "evidence-based medicine." Or so it might seem. But instead of no science to back up treatments, we now have bad studies being reported uncritically in the press, and Twitter storms of doctors, journalists, and researchers arguing about the ethics of withholding drugs from dying patients, even though we have no idea if those drugs do more harm than good.
Ethan Diamond: Support Artists Impacted By the Covid-19 Pandemic (Bandcamp)
On March 20, 2020, we waived our revenue share in order to help artists and labels impacted by the pandemic. The Bandcamp community showed up in a massive way, spending $4.3 million on music and merch-15x the amount of a normal Friday- helping artists cover rents, mortgages, groceries, medications, and so much more. It was truly inspiring. But the pandemic and its impact on the music community aren't over, so on May 1, June 5, and July 3 (the first Friday of each month), we're waiving our revenue share for all sales on Bandcamp, from midnight to midnight PDT on each day.
Jane C. Hu: Bask in the Joy of Made-Up American Baseball Players' Names From a 1994 Japanese Nintendo Game (Slate)
It's a whole trope in pop culture that names made up under duress verge on the ridiculous-see Rufus T. Barleysheath from Liz Lemon in 30 Rock, or Chareth Cutestory from Michael Bluth on Arrested Development-so I've always imagined Bobson Dugnutt and Sleve McDichael as the creations of some underpaid intern, asked to come up with plausible baseball player names off the cuff. The names are tantalizingly close to real ones: Dwight without the H, Sernandez instead of Hernandez or Fernandez. It's like naming your fictional character Schmarack Schmobama; it's not Barack Obama, except it clearly is.
Garrison Keillor: How do you sleep at night? Here's how
I'm a Minnesotan, not a New Yorker, but I do love New Yorkers' willingness to say what's on their mind. A woman at church once told me during coffee hour that she never liked my radio show and we became instant friends on that basis. She said it in a friendly way, and frankly I'm not a huge fan of myself either, so right away we have something in common. On the other hand, a New York guy told me Saturday on the phone, "I love you. You know that." A Minnesotan wouldn't have said it if you'd put a gun to his head.
A French-language version of this song is titled "Les Cavaliers du Ciel", the Spanish-language version is "Jinetes en el cielo", and in 1949, a German-language version titled "Geisterreiter" was recorded. What is the title of this song in English?
"(Ghost) Riders in the Sky: A Cowboy Legend"
Source
"(Ghost) Riders in the Sky: A Cowboy Legend" is a cowboy-styled country/western song written in 1948 by American songwriter, film and television actor Stan Jones.
A number of versions were crossover hits on the pop charts in 1949, the most successful being by Vaughn Monroe. The ASCAP database lists the song as "Riders in the Sky" (title code 480028324), but the title has been written as "Ghost Riders", "Ghost Riders in the Sky", and "A Cowboy Legend". Members of the Western Writers of America chose it as the greatest Western song of all time.
The song tells a folk tale of a cowboy who has a vision of red-eyed, steel-hooved cattle thundering across the sky, being chased by the spirits of damned cowboys. One warns him that if he does not change his ways, he will be doomed to join them, forever "trying to catch the Devil's herd across these endless skies". The story has been linked with old European myths of the Wild Hunt, in which a supernatural group of hunters passes the narrator in wild pursuit.
Source
Randall was first, and correct, with:
Ghost Riders in the Sky
Mark. said:
Ghost Riders in the Sky.
Mac Mac wrote:
Ghost Riders in the Sky
Alan J answered:
Ghost Riders In the Sky.
mj responded:
Going from the titles
And my spotty foreign language skills, the rough translation I come up
with is "Ghost Riders in the Sky".
Cal in Vermont antwortete:
"Ghost Riders In The Sky", aber natürlich!
Dave wrote:
(Ghost) Riders In the Sky. Composed by Stan Jones and first recorded in 1948 by Stan Jones and his Death Valley Rangers. At the time Jones was actually working for the National Park Service as a park ranger. Jones became friends with Hollywood director John Ford while working as a technical advisor for the filming of the Western The Walking Hills and started working in the film and TV business composing Western songs and occasionally acting in small parts. Jones worked quite a bit for Disney Studios until his death in 1963 at age 49.
David of Moon Valley replied:
hmmm
my wikipal tells me it's Ghost RIders In The Sky…but he's been known to tell me wrong in the past so who knows…..
Jim from CA, retired to ID, responded:
Ghost Riders in the Sky....by Johnny Cash
Deborah wrote:
My WAG is "Riders in the Sky."
Had to stop myself from engaging an apparent troll on Next Door yesterday. I just don't get how people overlook the science and keep harping about loss of freedom. It won't last forever.
Barbara, of Peppy Tech fame said:
The answer is "(Ghost) Riders in the Sky: A Cowboy Legend."
Billy in Cypress U$A answered:
"Ghost Riders in the Sky" is today's answer and my number 1 favortie American Western song, that is followed by "Tumbling Tumbleweeds" and "Cool Water".
Rosemary in Columbus replied:
Ghost Writers in the Sky
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~~~~~
• Bruno Walter could be a very good critic as well as a very good conductor. He once saw Lotte Lehmann perform Elsa in Lohengrin. The next day, Ms. Lehmann waited to hear what he had to say about her performance, but he remained silent, so she asked him point blank for his opinion. He told her, "Yesterday I saw something which I don't ever want to see in you, which doesn't go with you at all: routine." Ms. Lehmann listened seriously to his comments, and she wrote later, "Never again did I sing Elsa with 'routine.'"
• While he was head conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra, Artur Rodzinski used to have members of a carefully selected committee listen to new music, then make recommendations about whether the orchestra should play that music. On one occasion, all the members of the committee except one turned thumbs down on a piece of new music. The other members of the committee asked the lone member why he wouldn't join them in condemning the new work. He replied, "I can't condemn it - I wrote it."
• Billie Holiday, aka Lady Day, once spent five days with Maya Angelou, and part of the time she was a good guest. However, near the end of her visit, Ms. Holiday went to hear Ms. Angelou sing in a nightclub, and Lady Day told Ms. Angelou, "You're going to be famous - but it won't be for singing."
• Son House, a great blues guitarist, was also a devastating critic. He once listened to a recording of a white blues pretender performing one of his songs. Mr. House was pleased that someone had recorded one of his songs, but he said about the performance, "Those are my words, all right, but it sure ain't my music."
Dance
• Many people don't realize this, but the moves of Mick Jaggar on stage at concerts are to an extent choreographed. No, no one tells Mr. Jaggar exactly what to do each moment on stage, but people such as dance choreographer Toni Basil help him be on stage for two hours without repeating the same moves over and over - and without looking choreographed. Ms. Basil does give him ideas to use, such as "For this song, be a pimp like the Harvey Keitel character in the film Taxi Driver." Or she can give him ideas about where to sing a song: "On this song, go out on the ramp and stay there and sing beyond the step." And yes, she does create some steps so that Mr. Jaggar looks good while performing.
• Edward Villella once was rehearsing the Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux on a very small stage for a performance with the New York Philharmonic. He was comfortable dancing on the very small stage, but every time he came close to the very front of the stage, closest to the orchestra pit, a cellist there was terrified that he would fall off stage and onto him and his instrument. During a break in rehearsal, the cellist showed Mr. Villella his cello and pleaded, "Could you please not come so close to me when you dance? Please! I beg you! This is priceless! It's a Stradivariu!"
THE WORLD HAS LOVED, HATED AND ENVIED THE U.S. NOW, FOR THE FIRST TIME, WE PITY IT
The Irish Times
April 25, 2020
By Fintan O'Toole
Over more than two centuries, the United States has stirred a very wide range of feelings in the rest of the world: love and hatred, fear and hope, envy and contempt, awe and anger. But there is one emotion that has never been directed towards the US until now: pity.
However bad things are for most other rich democracies, it is hard not to feel sorry for Americans. Most of them did not vote for Donald Trump in 2016. Yet they are locked down with a malignant narcissist who, instead of protecting his people from Covid-19, has amplified its lethality. The country Trump promised to make great again has never in its history seemed so pitiful.
Another marine layer morning followed by a sunny afternoon.
Tonight, Thursday:
CBS opens the night with a FRESH'Young Sheldon', followed by a FRESH'Man With A Plan', then another FRESH'Man With A Plan', followed by a FRESH'Broke', then a FRESH'Tommy'.
Scheduled on a FRESHStephen Colbert are Sen. Chuck Schumer and Paul Giamatti.
On a RERUNJames Corden, OBE, (from 11/13/19) are Beth Behrs, Sam Claflin, and Grace VanderWaal.
NBC begins the night with a FRESH'Parks & Recreation', followed by another FRESH'Parks & Recreation', then a FRESH'Council Of Dads', followed by another FRESH'Council Of Dads'.
Scheduled on a FRESHJimmy Fallon are Vince Vaughn, Gigi Hadid, and Thom Yorke.
Scheduled on a FRESHSeth Meyers are Gov. Gavin Newsom and Retta.
Scheduled on a FRESHLilly Singh is Phoebe Robinson.
ABC starts the night with a FRESH'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?', followed by a FRESH'Station 19', then a FRESH'How To Get Away With Murder'.
Scheduled on a FRESHJimmy Kimmel is Mandy Moore.
The CW offers a FRESH'Katy Keene', followed by a FRESH'In The Dark'.
Faux has a FRESH'Last Man Standing', followed by a RERUN'Last Man Standing', then a RERUN'Mental Samurai'.
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', another 'The First 48', then a FRESH'60 Days In'.
AMC offers the movie 'Gran Torino', followed by the movie 'US Marshals'.
BBC -
[6:00AM] MISSION GALÁPAGOS - Cauldron of Life
[7:00AM] MISSION GALÁPAGOS - Secrets of the Deep
[8:00AM] MISSION GALÁPAGOS - Future Frontiers
[9:00AM] PLANET EARTH: AFRICA - Kalahari
[10:00AM] PLANET EARTH: AFRICA - Savannah
[11:00AM] PLANET EARTH: AFRICA - Congo
[12:00PM] PLANET EARTH: AFRICA - Cape
[1:00PM] PLANET EARTH: AFRICA - Sahara
[2:00PM] PLANET EARTH: AFRICA - Kalahari
[3:00PM] PLANET EARTH: AFRICA - Savannah
[4:00PM] PLANET EARTH: AFRICA - Congo
[5:00PM] PLANET EARTH: AFRICA - Cape
[6:00PM] PLANET EARTH: AFRICA - Sahara
[7:00PM] LIFE STORY
[8:00PM] LIFE STORY
[9:00PM] LIFE STORY
[10:00PM] LIFE STORY
[11:00PM] LIFE STORY
[12:00AM] LIFE STORY
[1:00AM] LIFE STORY
[2:00AM] LIFE STORY
[3:00AM] MISSION GALÁPAGOS - Cauldron of Life
[4:00AM] MISSION GALÁPAGOS - Secrets of the Deep
[5:00AM] MISSION GALÁPAGOS - Future Frontiers
[5:30AM] MONTY PYTHON'S FLYING CIRCUS - Mr. and Mrs. Brian Norris' Ford Popular (ALL TIMES EST)
Bravo has 'Real Housewives Of NYC', another 'Real Housewives Of NYC', followed by a FRESH'Real Housewives of NYC', then a FRESH'Top chef', followed by a FRESH'Watch What Happens: Live'.
IFC -
[6:00A] The Three Stooges - Punch Drunks
[6:15A] Sleepy Hollow
[8:45A] Black Mass
[11:45A] Escape From L.A.
[2:00P] That '70s Show
[2:30P] That '70s Show
[3:00P] That '70s Show
[3:30P] That '70s Show
[4:00P] That '70s Show
[4:30P] That '70s Show
[5:00P] That '70s Show
[5:30P] That '70s Show
[6:00P] That '70s Show
[6:30P] That '70s Show
[7:00P] Two and a Half Men
[7:30P] Two and a Half Men
[8:00P] Two and a Half Men
[8:30P] Two and a Half Men
[9:00P] Two and a Half Men
[9:30P] Two and a Half Men
[10:00P] Two and a Half Men
[10:30P] Two and a Half Men
[11:00P] Two and a Half Men
[11:30P] Two and a Half Men
[12:00A] That '70s Show
[12:30A] That '70s Show
[1:00A] That '70s Show
[1:30A] That '70s Show
[2:00A] That '70s Show
[2:30A] Brockmire - Union Negotiations
[3:00A] Mission: Impossible II
[3:30A] That '70s Show
[4:00A] That '70s Show
[4:30A] That '70s Show
[5:00A] Brockmire - Union Negotiations
[5:31A] That '70s Show (ALL TIMES EST)
Sundance -
[6:00am] The Andy Griffith Show
[6:30am] The Andy Griffith Show
[7:00am] The Andy Griffith Show
[7:30am] The Andy Griffith Show
[8:00am] The Andy Griffith Show
[8:30am] Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls
[10:30am] Jumanji
[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] Exiled: A Law & Order Movie
[4:00am] The Andy Griffith Show
[4:30am] The Andy Griffith Show
[5:00am] The Andy Griffith Show
[5:30am] The Andy Griffith Show (ALL TIMES EST)
SyFy has the movie 'Pitch Black', followed by the movie 'Lake Placid', then a FRESH'Vagrant Queen'.
Trevor Noah used his monologue to ridicule the federal Paycheck Protection Program. Meant to help small businesses through the pandemic, the program's $342 billion mysteriously disappeared "faster than Rudy Giuliani in direct sunlight," according to Noah.
That's a strange development since, when Congress later funded another $310 billion for the same purpose, few small businesses could access the program's website and even fewer got funding.
So where did the original $342 billion go? And how did it get handed out, if the website didn't work?
According to The Daily Social Distancing Show, $870 million of it went to big, publicly traded companies, including Ruth's Chris Steak House, Shake Shack and the Los Angeles Lakers, a sports franchise worth $4 billion.
President Donald Trump (R-Feckless) will do a virtual town hall with Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum on Sunday.
The two-hour propaganda event, America Together: Returning to Work, will take place at the Lincoln Memorial.
Trump did a Fox News town hall last month at the White House, with Bill Hemmer and Harris Faulkner as moderators, and the event also featured Vice President Mike Pence and members of the coronavirus task force. Baier and MacCallum also moderated a town hall with Trump on March 5 in Scranton, PA, which was the most watched election town hall on cable news.
The town hall will take place from 7 PM ET to 9 PM ET, and Trump will answer questions that can be submitted to Fox News' social media accounts on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, with a chance to appear in the national broadcast.
Actor Holly Marie Combs pointed the finger firmly at President Donald Trump (R-Unfit) following the death of her grandfather on Monday from the coronavirus.
The "Charmed" and "Pretty Little Liars" star revealed her grandfather died from COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, just one day after his 66th wedding anniversary.
"He voted for you," Combs tweeted at Trump.
"He believed you when you said this virus was no worse than the flu," she continued. "He believed every lie you muttered and sputtered."
President Donald Trump (R-Draft Dodger) again commented on the embattled case of Capt. Brett Crozier on Wednesday, saying the ousted commanding officer and former Navy secretary who fired him would "be seeing me at a certain point."
Trump declined to offer his thoughts on whether Crozier should be reinstated as commanding officer of the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt, saying only, "I have my feelings on it."
"I don't know him, I've never spoken with him," Trump said of the captain. "But I think he's a very good man who had a very bad day.
"And then he wanted to be Ernest Hemingway," the president added, comparing Crozier to the famous writer. "... He started writing these long memos, and you can't do that when you're the captain of a ship."
He is 37 and less than 10 years out of law school. He had never tried a case, nor served as co-counsel at trial, when he was tapped last year for America's federal bench. But he did go on Fox News to push the cause of Brett Kavanaugh when Trump's supreme court pick was mired in sexual abuse claims two years ago. And now he is bound for the second highest court in the land.
Conservative Justin Walker's nomination to serve as circuit judge on the US court of appeals for the District of Columbia circuit, announced by Donald Trump on 3 April, barely caused a ripple in a world transfixed by a deadly pandemic. But it was a wake-up call for Democrats: the fight for the White House and Senate in November will also be a fight for the rule of law.
The Trump administration has brought a laser-like focus to nominating and winning Senate confirmation for 193 judges - two supreme court justices, 51 circuit court judges (a quarter of the total), 138 district court judges and two US court of international trade judges - at a pace unmatched since the presidency of Ronald Reagan.
Trump and Mitch McConnell, the Republican majority leader in the Senate, aim to guarantee a long-term conservative skew on decisions that affect millions of people, including abortion rights, environment regulations, gun control, immigration rules and access to healthcare (having failed to overturn Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act on Capitol Hill, the administration is now trying to do so in the courts).
The new wave of judges is dominated by young white men often rushed through the Senate with little regard for standard procedure. Critics say the chief criterion for selection is no longer experience or qualifications but ideology.
One of the world's largest lunar meteorites goes on private sale at Christie's on Thursday, valued at 2 million pounds ($2.49 million).
The moon rock, weighing over 13.5 kg, was probably struck off the surface of the moon by a collision with an asteroid or comet and then showered down on the Sahara desert.
Known as NWA 12691, it is thought to be the fifth largest piece of the moon ever found on earth. There is just 650 kg of moon rock known to be on earth.
Like many meteorites that are discovered, it was found in the Sahara by an anonymous finder after travelling some 240,000 miles to earth from the moon. It then changed hands and was carefully studied.
Once 'The Most Dangerous Place in the History of Planet Earth'
Sahara
Around 100 million years ago, an area of the Sahara, which is now known as south-eastern Morocco, was home to a fearsome multitude of ravenous predators. The place was so bloodcurdling that scientists have decided to name it "most dangerous place in the history of planet Earth."
A team of scientists reviewed a collection of fossils found in ancient rock formations known as the Kem Kem group. It is located near the border between Morocco and Algeria on the northwestern edge of the Sahara Desert. It was in 1996 when Professor Paul Sereno from the University of Chicago and his colleagues introduced the informal term "Kem Kem beds" for this fossil-rich ledge.
Researchers claim that the fossils, which are now put on display in museum collections around the world, include enormous dinosaurs, crocodilians, pterosaurs, turtles, fish, invertebrates, and plants.
While the region is now a dry, barren region, it wasn't quite so 100 million years ago. Researchers say that when the creatures lived in the area, it was home to a comprehensive river system with a tropical climate and many aquatic and terrestrial animals. Many of these beasts likely relied on the plentiful fish that filled the waters of the river system.
The oldest complete mammal fossil from the Southern Hemisphere is puzzling scientists with its mismatched body, strange skull holes and teeth that look like they're "from outer space."
The new fossil, reported today (April 29) in the journal Nature, is the oldest (and only) nearly complete skeleton from an extinct group of mammals known as Gondwanatherians. This mysterious bunch lived alongside the dinosaurs on the southern supercontinent of Gondwana. They're known from a smattering of teeth and bone fragments, a single skull and the new, remarkable skeleton of an animal whose discoverers have dubbed the "crazy beast."
The fossil is from northwestern Madagascar and dates back 66 million years, to the end of the Cretaceous period. Madagascar was already an island at the time, having drifted away from Africa by 88 million years ago, and the animals that lived there were completely bizarre, said David Krause, the senior curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, who led the new research.
Among the animals found on Madagascar at this time were: the predatory, buck-toothed dinosaur Masiakasaurus knopfleri; a frog wider than a No. 2 pencil is long that may have eaten baby dinosaurs and was named Beelzebufo ampinga, or "devil frog"; and a crocodile with a short snout and bumpy teeth that probably ate plants.
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