Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Garrison Keillor: Someone to Sit Next to Me.
Six years of classmates resisting my physical presence had a big effect on me. I learned to not be put off by rejection, that all you need is one acceptance. Somewhere on the school bus of life is one beautiful person who will move over and make room for you. That is all you need.
Garrison Keillor: Dear Mr. Blue
Dating in middle age, choosing a publisher, and making yourself heard.
Jonathan Jones: Modigliani's Nu Couché is a trite pastiche - and the buyers saw through the hype (The Guardian)
Sotheby's billed the $157m nude as a proto-feminist portrait of a sexually confident modern woman. In fact, she's little more than a soft-hued rehash of paintings by more daring innovators
Jonathan Jones: "'Isn't this just posh dinnerware?' - William De Morgan: Sublime Symmetry review" (The Guardian)
The soul quickly rebels. Is this art? No, it is merely craft. Opening during London Craft Week, this exhibition of an arts and crafts legend sounded like a promising encounter with a forerunner of today's arty potters such as Grayson Perry. Instead, it helped me understand why they bore me.
Sabrina Faramarzi: How sex toys are being redesigned to help survivors of sexual assault (The Guardian)
A healthy sex life can feel unattainable for survivors of sexual assault. But new products, from brushes to non-penetrative tools, are giving women a powerful way to reclaim their bodies.
Arwa Mahdawi: Rita Ora was right to apologise - she got bisexual women all wrong (The Guardian)
The singer's new single, Girls, was supposed to be a 'bisexual anthem', but it has taken a lot of flak for its retrograde stereotypes, which further the misconception that bisexuality is just about sex, not love.
Hadley Freeman: A glossy Vogue shoot won't save Georgina Chapman from the Weinstein fallout (The Guardian)
The disgraced film producer's ex-wife is attempting to cleanse herself and her clothes brand Marchesa - but that won't help the women who say he crushed their careers and self-esteem.
David Brooks: The American Renaissance Is Already Happening (NY Times)
In many of the cities the local library serves as an all-purpose community center. In Bend, Ore., the library has a few dozen local partnerships - AARP volunteers help people do their taxes in the library; Goodwill workers teach résumé writing. In Charleston, W.Va., and Columbus, Ohio, the libraries zero in on programs for infants to 3-year-olds, so children enter school ready to learn.
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David Bruce has over 80 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
Presenting
Michael Egan
responded:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
David E Suggests
Plastering
David
Thanks, Dave!
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
Reader Comment
Current Events
Linda >^..^<
We are all only temporarily able bodied.
Thanks, Linda!
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
"IT'S A TOOL OF PEACE."
THE MYTH OF "REAL" AMERICA.
CAUGHT IN THE ACT!
"THE RISE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE."
"THE TRUTH WILL PREVAIL."
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Gray morning, sunny afternoon.
Idaho Inches Closer
Paulette Jordan
Progressive Democrat Paulette Jordan won Tuesday night's primary in the Idaho governor's race, setting her up for a tough November election but with a shot at becoming the nation's first Native American governor.
Jordan, a two-term state legislator, defeated multimillionaire and Boise school board member A.J. Balukoff. With 96 percent of precincts in, Jordan won more than 58 percent of the vote to Balukoff's 40 percent.
She prevailed despite being significantly outspent and up against her party's establishment.
Jordan will now face Lt. Gov. Brad Little in November. He won Tuesday night's GOP primary with 37 percent of the vote. He defeated U.S. Rep. Raúl Labrador and real estate developer Tommy Ahlquist.
It is a long-shot bid for Jordan, 38. She's running as a pro-LGBTQ rights, pro-marijuana legalization, pro-Medicaid expansion Democrat in a deeply red state. The last time Idaho elected a Democratic governor was in 1990.
Paulette Jordan
CBS Fall Schedule
'Murphy Brown'
CBS on Wednesday morning announced its fall lineup, its first without at least some Thursday Night Football in a few years, and is keeping things pretty much the same on the nights that have been working while making some big changes to its troubled Monday.
The biggest news of all might be that the resurrected Murphy Brown will land on the schedule sooner than some expected. The 13-episode order of the revival, which has even more excitement around it since the success of ABC's Roseanne, is slotted for Thursday nights, airing at 9:30 p.m. right after Mom and a full hour after The Big Bang Theory.
Programming senior vp Thom Sherman offered up some details about the new Murphy Brown during a breakfast with press. The returning characters, who anchored newsmagazine FYI in the original, now have a morning cable news show called Murphy in the Morning. The twist is that Brown's (Candice Bergen) son is on a rival morning show. When asked if it was a Fox & Friends/Morning Joe situation, CBS Entertainment president Kelly Kahl agreed that that was a good comparison. "We're extremely hopeful," the exec said when asked if Roseanne's success on ABC had raised ratings expectations. "We'd love to get Roseanne numbers. I'm not sure we're going to get Rosanne numbers."
Monday is the only night that looks dramatically different, year over year. The comedy block has been cut down to just one hour, with no returning series. At 8 p.m., it's newcomers The Neighborhood (which just added New Girl star Max Greenfield in a buzzy recasting) and Happy Together. The duo will be followed by the Magnum P.I. remake and a shifted Bull. The dramas, at the very least, should help remedy the night's ratings fatigue.
'Murphy Brown'
Counters Move
Redstone Family
The struggle over the future of CBS Corp took a new twist Wednesday as the holding company for controlling shareholder Shari Redstone said it revised the bylaws of the media group, a move aimed at heading off an effort to dilute her voting power.
National Amusements Inc said the move was designed "to safeguard against unlawful action by CBS and its special committee" which had been moving to weaken the control of Shari Redstone, daughter of the ailing 94-year-old former chairman Sumner Redstone.
Under the new bylaws, any change in voting power would require a "supermajority," according to a statement from National Amusements.
The holding company said it acted to head off "the irresponsible action taken by CBS and its special committee," claiming it "put in motion a chain of events that poses significant risk to CBS."
CBS said the move "provides further evidence of why we concluded that we had no choice but to file our action in the Delaware courts, in order to protect the interests of all CBS shareholders. "
Redstone Family
Named CEO of "New Fox"
Lachlan Murdoch
Lachlan Murdoch will be chairman and his father Rupert Murdoch will be co-chairman of "New Fox," the company that will consist of the 21st Century Fox assets that Disney is not buying, including the Fox News Channel and Fox broadcast network, while Lachlan also will run the entity as its CEO.
The Murdoch-controlled conglomerate on Wednesday also said that CFO John Nallen will become COO at New Fox, which also will include the Fox Business Network, Fox Sports, Fox Television Stations Group and more.
"The new Fox will begin as the only media company solely focused on the domestic market; focused on what Americans love best - sports, news and entertainment, built and delivered for a U.S. audience," Rupert Murdoch (R-Evin Incarnate) said.
Disney has agreed to pay $52.4 billion for the Fox film and TV studio, FX Networks, National Geographic Partners, the regional sports networks and Star India. The deal also has Fox's share of Hulu going to Disney, which means the latter will have 60 percent of that digital VOD asset, and Disney also is supposed to get Fox's 39 percent share of Sky, the European TV giant.
Lachlan Murdoch has been serving as co-executive chairman, along with Rupert, of 21st Century Fox since the company split from News Corp while his brother James has been CEO. Insiders say that James will begin his own digital media investment firm once the partial merger with Disney - or with Comcast - is complete.
Lachlan Murdoch
'With Friends Like That ...'
European Union
A top European Union official slammed President-for-now Donald Trump (R-Crooked) over his decision to end the Iran nuclear deal on Wednesday morning.
"Looking at latest decisions of [Trump] someone could even think: with friends like that who needs enemies," wrote Donald Tusk, president of the European Council. But frankly speaking, Europe should be grateful to President Trump. Because thanks to him we have got rid of all illusions. He made us realize that if you need a helping hand, you will find one at the end of your arm."
The European Council is the governing body of the European Union, in charge of creating the EU's political agenda.
In a letter to his European colleagues ahead of a summit Wednesday evening, Tusk doubled down on his convictions. "Following last week's announcement of the United States withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action with Iran, we need a united European front," he wrote. "The deal is good for European and global security, which is why we must maintain it. Despite the US hesitation."
Tusk also mentioned looking into ways to protect European companies from "negative consequences of the US decision."
European Union
Won't Repay $84,000
Farenthold
A day after announcing he had secured a new, six-figure lobbying job, former Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-Oink) said he has no intention of paying back tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars he used to settle a sexual harassment suit.
Farenthold, who resigned from the House in April, used $84,000 in taxpayer money to settle the sexual harassment lawsuit brought against him by a former aide in 2014. When the news about the settlement broke in December, Farenthold vowed to quickly pay the money back but never did.
Asked on Tuesday whether he would make the payment in the wake of his new job, he said he had no intention to do so.
"I will say this on the record: I have been advised by my attorneys not to repay that," Farenthold told ABC. "That's why it hasn't been repaid."
Farenthold resigned abruptly, just as the House Ethics Committee was about to rule against him in an investigation into whether he sexually harassed members of his staff, used official money for campaign purposes and lied in testimony to the committee.
Farenthold
Sign Letter
7 Governors
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster and a group of fellow governors are backing President-for-now Donald Trump's (R-Corrupt) nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize, citing what they called Trump's "transformative efforts to bring peace to the Korean peninsula."
In a letter this week to Norwegian Nobel Committee chairman Berit Reiss-Andersen, McMaster and six fellow governors wrote that Trump's "firm stance against nuclearization, coupled with his willingness to engage one-on-one with Pyongyang, has succeeded in opening new avenues of cooperation, friendship and unity between the two Koreas - and the rest of the world."
The letter follows one from 18 U.S. House Republicans, who earlier this month formally nominated Trump for the award amid preparations for a historic summit with North Korea's Kim Jong Un. The National Republican Senatorial Committee has also promoted the idea, sending an email encouraging supporters to "Nominate President Trump to Win the Nobel Peace Prize" by adding their name to a list.
Governors are not listed among those who can officially make Nobel nominations, according to the organization's website .
Other signatories to the governors' letter include Guam Gov. Eddie Baza Calvo; Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant; Kansas Gov. Jeff Colyer; Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey; West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice; and Maine Gov. Paul LePage.
7 Governors
Grenade Launcher Ammo Lost
North Dakota
Airmen have called off the search for military explosives that recently fell off a vehicle on a Native American reservation in North Dakota.
Mountrail County Sheriff Ken Halverson announced last week that a container of ammunition for an automatic grenade launcher fell off a Humvee on May 1 near Parshall in the northwest part of the state.
The search ended over the weekend after Minot Air Force Base personnel exhausted efforts to find the missing ammunition, spokeswoman Danielle Lucero told the Bismarck Tribune .
The ammunition is safe as long as the container is intact, according to the Air Force. Halverson said the ammunition won't operate in another device without "catastrophic failure." But people should evacuate and call first responders if the ammunition is located and found damaged.
Tribal staff were told about the missing explosives on Thursday, said Mark Fox, chairman of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation. The explosives were lost on the Fort Berthold Reservation.
North Dakota
12th-Century Shipwreck
'Made in China'
A "Made in China" label stamped onto two ceramic boxes hauled from a shipwreck on the bottom of the Java Sea reveals that the ship went down a century earlier than previously believed.
The Java Sea wreck was once thought to date to the mid- to late 1200s. Now, new radiocarbon dating combined with the bureaucratic jargon on the label puts the real timing of the wreck during the second half of the 1100s, according to new research published today (May 16) in The Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.
This was a time when the ruling dynasty of southern China was expanding sea trade routes, said study co-author Lisa Niziolek, the Boone research scientist in Asian anthropology at The Field Museum in Chicago. The dynasty's focus on sea trade, Niziolek said, could explain the bevy of treasures aboard the sunken ship: ceramics, some 200 tons (180 metric tons) of cast-iron objects, aromatic resin and even elephant tusks.
The Javan wreck is special because researchers have access to most of its onboard artifacts. In the past, Niziolek told Live Science, salvage operations have often plucked the most desirable items from shipwrecksand left the rest, or sold off collections from wrecks piecemeal.
Radiocarbon dating tests for levels of the radioactive carbon isotopecarbon-14. This variation of carbon, which has eight neutrons in its nucleus instead of the more typical six, decays at a known rate, so it acts like an atomic clock inside organic materials.
'Made in China'
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