Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Garrison Keillor: It was So Good to have Trump Gone (Washington Post)
We were able to turn to the joys of life and forget the absurdities for a while.
Mark Morford: Top 12 pre-impeachment collectibles - Hurry before Trump is gone! (SF Gate)
You read it right: three grand for a "yuge" gold coin with Trump's face on it. Goes perfectly with your "Real Housewives of Miami Beach" Swarovski-encrusted dentures.
Daniel Gross: "For a 'Socialist' President, Obama Sure Reduced Reliance on Social Programs" (Slate)
The Obama economy, such as it was, reduced federal spending on social welfare by a far larger amount than the Republican Congress and the Trump administration will be able to do via harsh and draconian budget cuts. Everyone at once now: Thanks, Obama.
Lowen Liu: The Tragic Lesson of Portland (Slate)
Two brave men saw something. They said something. They died for it. What will we all do next time?
Katie Parker: "Knock, knock: How the news media turns corpses into content" (The Wireless)
If it bleeds, it leads, or so the saying goes. But with death knocks being practised daily, what is the impact on the living?
Artist Installs Pug Peeing Statue Next to Fearless Girl Statue (Neatorama)
Remember when the creator of the Wall Street bull threatened to sue the city of New York and the creators of the Fearles Girl statue because he thought it made his artwork look bad? Well today artist Alex Gardega made a strong point about how one artwork can affect another by installing a peeing dog statue beside the Fearless Girl.
What Goth Culture Looks Like Around The World (Neatorama)
The goth subculture may have began in the US and UK but nowadays there are goth kids in practically every corner of the world, with each group adding their own cultural spin on the standard goth styles.
IMOMSOHARD - Swim Suits (YouTube)
"And then there's the double standard that says guys are fine wearing board shorts and a tee to the beach but women get grief if they aren't rocking a swimsuit, which the gals from IMOMSOHARD
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Presenting
Michael Egan
answered:
has returned to semi-retired status.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
from Marc Perkel
Patriot Act
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
JESUS FREAKS CAN'T MIND THEIR OWN BUSINESS!
THE RETURN OF THE VAMPIRE SQUID.
THE HEAT IS ON!
TRUMP IS A CATASTROPHE!
THE RISE OF FASCISM IN AMERICA.
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Marine layer so thick the sun never broke through.
Latest '90s Show To Get Reboot Treatment
'Animaniacs'
Warner Bros. is letting the Warner brothers and Warner sister out of the water tower.
That's right: "Animaniacs" is the latest show from your childhood getting the reboot treatment. Clearly this is part of The Brain's plan to take over the world, right?
According to IndieWire, Steven Spielberg (who directed the original series) is on board to help develop the reboot along with Amblin Television and Warner Bros.
As of now, the project hasn't found a network to call home, though in today's age of the reboots and revivals, the show probably won't have an issue. There's always Netflix ? the '90s cartoon joined the streaming service's lineup last year.
"Animaniacs," which consisted of multiple segments (such as "Pinky and the Brain," which got a spinoff) aired from 1993 to 1995 on Fox Kids and from 1995 to 1998 on Kids' WB, with a total of 99 episodes. The animated series won eight Daytime Emmy Awards and a Peabody Award.
'Animaniacs'
CNN Fires
Kathy Griffin
CNN announced today it has terminated its agreement with Kathy Griffin to appear on the network's New Year's Eve program, after the comedian posted a photo of herself holding what appears to be a bloody, severed fake head of Donald Trump (R-Grifter).
Griffin has co-hosted CNN's "New Years Eve Live" with CNN anchor Anderson Cooper from New York's Times Square for the past 10 consecutive years.
The photo was taken by celebrity photographer Tyler Shields. Shields and Griffin posted it on their social media accounts Tuesday.
"I caption this 'there was blood coming out of his eyes, blood coming out of his ... wherever,'" Griffin tweeted, referring to an exchange between Donald Trump and former Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly during the presidential primary season.
In an attempt to appease those who were offended by the image, the controversial comedian then tweeted, "OBVIOUSLY, I do not condone ANY violence by my fans or others to anyone, ever! I'm merely mocking the Mocker in Chief."
Kathy Griffin
Really Exist Around Black Holes?
Event Horizons
It is common understanding that all black holes have event horizons - the point beyond which nothing, not even light, can escape the gravitational pull exerted by the densest known objects in the universe. But not all theorists agree that such a phenomenon - the event horizon - exists; they argue instead for something far stranger that is based on modifications made to Einstein's General Theory of Relativity.
According to the widely accepted theory of black holes, based on Einstein's relativity theory, black holes, including their supermassive variants, form when a star with a mass approximately great than 20 suns, collapses onto itself after running out of energy to support itself. The resulting dense concentration of matter has gravity so strong that it accretes everything that comes within its gravitational sphere, growing in mass all the time. Since everything includes light, a black hole is not directly visible, earning it its name. The concept of event horizons, while accepted by a large number of people, has not yet been proven, however.
Some scientists who are from the naysayers camp suggest that instead of supermassive black holes at the centers of most galaxies, there sit objects that somehow managed to not collapse into a singularity, and therefore have no event horizons. In the absence of a singularity, these theoretical objects would have a hard surface, and objects that get pulled to it would hit the surface and be destroyed.
Pawan Kumar, a professor of astrophysics at the University of Texas, Austin, his graduate student Wenbin Lu, and Ramesh Narayan from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics at Harvard University, devised an experiment to determine which of the two theories was correct.
"Our whole point here is to turn this idea of an event horizon into an experimental science, and find out if event horizons really do exist or not. Our motive is not so much to establish that there is a hard surface," Kumar said in a statement Tuesday, "but to push the boundary of knowledge and find concrete evidence that really, there is an event horizon around black holes."
Event Horizons
Genetic Secrets Unwrapped
Ancient Egypt
DNA from mummies found at a site once known for its cult to the Egyptian god of the afterlife is unwrapping intriguing insight into the people of ancient Egypt, including a surprise discovery that they had scant genetic ties to sub-Saharan Africa.
Scientists on Tuesday said they examined genome data from 90 mummies from the Abusir el-Malek archaeological site, located about 70 miles (115 km) south of Cairo, in the most sophisticated genetic study of ancient Egyptians ever conducted.
The DNA was extracted from the teeth and bones of mummies from a vast burial ground associated with the green-skinned god Osiris. The oldest were from about 1388 BC during the New Kingdom, a high point in ancient Egyptian influence and culture. The most recent were from about 426 AD, centuries after Egypt had become a Roman Empire province.
The genomes showed that, unlike modern Egyptians, ancient Egyptians had little to no genetic kinship with sub-Saharan populations, some of which like ancient Ethiopia were known to have had significant interactions with Egypt.
The closest genetic ties were to the peoples of the ancient Near East, spanning parts of Iraq and Turkey as well as Israel, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.
Ancient Egypt
More Americans Want To Impeach
T-rump
More Americans want to impeach Donald Trump (R-Corrupt) than approve of his job performance, a new poll says.
The number of American voters who want Congress to impeach Trump has risen to 43 percent, up from 38 percent last week, according to a new Politico/Morning Consult poll. Many of the voters said that they want to see those proceedings even if Mr Trump hasn't committed the "high crimes and misdemeanours" that the Constitution requires.
"If Trump was hoping his foreign trip would shift the conversation away from scandals, he may be out of luck," Kyle Dropp, Morning Consult's co-founder and chief research officer, said. "Over the last week, support for beginning impeachment proceedings among voters rose from 38 percent to 43 percent."
Mr Trump drew record-low approval ratings during his first 100 days in office, and things haven't gotten much better since. Just 41 percent of Americans now approve of his performance. That's compared to the 65 percent job approval his predecessor Barack Obama enjoyed at roughly the same time during his tenure eight years ago, and the 53 percent historical average of presidents dating back to 1938, according to Gallup
T-rump
Pipeline Expected To Begin Shipping Today
Dakota Access
The developer of the Dakota Access oil pipeline, which is expected to begin shipping oil on Thursday, will face scrutiny later this summer on whether it violated North Dakota rules during construction.
The three-member North Dakota Public Service Commission is looking into whether Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners removed too many trees and shrubs along the pipeline route, and whether it improperly reported the discovery of Native American artifacts. No artifacts were disturbed.
The commission maintains the company diverted construction of the pipeline around artifacts last October without first running the plan by the commission, as required. The company did get clearance from the State Historic Preservation Office and maintains it acted in good faith.
In addition, a third-party inspector identified 83 sites along the 380-mile (610-kilometer) pipeline corridor in North Dakota where trees or shrubs might have been cleared in violation of the commission's orders. ETP says it did nothing wrong, and the company has a plan to plant two trees for every one removed - a total of about 94,000 trees.
Dakota Access
Feels 'Bullied'
Margaret Court
Australian tennis great Margaret Court says she feels bullied by a fierce backlash over her views on gay marriage, but has vowed not to be "intimidated".
The 24-time Grand Slam champion, now a Christian pastor, caused controversy by announcing last week she would stop flying Qantas "where possible" in protest at the airline's support of same-sex marriage.
It sparked calls, led by Martina Navratilova and supported by Richel Hogenkamp, one of the few openly gay players in tennis, for the Australian Open to take her name off one of its flagship stadiums.
Court has long held strong views about homosexuality, which have previously been slammed by Navratilova and fellow great Billie Jean King, who are both gay.
Margaret Court
Stressed Out, Isolated And Gaining Weight
T-rump
Donald Trump (R-Crooked) is becoming increasingly isolated and stressed as the demands of the Presidency take its toll, according to a new report.
"He now lives within himself, which is a dangerous place for Donald Trump to be," one source close to Mr Trump told CNN.
"I see him emotionally withdrawing. He's gained weight. He doesn't have anybody whom he trusts."
Trump was already "in a pretty glum mood" before his first foreign trip to the Middle East and Europe, according to the source.
On his return, his woes intensified as fresh allegations emerged which centre on the role of the President's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, in communications with the Russian government.
T-rump
Prime-Time Nielsens
Ratings
Prime-time viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen for May 22-28. Listings include the week's ranking and viewership.
1. "Dancing With the Stars" (Monday), ABC, 10.54 million.
2. "The Voice" (Monday), NBC, 9.65 million.
3. "The Voice" (Tuesday), NBC, 9.37 million.
4. "Dancing With the Stars" (Tuesday), ABC, 8.91 million.
5. "Bull," CBS, 8.54 million.
6. "Survivor," CBS, 8.38 million.
7. "NCIS," CBS, 8.3 million.
8. NBA Playoffs: Boston vs. Cleveland, Game 4, TNT, 7.05 million.
9. "Empire," Fox, 6.97 million.
10. "60 Minutes," CBS, 6.79 million.
11. Movie: "Dirty Dancing," ABC, 6.58 million.
12. "The Big Bang Theory," CBS, 6.43 million.
13. "Diana: Life-Death-Truth," CBS, 6.15 million.
14. "Law & Order: SVU," NBC, 6.12 million.
15. NBA Playoffs: Cleveland vs. Boston, Game 5, TNT, 5.83 million.
16. NBA Playoffs: Golden State vs. San Antonio, Game 4, ESPN, 5.8 million.
17. "Downward Dog," ABC, 5.74 million
18. "Survivor Reunion," CBS, 5.71 million.
19. "Blue Bloods," CBS, 5.709 million.
20. "The Bachelorette," ABC, 5.67 million.
Ratings
In Memory
Elena Verdugo
Elena Verdugo, who portrayed the devoted office assistant and nurse Consuelo Lopez opposite Robert Young on the 1970s ABC drama Marcus Welby, M.D., has died. She was 92.
Verdugo replaced Audrey Totter as the star of the CBS Radio comedy Meet Millie and continued to play the wisecracking Brooklyn secretary Millie Bronson on the CBS television version - one of the first shows to be broadcast live from Hollywood - that ran for four seasons, from 1952 through 1956.
On the big screen, Verdugo appeared opposite Lon Chaney Jr. in the 1945 Universal horror films House of Frankenstein (as the sympathetic gypsy girl Ilonka) and The Frozen Ghost and in the adventure tale Thief of Damascus (1952).
Verdugo also was a singer and dancer. She performed in the 1940s with the Xavier Cugat Orchestra and handled the vocals on his hit "Tico Tico," which was used in the finale of the 1945 Sonja Henie film It's a Pleasure!.
The 5-foot-2 Verdugo received supporting actress Emmy nominations in 1971 and 1972 for playing the warmhearted Consuelo, whom many consider to be the first working-professional Latina woman to be portrayed on series television. Marcus Welby aired for seven seasons, from 1969-76.
A native of Los Angeles, Verdugo was a descendant of Jose Maria Verdugo, a Spanish army officer who in 1784 was granted grazing rights to a 36,000-acre area that included much of what is now Glendale, Burbank, Eagle Rock and La Crescenta.
Verdugo finished high school on the Fox studio lot and appeared as a dancer in the Don Ameche-Betty Grable studio musical Down Argentine Way (1940).
Her film résumé also included Rainbow Island (1944), starring Dorothy Lamour; Song of Scheherazade (1947), with Yvonne De Carlo; Gene Autry's The Big Sombrero (1949); the Charlie Chan mystery The Sky Dragon (1949); and Cyrano de Bergerac (1950), starring Jose Ferrer.
Before running Dr. Welby's office, Verdugo had recurring roles on the short-lived TV series Redigo, The New Phil Silvers Show, Many Happy Returns and the Juliet Prowse starrer Mona McCluskey.
While filming the Abbott & Costello comedy Little Giant (1946), she met screenwriter Charles R. Marion, who also wrote for the comedy team's radio show, and they married. After a divorce, she wed Charles Rosewall, a doctor, in 1972, and they were together until his death in 2012.
Verdugo's son, actor Richard Marion (Pharmacist's Mate Williams on TV's Operation Petticoat), died at age 50 of an apparent heart attack in 1999.
Elena Verdugo
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