from Bruce
Anecdotes
Conversation
• A man claimed to be a Zen Buddhist and Master of Silence. Although he seldom spoke, he had two disciples who were very eloquent. One day, a Pilgrim visited the Master of Silence in the temple while the disciples were absent. The Pilgrim asked, “What is the Buddha?” The Master of Silence did not speak, but instead looked all around for his disciples. The Pilgrim asked other questions, all of which were met by silence and the Master’s looking around for his disciples, then he thanked the Master of Silence and left. Outside the temple, the Pilgrim met the Master’s two disciples, who asked how the audience had gone. The Pilgrim was enthusiastic: “When I asked him what Buddha is, he turned his face in all directions, implying that human beings are always looking for the Buddha, but actually the Buddha is not to be sought in such a way. And his answers to my other questions were even more impressive—what a remarkable master!” The two disciples then said goodbye to the Pilgrim and went in to see the Master of Silence, who told them, “Where have you been? Some crazy Pilgrim has been driving me mad with impossible questions!”
• Dr. Samuel Johnson did not tolerate fools for very long. At a dinner, someone asked him many personal questions, while volunteering personal information about himself. Dr. Johnson stood it as long as he could, then said, “Sir, you have but two topics: yourself and me. I am sick of both.” On another occasion, a bore sat next to Dr. Johnson and remarked that there were many reasons for drinking to excess. In making his argument, he said, “Drinking drives away care and makes us forget whatever is disagreeable. Would you not allow a man to drink for that reason?” Dr. Johnson replied, “Yes, sir—if he sat next to you.” By the way, James Boswell once asked Dr. Johnson whether good cooks were more essential than good poets. Dr. Johnson replied, “I don’t suppose that there is a dog in town but what thinks so.”
• Giovanni Antonio Bazzi, nicknamed Sodoma (1477-1549), who apparently enjoyed shocking people, once listed the inhabitants of his house as follows: “Item an owl to frighten witches, two peacocks, two dogs, two cats, a sparrow-hawk and other birds of prey, six fowls, eighteen chicks, two moor fowl and many other birds; to name all of which would only cause confusion. I have, besides these, three abominably wicked beasts, to wit, my three women.” By the way, Henry Fuseli (1741-1823) once was bored by the conversation of some guests, so he suddenly exclaimed, “We had pork for dinner today.” This surprised his guests, one of whom said, “Mr. Fuseli! What an odd remark!” Mr. Fuseli replied, “Why, it is as good as anything you have been saying for the last half-hour.”
• Mr. Justice Hawkins (1817-1907) enjoyed attending the races. While sitting as judge, Mr. Hawkins saw a prisoner say something to a constable, and he asked the constable what the prisoner had said. The constable replied, “I—I would rather not say, your lordship.” However, Mr. Hawkins insisted, and the constable said, “He asked me, your lordship, who that heathen with the sheepskin was, as he had often seen him at the racecourse.”
Critics
• Francis Hodgson Burnett, author of Little Lord Fauntleroy, started a fashion trend for little boys, whom parents made wear black velvet suits with lace; the little boys also had long, curled hair. When, years later, she started to get bad reviews of her books, people speculated that the bad reviews were written by these little boys, who had grown up and wanted revenge. By the way, as a critic, Edgar Allen Poe was merciless, whether criticizing one writer or an entire group of writers. About the writing community in Boston, Massachusetts, he wrote, “Their pumpkin pies are delicious. Their poetry is not so good.”
• Charles Lamb’s play Mr. H was a dismal failure, with the audience hissing it throughout its performance. According to legend, Mr. Lamb, who was in the audience, joined in the hissing so that no one would think he had written the play. By the way, after the opening-night performance of his play Home Chat, Noel Coward came forward to take a bow. A voice from the audience called out, “We expected better.” Mr. Coward replied, “So did I.”
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Presenting
Michael Egan
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In memory.
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION
BANDCAMP MUSIC
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION OF BANDCAMP MUSIC
Music: "Devil in My Hand"
Album: WHAT THE FUCK IS TWEE?
Artist: The Dentals
Artist Location: Lucerne, Switzerland
Record Company: Wellsville Records
Record Company Location: Florida
Info: “This is the official Wellsville Records Bandcamp page (formerly Ramonescore Radio Records) where I will be releasing various artist compilations and more!”
“A compilation of some of today’s best Twee pop bands! A dying genre? I think not with bands like these! It was a hard task to put this one together but well worth the outcome!”
Merriam-Webster defines “Twee” as “chiefly British. : affectedly or excessively dainty, delicate, cute, or quaint.”
Price: FREE Download of 11 tracks by various artists
Genre: Twee Pop.
Links:
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The Dentals on Bandcamp
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Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
New Venture
Michael Egan
BRUCE'S RECOMMENDATION
Recommended
GENOCIDE (The Lincoln Project)
Some of the hardest things to watch are the most important things to see. Don't look away.
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Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
Reader Comment
Current Events
Linda >^..^<
We are all only temporarily able bodied.
Thanks, Linda!
that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Way too toasty.
Doctored Clips
Rupert
Barack Obama visited the White House for the first time since he left office on Tuesday. He was there to celebrate the 12th anniversary of the Affordable Care Act, as well as to watch President Biden sign an executive order aimed at improving the law. Obama’s return created plenty of commotion, and for Fox News and the rest of the right-wing ecosphere, a fresh opportunity to cast Biden as a weaker, watered-down version of the former president.
The Republican National Committee shared two clips of the visit that quickly went viral. The first shows an ostensibly confused Biden ambling around the stage as Obama holds court behind him. The second is similar, with Biden standing on the periphery as Obama greets well wishers.
The clips even made it onto the Fox News primetime slate. “Biden doesn’t know what on earth he’s doing or, at times, where he even is,” Lauran Ingraham said as she played the first clip. Tucker Carlson played the second, along with a “King Obama” graphic depicting the former president wearing a crown and a menacing scowl. “Make it stop,” Carlson said. “It’s awful.”
The only problem is that both clips were taken out of context. Biden does look a little confused in the first clip, but it’s only because he’s looking for someone, perhaps Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, whom he brings up onstage to applause shortly after the conservative media cut ends. The second clip ends right before Biden gets Obama’s attention and introduces him to someone. Twitter user @acyn helpfully attached the full clips to the end of the Fox News segments lambasting the edited versions.
Newsmax got in on the action, too. The network on Tuesday ran a “PRESIDENT OBAMA 2.0” graphic along with a bizarre chyron about how Biden and Obama are “beta males.” It also showed the clips, both with similar deceptive edits. “At one point he’s just walking aimlessly through the room,” an on-air commentator said on Wednesday morning. “It’s really sad. He doesn’t know where to go.”
Rupert
Sept. 12
Emmy Awards
Nominations for the best in TV will be announced July 12, the television academy and network said Wednesday. The ceremony’s host, producers and other details will be announced later.
The Emmys will be held on a Monday, not the usual Sunday, because of “NBC Sunday Night Football.”
The Emmys rotate among the major broadcast networks, including Fox, although the awards themselves have increasingly gone to cable and, more recently, to streaming services as well.
The 2021 Emmys drew more than 7.4 million viewers, a turn-around after an all-time low viewership of just under 6.4 million in 2020. Ratings for awards ceremonies generally have slipped over the years, the pandemic aside.
Emmy Awards
Right Wingers See a Penis
Minnie Mouse’s Dress
Earlier this week, a photo started circulating on the encrypted messaging app Telegram, featuring Mickey and Minnie canoodling on the front of a $100 Target Disney gift card. In the photo, Minnie is wearing a blue puffed-sleeve dress — yet the post, which was shared to a conspiracy theorist channel with more than 50,000 followers, saw something far more sinister.
The beloved cartoon mouse’s demure blue dress, the poster claimed, “looks exactly like a penis, which Mickey happens to be gladly holding.” The post went on to speculate about the potential connotations of said dick dress: “following the recent leaks from the company, chances this design is a mere coincidence and employees didn’t notice are slim IMO,” it concludes.
To be fair to the phallus-obsessed conspiracy theorists, the post was not totally without merit: when viewed from a certain angle, the dress indeed looks like a penis; or perhaps more accurately, a blue silicon dildo with a flared base. (Target no longer features that image on its website, instead showing Minnie wearing a decidedly less phallic-looking version of the garment; images of the gift card have been circulating around the internet since as early as 2015, and the Disney blog The Disney Details does include an image of the card displayed in stores, though Target did not immediately respond to our questions about how long the card was sold, or when it was pulled from circulation.)
What was somewhat unusual, however, was the dark message behind the post: that by featuring one of America’s most beloved cartoon characters holding what appears to be a dick, the Disney company is trying to inculcate America’s impressionable youth with a pro-LGBTQ “agenda.”
Minnie Mouse’s Dress
Johnny Depp-Amber Heard Defamation Trial
Court TV
Court TV will carry the televised feed of the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard defamation trial, which is scheduled to begin next week in Fairfax County, VA.
The network will be the pool feed provider for the trial, and plans to provide coverage of the proceedings.
Depp filed a $50 million defamation suit against Heard after she wrote a Washington Post essay in 2018, headlined “I spoke up against sexual violence — and faced our culture’s wrath. That has to change.” Although the essay didn’t mention Depp by name, he claims that it damaged his reputation and cost him a role in another Pirates of the Caribbean. Heard has filed a counterclaim.
The trial is scheduled to begin on Monday. The pool feed will be available after jury selection is completed. Court Tv previously has served the pool team provider for the Derek Chauvin and Kim Potter trial, as well as the trial of the three men convicted of killing Ahmaud Arbery. Court TV’s team includes anchors Vinnie Politan, Julie Grant, Michael Ayala, Ted Rowlands and Ashley Willcott, along with correspondents Julia Jenaé, Chanley Painter and Joy Lim Nakrin.
Court TV
In Step With Kremlin
Disinformation
False and conspiratorial narratives pushed by some American conservative politicians and media figures about Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine have bolstered and created synergies with the Kremlin’s legendary disinformation machine, experts on information manipulation say.
Led by Tucker Carlson at Fox News, a few Republican rightwingers in Congress, and some key conservative activists, a spate of comments that have disparaged Ukraine and its president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and echoed other Russian war disinformation have been recycled by Moscow, say experts.
A feedback loop between the Kremlin and parts of the American right has been palpable since the war’s start in February, which Moscow falsely labeled as a “special military operation” aimed at stopping “genocide” of Russians in Ukraine and “denazification” – two patently bogus charges that drew widespread international criticism.
Still, the influential figure of Carlson has pushed several false narratives to millions of Fox News viewers that have been eagerly embraced and recycled by Moscow and parts of the American right. Last month, for example, Carlson touted rightwing conspiracies that attempted to link Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, to a discredited allegation that the US financed bioweapons labs in Ukraine.
On a separate front, two Republican congressional conservatives, Madison Cawthorn and Marjorie Taylor Greene, delighted Moscow last month by condemning Zelenskiy without evidence in conspiracy-ridden terms that sparked some bipartisan criticism. Cawthorn called Zelenskiy a “thug” and his government “incredibly corrupt”, while Greene similarly charged that Zelenskiy was “corrupt”.
Disinformation
Collateral Damage
150 Eagles
A subsidiary of one of the largest U.S. providers of renewable energy pleaded guilty to criminal charges and was ordered to pay over $8 million in fines and restitution after at least 150 eagles were killed at its wind farms in eight states, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.
NextEra Energy subsidiary ESI Energy was also sentenced to five years probation after being charged with three counts of violating the Migratory Bird Treaty Act during a court appearance in Cheyenne, Wyoming. The charges arose from the deaths of nine eagles at three wind farms in Wyoming and New Mexico.
In addition to those deaths, the company acknowledged the deaths of golden and bald eagles at 50 wind farms affiliated with ESI and NextEra since 2012, prosecutors said. Birds were killed in eight states: Wyoming, California, New Mexico, North Dakota, Colorado, Michigan, Arizona and Illinois.
NextEra, based in Juno Beach, Florida, bills itself as the world’s largest utility company by market value. It has more than 100 wind farms in the U.S. and Canada and also generates natural gas, nuclear and solar power
Almost all of the eagles killed at the NextEra subsidiary's facilities were struck by the blades of wind turbines, prosecutors said. Some turbines killed multiple eagles and because the carcasses are not always found, officials said the number killed was likely higher than the 150 birds cited in court documents.
150 Eagles
Ancient Cemetery Of Flying Reptiles Discovered
Atacama Desert
Scientists in Chile say they have unearthed a rare cemetery with well-preserved bones of ancient flying reptiles that roamed the Andean country's Atacama desert more than 100 million years ago.
The remains belong to pterosaurs, scientists determined, flying creatures that lived alongside dinosaurs that had a long wingspan and fed by filtering water through long thin teeth, similar to flamingos.
The group of scientists, led by Jhonatan Alarcon, an investigator at the University of Chile, have been searching for pterosaurs for years, but this discovery surpassed their hopes.
"This has global relevance because these types of findings are relatively rare," Alarcon said. "Almost everywhere in the world, the pterosaur remains that are found are isolated."
The discovery of this rare cemetery will allow scientists to study the pterosaur's habits, not just its anatomy, he said.
Atacama Desert
Filmed Changing Color
Squid
For the first time in the scientific record, squid have been observed changing their coloration to blend into their surroundings. You might wonder how it took the scientific community so long to catch a glimpse of this behavior, but when you see how good it is it becomes easier to understand how nobody spotted it sooner.
Octopuses and cuttlefish were previously believed to be the only cephalopods capable of camouflaging into surrounding substrate, but a study published in Scientific Reports has now added squid to the roster. The discovery came about in a lab setting where researchers observed the animals trying to blend into the color of their enclosure.
“Squid usually hover in the open ocean but we wanted to find out what happens when they move a bit closer to a coral reef or if they’re chased by a predator to the ocean floor,” explained one of the three first authors, Dr Ryuta Nakajima, OIST visiting researcher, in a statement.
Their open ocean nature has meant that few have had the opportunity to study squid behavior on the seafloor, and the difficulty in keeping them alive had prevented much in the way of lab experimentation too.
Squid
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