Paul Krugman: Trump, Tax Cuts and Terrorism (NY Times Column)
In effect, then, the Republican Party decided that a few massacres were an acceptable price to pay in return for tax cuts. I wish that were hyperbole, but the continuing refusal of G.O.P. figures to criticize Trump even after El Paso shows that it's the literal truth. So as I said at the beginning, the G.O.P. has become a systematic enabler of terrorism. Why? Follow the money.
Paul Krugman: Trump's China Shock (NY Times)
I didn't know that the Dow was going to drop 750 points, so my latest column is El Paso-related. Probably the right choice anyway, because US-China is moving so fast that anything in the print paper would be out of date. But it does look as if I should try to explain (a) what I think is happening (b) why the markets are going so nuts.
Garrison Keillor: Someday you'll understand what I'm telling you
Nature is not interested in my twilight years; past 30, semen develops problems, man becomes irrelevant in the furtherance of the species. God created erectile dysfunction because old men can't be trusted to raise kids. Living past 70 is an artificial idea, a lovely idea, like flying or anesthesia, but still. So an old man needs to justify his continuance, taking up space and being a traffic hazard on the freeway by driving the speed limit. My reason for living is simply this: I am still working and my best work may be yet ahead of me.
Paul Waldman: How Trump's biggest broken promise will make white supremacist terrorism even worse (Washington Post)
As historian Rick Perlstein noted just after the 2016 election, Trump made practical promises he couldn't possibly keep, but "the biggest, only made implicitly, was the same one fascist strongmen always offer: transcendent national renewal, built upon the cleansing of dangerous untermenschen from the body politic." Once that promise inevitably fails to be fulfilled, the results could be catastrophic. "The more Trumpism fails, the more, and more violently, scapegoats will be blamed." We are not heading toward that point, because we're already there.
"Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows" is a popular song sung by Lesley Gore. It was originally released on Gore's 1963 album Lesley Gore Sings of Mixed-Up Hearts. The song, composed by Marvin Hamlisch, was released as a single in conjunction with Gore's rendition in the 1965 film Ski Party. It was arranged by Claus Ogerman and produced by Quincy Jones. The tune peaked at #13 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Source
Lesley Sue Goldstein (May 2, 1946 - February 16, 2015), known professionally as Lesley Gore, was an American singer, songwriter, actress, and activist. At the age of 16 (in 1963) she recorded the pop hit "It's My Party" (a US number one), and followed it up with other hits including "Judy's Turn to Cry", "She's a Fool", "You Don't Own Me", "Maybe I Know" and "California Nights".
Gore recorded composer Marvin Hamlisch's first hit composition, "Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows", on May 21, 1963, while "It's My Party" was climbing the charts. Her record producer from 1963 to 1965 was Quincy Jones. Jones' dentist was Marvin Hamlisch's uncle, and Hamlisch asked his uncle to convey several songs to Jones.
Source
Marvin Frederick Hamlisch (June 2, 1944 - August 6, 2012) was an American composer and conductor. Hamlisch was one of only fifteen people to win Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony awards. This collection of all four is referred to as an "EGOT". He is one of only two people (along with composer Richard Rodgers) to have won those four prizes and a Pulitzer Prize ("PEGOT").
Although Liza Minnelli's debut album included "The Travelin' Life", a song he wrote in his teens (originally titled "Travelin' Man"), his first hit did not come until he was 21 years old. This song, "Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows", co-written with Howard Liebling, was recorded by Lesley Gore and reached No. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the summer of 1965.
In addition, Hamlisch co-wrote the song "California Nights" (also with Liebling), which was recorded by Lesley Gore for her 1967 hit album of the same name. The Bob Crewe-produced single peaked at No. 16 on the Hot 100 in March 1967, two months after Gore had performed the song on the Batman television series, in which she guest-starred as an accomplice to Julie Newmar's Catwoman.
Source
Dave was first, and correct, with:
Marvin Hamlisch (1944-2012). The American musician, composer and conductor is one of only two people who have ever won this combination of honors: Emmy Award, Academy Award, Grammy Award, Tony Award, and Pulitzer Prize. The other person was composer Richard Rodgers. Hamlisch also won 2 Golden Globe awards.
Photos: Frank Sinatra and Quincy Jones in a recording studio | Marvin Hamlisch at work | a Leslie Gore hits compilation
Mark. said:
Howard Liebling and Marvin Hamlisch.
Alan J answered:
Marvin Hamlisch.
zorch wrote:
Marvin Hamlisch
Mac Mac responded:
Marvin Hamlisch
Cal in Vermont replied:
Marvin Hamlisch. Yes, *that* Marvin Hamlisch.
Deborah wrote:
Marvin Hamlisch wrote that song; he's a fine musician in his own right.
We had a great turnout for our local Neighborhood Night Out. There were easily 30 kids there, flying kites, rolling an inflatable hamster wheel, playing corn-hole and other lawn games, as well as coloring and reading. And the adults not only played with their kids, they also spent time chatting the other adults whom they didn't know. Make new friends and keep the old.
David of Moon Valley replied:
survey says....Marvin Hamlisch....
Kevin K. in Washington, DC, responded:
"Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows" was written by Marvin Hamlisch and some other guy.
Rosemary in Columbus wrote:
Marvin Hamlisch
Billy in Cypress U$A (We Are Great Again in Mass Shootings) said:
Marvin Hamlisch
Randall took the day off.
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BttbBob has returned to semi-retired status.
~~~~~
• This anecdote may not be true, but it is a good one. One day, tenors John McCormack and Enrico Caruso met on the street. Mr. McCormack asked, "How is the world's greatest tenor?" Mr. Caruso answered, "And since when have you become a baritone?" By the way, much earlier in Mr. McCormack's life, from the gallery at Covent Garden he watched the great Enrico Caruso, and he vowed to his wife, "If I ever get my foot down there, it'll take a h*ll of a lot to get it off."
• Luciano Pavarotti was forced to share a bedroom in a crowded hotel one night with his friend Franco "Panocia" Casarini. Unfortunately, they quickly discovered that each of them snored - loudly. After trying unsuccessfully to sleep at the same time, they ended up taking turns sleeping. Mr. Pavarotti slept for an hour, then Mr. Casarini slept for an hour, and so on until morning.
Humility
• Soprano Marcella Sembrich managed not to let herself be overly impressed by the fame of other people or of herself. As a young student, she had the opportunity to demonstrate her talents before Franz Liszt. She wrote a friend, "Professor Schell, who takes great interest in me, wants me to meet Liszt when he comes. He wants me to sing and play for him. They say I can reach great achievement - but enough of that - what news of your garden?" Even after becoming famous, she retained her humility. When W.J. Henderson praised her by saying she was the most moving Violetta he had ever seen in La Traviata, she replied simply, "Don't you remember [Adelina] Patti?" This humble personality may be one reason why, when Ms. Sembrich retired from opera in 1909 with a farewell performance at the Metropolitan Opera in one act each from Don Pasquale, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, and La Traviata, Geraldine Farrar honored her by singing the small role of Flora in act 1 of La Traviata.
• Opera/lieder singer Kathleen Ferrier was humble. At an airport where she was landing, she looked out of the window of the airplane and saw a fancy reception committee on the ground. She told her companion, "Look at all the kerfuffle. There must be someone of importance on board." She looked around at the people on the airplane, then pointed to a portly man and said, "Probably a statesman or some industrial nabob." After the airplane had landed, she learned that the reception committee was for her.
CBS opens the night with a RERUN'Big Bang Theory', followed by a RERUN'Young Sheldon', then a FRESH'Big Brother', followed by a RERUN'Elementary'.
Scheduled on a FRESHStephen Colbert are "Special Guest TBA" and Niecy Nash.
Scheduled on a FRESHJames Corden, OBE, are "Special Guest TBA" and Josh Gad.
NBC begins the night with a RERUN'The Wall', followed by a FRESH'Hollywood Game Night', then a RERUN'L&O: SVU'.
Scheduled on a FRESHJimmy Fallon are "Special Guest TBA", Lil Rel Howery, Lester Holt, and Natalie Merchant.
Scheduled on a FRESHSeth Meyers are "Special Guest TBA", Billy Crudup, Robin Thede, and Julian Dorio.
On a RERUNCarson 'The Scab' Daly (from 5/6/19) are Pam Grier, Ex Hex, and Sarah Goldberg.
ABC fills the night with LIVE'NFL Preseason Football'.
Scheduled on a FRESHJimmy Kimmel are "Special Guest TBA", Leslie Jones, and Monsta X featuring French Montana.
The CW offers a FRESH'The Outpost', followed by 'Two Sentence Horror Stories', then another 'Two Sentence Horror Stories'.
Faux has a FRESH'MasterChef', followed by a FRESH'Spin The Wheel'.
MY recycles an old 'The Good Wife', followed by another old 'The Good Wife'.
AMC offers the movie 'Pretty Woman', followed by the movie 'Home Alone', then the movie 'Home Alone 2: Lost In NY'.
BBC -
[6:00AM] STAR TREK: VOYAGER - SEASON 4 - EPISODE 12-Mortal Coil
[7:00AM] STAR TREK: VOYAGER - SEASON 4 - EPISODE 13-Waking Moments
[8:00AM] STAR TREK: VOYAGER - SEASON 4 - EPISODE 14-Message in a Bottle
[9:00AM] STAR TREK: VOYAGER - SEASON 4 - EPISODE 15-Hunters
[10:00AM] STAR TREK: VOYAGER - SEASON 4 - EPISODE 16-Prey
[11:00AM] STAR TREK: VOYAGER - SEASON 4 - EPISODE 17-Retrospect
[12:00PM] STAR TREK: VOYAGER - SEASON 4 - EPISODE 18-The Killing Game, Pt. 1
[1:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - SEASON 4 - EPISODE 19-The Nth Degree
[2:00PM] THE PATRIOT (2000)
[5:30PM] UNIVERSAL SOLDIER (1992)
[8:00PM] ERASER (1996)
[10:30PM] ERASER (1996)
[1:00AM] UNIVERSAL SOLDIER (1992)
[3:30AM] STAR TREK: THE ORIGINAL SERIES - SEASON 2 - EPISODE 7-Catspaw
[4:45AM] STAR TREK: THE ORIGINAL SERIES - SEASON 2 - EPISODE 8-I, Mudd (ALL TIMES EDT)
Bravo has 'Million Dollar Listing NY', another 'Million Dollar Listing NY', followed by a FRESH'Million Dollar Listing NY', then a FRESH'Flip It Like Disick', followed by a FRESH'Watch What Happens Live'.
Comedy Central has all old 'The Office' all night.
Scheduled on a FRESHThe Daily Show is Meek Mill.
Scheduled on a FRESHDavid Spade are Pete Holmes, Tony Rock, and Josh Wolf..
FX has the movie 'Kingsman: The Secret Service', followed by a FRESH'Baskets', and another 'Baskets'.
History has 'Mountain Men', followed by a FRESH'Mountain Men', then a FRESH'Ax Men', followed by a FRESH'Alone'.
IFC -
[6:00A] Super 8
[8:30A] DeepStar Six
[11:00A] Universal Soldier
[1:30P] Dark Skies
[3:30P] The Campaign
[5:30P] Hall Pass
[8:00P] Knocked Up
[11:00P] Hall Pass
[1:30A] Butter
[3:30A] Miss March
[5:30A] Sherman's Showcase-Behind the Charade (ALL TIMES EDT)
Sundance -
[6:20am] The Andy Griffith Show
[6:55am] The Andy Griffith Show
[7:30am] The Andy Griffith Show
[8:00am] The Andy Griffith Show
[8:30am] The Andy Griffith Show
[9:00am] The Andy Griffith Show
[9:30am] The Andy Griffith Show
[10:00am] Shakespeare in Love
[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] No One Saw a Thing
[12:00am] Law & Order
[1:00am] Law & Order
[2:00am] Law & Order
[3:00am] No One Saw a Thing
[4:00am] The Mary Tyler Moore Show
[4:35am] The Mary Tyler Moore Show
[5:10am] The Mary Tyler Moore Show
[5:45am] The Mary Tyler Moore Show (ALL TIMES EDT)
SyFy has the movie 'Fantastic Beasts & Where To Find Them', followed by the movie 'Edge Of Tomorrow'.
TBS:
Scheduled on a FRESHConan is a "Special Guest TBA".
The Oscars did it, and now the Emmys will too. There will be no host at the ceremony honoring TV's best next month.
Fox Entertainment CEO Charlie Collier said Wednesday that going hostless allows more time to salute departing shows, including "Game of Thrones."
The HBO fantasy saga, which ended its run this past season, is the top nominee with a record-setting 32 nominations.
Collier said producers would have considered possible hosts and checked on their availability for the Sept. 22 ceremony. The Fox executive didn't directly address whether anyone had declined.
The Emmy show rotates among the top broadcast networks.
Actor Woody Harrelson, once known as a heavy pot smoker, famously gave up his habit not long ago, but his friend Willie Nelson wasn't having it.
"For almost two years. No smoking, no vaping. And then I ran into this guy... and that was that," Harrelson says of the country music star in the September issue of Esquire.
"See, everybody thinks of Willie as a model of progressive thinking and virtue, and he is, but he's also got an evil side. Eee-vil," the Highwaymen star said. "Now, Willie never felt too good about me quitting. And he kept trying to get me to not quit. We'd be playing poker and he'd pass me a vape pen, and I'd say, 'Willie, man, I don't do that anymore.' And he'd act surprised, like it was news to him - every time, just as surprised as he could be."
Then, one night when the two were playing poker in Maui, Harrelson gave in to the urge, much to Nelson's delight.
"Willie passed me the pen after I'd won this huge pot," Harrelson said. "I was in a celebrating mood, so I snatched the pen from him and took a long draw. And Willie smiled at me and said, 'Welcome home, son.'"
Universal Pictures is reportedly reevaluating its PR strategy for the upcoming film The Hunt in the wake of recent mass shootings.
The violent satire starring Hilary Swank and GLOW's Betty Gilpin centers on liberal elites stalking and hunting MAGA-type "deplorables" for sport. The trailer for the R-rated flick has already dropped online and is gun-heavy, causing some networks to shy away from airing any advertisements. According to The Hollywood Reporter, ESPN pulled an ad over the weekend for the film that had previously been cleared with a source saying no spots for The Hunt will appear on the network in the coming weeks. A major marketing blitz on television and online had been planned for the beginning of September, one insider tells THR, ahead of the Sept. 27 release.
There is an internal divide at Universal over what to do, according to THR. The studio values its relationship with producer Jason Blum (who is behind successful franchises like Paranormal Activity, The Purge and Insidious) and some see the film as a satire commentating on a pertinent issue given the current political climate. However, plans could change "if people think we're being exploitative rather than opinionated," according to a source.
"Employees in different departments were questioning the wisdom of making such a movie in these times," says one filmmaker with ties to Universal. "In light of the horrific [recent shootings], is this not the most craven, irresponsible, dangerous exploitation?"
The remains of a super-sized parrot that stood more than half the height of an average human and roamed the earth 19 million years ago have been discovered in New Zealand.
Judging by the size of the leg bones, the bird would have stood about one metre (39 inches) tall and weighed up to seven kilograms (15.5 pounds), according to a report by an international team of palaeontologists published in the latest edition of Biology Letters.
"It could have flown but we're putting our money on it being flightless," Paul Scofield, the senior curator of natural history at Canterbury Museum, told AFP Wednesday.
When the bones were found in 2008 no one was certain what they were, and they spent 11 years gathering dust on a shelf until the team looked at them again earlier this year.
"The thought they were from a giant parrot did not enter our minds. We thought it could be some type of eagle until we went back and looked at it again," Scofield said.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has shut down a leading military research facility for failing to meet established safety standards, halting important research into some of the world's most dangerous pathogens and toxins.
Following an inspection in June, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a cease-and-desist order to the Fort Detrick biodefense lab, reports the Frederick News-Post. All research at the lab, run by the Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID), involving a select list of dangerous microbes and toxins is now on hold until further notice.
From 1943 to 1969, Fort Detrick was home to America's offensive biological weapons program. Today, the Army campus hosts several institutions, including USAMRIID, which conducts public and private research into some of the world's most dangerous pathogens and toxins, including Ebola, anthrax, and the bacteria responsible for the plague.
Following the June inspection, the CDC found "several areas of concern in standard operating procedures," the Frederick News-Post reported. Among the problems cited, the facility failed to have systems sufficiently capable of decontaminating wastewater, it lacked "periodic recertification training for workers in the biocontainment laboratories," and it failed to meet standards established by the Federal Select Agent Program, among other deficiencies, Caree Vander Linden, a spokesperson for USAMRIID, told the Frederick News-Post. The CDC could not provide more specific details for "national security reasons," the New York Times reported.
Importantly, no dangerous pathogens or toxins escaped from the facility, and the public was never in any danger, according to Vander Linden.
Scientists have found a vast array of hidden galaxies, which together could change our understanding of how the universe works.
The mysterious galaxies, which were previously unknown by researchers, were discovered by a breakthrough new approach that allowed astronomers to look more deeply than ever before into the universe.
The astronomers describe the new find as a treasure trove, representing a huge set of galaxies. It could help solve some of the most deep and fundamental questions about the universe, including the mysteries of supermassive black holes and dark matter.
Some researchers had long thought that such hidden galaxies might be out in the universe, waiting to be found. But now they have finally been discovered and cosmologists will have to re-think their understanding of how the universe works.
Scientists got an unprecedented look at the universe when the Hubble Space Telescope was sent into space, and began looking around. But it could not see some of the most fundamental parts of what surrounds us.
Alaska has seen the lowest levels of sea ice ever this summer as record temperatures and wildfires hit the region with some areas completely ice free - an event which has never occurred so early in the year and has ramifications for the arctic climate and the Earth as a whole.
Compared to all other recorded years of research, this August has the lowest levels of arctic sea ice ever, according to Mark Serreze, the director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC).
"Basically, if you look at Point Barrow - the northernmost point of Alaska - there's probably no sea ice within 300 to 350 miles right now," says Serreze. Historically, he says, at this time of year there should still be some ice close to or along the coast of Alaska, not hundreds of miles away.
According to Serreze, sea ice is viewed as an indicator of other climate issues. "So what we're seeing is that because the sea is disappearing is very much in agreement with the fact that everything is warming up in the Arctic," he said. "The atmosphere is warming. The oceans are warming. The sea ice is getting hit by both sides [of climate change.]"
While most people think of melting ice in the context of sea levels, the loss of sea ice actually plays no role in the rising water, says Zachary Labe, a Ph. D candidate at the University of California, Irvine, who studies climate science. The ice that causes rising sea levels, frozen freshwater land ice is largely present in Greenland. Instead, Alaska's sea ice affects the Earth's temperature. "We care about sea ice is because it acts as something called 'albedo' - which means reflectivity" said Labe.
A gaping hole in a dying tectonic plate beneath the ocean along the West Coast of the United States may be wreaking havoc at Earth's surface, but not in a way most people might expect.
This gash is so big it may trigger earthquakes off the coast of Northern California and could explain why central Oregon has volcanoes, a new study found.
The researchers in the new study aren't the first to suggest that the Michigan-size Juan de Fuca (pronounced "wahn de fyoo-kuh") plate has a tear. But thanks to a new, detailed dataset, they're the first to say so with certainty.
"Where other people had debated whether or not it [the tear] was there, we can pretty confidently say that it's real," study lead researcher William Hawley, a doctoral student in the Earth and Planetary Science Department at the University of California, Berkeley, told Live Science.
The Juan de Fuca plate is long, stretching about 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) along the Pacific Northwest coast, from Vancouver Island, Canada, to Cape Mendocino, California. "No part of it is above the water. It's a total oceanic plate" that's subducting, or diving beneath another plate, in this case the North American plate (a continental plate), Hawley said.
Sudden shrieks of radio waves from deep space keep slamming into radio telescopes on Earth, spattering those instruments' detectors with confusing data. And now, astronomers are using artificial intelligence to pinpoint the source of the shrieks, in the hope of explaining what's sending them to Earth from - researchers suspect - billions of light-years across space.
Usually, these weird, unexplained signals are detected only after the fact, when astronomers notice out-of-place spikes in their data - sometimes years after the incident. The signals have complex, mysterious structures, patterns of peaks and valleys in radio waves that play out in just milliseconds. That's not the sort of signal astronomers expect to come from a simple explosion, or any other one of the standard events known to scatter spikes of electromagnetic energy across space. Astronomers call these strange signals fast radio bursts (FRBs). Ever since the first one was uncovered in 2007, using data recorded in 2001, there's been an ongoing effort to pin down their source. But FRBs arrive at random times and places, and existing human technology and observation methods aren't well-primed to spot these signals.
Now, in a paper published July 4 in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, a team of astronomers wrote that they managed to detect five FRBs in real time using a single radio telescope.
Wael Farah, a doctoral student at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia, developed a machine-learning system that recognized the signatures of FRBs as they arrived at the University of Sydney's Molonglo Radio Observatory, near Canberra. As Live Science has previously reported, many scientific instruments, including radio telescopes, produce more data per second than they can reasonably store. So they don't record anything in the finest detail except their most interesting observations.
Based on their data, the researchers predicted that between 59 and 157 theoretically detectable FRBs splash across our skies every day. The scientists also used the immediate detections to hunt for related flares in data from X-ray, optical and other radio telescopes - in hopes of finding some visible event linked to the FRBs - but had no luck.
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