Recommended Reading
from Bruce
KALHAN ROSENBLATT: Why Did Taylor Swift Sue Over Sexual Assault Case? Experts Say It May Be For Other Women (NBC News)
"Pursuing legal action is not only protecting her own honor and dignity, but [that of] every voiceless woman who might not have been able to fight against similar inappropriate actions," said public relations and brand strategist Marvet Britto said.
Garrison Keillor: The Republic of Marriage (Washington Post)
Melania Trump owes it to the president to tell him, "For the sake of your family, stop."
Mark Morford: LA Olympics 2028 - Unbearably hot, partially underwater (SF Gate)
As for me, I'll soon be welcoming a brand new daughter into the world, just a few months from now, which means she'll be hitting double digits right around the time LA is preparing to light the Olympic torch, and prove to the world that we have, in fact, survived that long. Probably.
Mark Morford: An All-American Ass-Whoopin' (Huffington Post; from 2014)
You know what? Life is full of violence and pain. And do you know why? Because we make it that way. And we make it that way, in part, by beating our kids, by normalizing violence at the earliest developmental stages, and then calling it "love." What lost, distorted creatures we are.
Andrew Tobias: As We Pursue Coal, China Eats Our Lunch
It's very much worth clicking each link to watch the whole thing. But if you're short of time, here's the executive summary: we're idiots. And by "we're," I think you know who I mean.
Paul Mason: Trump could be out of office within a year - but the US's problems would be just beginning (The Guardian)
The ultra-right will have a tough choice between sticking with Trump or switching to a socially conservative, libertarian presidency headed by Mike Pence.
Jake Nevins: Country singer Glen Campbell dies at 81 (The Guardian)
The Oscar-nominated singer-songwriter, who had a prolific 60-year career, died from Alzheimer's on Tuesday.
Michael Hann: "Glen Campbell: a universal voice who defined American manhood" (The Guardian)
The 'town cycle' of Jimmy Webb songs - Wichita Lineman, By the Time I Get to Phoenix and Galveston - will ensure the country star will be remembered as one of pop's great everymen.
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David Bruce has over 80 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
Presenting
Michael Egan
took the day off.
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Reader Comment
Current Events
Linda >^..^<
We are all only temporarily able bodied.
Thanks, Linda!
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
from Marc Perkel
Patriot Act
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
BLAH! BLAH! BOOM!!!
DONALD TRUMP IS WORSE THAN FIRE ANTS. YIKES!
FOR DONALD. DO YOU WANT TO BE A HERO?
MANO A MANO.
FREEDOM IS ANNOYING.
"I HATE ILLINOIS NAZIS."
STOPPING THE WHITE DEVIL!
LIKE STINK ON SHIT!
"NATIONALISM IS A RELIGION AND WAR IS IT'S LITURGY."
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and seasonal.
Broadway-Bound
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen is headed to Broadway for an eight-week solo theater run that he says will feature "just me, the guitar, the piano and the words and music."
"Springsteen on Broadway" will start Oct. 3 in a 960-seat theater, in stark contrast to the vast stadiums the singer-songwriter plays on his world tours, promoters said on Wednesday.
Springsteen, 67, is expected to perform songs from across his 40-year career, interspersed with readings from his 2016 memoir "Born to Run."
"I wanted to do some shows that were as personal and as intimate as possible," Springsteen said in a statement. "Some of the show is spoken, some of it is sung. It loosely follows the arc of my life and my work."
Tickets for the Broadway show, which runs until Nov. 26, go on sale to pre-registered fans on Aug. 30.
Bruce Springsteen
'Nastiest Sea Creature To Ever Inhabit Earth'
'Lemmysuchus'
He was the hell-raising, grizzled, frontman of Motorhead who took pride in his excessive harcore lifestyle and once invited fans to 'Love Me Like a Reptile.'
So when paleontologists at the National History Museum were choosing a name for their new ferocious Jurassic sea-crocodile, Lemmy seemed the obvious choice.
'Lemmysuchus' - which translates as Lemmy's Crocodile - was a giant 19ft (5.8m) predator, which was covered in thick armour and was one of the most deadly marine creatures of its day, crunching down sea turtles with a snap of its giant jaws.
Lemmy, who died aged 70, in December 2015, was the founder, singer and bassist of Motorhead for 40 years, a band which took pride in its reputation for playing and living louder, faster and harder than any other group.
Born Ian Kilmister in 1945 in Stoke-in-Trent, it was said Lemmy gained his nickname after constantly pestered people to "lemme a fiver".
'Lemmysuchus'
Sued Over Children's Book App
LeVar Burton
The Buffalo, N.Y., PBS affiliate WNED has filed a federal complaint against LeVar Burton, the iconic host of the children's series "Reading Rainbow," for allegedly misusing trademarks to promote his children's library mobile app. The complaint says the show's iconic phrases such as "…but you don't have to take my word for it," are being exploited by the former host.
The Western New York Public Broadcasting Association filed the lawsuit Friday in the Southern District of New York, accusing Burton of copyright infringement, conversion, cybersquatting, breach of contract and breach of implied covenant of good faith among several allegations.
Burton and his company RRKidz are the named defendants in the lawsuit stemming from a 2011 license they allegedly obtained from WNED. The lawsuit centers on allegations he misused several "Reading Rainbow" trademarks for his "Skybrary by Reading Rainbow" app and podcast.
WNED identified itself as a co-creator of "Reading Rainbow," and describes having exclusive rights to the series' associated intellectual property, logo and
The complaint claims exclusive rights over some of the famous catchphrases and recurring segments used in the show and says Burton has repeatedly repurposed and "exploited" intellectual property for his own gain. Included are the iconic "Reading Rainbow" bits such as, "…but you don't have to take my word for it," and the "Field Trips" in which Burton visits locations or themes in a selected children's book.
LeVar Burton
Sampling DNA
Illuminated Manuscript
The York Gospels were assembled more than a thousand years ago. Bound in leather, illustrated, and illuminated, the book contains the four gospels of the Bible as well as land records and oaths taken by clergymen who read, rubbed, and kissed its pages over centuries. The Archbishops of York still swear their oaths on this book.
The York Gospels are also, quite literally, a bunch of old cow and sheep skins. Skin has DNA, and DNA has its own story to tell.
A group of archaeologists and geneticists in the United Kingdom have now analyzed the remarkably rich DNA reservoir of the York Gospels. They found DNA from humans who swore oaths on its pages and from bacteria likely originating on the hands and mouths of those humans. Best of all though, they found 1,000-year-old DNA from the cows and sheep whose skin became the parchment on which the book is written.
Remarkably, the authors say they extracted all this DNA without destroying even a tiny piece of parchment. All they needed were the crumbs from rubbing the book with erasers, which conservationists routinely use to clean manuscripts. The authors report their findings in a preprint that has not yet been peer-reviewed, though they plan to submit it to a scientific journal.
If their technique works, it could revolutionize the use of parchment to study history. Every one of these books is a herd of animals. Using DNA, researchers might track how a disease changed the makeup of a herd or how the skin of sheep from one region moved to another medieval trade routes. It's part of a growing movement to bring together scholars in the sciences and humanities to study medieval manuscripts.
Illuminated Manuscript
Daily Dossier
T-rump
Donald Trump (R-Crooked) has reportedly been given a dossier of positive news coverage about himself twice a day since entering the White House.
Consisting of about 20-25 pages, the packet is filled with screenshots of positive cable news headlines, admiring tweets, transcripts of positive TV interviews, praise-filled news stories, and sometimes just pictures of the president on TV looking powerful, Vice News reported, citing White House sources.
The folder is said to be compiled from the clippings that are sent to the White House from the Republican National Committee's "war room," which monitors local and national news, cable television, social media, digital media, and print media.
Vice reported that the idea came from Reince Priebus, who was chief of staff until his recent ousting, and Sean Spicer, who resigned as White House press secretary last month.
Both were reportedly eager to deliver the package, which became known by some in the White House as "the propaganda document", the news website quoted an official as saying.
T-rump
Americans Losing Trust
T-rump
Donald Trump (R-Corrupt) is dismissing new polls that show his base of support dwindling, his approval rating at a record low and rampant distrust in the information coming out of the White House.
"After 200 days, rarely has any Administration achieved what we have achieved," Trump tweeted on Tuesday. "Not even close! Don't believe the Fake News Suppression Polls!"
According to a CNN poll released Tuesday, nearly three-quarters of Americans (73 percent) say they can't trust all or most of what they hear in official communications from the White House, while less than a quarter (24 percent) say they can. Among Republicans, 50 percent say they can trust most of what the White House says, while 47 percent say they cannot.
When asked whether they are proud to have Trump as their president, 34 percent of Americans said they were, the survey found; 64 percent said they were not.
Overall, 38 percent say they approve of Trump's handling of the presidency, according the CNN poll, while 56 percent disapprove. Recent polls by Quinnipiac University and Gallup show Trump with a similar overall disapproval rating.
T-rump
Scant Oversight, Corporate Secrecy
Monsanto
As the U.S. growing season entered its peak this summer, farmers began posting startling pictures on social media: fields of beans, peach orchards and vegetable gardens withering away.
The photographs served as early warnings of a crisis that has damaged millions of acres of farmland. New versions of the herbicide dicamba developed by Monsanto and BASF, according to farmers, have drifted across fields to crops unable to withstand it, a charge authorities are investigating.
As the crisis intensifies, new details provided to Reuters by independent researchers and regulators, and previously unreported testimony by a company employee, demonstrate the unusual way Monsanto introduced its product. The approach, in which Monsanto prevented key independent testing of its product, went unchallenged by the Environmental Protection Agency and nearly every state regulator.
Typically, when a company develops a new agricultural product, it commissions its own tests and shares the results and data with regulators. It also provides product samples to universities for additional scrutiny. Regulators and university researchers then work together to determine the safety of the product.
In this case, Monsanto denied requests by university researchers to study its XtendiMax with VaporGrip for volatility - a measure of its tendency to vaporize and drift across fields.
Monsanto
Gym Owner Defends Rule
Atlanta
A gym owner in Atlanta who banned police officers and military members defended his policy on Wednesday after receiving scores of death threats prompted by the rule posted on his business's door.
Jim Chambers said the rule had been in place since early 2016 when he opened the East Atlanta Barbell Club in Georgia's capital. The club advertises itself as "a radically aligned, left-friendly gym and community."
Chambers said he has many members who are gay, lesbian and transgender, or belong to racial minority groups, some of whom said they had been harassed by police officers.
"We know statistically that those people are at risk around police in America," Chambers said in a telephone interview. "I had members who joined because of the policy: they saw it on the door and thought, 'Oh, that's cool,' and joined."
Chambers, who grew up in Brooklyn, New York, and describes himself politically as "somewhere between an eco-anarchist and a Marxist-Leninist," said he would not call the police in any circumstances. He also disapproved of U.S. military interventions abroad.
Atlanta
Defends His Claim
Alex Jones
Right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones (R-Profiteer) has defended a claim made on his show that the so-called 'Deep State' is plotting to remove Donald Trump (R-Buffoon) from office and has threatened to kill him.
A Newsweek article posted last week quoted the controversial presenter as claiming the 'Deep State', which refers to a group of unelected security officials who supposedly have influence over policy and politicians, are preparing to attack the President.
"They're saying, 'A month or two we're going to kill the President, month or two we're going to remove him," Mr Jones is quoted as saying. "This is so sinister."
Mike Cernovich, a right-wing conspiracy theorist who often appears on Mr Jones' Infowars show, added: "If they ban us from YouTube, that's when Trump will be killed, there's no question about it.
Alex Jones
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