Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Waldman: This is what we were afraid of ( Washington Post)
When the new year begins next week, President Trump will have an acting chief of staff, an acting secretary of defense, an acting attorney general, an acting EPA administrator, no interior secretary, and no ambassador to the United Nations. The officials originally in all those positions have either been fired or have quit in various measures of disgust or scandal. His former campaign chairman, deputy campaign chairman, national security adviser and personal lawyer have all pleaded guilty to crimes. His campaign, his transition, his foundation and his business are all under investigation. The United States' allies are horrified at the chaos Trump has brought to our foreign policy. The stock market is experiencing wild swings ….
Garrison Keillor: A Christmas letter from New York
And then it was Christmas. A day when blessedness falls like snow. I can't make you see it and I wouldn't want to. But I know it. You are dearly loved. Tell me your troubles, I'll tell you mine, but the truth is that we are deeply profoundly blessed. This is the meaning of Christmas, to raise your face to the sky and let little crystals of blessing fall on your skin. You can go back to irony and satire tomorrow but first let yourself be blessed.
Hadley Freeman: It's no surprise Thomas Markle and his daughter Meghan are now estranged (The Guardian)
Thomas Markle has taken to the airwaves, again complaining to the world's media about his "controlling" daughter and marvelling, again, why on earth she might not want him in her life. Because nothing says "loving father" more clearly than a man who denigrates his pregnant daughter on morning TV.
Oliver Burkeman: "Don't be shy: a dose of narcissism is good for you" (The Guardian)
The unhealthy narcissist's secret fear is that if he's not God, he's nothing. The healthy narcissist knows the middle way.
Suzanne Moore: Guilty pleasures? For women that's most of our culture (The Guardian)
From John Martyn and Lars von Trier to Woody Allen and William Burroughs, women must deal with 'problematic' artists on a daily basis.
Emily Temple: NOTABLE LITERARY DEATHS IN 2018 (LitHub.COM)
A LAST GOODBYE TO THE AUTHORS, EDITORS, AND BOOK PEOPLE WE LOST THIS YEAR
Andrew Tobias: Listen to Mike
Nearly as many Americans voted for George W. Bush as voted for Al Gore, and the disastrous result can be seen in the new movie, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g09a9laLh0kVice. (Don't leave before the surprise scene during the credits.) Nearly as many Americans voted for Trump as for Clinton, and the disastrous result can be seen nightly on the news.
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Presenting
Michael Egan
said:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
from Bruce
Anecdotes
• Even as a preteen, Niels Bohr valued accuracy. When he was eleven years old, he was given the assignment of drawing a house with a picket fence. Before he began drawing, he counted the numbers of pickets in the fence. As a student in high school, he was able to find places where his science textbooks had inaccurate information because he read current scientific journals. A fellow student asked him what he would do on an exam where the teachers would expect outdated information in an answer. He replied, "Tell them, of course, how things really are." Later, while studying in Cambridge, England, he read Charles Dickens' Pickwick Papers in order to improve his English. He looked up every word he did not know the meaning of, even if he could guess at the meaning from the context. To do that, he used a red dictionary that he kept and used for the rest of his life. Mr. Bohr cared deeply about his writing. Ernest Rutherford once reviewed one of his documents and suggested that he cut about one-third of a long section. Mr. Bohr travelled to England to talk to Mr. Rutherford and convinced him that the all of the long section was necessary. Of course, Mr. Bohr, a Dane who won the 1922 Noble Prize in Physics, was greatly respected. In his autobiography, What Little I Remember, Otto R. Frisch wrote about meeting the great man, who took him by a waistcoat button and invited him to work with him. Mr. Frisch wrote his mother, "You need no longer worry about me; God Almighty has taken me by my waistcoat button and spoken kindly to me."
• Charles Babbage (1791-1871), an English scientist who devoted his life to creating programmable mechanical mathematical computers, was inquisitive even as a youth. He devoted some of his time to seeing if devil-worship incantations worked. He discovered that they didn't. As a sophomore at Cambridge University, he joked to a friend that since some other people had formed a Bible Society to study the Bible, they ought to form a group to study a three-volume calculus textbook by the French mathematician Sylvestre-Françoise Lacroix. Mr. Babbage even made a small poster that was a parody of the Bible Society poster. However, other students took the poster seriously and soon a group of students were meeting regularly as the Analytical Society.
• In late December, 1566, Tycho Brahe fought a duel against Manderup Parsberg and lost part of his nose. Afterward, he wore an artificial nose. In 1901, medical experts examined Tycho's body and found green stains around his nasal area, indicating that he wore an artificial nose made of copper, which acquires a green patina when exposed to air. Historical sources indicate that he also had artificial noses made of gold and of silver. By the way, Tycho once owned a tame pet elk. Unfortunately, the elk got drunk on beer, fell down a flight of stairs, and died. Of course, Tycho spent years making astronomical observations and measurements - they were the most accurate possible for his time. Kepler used Tycho's observations and measurements to formulate his three laws of planetary motion. Later, Isaac Newton used Kepler's laws as a foundation for his own work.
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Reader Comment
Current Events
Wonkette people commenting on the photo op:
Look at his tiny little fists and tiny little fingers in comparison to those of his wife. No wonder she doesn't want to hold hands with him. It must feel creepy to have those tiny little sausage digits sitting in your hand.
Good thing the Army had that extra blimp tarp he wore as a jacket.
Linda >^..^<
We are all only temporarily able bodied.
Thanks, Linda!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
JD is on vacation.
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and brisk (for these parts).
Wedding News
Cyrus - Hemsworth
After days of speculation, Miley Cyrus on Wednesday confirmed her marriage to Liam Hemsworth by posting photos from their wedding with the captions "12.23.18" and "10 years later." Cyrus, 26, wore a Vivienne Westwood gown in the black-and-white photos, Entertainment Tonight reports.
Rumors swirled around the couple after a friend, surfer Conrad Jack Carr, posted photos and videos on his Instagram page. One clip featured Hemsworth, 28, his brothers and their father doing "shotski," while massive balloons that spelled "Mr" and "Mrs" decorated the background.
Carr also posted a photo showing the couple holding hands to cut a cake and talking to Cyrus' mother, according to Entertainment Tonight.
Cyrus and Hemsworth met while filming 2010's "The Last Song." They were first engaged in 2012, but then split. They reconnected in 2016.
Cyrus - Hemsworth
Auctioning Off Legacy
Joy Division
Joy Division formed in the summer of 1976 after bassist Peter Hook and guitarist Bernard Sumner felt the spark to start a band after seeing the Sex Pistols. They put out two full-lengths of icy, bass-driven post-punk before the band ended in 1980 after frontman Ian Curtis died by suicide. The rest of the band members moved forward under the name New Order.
Now Hook, who has had an acrimonious relationship with his sometime bandmates since his departure from New Order in 2007, is auctioning off many of the things he's held onto over the decades from his days in Joy Division. Everything from guitars and clothing to his Sex Pistols ticket stub and a signed Joy Division record are included in the Peter Hook Signature Collection. Auction organizers will publish a catalogue of all the items online on January 21st, but until then hard copies of the catalogue are available for order. The exhibition will be on view at Omega Auctions in the U.K. beginning in late February and the auction will be held on March 2nd.
"I've watched Ian Curtis' house sell, and I've watched Ian Curtis' kitchen table sell," Hook says of why he's parting with his collection, his voice sounding measured and confident. "People go nuts for it, and I'm like the king in his castle counting all his gold. It's just quite odd really when you actually sit there thinking, 'What the hell are you doing keeping hold of Joy Division?' I realized that the relationship between us all was never gonna happen, and I was holding on to something for the wrong reason." (Hook had sued his former bandmates, who continued on as New Order, over the rights to the band's name and reached an out-of-court settlement last year.)
Over the years, Hook has lent out items from his collection to museums, but often found himself wondering why he was hoarding these items. "It's all over me house, all over the place," he says. But what pushed him over the edge was the lawsuit. "The court cases and resulting fracas between the group members certainly didn't help," he says. "It made me feel a little bit detached from Joy Division in a way, and it also made me realize that the most important thing for me was to have the music and to have the fans and to be honest, we're very happy together."
Joy Division
Coffee, Alcohol Could Help
Live Longer
A study published by researchers at UC Irvine reveals people who drink moderate amounts of alcohol or coffee and are overweight in their 70s live longer lives.
The study, conducted by researchers at the UC Irvine Institute for Memory Impairments and Neurological Disorders, first began in 2003 and analyzed what makes people live past age 90.
According to the study, those who drank moderate amounts of alcohol or coffee lived longer than people who didn't drink either.
Additionally, those who were overweight in their 70s lived longer than people who were normal or underweight in their 70s.
Live Longer
Losing Its Rings
Saturn
If you were to pick Saturn out of a lineup you'd probably recognize it by its iconic rings. They're the biggest, brightest rings in our solar system. Extending over 280,000 km from the planet; wide enough to fit 6 Earths in a row. But Saturn won't always look this way. Because its rings are disappearing.
That's right, Saturn is losing its rings! And fast. Much faster, even, than scientists had first thought. Right now, it's raining 10,000 kilograms of ring rain on Saturn per second. Fast enough to fill an Olympic-sized pool in half an hour.
This rain is actually the disintegrated remains of Saturn's rings. Saturn's rings are mostly made up of chunks of ice and rock. Which are under constant bombardment: Some by UV radiation from the Sun and others by tiny meteoroids.
When these collisions take place, the icy particles vaporize, forming charged water molecules that interact with Saturn's magnetic field; ultimately, falling toward Saturn, where they burn up in the atmosphere.
Now, we've known about ring rain since the 1980s when NASA's Voyager mission first noticed mysterious, dark bands that turned out to be ring rain caught in Saturn's magnetic fields. Back then, researchers estimated the rings would totally drain in 300 million years. But observations by NASA's former Cassini spacecraft give a darker prognosis. Before its death dive into Saturn in 2017, Cassini managed to get a better look at the amount of ring-dust raining on Saturn's equator.
Saturn
Only Military Branch To Work Without Pay
Coast Guard
The Coast Guard is the only branch of the military whose members will go without pay during the government shutdown unless Congress and President Donald Trump can find a resolution by Friday.
Approximately 42,000 active-duty military members of the Coast Guard remain on duty during the partial government shutdown that began Saturday, but they will work without pay until further notice, according to a statement from a Coast Guard spokeswoman.
"Unless legislation is passed by Friday, Dec. 28, our military workforce will not receive our regularly scheduled pay check for 31 Dec.," Chief Warrant Officer Allyson Conroy said in a statement to NBC News on Wednesday.
The Coast Guard is the only part of the military under the Department of Homeland Security, rather than the Department of Defense which continues to be funded during the shutdown.
As for the thousands of people in the Coast Guard's civilian workforce, most have been furloughed without pay until further notice, with a small fraction still working as essential personnel.
Coast Guard
Resuming Commercial Whaling
Japan
Japan announced Wednesday that it is leaving the International Whaling Commission to resume commercial hunts for the animals for the first time in 30 years, but said it would no longer go to the Antarctic for its much-criticized annual killings.
Japan switched to what it calls research whaling after the IWC imposed a moratorium on commercial whaling in the 1980s, and now says stocks have recovered enough to resume commercial hunts.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Japan would resume commercial whaling in July "in line with Japan's basic policy of promoting sustainable use of aquatic living resources based on scientific evidence."
He added that Japan is disappointed that the IWC - which he said is dominated by conservationists - focuses on the protection of whale stocks even though the commission has a treaty mandate for both whale conservation and the development of the whaling industry.
Suga said the commercial hunts would be limited to Japan's territorial waters and its 200-mile (323-kilometer) exclusive economic zone along its coasts. He said Japan would stop its annual whaling expeditions to the Antarctic and northwest Pacific oceans. Non-signatory states are not allowed to do so, according to Japanese Fisheries Agency officials.
Japan
How Many Euphemisms Are There For Liar?
Acting AG
Acting U.S. Attorney General Matthew Whitaker has incorrectly claimed in government documents that he had been named an Academic All-American while playing football at the University of Iowa, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.
It said Whitaker made the claim in his biography on his former law firm's website and on a resume sent in 2014 to the chief executive of a now-closed patent-marketing firm, for which he sat on the advisory board.
The resume was included in documents released by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission last month, the Journal said.
President-for-now Donald Trump (R-Fabulist) named Whitaker to his position on Nov. 7, immediately after he ousted former Attorney General Jeff Sessions (R-Butterbean), whom he had criticized for recusing himself from an investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. Whitaker had been Sessions' chief of staff, a former U.S. attorney and a conservative commentator.
A Justice Department spokeswoman said Whitaker had relied on a 1993 University of Iowa football guide which had listed him as a "GTE District VII academic All-American," the Journal said. GTE was the contest sponsor at that time.
Acting AG
In Memory
Sister Wendy Beckett
Sister Wendy Beckett, a nun and art historian who became an unlikely television star in Britain in the 1990s, died at the age of 88 on Wednesday, the Carmelite monastery at Quidenham in Norfolk said on Wednesday.
"I can confirm that Sr Wendy Beckett died today, at the age of 88, at 2.16 pm at a residential care home a couple of miles away from the Carmelite monastery at Quidenham," a spokeswoman for the monastery told Reuters in an emailed statement.
South African-born Beckett was living in a caravan in the monastery in eastern England when she started studying art in the 1980s, according to the BBC, which broadcast her documentaries.
Beckett wrote around 25 books, which included collections of poetry and meditations, and made a dozen documentaries, according to the New York Times.
She was spotted by a film crew at an exhibition and commissioned by the BBC to make a 1992 documentary - "Sister Wendy's Odyssey" - about paintings and sculpture in six British museums.
She continued to make programs for the next decade, speaking directly to the camera while wearing her black nun's habit and winning fans in Britain and in the United States, where the programs aired on public television.
Sister Wendy Beckett
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