Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Joe Bob Briggs: How Can THAT WOMAN Know Anything? (Taki's Magazine)
She's still a reporter. Instead of reporting to us, she's now reporting to Pompeo and Trump. She doesn't need "foreign-policy experience." People with foreign-policy experience have special passports and subpoena power and access to secret intelligence reports. Reporters don't have any of that, they have to work from scratch. What we do is harder than what they do. This means she can't be intimidated and she can't be out-talked. The U.N. is all about the talking. She's got that down. Confirm the lady.
Matthew Yglesias: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is floating a 70 percent top tax rate - here's the research that backs her up (Vox)
Some studies indicate she's aiming too low.
Greg Sargent: White House's own documents show there's no negotiating with Trump (Washington Post)
It isn't every day that the White House puts out documents that unwittingly reveal that there's no way to trust President Trump to negotiate in good faith, but that's what just happened.
Dylan Matthews: The scientist who tried to be as selfless as possible, until it killed him (Vox)
What the late biologist George Price can teach us about the price of altruism.
CHRISTINA CAUTERUCCI: "Louis the Reactionary: Where is the comedian's angry new material coming from?" (Slate)
But C.K. took an easier route: He modified his comedy and his intended audience rather than his behavior. There is a welcoming, lucrative market out there for writers and entertainers willing to trash feminists, left-leaning activists, trans people, and alleged survivors of sexual assault. It's a community that allows anyone to regard himself as a brave warrior for decency so long as he insults the widely insulted. All it takes for a publicly scorned man to join is a willingness to abandon the principles he probably didn't hold too dearly in the first place.
James McMahon: "Alice Cooper: 'I want my shows to take you as far away as possible from politics'" (The Guardian)
The musician, 70, on avoiding politics, cheating at golf, and having understanding parents.
Aida Edemariam: "Wild, controversial and free: Colette, a life too big for film" (The Guardian)
Promiscuous in art and love, an early adopter of weightlifting and facelifts ... Colette was way ahead of her time - and no biopic has done justice to her complexity.
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Presenting
Michael Egan
said:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
David E Suggests
Nasties
David
Thanks, Dave!
from Bruce
Anecdotes
• Lena Headey, who stars as the title character in Fox-TV's Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, says that she has had numerous encounters with ghosts throughout her life. In one case, she had just bought a house and as she was lying on the bed it started shaking. Other events occurred. For example, she put a rabbit sculpture on a shelf and the sculpture fell off-nine times. Her boyfriend was skeptical about the ghost, saying, "Oh, rubbish!" But when the two discovered that a chest of drawers had been pushed against a door so that no one could open it, she asked him, "Now do you believe?" Ms. Headey thought of the ghost as a little boy, and she made peace with him: "I said, 'You can be here but don't scare me,' and it stopped."
• In 1981, Karen Allen played the only "girl" whom Indiana Jones ever loved in Raiders of the Lost Ark, and in 2008 her character met the hero again in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Of course, she was a couple of decades older, and filming took a little adjustment, although she "dove right back in, driving these big dusty, clanking old trucks on these remote locations, just like old times!" Still, Ms. Allen says, "In the beginning, I was saying, 'Oh, I don't need the knee pads. Nooo, I don't need elbow pads!' After a few days, though, you're like, 'If I put a double set on the knees, will the camera see them through my pants?' All that flinging yourself around is the hard part."
• Hollywood actress Virginia Madsen shot to fame with her role as a lonely waitress in the 2004 critically acclaimed film Sideways, about two men visiting the wine country of central California. She was nominated for an Oscar as Best Supporting Actress for her role. In real life, she seldom drinks wine, pointing out, "Seriously, if I buy any good stuff, it doesn't last. All my friends come over and drink it." Ms. Madsen was born on September 11, but because of the terrorist attacks on that day, she says about her birthday, "I celebrate it on a different day now."
• When Diana Adams first started dancing with the New York City Ballet, like most newcomers she was given the pantomime roles that did not require much if any dancing; unfortunately, she was not much good at pantomime-although as her career proved, she was excellent at dancing. As the Duchess in Giselle, she acted regally, but for lack of a better thing to do, looked at the scenery. This amused André Eglevsky, who commented, "That girl, she looks as if she'd never seen a tree before!"
• Actress Eileen Atkins does not care for is someone stroking her head when she is ill. She told fellow actress Judi Dench, "I can see it, I'll be lying there, paralyzed, and my husband will be stroking my brow, and I shan't be able to protest at the last." A problem-solver, Ms. Dench gave her a silver disk on a chain. The silver disk had written on it, "Don't stroke my head." And for Ms. Atkins' birthday, Ms. Dench sent her a cake with "Don't stroke my head" written in icing on it.
• Irish actor Jason O'Mara and American actress Paige Turco have a young son, and of course they are wondering whether he will also become an actor. Mr. O'Mara says, "From the looks of it, my son's going to be an actor, too. He's very dramatic." As evidence, he says that at age five, his son was looking in the mirror and saying, "Daddy, daddy, this is my sad face." Of course, this makes his parents cry, "Oh, no! He's going to be an actor!"
• Like many other actors, Edmund Kean studied life to gain effects to use in acting. Once, he was wounded while fencing, and he fainted. When he regained consciousness, his first words were, "How did I fall?"
***
© Copyright Bruce D. Bruce; All Rights Reserved
***
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Reader Comment
Current Events
The shutdown--having lived through a few, forgive me I repeat, federal workers are paid every 2 weeks for the work done prior to that so one paycheck has been issued during this shut down, but that's it; after that, no work has been done, no pay is due, no paycheck is coming.
In all past shutdowns, when it is over, Congress has authorized workers to be paid for the time federal workers were not allowed to work. So in essence, it becomes like a forced vacation with pay. BUT there is never a guarantee that Congress will pay; federal workers may get paid when this is over or they may be SOL (excrement out of luck). With this idiot as president, he may well say "no work, no pay" since he is used to stiffing people who do work for him.
With no money coming in, federal workers may look for a job, but that seldom works. I did several job interviews during the Gingrich shutdown, but no one would hire me. As soon as they realized I was a federal worker, they had no interest--they were looking to hire someone long-term, not someone who might work a few days or weeks and then go back to their real job.
And this affects a lot more than the 800,000 federal workers. It also affects every company and every individual with a contract to provide services or material to the USG. Cleaning people, food service people, trainers, printing services, equipment, etc.
If someone is working for a company, like Northrop, if the company can temporarily assign them to another project, they'll continue being paid by Northrop for work. But if they were hired by Northrop for a specific project and can't be assigned to another project, then they get no pay.
I frequently had contracts with talented trainers to teach courses in our train-the-trainer program. If I had contracted with Mary Ann to teach course design the first week of January, she couldn't work then because of the shutdown. When this is over, I MIGHT be able to modify that contract and get her to teach the course at another time before the end of the fiscal year IF she has availability and if I can find a vacant classroom space and reserve it. Otherwise, she loses that money.
OR, I have Mary Ann scheduled to teach course design January 14-17. Does she save those dates on her calendar because I have a contract saying she will work for me then? (In essence, we all hope that the shutdown will be over and the course goes as contracted?) OR does she figure that she better find other work to ensure some income? And what about that class on testing techniques that I have contracted with Mary Ann to teach the first week of February? Surely, the shutdown will be over by then--save those dates for me as we have contracted or go on and take other work from a company that will guarantee to pay her?
Most professionals who worked for us have some flexibility and options, but the cleaning people and food service people? They're the ones usually living from paycheck to paycheck, if their company is fully staffed on other projects, there's no way to shift them to another project so the shutdown means no pay for the entire time of the shutdown. When the shutdown is over neither Congress nor their company will be paying them for work not done. They're totally screwed.
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We are all only temporarily able bodied.
Thanks, Linda!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
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In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Some sun, but mostly cloudy.
Endorses Message
Samuel L. Jackson
Newly elected Democratic Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib received a good deal of criticism after referring to President Trump as "the motherf*****" and calling for his impeachment Thursday, hours after she was sworn in. But among her most notable backers is actor Samuel L. Jackson, who's made that expletive something of a trademark in his movies.
Tlaib, who now represents Michigan's 13th congressional district and is among the first Muslim women to serve in Congress, delivered her controversial remarks at a reception hosted by liberal group MoveOn.org. In a now-viral video, she told supporters, "We're going to go in there, we're going to impeach the motherf*****!"
Jackson, notorious for yelling out the word in "Snakes on a Plane" and other films, endorsed Tliab's message in a tweet Sunday.
"I just wanna Wholeheartedly endorse your use of & clarity of purpose when declaring your (expletive) goal last week," Jackson wrote. "Calling that (expletive) a (expletive) is not an issue, calling that (expletive) President Is!!!"
Jackson is closely associated with the M-word. According to a popular YouTube video, Jackson has said "motherf*****" 171 times across 29 movies.
Samuel L. Jackson
SCOTUS Snubs
Olivia de Havilland
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to consider reviving a lawsuit by 102-year-old Oscar-winning actress Olivia de Havilland accusing a Twenty-First Century Fox Inc unit of falsely portraying her in a miniseries about a famous Hollywood feud.
The justices let stand a lower court ruling throwing out the lawsuit filed by de Havilland, a Hollywood star whose career began in the 1930s. She had claimed that "Feud: Bette and Joan," a FX Networks miniseries about the long-running hostility between de Havilland's fellow screen legends Bette Davis and Joan Crawford damaged her reputation by portraying her as a gossip and hypocrite.
De Havilland's lawyers said in a statement that she was "very disappointed that the U.S. Supreme Court passed on this opportunity to confirm that the First Amendment does not protect the publication of intentional lies in any medium, including so-called docudramas."
"Feud," which aired in 2017, explored the bad blood between Crawford and Davis in the later years of their lives. The miniseries was created by producer Ryan Murphy, known for the series "American Horror Story" and "Glee."
De Havilland was portrayed by Catherine Zeta-Jones in "Feud," which starred Jessica Lange as Joan Crawford and Susan Sarandon as Bette Davis. De Havilland objected to scenes in which she was portrayed as using a vulgar term to refer to her sister, actress Joan Fontaine, and joking about Frank Sinatra's drinking.
Olivia de Havilland
That Geodesic Dome
Jeff Bridges
Jeff Bridges was honored at the 2019 Golden Globes with the Cecil B. DeMille Award, which recognizes lifetime achievement in film. Many people watching his acceptance speech, though, thought he was channeling his character in one particular film-The freewheeling, pot-loving Dude from The Big Lebowski.
In his 76th Golden Globe awards acceptance speech, Bridges managed to thank his family, friends, and the co-workers who helped him find success. He also squeezed in a reference to famed engineer, architect, and designer R. Buckminster Fuller and his geodesic domes, a shout-out that had audience members, including Alan Arkin, and Twitter commenters scratching their heads or laughing with glee or both at the same time.
"One guy, he had nothing to do with the movies, but I've taken a lot of direction from him. That's Bucky Fuller. Bucky, he's most famous for the geodesic dome, but he made a great observation about these oceangoing tankers," Bridges said in his speech. He went on to explain about Fuller's thoughts on "trim tabs" which are basically "a little rudder on [a] big rudder," and they are like "how the individual is connected to society and how we affect society." Got that? "I like to think of myself as a trim tab," said Bridges. "All of us are trim tabs."
As you try to parse Bridges's speech (head over to the The Washington Post, for the full, delightful transcript) you may find yourself wondering what is this geodesic dome that this trim-tab guy is famous for creating? If you have ever seen the Epcot Center, you already know. According to the Stanford Libary's exhibit on Fuller's work, "a geodesic structure is a spherical structure which is constructed out of interconnecting lines rather than out of curved surfaces." For example, a soccer ball is spherical in shape, but it is made up of linear hexagons and pentagons.
Jeff Bridges
Distinct Personalities
Dogs
American Kennel Club descriptions of dog breeds can read like online dating profiles: The border collie is a workaholic; the German shepherd will put its life on the line for loved ones. Now, in the most comprehensive study of its kind to date, scientists have shown that such distinct breed traits are actually rooted in a dog's genes. The findings may shed light on human behaviors as well.
When the dog genome was sequenced in 2005, scientists thought they would quickly be able to pin down the genes that give every breed its hallmark personality. But they found so much variation even within a breed that they could never study enough dogs to get meaningful results.
So in the new study, Evan MacLean, a comparative psychologist at the University of Arizona in Tucson, and colleagues began by looking at behavioral data for about 14,000 dogs from 101 breeds. The analyses come from the Canine Behavioral Assessment & Research Questionnaire (C-BARQ), a sort of pet personality quiz developed by James Serpell, an ethologist at the University of Pennsylvania. C-BARQ asks questions like, "What does your dog do when a stranger comes to the door?" to allow owners to objectively characterize 14 aspects of their pet's personalities, including trainability, attachment, and aggression. Since the survey was developed in 2003, more than 50,000 owners have participated.
The team matched up these behavioral data for each breed with genetic data about breeds from different sets of dogs. They didn't look at genetic and behavioral data for individual dogs, but rather averages across a specific breed. In all, the team identified 131 places in a dog's DNA that may help shape 14 key personality traits. Together, these DNA regions explain about 15% of a dog breed's personality, with each exerting only a small effect. Trainability, chasing, and a tendency to be aggressive toward strangers were the most highly heritable traits, the scientists report in a paper posted this month on the preprint server bioRxiv.
The locations of these DNA hot spots make sense: Some are within or close to genes tied to aggression in humans, for example, whereas DNA associated with the dog's level of trainability is found in genes that in humans are associated with intelligence and information processing.
Dogs
Shutdown Puts Damper On Major Conference
American Astronomical Society
As the U.S. government shutdown drags on, scientists are beginning to see the effects of the closure firsthand.
The American Astronomical Society (AAS) estimated that 300 to 450 people, or 10 to 15 percent of registrants, couldn't attend its hallmark astronomy conference in Seattle this week, though that number could be a low estimate. Scientists have reported standing in last-minute for talks meant to be given by furloughed colleagues and noted the cancelation of important NASA-led sessions.
"There's a sense of sadness about not having so many of our key colleagues here to talk about things," John O'Meara, chief scientist at the W.M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii who is currently at the conference, told Gizmodo. "All of us are scrambling to give talks for them, which lowers the quality of the event."
The government has been partially shut down since December 22, as President Trump has refused to sign any appropriations bill without money for a border wall. Non-essential employees at agencies whose funding has lapsed have been furloughed. That means that NASA employees, for example, cannot attend to their professional duties, including participating in the AAS conference.
Gizmodo heard stories of non-NASA scientists filling in to give presentations on behalf of multiple absent speakers; canceled field trips to NASA experiments like the SOFIA telescope, a retrofitted Boeing 747 that functions as an airborne observatory; and a general cloud over the conference. The meeting would have been the first chance for the team behind the TESS exoplanet-hunting mission to advertise its newest results to the broader scientific community, but many of its scientists are furloughed.
American Astronomical Society
Stopped By Southern Border
Only Six Immigrants
U.S. Customs and Border Protection encountered only six immigrants at ports of entry on the U.S-Mexico border in the first half of fiscal year 2018 whose names were on a federal government list of known or suspected terrorists, according to CBP data provided to Congress in May 2018 and obtained by NBC News.
The low number contradicts statements by Trump administration officials, including White House press secretary Sarah Sanders, who said Friday that CBP stopped nearly 4,000 known or suspected terrorists from crossing the southern border in fiscal year 2018.
Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen told reporters on Monday the exact number, which NBC News is first to report, was classified but that she was working on making it public. The data was the latest set on this topic provided to Congress. It is possible that the data was updated since that time, but not provided to Congress.
Overall, 41 people on the Terrorist Screening Database were encountered at the southern border from Oct. 1, 2017, to March 31, 2018, but 35 of them were U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents. Six were classified as non-U.S. persons.
On the northern border, CBP stopped 91 people listed in the database, including 41 who were not American citizens or residents.
Only Six Immigrants
Birmingham Civil Rights Institute Rescinds Honor
Angela Davis
Black activists on Monday called for leadership changes and protests at an Alabama civil rights museum after it rescinded an award for political activist Angela Davis, a move the mayor said followed complaints from the Jewish community.
Speaking outside the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, in the same downtown area where civil rights violence once shocked the nation, organizers said at a news conference that Davis, a Birmingham native, was wronged by the decision to rescind the honor.
Davis, a longtime activist who has supported Palestinian rights and criticized Israeli policy, is on a par with civil rights legend Rosa Parks, said activist Frank Matthews.
The institute announced in September that Davis would receive the Fred L. Shuttlesworth Human Rights Award, named for a minister who once prominently led civil rights demonstrations in the city.
In a statement on its website over the weekend, the publicly funded museum said it was canceling a gala set for next month and rescinding the award after directors concluded Davis "unfortunately does not meet all of the criteria on which the award is based."
Angela Davis
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