Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Steven Pinker: Why do progressives hate progress? (YouTube; 10 minutes)
"Steven Pinker on Why Progressives Hate Progress. An upbeat 10 minutes in case you found Friday's post too depressing. It shows how things have for decades gotten steadily better even as the headlines have grown more bleak. Of course, if the last 446 days have shown us anything it's that progress is not guaranteed. But Pinker notes that the odds would improve if young people would simply . . . vote." - Andrew Tobias
Paul Krugman: What the Economic Data Don't Tell Us (NY Times Blog)
As a reminder, the Trump Treasury department claims that tax cuts will pay for themselves because the economy will grow at almost 3 percent a year for the next decade. This growth projection didn't come from any model; it was just pulled out of … well, you fill in the rest. But every time there's a good quarter of growth, the usual suspects take time off from talking about deep state conspiracies to claim that the forecast is coming true. Why is this nonsense?
Richard Orange: Denmark split as row over teenage Facebook sex video widens (The Guardian)
Move to prosecute 1,000 people who shared explicit footage three years ago sparks online debate.
Michelle Hanson: I got to grips with the fax machine - everything after that has been too much (The Guardian)
… there are lots and lots of us who can't keep up, even if we'd like to. My friend Mary, who lives in sheltered housing, is getting frightened. She has all her marbles, can get about and helps the residents who can't help themselves. They have dementia, are alcoholics, or cannot read or write. Now she is going to have to help them even more because the housing association is threatening to sack most live-in and daily staff. Then, if residents have a problem, they must contact management on an iPad. They don't even have enough bedding, clothes or furniture, never mind an iPad. Or an iPhone or a credit card.
How my 'dead body' ended up on millions of cigarette packets across Europe (The Guardian)
Tom Fraine did a couple of photo shoots in Berlin in 2012 - then four years later discovered he had become the face of EU health warnings about the dangers of smoking
Steve Rose: "In the line of dire: let's call time on Clint Eastwood's macho movies" (The Guardian)
The Hollywood veteran's stoic war films provide the same one-sided scenario every time, from American Sniper to 15:17 to Paris.
PowWow Long Beach
Art murals.
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David Bruce has over 80 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
Presenting
Michael Egan
answered:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
"Doug's Most Shared Facebook Post" Today
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
David E Suggests
Hawaii
David
Thanks, Dave!
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
Reader Comment
Current Events
WTF is wrong with Theresa May?
Dodged the bullet once with the Orange Ass when he said he wasn't going to go to Britain. And now's she's invited hum AGAIN?! WTF is wrong with her? Brain dead? Masochist?
from Marc Perkel
Marc's Guide to Curing Cancer
So far so good on beating cancer for now. I'm doing fine. At the end of the month I'll be 16 months into an 8 month mean lifespan. And yesterday I went on a 7 mile hike and managed to keep up with the hiking group I was with. So, doing something right.
Still waiting for future test results and should see things headed in the right direction. I can say that it's not likely that anything dire happens in the short term so that means that I should have time to make several more attempts at this. So even if it doesn't work the first time there are a lot of variations to try. So if there's bad news it will help me pick the next radiation target.
I have written a "how to" guide for oncologists to perform the treatment that I got. I'm convinced that I'm definitely onto something and whether it works for me or not isn't the definitive test. I know if other people tried this that it would work for some of them, and if they improve it that it will work for a lot of them.
The guide is quite detailed and any doctor reading this can understand the procedure at every level. I also go into detail as to how it works, how I figured it out, and variations and improvements that could be tried to enhance it. I also introduce new ways to look at the problem. There is a lot of room for improvement and I think that doctors reading it will see what I'm talking about and want to build on it. And it's written so that if you're not a doctor you can still follow it. It also has a personal story revealing that I'm the class clown of cancer support group. I give great interviews and I look pretty hot in a lab coat.
So, feel free to read this and see what I'm talking about. But if any of you want to help then pass this around to both doctors and cancer patients. I need some media coverage. I'm looking for as many eyeballs as possible to read these ideas. Even if this isn't the solution, it's definitely on the right track. After all, I did hike 7 miles yesterday. And this hiking group wasn't moving slow. So if this isn't working then, why am I still here?
I also see curing cancer as more of an engineering problem that a medical problem. So if you are good at solving problems and most of what you know about medicine was watching the Dr. House MD TV show, then you're at the level I was at when I started. So anyone can jump in and be part of the solution.
Here is a link to my guide: Oncologists Guide to Curing Cancer using Abscopal Effect
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
"KARMA WILL ALWAYS BITE YOU IN THE ASS."
WHISTLE WHILE YOU DON'T WORK.
R.I.P. ROBERT.
"OFF WE GO INTO THE WILD BLUE YONDER"
NOSTALGIA.
THE 'HONKEY'S REVENGE'.
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Jury duty was postponed until next month. Sigh.
Who Are Attending
State of the Union
White House officials are saying the theme of President-for-now Donald Trump's (R-Crooked) first State of the Union will be "a safe, strong, and proud America." With the president's track record of going off-topic, we won't know for sure until he takes the stage on Tuesday at 9 p.m.
But some of his most outspoken opponents in Congress know exactly what message they want to send and how to deliver it. Members of the Democratic Women's Working Group (DWWG), the coalition of Democratic women in the House led by Representative Lois Frankel (D-Flor.), Representative Brenda Lawrence (D-Mich.), and Representative Jackie Speier (D-Calif.), plan to wear black to the speech in support of the #MeToomovement to end sexual assault and harassment. What's more, several of them will be accompanied by sexual assault and harassment survivors and women's rights advocates.
Representative Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) is among the legislators who have invited survivors to join them at the State of the Union. "When the president looks up at our guests, I want him to see the face of a mom who was forced to decide between reporting abuse and making sure her daughter was fed," she said in a statement emailed to members of the press on Monday. Clark's guest will be Anny Gonzalez, an airplane cleaner who faced persistent sexual harassment at work.
DWWG vice chair Lawrence says that on Tuesday, she and other members of the DWWG hope to shine a spotlight on the pervasiveness of sexual assault and harassment. "We have been given an opportunity because we've been confronted by an uncomfortable reality in America," she tells Allure. Since October, dozens of powerful men have been accused of sexual assault, harassment, and misconduct, from Hollywood to the restaurant industry to the halls of Congress itself. Now, legislators are seizing the opportunity to honor the advocates fighting injustice and take action of their own. "The curtain has been raised," Lawrence says, "and we have to take this moment of awareness to really embrace that we need to make changes in America."
State of the Union
Set To Play Mr. Rogers
Tom Hanks
Tom Hanks has reportedly been tapped to play TV's beloved Mr. Rogers in the upcoming biopic "You Are My Friend" for TriStar Pictures.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the film will be based on the real-life friendship of Fred Rogers and award-winning journalist Tom Junod in which Junod's worldview was changed after accepting an assignment to document Rogers' life and work on TV.
Rogers, who hosted "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" for over 30 years, passed away in 2003 after battling stomach cancer.
"Diary of a Teenage Girl" helmer Marielle Heller will direct the highly anticipated film.
Tom Hanks
CEO Takes Pay Cut
EasyJet
EasyJet's newly hired male CEO is starting his tenure with the airline by lowering his own salary. Johan Lundgren says the move is part of his company's commitment to eliminating the gender pay gap in society.
Lundgren's predecessor, Carolyn McCall, was paid an annual salary of $993,546 to lead the budget airline. EasyJet, the Luton, England-based carrier, had set Lundgren's starting salary at approximately $1.04 million; a raise of nearly $48,000.
"At easyJet we are absolutely committed to giving equal pay and equal opportunity for women and men. I want that to apply to everybody at easyJet and to show my personal commitment I have asked the Board to reduce my pay to match that of Carolyn's when she was at easyJet," the company's new CEO said in a statement.
With only about five percent of the airline's current pilots being female, Lundgren also set a hiring goal of having at least 20 percent of easyJet's pilots be women by 2020. Women make up just four percent of the total number of commercial pilots worldwide.
Although salaries for airline jobs are collectively bargained by unions and the pay for men and women is equal, the small number of women in high-paying positions like pilot have caused easyJet's gender pay gap to balloon to 51.7 percent. EasyJet added that they recruited 49 female co-pilots into their new entrant program in 2017; a 48-percent increase from the year before.
EasyJet
Treasure Goes On Display
1857 Shipwreck
More than $50 million worth of gold bars, coins and dust that's been described as the greatest lost treasure in U.S. history is about to make its public debut in California after sitting at the bottom of the ocean for more than 150 years.
The 3,100 gold coins, 45 gold bars and more than 80 pounds (36 kilograms) of gold dust recovered from the wreckage of the S.S. Central America steamship are now sitting in a makeshift laboratory just south of Los Angeles.
Bob Evans, the chief scientist on the original voyage that discovered the shipwreck and its treasure in 1988, is now painstakingly cleaning each piece of gold by hand, soaking it in a solution and brushing off rust and grime that accumulated as the treasure sat 7,000 feet (2,134 meters) below sea level.
The Central America was laden with booty from the California Gold Rush when it sank in a hurricane off the coast of South Carolina in 1857. Four hundred and twenty-five people drowned and thousands of pounds of California gold were lost, contributing to an economic panic.
Using sable paintbrushes and a cleaning solution, Evans has been restoring the gold -some of which is completely caked over in black gunk - to its original luster for the past two weeks. He will continue that work through February, when the treasure will go on public display at the Long Beach Convention Center, just south of Los Angeles.
1857 Shipwreck
Nearly 700,000
Conversion Therapy
Despite widespread opposition from medical and mental health organizations, tens of thousands of LGBTQ youth in the U.S. will be subjected to anti-gay "conversion therapy" during their lifetime, a new report estimates.
Released this month by the Williams Institute at University of California, Los Angeles, School of Law, the report estimates that 698,000 LGBTQ Americans between the ages of 18 and 59 have undergone conversion therapy at some point in their lives. About 350,000 of those received that treatment as adolescents.
The report also estimates that 20,000 LGBTQ youths currently between the ages of 13 and 17 will be subjected to conversion therapy from a licensed health care professional before they turn 18. An additional 57,000 will be subjected to the controversial practice from a religious or spiritual adviser before age 18.
The study's lead author, Christy Mallory, believes the results may surprise many Americans in the wake of marriage equality and other social strides made on behalf of the LGBTQ community.
Conversion therapy, also called "reparative therapy" and "ex-gay therapy," has been known to include methods such as talk therapy, electroshock therapy and even treating LGBTQ identity as an addiction, not unlike drugs or alcohol.
Conversion Therapy
Bill Gates-Backed Startup
Lab-Grown Meat
Tyson Foods - one of the largest meat producers in the world - is looking beyond the farm for chicken and beef.
On Monday, the company announced that its venture capital arm has invested in Memphis Meats, a Silicon Valley startup the grows meat in a lab. Tyson is not disclosing the value of the deal, which will focus on product development.
It will join Memphis Meats' list of prominent backers, including Bill Gates, the food giant Cargill, and Richard Branson.
In February 2016, Memphis Meats said it had produced lab-grown meatballs made by cultivating cow muscle tissue in a sterile environment. In 2017, the startup announced that it created lab-grown chicken and duck as well. The team said it expects to reduce production costs over the next few years, and start offering its products to the public in 2021.
This isn't the first time that Tyson has thrown support behind meat alternatives. In 2016, the company bought a 5% stake in Beyond Meat, a company that makes plant-based burgers, chicken, and sausage.
Lab-Grown Meat
'Marmite-Like' Food
Astronauts
Scientists have developed a method of converting human waste into a potential food source that could be used by astronauts on missions to Mars and beyond.
Using microbes to break down solid and liquid waste, they created the protein and fat-rich substance.
"We envisioned and tested the concept of simultaneously treating astronauts' waste with microbes while producing a biomass that is edible either directly or indirectly, depending on safety concerns," said Professor Christopher House.
The microbe researcher at Pennsylvania State University added: "It's a little strange, but the concept would be a little bit like Marmite or Vegemite, where you're eating a smear of 'microbial goo.'"
Astronauts
Cleveland To Abandon Racist Logo
Chief Wahoo
The Cleveland Indians will stop using their Chief Wahoo logo on game jerseys and caps starting in 2019, according to The Associated Press.
The decision has the support of the MLB, which has urged the team to decrease its use of the logo in recent years. Notably, the logo won't be going away entirely. The ban extends only to on-field displays, meaning Chief Wahoo will still be a fixture on merchandise that's available throughout northern Ohio.
"Major League Baseball is committed to building a culture of diversity and inclusion throughout the game," MLB Commissioner Robert Manfred Jr. said in a statement Monday.
"Over the past year, we encouraged dialogue with the Indian's organization about the Club's use of the Chief Wahoo logo. During our constructive conversations, [team owner] Paul Dolan made clear that there are fans who have a longstanding attachment to the logo and its place in the history of the team," Manfred continued. "Nonetheless, the club ultimately agreed with my position that the logo is no longer appropriate for on-field use … and I appreciate Mr. Dona's acknowledgement that removing it from the on-field uniform by the start of the 2019 season is the right course."
The Change the Mascot campaign, a group that has long opposed the offensive logo, welcomed the Indians' decision as a recognition "that Native Americans do not deserve to be denigrated as cartoon mascots."
Chief Wahoo
Remains a Puzzle
Dead Sea Scroll
Scholars have deciphered a Dead Sea Scroll written in a Hebrew code, finding that it contains part of a 364-day calendar of holy days.
The calendar notes the day of Sabbaths, the start of seasons and the days of festivals and feasts. The scribe, who went to the trouble of writing the scroll in code, forgot to include the Day of Atonement (known as Yom Kippur) on the calendar; but another scribe, who apparently understood the code, inserted that day onto the calendar.
The scroll, made out of leather, also contains a short note explaining that the Offerings of Wood festival should be held over six days, with two trees being offered to god on each of those days.
Scholars still aren't sure why this scroll, along with a few other Dead Sea Scrolls, were written in code.
The surviving portion of the calendar is not only written in code but is now also in 62 tiny pieces. The decipherment "presented outstanding difficulties and required extraordinary efforts, much like assembling a jigsaw puzzle," wrote postdoctoral fellow Eshbal Ratzon and professor Jonathan Ben-Dov, both at the University of Haifa, in a paper recently published in the Journal of Biblical Literature.
Dead Sea Scroll
In Memory
Robert Parry
Robert Parry, a longtime investigative journalist who was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 1985 for his Associated Press exclusives about the CIA's production of an assassination manual for Nicaraguan rebels, has died. He was 68.
Parry died Saturday in hospice care after a series of strokes brought on by undiagnosed pancreatic cancer, said his wife, Diane Duston.
Parry joined the AP in 1974 and went on to work in the Washington bureau, where he covered the Iran-Contra scandal as it rocked the Reagan administration. His work on the scandal also brought a George Polk Award in 1984.
After leaving the AP in 1987, Parry worked for Newsweek until 1990 and then became an investigative reporter for the PBS series "Frontline."
In 1995, frustrated with what he saw as dwindling venues for serious investigative reporting, Parry founded the Consortium for Independent Journalism. Its website, Consortiumnews.com, sought to provide a home for such reporting in the early days of the internet, though it struggled financially and relied on contributions.
Parry was born on June 24, 1949, in Hartford, Connecticut. He graduated from Colby College with a degree in English in 1971. He worked in Massachusetts journalism before joining the AP.
The author of six books, Parry received the I.F. Stone Medal for Journalistic Independence from the Nieman Foundation in 2015 and the Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism in 2017. In his remarks in London at the presentation of the Gellhorn Prize, Britain-based journalist John Pilger said, "Bob Parry's career has been devoted to finding out, lifting rocks - and supporting others who do the same."
Survivors include his wife, a former Associated Press newswoman; sons Sam Parry and Jeff Parry of Arlington and Nat Parry of Copenhagen, Denmark; daughter Elizabeth Parry of Alexandria, Virginia; and six grandchildren.
Robert Parry
Robert Parry's Legacy and the Future of Consortiumnews - Consortiumnews
A Tribute to Robert Parry: Independent Journalism at Its Best | FAIR
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