Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Lionel Shriver: Cruel and Unusual Punishment (Harper's)
What artists of every stripe care about most is what they have made. The contemporary impulse to rebuke disgraced creators by vanishing their work from the cultural marketplace exhibits a mean-spiritedness, a vengefulness even, as well as an illogic. Why, if you catch someone doing something bad, would you necessarily rub out what they've done that's good? If you're convicted of breaking and entering, the judge won't send bailiffs around to tear down the tree house you built for your daughter and to pour bleach on your homemade pie.
Joe Bob Briggs: The Covington Smile Is the Mona Lisa of 2019 America (Taki's Magazine)
Whoever took the photo of the Covington Catholic High School kid holding that painful smile during the face-down with the Omaha tribal elder at the Lincoln Memorial should receive the Pulitzer Prize and the photograph itself should go into the Smithsonian Institution as a portrait of America in 2019. The title of the photography should be E Pluribus Chao, the opposite of E Pluribus Unum.
Matthew Yglesias: New RNC poll spun as good news for Trump is actually full of terrible news for Trump (Vox)
His approval rating is one point above water in House districts he won by 12. That's terrible.
Jonathan Chait: Political Moderation Needs to Be Saved From the Madness of Howard Schultz (NY Mag)
Another quality Schultz may share with the current businessman-president is that the seriousness of his intentions have [sic] been underestimated. Michael Scherer reports that Schultz has spent months planning for his rollout, commissioning six national polls and setting up a dial test with 1,000 voters during his 60 Minutes appearance. It would be easy to assume, based on his comical lack of knowledge about politics and policy, that Schultz, like Trump, just wants some free publicity. History can turn on smaller things than one rich man's ego.
Paul Waldman: The real reason Republicans are freaked out about Democrats' move to the left (Washington Post)
First, a Democrat proposes a new policy idea - such as Medicare-for-all or tax increases on the wealthy. Then Republicans say, "My god, are you insane? If we do this we'll become Venezuela!" Then some polls are taken and it turns out that the crazy socialist idea is, in fact, extremely popular among the American public. … The reason Republicans are so frightened is the prospect that the American public might hear what Democrats are offering and say, "You know, that sounds like a pretty good idea."
Andrew Tobias: Stone, Cohn, Manafort & Satan
Okay, I just threw in Satan. But you have to watch Get Me Roger Stone on Netflix. So much will come clear - undisputed by Stone. Indeed, proudly proclaimed. He and his business partners Paul Manafort and Lee Atwater for decades served the dark side of human nature, representing murderous dictators, elevating lobbying and political giving to new depths, stoking racial division and fear.
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Presenting
Michael Egan
took the day off.
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
from Bruce
Anecdotes - Etiquette
• Lord Chesterfield was once invited to attend a dinner that was given by the Spanish ambassador. At the dinner, several people gave toasts to their respective kings. The Spanish ambassador compared the King of Spain to the sun. The French ambassador compared the King of France to the moon. Next rose Lord Chesterfield, who said about the King of England, "Your excellencies have taken from me all the greatest luminaries of heaven, and the stars are too small for me to make a comparison of my royal master; I therefore beg leave to give your excellencies - Joshua!" (Readers who know the Bible will remember that the great Hebrew military leader Joshua once stopped the sun and the moon, thus allowing the Israelites to win a battle before nightfall.)
• A week before a scheduled performance of Richard Wagner's Die Meistersinger, conductor Arturo Toscanini became unhappy with one of his singers - a man who was a good man and a good singer, but who was unsuited for his part. Taking thought about how to replace the singer - but without harming the singer's reputation - Maestro Toscanini composed a letter in which he said that during rehearsals he had noticed that the singer was not well, and if the singer should wish to withdraw from the performance, he would understand. The singer was no dummy - he took the hint and told the Maestro that yes, he was ill, and yes, he would withdraw from the performance. His replacement was better suited for the part, and Die Meistersingerwas a success.
• Hanro was a royal minister who fell into disgrace and was exiled during the Chou dynasty. For a long time, Hanro lived as a recluse, until the king recalled him from exile. Hanro mounted a horse and started to return to the royal court, but then he decided that he liked being a recluse better than being a court minister, so he turned his horse around and headed back to his mountain home. However, he rode his horse backwards, so that he could not be said to have turned his back on the king's wishes.
• Adelina Patti, a celebrated diva, seldom showed up for rehearsals (she included a no-rehearsal clause in her contracts), so she often first met her singing co-stars on the stages of the opera house she was performing at the time. In a first-act trio featuring Ms. Patti, a baritone and a tenor, the baritone altered the words of the song he was singing on stage to ask her for an introduction. Ms. Patti being willing, the tenor sang the formal introductions.
• Groucho Marx frequently bumped into Sam Goldwyn in Hollywood. Each time, Mr. Goldwyn would ask Groucho how Harpo was doing, but he never asked about Groucho's health. Finally, Groucho got annoyed and protested, "Why do you always ask me how Harpo is? Why don't you ever ask me how I am?" Mr. Goldwyn replied, "I'll do that sometime, Groucho, but right now, how is your brother Harpo?"
• Art Linkletter was once stopped by a man who insisted he had gone to school with him in Moosejaw, Canada. Actually, although Mr. Linkletter had been born there, he had moved when he was little to San Diego, California, where he went to school. However, because the man's family was with him, Mr. Linkletter was polite and pretended to have gone to school with the man in Moosejaw, Canada.
• Papal Nuncio Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, who was later to be Pope John XXIII, once met the Chief Rabbi of Paris at a reception. They talked together for a long time, and when they were summoned to dinner, they were confronted with the dilemma of who would walk through the door to the dining room first. Nuncio Roncalli motioned for the Rabbi to go first, saying, "The Old Testament before the New."
• In Philadelphia, a homeless person named Carlos was very hungry and wondering what his next meal would come from. A priest appeared and gave him a sandwich. Carlos was so hungry that he ate the sandwich before remembering to thank the priest. After eating the sandwich, he looked for the priest, but the priest had disappeared. After that, Carlos always thanked someone who gave him food, and then he ate the food.
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© Copyright Bruce D. Bruce; All Rights Reserved
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Reader Comment
Current Events
Hillary used to talk a lot about that ominous 3 AM call; well, at last we see what the concern at 3 AM is for the Orange Stain (or rather for his handler and cleaning staff)!
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
Really cranky - kinda wrenched my back putting the old desktop back in place.
Presenters
Oscars
Jennifer Lopez, Tina Fey and Daniel Craig are among the first round of presenters to be announced for the 91st Oscars.
They will be joined by Awkwafina, Chris Evans, Whoopi Goldberg, Brie Larson, Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, Amandla Stenberg, Charlize Theron, Tessa Thompson and Constance Wu.
More presenters are expected to be announced in the upcoming weeks.
It was previously announced that the ceremony will feature musical performances of the five original song nominees. Jennifer Hudson will perform "I'll Fight" from the documentary RBG, while a "surprise special guest" will perform the Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman-written "The Place Where Lost Things Go" from Mary Poppins Returns. Gillian Welch and David Rawlings are set to perform "When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs for Wings" from The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga will sing "Shallow" from A Star Is Born and Kendrick Lamar and SZA will perform "All the Stars" from Black Panther.
The ceremony appears to be proceeding without a host, as one has not yet been announced after Kevin Hart memorably dropped out of the gig.
Oscars
Asks Good Question
Bernie
U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders sent a letter to Catalyst Pharmaceuticals on Monday asking it to justify its decision to charge $375,000 annually for a medication that for years has been available to patients for free.
The drug, Firdapse, is used to treat Lambert-Eaton Myasthenic Syndrome, a rare neuromuscular disorder, according to the letter, made available to Reuters by the senator's office. The disorder affects about one in 100,000 people in the United States.
Both the Democratic-led U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate, controlled by Republicans, have begun holding hearings this year on the rising costs of medicines. Sanders is an independent who usually votes with Democrats.
In the letter dated Feb. 4, Sanders asked Catalyst to lay out the financial and non-financial factors that led the company to set the list price at $375,000, and say how many patients would suffer or die as a result of the price and how much it was paying to purchase or produce the drug.
"Catalyst's decision to set the annual list price at $375,000 is not only a blatant fleecing of American taxpayers, but is also an immoral exploitation of patients who need this medication," Sanders wrote in his letter.
Bernie
Shredder 'Disabled'
Banksy
The shredder that partially destroyed a Banksy canvas moments after it was sold at auction last year has been "disabled", a German museum said on Monday, ahead of the piece going on display.
"We wanted to avoid having, in three or four days, a visitor who, just as in London hides a button... and the shredding continues," said Henning Schaper, director of Frieder Burda museum in Baden-Baden.
The work, now called "Love is in the Bin", will be shown on Tuesday for the first time since it was created in a theatrical stunt at Sotheby's in London in October.
Moments after the painting "Girl with Balloon" sold for £1,042,000 ($1.4 million, 1.2 million euros) -- a joint record for the maverick artist -- it literally went through the shredder hidden in the frame.
The buyer went through with the purchase, and some art experts said it was probably now worth more than it had been before the stunt.
Banksy
Builds Objects With Light
'Replicator'
3D printers work by laboriously printing objects layer by layer. For larger objects, that process can take hours or even days.
But now scientists at the University of California, Berkeley have found a shortcut: a printer that can fabricate objects in one shot using light - and which could, potentially, revolutionize rapid manufacturing technology.
The research, published in the journal Science yesterday, describes a printer the researchers nicknamed "the replicator" in a nod to Star Trek.
It works more like a computed tomography (CT) scan than a conventional 3D printer.
It builds a 3D image by scanning an object from multiple angles, then projects it into a tube of synthetic resin that solidifies when exposed to certain intensities of light.
'Replicator'
Color Will Change For Half
World's Oceans
Many of the world's oceans will change in color by the end of the century with tropical seas turning bluer and brighter while cold, nutrient-rich waters getting greener and darker, according to a new study from MIT published in Nature Communications.
Climate change is changing populations of small, microscopic algae that float through the water column known as phytoplankton. Like their land-based cousin, phytoplankton contain chlorophyll, a pigment that absorbs the Sun's blue wavelengths and reflects green light to produce carbon for photosynthesis. Cold, nutrient-dense waters with higher populations of phytoplankton tend to be greener while tropical waters with less phytoplankton take on a blue or turquoise hue.
But as warm, subtropical waters get warmer, populations of phytoplankton are projected to decrease, changing the waters to more blue colors. On the other hand, colder algae-rich green waters in cold regions will also get warmer, potentially spurring the growth of more diverse phytoplankton but most likely also getting bluer. As such, life in these areas as we know it today is likely to also change.
"Only some regions that are greener now are likely to get even greener - many other greener regions are likely to get bluer. But in most places, there will be a shift between different species of phytoplankton," lead author Stephanie Dutkiewicz told IFLScience.
"There will be a noticeable difference in the color of 50 percent of the ocean by the end of the 21st century," explained Dutkiewicz in a statement. "It could be potentially quite serious. Different types of phytoplankton absorb light differently, and if climate change shifts one community of phytoplankton to another, that will also change the types of food webs they can support."
World's Oceans
3 Years 'Younger' Than Men's
Women's Brains
You've heard of being "young at heart," but what about young in the brain? A new study suggests that, by at least one measure, women's brains are biologically younger than men's of the same age.
The researchers analyzed brain scans of more than 200 adults, specifically looking at a measure of the brain's metabolism that's known to change with age. They found that, based on these metabolic levels, women's brains appeared about three years younger, on average, than men's brains of the same chronological age.
The findings still need to be confirmed in follow-up studies. But if true, the researchers hypothesize that having a metabolically "younger" brain might provide women with "some degree of resilience to aging-related changes" in the brain. This in turn may help explain why women tend to experience less of a decline in thinking abilities as they age, the researchers wrote in the study, published today (Feb. 4) in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Still, much more research is needed.
"What we don't know is what it means," senior study author Dr. Manu Goyal, an assistant professor of radiology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, said in a statement. However, it's possible that it could explain why "women don't experience as much cognitive decline [as men] in later years, ... because their brains are effectively younger."
Women's Brains
For Rabies Shots
$50,000
Before Gary Giles died of rabies, 25 of his family members went to visit him in the hospital, KSL-TV reported. That decision may cost his loved ones $50,000 in what were potentially "live-saving" treatments.
Gary Giles, 55, was the first man to die of rabies in Utah since 1944, KUTV reported after he died in November. Giles, of Moroni, Utah, was a dad of four and would catch and release bats that flew into his home.
"The bats never hurt us, and we were always catching them in our hands and releasing them outside because you hear all the time about how bats are good for the insect population, and you don't want to hurt them," his wife, Juanita Giles said in November, according to the Deseret News. "The bats would lick our fingers, almost like they could taste the saltiness of our fingers, but they never bit us."
But it was a bat that likely gave Gary Giles rabies, the Utah Health State Department said, according to FOX13.
The state health department called Juanita Giles two days after her husband died and asked her to go to the hospital immediately, she said, according to KSL. She and the other family members who visited Gary Giles got the recommended rabies-prevention vaccines.
$50,000
Army Conducting Training
L.A., Long Beach
Residents of the greater Los Angeles and Long Beach areas are being warned to expect some unusual sights and sounds as U.S. Army special operations teams conducts training exercises this week, officials said.
The training began Monday and is scheduled to continue through Friday, the Los Angeles Police Department said in a written statement.
"Residents may hear sounds associated with the training, including aircraft and weapon simulations," the statement said. "Citizens in close proximity to the areas where the training will take place will be notified prior to the training."
The greater Los Angeles area provides soldiers with training in urban locations similar to those they may see while deploying overseas, officials added.
Police said the Army appreciates the cooperation of local residents and businesses and apologizes for any possible disturbances caused by the training.
L.A., Long Beach
Declared Dead Prematurely?
Alexander the Great
Alexander the Great may have been killed by Guillain-Barré syndrome, a rare neurological condition in which a person's own immune system attacks them, says one medical researchers.
The condition may have led to a mistaken declaration of the king's death and may explain the mysterious phenomenon in which his body didn't decay for seven days after his "death."
Alexander the Great was king of Macedonia between 336 and 323 B.C. During that time, he conquered an empire that stretched from the Balkans to modern-day Pakistan. In June 323, he was living in Babylon when, after a brief illness that caused fever and paralysis, he died at age 32. His senior generals then fought each other to see who would succeed him.
According to accounts left by ancient historians, after a night of drinking, the king experienced a fever and gradually became less and less able to move until he could no longer speak. One account, told by Quintus Curtius Rufus, who lived during the first century A.D., claims that Alexander the Great's body didn't decay for more than seven days after he was declared dead, and the embalmers were hesitant to work on his body.
Based on the symptoms recorded by ancient historians, Katherine Hall, a senior lecturer in the Department of General Practice and Rural Health at the University of Otago in New Zealand, believes that it's possible that Alexander actually died of Guillain-Barré syndrome. The condition, Hall said, may have left Alexander in a deep coma that may have led doctors to declare, mistakenly, that he was dead, something that would explain why his corpse supposedly didn't decompose quickly, noted Hall in her paper published recently in the journal Ancient History Bulletin.
Alexander the Great
In Memory
Kristoff St. John
Kristoff St. John, the actor who played the character Neil Winters on the CBS daytime soap opera "The Young and the Restless" since 1991, has died, according to his attorney Mark Gegaros. He was 52.
St. John got his start as a child actor on the ABC TV mini-series "Roots: The Next Generation," and he starred in his first soap opera "Generations" on NBC in 1989. Following the show's cancellation, he originated the part of Neil Winters on "The Young and the Restless" and had portrayed him for 25 years. He's the longest running African American actor to appear on the legendary soap.
In his long career, St. John was also the recipient of nine Daytime Emmy awards and 10 NAACP Image Awards. He most recently was nominated for a Daytime Emmy in 2017.
St. John's son, Julian, with his ex-wife Mia died by suicide in 2014. And months later, the couple filed a wrongful death suit against the nurses and staff at La Casa Psychiatric Health Facility in Long Beach, California, claiming that the staff lied about the number of times they had checked in on their son and falsified records claiming they did so.
Kristoff is survived by two daughters, Paris and Lola St. John.
Kristoff St. John
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