Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Steven Pinker recommends books to make you an optimist (The Guardian)
Progress is not just material but moral: the world has abolished human sacrifice, slavery, heretic-burning, witch hunts, duelling, apartheid and male-only suffrage. It is also decimating child labour, capital punishment and the criminalisation of homosexuality.
Andrew Tobias: I'm With Reagan and Scalia
We have a crying need for: a ban on the sale of assault weapons (as Ronald Reagan and Antonin Scalia both favored, and our local police do) … bans on the sale of bump-stocks and "gun kits" (where you assemble your own untraceable weapon from a few parts) … a ban on the sale of high-capacity magazines … heightened requirements for the purchase of "silencers" (Republicans are trying to loosen them) … a hike in the age of purchase to 21 (dads could still buy rifles for their 12-year-olds … effective universal background checks that close "the gun-show loophole" and screen out - or at least subject to greater scrutiny - those with mental health or disciplinary histories.
Maureen Dowd: This Snake Can't Shed His Skin (NY Times)
On her way to work one morning, down the path along the lake, a tenderhearted woman saw a rich, coldhearted, frozen snake. His tangerine skin was all caked with makeup and his bald spot was frosted with the dew.
Amelia Tait: "This is where science is at on the whole 'video games cause violence' thing" (New Statesman)
"If we want to reduce school shootings, make it much more difficult (or impossible) to get rapid-fire guns with large capacity magazines," says Anderson. When asked about Trump's statements, Ferguson said: "More cynically, I suppose it's reasonable to speculate that this may be purposeful, as a distractor to draw the nation away from talking about other issues, particularly gun control."
Susan Estrich: You, Too, Mr. President (Creators Syndicate)
Poor Donald Trump. He can't help himself. Take the case of Roy Moore: After numerous women accused Moore of sexual assault, sexual misconduct and child molestation, every Republican I knew was rooting against him, hoping to spare the party huge embarrassment. But the president supported Moore for a seat in the United States Senate nonetheless.
JAKE ROSSEN: 11 Secrets of Bodyguards (Mental Floss)
1. BIGGER ISN'T ALWAYS BETTER.
When working crowd control or trying to corral legions of screaming teenagers, having a massive physical presence comes in handy. But not all "close protection specialists" need to be the size of a professional wrestler.
Grant Shreve: In Praise of Unfinished Novels (The Millions)
That [Ralph] Ellison never finished his novel does not diminish his achievement, but it does alter our view of it. Unfinished novels prod us to relinquish conventional approaches to reading and to seek literary pleasure elsewhere than narrative unity. They demand that we attend to dead ends as well as to false starts, to charged silences as well as to verbal excesses. They ask us to see what meanings can be gleaned from a process that has not yet hardened into product. Though their plots may be arrested, this fact does not make them any less arresting.
Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff: Why feminists should be the first to praise ethical porn (New statesman)
Women should be empowered and supported within the industry, rather than being made to feel ashamed about their jobs.
David Bruce's Amazon Author Page
David Bruce's Smashwords Page
David Bruce's Blog
David Bruce's Lulu Storefront
David Bruce's Apple iBookstore
David Bruce has over 80 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
Presenting
Michael Egan
answered:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Team Coco
CONAN
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
Reader Suggestion
A Powerful Essay
Reader Comment
Current Events
Borowitz hits all the soft targets today--last responders--Predator & Vietnam--Princess Pussy:
Today's Borowitz
Trump Orders Parade to Celebrate His Hypothetical Act of Heroism in Florida School
2/26/18 WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)-Shortly after he declared that he would have run into a Florida high school unarmed to thwart a mass shooting, Donald J. Trump announced that he was planning a parade in Washington, D.C., to celebrate his hypothetical act of heroism.
"Anyone can act with bravery in the moment," Trump told reporters in the White House. "But it takes a very special kind of hero to tell people about the incredibly brave thing he would have done weeks after the thing happened."
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
A REPUBLICANS DEEPEST LOYALTY IS TO MONEY.
THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING! THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING!
THE 'DREAMERS' GIVE TRUMP A NIGHTMARE!
PRESIDENT TRUMP. FIRE GENERAL CRAY. NOW!
BAN THE AR15!
SLOWLY THEY TURN. STEP BY STEP...
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Rain!
Legalization Doesn't Make Teens Smoke More
Medical-Marijuana
For years, people have debated whether legalizing marijuana could lead to an increase in the use of the drug among teens. But a new study finds that's not the case, at least for laws that legalize medical marijuana.
The study found that teen use of marijuana doesn't seem to change when the drug is legalized for medical purposes.
"For now, there appears to be no basis for the argument that legalizing medical marijuana has increased teens' use of the drug," senior study author Deborah Hasin, a professor of epidemiology at Columbia's Mailman School of Public Health, said in a statement.
For the new study, the researchers analyzed information from 11 previous studies that looked at teen marijuana use from 1991 to 2014.
The researchers looked at teen pot use in the past month, before and after marijuana laws changed in various states. They then compared that trend with trends in states where the drug wasn't legalized.
Medical-Marijuana
Predicted Olympic Curling Gold
'The Simpsons'
The U.S. men's curling team's unexpected gold at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, on Saturday shouldn't have come as a surprise to fans of "The Simpsons."
That's because Fox's animated comedy show accurately predicted a Team USA gold in the sport back on Valentine's Day in 2010.
In an episode titled "Boy Meets Curl," Homer and Marge Simpson and Agnes and Seymour Skinner topped the podium for curling. And what's even spookier is that, just as on Saturday, the cartoon quartet beat Sweden to do so.
"The Simpsons" set its episode at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada, which was going on at the time of its broadcast.
"The Simpsons" has previously correctly predicted that Disney would buy (parts of) Fox, that Lady Gaga would perform at the Super Bowl, that there would be a female Doctor Who and Donald Trump would become the U.S. president.
'The Simpsons'
Hospital News
Kevin Smith
Director Kevin Smith revealed on social media on Sunday that he suffered a "massive heart attack." The "Clerks" filmmaker shared a goofy selfie and assured fans that for now, he is "still above ground," but Smith also said that had he not canceled his second show on Sunday, he would have died.
Smith wrote that he was trying to do a standup special and felt nauseous after his first show.
"I threw up a little but it didn't seem to help," he wrote. "Then I started sweating buckets and my chest felt heavy. Turns out I had a massive heart attack." Smith said he headed to Glendale Hospital, where a doctor told him that he had "100 percent blockage" of his left anterior descending (LAD) artery, and that he would have died if he had stayed on stage to perform. Smith said of the LAD artery: "When it goes, you're a goner." The director also revealed that his father died from a massive heart attack.
Smith said that the scary incident has left him reflective, and made him realize that he has finally faced his biggest fear and overcome it.
"I've had a great life: loved by parents who raised me to become the individual I am," he said. "I've had a weird, wonderful career in all sorts of media, amazing friends, the best wife in the world and an incredible daughter who made me a Dad. But as I stared into the infinite, I realized I was relatively content."
Kevin Smith
Reach South African Refuge
2 Lions
Two lions rescued from neglected zoos in war zones in Iraq and Syria arrived in South Africa on Monday to live at a sanctuary with other animals that survived harsh conditions in captivity elsewhere in the world.
The male lions were transported in metal crates on a Qatar Airways flight after leaving an animal refuge in Jordan on Sunday. They were loaded onto vehicles for a drive of several hours to their new home at the Lionsrock facility near the town of Bethlehem. The lions emerged into separate grassy enclosures, and other lions behind nearby fences let out deep-throated growls and moans.
"They are already saying, 'Hello,'" said Hildegard Pirker, head of the animal welfare department at Lionsrock. As one of the new arrivals bounded around his new home, Pirker said: "You're in Africa, finally."
Born in captivity, the lions had never been on the continent. They were emaciated and dehydrated after the international animal welfare group Four Paws extracted them from a zoo in eastern Mosul in Iraq and an amusement park near Aleppo in Syria. The two cities have experienced some of the worst fighting that has hit both countries in recent years, killing large numbers of people and leaving neighborhoods in ruins.
2 Lions
Will Tweet
#BackfireTrump
A new gun-control campaign aims to show President-for-now Donald Trump (R-Crooked) the scale of gun violence via Twitter.
#BackfireTrump, launched by the state-based group States United to Prevent Gun Violence, promises to automatically tweet "a powerful message" from supporters' Twitter accounts to Trump every time someone dies from gun violence.
The campaign, in the wake of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, hopes to serve as a "relentless reminder" to compel the president to "address the 33,000+ deaths caused by gun violence each year in America," according to a press release.
The campaign asks that supporters volunteer their Twitter accounts on BackfireTrump.com. The group said it will automatically send Trump tweets from those accounts with each update to "real-time data of daily preventable gun violence deaths" on gunviolencearchive.org, an independent research group that collects data verified by law enforcement, government and commercial sources.
Users will have the option to set up automatic tweets to the president with each deadly shooting, or with daily or weekly summaries. The automatic tweets will be sent at 3 a.m. - perfect for Trump, who often begins tweeting before 7 a.m.
#BackfireTrump
Temperatures Rise Past Zero
The Arctic
The Arctic appears to be experiencing one of its warmest winters on record as temperatures continue to soar and sea ice drops to an alarmingly low level, in turn causing temperatures in Europe to plummet.
Over the weekend, temperatures above 0°C (32°F) were recorded at Cape Morris Jesup, a weather station at the northernmost point of mainland Greenland. At times, it reached as high as 6.1°C (43°F). This has resulted in open water north of Greenland, where usually the thickest Arctic sea ice would be found.
"It is not refreezing quickly because air temperatures are above zero," Professor Lars Kaleschke from the University of Hamburg, who specializes in remote sensing of sea ice, wrote on Twitter.
"Wacky weather continues with scary strength and persistence."
Arctic temperatures right now are at times higher than Europe, which is simultaneously being blasted by cold air from Siberia dubbed the "Beast from the East".
The Arctic
Family Member Arrested
Ahed
Israel's army has arrested nine Palestinians from the West Bank home village of jailed teenager Ahed Tamimi, including a relative shot in the head in December, the military and witnesses said Monday.
The overnight arrests were in Nabi Saleh in the occupied West Bank and included four minors, witnesses said.
Among them was 15-year-old Mohammed Tamimi, a cousin of Ahed Tamimi, who was arrested in December after a viral video showed her hit and kick two Israeli soldiers, an uncle, Atta Tamimi, said.
Mohammed was shot in the head with a rubber bullet the day of Ahed's arrest, leaving him with permanent damage to his skull, relatives say.
Ahed
Beech Booming
Climate Change
Beech trees are dominating the woodlands of the northeastern United States as the climate changes, and that could be bad news for the forests and people who work in them, according to a group of scientists.
The scientists say the move toward beech-heavy forests is associated with higher temperatures and precipitation. They say their 30-year study, published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Applied Ecology, is one of the first to look at such broad changes over a long time period in the northeastern U.S. and southeastern Canada.
The changes could have major negative ramifications for forest ecosystems and industries that rely on them, said Dr. Aaron Weiskittel, a University of Maine associate professor of forest biometrics and modeling and one of the authors.
Beech, often used for firewood, is of much less commercial value than some species of birch and maple trees that can be used to make furniture and flooring.
Climate Change
Catholic 'Fashion'
New York
The Vatican will lend around 40 ecclesiastical works to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York for an exhibition focusing on the Catholic religion's impact on fashion, organisers said on Monday.
Items such as papal rings and crowns worn by various popes from the 18th and 19th centuries will go on display, including precious treasures from the famous Sistine Chapel "never seen outside of the Vatican," organisers said.
The exhibition "Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination" will feature items spanning a period of more than 15 papacies.
Andrew Bolton, from the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute, said fashion and religion have always inspired and influenced each other.
New York
| CURRENT MOON lunar phases |
