Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Matthew Yglesias: the 2018 midterms (Vox)
Democrats need to shine a spotlight on conflicts of interest.
Josh Marshall: It's Worse Than We Thought (TPM)
Commentators often say the President doesn't like being questioned; he's angry that his appointees don't defend him; he lashes out at different staff members whom he's 'frustrated' with. In other words, people look for process explanations. This is all seems like psychologizing and over-explaining to avoid the most obvious explanation: he's scared and looking for a way out. But he can't seem to find one. It's all escalating. And we've learned over the last week that President Trump's racket with Russia may be only one facet of his family's political corruption. The level of apparent corruption, interlaced with numerous constitutional landmines, is beyond our national experience.
Alison Flood: The new Scandi noir? The Korean writers reinventing the thriller (The Guardian)
The country has emerged as a surprising literary force as a novel by the 'Korean Henning Mankell' bags a six-figure deal and sparks a global bidding war.
Lucy Mangan: "Why we need to stop shouting and start debating" (Stylist)
Stylist's Lucy Mangan explains why it's time to embrace the art of discussion
Jonathon Sturgeon: Literature Shrugged (The Baffler)
Worse than hatred of literature is indifference
Emma Brockes: "Critic turned author James Wood: 'Sometimes I think I've lost my nerve. I'm not slaying people any more'" (The Guardian)
As a reviewer at the New Yorker, James Wood earned a fearsome reputation. With his own novel Upstate landing on critics' desks, he talks about writing, family and his 'buoyant' disposition.
Sarah Churchwell: "Pushing back: why it's time for women to rewrite the story" (The Guardian)
Poe, Updike, Roth, Mailer: many male authors have contributed to a culture in which the credibility of women is undermined. It's time to put a stop to the gaslighting, writes Sarah Churchwell.
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Presenting
Michael Egan
replied:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
David E Suggests
Latte Art
David
Thanks, Dave!
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
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
RESISTING THE CRIMINAL GOVERNMENT.
THE WORKERS OF OUR WORLD.
"THE STATUE OF LIMITATIONS."
THE LOOSE CANNONS START TO ROLL AROUND.
"YOU'RE DRUNK OR OFF YOUR MEDS."
CUT THEM OFF AT THE KNEES!
A SPECIAL DESIGN REPUBLICAN ASSAULT WEAPON.
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
The thing I can't talk about yet is gonna go at least another week.
227-Year-Old Tree
George Washington
Extreme winds have toppled a tree, believed to be well over two centuries old, that was planted by former US president George Washington on his Mount Vernon estate.
The 227-year-old Canadian hemlock which collapsed on Friday was planted by the founding father and first American president back in 1791.
Mount Vernon announced the tree had fallen over on its Facebook page on Friday evening.
The senior vice president of visitor engagement at Mount Vernon, Rob Shenk, said the estate lost many trees to the sweeping winds which swept through the Washington region on Friday but the Canadian hemlock planted by Washington was probably the most noteworthy.
According to the estate, the tree arrived to Mount Vernon in a half whiskey barrel as a present from then New York governor George Clinton.
George Washington
Launching American Whiskey
Metallica
Rock band Metallica is currently hatching plans to launch their own whiskey and open a distillery in the US.
That's according to specialized blog Whiskycast.com, which reports that the band is currently collaborating with veteran distiller Dave Pickerell to create a branded whiskey.
Pickerell, the former Maker's Mark master distiller, disclosed the news during a podcast, revealing that the band is also exploring different location options for the distillery.
"San Francisco (is) the home of Metallica, Louisville (is) the home of Bourbon, and Nashville (is) the home of music, so one of those three seems to make sense," Pickerell said. "I'm voting for San Francisco and the Bay Area if nothing falls apart," Pickerell said during the interview.
Metallica is no newbie to the industry. In 2015, the heavy metal band launched a beer with Budweiser that was sold in limited quantities during a concert in Quebec City.
Metallica
Breakthrough Study
Synesthesia
Carol Steen's father once corrected her about the color of the number five. That number is yellow, she told him. "And my father said, 'No, it's yellow ocher.'" Her dentist has done a root canal because she said her tooth was "glowing orange."
Steen, her father and some of her cousins' children have a trait called synesthesia-and the source may be their shared DNA. A team of scientists announced Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science that six genes, including some involved in brain cells' growth and connections, may be linked with synesthesia.
Amanda Tilot, a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, and her colleagues put three families through a genetic sequencing protocol called whole exome sequencing. In two families, a woman, her mother and all her daughters had the trait: Specifically, they experienced sounds to be certain colors. In another family, a man's mother, daughter, sister and grandson all had synesthesia.
(Two important things to note: Not all people with synesthesia have overlapping senses, and Steen's family wasn't one of the ones studied.)
The researchers found six specific genes that looked a bit different among the people who had synesthesia in these families. Known as COL4A1, ITGA2, MYO10, ROBO3, SLC9A6 and SLIT2, all of those genes are related to a process called axonogenesis, something neurons require to connect to each other.
Synesthesia
Must Turn Over Wu-Tang Album
Pharma Bro
"Pharma Bro" Martin Shkreli will have to forfeit more than $7.3 million in assets that include his one-of-a-kind Wu-Tang Clan album as part of his punishment in his securities fraud case, a judge ruled Monday.
U.S. District Judge Kiyo Matsumoto issued the order against the jailed Shkreli four days before he is to face sentencing for his conviction last year on charges he cheated wealthy investors in two failed hedge funds he was managing.
Along with the Wu-Tang Clan "Once Upon a Time in Shaolin" album that Shkreli has boasted he bought for $2 million, he would have to give up $5 million in cash in a brokerage account. He also would be forced to forfeit other valuables including a Picasso painting and another unreleased recording that he claims he owns, "Tha Carter V" by Lil Wayne.
The judge said the assets won't be seized until Shkreli has a chance to appeal. His lawyer didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
The defense had argued that Shkreli shouldn't have to forfeit anything because the hedge fund investors actually ended up making a profit from drug company stock he gave them.
Pharma Bro
Lawyer Stiffed
Stormy
At some point after President-for-now Trump's (R-Crooked) personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, wired $130,000 to adult film actress Stephanie Clifford (whose stage name is Stormy Daniels), the bank he used flagged the transaction and reported it to the Treasury Department, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday, citing a person familiar with the matter. Further, the WSJ also reported that Cohen grumbled about that fact that he was never repaid.
The Journal reported that Cohen wired the money from First Republic Bank in October, and it was received on Oct. 27, 2016, just 12 days before Election Day. The WSJ's source also said that Cohen had missed two deadlines to pay off Clifford because he was unable to reach Mr. Trump. The Journal reported in January that Cohen paid Clifford the money to stop her from publicly discussing an alleged sexual relationship between her and Mr. Trump.
In February, Cohen told CBS News that neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign "was a party to the transaction with Ms. Clifford, and neither reimbursed me for the payment." He also said the payment to Clifford was "not a campaign contribution or a campaign expenditure by anyone." However, the WSJ also reported that after Mr. Trump won the presidency, Cohen complained to his friends that he hadn't been reimbursed for the payment to Clifford.
Reached by CBS News, the Treasury Department would neither confirm nor deny that the transaction had been flagged.
The bank that received the payment from Cohen, City National Bank, in Los Angeles, sought information about the wire transfer independently, a development reported by the Washington Post.
Stormy
Cha-Ching
Golf Courses
The Trump Organization reportedly ordered replicas of the presidential seal to use at its golf courses despite laws against using the seal for financial gain, according to a report from ProPublica.
ProPublica reports that the Trump Organization ordered dozens of 12-inch replicas of the seal for use as tee markers on Trump International golf courses from an Indiana-based company called Eagle Sign & Design.
The ProPublica report says that Eagle Sign & Design's owner confirmed that the company produced the replicas and that the client confirmed the design, but would not identify the client.
President Trump often golfs at the Trump International Golf Course in Palm Beach, Fla., but the Trump Organization has at least three more golf courses known by the same name in Scotland, Ireland, and the United Arab Emirates, according to its website.
Federal law specifically says that the presidential seal cannot be used for any purpose that implies the endorsement of the federal government. The law says that anyone who knowingly manufactures or sells replicas of the seal can be subject to fines or up to six months in prison.
Golf Courses
Earthquake Damage
Oklahoma
Busted bricks and cracked windows were revealed Monday after some of those most powerful earthquakes in Oklahoma in the past year rattled the northern part of the state.
Oklahoma residents have gotten used to feeling rumbles from a spike in earthquakes blamed on wastewater injection wells from oil and gas production, but most don't cause damage. The threshold for damage usually starts at 4.0, and two quakes measuring a 4.2-magnitude hit Sunday evening in the Breckenridge and Enid areas, about 70 miles (113 kilometers) north of Oklahoma City, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Oklahoma averaged just one magnitude 3.0 earthquake a year before 2009. But that number jumped to 903 in 2015, before declining to 304 last year. The strongest earthquake on record in the state was a 5.8 magnitude in 2016 near Pawnee.
Oklahoma regulators have directed several oil and gas producers to close or reduce the volume of injection wells, and the number of quakes has since declined. People can usually feel local earthquakes at 2.5 magnitude.
Sunday's quakes are the strongest since a magnitude 4.3 struck in September near Medford in northwestern Oklahoma, according to Oklahoma Geological Survey seismologist Jacob Walter.
Oklahoma
Face Extinction
Beetles
Nearly a fifth of Europe's wood beetle species face extinction because the old, decaying trees they depend on have been cleared from forests, scientists warned Monday.
Many saproxylic -- literally, "dead wood" -- beetles could disappear if remaining old-growth trees are not allowed to decline naturally, according to a report by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which maintains the Red List of endangered animals and plants worldwide.
Eighteen percent of the 700 beetle species surveyed were found to be at risk, but the percentage is likely higher because there was not enough data to classify a quarter of those examined.
The 3,000 known species of saproxylic beetles need dead and decaying wood at some point during their life cycles.
The insects also play a crucial role in recycling nutrients, and provide a key food source for birds and mammals. A few are also pollinators.
Beetles
Wreckage Found
USS Lexington
Wreckage from the USS Lexington, a US aircraft carrier which sank during World War II, has been found in the Coral Sea, a search team led by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen announced Monday.
The wreckage was found Sunday by the team's research vessel, the R/V Petrel, some 3,000 meters (two miles) below the surface more than 500 miles (800 kilometers) off the eastern coast of Australia.
The search team released pictures and video of the wreckage of the Lexington, one of the first ever US aircraft carriers, and some of the planes which went down with the ship.
Remarkably preserved aircraft could be seen on the seabed bearing the five-pointed star insignia of the US Army Air Forces on their wings and fuselage.
On one aircraft, an emblem of the cartoon character Felix the Cat can be seen along with four miniature Japanese flags presumably depicting "kills."
USS Lexington
In Memory
Russ Solomon
Talk about the perfect coda: Tower Records founder Russ Solomon died with a drink in his hand and a smart-aleck remark on his lips.
The swashbuckling, visionary entrepreneur who built a global retailing empire and the most famous company in Sacramento history died Sunday night of an apparent heart attack. He was 92.
Solomon was watching the Academy Awards ceremony Sundaynight at his Sacramento-area home when he was stricken, said his son, Michael Solomon, the former chief executive of Tower.
"Ironically, he was giving his opinion of what someone was wearing that he thought was ugly, then asked (his wife) Patti to refill his whiskey," Solomon said. When she returned, he had died.
Russ Solomon was the guiding force behind Tower, the chain that revolutionized music retailing until it was swamped by iPods, big-box stores and other dramatic changes in the industry.
Tower went out of business in December 2006 after a second stint in bankruptcy.
As if to defy the digital forces that reshaped the music business, Solomon opened another music store just a few months later, on the very site of one of Tower's flagship stores in Sacramento. But the encore fell flat, and he gave up after three years. Nonetheless, Solomon enjoyed a redemption of sorts as the star of "All Things Must Pass," a poignant documentary on Tower's history produced by actor and former Sacramentan Colin Hanks. The movie debuted in March 2015.
Solomon was honored in other ways in his later years. He was inducted into the California Hall of Fame in 2016 (with the likes of Harrison Ford and Maria Shriver) and two area entrepreneurs announced plans to open a Jewish deli in his name on the site of an old Tower store in downtown Sacramento. The Sacramento Kings installed a neon Tower store sign in the lobby of their new arena, Golden 1 Center.
A pioneer who was admired by employees and competitors alike, Solomon made Tower a $1 billion-a-year business stretching from Boston to Bogota, Colombia, with major outposts in Tokyo and London. He operated on a philosophy that was obvious to him but extraordinary for its day: Build big stores and pack them with as much music as possible. The company eventually branched into books and video.
Rival chains sprung up, borrowing heavily from Solomon's notion that "big was beautiful," said Glen Ward, former head of the Virgin record stores in North America. "He was probably the inventor of the mega-store."
But in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Tower was overwhelmed by big-box discounters, Amazon.com and digital downloading. The company also over-expanded and was partly to blame for its downfall.
Russ Solomon
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