Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Joe Bob Briggs: Facebook Might Decide You're a Hater (Taki's Magazine)
Call me old-fashioned, but I remember when liberal Democrats were First Amendment radicals. Apparently the left-wing credentials of Silicon Valley are overrated: They have fifteen thousand people in the United States and Ireland searching for "hate speech" in order to eliminate it from Facebook.
Paul Waldman: So will we 'lock up' Ivanka and Jared for violating government email policy? (Washington Post)
You may want to sit down while I tell you some shocking news: It appears that in 2016 when Republicans were contorted in paroxysms of rage and shouting "Lock her up!" over Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server, they may not have been motivated solely by their deep concern for secure communication management. It's now clearer than ever that all their feigned outrage about Clinton's electronic communication didn't stop Trump administration officials from violating government policy when it came to their own. Even members of Trump's own family:
Alexandra Petri: Does the electoral college spark joy? (Washington Post)
Take up the electoral college from your closet. Lay it in a pile. Stare at it. I think you want to keep it. After all, consider: If the electoral college is abolished, people would be forced to stop ignoring Massachusetts during campaign season, and it would be awkward after all those years of pretending not to see it, during which Massachusetts started to build a life and identity of its own that didn't revolve around the attention of presidential candidates.
Jonathan Chait: If Trump Obstructed Justice, He Can't Be Exonerated (NY Mag)
Of course Trump colluded with Russia. He literally went on camera and asked Russia to hack Hillary Clinton's emails, promising that Russia would be rewarded by the American media, and Russia responded to this request by attempting a hack to steal Clinton's emails that very day. Trump's campaign aides repeatedly welcomed and sought out Russian assistance. His campaign manager passed on 75 pages of intricate polling data to a Russian operative during the campaign. And he did all this while secretly pursuing a lucrative business deal with Russia.
Matthew Yglesias: The demobilization of the resistance is a dangerous mistake (Vox)
The Women's Marches over-awed Donald Trump's Inauguration. Protesters at airports checked the initial version of Trump's travel bans. Ordinary Americans' phone calls and door knocks defeated multiple attempts to roll back the Affordable Care Act. It all sent a clear message during Trump's first two years in office: Resistance works. Engaged protesters were not able to block the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act or Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation to the Supreme Court, but they did render both toxically unpopular. The resistance spurred an unprecedented level of interest in special elections, swinging seats across the country, and powered Democrats to sweeping wins in the 2018 midterms. And then it stopped.
Anonymous: What happens after rich kids bribe their way into college? I teach them (The Guardian)
A professor at an elite US school says an influx of unskilled and entitled students is monopolizing faculty time: 'they will eat you alive'.
Dan Buettner: The Link Between Happiness, Health, and Literacy (Blue Zones)
Where you live is an important driver of happiness. [
] If you're unhappy and living in a place where overall happiness is reportedly low, moving to a place like Boulder, Colorado, or San Luis Obispo or Santa Barbara in California will stack your happiness deck. In general, in America, people are happier in medium-sized cities than in suburbs or the biggest cities. And college towns tend to be the happiest. Of course, picking up and moving your family and your life isn't possible for many people, but there are things you can do no matter where you live.
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from Bruce
Anecdotes
Marietta Alboni (1823-1894), a contralto, once heard of a plot by some Italian patriots to have her hissed off the opera stage simply because she had been singing in foreign countries to foreigners. She learned that the conspirators were meeting at a certain tavern, so she put on men's clothing, went to the tavern, and while pretending to be a man, joined the conspirators. They gave the new conspirator a whistle and said that it should be blown at a certain point in the performance, which would signal to everyone that the hissing should begin. After Ms. Alboni made her entrance on stage that night, wearing the whistle on a chain around her neck, a couple of conspirators began to hiss without waiting for the signal. Ms. Alboni walked to the front of the stage, held up the whistle, then said, "Gentlemen, are you not a little before your time?" Recognizing that they had been tricked, but being good sports, the conspirators gave her an ovation.
The New City Ballet once appeared in Bologna, Italy, where they hired an orchestra that had been put together from musicians who played in local restaurants. Unfortunately, this orchestra did not know the music the New York City Ballet was performing, so choreographer George Balanchine told associate conductor Hugo Fiorato to get a machine gun and shoot them all! Although Mr. Balanchine wanted to cancel the performance, it was sold out and management convinced him to soldier on. The New York City Ballet performed to the music that was easiest to play, but even so, during "Serenade," the musical instruments stopped playing one by one. Mr. Fiorato sang the music for the dancers, and the musical instruments began to play again one by one - but the dancers onstage were laughing.
Despite being a world-famous operatic tenor, Leo Slezak once spent a short time on the music hall stage and enjoyed it very much. (Music halls are places of popular entertainment, including dog shows, comedy acts, singers, etc.) Once a hotel chambermaid asked for a couple of free tickets for her and her boyfriend, which he readily provided. The next day, he asked her how she had enjoyed his performance, and she went on and on about his dancing dog and how she couldn't understand how he had taught the dog so many tricks. Mr. Slezak realized, of course, that she had confused him with the man who had the dog act, so he asked what she had thought of the opera star on the same bill. "Oh," she said, "I didn't listen to him much - he seemed a bit wet."
As a young man, Arturo Toscanini was able to meet Giuseppe Verdi and go over the score for Verdi's Four Sacred Pieces. Before their meeting, Toscanini studied the score carefully and was very puzzled over a passage. When he met Verdi, Toscanini played the passage, slowing down despite a temptation to maintain the tempo. Verdi was very pleased and slapped him on the back, saying "Bravo!" Toscanini replied, "But, Maestro, you don't know what anguish that place has caused me. You gave no indication of a retard." Verdi replied, "And can you imagine what some asses of conductors would make of it if I had marked a retard?"
Pyotr Ilich Tchaikovsky once agreed to write a piece of music a month for a publication, but he was afraid that he would forget to meet his obligation, so he told a servant to remind him each month when the piece was due. Unfortunately, his servant often told him, "Pyotr Ilich, tomorrow is the day," forcing Tchaikovsky to quickly write a piece of music. Still, the 12 pieces of music, collectively known as "The Seasons," are very listenable.
Anna Russell narrowly missed being an opera singer. Unfortunately, her career ended before it began after her nose was bashed with a stick in a school field hockey game. Still, she earned a living singing comic songs, and in her spare time, puttered around the house while the 14 hours of Wagner's Ring cycle play in the background. (To perform the Ring cycle takes approximately 22 hours, but with records or CDs you don't have to wait for the scenery to be moved or the singers to take a break.)
Robert Schumann wished to be a concert pianist, and he invented a device that he thought would help him develop independence in the fourth finger of his right hand. Unfortunately, the device crippled the finger, rendering it useless for playing the piano. As a consequence, he gave up his dream of being a great concert pianist and instead became a great Romantic composer.
As a young man, Felix Mendelssohn visited Munich in 1831, where he was dismayed by the quality of the music - at this time and this place, there was an indifference to serious music, and the works of Beethoven, Haydn, and Mozart were not played. Therefore, at a party, Mendelssohn sat at a piano and performed Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. This was a big hit, and serious music became fashionable in Munich once more.
As a young conductor, Thomas Beecham gathered together a small orchestra of fine, spirited, young players. They did a lot of traveling by train in the north of England, and each time they arrived at Preston Junction, they lit fireworks. Because of this habit, they became known as "The Fireworks Orchestra of Lancashire."
Alfred Einstein enjoyed playing violin in an amateur quartet. One night, he was having great difficulty getting the count right in a piece by Joseph Haydn despite trying several times. Finally, one of his fellow musicians told the great physicist and mathematician, "The problem with you, Alfred, is that you simply can't count."
Austrian Emperor Joseph II once said about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Die Entfόhrung aus dem Serail, "Too beautiful for our ears and a great many notes, my dear Mozart." Mozart replied, "Exactly as many as are necessary, Your Majesty."
Not everyone likes modern classical music. As a teenager, caricaturist Sam Norkin was playing Jean Sibelius' First Symphony when his father demanded to know how the record player got broken. After that experience, Mr. Norkin played Sibelius only in the basement.
Lionel Barrymore, who played many, many different roles as an actor, once said that he wanted his epitaph to read: "Well, I've played everything but a harp."
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Honeybee Sanctuary
Morgan Freeman
Morgan Freeman has converted his 124-acre Charleston, MS ranch into a honeybee sanctuary, reports Forbes.
The Oscar winner imported a total of 26 bee hives to the ranch and has planted bee-friendly Magnolia trees and lavender on the property.
Freeman obtained the bees from Arkadelphia, Arkansas and even said that he doesn't use a bee suit while feeding the insects.
The 81-year-old actor, known for his roles in Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy and for playing God in Bruce Almighty, discussed his foray into beekeeping in an appearance on Jimmy Fallon in 2014.
"There's been a frightening loss of bee colonies, particularly in this county," Freeman said in a separate interview with Larry King. "To such an extent that the scientists are now saying 'this is dangerous.'"
Morgan Freeman
Dropped by CNN
Mark Geragos
Celebrity attorney Mark Geragos was dropped by CNN on Monday after the Wall Street Journal identified him as the unnamed co-conspirator in the criminal case against Michael Avenatti.
On Monday Avenatti, who rose to prominence representing adult film star Stormy Daniels, was arrested in New York City on charges that he tried to extort more than $20 million from Nike.
In the complaint, prosecutors described an unidentified co-conspirator as "CC-1." The Wall Street Journal later identified him as Geragos.
Geragos' name was quickly scrubbed off the network's website Monday afternoon.
Geragos has also represented Michael Jackson, Winona Ryder, Susan McDougal and Colin Kaepernick.
Mark Geragos
Breaks Silence
Egg Boy
The Australian teenager known as "Egg Boy" has spoken publicly to the media for the first time since he cracked an egg on a far-right politician's head, becoming an international symbol against bigotry in the process.
"I understand what I did was not the right thing to do," Will Connolly, 17, said in an interview with Channel 10, an Australian television channel expected to air on Monday evening.
"However, this egg has united people," he said, adding that the incident has been used to raise tens of thousands of dollars for the victims of the 15 March terrorist attack in Christchurch, New Zealand.
That money is from a fundraising page that was set up for the teenager and meant originally to help cover Mr Connolly's legal fees and to buy "more eggs." By Monday, it had raised almost 80,000 Australian dollars ($56,000). A law firm has said it would represent Mr Connolly pro bono, allowing all funds raised through the page to be donated towards the victims of the Christchurch attacks.
Mr Connolly's abrupt transformation from anonymous Australian teenager to international sensation began one day after the Christchurch attacks, when Fraser Anning, a far-right Australian senator, who blamed Muslim immigration for the attack, gave a news conference in Melbourne. Mr Connolly, a resident of the city, crept behind the senator and smashed an egg on his head. Mr Anning then struck the teenager twice in the head and the teenager was tackled by the senator's supporters.
Egg Boy
Released In China
Bohemian Rhapsody
A heavily censored version of Bohemian Rhapsody, with all LGBT+ content removed, has been released in China.
The film was shown in a limited number of arthouse cinemas over the weekend, with ABC News reporting that around four minutes' worth of footage was cut.
Some of the cut scenes were integral to the film's plot. The moment where Freddie Mercury (Rami Malek) comes out as bisexual to his then-girlfriend Mary Austin (Lucy Boynton) was removed entirely, leaving viewers at a loss as to why the couple broke up.
Most of the scenes between Mercury and his long-term partner Jim Hutton were also cut, while a real-life photo of the pair being excluded from the closing credits.
The recreation of the music video for Queen's 1984 single "I Want to Break Free", which saw the band dressed in women's clothing, was also removed, while even a shot of Mercury holding a microphone stand near his groin was cut.
Bohemian Rhapsody
Memo To TV News Producers
Blacklist
President Donald Trump's (R-Deplorable) re-election campaign has sent a letter to TV news producers presenting its blacklist of Democratic politicians, and intelligence experts, who have spoken critically of POTUS on-air.
In the memo, with the subject line "Credibility of Certain Guests," Team Trump recommended that, going forward, TV producers not do business with "Democrat leaders and others lying to the American people by vigorously and repeatedly claiming there was evidence of collusion" in on-air appearances.
The memo was sent the day after Attorney General Bill Barr issued his four-page letter to Congress declaring Special Counsel Robert Mueller did not find Trump had hit the legal threshold for collusion. The letter also included Barr's own decision to interpret Mueller's report as having insufficient evidence to charge Trump with obstruction, while acknowledging the report did not exonerate Trump on that score.
Named to the blacklist are House Intel Chairman Adam Schiff, Congressman Eric Swalwell, former CIA Director John Brennan, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Rep Jerry Nadler and DNC chair Tom Perez, though Team Trump said it was not a complete list.
The memo suggested to TV news producers that they reconsider whether these people "warrant further appearances on your programming given the outrageous and unsupported claims made in the past."
Blacklist
'A State of Emergency'
Native Americans
Ella Red Cloud-Yellow Horse, marooned for days by a blizzard and then a flood, needed to get out. Supplies at her house were running low. She had come down with pneumonia. She had a chemotherapy appointment to keep.
So Ms. Red Cloud-Yellow Horse, 59, set off toward the road on foot. She fell repeatedly, almost got swept away in the current of a creek, and became stuck in the mud. Finally, more than an hour later, she made it the half-mile to the highway where she was picked up.
"I couldn't breathe," she said, "but I knew I needed to get to the hospital."
Such stories are startlingly common these days on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota - a stunning stretch of land larger than Delaware - as an overwhelming bout of snow and flooding has set off a humanitarian disaster that seems unlikely to abate soon.
With some residents approaching two weeks stranded in their homes, and with emergency rations able to reach parts of the back country only by horse, boat and helicopter, Pine Ridge remains in a state of shock and triage.
Native Americans
Ancient Garbage Heaps
Byzantine Empire
About a century before the fall of the Byzantine Empire - the eastern portion of the vast Roman Empire - signs of its impending doom were written in garbage.
Archaeologists recently investigated accumulated refuse in trash mounds at a Byzantine settlement called Elusa in Israel's Negev Desert. They found that the age of the trash introduced an intriguing new timeline for the Byzantine decline, scientists reported in a new study.
The researchers discovered that trash disposal - once a well-organized and reliable service in outpost cities like Elusa - ceased around the middle of the sixth century, about 100 years prior to the empire's collapse. At that time, a climate event known as the Late Antique Little Ice Age was taking hold in the Northern Hemisphere, and an epidemic known as the Justinian plague raged through the Roman Empire, eventually killing over 100 million people.
Together, disease and climate change took a devastating economic toll and loosened Rome's grip on its lands to the east a century earlier than once thought, according to the study.
The scientists carbon-dated organic material such as seeds and charcoal in layers of trash mounds located near the city. They found that trash had built up in that location over a period of about 150 years and that the accumulation terminated in the middle of the sixth century. This suggested there was a failure of infrastructure, which happens when a city is about to collapse, the researchers noted.
Byzantine Empire
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