Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Joe Bob Briggs: Exit the President( Taki's Magazine)
Stop saying dystopian. The next person who uses this word gets a Billy Jack leg whop to the right side of his face. Donald Trump is not dystopian. There's nothing dystopian happening. Who started this? Dystopian would require a mastermind. There's no mastermind. Dystopian would require, at the very least, a plan. There's no plan.
Andrew Tobias: Cap, Gown, Vote!
So there are three things every high school senior should get in June: a diploma, my book, and a voter registration card. To which end, Jason Kander's Let America Vote - in partnership with Rock The Vote - has launched CAP, GOWN, VOTE!. High schools compete to see who can register the most new voters.
Lenore Skenazy: Treating Tweens Like Toddlers (Creators Syndicate)
"Why am I required to pick my kid up from school when she's fine walking home by herself?" That's a question I get a lot, and all I can say is: Because. Because we have decided to rewrite childhood as 18 years of constant danger. Because we have decided to give in to outrageous demands by insurance companies, or compliance officers, or administrators who see no downside in treating all children as victims-in-waiting. Because we have decided to accept more and more rules that make no sense.
Sophie Hannah: It's no mystery that crime is the biggest-selling genre in books (The Guardian)
Sales of crime novels in the UK have soared, overtaking general fiction for the first time. But this thrilling genre can be a comfort, too, says the creator of detectives Charlie Zailer and Simon Waterhouse.
Joe Bob Briggs: Yo! Gwyneth! Shut Up! (Taki's Magazine)
Several hundred emails pour in each week asking me about the Joe Bob Wellness Regimen. People wanna know, "How do you do it, Joe Bob? Glowing skin after a three-day drunk. Toned abs over your beer gut. A certain aroma about your torso that prevails even after extended sessions in the cigar bars of Jersey City. And that hint of peat-bog detritus in your breath every time you return from either Scotland or Vinnie's Package Store in Coney Island."
Joe Bob Briggs: The Hurricane Algorithm (Taki's Magazine)
News executives love disasters. They get to act like Chuck Norris and Assemble the Squad. "Maginnis, you cover first responders." "Wilson, get over to NOAA and stay on those maps." "Kelly, official press briefings. Work with Yurozawski to keep tabs on every emergency room within a 300-mile radius." "Bergram, you're Cop Shop, but we'll keep the aperiodic radio tracking the locals." "Ramstein, find that German guy who gets a hard-on for global warming."
Matthew Yglesias: Why politicians should promise every American a job (Vox)
Franklin Roosevelt's vision of guaranteed employment is worth taking seriously, if not literally.
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Presenting
Michael Egan
answered:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
David E Suggests
Animals Keep Cool
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
HIPPIE KILLER FOOD!
AN ENEMY OF HE STATE.
INCH BY INCH. STEP BY STEP.
"IT'S A GAS, GAS, GAS!"
THE WITCHES ARE PISSED OFF!
HEE HAW!
WWWJC?
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Overcast and cool.
Daytime Emmys
'Days of Our Lives' Tops with 5 trophies
LOS ANGELES (AP) - NBC's "Days of Our Lives" topped the Daytime Emmy Awards, capturing five trophies including best drama series and lead actor honors for veteran performer James Reynolds.
Reynolds, who began playing Abe Carver on the drama in 1981, is the third African-American to win in the category, with more than 30 years separating him from Darnell Williams' 1985 victory for "All My Children." Al Freeman Jr. was the groundbreaker, winning for "One Life to Live" in 1979.
ABC's "Good Morning America" won its second consecutive trophy for best morning program, amid rocky times for two other shows nominated in the category. Sexual misconduct allegations led to the 2017 exits of Matt Lauer from NBC's "Today" and Charlie Rose from "CBS This Morning."
"The Talk" was honored as best entertainment talk show, with the award for best entertainment talk host shared by "The Real" co-hosts Adrienne Houghton, Loni Love, Jeannie Mai and Tamera Mowry-Housley.
"The Dr. Oz Show" received the award for informative talk show, with Steve Harvey named best informative talk show host for "Steve."
Daytime Emmys
Sues Harvey
Ashley Judd
Ashley Judd filed suit in Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday, accusing Harvey Weinstein of retaliating against her because she refused his sexual advances.
Judd contends that Weinstein smeared her reputation to director Peter Jackson, causing him not to cast her in "The Lord of the Rings."
Judd is seeking damages for defamation, sexual harassment and violations of California's unfair business competition law.
Judd first revealed that she had been harassed by an unnamed studio mogul to Variety in 2015. She later identified the mogul as Weinstein to the New York Times. According to Judd, Weinstein invited her to his hotel room and tried to get her to watch him take a shower.
Last winter, Jackson gave an interview in which he said that Miramax had warned him not to hire Mira Sorvino or Ashley Judd for "The Lord of the Rings." Weinstein denied playing any role in the casting of the film.
Ashley Judd
Breaks Record
'The Simpsons'
"The Simpsons" has broken the record for the most episodes in a primetime scripted series on American TV, but the milestone came as the popular show finds itself accused of racism.
Fox's 636th episode about the Simpson family, which aired Sunday night, pushed it past Western drama "Gunsmoke" which stopped at 635 episodes in 1975 after 20 years on the air.
Outside of primetime, some US soap operas have been running since the 1960s.
In its early years, the animated comedy regularly pulled in more than 15 million viewers and had double that -- 33 million -- for its most-watched episode in 1990.
Declining audience figures had led to fears that it would not be renewed, but in 2016, Fox committed to continue "The Simpsons" until a 30th season in 2019.
'The Simpsons'
Hollywood Walk O'Fame
'NSYNC
Former boy band 'NSYNC, the group which helped catapult Justin Timberlake to stardom, have been honoured with their own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Timberlake reunited with Lance Bass, JC Chasez, Joey Fatone and Chris Kirkpatrick for the unveiling of the star on Hollywood Boulevard on Monday.
One of the most successful groups of the teen pop era that also launched the careers of Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, 'NSync was greeted with adoring screams and a spontaneous sing-a-long to hit "Tearin' Up My Heart."
'NSync last released an album of new music in 2001 and performed together full time in 2002. They last performed together at the 2013 MTV Music Video Awards.
'NSync has sold more than 40 million records worldwide. They were founded in 1995 in Orlando, Florida.
'NSYNC
Death Of The Press Conference
White House
The presidential news conference, a time-honored tradition going back generations, appears to be no longer.
More than a year has passed since President-for-now Donald Trump (R-Crooked) held the only solo news conference of his administration - a rollicking, hastily arranged, 77-minute free-for-all during which he railed against the media, defended his fired national security adviser and insisted nobody who advised his campaign had had contacts with Russia.
But there are no signs the White House press shop is interested in a second go-round. Instead, the president engages the press in more informal settings that aides say offer reporters far more access, more often, than past administrations.
Trump also submits to occasional one-on-one interviews with individual news outlets. Last week, he called in to "Fox & Friends," his favored format during the campaign. And several times he has held longer, impromptu question-and-answer sessions, including one in the Rose Garden with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that, for reporters, had the feel of a mosh pit.
White House
Files Complaint
Roy Moore
Former Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore filed a complaint on Monday claiming he was the target of a political conspiracy ahead of the Alabama special election in December.
Moore, a former judge, lost to Democrat Doug Jones in a special election to fill a Senate seat vacated by Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Jones defeated Moore by about 20,000 votes - or 1.5 percentage points.
Controversy swirled around Moore in the final months of the campaign as several women came forward to accuse him of sexual misconduct, including allegations that he pursued and harassed teenage girls when he was in his 30s and sexually assaulted one.
In his complaint, filed in civil court in Etowah County, Alabama, Moore claims that his accusers shared "common ties" and planned their allegations to undermine his campaign, according to the Alabama Media Group. The complaint names four of Moore's accusers - Leigh Corfman, Debbie Wesson Gibson, Beverly Young Nelson and Tina Johnson - as well as Richard Hagedorn, a reported friend of Corfman's.
Roy Moore
When Writers Revive Stalled Investigations
Cold Cases
US detectives analyzed DNA to capture the former policeman alleged to be the notorious "Golden State Killer" -- but it was a book that sparked renewed interest in the murders.
"I'll Be Gone in the Dark," a chilling true-crime bestseller by Michelle McNamara, was published after she died suddenly in her sleep in 2016, and is to be adapted into a documentary series for HBO.
Joseph James DeAngelo, 72, arrested after a 40-year search, was charged Friday with the 1978 murders of a newlywed couple shot dead in Rancho Cordova, a suburb of California's capital Sacramento.
He is a suspect in 10 other murders committed in California between 1976 and 1986, according to authorities, while the Golden State Killer has been linked by DNA or other evidence to more than 50 rapes.
"Think you got him, Michelle," McNamara's husband, the entertainer Patton Oswald, tweeted following the arrest on Tuesday, with horror writer Stephen King and the actor Rob Lowe also praising her steadfast work.
Cold Cases
$25 Million Project
Thwaites Glacier
Britain and the United States launched a $25 million project on Monday to study the risks of a collapse of a giant glacier in Antarctica that is already shrinking and nudging up global sea levels.
The five-year research, involving 100 scientists, would be the two nations' biggest joint scientific project in Antarctica since the 1940s. Ice is thawing from Greenland to Antarctica and man-made global warming is accelerating the trend.
The scientists would study the Thwaites Glacier, which is roughly the size of Florida or Britain, in West Antarctica, the UK Natural Environment Research Council and U.S. National Science Foundation said in a joint statement.
Thwaites and the nearby Pine Island Glacier are two of the biggest and fastest-retreating glaciers in Antarctica.
If both abruptly collapsed, allowing ice far inland to flow faster into the oceans, world sea levels could rise by more than a meter (3 feet), threatening cities from Shanghai to San Francisco and low-lying coastal regions.
Thwaites Glacier
Magnetic Field Might Not Flip After All
Earth
A gradual weakening in Earth's geomagnetic field has raised concerns that the field could flip, reversing magnetic north and south. But now, new research suggests the field has been in a similar state before - without making a move.
In a study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences today (April 30), researchers compared the current magnetic field, which is created by the churning of Earth's core, with the magnetic field of eons past. They found that today's patterns don't resemble the two most extreme disruptions in the past 50,000 years, when the magnetic field nearly reversed.
Instead, the modern field appears similar to the field during two other periods - one 49,000 ago, and one 46,000 years ago - when the field wobbled but didn't flip-flop.
Even a wobble, though, could have ramifications, the authors wrote. If the field continues to weaken, it could affect things like electronics aboard low-Earth-orbit satellites, even without a total reversal of magnetic north and south.
Currently, magnetic north is very close to the North Pole, while magnetic south is near the South Pole. That's been the case for about 780,000 years - the last time the geomagnetic field underwent a complete reversal, with magnetic north and south swapping places. But the field has been weakening by about 5 percent per century since direct observations started in 1840, and indirect observations hint that this weakening might have been going on for at least 2,000 years, Maxwell Brown, who studies paleomagnetism at the University of Iceland, and his colleagues wrote in their new paper. A particularly weak area called the South Atlantic Anomaly, which stretches from South Africa to Chile, has been pinpointed as a potential ground zero for a global polarity reversal.
Earth
In Memory
Pamela Gidley
Actress Pamela Gidley who starred in the "Twin Peaks" prequel, "Fire Walk With Me," died earlier this month. She was 52.
Gidley's death was announced Sunday in an obituary. It says that she "died peacefully in her home, on Monday, April 16, 2018 in Seabrook." The cause of death was not immediately clear.
According to her obituary, Gidley pursued a modeling and acting career in New York City before moving to Los Angeles. Her movie roles included "Thrashin'" and "Cherry 2000." She also appeared on TV in episodes of "MacGyver," ''The Pretender," ''Tour of Duty," ''CSI" and "The Closer."
Pamela Gidley
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