Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: The Making of an Ignoramus (NY Times Column)
Trump's bad ideas are largely a bombastic version of what many in his party have been saying.
Republican party unifier: Donald Trump? | The Briefing (YouTube)
If you are a Democrat, you can agree with Republicans this much.
Historical rankings of Presidents of the United States (Wikipedia)
In political studies, historical rankings of Presidents of the United States are surveys conducted in order to construct rankings of the success of individuals who have served as President of the United States. Ranking systems are usually based on surveys of academic historians and political scientists or popular opinion. The rankings focus on the presidential achievements, leadership qualities, failures, and faults.
Clive James: 'If Victoria Wood had caught us moping over her death, she might have been quite strict' (The Guardian)
Wood's central power was an infallible ear for the nuances of the national language.
An Audience with Peter Ustinov 1988 (YouTube)
Mr. Ustinov was a master storyteller.
Groucho Marx Dick Cavett 1969 (YouTube)
A master comedian and a master interviewer.
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.
"Doug's Most Shared Facebook Post" Today
wrote:
took the day off.
has returned to semi-retired status.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
David E Suggests
Channel Tunnel
David
Thanks, Dave!
from Marc Perkel
Patriot Act
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
"MEANER AND UGLIER"
WHY CAN'T WE ALL GET ALONG?
DON'T VOTE FOR A REPUBLICAN!
CROOKS AND THIEVES!
THE SIGNATURE COLLECTION.
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Marine layer hung around all day.
Won't Return to TV
Jon Stewart
If the rise of Donald Trump in this presidential election has you missing Jon Stewart at The Daily Show anchor desk, you'll be disappointed to hear that Stewart doesn't feel the same - and won't be coming back.
"I'm not going to be on television anymore," Stewart said flatly when pressed Monday to address rumors to the contrary.
Stewart, appearing at the University of Chicago's Institute of Politics for a taping of The Axe Files, said Trump's success in the Republican primaries and the prospect of his general-election fight with Democrat front-runner Hillary Clinton have hardly been cause to reconsider his departure from TV political satire last summer.
"I'm not restless," Stewart told institute director and former adviser to President Obama, David Axelrod, taking issue with Axelrod's premise that Stewart is no longer engaged in the national conversation over politics. "I feel like I'm engaged now," Stewart said. "When you're not on television, you're still alive and you're still engaged in the world. And I feel more engaged now in the real world than I ever did sitting on television interviewing politicians."
Stewart did offer fans a kernel of hope, hinting at plans to make short, viral-video political cartoons starting in September. "We're working on technology and animation to try and do interesting and little small bits," he said. But he downplayed any effect he and his satire might have on the outcome of the November election.
Jon Stewart
New Scientific Studies
John Oliver
Every day we're bombarded with new scientific studies that give us new information about our health and well being. But have you noticed that some of the studies you hear about in the news seem a little... crazy? Particularly studies that tell you things like having a glass of red wine every day is as good for you as an hour at the gym? John Oliver sure has and he's put together a great new segment explaining why there are so many absolutely stupid scientific studies floating around these days.
Among other things, Oliver notes that many of these well publicized studies seem to constantly contradict one another.
"In just the last few months, we've seen studies about coffee that it may reverse the effects of liver damage, help prevent colon cancer, decrease the risk of endometrial cancer, and increase the risk of miscarriage," Oliver says. "Coffee today is like God in the Old Testament -- it will either save you or kill you depending on how much you believe in its magic powers."
So why do we keep seeing these studies in the news? Oliver explains that not all studies are created equally and a lot of them appear in less-than-prestigious journals. He also explains how a lot of scientists try to make eye-catching studies by engaging in a practice called "P-hacking," which involves discovering a statistically significant correlation between two variables that nonetheless likely doesn't mean anything. Oliver also says that scientists rarely do replication studies anymore to try to disprove other scientists' work.
The whole segment is very informative and worth checking out.
John Oliver
Searchable Database
Panama Papers
The original revelations from the Panama Papers leak were handled by a select group of news organizations. But if you've ever wanted to delve into the financial goings-on of the rich and famous, the entire trove of documents relating to 200,000 accounts is now online, in a handy searchable database no less.
The Offshore Leaks Database indexes and makes accessible the entire trove of documents. You can search by company, address, country, and a bunch of other fields. The database will even help you develop a web to show links between different offshore holding companies and trusts, a vital part of trying to understand the complicated finanical systems used to disguise ownership.
Major players from the Panama papers have already been identified by teams of journalists worldwide, but dumping the documents online for all to see is going to cause ripples across the globe. So far, world leaders and politicians have been exposed, but with hundreds of thousands of legal entities at play, you can bet that far more businesses are going to be found with questionable tax arrangements.
The Panama Papers is the name given to a leak of documents from Mossack Fonseca, a Panama-based law firm with offices around the world. The data leak, which came from a whistleblower within the firm, has revealed the true owners -- known as "beneficial owners" -- of hundreds of thousands of firms across the globe. Having money in an offshore fund isn't illegal, per se -- but as everyone from Vladimir Putin to the Icelandic prime minister has discovered, having your tax arrangements aired in public is inconvenient at best, and career-ending at worst.
Panama Papers
Adds Second Weekend
"Desert Trip"
Organizers of a mega-concert that will bring together rock legends including The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan and Paul McCartney on Monday announced they would hold a second weekend.
In an announcement moments before tickets were to go on sale, promoters said that Desert Trip in southern California would take place with identical line-ups on October 7-9 and again October 14-16.
Desert Trip is being run at the same desert venue and by the same promoters as Coachella, one of the world's most lucrative rock festivals which each April takes the same strategy with the artists playing on two consecutive weekends.
Desert Trip said in a statement that it added the second weekend "due to overwhelming demand," with industry watchers expecting tickets to the festival to be among the most sought-after ever.
The concert brings together six legendary rock acts -- The Rolling Stones, Dylan, McCartney, Neil Young, Roger Waters and The Who.
"Desert Trip"
What Climate Change?
Solomon Islands
Five islands have disappeared in the Pacific's Solomon Islands due to rising sea levels and coastal erosion, according to an Australian study that could provide valuable insights for future research.
A further six reef islands have been severely eroded in the remote area of the Solomons, the study said, with one experiencing some 10 houses being swept into the sea between 2011 and 2014.
"At least 11 islands across the northern Solomon Islands have either totally disappeared over recent decades or are currently experiencing severe erosion," the study published in Environmental Research Letters said.
"They were not just little sand islands," leader author Simon Albert told AFP.
Albert, a senior research fellow at the University of Queensland, said the Solomons was considered a sea-level hotspot because rises there are almost three times higher than the global average.
Solomon Islands
Judge Dismisses Mental Competency Suit
Sumner Redstone
A Los Angeles judge on Monday dismissed a high-stakes lawsuit that challenged the mental competency of ailing media mogul Sumner Redstone and gave salacious details about his private life.
Had Redstone been found incompetent, his associates could have pushed for him to be removed as the controlling shareholder of Viacom and CBS, triggering a power struggle across his $40 billion media empire.
But Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge David Cowan said the 92-year-old billionaire's testimony concerning his former companion Manuela Herzer had convinced him to dismiss the case.
"Herzer herself insisted from the outset of this case that the court hear from Redstone," Cowan said in his 17-page ruling.
"However, Redstone's testimony has ultimately defeated her case."
Sumner Redstone
Vagina Art Ruling
Japan
A Tokyo court ruled Monday that vagina-shaped objects created by a Japanese artist qualify as art, but found her guilty of obscenity for distributing digital data that could be used to make a three-dimensional recreation of her genitalia.
Tokyo District Court ordered Megumi Igarashi, also known as Rokudenashiko, or good-for-nothing girl, to pay a 400,000 yen ($3,700) fine for distributing the data, her lawyers said.
The court said a set of three plaster figures in the shape of her vagina, decorated and painted in bright colors, did not look like skin or immediately suggest female genitalia and therefore were not obscene, her lawyers said. However, the judges said the data, from a scan of her own vagina, could be used with a three-dimensional printer to create a realistic shape that could sexually arouse viewers.
Igarashi welcomed the court's description of her work as "pop art," but appealed the ruling, saying its decision on the data was unacceptable.
Igarashi, who is also known for creating a vagina-shaped kayak, distributed computer discs containing the data as gifts to people who helped raise funds for the kayak project, her lawyers said.
Japan
Harmless Gas Released In Subway
New York
U.S. authorities on Monday sent a harmless gas wafting through the New York subway to study how to deal with a toxic accident or attack in a test that both unsettled and reassured riders on the underground system.
A mix of odorless, inert gases and tracer materials were released in three of the busiest subway stations in the city: Grand Central Terminal, Times Square and Penn Station, U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials said.
Men and women in orange vests let off the gas inside areas cordoned off with yellow "caution" tape as commuters walked by and police stood guard.
With equipment set up at another 55 subway stations around Manhattan, researchers will take air samples every four hours to see how the gas spreads. They will repeat the process throughout the work week, the department said in a statement.
The test is part of a five-year program that began in 2012 to develop methods to protect urban transit systems in the event of an attack or accidental contamination. Previous tests were conducted in New York, Washington, D.C. and Boston.
New York
Sculpture Sets Auction Record
Rodin
A Rodin sculpture set a new artist's auction record at Sotheby's on Monday when it sold for $20.4 million, but the strong price was likely to provide little reassurance to an art market that many fear is softening after years of spiking prices.
Sotheby's sale of Impressionist and modern art took in a total of $144.4 million, missing the low pre-sale estimate of about $165 million for 62 lots offered. One-third of the works went unsold.
Rodin's marble sculpture, "L'Eternal Printemps," soared far beyond its estimated price of $8 million to $12 million, and broke the Rodin auction record of just under $20 million.
After years of soaring prices, both Sotheby's and rival Christie's have assembled markedly smaller spring sales, with no works carrying estimates much beyond $40 million. In recent seasons several works have broken the $100 million mark.
Rodin
In Memory
William Schallert
William Schallert, a veteran TV performer and Hollywood union leader who played Patty Duke's father - and uncle - on television and led a long, contentious strike for actors, has died.
Schallert died Sunday at his home in Pacific Palisades, California, said his son, Edwin. He was 93.
Though usually seen in secondary roles, Schallert's lean, friendly face was familiar to baby boomers for roles in two classic sitcoms - as a teacher to Dwayne Hickman and his pals in "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis" and as the dad in "The Patty Duke Show."
Schallert was cast as Patty's harried father (and Cathy's uncle), who was confused by the lookalike girls.
He was similarly frustrated as English teacher Mr. Pomfritt on "Dobie Gillis." The show, which ran from 1959 to 1963, starred Hickman as a teenager comically yearning for the perfect girl, and a strong supporting cast including Bob Denver as his beatnik pal, Maynard. "You ready, my young barbarians?" Mr. Pomfritt would ask his students, comically pining for the days of corporal punishment in the classroom.
In 1979, Schallert was elected president of the 46,000-member Screen Actors Guild, an honour held at one time or another by James Cagney, George Murphy, Ronald Reagan, Charlton Heston and other screen notables. Most of them had little to do but conduct meetings and issue statements. With Schallert it was different.
In 1980 he led the union as it staged a 13-week strike over such issues as actors' pay for films made for the then-new cable television industry.
He told the Los Angeles Times his message to actors was that "we have to respect ourselves as artists" and recalled the pre-union days when actors were sometimes expected to work until midnight and be back at work six hours later.
Schallert was defeated in his bid for a second two-year term as SAG president in 1981 by "Lou Grant" star Ed Asner, who had strongly criticized the agreement the union had reached to end the strike. Asner ran into his own controversies as SAG chief by taking stands critical of U.S. foreign policy, and he decided not to seek a third term in 1985. He was succeeded by none other than Schallert's former screen daughter, Duke.
Among his later TV roles were guest shots on "Desperate Housewives" and "True Blood." In 2008, he played Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens in "Recount," HBO's Emmy-winning dramatization of the 2000 presidential election.
In all, Schallert appeared in hundreds of movies, television series and specials, playing characters and walk-ons. He was a messenger in "Singin' in the Rain," a Union soldier in "The Red Badge of Courage" and an admiral in "Get Smart." In addition to Justice Stevens, he played such real-life figures such as Gen. Mark Clark in "Ike: The War Years" and Gen. Robert E. Lee in "North and South Book II."
William Joseph Schallert was born in 1922, in Los Angeles. His father, Edwin, was drama editor of the Los Angeles Times from 1919 to 1958.
William spent his high school years in a seminary. After military service he graduated from UCLA and went to England on a Fulbright scholarship in 1952. He studied repertory theatre and lectured on American theatre at Oxford University.
In his early years he was a founding member of the Circle Theater in Hollywood. The director was Charlie Chaplin, whose son Sydney was a cast member.
Schallert recalled that after a preview performance Chaplin would suggest a couple of things to correct. "When it was about five or six in the morning," Schallert said, "Oona (Chaplin's wife) would say 'Come on, Charlie, let them go home. They've got a performance to do tonight.'"
William Schallert
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