Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Joe Bob Briggs: Who Cut the Balls Off San Francisco? (Taki's Magazine)
So now San Francisco is banning e-cigarettes, because a City Council member discovered there are still people making personal decisions about what to do with their lives. They've been trying to eliminate these people for three decades now, but some individuals just refuse to learn.
Matthew Yglesias: Progressive ideas, but not the unpopular ones (Vox)
An incredibly boring back-to-basics proposal. … Some left-wing stuff is popular, some isn't. Marist's numbers, for reference, show overwhelming public support for a path to citizenship for the undocumented population, for an aggressive public option approach to universal health care, and for a "Green New Deal" of public investment in clean energy and efficient retrofits. Add that to a $15/hour minimum wage, throw in two high-polling gun control measures, legalize marijuana, and pay for the first two things with a wealth tax, and you've got a solidly popular vision for transforming America.
ANDREW TOBIAS: Donald Trump, Boris Johnson and lessons from the 1930s
"Look: our nation is under attack and the President constantly denies it and praises our attacker. So, yes: it's part of our job to investigate that. WHY were there hundreds of contacts between Trump's people and the Russians? WHY did so many of them lie about it if it was all innocent? If you actually READ the Mueller report, as Republican Congressman Justin Amash bravely did, you will conclude as he did that impeachment is warranted. But let me stress: the FIRST priority should be for the Senate to take up the dozens of bills the House has passed this year to make regular Americans' lives better. It's an outrage the Republican Senate is blocking all this."
Even blocking bills, I might add, designed to protect our next election from more Russian interference.
Andrew Tobias: No, No, No
On the off-chance you've not yet seen Adam Schiff's seven minutes. Or read them.
CHRIS SOMMERFELDT: Trump's NYC eateries written up for 'live mice,' other 'critical' health code violations in recent months (NY Daily News)
Their namesake is a Mr. Clean freak, but some Trump eateries are just plain dirty. Mice in the kitchen, filthy food prep areas and broken sewage systems are on the list of recent stomach-turning health code violations at a number of Trump-branded restaurants in the city, the Daily News has learned.
Trisha Torrey: How to Safely and Legally Buy Drugs From Online Pharmacies (VeryWellHealth)
Many of us want the option of purchasing our prescription drugs from Internet drugstores because the practice seems convenient and money-saving. But is it legal and safe to purchase drugs from an online pharmacy? Yes, it can be, if you understand the potential pitfalls and follow some guidelines. The key is to find an Internet drug source that is legal, safe and meets your needs, such as convenience and pricing. There are good, bona fide businesses out there, but there are also "rogue" sites; online pharmacies (really pretend pharmacies) that are out to scam you.
Amy Fleming: "'It's a superpower': how walking makes us healthier, happier and brainier" (The Guardian)
Neuroscientist Shane O'Mara believes that plenty of regular walking unlocks the cognitive powers of the brain like nothing else. He explains why you should exchange your gym kit for a pair of comfy shoes and get strolling.
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Presenting
Michael Egan
answered:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
from Bruce
Anecdotes
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
Reader Comment
Current Events
I really like Evan Hurst's style of writing (AND his snark!). So I like what he has to say in this article about the "First Responder"...in his dreams!
But I had not heard the GHASTLY "joke" Predator told during the signing ceremony today until I read it in Evan's article. I do hope Predator rots to death soon and continues to rot in HELL!
I had a colleague who arranged an assignment to work on clearing the 9/11 site (took leave from his regular career work; left his family; worked there for months). He died of cancer several years ago--wonder why? And he was about a decade younger than I.
Anyway, Evan's well written article:
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
JD is on vacation.
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and a bit cooler than seasonal.
Form Lobbying Group
Rock Stars
Music stars Dave Matthews, Anderson .Paak and Maren Morris have teamed with some of the industry's top power brokers to form a new lobbying group that will represent artists in Washington and state capitals across the U.S.
The board of the group, named the Music Artists Coalition, also includes managers Irving Azoff and Coran Capshaw, lawyer Jordan Bromley and publicist Kristen Foster. The Music Artists Coalition will advocate on artists' behalf in the growing number of music-related disputes in Washington.
Musicians depend on federal courts and Congress to determine much of their pay. Federal consent decrees govern how much bars, radio stations and restaurants must shell out for songs. And copyright judges determine the rates big streaming services must pay songwriters for a separate license. Legislation also shields technology companies from liability for the proliferation of pirated music.
The music industry has no shortage of lobbyists in the U.S. capital, but none of the largest groups are focused on artists. The Recording Industry Association of America represents record labels, the National Music Publishers' Association stands up for music publishers and the National Association of Broadcasters reps radio stations.
Azoff, the manager of the Eagles, Gwen Stefani and Travis Scott, has been one of the most vocal artist advocates during his storied career. He previously formed an organization called the Recording Artists Coalition after changes in bankruptcy law. But the group's activity slowed after the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences took it over.
Rock Stars
Farewell Tour
Joan Baez
Sixty years to the month after making her debut at the 1959 Newport Folk Festival, Joan Baez wrapped up her career as a live performer Sunday evening with a show at the Teatro Real in Madrid, Spain.
The emotional concert featured a cross-section of songs she's been playing for decades, including "Diamonds and Rust," "The House of the Rising Sun," "Joe Hill" and "The Boxer."
Baez began her Fare Thee Well tour in March 2018 and spent the last year taking it all over the globe. "It's going well," she told Rolling Stone in April. "People should quit more often. There's a different kind of excitement at the show and that's been fun."
One reason Baez decided to stop touring was the condition of her singing voice. "This vocal box has been extraordinary," she said. "It's holding out OK and I don't want to try and use it forever. I know some people strain to sing until they're 100 and then drop dead on the stage, but that's never been my vision of how I'd end the career. I like this voice. It's nothing to do with the one I had 50 years ago, nothing at all, but I'm enjoying it and it's also, at the same time, quite difficult to keep up."
And even though she initially broke big in America, Baez wanted to play her final shows in Europe. "Europe has been faithful to me, in some ways, at times when the States has not kept up," she said. "I wouldn't blame that on anybody expect my own self and my own career and when I let it kind of go and when I worked hard. At any rate, I love Europe and my public over there. It'll bring a nice closure."
Joan Baez
Sets New Billboard Record
Lil Nas X
It's one sweet day for Lil Nas X: The breakthrough rapper's viral "Old Town Road" has broken the Billboard record set by Mariah Carey's "One Sweet Day" for most weeks at No. 1.
Lil Nas X accomplishes the feat this week as his country-trap song spends its 17th week on top of the Hot 100 chart. Carey and Boyz II Men's duet set the record in 1996, and the only song to come close to breaking it was the ubiquitous international hit "Despacito," which tied the 16-week record in 2017.
"YEEE TF HAWWW," Lil Nas X tweeted Monday.
Hours later he posted a video thanking his fans for helping his song set a new record.
"I'm on the toilet right now, but I want to say thank you to every single person who has made this moment possible for me. We just broke the record for the longest-running No. 1 song of all-time," said Lil Nas X, sporting a cowboy hat as he played "Old Town Road" in the background. "Let's go!"
Lil Nas X
'Dark Horse' Copied
Katy Perry
A jury on Monday found that Katy Perry's 2013 hit "Dark Horse" improperly copied a 2009 Christian rap song in a unanimous decision that represented a rare takedown of a pop superstar and her elite producer by a relatively unknown artist.
The verdict by a nine-member federal jury in a Los Angeles courtroom came five years after Marcus Gray and two co-authors, first sued in 2014 alleging "Dark Horse" stole from "Joyful Noise," a song Gray released under the stage name Flame.
The case now goes to a penalty phase, where the jury will decide how much Perry and other defendants owe for copyright infringement.
Questions from the jury during their two full days of deliberations had suggested that they might find only some of the defendants liable for copyright infringement. The case focused on the notes and beats of the song, not its lyrics or recording, and the questions suggested that Perry might be off the hook.
But in a decision that left many in the courtroom surprised, jurors found all six songwriters and all four corporations that released and distributed the songs were liable, including Perry and Sarah Hudson, who wrote only the song's words, and Juicy J, who only wrote the rap he provided for the song. Perry was not present when the verdict was read.
Katy Perry
200 Million Trees
Ethiopia
Ethiopians planted more than 200 million trees on Monday, which officials stated will be a world record. The ambitious initiative of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed aims to help restore the country's landscape which experts say is fast being eroded by deforestation and climate change.
The state-affiliated Fana Broadcasting Corporate announced more than 224 million trees were planted on Monday, surpassing the initial goal of 200 million trees planted in one day.
"Today Ethiopia is set in our attempt to break the world record together for a green legacy," the prime minister's office tweeted on Monday morning. Early Monday, Abiy planted trees in Ethiopia's southern region.
Ethiopia is in the midst of a tree planting campaign in which it aims to plant 4 billion trees between May and October. Agriculture officials stated that so far more than 2.6 billion trees have been planted in almost all parts of the East African nation.
According to Farm Africa, an organization involved in forest management in Ethiopia, less than 4% of the country's land is now forested, a sharp decline from around 30% at the end of the 19th century. Ethiopia's rapidly growing population and the need for more farmlands, unsustainable forest use and climate change are often cited as the causes for rapid deforestation.
Ethiopia
2nd-Degree Burns
Sidewalks
Extremely hot days can make pavements hot enough to cause second-degree burns within seconds.
That's according to a new study from a burn center in Nevada. A group of surgeons at the University of Nevada School of Medicine, Las Vegas, identified 173 pavement-related burn cases between 2013 and 2017.
Twenty-four of those cases were due to motor vehicle accidents; the rest were due to various causes, such as falling to the ground.
The team then looked at air temperatures on the days these burns occurred. More than 88% of pavement burns happened when temperatures were 95 degrees Fahrenheit (35 degrees Celsius) or higher. The risk of burns increased exponentially as the air temperature increased.
The pavement becomes much hotter than the air because it absorbs sunlight. On a 111 F (44 C) day, for example, the pavement could reach 147 F (64 C) if exposed to direct sunlight, according to the statement.
Sidewalks
Physicists Recreate In Lab
Solar Wind
Physicists have created mini gusts of solar wind in the lab, with hopes that the charged particle streams can help to resolve some mysteries about our nearest star.
"We're not re-creating the sun, because that's impossible," says plasma physicist Ethan Peterson of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who reports the new work July 29 in Nature Physics. "But we're re-creating some of the fundamental physics that happens near the sun."
The sun spews a constant stream of charged particles, called the solar wind, out into space - though scientists aren't sure exactly how (SN Online: 8/18/17). As the sun rotates, its magnetic field twists the wind into a helical shape called the Parker spiral, named after solar physicist Eugene Parker, who predicted the existence of the solar wind in 1958.
NASA last year launched its Parker Solar Probe to directly investigate the source of the solar wind (SN: 7/21/18, p. 12). But Peterson and colleagues found a way to mimic the Parker spiral much closer to home.
The team used a 3-meter-wide aluminum vacuum chamber called the Big Red Ball at the Wisconsin Plasma Physics Laboratory to confine a ball of plasma heated to 100,000° Celsius. A magnet in the center of the ball mimics the sun's magnetic field, and carefully applied electric currents send the plasma spinning and a wind streaming.
Solar Wind
Dodged Earthquake
Devils Hole Pupfish
Devils Hole pupfish - among the rarest fish on earth - know a thing or two about earthquake safety. After all, they managed to ride out a huge wave triggered by the recent tremors in California.
Found only inside an inconceivably deep, sweltering geothermal pool called Devils Hole near Death Valley, and numbering fewer than 200, Devils Hole pupfish are endangered, but not helpless.
As the 7.1-magnitude Ridgecrest earthquake ripped through southern California, it trigged a 10ft wave inside Devils Hole. A video released by the US National Park Service shows the wily pupfish swimming deeper and deeper into the water to avoid getting swept up and smashed.
So named because they reminded a biologist of overexcited puppies at play, Devils Hole pupfish are not unused to earthquakes. Possibly because of its depth - divers have ventured more than 400ft down and not been able to see a bottom - Devils Hole responds to quakes as far away as China. But the Ridgecrest earthquake, which was the largest to hit the state in decades and was centered about 70 miles away, caused an especially violent reaction.
Other species of pupfish live across the south-western US, but Devils Hole pupfish are physiologically unique: they're smaller and lack the pelvic fin that their cousins use to swim faster. They also have the smallest known geographic range of any vertebrate in the wild.
Devils Hole Pupfish
Wild Tiger Population Jumps
India
India's wild tiger population has increased by more than 30 percent in the last four years, according to a new census released Monday, raising hopes for the survival of the endangered species.
The census found 2,967 tigers in the wild across the country, up from 2,226 four years ago in what Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed as a "historic achievement"
The massive surveys are conducted every four years, with the latest census spanning 15 months and using 26,000 camera traps that took almost 350,000 images across known tiger habitats, Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said at the census release.
Images that showed the big cats were analysed using computer programmes to individually identify each creature. Wildlife and forestry officials also scoured 380,000 square kilometres of terrain.
In 1900, more than 100,000 tigers were estimated to roam the planet. But that fell to a record low of 3,200 globally in 2010.
India
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