M Is FOR MASHUP - February 7th, 2018
Can't Get Away Now
By DJ Useo
My wife is home now after life-saving surgery. I'm doing her home care myself with a nurse to come & check occasionally. She's doing well considering how much was neglected before we pulled her from the recovery facility, & took over her care ourselves. We expect a full recovery,over maybe six months.
So, I hope you can understand why I just can't get my head around the column this week. I'll have a good one for you next Wednesday, I promise. I do have a swell link for you to my most recent podcast. It's all rock mashups by me, & you'll like it plenty.
Here's where you can stream, or d/l it.
( hearthis.at/vxmfxz7w/dj-useo-rock-mashups-january-2018/)
Take care of yourselves, & your loved ones. Don't let fear keep you from the doctor.
Later, All.
- DJ Useo
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: Has Trumphoria Finally Hit a Wall? (NY Times Column)
… market turmoil should make us take a hard look at the economy's prospects. And what the data say, I'd argue, is that at the very least America is heading for a downshift in its growth rate; the available evidence suggests that growth over the next decade will be something like 1.5 percent a year, not the 3 percent Donald Trump and his minions keep promising.
Josh Marshall: Trump To Plead the De Facto 5th (TPM)
The Times is reporting that the President's personal lawyers are recommending that he refuse to be interviewed or questioned by Robert Mueller's investigators under any circumstances. Let's be candid about what this means. The President is pleading the 5th while trying to avoid saying that's what he's doing. Let's call it the de facto 5th. The constitutional law is clear cut. It's not at all hypothetical. A sitting President has no blanket right to refuse to cooperate with a criminal investigation.
Sandhya Somashekhar: The Confederate flag resurged. The KKK burned a cross. Racial tensions flared in a Southern town. (Washington Post)
ASHEBORO, N.C. - The first unpleasant tug of history came before the election, when the yards around Dexter Trogdon Jr.'s house started blooming with Confederate flags. Then last spring, the Ku Klux Klan announced plans to burn a cross in town. A man apparently irked with his black neighbors hung a noose in his yard, and Trogdon started hearing a disturbing new view from some white people: that slavery wasn't so bad for African Americans.
Helaine Olen: What that horrible story about imprisoned children says about America (Washington Post)
Over a period of more than a decade, it appears that not one person who came in contact with this family, from relatives to neighbors to the many who must have observed something during the family jaunts to Disneyland, felt impelled to call the police, child welfare officials or other authorities.
Helaine Olen: New Year's Eve at Mar-A-Lago: Another reminder of Trump's degradation (Washington Post)
On one front after another, relentlessly and constantly, Donald Trump is turning his time into the White House into a just-in-time marketing opportunity, with no penny too small to turn down.
The Stories Behind the Stories (Neatorama)
WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE. In November 1955, Maurice Sendak, a young storybook artist, drew up a draft of a children's story he called Where the Wild Horses Are. The only problem: "I couldn't really draw horses," Sendak said, "and I didn't, for the longest time, know what to use for a substitute. I tried lots of animals in the title, but they just didn't sound right." In 1963, Sendak finally settled on Things, dumping the horses in favor of monsters that were based on the Brooklyn relatives he detested as a child.
Laura Snapes: "Cosmik debris: Frank Zappa's son reveals details of hologram tour" (The Guardian)
Using unseen footage from the 1970s, the tour will take to the road later this year, with Zappa's long-term band members.
David Bruce's Amazon Author Page
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David Bruce has over 80 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
Presenting
Michael Egan
answered:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
David E Suggests
Kitchen Gadgets
David
Thanks, Dave!
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
Reader Suggestion
Helen Mirren
Full disclosure: I'm a multi-year, card-carrying AARP member, because some of the benefits (aka discounts on hotels, etc.) are great. Also, if I could have an avatar, it would be Dame Helen. She is a treasure!
Reader Comment
Current Events
Wonkette supports Lady Doritos
Beautiful!
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
THE GREAT DICHOTOMY.
LIAR! LIAR! PANTS ON FIRE!
THEY ARE PLAYING WITH THEIR TOYS AGAIN.
SARAH HUCK AND THE TALKING YAM.
"WE ARE ALL A PRODUCT OF OUR HISTORY, BUT WE SHOULD NOT BE A PRISONER TO IT."
WHAT A "MORAN."
GROOVY!
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
The kid is back to classes.
Star Wars Films
Game of Thrones
Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss will be writing and producing their own Star Wars films.
The news that Benioff and Weiss would be joining the Star Warsgalaxy was announced on Tuesday by Disney and Lucasfilm.
In a statement about the creators' new endeavour, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy said, "David and Dan are some of the best storytellers working today. Their command of complex characters, depth of story and richness of mythology will break new ground and boldly push Star Wars in ways I find incredibly exciting."
The duo's movies will be separate entities from Rian Johnson's forthcoming trilogy and the Skywalker films.
Game of Thrones
Canceled After Seven Seasons
'Once Upon A Time'
"Once Upon A Time" is getting its not-so-fairytale ending. ABC announced on Tuesday that the fantasy series' seventh season would be its last on the network.
"Seven years ago, we set out to create a show about hope, where even in the darkest of times, a happy ending would always be possible," creators and executive producers Adam Horowitz and Eddy Kitsis said in a statement to TVLine. "But we never imagined the happy ending that was actually in store for all of us - years and years of adventure, romance, magic and hope. We're so grateful to our brilliant collaborators - the cast, crew, and writers - as well as our partners at the studio and network for making this journey possible. But most of all, we want to thank the fans. Their fierce loyalty and devotion was the real magic behind 'Once Upon a Time.' We hope they join us for these last few hours as we journey to the Enchanted Forest for one more adventure."
The series essentially rebooted itself after mainstays including Jennifer Morrison and Ginnifer Goodwin departed as regulars at the end of the sixth season. The current season, which returns from an extended break in March, picked up in Seattle, where a brand new curse ensnared some of the most famous fairytale figures of them all.
However, ratings dipped to series lows, averaging 2.5 million total viewers and a 0.5 rating per episode, as the show was shuffled to air on Friday nights.
'Once Upon A Time'
Lobby To Relabel Bridge
Girl Scouts
Hundreds of Girl Scouts from across Georgia gathered inside the state Capitol on Tuesday, offering cookies and smiles as they sought to convince lawmakers to get their founder's name affixed to a Savannah bridge that currently honors a white segregationist.
The bridge may bear former Gov. Eugene Talmadge's name, but Rep. Ron Stephens said he recently learned the state legislature never officially named the bridge for Talmadge. The Department of Transportation never gave it an official name, nor did lawmakers. Legislation to do so passed the House in 1991, but never passed the Senate, he said.
Buoyed by this technicality, Stephens, a Savannah Republican, introduced a bill to name the bridge after Juliette Gordon Low, who founded the Girl Scouts in the coastal city more than a century ago.
Last month, Stephens had expressed doubts that his colleagues in the Republican-controlled legislature would be eager to rename the bridge and risk angering their conservative base in an election year. But that was before he knew the bridge had never been officially named.
Girl Scouts
Worst Traffic
Los Angeles
U.S. cities dominate the world's top 10 most-traffic-congested urban areas, with Los Angeles leading in mind-numbing and costly gridlock, according to a new report issued Tuesday.
La La Land, with its jam-packed freeways and driving culture despite billions being poured into rail transit, emerged from the 1,360 other cities in 38 countries to claim the worst-congestion title for the sixth consecutive year in the 2017 traffic scorecard by INRIX, a leader in transportation analytics and connected car services.
Drivers in and around the City of the Angels spent 102 hours battling 2017 traffic congestion during peak hours, INRIX's 11th annual report said.
Despite having the worst traffic congestion overall, Los Angeles had lower peak period tie-ups than San Francisco, Seattle, Boston and Portland, the INRIX study showed. Nighttime travel is also a bright spot, with Los Angeles city streets ranking better than 35 other cities.
As horrible as L.A. traffic can be, the driving experience in four other U.S. cities isn't much better, with all finishing in the Top 10 of worst traffic tie-ups:
Los Angeles
Military Parade
Washington
President-for-now Trump (R-Crooked) apparently loves a parade.
At the direction of the president, Pentagon generals have begun planning a grand parade on the streets of the U.S. capital to showcase American military might.
At a Jan. 18 meeting attended by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., Trump set into motion his desire for a Bastille Day-inspired military spectacle, Pentagon officials confirmed Tuesday.
"The marching orders were: I want a parade like the one in France," a military official told the Washington Post, which added that the parade was being worked on by Pentagon brass.
Among the unresolved questions about the military display are how much it will cost taxpayers, the date the parade would be held, what role Trump himself will play in the festivities, and whether it would be a one-off event or something to be replicated.
Washington
Honorary Degree Revoked
O'Really
An honorary degree bestowed upon former Fox News host Bill O'Reilly (R-Loofah) by New York's Marist College, after he was "accused of engaging in multiple acts of sexual misconduct and sexual harassment of women in the workplace."
Although the institution's board of trustees pointed out that he had "denied these allegations", in a statement they said: "To many, his reported payments of tens of millions of dollars and dismissal by Fox News lend credibility to the allegations against him."
They added: "Any form of sexual harassment or abuse is deeply contrary to the values of Marist College. The Marist Board of Trustees has therefore revoked Mr. O'Reilly's honorary degree."
O'Reilly was fired from Fox in April. A New York Times report later revealed that he had reached a $32m (£23m) settlement with a former Fox analyst over sexual harassment allegations.
O'Reilly, received his Bachelor of Arts history degree from Marist in 1971.
O'Really
Declining Over Populated Zones
Ozone Layer
The ozone layer that protects life on Earth from deadly ultraviolet radiation is unexpectedly declining above the planet's most populated regions, according to a study released Tuesday.
A 1987 treaty, the Montreal Protocol, banned industrial aerosols that chemically dissolved ozone in the high atmosphere, especially above Antarctica.
Nearly three decades later, the "ozone hole" over the South Pole and the upper reaches of the stratosphere are showing clear signs of recovery.
At the same time, however, ozone in the lower stratosphere, 10-24 kilometres overhead, is slowly disintegrating, an international team of two dozen researchers warned.
"In tropical and middle latitudes" -- home to most of humanity -- "the ozone layer has not started to recover yet," lead author William Ball, a researcher at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, told AFP.
Ozone Layer
Hidden Beneath Earth's Permafrost
Mercury
When the mercury's rising in your thermometer, it may also be rising in the ocean.
According to a new study published Feb. 5 in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, there may be more than 15 million gallons (58 million liters) of mercury buried in the permafrost of the Northern Hemisphere - roughly twice as much mercury as can be found in the rest of Earth's soils, ocean and atmosphere combined. And if global temperatures continue to rise, all that mercury could come pouring out.
In geology, permafrost is defined as any soil that has been frozen for more than two years. In the Northern Hemisphere, permafrost accounts for about 8.8 million square miles (22.79 million square kilometers) of land - or roughly 24 percent of exposed Earth, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center. Over time, naturally occurring compounds in the atmosphere, such as mercury and carbon dioxide, can bind with organic material in the soil and be frozen into permafrost, potentially remaining trapped underground for thousands of years before it thaws, the new paper said.
In the study, researchers drilled 13 permafrost soil cores from various sites in Alaska between 2004 and 2012. Then, they measured the total amounts of mercury and carbon in each sample, which proved consistent with thousands of other soil cores taken from other sites around the world, the paper said. Using the mercury contents of their 13 cores as a springboard, the researchers estimated the total amount of mercury sealed away below North American permafrost to be roughly 793 gigagrams - or more than 15 million gallons.
Researchers have already observed climate-change-induced permafrost thawing, and there is likely more on the way: According to a 2013 study, the Northern Hemisphere will lose anywhere from 30 to 99 percent of its permafrost by 2100, assuming current human greenhouse-gas emissions continue unabated.
Mercury
Prime-Time Nielsens
Ratings
Prime-time viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen for Jan. 29-Feb. 4. Listings include the week's ranking and viewership.
1. Super Bowl: Philadelphia vs. New England, NBC, 103.39 million.
2. "Super Bowl Post-Game," NBC, 73.45 million.
3. "This is Us," NBC, 26.97 million.
4. "The Big Bang Theory," CBS, 14.7 million.
5. "Young Sheldon," CBS, 12.92 million.
6. "State of the Union," Fox News, 11.72 million.
7. "State of the Union Analysis," Fox News, 10.51 million.
8. "State of the Union Preview," Fox News, 9.95 million.
9. "Blue Bloods," CBS, 9.32 million.
10. "Mom," CBS, 9.11 million.
11. "Grey's Anatomy," ABC, 8.94 million.
12. "Hawaii Five-0," CBS, 8.56 million.
13. "Ellen's Game of Games," NBC, 7.58 million.
14. "Super Bowl's Great Commercials," CBS, 7.31 million.
15. "Kevin Can Wait," CBS, 7.28 million.
16. "MacGyver," CBS, 7.27 million.
17. "Life in Pieces," CBS, 7.11 million.
18. "Chicago PD," NBC, 6.72 million.
19. "State of the Union Response," Fox News, 6.72 million.
20. "Seal Team," CBS, 6.54 million.
Ratings
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