Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Marc Dion: Storming the Beaches (Creators Syndicate)
The statement, boiled free of Mueller's needed gentle legalese, says the Russian government influenced this country's last presidential election, and President Donald J. Trump's people welcomed the help, and that Trump's people tried to kill Mueller's investigation at every turn.
Ted Rall: Media Gloats About Censoring Opinions of 37% of Americans (Creators Syndicate)
Many attacks against RT originate with the U.S. government's national security apparatus. The Times piece blithely cites the RAND Corporation, Molly McKew, a right-wing lobbyist for the anti-Russian government of Georgia and the director of national intelligence to support its allegations. A 2017 report issued by the DNI groused: "RT's reports often characterize the United States as a 'surveillance state' and allege widespread infringements of civil liberties, police brutality, and drone use. RT has also focused on criticism of the U.S. economic system, U.S. currency policy, alleged Wall Street greed, and the U.S. national debt." Notably, the report did not question the accuracy of those assertions. It certainly didn't suggest that the U.S. stop doing all those things that make it look so awful.
Mark Shields: Understanding Why Donald Trump Loathes John McCain (Creators Syndicate)
Think about it: McCain's biography is a public rebuke to all the values and the life of Donald J. Trump. In June of 1968, when Trump was graduating from the University of Pennsylvania - only to miraculously be found afflicted with bone spurs, which would prevent the athletic Trump from answering his country's call to serve in the U.S. military - Navy pilot McCain, having sustained a broken leg, broken shoulders and cracked ribs at the hands of his North Vietnamese captors, was in solitary confinement being tortured in a Hanoi prison.
Lenore Skenazy: Commencing a Truly Different Life (Creators Syndicate)
… Libby wanted more. She wanted to talk to people outside her circle and read books that weren't about Jewish topics. She wanted to go to the movies, listen to pop songs and learn science, American history and maybe even a language besides the Yiddish she spoke at home and the smattering of English she learned at her Jewish school. She wanted to be part of the big wide world. Or at least watch a cartoon or two. But all that was forbidden. So Libby started to sneak off to the public library - a place of sin, according to her sect. life she longed for, she had to leave the only one she knew and leap into the secular world.
Oliver Burkeman: Danielle Steel works 20 hours a day, but is that to be envied? (The Guardian)
Working all the time, she's written 179 books. But compulsive productivity has a flip side.
Andrew Doyle: The lost art of criticism (Spiked)
Critics today seem incapable of separating art from politics.
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Presenting
Michael Egan
wrote:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
from Bruce
Anecdotes
• Sometimes, whales become entangled in nets and flotation devices left behind by fishermen, leading to death. In 2005 in Gordon's Bag, South Africa, police diver Eben Lourens cut away most of the ropes entangling a southern right whale. National Sea Rescue Institute Gordon's Bay Station Commander Stuart Burgess said, "We slowly approached [the whale] until we were about 30m away and then cut the engines. The whale swam up and gently bumped our rescue boat. At that point we got good visuals of the problem." He added, "We could see the ropes and buoys entangled around the tail and the pieces trailing behind her." Mr. Lourens was deployed ahead of the whale, and as the whale swam past him, he grabbed onto the fishing net and started cutting the ropes. He cut away most of the ropes and all of the flotation devices. Mr. Stuart said, "Although there is still some rope attached to the whale, we were unable to do more and we suspect that the remaining rope will fall free as it untangles." Mr. Lourens said, "It's not something I'd done before, so the adrenalin was pumping through me. But it was very satisfying afterwards." After the rescue, the whale was swimming much more easily. Mr. Burgess said that commercial crayfishers often left their nets behind: "We find them all the time. In one afternoon recently we found four of them." The nets are hazardous not only for whales, he said, but also for boats-especially at night. Freeing a whale can be very dangerous-even deadly-work. Nan Rice of the Save the Whales Campaign said, "It is very dangerous to attempt such a thing without the proper equipment and tools. The public must take note and not try and do this by themselves. You cannot swim up to a whale and try to cut it loose. It is extremely dangerous." In New Zealand, a diver was killed during an attempted whale rescue, she said: "The whale slammed its tail down on top of him, and he was gone. I feel that human lives are just as valuable as those of animals, and I don't think it is right to risk one for the other."
• Kaye Harris, the owner of a pony farm in St. Rose, Louisiana, took care of many animals that had been let loose because of Hurricane Katrina. Two such animals were a pony named Molly and a pit bull terrier. Unfortunately, the pit bull attacked Molly, chewing on her jawbone, belly, and all four legs. Ms. Harris said, "He gnawed on this pony like a meat grinder." She knew that many animals had been traumatized because of Hurricane Katrina, so instead of having the pit bull euthanized, she gave it to people who were skilled in handling problem pets. One of Molly's legs became infected, and it looked as if Molly would have to be euthanized. However, Ms. Harris persuaded the vets at the veterinary hospital at Louisiana State University to look at Molly. At first, they did not think that they could save Molly, but Dr. Rustin M. Moore, the director of the veterinary school's equine health studies program and a veterinary surgeon, watched Molly and noticed that she was taking good care of her infected leg and so he thought that she could successfully be fitted with a prosthesis. The vets amputated her infected leg below the knee and fitted her with a prosthesis that had been built and donated by the Bayou Orthotic and Prosthetic Center. Ms. Harris said, "She went out and she went right to putting her weight on it, and I just cried because I knew it was going to work." After being fitted with her prosthesis, Molly visited a prosthesis center for children who were getting prostheses for missing arms and legs; the children were amazed by the pony with a metal leg.
• Regina Mayer wanted a horse, but her parents would not get her one. Therefore, the teenager, who lives on a farm in southern Germany in the hamlet of Laufen, which is very close to the Austrian border, used what was available and started riding a cow named Luna, even teaching it to jump over a hurdle. The 15-year-old Regina says about Luna, "She thinks she's a horse." Teaching Luna took many hours and many treats, but now the two take long rides together. At first, Regina simply put a halter on Luna and took her for a walk, and then gradually she got her accustomed to other riding equipment. After six months, Regina climbed up on Luna's back. Regina says, "She was really well behaved and walked normally. But after a couple of meters, she wanted me to get off! You could see that she got a bit peeved." But now Luna understands commands such as the German equivalents of "go," "stand," and "gallop." Anne Wiltafsky, a cow expert near the Swiss city of Zurich, gave Regina advice when requested. Ms. Wiltafsky says about cows, "Especially younger ones can jump really well." She also pointed out that cows can be "unbelievably devoted" to people. Martin Putzhammer, a 17-year-old neighbor of Regina, says, "At first I thought it was kind of weird-a kid on a cow? Had to get used to it, but once I did I thought it was pretty funny." Regina still hopes to get a horse one day, but she says about Luna, "She'll stay my darling."
• Top, a Great Dane owned by Axel Patzwaldt, saved not just one life, but two. An 11-year-old girl took Top out for a walk one day, but she did not notice a truck coming toward them. Top barked, jumped in front of the 11-year-old, and pushed her out of the path of the truck. Top's leg was badly damaged by the truck, and for seven weeks his leg was in a cast. When the cast was finally off, Mr. Patzwaldt let Top loose outside, and quickly Top returned, barking loudly. Mr. Patzwaldt followed Top and discovered two-year-old Christopher Conley at the bottom of the apartment complex's swimming pool. A former lifeguard, Mr. Patzwaldt dove into the pool and rescued Christopher, bringing him to the surface and giving him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. For saving two lives, Top was named Ken-L Ration Dog Hero of the Year for 1969.
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© Copyright Bruce D. Bruce; All Rights Reserved
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Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
Reader Comment
Current Events
I was pretty blase reading the story that you posted yesterday until I got to the quote at the end.
"Me and my family are the only ones being hurt here. My accuser isn't. I love kids and love this school and this will only make me better," DeMoss said.
FIRE that man immediately! He's a vice principal of a school speaking grammatically incorrectly. DISGUSTING!!!! This incident won't make him better--a REMEDIAL GRAMMAR CLASS is what he needs!
Linda >^..^<
We are all only temporarily able bodied.
Thanks, Linda!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
JD is on vacation.
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
June Gloom pretty much hung around all day.
Apple Is Killing Off
iTunes
After years of all-purpose clunkiness, computer crashes, unwanted U2 albums, and the occasional experience of actually listening to and enjoying some music, Apple has confirmed that it's finally putting its fabled iTunes media program out to pasture. Per Rolling Stone, the company will be replacing the software with a trio of apps allowing users to access their TV, Music, and Podcasts separately, just as they do on the company's unstoppable killer army of sleekly designed personal devices.
But while we won't necessarily mourn iTunes-a program that often felt like it was trying to do a million things half-shittily, instead of a handful of things well-it's worth taking a second to think about how massively the program (and its connected storefront) altered the face of music publishing over the last 20 years. Our younger readers may be baffled by this concept, but once upon a time, the entire sum total of all human musical accomplishment was not available for sale in a single searchable database. (Sure, we had Napster, but good luck getting a decent spread of Weird Al songs off of there without getting stuck with a dozen "hilarious" mis-attributed parody tracks.)
And while that model has been supplanted, to no small extent, by the rise of streaming services like Spotify and Apple's own Apple Music, iTunes was an important stepping stone toward a world where digital music was seen as just as lucrative a way to screw artists out of their royalty money than the long-established, more traditional methods. It changed the world, and while you can also say that about polio, it's still worth noting its passing.
iTunes
Tougher Words Are Out There
Spelling Bee
The Scripps National Spelling Bee suffered a body blow when eight kids ended up co-champions because they were simply too accomplished to stumble over any of the words Scripps threw at them.
That doesn't mean it's irretrievably broken.
Even some critics who thought the words Thursday night were insultingly easy are optimistic that the bee can recover and produce a single champion next year and for many years to come.
"As spellers evolve, the bee does, too," 17-year-old former speller Grace Walters said Friday. She's the personal coach to last year's winner and three of this year's champions. "The National Spelling Bee as we know it right now might be broken, but the bee is going to evolve. I think it can continue. ... I'll be really sad if it doesn't!"
Of the 16 spellers in last year's prime-time finals, 10 made it back into this year's top 50. Seven made the top 16 for the second straight year, including two who advanced to ESPN's prime-time telecast three years in a row. (Both of those three-timers, Erin Howard and Shruthika Padhy, were among the eight champions.)
Spelling Bee
New Requirements
Visa Applicants
The State Department is now requiring nearly all applicants for U.S. visas to submit their social media usernames, previous email addresses and phone numbers. It's a vast expansion of the Trump administration's enhanced screening of potential immigrants and visitors.
In a move that's just taken effect after approval of the revised application forms, the department says it has updated its immigrant and nonimmigrant visa forms to request the additional information, including "social media identifiers," from almost all U.S. applicants.
Social media, email and phone number histories had only been sought in the past from applicants who were identified for extra scrutiny, such as people who'd traveled to areas controlled by terrorist organizations. An estimated 65,000 applicants per year had fallen into that category.
The new rules apply to virtually all applicants for immigrant and nonimmigrant visas. The department estimated it would affect 710,000 immigrant visa applicants and 14 million nonimmigrant visa applicants, including those who want to come to the U.S. for business or education, according to an initial notice.
In addition to their social media histories, visa applicants are now asked for five years of previously used telephone numbers, email addresses, international travel and deportation status, as well as whether any family members have been involved in terrorist activities.
Visa Applicants
Lose More Sponsors
Fresno Grizzlies
Businesses continue to drop their sponsorship deals with the Fresno Grizzlies this week in the wake of a misleading video suggesting implying Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was an "enemy of freedom" to America.
The Triple-A affiliate of the Washington Nationals aired the video between games of a Memorial Day doubleheader in an effort to honor fallen soldiers for their sacrifice and courage. They apologized for Ocasio-Cortez' inclusion, which resulted in more death threats for the Democratic New York representative, and spent the week watching sponsors pull away.
Dos Equis and Tecate announced Thursday they would not be sponsoring the Grizzlies anymore, per the Los Angeles Times. Both are owned by Heineken.
Heineken International confirmed both via email, per the Fresno Bee. The video featured a speech by former President Ronald Reagan. As he mentions "enemies of freedom," a photo of Ocasio-Cortez was included with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un and former Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.
The employee is "remorseful," per the team spokesperson to the Bee, "has been reprimanded," and will not be fired.
Fresno Grizzlies
Acknowledges Request
Navy
The U.S. Navy has acknowledged that a request was made to hide the USS John S. McCain during President Don-Old Trump's (R-OfVlad) recent state visit to Japan.
"A request was made to the U.S. Navy to minimize the visibility of USS John S. McCain, however, all ships remained in their normal configuration during the President's visit," Rear Admiral Charlie Brown, chief of information, said in a statement to NBC News.
"There were also no intentional efforts to explicitly exclude Sailors assigned to USS John S. McCain," the statement said.
Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan said Friday he'd asked his chief of staff to "look into" the reported request from the White House to move the ship "out of sight" during Trump's visit.
The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that it had reviewed an email to Navy and Air Force officials dated May 15 that included the direction "USS John McCain needs to be out of sight" for Trump's Japan visit. CNBC has also obtained the email. NBC News has not reviewed the email.
Navy
Present For Bibi
Map
Don-Old Trump (R-Corrupt) sent an official State Department map to the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, showing the long-disputed Golan Heights as part of Israel.
The US president sent his son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner (R-Crooked) to deliver the map to Mr Netanyahu in Jerusalem.
"This map had not been updated since the Six Day War," Mr Netanyahu said in an address to the nation, referring to the 1967 Middle East war, after which Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria and later annexed in 1981 it in a move which has not been internationally recognised. "Well, it has been updated, it just got an update ... That is to say, there are very important developments here."
He pointed to Mr Trump's note and added: "Here is the signature of Trump, and he writes 'nice.' I say, 'very nice!"'
During his bid for re-election, he repeatedly leveraged his relationship with Mr Trump and showed off political gifts from the White House to court voters.
Map
Biologists Probe Deaths
Gray Whales
U.S. government biologists have launched a special investigation into the deaths of at least 70 gray whales washed ashore in recent months along the U.S. West Coast, from California to Alaska, many of them emaciated, officials said on Friday.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) declared the whale die-off an "unusual mortality event," a designation that triggers greater scrutiny and allocation of more resources to determine the cause.
So far this year, 37 dead gray whales have turned up in California waters, three in Oregon, 25 in Washington state and five in Alaska, say officials of NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service. Five more were found in British Columbia.
Many have little body fat, leading experts to suspect the die-off is caused by declining food sources in the dramatically warming waters of the northern Bering Sea and Chukchi Sea off Alaska.
The gray whales summer there, consuming most of a year's worth of nourishment to pack on the blubber they need to carry them through the migration south to wintering grounds off Mexico and back north to feeding grounds off Alaska.
Gray Whales
Their Ballgame
Maya
Imagine a crowd roaring as royalty take to the ball court, rubber ball in hand in a sport so spectacular, it symbolized good versus evil. The ballgame played by the Maya, Aztec and neighboring cultures is famous for its ubiquity in Mesoamerica before interloping Europeans shut it down. But many mysteries and misconceptions continue to dog people's understanding of the game.
For instance, did the game's winners or losers get sacrificed at the end of the game? And were the hoops on the ball courts treated like modern-day basketball nets?
The answer to both questions is no; the players were most likely not sacrificed, and the ball wasn't meant to go through the hoop, although it likely happened from time to time, said Christophe Helmke, an associate professor at the Institute of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies at the University of Copenhagen.
Archaeologists have pieced together information about the ballgame from different sources: excavations of historic ballcourts, documents from the colonial period (written either by Europeans or indigenous peoples who learned to write in English or Spanish) and from iconography - that is, indigenous glyphs depicting the game and its players.
These various sources show that the ballgame was widespread and extremely important in the Pre-Columbian Americas, where it was played as far north as the American Southwest, in Arizona and New Mexico. It was also played throughout Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, and even in northern South America, in Colombia.
Maya
Keeps Flashing Us?
The Moon
There's something flashing us on the moon, and we don't know what it is. But that might be about to change.
We have known about the mysterious flashes since at least the late 1960s, when the astronomers Barbara Middlehurst and Patrick Moore reviewed the scientific literature and found nearly 400 reports of strange events on the moon. Small regions of the lunar surface would get suddenly brighter or darker, without obvious explanation. The scientists' survey of the flashes and dimming, which they called "lunar transient phenomena," was published in the journal Science on Jan. 27, 1967. (Later, astronomers flipped the words around, terming the events "transient lunar phenomena.")
"The emitted light is usually described as reddish or pinkish, sometimes with a 'sparkling' or 'flowing' appearance," wrote the astronomer A. A. Mills in the March 1970 journal Nature.. "The coloration may extend for a distance of 10 miles [16 kilometers] or more on the lunar surface, with brighter spots 2 to 3 miles [3 to 5 km] across, and is commonly associated with veiling of the surface features. The average duration of an event is some 20 minutes, but it may persist intermittently for a few hours."
Scientists have returned to the subject periodically in the five decades since, but without turning up conclusive explanations. These events are now known to happen a few times a week. This year, a new team of astronomers has returned to the question with an observaotry specially designed for the task.
The new instrument observes the moon constantly using two cameras located 60 miles (100 km) north of Seville in Spain. When both cameras spot a flash, according to a statement from the telescope's designers, they record detailed photos and videos of the events, and send an email to Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (JMU) in Bavaria, Germany, which runs the telescopes.
The Moon
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