Marc Dion: Places I Go Not to Get Shot (Creators Syndicate)
These people with their fancy concerts, bar districts and Walmarts; they're begging to get shot. Not me. I'm in those joints where the owner is behind the counter, there's no parking lot and people buy off-brand beer in 20-ounce cans. I may get shot in a robbery, but a mass shooting is a long-odds bet. This is good. This is smart. I creep through life like a snail on a leaf, eating, drinking and shopping cheaply, and it's finally starting to pay. Trouble is, my wife goes to Walmart, and Target. She goes with my mother-in-law, and they buy paper towels and $7 blouses and ice cream for me. I've been encouraging her to buy more from Amazon.
Ted Rall: Why Congress Won't Act on Gun Violence, Climate Change, Impeaching Trump or Anything Else (Creators Syndicate)
It is an irrefutable incontrovertible fact that when the nation's cities are clogged with millions of angry Americans demanding radical change day after night after day after night, who break stuff and refuse to disperse and fight back against the cops and are willing to get beaten up and sometimes killed for their cause, and it's impossible to carry on business as usual, our worthless public officials will yield to their demands and do what's right.
Lenore Skenazy: Girl Killed by Garbage Truck, Coroner Blames Parents (Creators Syndicate)
This is not only the cruelest possible twist of the knife, it is also wrong. If a child falls down the stairs and dies, does that "fly in the face" of parents who thought it was OK to raise kids in a two-story house? Didn't they realize how dangerous stairs can be? How dare they have allowed their kids to walk up and down!
Susan Estrich: Michael Bennet for President (Creators Syndicate)
Doesn't have a chance? When the public says they're looking for that so-called generic Democrat whom they would overwhelmingly favor over President Donald Trump, they mean Michael Bennet. They just don't know it yet. Michael Bennet for president. He could win, and for all the right reasons.
Froma Harrop: Economy Not So Rosy for the Middle Class (Creators Syndicate)
Good economic times don't last forever. Jobs can disappear. Note that the Federal Reserve Bank just lowered interest rates out of concern that the economy is slowing. When things go in the other direction, many Americans will learn yet another lesson in the economic risk of piling on debt. Expect more anger and more pain.
Connie Schultz: 'There Is No Getting Used to This' (Creators Syndicate)
About an hour into Tuesday night's Democratic debate, Yamiche Alcindor, who covers the White House for "PBS Newshour," tweeted this: "I've been on the road for most of the last week. And it's so important to highlight just how much people feel the president's attacks put them personally in danger. Most black and brown people I've interviewed tell me this isn't just about politics but (their) ability to survive." If you're black or brown in America, you don't need an explanation of what this means.
Connie Schultz: We Cannot Afford Cynicism (Creators Syndicate)
My husband, Senator Sherrod Brown, and I spent much of Sunday in Dayton, with various community leaders and residents. I will never forget listening to several members of Dayton's police force describe for us what it's like to be first responders at the scene of a mass shooting. It's war zone triage. Each victim is examined, and responders make split-second decisions about which ones can be saved, sometimes against a backdrop of pleas from victims' friends and loved ones begging for a second glance.
Pagophagia is the compulsive consumption of ice or iced drinks. It is a form of the disorder pica. It has been associated with iron deficiency anemia, and shown to respond to iron supplementation, leading some investigators to postulate that some forms of pica may be the result of nutritional deficiency. Chewing ice may lessen pain in glossitis related to iron deficiency anemia. However, the American Dental Association recommends not chewing ice because it can crack teeth; instead ice should be allowed to melt in the mouth.
Source
Randall was first, and correct, with:
ICE
or iced drinks
Dave wrote:
Ice. Specifically chewing ice. Pica is a mental disorder of the compulsive consumption of non-nutritive substances. Eating dirt or paint chips for example. I'm pretty sure that back in the '50s Donald Trump devoured mass quantities of paint chips containing lead. There must be some explanation for that buffoon's idiotic behavior. Brain damage induced mental illness? Yeah, sounds right.
Mark. said:
Ice.
Alan J answered:
Ice or iced drinks.
Mac Mac replied:
Ice
Cal in Vermont responded:
Ice. Cubes, icicles, freezer defrostings, any old ice.
Jim from CA, retired to ID, said:
Pagophagia is the compulsive consumption of ice or iced drinks
zorch wrote:
The compulsive consumption of ice or iced drinks.
David of Moon Valley replied:
ice or iced drinks?! really?! something for everybody i reckon...
John I from Hawai`i says,
"Ice."
Deborah responded:
Pagophagia is the compulsive consumption of ice. I love to crunch ice, but am not compulsive about it. Our youngest dog, however, loves ice, so I give him a cube when I get some. I believe he has pagophagia.
Unusually cool and very pleasant, and tomorrow begins a ramp-up to more typical temps. Enjoying some patio time, and not regretting forgoing a bike ride. (I might need an intervention.)
Billy in Cypress U$A wrote:
ICE or ICED drinks.
Joe S said:
Pangophagia is the compulsive consumption of Pangolin. Why anyone would want to eat those cute little animals is beyond me. That's just sick. Sick. Just leave then alone! What have they done to you? What? PAGOPHAGIA? Never mind.
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BttbBob has returned to semi-retired status.
~~~~~
• During World War I, opera singer Ernestine Schumann-Heink was requested to sing "The Star-Spangled Banner" for the American troops. Because she was so eager to help, she agreed, although she did not know the words. (She sang the tune, rather than the words, of the song.) Later, she read this comment in a newspaper article: "The voice of Schumann-Heink is a great inspiration when she sings 'The Star-Spangled Banner,' but we would be very obliged if she would tell us in what language she sings it." (Quickly thereafter, she learned the words.)
• Very early in his career, Russian bass Feodor Chaliapine got work in the chorus of the French Light Opera Company. Very few of the members of the company were French, and the others did not know French. Fortunately, the members of the Russian audience also did not know French, thus allowing the singers to sing all the foreign words they knew at random - for example, "Colorado, Niagara, Mississippi, Charpentier, and Eau-de-vie …."
• Because of a lack of knowledge of English, Italian soprano Renata Tebaldi misunderstood what would happen when she agreed to sing Tosca in New York as a benefit for the Milk Fund. Speaking to a reporter, she expressed her opinion that "babies" would enjoy hearing this very emotional opera, and she was surprised to learn that the "babies" would not be attending the benefit.
• French-born soprano Lily Pons learned her first American slang from comedian Jack Oakie - "Scram!" According to Mr. Oakie, Ms. Pons was the Metropolitan Opera's "Top Line Canary."
Media
• Chicago Symphony Orchestra flutist Donald Peck was mightily unimpressed by opera singer Maria Callas. Once, the CSO was supposed to record with her. A rehearsal was scheduled, but Ms. Callas did not show up. The CSO waited for her because they were being paid for the time of the rehearsal, and when the rehearsal time was over they stood up to leave. At that exact time, Ms. Callas walked into the rehearsal space. Her agent made sure that the press knew that the CSO had risen out of respect to Ms. Callas, but Mr. Peck writes, "What a manipulation of the truth!"
• Today, many people are amused by sensational stories in the tabloids; however, sensational stories are nothing new in American journalism. Once, several Philadelphia newspapers reported that soprano Adelina Patti had been devoured by mice. Here's what had really happened: In the early 1880s, hotels were not as sanitary as they are now. Ms. Patti, a tremendously wealthy woman, had rented an expensive apartment in a Philadelphia hotel. When her maid turned down the bedcovers, six mice jumped out. Later that night, a mouse bit the celebrated opera singer's left ear.
Seems there was a shooting a couple of blocks away.
Pretty massive police presence on Willow.
Tonight, Sunday:
CBS starts the night with '60 Minutes', followed by a FRESH'Big Brother', then a FRESH'Instinct', followed by another FRESH'Instinct'.
NBC opens the night with a RERUN'Hollywood Game Night', followed by FRESH'Gymnastics', then a RERUN'Bring The Funny'.
ABC begins the night with a RERUN'America's So-Called Funniest Home Videos' followed by a FRESH'Celebrity Family Feud', then a FRESH'The $100,000 Pyramid', followed by a FRESH'To Tell The Truth'.
The CW offers a RERUN'Penn & Teller: Fool Us', followed by a RERUN'Pandora'.
Faux has a RERUN'Last Man Standing', followed by a RERUN'Family Guy', then the FRESH'Teen Choice 2019'.
MY has an old 'Cops', followed by an old 'Big Bang Theory', then another old 'Big Bang Theory', followed by still another old 'Big Bang Theory', then yet another old 'Big Bang Theory'.
A&E has the movie 'Zero Dark Thirty', followed by the movie 'Hacksaw Ridge'.
AMC offers 'The Walking Dead', another 'The Walking Dead', followed by a FRESH'Fear The Walking Dead', then a FRESH'Preacher'.
BBC -
[6:00AM] PLANET EARTH: LIFE - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 8-Creatures of the Deep
[7:11AM] TOP GEAR - SEASON 27 - EPISODE 1
[8:42AM] TOP GEAR - SEASON 27 - EPISODE 2
[9:43AM] TOP GEAR - SEASON 27 - EPISODE 3
[10:44AM] TOP GEAR - SEASON 27 - EPISODE 4
[11:45AM] FIRST BLOOD (1982)
[1:45PM] RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD PART II (1985)
[3:45PM] RAMBO III (1988)
[6:00PM] FIRST BLOOD (1982)
[8:00PM] TOP GEAR - SEASON 27 - EPISODE 5
[9:30PM] RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD PART II (1985)
[11:30PM] RAMBO III (1988)
[1:45AM] TOP GEAR - SEASON 27 - EPISODE 5
[3:15AM] DOCTOR WHO: THE DAY OF THE DOCTOR
[5:00AM] STAR TREK: VOYAGER - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 9-Emanations (ALL TIMES EDT)
Bravo has 'Real Housewives Of Potomac', another 'Real Housewives Of Potomac', followed by a FRESH'Real Housewives Of Potomac', then a FRESH'Southern Charm New Orleans', followed by a FRESH'Watch What Happens Live'.
Comedy Central has the movie 'The Waterboy', followed by the movie 'Dirty Grandpa'.
FX has the movie 'Avatar', followed by a FRESH'The Weekly', and another 'The Weekly'.
History has 'American Pickers', followed by a FRESH'American Pickers', then a FRESH'The Food That Built America'.
IFC -
[6:00A] The Three Stooges-Three Missing Links
[6:05A] The Three Stooges-Restless Knights
[6:30A] Contagion
[9:00A] Star Trek-A Taste of Armageddon
[10:10A] Star Trek-The Doomsday Machine
[11:20A] Star Trek-Friday's Child
[12:30P] Star Trek-By Any Other Name
[1:40P] Star Trek-The Enterprise Incident
[2:50P] Star Trek-That Which Survives
[4:00P] Face/Off
[7:00P] Outbreak
[10:00P] Contact
[1:15A] Face/Off
[4:15A] Pee-wee's Playhouse-The Cowboy and the Cowntess
[4:45A] Pee-wee's Playhouse-Stolen Apples
[5:15A] Pee-wee's Playhouse-The Gang's All Here
[5:45A] Night Flight-Virtuoso Frontmen (ALL TIMES EDT)
Sundance -
[6:00am] M*A*S*H
[6:30am] Law & Order
[7:30am] Law & Order
[8:30am] Law & Order
[9:30am] Law & Order
[10:30am] Law & Order
[11:30am] Law & Order
[12:30pm] The Bone Collector
[3:00pm] The Taking of Pelham 123
[5:30pm] The Bourne Ultimatum
[8:00pm] Batman
[11:00pm] Batman Returns
[2:00am] Planet of the Apes
[4:30am] The Andy Griffith Show
[5:00am] The Andy Griffith Show
[5:30am] The Andy Griffith Show (ALL TIMES EDT)
SyFy has the movie 'Red 2', followed by the movie 'xXx: Return Of Xander Cage', then the movie 'Wanted'.
Smokey Bear, the cartoon mascot for one of the longest-running public service advertising campaigns in America, warning of wildfire dangers, turned 75 on Friday.
Smokey, known for the motto "Only you can prevent forest fires," was launched as the official fire-prevention poster creature for the U.S. Forest Service on Aug. 9, 1944, replacing the cartoon deer Bambi, from Walt Disney's animated film of the same name.
Smokey's message remains as salient today as it was then, as the overwhelming majority of U.S. wildfires are sparked by careless human activity such as unattended camp fires or improperly discarded cigarettes, according to U.S Forest Chief Vicki Christiansen.
The brown bear in a yellow ranger's hat and blue jeans, often depicted carrying a shovel, was created to educate the public about fire prevention in America's wildlands, the Forest Service said.
The original slogan, "Only you can prevent forest fires" was revised in 2001 as "Only you can prevent wildfires" to reflect more modern terminology recognizing all manner of outdoor blazes. The name of the character, who image and name are protected by federal law, was deliberately spelled differently from the adjective "smoky."
Sarah Silverman, who is Jewish, issued a statement on Twitter in response to a pastor's flagrantly anti-Semitic rant, in which he called for prayers on Silverman's death.
The preacher, identified as Adam Fannin of the Stedfast Baptist Church in Florida, "is going to get me killed," she wrote Thursday.
Silverman also shared a clip of Fannin's tirade in which he calls her a "witch" and "a God-hating wh-re of Zionism" and prays for her violent demise.
According to Silverman, Fannin's speech was inspired by a troll who took one of her jokes out of context.
"Someone on the Right made a meme of a joke from Jesus is Magic, a comedy special I did in character and presented it as if I was saying it at a press conference," she wrote. "It's a picture of me with the quote 'I'm glad the Jews killed Jesus. I'd do it again!' And THAT is what triggered the pastor.
More than a million Indians planted 220 million trees on Friday in a government campaign to tackle climate change and improve the environment in the country's most populous state.
Forest official Bivhas Ranjan said students, lawmakers, officials and others planted dozens of species of saplings Friday along roads, rail tracks and in forest lands in northern Uttar Pradesh state. The target of 220 million saplings was achieved by 5 p.m.
India has pledged to keep one-third of its land area under tree cover, but its 1.3 billion people and rapid industrialization are hampering its efforts.
"We set the target of 220 million because Uttar Pradesh is home to 220 million people," said state Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
Planting was carried out in 1,430,381 places, including 60,000 villages and 83,000 sites in forest ranges.
Seamus Blackley got a chance this week to combine two of his greatest passions - ancient Egypt and baking.
The Pasadena, Calif., video game designer - best known for his role in developing Microsoft's gaming console, the Xbox - has baked a loaf of sourdough bread using 4,500-year-old yeast extracted from ancient Egyptian pottery.
"This was crazy because I had collected this stuff, you know, with syringes and masks and sterile techniques in museum basements from old pots," Blackley told As It Happens guest host Piya Chattopadhyay.
To make it happen, Blackley had to team up with a microbiologist, an Egyptologist and two museums - and he's still not convinced he got it totally right.
The whole thing started last spring, when he baked a loaf of sourdough with yeast he'd fed with freshly milled barley and einkorn, grains the ancient Egyptians used when baking.
An Arizona sex-crimes prosecutor who questioned Christine Blasey Ford about her sexual assault allegation against then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh (R-Cry Baby) has been promoted to a top prosecutorial job in metro Phoenix.
Rachel Mitchell was named chief deputy of the Maricopa County Attorney's Office last week, taking on the top staff position with Republican County Attorney Bill Montgomery.
Mitchell was chief of the county's sex crimes division when the 11 Republican men on the Senate Judiciary Committee enlisted her to question Ford, hoping to avoid the potentially bad optics of men interrogating a woman about her allegation.
Her performance was panned by many Republicans, who said she was ineffective at poking holes in Ford's story, and by Democrats, who wondered why a woman who put perpetrators behind bars was questioning an accuser.
Mitchell was promoted to chief deputy on July 31. Her salary bump to $167,211 a year must be approved by the Republican-controlled Board of Supervisors, the county's governing body. The promotion was first reported by Phoenix New Times.
The utility company operating Fukushima's tsunami-devastated nuclear power plant said Friday it will run out of space to store massive amounts of contaminated water in three years, adding pressure on the government and the public to reach a consensus on what to do with it.
Three reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant suffered meltdowns in a massive 2011 earthquake and tsunami that devastated northeastern Japan.
Radioactive water has leaked from the damaged reactors and mixed with groundwater and rainwater at the plant. The water is treated but remains slightly radioactive and is stored in large tanks.
The plant has accumulated more than 1 million tons of water in nearly 1,000 tanks. Its operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., says it plans to build more tanks but can accommodate only up to 1.37 million tons, which it will reach in the summer of 2022.
Nearly 8 1/2 years since the accident, officials have yet to agree on what to do with the radioactive water. A government-commissioned panel has picked five alternatives, including the controlled release of the water into the Pacific Ocean, which nuclear experts, including members of the International Atomic Energy Agency, say is the only realistic option. Fishermen and residents, however, strongly oppose the proposal, saying the release would be suicide for Fukushima's fishing and agriculture.
Hundreds of Chinese schoolchildren have been recruited to work long and often illegal hours in a factory that makes Amazon's Alexa devices, according to China Labor Watch.
The labor-rights group's investigation, which was first reported by The Guardian, unearthed evidence showing that more than 1,000 children ages 16 to 18 were employed as "interns" at a Foxconn factory in Hengyang, in central China.
While Chinese factories are allowed to employ students ages 16 or over, these students are not allowed to work nights or overtime, according to China Labor Watch.
The documents also showed that schools were paid to send students to the factories and teachers were asked to encourage them to work overtime, despite some students not wanting to.
If children refused to work the additional hours, teachers were told to file a resignation letter on their behalf, the meeting notes indicated.
Later this year, hunters in Alabama will have the opportunity to hunt sandhill cranes for the first time since 1916, state wildlife officials said Thursday.
The Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources said 400 permits will be issued for hunters to hunt the cranes. There will be a limit of three birds per permit.
There will be two periods for the sandhill crane hunting season. The first will be from Dec. 3, 2019 until Jan. 5, 2020. The second segment will be Jan. 16-31, 2020.
Tennessee and Kentucky have had sandhill crane hunting seasons since 2011 and 2013, respectively. Another 13 states west of the Mississippi also have them, officials said. The decision to open them up to hunting came after surveys showed their numbers were increasing.
The new sandhill crane season is the first time in more than a decade that a new species is open to hunt in Alabama, officials said. The last time was 2006, when alligators became open to hunting in the state.
Georgia Southern starting QB Shai Werts was charged on July 31 for misdemeanor cocaine possession after cops in Saluda County, South Carolina pulled him over for speeding and then tested a white substance on the hood of his car. If you're wondering why anyone would have cocaine on the hood of their car, well, they wouldn't. Werts said at the time it was bird poop, and on Thursday, he was proven right. The charge against him has been dropped by prosecutors, after law enforcement tests on the collected samples returned no controlled substance.
At the time the news of Werts's charge first broke, officers said they had tested the white substance with two field kits. From the original police report:
Werts is lucky that the truth has come out, and he's since seen his suspension by the university lifted, but his experience is unfortunately one of many. False positives in drug field tests are a disturbingly common result. The Washington Post, in an article from 2018, notes that they've been keeping track of these false positives, and plenty of random items have inexplicably tested as drugs:
That list includes sage, chocolate chip cookies, motor oil, spearmint, Dr. Bronner's Magic Soap, tortilla dough, deodorant, billiards chalk, patchouli, flour, eucalyptus, breath mints, Jolly Ranchers, Krispy Kreme donut glaze, exposure to air and loose-leaf tea. The latter item triggered a SWAT raid on an innocent couple and their two children.
Error rates on these tests are estimated to be somewhere between 1 in 5 and 1 in 3, but according to a 2015 study of drug cases in Las Vegas by ProPublica, thousands of people were convicted based on field-test results. Even if, like Werts, the preliminary test is proven to be false, a person who can't afford bail could spend a long time in jail for a faulty kit before being cleared.
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said:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
