Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Daniel Politi: Art Teacher in Utah Fired After Showing Students Classic Paintings Containing Nudity (Slate)
The local sheriff's office looked into the case after a report was filed and they took the postcards. But the county attorney decided not to file charges because, well, the paintings weren't actually pornography.
Emma Brockes: "Trump's tax plans: why liberals can smile (ironically)" (The Guardian)
Meanwhile, liberals who believe in higher taxes could only smile at the irony of their wish coming true, not as a measure to deepen investment in social services, but to give a tax break to the rich. Happy New Year.
Natalie Nougayrède: "Macron had a good year. In 2018, he could even stop Brexit" (The Guardian)
The French president is uniquely placed to speak for Europe. If he reaches out to British people, perhaps the disaster of leaving the EU could be averted.
NATHANIEL WEIXEL: Medicaid is GOP target in 2018 (The Hill)
Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has said he wants to bring down entitlement spending, saying in December that "health-care entitlements such as Medicare and Medicaid are the big drivers of debt."
Mary Papenfuss: "Carl Bernstein: Lawyers 'Telling Trump What He Wants To Hear' So He Won't Fire Mueller" (Huffington Post)
"They have an out of control client," says Watergate journalist.
Josh Marshall: Pete Seeger (TPM)
Seeger was born into music. His father, Charles Seeger, was a composer and also a founder of the academic discipline of ethnomusicology. That put him in contact, as Seeger himself was, with the various recorders and musicologists who traversed the South and Appalachia in the early party of the 20th century making recordings of a whole world of white and African-American 'folk' music which formed the basis of a lot of what we call folk music, blues, country, and eventually Rock n' Roll.
The best old albums that we discovered in 2017 (Washington Post)
"The song ["Second Skin") appeared on the band's debut album, Frenching the Bully, a 30-minute mosh pit elevated beyond punk tropes by Zapata's presence; she practically vibrates with vitriol, not just for others but herself as well. Tragically, she never was able to figure things out; "Frenching the Bully" was the only album the band released before Zapata was murdered in 1993, another too-soon loss in a scene defined by them." - Chris Kelly
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Presenting
Michael Egan
answered:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
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
POOR STUPID REPUBLICANS!
WHY DO 'CHRISTIAN FUNDAMENTALISTS REPUBLICANS HATE JESUS?
"BUNDLE UP."
100% CLEAN ENERGY!
CHANG 4 LIFT OFF.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
THE SUN WILL WARM YOU
THE SKY WILL LET YOUR EYES SEE
PEACE AND LOVE ALWAYS.
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
The Santa Ana road trip was a complete success.
We visited MedMen OC a little after 7am.
No lines, no parking problems, no hassles, nice selection of wares.
And the added attraction of feeling like a kid in a candy shop.
Sanity has prevailed in the Golden State.
43rd Annual List
List of Words Banished
Let me ask you this: Would a story that unpacks a list of tiresome words and phrases be impactful or a nothingburger? Worse, could it just be fake news?
Northern Michigan's Lake Superior State University on Sunday released its 43rd annual List of Words Banished from the Queen's English for Misuse, Overuse and General Uselessness . The tongue-in-cheek, non-binding list of 14 words or phrases comes from thousands of suggestions to the Sault Ste. Marie school.
This year's list includes "let me ask you this," ''unpack," ''impactful," ''nothingburger," ''tons," ''dish," ''drill down," ''let that sink in," and the top vote-getter, "fake news."
The others are "pre-owned," ''onboarding/offboarding," ''gig economy" and the redundant "hot water heater." Also on the list is the Trumpian Twitter typo "covfefe."
While the list contains a little political flavor, Lake Superior State spokesman John Shibley said he had expected more given the highly divisive 2016 election and a year of deepening divisions in government and the U.S. electorate.
List of Words Banished
Shortage May Lead To Disappearance Within 40 Years
Chocolate
Chocolate could reportedly vanish as early as 2050. This revelation has led scientists from the University of California at Berkeley to work with Virginia-based manufacturer Mars, Incorporated to save the cacao plant from disappearing.
Warmer temperatures and drier weather conditions are expected to be the root of the cacao plants' potential disappearance, according to Business Insider. New technology, known as CRISPR, is being used by UC Berkeley scientists to modify the DNA of the plants. The crop's tiny seedlings would be able to survive in different climates if the experiment is proven successful.
Cacao plants originated millions of years ago in South America. The crop is only capable of growing in the lower story of the evergreen rainforest, where warm temperatures and rainfall are plentiful. It's also frequently victim to fungal disease and climate change. More than half of the world's chocolate now comes from two countries in West Africa, being Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana.
However, these regions will soon become an unsuitable host environment for the cacao plant.
Mars, Incorporated is well aware of these problems and other related issues that climate change poses. This has led the company to make a $1 billion pledge towards reducing its business and supply chain's carbon footprint by more than 60 percent, in a plan called "Sustainability in a Generation." The corporation aims to accomplish this task by 2050.
Chocolate
New Year's Concert
Vienna
The Vienna Philharmonic did its best to give a troubled world a soothing start to 2018 on Monday with its traditional New Year's Concert, broadcast live in over 90 countries.
The annual extravaganza, heavy on light-hearted waltzes by the Strauss dynasty harking back to Vienna's 19th-century golden era, is watched by some 50 million people, the Philharmonic said.
His greying hair flopping in time to the music, the conductor this year was Italian maestro Riccardo Muti, waving the baton in the hallowed Golden Hall of the Musikverein for the fifth time since 1993.
The 76-year-old has conducted some of the world's most prestigious orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic and the Orchestre National de France.
Alongside Strauss favourites like "The Blue Danube", the 2018 programme also featured the Overture to "Boccaccio" by Franz von Suppe and Alphons Czibulka's "Stephanie Gavotte".
Vienna
Welsh Gold Mine
Clogau St David's
The Welsh mine that produced the gold for three generations of royal wedding rings is to reopen after nearly 20 years.
The wedding bands of the Queen Mother, the Queen, Princess Margaret, the Princess Royal and Diana, Princess of Wales were made from the same nugget drawn from the Clogau St David's mine at Bontddu in North Wales.
Mining ceased in 1998, as diminishing quantities of gold were being found. But Clogau has now been identified as a mine with "expansion potential", and the possibility that there are unworked veins to be discovered.
A review of geological, geochemical and geophysical data from the area suggests there is plenty more gold to be found. The focus "will be on bringing the Clogau Gold Mine back into production and also making a push into the regional exploration of the wider area".
Welsh gold fetches up to five times the gold spot price. North Wales has produced around 131,000oz of gold since the early 1800s, with 81,000oz of that from Clogau.
Clogau St David's
Miss America Chair
Gretchen Carlson
Gretchen Carlson was elected to lead the Miss America pageant after its CEO and previous chairman resigned amid a sexist email scandal, the organization said Monday.
In a statement, the Miss America Organization said that Carlson, who won the pageant in 1989, would take over the role immediately.
Carlson, a former Fox news anchor, sued the network's parent company in July 2016, alleging that then-CEO Roger Ailes "sabotaged" her career after she refused his sexual advances. Ailes resigned days after she filed the suit, which was settled two months later for a reported $20 million.
Former Miss America CEO Sam Haskell, COO Josh Randle and Chairman Lynn Weidner resigned last month after HuffPost reported that Haskell and other leaders at the organization spoke derisively about previous Miss America contestants.
Citing purportedly leaked emails from 2014 and 2015, the news site reported that Haskell and other leaders described the sex life and looks of a pageant winner, joked about the death of a former contestant and used an offensive term for a female body part.
Gretchen Carlson
Israel Indicts
Ahed Tamimi
An Israeli military court on Monday indicted a teenage Palestinian girl who was filmed last month in the West Bank slapping Israeli troops who refused to respond.
Palestinians have since hailed Ahed Tamimi, 16, as an icon in their fight against Israel. In Israel, the footage sparked debate about the soldiers' refusal to react.
The court indicted Tamimi on several accounts including attacking soldiers as well as for previous altercations with Israeli forces. It extended her remand for eight days.
She was filmed in December outside her family home, pushing, kicking and slapping the soldiers, who fended off the blows without retaliating. Her father Bassem has said she was upset when she approached the soldiers after her 15-year-old cousin had been shot with a rubber bullet. The military confirmed rubber bullets had been used following what it said was a violent demonstration, but had no information about who was shot.
Tamimi was arrested at her home in a pre-dawn raid three days after the confrontation, amid an uproar in Israel.
Ahed Tamimi
Halts $13 Billion Obama Amtrak Plan
T-rump
President-for-now Donald Trump (R-Crooked) and his administration halted a $13 billion federal spending plan to rebuild a crucial Amtrak passageway from New Jersey to New York. The administration said there was "no such agreement" to pay half of the cost to rebuild the commuter tunnel that services tens of thousands of New Jersey commuters despite Trump's calls to spend more money on infrastructure in 2018.
Top Federal Transportation Authority officials pulled the plug on an Obama-era agreement with New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie Friday, Crain's reported, after the governors sent a proposal to receive half of the project's costs in loans from the federal government. The gateway tunnel project aims to rebuild a tunnel that brings New Jersey commuters into Penn Station, which sees about 600,000 commuters in a single day.
The White House plans to introduce President Trump's infrastructure plan in January 2018. After signing the tax bill, Trump said that that he believed infrastructure agreements could be bipartisan.
Trump tweeted about the need for infrastructure spending after an Amtrak train derailed, killing at least six on December 18.
"Infrastructure is by far the easiest. People want it - Republicans and Democrats. We're going to have tremendous Democrat support on infrastructure, as you know," Trump told reporters after signing the GOP tax bill into law.
T-rump
2,700-Year-Old Seal Impression
'Governor of Jerusalem'
Israeli archaeologists unveiled on Monday a 2,700-year-old clay seal impression which they said belonged to a biblical governor of Jerusalem.
The artifact, inscribed in an ancient Hebrew script as "belonging to the governor of the city", was likely attached to a shipment or sent as a souvenir on behalf of the governor, the most prominent local position held in Jerusalem at the time, the Israel Antiquities Authority said.
The impression, the size of a small coin, depicts two standing men, facing each other in a mirror-like manner and wearing striped garments reaching down to their knees. It was unearthed near the plaza of Judaism's Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem.
Governors of Jerusalem, appointed by the king, are mentioned twice in the Bible, in 2 Kings, which refers to Joshua holding the position, and in 2 Chronicles, which mentions Masseiah in the post during the reign of Josiah.
'Governor of Jerusalem'
Austrian Study
Gin and Tonic
People who enjoy bitter flavors like black coffee, dark chocolate and tonic water are more likely to possess traits like "Machiavellianism, psychoticism, and narcissism," according to an Austrian study.
Researchers at Innsbruck University carried out two tests on 953 subjects. Men and women were shown different foods that were sour, salty and bitter. They were then asked to grade each item on a scale.
The participants also answered personality questionnaires that gauged their emotional stability.
"Supertasting, that is, having a high sensitivity to bitter compounds, has been consistently linked to increased emotionality in humans and rats," the study said. "Bitter taste experiences were shown to elicit harsher moral judgments and interpersonal hostility."
Scientists found that people who enjoyed bitter foods and drinks tended show more negative personality traits like narcissism.
Gin and Tonic
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