Just Sayin'

“Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'” — Isaac Asimov

No one was left…

First they came for the communists, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist. Then they came for the socialists, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Catholic. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me.

Search Categories

Today in History June 22nd

Nina Fedoroff: A secret weapon against Zika and other mosquito-borne diseases

OK Go: How to find a wonderful idea

Part 2: Robert Reich: Like a Tyrant, Trump Is Deploying Seven Techniques to Control the Media

Part 1: Robert Reich: Like a Tyrant, Trump Is Deploying Seven Techniques to Control the Media

Edward Snowden: Here’s how we take back the Internet

Changing Education Paradigms-RSAnimate – Sir Ken Robinson

RSA Animate — The Secret Powers of Time

Check out the big brain on Brad….er…Albert!

Albert Einstein is widely regarded as a genius, but how did he get that way? Many researchers have assumed that it took a very special brain to come up with the theory of relativity and other insights that form the foundation of modern physics. A study of 14 newly discovered photographs of Einstein’s brain, which was preserved for study after his death, concludes that the brain was indeed highly unusual in many ways. But researchers still don’t know exactly how the brain’s extra folds and convolutions translated into Einstein’s amazing abilities. Loading... Comments Weigh InCorrections? Personal Post Gallery Notable deaths of 2012: Images of well-known people who have died this year. More science news Why most humans are not vegetarians Christopher Wanjek | Live Science NOV 26 Eating meat and cooking food enabled the brains of prehumans to grow dramatically over time. Sea snails weaken in Antarctic waters Reuters NOV 26 Carbon dioxide makes the waters of the Southern Ocean increasingly acidic. Sensors alert fish as threats approach Brian Palmer NOV 26 Neuromasts help them sense when a predator is near, even if the water is muddy or the fish can’t see. The story of Einstein’s brain is a saga that began in 1955 when the Nobel Prize-winning physicist died in Princeton, N.J., at age 76. His son Hans Albert and his executor, Otto Nathan, gave the examining pathologist, Thomas Harvey, permission to preserve the brain for scientific study. Harvey photographed the brain and then cut it into 240 blocks, which were embedded in a resinlike substance. He cut the blocks into as many as 2,000 thin sections for microscopic study, and in subsequent years distributed slides and photographs of the brain to at least 18 researchers around the world. With the exception of the slides that Harvey kept for himself, no one is sure where the specimens are now, and many of them have probably been lost as researchers retired or died. Over the decades, only six peer-reviewed publications resulted from these widely scattered materials. Some of these studies did find interesting features in Einstein’s brain, including a greater density of neurons in some parts of the brain and a higher than usual ratio of glia (cells that help neurons transmit nerve impulses) to neurons. Two studies of the brain’s gross anatomy, including one published in 2009 by anthropologist Dean Falk of Florida State University at Tallahassee, found that Einstein’s parietal lobes — which might be linked to his remarkable ability to conceptualize physics problems — had a very unusual pattern of grooves and ridges. But the Falk study was based on only a handful of photographs that had been made available by Harvey, who died in 2007. In 2010, Harvey’s heirs agreed to transfer all of his materials to the U.S. Army’s National Museum of Health and Medicine in Silver Spring. For the new study, published Nov. 16 in the journal Brain, Falk teamed up with neurologist Frederick Lepore of the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Jersey and Adrianne Noe, director of the museum, to analyze 14 photographs of the whole brain from the Harvey collection that had never been made public. The paper also includes a “road map” prepared by Harvey that links the photographs to the 240 blocks and the microscopic slides prepared from them in hopes that other scientists will use them to do follow-up research. The team compared Einstein’s brain with those of 85 other people and found that the great physicist did indeed have something special between his ears. Although the brain is only average in size, several regions feature additional convolutions and folds rarely seen in others. For example, the regions on the left side of the brain that facilitate sensory inputs into and motor control of the face and tongue are much larger than normal; and his prefrontal cortex — linked to planning, focused attention and perseverance — is also greatly expanded. “In each lobe,” including the frontal, parietal and occipital lobes, “there are regions that are exceptionally complicated in their convolutions,” Falk says. As for the enlarged regions linked to the face and tongue, Falk thinks that this might relate to Einstein’s famous quote that his thinking was often “muscular” rather than done in words. Although this comment is usually interpreted as a metaphor for his subjective experiences as he thought about the universe, “it may be that he used his motor cortex in extraordinary ways” connected to abstract conceptualization, Falk says. Albert Galaburda, a neuroscientist at Harvard Medical School, says that “what’s great about this paper is that it puts down . . . the entire anatomy of Einstein’s brain in great detail.” Nevertheless, Galaburda adds, the study raises “very important questions for which we don’t have an answer.” Among them are whether Einstein started off with a special brain that predisposed him to be a great physicist, or whether doing great physics caused certain parts of his brain to expand. Einstein’s genius, Galaburda says, was probably due to “some combination of a special brain and the environment he lived in.” He suggests that researchers now attempt to compare Einstein’s brain with that of other talented physicists to see if the brain’s features were unique to Einstein or are also seen in other scientists. Falk agrees that both nature and nurture were probably involved, pointing out that Einstein’s parents were “very nurturing” and encouraged him to be independent and creative, not only in science but also in music. (Falk’s 2009 study found that a brain region linked to musical talent was highly developed in Einstein’s brain.) “Einstein programmed his own brain,” Falk says, adding that when physics was ripe for new insights, “he had the right brain in the right place at the right time.” This article was produced by ScienceNOW, the daily online news service of the journal Science.

Chocolate and Slavery….did you know?

Once the world’s leading cacao producer, the tiny nation of São Tomé and Príncipe seems to have fallen off the map. Samantha Weinberg, entranced, went twice in a year—and unearthed a dark history From INTELLIGENT LIFE magazine, March/April 2013

It’s the Guns – But We All Know, It’s Not Really the Guns

It's the Guns – But We All Know, It's Not Really the Guns By Michael Moore Since Cain went nuts and whacked Abel, there have always been those humans who, for one reason or another, go temporarily or permanently insane and commit unspeakable acts of violence. There was the Roman Emperor Tiberius, who during the first century A.D. enjoyed throwing victims off a cliff on the Mediterranean island of Capri. Gilles de Rais, a French knight and ally of Joan of Arc during the middle ages, went cuckoo-for-Cocoa Puffs one day and ended up murdering hundreds of children. Just a few decades later Vlad the Impaler, the inspiration for Dracula, was killing people in Transylvania in numberless horrifying ways. In modern times, nearly every nation has had a psychopath or two commit a mass murder, regardless of how strict their gun laws are – the crazed white supremacist in Norway one year ago Sunday, the schoolyard butcher in Dunblane, Scotland, the École Polytechnique killer in Montreal, the mass murderer in Erfurt, Germany … the list seems endless. And now the Aurora shooter last Friday. There have always been insane people, and there always will be. But here's the difference between the rest of the world and us: We have TWO Auroras that take place every single day of every single year! At least 24 Americans every day (8-9,000 a year) are killed by people with guns – and that doesn't count the ones accidentally killed by guns or who commit suicide with a gun. Count them and you can triple that number to over 25,000. That means the United States is responsible for over 80% of all the gun deaths in the 23 richest countries combined. Considering that the people of those countries, as human beings, are no better or worse than any of us, well, then, why us? Both conservatives and liberals in America operate with firmly held beliefs as to "the why" of this problem. And the reason neither can find their way out of the box toward a real solution is because, in fact, they're both half right. The right believes that the Founding Fathers, through some sort of divine decree, have guaranteed them the absolute right to own as many guns as they desire. And they will ceaselessly remind you that a gun cannot fire itself – that "Guns don't kill people, people kill people." Of course, they know they're being intellectually dishonest (if I can use that word) when they say that about the Second Amendment because they know the men who wrote the constitution just wanted to make sure a militia could be quickly called up from amongst the farmers and merchants should the Brits decide to return and wreak some havoc. But they are half right when they say "Guns don't kill people." I would just alter that slogan slightly to speak the real truth: "Guns don't kill people, Americans kill people." Because we're the only ones in the first world who do this en masse. And you'll hear all stripes of Americans come up with a host of reasons so that they don't have to deal with what's really behind all this murder and mayhem. They'll say it's the violent movies and video games that are responsible. Last time I checked, the movies and video games in Japan are more violent than ours – and yet usually fewer than 20 people a year are killed there with guns – and in 2006 the number was two! Others will say it's the number of broken homes that lead to all this killing. I hate to break this to you, but there are almost as many single-parent homes in the U.K. as there are here – and yet, in Great Britain, there are usually fewer than 40 gun murders a year. People like me will say this is all the result of the U.S. having a history and a culture of men with guns, "cowboys and Indians," "shoot first and ask questions later." And while it is true that the mass genocide of the Native Americans set a pretty ugly model to found a country on, I think it's safe to say we're not the only ones with a violent past or a penchant for genocide. Hello, Germany! That's right I'm talking about you and your history, from the Huns to the Nazis, just loving a good slaughter (as did the Japanese, and the British who ruled the world for hundreds of years – and they didn't achieve that through planting daisies). And yet in Germany, a nation of 80 million people, there are only around 200 gun murders a year. So those countries (and many others) are just like us – except for the fact that more people here believe in God and go to church than any other Western nation. My liberal compatriots will tell you if we just had less guns, there would be less gun deaths. And, mathematically, that would be true. If you have less arsenic in the water supply, it will kill less people. Less of anything bad – calories, smoking, reality TV – will kill far fewer people. And if we had strong gun laws that prohibited automatic and semi-automatic weapons and banned the sale of large magazines that can hold a gazillion bullets, well, then shooters like the man in Aurora would not be able to shoot so many people in just a few minutes. But this, too, has a problem. There are plenty of guns in Canada (mostly hunting rifles) – and yet the annual gun murder count in Canada is around 200 deaths. In fact, because of its proximity, Canada's culture is very similar to ours – the kids play the same violent video games, watch the same movies and TV shows, and yet they don't grow up wanting to kill each other. Switzerland has the third-highest number of guns per capita on earth, but still a low murder rate. So – why us? I posed this question a decade ago in my film 'Bowling for Columbine,' and this week, I have had little to say because I feel I said what I had to say ten years ago – and it doesn't seem to have done a whole lot of good other than to now look like it was actually a crystal ball posing as a movie. This is what I said then, and it is what I will say again today: 1. We Americans are incredibly good killers. We believe in killing as a way of accomplishing our goals. Three-quarters of our states execute criminals, even though the states with the lower murder rates are generally the states with no death penalty. Our killing is not just historical (the slaughter of Indians and slaves and each other in a "civil" war). It is our current way of resolving whatever it is we're afraid of. It's invasion as foreign policy. Sure there's Iraq and Afghanistan – but we've been invaders since we "conquered the wild west" and now we're hooked so bad we don't even know where to invade (bin Laden wasn't hiding in Afghanistan, he was in Pakistan) or what to invade for (Saddam had zero weapons of mass destruction and nothing to do with 9/11). We send our lower classes off to do the killing, and the rest of us who don't have a loved one over there don't spend a single minute of any given day thinking about the carnage. And now we send in remote pilotless planes to kill, planes that are being controlled by faceless men in a lush, air conditioned studio in suburban Las Vegas. It is madness. 2. We are an easily frightened people and it is easy to manipulate us with fear. What are we so afraid of that we need to have 300 million guns in our homes? Who do we think is going to hurt us? Why are most of these guns in white suburban and rural homes? Maybe we should fix our race problem and our poverty problem (again, #1 in the industrialized world) and then maybe there would be fewer frustrated, frightened, angry people reaching for the gun in the drawer. Maybe we would take better care of each other (here's a good example of what I mean). Those are my thoughts about Aurora and the violent country I am a citizen of. Like I said, I spelled it all out here if you'd like to watch it or share it for free with others. All we're lacking here, my friends, is the courage and the resolve. I'm in if you are.

Schools in Africa are going digital—with encouraging results

UNTIL recently Grace Wambui, a 14-year-old pupil in Nairobi, had never touched a tablet computer. But it took her about “one minute”, she says, to work out how to use one when such devices arrived at her school, a tin shack in Kawangware, a slum in the Kenyan capital. Other students at Amaf School were no slower to embrace the new tool. Teaching used to be conducted with a blackboard and a handful of tattered textbooks. Now children in groups of five take turns to swipe the touch screen of the devices, which are loaded with a multimedia version of Kenya’s syllabus. The tablets at Amaf School are an exception; they are part of a pilot project run by eLimu, a technology start-up. But if it and other firms are right, tablets and other digital devices may soon be the rule in African schools: many are betting on a boom in digital education in Kenya and elsewhere. Some executives even expect it to take off like M-Pesa, Kenya’s hugely successful mobile-money service. Such growth in digital education would be timely. The number of children in Africa without school places may have dropped in recent years, but the flood of new pupils has overwhelmed state schools, which were already underfunded and poorly managed. “Business as usual is not working,” says Mike Trucano, an education and technology expert at the World Bank. A for-profit venture, eLimu (“education” in Swahili) is one of several local publishers which are looking to disrupt the business of traditional textbook vendors, which are often slow and expensive. It aims to show that digital content can be cheaper and better. Safaricom, the Kenyan mobile operator that pioneered the M-Pesa service, hopes to repeat its success in digital education. It is developing classroom content, from videotaped lessons to learning applications, that any of Kenya’s 7,000 state secondary schools will be able to access online. The prospect of many of Africa’s 300m pupils learning digitally has not escaped the attention of global technology giants either. Amazon has seen sales of its Kindle e-readers in Africa increase tenfold in the past year. The firm’s developers are adding features to its devices with the African consumer in mind: talking books, new languages and a longer battery life. Intel, a chipmaker, hopes that education will generate much of the double-digit growth it expects in Africa. The firm has been advising African governments and helping them buy entry-level computers. In Nigeria Intel brought together MTN, a telecom carrier, and Cinfores, a local publisher, to provide exam-preparation tools over mobile phones, a service that has become hugely popular. Such success shows that even the poor are willing to pay for digital education—as they already do for the conventional kind. In Kenya eight out of ten parents pay tuition for courses outside school. Amaf School charges about $10 a month. Start-ups such as eLimu hope to make money with micro-payments, very small sums paid per download. A bigger question is whether digital tools will actually improve education. Early results are encouraging. In Ghana reading skills improved measurably among 350 children that had been given Kindle e-readers by Worldreader, a charity. In Ethiopia researchers found that even in the absence of teachers, children figured out how to use tablets provided to them by One Laptop Per Child, another charity, to teach themselves to read. At Amaf School, average marks in science, for instance, went from 58 to 73 out of 100 in a single term, says Peter Lalo Outa, the headmaster. That is good news for eLimu. “We want to prove that learning outcomes are improved,” says Nivi Mukherjee, the firm’s boss, “and not use technology for technology’s sake.”

Are you worried about the world coming to an end on December 12th?

Dec. 21, 2012, won't be the end of the world as we know, however, it will be another winter solstice. Contrary to some of the common beliefs out there, the claims behind the end of the world quickly unravel when pinned down to the 2012 timeline. Below, NASA Scientists answer questions on the following 2012 topics: End of the World 'Prediction' Origins Mayan Calendar Planetary Alignment Nibiru/Planet X/Eris Polar Shift Meteor Strike NASA Science Solar Storms Question (Q): Are there any threats to the Earth in 2012? Many Internet websites say the world will end in December 2012. Answer (A):The world will not end in 2012. Our planet has been getting along just fine for more than 4 billion years, and credible scientists worldwide know of no threat associated with 2012. Q: What is the origin of the prediction that the world will end in 2012? A: The story started with claims that Nibiru, a supposed planet discovered by the Sumerians, is headed toward Earth. This catastrophe was initially predicted for May 2003, but when nothing happened the doomsday date was moved forward to December 2012 and linked to the end of one of the cycles in the ancient Mayan calendar at the winter solstice in 2012 -- hence the predicted doomsday date of December 21, 2012. Q: Does the Mayan calendar end in December 2012? A: Just as the calendar you have on your kitchen wall does not cease to exist after December 31, the Mayan calendar does not cease to exist on December 21, 2012. This date is the end of the Mayan long-count period but then -- just as your calendar begins again on January 1 -- another long-count period begins for the Mayan calendar. Q: Could planets align in a way that impacts Earth? A: There are no planetary alignments in the next few decades and even if these alignments were to occur, their effects on the Earth would be negligible. One major alignment occurred in 1962, for example, and two others happened during 1982 and 2000. Each December the Earth and sun align with the approximate center of the Milky Way Galaxy but that is an annual event of no consequence. › More about alignment "There apparently is a great deal of interest in celestial bodies, and their locations and trajectories at the end of the calendar year 2012. Now, I for one love a good book or movie as much as the next guy. But the stuff flying around through cyberspace, TV and the movies is not based on science. There is even a fake NASA news release out there..." - Don Yeomans, NASA senior research scientist Q: Is there a planet or brown dwarf called Nibiru or Planet X or Eris that is approaching the Earth and threatening our planet with widespread destruction? A: Nibiru and other stories about wayward planets are an Internet hoax. There is no factual basis for these claims. If Nibiru or Planet X were real and headed for an encounter with the Earth in 2012, astronomers would have been tracking it for at least the past decade, and it would be visible by now to the naked eye. Obviously, it does not exist. Eris is real, but it is a dwarf planet similar to Pluto that will remain in the outer solar system; the closest it can come to Earth is about 4 billion miles. Q: What is the polar shift theory? Is it true that the Earth's crust does a 180-degree rotation around the core in a matter of days if not hours? A: A reversal in the rotation of Earth is impossible. There are slow movements of the continents (for example Antarctica was near the equator hundreds of millions of years ago), but that is irrelevant to claims of reversal of the rotational poles. However, many of the disaster websites pull a bait-and-switch to fool people. They claim a relationship between the rotation and the magnetic polarity of Earth, which does change irregularly, with a magnetic reversal taking place every 400,000 years on average. As far as we know, such a magnetic reversal doesn’t cause any harm to life on Earth. Scientists believe a magnetic reversal is very unlikely to happen in the next few millennia. › More about polar shift Q: Is the Earth in danger of being hit by a meteor in 2012? A: The Earth has always been subject to impacts by comets and asteroids, although big hits are very rare. The last big impact was 65 million years ago, and that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs. Today NASA astronomers are carrying out a survey called the Spaceguard Survey to find any large near-Earth asteroids long before they hit. We have already determined that there are no threatening asteroids as large as the one that killed the dinosaurs. All this work is done openly with the discoveries posted every day on the NASA Near-Earth Object Program Office website, so you can see for yourself that nothing is predicted to hit in 2012. Q: How do NASA scientists feel about claims of the world ending in 2012? A: For any claims of disaster or dramatic changes in 2012, where is the science? Where is the evidence? There is none, and for all the fictional assertions, whether they are made in books, movies, documentaries or over the Internet, we cannot change that simple fact. There is no credible evidence for any of the assertions made in support of unusual events taking place in December 2012. › Why you need not fear a supernova › About super volcanoes Q: Is there a danger from giant solar storms predicted for 2012? A: Solar activity has a regular cycle, with peaks approximately every 11 years. Near these activity peaks, solar flares can cause some interruption of satellite communications, although engineers are learning how to build electronics that are protected against most solar storms. But there is no special risk associated with 2012. The next solar maximum will occur in the 2012-2014 time frame and is predicted to be an average solar cycle, no different than previous cycles throughout history. › Video: Solar Storms › More about solar storms

Steven Schwarzman, CEO of the Blackstone Group In 2010, Schwarzman compared Obama's efforts to raise taxes on private equity firms to "war...like when Hitler invaded Poland in 1939." The Blackstone Group's stock price has more than tripled since Obama took office.

Ivan Seidenberg, CEO of Verizon Seidenberg has complained that the Obama administration has created an "increasingly hostile environment for investment and job creation." Verizon's stock price has risen 40 percent since Obama took office.

RSA Animate – 21st Century Enlightenment

Muhtar Kent, CEO of Coca-Cola Kent compared Obama's proposal to tax soft drinks to communism in 2009. Coca-Cola's stock price has spiked 71 percent since Obama took office.

7 Obama-Hating CEOs Who’ve Thrived Under Obama (PHOTOS) The Huffington Post | By Bonnie Kavoussi Posted: 11/14/2012 6:06 pm EST

Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase Dimon has complained that the government hasn't done enough to help business. Meanwhile, JPMorgan's stock price has spiked 64 percent since Obama took office.

Jeffrey Immelt, CEO of General Electric Immelt, though the chair of Obama's jobs council, reportedly has soured on Obama. GE's stock price has risen 70 percent since Obama took office: a stark contrast to the financial crisis, when GE could barely get the short-term financing needed to keep operating.

James Tisch, CEO of Loews Corporation Tisch has accused the Obama administration of giving business "very little confidence in what’s been going on and very little visibility." Meanwhile, Loews' stock price has risen 64 percent since Obama took office.

Necessity is the Mother of Invention

Possibly one of the more unexpected products at Maker Faire Africa this year in Lagos is a urine powered generator, created by four girls. The girls are Duro-Aina Adebola (14), Akindele Abiola (14), Faleke Oluwatoyin (14) and Bello Eniola (15).

Politics

Brief history of U.S. Presidential debates

How Companies Have Assembled Political Profiles for Millions of Internet Users

by Lois Beckett ProPublica, Oct. 22, 2012, 2:07 p.m.

And then there’s the Unusual

The Nobel Prize in Physics went to work that could revolutionize technology.

Just as we were all settling in front of the television to watch the baseball playoffs, two new studies about the perils of sitting have spoiled our viewing pleasure.

Blog Stats

141,458 hits

Follow Blog via Email

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 1,044 other followers

Follow Just Sayin' on WordPress.com

Theresa May’s Davos speech: Hard Brexit, Article 50, transitional deal, passporting – Business Insider

January 19, 2017 by lbfromlv

BI attended Prime Minister Theresa May’s speech in Davos, Switzerland to hear about her elaborating on her Brexit plans.

Source: Theresa May’s Davos speech: Hard Brexit, Article 50, transitional deal, passporting – Business Insider

This entry was posted in Point of Interest and tagged #Brexit, #Theresa May, Davos. Bookmark the permalink.

← If a story moves you, act on it – Filmed October 2016 at TEDWomen 2016

Bagwell, Raines And Rodriquez Are Elected To Baseball’s Hall of Fame – RICHARD GONZALES January 18, 2017 9:44 PM →

Let us never forget!

Screen Shot 2016-06-27 at Jun 27, 2016 1.07

National News

Democrats Seethe After Georgia Loss: ‘Our Brand Is Worse Than Trump’ June 21, 2017
A demoralizing special-election defeat has left some Democrats questioning the leadership and political strategy of Nancy Pelosi, the House minority leader.
ALEXANDER BURNS and JONATHAN MARTIN
Milwaukee Officer Is Acquitted in Killing of Sylville Smith June 22, 2017
The death last August touched off two days of protests and violence on Milwaukee’s north side. The jury decided the shooting had been justified.
KAY NOLAN and JULIE BOSMAN
Police Officer Stabbed at Michigan Airport in ‘Act of Terrorism’ June 22, 2017
The F.B.I. said that a suspect arrested in the stabbing of a police officer at Bishop International Airport, Amor Ftouhi, was from Canada.
MATT STEVENS and MATTHEW HAAG

Fats Waller and his Rhythm – Honeysuckle Rose (1934)

Int’l Business

Gains in healthcare stocks lift Wall Street June 22, 2017
(Reuters) - Wall Street was higher in late morning trading on Thursday as health stocks got a boost after Republicans unveiled a bill to repeal Obamacare and the energy sector took a breather with oil prices edging up from multi-month lows.
U.S. jobless claims rise, labor market still tight June 22, 2017
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits increased slightly last week, but remains at levels consistent with a tight labor market.
Exclusive: China Unicom counts Alibaba, Tencent among investors in drive to raise $10 billion - sources June 22, 2017
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Chinese tech giants Alibaba Group Holdings and Tencent Holdings will be among new investors pouring a total of around $10 billion into mobile carrier China Unicom, sources said, part of efforts by Beijing to rejuvenate state behemoths with private cash.
Qatar Airways interested in buying 10 percent stake in American Airlines June 22, 2017
(Reuters) - American Airlines Group Inc said on Thursday that Qatar Airways, the Gulf country's state-owned airline, had expressed interest in buying as much as a 10 percent stake worth at least $808 million in the U.S. airline.

Gorillaz – Let Me Out (Official Audio)

Politics

8 Figures on Gun Ownership, and Attitudes, in America June 22, 2017
People with and without guns favor banning the sale of firearms to the mentally ill, but differ on much else, a new Pew Research Center report finds.
By MICHAEL COOPER
3 Books That Help Explain American-Cuban Relations June 22, 2017
Here are three books that help explain the United States’ fraught historical relationship with Cuba.
By CONCEPCIÓN DE LEÓN
Senate Leaders Unveil Bill to Repeal the Affordable Care Act June 22, 2017
Senate Republican leaders released their bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and they want to hold a vote on the measure by the end of next week.
By ROBERT PEAR and THOMAS KAPLAN

Heat Miser – Massive Attack

Sports

Raiders and Quarterback Derek Carr Agree on a 5-Year Extension June 22, 2017
The Raiders will add five years to Carr’s current rookie deal, keeping him tied to the team through 2022.
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Soccer’s Confounding Calculation: What’s a Player Worth? June 22, 2017
Hundreds of millions of dollars change hands and hundreds of players change teams during soccer’s summer transfer window. But does anyone know what’s a fair price?
By RORY SMITH
The Hitter Can Hurl. The Hurler Can Hit. Can He Do Both in the Majors? June 22, 2017
Will one of these rare double threats become baseball’s first true two-way player? Historically it just hasn’t happened. But maybe now is the time.
By VICTOR MATHER
Nationals’ Max Scherzer Loses a No-Hitter, Then the Game June 22, 2017
Scherzer, seeking his third no-hitter, gave up an infield single in the eighth inning and two unearned runs followed as the Marlins won, 2-1.
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Yankees Beat Angels and End Seven-Game Losing Streak June 22, 2017
The Yanks regained the A.L. East lead with the help of the 15th home run this season from Matt Holliday, who filled in at first base.
By WALLACE MATTHEWS

Stoic Revolutions – Joshua Redman

Baseball

The Hitter Can Hurl. The Hurler Can Hit. Can He Do Both in the Majors? June 22, 2017
Will one of these rare double threats become baseball’s first true two-way player? Historically it just hasn’t happened. But maybe now is the time.
By VICTOR MATHER
Nationals’ Max Scherzer Loses a No-Hitter, Then the Game June 22, 2017
Scherzer, seeking his third no-hitter, gave up an infield single in the eighth inning and two unearned runs followed as the Marlins won, 2-1.
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Yankees Beat Angels and End Seven-Game Losing Streak June 22, 2017
The Yanks regained the A.L. East lead with the help of the 15th home run this season from Matt Holliday, who filled in at first base.
By WALLACE MATTHEWS

A Message to You Rudy – The Specials (2015 Remaster)

Business

News Analysis: Tough Task for Next Uber Leader: Mending Fences With Drivers June 22, 2017
With Travis Kalanick out as Uber’s chief executive, the company has a chance to improve its treatment of drivers. An option for tipping drivers is a start.
KEVIN ROOSE
When Helicopter Parents Hover Even at Work June 21, 2017
The father of the basketball star Lonzo Ball has taken an assertive role in his son’s career, reflecting a larger trend as millennials come of age.
NOAM SCHEIBER
Silicon Valley Investors Flexed Their Muscles in Uber Fight June 22, 2017
Start-up financiers have deferred boardroom control to founders in recent years. Travis Kalanick’s ouster indicates that could be changing.
KATIE BENNER
Inside Travis Kalanick’s Resignation as Uber’s C.E.O. June 22, 2017
At a Chicago hotel on Tuesday, two venture capitalists presented Mr. Kalanick with a list of demands, including his resignation by the end of the day.
MIKE ISAAC
State of the Art: Uber’s Lesson: Silicon Valley’s Start-Up Machine Needs Fixing June 21, 2017
Travis Kalanick, who stepped down as Uber’s C.E.O., had many enablers who turned a blind eye to the company’s faults because it was growing quickly.
FARHAD MANJOO

Carried Away – French Kicks

Technology

Inside Travis Kalanick’s Resignation as Uber’s C.E.O. June 22, 2017
At a Chicago hotel on Tuesday, two venture capitalists presented Mr. Kalanick with a list of demands, including his resignation by the end of the day.
MIKE ISAAC
State of the Art: Uber’s Lesson: Silicon Valley’s Start-Up Machine Needs Fixing June 21, 2017
Travis Kalanick, who stepped down as Uber’s C.E.O., had many enablers who turned a blind eye to the company’s faults because it was growing quickly.
FARHAD MANJOO
Tech Fix: What You Need to Know About the New Uber June 21, 2017
The company has been dogged by scandal for months. One response: changes to its all-important app.
BRIAN X. CHEN

“The Girl from Ipanema” Astrud Gilberto, João Gilberto and Stan Getz

NBA

What each team needs in 2017 NBA draft June 22, 2017
Front-Office Insider Bobby Marks offers a snapshot of each team's picks, cash for deals and needs for Thursday's NBA draft.
Yahoo Sports
2017 NBA Draft: Jayson Tatum reveals his all-time Duke starting five June 22, 2017
In a rapid-fire Q&A, NBA Draft prospect Jayson Tatum shares which NBA player he'd like to follow him on Twitter and what he thinks of LeBron James going bald.
Sports Illustrated
The NBA’s silly season is already here June 22, 2017
James Brosher-USA TODAY Sports
SB Nation

Flume – Hyperreal feat. Kučka

Television

Fargo: ‘Fargo’ Season 3 Finale: Bled Out June 22, 2017
The series continues to remind us that violence takes many forms, some of it legal. But it’s all violence.
SCOTT TOBIAS
Noah Hawley on Season 3 of ‘Fargo,’ and a ‘Post-Truth World’ June 22, 2017
The showrunner of the FX anthology series (based on the Coen brothers’ film) discussed the Season 3 finale, the altering of reality and villains.
FINN COHEN
A Word With: Alison Brie Talks Pro Wrestling and Inner Strength June 22, 2017
With “Mad Men” and “Community” ended, Ms. Brie discusses auditioning for “GLOW” on Netflix, showing inner strength and feeling nostalgia for perms.
DAVE ITZKOFF

Beth Ditto – Fire

Art and Design

Art Review: How an Afro-Cuban Visionary Made a Man’s World Her Own June 22, 2017
There is nothing simple about the work of Belkis Ayón, a printmaker who drew her inspiration from the Abaquá, a secret male society with an origin story based on female betrayal.
HOLLAND COTTER
At the Dr. Seuss Museum: Oh, the Places They Don’t Go! June 21, 2017
The new museum dedicated to Theodor Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, in Springfield, Mass., left out some controversial political cartoons.
SOPAN DEB
Jeff Koons Sent Paris Flowers. Can It Find the Right Vase? June 20, 2017
The artist donated his large sculpture “Bouquet of Tulips” to honor terrorism victims. The project is stuck in red tape, and its critics wish it would disappear.
RACHEL DONADIO
Art of a Grenfell Tower Fire Victim Is Shown by the Tate June 20, 2017
The display of a work by Khadija Saye might be a “means to remember her and her neighbors” who were killed, said Andrew Wilson, a Tate senior curator.
ROSLYN SULCAS
Victoria and Albert Museum to Unveil Expansion June 18, 2017
A new courtyard and foyer are designed to help accommodate visitors. Also in the works: a large, temporary exhibition space.
FARAH NAYERI

Liam Bailey – So Down, Cold

Environment

A Strong Case Against a Pesticide Does Not Faze E.P.A. Under Trump May 17, 2017
For decades, scientists have warned of mounting evidence that exposure to chlorpyrifos may threaten children’s development.
RONI CARYN RABIN
In Win for Environmentalists, Senate Keeps an Obama-Era Climate Change Rule May 11, 2017
Senators voted 51 to 49 to block a measure that would have undone a regulation to control the release of methane from oil and gas wells on public land.
CORAL DAVENPORT
E.P.A. Dismisses Members of Major Scientific Review Board May 8, 2017
A spokesman for the agency’s administrator said he would consider replacing the academic scientists with representatives from industries the agency is supposed to regulate.
CORAL DAVENPORT

Beenie Man Sincerely

Wired Tech

Gritty Photos of the News Crews That Never Stop Rolling June 22, 2017
Satoshi Fujiwara documents the people documenting tragedy.
Laura Mallonee
The Woman Who Gave You the Video Game 'Journey' Returns With a VR Fairy Tale June 22, 2017
Created by Robin Hunicke and her experimental game design company, Funomena, the VR game Luna is a parable about mistakes and redemption.
Julie Muncy
Tech Metaphors Are Holding Back Brain Research June 22, 2017
It’s easy to assume that the seat of human intelligence is similar to our increasingly smart devices. But that idea could be misdirecting neuroscience.
Anna Vlasits

UV boi – Show You (Feat. MTNS)

NFL

Raiders and Quarterback Derek Carr Agree on a 5-Year Extension June 22, 2017
The Raiders will add five years to Carr’s current rookie deal, keeping him tied to the team through 2022.
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Ryan O’Callaghan and Finding Life Beyond the Closet June 21, 2017
Coming out as gay is a necessary first step, but dealing with it is an even bigger step to take.
By ROBERT RIGO
Larry Grantham, Defensive Captain of Champion Jets, Dies at 78 June 20, 2017
Grantham, an undersize linebacker, played 13 seasons with the New York Titans and the Jets, whom he helped upset the Colts in the 1969 Super Bowl.
By FRANK LITSKY
Haunted by a Player’s Death, a Coach Walks Away From His Sport June 19, 2017
Jeff Charles had been coaching football for 21 years, but his love of the sport diminished after a 16-year-old sustained a fatal blow to the head in a game.
By MALIKA ANDREWS

Mos Def – Love

Fashion and Style

An error has occurred; the feed is probably down. Try again later.

Noga Erez – Off The Radar (Official Video)

From another perspective

Senate Republicans unveil healthcare bill June 22, 2017
The Better Care Reconciliation Act slashes taxes on the wealthy and cuts Medicaid funding.
Donald Trump talks up solar panel plan for Mexico wall June 22, 2017
Attaching solar panels to a wall along the Mexican border will cut costs, the US president tells a rally.
North America prepares for August solar eclipse June 21, 2017
Nasa scientists are very excited about the eclipse happening in the United States later this summer.

Van Halen – Van Halen – Ice Cream Man

College Football

Central Florida Kicker Debates Choice: YouTube or Football? June 15, 2017
Donald De La Haye makes some money from his YouTube videos. His university and the N.C.A.A. may have a problem with that.
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Bob Stoops, Oklahoma’s Football Coach Since ’99, Steps Down on a High Note June 8, 2017
Bob Stoops, 56, with more wins than any other coach in Sooners history, will be replaced by the offensive coordinator Lincoln Riley, 33, set to lead a team that went 11-2 last season.
By MARC TRACY
Three Michigan State Football Players Charged With Sexual Assault June 6, 2017
Prosecutors said the three men, who were dismissed from the football team on Tuesday, assaulted a woman on campus in January.
By DANIEL VICTOR

Israel López ‘Cachao’ – Mambo Cambió de Swing

Beginning with “My Soul to Keep,” Tananarive Due laid the framework of a series which told the story of a secret sect of Ethiopians (the Life Brothers), who were blessed (or cursed) with the gift of immortality, 400 years ago. After many years of strife, and pain, one of the immortals, Dawit (David) Wolde found happiness in present day Miami. With a loving wife, Jessica, and a caring daughter, Kira, Dawit seemed to have found a semblance of peace after a life filled with loss and tragedy. Their idyllic life was soon destroyed, when Dawit’s past finally caught up with him, leading to a heartbreaking, and life changing conclusion for everyone involved.

Hmmm????

http://crimeblog.dallasnews.com/2012/10/i-didnt-want-them-to-feel-any-pain-thats-why-i-used-a-gun-parker-county-teen-tells-911-after-mom-and-sister-are-shot.html/

Goodreads

Money is Speech: A Musical History of Campaign Finance

More Smiles

Blog at WordPress.com.

Related

Leave a Reply Cancel reply