Now I Know Archives - Page 7 of 36

Oct. rambling: How I See Humanity

Autumnal music and about Brian Wilson

John Fugelsang on Christianity

Hank Green: This Math Test Changed How I See Humanity

A History of Nuclear War with Peter Kuznick

American democracy has been in trouble before

Trump’s letter to the House Jan. 6 Select Committee

Inside the S–tshow That Was the Trump-Biden Transition

Understanding History in the Age of the Big Lie

The Odd Pathology of the Politician’s Mind

‘The U.S. and the Holocaust’: A Conversation With Co-Directors Ken Burns and Lynn Novick On Authoritarian Parallels

Weekly Sift Closing Arguments on abortion, democracy, and Biden’s accomplishments

What the failure of Liz Truss’s economic agenda in the UK can teach the U.S.

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Transgender Rights II and Museums and Crime Reporting; Frank S. Robinson: Crime and Policing

Plan to Save New York City from Rising Sea Level

It’s Time to Retire BMI as a Clinical Metric

Never Enough? Why ADHD Brains Crave Stimulation

This past week in healthcare investigations: Fentanyl Hidden in Cocaine; Missed Breast Cancer Diagnoses; Calling Out Racism

Upstate NY Habitat plans 25-unit condo; thought to be a world first

The Rev. Calvin Butts left behind a legacy of prayer and political activism

How Audley Moore Created a Blueprint for Black Reparations

Jules Bass, Producer Behind the ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’ and ‘Frosty the Snowman’ TV Specials, Dies at 87; Remembering the Rankin-Bass Catalogue

Marvel, DC Among Last Bastion for Supersized Movie Paydays

Even Superheroes Have Moments Of Mediocracy As This Funny Comic Strip Shows

Now I Know: The Marketing Stunt That Vacuumed Up a Whole Company and The Lady Who Made a Living By Smashing Booze and The Unheard Words of the Star Trek Theme Song and The Odd History (Perhaps?) of the Malaysian National Anthem and The 21-Year-Old Irish Woman That Saved D-Day and The First Curfews and Why Is This Panda Rowing a Giant Pumpkin?

WORDS

NYT: In praise of y’all, the most inclusive pronoun, which I supported 11 years ago

EA Poe, Nature Writer

We have to get rid of “ums” and “uhs” when speaking, right? Not necessarily.

The Birth of the Semicolon

A.Word.A.Day– Overton window – noun: The range of beliefs, attitudes, etc., considered acceptable at any given time.

Twenty Years of Sheila O’Malley

Researchers “Translate” Bat Talk. Turns Out, They Argue—A Lot

Happy Birthday, Jeff Goldblum!

MUSIC

Jerry Lee Lewis, Piano-Bashing Pioneer of Rock ‘N’ Roll, Dies at 87; NYT obit. Rock hall

November Steps by Toru Takemitsu

Coverville: 1417 – Red Hot Chili Peppers Cover Story II and 1418 – Cover Stories for The Waterboys and World Party

In Autumn by Edvard Grieg

Toward the Unknown Region – Ralph Vaughan Williams

Alan Menken performed a ten-minute medley of songs to which he contributed the music.

The Isle of the Dead by Sergei Rachmaninoff

Lucy Simon, Tony-Nominated Composer, and Sister of Carly Simon, Dies at 82; Winkin’ Blinkin’ and Nod – the Simon Sisters

Top 15 annoying pianists

T he Greatest Adventure from the animated The Hobbit

Ken Levine with author/filmmaker David Leaf, talking about musical genius Brian Wilson: Part 1 and Part 2

Advice before turning 70

avoiding CRAP

Dan Lewis, the Now I Know guy, suggested to his readers an article from Kevin Kelly. Kelly was pondering on what advice he wished he had heard when he was young, now that he is turning 70. I suppose this struck a chord because I SHALL BE turning 70 on my next birthday.

Most are useful. But some resonate with me more than others.

“Don’t keep making the same mistakes; try to make new mistakes.” I sure do that with a certain degree of regularity.

“Anything you say before the word ‘but’ does not count.” Almost always true.

“Courtesy costs nothing.” He has some examples, e.g. “Let the people in the elevator exit before you enter.” But I think it’s a bit more… intentional than that. When you’re paying attention, you can find all sorts of things you can do, even when, or especially when no one is around. Moving a large branch that has fallen across the sidewalk (someone could trip over it at night). Or moving whatever is blocking someone else’s path either physically or metaphorically.

“Efficiency is highly overrated; Goofing off is highly underrated… The best work ethic requires a good rest ethic.” Heck, yeah.

“The biggest lie we tell ourselves is ‘I don’t need to write this down because I will remember it.'” I’m LONG past THAT!

Ask a librarian

“Half the skill of being educated is learning what you can ignore.” One thing I heard a lot when the Internet was expanding and Google was becoming a verb is that soon we wouldn’t need librarians. All the information would be at everyone’s fingertips. What they didn’t realize is that a lot of the information out there is CRAP, and having a librarian to help discern that is useful.

“What you actually pay for something is at least twice the listed price because of the energy, time, money needed to set it up, learn, maintain, repair, and dispose of at the end. Not all prices appear on labels. Actual costs are 2x listed prices.” At LEAST twice the list price.

“Don’t believe everything you think you believe.” Often evolving.

“The chief prevention against getting old is to remain astonished.” That must mean I am about 37.

Oct. rambling: total Latin dorks

Rebecca Jade, Death Cafe, and the embarrassing Herschel Walker

**Angela Lansbury was in the movie Mutiny (1952), set during the War of 1812. She’s on the cover of Movie Love #16, only rarely offered by Heritage Auctions**

CEO Pay Has Soared by 1,460% Since 1978

The Onion advises the Supreme Court’s ‘total Latin dorks’ on parody

Decomposing HUMAN remains can legally be used as compost from 2027 thanks to new California law aimed at tackling climate change

Someone is pretending to be me, and Internet Trolls Have Tormented This Sci-Fi Writer for Years—and He Can’t Stop Them

Cheating scandal at an Ohio tournament rocks the competitive fishing world

NY-CT Border Disputes and The Kidnapping of Freedom-Seeker Peter John Lee

Against All Odds – Building Albany’s Free Black Community in the Early 1800s

The U.S. Just Renamed 650 Sites Around the Country—Here’s Why It Matters

MAD magazine’s oldest active artist is still spoofing what makes us human. Sergio Aragonés has drawn for the publication since he arrived in New York from Mexico 60 years ago. At age 85, he’s contributed to its 70th-anniversary issue: “Drawing has become like walking.”

Charles Fuller, Playwright, and Screenwriter Behind A Soldier’s Play, Dies at 83

Robbie Coltrane, Comic Performer Who Played Hagrid in Harry Potter Movies, Dies at 72

Sacheen Littlefeather, Who Delivered Brando’s Oscar Rejection Speech, Dies at 75

Kitten hailed a hero for saving a family poisoned by carbon monoxide

Daniel Abesames-Hammer of D III Cornell College is among the smallest college football players ever

Hitchcock Talks About Lights, Camera, Action

Mark Evanier: Blackhawk and me

Variety Intelligence Platform’s Level Up report examines the interrelated sectors within the near-$200 billion global gaming market

All aboard!

Now I Know: When a Lot of Wine Had to Defend Itself in Front of the Supreme Court, and How a Lot of Typos Led to Late Emails and The Intentionally Bad Song That Accidentally Worked and We Are All Invisible Pinocchios

POLLY TICKS

The Making and Remaking (and Remaking) of MAGA Heir Ron DeSantis

Florida GOP’s Assault on the Freedom to Teach

What is a MAGA Republican? and Racism, Lies, and Hypocrisy Are Now Seen as Electable Qualities in GOP Candidates

Herschel Walker says forget about him holding a gun to his wife’s head because Jesus and Does anything matter?

Democrats Warn That Republicans Will Turn US Into a Fascist Hellhole If GOP Prevails in Midterms

Speaking Out Against Hate: SPLC Intelligence Project Director tells a congressional panel that white supremacy threatens communities, education, and democracy

Inside the S–tshow That Was the Trump-Biden Transition

Why ‘Veep’ and ‘The West Wing’ Plotted a Crossover Reunion (Hint: to Save Democracy)

Someone named Gregory purchased http://www.governorgregabbott.com/ and built for him his very own (not very complimentary) website. “More content is on the way.” He also bought the following:
EliseStefanik2022.com
KevinMcCarthy2022.com
TheLaurenBoebert.com
GymJordan2022.com
SenatorRonJohnson.com
SenatorMarcoRubio.com
OfficialSCOTUS.com
DevinNunes2022.com

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Bolsonaro, Brazil’s terrible leader

MUSIC

Some Controversial Classics From Loretta Lynn; One’s On The Way

The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires by Astor Piazzola.

Tired Of Waiting – MonaLisa Twins (The Kinks Cover)

Democracy – Leonard Cohen.

Coverville 1416: The Motley Crue Cover Story

Autumn Gardens by Einojuhani Rautavaara.

Mama, I’m A Big Girl Now from Hairspray

Portland, Oregon – Loretta Lynn and Jack White

Loretta Lynn, Feisty First Lady of Country Music, Coal Miner’s Daughter, dies at 90. Living in her America. Over her long career, she documented the highs and lows of rural life in an incredibly complex emotional register.

Official release date of Rebecca Jade’s newest album, A Shade of Jade

For more than 40 years, taxpayers funded the FBI’s fruitless surveillance of Aretha Franklin

Linda Ronstadt on Her New Memoir, Feels Like Home, and Her Mexican American Heritage

Questlove and Black Thought Know Much More Than Music

DEATH CAFE in Albany, NY

The parking lot in the back of the Library and the street parking meters are free on Saturdays.

Learn more about this international movement at DeathCafe.com

Folks will break into small groups of 4-6, as always. Please wear a mask inside until you are seated with your small group, and your group chooses to be masked or not. Homemade treats and cold and hot water for tea; feel free to bring your own mug and/or beverage.

As always – it is not a support group. We just talk about whatever our group chooses and respect each other’s views.
Please RSVP by emailing to DeathCafeAlbany@gmail.com

September rambling: perfect Yiddish word

Rebecca Jade interview, Middle Earth debate

An Ode to Oy — the Perfect Yiddish Word

And speaking of which: Rings of Power Cast Slams Racist Threats Against Performers: “Middle-Earth Is Not All White.” This hurts my head. Someone wrote, and I’ve misplaced the attribution, I’m afraid: “When did we stop being able to just sit down and enjoy something that’s been created? Just take all shows and movies as fan fiction of any book that they take it from and enjoy the creators’ stories.”

Sah Quah: More than twenty years after the American Civil War, an enslaved Alaskan walked into a Sitka courtroom and sued for his freedom

The Church Left on the Curb: A chance trash-day encounter reveals a 170-year institutional history

Bernard Shaw, CNN’s First Chief News Anchor, Dies at 82

Anne Garrels, the longtime foreign correspondent for NPR, dies at 71

Culcha

In Memorium Video from this year’s Emmys and going about a decade back

Jazz Pianist & NEA Jazz Master Ramsey Lewis Dies at His Chicago Home, September 12, at the age of 87

“Weird Al” Yankovic on the Long, Hard Road to Bring His Mock Biopic to the Big Screen

Ken Levine ends his blog, but his podcast will continue

At 100, Norman Lear Looks Back (And Ahead)

Whiz! Bang! Boom! Energetic Ads Hold Viewers’ Attention

Real Money, Fake Musicians: Inside a Million-Dollar Instagram Verification Scheme

Quentin Tarantino, Miramax Settle ‘Pulp Fiction’ NFT Legal Battle

Flin Flon: One Book’s Unlikely Survival

Has a computer ever passed the Turing test?

The Twisted Life of Clippy, Microsoft’s annoying paperclip. Its developers never imagined the virtual assistant would become a cultural icon.

Some good advice from John Green

Of Elbows and Tables

Best State Capitals to Live In – 2022 Edition. Albany, NY, is #9.

The Small Town In New York With More Historic Buildings Than Any Other

Can Something Be “Very Unique”? Modifying Absolute Adjectives

Now I Know: What About Bob (dot com)? and The Wisdom of Crowds of Sports Fans? and The Almost-War Over a Bear’s Missing Privates

Polly ticks

President and Mrs. Obama Become a Part of White House History with Reveal of Official Portraits, and Barack Obama just won the Emmy

How deranged anti-Obama conspiracy theories led America to Donald Trump

Fascist is a description, not an insult, and “Semi-Fascism”: The Shoe Fits

Judge Cannon’s Incredibly Flawed Trump Special Master Ruling

The faulty premise of the ‘2,000 mules’ trailer about voting by mail in the 2020 election

How Many Of ‘Her Emails’ Were Classified? Actually, Zero

Thomas, Barrett will further delegitimize SCOTUS when they fail to recuse on key cases

The Battle for Voters’ Imaginations over Abortion. Pete Buttigieg was correct.

When We Rose to Fight COVID, We Were Deliberately Turned Against Each Other

The Return of the Bitter Politics of Envy

UN Report Highlights Ongoing Racism in the US

Nebraska HS newspaper and journalism program shut down over student-written commentary on LGBTQ+ issues. The shutdown of the prize-winning student newspaper after 54 years occurred because an edition in June contained student-written commentary on LGBTQ+ issues, the origins of Pride Month, and the history of homophobia, material members of the local school board considered inappropriate.

Demographics

U.S. life expectancy drops sharply, the second consecutive decline

Most and Least Ethnically Diverse Cities in the U.S.

Demographic divide – the key differences in media and entertainment that continue to evolve between younger and older Americans.

New Data Reveal Inequality in Retirement Account Ownership

When and How Often People Marry Changes by Birth Cohort

MUSIC

Behind the Beats article about Rebecca Jade by the Smooth Jazz Network!

The In Crowd – the Ramsey Lewis Trio

The Comedians – Dmitry Kabalevsky. The second section, The Galop, is EXTREMELY familiar to me.

Wade In The Water – Ramsey Lewis

Jonchaies by Iannis Xenakis

Coverville 1412: The Clash Cover Story III and 1413: The Squeeze Cover Story III

Conductor Seiji Ozawa leads the Vienna Philharmonic in Strauss’s overture to Die Fledermaus

Hang On Sloopy – Ramsey Lewis Trio. I still have the Hang On Ramsey album on vinyl

If You Could Read My Mind – Gordon Lightfoot

August rambling: personality cult

The 2030 Census

Guns and reproductive system — Original source unknown

“Unite the Right” five years later

Secret Service Held Onto Violent Jan. 6 Threat Against Pelosi

Governing Party vs. Personality Cult

djt: His Alleged Crimes at CRIME-A-LAGO and THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO ALL THE WAYS HE IS LEGALLY SCREWED, and his discarding and hoarding of documents just might be pathological

The FBI Confirms Its Brett Kavanaugh Investigation Was a Total Sham

Let’s Hear From the Women Lis Smith Smeared. The political operative who covered for Cuomo is on a comeback tour, trying to paper over the damage she caused.

Correcting Misinformation About Dr. Fauci

Poll Finds 3 in 4 Voters Want to Expand Social Security by Taxing The Rich

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Afghanistan and Carbon Offsets

Most victims of the global problem of out-of-control militarism don’t get the same attention from the Western press.

Is This The Moment For A Third Political Party?

The 10 Things That All Flat Earthers Say

Mr. Brunelle: quiet quitting and new Florida teachers

Census and more

Census: Post-Enumeration Surveys and Bureau Invites Public Input on Designing 2030 Census, and Bureau Must Ensure the Next Census Deploys the Highest Quality Science

Average Lifespan Of Residents In Each US State,

Federal and State Agencies to Notify of a Name Change

Salem Witch Trial Victim Exonerated After 329 Years

Was King Arthur a Real Person?

Should Christians Listen to Explicit Music?

Frederick Buechner, popular Christian ‘writer’s writer’ and ‘minister’s minister,’ dies at 96

Len Dawson, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback and broadcasting legend, dies at 87

Ken Levine remembers Vin Scully

Cross-Pollinating for the Collective

Kelly’s eclectic linkage

Jodi Balfour on the Importance of Her Coming Out on ‘For All Mankind’

14 Notorious Movies and TV Shows That Have Never Been Released

Academy Apologizes to Sacheen Littlefeather for Her Mistreatment At the 1973 Oscars

Capitol Records Severs Ties With A.I. Rapper FN Meka, Apologizes to Black Community for “Insensitivity”

Steve Martin on His Late Career Surge; he plays well with others

Now I Know: The Musician Whose Big Break Was a Broken Instrument and Münchausen by Internet and Why U-Hauls Pretend to be From Arizona and Why Barber’s Poles Have All Those Stripes and How to Get Supplies to an Underwater Laboratory

Student debt

President Biden’s announcement on student debt cancellation generated a lot of conversation. Some believe the $10,000 forgiveness was far too little, while others bemoaned doing so at all. A Facebook comment by Kelly Sedinger resonated with me.

“Nothing illustrates our society’s abdication of the notion of leaving a better world for our children than we ourselves received than (a) creating an economy where higher education is almost a requirement to succeed at any level of comfort, (b) making said education wildly expensive, to the point that virtually no one can afford it out of pocket, (c) thus requiring a system of financing that applies higher-than-they-should-be interest rates and making that debt unable to be dissolved in bankruptcy, and finally (d) freaking out at forgiving some of that debt.”

Mark Evanier added: “A lot of folks who are fine with your, my and their tax dollars going to very, very rich people sure get upset when that money goes to people who are not very, very rich.

MUSIC

Lock Him Up Yesterday – Randy Rainbow

I Hope So – Katrina Stone

Coverville 1411: The Jethro Tull Cover Story

Javelin by Michael Torke.

Let It Be – Peter Sprague, featuring Rebecca Jade

Apotheosis of this Earth by Karel Husa

Shattered Memories – Michał Łapaj (feat. Mick Moss)

I’ve Just Seen A Face – Peter Sprague, featuring Rebecca Jade

Home Grown – Booker T and The MG’s (stereo)

Morning, Noon, and Night in Vienna – Franz Von Suppe’