BellGab.com Archive

1. After having been forced to the sidelines for 10 years by a brutal non-compete clause, return to your field by negotiating the contract yourself. Make sure you do it alone, because you're an old pro and you know all the tricks. Besides, nobody knows more than you do, particularly any lawyers or business advisors. 

To Be Continued...

I apologize if any of you feel misled, but I threadstart not to supply information but in recognition that a reliable data center is needed. I know: that's what this forum is supposed to be. But, ye gods and little fishes, there's no way I'm going to browse what is - at this point - over 3300 posts just in the "Art Bell Quits Dark Matter" thread, not to mention the dozen or so related threads with posts numbering into the hundreds. So I begin this thread for the totally selfish reason, which I assume will be shared by many, of needing the information myself.

If I understand correctly Art himself has posted here in direct comment. True? False? George as well? Non-compete status? Anyone? Bueller?

...that the next time the genuine George Noory actually posts here will be his first? It makes no sense whatsoever. If for nothing else than "economy of scale", and what is a valuable return on his time, effort and attention. Someone is having a very large time.

And the jury did a number on him - guilty on 31 of 32 counts, including being at least "involved in" 11 murders. Ouch for Whitey. Too bad it took the government 40 years and a major investigation into corruption in the FBI to do it. http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/12/us/whitey-bulger-trial-verdict/index.html

Eddie Coyle -  Is Southie in mourning?

Ordinarily I detest historical revisionism,
particularly when it is popular history (meaning not well-loved, but so dumbed down and academically soft that it is picked up by web-equivalent of a newspaper and network tv);

particularly particularly when the "study" it is based on is related to social sciences;

particularly particularly particularly when the so-called scientific findings are based on the false objectivity of a scale, which is itself inherently subjective;

particularly particularly particularly particularly when the would-be reviser social scientist is a hipster doofus who would make Cosmo Kramer look like a paragon of scientific decorum and academic discipline. 

But the whole point behind bothering to look at revisionist popular history by a social scientist who looks like a hipster doofus is that it's, well, fun. Look, I know I should hate cotton candy and stay away from it because it's a nutritionally worthless hunk of spun sugar which does nothing but spike your blood sugar, damage your pancreas and liver, wreck your body's ability to produce insulin and rot your teeth. But I sure do love it.

I was looking at one of my favorite websites, Beachcombing's Bizarre History Blog, http://www.strangehistory.net/, and I saw a link to a story about an author of a book who says Henry VIII was a psychopath. The author, a Professor of psychology at Oxford (I think) took that  old saying of slackers everywhere that only psychopaths can make it to the top, and dressed it up in some scientific rags by devising a scale of psychopathy which he applied to such significant historical personalities as Henry VIII, Charles Darwin and, *ahem*, Freddie Mercury. He looked at traits shared by psychopaths (Machiavellian self-interest, persuasiveness, physical fearlessness, emotional detachment, rebelliousness, feelings of alienation, carefree spontaneity, and coolness under pressure) and assigned a numerical amount to each.

This is where I have problem with his method. On the surface it looks all scientific and certain because it deals with numbers. But they're SWAG* numbers, not actual mathematical calculations. So in the end it's still someone's opinion. But it's fun. And I tend to agree. I'd like to see how Henry acted before his 1536 jousting injury, when he was seriously hurt, including being unconscious for two hours. Brain trauma can significantly affect personality, but turn someone into a psychopath? Meh. But if you combine a very high intelligence with over-the-top narcissism, plus being flattered and catered to your whole life and having been told from birth how special you are, and then given literal unlimited earthly power - well, that's pretty much a recipe for an arrogant asshole at a minimum. See what you think. If you can get past the oh-so-hip Professor.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/henry-viii-modern-day-psychopath-234910932.html#8nFqBfC


Professor Kevin Dutton
PhD - (Professional Hipster Doofus)


In truth the author of the website I saw this link at, Dr. Beachcombing (his nom de web), had examined the possibility of Hank Ocho being a head case many months ago himself (http://www.strangehistory.net/2013/02/05/henry-viii-and-killing/). His site is marvelous. Plus he's most certainly not a hipster doofus. His site is just chock-full of odd history which is at least academically defensible if not actually worthy of real historians. It truly is a wonderful site which covers a lot of the stuff C2C does plus all kinds of historical events, and looks at them from the perspective of what kind of historical evidence there is for whatever is being discussed. One day it might be examining the 18th-19th-century practice in the Manchester, England area of village tough-guys taking turns kicking each other in the shins with specially made clogs with metal soles and/or hobnails; and then the next he's looking at historical accounts of invisibility or levitation. Or maybe it's botched beheadings in executions throughout history, or evidence of European contact with China several hundred years before Marco Polo, or records of Sasquatch in Anglo-Saxon England and the like. It's glorious historical trivia - my absolute favorite time waster.


* "SWAG" - Scientific Wild Ass Guess

I figured we needed a sticky like this: right now I'm putting posts like this in "Random Stupid Stuff" which I've used as a sort of catch-all. Well, no longer!

So here's an interesting note...although I'm not sure I want to believe it. Scientists say they've determined that Komodo dragons do NOT have toxic saliva like they've been telling us for the last 40 years (in a bitchy aside, let me ask if this wasn't "settled science" which only ignoramuses and flat-earthers questioned?) http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/science-sushi/2013/06/25/here-be-dragons-the-mythic-bite-of-the-komodo/#.UcvARpzqw_x

Komodos mouths are no dirtier than those of any other 150-pound apex predator reptilian. The saliva starts out non-toxic, but with how the remnants of their last meals steam and bubble into filth stews inside the nooks and crannies of the Komodos' mouths, the effect is almost as bad as toxic saliva. I'm not sure I believe them, because anything that evil out to have a poisonous mouth.
_____________________________________________________________________
Well good news and bad news. The good news is that adding silver to certain bacteria can make antibiotics "thousands of times" more effective. http://www.nature.com/news/silver-makes-antibiotics-thousands-of-times-more-effective-1.13232

The bad news is this probably means colloidal silver takers will probably claim a huge hit with this. Does George do the silver thing?

I've been bleeding from the eyes again about horrendously ill-cast actors who can't perform a remotely correct dialect. Specifically, my complaint was against the character playing Arlo Givens in Justified. Raymond Barry plays him with a bizarre concoction of dialect which sounds like a Maine downeaster married to David O. Selznick's idea of a Georgia plantation owner. But his dialect comes nowhere within 1000 miles of someone whose roots in Appalachian Kentucky go back almost almost 300 years.

And it made me think: how do people with such horrendously wrong accents get hired? I suppose usually it's star-power that overcomes qualms about vocal accuracy. Or if a film if produced by the one with the horrible accent. After all, who's going to tell the boss his dialect makes people laugh? And he's playing Lear not Bottom. So who are the worst, most wrong or embarrassingly bad accents in the movies or on tv?

Well, let's lead off with Kevin Costner in Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves. Obviously a case of everyone being too afraid to tell the boss he sucks, because IIRC Costner produced this didn't he? Costner's disastrous on-again off-again "English" accent is legendary. It would be hard to find one worse.

Then there's the movie where we get a two-fer, in which the two major stars both suck at their dialects: Highlander. Christopher Lambert's heavy French accent has dogged him ever since the days of Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes. In Highlander what he intends as a Scots' brogue is entirely supplanted by his thick French. It's Maurice Chevalier in a kilt: "Zeer kin honly bih whan, hanh hanh hanh." But that's okay, because we've got a double helping of a real, totally eradicable brogue from Sean Connery, who plays Ramirez, the noble Spaniard, but sounds like MacDougal the manure collector. So wretched. It was such an embarrassment they had to write some foolishness to cover Connery's complete inability to sound like anything but the proud Scotsman he is.

Christopher Lambert must be key to this problem somehow, because he starred with yet another "actor" whose inability to come up with a proper accent ruined her role. Yes, it's Andie MacDowell, whose South Carolina whang so overcame her attempts at sounding like an English noblewoman in Greystoke that Glenn Close was secretly brought in as a stunt voice during redubbing and totally replaced all MacDowell's lines. Wow, that must have devastated a highly trained, uh, model like MacDowell.

Now, I love Robert Duvall. He's a national treasure. His Texas Ranger Gus McRae in the epic miniseries Lonesome Dove is so soaring and magisterial a performance that it is probably the definitive portrayal of the American frontier West. He followed it with two made-for-tv movies which, although essentially the same role, cemented that reputation as king of the cowboys: Open Range and Broken Trail. Before these he had won an Oscar for a country music star in Tender Mercies. His diction and language in each of these is just perfect. In each role he's got that "hard-r" Appalachian sound I'm always talking about which is vital for any character from that mountain chain, or whose family lived there before Duvall's character went West.

But Duvall should stay away from anything much different. He embarrassed himself once in the 70's The Seven Percent Solution, playing (God, forgive him) Dr. Watson in a Sherlock Holmes film. Ouch.

Who else?

I'm speechless. Holy crap. We're truly in the 21st century: doctors make a biological body part using a 3D printer to save a 6-week-old baby's life. http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/dying-baby-saved-by-3-d-printer/ This is the true importance of 3D printers. We can't even imagine their full potential yet.

Hey, a civilization that can do this can by God make Jetson flying cars. I want mine.

The immigration bill was voted out of the Senate Judiciary committee. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/21/senate-immigration-bill_n_3315271.html On a vote of 13-5 it was supported by all Democrats as well as the "Gang of Eight" RINOs.

The irony of the unprecedented revelations of the nature and extent of abuse of power which are coming in fast and furious (that's still out there too) every day in this Spring of the Trinity of Scandals, is that they are are meaningless if this immigration bill passes in substantially the form it is now.

For its effect will be to establish, by law, the Democrat Party as the irreversibly permanent party in political power. Which is why the Dems care about this bill more than anything else. This will be accomplished by essentially inviting any person from any country around the world to come to America and, with a minimum of effort and paperwork, to choose America's political leaders for them. With the same voting rights as those citizens whose ancestors have been here for 400 years, or those immigrants who have honorably met the current requirements for citizenship, and who have dutifully paid taxes I might add.

If some Dems have their way, millions of illegal aliens will automatically be transformed into voters - Democrat voters, of course, since several Dems have gleefully made plain their intent to promise and deliver all the bread and circuses that this Potemkin economy will allow. Actual citizenship would become a meaningless distinction, since illegal aliens would more or less be invited into the voting booth right away. Citizenship status would become important only for purposes of knowing who to tax to pay for all the largesse the Dems would buy their power with.

If and when this immigration bill or something like it passes, America as it has existed for almost 240 years will pretty much be nothing but a memory. What a travesty.

This is Barack Obama's Week From Hell. http://theweek.com/bullpen/column/244122/a-flood-of-scandals-engulfs-obama

He has not one, not two, but three, count 'em, three major scandals blowing up on him. And here's the elephant in the living room:each one could be impeachable. And if evidence mounts, the sheer quantity of filth, corruption and abuse of power could be so offensive to Americans that impeachment is demanded. A lot more has to happen. But the thing is, it will. There's plenty of fire already found behind the smoke which is all over the city of Washington, D.C. It will be a very long Summer for Obama and company, and a lot of stuff will come out. But it's not too early to consider, is Obama's The Worst Administration Ever?

It could have vied for the title before now: governance by executive fiat; the invention of an entire new segment of cronyism in which corporate giants are extorted by executive orders and acts of administrative power to become massive contributors to the President in order to get executive waivers of devastating statutes and rules; shameful nepotism and revolving door politics in which journalists simply waltz into the White House and vice versa, plus we have three major news networks which (secretly) have had relatives working as paid advisors to the President. Then there's the systemic theft in the financial Stimuli programs, in which trillions of dollars have simply disappeared, making the looting of post-Saddam Baghdad look like it was nothing more than kids going through a Brooklyn candy store after a fire. All of which has been aided and abetted by a news media's open pro-Obama partisanship, in which Obama was at all times protected and his programs pushed, negative stories spiked, and true grassroots movements like the Tea Party mocked and derided in efforts coordinated and directed by and through the execrable Journolist. Obama didn't need any more than this to run Jimmy Carter a close race for worst President of the last 50 years, perhaps the worst going back to Harding.

But now Obama has had the worst week of a President since Nixon's resignation week. It's truly awful, and it portends a horrible Summer and Fall for him. Things are so bad that the Democrats nationally can only hope to hold on to a bare majority in the Senate, and that is all. Of course they've lost the House and will lose more seats there, but they had actually hoped to take it back. They've lost most states, as governorships and state legislatures are now majority Republican, with more to follow. The best Obama can hope for is hanging on by his fingernails to a bare majority in the Senate, and even that is now in play.

Because Obama failed to heed the wisdom of the (ancient) Greeks*- hubris is sure to bring on Nemesis. Barry O, the Golden Boy, the kid who never worked for a thing, the kid who literally had someone looking out for him and taking care of him since he reached pubescence, the guy who never in his life has had a real job, who was always the darling of the press, has finally seen them bare their teeth at him. He makes a good candidate as the most personally arrogant and narcissistic man we've ever had in the Oval Office - and that's a breathtaking statement. Hell, Bill Clinton's bodily fluids still stain the carpet. But Obama is a different class entirely. Which makes him unequipped to handle truly tough times. And he's got 'em now.

Because we're finding out the IRS - his IRS and his IRS Administrator - used the IRS to punish, harass and intimidate those who displeased the White House in a way which Nixon only dreamed he could have done. And it's getting worse every day as we find out how long the program went on and how long his people knew about it - at a minimum knew about it. That's just one problem which, let's face it, is impeachable if facts come in the wrong way for him

Next is the Benghazi mess. Hilary Clinton is looking like the bullesye for the moment, but there's plenty of exposure of Obama. These hearings won't even be the end. Besides, Hilary will claw Obama before she lets the White House paint her as the target. She's getting positioned to be the designated fall girl already.

And now we have the revelations that the DOJ spied on the AP. Now, the media will yawn all week if Tea party members were actually dragged into the street and burned at the stake, but if you even boot the car of a member of the media, well by God they will not stand for it! A media shitstorm will come down on this. Rest assured that Deval Patrcik already has a functionary fitted with the fall guy jacket. But the media may well start with Patrick's hide and still not be satisfied on this. Developing.

Like a say, a terrible three to 6 months are coming for Barry O. I of course will enjoy it as the fruits of hubris.




*There's an entirely new breed running things in Athens now, as the modern Greeks do us the favor of showing us what happens when you insist on ignoring warnings that a financial disaster is coming. What can't go on forever, won't. These Greeks have shown the world what happens when you treat government funds as if they were The Fountain of Eternal Money - you destroy your economy and have over 1/4 of your working force unemployed. Riots to follow. 

One of Art's peccadilloes in my eyes was his insistence, going back to at least the mid-90's, on calling that time (and ever since) "The Quickening". It was his secular version of the last days. He was certain that the signs and portents pointed toward an end of things as humanity had known them, and within a two or three years at best. Usually it was associated with having Ed Dames or Steve Quayle as a guest, which could drive anyone to running naked through the streets shouting, "The End is near!".

I would chuckle at this, because I thought Art was exhibiting that very human tendency to look at things through his own very limited experience, and was ignoring the "big picture" of history over decades and centuries, and certainly not eons. But now I think he was on to something. Because I have seen some news which has shaken me to my core. It is a sign that there is nothing which is permanent, nothing which is solid under our feet. And that news is....

Angelina Jolie has had both breasts removed. http://apnews.myway.com/article/20130514/DA690BH02.html Apparently she learned she was genetically predisposed to breast cancer, and, in what I think was an act of great strength and will, had her breasts removed as prevention*.

So Art was right after all. What the hell is going on out there?




*Understand that while I am using this event for humor, I am very sympathetic to Jolie, of whom I have never been much of a fan, since I thought she was a spoiled, immature "star", whose fantastic wealth and celebrity immunized her from the hardships of life. Now this. And suddenly I really do feel sorry for her, and can admire the strength it took to ignore the silly trappings of a Hollywood career. She, who would not have had a career without her looks and sex appeal, acted to save her life, and that is admirable. Welcome to the hard choices of life, Angelina. I wish you well.

But can we at least cast them in cement outside Grauman's Chinese Theater? 

Holy crap: A rock climber was killed after disturbing what was apparently a huge bee hive nestled behind some rocks which he struck with a hammer or drove a piton into. He died of "mass envenomation", as did his dog. It was found on the rock plateau above (I don't know how he managed that, but I guess he somehow set up a little camp above and then went back down to climb.) http://www.newser.com/story/167707/missing-climber-killed-by-venom.html

He was found hanging in mid air. Good Lord. Imagine a couple of good strikes with the hammer, and then an odd noise...and BEES!! And no way down or up before what I suppose would have been massive swelling, choking, heart fibrillation leading to heart attack and/or strangulation. Can you imagine what hell his last minutes must have been?

105-year-old woman says the secret to her longevity is eating bacon, every single day. ww.rawstory.com/rs/2013/05/07/105-year-old-woman-says-eating-bacon-every-day-is-her-key-to-long-life/

In the words of the marvelous Professor Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit http://pjmedia.com/instapundit/ from which I lifted this story, "Bacon: Is there anything it can't do?"

I realize we have the "Libyan Invasion of US Territory" thread, but I thought it was time to be more specific. It's looking like things are definitely hotting up, and even the members of the Ministry of Information can't avoid talking about the House hearings any longer. First, in getting-old-but-setting-the-stage news,  Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) promises the "dam is about to break" on Benghazi. http://www.washingtontimes.com/blog/inside-politics/2013/may/6/lindsey-graham-dam-about-break-benghazi/

Former Undersecretary of State and UN Ambassador John Bolton is claiming Benghazi could be the "hinge point" that brings down the Obama Administration. "It's that serious", says the fierce critics of...well, Obama. http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/may/7/john-bolton-benghazi-could-bring-down-obama-admini/

The mother of Sean Smith, the State Department Information Officer (on eof Hilary's own people) who was killed, says about Hilary Clinton, "I blame her." Why? "Because that's her department. She is supposed to be on top of it. Yet she claims she knows nothing. It wasn't told to her. Well, who is running the place?" http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2013/05/07/mother_of_slain_benghazi_victim_rips_hillary_clinton_i_blame_her.html

Good questions. Certainly not the State Department's own Counterterrorism Bureau, tasked with handling things like, uh, security of State Department personnel and attacks on US embassies, things like that:  http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/05/06/clinton-sought-end-run-around-counterterrorism-bureau-on-night-benghazi-attack/.

But now it's not just Mark Thompson from State Counterterroism who's going to testify today, but also Greg Hicks, the frickin' deputy chief of mission in Libya. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/05/08/republicans-look-to-show-cover-up-as-whistle-blowers-give-benghazi-testimony/

You gotta hand it to Team Obama in the Ministry of Information: they've held the line long after ethics, conscience or even good sense would have allowed. They've spiked every damn thing they could possibly get away with about Benghazi and particularly the hearings. But even the boys and girls in the bunker in the final days couldn't hold out this long. They'll have to report this testimony.

*Update* And already the dam starts to break, as The Hill reports, "New Benghazi Probe Evidence Puts Spotlight Back On Hillary Clinton"  http://thehill.com/blogs/global-affairs/middle-east-north-africa/298395-new-evidence-in-benghazi-probe-puts-the-spotlight-back-on-clinton

Details are understandably still very sketchy and confused but three young women, now aged 32, 27 and 23, have been freed from a kidnapper who snatched them from the Cleveland, OH area in 2002, 2003 and 2004, and apparently kept them in captivity and hidden all that time. The oldest was taken as a 21 y.o., the other two at 17 and 14, respectively.  It seems neighbors today saw a young woman's arms waving from the front door and heard one or more yelling for help, saying they had been taken. One neighbor called 9-1-1, but the dispatcher didn't believe the neighbor. Somehow one or more of the kidnapped women broke free, and one got on the phone with the 911 dispatcher and police came to the scene. The kidnapper and owner of the house where the women were kept, 52 y.o. Ariel Castro, escaped. http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2013/05/tv_station_reports_berry_dejes.html#incart_river#incart_big-photo

Just astounding. Family and friends are surely stunned and disoriented. I wonder if police ever told any family that they should forget about their girl since she was either dead or a runaway? I'll be interested in learning more about this. I need to hear stories like this: they lift my spirit up immeasurably.

From the "Too Bizarre To Be Believed" category comes the story of a 76 yo Westerner discovered living in Vietnam. http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/vietnam-vet-finds-soldier-life-article-1.1331248

Found in a remote Vietnamese village, the man claims to be Green Beret John Hartley Robertson, who was believed killed in 1968 when his helicopter was shot down. The man says he does not remember his original name or how to speak English, but recalls he had an American family (although he can't remember his children's names) before his capture. He says he was caged and tortured for an entire year before he was released to live as a Vietnamese(?!). He married the NV nurse who cared for him and took a Vietnamese name.

The entire story is just bizarre. But here's the rest of the story. The guy has tried this before, and has been exposed as a fraud. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/revealed-man-claiming-to-be-vietnam-veteran-sgt-john-hartley-robertson-who-went-missing-and-was-presumed-dead-44-years-earlier-is-exposed-as-a-fraud-8597350.html

Seems he's French, and over the years has tried to scam MIA/POW groups and tired to get back-pay from the US. He even went so far 20 years ago as having a DNA test...and was found to be a fraud then.

Dang. It would have been a great story.

Howdy, gang. I've been sitting on the virtual beach, imaginary boat drinks in hand as I take a short break. But this is too good to let pass. Surely many of you have heard of that scientific study which seems to confirm that which most men have always known, despite all those calming assertions to the contrary; and that is that apparently women do prefer large penises. Long-short (heh) is that a small study seems to show that young, straight (presumably white) women prefer men with larger penises, AOTBE*. Link: http://health.usnews.com/health-news/news/articles/2013/04/08/can-penis-size-sway-womens-choice-of-mate

But let's not get carried away. There are some major limitations of this study. I'm not saying the study is junk science...although that is always possible, and even if it is a pristine study to this point it can yet be made or we can learn that it is junk in an instant.

What I am saying is that the hullabaloo is because of classic junk assessment of this study by our science-illiterate mass media. Because they're not interested in truth; for them "accurate" is good enough. And the study technically said what the news reports say it said. Sort of. But there are major, major limitations of and problems with the study which I haven't seen addressed in looking at four of the main articles which came out on the study.

To begin with, no one, at least among the abc/cbs/nbc crowd, seems to have stopped to comment on the study's miniscule sample: the study was of 106 women. It's tiny. That's so small it's on the atomic level. I mean, they look at a mere 106 women, and the media is drawing conclusions about the evolution of our entire species. The arrogance and ignorance of that just staggers me.

Plus they were all Australian women, race unknown; although it's a good bet they were primarily whites of British extraction, with a handful of aboriginal and maybe a couple of Asians (including Indians and Pacific Islanders) thrown in. Also, the story says they had an "average age of 26". Now, the media's impressive scientific illiteracy is surpassed only by its breathtaking ignorance of even basic concepts of arithmetic. So we're not sure what the hell they mean intend by "average". Usually they want to say "mean", although the concept of the median has been known to slip in there. So we'll have to guess whether most women were 26, or if that was the mid-point in the range of ages, or if their ages were added together and the result divided by 106. Who knows? Additionally has anyone asked about any impact of the women's menstrual cycles, and what impact if any ovulation may have had on preference?

Then we've also got the cultural bias which may exist. Let's be honest here: if we can allow ourselves for a moment to engage in the now-scorned practice of assigning national characters and/or temperaments, I think most would agree its no surprise that Australians would definitely think that size counts. The country has a reputation for being free-wheeling, unconstrained, hyper-physical folks. Aye! Let's have an oil-can of lager and measure meat sticks on the bar while the womenfolk cheer us on, mates! Who knows what cultural biases may have impacted?

Also I note the 56 man/penis samples the women looked at were from a study of Italian men. Has anyone taken into account any non-penile or even non-sexual categories of preference which might be over/under-represented in a sample of of 56 Italian men? Dark hair? Swarthy or fair? Hirstute or shaved/hairless? Circumcised or natural; aka helmet-head vs. anteater?

I also note there was no mention of whether the study controlled for whether the men might have been seen as good providers. For example, were the naked men photographed sitting in their Lamborghinis? Because I think it is a scientific fact that men with penises the size of an acorn, but who have those acorn-sized penises driven around in Rolls-Royces, are far more attractive to women than even men who, when naked, are mistaken for Secretariat. I guess it's just one of those quirks of evolution.

And on and on. You can play too. No doubt you can think up more holes in the analysis than I have. I comment only to remind us that, in this day of highly partisan science and science-for-hire, in which life-or-death grants often depend on swaying the opinions of as few as a dozen elected officials of often staggeringly limited understanding, media reports about science and medicine are almost always highly suspect. Usually the only reliable conclusion we can make about such studies is that the studies are unreliable. Always proceed with caution.


*All Other Things Being Equal, because the study noted the women seemed to prefer (duh) the upside-down pyramid body type.

At the risk of enabling all manner of folks to purchase virtually anything securely online and have it delivered with a minimum of risk through the mail, I link to this Guardian article about Silk Road. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/22/silk-road-online-drug-marketplace.

It is a libertarian's delight: a website which enables anyone to offer virtually anything for sale to virtually anyone with access to a reliable mail service (best) or express package delivery (okay, but they sometimes check packages if care isn't taken with descriptions). It is truly an astonishing site, and as far as I know offers the only virtually risk-free method known for a willing buyer and willing seller of virtually anything to find a way to transact business. I don't think there is a drug known to man that was not a some time available through the online sellers. I first became aware of SR about 2 years ago through an article in Slate IIRC. And it has since gotten larger and even more reliable I presume. For those individuals who believe in maximum freedom of action.

We took off on some wonderful old tv westerns in the Singularly Unattractive Actresses/Actors thread. I've forgotten how. But this deserves its own thread, since there so many westerns in the 50's and 60's.

My favorites when I was very young were probably the Warner Brothers lineup. I remember four shows which were like cousins. They were already in syndication when I discovered them in the 60's, or at least some of them were. The undisputed leader of the WB shows was the great Maverick, 1957-62. There were literal cousins written into the show. In addition to James Garner's hilarious Bret Maverick, there were semi-regular appearances by his cousin Bart Maverick (Jack Kelly). Later Garner was replaced by Beau Maverick (Roger Moore, after Sean Connery turned it down!). Maverick was a wonderful, wonderful show, and may have been the first western to add a tongue-in-cheek take to the western, as well as occasionally breaking McLuhan's fourth wall to look at/address the tv audience. It was a little bit adult, with some stylish dress and, uh, a lot of "romance" going on. I'd like to think some of its episodes would wear well today.

There were 3 other WB shows which had very much the same feel as Maverick, and IIRC even had some crossover appearances among them. Cheyenne starred the massive Clint Walker (The gentle giant from The Dirty Dozen. How the hell did a guy get that huge in the days before steroids?). Cheyenne actually began running first, starting in 1955, and ran the longest at 8 years.

Another WB show with a beefcake lead (was there some hidden target demographic WB was shooting for?) was Bronco, starring Texas A&M football player Ty Hardin (okay that was his Hollywood name - I forget what his real name was). Bronco Layne was supposed to be a cousin of Cheyenne's Cheyenne Bodie (don't you love those cowboy names?) The gimmick about his show was that he met famous western characters as he rode through the west looking for good to do. Cheyenne actually ran first and longer than any of this group, from 1955-63.

The final show related to Maverick was Sugarfoot, and in lead Will Hutchins viewers finally got a physically unimposing hero. Sugarfoot borrowed from several movies and characters. The hero, Tom Brewster, was a young lawyer (a la Ranse Stoddard from The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance) in the Oklahoma Territory who didn't carry a gun and instead roped (!?!) bad guys. He didn't drink whiskey but ordered "sarsaparilla with a dash of cherry" (or should that have been a dash of sherry?). These characteristics were borrowed from the likes of Will Rogers, Destry, Randolph Scott and other movies and actors.

There were other WB westerns (Colt .45, Lawman, The Alaskans, of which I was only vaguely aware of Lawman) didn't seem to have the interconnectedness of the Maverick shows. And they didn't have the success. But I loved those Maverick shows, and still can hear the theme songs. They're not nearly as good as, say, the Rawhide theme, and they sound a lot alike, but I still loved them.
Maverick -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8955uhpXNFk
Cheyenne -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4h9rUNf64cw
Bronco -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXvuX8xiu_E
Sugarfoot -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wblOUBVH4sg

There are many, many other westerns to remember, and we will.

somatic hypermutation made reference to Glengarry Glen Ross, the powerful 1992 David Mamet movie with the all-start cast of Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, Kevin Spacey, Alec Baldwin, Alan Arkin, Ed Harris, Jonatahn Pryce and others. It reminded me of great movies which are nonetheless difficult for me to watch. Some movies considered great I have even avoided, because it's just too painful to me, or draw such a bleak world that I don't want to spend more time there. It's been this way for me with contemporary fiction as well, as I have many times passed over novels of self-obsession by miserable and depressed writers from Manhattan, which seems to amount to about half the writers in the US.

Ordinarily I see good movies several times over the years, even painful or dark ones. For example, many people think the The Lion In Winter is an emotionally wrenching, close-up study of horrible marital and familial wounds, but I've watched it perhaps 8-10 times just to see Peter O'Toole and Kate Hepburn. But many movies are simply too hurtful to see more than once all the way through. The great Russian film Come And See contains some of the most horrendous scenes of Germany's war of genocide against Russia, yet I've sen it 2-3 times because it is so powerful, and yet hopeful in some ways. Another film I've seen more than once although it is depressing (I can't for the life of me remember the title right now) is a French film about a writer in his 60's (also a movie maker?) who is dying but who, with the help f an estranged son, leaves hospital to die at a summer house surrounded by old friends and lovers from his glory days of '68; and with the help of a junkie nurse is finally helped into death as each friend injects a morphine syringe, ensuring a lethal overdose. It's actually very sweet, and as I recall the son and the cleaned-up nurse may even become an item. Anyone?

But Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? I've seen only once in its entirety - that was enough. I've seen a lot of movies only once, but in this thread I'm talking about good or even great movies which I have seen only once, or not at all, because of how painful I found them. Movies I have seen only once because of the emotional pain or discomfort I felt watching them include Sophie's Choice, Shoah, Gone Baby Gone, Schindler's List, The Virgin Suicides, Trainspotting, The Pianist, Million Dollar Baby, Requiem For A Dream, Bad Lieutenant, The Killing Fields, A Clockwork Orange, Whose Life Is It Anyway?, The Diving Bell And The Butterfly, Carnal Knowledge, The Road, The Wrestler, American Beauty.

I've never seen Dance In The Dark, Leaving Las Vegas, United 93 or any other movie about 9/11.

It's not like all or even most of these movies devastated me or left me sobbing in the aisles; but I do recall being so bummed out I didn't want to watch them again. Any other similar reactions to these or other movies?

I waited to see if someone else would have filed something on this but apparently not.

In huge, huge news for lovers of, variously, medieval British history, archaeology, genealogy and/or Shakespeare, a team of scientists announced yesterday that they are satisfied "beyond a reasonable doubt" that a skeleton discovered underneath a parking lot in Leicester in the midlands is in fact that of the "hunchback king", Richard III, who was killed some 20 miles away in the Battle of Bosworth Field in August 1485.  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/9846693/Richard-III-skeleton-is-the-king.html.

Geneticists were convinced that a modern Canadian descendant of Richard III's sister was a close enough match to the skeleton to conclude that the bones were those of the defeated king. In addition to the DNA findings there were several other pieces of evidence which convinced the team of the identity of the bones. The burial site (under Greyfriar's church, which was destroyed in the English Civil War); the hurried burial with no preparation of the body; the fact the skeleton had scoliosis of the spine which would have raised one shoulder significantly higher than the other; and the trauma to the skull, both pre- and post-mortem, all led to the inescapable conclusion that Richard III had been found.

Richard III has come down to us as one of the most villainous English rulers, both for his usurpation of the crown and for his suspected part in the death of "the little princes in the Tower". However, some historians have wondered whether Shakespeare's most unflattering account of Richard III arises more from his wish to ingratiate himself with the granddaughter of the man who some thing may have personally killed Richard, Henry Tudor, who became Henry VII, than a love of truth. Regardless, I find this fascinating, particularly since the discovery points out the value of both ancient historical accounts as well as oral histories. UK citizens are so very fortunate to be surrounded by such rich and varied history. 

This is so wonderfully naughty: December 8 has been declared Pretend-to-be-a-Time-Traveler Day. http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2007/12/pretend-to-be-a/

It won't work standing on a street corner saying, "I am a time traveler." But just imagine how you'd feel if you were talking with a small group and in bursts an oddly dressed guy who looks panicked. He screams, "WHAT YEAR IS IT?!"; and when you tell him, he says, "There's still time!!!!", and runs away. This is almost precisely what Jason Offutt reports happened some years ago in a Missouri gas station.

"WIRED" brings us the Time-Traveler Day story, and they suggest some pretty good scenarii which vary according to dressing up as if you came from a) the utopian future; b) the dystopian future; or c) the past. Check it out.

Hey, looks like there's already some action on George's upcoming retirement. I heard Premiere is going to show their appreciation for George by sponsoring a reception in his honor at the Cedars of Lebanon Club in Dearborn, Michigan on December 22. Sorry, but it's BYOB. But at least "heavy hors d oeuvres" will be supplied by eFoods Direct. Mmm mmmmm - can't wait for some reconstituted mac and cheese and peanut butter and hardtack. Plus there will be a party favor bag for all attendees sponsored by Master Omega 3 Fish Oil and Super Prostate Formula (with maybe a surprise entry from George's special friends at Enzyte Male Enhancement Placebos, so keep your fingers crossed girls!). Does that sound fantastic or what?

But hold on; that's not all! There will be music - provided by none other than George himself! That's right, George will sing! He'll be backed by the mad dj skillz of One Guy And A Karaoke Machine, who will be "in da house", f'shizzle. Woot! But don't worry folks. I know that my obvious familiarity with the "gangsta world" might disturb many of you, but there's nothing to be concerned about: it won't be one of "those" kind of parties. It will be "with it" enough for the kids to enjoy it and dance, but not so far out there that we need to worry about our cars or wallets, if you know what I mean. Fo' sho', you dig?

Well, I know you'll agree it sounds like a fantastic way to thank George for his service, and congratulate him on a well-earned retirement. Oh, RSVPs need to be in to Tommy by December 5th so you need to hurry.

I almost overlooked the fact that for many years George told us he would retire on December 21, 2012. Now, he kidded around every now and then by saying he had extended his retirement indefinitely, but we know he wasn't serious because George is such a truthful guy he would never mislead the audience which he respected so much about. So I think we can trust George when he said he would retire on 12/21/12.

As a token of our esteem, we really need to send George congratulations on his upcoming retirement. Think how wonderful it would be for George (and Tommy - you know he's so loyal that he'll step down when George does) to come into the studio in the afternoon for his usual 8 hours of prep for that night's show to find he's got hundreds of emails congratulating him on leaving C2C. It would just warm his heart I'm sure.   

So whaddaya think about an organized effort? It could be that a lot of his recent fans didn't even know he had promised to retire on the 21st, and I bet they'd be very excited to hear it. I wouldn't want them to panic or anything; just thank George for his service. Who knows? Maybe we could even get this going nationwide; and there's nothing like being around for the birth of a meme.

Well, we should have expected it - the Japanese have developed what they are calling "a humanoid", "robot" and "android" to accompany Koichi Wakata on his six-month tour on the ISS beginning next Summer. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/9717238/Japanese-scientists-develop-humanoid-to-keep-astronauts-company.html



It's planned to be about 13-inches tall, will weigh about a kilogram and will recognize Wakata by facial features and will converse with him to keep him from being lonely. The name it will be called is as yet unknown to us. It's also unknown what, uh, concavities will be designed into it. But it is Japanese, so it goes without saying it will almost certainly have some personal service features built in. We in the West would doubtless find these functions perverse beyond imagination, if not physically impossible due to the diminutive size of the robot. But remember it's being built for a Japanese user, so there should be no problems at all. I mean with the mores and ethics of humanizing a robot, of course.

Imagine the conversations:

Andrpid: "Good 'morning', Wakata-san, or I should say 'early evening' since standard earth-hours have been eliminated on the ISS for your convenience and personalized biological clock."

Wakata: *grunt* *sniff* *cough*

Android: "I hope your rest period was pleasing."

Wakata: *inaudible* *throat-clearing* *spitting*

Android: "It is now Day 9 of your 6-month stay, and you have only another 171 days to share the space station with me. Would you like to play Go again? I have self-selected "child level" so that it is more enjoyable for you to play me."

Wakata: *growl*

I'm talking about songs in which it's the music that gives us a feeling of loss or sadness, not the words.  I started thinking about this when I was trashing the Compendium with a slew of "fire" songs, one of which was Bob Seger's "Fire Lake". I commented that the song always leaves me sad or as if I've lost something. I think it's chiefly the music alone which makes me feel that way. I don't think it's the lyrics, because I don't know that I've ever consciously listened to them. I guess subconsciously I'm aware of what it's about generally, and I can recall a phrase or two of the lyrics which I guess could be about losing. But for the life of me I couldn't write the lyrics out.

So it made me think about music which by itself could be called "nostalgic" music; in which the music alone makes us feel very specific and particularly loss of something. It's likely a combination of key, main theme, arrangement and even the harmonies and backing vocals. I'm looking for that kind of music.

Have any of you ever noticed particular songs in which the music alone does this to you? Again, "torch songs" and literal sad songs with heart-tugging lyrics are disqualified from this discussion. And I'm not talking about broadly "sad" songs. I'm mean something about the music which speaks of loss. I feel inadequate to express what I mean. Or maybe it's just that what I mean is not worth the effort here. I could be wrong, but it seems like there are any number of songs in which a passage just gives me a quick stab to the heart which feels like I just saw a high school girlfriend walking down the street and I had a quick flash of "what might have been." That's the feeling I'm talking about. The songs themselves might not even be about the subject, or even sentimental or nostalgic in any way, but that['s the feeling they can give me.

Also, I realize that critically I'm on very thin ice, since sentimentality and nostalgia get no respect from those who are serious about literature of music. Perhaps all I'm doing is revealing my emotional or critical immaturity, but I know it's a sensation that can be very powerful, and not entirely unpleasant.

I don't even have any good examples right now. Off the top of my head would be "Liebestod" from Tristan und Isolde...

Leontyne Price "Liebestod" Tristan und Isolde

or Samuel Barber's "Adagio for Strings",

Adagio for Strings (Samuel Barber).

"Bittersweet Symphony" by Verve Pipe probably relies too much on lyrics, but on the other hand, it's supposed to be "bittersweet", and to me it's just sad music.
The Verve - Bitter Sweet Symphony

"Lucky Man" by Emerson, Lake and Palmer on the other hand is musically perfect, but the explicit lyrics disqualify it for being far too literal about what I mean. Not to dwell on Bob Seger, but "Hollywood Nights" and "We've Got Tonight" have that perfect feeling, but again, they're lyric driven, and thus disqualified. This isn't coming off well. "Carry Me" by David Crosby, sung by him and Graham Nash leaves me in a puddle, but the lyrics are just too much a part of it. I can't come up with the songs I'm talking about, or maybe the whole concept is just doofus-y. Maybe someone else is more emotionally articulate than I. (Great, so now it'll be me and the other girls, as next we'll discuss favorite scenes from An Affair To Remember.)

They're real. I know it's true because North Korean dictator Kim Jong II, known in the Democratic Republic of Korean Starvation as The-Supreme-Leader-Who-Will-Far-Outlive-All-Us-Stick-People, says so. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/30/north-korea-finds-secret-unicorn-lair_n_2219289.html

Come to North Korea - it's a magical place.â,,¢

In Spanish elections, early results indicate big gains for Catalonian separatists. It isn't Catalonian independence; but it's a step in the right direction for those who desperately desire it, which would include a somewhat famous fictional bastard, the product of a liaison between an Irish Catholic cousin of the FitzGeralds who fought as a mercenary with Papal troops in Spain, and a noble Spanish lady.  http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/25/us-spain-catalonia-idUSBRE8AO08S20121125

There have been weather holds delaying the parachute jump from the edge of space by Felix Baumgartner, but they're inflating his paper-thin super-fragile 55-story balloon npw. http://gizmodo.com/5950136/watch-the-first-human-supersonic-space-jump-updating-live?post=53351226 He's attempting to best Captain Joe Kittinger's 1960 jump from the stratosphere.

The live feed is here: http://www.redbullstratos.com/live

*EDIT*ATTEMPT ABORTED FOR TODAY Winds are too high. Of course, now I'm wondering how in New Mexico they're ever going to get the 3mph winds they say they need to launch.

You will be excused for not knowing that in August a couple of professors from the University of Colorado system announced that their Electoral College computer model showed that Romney would be a big winner, 320 electoral votes to 218 for Obama. Ordinarily one might have expected this to have made AP and the usual leading press outlets. But the story went afoul of The Narrative of "Obama Wins", so it barely made a splash in the news reported by the mainstream media, otherwise known as the Ministry of Information.

Maybe it was just too big a swing to credit. But these professors apparently have come up with a very impressive model which uses a whole series of economic indicators for each state. It has proven accurate for every election since 1980. Now these guys weren't around predicting back then, but as one way of testing the accuracy of their model they retroactively applied the criteria to the economic numbers of those elections, and it correctly spit out the winner of each election in the last eight [8] elections. As I said, impressive.

But they were wrong this time. They had to announce their error the other day. It seems their Electoral College count needs to be revised - upward for Romney, downward for Obama. Now they say Romney takes 330 votes in the Electoral College, and Obama only 208. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/22/university-of-colorado-pr_n_1822933.html

330 to 208. That would be a solid win. Let's see what kind of surprises get dropped.