REALITYCHEX.COM - Constant Comments - In Memoriam -- September 11

The Ledes

Friday, January 17, 2025

The New York Times' live udpates on the Los Angeles-area fires are here.

New York Times: “Bob Uecker, the clubhouse wit who turned his tales of inferiority as a major league catcher into a comic narrative that animated his second career as a sportscaster and commercial pitchman, died on Thursday at his home in Menomonee Falls, Wis. He was 90. His family announced the death in a statement released by the Milwaukee Brewers, for whom he had long been a broadcaster.”

The Wires

The Ledes

Thursday, January 16, 2025

New York Times: “David Lynch, a painter turned avant-garde filmmaker whose fame, influence and distinctively skewed worldview extended far beyond the movie screen to encompass television, records, books, nightclubs, a line of organic coffee and his Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace, has died. He was 78..”

New York Times: “Dangerous winds were subsiding in the Los Angeles area on Thursday, but frustration was growing among displaced residents desperate to return to their neighborhoods after more than a week of devastating wildfires. Nine days after the blazes ignited, no timeline has been announced for lifting evacuation orders that have affected tens of thousands of Southern California residents. Firefighters were still working to contain the biggest blazes in the region, the Palisades and Eaton fires. Experts said it could take weeks before people can return to the hardest-hit neighborhoods.” This is a liveblog.

New York Times: “On Thursday morning..., Jeff Bezos’ space company sent its first rocket into orbit. At 2:03 a.m. Eastern time, seven powerful engines ignited at the base of a 320-foot-tall rocket named New Glenn. The flames illuminated night into day at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The rocket, barely moving at first, nudged upward, and then accelerated in an arc over the Atlantic Ocean.” This is a liveblog.

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Public Service Announcement

Zoë Schlanger in the Atlantic: "Throw out your black plastic spatula. In a world of plastic consumer goods, avoiding the material entirely requires the fervor of a religious conversion. But getting rid of black plastic kitchen utensils is a low-stakes move, and worth it. Cooking with any plastic is a dubious enterprise, because heat encourages potentially harmful plastic compounds to migrate out of the polymers and potentially into the food. But, as Andrew Turner, a biochemist at the University of Plymouth recently told me, black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid." This is a gift link from laura h.

Mashable: "Following the 2024 presidential election results and [Elon] Musk's support for ... Donald Trump, users have been deactivating en masse. And this time, it appears most everyone has settled on one particular X alternative: Bluesky.... Bluesky has gained more than 100,000 new sign ups per day since the U.S. election on Nov. 5. It now has over 15 million users. It's enjoyed a prolonged stay on the very top of Apple's App Store charts as well. Ready to join? Here's how to get started on Bluesky[.]"

Washington Post: "Americans can again order free rapid coronavirus tests by mail, the Biden administration announced Thursday. People can request four free at-home tests per household through covidtests.gov. They will begin shipping Monday. The move comes ahead of an expected winter wave of coronavirus cases. The September revival of the free testing program is in line with the Biden administration’s strategy to respond to the coronavirus as part of a broader public health campaign to protect Americans from respiratory viruses, including influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), that surge every fall and winter. But free tests were not mailed during the summer wave, which wastewater surveillance data shows is now receding."

New York Times: “The president of MSNBC, Rashida Jones, is stepping down from that position, the company said on Tuesday, a major change at the news network just days before ... Donald J. Trump takes office. Rebecca Kutler, senior vice president for content strategy at MSNBC, will succeed Ms. Jones as interim president, effective immediately. Ms. Jones will stay on in an advisory role through March.... MSNBC is among a bundle of cable channels that its parent company, Comcast, is planning to spin out later this year into a new company.” ~~~

~~~ MSNBC: “On Monday, Jan. 20, MSNBC will present wall-to-wall coverage of the inauguration of ... Donald Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance and will kick off special programming for the first 100 days of the new Trump administration.... On the heels of her field reporting during the last 100 days of the 2024 presidential campaign, Alex Wagner will travel the country to follow the biggest stories as they develop in real-time during Trump’s first 100 days in office, reporting on the impact of his early promises and policies on the electorate for 'Trumpland: The First 100 Days.'... During the first 100 days, Rachel Maddow will bring her signature voice and distinct perspective to the anchor desk every weeknight at 9 p.m. ET, offering viewers in-depth analysis of the key issues facing the country at the outset of Trump’s second term. After April 30, 'The Rachel Maddow Show' will return to its regular schedule of Mondays at 9 p.m. ET and Wagner will return to anchoring 'Alex Wagner Tonight' Tuesday through Friday.”

New York Times: "Neil Cavuto, a business journalist who hosted a weekday afternoon program on the Fox News Channel since the network began in 1996, signed off for the final time on Thursday[, December 19]. Mr. Cavuto could be an outlier on Fox News, often criticizing President Trump and his policies, and crediting the Covid-19 vaccination with saving his life."

Have Cello, May Not Travel. New York Times: “Sheku Kanneh-Mason, a rising star in classical music who performed at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in 2018 and has since become a regular on many of the world’s most prestigious concert stages, was forced to cancel a concert in Toronto last week because Air Canada refused to allow him to board a plane with his cello, even though he had purchased a separate ticket for it.... 'Air Canada has a comprehensive policy of accepting cellos in the cabin when a separate seat is booked for it,' it said in a statement. 'In this case, the customers made a last-minute booking due to their original flight on another airline being canceled.' The airline’s policy for carry-on instruments, outlined on its website, specifies that travelers must purchase a seat for their instruments at least 48 hours before departure.”

Here are photos of the White House Christmas decorations, via the White House. Also a link to last year's decorations. Sorry, no halls of blood-red fake trees.

Yes, You May Be a Neanderthal. Me Too! Washington Post: “A pair of new studies sheds light on a pivotal but mysterious chapter of the human origin story, revealing that modern humans and Neanderthals had babies together for an extended period, peaking 47,000 years ago — leaving genetic fingerprints in modern-day people.... [According to the report in Science,] Neanderthals and humans interbred for 7,000 years starting about 50,500 years ago.... Modern humans, Homo sapiens, originated in Africa about 300,000 years ago. Somewhere around 50,000 to 60,000 years ago, a key group left the continent and encountered Neanderthals, a hominin relative that was established across western Eurasia but went extinct about 39,000 years ago.” ~~~

~~~ Marie: Maybe you parents were upset when you told them you planned to marry someone of a different race or religion. But, hey, think how distressed they would have been if you'd told them you were hooking up with a person of a different species!

There's No Money in Bananas. New York Times: “A week after a Chinese cryptocurrency entrepreneur bought an artwork composed of a fresh banana stuck to a wall with duct tape for $6.2 million at auction, the man, Justin Sun, announced a grand gesture on X. He said he planned on purchasing 100,000 bananas — or $25,000 worth of the produce — from the Manhattan stand where the original fruit was sold for 25 cents. But at the fruit stand at East 72nd Street and York Avenue, outside the doors of the Sotheby’s auction house where the conceptual artwork was sold, the offer landed with a thud against the realities of the life of a New York City street vendor. [Even if it were practicable to buy that many bananas at once,] the net profit ... would be about $6,000. 'There’s not any profit in selling bananas,' [the vendor Shah] Alam said.”

Jeremy Barr of the Washington Post on what's to become of MSNBC: “In the days that followed [the November election], MSNBC began seeing a significant decline in viewership (as has CNN), as left-leaning viewers opted to turn off the channel rather than watch the aftermath of Donald Trump’s victory. One of the network’s most valuable franchises, 'Morning Joe,' faced backlash after hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski revealed Nov. 18 that they had traveled to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in an effort to 'restart communications.'... Questions about the future of the network picked up considerably Nov. 20, when parent company Comcast announced that it would spin off MSNBC and some of its other cable channels into a separate company.... The fear inside the building is about whether the move could portend a less ambitious future for MSNBC — with a smaller, lower-compensated staff and a lot less journalism, considering the network will be separated from the NBC News operation that contributes much of the reporting.”

New York Times: “Chris Wallace, a veteran TV anchor who left Fox News for CNN three years ago, announced on Monday that he was leaving his post to venture into the streaming or podcasting worlds.... He said his decision to leave CNN at the end of his three-year contract did not come from discontent. 'I have nothing but positive things to say. CNN was very good to me,' he said.”

New York Times: In a collection of memorabilia filed at New York City's Morgan Library, curator Robinson McClellan discovered the manuscript of a previously unknown waltz by Frédéric Chopin. Jeffrey Kallberg, a Chopin scholar at the University of Pennsylvania as well as other experts authenticated the manuscript. Includes video of Lang Lang performing the short waltz. ~~~

~~~ Marie: The Times article goes into some of Chopin's life in Paris at the time he wrote the waltz, but it doesn't mention that he helped make ends meet by giving piano lessons. I know this because my great grandmother was one of his students. If her musical talent were anything like mine, those particular lessons would have been painful hours for Chopin.

New York Times: “Improbably, [the political/celebrity magazine] George[, originally a project by John F. Kennedy, Jr.] is back, with the same logo and the same catchy slogan: 'Not just politics as usual.' This time, though, a QAnon conspiracy theorist and passionate Trump fan is its editor in chief.... It is a reanimation story bizarre enough for a zombie movie, made possible by the fact that the original George trademark lapsed, only to be secured by a little-known conservative lawyer named Thomas D. Foster.”

Page Links

Friday

Sep102010

In Memoriam -- September 11

The President makes remarks at the Pentagon:

Vice President Biden at Ground Zero:

... C-SPAN has video of the Shanksville, Pennsylvania, memorial ceremony. Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell begins speaking at about t 29:30 min. in; First Lady Laura Bush speaks at about 42:30 min. in; & First Lady Michelle Obama begins at about 55 min. in.

Los Angeles Times: "President Obama plans to mark the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks by attending a memorial service at the Pentagon, the White House said Tuesday. In addition, Vice President Biden will attend services at ground zero in New York, while Michelle Obama will be joined by former First Lady Laura Bush at the Flight 93 memorial near Shanksville, Pa., Robert Gibbs announced at his daily press briefing." Update: see videos in right column.

Verena Dobnik of the AP: "Politics threatened to overshadow a day of mourning Saturday ... amid a polarizing national debate over a planned mosque blocks from the site where Islamic extremists attacked America. Chants of thousands of sign-waving protesters both for and against the planned Islamic center were expected after — and perhaps during — a ceremony normally known for somber church bells ringing and a sad litany of families reading their lost loved ones' names." ...

... Washington Post: "Hundreds of supporters of the proposed Islamic cultural center near Ground Zero gathered Friday evening near the site in Lower Manhattan, where they lit candles, sang and prayed on the eve of the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks."

The New York Times has an excellent multimedia feature showing the plans & progress for Ground Zero. CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO GO TO THE TIMES INTERACTIVE SITE.

photo. ... Here's the slideshow.

Ted Koppel, now of BBC News, in a Washington Post op-ed: "The goal of any organized terrorist attack is to goad a vastly more powerful enemy into an excessive response. And over the past nine years, the United States has blundered into the 9/11 snare with one overreaction after another.... Much of what [Osama bin Laden] has achieved we have done, and continue to do, to ourselves."

Secret Muslim Plot Exposed. Again. Jim Newell of Gawker: "A group led by the father of a Flight 93 victim will be running full-page ads this Friday and Saturday in a Shanksville-area newspaper ..." protesting that the Shanksville memorial, a work-in-progress, is really a Muslim crescent pointing at Mecca. Uh-huh. ...

... You know what else is going to be in the shape of the Islamic Crescent on 9/11? The Moon. -- Attaturk, Firedoglake

Meanwhile, at the Fuck Obama Xtravaganza (FOX) -- Media Matters: "Fox News is attacking President Obama's decision to attend a 9-11 memorial at the Pentagon rather than the World Trade Center site. However, former President George W. Bush routinely did not visit ground zero on past anniversaries of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and Vice President Joe Biden is attending a memorial at the World Trade Center site...."

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