The Ledes

Monday, September 30, 2024

New York Times: “Kris Kristofferson, the singer and songwriter whose literary yet plain-spoken compositions infused country music with rarely heard candor and depth, and who later had a successful second career in movies, died at his home on Maui, Hawaii, on Saturday. He was 88.”

~~~ The New York Times highlights “twelve essential Kristofferson songs.”

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The Ledes

Sunday, September 29, 2024

Washington Post: “Towns throughout western North Carolina ... were transformed overnight by ... [Hurricane Helene]. Muddy floodwaters lifted homes from their foundations. Landslides and overflowing rivers severed the only way in and out of small mountain communities. Rescuers said they were struggling to respond to the high number of emergency calls.... The death toll grew throughout the Southeast as the scope of Helene’s devastation came into clearer view. At least 49 people had been killed in five states — Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. By early counts, South Carolina suffered the greatest loss of life, registering at least 19 deaths.”

Help!

To keep the Conversation going, please help me by linking news articles, opinion pieces and other political content in today's Comments section.

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OR here's a link generator. The one I had posted died, then Akhilleus found one, but it too bit the dust. He found yet another, which I've linked here, and as of September 23, 2024, it's working.

OR you can always just block, copy and paste to your comment the URL (Web address) of the page you want to link.

Note for Readers. It is not possible for commenters to "throw" their highlighted links to another window. But you can do that yourself. Right-click on the link and a drop-down box will give you choices as to where you want to open the link: in a new tab, new window or new private window.

Thank you to everyone who has been contributing links to articles & other content in the Comments section of each day's "Conversation." If you're missing the comments, you're missing some vital links.

Washington Post: “First came the surprising discovery that Earth’s atmosphere is leaking. But for roughly 60 years, the reason remained a mystery. Since the late 1960s, satellites over the poles detected an extremely fast flow of particles escaping into space — at speeds of 20 kilometers per second. Scientists suspected that gravity and the magnetic field alone could not fully explain the stream. There had to be another source creating this leaky faucet. It turns out the mysterious force is a previously undiscovered global electric field, a recent study found. The field is only about the strength of a watch battery — but it’s enough to thrust lighter ions from our atmosphere into space. It’s also generated unlike other electric fields on Earth. This newly discovered aspect of our planet provides clues about the evolution of our atmosphere, perhaps explaining why Earth is habitable. The electric field is 'an agent of chaos,' said Glyn Collinson, a NASA rocket scientist and lead author of the study. 'It undoes gravity.... Without it, Earth would be very different.'”

The New York Times lists Emmy winners. The AP has an overview story here.

New York Times: “Hvaldimir, a beluga whale who had captured the public’s imagination since 2019 after he was spotted wearing a harness seemingly designed for a camera, was found dead on Saturday in Norway, according to a nonprofit that worked to protect the whale.... [Hvaldimir] was wearing a harness that identified it as “equipment” from St. Petersburg. There also appeared to be a camera mount. Some wondered if the whale was on a Russian reconnaissance mission. Russia has never claimed ownership of the whale. If Hvaldimir was a spy, he was an exceptionally friendly one. The whale showed signs of domestication, and was comfortable around people. He remained in busier waters than are typical for belugas....” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Oh, Lord, do not let Bobby Kennedy, Jr., near that carcass. ~~~

     ~~~ AP Update: “There’s no evidence that a well-known beluga whale that lived off Norway’s coast and whose harness ignited speculation it was a Russian spy was shot to death last month as claimed by animal rights groups, Norwegian police said Monday.... Police said that the Norwegian Veterinary Institute conducted a preliminary autopsy on the animal, which was become known as 'Hvaldimir,' combining the Norwegian word for whale — hval — and the first name of Russian President Vladimir Putin. 'There are no findings from the autopsy that indicate that Hvaldimir has been shot,' police said in a statement.”

New York Times: Botswana's “President Mokgweetsi Masisi grinned as he lifted the diamond, a 2,492-carat stone that is the biggest diamond unearthed in more than a century and the second-largest ever found, according to the Vancouver-based mining operator Lucara, which owns the mine where it was found. This exceptional discovery could bring back the luster of the natural diamond mining industry, mining companies and experts say. The diamond was discovered in the same relatively small mine in northeastern Botswana that has produced several of the largest such stones in living memory. Such gemstones typically surface as a result of volcanic activity.... The diamond will likely sell in the range of tens of millions of dollars....”

Click on photo to enlarge.

~~~ Guardian: "On a distant reef 16,000km from Paris, surfer Gabriel Medina has given Olympic viewers one of the most memorable images of the Games yet, with an airborne celebration so well poised it looked too good to be true. The Brazilian took off a thundering wave at Teahupo’o in Tahiti on Monday, emerging from a barrelling section before soaring into the air and appearing to settle on a Pacific cloud, pointing to the sky with biblical serenity, his movements mirrored precisely by his surfboard. The shot was taken by Agence France-Presse photographer Jérôme Brouillet, who said “the conditions were perfect, the waves were taller than we expected”. He took the photo while aboard a boat nearby, capturing the surreal image with such accuracy that at first some suspected Photoshop or AI." 

Washington Post: “'Mary Cassatt at Work' is a large and mostly satisfying exhibition devoted to the career of the great American artist beloved for her sensitive and often sentimental views of family life. The 'at work' in the title of the Philadelphia Museum of Art show references the curators’ interest in Cassatt’s pioneering effort to establish herself as a professional artist within a male-dominated field. Throughout the show, which includes some 130 paintings, pastels, prints and drawings, the wall text and the art on view stresses Cassatt’s fixation on art as a career rather than a pastime.... Mary Cassatt at Work is on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art through Sept. 8. philamuseum.org”

New York Times: “Bob Newhart, who died on Thursday at the age of 94, has been such a beloved giant of popular culture for so long that it’s easy to forget how unlikely it was that he became one of the founding fathers of stand-up comedy. Before basically inventing the hit stand-up special, with the 1960 Grammy-winning album 'The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart' — that doesn’t even count his pay-per-view event broadcast on Canadian television that some cite as the first filmed special — he was a soft-spoken accountant who had never done a set in a nightclub. That he made a classic with so little preparation is one of the great miracles in the history of comedy.... Bob Newhart holds up. In fact, it’s hard to think of a stand-up from that era who is a better argument against the commonplace idea that comedy does not age well.”

Washington Post: “An early Titian masterpiece — once looted by Napolean’s troops and a part of royal collections for centuries — caused a stir when it was stolen from the home of a British marquess in 1995. Seven years later, it was found inside an unassuming white and blue plastic bag at a bus stop in southwest London by an art detective, and returned. This week, the oil painting 'The Rest on the Flight into Egypt' sold for more than $22 million at Christie’s. It was a record for the Renaissance artist, whom museums describe as the greatest painter of 16th-century Venice. Ahead of the sale in April, the auction house billed it as 'the most important work by Titian to come to the auction market in more than a generation.'”

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Wednesday
Apr042012

The Commentariat -- April 5, 2012

The Constant Weader Is Out Sick Today

If you want to post links to articles you find interesting, please do. Because your comment might get stuck in my annoying Approval Limbo, you might not want to bother to write long, thoughtful comments; if I malinger for days, your thoughts could linger for days unread.

Comments Off

Reader Comments (15)

Get well I miss you!

April 5, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterTuli

The light that shines from your mind and heart will soon shine again from your eyes. Thank you, from this grateful and admiring lurker.

April 5, 2012 | Unregistered Commenterjerry wechsler

Best wishes for a complete recovery. You are missed

April 5, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterPrairie

Marie,

Here's wishing you a speedy recovery.

The rest of us, watch out. Anything could happen while Marie's not around to keep everyone in line!

Look! Is that Paul Ryan I see picking the pockets of little old ladies? He knew just when to go to work. Otherwise he'd be getting a serious ass kicking.

April 5, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Heal well, heal quickly, Marie. Meanwhile, during the sight-out, a cheerful song re atheism, which we share, sung by Steve Martin and group "Atheists don't have no songs," might amuse you. Unless you, as so many others, hate the banjo...then never mind. Best wishes. May the lilies thrive as you rest and get better. Barb

April 5, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterBarbara Dix

Get well soon. Miss you.
Mae Finch

April 5, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterMae Finch

Take care! I can't read the Times without checking to see what you have to say.

April 5, 2012 | Unregistered Commenteralphonsegaston

Here's a toast to you and your speedy recovery (it must be cocktail
hour somewhere!) Sincerely, we miss your words of wisdom.

April 5, 2012 | Unregistered Commenterforrest morris

Ditto on all comments!

April 5, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterJulie in Massachusetts

Get well soon!

April 5, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterE. Adams

Marie- please get well soon. The scoundrels are still at it.

April 5, 2012 | Unregistered Commenterwaltwis

Marie, thought I'd try to cheer you up by sharing my response to Our Mr. Brooks from this morning. It'll show up on the Times around 2 p.m., if at all:

One question from here in the clearly dumb peanut gallery: Why is the government giving people money to buy insurance from private companies that provide health insurance, each according to its own standard, superior to the government providing healthcare for its citizens?

Also, basta, David. The Republicans have been cavorting around like baboons in a "how drunk can we get them before they fall asleep" scientific experiment. I hear nothing from you during the entire debacle that is the Republican primaries; now, you admit that the Republicans have acted like idiots in order to set a standard that you can then accuse the President of exceeding.

Whether or not Republicans ever win another national election (and, given the combination of aggressive ignorance, latent racism, and patronizing sophists like yourself to justify the most arrant nonsense and cruelty), you and they have lost any moral high ground on which you pretend to stand. It's all a charade now, David. Your party has had repealing the New Deal on its collective small mind for seventy years; now's your chance while the country is still reeling from eight years of rapacious indifference to the nation's economic and moral standing.

April 6, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterJack Mahoney

Marie, as an appreciative reader, I hope every day finds you feeling better and better!

All best wishes,
Francie

April 6, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterFrancie

@Jack: After reading your post I immediately went to Brooks. Usually the guy doesn't get my dander up, but his column today was infuriating. Obama puts on the gloves, goes into that ring and lets out one punch after another in order to reveal Ryan's profoundly radical document peppered with ideological biases and Brooks says it's a lack of decorum? Doesn't Brooks read Krugman? What a treat it would be to have those two in an exchange over this issue. Obama could be the ring master and bring water to Brooks who would be running out of steam.

April 6, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

I hope your eye is healing well! I look forward to an even clearer and more sane look at the world when you return!

April 6, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterLisa
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