Friday, June 30, 2017

Google News: Billy Collins on Not Being Limping Italian: Sean Spicer

Happy Hour of Happy Returns ... Reading tea leaves and dicing exotic KGB's s e n ojs ... memories of mate Ducker are flooding in ;-)







“Every day people come to Google News for a trusted view of the world. It’s there for everything from moments of political change to gripping sports events to daily local news. To make news more accessible and easier to navigate, we redesigned the desktop website with a renewed focus on facts, diverse perspectives, and more control for users. The new UI has a clean and uncluttered look, designed for comfortable reading and browsing.


  • We’ve adopted a card format that makes it easier to browse, scan and identify related articles about a story.
  • The new layout focuses on key elements, such as publisher names and article labels, and maintains your view and place on the page as you click in and out of stories and explore topics.
  • We dedicated the navigation column on the left to sections that you customize. You can jump quickly to news you enjoy, whether it’s standard sections like Sports or Entertainment, or those created by you and powered by your queries, such as “FIFA World Cup” or “Bollywood.”…”



Maximum human lifespan could far exceed 115 years – new research


The maximum human lifespan could far exceed previous predictions, according to work that challenges the idea that humans are approaching a hard limit on longevity.



I am not Italian, technically speaking,
yet here I am leaning on a zinc bar in Florence
on a sunny weekday morning,
my foot up on the smooth iron railing
just like the other men, who,
it must be said, are officially and fully Italian.


It’s 8:40 and they are off to work,
some in offices, others sweeping the streets,
while I am off to a museum or a church
to see paintings, maybe light a candle in an alcove.

Yet here we all are in our suits and work shirts
joined in the brotherhood of espresso,

or how is it said? La fratellanza dell’espresso,
draining our little white cups
with a quick flourish of the wrist,
each of us tasting the same sweetness of life,
if you take a little sugar, and the bitterness
of its brevity, whether you choose to take sugar or not.


There’s Nowhere Left for Sean Spicer to Hide


God of Vengeance: Corporate manslaughter


Only About Children | Bain Capital Private Equity


How Bright Horizons Took Care of Bain Capital Over the Years - The New York Times - DealBook



A Mittleuropean has an abiding sense of tragedy which sustains him through temporary periods of joy...


Mittleuropean American Irving Layton (1912-2006):  Only the tiniest fraction of mankind want freedom. All the rest want someone to tell them they are free.- If you play with fire, you get burned



Smart Operators Chase Government Subsidies Bain Capital signs childcare deal, readies permanent Sydney home | afr.com - Financial Review


Bain Capital, a Boston-based private investment firm, bought Camp Australia, a provider with ... Fees range from $20 to $32 a day for after care but the government's child care rebate ...


Private equity giant Bain Capital is set to enter the Australian childcare sector with the acquisition of upmarket early learning business Only About Children


MEdia DRAGON PROFILE

Jillian Bell Has Been Ready for You to Laugh at Her for Her Entire Life







No single device will will have as much impact as the iPhone in the next 10 years



James - non-interference - wist_info quote




She plays a sport that requires the mental focus of instantaneously letting go of losing points and moving on because there are a lot of excruciating ones no matter how great you are, continual regrouping and re-inventing: dwell on them, you lose confidence; lose confidence and you lose. She is also superbly conditioned, given that a female tennis player may run about three miles in a match without the  luxury of coming out of the game because you feel winded or lost too much money gambling with teammates the night before on the charter and would rather mope on the bench....
Bathroom quote ...


How Vanity Could Save the Planet


Worrying about social status is a surprisingly good motivator for people to go green.


They said 'Let us pray.' We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land."
- Desmond Tutu


Civilization begins with order, grows with liberty, and dies with chaos...



“In addition to all the weaknesses, dilemmas and temptations that impede every pilgrim’s progress, the Catholic who holds political office in a pluralistic democracy—who is elected to serve Jews and Muslims, atheists and Protestants, as well as Catholics—bears special responsibility. He or she undertakes to help create conditions under which all can live with a maximum of dignity and with a reasonable degree of freedom; where everyone who chooses may hold beliefs different from specifically Catholic ones—sometimes contradictory to them; where the laws protect people’s right to divorce, to use birth control and even to choose abortion.


In fact, Catholic public officials take an oath to preserve the Constitution that guarantees this freedom. And they do so gladly. Not because they love what others do with their freedom, but because they realize that in guaranteeing freedom for all, they guarantee our right to be Catholics: our right to pray, to use the sacraments, to refuse birth control devices, to reject abortion, not to divorce and remarry if we believe it to be wrong.


The Catholic public official lives the political truth most Catholics through most of American history have accepted and insisted on: the truth that to assure our freedom we must allow others the same freedom, even if occasionally it produces conduct by them which we would hold to be sinful.


I protect my right to be a Catholic by preserving your right to believe as a Jew, a Protestant or non-believer, or as anything else you choose.


We know that the price of seeking to force our beliefs on others is that they might someday force theirs on us.”
Governor Mario Cuomo, Catholic Politician Who ... - via BC

Cuomo's Impact | The American Spectator


Mario Cuomo Was So Very Right—Especially on the Death Penalty ...





Stage adaptation of Orwell's 1984 leaves audiences fainting and vomiting




Review: In 'God of Vengeance,' a Nice Jewish Family


MP David Lammy, for example, had asked Prime Minister Theresa May for an update on the criminal investigation into the Grenfell Tower fire in a House of Commons session. She was not able to oblige him. He demanded that all relevant documents relating to the refurbishment be seized; and that corporate manslaughter charges be considered. 









 
THERE’S something different about the mood after the Grenfell Tower tragedy. There’s a sense that this is deeper than one tower, one company, one council, or even one prime minister – this is about everything. Housing really is central to everything





FRAUD: 1.4 Million Illegal Aliens who Pay Taxes Are Using Fraudulent Social Security Numbers. “The IRS is doing virtually nothing to protect taxpayer’s identity.”


After decades of literary labor, Bulgakov had published little: some short stories, part of a novel. The problem? His failure to understand what was wanted from his work... Scope for / of Storytelling 



GROWNUPS KNOW NO ONE LIVES IN A PERFECT WORLD: Guess What? Men Can’t ‘Have it All’ Either.

“Death when it comes will have no sheep.” Here's what happened when an artificial intelligence tried to write proverbs.


  • See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil[1]

  • Seeing is believing[1]
  • Seek and ye shall find[1]
  • Set a thief to catch a thief[1]
  • Shiny are the distant hills[1]
  • Shrouds have no pockets[1]
  • Silence is golden[1]
  • Slow and steady wins the race[1]
  • Slow but sure[1]
  • Softly, softly, catchee monkey[1]
  • Sometimes we are the student. Sometimes we are the master. And sometimes we are merely the lesson – Jacalyn Smith[1
  • Speak as you find[1]
  • Speak softly and carry a big stick[1]
  • Speech is silver[1]
  • Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me[1]
  • Still waters run deep[1]
  • Strike while the iron is hot[1]
  • Stupid is as stupid does[1]
  • Success has many fathers, while failure is an orphan[1]
  • Speak of the devil and he shall/is sure/will appear