Wednesday Morning!
* Man tragically unable to remember saying Barack Obama would make a great president says Hillary Clinton will make a great president. Meanwhile, the rest of us are reduced to talking about Obama’s secret achievements.
* Solitary Confinement May Dramatically Alter Brain Shape In Just Days, Neuroscientist Says.
* Last Night on Jeopardy No One Wanted to Answer Qs About Black History.
* Noose Found Around The Neck Of Statue Honoring Civil Rights Icon At Ole Miss.
* What Does it Mean that Most Children’s Books Are Still About White Boys?
* The J.R.R. Tolkien Manuscripts: Public Showings in 2014.
* Here are the hoops a college football team has to jump through to be allowed to form a union.
* 84-Year Old Nun Sentenced To Prison For Weapons Plant Break-In.
* Academic freedom with violence.
* Has humanity produced enough paint to cover the entire land area of the Earth? The dream remains alive.
* Whistle-blower fired from Hanford nuclear site.
“We do not agree with her assertions that she suffered retaliation or was otherwise treated unfairly,” URS said, adding Busche was fired for reasons unrelated to the safety concerns. “Ms. Busche’s allegations will not withstand scrutiny.”
…
Busche is the second Hanford whistle-blower to be fired by URS in recent months. Walter Tamosaitis, who also raised safety concerns about the plant, was fired in October after 44 years of employment.
* A new China Miéville short story collection, scheduled for November 2014.
* A world of horrors: There is no such thing as a child prostitute.
* In the same way that certain styles of dance simulate sex, the Winter Olympics simulates scraping one’s February-chapped nostrils against the surface of a Kleenex whose aloe content is useless and reaching out for the warm escape of death. It’s an art of failed suicide attempts.
* A preliminary sketch of the data reveals, of course, that by 2050 films will be reviewing us.
* “First, why would we even think about letting it go through?”
* “This whole thing is totally and completely bonkers.”
* Grace Kerr sometimes jokes with her family that “Amanda was not that great. Zach is awesome.” What she means is that her son is finally happy, and is helping others.
* Diseased and unsound meat: Hot Pockets®!
* In Act Of Protest, Ai Weiwei Vase Is Destroyed At Miami Museum.
* News You Can Use: Why It’s Nearly Impossible to Castrate a Hippo.
* A portrait of Steve Jobs made entirely out of e-waste.
* The Ice Caves of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore.
* Candy Crush: Addictive Game, Incredible Business, Horrible Investment.
* How the north ended up on top of the map.
* Inside Kappa Beta Phi, the Wall Street Fraternity.
* And our long national nightmare is over: Obama apologizes for disparaging art historians.
Gerry Canavan 
“Man tragically unable to remember saying Barack Obama would make a great president says Hillary Clinton will make a great president.
The one thing to say for H Clinton ’16 over Obama ’08 is that, at least in my view, there isn’t this moment of incredible potential. In ’09, there was a real — small but real — window for genuine change, which Obama managed to piss away. Whereas in ’16 the best we can hope for is more of more-or-less-like-Obama, which is what I presume we’ll get with HRC. So if she’s like him, she comes out ahead.
On the other hand, we’re 8 years closer to climate change apocalypse. Since the cost of doing bupkis about it increases geometrically, she comes out behind (assuming, as I do, she won’t do anything…)
“Meanwhile, the rest of us are reduced to talking about Obama’s secret achievements.”
Ah, except: secret achievements! Well, I feel all better then.
Stephen Frug
February 19, 2014 at 7:34 pm
The people who had Obama pegged right all along will say it’s pure naivete, but I agree with you that there was a genuine opportunity in 2008-2010 for real change (especially on the heels of Obama’s small-donor-fueled insurrection against Hillary in the primary) that has been so incredibly squandered one can hardly believe it. The stakes for 2016 are so much lower. I’m sure there’ll be a lot of intensity about how the Republican is world-historically awful even by Republican standards, but all the joy’s gone out of the game.
gerrycanavan
February 19, 2014 at 8:44 pm