Saturday Morning Lightweight Reads
Posted: August 18, 2012 Filed under: 2012 presidential campaign, Mitt Romney, morning reads, U.S. Politics | Tags: Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, dinosaur footprint, Eduardo Leite, Luiz Alexandre Essinger, man crush, NASA, P90X workout, Paul Ryan, Phineas Gage, topless presidents, Trogloraptor spider 53 Comments
Good Morning!!
Since it’s Saturday, this will be a somewhat lightweight news roundup.
You probably heard that TMZ found a picture of Paul Ryan topless “after relentless research.” It was taken six years ago–before he started the now famous P90X workout.
The entire Internet is losing its collective mind over a shirtless pic of vice presidential candidate, and fitness freak, Paul Ryan. Before the photo was even uncovered by TMZ, “Paul Ryan shirtless” began trending on Google. We the people really, desperately want to see the 42-year-old’s legendary midsection.
Feverish coverage of the congressman’s grueling P90X workout routine, and reports of his 6 to 8 percent body fat, have helped stoke the fire. So too have his good looks: Media outlets from TMZ to the New York Times have waxed poetic this week about his sex appeal. There’s also the fact that some see his physique as rock-hard proof of his true character: As my colleague Willa Paskin said, it’s like people are thinking, “He really must be as disciplined and serious as he pretends. Look at those abs! Those are not the abs of a dilettante!”
Frankly, of those three guys pictured above, I’ll take the pale, unmuscled, slightly flabby–but really smart and interesting–Bill Clinton. And thank goodness The Daily Beast didn’t find a shirtless photo of Mitt Romney! They did post shirtless photos of a few other politicians though. My favorites were Rick Santorum and Vladimir Putin–check them out at the link.
RalphB posted this one in the comments last night, and I just had to include it in this mornings must reads: Romney Loves Ryan: What Mitt Sees in His New Beau, by Paul Constant at The Stranger.
If we’re being generous, Wisconsin congressman Paul Ryan is a man of contradictions. If we’re being honest, Wisconsin congressman Paul Ryan is an idiot. Mitt Romney’s vice presidential pick has problems beyond the basic teabagger contradiction of claiming to be for small government then passing an obscenely large military budget, voting to ban gay marriage, and enacting laws that lessen a woman’s access to abortion and birth control. This is a Republican who unabashedly supported George W. Bush’s war in Iraq and the Patriot Act, but also claims to be a big Rage Against the Machine fan. There is a dissonance, a bifurcation in Ryan’s brain that demands further investigation.
As I write this, the media’s love affair with Paul Ryan is still running hot and heavy. Since rumors of the Ryan pick broke late Friday night, reporters have not been able to say enough nice things about the man: good-looking, remarkably fit (anywhere from 6 to 8 percent body fat, multiple bloggers have cooed; a CNN headline on Monday swooned: “Paul Ryan’s workout: Is P90X for you?”), young, a decent public speaker, well-loved in his home district around Janesville, Wisconsin, where he was born and still lives today with his beautiful wife and children. Hell, compared to the stiff, awkward, and biologically unlikable Romney, Ryan is the second coming of George Clooney, with a practiced aw-shucksiness and a closely cultivated cowlick that are meant to imply Jimmy Stewart in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.
Constant spends the rest of the piece describing Ryan’s hypocrisy and his ability to lie and obfuscate at the drop of a hat. He’s the perfect match for Romney.
Is it any wonder that Romney loves Ryan, can seemingly spend hours sitting next to him and softly chuckling while gazing in his direction, his hands awkwardly curled up in his lap? It must be like looking into a mirror that shows you all your life’s possibilities. It must be like looking at all the potential he used to have. Here’s the distillation of everything Romney believes, and by some fluke, people even like this other guy. If Romney didn’t make Ryan his vice presidential candidate, he’d probably have killed him in a fit of jealous pique.
Perfect! I wish I had written that.
In science news, a new species of spider with really scary claws was discovered by some people exploring a cave in Oregon.
Amateur cave explorers have found a new family of spiders in the Siskiyou Mountains of Southern Oregon, and scientists have dubbed it Trogloraptor — Latin for cave robber — for their fearsome front claws.
The spelunkers sent specimens to the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, which has the West Coast’s largest collection of spiders. Entomologists there say the spider — reddish brown and the size of a half dollar — evolved so distinctly that it requires its own taxonomic family — the first new spider family found in North America since the 1870s.
“It took us a long time to figure out what it wasn’t,” said Charles Griswold, curator of arachnids at the academy. “Even longer to figure out what it is. We used anatomy. We used DNA to understand its evolutionary place. Then we consulted other experts all over the world about what this was. They all concurred with our opinion that this was something completely new to science.”
One more science story: Likely footprint of spiky dinosaur has NASA’s Md. campus on cloud nine
Eons before man dreamed of exploring the heavens, dinosaur tracker Ray Stanford is convinced, a low-slung armored beast roamed what is now a NASA campus in Greenbelt, stamping a huge footprint that went unnoticed until he spied it this summer.
A scalloped mini-crater with four pointy toe prints pressed into ruddy rock, the putative dinosaur track juts out from a scruffy slope at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, home to 7,000 scientists, engineers and other workers with their eyes firmly turned skyward.
Maryland’s signature dinosaur, an armored browser known as a nodosaur, made the track with its back left foot 112 million years ago, Stanford said as he led an entourage of NASA officials to the print Friday morning.
Sticking out of the grass in plain view, the elephant-foot-size impression — nearly 14 inches wide — elicited gasps. “Unbelievable!” said a NASA photographer. Someone else said, “Oh, my!”
Read more at the link.
I was amazed when I read this one: Construction Worker Survives After a Metal Bar Pierces his Head in Brazil
A 24-year-old construction worker survived after a 6-foot metal bar fell from above and pierced his head, doctors said Friday.
Luiz Alexandre Essinger, chief of staff of Rio de Janeiro’s Miguel Couto Hospital said doctors successfully withdrew the iron bar from Eduardo Leite’s skull during a five-hour surgery.
“He was taken to the operating room, his skull was opened, they examined the brain and the surgeon decided to pull the metal bar out from the front in the same direction it entered the brain.” Essinger said.
He said Leite was conscious when he arrived at the hospital and told him what had happened.
He said Leite was lucid and showed no negative consequences after the operation.
Phineas Gage
The reason I was so amazed is that this accident is so similar to one that everyone learns about in Psychology 101–the case of Phineas Gage.
The story of Phineas Gage illustrates some of the first medical knowledge gained on the relationship between personality and the functioning of the brain’s frontal lobe. A well-liked and successful construction foreman, Phineas Gage was contracted to work on the bed preparation for the Rutland & Burlington Railroad in Cavendish, Vermont in late 1840’s. On the 13th of September 1848, while preparing the railroad bed, an accidental explosion of a charge he had set blew a 13-pound tamping iron straight through Gage’s head, landing many yards away.
From all accounts, the front part of the left side of his brain was destroyed. Incredibly, almost immediately after the accident, Gage was conscious and able to talk, and insisted on walking to the cart that would take him into town to be treated. Despite his torn scalp and fractured skull, Gage remained lucid and rational during the ride and was able to speak with his attending physician, Dr. John Martyn Harlow. Dr. Harlow, a young physician in Cavendish, noted that although the tamping iron appeared to have gone directly through Gage’s frontal lobes, Gage was still able to speak rationally and answer questions about the injury. Gage was treated by Harlow and returned home to Lebanon, New Hampshire 10 weeks later.
Unfortunately, Gage’s recovery was not a complete success. The once friendly and well-liked man became “fitful, irreverent, and grossly profane, showing little deference for his fellows.” He was also “impatient and obstinate, yet capricious and vacillating, unable to settle on any of the plans he devised for future action.” Those who knew him before the accident said he was “no longer Gage.”
A couple of years ago the above portrait of Gage turned up and his story was all over the news for awhile. It remains to be seen whether Eduardo Leite will have a better outcome than Gage did. The bar that went through Gage’s head damaged his frontal lobes–basically giving him a prefrontal lobotomy. The doctor who operated on Leite claims that “the bar entered a ‘non-eloquent’ area of the brain, an area that doesn’t have a specific, major known function.” I have a feeling we’re eventually going to learn from Leite’s post-operative experiences what that part of the brain does.
I’ll end with a sad but heartwarming story from The New York Times Vows column: Angela Sclafani and Michael Olexa. I’m not going to excerpt from it, because you really need to read the whole thing. Just be sure to have a box of Kleenex handy.
peej
Carissa
ecocatwoman
mablue2
Mama Lopez
peggysue22
quixote
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
Thanks for the Saturday morning “eye candy” bb. But the Rymney photo is a darn good photoshop picture – such “a fine bromance, my friend” that is.
I am an arachnophobe, and heard the new spider story this AM. The photo I found on Scientific American was not as creepy as the one you posted. My dream of living in a cave is now dashed. Personally I wish a living dinosaur had been found instead. My childhood fascination with dinos has continued into my “golden years.”
Interesting story on Alternet about the 10 Mind Blowing Discoveries This Week http://www.alternet.org/environment/10-mind-blowing-discoveries-week-0?page=0%2C0 JJ, I thought of you when I read #2. I know it works for me – watching Buffy seems to make everything alright for me. #7 about a new way of looking at & treating gun violence is really interesting. Needless to say, #9 was my personal favorite – Purrrfectly Mysterious.
Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. Watch reruns of your favorite tv shows while petting a cat. The best medicine for what ails us.
“Watch reruns of your favorite tv shows while petting a cat.”
Great prescription, Dr. Connie. Will do.
Dear Dr Connie (ht Beata – I like it), I have three cats and one dog. I have a problem that all three cats and the wonderdog want attention at the same time. My lap is only so large, but I’m afraid that I shall not give each friend the attention he/she needs. What shall I do?
end of silliness – but I used to know people who read Dear Abby and Ann Landers on a regular basis, and couldn’t resist the nostalgia. I think I shall sit back and watch a few Buffy episodes (I loved that show) and perhaps a few Golden Girls. Of course, I shall be imbibing herbal tea and when I get to Nathan Filion in Firefly, it’s wine all the way. Then I shall sleep – but not before cleaning the litter boxes, providing fresh water, putting food out the back behind the fence for the ferals, and walking the wonderdog.
Your day sounds perfectly delightful. Captain Tightpants FOREVER!
My favorite TV reruns are the old “Perry Mason” shows. Also “The Dick Van Dyke Show”, “Get Smart”, and “Peter Gunn”.
I suspect Raymond Burr was a cat person. How could someone have such soulful eyes and not love cats?
Excellent choices. For older shows, I’d pick all of the Warner Brothers series, especially Maverick. Then later James Garner, The Rockford Files. Absolute favorite oldie but goodie, The Smothers Brothers Show. Guilty pleasures? The Monkees & Lost in Space.
Beata, Raymond Burr (a Canadian, cough cough) was an animal lover, so despite him portraying a driven defense lawyer (Mason) or a murderous wife killer (Rear window), he was an erudite, eclectic person. He was a world renowned orchid grower (there’s one named after him) and a vintner. His wine is too expensive for me to buy, but I did taste it once, it was sublime. His life long partner has continued to keep the vinery going, but I suspect that if he’s not passed already, it won’t be long. Raymond Burr was an amazing man.
Some interesting stories on Treehugger.
For Ralphb in Texas: Keystone XL construction begins, along with protests: http://www.treehugger.com/environmental-policy/construction-begins-keystone-xl-protesters-hit-back.html
Romney spokeswoman, Andrea Saul, was a lobbyist before becoming a Rombot mouthpiece:
http://www.treehugger.com/environmental-policy/romney-spokesperson-lobbied-undermine-climate-science-exxon.html
And sharks for jj – Endangered shark species: http://www.treehugger.com/ocean-conservation/10-amazing-endangered-shark-species-how-many-do-you-know.html
And a complete roundup of shark stories & pictures in honor of Shark Week: http://www.treehugger.com/ocean-conservation/most-jawsome-photos-videos-news-more-shark-week.html This link should keep you busy for weeks, jj.
And with this one, maybe there should be a Mosquito Week: http://www.treehugger.com/ocean-conservation/11-animals-more-likely-kill-you-than-sharks.html
A few weeks ago I was at a surf camp with a couple of my grandchildren in Stuart and a couple of manatees came swimming by, right through us. Everyone got a nice close look as they meandered through. It made for some nice moments.
Actually I’m surprised no one screamed. Manatees are so much bigger than expected when one gets an up close & personal experience. It is exciting to see a wild animal, especially a large one, in their natural habitat.
Apparently, it’s not that unusual there now. My ex DIL told me there are more of them now than in the past and they are seen more often at the beach.
I cannot conclusively say that a population increase is the reason, although the winter aerial survey counts in recent years have remained around 3000. Personally, I think warmer weather, therefore warmer water, which both manatees & seagrasses (their food of choice) prefer could be one factor. Then there is somewhat better & consistent enforcement of protection measures along with raised awareness. More people know what manatees look like now than ever before.
At least where those were they were safe from boat props and all that nastiness. So that’s a good thing.
Props & skegs on the outboard motors do damage, but speeding boats (the impact) are the most frequent cause of fatal injuries.
Long lost Picasso work discovered in storage at Evansville, Indiana museum.
The museum now has to sell it, because they can’t afford the security that would be needed if they displayed it.
That museum in Evansville is a treasure, with or without their Picasso!
I have a particular fondness for their permanent exhibit devoted to Abraham Lincoln’s boyhood years in Southern Indiana. The exhibit includes a large cupboard made by Thomas Lincoln ( a master carpenter ) and a small cabinet crafted by young Abraham. Scroll down on this link to see photos of the Lincoln exhibit:
http:/www.emuseum.org/permanent-galleries-0
Bad link. I’ll try again!
http://www.emuseum.org/permanent-galleries-0
Call me a “purist” but I never understood the fascination with Picasso’s works. I’m one of those who prefer to see a painting more or less representative of what an artists perceives that can be translated without having to question if what I am looking at isn’t the work of a toddler let loose among the pots of paint.
I took an art appreciation course at one time and still came away with the same interpretation that when Picasso was in his “blue period” it may have been that he couldn’t afford to replenish his oils.
Which only goes to prove that I’m not among the art “elite” who see genius where I see lousy art.
Oy, Pat. I don’t know what to say to change your mind. A toddler can accidently produce something of beauty with “pots of paint”. A true artistic genius creates a lifetime of masterpieces. There is a difference.
I guess if you simply don’t like modern art, then you will never appreciate Picasso.
I think every great artist probably does paint what they are perceiving in a subject–what’s interesting is that we all have different perspectives on reality. I also think a painting, like a work of literature, is open to many interpretations. Of course tastes differ, and there are works of art out there for every taste.
Pat, I echo what Beata and BB have said. I have a print of Picasso’s on my bedroom wall. It’s from his “blue” period. It’s a nude woman, curled up with her back to the artist. It truly is magnificent. Not all of Picasso’s work was impressionistic.
I love this piece! Hillary Clinton does not have time for your games.
How freeing to come to that point in one’s life! I’m still working on it. I do wear my glasses proudly ( always have ), my pantsuits ( never cared for dresses and skirts – too restrictive ), and my hair naturally silver ( no hair dye ).
Hillary, keep showing us the way.
Yes. Never wear anything you can’t run in.
In some far distant time, it will be normal for women of all ages to dress for comfort.
I do think that one nearly consistent benefit of growing older is the “who gives a f**k” attitude. To put it nicely, we are less critical and more accepting of what & who we are and if someone doesn’t like it – that is THEIR problem, not mine (ours). HRC is an incredible role model for both women & girls, in so many ways.
Did you read the Vogue article on Chelsea? What a woman, what a credit to her mom and dad.
She keeps working and lets them talk…
Go Hillary GO!
Somehow I don’t think this swift boating is going to work out quite like they expected.
Clown Team Six
I love Hillary’s outlook on style and fashion. It’s a “who gives a sh#t, I’m doing my job” statement.
Remember when she was in college and the pictures at that time showed a woman who wore glasses, needed her brows plucked, and she dressed wthout for comfort rather than whatever was in “style” at that time?
Then she gets to DC and there was not a month that went by that someone wasn’t “fussing ” about her looks as they kept changing her hairstyle and color in order to “appeal” to the audience who judged her by her looks and not that fascinating brain.
As for Fox News, unless they are young, dumb and blonde, brains don’t enter into the dialogue. As evidenced when they continually drag out Quiterella and her wigs for inane “analysis” that more or less sums up the brainpower of that network.
Amen, just amen. Although I’ve never plucked my eyebrows – always thought it was a barbaric practice, so just did not do it. Mind you, I’m not afflicted with Frida Gallo’s unibrow, however why does the media focus on such trivial things. Can someone explain it to me?
Because women are inherently imperfect?
Because real women are scary and so must be reduced to objects with no purpose except to please others.
Ecat – thank you however I suspect the reverse is true – men are inherently imperfect and are desparate to deflect attention away from them, therefore women as scapegoats.
BB – should we real women align and coalesce, then men would indeed have something to fear. Men however have their female co-dependents under their thumb, and said females will never rebel against their masters. Worse still, they will wage war against their own interests and gender at their master’s biding. Given thus, I’m afraid that women are their own worst enemy.
Personally the whew factor for me is brain power and well Bill Clinton wins there hands down, he did what they only talk about and dream about, he left office with a surplus. As to the Paul Ryan and P90X, well my ex-husband of two decades was doing that (photos, mirror etc) and it turned out some 40+ woman (who claimed to be a virgin) was giving him a hands on inspection. So, I hope we don’t find out some not so nice things about Ryan, as his family is young and with children.
I don’t get the naked Romney / Ryan photo though…age I guess or maybe I just don’t get naked photo things.
So, the Romney campaign theme now is: WE ARE GOING TO RUIN, TRASH AND EVENTUALLY MEDICARE FOR THOSE UNDER 55 YEARS. Yea, how many of us lost more than half our SEPS or IRAS in the stock market crashes? Do, we want to go gambling with it, and has either one of these two checked that it costs nearly $1,200 a month for coverage for those 55 (so, when they have to purchase health care with their worthless vouchers they will be SCREWED) and that is WHY SENIORS TODAY GO ON MEDICARE!
These candidates just don’t get it, they simply don’t get the real realities of working people and that is why all of Congress should loose their coverage so they begin to get a taste of what it is like for those out hear, in the real world.
A new theory.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/aug/17/mitt-romney-tax-returns-voter-fraud-theory
H/T Cannonfire
Very interesting and, if true, wouldn’t be the first time he has misrepresented his residency. bb covered what happened during his run for governor. To run for governor in MA the candidate must have lived in MA for at least the 7 previous years. While fixing the SLC Olympics he claimed residency in UT. Once that was discovered he had to modify those previous years’ tax returns. Apparently he claimed UT as home to pay lower taxes. I wonder how the CA tax rate compares to the MA tax rate. And, personally, I certainly can’t believe that he and Ann lived in Tag’s basement for a year or more. That sounds like an SNL comedy sketch premise.
Mitt and Ann were in Tag’s basement, living on the edge, not entertaining, for over a year! How dare any of you people question that?
Too funny. No apartment over the garage for these grandparents.
That would be very Arnold Swarzhenneger, doing things to avoid California taxes while living in the good weather, but not willing to pay the taxes. If someone knows they should say the truth and bring this to a close.
I can’t imagine that Romney really believes people believe he lives in his son’s basement when his California home has elevators for his cars. I mean come on…tell the truth and pay the California taxes already!
Oh, Arnold ‘CHEATER’ Swarzhenneger went to another state to buy his jet to avoid California sales tax…but tried to say Davis wasn’t honest!
‘Michigan State Bar’, Romney isn’t an attorney, this reporter didn’t check all his facts…
He has a law degree from Harvard.
BB, the story about Phineas Gage is fascinating. It will be interesting to see the long-term results of the similar operation on Eduardo Leite’s brain.
I am reminded of my appointment with a top neurosurgeon who wanted to perform radical surgery on my brain tumor. He said he would be removing quite a bit of “useless gray matter” from my brain along with the tumor. Well, it may have been useless to him, but I am not so sure it is to me. I decided not to let him perform the surgery. 🙂
Unfortunately, sometimes terrible accidents like this are the ways we learn about brain functions. Even with all the new machines, exploration of the brain is still in its early days.
I hope everyone will read the story about Angela Sclafani and Michael Olexa linked at the end of BB’s post. An absolutely beautiful testament to true love. And, yes, have that Kleenex handy.
That was quite a story.
Dean Baker: Washington Post Strikes Out in Attack on Joe Biden’s Courage on Social Security
As digby says, just tweak the cat food a little and it’ll taste like fresh mahi-mahi.
The NYT editorial board calls out Romney and Ryan for their lies on Medicare.
Good informative editorial. Wish I thought it would make a difference to Vulture/Voucher supporters or those still leaning that way.
Or those that actually think voting for these 2 is a rational choice if you are not filthy rich.
Even if you are rich, they aren’t really a rational choice. You also have to be a greedy POS about your wealth.
Paul Krugman: Ryan: The First Decade
Krugman’s hair is probably smoking a bit about now.
Ryan does like to hunker down with the hawks, and likes come in the back door, and cut the benefits for working class and poor of this country. All those numbers he throws out, will not help in reducing the deficits………………….
One more thing, one word for his B O D Y………………Lanky, or as my mother use to say, one long drink of water.