Sunday Reads: Book Rainbows 

Good Afternoon

What a beautiful image….

On Friday, Dak gave you lovely works from artist known for their use of color. Particularly Georgia O’Keefe… she also wrote about women bloggers….don’t you love when a post focuses on women doing extraordinary things. (As compared to what the misogynist male establishment would rather see us do.)

Yesterday, Boston Boomer treated us all with images of beautiful people. (Paul Newman and Steve McQueen…who doesn’t want to look at those gorgeous faces and bodies?)

Today I bring you pictures of books. Rainbow colored books. Although, I am not sure if anyone of us has enough books with colorful covers to do anything like this….but it sure is pretty to look at.

Slow Show – Chris Cobb

Chris Cobb, an artist based in San Francisco, has created an amazing installation in bookshop called Adobe Books- he catalogued every single one of the 20,000 books by color. The project is titled There is Nothing Wrong in This Whole Wide World. They were arranged by hand over a 10 hour period, and he enlisted the help of 16 volunteers. Such beautiful results, they transformed the bookshop overnight.

So enjoy the lovely books.

Here are you links for today.

I am going to post this horrible news first…Nearly 120 killed in overnight Baghdad bombings claimed by Islamic State | Reuters

Nearly 120 people were killed and 200 wounded in two bombings overnight in Baghdad, most of them in a busy shopping area as residents celebrated Ramadan, police and medical sources said on Sunday.

The attack on the shopping area of Karrada is the deadliest since U.S.-backed Iraqi forces last month scored a major victory when it dislodged Islamic State from their stronghold of Falluja, an hour’s drive west of the capital. It is also the deadliest so far this year.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi had ordered the offensive after a series of deadly bombings in Baghdad, saying Falluja served as a launchpad for such attacks on the capital. However, bombings have continued.

A convoy carrying Abadi who had come to tour the site of the bombings was pelted with stones and bottles by residents, angry at what they felt were false promises of better security.

A refrigerator truck packed with explosives blew up in the central district of Karrada, killing 115 people and injuring at least 200. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement circulated online by supporters of the ultra-hard line Sunni group. It said the blast was a suicide bombing.

Along with this attack on Friday: Bangladesh Attack Marks Tactical Shift by Islamic State Militants – WSJ

When assailants armed with guns and explosives stormed an upscale cafe in the Bangladeshi capital Friday, shouting “Allahu akbar,” it represented a sharp escalation by extremist followers of Islamic State in South Asia, a region where the terror group had previously gained little traction.

By the time security forces retook the restaurant after an assault backed by armored vehicles early Saturday, 20 civilians, two police officers and six militants had been killed. Brig. Gen. Nayeem Ashfaq Chowdhury, the army’s director of military operations, said 13 people held hostage were freed.

Among the dead were two students from Emory University, which is based in Atlanta. Abinta Kabir, a U.S. citizen who was an undergraduate student at the school’s Oxford College campus in Georgia, was killed, along with another student, Faraaz Hossain, spokesmen for their families said Saturday. Mr. Hossain’s nationality hasn’t been confirmed.

Tarushi Jain, an 18-year-old Indian national who attended the University of California-Berkeley, also perished in the attack, the Associated Press reported.

Friends mourn Emory students killed in Bangladesh terror attacks | www.myajc.com

When Raquel Jeanette Solla learned two of her Emory University friends were being held hostage in a café in Bangladesh, she clung to the hope they would survive.

“I really believed they’d be okay because they’re such good people, and seemed too sweet to have something so horrible happen to them,” said Solla, a student at the Oxford campus, in an e-mail to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

She found out about the terror attack, about her friends, Abinta Kabir and Faraaz Hossain, being trapped inside a popular cafe in Dhaka, through a Facebook group message. When the stream of updates stopped, she feared the worst early Saturday morning. A Facebook post soon confirmed it.

Abinta and Faraaz were well-known in the tight-knit group of students at Emory University’s Oxford University campus, both sharing a reputation of being bright, enthusiastic, and really, really nice. Bengali students at Emory often get together for pickup soccer games, to talk about some cricket match or share news of home, a place they say rarely makes it into international headlines.

Till now, when Bangladesh was added to the the rapidly escalating list of places devastated by Islamic terrorism. Only days after the attack in Istanbul, and weeks away from the Orlando tragedy, this latest blood bath delivered an extra blow to the Atlanta region. It took the lives of two of our own.

More at the links…

And while you ponder on that, remember….52 still hospitalized after deadly Istanbul airport attack – World – CBC News

Fifty-two people are still in the hospital four days after suicide bombers attacked Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport, killing at least 44 others, the city’s governor said Saturday.

The governorate said 184 airport victims have been discharged from hospitals so far, including 13 people released Saturday. It said 20 people were still in intensive care.

Three militants armed with assault rifles and suicide bombs attacked one of the world’s busiest airports on Tuesday night. Although no one has claimed responsibility for the attack, Turkish officials say they believe it was the work of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group.

However according to Reuters: Around 20 Islamic State members in custody over Istanbul airport attack: Erdogan | Reuters

Around 20 Islamic State militants, mainly foreigners, are in custody in connection with an attack last week on Istanbul airport that killed 45 people, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday.

Two Russian nationals have been identified as suspected Islamic State suicide bombers in the attack that is thought to have been masterminded by a Chechen, Turkish media said on Friday.

“The latest findings point to the Daesh (Islamic State) terrorist organisation,” Erdogan told Reuters at the Istanbul Ataturk airport, where he visited the attack site.

Video at the link.

Take a deep breath after that section of the thread. Go and get something to drink…The rest of the links are not so violent.

There was a warning from the UAE recently, which urged its citizens to avoid dressing in their customary outfits while traveling in the US: UAE tells citizens to avoid national dress while abroad after man held in U.S. | Reuters

The United Arab Emirates has urged men to avoid wearing the white robes, headscarf and headband of the national dress when traveling abroad, after a businessman visiting the United States was wrestled to the ground and held as an Islamic State suspect.

UAE media reported that the Emirati man was detained in Avon, Ohio, last week after a female clerk at a local hotel called 911 to report what she had described as a man affiliated to Islamic State, according to the Arabic-language al-Bayan newspaper. It only identified him by his initials.

The English language The National said the receptionist at the Fairfield Inn hotel called the police after she heard the man talking on his phone in the hotel lobby.

Gulf News, another UAE newspaper, published photos of the Emirati man in white robes being wrestled to the ground and handcuffed before being led away by police.

In a message on a Foreign Ministry Twitter account focusing on citizens traveling abroad, the ministry said on Saturday:

“For citizens traveling outside the country, and in order to ensure their safety, we point out not to wear formal dress while traveling, especially in public places,” the message dated July 2 stated, without referring to the Avon incident.

It is frightening stuff…when you think about it. Isn’t it enough that so many US citizens already are worried for their lives because they look a certain way? The hateful rhetoric is only getting worse…at what point does the US become a High Risk Travel Warning to other nations abroad? When a racist misogynistic fascist asshole is elected president?

Stephen Hawking: Greed And Stupidity Are What Will End The Human Race | The Intellectualist

Physicist Stephen Hawking says pollution coupled with human greed and stupidity are still the biggest threats to humankind.

During an interview on Larry King Now, the science superstar told King that in the six years since he’s spoken with the talk show host people haven’t cleaned up their act.

“We certainly have not become less greedy or less stupid,” Hawking said. “The population has grown by half a billion since our last meeting, with no end in sight. At this rate, it will be eleven billion by 2100.”

You can read the rest of the USA Today article here, including some video: Stephen Hawking: Humankind is still greedy, stupid and greatest threat to Earth

In connection with Hawking’s climate prediction: ‘Unprecedented’: Scientists declare ‘global climate emergency’ after jet stream crosses equator

And meanwhile in Florida: Toxic algae bloom crisis hits Florida, drives away tourists (w/video) | Tampa Bay Times

It’s going to be a long, stinky Fourth of July weekend on Jensen Beach.

Instead of red, white and blue, the color of the day is green. Thick, putrid layers of toxic blue-green algae are lapping at the sand, forcing Martin County officials to close the beach as a health hazard.

“I’ve seen Jensen Beach closed for sharks,” said Irene Gomes, whose family has run the Driftwood Motel since 1958. “I’ve never seen it closed for an algae bloom before.”

As bad as it looks, the stench is far worse, driving away Gomes’ motel customers, chasing off paddleboard and kayak renters and forcing residents to stay indoors.

“It smells like death on a cracker,” said Gomes’ friend Cyndi Lenz, a nurse. Morgues don’t smell as bad, she added.

 

The toxic algae bloom afflicting Jensen stretches for miles along the Martin County shoreline on the state’s Atlantic coast near Palm Beach. It’s also coating the water in the Indian River Lagoon and the St. Lucie River. It’s thick in Lake Okeechobee, where the toxicity is 200 times what the World Health Organization says constitutes a human health hazard.

And now it’s apparently showing up over on the state’s west coast, too, forcing the closure of a popular park on the Caloosahatchee River and flopping onto Fort Myers Beach.

That is a long article, so give it a look.

But with all this bad news on the environmental front…how about something positive?

Decades after the Montreal Protocol, there are signs the hole in the ozone layer has begun to heal – Los Angeles Times

For the first time in 30 years, the gaping hole in the ozone layer above Antarctica is showing signs of healing.

Every year since it was discovered in 1985, scientists have watched the hole grow bigger from one Antarctic spring to the next, eventually covering 10.9 million square miles in 2015.

Now researchers are noting an encouraging trend. Though the hole still exists and reached a record size last year, it is forming at a slower rate, according to a reportpublished Thursday in the journal Science.

Thanks to human actions to curb the use of ozone-destroying chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, the hole has started growing later in the spring, the study’s authors said, and they can foresee a time, around the middle of the century, when it’s gone.

“We are starting to see signs of improvement over Antarctica,” said Paul Newman, an atmospheric scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center who monitors the hole but was not involved in the study.

Whatever you do, be sure to click on that link and go see the images on the LA Times site. It is very interesting…especially with all those little earths spinning next to each other.

Now for some political news links:

Dolly Parton endorses Hillary Clinton: ‘I think a woman would do a great job’ – DeadState

The Utter Inconsequence of Hillary’s Veep – The New York Times

Poll reveals young remain voters reduced to tears by Brexit result | Politics | The Guardian

Germany should offer young Britons EU citizenship after Brexit, says German Vice-Chancellor | Europe | News | The Independent

One more link for you, this one…from my area of the backwoods of Georgia…in the county next door to Banjoville. Fannin County to be exact, where the phrase…

“We have deep mountains.”

Means exactly what you would think it means if it was uttered by some mafia dude to another mafia dude talking about what to do with a body after icing someone in the local fried chicken joint.

Georgia publisher jailed after filing open records request | www.myajc.com

‘Retaliation for use of the Open Records Act will inhibit every citizen from using it.’

A North Georgia newspaper publisher was indicted on a felony charge and jailed overnight last week – for filing an open-records request.

Fannin Focus publisher Mark Thomason, along with his attorney Russell Stookey, were arrested on Friday and charged with attempted identity fraud and identity fraud. Thomason was also accused of making a false statement in his records request.

» READ THE INDICTMENT

Thomason’s relentless pursuit of public records relating to the local Superior Court has incensed the court’s chief judge, Brenda Weaver, who also chairs the state Judicial Qualifications Commission. Weaver took the matter to the district attorney, who obtained the indictments.

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Judge Brenda Weaver

Thomason was charged June 24 with making a false statement in an open-records request in which he asked for copies of checks “cashed illegally.” Thomason and Stookey were also charged with identity fraud and attempted identity fraud because they did not get Weaver’s approval before sending subpoenas to banks where Weaver and another judge maintained accounts for office expenses. Weaver suggested that Thomason may have been trying to steal banking information on the checks.

But Thomason said he was “doing his job” when he asked for records.

“I was astounded, in disbelief that there were even any charges to be had,” said Thomason, 37, who grew up in Fannin County. “I take this as a punch at journalists across the nation that if we continue to do our jobs correctly, then we have to live in fear of being imprisoned.”

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Mark Thomason, publisher of the newspaper Fannin Focus. Photo supplied by subject.

Thomason and Stookey are out on $10,000 bond and have a long list of things they cannot do or things they must do to avoid going to jail until their trials. On Thursday, for example, Thomason reported to a pretrial center and was told that he may have to submit to a random drug test – a condition of the bond on which he was released from jail last Saturday.

Alison Sosebee, district attorney in the three counties in the Appalachian Judicial Circuit, and Judge Weaver say the charges are justified. Weaver said she resented Thomason’s attacks on her character in his weekly newspaper and in conversations with her constituents.

“I don’t react well when my honesty is questioned,” Weaver said.

You can read more at the link…

Colorful books, how about a colorful nation. Babies Of Color Are Now The Majority, Census Says : NPR Ed : NPR

Today’s generation of schoolchildren looks much different than one just a few decades ago. Nonwhites are expected to become the majority of the nation’s children by 2020, as our colleague Bill Chappell reported last year. This is now the reality among the very youngest Americans: babies.

Babies of color now outnumber non-Hispanic white babies (1 year or younger), according to new estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau. The newest estimate shows that on July 1, 2015, the population of racial or ethnic minority babies was 50.2 percent.

Which of course, makes me think of that song Cartman sings from South Park…about the Minorities are the Majorities….at his waterpark.

Not My Waterpark – Video Clip | South Park Studios

Cartman sings a heartfelt ode about how his water park isn’t the way he remembered it.

 

But you know, some things never change: The richest families in Florence in 1427 are still the richest families in Florence — Quartz

These next few links are interesting, from a scientific background, first a look at an old article published in 1879:

Interesting perspective on why children die from Birmingham newspaper July 2, 1879 | Alabama Pioneers

Compare it to this:

Can the Ancient World Save Us from the Antibiotic-Resistant Suberbug Apocalypse? – The Daily Beast

Marijuana Compound Removes Alzheimer’s Plaque From Brain Cells, Study Finds | Popular Science

Looking back to find a cure and looking forward to find a solution?

Since we have books on display, we need to have a couple of book list to go with them:

29 Books That Will Enrich Your Inner Literati | TIME

The 75 Best Books of the Last 75 Years: Today in Critical Linking

And finally, a tribute to a lady who is 100 this weekend!

100 Years Of Olivia De Havilland Handling Sexism, Her Sister, And Scarlett O’Hara : NPR

Actress Olivia de Havilland, the last surviving star of the most popular film of all time, retired from showbiz decades ago, apparently feeling that 49 films, two best actress Oscars, and a best-selling memoir were accomplishment enough for one career.

Friday in Paris, she celebrates her 100th birthday, which seems a good moment to reflect on the mix of sparkle and resilience that marked her public life.

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De Havilland’s career spanned more than five decades. Thanks to a lawsuit she filed against Warner Bros., she even has a landmark judicial ruling named after her — the de Havilland law limits the terms studios can impose up on actors.

Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Celebrating the Centenary of Olivia de Havilland – Olivia de Havilland – Lady of the Classic Cinema

Here is the video that Robert Osborne has done for Olivia de Havilland over at TCM:

If you cannot see the embedded video click here:  “I’m certainly relishing the idea of living a… – Turner Classic Movies: TCM

Robert Osborne on Olivia De Havilland

I confess it: as a Brit would say, I have been one very lucky bloke. It has never ceased to amaze me that a fellow with no connections whatsoever to show business and who grew up in a small farm community in the Northwest (population: 2500), could end up on a national television network with the dream job of talking about classic movies as I get to do on TCM. Something else which constantly reminds me of how lucky I am is the 40-year friendship I’ve had with TCM’s Star of the month for this July, Olivia de Havilland.

[…]

We’ll be sharing many of Olivia’s stories with you on Friday nights this month as we also celebrate a great landmark birthday for her–her 100th. It is her birthday but we’re the ones who get the presents. Every Friday we’ll be toasting Olivia, showing 39 de Havilland films in all, including all the biggies such as To Each His Own(1946, Oscar® #1), The Snake Pit, (1948, Oscar® nomination #3), The Heiress (Oscar® #2) and several which are lesser known, such as when she played France’s Queen Mother in the era of the Three Musketeers in the rarely shown The 5th Musketeer (1979) with Rex Harrison, Jose Ferrer and Cornel Wilde. And just for the fun of it, you can see 1939’s Wings of the Navy and decide if you agree with Olivia’s assessment of it.

Through the years, in addition to all the many assets that are such an integral part of her, she’s also proven to be someone who always makes good on promises. The night she celebrated her 80th birthday in Paris in 1996, Olivia told me she’d just made a vow to live to be 100. And she’s done it. During a more recent phone chat, she said, “I’ve changed my goal. I’ve decided I want to live to be at least 110.” That’s the best birthday present this amazing woman from Hollywood’s golden era could give us. I have no doubt she’ll make it. Bravo, Olivia!

by Robert Osborne

 

This month on TCM they are celebrating Olivia’s birthday  by featuring her as the star of the month with her films: Olivia de Havilland – Fridays in July

• OLIVIA DE HAVILLAND – FRIDAYS IN JULY
• FEATURED FILMS
•    RAFFLES (1940)
•    GONE WITH THE WIND
•    THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD
•    THE PRIVATE LIVES OF ELIZABETH AND ESSEX
•    CAPTAIN BLOOD
•    ANTHONY ADVERSE
•    THE IRISH IN US
•    ALIBI IKE
•    IN THIS OUR LIFE
•    THEY DIED WITH THEIR BOOTS ON
•    SANTA FE TRAIL
•    DODGE CITY
•    THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE (1936)
•    IT’S LOVE I’M AFTER
•    THE GREAT GARRICK
•    CALL IT A DAY
•    THE SNAKE PIT
•    THE HEIRESS
•    TO EACH HIS OWN
•    DEVOTION (1946)
•    WINGS OF THE NAVY
•    HARD TO GET
•    GOLD IS WHERE YOU FIND IT
•    A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM (1935)
•    MY COUSIN RACHEL
•    THE PROUD REBEL
•    THE AMBASSADOR’S DAUGHTER
•    HOLD BACK THE DAWN
•    THE STRAWBERRY BLONDE
•    MY LOVE CAME BACK
•    THANK YOUR LUCKY STARS
•    FOUR’S A CROWD
•    THE FIFTH MUSKETEER
•    THE SWARM
•    LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA
•    LIBEL
•    THE MALE ANIMAL
•    GOVERNMENT GIRL
•    PRINCESS O’ROURKE

You know I will be taping many of these…especially The Heiress and Hold Back the Dawn!

Anyway, that is my post for the day, have a wonderful and safe 4th of July!