This Senator Is Hell-Bent on Getting Out the Truth About Trump and Russia | Mother Jones

Read This senator is hell-bent on getting out the truth about Trump and Russia (Mother Jones)
Oregon Democrat Ron Wyden says the Obama administration should have released more information before the election.
Continue reading This Senator Is Hell-Bent on Getting Out the Truth About Trump and Russia | Mother Jones

Why Nobody Cares the President Is Lying | The New York Times

Read Why Nobody Cares the President Is Lying (nytimes.com)
In the conservative media, we conditioned people not to trust facts or mainstream news outlets.
Continue reading Why Nobody Cares the President Is Lying | The New York Times

🔖 Why Boltzmann Brains Are Bad by Sean M. Carroll

Bookmarked Why Boltzmann Brains Are Bad (arxiv.org)
Some modern cosmological models predict the appearance of Boltzmann Brains: observers who randomly fluctuate out of a thermal bath rather than naturally evolving from a low-entropy Big Bang. A theory in which most observers are of the Boltzmann Brain type is generally thought to be unacceptable, although opinions differ. I argue that such theories are indeed unacceptable: the real problem is with fluctuations into observers who are locally identical to ordinary observers, and their existence cannot be swept under the rug by a choice of probability distributions over observers. The issue is not that the existence of such observers is ruled out by data, but that the theories that predict them are cognitively unstable: they cannot simultaneously be true and justifiably believed.

Oval Office Cold Open – SNL

Watched Oval Office Cold Open (Steve Bannon as Death) from Saturday Night Live
President Donald Trump (Alec Baldwin) calls Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull (Beck Bennett), Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto (Alex Moffat) and German Chancellor Angela Merkel (Kate McKinnon).

Sean Spicer Press Conference (Melissa McCarthy) – SNL

Watched Sean Spicer Press Conference (Melissa McCarthy) from Saturday Night Live
White House press secretary Sean Spicer (Melissa McCarthy) and secretary of education nominee Betsy DeVos (Kate McKinnon) take questions from the press (Bobby Moynihan, Kristen Stewart, Cecily Strong, Vanessa Bayer, Alex Moffat, Mikey Day).
OMG!

Hear The Epic of Gilgamesh Read in its Original Ancient Language, Akkadian

Reposted a tweet by Open CultureOpen Culture (Twitter)
Hear The Epic of Gilgamesh Read in its Original Ancient Language, Akkadian http://bit.ly/2dF0SFZpic.twitter.com/sdgjcJX5ZK
Dave Harris is sure to appreciate this.

 

Trump and Staff Rethink Tactics After Stumbles | The New York Times

Read Trump and Staff Rethink Tactics After Stumbles by Glenn Thrush, Maggie Haberman (nytimes.com)
One thing has become apparent to both the president’s allies as well as his opponents: When it comes to governing, speed does not always guarantee success.
Continue reading Trump and Staff Rethink Tactics After Stumbles | The New York Times

📖 On page 115 of 430 of Dealing with China by Henry M. Paulson, Jr.

📖 Read pages 86 – 115 of 430 of Dealing with China by Henry M. Paulson, Jr.

Cleaning the Stables in Guangdong was interesting, but could have had some more details and data (or a better case study, given its potential value). Alas it was just a quick overview of two years of work, possibly because editors thought it might be overly boring, but really who is going to read this book, but people who want these types of details.

I find at times in the book, he becomes overly gracious and almost too complimentary which I take to mean that he is still ingratiating himself to colleagues and potential future relations.

The chapter on School for Success could itself have been a better and more in-depth case study, but was a short historical outline.

There are some occasional interesting tidbits hidden throughout the chapters which are generally illuminating, but I wish there were more useful insider tidbits of true value. So far I’m not reading anything much more valuable than could be found in overview newspaper articles covering some of the same topics.

Former head of Goldman Sachs and U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson , Jr. and the cover of his 2015 book Dealing with China
Former head of Goldman Sachs and U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson , Jr. and the cover of his 2015 book Dealing with China

📕 Finished reading Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White

📕 Finished reading Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White

What a lovely little volume, though a bit sappier in the end than I would have liked or expected given the realities of the earlier portions.

I’ve an interesting thesis about what the book is really about. Details to come…

Donald Trump’s Longtime Doctor Says President Takes Hair-Growth Drug | The New York Times

Read Donald Trump’s Longtime Doctor Says President Takes Hair-Growth Drug by Lawrence K. Altman, M.D. (nytimes.com)
Dr. Harold N. Bornstein granted the interview after The New York Times asked him to discuss his past and possible future role in Mr. Trump’s care.