Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungover we’ve been bailed out we’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Everyone’s welcome here, no special handshake required. Just check your meta at the door.
Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:30am (ET) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.
This Day in History
Breakfast News
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Robin Williams, Oscar-Winning Actor, Dies at 63 in Suspected Suicide
Robin Williams, the comedian who evolved into the surprisingly nuanced, Academy Award-winning actor, imbuing his performances with wild inventiveness and a kind of manic energy, died on Monday at his home in Tiburon, Calif., north of San Francisco. He was 63.
The Marin County sheriff’s office said in a statement that it “suspects the death to be a suicide due to asphyxia.” An investigation was underway.
The statement said that the office received a 911 call at 11:55 a.m. Pacific time, saying that a man had been found “unconscious and not breathing inside his residence.” Emergency personnel sent to the scene identified him as Mr. Williams and pronounced him dead at 12:02 p.m.
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Robin Williams, an Improvisational Genius, Forever Present in the Moment
Some years ago, at a party at the Cannes Film Festival, I was leaning against a rail watching a fireworks display when I heard a familiar voice behind me. Or rather, at least a dozen voices, punctuating the offshore explosions with jokes, non sequiturs and off-the-wall pop-cultural, sexual and political references.
There was no need to turn around: The voices were not talking directly to me and they could not have belonged to anyone other than Robin Williams, who was extemporizing a monologue at least as pyrotechnically amazing as what was unfolding against the Mediterranean sky. I’m unable to recall the details now, but you can probably imagine the rapid-fire succession of accents and pitches – macho basso, squeaky girly, French, Spanish, African-American, human, animal and alien – entangling with curlicues of self-conscious commentary about the sheer ridiculousness of anyone trying to narrate explosions of colored gunpowder in real time.
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Keystone XL’s Climate Impact Could Be Four Times Greater Than State Department Claimed
If the controversial northern leg of the Keystone XL pipeline is approved and built, the resulting amount of carbon emitted into earth’s atmosphere could be up to four times greater than the U.S. State Department estimated, a new scientific paper shows.
Researchers Peter Erickson and Michael Lazarus of the Stockholm Environmental Institute say the State Department’s assessment of the pipeline’s potential carbon emissions failed to consider whether consumer demand for Canadian tar sands oil – the type that would be transported in Keystone XL – would increase worldwide if the pipeline is built. If it is built, it could cause a rush of new Canadian tar sands crude oil to come on to the global market. If that happens, global prices of oil will decrease, and demand for it will increase. If demand increases, more oil will be burned, causing increased carbon emissions.
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Ebola’s Message: Foreign Aid and Science Funding in a Time of Global Peril
Most Americans have long believed, in embarrassing ignorance, that the share of the U.S. federal budget spent on foreign aid is an order of magnitude higher than what we actually spend abroad. Years ago, this mistaken view was amplified from the far right by the John Birch Society. Today, it is the tea party movement complaining that joblessness and poverty in the United States result directly from the lamentable fact that “President Obama keeps sending our money overseas.”
Actually, spending on foreign assistance has remained remarkably steady for many years in Washington, at around 1 percent, a minuscule level compared with what other developed nations spend to improve living standards in the developing world. But perhaps that is because those other countries have figured out what we may soon learn from the latest Ebola outbreak: Disease vectors do not respect national or political boundaries – and the lack of medical infrastructure in one country can ultimately threaten all countries.
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Rich Kid, Poor Kid: For 30 Years, Baltimore Study Tracked Who Gets Ahead
Education is historically considered to be the thing that levels the playing field, capable of lifting up the less advantaged and improving their chances for success.
“Play by the rules, work hard, apply yourself and do well in school, and that will open doors for you,” is how Karl Alexander, a Johns Hopkins University sociologist, puts it.
But a study published in June suggests that the things that really make the difference – between prison and college, success and failure, sometimes even life and death – are money and family.
Alexander is one of the authors of “The Long Shadow,” which explored this scenario: Take two kids of the same age who grew up in the same city – maybe even the same neighborhood. What factors will make the difference for each?
To find the answer, the Hopkins researchers undertook a massive study. They followed nearly 800 kids in Baltimore – from first grade until their late-20s.
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Must Read Blog Posts
Remembering Robin Williams
by Jeremy Egner
Robin Williams Leaves Behind Four Movies Including ‘Night at the Museum 3’
by Jeff Sneider
Hellraisers Journal: Wilson urges American calmness to avoid “unnecessary distress from this war.”
by JayRaye
Sunday Train: The Era of Reverse Pumped Hydro
by BruceMcF
Will alternative energy save capitalism?
by Cassiodorus
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The Daily Wiki
Major depressive disorder (MDD) (also known as clinical depression, major depression, unipolar depression, or unipolar disorder; or as recurrent depression in the case of repeated episodes) is a mental disorder characterized by a pervasive and persistent low mood that is accompanied by low self-esteem and by a loss of interest or pleasure in normally enjoyable activities. This cluster of symptoms (syndrome) was named, described and classified as one of the mood disorders in the 1980 edition of the American Psychiatric Association’s diagnostic manual. The term “depression” is used in a number of different ways. It is often used to mean this syndrome but may refer to other mood disorders or simple to a low mood. Major depressive disorder is a disabling condition that adversely affects a person’s family, work or school life, sleeping and eating habits, and general health. In the United States, around 3.4% of people with major depression commit suicide, and up to 60% of people who commit suicide had depression or another mood disorder.[1]
The diagnosis of major depressive disorder is based on the patient’s self-reported experiences, behavior reported by relatives or friends, and a mental status examination. There is no laboratory test for major depression, although physicians generally request tests for physical conditions that may cause similar symptoms. The most common time of onset is between the ages of 20 and 30 years, with a later peak between 30 and 40 years.[2]
Typically, people are treated with antidepressant medication and, in many cases, also receive counseling, particularly cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). [3] Medication appears to be effective, but the effect may only be significant in the most severely depressed.[4][5] Hospitalization may be necessary in cases with associated self-neglect or a significant risk of harm to self or others. A minority are treated with electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). The course of the disorder varies widely, from one episode lasting weeks to a lifelong disorder with recurrent major depressive episodes. Depressed individuals have shorter life expectancies than those without depression, in part because of greater susceptibility to medical illnesses and suicide. It is unclear whether or not medications affect the risk of suicide. Current and former patients may be stigmatized.
The understanding of the nature and causes of depression has evolved over the centuries, though this understanding is incomplete and has left many aspects of depression as the subject of discussion and research. Proposed causes include psychological, psycho-social, hereditary, evolutionary and biological factors. Long-term substance abuse may cause or worsen depressive symptoms. Psychological treatments are based on theories of personality, interpersonal communication, and learning. Most biological theories focus on the monoamine chemicals serotonin, norepinephrine and dopamine, which are naturally present in the brain and assist communication between nerve cells.
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Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
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Breakfast Tunes
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Stupid Shit by LaEscapee
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