My funny inbox

Friends are always emailing me cartoons and funny stuff. I think it's because they're tired of the anti-Trump thingies I usually send them. Don't know. But I have all these great cartoons to share on DU.











































Happy Holidays!

A Pennsylvania Christmas greeting to all my friends on DU

Tamron Hall spotted at Ronan Farrow's 30th birthday party

I don't normally go crazy over celebrities, but I know that Tamron Hall has many fans here on DU. This photo of Tamron Hall, Mia Farrow and Diane Sawyer is from a short article on Page Six blog, posted on 12/18/17:



Link: https://pagesix.com/2017/12/18/ronan-farrow-rings-in-30-with-nightmare-before-christmas-party/

Headline: Ronan Farrow celebrates 30th with 'Nightmare Before Christmas' party

Ronan Farrow celebrated his 30th birthday with a “Nightmare Before Christmas” bash, we hear. The party’s theme might coincidentally describe Harvey Weinstein’s situation these days — thanks to a series of exposés by Farrow in the New Yorker.

The fête at Jung Lee’s luxury boutique was decked out with candles, skulls and more traditional holly, while Farrow paired a red-and-white Santa hat with black skeleton shirt and black blazer.

Guests included Mia Farrow (creating her own theme in a knitted Groucho Marx sweater), Diane Sawyer, Tamron Hall, Kathy Najimy, MSNBC’s Elise Jordan and Vanity Fair’s Mike Hogan. DJ Phresh provided the tunes.

Will robots take our children's jobs?

Link: https://nyti.ms/2jLR9Ts

New York Times / Style Section / Dec. 11, 2017
By: Alex Williams

Like a lot of children, my sons, Toby, 7, and Anton, 4, are obsessed with robots. In the children’s books they
devour at bedtime, happy, helpful robots pop up more often than even dragons or dinosaurs. The other day I
asked Toby why children like robots so much. “Because they work for you,” he said.

What I didn’t have the heart to tell him is, someday he might work for them — or, I fear, might not work
at all, because of them.

It is not just Elon Musk, Bill Gates and Stephen Hawking who are freaking out about the rise of
invincible machines. Yes, robots have the potential to outsmart us and destroy the human race. But first,
artificial intelligence could make countless professions obsolete by the time my sons reach their 20s.
You do not exactly need to be Marty McFly to see the obvious threats to our children’s future careers.
Say you dream of sending your daughter off to Yale School of Medicine to become a radiologist. And why
not? Radiologists in New York typically earn about $470,000, according to Salary.com.

But that job is suddenly looking iffy as A.I. gets better at reading scans. A start-up called Arterys, to cite just
one example, already has a program that can perform a magnetic-resonance imaging analysis of blood flow
through a heart in just 15 seconds, compared with the 45 minutes required by humans.

Inside the gerrymandering data top Pa. Republicans fought to keep private

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 12/8/17
(picked up from the Philadelphia Enquirer)

Link: http://www.post-gazette.com/news/politics-state/2017/12/08/gerrymandering-data-top-Pennsylvania-Republicans-fought-to-keep-private-redistricting-voting-election/stories/201712080123

Republican lawmakers used detailed data on the partisan leanings of voters when they created the current Pennsylvania congressional map, according to documents federal judges had ordered them to turn over in a trial that began this week.

Lawyers for House Speaker Mike Turzai and Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati had fought to keep private a trove of documents as they prepared for the trial, which began Monday in Philadelphia. They also sought to block the documents in a separate, state gerrymandering trial that begins next week in Harrisburg.

Among them are maps that contain detailed data on partisanship across the state, which experts said appear to confirm widespread suspicion that Republicans had intentionally drawn the map to favor their party. One map’s database contains details for each of nearly 3,000 voting districts in the state, including the races and ethnicities of voters and results from state and national elections from 2004 through 2010. Also included are metrics that appear to rate each voting district’s level of partisanship.

After the judges ordered the documents turned over, lawyers for the Republicans asked that anything not used as evidence in the trial — the data were not introduced, although analysis of it was — be destroyed within 24 hours of the trial’s conclusion.

Pennsylvania’s map is considered one of the most extreme congressional gerrymanders in the country. Since the map’s creation in 2011, Republicans have consistently won 13 of 18 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, even as votes across the state have generally split evenly between Democrats and Republicans.

Republicans attempted to hide the data because it “undercuts their story in a big way,” said Michael Li, an expert on redistricting at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University. “Why do you have all this data, right? ‘I wasn’t trying to flee the country, but I had $10,000 and my passport in a canvas bag.’ ”

Oh, to be 8 again!

A man was sitting on the edge of the bed, watching his wife, who was looking at herself in the mirror. Since her birthday was not far off he asked what she'd like to have for her birthday.

"I'd like to be eight again," she replied, still looking in the mirror.

On the morning of her birthday, he arose early, made her a nice big bowl of Coco Pops, and then took her to Adventure World theme park. What a day! He put her on every ride in the park; the Death Slide, the Wall of Fear, the Screaming Roller Coaster, everything there was.

Five hours later they staggered out of the theme park. Her head was reeling and her stomach felt upside down. He then took her to a McDonald's where he ordered her a Happy Meal with extra fries and a chocolate shake. Then it was off to a movie, popcorn, a soda pop, and her favorite candy, M&M's. What a fabulous adventure!

Finally she wobbled home with her husband and collapsed into bed exhausted. He leaned over his wife with a big smile and lovingly asked, "Well Dear, what was it like being eight again?"

Her eyes slowly opened and her expression suddenly changed.

"I meant my dress size, you idiot!"

The moral of the story: Even when a man is listening, he's gonna get it wrong.

Protesters chain themselves to Pittsburgh building where U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey has office

Source: Pittsburgh Post Gazette



CHRIS POTTER
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Dec. 4, 2017
cpotter@post-gazette.com

Two women who chained themselves to the Grant Street entrance of Downtown's Grant Building released themselves from the revolving doors at around 8:40 this morning, ending a small demonstration against U.S. Senator Pat Toomey's support for a controversial tax plan passed in the small hours of Saturday morning.

"Pat Toomey has basically betrayed his constituents by pushing forward on this tax bill that will hurt a ton of his constituents. It's really just helping his donors," said one of the two protesters, Lindsey Disler, of the Northside, as a couple dozen supporters looked on.

"It's not a done deal yet," she added, referring to the fact that differing House and Senate versions of the bill must be reconciled, with each chamber voting again. Republicans have expressed confidence that the reconciliation process will go smoothly, and it seems unlikely that Mr. Toomey would change his mind: He was among the most vocal supporters of the plan on the Senate floor. But Ms. Disler said she was there because "the situation is so catstrohpis and so dire, something has to be done."

Those working in the building, which houses Mr. Toomey's Pittsburgh office, were told to use a side entrance -- and to blame Mr. Toomey's vote for any inconvenience. City police officers were on hand by 8:30 a.m., and after whispered discussions, Ms. Disler and fellow protester Chelsey Engel, of Dormont, unchained themselves to cheers from supporters. A banner reading "Toomey is a Traitor," which was taped over another pair of doors, was also taken down.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/local/city/2017/12/04/Protesters-Pat-Toomey-office-chain-themselves-Pittsburgh-building/stories/201712040099