I watch the ripples change their size
But never leave the stream
Of warm impermanence
And so the days float through my eyes
But still the days seem the same
And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds
Are immune to your consultations
They're quite aware of what they're goin' through

Thursday, August 13, 2015

Linkee-poo, hey, wait, I've got a new complaint

For your world building toolkit, an animal's pupil shape may be determined by knowing their ecological niche.

They ban books, don't they? Only in this case, they (a principal) didn't follow the rules. I wonder if I can get the Bible banned from Churches because of the incest, rape, and violent content? I mean, all of those are worse than "this book may question religion" objection. (Grokked from Neil Gaiman)

This is what the ocean might look like in a century. No coral, lots of algae. (Grokked from Morgan J Locke)

"The deadly infectious diseases that were eradicated in America during the 20th century are now roaring back, thanks to growing poverty, failing sanitation, and underinvestment in science and health research and regulation." It's almost like there's a connection between them. Like, the more we hurt the poor, driving them deeper into poverty with debt, and ignore basic science, both what the past has told us as well as continuing basic research, it affects us all. Well that can't be. It's like all those conservatives who embraced the "Got mine, fuck you" philosophy were only sowing the seeds of their eventual ruination.

There's movement in biological circles to reclassify life on this planet by using genetic markers instead of phenotype (i.e. how you and I probably learned the animal and plant kingdoms). This has lead to several competing classification schemes (forming species into groups and supergroups). It is my uneducated humble opinion this is because a few people have gotten carried away with the technology of cheap and fast DNA extrapolation and have forgotten a few very basic principles (especially when it comes to single-celled organisms). It's also my humble opinion that some post-doc will write a paper on Epigenetics and large number theory and make . And then there's the octopus, which is kinda blowing people's minds because of it's complex DNA. "Surprisingly, the octopus genome turned out to be almost as large as a human’s and to contain a greater number of protein-coding genes — some 33,000, compared with fewer than 25,000 in Homo sapiens." That's astounding, but only because people are still trying to classify humans as the most evolved, bestest species on Earth (and we keep failing at it; we tried brain size, we tried tool usage, we tried language). (Grokked from Morgan J Locke)

Schools should be controlled locally. You know, until progressives actually start focusing on the small elections and try to wrest control from the ultra-conservatives who have made their way onto school boards. Well, then screw your local control, national conservative groups will get into the fight.

A judge in Ireland finds the US prison system too inhumane and blocks extradition of a person wanted on terrorism charges. (Grokked from Vince O'Connor)

Channeling the spirits of dead artists to create new works. Yes, the world is stranger than you think it is.

As municipalities across the nation enact stranger laws against homelessness (note, only against the homeless, not to actually correct the problem), the Justice Department states it’s unconstitutional to ban the homeless from sleeping outside. "Such laws, the DOJ argues, violate the 8th amendment protections against cruel and unusual punishment, making them unconstitutional." (Grokked from Morgan J Locke)

"The Texas litigation, whose details were unsealed by the court in June, is just the latest of at least a half dozen whistleblower cases that have been filed in the past five years alleging billing fraud and lax government oversight of privately run Medicare Advantage plans, which have proven increasingly popular with the elderly." Private industry would over-bill the government for services provided? They say that like it's a bug and not a feature. It's almost like the legislation was written to just give lots of tax-payers' money to private industries.

"Analysts at ADP (one of the largest 3rd party payroll companies) studied the payrolls of the firms' clients, about 75,000 U.S. firms and organizations. They expected that as businesses prepared for the (Obamacare) mandate to take effect, they would adjust their employees' schedules, limiting them to no more than 30 hours a week. Yet ADP found no overall change in employees' weekly schedules between 2013 and last year… According to ADP's analysis, shifts in scheduling were trivial in every sector of the economy, even in industries that rely heavily on part-time work, such as leisure and hospitality." And two other studies back up that conclusion. Why, it's almost as if conservatives were lying or simply don't know WTF creates or kills jobs, despite their assurances that they do know. (Grokked from Morgan J Locke)

Oh look, another libertarian project to form their own community. This time, it's in Europe and they are claiming their own country.

The demise of the term RINO and the rise of cuckservative. "The phrase has caught on among a segment of disaffected Republicans, some of whom hold white nationalist ideologies and who feel many of the party’s presidential candidates are not conservative enough. And they are frustrated by the willingness of Republicans in general to compromise on a variety of issues, like spending or the Confederate battle flag, or they accuse them of being beholden to their donors." There is so, so much to unpack in that. Also, it's not surprising (at least to me), that ultra-conservatives/ultra-nationalist appropriated a term (cuckold) that has pornographic connotations and are portraying their party in the terms of dominance/subservient (in the BSMD sense). Also not surprised that the racists in the party are feeling emboldened and are coming out of the closet.

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