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

Wednesday, February 3, 2016

Linkee-poo cradle me, close my eyes, lullaby me to sleep

Phosphorus starts with pee. Those wacky alchemists, they'd try anything to turn base materials into gold. The start of an NPR series on serendipitous scientific discoveries, or happy accidents. Say, have I ever mentioned how our founding fathers used to make saltpeter?

"I'm your server, not your sex toy." A woman's perspective on the male gaze in the work place. Yea, I've had that conversation with some of my (male) employees when I was a manager. (Grokked from Ferrett Steinmetz)

So, got yourself one of those fancy pedometer/health trackers, eh? Well they might be helping other people track your health as well. Seriously, in this day and age for developers to not use some standard protection techniques is really just deplorable. And yea, I have one of these trackers now, for the wellness program at the PRN job. (Grokked from Tobias Buckell)

Turns out, some of those employers who decided to cut workers' hours to avoid giving them healthcare coverage under Obamacare aren't having such a good time with it. They have motivational problems, retainment problems, and quality of worker issues. Who'd a thunk it? Although there is the opposite, workers who are right on the cusp who now qualify for free medicaid, but would have to pay more for regular insurance if they got more hours.

"'Instead of saying, We screwed up, they said, Obamacare is the problem and we may not play anymore,' Lee said in an interview with California Healthline. "It was giving an excuse to Wall Street and throwing the Affordable Care Act under the bus.'" Companies blaming Obamacare for their own screw-ups and economic problems? Why, that's unpossible!

For all those people who think we're not doing anything about ISIS/ISIL/DRASH, we're not doing so much that we have to buy a heckalotta more smart bombs 'cause we're running out. Good thing President Obama is a coward and not leading the world, 'cause that would be even damn more expensive if he were. Time to buy Boeing stock. (Grokked from John)

Because it's the day after Iowa, six actual historical super villains. Yes, there's a Nazi or two in there. (Grokked from Vince O'Conner)

Why is this culture of hate speech and outrage a bad idea? "I don’t know if he was there to kill me." That's why. Because people don't understand it's a game or a strategy, because it's their life. And they believe the lies they've been told, even though they'll spout that all politicians are liars, but not there politicians. Never the ones they agree with. And stoking the fires of hate and divisiveness drives the type of people like the guy in this story. And it drives them to react to crimes they believe are being committed against them, when absolutely nothing of the sort is happening. This is why we rage at the language of the Right. (Grokked form Annalen Flower Horne)

"Fine says one sure way of identifying an outsider is a prominently displayed sidearm. She shoots a scornful glance at a trio of men standing in front of her, their arms crossed, their holsters hanging out." More on Harney County and the confrontation between locals and outside agitators (one of whom wondered how many of those "locals" were "paid actors"). Some analysts that have looked at the political landscape say that there are two Americas people exist in. There's a heck of a lot more than two.

Did Clinton rig the coin tosses to win in Iowa? Shakes Magic 8-Ball, "Signs point to no." It doesn't quite work that way, but it feeds some preconceived notions that Hillary Clinton is both incompetent and wily canny that she couldn't win outright, and so somehow "fixed" six coin tosses to go her way.

"'For strong liberals the estimated drop in turnout in strict photo identification states is an alarming 7.9 percentage points,' researchers found. 'By contrast, strong conservatives actually vote at a slightly higher rate – 4.8 points – in strict ID states, all else equal.'" Working as planned. Just in case anyone still doubted the purpose behind voter ID laws. (Grokked from Robert J Bennett)

"Last year, she made 10 trips – to her local driver’s license office, to the bank to obtain personal documents, to Social Security offices in Raleigh and home again – to get an ID that she was certain would allow her to vote." So much for the vaunted ease of getting an voter ID. (Grokked from Mur Lafferty)

Not only does the Trumpster feel he wasn't treated fairly by the media (insert standard conservative whining point #2), he also thinks he should've gotten credit for trying. I mean, "funding his own campaign." Not like he wanted a trophy for participation, but yea, wanting credit for showing up.

Then Dr. Carson and Bill O'Reily play a game of Rabbit Season/Duck Season over who was to blame for the Cruz campaign's letter to inform Carson caucusers that the good doctor had suspended his campaign (even though that appears to be rumors based on his "returning to Florida" which he now says, "was to get fresh clothes"). Apparently Dr. Carson wasn't given the memo to blame CNN, instead of the Cruz campaign. But I'm sure they could all agree it was Pres. Obama's fault.

So much for any actual work getting done in the Senate this year. Although, truth be told, it's an election year. Nobody should have expected anything anyway. (Grokked from Robert J Bennett)

And then there were ten. I knew we'd get to an Agatha Christie novel sooner or later.

So, more guns makes us safer, huh? Man shoots dog when he meant to shoot his wife after a drunken argument. I think the dog would disagree with more guns making us safer. On the plus side, the man was actually charged with attempted murder and arrested. 'Cause that doesn't always happen.

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