Linkee-poo blows it out before the weekend

The writer as wizard from Ursula K Le Guin's "Where Do You Het Your Ideas From?", a talk for the Portland Arts & Lectures series.

The Burger King Net Neutrality commercial.

"Archaeologists in Israel have discovered the oldest fossil of a modern human outside Africa. The fossil suggests that humans first migrated out of the continent much earlier than previously believed."

"The Trump administration is preparing to end support for the International Space Station program by 2025, according to a draft budget proposal reviewed by The Verge. Without the ISS, American astronauts could be grounded on Earth for years with no destination in space until NASA develops new vehicles for its deep space travel plans." I've already lived through a times when the US had no real manned space program. I cheered when Shuttle Columbia first lifted off. I cried when Challenger exploded. And I cried when Discovery returned us to space (after begging my employer to watch it live, the whole office stopped to watch).

"SpaceX's new megarocket, the Falcon Heavy, briefly roared to life today (Jan. 24) during a much-anticipated engine test at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida that sets the stage for the booster's maiden flight in upcoming weeks."

"Scientists have found a new way to hunt for alien life on distant exoplanets. Clashing gas signatures could mark a planet as habitable from millions of miles away." Well, it's not really new idea, it's just we're finally the tools we need to make that detection are about to go online.

"In fact, it's your unique mixture of odors that determines how many mosquito bites you get, Riffell says — although scientists don't know exactly which combination is most alluring. Some people's perfume is just irresistible to skeeters." I'm one of those who draw mosquitoes. I say it's my Sweet New Jersey Blood they home in on. Also, I swat at the mosquitoes and it doesn't seem to do much for me. I don't have the patients to teach every damn mosquito every damn day.

"Raines believes the charred remains of the shipwreck he discovered are likely those of the Clotilda, the last American vessel to illegally bring African slaves to the U.S. nearly 160 years ago."

"Citing negative effects on tourism in the state, Maine Gov. Paul R. LePage has issued a moratorium on the issuance of new wind project permits." Now they're just throwing shit at the wall to see what'll stick. (Grokked from Robert J Bennett)

The coming robot apocalypse. "Asked if a robot could do his job, Beatty (a "picker" for a warehouse job) responds with a long pause. 'That's a tough one,' he says eventually, 'but I don't think a robot could do this.'" Right now robots are still pretty expensive (especially the ones with dexterity). And I think we'll see a lot of issues with the robotization of the workforce, jobs really aren't as easy as most managers and engineers believe (and given their current business model doesn't include learning from the people who their work impacts), the first major rollouts will be failures. There will also be a Neo-Art Nouveau movement (which was a response to increased industrialization of the "crafts"). But just like Nouveau didn't stop industrialization, it'll be hard to stop the eventual robotization.

"Earlier this month, the BBC's China editor, Carrie Gracie, a 30-year veteran of the network, abruptly resigned her job in the Beijing bureau, accusing the network of promulgating a gender pay gap… On Friday, the network announced that four of the BBC's leading male hosts have agreed to pay cuts." This is like the upset over the reshoots for All the Money in the World. And I think it's okay (not much more than that) that the top male talent agreed to pay cuts (and the actors said they would donate their pay for the reshoots). But I have a much better idea. Why not fucking pay the women the same as the men. So, again, corporations take the opportunity to cut pay for some instead of increasing pay to match the higher salaries. Much of the problems in the world would be solved if they just paid everybody the same high salaries (instead of the lowest salaries).

"A federal regulator has launched an investigation into a Baltimore hospital after a passerby shot a video earlier this month of a confused patient wearing just a hospital gown discharged at a bus stop on a cold night." Someone's got some 'splainin to do. We sometimes have some patients leave AMA (against medical advice). In some cases, we send the sheriffs after them to bring them back. But this is just boggling that the hospital let this happen (and that the security guards didn't question what they were being asked to do).

"US President Donald Trump said Friday he would apologize for retweeting a series of posts by a UK far-right group, saying he didn't know who they were at the time." Note he didn't apologize at the time. Our president seems to have a problem remembering who the racists are, even when he knows who they are. David Duke anyone? Our president, for not being racists, seems to retweet a lot of racists. I'm sure just like the porn that kinda stuff "just appears" in his twitter timeline. And for not being racists, there sure are a lot of racists around him and who support him.

"As journalists, we're constantly trying to balance the different uses of the term (racist) in a way that will make sense to all of our listeners and readers. But in the era of proposed border walls and Muslim bans and 'shithole countries' and 'hell in the inner cities,' it's getting harder and harder, as one of our listeners put it, not to 'call a racist spade a racist spade.'"

The Planet Money podcast on Douglas Bruce. "In 1992, Douglas Bruce proposed a measure called the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights… TABOR was effectively a tax-limitation measure that said, whenever a government wanted more money… it had to put the question on the ballot. Increased taxes for roads? The voters would get to decide. Better schools? Put it on the ballot. But put the price there first." Yeah, only he's not a patriot, he's an anarchist. His goal, as is Grover Norquist's, is to destroy democratic government. These are people who want to tear it all down and they don't care who they hurt along the way. The only difference between them and the people in hoods breaking windows is they don't have the courage to go out into the streets.

"But it turns out that Walker and his cronies were just getting started on a project that in recent weeks has seen embattled Wisconsin Republicans upend new commissions that were supposed to promote fair elections and responsible governance, while the governor has refused to call elections to fill legislative vacancies in districts that might be won by Democrats." For people who say they love this country, conservatives have a big problem with democracy. Here we witness the unabashed dismantling of our democratic institutions. (Grokked from Joy Reid)

"With a combination of gerrymandering, voter-ID laws and dark money, Republicans have tipped the political scales in their favor. Will it be enough to keep Democrats from claiming victory in 2018?" (Grokked from Joy Reid)

"The Dutch intelligence agency AIVD spied on the Russian group believed to be behind the hack of the Democratic Party ahead of U.S. elections, local media reported on Thursday… Agents with the AIVD gained access to the group’s headquarters and between 2014 and 2017 passed along information to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency, the report said." Let's see who is scrambling for the exits now this is out.

"President Trump ordered White House counsel Don McGahn to fire Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller last summer — but McGahn refused and threatened to quit himself if the president went ahead, according to an explosive report in The New York Times." The Saturday Night Massacre that we were waiting for.

"During the final three months of 2017, a closely followed measure of the whole economy, called the gross domestic product, a rose at a 2.6 percent annualized rate. That's reasonably good, but less than the 3.2-percent pace in the third quarter. Most economists had been predicting about 3 percent growth." The famous Trump Bump may be over. Although, "For all of 2017, the economy grew 2.3 percent — up from 1.5 percent in 2016, the report said."