To make up for the paucity of yesterday, this should hold you all through the weekend. This weekend, btw, has a lot of things scheduled, so don't expect another post until Monday (now watch me so super long posts like this one every day over the weekend).
"When Mark Hamill showed up in Hollywood on Thursday to cement his star on the Walk of Fame, the Force was with him — along with a crowd of thousands." And it's about damn time.
"A new scientific study claims that bones found in 1940 on the Pacific Island of Nikumaroro belong to Earhart, despite a forensic analysis of the remains conducted in 1941 that linked the bones to a male. The bones, revisited in the study 'Amelia Earhart and the Nikumaroro Bones' by University of Tennessee professor Richard Jantz, were discarded. For decades they have remained an enigma, as some have speculated that Earhart died a castaway on the island after her plane crashed."
"The American space agency's Juno probe has been studying the variations in the pull of gravity as it flies across the giant world's banded atmosphere… These measurements betray the movement of mass within Jupiter, and that gives scientists clues to its structure."
"Scientists have found a never-before-seen mineral in a diamond formed deep in the Earth's mantle. Thought be the planet’s fourth most abundant mineral, calcium silicate perovskite is usually buried 400 miles below the surface… The diamond provides 'fundamental proof' of the long-theorized idea that slabs of oceanic crust that sink deep within the Earth are recycled into the lower mantle, researchers said."
Looking for a hot ride? "NASA is inviting people around the world to submit their names online to be placed on a microchip aboard NASA’s historic Parker Solar Probe mission launching in summer 2018. The mission will travel through the Sun’s atmosphere, facing brutal heat and radiation conditions — and your name will go along for the ride." Submissions open to April 27, 2018. (Grokked from Dan)
"But in recent years, sales of one particular brand of cognac have surged at state-run liquor stores. So much Hennessy is being sold, in fact, that one New Hampshire official is asking the state Attorney General Gordon MacDonald to investigate whether the Liquor Commission is turning a blind eye to bootlegging and money-laundering activities."
There's that quote about a lie getting halfway around the world before the truth can put on its pants. "Fake news spreads faster and more widely than true news, according to a study examining how 126,000 news items circulated among 3 million Twitter users." Do better. (Grokked from Matt Staggs)
Geoffrey is taking his little red ball and going home. "Toys 'R' Us Inc. is making preparations for a liquidation of its bankrupt U.S. operations after so far failing to find a buyer or reach a debt restructuring deal with lenders, according to people familiar with the matter."
"A major malfunction at an egg freezing facility in Cleveland may have caused the loss of at least 2,100 frozen eggs and embryos, affecting between 500 and 600 families." Oops.
"The mutated gene is called RAS, and it's the very first human cancer gene ever discovered. It's also amazingly common – found in 30 percent of all cancers and responsible for a million cancer deaths worldwide, every year." Now, after 35 years of research, there might be some hope, but mostly for the variant RAS mutation found in lung cancer. Maybe. It's still very, very early. And "(u)nfortunately, cancers eventually develop resistance to these kinds of targeted drugs, so they may help for a matter of months, or occasionally for a period of years, but they are rarely cures." Fuck cancer.
"The GOP tax plan approved by Congress in the last days of 2017 repealed the ACA penalty for people who fail to carry health insurance, a provision called the individual mandate… But before that federal change happens next year, some states are working to preserve the effects of the mandate by creating their own versions of it."
"Health insurance giant Cigna is buying Express Scripts, the company that administers prescription drug insurance plans for millions of Americans, in a deal worth $67 billion, including $15 billion in Express Scripts' debt." I'm sure they'll make it work better… I can't even type that with a straight face. Full disclosure, Express Scripts is the PBM for my current health insurance. With the two major players, Express Scripts and CareMark, I've experienced both. Both suck.
"Like most rights, the right secured by the Second Amendment is not unlimited." That was Justice Scalia in his opinion striking down DC's handgun prohibition. As I've stated elsewhere, all the Amendments in the Bill of Rights have limitations accepted and written into law. So the NRA's stance about the 2nd being inviolate is rubbish. (Grokked from Jer)
"There are no accidents with guns." Jim Wright with Bang Bang Crazy Part 12. Here's a little thing, when doing honor guard or color guard drills, one of the more common commands is to relinquish your firearm (typically a rifle) for inspection. The procedure it to safety the weapon (if there is a safety), open and check the chamber to make sure it's empty, close the chamber and present to the inspecting officer. That officer then accepts the firearm, checks the safety, opens the chamber to visually inspect that the weapon is not charged and then proceeds to check the firearm for fitness (cleanliness is next to an A rating). If you hand the firearm to the officer with the chamber closed and the officer returns it with the chamber open, you refuse the firearm. If the officer changes the state of the weapon and attempts to hand it back, you refuse the firearm. The firearm can only be returned in the original condition it was presented in. Where upon to check the safety, then open the chamber to visually inspect that the weapon is not charged. And only then do you return to station. Notice that the passing of a firearm for inspection involves three checks to make sure the weapon will not discharge; before handing it off, by the inspecting officer, and then by you again when you're given the firearm back. Some officers even demand that the chamber be left open when passing the firearm (although if IIRC, it should be closed).
The hero narrative has distorted our perception of reality. "As a gunman killed petrified students and staff members at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School last month, officers outside could not immediately work together to locate the gunfire or the shooter." Should the school officer have entered the school to engage the shooter? We fault him (and he faults himself) for not doing that. But the reality of the situation was chaos (as it usually is). How many shooters? Where were the shooters? Orders to wait until a break in the shooting before engaging. All of that was unknown at the time (except for the orders). However the shooter continued to fire (until his gun jammed), so there was no break. Should the officer engage or coordinate the response? What we know now, the officer should have engaged (maybe). What they knew at the time, however, was a different situation. We say a "hero" would have charged in. Let me tell you another word for hero. Dead.
"There has been a dramatic turn to a story out of Clinton, Mo., where three police officers were shot Tuesday night — one fatally… Authorities now say the officers were sent to the wrong house following a 911 call."
"Advocates believe school resource officers can best handle any threats at schools. Critics say their presence creates unintended consequences like suspensions, expulsions and arrests — especially for students of color." Police don't belong in schools.
"Does California ban local law enforcement from transferring prisoners to and even communicating with federal immigration agents?" No, Jeff Sessions is a liar. "Police and sheriff’s officials are prohibited from cooperating with ICE agents in cases where undocumented immigrants are in jail for minor crimes — unless they are presented with a federal warrant or criminal removal order."
"The Interior Department is spending nearly $139,000 to upgrade three sets of double doors in the office of Secretary Ryan Zinke… Zinke was not aware of the contract for the work prior to a request about it from The Associated Press, spokeswoman Heather Swift said. The project was planned by career facilities and security officials as part of the decade-long modernization of the historic building erected in 1936 a few blocks from the White House, she said." This probably wouldn't be a problem if it weren't for the Secretaries habit of spending money on helicopter travel.
"Calm down, everyone… That's the message from President Trump's commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross, who told NPR's Rachel Martin Friday that the president's orders for new tariffs on imported steel and aluminum won't have the negative impact on the economy many are predicting." Well, you know, for everybody Wilbur Ross knows. The rest of us are fucked.
Not all steel is the same. "American steel manufacturers are excited about the Trump administration's plan to levy 25 percent tariffs on imported steel. They say the tariffs will level the playing field against big steel exporters like China… But in one Michigan county that voted heavily for Trump, people are worried that tariffs could force a big local plant to shut down." The plant manager says that most of the employees voted for Trump. Kinda sucks when you think he'll target all the other people, but you're the ones that end up in the cross hairs.
"The difference, though, was with The Apprentice, they could go back and edit the episode in a way that made it all make sense. In real life, and in politics, there is no editing — and confusion can have political consequences."
"A pair of Trump supporters were caught on camera this past weekend issuing unhinged threats to a left-wing bookstore in Berkeley, California." Such wonderful examples of humanity. (Grokked from Katheryn Cramer)
"When President Trump pulled the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, spurning the massive free trade agreement in one of his first acts in the Oval Office, most analysts figured the deal was dead… Trade ministers from the remaining 11 signatories to the agreement… are inking a deal Thursday that will eliminate trade barriers and streamline economic policies for countries across a vast stretch of the Pacific Rim. Just don't call it the Trans-Pacific Partnership, exactly: The U.S. withdrawal ensured the others couldn't meet a key mandate for that deal to come into force as originally written." So, basically the TPP without the mandates the US was pushing for.
"The Washington Post has reported that Nader is cooperating with the special counsel and has told investigators that the meeting was an attempt to set up a back channel with Moscow. Nader attended the Seychelles gathering on behalf of the United Arab Emirates, where he serves as an adviser to the royal family… If the meeting was indeed an effort to establish a secret line of communication with the Kremlin, that would be 'at odds' with what Prince told to the House intelligence committee in November, Schiff said." Erik Prince possibly lied to the committee? Shocked, shocked I am…
"U.S. President Donald Trump said he was prepared to meet North Korea’s Kim Jong Un in what would be the first face-to-face encounter between leaders from the two countries and could mark a breakthrough in a standoff over the North’s nuclear weapons." With such a meeting, Kim has everything to gain and Trump has everything to lose. This is why, despite the Kims wanting to meet with the US president since Reagan, that such a meeting has never happened. I don't give a shit what anyone spins this as, this is a major concession to North Korea.
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