Linkee-poo, just as every cop is a criminal and all the sinners saints

So far, I can't find much reporting on the Trumpster's press conference today where he openly asked Russia to hack Clinton's email server (now in FBI custody) to find the "deleted emails." I just can't even…

With the rise of better TV shows (and writing), we're now seeing more experimentation with serialized storytelling in novels. I'm old enough to remember how Hill Street Blues revolutionized TV drama storytelling with "through lines", or persistent story elements and arcs that would take more than 3 episodes to run their course. Until then, most shows would essentially reset to zero with every episode (you can still see this with most TV series where a character gets obsessed with something, only to never have it mentioned after that episode, that really annoys the hell out of me). But now with whole series taking a season or more to tell a single story that's bleeding back into forms that have experimented with serialization before. I'm not sure it'll stick this time as most people read specifically to break from the form of storytelling they get on TV. But then there was a time where having a movie run longer than an hour and a half was unusual, and to go more than 2 hours was considered suicide. Ever since "Rock fall on head, hurt" was uttered (which was the first story and the first joke) storytelling has continually changed. I don't remember if Scalzi has done a comparison/report on how his experiment with the Human Division went? (Grokked from Ann VanderMeer through Jason Sanford)

Because I often publicly deride bad design and advertising (and boy howdy is there a lot of examples lately, seriously, what are they teaching kids these days), here's an example of "good" design, milk bottles that take on the shape of cow abduction by UFO. It unfortunately isn't real. Also, look at all that wasted space for shipping (that's real money lost), and because the bottles can't touch each other, there would be a high degree of breakage (also more money). So, highly impractical, but damn cool. I'd buy milk like that.

You know, Getty, if you're going to steal copyright free images and claim them as your own, it might help to not sue the actual photographer of those images, who donated them to the Library of Congress for public use, for using them on their own campaigns. That is the height of stupidity. And it's not your first time doing this. (Although, slight industry secret, lots of photo services have taken images in the public domain and sold them as licensed images). (Grokked from Kameron Hurley)

"Pirate printers" use manhole covers are art for t-shirts and other wearables. Now that is a great idea. And while the images on that article are a little, frankly, boring, my friend John provides a google image search with some beautiful covers. It's sort of like a mixture of "found art" and public art.

The Planet Money podcast on when women stopped coding. Why representation is important and why having a gender neutral approach to "toys" is very important. "The share of women in computer science started falling at roughly the same moment when personal computers started showing up in U.S. homes in significant numbers… These early personal computers weren't much more than toys… And these toys were marketed almost entirely to men and boys." I was a part of that time, 1984 I went to Akron to study Computer Science (the mathematics option, which meant "coding"). It's been 30 years and I still remember the 2 women in our class (I went on a date with one of them).

Green foam exudes from St. Lake City sewers. Yeah, I'm sure it's nothing to be worried about (whispers to assistant, "load the bombers"). Dispatch the Arkham Crew, stat.

"And now for today’s lesson in institutionalised misogyny." On how Ghostbusters is about normal for a film's earning arc, only reporting calls it a bust where others are successful. BTW, saw Ghostbusters. Liked it, was a fun romp. Really like the messaging and how the story is different from an all female cast. Suggest you see it. Also, stay for all the credits (they did the scroll quite well, but the end is best). (Grokked from Elizabeth Bear)

How climate change is affecting our National Parks. In this case, fire is changing the landscape of the park, endangering existing archeological sites, but exposing new ones. If I were cynical I would say this is one of the reasons the GOP now has a plank to return all federally owned land (including parks) to the states. So they can ignore the problems of climate change which are already with us. And on the ocean another park is washing away (exposing archeological sites they had purposefully left buried).

Also, yes I've seen the "Elizabeth Warren Nazi Salute". And, no. That was a hand movement at the end of a total gesture, and it was with her left hand. She didn't come to attention while giving the salute. Just a reminder, this is the Laura Ingraham salute. The start of a "wave", but there's nobody there she's waving to (and she changes up as she actually waves to the crowd). Also, Laura uses the right hand. She comes to attention, is not smiling (like she is when she's waving). These things are not like each other and to make the comparison is an attempt to lessen the impact of the one. Only really pointed to so I can say I'm still kinda wigged out by Laura Ingraham's salute. (Grokked from Ferrett Steinmetz)

"In some respects, the comparison between these Sanders supporters and the Tea Party is overstated. No one knows whether the Sanders movement will manage to live on once the senator’s presidential campaign no longer exists to give it a unifying purpose." And that's the problem, and something I tweeted about last night. If you're a Berniebro or just a supporter of the Revolution and you walk out of the political process because Bernie didn't get the nod, you're a shyster. This is not about one election or one person. To really change politics you gotta show up all the fucking time. You have to win the local school board seats, the county commissioner seats, the state rep seats, the governorships, the US Senate (which is where it appears Bernie will be given a role, which is a Good Thing™). You gotta show up for referendums that have nothing to do with your pet concerns (but they really do, don't they). If you thought, "Ah, we got Bernie nominated, it's all over" you were fucking wrong. That would have been only the first half-step. There's a hellalotta more work to do, Sparky. Don't you be going home. "The biggest reason we’re not living in a paradise filled with bold progressive governance really is a simple one: It’s because the Republican Party has controlled either the presidency or a house of Congress for all but two of the past 22 years. And any judgment about how Democratic leaders are 'sellouts' really has to reckon with this fact." (Grokked from Jason Sanford)

"Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) got into a tense confrontation with a Politico reporter who questioned him about domestic abuse allegations his ex-wife laid out in a report the site published Tuesday, threatening to have the journalist arrested." Hey Democratic Party, we're going to need a cleanup in aisle Florida.

The Trumpster's ties to Russia keep hounding him. This time Newsweek gets a semi-non-comital answer ("Mr. Trump does not have any business dealings in/with Russia.") from the campaigns press secretary. What is really surprising, and probably a good sign (from a cultural perspective) is nobody has mentioned "The Manchurian Candidate" yet. (Grokked from Xeni Jardin)

Want to see what big business corruption in politics looks like? "The attorneys general of Massachusetts and New York said yesterday that they will refuse to comply with a subpoena from Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) regarding their probes into Exxon Mobil Corp.’s track record on climate change." That's an elected official using his position on a committee and using official subpoenas to harass and threaten states attorneys general to end their prob into Exxon Mobil's burring their scientific evidence of global climate change being caused by CO2 released by their product. From Wikipedia, "Smith currently serves as chairman of the Committee on Science, Space and Technology for the 113th Congress… Smith has previously served on the Committee on Homeland Security, Committee on the Judiciary (Chairman), the Republican Study Committee, and the Tea Party Caucus." Tea Party, meet the new boss, same as the old boss. (Grokked from Paolo Bacigalupi)

Tweet of my heart: @VesselOfSpirit you may not think your brain is a supervillain. but 1) its called Brain and 2) it lives in a skull fortress (Grokked from Lisa Morton)