Linkee-poo stuck around St. Petersburg when I saw it was a time for a change

This will be remembered as the day Twitter sang, "Ding dong, the witch is dead." Don't let the door kick you in the ass, Milo.

Emails from a CEO who has some changes to make to the website. I've had those conversations. (Grokked from Jason Sanford and K Tempest Bradford)

Need a new hip? How about just growing some new cartilage to replace the workout or damaged part in your acetabulum. And, as an extra bonus, we'll add a gene that can be turned on with drugs that will release anti-inflammatory hormones. As a rad tech, I've seen hip replacement surgery, it's not something you want. This could delay that surgery for quite a while (another reason for hip replacement if bone lose or fracture). (Grokked from Paolo Bacigalupi)

The world is weirder than you expect. "This (buzzing) sound is the key to a secret stash of pollen that some flowers hide deep within their anthers, the male parts of the plant. Only pollinators that buzz in just the right way can vibrate tiny grains out of minuscule holes at the top of the anthers for a protein-rich snack."

Some of the Pokemon Go craziness and how it's propping up Nintendo. (Grokked from John)

"(Google) is using technology from the DeepMind artificial intelligence subsidiary for big savings on the power consumed by its data centers…" This is how Skynet started. What's not mentioned is Alphabet/Google's long standing commitment to renewable energy sources. (Grokked from Robert J Bennett)

Back in the days of Nixon, food was becoming very expensive, leading to run away inflation (most people don't remember the Nixon Presidency for their price controls, but they were there). Face with a "let them eat cake" moment, Nixon directed his cabinet to come up with solutions. That solution was crop subsidies to help produce cheap calories. So, how's that working out? "But are there unintended consequences? For instance, do subsidies encourage the production — and perhaps overconsumption — of things that we're told to eat less of? Think high fructose corn syrup or perhaps meat produced from livestock raised on subsidized grains… For instance, (a study) found a higher probability of both obesity and unhealthy blood glucose levels (which raises the risk of Type 2 diabetes) among people who consumed the most calories from subsidized foods." Note all the explaining away about how this really isn't true (farm subsidies lead to increase in unhealthful eating) and lots of advice for how to change the system except for the obvious answer to change what we support with subsidies.

Another blow to the "animals aren't intelligent/don't feel emotions" crowd, researchers "found all seven species 9of whales) have been seen keeping company with their dead in oceans around the globe." (Grokked from Kameron Hurley)

"The report found that undocumented New Jerseyans contribute $274 million in property taxes, $49 million in personal income taxes and $267 million in sales and excise taxes to New Jersey and local governments. These tax contributions would be larger if all undocumented immigrants were granted legal status under a comprehensive immigration reform and if President Obama’s 2014 executive action were upheld." And it's not just NJ. (Grokked from Lisa N. Morton)

Good thing our internal spying organizations are keeping a weathered eye out for the main threat to America, the environmentalists. sure you can trust the government. Just ask the closest Indian or whale. (Grokked from Paolo Bacigalupi)

What is a paradigm anyway? It's about twenty cents, actually. (Thank you, we'll be here all week, don't forget to tip the wait staff)

Seeing diminishing support and a Supreme Court shift antiabortion activists are mixed with how to respond and move their agenda forward.

"Meanwhile, the Paul, Weiss lawyers are attempting to interview former Fox employees who have stories of harassment but haven’t spoken because they signed settlements with Ailes’s Fox attorney, Dianne Brandi. 21st Century Fox is now waiving the NDAs to allow women to speak." I believe, as the kids say, "shit just got real." (Grokked from Paolo Bacigalupi)

Maryland changes the preferred method of opioid treatment sending patients into new crisis. There's a lot going on in that story, but mostly it's the addicts who are trying to recover who are paying for political and legal failures.

In our name. "A US air strike killed more than 85 civilians, including children, in Syria on Tuesday after the coalition mistook them for Islamic State fighters." (Grokked from Saladin Ahmed)

So, how's that not supporting paid sick days thing working out? Some RNC people staying in Sandusky come down with norovirus like symptoms. Yeah, that thing will rip you up. If only there were better regulations and employee support to help this kind of thing form happening (although sourcing the virus from sick employees is just a speculation, the delegates could have been carriers themselves). (Grokked from Lisa N. Morton)

As someone on twitter said, if everybody being purged in the wake of the failed coup attempt in Turkey were actually involved, the coup would have been more successful. Classic authoritarian tactic, use a failed coup attempt to silence all critics.

If you've read no other political story I linked to today, you should read this one at least. I think I've said it before that part of the Trumpsters appeal is that some people want a strong man leader. Whelp, turns out there's actual research to support my intuitive claim. "(some political science researchers) realized that … (they) had essentially predicted Trump's rise back in 2009, when they discovered something that would turn out to be far more significant than they then realized… That year, (they) published a book about the effects of authoritarianism on American politics… Their book concluded that the GOP, by positioning itself as the party of traditional values and law and order, had unknowingly attracted what would turn out to be a vast and previously bipartisan population of Americans with authoritarian tendencies." I don't think it was "unknowing", but I'll grant that the GOP really didn't understand the fire they were setting. So now, when we make comparisons between the Trumpster and Hitler and Mussolini, there's actual research to back that up. And those who crave authoritarian rule gravitate to the Republican party because of Nixon's Southern Strategy and their marketing as "the law and order" party. It's a long read but well worth it. One big takeaway buried deep in that article is that 44% of people can be defined as having authoritarian views. What's the support level for the Trumpster? (Grokked from John)

So, how did Scott Baio fair in the after-speech interviews. Ah, as well as we thought. Or as someone else tweeted (sorry, forget who it was) "Scott Baio for years shouting about why people won't take him seriously, now says it was all a joke."

First night wrap up (sans controversies). And for Melania's speech, it wasn't "closely like Michelle Obamas" they were word for word. And then, instead of letting the fire pass over them, the campaign stood up and spouted so much shit, nobody could keep all the angles straight. As a side note, my guess is they wanted this fight to hope other people would forget all the other shit that happened that first day and just focus on the speech. Something that the general public couldn't care less about and would quickly forgive and forget.

Hahahahahahaha Okay, that, IMHO, is the best of the Giuliani memes. (Grokked from Robert J Bennett)

The evolving story of Melania's plagiarism and Trump's Razor. (Grokked from John Scalzi)

And the Trump camp denials of the plagiarism. "Similar words were used" is the new "mistakes were made."

With the economy, from the GOP standpoint, everything is bad all over. Except where they live. It's doing pretty good where they live. (Grokked from Paolo Bacigalupi)

There's this thing where fear of terrorism gets us to change our actions and slowly move away from our form of government. In this case, Wright State University now says they won't host the first Presidential Debate on Sept 26th. Because of "security concerns."

Trump Tracts in the form of religious tracts (specially the Church of the SubGenius' parody of them). Makes grabby hands. All hail, Bob. Give us Slack.