"When we reach out for an exciting new goal, our need for safety and security gets triggered. A part of us wants to move forward while another part puts on the brakes." The inner critic (or as I call it, "the gremlins") from a different perspective. (Grokked from Matt Staggs)
"One reason is that schoolchildren and classicists alike have read Greek and Latin widely for centuries. But hieroglyphics and the stories they tell have remained accessible only to a handful of trained scholars. That’s one reason Penguin Classics has published Writings from Ancient Egypt in Great Britain (it will be available in the US in January), the first literary English translation of some of the texts that cover thousands of square feet of monuments and tomb walls." (Grokked from Kelly Link)
Why Emma Watson avoids taking selfies with her fans. Very reasonable. (Grokked from Matt Staggs)
"And so, as we started to read the current round of internship applications, we have some advice for you… The problem we see, over and over and over again? Well, let's just say your cover letter needs some work."
"The observation that Icelandic killer whales are fluid in both their choice of prey and their group size surprised researchers studying the whales’ social structure. This behavior, discovered by Sara Tavares of Scotland’s University of St Andrews, was unlike that of the intensively studied killer whales of the northeast Pacific, which have more rigid and hierarchical relationships." Pointed to because one, killer whales (one of my favorite animals), and two, because not even whales are monocultural. No animals really are. Keep in mind for both political discussions and for world building.
"An Argentine research base near the northern tip of the Antarctic peninsula has set a heat record at a balmy 63.5° Fahrenheit (17.5 degrees Celsius), the U.N. weather agency said on Wednesday." I'm sure it's fine. We're all fine here. How are you? (Grokked from Chuck Wendig)
"You know that sharp odor of chlorine from the swimming pool you can recall from earliest childhood? It turns out it's not just chlorine, but a potent brew of chemicals that form when chlorine meets sweat, body oils, and urine… But up until now, just how much urine has been difficult to measure, says chemist Xing-Fang Li of the University of Alberta. Li and her colleagues report they can now tell roughly how much pee is in a pool by measuring the artificial sweeteners carried in most people's urine. Certain sweeteners can be a good proxy for pee, she says, because they're designed to 'go right through you' and don't break down readily in pool water." So, no big blue coloring?
"This morning, the Texas Senate Committee on State Affairs unanimously passed a bill on to the full Senate that would let the government decide what a pregnant woman deserves to know about the health of her unborn child." (Grokked from Robert J Bennett)
"An international team of scientists has tailored special X-ray glasses to concentrate the beam of an X-ray laser stronger than ever before. The individually produced corrective lens eliminates the inevitable defects of an X-ray optics stack almost completely and concentrates three quarters of the X-ray beam to a spot with 250 nanometres (millionths of a millimetre) diameter, closely approaching the theoretical limit. I, uh… wait, what? "An X-ray laser… generate(s) or amplif(yes) electromagnetic radiation in the near X-ray or extreme ultraviolet region of the spectrum." (From Wikipedia). Okay, that makes more sense now. Basically it's ultra-ultraviolet and the low end of Grenz rays laser. Because one of the properties of x-rays (that we use diagnostically)is they can be deflected, but not reflected or focused. I wonder if the energy produced is enough for surface radiation therapy. This level of light doesn't have the penetration power to make it too far under the skin, which is why we filter it out (using aluminum to adsorb them) for diagnostic x-rays (it adds nothing to the image but increases patient radiation dose). (Grokked from Matt Staggs)
You may be wondering if everybody "hates" the EPA, how did it ever come into being in the first place. "Once upon a time, you could touch the air in New York. It was that filthy. No sensible person would put a toe in most of the waterways." And NYC wasn't the only place. (Grokked from Matt Staggs)
What happens when you just throw away the pretense of who exactly is calling the shots in many places? "Police claimed they had 'authorization from the president of McDonald’s' to arrest protesting fast food workers, according to a civil rights lawsuit filed on Wednesday against the city of Memphis, Tennessee." Ever single police officer, and their chief, should be fired, and the mayor should be run out of town on a rail. (Grokked from Fred Clark)
"Iowa state Sen. Mark Chelgren (R) was forced to backtrack on claims that he received a college 'degree' after his alma mater was revealed to be the operator of a Sizzler steak house franchise… NBC News reported on Wednesday that Chelgren’s 'business degree' came under scrutiny due to a bill he is sponsoring which would limit the number of liberal professors that state universities could hire." And then he told another lie about his advanced education. (Grokked from Wesley Chu)
Just in case you thought it was only "bomb scares." "A gunshot was fired through a Hebrew school classroom window at an Indiana synagogue… The bullet hole was discovered late Monday at Adath B’Nai Israel Temple in Evansville. The apparent attack was reported to police on Tuesday morning, according to reports." (Grokked from Leah Bobet)
How the media and the veterans viewed Trump's use of Owen's widow. (Grokked from John Scalzi who notes "that in both cases it's a curated list")
Fact checking the president's speech. Not for me, but you might be interested.
"The ratings are in, and President Donald Trump's first address to a joint session of congress attracted fewer viewers than President Obama's in 2008." Oh, that's gonna leave a mark. If you're going to protest somewhere that there might be a chance the president sees your placard, I think I know a subject to get his goat.
"Then-Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) spoke twice last year with Russia’s ambassador to the United States, Justice Department officials said, encounters he did not disclose when asked about possible contacts between members of President Trump’s campaign and representatives of Moscow during Sessions’s confirmation hearing to become attorney general." Okay, I'm developing a theory that people in NSA are leaking. Don't these politicians know that someone is always watching? Jeez, trade craft, people. Learn the trade. We didn't bring enough shoes for this. (Grokked from John Scalzi)
"Republicans on a House committee with jurisdiction over the Obamacare repeal legislation will be viewing the current version of the bill in secret in a basement room of a office building adjoining the Capitol Thursday, the Washington Examiner, Bloomberg and other outlets reported. GOP members and staff of the Energy and Commerce Committee will only be able to look at the legislation and will be prohibited from making copies, Bloomberg reported." No word on if you have to mount a broom and catch the one, special key to get in. Remember when Democrats did that with the ACA? Yeah. Me neither. (Grokked from Kathryn Cramer)
Tweet of my heart: @TheAuthorGuy Okay, everyone who likes Trump thought it was St Crispins. Everyone who doesn't like him thought it was bullshit and gets the St Crispiness ref
Double dip: @LOLGOP Don't forget the Yemen raid seems to be a real life version of the GOP's Benghazi fantasy and instead of investigating it, they're cheering. (Grokked from Laura J. Mixon)
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