When it's a slow day at the bookstore. (Grokked from Jim Hines)
"Archaeologists working under difficult conditions in Cairo have discovered an ancient statue submerged in mud." Okay, it's just Ramses II, but still it's an interesting find. Especially since it was discovered in Cairo. (grokked from Matt Staggs)
Fiverr's ad for the gig economy. Are you a workaholic dweeb? Love stressing out and double-checking your double-check? Think the job is never done and love putting in more unbillable time than necessary? Fiverr maybe the solution you're looking for. Okay, well at least it's more realistic than the "people freelance because they don't want to work a 'real' job." (Grokked from Tobias Buckell)
Your workplace Wellness Program is about to get more invasive. "A little-noticed bill moving through Congress would allow companies to require employees to undergo genetic testing or risk paying a penalty of thousands of dollars, and would let employers see that genetic and other health information." Considering how the new GOP healthcare law also takes off restrictions regarding pre-existing conditions (remember, you could get insurance that covered pre-existing conditions, but those were typically in "high-risk pools", which cost about 5-20x as much as other insurance plans and were run by the states) this is exceptionally bad. Have BRCA1 or BRCA2, have genes linked to other cancers or heart disease, or any of the many conditions that we think we know the genetic markers for (which I'll note several of these markers have been disproved) and suddenly you're in the "high-risk pool", even without any symptoms. And you're on the hook for all that extra cost. Or your employer may just decide to fire you. Sure, they'll have to pay unemployment, but that's why most states have "employ at will" laws. And yes this is real. (Grokked from Paolo Bacigalupi)
Before abortion, the world was nicer and more polite. "Alone, often met with silence and obstruction from Church and state bureaucracies that held long-forgotten records, Corless eventually exposed the existence of a mass grave of babies and toddlers in a sewer on the grounds of the home." Yeah, bullshit. The world was meaner and a worst place to live. So, mass graves, sound like some third world place run by a dictator. Well, no, this is Ireland and we're talking about a home for wayward girls (unmarried mothers). (Grokked from Xeni Jardin)
Gen. Michael Flynn belated registers as a foreign agent (aka lobbyist) for Turkey during the campaign. (Grokked from Laura J Mixon)
"Donald Trump's new FCC boss, Ajit Pai, has nuked an Obama-era rule that banned ISPs from selling off your browsing data, location, financial and health information, children's information, Social Security Number and contents of your messages, without your permission. The now-defunct rule also required ISPs to notify you when they got hacked and your sensitive personal information got out into the wild." Sure the parties are the same.
"Was the election interference a one-off deal where Putin vanquishes Hillary and then goes home fat and happy? Or was it part of something bigger, where Putin is using Trump — remember, the Steele Dossier, much of which is still unverified, alleges that Russia has been cultivating Trump as an asset FOR YEARS — to achieve much wider goals?" Again, the plot is over when the action ends. Russian trolls are still active. What the Trump people don't understand is they're only useful while they're useful. The Russians will drop them at the earliest opportunity. The goal is not to install Trump. And I agree, the goal is not the destruction of our democracy (that's just a happy side effect), they want us within our borders, they want is impotent. Everything else is gravy. And once they have us boxed in, they'll dump Trump (or whomever they're still supporting) if only to throw our system into more chaos. It's nothing personal. (Grokked from Michele)
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