Linkee-poo hitched a ride with a vending machine repair man

Hallo to all my new friends in the Netherlands.

Tobias Buckell talk about his writing tools. Note, since he wrote this Scrivener has moved to version 3.

"A 2.2 micron animation of the stellar orbits in the central 0.5 arcsec. Images taken from the years 1995 through 2016 are used to track specific stars orbiting the proposed black hole at the center of the Galaxy. These orbits, and a simple application of Kepler's Laws, provide the best evidence yet for a supermassive black hole, which has a mass of 4 million times the mass of the Sun." (Grokked from Laura J Mixon)

Not my Dr Pepper? Okay, if they promise to bring real sugar Dr Pepper back to supermarkets, I'll support it (Yes I know about Dublin's Dr Pepper, but shipping is a killer and frankly I don't drink that much pop anymore).

"Officials in Cape Town on Monday tried to allay international concerns about the water crisis in the South African city, saying tourists and investors are welcome despite fears that most taps could be turned off in April because of drought."

"The U.S. tax bill signed into law in December will have a limited effect on the U.S. economy, as companies are unlikely to spend their tax savings on growth initiatives while the tax cut for the wealthy will not trickle down… That’s according to Moody’s Investors Service in a FAQ on the credit impact of the tax bill published Thursday, which warns of a number of negative consequences for federal debt, local governments, utilities and homeowners." Wow, you're saying water actually is wet. (Grokked from Kathryn Cramer)

"This year’s flu season is now more intense than any since the 2009 swine flu pandemic and still getting worse, federal health officials said Friday." It's bigly.

The Environmental Protection Agency said in a surprise announcement Friday that it was suspending its effort to withdraw proposed protections for a southwest Alaska watershed to make room for a new mine." I guess the check didn't clear.

"Online fitness tracker Strava has published a 'heatmap' showing the paths its users log as they run or cycle… It appears to show the structure of foreign military bases in countries including Syria and Afghanistan as soldiers move around them." Oops.

"The American Legal Democracy Fund, a group with ties to liberal Super PAC American Bridge and headed by former DNC spokesman Brad Woodhouse, filed this complaint in response to reporting by McClatchy earlier this month. The report indicated the FBI is investigating whether a Russian banker with ties to the Kremlin illegally funneled money to the NRA in order to aid President Donald Trump's campaign."? Ooo, a super-liberal PAC. Or something.

"Top national security officials within the Trump administration are reportedly weighing whether to build a nationalized mobile wireless network within the U.S., an effort aimed at protecting the country's wireless systems from China and other outside actors." What could possibly go wrong? (Grokked from Dan)

"Members of President Trump's team have voiced their disapproval of a Grammy Awards sketch featuring a cameo by Hillary Clinton." Aw, I think somebody got their feelings hurt. The word I'm looking for here is "petulance."

"Posing as American activists, Russian government-linked trolls created 129 Facebook events between 2015 and 2017… On multiple occasions, the events prompted real Americans to take to the streets… In one case, the troll group organized and promoted two opposing events on the same day at the same location in Houston, Texas." Russians are doing what they always do, finding a way to get their enemies to weaken themselves by exploiting divides. (Grokked from Katheryn Cramer)