"The relentlessly unyielding (but highly profitable) personalization of the products and services we use is getting deeper and creepier than ever." The internet is watching you (and profiting by the information you give it). What I want to know is with all these psychometrics going on, why the hell can't Twitter make smarter suggestions for people who I may like to follow? (Just a note, I'm very picky on whom I follow, even more so because of the number of people I already follow and prolific they are.) The article also has tips/links on how to stop them (or at least tell them to bugger off). In case you may need some convincing, here is a site that gives you feedback letting you know exactly how deep this scrutiny of your habits are. (Grokked from John)
More evidence that highly-processed foods are bad for us. "Trehalose (mycose or tremalose), a sugar that is added to a wide range of food products, could have allowed certain strains of Clostridium difficile to become far more virulent than they were before, a new study finds." We're boned. (Grokked from Dan)
"A prototype version of a self-sustaining life-support system, intended to allow humans to live in space indefinitely, is seen in Spain's University Autònoma of Barcelona." (Grokked from Warren Ellis)
"Postal carriers say a rafter of aggressive wild turkeys have prevented them from delivering mail to more than two dozen homes in a Cleveland suburb." You may laugh, but have you ever challenged a wild turkey? I have. You don't want to. Also, wild turkeys (who can fly, I just state that because a neighbor was shocked to see them fly) roost in trees. When startled, as a defense mechanism they defecate at their attacker. I've see that (fortunately wasn't when I had to chase a turkey away). Turkeys will mostly run away when they think you're a predator (so will geese), however sometimes they will defend (especially when nesting or courting). However, if you don't know how to behave like a predator, turkey's will harass you (humans are not hard coded in turkey brains as predators like raptors are). (Grokked from Shannon Eichorn)
"Fox Business Network host Stuart Varney suggested Wednesday that he will tip restaurant servers less if the minimum wage goes up." No matter what conservatives say their argument over the minimum wage is about keeping you down. Also, so continued the long tradition of service people spitting in Stuart Varney's food. What an asshole. (Grokked from Laura J Mixon)
African-American women are more likely to die from complications of child birth than white women. Including famous African-American women. "The next day, while recovering in the hospital, Serena suddenly felt short of breath. Because of her history of blood clots, and because she was off her daily anticoagulant regimen due to the recent surgery, she immediately assumed she was having another pulmonary embolism… (She) told the nearest nurse, between gasps, that she needed a CT scan with contrast and IV heparin… The nurse thought her pain medicine might be making her confused. But Serena insisted, and soon enough a doctor was performing an ultrasound of her legs… The ultrasound revealed nothing, so they sent her for the CT, and sure enough, several small blood clots had settled in her lungs. Minutes later she was on the drip. 'I was like, listen to Dr. Williams!'" There is no protection from the increased stresses of racism (and it's biological effects) and unexamined racism in health care providers. "According to the CDC, black mothers in the U.S. die at three to four times the rate of white mothers, one of the widest of all racial disparities in women’s health." (Grokked from Justine Larbalestier)
"According to an internal memo circulated in the department of homeland security, the US government could ask workers with H-1B visas to leave the country while they wait for pending green cards to come through, the Hindustan Times newspaper reported… If the proposal goes through, it could put the visa status of between 500,000 and 750,000 Indians in jeopardy, sending them back home abruptly." Green card applications can take months or even years. Abrupt deportation will disrupt the technology and healthcare sector. And while I support a revamping of the H-1B program (because it is often abused to bring in lower-pay high skill workers while American citizens who are qualified are overlooked because they've been out of work longer than 3 months, which the tech sector then considers your skills as too outdated) throwing the people already in the system out of the country is wrong, discriminatory, inhumane, and generally a dickish move. It is especially troublesome coming from the asshole who abuses the H-2B visa program for his own profit. (Grokked from Chuck Wendig)
"(Trump) has ended a national registry designed to provide information to the public about evidence-based mental health and substance use interventions and programs… The National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices, which is funded and administered by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), has existed since 1997 to help people, agencies and organizations identify and implement evidence-based behavioral health programs and practices in their communities, according to the website." Hello pillaging of insurance companies by meager resorts passing themselves off as "treatment" centers without helping patients. Of course it could also be the move for insurance companies to stop paying for inpatient and outpatient treatments because they "don't know what works and what doesn't, therefore it's all experimental". (Grokked from Laura J. Mixon)
"A Twitter battle over the size of each 'nuclear button' possessed by President Trump and North Korea's Kim Jong Un has triggered a surge in sales of a drug that protects against radiation poisoning." Um, no. Potassium iodide (and other iodine pills) won't protect you from radiation poisoning. A by-product of nuclear reaction is radioactive iodine and there is only one part of your body that uses iodine. Your thyroid (mostly/we think, well we know your thyroid uses iodine, but there could be other smaller uses). Basically what the purpose of giving iodine pills to someone in a fall-out zone (note, not for direct exposure to radiation, but to its fallout, and then only to one component of that fallout) is to saturate the thyroid with iodine so that it only takes up minimal radioactive iodine. This is meant to keep you from getting thyroid cancer. Note, after the Chernobyl disaster many residents had pro-active thyroidectomies (the US and Europe sent several surgeons to help). However, this only allows your kidneys to process the radioactive iodine out of the body (radiation hit to kidneys, ureters, bladder, urethra, as well as the systemic exposure while it's traveling through your body in your lungs, intestines, blood). There's plenty of other radioactive items in fallout, and you're only prevent one form of cancer (although it's pretty common from fallout).
"South Dakota is set to join a growing list of states looking to impose work requirements on Medicaid recipients… 'Work is an important part of personal fulfillment,' Daugaard said during his State of the State address." Work will make you free, although it sounds better in the original German, "arbeit macht frei." (Grokked from Jim Wright)
Just for comparison. "Among Medicaid adults… nearly 8 in 10 live in working families, and a majority are working themselves… Among the adult Medicaid enrollees who were not working, most report major impediments to their ability to work including illness or disability or care-giving responsibilities." This is the standard GOP bullshit about takers and is a cover (and dog whistle) to the base about getting all "those people" off "your" program. "Most Medicaid enrollees who work are working full-time for the full year, but their annual incomes are still low enough to qualify for Medicaid." That's the problem they don't want to be discussing. I suggest we bring it up at every opportunity.
"A three-judge panel ruled late Tuesday that North Carolina's congressional district map was illegally gerrymandered because of excessive partisanship that gave Republicans a solid advantage for most of the seats." And then ordered them to get a new map in place before this years election. Small victories.
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