Linkee-po, it's getting hard to be someone, but it all works out, it doesn't matter much to me

An employee tells what it's like to work in the Troll Factories. "I failed the test because you had to know English perfectly." Apparently the Twitter Department has lower standards than the Facebook Department. Of course in this world (the Cold War II), this interview could also be a part of Putin's strategy of disinformation. (Waves to all my Russian friends) (Grokked from Katheryn Cramer)

"Black Panther pounced on the weekend box office, breaking cultural barriers and earning the highest debut ever for a February film, with an estimated three-day domestic gross of $192 million, said Disney, Marvel's parent company." And there is still today that will be included in the overall total for the weekend. World-wide the total gross is approach $400 million. "'There's a massive audience — not just of people of color but everybody — who wants to see different perspectives in this myth-making,' Coogler (the director) told NPR. 'They want to see something fresh, they want to see something new, but also feels very real.'" So between this movie and "Get Out", I'm wondering if Hollywood will finally realize how they need to be more inclusive of minority voices, actors, directors, and themes and how they can actually make money by doing so (since money is the main motivator). Or if we'll go back to making Herbie the Love Bug remakes?

"The adult skulls (except one) were missing jawbones, and at least two of the skulls showed evidence of a stick thrust through the opening at the base through the top of the skull—normally associated with posting a skull to scare enemies. But hunter-gatherers were not known for posting skulls or engaging in gruesome funeral rituals." (Grokked from Warren Ellis)

"Archaeologists in Saudi Arabia have discovered a series of rock reliefs dating back some 2,000 years. The life-sized sculptures show realistic impressions of several animals, though they have been badly damaged by years of erosion and rough treatment by humans." (Grokked from Dr. Caitlin Green)

"In new experiments, however, the physicists coaxed individual photons to cozy up to each other and link, similar to the way individual atoms stick together in molecules." Something new has been added.

Google drops the "view image" button. "Google's Search Liaison, Danny Sullivan, announced the change on Twitter yesterday, saying it would 'help connect users and useful websites.' Later Sullivan admitted that 'these changes came about in part due to our settlement with Getty Images this week' and that 'they are designed to strike a balance between serving user needs and publisher concerns, both stakeholders we value.'"

"'Cancer was a piece of cake,' Harrod says. 'It was the lymphedema that almost killed me.'" There are two new surgical techniques to help mitigate lymphedema (transplanting lymph nodes and tying the lymph system back into the venous system where lymph nodes are removed) as well as new techniques to reduce the number of nodes requiring removal. Fuck cancer.

"Each year, about 31,000 men and women in the U.S. are diagnosed with a cancer caused by an infection from the human papillomavirus, or HPV. It's the most common sexually transmitted virus and infection in the U.S." And rates of people getting vaccinated are still way too low. Also, HPV related cancers are increasing in men, so now (hopefully) parents will be more inclined to vaccinate boys (who are more often the vector of transmission). Most of the resistance is from our social inability to deal with sexuality, especially of teens coupled with an ignorance of medical knowledge.

"Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary David Shulkin accused political appointees in his department of trying to undermine him over policies he's attempting to pursue." Shulkin is the last of the Obama appointees in the department and the appointees he is talking about are Trump appointees. This might the be first look into the attempt to instill a "deep state" of Trump appointees. Of course it doesn't help that he's involved in his own scandal. (Grokked from Jim Wright)

"A federal grand jury has indicted 13 Russians and three Russian entities in connection with the attack on the 2016 presidential election… The defendants are 'accused of violating U.S. criminal laws in order to interfere with U.S. elections and political processes,' according to a statement from the special counsel's office. The indictment charges them with 'conspiracy to defraud the United States, three defendants with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud, and five defendants with aggravated identity theft.'"

"The Washington Post reports that Kushner, whose portfolio encompasses issues ranging from the Middle East peace process to modernizing the federal government’s use of technology, has put in more requests for U.S. intelligence information than any White House staffer not working for the National Security Council." His clearance is a temporary authorization, and I've lost count how many times he's had to amend his clearance declarations. (Grokked from Joy Reid)

"The Trump administration is proposing to dramatically cut funding for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a move critics say is an ongoing assault on the 7-year-old agency."

"Top election officials from across the country grappled with a delicate question this weekend: How do you tackle the threat of election interference, and be transparent in doing so, without further eroding the public's trust in the voting process?"

"After months of criticizing special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe, President Donald Trump’s supporters are issuing increasingly bold calls for presidential pardons to limit the investigation’s impact." This should be fun.