I watch the ripples change their size
But never leave the stream
Of warm impermanence
And so the days float through my eyes
But still the days seem the same
And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds
Are immune to your consultations
They're quite aware of what they're goin' through

Friday, March 23, 2018

Linkee-poo pushes it out

John Bolton, seriously? That guy shouldn't be given command of a dingy. By himself.

Lots of news I can get to, including clarification that the Dickey Amendment doesn't actually prevent the CDC from studying gun violence. But the rider is still attached to the latest spending bill. Because.

"Now, researchers say cooking red and white meat over an open-flame or at high temperatures — including grilling, barbecuing, broiling and roasting — might modestly increase a person’s risk of developing high blood pressure. The results were presented Wednesday at an American Heart Association meeting." Yeah, I'll risk it. And while the report quickly focuses on grilling, I'll note the actual study talks about cooking red meat at high-temperatures. The best way to make a medium-rare steak? Sear the outside quickly with a high temperature surface and the move to a lower-temperature setting. Also, the people who saw the greatest increases where "grilling" 15 times a month. That's over the recommended intake of red meat.

"Standards for how to investigate and report on overdoses vary widely across states and counties. As a result, opioid overdose deaths aren't always captured in the data reported to the federal government. The country is undercounting opioid-related overdoses by 20 to 35 percent, according to a study published in February in the journal Addiction." Who needs regulation?

"But when a team of researchers at MIT unveiled their robotic fish Wednesday, one of the keys they emphasized was the graceful undulation of the prototype's tail — which, besides being rather eye-catching, serves a crucial role in the robot's ultimate mission: giving scientists the ability to unobtrusively observe marine wildlife remotely." One of the things they're worried about it that the robot might be seen a prey. Dudes, really, I'm sure you have some biologists there that can help you with that. Also, Woods Hole is right down the road. Note, sharks also hunt using electrical signals. More than likely your robot looks like a hot mess to them.

"What exactly Kushner and the Saudi royal talked about in Riyadh may be known only to them, but after the meeting, Crown Prince Mohammed told confidants that Kushner had discussed the names of Saudis disloyal to the crown prince, according to three sources who have been in contact with members of the Saudi and Emirati royal families since the crackdown." Hmm, well that's a coinkydink. This is why some information needs to remain classified, and why people who can't pass a background check shouldn't have access to it. Say, where did the Kushner's get some recent financing? Just because Putin may have leverage on the president doesn't mean other people also don't have leverage on him and his family. And now foreign leaders are semi-openly talking about their control. (Grokked from Kathryn Cramer)

"Police shot at a man 20 times in his own yard, thinking he had a gun. It was an iPhone." Bang bang crazy.

Who needs ethics? National Labor Relations Board Member William Emanuel (R) violated a White House ethics pledge by participating in a closely watched case involving his former law firm, the NLRB’s inspector general concluded in a report obtained by Bloomberg Law… Although Emanuel told Inspector General David Berry that he didn’t realize former firm Littler Mendelson represented a business in the seminal Browning-Ferris Industries case, he previously flagged the litigation for lawmakers as one that he might need to sit out, according to Berry’s report. Emanuel then joined the rest of the five-member board in directing its top attorney to ask an appeals court to drop the case." Ethics just gets in the way of getting your way. And now we're back to the "aw shucks, I don't remember" excuse popularized by Reagan. (Grokked from Laura J. Mixon)

"The F.B.I. investigated Attorney General Jeff Sessions for possible perjury last year over congressional testimony in which he said he had no contacts with Russians, according to three people familiar with the case." Guess who authorized the investigation. Aw, it's no fun unless you guess.

"Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.) on Wednesday dismissed the controversy surrounding the purchase of a $31,000 dining set for Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson's office, blaming the decision on the so-called deep state." Alert Snyders of Berlin, we've got an all new pretzel maker here. Take 2! Or, hey, I didn't know Ben Carson's wife was a part of the Deep State? (Grokked from Matt Staggs)

"John Dowd, the veteran attorney leading President Trump's outside legal team, has tendered his resignation… He declined to explain why he was leaving the team that is helping the president deal with Robert Mueller's special counsel investigation." Was it just last weekend that John Dowd said that Mueller should be fired? I guess we see who won that round.

"Former U.N. ambassador John Bolton recorded a video used by the Russian gun rights group The Right to Bear Arms in 2013 to encourage the Russian government to loosen gun laws." Like I said, they keep on saying there's no collusion, but damn there sure are a lot of Russians around here (waves to my Russian friends).

"But on one occasion, The Daily Beast has learned, Guccifer failed to activate the VPN client before logging on. As a result, he left a real, Moscow-based Internet Protocol address in the server logs of an American social media company, according to a source familiar with the government’s Guccifer investigation." Oops. (Grokked from Jim Wright)

"Even though the final report from the Republican-led House Intelligence Committee will find no evidence of collusion between the Trump presidential campaign and Russia, a new study by a Democratic-aligned advocacy group suggests the committee didn’t look very hard… According to the Center for American Progress’s Moscow Project, the House committee charged with investigating Russian involvement in the 2016 election obtained either no or incomplete information about 81 percent of the known contacts between Trump officials and Russians, or groups and individuals with strong Russia ties like Wikileaks." For there being no collusion, there sure are a hellalotta Russians around. (Grokked from Kathryn Cramer)

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