Linkee-poo Wednesday

Apropos of nothing, Akamai's real-time web monitor where you can visually see heavy internet traffic as well as internet attacks. (Grokked from Dan)

"Smart home technology is being used to inflict new forms of domestic abuse on partners and former partners. Examples include everything from video surveillance through cameras to blasting out loud music through smart speakers and turning up thermostat temperatures to oppressive levels." (Grokked from John)

"This is what consciousness looks like – but these aren’t brain scans. Neuroscientist-turned-artist Greg Dunn created the art, aided by artist and physicist Brian Edwards, largely by hand, and using a special etching technique." So when people talk about "we only use 10% of our brain", understand that statistic is talking about all that complexity at the edges of the gyrus which are layers up[on layers of "grey matter." That the cell body and dendrite connection of the neuron. All those lines stretching back, that's the "white matter." Those are the axions of the same neurons, that's how the brain communicates with the other parts of the brain and with the body. That makes up roughly another 20% of mass (the rest are "non-processing" cells like glia, astrocytes, oligodendrocytes and microglia cells (although this "non-processing" concept is currently being challenged). The neurons couldn't function without those other cell types. (Grokked from Kathryn Cramer)

"Last month it was revealed that someone somewhere was illegally manufacturing a banned ozone-destroying chemical. Now it appears that small factories in China are the source." This is my surprised face. It looks just like my shocked face. (Grokked from Matt Staggs)

"Now, a team of Norwegian scientists is suggesting it's watched the climate reach a tipping point: the loss of Arctic sea ice has flipped the Barents Sea from acting as a buffer between the Atlantic and Arctic oceans to something closer to an arm of the Atlantic." We're boned. (Grokked from John)

"In a blow to organized labor, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that government workers who choose not to join a union cannot be charged for the cost of collective bargaining." In that case, the workers who choose not to pay agency fees should not be covered under the collective bargaining agreement and must negotiate their own terms of employment, which should not be grossly similar to the collective bargaining contract (different insurance, different pay scale, different vacation time, different grievance policy). If not, the unions in the next negotiations should create a separate class of employment for those people (and if I were in the union, it would mean substantially less pay to match "industry norms").

"In a stunning primary upset, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — a young socialist activist, woman of color and political newcomer — has unseated leading House Democrat Rep. Joe Crowley in New York's deep-blue 14th Congressional District." Dear DNC, please learn from this, and not the message most media seem to be sending ("she's a socialist!"), but that a "young activist, woman of color" won.

"An Air Force veteran was in serious condition on Tuesday after he set himself on fire in front of the Georgia Capitol to protest his treatment by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, according to state and local law enforcement officials." (Grokked in a roundabout way from Laura J Mixon)

"White House press secretary Sarah Sanders will reportedly receive temporary Secret Service protection days after she was asked to leave a Virginia restaurant." OMG, she was asked to leave a restaurant. Security! And a "Hollywood celebrity" said she should receive the same treatment people seeking asylum at our Southern border have received. Shocking! And now there's a whole discussion of "civility." Here's my hot take. I have been civil, and I see where that's gotten us. When I see the other side behave in a civil manner, I will return that attitude. But right now, I see no sign the other side intends to embrace their own call for civility, including the president and the functionaries of his administration. So fuck that call for civility. I aim to misbehave.

And why do we need to do this? "The extreme right is now in charge of the interior ministries in both Vienna and Rome, putting conspicuous pressure on the intelligence services. In Austria, there have even been police raids on the homes and offices of top intelligence service staffers." In the US, note the attack on the FBI, CIA and NSA from the so called "Law and Order" right. Fuck Nazis. (Grokked from John)

"China and Russia, emboldened by the Trump administration’s retreat on human rights issues and its drive to cut spending at the United Nations, are quietly seeking to scale back programs in U.N. peacekeeping missions around the world that protect civilians from violence and sexual exploitation, according to diplomats and confidential documents." (Grokked from Laura J Mixon)

Sure, you've heard Trump Quotes as read by Mark Hamill in the voice of the Joker, but have you heard them in the voice of Zapp Brannigan from Futurama? (Grokked from John)