"This is the livestream page of the Tribute to Ursula K. Le Guin event on June 13 at 7:30 p.m. PDT. The event will feature tributes from writers and friends who represent the wide-ranging influence Le Guin has had on international literature for more than 50 years, including Margaret Atwood (by video), Molly Gloss, Walidah Imarisha, Jonathan Lethem, Kelly Link, China Miéville, Daniel José Older, and others." (Grokked from Neil Gaiman)
"In Coimbra, a colony of Common pipistrelle bats makes their home behind the bookshelves of the university’s Joanina Library, emerging at nightfall to consume flies and gnats and other pests before swooping out the library windows and across the hilltop college town in search of water…" (Grokked from Vincent O'Connor)
"Researchers collected the surviving ancient dust from Earth’s upper atmosphere, where it was likely deposited from comets. As comets pass near the sun, they release dust that can reach Earth's orbit and settle through the atmosphere, where it can be collected and later studied with electron microscopes." JFC, hasn't anyone seen Andromeda Strain? Surely it's on Netflix by now.
"Agricultural data from 38,700 farms plus details of processing and retailing in 119 countries show wide differences in environmental impacts — from greenhouse gas emissions to water used — even between producers of the same product, says environmental scientist Joseph Poore of the University of Oxford. The amount of climate-warming gases released in the making of a pint of beer, for example, can more than double under high-impact production scenarios. For dairy and beef cattle combined, high-impact providers released about 12 times as many greenhouse gases as low-impact producers, Poore and colleague Thomas Nemecek report in the June 1 Science."
"But microwave light has also raised an intriguing mystery closer to home. In 1996 astronomers noticed an inexplicable excess of microwaves emanating from our own galaxy. For over 20 years, this so-called anomalous microwave emission has remained an enigma—until today. A new study published in Nature Astronomy suggests spinning nano-diamonds might be the culprit." The universe is stranger than you suspect.
Some perspective on the rich. "Here’s another way to look at the staggering amount of money Jeff Bezos has made so far in 2018. Amazon has an estimated total 566,000 employees worldwide. If the company CEO decided to pass along his $40 billion in increased net worth in 2018 to his workers, each of them would get about $70,000—which is more than twice the median Amazon employee’s salary." The median (note, median, not average) was $28,446. Now, much of that increase was stock valuation, but also remember that of his employees, Mr. Bezos benefitted the most from the tax cuts. (Grokked from Cherie Priest)
How's Brexit going? "Analysts and political pundits will be watching this week’s developments closely — as will Brussels, which has become increasingly frustrated at the infighting and indecision over what Brexit actually means and what it should look like. Just last week, there was a period of a few hours where it appeared as though the U.K.’s Brexit secretary, David Davis, was on the verge of resigning." About as well as expected.
"Cissna said his agency is hiring several dozen lawyers and immigration officers to review cases of suspected fraud. 'We finally have a process in place to get to the bottom of all these bad cases and start denaturalizing people who should not have been naturalized in the first place,' Cissna said. 'What we’re looking at, when you boil it all down, is potentially a few thousand cases.'" Tell me again about how this isn't racism, cause I keep forgetting. (Grokked from Kathryn Cramer)
"According to leaked emails obtained by reporter James LaPorta, veteran Erik Sailors is using his military experience to train his Texas chapter of the white nationalist Patriot Front group in military combat." This may sound alarming, but white nationalist groups have veterans sprinkled throughout. The difference would be to know what Sailors' actual Marine training is and if that's a cause for concern. Now if it had been Green Berets doing the training, that would be more worrisome. One of the main reasons most separatist causes are doomed to failure is their inability to standardize and perform as a group. But from this story this sounds about at the level if they all had purchased a "military" style aerobic exercise tape to work out to. However it does point to an increasing sophistication. (Grokked from Jim Wright)
"A senior White House aide is deliberately feeding inaccurate stories to White House staffers in an effort to weed out those who are speaking to reporters, according to a New York Times report on Sunday." Well, really, that's one method when the traditional triangulation of who knew what when doesn't pan out. Oh, and one reason triangulation doesn't work is when there are multiple leakers. (Grokked from Fred Clark)
"Domino’s Pizza… is filling in potholes in towns across the U.S. with a new 'Paving for Pizza' initiative. The American pizza chain announced on Monday that it will help 'smooth the ride home' for deliveries by making pothole repairs in towns nominated by their customers." As a former elected official tasked with finding the money to fix roads I both applaud this and am horrified and shrieking mad about it. I cheer it from the standpoint of "hey, I don't have to find the money". And horrified and mad because 1) cold patch and tar snakes are literally the cheapest thing to do (compared to repaving or worse, rebuilding a road it's extremely cheap), 2) sometimes cold patch and tar are not the repairs needed, 3) that no fucking way to prioritize vital infrastructure repair (again, money may be better spend elsewhere while waiting to repave the road instead) and 4) please don't make me thankful and in debt to Dominos. I know everybody thinks it's "just throw some asphalt down", but if the repair is done shoddily, it can damage a road even more than leaving the open hole. Also, vital information doesn't get back to the road supervisor (including state of underpayment and foundations, testing to see if the rest of the asphalt is about to go, run off issues…). (Grokked from Robert J Bennett)
"Former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke says the U.S. economy could face serious problems in the next two years." Again, I'm not sure it's going to wait 2 years. But then there's also the phrase, "Economists have predicted the last 7 of 3 recessions." (Grokked from Kathryn Cramer)
"Joint defense agreements can also let people being investigated keep tabs on whether or not their allies have started cooperating with the government. For instance, Michael Flynn stopped sharing information with the president’s lawyers last November, as the New York Times reported––an early sign he had decided to start cooperating with the Special Counsel probe." Mueller is smarter than all these people put together. (Grokked from Xeni Jardin)
"So absolutely no BadUSB malware, because nobody would ever think to stoop so low as to snoop on journalists' laptops at a sensitive summit between two narcissistic divas…" (Grokked from Chuck Wendig)
"Those who say it can not be done, should not interrupt those doing it." "Ahead of the historic meeting between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un, Ivanka Trump tweeted a quote she attributed to a supposed Chinese proverb—but people in China are struggling to figure out where it came from." We can't even get the proverb correct. I think Ivanka was changing up Napoleon's "Never interfere with your enemy when he is making a mistake."
As the kids say, "Not the Onion." "President Trump said Tuesday he floated the prospect of beachfront hotels and other real estate developments in North Korea during his meeting with the country's leader, Kim Jong Un." (Grokked from Joy Reid)
"U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un pledged on Tuesday to work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula while Washington committed to provide security guarantees for its old enemy… The joint statement signed at the end of their historic summit in Singapore gave few details on how either goal would be achieved but Trump fleshed out some details at a news conference."
You know, I really do hope that the DPRK gets rid of its nuclear weapons and missile capability. I really hope we can transform the DMZ into a real demilitarized zone instead of one of the most heavily patrolled and mined areas of the planet. I really hope this agreement is the start of a normalization process. I'm just skeptical about a leader who kills people for not appearing enthusiastic enough for the Dear Leader or crying enough when the Dear Leader is sad, I'm skeptical about them keeping their word. And it appears at this point that's all we have.
So, we agreed to stop joint military exercises with South Korea (of which we hadn't discussed with South Korea, or told the military) for what? What word did the conservatives use last Fall for the Mueller Investigation? Oh right, "A nothing burger."
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