Linkee-poo, feed them on your dreams, the one they pick, the one you'll know by

"As has been rumored for months, (Patrick Stewart) has officially signed on to star in a new Star Trek series for CBS All Access in which he will reprise his role as Captain Jean-Luc Picard." Make it so. Also, damn it, you have to subscribe to get it. (Grokked from Dan)

Haint blue. (Grokked from Matt Staggs)

"The most recent research on the repeating FRB (fast radio bursts) suggests the source is a neutron star, but other hypotheses for FRBs include black holes, pulsars with companion stars, imploding pulsars, a type of star called a blitzar, a connection with gamma-ray bursts (which we now know can be caused by colliding neutron stars), and magnetars emitting giant flares."

"C/2017 S3 will be about 70 million miles (112 million km) from Earth at its closest approach. The comet will then head toward the sun, swinging around our central star on Aug. 16 and then zipping back out to the distant reaches of our solar system. Right now, the comet is too close to the sun to be visible, but it may be visible later in August after it rounds the sun and comes around again, Paul Chodas, the manager for the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, told Live Science."

"A domino-like cascade of melting ice, warming seas, shifting currents and dying forests could tilt the Earth into a 'hothouse' state beyond which human efforts to reduce emissions will be increasingly futile, a group of leading climate scientists has warned." We're boned. The current question in climate change is not is it happening (it is), are humans to blame (we are), is it accelerating (it is), are we fucked (we are), but how badly are we fucked? (Grokked from Laura J Mixon)

"A recent study claims that people who are gluten-sensitive may not actually be as sensitive as they think they are. Instead, something else may be the culprit, and it’s not gluten." Fructans? Now I think they're just making up shit. (Note that most people experience intestinal inflammation from gluten, or now maybe fructans, even if they don't experience discomfort from it). (Grokked form Dan)

"Doctors have long known that heart attack symptoms can be more difficult to recognize in women than in men… There has also been research suggesting that patients treated by female physicians may be less likely to die than those cared for by male physicians."

"The signs of potential trouble — vanishing pensions, soaring medical expenses, inadequate savings — have been building for years. Now, new research sheds light on the scope of the problem: The rate of people 65 and older filing for bankruptcy is three times what it was in 1991, the study found, and the same group accounts for a far greater share of all filers." Welcome to your inadequate 401(k) program. Yet another byproduct of the income inequality in our country. "Much like the broader population, people 65 and older usually cited multiple factors. About three in five said unmanageable medical expenses played a role. A little more than two-thirds cited a drop in income. Nearly three-quarters put some blame on hounding by debt collectors."

"Home construction per household is now at its lowest levels in nearly six decades, according to researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. This isn't just a problem in San Francisco or New York, where home prices and rents have gone sky-high. It is also a problem in midsized, fast-growing cities farther inland, like Des Moines, Iowa; Durham, N.C.; and Boise, Idaho. In Boise, an analysis by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development showed there is a demand for more than 10 times the number of homes being built right now." But prices are so high, many people are being left out of the market.

How go the Trade Wars? "Asian stock markets largely advanced Tuesday following fresh gains to begin the week on Wall Street… Chinese indexes took the lead among advancers after hitting fresh multiyear lows Monday as the U.S.-China trade fight continues."

"Nikolas Cruz, the teen who confessed to having killed 17 people at a Florida high school, told investigators that he heard voices in his head telling him to 'burn, kill, destroy' and that he tried but failed to kill himself two months before the massacre, according to a just-released transcript of his first formal interview with police." Don't we all have that little voice in our head?

"Ostensibly a campaign event for long-shot U.S. Senate hopeful Joey Gibson, members of his group Patriot Prayer urged the president to lock up his political opponents, including Hillary Clinton, and promised violent retribution for anyone who threatened their right to 'free speech' or armed self-defense. Groups of Trump supporters swarmed through the streets, singling out people of color to fight, some of whom appeared to belong to small vigilante squads of local anti-fascists, as well as others who appeared to be mere passersby. Police announced four arrests, but gave no estimate of injuries."

"Portland’s police chief has ordered a review of her officers’ behavior at a far-right rally Saturday after police were accused of a bloody, heavy-heavy crackdown against anti-fascist protesters."

"Comedian Rosie O’Donnell led a group of Broadway performers in a musical protest of the Trump administration Monday night in front of the White House." I don't think I've mentioned before how there's a continual protest of the president outside the White House. And it's advanced to having celebrity guess protestors.

"At last year’s Unite the Right rally, hundreds of members of the alt-right and white supremacists gathered in Charlottesville, Virginia… And on August 11, they’re doing it again — this time, outside the White House." This should be interesting. And by interesting I mean a cluster fuck.

"YouTube, Apple and Facebook have removed main outlets for conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and his Infowars website, citing repeated violations of policies against hate speech and glorifying violence. Infowars responded by accusing the companies of censorship." Aw. People are picking on poor Alwix. What I think is hilarious is these are companies doing this, but he's crying "communist style censorship." Nope, Alex, just the marketplace. Kinda sucks when you're on that end of it, doesn't it.

"Rick Gates, Manafort's former business partner and right-hand man, appears set to undergo a brutal cross-examination by defense attorneys who are keen on damaging his credibility." Since I mentioned this on twitter, I love how the media is portraying this trial as not having much to do with the Mueller investigation of the President. 1) Mueller's team is prosecuting Manafort. 2) The charges stem from Mueller's investigation around the election (part of the "and any other crimes" section of his mandate). 3) But whose money did Manafort launder and hide from the Feds, who paid him that money, and do you think they don't know what he did with it? Because that right there is kompromat. Maybe something that could be used as leverage to position Manafort in the right place at the right time. Maybe influence some of his decisions and choices. Again, most people have forgotten Cold War tactics. Why have one plant, when you can have 4 or 5.

"In an early-morning tweet, Trump said the re-imposition of sanctions mean, 'Anyone doing business with Iran will NOT be doing business with the United States… I am asking for WORLD PEACE, nothing less!'" And in standing tough against Iran, he will further divide the Western Coalition. And John Bolton is getting very close to saying, "We'll be treated as liberators." War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, and Ignorance is Strength.