Still alligators, still up to my eyeballs, but they're coming a little slower.
I say ye, Craig Wood. Craig was a friend of mine. I only got to attend a few of his famous Halloween Parties (because they were the Saturday before, and that's the Village's trick-or-treat nite). Fuck cancer.
Janiece is doing her annual fundraiser for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP).
"Sources tell Variety that 'The Crown' star Matt Smith is joining 'Star Wars: Episode IX,' which is currently in production in the U.K. It’s unknown at this time whether the 'Doctor Who' alum will be on the side of the rebels or the evil empire." Besides making me all, "ooo, Dr Who crossover!", he's British, of course he'll be on the side of the Empire. Do these people not go to the movies at all?
"Those quotes come from The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, a free online resource featuring more than 17,500 entries explaining all things sci-fi, whether new or old, mainstream or obscure." I'll just note all the pull quotes are from white, male authors (except for the sideways mention of Margaret Atwood). SO just because it's extensive doesn't mean it's complete. (Grokked from Matt Staggs)
"Six years after its discovery, the Higgs boson has at last been observed decaying to fundamental particles known as bottom quarks. The finding, presented today at CERN1 by the ATLAS and CMS collaborations at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), is consistent with the hypothesis that the all-pervading quantum field behind the Higgs boson also gives mass to the bottom quark. Both teams have submitted their results for publication today."
"Scientists have discovered what they say is an 'unbelievable' 85-mile stretch of coral reef off the eastern coast of the United States." Note that deep corals are very different than the coral reefs most of us picture.
"Divers discover giant squid washed up on a New Zealand beach." But at 13 feet, it's a smallish one. However it looks fairly complete (most we've discovered or hauled in are pretty torn up).
"… (N)ew images from NASA show in dramatic fashion how invisible particulates — such as smoke, dust and sea salt — spread across the globe."
"Venus is getting some rare attention, thanks to NASA’s Parker Solar Probe. It will swing by the planet on its way to study the sun’s atmosphere." Venus braking. And it hasn't been ignored. If Mars is hard, Venus is nearly impossible (even though it's closer). "[It’s] 850 to 900 degrees on the planet, and there’s three ways to die on Venus real quick: One is you’re going to melt. Two, you’re going to be crushed by the atmosphere that’s pushing down on you — 92 times the atmosphere of Earth right there — and then three, if it starts raining, it doesn’t rain water. It rains sulfuric acid."
So, how's that whole, "we should only teach abstinence for high school sex ed" concept going? "The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention today released new numbers on STDs in America… New cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis were up about 10 percent in 2017. In this year, some 2.29 million new cases of these three common (and treatable) sexually transmitted diseases were diagnosed." Who could have foreseen it? Narrator's voice, "practically everybody with a brain." (Grokked from Xeni Jarin)
"A new study suggests that ketamine, an increasingly popular treatment for depression, has something in common with drugs like fentanyl and oxycodone." Uh, yeah. Didn't we know this before? It seems like we knew this before.
"The Korean peninsular and Southeast Asia may be next to report outbreaks of African swine fever after the rapid onset of the deadly pig disease in China, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization." Here we go.
Also, "The Chinese government has withheld samples of a virulent strain of avian flu from American researchers for over a year, the New York Times reports. And this strain of flu prevalent in birds, called H7N9, is particularly fatal, killing 40% of people who contract it. However, so far, it hasn’t spread readily from fowl to humans, affecting largely only people who work with live poultry, and even then just a small percentage relative to the number of infected birds. Human-to-human spread if this bird flu has also been extremely small, but Americans have essentially no immunity to the strain and seasonal vaccines would have no effect." Gee, the last time we had major flu scares like this was :: checks notes :: under a different Republican president.
"A consumer advocacy organization is asking federal health officials Tuesday to halt a large medical study being conducted at major universities nationwide… Public Citizen says that the study, involving treatment for sepsis, puts patients at risk and will at best produce confusing results." No control group? Okay, well one could say the rest of the world is a control group, but still.
"An international team has identified a kind of brain cell that exists in people but not mice, the team reported Monday in the journal Nature Neuroscience." Something new has been added. "It's compact, bushy, and responsible for telling other neurons to shush. Beyond that, nobody is entirely sure what a newly discovered variety of brain cell called a rosehip neuron does." (Whispers, so you know all those "computer simulations of neuron activity" that made the news last year, yeah, completely undone)
"The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force has released new draft recommendations saying that physicians should screen pregnant women and new moms to identify those who are at risk of becoming depressed, so they can be treated before they show symptoms and a diagnosis of depression can be averted."
"A 9-year-old boy in Colorado killed himself on Thursday after his mother said he was bullied for coming out as gay." While it does get better, it's not getting any better.
"Murfreesboro was, at the time, one of the lowest-rated VA medical centers in the country. It's part of a triangle of three VA centers — in Nashville, Memphis and Murfreesboro — that all had one star out of a possible five in the department's internal rating system." They're getting better, but it took a suicide and a lawsuit to help kick the change into motion.
Who needs regulation or pesky EPA rules? "(Kansas) allowed hundreds of residents in two Wichita-area neighborhoods to drink contaminated water for years without telling them, despite warning signs of contamination close to water wells used for drinking, washing and bathing." And they keep finding more contamination sites. (Grokked from Fred Clark)
"Roy Oliver, a former police officer in Balch Springs, Texas, has been found guilty of murder in the fatal shooting of unarmed 15-year-old Jordan Edwards after police broke up a house party last year." I believe that makes two.
"California will become the first state in the nation to abolish (cash) bail for suspects awaiting trial under a sweeping reform bill signed by Gov. Jerry Brown on Tuesday."
"Democrat Andrew Gillum rode a surge of liberal support from young people and African Americans to a stunning primary victory Tuesday and the historic opportunity to be the first black governor in Florida’s history."
"Agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) arm arrested more than 150 people Tuesday based on allegations of immigration violations at a trailer manufacturer in North Texas, authorities said." So many raids and so many new records, and yet no businesses closed or their owners jailed for their crimes. As someone said on twitter, "This isn't illegal immigrants taking your jobs, this is the business owners screwing over illegal immigrants so they don't have to pay you a reasonable wage."
"However, in May, a federal judge said Trump’s blocks were unconstitutional as his Twitter feed was a public forum which 'has been used in the course of the appointment of officers (including cabinet secretaries), the removal of officers and the conduct of foreign policy.'" Live by the twitter, die by the twitter.
"How many times per year does a gun go off in an American school?… We should know. But we don't… This spring the U.S. Education Department reported that in the 2015-2016 school year, 'nearly 240 schools… reported at least 1 incident involving a school-related shooting…" But NPR reached out to every one of those schools repeatedly over the course of three months and found that more than two-thirds of these reported incidents never happened." The sad unstated part of this story is that they overcomunted, but still aren't doing anything real about the problem.
"Four in 10 Americans are struggling to pay for their basic needs such as groceries or housing, a problem even middle-class households confront, according to a new study from the Urban Institute." This is my shocked face. (Grokked from Marie Vibbert)
"Independent researchers from George Washington University have estimated that Hurricane Maria caused 2,975 deaths in Puerto Rico in the six months following the storm." So much winning.
"Russia plans to hold massive war games involving 300,000 personnel next month - its biggest military manoeuvres since a Cold War drill in 1981." (Waves to my Russian friends.)
"In a closed-door meeting with evangelical leaders Monday night, President Donald Trump repeated his debunked claim that he had gotten 'rid of' a law forbidding churches and charitable organizations from endorsing political candidates, according to recorded excerpts reviewed by NBC News… In fact, the law remains on the books, after efforts to kill it in Congress last year failed." Dear Evangelicals, who is it that's the "Father of Lies." Because he hosted you the other night and lied right to your faces. And while I have your ear, happy fucking holidays you duplicitous pieces of shit. As I've said elsewhere, if there is a God and a final judgement, I will willingly swan dive into the Lake of Fire, but only if I get to see Her deal with you all first.
What they say about us behind closed doors. "US President Donald Trump has warned that his policies will be 'violently' overturned if the Democrats win November's mid-term elections… He told Evangelical leaders that the vote was a 'referendum' on freedom of speech and religion, and that these were threatened by 'violent people'." Okay, can we quit with the Nixon parallels? Seriously, Mr. President, stop trudging the same path he did. Also, if you want "violent" protests, we can give you that. You haven't seen that yet. But the president is exposing his worst fears while giving his supporters (and could there be any clearer indication that Reagan's Compromise has perverted the GOP?) permission to be violent. After all, they'd just be defending themselves from those future threats. So (JFC I can't believe he's pushed me this far) please go fuck yourself, Mr. President.
These days it's almost a mantra of me repeating, "The Constitution stands, the process will work, the rule of law prevails." I think I've told the story here of one of my first managers saying, "I love my job," as she rounded the fry station. She said if there was ever a day that came where she couldn't at least say it, it was time to do something else. Some days I say that with the same feeling. One of the things that continues to stop me form going over to the dark side is the sure knowledge that this is exactly something our Russian friends want. Have no worry, my Russian friends, you are all part of the plans as well. If you think Russia will escape no worse for the wear, you lack imagination.
"A burglar broke into a Manhattan penthouse early Tuesday and made off with a briefcase and an iPad belonging to a banker who once did work for President Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, the police said… Mr. Fallarino told investigators he found a crowbar on his private terrace and discovered that the briefcase, the iPad and a pair of sneakers were missing from the living room, the police said. There were no signs of forced entry; Mr. Fallarino said he had left the terrace door open, the police said." There was also a wine case that was opened, but they left an unopened bottle on the floor and didn't take anything else. It's sort of like someone was attempting to make it look like a random robbery and that someone riffled through someone's belongings, but really didn't know how thieves work. Because I'm sure the only things of value to a thief in a banker's apartment that could be easily grabbed would be the suitcase, an iPad, and a pair of sneakers. But I'm sure it's completely a legit crime (even though there's been no reported break-ins in the apartment complex for 3 years according to another report).
"Kushner Cos. has been hit with $210,000 in fines by New York City regulators for filing false real estate paperwork over several years." But the spokesperson say there is no fines, and if there are fines they totally aren't responsible, and they'll fight it until they don't have to pay a fine. When you're that corrupt, you just can't help it.
"Donald Trump has accused Google of rigging its search results to make him look bad… Mr Trump even suggested that the search giant could be prosecuted for not showing enough positive stories." That's straight-up, banana republic bullshittery right there. Dear Gen. Kelly, you need to sit your boy down for a talk. And if he doesn't listen, take away his goddamn phone.
"The key elements (of the US-Mexico trade deal) certainly look dramatic: lifting rules-of-origin requirements to 75 percent to avoid import tariffs, and a separate rule that 40 percent to 45 percent of content come from factories paying more than $16 an hour. The wage rule in particular is about twice what Mexican assembly-line workers make, and four times the average at parts companies there… When you take a look under the hood, though, there’s a lot less than meets the eye." Not much there there. Shocked, shocked I am…
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