"At an event promoting the new National Geographic Channel’s series 'Mars,' scientist and science educator Bill Nye spoke about the Red Planet’s future…'This whole idea of terraforming Mars,” said Nye, “As respectful as I can be, are you guys high?'"
Speaking of high, "The review, which is expected to begin next year and take months to complete, was spurred largely by SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk's behavior on comedian Joe Rogan's podcast in September, three unnamed officials told The Washington Post's Christian Davenport."
Oh science, you silly rascal. "Three jugs placed as offerings in a roughly 3,600-year-old tomb in Israel have revealed a sweet surprise — evidence of the oldest known use of vanilla… Until now, vanilla was thought to have originated in Mexico, perhaps 1,000 years ago or more… 'It’s really not surprising that vanillin reached Bronze Age Megiddo given all the trade that occurred between the [Middle East] and South Asia,' says archaeologist Eric Cline of George Washington University in Washington, D.C. But no evidence exists of trade at that time between Middle Eastern societies and East Africa, says Cline, who did not participate in the Megiddo research." What they meant to say was "use of vanilla was thought to have originated in Mexico" since vanilla is produced in both Africa and SE Asia. As to evidence of trade… seriously? After all the discoveries in the past half-century of the interconnectedness of the world you still don't think these things happened?
"For some two decades, Eliot has pondered and researched the origins of gender differences between boys and girls. She says she didn't start by looking at boys' brains and girls' brains. She started with an insight about all brains. More than any other organ, the brain is uniquely adaptable, designed to change in response to the environment." The Hidden Brain podcast on gender.
"A global diabetes epidemic is fuelling record demand for insulin but tens of millions will not get the injections they need unless there is a dramatic improvement in access and affordability, a new study concluded on Wednesday."
"The Centers for Disease Control is advising U.S. consumers not to eat any romaine lettuce in response to a new multi-state outbreak of illnesses caused by a dangerous type of E.coli." Here we go again. I guess they didn't solve the problem of the upstream cattle feedlot. That's just speculation, I don't know if we've changed where our lettuce comes from to Yuma yet.
"About 2,000 parents answered the online poll in October. The top three reasons parents gave for not getting their children a flu shot are concerns about side effects, beliefs that the shot doesn't work very well, and they say their healthy child does not need to be vaccinated." You all are fucking high. You know what are good reasons? Your child is allergic to eggs, your child has a weakened immune system, your child has had a past reaction to the flu shot, you can't afford medical care, there's a history or concern for Guillain-Barré Syndrome. But you know how I really know you all are high? Because I see kids in the ER every damn weekend with flu or flu-like symptoms who have high temperatures, whose lungs are filling up or are having problems breathing because of other effects of the flu. The flu doesn't give a shit how healthy you are (in fact several years ago the strain of flu going around was worse for "healthy" young adults), what your income level is, where you live, or how clean you keep your house.
"Perhaps as a result, demand for exorcisms—the Catholic Church’s antidote to demonic possession—seems to be growing as well. Though the Church does not keep official statistics, the exorcists I interviewed for this article attest to fielding more pleas for help every year." (Grokked from Kelly Link)
On the Media podcast with segments on "the conspiratorial buzz around the Florida recounts and how right-wing media is fueling doubt" and the anti-trust activities of Amazon and their HQ2 search. The GOP has been working hard to weaken our trust surrounding our elections. This is exactly the effect our Russian Friends (waves) have been working hard to instill. Collusion much, Mr. President (and the GOP)? And a lot about the machinations of Amazon and their business practices. Full disclose, I sell shirts on Amazon.
"China has installed a new platform on a remote part of the Paracel Islands in the disputed South China Sea which could be used for military purposes, according to recent satellite images reviewed by a U.S. think tank."
"An American is believed to have been killed by an isolated Indian island tribe that is known to fire at outsiders with bows and arrows, police said Wednesday." What is it about "hostile to outsiders" that they didn't understand?
"US oil prices plummeted nearly 7% on Tuesday to $53.43 a barrel. That marks the cheapest closing price since late October 2017… The latest deep selloff coincided with more mayhem on Wall Street. The Dow shed more than 600 points on Tuesday as fears about slowing earnings and economic growth deepen." Hmm, much uncertainty.
"In their only debate Tuesday night, when pressed, Hyde-Smith did apologize to 'anyone that was offended by my comments,' emphasizing that 'there was no ill will, no intent whatsoever in my statements' and saying, 'I've never been hurtful to anyone.'" Who among us hasn't joked about public hangings in a Southern state with a large black population and history of racist attacks? And she misspoke. What she meant to say was she would be in the front row with a torch if Colin Hutchinson invited her to an old-fashion cross-burning, she has that much regard for him.
"Arthurs said the apartment had served as a nerve center for Atomwaffen Division, a white supremacist organization of 60 to 70 people that has spoken openly of its hopes of igniting race war in the United States. If the authorities could access the group’s encrypted online chats, Arthurs said, 'it’d be easy to track down each member.' The interrogation was videotaped, and a recording was obtained by ProPublica and Frontline." Instead the government decided to disarm itself by disbanding task groups assigned to right-wing terrorism. (Grokked from Matt Staggs)
"Rachel Martin talks to Pro-Publica's A.C. Thompson about his latest documentary: Documenting Hate: New American Nazis, which airs on PBS' Frontline Tuesday night." I'm not saying Trump is a racist and a Nazi, I'm saying racists and Nazis think he is one.
The documentary online. "In the wake of the deadly anti-Semitic attack at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, FRONTLINE and ProPublica present a new investigation into white supremacist groups in America – in particular, a neo-Nazi group, Atomwaffen Division, that has actively recruited inside the U.S. military."
Atomwaffen is very small, but the way they are going about this is very different from other supremacists groups. They accept that they are terrorists and have bought into the whole terrorism mindset. Their goal is to overthrow the US government and while doing so instigate a race war. They have studied terrorism tactics and goals and have the ability to adjust them to the peculiars of the American system (whether or not they've realized they have to isn't clear to me yet). It also is yet to be seen if they will try to tie into the disruption al Qaeda already started and push it along (yes, I'm tired of discussing 9/11, but we're still dealing with the aftermath of some very stupid decisions made back then), or if they'll start from square one. It could also be that the group is so small and so little is known about them that there is too much mystery here to make adequate judgements and they may be just like the others. But never underestimate your enemy. This group could probably withstand the standard disruption the FBI does to many other groups, if the FBI is still working on domestic terrorism. IMHO they need to be rooted out and burned to the ground (jail is a large recruitment pool for groups like this). And that should be done before such action would play into the narrative they want to sell, not after they start acting on a larger stage. I doubt it will happen, though, given the current political leadership.
"President Trump vowed to stand by Saudi Arabia, whatever the CIA concludes about the involvement of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman in the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi." The president is voting on who is a person and has just cheapened out claim on the moral high-ground.
"The White House has been struggling to square a widespread sense the crown prince directed the killing with the administration's desire for Saudi support for its foreign policy priorities and a need to manage close relationships between bin Salman, the Trump administration and members of Trump's family." Well, that's one way to say "compromised."
"Trump's 'Operation Faithful Patriot' was a $200,000,000 exercise in which 6,000 US troops were deployed within the USA, to the US/Mexico border, nominally to repel the migrant caravan of desperate, poor, terrified asylum seekers." Party of fiscal restraint and "good businessman" my Aunt Fanny. (Grokked from Xeni Jardin)
"US President Donald Trump has submitted his written answers to the special counsel over alleged Russian meddling during the 2016 presidential campaign… Mr Trump's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, said some of the questions posed by special counsel Robert Mueller had gone 'beyond the scope of a legitimate inquiry'." What Giuliani meant to say, "We didn't want to answer those questions." Funny how the person being investigated doesn't have control on what the investigator may ask about. Basically he wants to set the precondition that whatever charges Mueller may bring against the president (or, technically, report to the AG) were not a legitimate area of inquiry and should have been out of bounds. Good luck with that argument. I have no doubt Fox News will support you.
"At the very least, the latest developments underline how Trump's senior subordinates may have shielded a President unschooled in constitutional norms from disastrous steps that could have put his presidency in peril… They also raise questions about the capacity of a now-understaffed White House and legal counsel's operation to protect the President from current or future transgressions."
Just a general note, even though Russia helped place the president in office, their objectives of weakening the West would also be served by impeaching Trump or coercing his resignation from office. The only way Russia loses here is if we're somehow able to make lemonade out of this lemon. And most paths (including him staying in office) don't run that way.
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