"Officials warned of almost instant frostbite as temperatures in the region plunged below zero Wednesday. Some state offices are closed and postal workers won't deliver mail in 10 states. Thousands of flights have been canceled along with dozens of train services -- most of them in and out of Chicago." Dress in layers, protect all exposed skin, stay in if you don't need to go out, check on pets (bring them in), and try to run your car for at least 5 minutes (note, in Ohio it's illegal to run your vehicle while it's unattended). Also check on your neighbors and relatives. If need be, find your local warming shelter (and if there isn't one in your community, bug your elected officials).
"The day after President Trump posted a tweet suggesting extreme cold temperatures in the Midwest cast doubt on the existence of global warming, the climate service for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) tweeted a cartoon explaining warming oceans result in more extreme winter weather." The president is a moron.
"Despite some of the coldest wind chill readings we've experienced in about 25 years, a movie crew was filming outside in Cleveland early Wednesday morning." Because that's how we roll in Cleveland.
"The other good news is that forecasters are predicting a relative heat wave this weekend, with temperatures in Chicago expected to climb into the 40s — that's 40 degrees above zero."
"Most Internet-savvy folks are already aware of MasterClass, an online-seminar platform that allows mere mortals to learn from people at the very top of their fields. Chef Thomas Keller may teach you how to make a sauce; Werner Herzog may teach you the ins and outs of camera lenses. But as the company has grown, one name has cropped up again and again as the person would-be writers most wanted to learn from: Neil Gaiman." The class is $90 ($180 a year to access all classes). If I had the time and could begin writing fiction regularly I would probably spring for it, and I'm a notorious spend-thrift.
"Over several days of working and praying and eating with the monks, I realized that the ceaseless, obsessive American work ethic was one of those demons, certainly the one that haunted me, and most of the people I knew. We are a society almost totally under its power. We assess people’s value by their jobs and demean anyone who can’t work. We forego vacation time, anxious to prove that we’re indispensable. We drive ourselves to burnout. And we do all this even while artificial intelligence promises to take our jobs. The demon is chasing us over a cliff." The struggle to maintain a work-life balance. (Grokked from Patrick Nielsen Hayden)
"Launch a Saturn V Rocket Right From Your Browser… It's not the same as being an astronaut, but it's the closest you can get from your desk." Computers before GUI, hell, before command line control. A little nostalgia for you kids out there. (Grokked from Mary Robinette Kowal)
"This week, thousands of civil servants and contractors are back at work at NASA’s various centers throughout the country following a record 35-day government shutdown — but it will be a while before it’s work as usual again at the agency. These first few days back on the job will be consumed with practical matters, such as figuring out employee backpay and how to dive back into projects. The shutdown will undoubtedly result in delays for some of NASA’s long-term programs, too, but it’ll be a while before the space agency can fully assess the extent of the damage." The last longest shutdown took years to fully work through. This one will be the same.
"Stricter enforcement is needed to stop the teen vaping epidemic, the American Lung Association said Wednesday in a scathing report that cites the failure of states and the federal government to keep underage kids away from e-cigarettes." Hook 'em while their young.
"Researchers announced last month that thanks to a compulsory vaccine program, Australia is on track to eradicate cervical cancer. This is due to almost universal vaccination against human papillomavirus (HPV), a virus which isresponsible for 90 percent of cervical cancers. The vaccine itself is a medical breakthrough and has only been available for use since 2006. In just 12 short years, cervical cancer is becoming a rarity in Australia and will eventually be eliminated, saving thousands of Australians’ lives." But not here in the US where we have a combination of puritanical visions of sex and a strong anti-vaxxer movement. (Grokked from Cat Rambo)
How goes Brexit? "British Prime Minister Theresa May was locked into a collision course with the European Union on Wednesday after lawmakers demanded she renegotiate a Brexit divorce deal that the other members of the bloc said they would not reopen." So it's looking like a Hard Brexit after all. The solution is complete honesty and directness (which would lead to another referendum which hopefully would return in the Remain's favor), but that would be uncomfortable for everyone in the UK and isn't "British". The other two options appear to be 1) Hard Brexit which would have dire economic consequences, mostly for the UK (think of generational loss of economic growth akin to Japan's lost decades) or 2) Remain which would be politically explosive (imagine The Troubles, but domestic).
"More than a year after the FBI began its investigation, the agency has completed an analysis of the man behind the Oct. 1, 2017, mass shooting in Las Vegas, concluding there was "no single or clear motivating factor" driving Stephen Paddock's killing rampage and subsequent suicide." That's going to complicate the NRA playbook response.
Hey, remember FoxConn's Wisconsin plant? "Foxconn Technology Group is reconsidering plans to make advanced liquid crystal display panels at a $10 billion Wisconsin campus, and said it intends to hire mostly engineers and researchers rather than the manufacturing workforce the project originally promised." I think I posted about this earlier in the Fall where it was mostly rumor, but now it's an announcement. Wisconsin, you got sold out by your previous governor. I sure hope they wrote the tax abatement deals with clauses to roll back those discounts in case FoxConn changed the promised employment status. It appears there's some of that in there (FoxConn missed their 2018 deadline and goals, forfeiting $9.5M). And while most of the teeth gnashing will be over the taxes and promised employment, let us not forget about the people who had their houses taken through eminent domain to make way for the factory. (Grokked from Robert J Bennett)
"More than a week into a standoff with the opposition, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro said on Wednesday that he is willing to negotiate."
"The Trump administration began implementing a new hard-line immigration policy by sending a single asylum-seeker from Central America back to Tijuana, Mexico, to await his assigned court date later this year in San Diego." Because all the other Trump policies surrounding immigration have been roaring successes. I believe this might violate international law and custom.
"Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, whose contemplation of an independent presidential run in 2020 has infuriated Democrats, defended on Tuesday his criticism of a 'Medicare-for-all' proposal that he called "not American.'… 'It's not that it's not American,' Schultz said. 'It's unaffordable.'" Raise your hand if you know a way to afford it. Yeah, that's the other reason he's running. Note his stance that higher taxes on higher earners is "punishing success." For an "independent" he talks a lot like a center right conservative (although less racists). (Grokked from Robert J Bennet)
"(Roger Stone) said Tuesday, a day he pleaded not guilty to seven charges laid by special counsel Robert Mueller, that Trump's presidency is in mortal peril because the Russia investigation amounts to a 'speeding bullet heading for his head.'" Or in other words, "You better pardon me or I'll sink this damn ship." And is it just me, or do the protestors (for and against) present for his court dates appear just a bit too theatrical? I don't seem to remember this kind of circus during the other trials. And Stone's behavior in front of the crowd feels a little to "Caesarish" to me.
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