Linkee-poo Tuesday

Carol Channing, and so it goes.

Another example of Kurt Vonnegut's shape of stories.

"The study found that chronic lack of sleep and poor sleep quality raise the odds of fatty plaque accumulation in arteries -- a condition known as atherosclerosis, which increases the odds of heart attack and stroke."

"Antarctica ice melt has accelerated by 280% in the last 4 decades… Currently, Antarctica's sea ice is at the lowest January levels since detailed observations began in 1979, according to data from the US National Snow and Ice Data Center." We're boned.

"China's Moon mission sees first seeds sprout."

"Rapid and erratic movements of Earth’s north magnetic pole have prompted an early update to a model that assists with navigation. The scheduled fix was supposed to happen on January 15, but the U.S. government shutdown has forced an unwelcome delay." Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip…

Eat less, exercise more. "For starters, I reframed what I thought of as exercise."

"For the first time in U.S. history, a leading cause of deaths, vehicle crashes, has been surpassed in likelihood by opioid overdoses, according to a new report on preventable deaths from the National Safety Council."

The unobscured podcast interview with Emerson Baker, interim dean and history professor at Salem State University and author of A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American Experience. A good recap of season 1, but the scary part is how many echos there are to current socio-political issues.

"Former felons deserve a chance to prove themselves." The pendulum of the penal code swings from punishment to reformation. We're now on a reformation swing, but not everyone got the memo. (Grokked from Janiece)

"Today, critics argue that the price of insulin has far outpaced any innovations. In the past decade alone, U.S. insulin list prices have tripled, according to an analysis of data from IBM Watson Health. In 1996, when Eli Lilly debuted its Humalog brand of insulin, the list price of a 10-milliliter vial was $21. The price of the same vial is now $275. Those costs can be compounded by the multiple vials that diabetics may require to survive each month. 'It’s a very big problem,' says Robert Gabbay, chief medical officer at the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston. 'It’s a tragic barrier to care.'" The price of drugs is leading to deaths. Also, slightly related, there are insulin pumps which are highly sensitive to x-rays. In fact, if they're caught near the x-ray beam the units fail. How can you create a modern device without taking into consideration that someone may need an x-ray at some point (seriously, we're now required to not only ask the name, birthday, and other identifier and to ask women their menstrual status, we now also need to ask about insulin pumps, as long as making sure there's no jewelry and piercings in the target x-ray area). (Grokked from Janiece)

"An art exhibit in Israel featuring a crucified Ronald McDonald has sparked protests by the country's Arab Christian minority." Remember when the Taliban blew up the giant Buddha statues? Remember people not understanding the prohibitions against drawing the Prophet (and then organizing contests to do so)? Remember that people said how backward they were?

"Remind is a kind of chat app/social media hybrid used by teachers, parents, and students to keep up-to-date on assignments and events. It also has an app-to-phone texting function that allows educators and admin to send text messages to parents and students who don’t have the app. But Verizon is introducing a new fee on app-to-phone messages—an effort to curb robotexting—that will make it too expensive for Remind to continue offering this service for Verizon phones, the company’s CEO told Motherboard." Texting, IIRC, costs approximately 1 billionth of a cent per text in actual value (ie. what it actually "costs" the telecos to process it). This is extortion and a tax on the poor. Welcome to the new digital divide. (Grokked from Rodney)

How goes Brexit? "Prime Minister Theresa May warned on Monday that Britain’s planned exit from the EU could be derailed, a last-ditch effort to win over Brexit-supporting lawmakers who have repeatedly said they will vote down her divorce deal." So still a dumpster fire, good to know.

Rand Paul for the last decade, "Socialized medicine is horrible," and repeating stories about how Canadians were traveling to the US to get care. "Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) will travel to Canada in late January to get hernia surgery, related to the attack he sustained from a neighbor in 2017, according to the Louisville Courier Journal." It's all fun and games until it's your body (and money). (Grokked from Joy Reid)

"Iran launched a satellite on Tuesday that failed to reach orbit, after the US warned against the launch earlier this month." Naughty, naughty.

"Embattled utility PG&E, facing potentially billions of dollars in liability over California's deadly wildfires last year, has replaced its CEO." And they'll likely declare bankruptcy. Not so much because they are, but because of the potential liability for failure to maintain their equipment. And before anyone talks about how in an unfettered market companies wouldn't cause problems like this, or that PG&E wouldn't endanger or inconvenience their customers let me tell you about our own little power company. When I was a councilman we had terrible issues with brown and blackouts which not only played havoc with residential customers (appliances fried, many people on oxygen units) but cost our businesses millions of dollars each each. So we worked on the electrical company to help remedy this situation. Turns out our village had been scheduled for a second supply line to shore up our grid and increase stability. That was identified in the late 80s and scheduled for mid 90s for connection. This was the mid 2000s when we finally forced them to start on that plan (and it took about 4 to 5 years to get the line installed).

"'This pattern of incessant attacks on my client and his family show what the American people have already witnessed: that Donald Trump sees Michael Cohen, and I would say justifiably, as the greatest threat to his presidency and what could be criminal and impeachable actions,' Davis said on MSNBC's 'Kasie DC.'"

A tweet thread with a timeline surrounding the public release of the Trump Tower meeting. A little post hoc ergo prompter hoc, and some convenience coincidences (such as the G20 meeting was planned long in advance of the NYTs revealing the story), but it all has an interesting ring to it. (Grokked from Kathryn Cramer)

"U.S. President Donald Trump's attorney general nominee William Barr will pledge at his confirmation hearing to protect Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into whether Trump's 2016 election campaign coordinated with Russia, according to prepared testimony released on Monday." Sure. But the AG is one of those people who has to decide what to do with the report. Including just putting it in a file.

"But look closely, and you'll see the labels on the packages: 'Quarter Pounder.' 'Filet-O-Fish.' Chicken nugget dipping sauces sit in serving bowls off to the side. Behind the current president, Abraham Lincoln looks down, his hand on his chin, surveying the scene." This is exactly the type of stupid denigration conservatives thought would happen with President Clinton (he also had a fondness for McDs) and President Obama, yet never actually happened. But let's vote the rich guy with the gold toilet bowl in and see what happens. "'I think we're going to serve McDonald's, Wendy's and Burger King with some pizza,' Trump told reporters beforehand. 'I really mean it. It would be interesting. And I would think that's their favorite food.'" I doubt anyone really asked.