Something new has been added. "A chance discovery, hidden away in a series of 16th-century books deep in the archive of Bristol Central Library, has revealed original manuscript fragments from the Middle Ages which tell part of the story of Merlin the magician, one of the most famous characters from Arthurian legend." (Grokked from Cat Rambo)
On the religion of the space programs and their influence in SF movies. I'm not sure if I've mentioned I wrote a senior thesis on Arthur C. Clarke's depictions of God in his writing, so this is always an interesting topic to me. Maybe not to you. But for me it always has been an interesting question that no matter how much the religious groups want to say there is no God in science, and that SF/F is "godless"
and no matter how much the SF/F community likes to tout its rationalism, God (in the infinite variations) shows up an awful lot. It could just be a matter of Western Culture leaking through, but I'm not entirely sure that's a solid answer. So, interesting topic. Then there was this "…and there certainly wasn’t an opportunity for any sort of sci-fi religion to crop up as Cosmism has in Europe and Russia." And my immediate response was, "Scientology, anyone?"
"The quick and easy noshes you love are chipping away at your mortality one nibble at a time, according to new research from France: We face a 14 percent higher risk of early death with each 10 percent increase in the amount of ultraprocessed foods we eat."
"Researchers from antivirus provider Trend Micro made that discovery after analyzing an app available on a Torrent site that promised to install Little Snitch, a firewall application for macOS. Stashed inside the DMG file was an EXE file that delivered a hidden payload." Clever girl. (Grokked from Dan)
"On a bitter cold afternoon in front of the central bus stop in Bangor, Maine, about a half-dozen people recently surrounded a folding table covered with handmade signs offering free clean syringes, coffee and naloxone, the drug also known as Narcan that can reverse an opioid overdose… They're with a group called the Church of Safe Injection that is handing out clean drug-using supplies in cities around the U.S." They intend to use religious protection as their legal defense. Although CSI is a pretty good acronym.
"Russian environmental authorities have deployed a team of specialists to a remote Arctic region to sedate and remove dozens of hungry polar bears that have besieged the people living there." Be safe, my Russian friends. (Grokked from Matt Staggs)
Remember when we were all told that the market is a "rational actor" because investors don't "speculate"? "U.S. stock index futures rose Tuesday amid news that U.S. lawmakers had secured a tentative deal on border security funding on Monday."
How goes Brexit? "Prime Minister Theresa May will tell British lawmakers on Tuesday they must hold their nerve over Brexit to force the European Union to accept changes to the divorce deal that would pave the way for an orderly exit." Ah, the call to a "stiff-upper-lip." Looks at watch, well a little later than I expected.
"A former White House aide is suing President Donald Trump and arguing the government is trying to illegally penalize him after he wrote a book that portrayed an unflattering picture of life in the West Wing." So I guess we have the case that will try the legitimacy of the NDAs the Trump Administration had people sign. IANAL, but I think Trump will have a rough time of it.
"Utah’s governor on Monday signed legislation into law a limited Medicaid expansion plan, defying voters who approved a full expansion in November… The bill signed by Gov. Gary Herbert (R) would cover far fewer people, and cost taxpayers more money, than the plan voters approved in November." And there you have conservative politics in a nutshell. Not the will of the people, does less, costs more.
"The resolution lays out a number of concerns with Trump's rhetoric surrounding illegal immigration, particularly as it relates to El Paso. The resolution says Trump 'has continuously made inaccurate claims about the United States’ southern border, including El Paso.'"
"Senate Republicans are fuming at President Donald Trump for telling lawmakers he would disregard a law requiring a report to Congress determining who is responsible for the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi." Concerned Senators are once again concerned.
"A possible agreement also doesn't mean the President won't end up declaring a national emergency to secure the kind of money he really wants to build a wall… Republicans in Washington aren't so thrilled by (the idea of declaring an emergency)… doing so could set off a chain of events on Capitol Hill that risks splitting the Republican conference, undercutting other parts of Trump's agenda and likely opening the administration's actions to legal challenges. It would also provide a clarifying moment that Republicans on the Hill have managed to avoid since Trump took office -- casting an up or down vote on whether to build the full-scale wall Trump desires." It's all fun and games until the chaos comes to your house.
"President Donald Trump's national security adviser, John Bolton, on Monday again broke with the US intelligence community's consensus regarding Iran's nuclear program, less than two weeks after Trump publicly berated the director of national intelligence, Dan Coats, for saying Iran wasn't seeking to build a nuclear weapon." Healthy skepticism is one thing, this is another.
It's just all talk, I mean, the president vilifying the press is all just showmanship, right. It's not like it's going to lead to actual violence. (Grokked from Kathryn Cramer)
"And while those two potentially embody the core split within the Democratic primary – pragmatism versus pugilism – President Trump will be waiting in the general election with another distinction he hopes to make: 'socialism' versus 'greatness.'" Uh oh, someone is firing up the Red Scare again. It's one of those giant air dancer guys at the used auto stores. "The denunciation of socialism and the attempt to tie the philosophy to Democrats is President Trump's and his campaign's attempt to invert the argument that he is an extremist."
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