Linkee-poo hello, daddy, hello, mom, I'm your ch-ch-ch-cherry bomb

"At least 12 people were injured in a massive rain-wrapped tornado that touched down to the west of Kansas City, Kan., on Tuesday."

"Dangerous floods leave Plains, Midwest 'at the mercy of Mother Nature'… 'This is a very catastrophic, not-yet-over scenario that we're dealing with,' a lawmaker says as historic floods threaten to worsen." It's also planting season.

Your vision is not what your eyes are seeing. "One of my favorite optical illusionists is Akiyoshi Kitaoki. He has created hundreds, maybe thousands, of guaranteed brain-melting illusions that will make you swear that what you're seeing is real when it really, really isn't. He has ones that appear to move, that warp your sense of shape and size, destroy your notion of color, and will make you seriously question whether your eyes and brain are talking to each other in any sort of coherent way." (Grokked from Dan)

"Archeologists in Rome have stumbled on a large marble head of Dionysus, also known as Bacchus, the ancient Roman god of wine, dance and fertility." Now Rome will be a more boring city since they removed the fetish. (Grokked from Matt Staggs)

"Atmospheric researchers… have now developed a climate model that can accurately depict the frequently observed winding course of the jet stream… The breakthrough came when the scientists combined their global climate model with a new machine learning algorithm on ozone chemistry. Using their new combo-model, they can now show that the jet stream's wavelike course in winter and subsequent extreme weather conditions cold air outbreaks in Central Europe and North America are the direct result of climate change. Their findings were released in the Nature online portal Scientific Reports on 28 May 2019." We're boned.

You make igloos out of snow and ice. "The plan is to use a laser system that weighs less than 6.6 pounds to melt the dust, soil, and loose rock covering the lunar surface, transforming it into a material astronauts could then use as the “ink” in a 3D printer to build the components of a lunar outpost."

"Last Thursday, the leader of Russia's state space corporation, Dmitry Rogozin, gave a wide-ranging talk at Moscow University. The speech sought to describe activities happening now at Roscosmos and what may happen in the future, including a potential lunar landing… Rogozin addressed his comments largely to students at the university, and he sought to paint a picture of a vibrant national space enterprise. This is presumably to boost the desirability of a career in space, as young people have been pursuing aerospace careers in smaller numbers. Reports of low salaries, low morale, and a lack of funding to even remove trash from Roscosmos facilities has not helped this trend."

"When your computer crashes or phone freezes, don't be so quick to blame the manufacturer. Cosmic rays -- or rather the electrically charged particles they generate -- may be your real foe. While harmless to living organisms, a small number of these particles have enough energy to interfere with the operation of the microelectronic circuitry in our personal devices... particles alter an individual bit of data stored in a chip's memory. Consequences can be as trivial as altering a single pixel in a photograph or as serious as bringing down a passenger jet." Narrator voice, cosmic rays do harm living organisms, but it has the potential to harm us all equally, so we can't study the effects (it's a part of the "background" radiation we live with). When the channels in processors are measured by the atom, affecting the ionization of a single atom can alter the valency of the charge. (Grokked from Tobias Buckell)

"Energy drinks may promise a boost, but experts are increasingly concerned that their cocktails of ingredients could have unintended health risks… A study published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Heart Association found that caffeinated energy drinks altered the heart's electrical activity and raised blood pressure." It's called "caffeine" (and guarana).

"FairWarning has identified 133 cases of young children being injured by backovers of riding mowers since 2004, based on court records, news reports and interviews. Eight of the children died, and others suffered amputations of fingers, toes, hands, feet and limbs, as well as mangled internal organs." As a user of power tools, the first thing to be sacrificed in the chase of profit is safety. Always.

"U.S. home prices rose at the slowest pace in more than six years in March, a sign weaker sales are keeping a lid on price increases." It would help if developers focused on the lower end of the market for first time borrowers.

How goes Brexit? "Boris Johnson, the favorite to replace Theresa May as British prime minister, must appear in court over allegations he lied to the public about Brexit, a judge ruled Wednesday… The former foreign secretary and ex-London mayor was ordered to answer a private summons alleging he committed three offences of misconduct in a public office."

How go the Trade Wars? "But the Department of Homeland Security is warning that drones manufactured by Chinese companies could pose security risks, including that the data they gather could be stolen."

I love how some people are focused on Juilian Assange's case about "going after journalists" (note: he's not a journalist), but are completely silent about this case. "The San Francisco police chief said Tuesday that he respects the news media, but a freelance journalist whose home and office were raided by officers had 'crossed the line' by joining a conspiracy to steal a confidential report."

Going old school. "New satellite photos obtained on Tuesday show significant damage to Syrian villages and surrounding farmland as a result of a government offensive on the last rebel stronghold in the country."

"The halt on China’s imports of wastepaper and plastic that has disrupted U.S. recycling programs has also spurred investment in American plants that process recyclables." And yet we still can't recycle glass, which is the most recyclable material we have. But notice how many of these US jobs/companies are expanding with either Chinese money or Chinese customers.

The Hidden Brain podcast on… "Genes aren't the only driver behind our political views, though. Hibbing says environment and upbringing play a large role as well. But he has found that, on average, about 30 or 40 percent of our political attitudes come from genetics. And he thinks the idea that our politics may come, at least in part, from our biology may help us to have more empathy for people who disagree with us." I think this ignores how political party membership has changed over the decades. It misses how in the past 2 decades our 2 part system has seen a sea change in how people self-sort into those parties.

"The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld an Indiana law that requires abortion providers to dispose of aborted fetuses in the same way as human remains, a sign that the conservative court is more open to abortion restrictions… But the justices rejected the state’s appeal of a lower court ruling blocking a separate provision that would prevent a woman in Indiana from having an abortion based on gender, race or disability."

"Missouri’s only abortion clinic could be closed by the end of the week because the state is threatening to not renew its license, Planned Parenthood officials said Tuesday."

"US National Security Adviser John Bolton has said 'naval mines almost certainly from Iran' were to blame for the damage to oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman earlier this month… Mr Bolton provided no evidence to support the allegation, which Iran said was 'laughable'." Wagging the dog.

"At a chamber luncheon in Paducah, Kentucky, on Tuesday, McConnell was asked by a member of the audience, 'Should a Supreme Court justice die next year, what will your position be on filling that spot?'… 'I would fill it,' he responded, smirking, which drew loud laughter." Dear Senate Majority Leader, your situational ethics makes you lower than dog shit. The fact you're allowed in polite company is an embarrassment to functioning adults. And it's this attitude for which you should be run out of town on a rail. This is the blatant hypocrisy and politics Republicans claim Democrats engage in. But this is also intentionally ignoring your oath of office and any modicum of ethical behavior to steal control of a branch of government. This was (and is) a Constitutional abrogation of the sort that should lead to jail time (IMHO).

"Unlike the first and second rounds of debates, when candidates must cross either a donor or polling threshold to qualify, candidates will need to surpass both bars to make the stage for the third and fourth debates. For the September event, candidates will have to hit 2 percent in four qualifying polls, versus 1 percent in three polls for the first debates, and they will need 130,000 individual donors, up from 65,000."

"Ultimately, Mueller did not charge any Americans with a crime connected to his initial mandate — 'collusion,' as it became known — but he did establish many previously unknown ties between Trump's camp and Russia, even as Trump was denying any communication or business links."

"Special counsel Robert Mueller, speaking publicly for the first time since the beginning of the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, says he is resigning… 'We are formally closing the special counsel's office,' Mueller told reporters at the Justice Department on Wednesday morning." Some of the case he launched will still go on (like the Roger Stone trial, but note many of the redactions in his report were made to protect ongoing investigations handed off to other US Attorneys). Stick a fork in him, he's done. Whispers, "ain't gonna be that easy, Bobby."