I watch the ripples change their size
But never leave the stream
Of warm impermanence
And so the days float through my eyes
But still the days seem the same
And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds
Are immune to your consultations
They're quite aware of what they're goin' through

Friday, June 28, 2019

Linkee-poo Fridays

For just the second time ever, researchers have pinpointed the location of a fast radio burst (FRB), a super-brief explosion that releases as much energy in 1 millisecond as Earth's sun does over nearly a century."

"On Wednesday NASA announced it will send a spacecraft to the surface of Titan, Saturn’s largest moon and one of the leading candidates for finding extraterrestrial microbial life in our solar system. The Dragonfly mission will involve a small, drone-like rotorcraft lander that will be able to fly in small hops across Titan’s surface, covering more distance during its two-year mission than any planetary rover in history."

"Twitter plans to place a disclaimer on future tweets from world leaders that break its rules but which Twitter decides are in the 'public interest,' the company said in a blog post Thursday." That'll work, my Aunt Fanny it will. "There are some exceptions, however. '[D]irect threats of violence or calls to commit violence against an individual' are 'unlikely to be considered in the public interest,' Twitter said in the blog post." How about groups of people? (Grokked from Chuck Wendig)

"A planned 'Straight Pride' parade received approval from the city of Boston, clearing another hurdle to allow the contentious event to move forward… The city approved the event application for the group Super Happy Fun America to host the parade Aug. 31, the Boston Globe and WBUR reported. The event still needs approval from the city's police department and licensing board, according to WBUR." Do not taunt Super Happy Fun Ball. As someone who marched 4 years in the Football Hall of Fame Parade at the beginning of August (this was before marching bands had "summer" uniforms, so it was the wool uniforms for us), they can have it. I know some people have been upset, but this is set to be a flop. Let them fail. Or, you know, counter program.

"Owing to such magic-seeming intercessions, GoFundMe has acquired a wishing-well mystique… A third of the money raised on GoFundMe in 2017 was for medical expenses. This isn’t surprising, given that the United States has the highest over-all health-care costs in the developed world… A study in The American Journal of Medicine last fall found that 42.4 per cent of the 9.5 million people diagnosed with cancer between 2000 and 2012 had depleted their assets within two years. Like the vase between the faces in the famous optical illusion, GoFundMe has become a negative-space portrait of our country’s teetering medical finances, a repository for the costs that patients and underwriters cannot or will not cover on their own." Our world class healthcare system.

"Patients who are brain-injured and unresponsive may appear unconscious, but a study published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine repurposed a widely-used technology to demonstrate that the brains of some of these patients are still active." No word on if this technology will be successful to demonstrate conservatives still having brain activity.

"When it comes to sending U.S. aid to poor countries, every Republican president from Ronald Reagan through Donald Trump has imposed a rule: Foreign aid groups are prohibited from getting U.S. assistance for family planning unless they promise not to 'perform or actively promote abortion as a method of family planning.'… But a new study in the medical journal The Lancet suggests that the Mexico City policy has actually increased the rate of abortions by about 40% in the countries studied — likely because the funding ban caused a reduction in access to contraception and a consequent rise in unwanted pregnancies." Oh look, another conservative ideology that doesn't work in with reality.

"Hasbro announced Wednesday it will release a version of the classic board game Monopoly designed for the digital age. But financial experts argue the game’s new design could deprive children of important financial lessons… In Hasbro’s… latest edition of Monopoly, gone are the paper money and Community Chest cards. Instead, the board game now comes with a voice-controlled, artificial intelligence device shaped like a top hat." ZOMG, how will the kiddies learn how to go into crushing debt without the phony money in Monopoly. Oh woes is us.

On the Media podcast with their final episode of their reporting on "The Scarlet E." "First, a look back on a solution that worked in some places and was allowed to fail in many others."

How go the Trade Wars? "U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are poised to write the latest chapter in their globe-shaking trade war when they meet Saturday morning in Japan." The news media, especially the financial media, expect Trump to behave like a rational adult. They're so cute when they're that naive. Look, he's going to be soft in front of the other leaders, and then fuck us over when he gets back. That's how he operates.

"In a defeat for the Trump administration, the Supreme Court leaves the citizenship question blocked for now from the 2020 census, in part because of the government's explanation for why it added it in the first place… The majority said it 'cannot ignore the disconnect between the decision made and the explanation given' by the Trump administration." Let me check the google Legalize to English translation here… yep, it say's "pants on fire."

"In a 5-4 decision along traditional conservative-liberal ideological lines, the Supreme Court ruled that partisan redistricting is a political question — not reviewable by federal courts — and that those courts can't judge if extreme gerrymandering violates the Constitution." The fuck you say?

"Armed with a five to four conservative majority thanks to President Donald Trump's appointment of Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh over the past two years, the Supreme Court said it had no role to play in partisan gerrymandering -- a decision that amounts to a massive political victory for Republicans, not just in the moment, but also likely for the next decade-plus." Welcome to RedMap2020. The good thing is, like Ohio, several states have already changed how redistricting happens. Taking the power out of a partisan process (although this is yet to be fully tested).

"The Supreme Court has ruled that police may, without a warrant, order blood drawn from an unconscious person suspected of driving under the influence of alcohol… The decision conflicts with previous court rulings in which the justices ruled that a blood draw is a significant bodily intrusion into a person's privacy and that there are less intrusive ways of enforcing drunken driving laws against unconscious motorists — getting a warrant, for instance, which in these tech-savvy days can be done relatively easily and quickly." Goodbye Fourth Amendment.

"President Donald Trump arrived at a gathering of world leaders Thursday searching for support for a new deal to curtail an increasingly aggressive Iran. He’s not likely to find any… Not only do other countries still support a 2015 nuclear pact, they’re skeptical Trump can strike a better agreement within the time constraints of his fast-approaching reelection campaign, especially after Iran recently proclaimed the end of diplomacy with the U.S." The art of the deal. It works well when people want or need your money. It fails spectacularly when they have options.

Sort of like this… "North Korea issued new warnings to the U.S. on Thursday, blasting recent statements by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and threatening military action if diplomacy between Washington and Pyongyang continues to falter." What was the "excellent content" in the letters they've exchanged? My money is Kim Jong Un was sharing his Netflix password.

"President Trump met face-to-face with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G-20 Summit in Japan and told his counterpart not to 'meddle' in the 2020 elections when pressed by a reporter, but his delivery faced immediate criticism as being aloof." No, it faced criticism for not being sincere. There's a difference.

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