Linkee-poo late weekend

"There have been numerous explanations for why the fairies disappeared in Britain - education, advent of electrical lighting, evangelical religion. But one old man in the village of Alves, Moray, Scotland. knew the real reason in 1851: tea drinking. Yes, tea banished the fairies." (Grokked from Neil Gaiman)

"Archaeologists are excavating a 4,000-year-old burial mound on a British island linked in mythology to the mysterious order of magical priests known as the Druids." (Grokked from Matt Staggs)

"The New Food Economy has found that GrubHub owns more than 23,000 web domains. Its subsidiary, Seamless, owns thousands. We’ve published the full list here. Most of them appear to correlate with the names of real restaurants." With some services web domains are cheap, and most people don't know to buy all of variations of their names. (Grokked from Annalee Flower Horne) "Income inequality in the U.S. has grown over the past several decades. And as the gap between rich and poor yawns, so does the gap in their health, according to a study published in JAMA Network Open Friday." Because when you have a system based on employment and financial position, that's not unsurprising. "In 2017, the nonprofit hospital system based in Memphis sued the woman for the cost of hospital stays to treat chronic abdominal pain she experienced before the hospital hired her… It's surreal, she says, to be sued by the organization that pays her $12.25 an hour. 'You know how much you pay me. And the money you're paying, I can't live on,' says the housekeeper, who asked that her name not be used for fear that the hospital would fire her for talking to a reporter." Not surprised. One of the little known secrets of the healthcare world, healthcare employee health insurance sucks. "In Malawi, for instance, a woman may take a fisherman's catch and promise to pay him once she's made her sales. Only she might have trouble selling all the fish. So she might pay off what she owes for the fish by engaging in a sexual encounter… Either the man or the woman 'just suggests, let's have sex as a way of compensating,' says Benjamin Kachikho, a project officer with the Malawi office of the Timotheos Foundation, which focuses on social issues such as education about HIV." Poverty and misogyny drives the practice.

"Wind and solar power are now the cheapest way to add new power in two thirds of countries around the world and they will make up almost half of the electricity system by 2050, a new report claims." The article outlines the future as a fait accompli, which is intended to soften the push to replace fossil fuels. This doesn't mean we can stop pushing for renewable power. It just means are arguments for it are bolstered by economics as well. (Grokked from Jim Wright)

"Democrats don’t win elections because US voter turn out is abysmally low." A tweet thread on the real reason Democrats win (or lose) elections, low turnout. (Grokked from Laura J Mixon)

"Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson cited an awkward encounter with President Donald Trump’s son-in-law in a restaurant as an example of diplomacy being conducted behind his back when he was in the administration, according to a newly released transcript of a congressional hearing."

"Speaking to the FT on the eve of the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan, during which world leaders will discuss trade, security and other matters, Putin said 'the liberal idea' had 'outlived its purpose' and 'come into conflict with the interests of the overwhelming majority of the population.'" You know that scene in the Avengers where Loki tells the crowd to kneel? Yeah, that's what Putin is doing here. "liberal idea" means a society of laws where no one is above that law. Putin is a dictator who believes everything belongs to him. (Grokked from Matt Staggs)

"For much of the last three months, the most popular Joseph R. Biden Jr. website has been a slick little piece of disinformation that is designed to look like the former vice president’s official campaign page, yet is most definitely not pro-Biden… Mr. Mauldin’s website hews far closer to the disinformation spread by Russian trolls in 2016 than typical political messaging. With nothing to indicate its creator’s motives or employer, the website offers a preview of what election experts and national security officials say Americans can expect to be bombarded with for the next year and a half: anonymous and hard-to-trace digital messaging spread by sophisticated political operatives whose aim is to sow discord through deceit. Trolling, that is, as a political strategy." Not all trolls are Russian. And a twitter commentary on questions not asked in the article. (Grokked from Laura J Mixon)

So our president met with Kim Jung Un at the DMZ, and stepped into N. Korea… and then invited Kim to the White House. All for only the promise of starting talks again. It's a desperation move by someone looking to change the conversation.