Harry and the Potters, a "punk" rock group? they don't sound punk to me.
"At 1,000 pounds and over 10 feet tall, it was one of the largest birds that ever lived in Earth's history. And almost 2 million years ago, early Europeans lived alongside some of these huge birds, according to new research published Wednesday." That's a big turkey.
"Hydroelectric dams, solar panels and wind turbines generated almost 68.5 million megawatt-hours of power in April, eclipsing the 60 million that coal produced that month, Energy Information Administration data released late Tuesday show. That’s the most clean power the U.S. has ever made -- and the least coal it has burned for power in years." It'll slide back and forth for a while, but it's a good start. Coal is facing more competition from natural gas, though. (Grokked from Robert J Bennett)
"The rise in insulin prices has nothing to do with recouping R&D costs (the majority of which are funded by government agencies, in any event): the cost of Humalog has risen 1000% in a decade, without any reformulations or refinements… Why are the prices so high? Because there's no competition to speak of. Re-patenting and legal saber-rattling have kept most new entrants out of the market, while lax antitrust enforcement has allowed existing companies to merge, eliminating potential competitors." I'm going to disagree here, the problem isn't the lack of competition. The problem is the business mindset that says we need to maximize profit to pay the executives high salaries and bonuses (or, "we gotta protect our phony baloney jobs" as Mel Brooks once said). It's a loss of societal norms and the insistence (and reward) of psychopathic behavior in our corporate executives. Why was insulin less expensive (note, not "cheap") before this? Because it never occurred to previous generations to hold consumers hostage in this manner, a literal "your money or your life" situation. When pricing decisions are based on "how much you got" versus "cost + profit", this is what happens. (Grokked from Xeni Jardin)
"Vaccination against the human papilloma virus, which causes most cervical cancers, began over a decade ago… Over decades, this should translate into a significant fall, and possible eradication, of the cancer they said." Except in the US where we are culturally squeamish about vaccinating our young women (and men) for a sexually transmitted disease, even if it means saving their lives.
Just how fucked up is the concept of fetus personhood? "A woman whose unborn baby was killed in a 2018 Pleasant Grove shooting has now been indicted in the death… Though Jones didn’t fire the shots that killed her unborn baby girl, authorities say she initiated the dispute that led to the gunfire. Police initially charged 23-year-old Ebony Jemison with manslaughter, but the charge against Jemison was dismissed after the grand jury failed to indict her." But then it could also just be the ongoing denial of the personhood of black people. (Grokked from Seanan McGuire)
"When patients arrive at the Ebola Treatment Center in the city of Beni, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Dr. Modet Camara oversees a strict protocol. First they're tested to confirm that they have the virus. Then a social worker asks if they're willing to participate in a study that would randomly assign them one of four experimental treatments intended to attack the virus, eliminating it from the body before it can kill the patient." And the vaccine is showing promise.
"Genetically modified salmon may soon be on the menu. It will be the first GMO animal approved for human consumption in the U.S., and the fish are being raised in an unlikely place." No transcript yet. The modification means the salmon mature in 1.5 years instead of 2+ years. Considering the chicken we eat are barely a 2 months old, I'm not sure this is a problem (except the faster you grow an organism, the less nutritious and flavorful it is).
How go the Trade Wars? "Chinese President Xi Jinping will present President Trump with the terms it expects the U.S. to meet for Beijing to settle the trade war, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing Chinese officials." What, China isn't breaking down and begging the president for relief? They think they're in control of this? Shock! Outrage! Scandal! My guess is that just like the Iran situation, Trump made overtures on how both sides could exit without losing face and the Chinese are telling him to stuff it.
The retain apocalypse continues. "Pier 1 Imports is increasing the number of stores expected to shutter this year… The Texas-based home goods retailer said Wednesday it was looking to close 57 stores in the fiscal year, up a dozen from the April estimate of 45 stores."
"Long a feature of white-collar employment agreements, non-compete clauses are increasingly showing up in blue-collar job contracts. That move may be hurting the economy." No transcript yet, but WTF? I'm old enough to remember when companies worked on keeping employee loyalty. It was a long time ago, but seriously there are white papers on how to do this without being dicks.
"A right-wing militia group member that was seen on video detaining people along the U.S.-Mexico border on suspicion of crossing illegally was arrested for impersonating a Border Patrol agent." Like we couldn't see that coming. Also, who recorded the video? If you guessed these jack-asses you'd be right. (Grokked from Jim Wright)
"The House on Thursday will consider adding to the Senate-passed bill several requirements that were in the House version, including medical, nutrition and hygiene standards for facilities holding migrants, and a three-month limit for any child to spend at an intake shelter, said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. It would also require the death of a child be reported within 24 hours."
"The photo shows several migrants from Nicaragua who troops intercepted Friday as they tried to cross the border, Martínez told CNN. One woman had been traveling with her husband and two daughters. They made it across the river. She didn't."
"The Trump administration wants to scale back a program that protects undocumented family members of active-duty troops from being deported, according to attorneys familiar with those plans." Because of course he does. So how will that affect troop readiness as those who are deployed now must worry about those at home?
"The labor union for federal asylum officers is condemning President Trump's policy of sending migrants to Mexico as they wait for their assigned court dates in the U.S., calling the Trump administration's program 'fundamentally contrary to the moral fabric of our Nation.'" Ya think? Just a reminder, the only reason why we're having this be an issue is because the President and his coterie are racists.
"President Trump is ordering the Pentagon to rewrite a rule allowing athletes to delay mandatory active service in order to play professional sports directly upon graduation… During the Obama administration, military academy athletes were able to go right into sports after graduating if they were granted reserve status. But last year, Trump's own Defense Department revoked that policy." I think that says all you need to know about the Trump administration. Oh, and military academies are free, but highly competitive.
"The National Security Agency improperly collected phone call records of Americans last fall, months after a previous breach that compelled the agency to destroy millions of records from the contentious program, documents released Wednesday revealed." They just can't quit us.
"During the hearing, Special Counsel Henry Kerner, who recommended that Conway be removed from federal service, said that the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) had 'never issued two reports on the same person' in the 30 years it has been independent, before Conway. No one before Conway had repeated violations of the law prohibiting executive branch employees from using their official position to influence an election, Kerner said." There's this news meme about how the "next generation" of whatever employees aren't as smart or savvy as the baby boomers (they're always compared to the boomers, and sometimes it appears as if Gen-X were all abducted by aliens). But here we see it in full play. These people are so dumb that they can't even make the simple work arounds honed by decades of public service work for them. But then, they also never think the rules apply to them, just the rest of us plebes.
"A U.S.-led conference in Bahrain designed to drum up investment in the Palestinian economy and pave a path to peace with Israel has gone largely unremarked by Israelis preoccupied with a political crisis and their arch-foe Iran." That's because it's not really a plan that has any chance. It's a plan that the Trump administration can point to and say, "See, we tried. But nobody wanted it." And then bang on about how it's all the Palestinian's fault.
"The US-led economic workshop in Bahrain closed amid derision and rejection from Palestinian officials on Wednesday, who said its framework for a trade and investment boost ignored their political aspirations for statehood." So how can you have a two-day workshop on a peace deal when both of the sides that need to comes to peace ignore your conference? It's like what is the opposite of "what if we threw a war and nobody came?"
"Beto O’ Rourke and Cory Booker didn’t just sprinkle in a few words or phrases à la George W. Bush (remember 'mi casa es su casa'?). No, they were determined to answer debate questions with long, somewhat tortured Spanish sentences."
So what was the conservative response to last night's debate. Since there wasn't much they could hang their hat on, it was the technical glitch they focused on. Strong reporting there, Fox News.
"One indication of the difference came the night before President Trump's attention-grabbing rally in Orlando to kick of his re-election effort. Volunteers gathered… (and) responded to an hour-long PowerPoint presentation with enthusiastic hoots and hollers… They were there to learn the process for registering voters and how to leverage their own social media accounts to spread the word about Trump's accomplishments." I won't make a powerpoint joke here.
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