"Too long we’ve lived under Disney’s spell of believing that Peter Pan is the brave, heroic, kind leader of Neverland. Country singer Kelsea Ballerini knew that Pan was just a fuccboi, and it seems like Hollywood agrees. A new movie starring icons Emma Thompson and Ellen Burstyn will follow generations of the Darling family as the women try to escape the clutches of the pirate-fighting man-child." That… could be an interesting cultural moment. Especially as we wait for all the man-children to cry about how their childhoods are being stolen when 1) proves this storyline's point and 2) they have to admit they watched sissy-Disney movies. (Grokked from Laura J Mixon)
"Deadline reports that NBC Universal has tapped Mr. Robot’s Sam Esmail to headline a reboot of the beloved sci-fi series Battlestar Galactica for its newly unveiled streaming service. Which is called Peacock." Everything old is new again.
"…(I)nstead of building the elevator from the Earth’s surface (which is impossible with today’s technology), it would be anchored on the moon and stretch some 200,000 miles toward Earth until hitting the geostationary orbit height (about 22,236 miles above sea level), at which objects move around Earth in lockstep with the planet’s own rotation." The problem is, that's the cheapest part of the journey. The hard part is getting into orbit from the surface of the Earth, especially to geosynchronous orbit. There's also a small quibble about use of Clarke's The Fountains of Paradise which was an elevator to orbit, not to the Moon. And then there's the problem of synching orbits with the Earth end of this elevator. (Grokked from Dan)
"Observational data collected over the years suggests the largest volcano on Jupiter’s moon Io—the most geologically active object in the Solar System—will erupt in mid-September, which is pretty much any moment now."
"One of the images shows the vehicle — apparently Starship Mk1, which is being assembled at SpaceX's South Texas facility, near the village of Boca Chica — in the background, standing behind a building that contains a variety of parts and other equipment."
The Hidden Brain podcast with… "Many people tend to push frightening realities out of mind, rather than face them head on. That's especially true when it comes to the terrifying event that no one can escape—death. Psychologist Sheldon Solomon says people may suppress conscious thoughts about their mortality, but unconscious ones still seep through." How our "death anxiety", or "terror management theory", drives our decisions that direct our (and others) life.
"Flu season in the Southern Hemisphere can be an indication of what's to come in the Northern Hemisphere, and the recent flu season in Australia, where winter has just ended, arrived early and with a vengeance. A particularly virulent flu strain, H3N2, dominated." As someone who works with an ER, yes, this year looks to be bad already. If you can, get the flu shot.
"Emotet, one of today's largest and most dangerous malware botnets, has returned to life after a period of inactivity that lasted nearly four months, since the end of May this year."
Conservatives are all about states' rights and letting the states be the laboratory of democracy and innovation. Unless the states disagree with their politics and then conservatives are all for "Federal Only" standards. "The Trump administration is expected this week to revoke an Obama-era waiver that allowed California to set its own standards for automobile emissions – a move that could derail a years-long push to produce more fuel efficient cars." This is also a local governance issue. For the most part, states can't roll back federal regulations and laws (although the legal marijuana campaign is challenging that), but they can enact more restrictive laws and standards. California has had this waiver since Nixon was in office (IIRC). But the EPA and the Trump administration is arguing that more advanced technology, reduced emissions, higher mileage cars are illegal and part of come "collusion" between manufacturers and California. They are actually arguing for less efficient, higher polluting, lower mileage cars as a national standard.
"The free speech rights of two Christian artists who make wedding invitations were violated by an anti-discrimination ordinance in Phoenix that makes it illegal to refuse service to same-sex couples for religious reasons, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled Monday." And again, I call bullshit. Because this is not "free speech", this is "commercial speech." They are refusing commerce on the basis that "same-sex couples make them feel icky." If you can't serve the public in general, don't offer your services for hire.
"Borrowing rates skyrocketed on Tuesday in a corner of the markets the public rarely notices but that is critical to the functioning of the global financial system… The spike in overnight borrowing rates forced the New York Federal Reserve to come to the rescue with a special operation aimed at easing stress in financial markets." Oh fuck.
"Salina Alexander, who works in the Kentucky plant’s paint shop, said the strike is about GM sharing some of its profits with union-represented employees who helped bail out the carmaker during its bankruptcy. 'We hung in there with them. They can give us something back.'" What I love is now Lordstown is a bargaining chip with the potential to produce batteries for GM's new electric truck. So they shuttered the factory to have something to bargain with.
"National grocery chain Whole Foods, which is owned by multibillion-dollar corporation Amazon, is cutting medical benefits for hundreds of part-time employees, Business Insider reported today. The decision, according to the company, is designed 'to better meet the needs of our business and create a more equitable and efficient scheduling model,' a Whole Foods spokesperson told BI." Um, what does offering health benefits have to do with making an efficient scheduling model? The answer is, "we're tired of these lazy employees who don't want to work all the hours of every day". So I'm gonna call bullshit on that argument and just say these cuts are designed "to better meet the needs of Jeff Bezos, who is extremely upset he doesn't have ALL the money, yet." The two previous quotes are not in the article. This one is, "The spokesperson made sure to include a reminder that Whole Foods employees can still enjoy a 20 percent discount on groceries, which, it turns out, will not save your life in the event of a medical emergency." (Grokked from Ferrett Steinmetz)
"What they found is fascinating. When their company advertised they were doing good, they saw the number of applicants increase by 25 percent. Using the different wages they offered as a yardstick, they calculate it would have taken them increasing the amount of pay they offered by about a third — from $11 to almost $15 an hour — to get an equivalent increase in the number of applicants. In other words, when a company says it's dedicated to helping disadvantaged children, they can pay much less and get much more." Shocking to find that people don't want to be just cogs in the corporate machinery, but want to have meaning and respect in their jobs.
"A Georgia homeowner shot and killed three teens as they approached his residence with their faces covered, authorities said." Wait, I thought criminals didn't target people with guns.
"Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's grip on power was hanging in the balance Wednesday after local TV channels projected him trailing his centrist rival Benny Gantz by just one seat, following a re-run general election."
Why is our politics so divisive? "When Air Force One touches down at Moffett Field in Mountain View, Calif., Tuesday morning, President Trump will be heading 'behind enemy lines,' as one supporter called the president's first trip to the San Francisco Bay Area since being elected." That "one supporter" is Harmeet Dhillon, Republican National Committeewoman from San Francisco. That's how conservatives feel about the rest of the country. That we're the enemy. And as an Indian Immigrant, she doesn't see how Trump's fight against "immigrants" will affect her (because it's not just about "illegal immigrants"). She believes her money, position, and support will shield her. I used to feel sorry for these self-deluded people, but they don't want to see reality. They intentionally don't want to see reality. So this is the bed they are making for themselves.
"A cheerleading team in North Carolina has been put on probation after posing with a banner endorsing President Donald Trump at a school sports match… The school, North Stanly High School, bars the display or distribution of political advertisements on campus." And for good reason, especially since cheerleaders and sports teams are semi-official representatives of the school. And displays like that can be seen as a political endorsement from the school. "'We took a picture of the Trump flag because he is our president and it had red, white and blue on it,' one of the students pictured told local news station Fox 46 Charlotte." Uh, kid, you might want to come up with a better excuse, or you should go to a better school. The French Flag is red, white, and blue, why didn't you pose with one of those?
"A New York Times story from over the weekend contains a third, previously undisclosed sexual misconduct allegation against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. The report was later updated to make it clear the new allegation is not as strongly corroborated as readers of the first version of the story may have been led to believe. Fox News is capitalizing on the revision to dismiss all the sexual misconduct allegations Kavanaugh faces — and doing so in a misleading way."
"Ultimately, we combined our notebooks with our common sense and came to believe an utterly human narrative: that Ford and Ramirez were mistreated by Kavanaugh when he was a teenager, and that Kavanaugh over the next 35 years became a better person." At least in comparison. The problem in the narrative of him being a better person is that it doesn't seem to have happened with an acknowledgement of the past behavior. Combine that with the fact of the duplicitous nature of abusive personalities it's quite possible Kavanaugh has not really become a better person, he just got better at hiding his bad actions from outside view. It is very possible for someone to be sexually (and physically) abusive of intimates, and yet appear kindhearted, open, and generous in front of the general public.
"It took more than five hours of confrontational exchanges, but Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee finally managed to regain the narrative in their questioning of Corey Lewandowski, Donald Trump’s former campaign manager who in 2017 was enlisted by the president to curb the investigation into Russian electoral interference by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III." What Barry Berke did (by all reports, as I worked very late last night) was by all rights what the congressmen should have done; been well prepared and ready for dissembling. (Grokked from Kathryn Cramer)
Tweet of my heart: @BillKristol One’s repugnance at the spectacle of Lewandowski shouldn’t blind us to its significance. It was the essence of Trumpism: Not merely contempt for the truth or disdain for the law, but a kind of visceral loathing for the institutions and norms of a constitutional liberal democracy. (Grokked from Kathryn Cramer)
Goddamnit Republicans stop making me agree with Bill Kristol.
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