The Throughline podcast on Zombies. "Zombies have become a global phenomenon — there have been at least ten zombie movies so far this year. Which made us wonder, where did this fascination for the undead come from? This week, how one of our favorite monsters is a window into Haiti's history and the horrors of slavery." From colonialism and racism through George Romero and social commentary. Also a good overview of how horror works as a literary/creative tradition. Although missed in here is the rise of HIV and how that helped kickstart the zombie movie in the 80s.
"A fire has destroyed all the main structures of Shuri Castle, a Unesco World Heritage site on Japan's southern island of Okinawa." Oh fuck.
"Engineers at Penn State University have pioneered a new method that swiftly charges a lithium ion electric vehicle battery, adding roughly 200 miles of driving range in just ten minutes. Crucially, the method does not produce damaging side effects that limit the battery's lifespan." Closer and closer. (Grokked form Tobias Buckell)
"In June, the Food and Drug Administration announced that one patient had died and another was sickened from a fecal transplant, spurring the agency to set new safety guidelines for the procedure. But the announcement, which offered little information on the two cases, left doctors clamoring for more details… A report published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine fills in the gaps."
"Electrical activity from the brains of a pair of human subjects was transmitted to the brain of a third individual in the form of magnetic signals, which conveyed an instruction to perform a task in a particular manner." For your nightmare material.
In the writing world, there has been a lot of discussion about our troubled past and how some of the founding authors (and many current ones) exhibited profound racism and misogyny. How can we love the Cthulhu Mythos world when Lovecraft was a flaming asshole? Writing wasn't the first I struggled with these issues. The Troughline podcast… "50 years ago the world watched as man first landed on the moon, an incredible accomplishment by the engineers and scientists of NASA. But what if some of those same engineers and scientists had a secret history that the U.S. government tried to hide? This week, the story of how the U.S. space program was made possible by former Nazis." Von Braun was a willing and enthusiastic Nazi. And if you think that's bad, it'll blow you mind when you delve into the history of modern medicine and some of the advanced surgical procedures.
In case you forgot just how fucking insane the Cold War and Detante was, here's a short tweet storm, "OTD (yesterday) in 1961, the Soviet Union tested the largest-ever thermonuclear bomb—a 50-Mt RDS-220 (originally designed for 100 Mt). The device, later dubbed 'Tsar Bomba' in the West, was dropped by a Tu-95 Bear bomber and exploded ~13,123 feet above Novaya Zemlya inside the Arctic Circle." These design of thermonuclear devices continued, mostly to make them smaller and lighter, although this was the largest explosion test. For comparison, the Minuteman III, the workhorse of America's ICBM flight, carried 3 independently-targeted reentry vehicles each of which could deliver a 170 Kt device to within 1.5 miles of it's programmed target (or half a mega-tonnage of explosive). We currently have about 400 deployed (we made over 1000). That's 200 Mt (or 4 Tsar Bombas), and that's just one type of missile. The Tsar Bomba's explosion, a political stunt meant to shake the West, dissipated mostly in the atmosphere. The Minuteman III MIRVs would detonate closer to the ground. There is no such thing as a winnable nuclear exchange. (Grokked from Jim Wright)
"At least 70 people have died after a gas canister exploded in a train in Pakistan, authorities said."
How go the Trade Wars? "Leaders from the United States and China encountered a new obstacle in their struggle to end a damaging trade war on Wednesday, when the summit where they were supposed to meet was canceled because of violent protests."
"The Federal Reserve on Wednesday cut interest rates for the third time since July, but Chairman Jerome Powell signaled that it is done reducing borrowing costs for now. That’s bad news for President Donald Trump, who has loudly called for rates to drop to zero — or even lower — to boost the economy as he heads into his reelection campaign." A Fed Chair makes ambitious remarks? That's so strange.
"North Korea fired two 'unidentified projectiles' into the waters between South Korea and Japan on Thursday afternoon, the South Korean government said in a statement." I'm so glad we've brought North Korea into the world community and our president has such a good relationship with Kim Jong Un.
"The Pentagon released newly declassified video and images Wednesday of the daring, two hour raid targeting ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi that shows US forces taking small arms fire from multiple locations as their helicopters approached the compound." And president Trump finally thanks the troops the way he should have.
"Speaking Tuesday at an Obama Foundation summit in Chicago, Obama said that he worries that some in the Democratic Party's left flank are too worried about ideological 'purity' among their fellow Democrats."
"The impeachment inquiry enters a new open phase with a House vote on a resolution formalizing the impeachment inquiry. The measure drafted by House Democrats lays out the ground rules for public hearings, provides procedures for the president and his counsel to respond to evidence and sets out the process for considering articles of impeachment in the Judiciary Committee and the full House." But of course the Republicans are still claiming it's all a sham, even mocking having a vote. That's because they know exactly what will happen and what positions they'll need to defend when it comes to the Senate and they'll do everything they can to avoid it.
"Sitting inside the White House, Mitch McConnell gave Donald Trump some straightforward advice: Stop attacking senators — including Mitt Romney — who likely will soon judge your fate in an impeachment trial." They really need to keep this "Republicans don't see anything wrong with how the president is behaving" thing going. It's a risky gambit, and one that if the Democrats play it right, could taint the GOP for a generation.
"President Donald Trump's refusal to sign an August memo releasing funds for Ukraine offers the latest evidence that the money was paused not as part of a security review -- as administration officials previously claimed -- but instead solely at the discretion of the President." Wow, there's a whole lotta smoke around this gun.
"Earlier this year, GOP senators pledged to quickly quash any articles of impeachment passed by the House. But as the Democrats compile more evidence that Trump withheld military assistance from Ukraine to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, they are adopting a more sober tone." Democrats need to tie this albatross around the GOP's neck if the conservatives decide loyalty to party trumps loyalty to the country and the Constitution. They need to call the bluff of the "concerned Senator is concerned." The Democrats need to make the crimes so clear, and explain how these crimes erode the very concept of democracy, that any "no" vote will be evidence of culpability and conspiracy in crime.
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