Linkee-poo Tuesday March 16

Yaphet Kotto, and so it goes.

I've talked a little about this before, but Charlie Jane Anders does it a whole lot better pointing out the 7 wrong lessons that creators learned from Game of Thrones. We often focus on the unusual and out of the ordinary because they are unusual and out of the ordinary. Once they becomes usual and ordinary they're kinda sucky and it's spoils their specialness.

"SpaceX successfully launched one of its Falcon 9 rockets into space for a record ninth time on Sunday, making it the first in the company’s fleet to launch and land nine times. The Falcon 9 rocket was carrying a new cargo of 60 Starlink satellites, which are part of the company’s efforts to provide satellite internet."

"The space junk is expected to fall back to Earth in two to four years, agency officials wrote in an update last week. That update also stated that the pallet will burn up 'harmlessly in the atmosphere,' but not everyone is convinced that's the case." Yeah, I think you'd want to control that entry a little more.

"Researchers from the United States and India working with NASA have now discovered four strains of bacteria living in different places in the ISS – three of which were, until now, completely unknown to science." That's not all that unusual as we've barely scratched the surface when it comes to understanding single celled organisms (because there's a whole fucking lot of them).

"Using lab techniques unimaginable in the 1960s when the core was drilled, we and an international team of fellow scientists were able to show that Greenland’s massive ice sheet had melted to the ground there within the past million years. Radiocarbon dating shows that it would have happened more than 50,000 years ago. It most likely happened during times when the climate was warm and sea level was high, possibly 400,000 years ago."

"'We are not against traditional windfarms,' says David Yáñez, the inventor of Vortex Bladeless. His six-person startup, based just outside Madrid, has pioneered a turbine design that can harness energy from winds without the sweeping white blades considered synonymous with wind power."

"Under a bankruptcy plan filed late Monday night, Purdue Pharma would pay roughly $500 million in cash up front to settle hundreds of thousands of injury claims linked to the company's role in the deadly opioid epidemic… The company said additional payments would be spread over the next decade, including installments on roughly $4.2 billion promised by members of the Sackler family who own the firm." They're still getting off easy.

"For many years, Jessica Duenas led what she calls a double life. She was the first in her immigrant family to go to college. In 2019, she won Kentucky's Teacher of the Year award. That same year, Duenas typically downed nearly a liter of liquor every night."

"Millions of colonoscopies, mammograms, lung scans, Pap tests and other cancer screenings were suspended for several months last spring in the United States and elsewhere as COVID-19 swamped medical care… Now researchers are studying the impact, looking to see how many cancers were missed and whether tumors found since then are more advanced." Even if the vaccines are wildly successful, we're going to be dealing with the fallout from COVID-19 for decades to come.

"The University of Georgia is one of many colleges that decided to cancel or alter spring break — which typically happens in early or mid-March — to discourage students from travelling. But the students at the table told NPR they chose to make their own spring break. Several had online classes and exams earlier that day, which they attended from their hotel rooms. It's a story NPR heard over and over again from spring breakers along Collins Avenue, Miami Beach's main drag."

"The CDC's current guidance for schools recommends seating or desks be 'at least 6 feet apart when feasible.'… But a new study published in Clinical Infectious Diseases suggests that 3 feet may be as safe as 6 feet, so long as everyone is masked." The virus is airborne. Unless schools have done major restructuring to their ventilation systems (ha! they barely have money to pay for textbooks) 6' is too small a space. "The authors compared infection rates at Massachusetts schools that required at least 3 feet of distancing with those that required at least 6 feet, and found no significant difference in the coronavirus case rates among students or staff in the two cohorts." Hey, why don't you look at 6' and 12' spacing to see if there's a difference there? Basically what this study shows is 6' is not enough. But that won't even enter the consciousness of the people doing the research because they're not doing science properly.

"Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Tuesday the U.S. is expected to reach the highest number of people apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border in two decades."

"Women and people of color are notoriously underrepresented in economics. Only 14% of full professors are women, and one survey found only 1.6% Black faculty in the economics departments of the 30 highest-ranked universities… And yet, President Biden has managed to find several highly accomplished economists who are not just women but are also Black, and has placed them in top posts in his administration."

"U.S. retail sales fell more than expected moderately in February amid bitterly cold weather across the country, but a rebound is likely as the government disburses another round of pandemic relief money to mostly lower- and middle-income households."

"The IRS is now starting to distribute the third round of stimulus checks, worth up to $1,400 per eligible adult and child. But the timing of getting a check may depend partly on a bank's policies, with some customers of JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo expressing frustration after the banks said the coronavirus relief payments won't be available until March 17."

"The massive stimulus plan President Joe Biden signed last week sets up a critical real-world test of an argument that has divided political professionals for decades: Can Democrats win back White working-class voters drawn to conservative Republican messages on culture and race by offering them more tangible economic benefits?" Yeah, I'm thinking that the reporters are missing a vital disconnect here.

"Nokia will slash the size of its workforce over the next two years to free up money to invest in its 5G networks business." Yeah, but without workers, who's going to actually do the research and installation?

"The UK is set to reverse plans to reduce its stockpile of nuclear weapons by the middle of the decade, as part of a foreign policy overhaul… The cap on the number of warheads will now increase to 260, having been due to drop to 180 under previous plans from 2010." Wrong. Direction.

"Britain wants to expand its influence among countries in the Indo-Pacific region to try to moderate China's global dominance, a document laying out post-Brexit foreign and defence policy priorities said on Tuesday." Yeah, because that's always worked out well.

"In Tokyo on Tuesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin put U.S. alliances, and cooperation with allies to counter China's challenges to U.S. primacy, at the center of the Biden administration's foreign policy in its first Cabinet-level trip abroad."

"The majority of news outlets in Pennsylvania rank high on trustworthiness, but there is a growing crop of digital sites with ties to both Democratic and Republican groups that are taking hold in the state with few, if any, disclaimers about their partisan motives." Might as well skip the middle men. (Grokked from Kathryn Cramer)

"The FBI is facing new scrutiny for its 2018 background check of Brett Kavanaugh, the supreme court justice, after a lawmaker suggested that the investigation may have been 'fake'." Someone's got some 'splainin' to do.

"As former President Donald Trump’s supporters have flocked to alternative social media networks, many are turning to SafeChat, a fast-growing platform known for its tolerance of high-octane MAGA content… But the once-obscure social network, which touts its security protections and respect for free speech, is not just MAGA-friendly. It’s also a conduit that enables fringe groups attacking the Chinese Communist Party to speak directly to — and influence — Trump supporters, creating a 'Star Wars' barlike atmosphere where AR-15 enthusiasts and a growing number of white nationalists can mingle with Chinese dissidents." So you're saying no droids are allowed in, just trolls?

"Two men have been arrested for assaulting Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, who died after responding to the riots on January 6, the Department of Justice announced Monday. The details surrounding Sicknick's death remain unclear."

"In Georgia, a criminal investigation into former President Donald Trump’s post-election conduct is expanding to include close Trump ally Sen. Lindsey Graham, according to a Friday report by the Washington Post… The investigation, which was opened by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis earlier this month, will probe whether Trump — and now Graham — violated state law in the course of Trump’s attempt to overturn the election results in Georgia following the 2020 presidential election."

"Faruqui seemed to accept the emotional pleas from Reffitt’s daughter, Peyton, that his tough talk and threatening language in family discussions was just frivolous banter gone too far. He also credited corroborating testimony from her boyfriend, who appeared via Zoom as well. But the judge said the evidence of Reffitt’s actions in connection with the Jan. 6 riot and his statements before and after the event were so disturbing that he had to be detained pending trial." It can be confusing to people who have never deal with abusive families before, but this is not unheard of (for a family member to "vouch" for an abuser).