I watch the ripples change their size
But never leave the stream
Of warm impermanence
And so the days float through my eyes
But still the days seem the same
And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds
Are immune to your consultations
They're quite aware of what they're goin' through

Friday, June 3, 2022

Linkee-poo Friday June 3

"Tropical storm warnings have been issued across the southern half of the Florida Peninsula and the Keys ahead of the likely formation of a Gulf tropical storm that will bring heavy rain and gusty winds to those areas into the weekend."

"The most surprising thing about the racism directed at Obi-Wan Kenobi star Moses Ingram is the fact that some people are still surprised by it… After all, other actors of color who have joined the Star Wars universe in recent years have complained about racist attacks from fans online, including John Boyega and Kelly Marie Tran." It's not about the wars in the stars, it's just plain racism. And while it might not help much, yes, having the studio get out in front of this problem would help a little (for both racism and misogyny). But then that would mean the studios would need to accept risk of blowback, and frankly they don't have the spines for that.

"Adding to the growing list of commercial deliveries slated to explore more of the Moon than ever before under Artemis, NASA has selected two new science instrument suites, including one that will study the mysterious Gruithuisen Domes for the first time."

"The technique revealed never-before-seen details about 3C 273's host galaxy, including what the scientists described as an "unknown structure" in a statement on the discovery(opens in new tab). Komugi's team saw a faint band of radio emission across the host galaxy stretching for tens of thousands of light-years. This radio emission is coming from tens of billions to hundreds of billions of solar masses' worth of hydrogen gas that has been ionized by the ultraviolet and X-ray radiation from the quasar."

"A US medical team said Thursday they had reconstructed a human ear using the patient's own tissue to create a 3D bioimplant, a pioneering procedure they hope can be used to treat people with a rare birth defect."

"On Thursday, Alameda County broke ranks by once again implementing an indoor mask mandate 'to limit the impact of increasing COVID-19 cases on hospitalizations.' The mandate, which takes effect June 3, applies to most indoor settings, save K-12 schools and the city of Berkeley, which sets its own health protocols. The state lifted its school mask mandate earlier this year."

"US employers added 390,000 jobs in May, representing a robust but slower pace of hiring, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' monthly jobs report released Friday… The unemployment rate stayed at 3.6%, slightly higher than the half-century low recorded in February 2020, before the pandemic hit."

"In his book, The Man Who Broke Capitalism, Gelles makes the case that (GE CEO Jack) Welch's ruthless cost-cutting and single-minded focus on quarterly earnings ultimately hurt both GE and American capitalism." I worked for GE vendors during the 90s, Jack Welch was an asshole who was destroying the company. You could tell it back then. And he impoverished thousands of workers at GE because of his assholiness. It's finally come time that the rest of business sees exactly what he wrought.

"Lee is part of a new surge of people showing up at food banks all over the U.S. this year, a "drumbeat of increasing demand, month over month," says Katie Fitzgerald, president of Feeding America. Food is one of the items worst hit by the highest inflation in four decades. And the cost of food and other essentials, such as gas and rent, fall hardest on lower-income households with little wiggle room."

"The U.S. Department of Education will forgive $5.8 billion of federal student loans for those who attended Corinthian Colleges, a chain of for-profit schools that deceived students about their job placement rates and students' ability to transfer credits… It is the single largest discharge of student loans in history, according to the department."

"A researcher entered the metaverse wanting to study users' behavior on Meta's social-networking platform Horizon World. But within an hour after she donned her Oculus virtual-reality headset, she says, her avatar was raped in the virtual space." I got nothing.

"Prosecutors investigating war crimes cases in Ukraine are examining allegations of the forcible deportation of children to Russia since the invasion as they seek to build a genocide indictment, the country’s top prosecutor said in an interview."

"Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, marked the 100th day of war with a video message in front of the presidential office in Kyiv where he pledged that 'victory will be ours'."

"Across France, more than 300 people have reported being pricked out of the blue with needles at nightclubs or concerts in recent months. Doctors and multiple prosecutors are on the case, but no one knows who's doing it or why, and whether the victims have been injected with drugs — or indeed any substance at all."

"Afghanistan's Taliban rulers have begun a campaign to eradicate poppy cultivation, aiming to wipe out the country's massive production of opium and heroin, even as farmers fear their livelihoods will be ruined at a time of growing poverty." What's old is new again.

"With Queen Elizabeth II missing a service of thanksgiving on Friday at St Paul's Cathedral for her 70-year reign, questions are swirling about the health of the United Kingdom's 96-year-old monarch… Buckingham Palace said Thursday the Queen experienced "some discomfort" during the first day of her Platinum Jubilee celebration and would sit out of the second day's major event."

"On the day a gunman massacred 21 people at Robb Elementary, the 911 calls from terrified children inside the school were not relayed to school district Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who was the incident commander, said state Sen. Roland Gutierrez on Thursday." How long until this is also rolled back? And if it's not, oh boy should heads roll.

"Tulsa police confirmed that a shooter killed four people at Saint Francis Hospital in Tulsa, Okla., on Wednesday."

"The Story County Sheriff's Office says three people are dead in a shooting outside of Cornerstone Church on the eastern edge of Ames on Thursday night… Story County authorities provided new details in the shooting Friday morning."

"President Biden on Thursday declared it is time to put an end to the 'carnage' and loss of American lives in mass shootings across the country as he pleaded with Congress to pass what he said are 'rational, common-sense measures' to curb gun violence… 'How much carnage are we willing to accept?'"

"For decades, auto accidents have been the leading cause of death among children, but in 2020 guns were the No. 1 cause, researchers say… Overall firearm-related deaths increased 13.5% between 2019 and 2020, but such fatalities for those 1 to 19 years old jumped nearly 30%, according to a research letter in New England Journal of Medicine."

"New York state lawmakers passed several bills on Thursday to tighten state gun laws, including a bill that would raise the minimum age to 21 to buy a semiautomatic rifle."

"In what might be characterized as an exercise in the art of the possible, a bipartisan group of senators led by John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Chris Murphy, D-Conn., have spent the past few days focused on a limited set of new policies targeting gun violence… They're still in the earliest phases of brainstorming, but three broad areas are showing promise: incentivizing states to pass red flag laws, updates to school safety protocols, and possibly some narrow changes to background checks." One, not enough. And two, I have no hope that even minor legislation could be passed.

"The white 18-year-old man accused of fatally shooting 10 Black people at a Buffalo supermarket was charged Wednesday by a grand jury with domestic terrorism motivated by hate and 10 counts of first-degree murder."

"GOP leadership from the state House and Senate stood at DeSantis’ side during a news conference in The Villages as he announced the record veto list. At times during the hourlong press conference, the governor directly poked fun at them as they laughed and clapped, a continuation of the Legislature's fealty to a governor who has run roughshod over them as his reputation as a national Republican rock star and potential 2024 presidential candidate has grown." It's all a game to them.

"Florida Governor Ron DeSantis vetoed Thursday a $35 million legislation for a Tampa Bay Rays’ spring training facility… DeSantis’s decision, according to Outkick and The Hill, is in response to the Rays 'politicizing' recent shootings in Buffalo and Uvalde ahead of a matchup with the Yankees in May."

"(Sen. Joe) Manchin was recently revealed to have quietly made millions of dollars from Enersystems over the past three decades as the only supplier of a low grade coal to a high-polluting power plant near Fairmont. That came as news to Hilsbos and just about everyone else in the city."

"Peter Navarro, a top White House adviser to Donald Trump, is being commanded by a federal grand jury subpoena to turn over to the justice department his communications with the former president, the former president’s attorneys and the former president’s representatives… The exact nature of the subpoena – served on 26 May 2022 and first obtained by the Guardian – and whether it means Trump himself is under criminal investigation for January 6 could not be established given the unusually sparse details included on the order."

"A federal grand jury has indicted former Trump White House adviser Peter Navarro for contempt of Congress after he refused to cooperate in the House January 6 committee's investigation."

"Had the whole farrago of rumor and innuendo about the gay Reaganite conspiracy come to light during the campaign, it’s difficult to say what effect it would have had on the election. Of all the voters most likely to be troubled by such charges, it would have been the evangelical Christians whose support Reagan was courting so assiduously. Reagan’s eventual 10-point victory over Carter obscures how close the race was during the final stretch. In June, just as the Post investigation was about to unfold, Carter led Reagan 35 percent to 33 percent in a national Gallup poll, and few predicted anything near the landslide Reagan ultimately won."

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