Linkee-poo Wed Jan 11

"The Mega Millions prize has grown again to an estimated $1.35 billion after there was no winner of the lottery’s latest giant jackpot."

A short course on art appreciation. "Wanting to see something beautiful is nothing to be "snuffed at,' (Jessica Lynne) adds. 'We all have an aesthetic perspective and beauty is so important to how we live and how we make ourselves in the world'… Either way, there's no right way to go through an art museum, says (PJ) Policarpio — so just follow your interests." Also, just because "everybody" loves it, that doesn't mean you have to as well. But we suffer from a poor education where things only have one right meaning that will be on the test. That you must like what the instructor likes or you're wrong. I know some people who don't want to go to museums, concerts or plays because they don't want to be "wrong." There is no test. Love what you love. Saying, "this makes me happy" is enough, although I will say that exploring why something makes you happy is a worthwhile exercise. As someone who goes to museums, plays, and concerts (of all stripes) and has a nasty habit of listening to other people, yes, a lot of people get it wrong. Including some people who should know better. And many people skim the information placards and that's their level of understanding.

"Kansas water experts are sounding an alarm decades in the making: Farmers and ranchers in the state’s western half must stop pumping more water out of a vast aquifer than nature puts back each year or risk the economic collapse of a region important to the U.S. food supply." We're boned.

"The rocket was set to make history, carrying satellites on what would be the first-ever orbital launch from the U.K. on Monday night. But Virgin Orbit says its LauncherOne rocket 'experienced an anomaly' just before it could deliver its payload, and the craft was lost." The achieved space but were unable to make their orbit.

"A comet known as C/2022 E3, marked by its bright green nucleus and long faint ion tail, will be on display in the Earth sky later this month — possibly for the first time ever or at least for thousands of years."

"One of the longstanding arguments against renewable energy like wind and solar is that it's not as reliable as conventional power plants. But the Christmas Eve rolling blackouts in North Carolina turned that conventional wisdom on its head… Single-digit temperatures across the region froze instrumentation and sensing lines and caused other mechanical problems that reduced output at several of Duke Energy's gas- and coal-powered plants." Funny how they forget to mention their own fragility. Don't worry, they're still going to blame it on renewables.

"The USDA says the best way to reduce food waste "is to not create it in the first place." But what does that actually entail?… Morning Edition spoke with Dzung Lewis and Emmy Cho, both chefs and YouTubers, about small steps people can take at the supermarket and in the kitchen to eat more sustainably — and creatively."

"Thousands of nurses at New York City hospitals went on strike Monday morning. The labor action has already begun to disrupt health care services at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx and Mount Sinai Hospital in Harlem, where about 7,100 members of the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) could join the picket line… The nurses are striking as they negotiate for higher pay and increased staffing in their first new contracts since the COVID-19 pandemic began. NYSNA members have reached contract agreements with several other hospitals across the five boroughs in recent days, narrowly avoiding similar strikes."

"The good news is… RSV cases have been falling steadily since the end of November, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention… At the same time, the flu… looks like it's finally receding in most places, according to the latest data out Friday from the CDC… The virus posing the biggest threat right now is — you guessed it — the one that causes COVID-19."

"First lady Jill Biden is having surgery on Wednesday after doctors found a small lesion above her right eye, the White House said… The lesion was found during a routine skin cancer examination, and President Biden accompanied her to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where she is having it removed in a routine procedure known as Mohs surgery." I've had two Mohs surgeries. I wish Dr. "Jill" the best with hers. Fuck cancer.

"The new Dungeons & Dragons Open Gaming License, a document which allows a vast group of independent publishers to use the basic game rules created by D&D owner Wizards of the Coast, significantly restricts the kind of content allowed and requires anyone making money under the license to report their products to Wizards of the Coast directly, according to an analysis of a leaked draft of the document, dated mid-December." Wow. WoC just rolled a natural 20 on their attempted backstabbing of themselves. I mean, sure, you want to have some control over your IP, and there are a ton of new technologies that need addressing. Also, some of these changes are in the best interest of the continued growth and enjoyment of the game. However adding some of these compliance issues will create a nightmare for the smaller creators and most definitely for WoC who will now have to create a library of documents, handle issues of compliance, and auditing. The volume of that will be staggering. Also the explicit rights grab is not a big incentive. If they wanted to outline a boiler plate licensing agreement, yeah, sure. And in some fashion this is a legal protection for WoC developed materials (in the same way that fan fiction affects authors and how most authors explicitly state they do not read their fan fiction). But to state they have the right to reproduce successful works for free, wow. Just wow.

"In-N-Out Burger is 'double-doubling' down on growing its business, announcing it would open new locations in Tennessee, the farthest east the company has ever gone."

"What do all these innovators have in common? They were all immigrants to the United States… Many studies over the years have suggested that immigrants are vital to our nation's technological and economic progress. Today, around a quarter of all workers in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields are immigrants." A new research paper again demonstrates that immigrants are a driving force in our economy and technical leadership (although that leadership has been suffering since the late 90s).

"It’s a sentiment being echoed by conservative officials in red states across the country. The indefinite academic appointments that come with tenure — the holy grail of university employment — have faced review from lawmakers or state oversight boards in at least half a dozen states, often presented as bids to rein in academics with liberal views."

"More Americans are leaning on their credit cards in the face of rising prices. And as interest rates continue to climb, that debt is getting a lot more expensive… The average credit card user was carrying a balance of $5,474 last fall, according to TransUnion, up 13% from 2021."

"The world’s largest aircraft fleet was grounded for hours by a cascading outage in a government system that delayed or canceled thousands of flights across the U.S. on Wednesday."

"A kerfuffle about whether British actor Benedict Cumberbatch will have to pay reparations to descendants of slaves in Barbados made headlines this week. It's still unclear who exactly may become subject to legal action to atone for atrocities of slavery. But online buzz over famous Brits' ties to slavery, like Cumberbatch's, put wider attention on the fight for reparations in the Caribbean."

"Elon Musk has urged a federal judge to shift a trial in a shareholder lawsuit out of San Francisco because he says negative local media coverage has biased potential jurors against him."

"A white state lawmaker in Montana is questioning whether land set aside long ago for Native Americans should exist anymore." Lordy lordy. Can opened. Worms everywhere.

"California police were more than twice as likely to use force against Black residents than white residents during traffic and pedestrian stops in 2021, according to a new report on racial profiling… The annual report from a state board also found that law enforcement searched Black people at 2.2 times the rate of white people, and that Black youths ages 15 to 17 were searched at nearly six times the rate of white teenagers. Latino residents were stopped and subjected to force at 1.4 times the rate of white people, and Latino youths were searched at nearly four times the rate of white youths."

"A Virginia teacher who was critically injured when she was was shot by a 6-year-old student in Newport News is showing signs of improvement as authorities struggle to understand how a child so young could be involved in a school shooting, the city’s mayor said Saturday."

"Russian forces are escalating their onslaught against Ukrainian positions around the wrecked city of Bakhmut, Ukrainian officials said, bringing new levels of death and devastation in the grinding, months long battle for control of eastern Ukraine that is part of Moscow’s wider war."

What happens when you sit military leaders in a room? "Drone advances in Ukraine have accelerated a long-anticipated technology trend that could soon bring the world’s first fully autonomous fighting robots to the battlefield, inaugurating a new age of warfare." The sum of all their fears.

"Attorney General Merrick Garland has assigned the U.S. attorney in Chicago to review documents marked classified that were found at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement in Washington, two sources with knowledge of the inquiry told CBS News. The roughly 10 documents are from President Biden's vice-presidential office at the center, the sources said. CBS News has learned the FBI is also involved in the U.S. attorney's inquiry." With a well reasoned section on how this differs from the Trump documents, although the GOP is trying to make them equivalent.

"Florida lawmakers will move to increase state control of Walt Disney World’s private government, according to a notice published Friday, the latest development in a feud over a law critics have dubbed 'Don’t Say Gay.'" So they're going to try and take the government responsibilities over, but not the debt? Well, they can try.

"The House of Representatives has approved the rules package for the 118th Congress in a near party-line vote, in what marked the first legislative test of newly elected Speaker Kevin McCarthy's narrow GOP majority… The full written agreement has not been made public. But it's clear that key provisions could empower the conservative wing of the party and ultimately weaken the office of the speaker." And the first thing out the door, transparency. That document should be public. There is no reason for it not to be.

"The federal government is on track to max out on its $31.4 trillion borrowing authority as soon as this month, starting the clock on an expected standoff between President Joe Biden and the new House Republican majority that will test both parties’ ability to navigate a divided Washington, with the fragile global economy at stake." Here we go again.

"Allen Weisselberg, the decades-long chief financial officer at former President Donald Trump's family business, was sentenced Tuesday to five months behind bars for financial crimes he committed while working as a top executive there… He also will serve five years' probation and pay some $2 million in penalties and back taxes."

"Echoing Bolsonaro's false claims of electoral fraud, thousands of Bolsonaro supporters ransacked the nation's Congress, Supreme Court and presidential office on Sunday, leaving a path of destruction, in stunning scenes reminiscent of the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol insurrection."

"Long before Sunday's shocking attack on Brazil's Congress and other government buildings, warning signs on social media pointed to possible violence by backers of former President Jair Bolsonaro — one of several important parallels with the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol two years ago." You know, besides some of the same people being involved. They are learning and changing.

"Bullets flew through one home’s front door and garage. At another home, three bullets went into the bedroom of a 10-year-old girl in a series of shootings that had at least one thing in common: They targeted the homes or offices of elected Democratic officials in New Mexico."

Linkee-poo Three Kings

Barbara Walters, Anita Pointer, Joseph Ratzinger, and a whole lot more, and so it goes.

"Officials in California ordered evacuations in a high-risk coastal area where mudslides killed 23 people in 2018 as a huge storm barreled into the state Wednesday, bringing high winds and rain that threatened widespread flooding and knocked out power to more than 100,000 people."

"Thirteen bison were killed or had to be euthanized after their herd was struck by a semi-truck involved in an accident with two other vehicles on a dark Montana highway just outside Yellowstone National Park, authorities said Friday."

The NPR Books We Love list. I think this is the first year that the list for speculative fiction holds mostly title I haven't at least heard of.

"Alongside the short-story collection 'The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes,' books such as Virginia Woolf’s 'To The Lighthouse,' Ernest Hemingway’s 'Men Without Women,' William Faulkner’s 'Mosquitoes' and Agatha Christie’s 'The Big Four' — an Hercule Poirot mystery — will become public domain as the calendar turns to 2023."

"The number of states that have legalized recreational use of cannabis more than doubled in the last five years. A new study finds that between 2017 and 2021, the number of very young children eating edible forms of marijuana spiked dramatically, with many kids ending up in hospitals." Sigh. Can't wait for next Halloween! But seriously, don't let kids into your stash.

"Players, coaches and football fans are anxiously awaiting updates about Damar Hamlin, the Buffalo Bills player who suffered a cardiac arrest during Monday night's game against the Cincinnati Bengals."

"Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin, who suffered a cardiac arrest during a Monday game, has shown "substantial" and "remarkable" improvement in the past 24 hours, according to his physicians and team."

"The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday finalized a rule change that broadens availability of abortion pills to many more pharmacies, including large chains and mail-order companies."

"But until recently, neither Alexander nor any of her colleagues in the emergency department at Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis had ever performed one of the most common procedures for women of reproductive age — a uterine aspiration (also commonly known as a D&C) or the removal of tissue from the uterus via suction." And it's needed.

"Louisiana's near-total abortion ban, which took effect on Aug. 1, has raised fears among physicians that they could potentially be investigated for treating a miscarriage, since the same treatments are also used for abortion… During those early weeks of pregnancy, Joshua experienced symptoms she hadn't dealt with in her first pregnancy: mild cramping and spotting. Without access to a doctor, though, Joshua felt like she had nowhere to go for answers."

"U.S. job openings slipped in November but remained high, suggesting businesses are still determined to add workers, a blow to the Federal Reserve’s efforts to cool hiring and wage gains."

"Twitter says it will ease up on its 3-year-old ban on political advertising, the latest change by Elon Musk as he tries to pump up revenue after purchasing the social media platform last year." Duck and cover.

"Elon Musk is trying to slash expenses at Twitter as close to zero as possible while his personal wealth shrinks — and this apparently has included falling behind on rent payments at the company’s offices." I'm sure that will work out well.

How goes Brexit? "British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pledged to halve inflation, grow the U.K. economy and stop illegal immigration Wednesday as he set out his Conservative government’s priorities in his first major speech of 2023."

"Grappling with the biggest flood of Cuban migrants in decades, the United States reopened their long-closed legal pathway on Wednesday by resuming all visa services at its embassy in Havana."

"An ancient wooden sarcophagus that was featured at the Houston Museum of Natural Sciences was returned to Egypt after U.S. authorities determined it was looted years ago, Egyptian officials said Monday." And in case you think this is some crime from the past when the rules we different, check out the dates in the article.

"An airline ground crew worker in Montgomery, Ala., died after being 'ingested into the engine' of a parked plane on Saturday, said the National Transportation Safety Board." The fuck?

"Amazon is laying off 18,000 employees, the tech giant said Wednesday, representing the single largest number of jobs cut at a technology company since the industry began aggressively downsizing last year."

"Natural gas storage levels in the European Union stand at nearly 84% and were higher in December than the average amount in reserve 4-6 years ago, the EU’s executive branch said Wednesday, despite Russian attempts to choke off supplies amid its war on Ukraine."

"Duke Energy Corp. executives on Tuesday blamed a convergence of widespread extreme cold, higher than projected demand, malfunctioning plant equipment and the inability to buy power elsewhere for rolling blackouts on Christmas Eve — the first for the company in the Carolinas."

"A Missouri judge has ruled that a pardon from the governor doesn’t mean the St. Louis lawyer and his wife who gained national attention for waving guns at racial injustice protesters in 2020 should get back the weapons they surrendered and fines they paid after guilty pleas last year."

"Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul signed legislation on Saturday to legalize natural organic reduction, popularly known as human composting, making New York the sixth state in the nation to allow that method of burial."

"According to the federal indictment from the U.S. District Attorney’s Office in Colorado, Hess and Koch would not follow family wishes, and neither discussed nor obtained authorization for Donor Services to transfer descendants' body parts to third parties… Hess and Koch offered to cremate bodies and provide the remains to families for $1,000 or more. Many of those cremations didn’t occur… They would instead sell remains of the deceased and deliver fake cremains to their loved ones."

"More than 30 graves at a historic Christian cemetery in Jerusalem were found toppled and vandalized, the diocese said Wednesday, jolting the Christian minority in the contested city."

"Last month, the U.S. Justice Department filed a motion to intervene in the legal wrangling over the fate of the child, arguing that Mast’s adoption should never have been granted. The government has said Mast’s attempts to take the child directly conflicted with a U.S. foreign policy decision to reunite the orphan with her Afghan family. They asked that the case be moved from a rural Virginia court to federal court, but were denied by Presiding Circuit Court Judge Richard E. Moore."

"Even in wealthy, developed nations with advanced technologies, heavy machinery and readily available protective equipment, mining can be a dangerous and sometimes deadly job. In Afghanistan, where much of the coal is mined by hand, every descent into the bowels of this mountain is a gamble." And it's mostly done by children.

"The Russian military’s top brass came under increasing scrutiny Wednesday as more details emerged of how at least 89 Russian soldiers, and possibly many more, were killed in a Ukrainian artillery attack on a single building." Serious failures of command, discipline, and tactics.

"Two men have been arrested and charged with vandalizing electrical substations in Washington state, attacks that left thousands without power over the holidays, and one suspect told authorities they did it so they could break into a business and steal money, U.S. authorities said Tuesday."

"Nearly 100 years ago, a local government in Southern California took Bruce's Beach away from its Black owners because of the color of their skin. The owners' descendants won a long effort to regain the land — and now they intend to sell it to Los Angeles County for nearly $20 million."

"The Maine Legislature cleared the way for $450 relief checks to help residents struggling with high winter heating costs Wednesday before decamping to the Augusta Civic Center to hear Democratic Gov. Janet Mills outline her priorities for her second term."

"Virginia Thomas, the wife of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, says she regrets sending texts to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows after the 2020 election, telling the House Jan. 6 committee that 'I would take them all back if I could today.'" The non-apology. Note she doesn't apologize for the content, just that she sent the texts.

"The North Carolina Department of Justice will not bring charges against former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows or his wife, Debra, over allegations that they were illegally registered to vote in the state, the North Carolina Attorney General’s Office announced on Friday." Good thing they're white.

"The records show how Trump limited his tax liability by offsetting his income against corporate losses as well as millions of dollars in business expenses, asset depreciation and other deductions… The records also detail Trump’s foreign holdings."

So how goes it with the party who wants to rule, but not govern? "House Republicans flailed through a long second day of fruitless balloting Wednesday, unable to either elect their leader Kevin McCarthy as House speaker or come up with a new strategy to end the political chaos that has tarnished the start of their new majority." While the most politically expedient route would be for the Democrats to negotiate to get 6 more votes for Jeffries, whereas McCarthy would need 17 Democrats now, I doubt either option is being seriously considered by either leadership on the floor.

"A Democrat who promised to govern as an independent was elected speaker of the narrowly divided Pennsylvania House of Representatives in a surprising move Tuesday on the strength of every Democrat and more than a dozen GOP votes."

Linkee-poo Wed Jun 15 Early AM Edition

"Yellowstone National Park announced Monday all entrances are temporarily closed due to 'extremely hazardous conditions' caused by 'unprecedented' rainfall and flooding."

"A male mastodon died fighting with a rival during mating season about 13,200 years ago in what is now northeast Indiana. Now, his well-preserved fossil and tusks reveal not only how the 8-ton adult died, but also where he trekked across North America."

"A group of scientists from Africa and elsewhere are urging the scientific community and world health leaders to drop the stigmatizing language used to differentiate monkeypox viruses, and are even advocating renaming the virus itself."

"It was 2012, and Niess was upset. Though ordering a chest X-ray in a case like this was considered routine medical practice, Niess understood something her patient didn't. Decades of evidence showed the chest X-ray was unnecessary and the "mass" was probably a shadow or a cluster of blood vessels. These non-finding findings are so common that doctors have dubbed them 'incidentalomas.'" There's many things on test results that are not shared with patients, because they are not relevant and have a high probability of meaning nothing. However, especially for radiology, the radiologist or professional reading the test to general "results" will mention everything they see (way too many malpractice cases for them not to), but they will couch their language. So many things are not fully shared with patients. However there are times where the incidental finding is significant. And as long as the pay system is based on the amount of care given to the patient, this process of chasing low value care targets will continue. And that is bad.

"This process of gradual deterioration of the immune system brought on by natural age advancement is called immunosenescence. Yet you may know people that are quite elderly, but in great health, or vice versa, someone who is relatively young, but still prone to infections. What could account for differences in immune system strength in people that are the same age?… Stress — in the form of traumatic events, job strain, everyday stressors, and discrimination — accelerates aging of the immune system, potentially increasing a person’s risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease, and illness from infections such as COVID-19, according to a new University of Southern California (USC) study."

"Just one month ago, Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell said that the central bank was not 'actively considering' raising interest rates by three-quarters of a percentage point to fight inflation. But after Friday's consumer price index report showed inflation is rising faster than expected, Wall Street is worried that Powell may have to change his tune."

"Last month saw two much lower-profile but nonetheless significant coins collapse - and this knocked a lot of confidence in the market overall… As a result, people are increasingly deciding to sell up… The more people sell, the less Bitcoin is worth, because that's how it works - its value is pegged to its desirability. This has a knock-on effect of more people selling because they can see the value going down... and the cycle continues."

"Coinbase is laying off almost a fifth of its workforce amid a collapse in its stock and crypto prices… The cryptocurrency exchange will cut 18% of full-time jobs, according to an email sent to employees Tuesday morning. Coinbase has roughly 5,000 full-time workers, translating to a head count reduction of around 1,100 people."

"A hearing is underway to consider whether the Amazon Labor Union's historic union victory on Staten Island should stand — or whether a re-do election is warranted… This spring, workers at the largest Amazon warehouse on Staten Island, employing more than 8,000 workers, voted 2,654 to 2,131 to join the Amazon Labor Union, a scrappy, grassroots organization founded by current and former Amazon warehouse workers."

"All three bridges to Severodonetsk have been destroyed following days of Russian shelling in the last remaining major city in the Luhansk region of the Donbas still under Ukrainian control, the local governor said Monday."

"Japan's parliament on Monday passed legislation making 'online insults' punishable by imprisonment amid rising public concern over cyberbullying sparked by the suicide of a reality television star who had faced social media abuse." Or you could do the hard work of defining abuse, and then online abuse, and make that illegal.

"Idaho police said they've received death threats since arresting 31 men affiliated with white nationalist group Patriot Front near an annual LGBTQ+ event over the weekend… Coeur d'Alene Police Chief Lee White spoke to reporters Monday, saying that his department has fielded about 149 calls in the aftermath of the arrests. He said about 50 percent of the calls have been praise from the community, who offer their names and express pride in the department." Dear cops, no the white nationalists (and other ultra-right wing) are not on your side. This is why they speak of "infiltrating" law enforcement and the military. They just want you to stand aside and let them commit their crimes.

"When 'a little army' of men with shields and other riot gear was spotted near a Pride parade in Idaho on Saturday, authorities soon linked the men to a relatively new White nationalist group and charged them with conspiracy to riot."

"Florida's Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, recently tapped one of his allies in the Florida House to become the new secretary of state… The new elections chief, Cord Byrd, has a history of sparring with Democrats and, when asked, he has refused to say Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election."

"A drunken Rudy Giuliani advised then-President Donald Trump to declare victory on election night 2020 despite the fact that Fox News had called Arizona for Joe Biden and votes had yet to be fully counted in other battleground states, former advisers to the president told the Jan. 6 select committee." Waits for the "Drunk Rudy" memes to appear. Just a note, being drunk is not an excuse from criminal activity.

"The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol announced in a statement Tuesday that it was postponing its public hearing that was scheduled for 10 a.m. ET Wednesday."

"In video testimony shown on Monday, former Trump advisers and administration officials said they told Trump that claims of massive voter fraud and a stolen election were false."