The Opportunity Mars Rover. And so it goes.
"If we have a book idea related to our work, even if fictional, the company wants unfettered power to claim control over whether it gets written, who owns the copyright and what we might get paid for it. The company also wants to claim the film rights to such books even if the company grants permission for the book to be written, on unpaid leave, for an outside publisher." Heinous fuckery most foul. Although I have had to clarify and get in writing from some companies I've worked for that their IP rules don't pertain to my freelance or my writing. (Grokked from Hannah Bowman)
"Harley-Davidsons are famous for their iconic deep rumble. But the Milwaukee-based motorcycle maker's latest model features an electric motor that emits a high-pitched whirring sound. Will Harley fans go along for the ride?" If you had asked me 5 years ago, I wouldn't have figured HD to be the first major motorcycle builder to push out an electric bike in the US (note that Zero and a few others have been shipping electric motorcycles for many years now). But at $30k (a Zero DSR with updates for battery and charging is about half that), I have a feeling they won't be selling many.
"SpaceX has filed an official protest with the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) after NASA awarded competitor United Launch Alliance a launch contract for Lucy, an interplanetary probe meant to explore a belt of unique asteroids clustered around Jupiter’s orbital swath." Lawsuits are not uncommon for large government contracts.
Until now, this was only a funny comic. "They say the trolls may have contributed to the 2018 outbreak of measles in Europe that killed 72 people and infected more than 82,000 -- mostly in Eastern and Southeastern European countries known to have been targeted by Russia-based disinformation campaigns." If this proves out, this could be big. Oh my Russian friends, you may have overstepped the legality line here. Not from how you did it, through a disinformation campaign, but that this could be seen as waging biological warfare against civilians (depending on how a court may wish to define some terms). IANAL, but I hope you all have one. (Grokked from Xeni Jardin)
"The wife of White House communications chief Bill Shine said Wednesday that childhood diseases such as measles 'keep you healthy & fight cancer.'" The lack of actual, factual knowledge in the current conservative leadership is absolutely stunning. "Measles is one of the leading causes of death for children, according to the World Health Organization." Get the goddamn vaccinations. That said, just because you have the MMR shot does not mean you are protected. Working in healthcare, not only do we need to get the vaccines, we are also tested for their effectiveness. The rubella part of the MMR doesn't work on me. I've had the childhood vaccines, and I've had 3 vaccines for it as an adult. My blood does not show rubella antibodies. So just because a kid who had the MMR appears to also have contracted measles, this does not invalidate the efficacy of the vaccine for the majority of people. While I don't wish shingles (the chickenpox virus) on anyone, I wouldn't be terribly upset with Mrs. Shine came down with a case of it.
I'm sure you've heard (or uttered) the phrase, "One of these days, you're going to do that to the wrong person." Whelp. "If you're trying to extort money from people, there are probably better choices for a victim than William H. Webster. Back in 2014, Webster was called by a Jamaican man, 29-year-old Keniel Aeon Thomas, who was attempting to perpetrate the all too common advance-fee fraud scam… According to Thomas, Webster and his wife had won $15.5 million and a Mercedes-Benz in the Mega Millions lottery, and the caller would be all too happy to release those funds, just as long as Websters first paid $50,000 to cover taxes." (Grokked from John)
"For this week's (On the Media) pod extra, we feature a conversation from WNYC'S Brian Lehrer Show. Brian talked with Columbia University President Lee Bollinger and University of Chicago Law Professor Geoffrey Stone, editors of The Free Speech Century, a collection of essays by leading scholars, marking 100 years since the Supreme Court issued the three decisions that established the modern notion of free speech."
"After more than 20 years in business, Prime Time Sports Owner Stephen Martin says he can’t afford his monthly lease anymore at Chapel Hills Mall… It’s not the first time Martin has slashed prices like this–choosing to get rid of all Nike apparel last fall, following the company’s ad campaign with Colin Kapernick." (Grokked from Xeni Jardin)
Trigger warning. Whenever I hear people talking about late-term abortions, I think of a few mothers like this I've known (not all of whom were raped), the ones I've seen in the ER. "If I had been allowed the option to choose a 'late-term abortion,' would I?… Yes. A hundred times over, yes. It would have been a kindness." I've deleted a paragraph of examples because of HIPAA, and they're not my stories to tell. This is an example of mental cruelty which started with the rape and continued through the law which removed the option of a late-term abortion. You might say God only gives us what we can handle and I'm here to tell you that's a crock of shit. Sometimes we break, and what we can re-assemble from the pieces is never fully what would have been. Pregnancy is not the easy, happy time like they show on TV (even if they makes jokes about the pain of contractions). If that's how it played out for you, congrats. Not everyone is so lucky. (Grokked from Xeni Jardin)
It just sorta slipped out. "The cartoonist who drew the strip, Wiley Miller, told the Post that he had forgotten about the scribbled message until it was published. He added that he wrote the phrase several weeks ago when he was frustrated by the Trump administration's actions." (Grokked from Jim Wright)
"One year after the school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., the urgency for new gun restrictions has declined, but roughly half the country is concerned a mass shooting could happen at a school in their community, a new NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll finds." It's only been one year, it seems like an eternity.
"A Connecticut judge has ruled that Infowars host Alex Jones must undergo a sworn deposition in the defamation case brought against him by family members of Sandy Hook school shooting victims."
"When news emerged that Qatar may have unwittingly helped bail out a New York skyscraper owned by the family of Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law, eyebrows were raised in Doha." Who can keep track of a paltry billion dollars? I mean, it just sorta slipped and feel into investing. (Grokked from Dan)
"Fukuyama was hardly alone in pronouncing nationalism all but dead. A lot of other people had, too. That’s what worried Degler." To paraphrase Jim Wright, when you ignore Nazis, that's how you get more Nazis. " The endurance of nationalism proves that there’s never any shortage of blackguards willing to prop up people’s sense of themselves and their destiny with a tissue of myths and prophecies, prejudices and hatreds, or to empty out old rubbish bags full of festering resentments and calls to violence. When historians abandon the study of the nation, when scholars stop trying to write a common history for a people, nationalism doesn’t die. Instead, it eats liberalism." (Grokked from Robert J Bennett)
"President Donald Trump late Wednesday demanded California return the $3.5 billion it received from the federal government for a 'disaster' high-speed rail project." Vindictiveness and political shenanigans. Well, he's learning. A little. And slowly.
Somebody going to emergency, somebody's going to jail. "Manafort "made multiple false statements to the FBI, the OSC and the grand jury concerning matters that were material to the investigation," including his contacts with his Russian associate during the campaign and later, Judge Amy Berman Jackson wrote on Wednesday."
"Paul Manafort's latest legal debacle deepened the core intrigue underlying special counsel Robert Mueller's probe: Why have so many of President Donald Trump's associates been caught lying about contacts with Russians?"
A snippet of Andrew McCabe's book on his time as FBI Director, post Comey, published in the Atlantic. "People do not appreciate how far we have fallen from normal standards of presidential accountability. Today we have a president who is willing not only to comment prejudicially on criminal prosecutions but to comment on ones that potentially affect him. He does both of these things almost daily. He is not just sounding a dog whistle. He is lobbying for a result. The president has stepped over bright ethical and moral lines wherever he has encountered them. Every day brings a new low, with the president exposing himself as a deliberate liar who will say whatever he pleases to get whatever he wants. If he were 'on the box' at Quantico, he would break the machine." (grokked from Kathryn Cramer)
Thursday, February 14, 2019
Wednesday, February 13, 2019
Linkee-poo, your eyes follow like a spotlight, two eyes like the sun
"Rather than the snowman-like two spheres stuck together, the new images show what looks like a pancake-shaped object (called 'Ultima') stuck to a walnut-shaped object (called 'Thule')."
"What happens when Walmart leaves town." Walmart is not your friend. (Grokked from Matt Staggs)
Burning Chrome. "Email provider VFEmail said it has suffered a catastrophic destruction of all of its servers by an unknown assailant who wiped out almost two decades' worth of data and backups in a matter of hours." Malicious hacks have been around since the early days, but this has a different texture to it. (Grokked from John)
"Look out, beef. Plant-based patties are vying to win over meat lovers." But here's the real kicker, "It’s okay to have a plant-based burger if you think it’s helping to save the world, says plant-based dietitian Julieanna Hever — just don’t expect it to keep you healthy. She said she sees more and more non-meat eaters who are starting to have the same health issues as meat eaters because they’re consuming plant-based products that are engineered to mimic meat."
"The IRS faces a number of challenges as a result of the recent 35-day government shutdown, including a backlog of correspondences and a decline in the level of service on its telephone lines, the agency’s in-house watchdog said in a report released Tuesday." The IRS is the department everyone loves to hate, until they need help. (Grokked from Jim Wright)
"Mexican drug lord Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzmán is heading to prison after his conviction Tuesday on 10 charges, including engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise and multiple counts of distributing tons of narcotics into the U.S."
"The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday that Apple, which is preparing to introduce a subscription news service, is asking publishers to give the company 50 percent of any revenues that they generate." Let the garment rending and naysaying begin! Since Amazon introduce Kindle Unlimited, these payment schemes are growing in (if not popularity) regular occurrence.
How goes Brexit? "ITV News said chief UK negotiator Olly Robbins was overheard in a Brussels bar saying the EU was likely to allow an extension to the Brexit process… The PM suggested MPs should not rely on 'what someone said to someone else as overheard by someone else, in a bar'." Tick tock, says the clock.
"U.S. stock index futures rose on Wednesday, with market participants hopeful that Chinese and U.S. trade authorities will reach an agreement." Sure.
"The New York Fed released the numbers on Tuesday, which included data until the end of 2018. The 7 million Americans with serious delinquencies ― when vehicle loan payments are at least 90 days late ― is more than 1 million higher than in 2010, when Americans were still recovering from the financial crisis of 2008." Insert dramatic music here. You may remember that repossession was a good business to be in during 2006-2009.
And here, I guess, is a good time to mea culpa. It appears increasingly likely that the US economy didn't enter a recession by 4CYQTR 2018. SO my prediction has not come true. And while I feel it's sorta cheating to just continue to say, "It's coming" (because eventually we will have one), I'm seeing stronger signs for this year. This economic situation feels very similar to early 2007 with the various news (confidence high, stock market roaring, but debt rising and business investment slowing). The few months of stimulus the tax cuts created are now behind us. We are still engaged in trade wars, and despite what the President says, we're still operating under NAFTA which is increasingly showing it's age. And in case you haven't been watching, the national debt reached a new milestone this week. At economic times like these, the government should be retiring debt and building, but none of that is happening and we're increasing our deficit spending (note, not all deficit spending is bad, and some is often necessary).
"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that Israeli forces had carried out another strike in Iran-aligned Syria, a day after the Syrian army said an Israeli drone fired missiles near a demolished hospital and an army observation post." Sometimes proxy wars don't remain proxy. And sometimes people die because politicians want to appear tough and/or save face.
"Mr. Trump pronounced himself unsatisfied with the agreement brokered by House and Senate negotiators, and he refused to publicly commit to signing it. But he all but ruled out another government shutdown and emphasized that he would find “other methods” to finance a border barrier, leading aides and allies to predict he would grudgingly go along with the deal." The key to knowing what Trump will do is to find the option that creates the most chaos and then bet that way.
"Declaring a national emergency to build a wall would not be a simple matter, however. It would stretch the definition of a national emergency beyond any previous point and trigger challenges in Congress and the courts."
"What happens when Walmart leaves town." Walmart is not your friend. (Grokked from Matt Staggs)
Burning Chrome. "Email provider VFEmail said it has suffered a catastrophic destruction of all of its servers by an unknown assailant who wiped out almost two decades' worth of data and backups in a matter of hours." Malicious hacks have been around since the early days, but this has a different texture to it. (Grokked from John)
"Look out, beef. Plant-based patties are vying to win over meat lovers." But here's the real kicker, "It’s okay to have a plant-based burger if you think it’s helping to save the world, says plant-based dietitian Julieanna Hever — just don’t expect it to keep you healthy. She said she sees more and more non-meat eaters who are starting to have the same health issues as meat eaters because they’re consuming plant-based products that are engineered to mimic meat."
"The IRS faces a number of challenges as a result of the recent 35-day government shutdown, including a backlog of correspondences and a decline in the level of service on its telephone lines, the agency’s in-house watchdog said in a report released Tuesday." The IRS is the department everyone loves to hate, until they need help. (Grokked from Jim Wright)
"Mexican drug lord Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzmán is heading to prison after his conviction Tuesday on 10 charges, including engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise and multiple counts of distributing tons of narcotics into the U.S."
"The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday that Apple, which is preparing to introduce a subscription news service, is asking publishers to give the company 50 percent of any revenues that they generate." Let the garment rending and naysaying begin! Since Amazon introduce Kindle Unlimited, these payment schemes are growing in (if not popularity) regular occurrence.
How goes Brexit? "ITV News said chief UK negotiator Olly Robbins was overheard in a Brussels bar saying the EU was likely to allow an extension to the Brexit process… The PM suggested MPs should not rely on 'what someone said to someone else as overheard by someone else, in a bar'." Tick tock, says the clock.
"U.S. stock index futures rose on Wednesday, with market participants hopeful that Chinese and U.S. trade authorities will reach an agreement." Sure.
"The New York Fed released the numbers on Tuesday, which included data until the end of 2018. The 7 million Americans with serious delinquencies ― when vehicle loan payments are at least 90 days late ― is more than 1 million higher than in 2010, when Americans were still recovering from the financial crisis of 2008." Insert dramatic music here. You may remember that repossession was a good business to be in during 2006-2009.
And here, I guess, is a good time to mea culpa. It appears increasingly likely that the US economy didn't enter a recession by 4CYQTR 2018. SO my prediction has not come true. And while I feel it's sorta cheating to just continue to say, "It's coming" (because eventually we will have one), I'm seeing stronger signs for this year. This economic situation feels very similar to early 2007 with the various news (confidence high, stock market roaring, but debt rising and business investment slowing). The few months of stimulus the tax cuts created are now behind us. We are still engaged in trade wars, and despite what the President says, we're still operating under NAFTA which is increasingly showing it's age. And in case you haven't been watching, the national debt reached a new milestone this week. At economic times like these, the government should be retiring debt and building, but none of that is happening and we're increasing our deficit spending (note, not all deficit spending is bad, and some is often necessary).
"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that Israeli forces had carried out another strike in Iran-aligned Syria, a day after the Syrian army said an Israeli drone fired missiles near a demolished hospital and an army observation post." Sometimes proxy wars don't remain proxy. And sometimes people die because politicians want to appear tough and/or save face.
"Mr. Trump pronounced himself unsatisfied with the agreement brokered by House and Senate negotiators, and he refused to publicly commit to signing it. But he all but ruled out another government shutdown and emphasized that he would find “other methods” to finance a border barrier, leading aides and allies to predict he would grudgingly go along with the deal." The key to knowing what Trump will do is to find the option that creates the most chaos and then bet that way.
"Declaring a national emergency to build a wall would not be a simple matter, however. It would stretch the definition of a national emergency beyond any previous point and trigger challenges in Congress and the courts."
Tuesday, February 12, 2019
Linkee-poo had white horses and ladies by the score, all dressed in satin and waiting by the door
Something new has been added. "A chance discovery, hidden away in a series of 16th-century books deep in the archive of Bristol Central Library, has revealed original manuscript fragments from the Middle Ages which tell part of the story of Merlin the magician, one of the most famous characters from Arthurian legend." (Grokked from Cat Rambo)
On the religion of the space programs and their influence in SF movies. I'm not sure if I've mentioned I wrote a senior thesis on Arthur C. Clarke's depictions of God in his writing, so this is always an interesting topic to me. Maybe not to you. But for me it always has been an interesting question that no matter how much the religious groups want to say there is no God in science, and that SF/F is "godless" and no matter how much the SF/F community likes to tout its rationalism, God (in the infinite variations) shows up an awful lot. It could just be a matter of Western Culture leaking through, but I'm not entirely sure that's a solid answer. So, interesting topic. Then there was this "…and there certainly wasn’t an opportunity for any sort of sci-fi religion to crop up as Cosmism has in Europe and Russia." And my immediate response was, "Scientology, anyone?"
"The quick and easy noshes you love are chipping away at your mortality one nibble at a time, according to new research from France: We face a 14 percent higher risk of early death with each 10 percent increase in the amount of ultraprocessed foods we eat."
"Researchers from antivirus provider Trend Micro made that discovery after analyzing an app available on a Torrent site that promised to install Little Snitch, a firewall application for macOS. Stashed inside the DMG file was an EXE file that delivered a hidden payload." Clever girl. (Grokked from Dan)
"On a bitter cold afternoon in front of the central bus stop in Bangor, Maine, about a half-dozen people recently surrounded a folding table covered with handmade signs offering free clean syringes, coffee and naloxone, the drug also known as Narcan that can reverse an opioid overdose… They're with a group called the Church of Safe Injection that is handing out clean drug-using supplies in cities around the U.S." They intend to use religious protection as their legal defense. Although CSI is a pretty good acronym.
"Russian environmental authorities have deployed a team of specialists to a remote Arctic region to sedate and remove dozens of hungry polar bears that have besieged the people living there." Be safe, my Russian friends. (Grokked from Matt Staggs)
Remember when we were all told that the market is a "rational actor" because investors don't "speculate"? "U.S. stock index futures rose Tuesday amid news that U.S. lawmakers had secured a tentative deal on border security funding on Monday."
How goes Brexit? "Prime Minister Theresa May will tell British lawmakers on Tuesday they must hold their nerve over Brexit to force the European Union to accept changes to the divorce deal that would pave the way for an orderly exit." Ah, the call to a "stiff-upper-lip." Looks at watch, well a little later than I expected.
"A former White House aide is suing President Donald Trump and arguing the government is trying to illegally penalize him after he wrote a book that portrayed an unflattering picture of life in the West Wing." So I guess we have the case that will try the legitimacy of the NDAs the Trump Administration had people sign. IANAL, but I think Trump will have a rough time of it.
"Utah’s governor on Monday signed legislation into law a limited Medicaid expansion plan, defying voters who approved a full expansion in November… The bill signed by Gov. Gary Herbert (R) would cover far fewer people, and cost taxpayers more money, than the plan voters approved in November." And there you have conservative politics in a nutshell. Not the will of the people, does less, costs more.
"The resolution lays out a number of concerns with Trump's rhetoric surrounding illegal immigration, particularly as it relates to El Paso. The resolution says Trump 'has continuously made inaccurate claims about the United States’ southern border, including El Paso.'"
"Senate Republicans are fuming at President Donald Trump for telling lawmakers he would disregard a law requiring a report to Congress determining who is responsible for the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi." Concerned Senators are once again concerned.
"A possible agreement also doesn't mean the President won't end up declaring a national emergency to secure the kind of money he really wants to build a wall… Republicans in Washington aren't so thrilled by (the idea of declaring an emergency)… doing so could set off a chain of events on Capitol Hill that risks splitting the Republican conference, undercutting other parts of Trump's agenda and likely opening the administration's actions to legal challenges. It would also provide a clarifying moment that Republicans on the Hill have managed to avoid since Trump took office -- casting an up or down vote on whether to build the full-scale wall Trump desires." It's all fun and games until the chaos comes to your house.
"President Donald Trump's national security adviser, John Bolton, on Monday again broke with the US intelligence community's consensus regarding Iran's nuclear program, less than two weeks after Trump publicly berated the director of national intelligence, Dan Coats, for saying Iran wasn't seeking to build a nuclear weapon." Healthy skepticism is one thing, this is another.
It's just all talk, I mean, the president vilifying the press is all just showmanship, right. It's not like it's going to lead to actual violence. (Grokked from Kathryn Cramer)
"And while those two potentially embody the core split within the Democratic primary – pragmatism versus pugilism – President Trump will be waiting in the general election with another distinction he hopes to make: 'socialism' versus 'greatness.'" Uh oh, someone is firing up the Red Scare again. It's one of those giant air dancer guys at the used auto stores. "The denunciation of socialism and the attempt to tie the philosophy to Democrats is President Trump's and his campaign's attempt to invert the argument that he is an extremist."
On the religion of the space programs and their influence in SF movies. I'm not sure if I've mentioned I wrote a senior thesis on Arthur C. Clarke's depictions of God in his writing, so this is always an interesting topic to me. Maybe not to you. But for me it always has been an interesting question that no matter how much the religious groups want to say there is no God in science, and that SF/F is "godless" and no matter how much the SF/F community likes to tout its rationalism, God (in the infinite variations) shows up an awful lot. It could just be a matter of Western Culture leaking through, but I'm not entirely sure that's a solid answer. So, interesting topic. Then there was this "…and there certainly wasn’t an opportunity for any sort of sci-fi religion to crop up as Cosmism has in Europe and Russia." And my immediate response was, "Scientology, anyone?"
"The quick and easy noshes you love are chipping away at your mortality one nibble at a time, according to new research from France: We face a 14 percent higher risk of early death with each 10 percent increase in the amount of ultraprocessed foods we eat."
"Researchers from antivirus provider Trend Micro made that discovery after analyzing an app available on a Torrent site that promised to install Little Snitch, a firewall application for macOS. Stashed inside the DMG file was an EXE file that delivered a hidden payload." Clever girl. (Grokked from Dan)
"On a bitter cold afternoon in front of the central bus stop in Bangor, Maine, about a half-dozen people recently surrounded a folding table covered with handmade signs offering free clean syringes, coffee and naloxone, the drug also known as Narcan that can reverse an opioid overdose… They're with a group called the Church of Safe Injection that is handing out clean drug-using supplies in cities around the U.S." They intend to use religious protection as their legal defense. Although CSI is a pretty good acronym.
"Russian environmental authorities have deployed a team of specialists to a remote Arctic region to sedate and remove dozens of hungry polar bears that have besieged the people living there." Be safe, my Russian friends. (Grokked from Matt Staggs)
Remember when we were all told that the market is a "rational actor" because investors don't "speculate"? "U.S. stock index futures rose Tuesday amid news that U.S. lawmakers had secured a tentative deal on border security funding on Monday."
How goes Brexit? "Prime Minister Theresa May will tell British lawmakers on Tuesday they must hold their nerve over Brexit to force the European Union to accept changes to the divorce deal that would pave the way for an orderly exit." Ah, the call to a "stiff-upper-lip." Looks at watch, well a little later than I expected.
"A former White House aide is suing President Donald Trump and arguing the government is trying to illegally penalize him after he wrote a book that portrayed an unflattering picture of life in the West Wing." So I guess we have the case that will try the legitimacy of the NDAs the Trump Administration had people sign. IANAL, but I think Trump will have a rough time of it.
"Utah’s governor on Monday signed legislation into law a limited Medicaid expansion plan, defying voters who approved a full expansion in November… The bill signed by Gov. Gary Herbert (R) would cover far fewer people, and cost taxpayers more money, than the plan voters approved in November." And there you have conservative politics in a nutshell. Not the will of the people, does less, costs more.
"The resolution lays out a number of concerns with Trump's rhetoric surrounding illegal immigration, particularly as it relates to El Paso. The resolution says Trump 'has continuously made inaccurate claims about the United States’ southern border, including El Paso.'"
"Senate Republicans are fuming at President Donald Trump for telling lawmakers he would disregard a law requiring a report to Congress determining who is responsible for the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi." Concerned Senators are once again concerned.
"A possible agreement also doesn't mean the President won't end up declaring a national emergency to secure the kind of money he really wants to build a wall… Republicans in Washington aren't so thrilled by (the idea of declaring an emergency)… doing so could set off a chain of events on Capitol Hill that risks splitting the Republican conference, undercutting other parts of Trump's agenda and likely opening the administration's actions to legal challenges. It would also provide a clarifying moment that Republicans on the Hill have managed to avoid since Trump took office -- casting an up or down vote on whether to build the full-scale wall Trump desires." It's all fun and games until the chaos comes to your house.
"President Donald Trump's national security adviser, John Bolton, on Monday again broke with the US intelligence community's consensus regarding Iran's nuclear program, less than two weeks after Trump publicly berated the director of national intelligence, Dan Coats, for saying Iran wasn't seeking to build a nuclear weapon." Healthy skepticism is one thing, this is another.
It's just all talk, I mean, the president vilifying the press is all just showmanship, right. It's not like it's going to lead to actual violence. (Grokked from Kathryn Cramer)
"And while those two potentially embody the core split within the Democratic primary – pragmatism versus pugilism – President Trump will be waiting in the general election with another distinction he hopes to make: 'socialism' versus 'greatness.'" Uh oh, someone is firing up the Red Scare again. It's one of those giant air dancer guys at the used auto stores. "The denunciation of socialism and the attempt to tie the philosophy to Democrats is President Trump's and his campaign's attempt to invert the argument that he is an extremist."
Monday, February 11, 2019
Linkee-poo is back at it
Need an icon? The Noun Project. Eh. (Grokked from John)
Darwinism in action. "They show people in parts of the U.S. hit by the polar vortex and record low temperatures throwing hot water into the air and watching it turn to ice crystals in the freezing air… But hospitals are warning that the challenge has led to those taking part suffering serious burns, as the wind blew boiling water back onto them." Look, boiling water is dangerous. I appreciate the DIY attitude, but seriously this kind of thing shouldn't be done without precautions, the first of which is understanding that boiling water is dangerous.
"SpaceX CEO Elon Musk says the company’s Raptor engine, meant to power Starship and Super Heavy, has surpassed a rocketry record held by Russian scientists and engineers for more than two decades." Not so fast there, Bucky. The Russian RD-180 has been actually launching payloads into space and SpaceX's Raptor is still on the test bench.
"SpaceX is gearing up for a big human-spaceflight milestone… Elon Musk's company aims to fly the first demonstration mission of its Crew Dragon capsule to the International Space Station (ISS) on March 2… This flight, known as Demo-1, will be uncrewed."
"Insect populations are declining precipitously worldwide due to pesticide use and other factors, with a potentially "catastrophic" effect on the planet, a study has warned… More than 40% of insect species could become extinct in the next few decades, according to the 'Worldwide decline of the entomofauna: A review of its drivers' report, published in the journal Biological Conservation." We're boned.
For those people who think the anti-science mentality of the right only extends to global warming and abortion, I offer this. "Fox News host Pete Hegseth explained on Sunday that he doesn’t wash his hands because 'germs are not a real thing.'" I would suggest avoiding the communal bowl of M&M's in the Fox News green room. (Grokked from Jim Wright)
"These stories highlight additional problems with exaggerating the importance of 1619 (as the start of African slavery in the Americas)." (Grokked from Patrick Nielsen Hayden)
"The chef has made a name for himself on the local and national culinary scenes, both for his widely praised farm-to-fork menus and for his leadership on causes such as homelessness and domestic violence. Now, he's channeling some of his energy into suicide prevention." Chef activists seems to be a thing these days.
The stories we tell ourselves, about how families who suffer tragedies must be strong and forge ahead. "The Schentrups' activism is overlaid with the daily struggles of just getting through another day without their daughter. Reminders of Carmen are prominent throughout their home: here, a photo of her striking a sassy pose in her homecoming dress. There, a photo of her in the graduation cap and gown she would never get to wear." Not everyone can be, not everyone should be. And sometimes the peer-pressure to behave in "socially accepted" ways can be too much. Everyone's pain is their own.
"Russian authorities and major internet providers are planning to disconnect the country from the internet as part of a planned experiment, Russian news agency RosBiznesKonsalting (RBK) reported last week… In addition, Russian telecom firms would also have to install 'technical means' to re-route all Russian internet traffic to exchange points approved or managed by Roskomnazor, Russia's telecom watchdog." I'll miss our Russian friends.
How goes Brexit? "Brexit uncertainty dragged U.K. investment to its worst slump since the financial crisis, leaving the economy with barely any momentum."
"Asian stocks were mostly higher on Monday as traders watched for developments on a fresh round of trade talks between American and Chinese officials in Beijing this week. Markets in China and Taiwan, reopening after a weeklong Lunar New Year break, posted broad gains." Let's see how long that lasts.
Let's give rich people even more money, because their job creators and will help the rising-tide economy lift all boats. "By year-end, most of the nation’s largest lenders met or exceeded their initial predictions for tax savings. On average, the banks saw their effective tax rates fall below 19 percent from the roughly 28 percent they paid in 2016. And while the breaks set off a gusher of payouts to shareholders, firms cut thousands of jobs and saw their lending growth slow." It's almost as if it were a long-term grift the entire time. (Grokked from Chuck Wendig)
"From the looks of it, GOP politicians got what they wanted, too. From the time the tax bill was first introduced on Nov. 2, 2017, until the end of the year, a 60-day period, dozens of billionaires and millionaires dramatically boosted their political contributions unlike they had in past years, giving a total of $31.1 million in that two months, a Center for Public Integrity analysis of data from the Center for Responsive Politics found." Everybody got what they wanted, except for the majority of people who weren't watching or caring. And now you know why AOC scares the hell out of them. "Such giving is not unusual, said Thomas Stratmann, a professor at George Mason University who has shown how contributions to lawmakers from PACs are aimed at encouraging them to vote for a bill or to reward them for passing it." But I'm sure this SCOTUS wouldn't consider that quid-pro-quo. (Grokked from Chuck Wendig)
"The top US commander in the war against ISIS aligned himself Sunday with the US intelligence community assessment that there are 'tens of thousands' of ISIS fighters spread across Syria and Iraq." I'm sure they'll all fade into the background, peacefully, once the president tells them we've won.
"California Gov. Gavin Newsom will announce plans Monday to pull back all members of the National Guard who have been deployed to the border with Mexico, saying the state would not be part of the Trump administration's 'manufactured crisis.'"
"America could be sliding toward a new government shutdown and President Donald Trump may face a fateful choice over his border wall as another knife-edge week opens in Washington." Anyone surprised? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller? All because the GOP wants to keep locking up people, and paying their friends to do it.
Darwinism in action. "They show people in parts of the U.S. hit by the polar vortex and record low temperatures throwing hot water into the air and watching it turn to ice crystals in the freezing air… But hospitals are warning that the challenge has led to those taking part suffering serious burns, as the wind blew boiling water back onto them." Look, boiling water is dangerous. I appreciate the DIY attitude, but seriously this kind of thing shouldn't be done without precautions, the first of which is understanding that boiling water is dangerous.
"SpaceX CEO Elon Musk says the company’s Raptor engine, meant to power Starship and Super Heavy, has surpassed a rocketry record held by Russian scientists and engineers for more than two decades." Not so fast there, Bucky. The Russian RD-180 has been actually launching payloads into space and SpaceX's Raptor is still on the test bench.
"SpaceX is gearing up for a big human-spaceflight milestone… Elon Musk's company aims to fly the first demonstration mission of its Crew Dragon capsule to the International Space Station (ISS) on March 2… This flight, known as Demo-1, will be uncrewed."
"Insect populations are declining precipitously worldwide due to pesticide use and other factors, with a potentially "catastrophic" effect on the planet, a study has warned… More than 40% of insect species could become extinct in the next few decades, according to the 'Worldwide decline of the entomofauna: A review of its drivers' report, published in the journal Biological Conservation." We're boned.
For those people who think the anti-science mentality of the right only extends to global warming and abortion, I offer this. "Fox News host Pete Hegseth explained on Sunday that he doesn’t wash his hands because 'germs are not a real thing.'" I would suggest avoiding the communal bowl of M&M's in the Fox News green room. (Grokked from Jim Wright)
"These stories highlight additional problems with exaggerating the importance of 1619 (as the start of African slavery in the Americas)." (Grokked from Patrick Nielsen Hayden)
"The chef has made a name for himself on the local and national culinary scenes, both for his widely praised farm-to-fork menus and for his leadership on causes such as homelessness and domestic violence. Now, he's channeling some of his energy into suicide prevention." Chef activists seems to be a thing these days.
The stories we tell ourselves, about how families who suffer tragedies must be strong and forge ahead. "The Schentrups' activism is overlaid with the daily struggles of just getting through another day without their daughter. Reminders of Carmen are prominent throughout their home: here, a photo of her striking a sassy pose in her homecoming dress. There, a photo of her in the graduation cap and gown she would never get to wear." Not everyone can be, not everyone should be. And sometimes the peer-pressure to behave in "socially accepted" ways can be too much. Everyone's pain is their own.
"Russian authorities and major internet providers are planning to disconnect the country from the internet as part of a planned experiment, Russian news agency RosBiznesKonsalting (RBK) reported last week… In addition, Russian telecom firms would also have to install 'technical means' to re-route all Russian internet traffic to exchange points approved or managed by Roskomnazor, Russia's telecom watchdog." I'll miss our Russian friends.
How goes Brexit? "Brexit uncertainty dragged U.K. investment to its worst slump since the financial crisis, leaving the economy with barely any momentum."
"Asian stocks were mostly higher on Monday as traders watched for developments on a fresh round of trade talks between American and Chinese officials in Beijing this week. Markets in China and Taiwan, reopening after a weeklong Lunar New Year break, posted broad gains." Let's see how long that lasts.
Let's give rich people even more money, because their job creators and will help the rising-tide economy lift all boats. "By year-end, most of the nation’s largest lenders met or exceeded their initial predictions for tax savings. On average, the banks saw their effective tax rates fall below 19 percent from the roughly 28 percent they paid in 2016. And while the breaks set off a gusher of payouts to shareholders, firms cut thousands of jobs and saw their lending growth slow." It's almost as if it were a long-term grift the entire time. (Grokked from Chuck Wendig)
"From the looks of it, GOP politicians got what they wanted, too. From the time the tax bill was first introduced on Nov. 2, 2017, until the end of the year, a 60-day period, dozens of billionaires and millionaires dramatically boosted their political contributions unlike they had in past years, giving a total of $31.1 million in that two months, a Center for Public Integrity analysis of data from the Center for Responsive Politics found." Everybody got what they wanted, except for the majority of people who weren't watching or caring. And now you know why AOC scares the hell out of them. "Such giving is not unusual, said Thomas Stratmann, a professor at George Mason University who has shown how contributions to lawmakers from PACs are aimed at encouraging them to vote for a bill or to reward them for passing it." But I'm sure this SCOTUS wouldn't consider that quid-pro-quo. (Grokked from Chuck Wendig)
"The top US commander in the war against ISIS aligned himself Sunday with the US intelligence community assessment that there are 'tens of thousands' of ISIS fighters spread across Syria and Iraq." I'm sure they'll all fade into the background, peacefully, once the president tells them we've won.
"California Gov. Gavin Newsom will announce plans Monday to pull back all members of the National Guard who have been deployed to the border with Mexico, saying the state would not be part of the Trump administration's 'manufactured crisis.'"
"America could be sliding toward a new government shutdown and President Donald Trump may face a fateful choice over his border wall as another knife-edge week opens in Washington." Anyone surprised? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller? All because the GOP wants to keep locking up people, and paying their friends to do it.
Saturday, February 9, 2019
Linkee-poo weekend surprise
"Hate needles? This ingestible pill painlessly injects drugs into your gut." Again, way too early in the development cycle to get excited, and mostly a search for investment capital. Plus there's the question of accurate dosing. Injections work most every time, your stomach doesn't need to be empty, and you can control dosages. (Grokked from Dan)
Media obsolescence by decade. Just in case you think, "we'll always have this." Note these are just media types, no encoding software or data formats. (Grokked from John)
"When I first called Melissa Leonard, she asked, 'Can you call me back? I have Action News here with their cameras and everything.' Leonard is the Philadelphia-area Coldwell Banker Realtor whose listing, '50 Shades of Maple Glen'—a lovely brick colonial with five bedrooms, an updated kitchen, and a 'private adult sexual oasis' in the basement—has been viewed more than 500,000 times on Redfin since it went live less than 24 hours ago." But it is staged very nicely. Of course the neighbors are upset. Not really upset, but ticked off that these images have been posted of a house that's in their neighborhood (obviously, this isn't the first rodeo for the owners). I've seen people upset about fences, about barking dogs, about neighbors with trashy lawns, but having neighbors up in arms over a sex dungeon is a first for me. I hope the realtor snags a buyer real soon, because I don't see her keeping her position unless she does. (Grokked from Matt Staggs)
And now Amazon. "Amazon at times dips into the tips earned by contracted delivery drivers to cover their promised pay, a Times review of emails and receipts reveals" (Grokked form Annalee Flower Horne)
"Average tax refunds were down last week 8.4 percent for the first week of the tax season over the same time last year, according to the Internal Revenue Service. Dipping refunds are inflaming a growing army of taxpayers stunned by the consequences of the Trump administration’s tax law — and the effects of the partial government shutdown." Welcome to my life since the first GW Bush tax cuts. Mostly low-income workers and people expecting refunds file this early. High-earners and complicated return filers take until March, or have already prepared their extension requests. "In addition, the changes complicated payroll withholding, so that not enough money was withheld by employers in many cases, meaning that people now owe more taxes." My W-4 has me paying at the highest rate (1-deduction, married withhold at higher single rate, plus and extra $20 per pay, this is on both jobs where I receive a paycheck). Except for increasing that $20, there is no other option to have more withheld. (Grokked from Chip Dawes)
"Candace Owens of Turning Point USA, speaking in London: 'But if Hitler just wanted to make Germany great and have things run well, OK, fine. The problem is that he wanted, he had dreams outside of Germany. He wanted to globalize.'" Oh FFS. There's this routine Eddie Izzard does that the West is all fine when people kill their own, but then "Hitler killed people next door. Well, stupid man. After a few years we won't stand for that." Turning Point USA, everybody. (Grokked from Xeni Jardin)
"Having watched what is his last testimony before Congress as Acting Attorney General of the United States, I can say for certain that, while it is not provably true that Whitaker got the job because he's in the bag for the president*, it is provably true that he was selected because he was an entirely predictable conservative meathead of 21st century design. Between guzzling water, breathing hard, and puffing himself up to appear brave, Whitaker looked less like the country's top law-enforcement officer than the chairman of a local Tea Party group in Story County, Iowa." Meritocracy my ass. (Grokked from Elizabeth Bear)
Media obsolescence by decade. Just in case you think, "we'll always have this." Note these are just media types, no encoding software or data formats. (Grokked from John)
"When I first called Melissa Leonard, she asked, 'Can you call me back? I have Action News here with their cameras and everything.' Leonard is the Philadelphia-area Coldwell Banker Realtor whose listing, '50 Shades of Maple Glen'—a lovely brick colonial with five bedrooms, an updated kitchen, and a 'private adult sexual oasis' in the basement—has been viewed more than 500,000 times on Redfin since it went live less than 24 hours ago." But it is staged very nicely. Of course the neighbors are upset. Not really upset, but ticked off that these images have been posted of a house that's in their neighborhood (obviously, this isn't the first rodeo for the owners). I've seen people upset about fences, about barking dogs, about neighbors with trashy lawns, but having neighbors up in arms over a sex dungeon is a first for me. I hope the realtor snags a buyer real soon, because I don't see her keeping her position unless she does. (Grokked from Matt Staggs)
And now Amazon. "Amazon at times dips into the tips earned by contracted delivery drivers to cover their promised pay, a Times review of emails and receipts reveals" (Grokked form Annalee Flower Horne)
"Average tax refunds were down last week 8.4 percent for the first week of the tax season over the same time last year, according to the Internal Revenue Service. Dipping refunds are inflaming a growing army of taxpayers stunned by the consequences of the Trump administration’s tax law — and the effects of the partial government shutdown." Welcome to my life since the first GW Bush tax cuts. Mostly low-income workers and people expecting refunds file this early. High-earners and complicated return filers take until March, or have already prepared their extension requests. "In addition, the changes complicated payroll withholding, so that not enough money was withheld by employers in many cases, meaning that people now owe more taxes." My W-4 has me paying at the highest rate (1-deduction, married withhold at higher single rate, plus and extra $20 per pay, this is on both jobs where I receive a paycheck). Except for increasing that $20, there is no other option to have more withheld. (Grokked from Chip Dawes)
"Candace Owens of Turning Point USA, speaking in London: 'But if Hitler just wanted to make Germany great and have things run well, OK, fine. The problem is that he wanted, he had dreams outside of Germany. He wanted to globalize.'" Oh FFS. There's this routine Eddie Izzard does that the West is all fine when people kill their own, but then "Hitler killed people next door. Well, stupid man. After a few years we won't stand for that." Turning Point USA, everybody. (Grokked from Xeni Jardin)
"Having watched what is his last testimony before Congress as Acting Attorney General of the United States, I can say for certain that, while it is not provably true that Whitaker got the job because he's in the bag for the president*, it is provably true that he was selected because he was an entirely predictable conservative meathead of 21st century design. Between guzzling water, breathing hard, and puffing himself up to appear brave, Whitaker looked less like the country's top law-enforcement officer than the chairman of a local Tea Party group in Story County, Iowa." Meritocracy my ass. (Grokked from Elizabeth Bear)
Friday, February 8, 2019
Linkee-poo, you can dance in a hurricane, but only if you're standing in the eye
John Dingell and Frank Robinson, and so it goes.
"The Distinctions Between Different Editors, A Thread…" (Grokked from Delilah S. Dawson)
Is line-editing a lost art? No. Actually there are several levels of editing that happens to a manuscript. Line-editing is one of them. However, as I've found out, most publishers no longer have editors in house and it's mostly subbed out. Many editors are available for hire (there are long conversations around if you should hire one, and when, if you go into traditional publishing that will be a conversation to have with your agent and the acquiring editor at the publisher), and the very best are worth their weight in gold. I think of line-editors (and copy-editors) with the same advice about staff-sergeants I received when I was a young butter-bar. When you find yourself assigned to a new position, I was told, after reporting in to the commandant, learn who your staff-sergeant is. Find out what they like to drink. Buy them a case. Introduce yourself, present the case, and ask them nicely to tell you what your real job is and how to get it done. (Grokked from Elizabeth Bear)
"Compendium of World Vampire Beings." (Grokked from Cat Rambo)
As I continually state, your perception of reality, that "movie" in your head isn't what your eyes are seeing but a holographic projection created by your brain. "The Cafe Wall Illusion is related to the level of contrast between sharp boundaries."
"Vitamin D had long been known for protecting bones, but its star began to rise in the early 2000s after researchers made connections hinting that vitamin D was good for a lot more than our skeletons. It appeared to help protect against a lengthy list of ailments, including multiple sclerosis, asthma, depression, heart disease and cancer. The vitamin also was said to improve athletic performance… But with more research comes more scrutiny, and most recently, a series of seemingly tarnishing findings." Note the stories will be spun in a "Vit. D doesn't do what it promises to do," and not, "all these other things it supposedly helped with, those were marketing, but you still should have adequate Vit. D."
"Demand for measles vaccines leapt 500 percent last month in Clark County, Washington—a hotbed for anti-vaccine sentiment that has now become the epicenter of a ferocious measles outbreak." This is my shocked face.
"Rat invasion discovered at historic Los Angeles City Hall amid city typhus outbreak."
"Despite steadily declining rates of cancer deaths over the past two decades, cancer remains responsible for 1 in every 6 deaths worldwide. It’s a scourge. So when, this week, an Israeli company called Accelerated Evolution Biotechnologies captured the news cycle with promises of a complete cure for cancer within the year, the story caught fire." The On the Media podcast with a lot about how to listen to "medical breakthrough" news. Lots of good points here. It's only 10 minutes, highly recommended.
"The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday blocked Louisiana from enforcing a law that women's groups said would leave only a single doctor legally allowed to perform abortions in the state." It's the matinee showing for this topic.
"Then, in 2018, Justice Anthony Kennedy, who cast the fifth vote in Whole Woman’s Health, retired. He was replaced by Kavanaugh, who has a history of upholding abortion restrictions while claiming fidelity to Roe. In anticipation of Kavanaugh refusing to apply abortion precedents, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused to enforce Whole Woman’s Health. Instead, it asserted (falsely) that the Louisiana law does provide some benefit to women (it does not) and that it doesn’t impose a serious burden. (It does: The law would likely shutter two of Louisiana’s three abortion clinics.) Clearly, the conservative 5th Circuit thought it could overturn Whole Woman’s Health on its own, and trust the Supreme Court to play along."
"The biggest, most valuable new technology on Midwestern farms these days is a new family of soybean seeds. But some farmers say they're buying these seeds partly out of fear." You say that like it's a bug when it's a feature of the marketing campaign.
"Pacific Gas & Electric could shut off power to more than 5 million customers when extreme weather conditions are ripe for wildfires to break out, the company said Wednesday. It's an expansion of the company's previous power shutoff program, which only let the company turn off power to about half a million customers." Yeah, that'll work. This is an opening bid on PG&E's part.
Welcome to the US in 2019. This isn't national news. "A MnDOT traffic camera was rolling for the slow, snow-filled commute. As cars crept along, a Toyota pulled over in front of a pickup truck and a school bus. That is when the driver, who police say was 31-year-old Kenneth Lilly, got out and immediately started firing."
"Galton and Forester were anarcho-capitalists who slipped U.S. drug charges worth 25 years in prison, they said in a YouTube video that night. They’d hopped the border and resettled in what Galton called one of the world’s 'pockets of freedom,' a community billed as a libertarian paradise… Almost two years later, Galton was murdered." It's all fun and games until the competition comes knocking. (Grokked from Xeni Jardin)
"An experiment which offered unemployed people $636 a month with no questions asked seems to have increased participants' general well-being — but failed to spur them to work and earn more as hoped, Finnish officials said Friday." That's an interesting spin because at the end of the story we have this, "The report also found that those on basic income and the unemployed people in the control group ended up working roughly the same number of days." The major question of Universal Basic Income is if it'll stop people from seeking employment, not will they work more. And the answer appears to be no. Also there is this, "Minna Ylikanno, a researcher with Kela, said the basic income recipients appeared less stressed, healthier and more confident in the future than a 5,000-member control group of social benefit recipients."
"When critics assailed the high price awarded to Deepwater Wind nearly a decade ago for power from what would be the first offshore wind farm in the nation, the Providence company and its supporters in Rhode Island state government vowed that savings would come with future projects down the line… With a proposed agreement announced Thursday, they would fulfill that promise… And critically, the deal is projected to save Rhode Island about $90 million in energy costs over the life of the contract, or about 50 cents per month for the typical electric customer in the state." Saving money by going to renewables. Who'da thunk it?
The other day with the article on US intervention in Iran, I said something like, "Now do Central America." Well, "This week, On the Media explores how journalists in the country are struggling to cover the standoff between two men who claim to be president. Also, how both the history of American interventionism and the legacy of Simón Bolívar color coverage of Venezuela. Plus, a critical look at the images coming out of Chinese internment camps… 3. Stephen Kinzer [@stephenkinzer], professor of international relations at Brown University, on the history of American intervention in Latin America." I recommend at least listening to section 3.
We aren't the only ones to plaster over our sins in history. "(Rozsa Heisler) says Hungary has never been able to face its complicity. That's why she and many other Hungarian Jews are skeptical of a new Holocaust museum in development in Budapest, costing more than $23 million and financed by the Hungarian state. The building was finished in 2015, but unease over what it will present has delayed its opening in the years since… Heisler says the museum organizers want to portray Hungarians as "sin free" in persecution of Jewish citizens." When sanity returns to American politics, expect many who now support and even endorse the "alt-right" to try and rebrand themselves, or claim they were hoodwinked. Same as it ever was.
The stories we tell ourselves. "Cindy McCain believed she had helped thwart a child trafficking case when she saw a toddler with "a woman of a different ethnicity" at Phoenix's airport. But police said that's not what happened."
The stories we don't tell, at least her in the US. How Iran became what it is, and why we are still dealing with the sins of our past. "On August 19, 2013, the CIA publicly admitted for the first time its involvement in the 1953 coup against Iran's elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh." How's that cheap gas working for ya? Now, let's talk about Central and South America… Of course this is what conservatives rail again as "revisionist history" and lament that kids are no longer told how great the US is. But history is a harsh mistress.
Racism as a pyramid marketing scheme. "You can buy a whole lot more at 1776.shop, a freewheeling online emporium for far-right merch. There are T-shirts and hats with all manner of right-wing slogans, from lib-baiting ('Roger Stone did nothing wrong') to fascistic ('Pinochet did nothing wrong'). There is Proud Boys gear in the “official” section of the site, as well as products from a host of third-party vendors, including Stone, the Donald Trump confidante and longtime political fixer who advertises 1776.shop on his Instagram account." On the plus side, credit-card payment processors have been dropping the site like the hot potato it is.
What have you got to lose? "The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is targeting one of the hallmarks of the Obama administration: a rule that would protect the most vulnerable borrowers from the ballooning debt that can accrue with payday loans." Your money or your life, that's what.
"Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., think they have a start to a solution. Thursday they are introducing a framework defining what they call a 'Green New Deal' — what they foresee as a massive policy package that would remake the U.S. economy and, they hope, eliminate all U.S. carbon emissions." And the right, and parts of the left, are trying to derail this as quickly as they can. The deal and the pieces will change, that's the nature of any large societal transformations, but the opponents will then use these changes as proof of, "see, we told you it was unworkable." Don't believe them. (Waits for Sarah Palin to reinvigorate the "Death Panels" speech.) No, this one probably won't go anywhere, but it'll lay the ground work for post-2020 politics (if we're lucky to see it that soon).
"For a nonbinding resolution with an uncertain future, the Green New Deal is getting a lot of attention, along with a decidedly mixed reaction." Note that industry will always say it can't be done, that it's too expensive, that the logistics and engineering is too daunting. And then they alway meet or exceed the goals. And there there is this, "'They need to do a whole lot more homework and much more research and analysis before we can ever even really engage in this discussion,' says Colin Woodall, senior vice president of government affairs for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association." Uh, no, Colin. You need to do a lot more education and research. It's on you as the lobbyist to educate congress. But here's the thing, if your numbers don't line up with other research that's been done, you deserve to be thrown out of the offices.
The tax on the poor. "Campbell is a victim of a growing American water crisis. In cities across the country, the cost of water has spiked in recent years, forcing hundreds of thousands of people to perilously endure weeks or even months without an essential resource… The crisis is especially acute where you would least expect it – the Great Lakes, the region of the country with the most abundant fresh water." And there is an intense pressure to privatize water and sewer services. Also what is not pointed out in the article, although they do talk about federal and state government dollars drying up, is that industry has also been subsidizing local water districts as they are the primary users. However in the last 2 decades there have been a lot of technological improvements to reuse and reduce industrial water consumption. So water districts are seeing large shortfalls in their fees.
Conservatives are all about vox populi, except when they disagree with it. "Utah residents may have thought they were done fighting about Medicaid expansion last November. But when Utah lawmakers opened a new legislative session in late January, they began pushing through a bill to roll back the scope and impact of an expansion that voters approved by in a ballot measure." Iowa as well.
"On Wednesday, during the House's first hearing in years on gun violence prevention, Manuel Oliver interrupted Gaetz, a vocal Hill ally of President Donald Trump, when the congressman began arguing that illegal immigration, not firearms, poses a greater threat to national security and thus requires a wall along the US-Mexico border."
"The mayor of Nogales, Arizona, said a major port of entry on the U.S.-Mexico border was temporarily closed to traffic heading into Mexico after a customs officer shot and killed a southbound driver who refused to stop. Mayor Arturo Garino said he was told by city officials that the shooting took place after the truck apparently tried to run over the officer Thursday night at the DeConcini Port of Entry, reports CBS News Tucson, Arizona affiliate KOLD-TV."
"An Arizona town is condemning the federal government's use of razor wire on the border wall running through its downtown area as an 'indiscriminate use of lethal force.'… The Nogales City Council passed the measure unanimously Wednesday night, and included a threat that it will sue the federal government if it doesn't remove the wire, CNN affiliate KOLD reported."
"Kellyanne Conway says that she was grabbed and shaken by a woman while out with her teenage daughter in a Maryland restaurant late last year… It's unclear whether the video shows any physical contact between Conway and Inabinett, which Maryland state law does not require for an assault charge… 'The idea that we should be treated differently because of anything, of anything, because of where we work or what we believe or what we're trying to do on behalf of this great nation, that's complete nonsense,' Conway said." Hey Kellyanne, let me explain to you what it's been like being a liberal for these past 2 decades…
"The Justice Department is bracing for impact. Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker is set to testify before Congress on Friday, but now says he will not show up unless Democrats promise not to subpoena him during his testimony." As Rep. Eric Swalwell tweeted, that's "Not how it works."
"Acting attorney general Matt Whitaker will in fact testify before the House Judiciary Committee on Friday, following a lengthy fight between House Democrats and the Justice Department that placed Whitaker's appearance in doubt for much of Thursday."
So, Jeff Bezos shows how you really handle attempted political extortion. You go public with the attempt, accept the embarrassment, and use the stupidity of your opponent to out them. "In the AMI letters I’m making public, you will see the precise details of their extortionate proposal: They will publish the personal photos unless Gavin de Becker and I make the specific false public statement to the press that we 'have no knowledge or basis for suggesting that AMI’s coverage was politically motivated or influenced by political forces.'" There are several reasons, one is the person trying the extortion is more afraid of you not following along and has more to lose. And two, this information always comes out in the end, especially if the extorting side keeps all evidence and doesn't hand it over (get the negatives, when there used to be negatives). Always. Get ahead of it and put it to bed. I am waiting, however, to hear it's all a hoax. It's just too Snidely Whiplash to be real. (Grokked from Joy Reid)
"On MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell show tonight, Roig Franzia of the Washington Post said the security and legal team representing Jeff Bezos believes it's possible the leaks of the Amazon CEO's texts, with accompanying intimate photos, were politically motivated -- and that a 'government entity' accessed the material." If that proves true, and this is a very weak statement, man that's a whole new closet just filled with shoes waiting to drop. (Grokked from Xeni Jardin)
"The American public has continued to know little about Maria Butina, who pleaded guilty in December to participating in a foreign conspiracy against the United States. Not much has emerged about the confessed Russian agent’s political activities beyond her efforts to build ties with Republican leaders and top officials of the National Rifle Association. But Butina wasn’t just a fan of gun rights who attended American University, romanced a veteran Republican operative, and pitched US-Russian collaboration at NRA conventions." Naughty naughty. (Grokked from Xeni Jardin)
"House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff announced Wednesday a broad investigation his committee would undertake 'beyond Russia' into whether President Donald Trump's financial interests are driving his actions."
"Fox & Friends host suggests Trump 'run a private investigation' into personal lives of Democrats in Congress." Wow, how did all these fucking worms get all over. That musta been on hellofa can of them. Also, it's called opposition research, but when the president directs it it's called surveillance state. (Grokked from Kathryn Cramer)
"The theft was the latest in a trend of people stealing African-Americans’ photos to push right-wing causes online. And with the 2020 elections looming, the identity theft is ramping up." Let's get ready to RUMBLE! I've also noticed an uptick in the "I voted for Trump, but now I'll never do it again" accounts. It's a little early, and I'm not actually doing all that much research into it, but I'm divided between the thoughts of "throwing noise into the debates" and "Russia has made the calculation that burning Trump is more useful that getting him re-elected, and then burning him." So far I'm using Occam's Razor and leaning toward the "noise" concept (ie. pitting us against each other so we spend our energy there instead of resisting their influence and fighting together against a common enemy). (Grokked from Kathryn Cramer)
"The Distinctions Between Different Editors, A Thread…" (Grokked from Delilah S. Dawson)
Is line-editing a lost art? No. Actually there are several levels of editing that happens to a manuscript. Line-editing is one of them. However, as I've found out, most publishers no longer have editors in house and it's mostly subbed out. Many editors are available for hire (there are long conversations around if you should hire one, and when, if you go into traditional publishing that will be a conversation to have with your agent and the acquiring editor at the publisher), and the very best are worth their weight in gold. I think of line-editors (and copy-editors) with the same advice about staff-sergeants I received when I was a young butter-bar. When you find yourself assigned to a new position, I was told, after reporting in to the commandant, learn who your staff-sergeant is. Find out what they like to drink. Buy them a case. Introduce yourself, present the case, and ask them nicely to tell you what your real job is and how to get it done. (Grokked from Elizabeth Bear)
"Compendium of World Vampire Beings." (Grokked from Cat Rambo)
As I continually state, your perception of reality, that "movie" in your head isn't what your eyes are seeing but a holographic projection created by your brain. "The Cafe Wall Illusion is related to the level of contrast between sharp boundaries."
"Vitamin D had long been known for protecting bones, but its star began to rise in the early 2000s after researchers made connections hinting that vitamin D was good for a lot more than our skeletons. It appeared to help protect against a lengthy list of ailments, including multiple sclerosis, asthma, depression, heart disease and cancer. The vitamin also was said to improve athletic performance… But with more research comes more scrutiny, and most recently, a series of seemingly tarnishing findings." Note the stories will be spun in a "Vit. D doesn't do what it promises to do," and not, "all these other things it supposedly helped with, those were marketing, but you still should have adequate Vit. D."
"Demand for measles vaccines leapt 500 percent last month in Clark County, Washington—a hotbed for anti-vaccine sentiment that has now become the epicenter of a ferocious measles outbreak." This is my shocked face.
"Rat invasion discovered at historic Los Angeles City Hall amid city typhus outbreak."
"Despite steadily declining rates of cancer deaths over the past two decades, cancer remains responsible for 1 in every 6 deaths worldwide. It’s a scourge. So when, this week, an Israeli company called Accelerated Evolution Biotechnologies captured the news cycle with promises of a complete cure for cancer within the year, the story caught fire." The On the Media podcast with a lot about how to listen to "medical breakthrough" news. Lots of good points here. It's only 10 minutes, highly recommended.
"The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday blocked Louisiana from enforcing a law that women's groups said would leave only a single doctor legally allowed to perform abortions in the state." It's the matinee showing for this topic.
"Then, in 2018, Justice Anthony Kennedy, who cast the fifth vote in Whole Woman’s Health, retired. He was replaced by Kavanaugh, who has a history of upholding abortion restrictions while claiming fidelity to Roe. In anticipation of Kavanaugh refusing to apply abortion precedents, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused to enforce Whole Woman’s Health. Instead, it asserted (falsely) that the Louisiana law does provide some benefit to women (it does not) and that it doesn’t impose a serious burden. (It does: The law would likely shutter two of Louisiana’s three abortion clinics.) Clearly, the conservative 5th Circuit thought it could overturn Whole Woman’s Health on its own, and trust the Supreme Court to play along."
"The biggest, most valuable new technology on Midwestern farms these days is a new family of soybean seeds. But some farmers say they're buying these seeds partly out of fear." You say that like it's a bug when it's a feature of the marketing campaign.
"Pacific Gas & Electric could shut off power to more than 5 million customers when extreme weather conditions are ripe for wildfires to break out, the company said Wednesday. It's an expansion of the company's previous power shutoff program, which only let the company turn off power to about half a million customers." Yeah, that'll work. This is an opening bid on PG&E's part.
Welcome to the US in 2019. This isn't national news. "A MnDOT traffic camera was rolling for the slow, snow-filled commute. As cars crept along, a Toyota pulled over in front of a pickup truck and a school bus. That is when the driver, who police say was 31-year-old Kenneth Lilly, got out and immediately started firing."
"Galton and Forester were anarcho-capitalists who slipped U.S. drug charges worth 25 years in prison, they said in a YouTube video that night. They’d hopped the border and resettled in what Galton called one of the world’s 'pockets of freedom,' a community billed as a libertarian paradise… Almost two years later, Galton was murdered." It's all fun and games until the competition comes knocking. (Grokked from Xeni Jardin)
"An experiment which offered unemployed people $636 a month with no questions asked seems to have increased participants' general well-being — but failed to spur them to work and earn more as hoped, Finnish officials said Friday." That's an interesting spin because at the end of the story we have this, "The report also found that those on basic income and the unemployed people in the control group ended up working roughly the same number of days." The major question of Universal Basic Income is if it'll stop people from seeking employment, not will they work more. And the answer appears to be no. Also there is this, "Minna Ylikanno, a researcher with Kela, said the basic income recipients appeared less stressed, healthier and more confident in the future than a 5,000-member control group of social benefit recipients."
"When critics assailed the high price awarded to Deepwater Wind nearly a decade ago for power from what would be the first offshore wind farm in the nation, the Providence company and its supporters in Rhode Island state government vowed that savings would come with future projects down the line… With a proposed agreement announced Thursday, they would fulfill that promise… And critically, the deal is projected to save Rhode Island about $90 million in energy costs over the life of the contract, or about 50 cents per month for the typical electric customer in the state." Saving money by going to renewables. Who'da thunk it?
The other day with the article on US intervention in Iran, I said something like, "Now do Central America." Well, "This week, On the Media explores how journalists in the country are struggling to cover the standoff between two men who claim to be president. Also, how both the history of American interventionism and the legacy of Simón Bolívar color coverage of Venezuela. Plus, a critical look at the images coming out of Chinese internment camps… 3. Stephen Kinzer [@stephenkinzer], professor of international relations at Brown University, on the history of American intervention in Latin America." I recommend at least listening to section 3.
We aren't the only ones to plaster over our sins in history. "(Rozsa Heisler) says Hungary has never been able to face its complicity. That's why she and many other Hungarian Jews are skeptical of a new Holocaust museum in development in Budapest, costing more than $23 million and financed by the Hungarian state. The building was finished in 2015, but unease over what it will present has delayed its opening in the years since… Heisler says the museum organizers want to portray Hungarians as "sin free" in persecution of Jewish citizens." When sanity returns to American politics, expect many who now support and even endorse the "alt-right" to try and rebrand themselves, or claim they were hoodwinked. Same as it ever was.
The stories we tell ourselves. "Cindy McCain believed she had helped thwart a child trafficking case when she saw a toddler with "a woman of a different ethnicity" at Phoenix's airport. But police said that's not what happened."
The stories we don't tell, at least her in the US. How Iran became what it is, and why we are still dealing with the sins of our past. "On August 19, 2013, the CIA publicly admitted for the first time its involvement in the 1953 coup against Iran's elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh." How's that cheap gas working for ya? Now, let's talk about Central and South America… Of course this is what conservatives rail again as "revisionist history" and lament that kids are no longer told how great the US is. But history is a harsh mistress.
Racism as a pyramid marketing scheme. "You can buy a whole lot more at 1776.shop, a freewheeling online emporium for far-right merch. There are T-shirts and hats with all manner of right-wing slogans, from lib-baiting ('Roger Stone did nothing wrong') to fascistic ('Pinochet did nothing wrong'). There is Proud Boys gear in the “official” section of the site, as well as products from a host of third-party vendors, including Stone, the Donald Trump confidante and longtime political fixer who advertises 1776.shop on his Instagram account." On the plus side, credit-card payment processors have been dropping the site like the hot potato it is.
What have you got to lose? "The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is targeting one of the hallmarks of the Obama administration: a rule that would protect the most vulnerable borrowers from the ballooning debt that can accrue with payday loans." Your money or your life, that's what.
"Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., think they have a start to a solution. Thursday they are introducing a framework defining what they call a 'Green New Deal' — what they foresee as a massive policy package that would remake the U.S. economy and, they hope, eliminate all U.S. carbon emissions." And the right, and parts of the left, are trying to derail this as quickly as they can. The deal and the pieces will change, that's the nature of any large societal transformations, but the opponents will then use these changes as proof of, "see, we told you it was unworkable." Don't believe them. (Waits for Sarah Palin to reinvigorate the "Death Panels" speech.) No, this one probably won't go anywhere, but it'll lay the ground work for post-2020 politics (if we're lucky to see it that soon).
"For a nonbinding resolution with an uncertain future, the Green New Deal is getting a lot of attention, along with a decidedly mixed reaction." Note that industry will always say it can't be done, that it's too expensive, that the logistics and engineering is too daunting. And then they alway meet or exceed the goals. And there there is this, "'They need to do a whole lot more homework and much more research and analysis before we can ever even really engage in this discussion,' says Colin Woodall, senior vice president of government affairs for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association." Uh, no, Colin. You need to do a lot more education and research. It's on you as the lobbyist to educate congress. But here's the thing, if your numbers don't line up with other research that's been done, you deserve to be thrown out of the offices.
The tax on the poor. "Campbell is a victim of a growing American water crisis. In cities across the country, the cost of water has spiked in recent years, forcing hundreds of thousands of people to perilously endure weeks or even months without an essential resource… The crisis is especially acute where you would least expect it – the Great Lakes, the region of the country with the most abundant fresh water." And there is an intense pressure to privatize water and sewer services. Also what is not pointed out in the article, although they do talk about federal and state government dollars drying up, is that industry has also been subsidizing local water districts as they are the primary users. However in the last 2 decades there have been a lot of technological improvements to reuse and reduce industrial water consumption. So water districts are seeing large shortfalls in their fees.
Conservatives are all about vox populi, except when they disagree with it. "Utah residents may have thought they were done fighting about Medicaid expansion last November. But when Utah lawmakers opened a new legislative session in late January, they began pushing through a bill to roll back the scope and impact of an expansion that voters approved by in a ballot measure." Iowa as well.
"On Wednesday, during the House's first hearing in years on gun violence prevention, Manuel Oliver interrupted Gaetz, a vocal Hill ally of President Donald Trump, when the congressman began arguing that illegal immigration, not firearms, poses a greater threat to national security and thus requires a wall along the US-Mexico border."
"The mayor of Nogales, Arizona, said a major port of entry on the U.S.-Mexico border was temporarily closed to traffic heading into Mexico after a customs officer shot and killed a southbound driver who refused to stop. Mayor Arturo Garino said he was told by city officials that the shooting took place after the truck apparently tried to run over the officer Thursday night at the DeConcini Port of Entry, reports CBS News Tucson, Arizona affiliate KOLD-TV."
"An Arizona town is condemning the federal government's use of razor wire on the border wall running through its downtown area as an 'indiscriminate use of lethal force.'… The Nogales City Council passed the measure unanimously Wednesday night, and included a threat that it will sue the federal government if it doesn't remove the wire, CNN affiliate KOLD reported."
"Kellyanne Conway says that she was grabbed and shaken by a woman while out with her teenage daughter in a Maryland restaurant late last year… It's unclear whether the video shows any physical contact between Conway and Inabinett, which Maryland state law does not require for an assault charge… 'The idea that we should be treated differently because of anything, of anything, because of where we work or what we believe or what we're trying to do on behalf of this great nation, that's complete nonsense,' Conway said." Hey Kellyanne, let me explain to you what it's been like being a liberal for these past 2 decades…
"The Justice Department is bracing for impact. Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker is set to testify before Congress on Friday, but now says he will not show up unless Democrats promise not to subpoena him during his testimony." As Rep. Eric Swalwell tweeted, that's "Not how it works."
"Acting attorney general Matt Whitaker will in fact testify before the House Judiciary Committee on Friday, following a lengthy fight between House Democrats and the Justice Department that placed Whitaker's appearance in doubt for much of Thursday."
So, Jeff Bezos shows how you really handle attempted political extortion. You go public with the attempt, accept the embarrassment, and use the stupidity of your opponent to out them. "In the AMI letters I’m making public, you will see the precise details of their extortionate proposal: They will publish the personal photos unless Gavin de Becker and I make the specific false public statement to the press that we 'have no knowledge or basis for suggesting that AMI’s coverage was politically motivated or influenced by political forces.'" There are several reasons, one is the person trying the extortion is more afraid of you not following along and has more to lose. And two, this information always comes out in the end, especially if the extorting side keeps all evidence and doesn't hand it over (get the negatives, when there used to be negatives). Always. Get ahead of it and put it to bed. I am waiting, however, to hear it's all a hoax. It's just too Snidely Whiplash to be real. (Grokked from Joy Reid)
"On MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell show tonight, Roig Franzia of the Washington Post said the security and legal team representing Jeff Bezos believes it's possible the leaks of the Amazon CEO's texts, with accompanying intimate photos, were politically motivated -- and that a 'government entity' accessed the material." If that proves true, and this is a very weak statement, man that's a whole new closet just filled with shoes waiting to drop. (Grokked from Xeni Jardin)
"The American public has continued to know little about Maria Butina, who pleaded guilty in December to participating in a foreign conspiracy against the United States. Not much has emerged about the confessed Russian agent’s political activities beyond her efforts to build ties with Republican leaders and top officials of the National Rifle Association. But Butina wasn’t just a fan of gun rights who attended American University, romanced a veteran Republican operative, and pitched US-Russian collaboration at NRA conventions." Naughty naughty. (Grokked from Xeni Jardin)
"House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff announced Wednesday a broad investigation his committee would undertake 'beyond Russia' into whether President Donald Trump's financial interests are driving his actions."
"Fox & Friends host suggests Trump 'run a private investigation' into personal lives of Democrats in Congress." Wow, how did all these fucking worms get all over. That musta been on hellofa can of them. Also, it's called opposition research, but when the president directs it it's called surveillance state. (Grokked from Kathryn Cramer)
"The theft was the latest in a trend of people stealing African-Americans’ photos to push right-wing causes online. And with the 2020 elections looming, the identity theft is ramping up." Let's get ready to RUMBLE! I've also noticed an uptick in the "I voted for Trump, but now I'll never do it again" accounts. It's a little early, and I'm not actually doing all that much research into it, but I'm divided between the thoughts of "throwing noise into the debates" and "Russia has made the calculation that burning Trump is more useful that getting him re-elected, and then burning him." So far I'm using Occam's Razor and leaning toward the "noise" concept (ie. pitting us against each other so we spend our energy there instead of resisting their influence and fighting together against a common enemy). (Grokked from Kathryn Cramer)
Thursday, February 7, 2019
The Dreamlands
I've mentioned before how I don't remember most of my dreams and those that I do tend to be significant in some manner. There are also several places that I revisit. Each represents something, although I don't understand that at the time I'm in the dream, or even after I've dreamed of the same place several times.
Last night I had one of those dreams. It's the woods. Maybe I should capitalize that. The Woods. This is probably one of the weirdest dream places I visit. I've known for a while of its importance, but I never knew what it was.
The Woods starts in my Grandparents backyard. Typically there's the side of their house and the detached garage. I've had dreams that take place around this house, and in the front and side yards, and very rarely in the basement and kitchen, but hardly anywhere else. But mostly it's in The Woods. My Grandparent's house did not have woods in back. In fact it was a fairly small yard (I think the whole lot was barely a quarter acre), but in this dreamland the yard is expansive. Like in real life, the yard slopes downward. And at the back of the yard, where in real life was a line of box hedges, is an old oak tree that delineates the end of the yard (there was an old tree in their yard, but this isn't it). Mostly along the tree-line (the only tree that seems to remain constant and stays in my head is that old oak) is a built-up ridge, like a foot and a half high. Beyond that the landscape drops off precipitously. On the right-side of the tree is a dirt trailhead. This leads into a valley, at the bottom of which is sometimes a stream where I get caught on one side or the other.
I say sometimes because the yard and the woods have this strange property of overlaying several geographies and items. Like my Grandfathers rose-garden. It's there, to the side of the garage, but sometimes you can't see it (even though it's still there, dream logic can be like that). Sometimes I can't see the house or the garage, but I know where it's at. Sometimes the box-hedges along the aides are there, most often not. But in The Woods things get even stranger. I can go down pathways and end up in completely different landscapes. There are trails which in real life would overlap, but don't there. Fields appear and disappear. There is a whole campground with cabins (sometimes like Camp Ockanickon where I spent some summers, sometimes like cabin/townhouses available for rent). And these landscapes overlap each other, and not like at different times. The whole topography is different. There are other places in The Woods, but I don't think I should talk about them yet (the Muse is saying, "Don't" and we listen to what she says when she talks like this).
This dream starts out like many of them. I'm in front of the garage. This time I'm picking up Halloween decorations. In the dream it's long past time I should have cleaned them up, yet still has the feel of early Fall. But some of the decorations (blown-molded jack-o-lanterns) have been out in the rain for a long time and they're soggy and breaking apart as I try and pick them up. There's other kinds of decorations, but it's mostly these big jack-o-lanterns (like above knee high tall).
I start out alone (which isn't unusual in my dreams), but slowly more people appear doing things. There are decorations that aren't mine, so I have to be careful to only try to get mine. While I don't put them anywhere, I'm not getting burdened by them (dream logic again). As I make my way to the back of the yard and the edge of The Wood, the yard expands several hundred yards across and the people are there for a giant flea market/craft show.
There's a string of blue pumpkin/skull (each light is both, in some way) lights in one of the other trees along the tree line (not the Oak, I'm to the right of it). It's not plugged in, but the lights are on (in mid day to see them they must be very bright). The Wood looks normal from here, just a steep slope (walkable) down and it looks like a forest approaching maturity (some mid-aged, but a lot of younger trees). The lights are mine, so I start pulling them down, which they come out easily, like winding up a power-cable. They slide out of the branches, even though they were wrapped around them. But as the lights hit the ground, one light explodes in a blinding flash. When I check the string the entire light is gone, just an open socket (nothing to remove, nothing on the ground). This feels important, but I don't have an idea why.
In the same place, there's a stack of decorations that aren't mine. There is a very stout and tall walking stick. The top is carved or grown into something like Gandalf's staff from the movies, and it has an ornate dragon's head carving like the bow of a viking longboat. It's not mine, but I want it. It's not beautiful, but it is powerful. When I try to grab it, the wood collapses under my grasp the way soaked, rotten wood collapses. But when I bring my hand back, it's still fully intact. I try again with the same result. There is someone behind me, for some reason I think it's my brother although I don't see him. He also wants the staff and I warn him about the wood.
This staff is Neil Gaiman's Norse Myths. I realize this after I'm awake, but I don't know it in the dream. Or maybe it's Neil Gaiman himself. I'm not entirely sure.
Next thing I know I'm up behind the garage about to start back to The Woods. This time I'm going to go into them. That's the plan. There's a bunch of people with me and we're in a line parallel to the Woods. The yard is now empty, no leftover decorations or flea market. There are two long barns between us and The Woods. The once closest to us it falling into the second barn. We all storm the building like we're attacking it. I work my way into the second barn and there is a window looking out on the woods, right at the old oak and the trail head. There is a garage door opener hanging from a shelf on the wall. It's my task to press it, that's my part of this operation to get through the barns. I press the button and I can feel something has opened, but don't see anything opening or moving, but something big has changed. The people are still there in the barn with me, but they aren't there at the same time (again, dream logic).
Not any of this is really strange to what happens here, although I don't remember doing any of this before in dreams. What happens next is different.
Animals start coming up out of the ravine. I don't remember seeing any animals before. I think there was bird song (like you hear in any woods while hiking), but I don't have clear memories of it. But I've never seen animals. And these aren't normal animals.
There are large, yellow, tiger like cats. They are pokemon type creatures, but sleek and powerful. They have a hunting grace. There is lighting from a clear sky (it's not blue, but it's not overcast). The lightning plays in the trees and I think the cats are controlling it. They stop at the tree line and are waiting to see where I'm at. There are long-necked lionesses breathing fire. There's a single, brown furred, lizard like creature that's about the size of a small pony. Each step it takes sends earthquakes through the ground like a 20 ton press. There are large birds, I don't see them clearly though. All of them just waiting at the tree line to see where I'm at (the yellow cats are the only ones sitting). Each one of these are deadly by themselves, but here they all are together. And I feel that all the other people I was with are gone and I'm alone in the barns.
That's when I wake up. And now I know what The Woods represent. This is Story. This is writing. I'm not sure how previous dreams worked into this, but this is a strong feeling.
This is my subconscious telling me something. I've figured out part of the puzzle. I think the decorations that are falling apart are my existing stories. The one's I've finished. I'm not sure if the staff is telling me I don't grasp something yet, or I'm not supposed to have it, or something else. I'm not sure it was my brother behind me. I'm not sure who all the other people were. But I'm sure The Woods is Story, being in The Woods is writing. But now there are animals. Are they blocking me, are they a new obstacle, are they stories I need to write?
But I now know what The Woods are. So that's something, right?
Last night I had one of those dreams. It's the woods. Maybe I should capitalize that. The Woods. This is probably one of the weirdest dream places I visit. I've known for a while of its importance, but I never knew what it was.
The Woods starts in my Grandparents backyard. Typically there's the side of their house and the detached garage. I've had dreams that take place around this house, and in the front and side yards, and very rarely in the basement and kitchen, but hardly anywhere else. But mostly it's in The Woods. My Grandparent's house did not have woods in back. In fact it was a fairly small yard (I think the whole lot was barely a quarter acre), but in this dreamland the yard is expansive. Like in real life, the yard slopes downward. And at the back of the yard, where in real life was a line of box hedges, is an old oak tree that delineates the end of the yard (there was an old tree in their yard, but this isn't it). Mostly along the tree-line (the only tree that seems to remain constant and stays in my head is that old oak) is a built-up ridge, like a foot and a half high. Beyond that the landscape drops off precipitously. On the right-side of the tree is a dirt trailhead. This leads into a valley, at the bottom of which is sometimes a stream where I get caught on one side or the other.
I say sometimes because the yard and the woods have this strange property of overlaying several geographies and items. Like my Grandfathers rose-garden. It's there, to the side of the garage, but sometimes you can't see it (even though it's still there, dream logic can be like that). Sometimes I can't see the house or the garage, but I know where it's at. Sometimes the box-hedges along the aides are there, most often not. But in The Woods things get even stranger. I can go down pathways and end up in completely different landscapes. There are trails which in real life would overlap, but don't there. Fields appear and disappear. There is a whole campground with cabins (sometimes like Camp Ockanickon where I spent some summers, sometimes like cabin/townhouses available for rent). And these landscapes overlap each other, and not like at different times. The whole topography is different. There are other places in The Woods, but I don't think I should talk about them yet (the Muse is saying, "Don't" and we listen to what she says when she talks like this).
This dream starts out like many of them. I'm in front of the garage. This time I'm picking up Halloween decorations. In the dream it's long past time I should have cleaned them up, yet still has the feel of early Fall. But some of the decorations (blown-molded jack-o-lanterns) have been out in the rain for a long time and they're soggy and breaking apart as I try and pick them up. There's other kinds of decorations, but it's mostly these big jack-o-lanterns (like above knee high tall).
I start out alone (which isn't unusual in my dreams), but slowly more people appear doing things. There are decorations that aren't mine, so I have to be careful to only try to get mine. While I don't put them anywhere, I'm not getting burdened by them (dream logic again). As I make my way to the back of the yard and the edge of The Wood, the yard expands several hundred yards across and the people are there for a giant flea market/craft show.
There's a string of blue pumpkin/skull (each light is both, in some way) lights in one of the other trees along the tree line (not the Oak, I'm to the right of it). It's not plugged in, but the lights are on (in mid day to see them they must be very bright). The Wood looks normal from here, just a steep slope (walkable) down and it looks like a forest approaching maturity (some mid-aged, but a lot of younger trees). The lights are mine, so I start pulling them down, which they come out easily, like winding up a power-cable. They slide out of the branches, even though they were wrapped around them. But as the lights hit the ground, one light explodes in a blinding flash. When I check the string the entire light is gone, just an open socket (nothing to remove, nothing on the ground). This feels important, but I don't have an idea why.
In the same place, there's a stack of decorations that aren't mine. There is a very stout and tall walking stick. The top is carved or grown into something like Gandalf's staff from the movies, and it has an ornate dragon's head carving like the bow of a viking longboat. It's not mine, but I want it. It's not beautiful, but it is powerful. When I try to grab it, the wood collapses under my grasp the way soaked, rotten wood collapses. But when I bring my hand back, it's still fully intact. I try again with the same result. There is someone behind me, for some reason I think it's my brother although I don't see him. He also wants the staff and I warn him about the wood.
This staff is Neil Gaiman's Norse Myths. I realize this after I'm awake, but I don't know it in the dream. Or maybe it's Neil Gaiman himself. I'm not entirely sure.
Next thing I know I'm up behind the garage about to start back to The Woods. This time I'm going to go into them. That's the plan. There's a bunch of people with me and we're in a line parallel to the Woods. The yard is now empty, no leftover decorations or flea market. There are two long barns between us and The Woods. The once closest to us it falling into the second barn. We all storm the building like we're attacking it. I work my way into the second barn and there is a window looking out on the woods, right at the old oak and the trail head. There is a garage door opener hanging from a shelf on the wall. It's my task to press it, that's my part of this operation to get through the barns. I press the button and I can feel something has opened, but don't see anything opening or moving, but something big has changed. The people are still there in the barn with me, but they aren't there at the same time (again, dream logic).
Not any of this is really strange to what happens here, although I don't remember doing any of this before in dreams. What happens next is different.
Animals start coming up out of the ravine. I don't remember seeing any animals before. I think there was bird song (like you hear in any woods while hiking), but I don't have clear memories of it. But I've never seen animals. And these aren't normal animals.
There are large, yellow, tiger like cats. They are pokemon type creatures, but sleek and powerful. They have a hunting grace. There is lighting from a clear sky (it's not blue, but it's not overcast). The lightning plays in the trees and I think the cats are controlling it. They stop at the tree line and are waiting to see where I'm at. There are long-necked lionesses breathing fire. There's a single, brown furred, lizard like creature that's about the size of a small pony. Each step it takes sends earthquakes through the ground like a 20 ton press. There are large birds, I don't see them clearly though. All of them just waiting at the tree line to see where I'm at (the yellow cats are the only ones sitting). Each one of these are deadly by themselves, but here they all are together. And I feel that all the other people I was with are gone and I'm alone in the barns.
That's when I wake up. And now I know what The Woods represent. This is Story. This is writing. I'm not sure how previous dreams worked into this, but this is a strong feeling.
This is my subconscious telling me something. I've figured out part of the puzzle. I think the decorations that are falling apart are my existing stories. The one's I've finished. I'm not sure if the staff is telling me I don't grasp something yet, or I'm not supposed to have it, or something else. I'm not sure it was my brother behind me. I'm not sure who all the other people were. But I'm sure The Woods is Story, being in The Woods is writing. But now there are animals. Are they blocking me, are they a new obstacle, are they stories I need to write?
But I now know what The Woods are. So that's something, right?
Linkee-poo Thursday
Alligators again.
"The data, released on Wednesday by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), shows that 2018 was the fourth-hottest year since 1880, the earliest year for which reliable global temperature data is available." Waits for the climate change deniers to start shouting, "See, it wasn't another record year, it's a hoax!" in 3… 2… 1… "The three hottest years on record were 2015, 2016 and 2017." We're boned.
"For the first time, China's Longjiang-2 satellite photographed the entirety of the Moon's far side and the Earth in a single shot, Popular Mechanics reports."
"Popular iPhone apps caught recording your screen without permission – here are the offenders." We have met Big Brother and he is us.
"The company’s decision to pull its current tip distribution policy follows reports that Instacart and DoorDash, a similar on-demand delivery app that hires contract workers to make deliveries, was using tips to fulfill workers’ wages instead of paying out the customers’ full tip separately." They say the policy was "misguided." I say heinous fuckery. I also think in some states that might actually be a criminal complaint.
"This week on Hidden Brain, we dive into (Psychiatrist Iain McGilchrist)'s research on how the left and right hemispheres shape our perceptions. Iain argues that differences in the brain — and Western society's preference for what one hemisphere has to offer — have had enormous effects on our lives." As they state in the opener, what most people know about the left/right brain divide is popular crap.
"The US government has decided to cut millions in security and military aid to Cameroon amid growing concerns over the Cameroonian government's human rights record, US officials tell CNN."
"U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials on Wednesday described a multi-pronged strategy for tightening the southern border with Mexico that did not focus mainly on a massive wall President Donald Trump demands, according to lawmakers who attended a classified briefing." They were also "brief" on terrorists coming over the southern border, but offered no numbers or actual details.
"Paul Erickson, the American political operative and boyfriend of admitted Russian agent Maria Butina, has been indicted by a federal grand jury in South Dakota on charges of wire fraud and money laundering." This concert a chain of assisted living home he ran.
"The probe is in response to a request by Sen. Ben Sasse, a Nebraska Republican and member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who was critical of the case following a series of stories in the Miami Herald. The Herald articles detailed how Acosta, then the U.S. attorney for Southern Florida, and other DOJ attorneys worked hand-in-hand with defense lawyers to cut a lenient plea deal with multimillionaire Jeffrey Epstein in 2008."
"Virginia's Democratic Attorney General Mark Herring said in a statement Wednesday that he wore blackface at a college party in 1980, amid a deepening scandal in Richmond after the discovery last week of a racist photo on Gov. Ralph Northam's medical school yearbook page and his subsequent admission that he wore blackface in 1984." Self-inflicted wounds, but that doesn't mean it's any less of a political power grab. Dear Democrats, I suggest opposition researching of the top Republican legislative members. Also, get appointments ready now. (Grokked from Matt Staggs)
"The data, released on Wednesday by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), shows that 2018 was the fourth-hottest year since 1880, the earliest year for which reliable global temperature data is available." Waits for the climate change deniers to start shouting, "See, it wasn't another record year, it's a hoax!" in 3… 2… 1… "The three hottest years on record were 2015, 2016 and 2017." We're boned.
"For the first time, China's Longjiang-2 satellite photographed the entirety of the Moon's far side and the Earth in a single shot, Popular Mechanics reports."
"Popular iPhone apps caught recording your screen without permission – here are the offenders." We have met Big Brother and he is us.
"The company’s decision to pull its current tip distribution policy follows reports that Instacart and DoorDash, a similar on-demand delivery app that hires contract workers to make deliveries, was using tips to fulfill workers’ wages instead of paying out the customers’ full tip separately." They say the policy was "misguided." I say heinous fuckery. I also think in some states that might actually be a criminal complaint.
"This week on Hidden Brain, we dive into (Psychiatrist Iain McGilchrist)'s research on how the left and right hemispheres shape our perceptions. Iain argues that differences in the brain — and Western society's preference for what one hemisphere has to offer — have had enormous effects on our lives." As they state in the opener, what most people know about the left/right brain divide is popular crap.
"The US government has decided to cut millions in security and military aid to Cameroon amid growing concerns over the Cameroonian government's human rights record, US officials tell CNN."
"U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials on Wednesday described a multi-pronged strategy for tightening the southern border with Mexico that did not focus mainly on a massive wall President Donald Trump demands, according to lawmakers who attended a classified briefing." They were also "brief" on terrorists coming over the southern border, but offered no numbers or actual details.
"Paul Erickson, the American political operative and boyfriend of admitted Russian agent Maria Butina, has been indicted by a federal grand jury in South Dakota on charges of wire fraud and money laundering." This concert a chain of assisted living home he ran.
"The probe is in response to a request by Sen. Ben Sasse, a Nebraska Republican and member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who was critical of the case following a series of stories in the Miami Herald. The Herald articles detailed how Acosta, then the U.S. attorney for Southern Florida, and other DOJ attorneys worked hand-in-hand with defense lawyers to cut a lenient plea deal with multimillionaire Jeffrey Epstein in 2008."
"Virginia's Democratic Attorney General Mark Herring said in a statement Wednesday that he wore blackface at a college party in 1980, amid a deepening scandal in Richmond after the discovery last week of a racist photo on Gov. Ralph Northam's medical school yearbook page and his subsequent admission that he wore blackface in 1984." Self-inflicted wounds, but that doesn't mean it's any less of a political power grab. Dear Democrats, I suggest opposition researching of the top Republican legislative members. Also, get appointments ready now. (Grokked from Matt Staggs)
Wednesday, February 6, 2019
Linkee-poo Wednesday
"Fox, apoplectic over its own polling showing wide public support for @AOC and @ewarren's wealth tax proposals, literally blames the fact that schools teach kids to be fair…" You can't make this shit up. I'm guessing the commentator continued on to say something about how that idea of fairness is now being twisted or some such nonsense, but, yeah, not a sterling argument there. (Grokked from Tobias Buckell)
"Jarrod Bruder, the executive director of the South Carolina Sheriff’s Association who frequently lobbies for law enforcement interests at the Statehouse, said that without the incentive of profit from civil forfeiture, officers probably wouldn’t pursue drug dealers and their cash as hard as they do now… If police don’t get to keep the money from forfeiture, 'what is the incentive to go out and make a special effort?' Bruder said. 'What is the incentive for interdiction?'" If one of my officers had said such a thing, they'd have been kicked out so fast there would have been an audible thunderclap. Also, this is exactly the reason why this law is being abused. (Grokked from Annalee Flower Horne)
Hey, remember how we couldn't really fault Saudi Arabia (and MSB) because of those large arms deals. Hold my beer. "Saudi Arabia and its coalition gave al Qaeda, Salafi militias and other factions in Yemen weapons that were produced by the United States, CNN reported Monday." This is my shocked face. (Grokked from Jim Wright)
"Under the company's current business model, 90 percent of funds are paid directly to content creators. Patreon takes 5 percent, and the remaining 5 percent covers transaction fees… Patreon CEO Jack Conte said in an interview with CNBC that the platform will soon be facing the challenge of maintaining a profitable model as the company continues its growth." The investors are growing impatient with getting their ROI. Also, in general, a 5% profit margin (not fully 5% as they have to cover costs, and it's not actually their money, we'd have to know what their expenses are compared to revenues to get an actual profit margin), while once considered respectable and workable is no longer enough. Now they want a piece of your action (or at least that's the implication). Look, Patreon, you're a good service. But you are not funding the art created by people who use your platform. All those people who send money through your service do. You're the middle-man, and you take your slice for both the convenience and for providing the platform. And even if you did directly fund this art, I think if you tried to enforce a "work-for-hire" dichotomy on your business model you will be relegated to the dustbin of the internet (see other companies that tried this, or maybe you can't because they're all gone or reconsidered as they also faced obscurity). (Grokked from Chuck Wendig)
"Pope Francis, for the first time, acknowledged the sexual abuse of nuns by priests and bishops, including a case in which some clergy used women as sex slaves. He said on Tuesday that he is committed to ending the problem in the Roman Catholic Church." Just gonna mention that we're now well into the 3rd decade of the child abuse scandals in the church and it's still a problem. So I'm not holding my breath here. We should also note, I don't think they can blame this on gay priests.
Yes, Northam needs to resign. As I said, there was one path he could have taken, and he failed. But I'll also note republicans are also going after the lt. governor, so this now has the taint of a partisan power grab. Also, "Virginia and national Republicans have joined the bipartisan chorus demanding the resignation of Virginia’s Democratic governor. But many of the same people now decrying his racist behavior have done little to nothing to impede racists in their own party or to fight against legal discrimination." The GOP would have a better case to argue, except for their own issues with racism. And nobody needed to go farther than reading the current news to find those examples.
"'There's been a pattern,' Eastern Virginia Medical School President and Provost Richard V. Homan said on Tuesday. 'Some are repugnant. Some are unprofessional. Some are shockingly abhorrent, like I mentioned.'… Homan said when he was informed about inappropriate images in the 2013 yearbook, he decided to discontinue the yearbooks. None have been made since that year." Stopping the year books was not the solution. It isn't the year book's fault. "Former Virginia Attorney General Richard Cullen will lead a third-party investigation to examine past yearbooks and to look into the culture of the medical school, the school said." And do what, exactly? Write a report? That'll solve the problem. Not. There are actions the school can take, meaningful steps, education that should have been happening already (especially given the well documented disparities in medical treatment minority populations receive), and concrete goals. Having doubled their African-American student population is fantastic. That it's now 20% isn't exactly a ringing endorsement (although depending on how you count these things, it's above the average population percentage). Now the question is how well are those students treated by the faculty and other students.
"The Taliban official who has led the group's peace negotiations with the US has told the BBC the insurgents do not want to seize 'the whole country by [military] power'." It's a kinder, gentler Taliban. And they only want a little bit, like 80%. Yeah, I don't buy it either.
"New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Tuesday night ordered the state’s National Guard to withdraw most of its troops assigned to the southern border, rejecting the contention that 'an overwhelming national security crisis' exists."
"'The U.S. economy is growing almost twice as fast today as when I took office, and we are considered far and away the hottest economy anywhere in the world.'… This is false." Fact checking the president. Obviously not all of his statements. That really would be tl/dr.
"Jarrod Bruder, the executive director of the South Carolina Sheriff’s Association who frequently lobbies for law enforcement interests at the Statehouse, said that without the incentive of profit from civil forfeiture, officers probably wouldn’t pursue drug dealers and their cash as hard as they do now… If police don’t get to keep the money from forfeiture, 'what is the incentive to go out and make a special effort?' Bruder said. 'What is the incentive for interdiction?'" If one of my officers had said such a thing, they'd have been kicked out so fast there would have been an audible thunderclap. Also, this is exactly the reason why this law is being abused. (Grokked from Annalee Flower Horne)
Hey, remember how we couldn't really fault Saudi Arabia (and MSB) because of those large arms deals. Hold my beer. "Saudi Arabia and its coalition gave al Qaeda, Salafi militias and other factions in Yemen weapons that were produced by the United States, CNN reported Monday." This is my shocked face. (Grokked from Jim Wright)
"Under the company's current business model, 90 percent of funds are paid directly to content creators. Patreon takes 5 percent, and the remaining 5 percent covers transaction fees… Patreon CEO Jack Conte said in an interview with CNBC that the platform will soon be facing the challenge of maintaining a profitable model as the company continues its growth." The investors are growing impatient with getting their ROI. Also, in general, a 5% profit margin (not fully 5% as they have to cover costs, and it's not actually their money, we'd have to know what their expenses are compared to revenues to get an actual profit margin), while once considered respectable and workable is no longer enough. Now they want a piece of your action (or at least that's the implication). Look, Patreon, you're a good service. But you are not funding the art created by people who use your platform. All those people who send money through your service do. You're the middle-man, and you take your slice for both the convenience and for providing the platform. And even if you did directly fund this art, I think if you tried to enforce a "work-for-hire" dichotomy on your business model you will be relegated to the dustbin of the internet (see other companies that tried this, or maybe you can't because they're all gone or reconsidered as they also faced obscurity). (Grokked from Chuck Wendig)
"Pope Francis, for the first time, acknowledged the sexual abuse of nuns by priests and bishops, including a case in which some clergy used women as sex slaves. He said on Tuesday that he is committed to ending the problem in the Roman Catholic Church." Just gonna mention that we're now well into the 3rd decade of the child abuse scandals in the church and it's still a problem. So I'm not holding my breath here. We should also note, I don't think they can blame this on gay priests.
Yes, Northam needs to resign. As I said, there was one path he could have taken, and he failed. But I'll also note republicans are also going after the lt. governor, so this now has the taint of a partisan power grab. Also, "Virginia and national Republicans have joined the bipartisan chorus demanding the resignation of Virginia’s Democratic governor. But many of the same people now decrying his racist behavior have done little to nothing to impede racists in their own party or to fight against legal discrimination." The GOP would have a better case to argue, except for their own issues with racism. And nobody needed to go farther than reading the current news to find those examples.
"'There's been a pattern,' Eastern Virginia Medical School President and Provost Richard V. Homan said on Tuesday. 'Some are repugnant. Some are unprofessional. Some are shockingly abhorrent, like I mentioned.'… Homan said when he was informed about inappropriate images in the 2013 yearbook, he decided to discontinue the yearbooks. None have been made since that year." Stopping the year books was not the solution. It isn't the year book's fault. "Former Virginia Attorney General Richard Cullen will lead a third-party investigation to examine past yearbooks and to look into the culture of the medical school, the school said." And do what, exactly? Write a report? That'll solve the problem. Not. There are actions the school can take, meaningful steps, education that should have been happening already (especially given the well documented disparities in medical treatment minority populations receive), and concrete goals. Having doubled their African-American student population is fantastic. That it's now 20% isn't exactly a ringing endorsement (although depending on how you count these things, it's above the average population percentage). Now the question is how well are those students treated by the faculty and other students.
"The Taliban official who has led the group's peace negotiations with the US has told the BBC the insurgents do not want to seize 'the whole country by [military] power'." It's a kinder, gentler Taliban. And they only want a little bit, like 80%. Yeah, I don't buy it either.
"New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Tuesday night ordered the state’s National Guard to withdraw most of its troops assigned to the southern border, rejecting the contention that 'an overwhelming national security crisis' exists."
"'The U.S. economy is growing almost twice as fast today as when I took office, and we are considered far and away the hottest economy anywhere in the world.'… This is false." Fact checking the president. Obviously not all of his statements. That really would be tl/dr.
Tuesday, February 5, 2019
Letters to a Young Creative
And as with any advice, YMMV. Nobody has the "One True Path to Success." Those who say they do are trying to sell you the book they wrote about it.
So there's another piece of writing (or creative life) advice that's making the rounds again and I think we need to talk about it. That piece of is, "You've gotta jump off the cliff and build your wings on the way down." And it's being misquoted, so let's start there. The full quote is…
Now I like Ray Bradbury, and yes I know at the end of his life he got a little too right-wing for people at attempted to claim copyright over his title Fahrenheit 451, mostly because he disagreed with a certain filmmaker who used its concept and power to get attention. Yes, yes, yes, but I still like Bradbury, both his writing and what he contributed to the genre.
Let me start with what he means here. There comes a time with every endeavor that you have to take risks to gain anything worthwhile. You can always find a reason not to do something, not to take the chance. Not to make that jump. You aren't ready, you may fail, you don't know what will happen. What he's saying is screw all that, walk up to the cliff, take the risk and figure it out because somethings you learn by doing. This is a corollary to carpe diem. Notice how he's saying "all the time." There isn't just one cliff.
However we live in the age of EXTREMES and this phrase has come to mean something else entirely. All or nothing. Because many people have a fucked up view of life and must "live on the edge" and all that other shit, this is now considered to mean, "To get anything, you gotta leave everything you have, risk it all, and just jump."
Well, I'm standing at the base of that cliff and let me tell you there's a hellofalotata graves down here. Some of them, actually many of them, are literal. These people didn't figure out how to build their wings or forgot that they needed to bring materials to build wings with or even have some concept of physics and aeronautics that allowed them to make wings that would work. Some of them face planted and never got up. Some of them found the journey too tough and because of this ideal of "all or nothing" chose the latter and killed themselves because they didn't have success as soon as they thought they should. I'm serious here, that "give it all up and jump" concept is a killer.
We won't talk about the mass graves of dead dreams that are down here too. Because, damn, call the UN we have a crime against humanity.
So let me tell you about my life. I'm a moderately successful designer, I make a good living. There were two opportunities that would have involved giving up almost everything in my life to take a grab at the gold ring. And it might just be the allure of the road not taken, but they would have been great. I had invites, so it wasn't a total blind leap. I didn't take those for various reasons (most of which is I wouldn't have been gambling with my own life and I do know how tough it is to build your way up from nothing because I did). However I have taken about six moderate gambles like this in my life (probably more if I think about it, but here I'm talking about working as a creative). Times when I didn't know if I could do something, or if I would survive. At this point I'm batting 500.
I have had two "dream" jobs at really "great" design firms. Both of those crapped out for various reasons (one was because they were insane, the other because they were jealous). Am I doing the highest-end design work, grabbing those great clients (lots of money and a willingness to experiment), and landing in the awards? No. But I make well above the average in my market and I am worth it. I have a second job I love (that was another leap moment, that one worked, mostly). I am successful for various definitions of successful. And for the most part I enjoy the work I am doing.
But I also look at the smoking holes that were those 3 leaps where I face planted. Those things guide my decisions. How could they not?
There are people in the creative field who will tell you that you have to give everything up to do "art." I was told to my face that I might need to divorce my wife to get ahead (look at that crater smoke, will ya, maybe that was my "mistake" with that one, but I'm more than okay with that decision). That you should give up sleep, give up money, give up food (starving artist anyone?), give everything to be the "artist." Let me tell you, every single person peddling that narrative is out to rob you of your creativity, your money, or your life.
That doesn't mean you won't need to sacrifice things. You might not go out as often as you want. Sometime you have to make less temporarily to make more in the long run. And being a creative means being on the outside, even among friends (but it helps to find friends who understand what being creative means and how it warps your perception of the world). It means spending on equipment or training you need instead of a nice vacation. It means delayed gratification. It means knowing what is important to you, and what can be jettisoned without diminishment.
But I'll tell you something, that's life. Few people make it through life without those things, unless you start from a position of abundance. Scratch anyone who has "made it" and you'll find the scars of their sacrifices. Some are greater than others. Some are deeper wounds than others.
But I wanted to tell you that being a creative is not a "Cake or Death" decision. While you can't have it all, you also don't need to abandon the things you love. Life is hardly ever an all or nothing prospect. The fire of this creative life will change you, temper you, make you stronger. But it will also burn the dross away. Don't cling to it.
Cliffs come in all sizes and heights. You can choose your cliff. And you don't have to leave everything behind, you need something to build those wings out of anyway. Don't allow people to separate you from your world, from yourself, from people you love. But do take risks when you can. Don't be afraid to do things that scare you. Don't be afraid that you don't know everything.
You don't have to quit the day job.
So there's another piece of writing (or creative life) advice that's making the rounds again and I think we need to talk about it. That piece of is, "You've gotta jump off the cliff and build your wings on the way down." And it's being misquoted, so let's start there. The full quote is…
“If we listened to our intellect we'd never have a love affair. We'd never have a friendship. We'd never go in business because we'd be cynical: 'It's gonna go wrong.' Or "She's going to hurt me.' Or,'I've had a couple of bad love affairs, so therefore…' Well, that's nonsense. You're going to miss life. You've got to jump off the cliff all the time and build your wings on the way down."
― Ray Bradbury
Now I like Ray Bradbury, and yes I know at the end of his life he got a little too right-wing for people at attempted to claim copyright over his title Fahrenheit 451, mostly because he disagreed with a certain filmmaker who used its concept and power to get attention. Yes, yes, yes, but I still like Bradbury, both his writing and what he contributed to the genre.
Let me start with what he means here. There comes a time with every endeavor that you have to take risks to gain anything worthwhile. You can always find a reason not to do something, not to take the chance. Not to make that jump. You aren't ready, you may fail, you don't know what will happen. What he's saying is screw all that, walk up to the cliff, take the risk and figure it out because somethings you learn by doing. This is a corollary to carpe diem. Notice how he's saying "all the time." There isn't just one cliff.
However we live in the age of EXTREMES and this phrase has come to mean something else entirely. All or nothing. Because many people have a fucked up view of life and must "live on the edge" and all that other shit, this is now considered to mean, "To get anything, you gotta leave everything you have, risk it all, and just jump."
Well, I'm standing at the base of that cliff and let me tell you there's a hellofalotata graves down here. Some of them, actually many of them, are literal. These people didn't figure out how to build their wings or forgot that they needed to bring materials to build wings with or even have some concept of physics and aeronautics that allowed them to make wings that would work. Some of them face planted and never got up. Some of them found the journey too tough and because of this ideal of "all or nothing" chose the latter and killed themselves because they didn't have success as soon as they thought they should. I'm serious here, that "give it all up and jump" concept is a killer.
We won't talk about the mass graves of dead dreams that are down here too. Because, damn, call the UN we have a crime against humanity.
So let me tell you about my life. I'm a moderately successful designer, I make a good living. There were two opportunities that would have involved giving up almost everything in my life to take a grab at the gold ring. And it might just be the allure of the road not taken, but they would have been great. I had invites, so it wasn't a total blind leap. I didn't take those for various reasons (most of which is I wouldn't have been gambling with my own life and I do know how tough it is to build your way up from nothing because I did). However I have taken about six moderate gambles like this in my life (probably more if I think about it, but here I'm talking about working as a creative). Times when I didn't know if I could do something, or if I would survive. At this point I'm batting 500.
I have had two "dream" jobs at really "great" design firms. Both of those crapped out for various reasons (one was because they were insane, the other because they were jealous). Am I doing the highest-end design work, grabbing those great clients (lots of money and a willingness to experiment), and landing in the awards? No. But I make well above the average in my market and I am worth it. I have a second job I love (that was another leap moment, that one worked, mostly). I am successful for various definitions of successful. And for the most part I enjoy the work I am doing.
But I also look at the smoking holes that were those 3 leaps where I face planted. Those things guide my decisions. How could they not?
There are people in the creative field who will tell you that you have to give everything up to do "art." I was told to my face that I might need to divorce my wife to get ahead (look at that crater smoke, will ya, maybe that was my "mistake" with that one, but I'm more than okay with that decision). That you should give up sleep, give up money, give up food (starving artist anyone?), give everything to be the "artist." Let me tell you, every single person peddling that narrative is out to rob you of your creativity, your money, or your life.
That doesn't mean you won't need to sacrifice things. You might not go out as often as you want. Sometime you have to make less temporarily to make more in the long run. And being a creative means being on the outside, even among friends (but it helps to find friends who understand what being creative means and how it warps your perception of the world). It means spending on equipment or training you need instead of a nice vacation. It means delayed gratification. It means knowing what is important to you, and what can be jettisoned without diminishment.
But I'll tell you something, that's life. Few people make it through life without those things, unless you start from a position of abundance. Scratch anyone who has "made it" and you'll find the scars of their sacrifices. Some are greater than others. Some are deeper wounds than others.
But I wanted to tell you that being a creative is not a "Cake or Death" decision. While you can't have it all, you also don't need to abandon the things you love. Life is hardly ever an all or nothing prospect. The fire of this creative life will change you, temper you, make you stronger. But it will also burn the dross away. Don't cling to it.
Cliffs come in all sizes and heights. You can choose your cliff. And you don't have to leave everything behind, you need something to build those wings out of anyway. Don't allow people to separate you from your world, from yourself, from people you love. But do take risks when you can. Don't be afraid to do things that scare you. Don't be afraid that you don't know everything.
You don't have to quit the day job.
Linkee-poo on a warm Tuesday
"Watch Juno zoom past Jupiter again. NASA's robotic spacecraft Juno is continuing on its 53-day, highly-elongated orbits around our Solar System's largest planet. The featured video is from perijove 16, the sixteenth time that Juno has passed near Jupiter since it arrived in mid-2016." (Grokked from Mary Robinette Kowal)
We've been lied to. "Scientists have known since the 1950s that the spiral-shaped Milky Way’s disk is warped, bending by thousands of light-years at its outskirts. Now, researchers have created a map of stars called Cepheid variables in order to create a 3D map of our galaxy and understand the warping better than ever."
"Climate change is causing significant changes to phytoplankton in the world's oceans, and a new MIT study finds that over the coming decades these changes will affect the ocean's color, intensifying its blue regions and its green ones. Satellites should detect these changes in hue, providing early warning of wide-scale changes to marine ecosystems."
"That sustainability dream is today one step closer to becoming a reality thanks to Polish physicist and businesswoman Olga Malinkiewicz… (She) has developed a novel inkjet processing method for perovskites — minerals for a new generation of cheaper solar cells — that makes it possible to produce solar panels under lower temperatures, thus sharply reducing costs." Mostly it's one of those, "don't you want to be an investor" articles. But still, inkjet-able (industrial inkjets spitting chemicals, which is more akin to a 3D printer) solar panels. (Grokked from John)
"More recently, researchers have published randomized controlled trials that can better pinpoint the effects that eating or skipping breakfast have on weight loss. In these studies, participants are assigned to eating breakfast or skipping, then compared to each other. Since the only difference between the two groups is whether they ate breakfast or not, it’s easier to tell if an early meal caused a difference in health outcomes… The largest such trial to date, published in 2014, followed 300 people who were trying to slim down for 16 weeks. The researchers found that eating breakfast had no effect on weight loss during this period." One, 300 people is a small sample, and 16 weeks isn't sufficient time. But, yes, most medical research like this is really piss poor science and the researchers invariably rely on inference rather than data in their (public facing) results. A change in one meal doesn't a healthy-life make. Also note the researchers didn't track what the people ate. But here's the thing, when you wake up (and go to sleep) you get a spike of cortisol. Cortisol (among other things) triggers your cells to take in glucose (sugar, see earlier discussion about the shape and form of sugar and its importance to the body). However, if there isn't enough glucose available, this cortisol spike will strip your lean muscle of protein to convert to glucose instead of stripping fat for glucose. So if you don't have something for breakfast, you are losing muscle mass (and as we get older, that's harder to replace). But processed foods are bad for you (and please note that except for the Quaker Oats, all the other foods they highlight in the chart are all highly processed foods), try the complex carbs from fruits and maybe some protein. All in moderation (don't eat a steak for breakfast). (Grokked from Chuck Wendig)
"In legal papers released in unredacted form on Thursday, the Massachusetts attorney general said McKinsey had helped the maker of OxyContin fan the flames of the opioid epidemic. McKinsey’s consultants, the attorney general revealed, had instructed the drug company, Purdue Pharma, on how to 'turbocharge' sales of OxyContin, how to counter efforts by drug enforcement agents to reduce opioid use, and were part of a team that looked at how 'to counter the emotional messages from mothers with teenagers that overdosed' on the drug." Ah that unfettered capitalism. Celebrate that in your libertarian business schools. (Grokked from Xeni Jardin)
Why are judgeships important? "Can children aged 13 and 14 years old be the aggressors in a sexual encounter with a 67-year-old man?… A Leavenworth County judge recently said he thought so when he reduced the prison sentence for a man who paid for sex with young girls he solicited over the internet." It's more than Roe v Wade, it's about our national character and a respect for the facts and the law. And in case you're wondering where I come down in this case (and I now this won't happen and it totally illegal to suggest) I think both the defendant and the judge should die in a fire, and if you need someone to light it, all I ask for is airfare and expenses. (Grokked from Stewart Sternberg)
"Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes sued the U.S. Southern Poverty Law Center on Monday for defamation after it labeled his organization a hate group, alleging the designation was aimed at getting him kicked off social media platforms." Ah the last act before obscurity (at least if we're lucky), claiming all those do-gooders were out to get ya.
How goes Brexit? "Brexit Britain is an object lesson in how a modern nation fails. It's the last act in a familiar unhappy marriage plot, with ruthless neoliberal economic orthodoxy wedded to the genteel thuggery of old-school conservative entitlement, combining to create something so much weirder, and so much worse, that the result can collapse an entire culture."? Well, someone is willing to have that uncomfortable conversation. Doubt the rest of the country, least of all the conservative politicians want to have it (because they'd have to accept the blame for selling out their country). "We could stop this train if we wanted to. All it would take is for Parliament to turn around and admit that it got it wrong, and face the consequences at the polls…" So that ain't gonna happen. And then, "… But if Europe lets us leave, member states will feel the knock-on financial effects—and it will set a dangerous precedent that could lead to the break-up of the already fragile European bloc. At which point, the only person who goes home happy is Russian President Vladimir Putin." Ta-da! But not try and read the article without making comparisons to our own conservative movement here in the US. (Grokked from Chuck Wendig)
"But for some Republicans, the controversy holds additional context. First and foremost, they argue that the photograph shows Northam and his allies’ claims that his Republican gubernatorial opponent, Ed Gillespie, was running “the most racist campaign in Virginia history” was merely cheap politicking." GOP saying, "See, they're just as racist" probably isn't the best political strategy here, but you do you.
"President Trump has spent about 60 percent of his time over the past three months in 'Executive Time,' according to leaked schedules obtained by Axios… A source told Axios that Trump typically spends the first five hours of his day in his residency. There he is understood to be watching television, reading newspapers and making phone calls to aides, lawmakers, friends, advisers and administration officials."
"After days of protest and growing outrage, inmates housed at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York, have had power restored." Our status as third-world nation continues to be developed. Note that most of the people in this jail are waiting trial.
"Iraqi President Barham Salih on Monday said President Trump didn't ask permission to leave U.S. troops in Iraq to monitor Iran." Can't wait for the president to get schooled in the fact that some countries really don't want us there.
"Federal prosecutors have issued a subpoena for documents from President Donald Trump's inaugural committee, a representative of the committee said Monday night." Insert ominous music here.
"President Trump's second State of the Union address will be delivered Tuesday night before a joint session of Congress with all the usual pomp and circumstance. But the political backdrop is unusual, coming in the aftermath of the longest partial government shutdown in U.S. history and on the eve of what could be another vicious fight or even another shutdown." Much has been promised, my bet is little will be delivered. Unless I'm extremely bored or need to stay up, I'm gonna skip and wait for the highlight reel. Listening to this president speak live is more infuriating than listening to GW Bush speak. Not so much for their political stance, but their inability to be clear and concise (and grammatical). And they both peg the bullshit meter right away and I don't have time for that.
"As Powell has also pointed out, there is nothing unusual about a Fed chair meeting with the president." Chairman Powell isn't much concerned, because the adults he usually deals with wouldn't imply their meeting supported their views of which they are about to spew all over us in the SOTU address. I expect Trump to say something to the effect of the people who "know" think he's doing a wonderful job on the economy, implying it was the Chairman.
We've been lied to. "Scientists have known since the 1950s that the spiral-shaped Milky Way’s disk is warped, bending by thousands of light-years at its outskirts. Now, researchers have created a map of stars called Cepheid variables in order to create a 3D map of our galaxy and understand the warping better than ever."
"Climate change is causing significant changes to phytoplankton in the world's oceans, and a new MIT study finds that over the coming decades these changes will affect the ocean's color, intensifying its blue regions and its green ones. Satellites should detect these changes in hue, providing early warning of wide-scale changes to marine ecosystems."
"That sustainability dream is today one step closer to becoming a reality thanks to Polish physicist and businesswoman Olga Malinkiewicz… (She) has developed a novel inkjet processing method for perovskites — minerals for a new generation of cheaper solar cells — that makes it possible to produce solar panels under lower temperatures, thus sharply reducing costs." Mostly it's one of those, "don't you want to be an investor" articles. But still, inkjet-able (industrial inkjets spitting chemicals, which is more akin to a 3D printer) solar panels. (Grokked from John)
"More recently, researchers have published randomized controlled trials that can better pinpoint the effects that eating or skipping breakfast have on weight loss. In these studies, participants are assigned to eating breakfast or skipping, then compared to each other. Since the only difference between the two groups is whether they ate breakfast or not, it’s easier to tell if an early meal caused a difference in health outcomes… The largest such trial to date, published in 2014, followed 300 people who were trying to slim down for 16 weeks. The researchers found that eating breakfast had no effect on weight loss during this period." One, 300 people is a small sample, and 16 weeks isn't sufficient time. But, yes, most medical research like this is really piss poor science and the researchers invariably rely on inference rather than data in their (public facing) results. A change in one meal doesn't a healthy-life make. Also note the researchers didn't track what the people ate. But here's the thing, when you wake up (and go to sleep) you get a spike of cortisol. Cortisol (among other things) triggers your cells to take in glucose (sugar, see earlier discussion about the shape and form of sugar and its importance to the body). However, if there isn't enough glucose available, this cortisol spike will strip your lean muscle of protein to convert to glucose instead of stripping fat for glucose. So if you don't have something for breakfast, you are losing muscle mass (and as we get older, that's harder to replace). But processed foods are bad for you (and please note that except for the Quaker Oats, all the other foods they highlight in the chart are all highly processed foods), try the complex carbs from fruits and maybe some protein. All in moderation (don't eat a steak for breakfast). (Grokked from Chuck Wendig)
"In legal papers released in unredacted form on Thursday, the Massachusetts attorney general said McKinsey had helped the maker of OxyContin fan the flames of the opioid epidemic. McKinsey’s consultants, the attorney general revealed, had instructed the drug company, Purdue Pharma, on how to 'turbocharge' sales of OxyContin, how to counter efforts by drug enforcement agents to reduce opioid use, and were part of a team that looked at how 'to counter the emotional messages from mothers with teenagers that overdosed' on the drug." Ah that unfettered capitalism. Celebrate that in your libertarian business schools. (Grokked from Xeni Jardin)
Why are judgeships important? "Can children aged 13 and 14 years old be the aggressors in a sexual encounter with a 67-year-old man?… A Leavenworth County judge recently said he thought so when he reduced the prison sentence for a man who paid for sex with young girls he solicited over the internet." It's more than Roe v Wade, it's about our national character and a respect for the facts and the law. And in case you're wondering where I come down in this case (and I now this won't happen and it totally illegal to suggest) I think both the defendant and the judge should die in a fire, and if you need someone to light it, all I ask for is airfare and expenses. (Grokked from Stewart Sternberg)
"Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes sued the U.S. Southern Poverty Law Center on Monday for defamation after it labeled his organization a hate group, alleging the designation was aimed at getting him kicked off social media platforms." Ah the last act before obscurity (at least if we're lucky), claiming all those do-gooders were out to get ya.
How goes Brexit? "Brexit Britain is an object lesson in how a modern nation fails. It's the last act in a familiar unhappy marriage plot, with ruthless neoliberal economic orthodoxy wedded to the genteel thuggery of old-school conservative entitlement, combining to create something so much weirder, and so much worse, that the result can collapse an entire culture."? Well, someone is willing to have that uncomfortable conversation. Doubt the rest of the country, least of all the conservative politicians want to have it (because they'd have to accept the blame for selling out their country). "We could stop this train if we wanted to. All it would take is for Parliament to turn around and admit that it got it wrong, and face the consequences at the polls…" So that ain't gonna happen. And then, "… But if Europe lets us leave, member states will feel the knock-on financial effects—and it will set a dangerous precedent that could lead to the break-up of the already fragile European bloc. At which point, the only person who goes home happy is Russian President Vladimir Putin." Ta-da! But not try and read the article without making comparisons to our own conservative movement here in the US. (Grokked from Chuck Wendig)
"But for some Republicans, the controversy holds additional context. First and foremost, they argue that the photograph shows Northam and his allies’ claims that his Republican gubernatorial opponent, Ed Gillespie, was running “the most racist campaign in Virginia history” was merely cheap politicking." GOP saying, "See, they're just as racist" probably isn't the best political strategy here, but you do you.
"President Trump has spent about 60 percent of his time over the past three months in 'Executive Time,' according to leaked schedules obtained by Axios… A source told Axios that Trump typically spends the first five hours of his day in his residency. There he is understood to be watching television, reading newspapers and making phone calls to aides, lawmakers, friends, advisers and administration officials."
"After days of protest and growing outrage, inmates housed at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York, have had power restored." Our status as third-world nation continues to be developed. Note that most of the people in this jail are waiting trial.
"Iraqi President Barham Salih on Monday said President Trump didn't ask permission to leave U.S. troops in Iraq to monitor Iran." Can't wait for the president to get schooled in the fact that some countries really don't want us there.
"Federal prosecutors have issued a subpoena for documents from President Donald Trump's inaugural committee, a representative of the committee said Monday night." Insert ominous music here.
"President Trump's second State of the Union address will be delivered Tuesday night before a joint session of Congress with all the usual pomp and circumstance. But the political backdrop is unusual, coming in the aftermath of the longest partial government shutdown in U.S. history and on the eve of what could be another vicious fight or even another shutdown." Much has been promised, my bet is little will be delivered. Unless I'm extremely bored or need to stay up, I'm gonna skip and wait for the highlight reel. Listening to this president speak live is more infuriating than listening to GW Bush speak. Not so much for their political stance, but their inability to be clear and concise (and grammatical). And they both peg the bullshit meter right away and I don't have time for that.
"As Powell has also pointed out, there is nothing unusual about a Fed chair meeting with the president." Chairman Powell isn't much concerned, because the adults he usually deals with wouldn't imply their meeting supported their views of which they are about to spew all over us in the SOTU address. I expect Trump to say something to the effect of the people who "know" think he's doing a wonderful job on the economy, implying it was the Chairman.
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