Links for you. Science:
Was E-mail a Mistake?
About hogs, ferality, and race in American history.
What about the 30-50 feral hogs? Man’s defense of assault weapons goes viral
Tainted Pork, Ill Consumers and an Investigation Thwarted: Drug-resistant infections from food are growing. But powerful industry interests are blocking scientists and investigators from getting information they need to combat the problem.
A New Way to Fight Crop Diseases, With a Smartphone
Other:
Harry Reid to Dems: Kill the Filibuster to Tackle the Climate Crisis
Trump’s White Identity Politics Appeals to Two Different Groups (very good)
Racism is vital to Trumpism. Trump can’t condemn it without condemning himself. He always scapegoats the other. What happens when there’s no other to blame?
Tightening Nickel Supply Threatens Electric Vehicle Boom
Are the Democrats divided? No — they’re poised to win big if they don’t screw it up
Apollo Doth Protest Too Much: Our Leon Black-Jeff Epstein Post Elicits Intervention by Apollo’s Flack
I grew up a white nationalist. We never blamed ourselves for mass shootings like El Paso.
After HuffPost Investigation, 4 White Nationalists Out Of U.S. Military — But Others Allowed To Remain
Superior man believed he was acting on Trump’s orders in attacking boy for wearing hat during national anthem
The Destructive Politics of White Amnesia. Joe Biden set the stage for Donald Trump’s racial scapegoating. Why can’t he admit that he was wrong?
How to Force 8Chan, Reddit and Others to Clean Up
Residents of the Park 7 Apartments Have Been Waiting Months for Essential Fixes
How two college students tried to outfox the feds and get Trump’s tax returns
A Scene from “Operation Clean Sweep” in the South End: Crushed Wheelchairs
Liberals for Inequality
I can no longer justify being a part of Trump’s ‘Complacent State.’ So I’m resigning.
ICE Raids Miss. Plant After $3.75 Million Sexual Harassment Settlement
Did Russian Interference Affect the 2016 Election Results?
White House drafting executive order to tackle Silicon Valley’s alleged anti-conservative bias
The ‘warspeak’ permeating everyday language puts us all in the trenches
mikethemadbiologist
*** Was E-mail a Mistake? ***
Questions like this tend to irritate me. What If Gunpowder Had Not Been Invented? What If We Were Still Using Zeppelins For Air Transport?
It’s my personal tinfoil-hat theory email has been encouraged because it has zero security.
^^^ Sending a document via email is almost like writing it on the back of a postcard and popping it into the mailbox, to be read by every single person who handles it on its journey to its destination. When you click “send” on an email it gets sent through firewalls, ISPs, servers, virus checkers and even data harvesting bots. It is stored, saved, copied and forwarded multiple times without any form of encryption. This means that email can very easily become compromised and the important data within it can be read and downloaded by unscrupulous third parties.^^^
For snoopy employers (and governments) this is a great thing. Hardly any of the suckers seem to care – if they were the least bit concerned about privacy and security Facebook would be a small company pandering to a few hundred thousand blabbermouths.
*** What about the 30-50 feral hogs? Man’s defense of assault weapons goes viral ***
Lousy article. The authors pivot from a fellow worried (reasonably or not) about a swarm of feral pigs threatening his family to this:
^^^Does this mean Americans should have access to high-powered rifles to deal with the problem, as McNabb seems to suggest?
Wood says no. “If you go after them with a gun your chances of getting all of them at once are pretty much nil, even if there are only like 10 of them,” he says. ^^^
The self-protection theme is suddenly turned into one of the impossibility of killing the entire group of 30-40 feral hogs. This moronic abomination ought to have been squished by somebody at the Guardian – if there was anybody there with any sense. But then, that’s the same organization which went “whole hog” with the stupid Skripal story, so I shouldn’t be surprised.
*** Tainted Pork, Ill Consumers and an Investigation Thwarted: Drug-resistant infections from food are growing. But powerful industry interests are blocking scientists and investigators from getting information they need to combat the problem. ***
When I see this kind of half-assed article I first check on the credentials of the author. Matt Richtel is neither a newbie nor an idiot, so I’m tentatively assigning blame to the Neocon York Times. This piece has a laser-like focus on “weak, loophole-ridden laws and regulations — and ultimately blocked by farm owners who would not let investigators onto their property and by their politically powerful allies in the pork industry.” That’s fine, for those are genuine problems which a lot of lazy and corrupt congresscritters have allowed to develop. But there are other unmentioned factors.
^^^ …spit-roasted, as recommended, for 13 hours… ^^^
No mention at all about the temperature of that roasting. That matters because viruses and bacteria are destroyed at proper cooking temperatures. Was an accurate thermometer used, and if so, did the person using it know how? Was he/she one of the new breed of nuts wanting “rare” pork?
^^^ Some intrepid souls, in search of ever more tenderness and juiciness, might even dare for 135 F to 140 F. But even if you stick to 145 F, your pork is going to be lifetimes more tender, juicy and flavorful than you’ve ever tasted before. ^^^
Yes, All-American morons exist, and the Internet allows them to interact with others of their breed. Cook the filthy and germy US pork to 160, and use a thermometer you’ve personally calibrated – if you want to avoid a hospital bed with half-a-dozen IVs hooked to your body. Call the extra 15 degrees a personal safety factor.
*** Tightening Nickel Supply Threatens Electric Vehicle Boom ***
Total tunnel vision here. The author forgets there are several other types of batteries available for electric vehicles.
*** Did Russian Interference Affect the 2016 Election Results? ***
Despite the weak start, this turned out to be a decent article – until the professor decided to append an editorial opinion.
^^^ There are plenty of grounds for real concern here. Indeed, the Electoral College system used to choose the president almost invites efforts to interfere in the election. Whereas trying to affect the national popular vote results would probably be prohibitively expensive, efforts to target a few key swing states could be much more cost-effective and harder to detect. ^^^
Make that a Stupid editorial opinion, for the guy has it totally backwards. In the last election, the (legal) vote fraud in the single state of California would have changed the outcome of the election. The electoral college may be clunky, but it represents a firewall against massive and inexpensive and undetectable cheating from the no-verify touch-screen computer voting devices.