6.18.2016

Just a little sloppy on the wheels there…the white is painted on…but…


…big fat white sidewalls like that were probably an original option on this Ford truck built the year I was a junior in high school (and that was a long time ago). Note the air scoop under the windshield, which is as close as automotive engineering had come to air conditioning in 1954. I didn't ask what kind of mileage it gets with its original straight-6 engine, but the gasoline it ran on it's first year cost 25 cents per gallon.

I told you it was old.

It's the thought that counts

Lawmaker wants the rich to be drug tested before receiving high-dollar tax deductions

"Rep. Gwen Moore, D-Wis., unveiled Thursday the Top 1% Accountability Act, which would require those claiming itemized deductions of more than $150,000 on their tax returns to submit to drug tests or file for less generous tax deductions."

6.17.2016

All the graduation speech you need, right here

Pay no attention to the woman behind the curtain

How ‘Citizens United’ is helping Hillary Clinton win the White House | Center for Public Integrity

"Clinton’s massive campaign machine is built of the very stuff — super PACs, secret cash, unlimited contributions — she says she’ll attack upon winning the White House."

But not the kind of deviants you might think

Mr. Modi, Don't Patent Cow Urine - The New York Times

"A recent Plos One study found that about 36 percent of all new drugs approved in the United States between 1988 and 2005 were protected solely by secondary, or trivial, patents.

"This, being precisely what Indian law prohibits, has made India a fixture of the 'Priority Watch List' of the U.S. Trade Representative’s Special 301 Report, a kind of most-wanted roster of the world’s intellectual-property deviants."

Solitaire must be wearing off

I thought you might like this story from The Washington Post

Microsoft becomes the first big tech company to get into the legal weed industry
A big name join the pot industry.

https://goo.gl/gUACvd


iPhoned 

Probably not a bad idea there, Disney

From The Washington Post:

Disney will begin posting alligator warning signs after boy's death
"We have closed all of our beaches and have made a decision to add signage," said a company spokeswoman.

https://goo.gl/biQAOg


iPhoned 

6.16.2016

The Economist calls potholes "instant duck ponds"

The hole story | The Economist
"The American Automobile Association recently calculated that 16m drivers in the United States suffered pothole damage to their vehicles in the past five years. That damage ranged from punctures, via bent wheels, to broken suspensions. The bill to fix it was about $3 billion a year. "
A quack team of scientists in Duluth might have a fix.

[Noted by our Pacific Rim Bureau.]


Civility blah blah

Google tips hat to gran whose polite search charmed the internet - CNET

 

What's wrong with politics in America

Trump Veers From Party Line on Gun Control - The New York Times

"Democrats were not counting on Mr. Trump’s support and almost seemed not to want it. They have been more than happy to associate him with the N.R.A., which Democrats view as the biggest obstacle to gun control."

6.15.2016

Even if it's fake (and I have no reason to think it is)…


it’s scary.

And you thought it was that old desktop you're using for a doorstop in the back bedroom

The world’s oldest computer is still revealing its secrets

"In its prime, about 2,100 years ago, the Antikythera (an-ti-KEE-thur-a) Mechanism was a complex, whirling, clockwork instrument comprising at least 30 bronze gears bearing thousands of interlocking tiny teeth."

Furthermore, and for extra credit, what is "decadent jewelry."

Sure, there's always a silver lining

What Russia's DNC Hack Tells Us About Hillary Clinton's Private Email Server - Forbes

"Despite the cause for concern, DNC officials are trying to soothe the public."

For one thing, the FBI can quit bugging Apple about iPhone encryption and just ask the Russians for help instead. And the Justice Department can just ask the Russians what was going on at clintonemail.com, give the FBI a break. 

What, no CUDDLY BEAR?

Bears in the Midst: Intrusion into the Democratic National Committee »

"CrowdStrike Services Inc., our Incident Response group, was called by the Democratic National Committee (DNC), the formal governing body for the US Democratic Party, to respond to a suspected breach. We deployed our IR team and technology and immediately identified two sophisticated adversaries on the network – COZY BEAR and FANCY BEAR."

6.14.2016

See? They should have used Hillary's basement

Democratic Party's computers breached by Russian hackers

"The newly revealed attacks join a host of high-profile digital breaches affecting current and past White House hopefuls, underscoring vulnerabilities in digital networks that increasingly hold sensitive data about political candidates, their opponents and their donors."

Also, just for the record, the DNC has seemingly known about this since April. April.

I walk…

…something around 1,400 miles per year so naturally I need to buy shoes now and then. From what I read, the shoes keep getting better all the time (memory foam! something else!) but—and I mean but—they can’t seem to resist doing weird stuff to the laces. It makes me nuts.

Oh no, they don’t just thread through holes any more, the laces. They go in and out through strange-shaped hooks and loops and clamps and who knows what where they get tangled, stuck, broken off, cut it out already. I just want holes.

Progress. Bah.

Numbers of note

Orlando less than half of those fatally shot in U.S. last weekend - NY Daily News

 

Orlando

The Orlando massacre and the crisis of humanism | Gay rights | Terrorism | USA | spiked

"The most striking thing about the reaction to Orlando is how speedily observers made it about themselves; how swiftly they marshalled this massacre to political ends, whether to the traditional political ends of promoting right or left agendas or to the ends of the new politics of identity and its obsession with cultivating narratives of victimhood."

6.12.2016

"Struggling" is for the little people

76 Million Americans Are Struggling Financially: And It Doesn't Matter A Darn - Forbes

"Thus the headlines going around telling us that 76 million are struggling. However, this is a rather unimportant number."

Not just for the Donald any more

Oh, the Irony: DNC Convention to be protected by 'no-scale' wall [VIDEO] - Red Alert Politics

"Yes, a fence — or wall, if you will — will be protecting the candidate who recently said, 'we build bridges, not walls.'"