Time to wrap up against the cold.
Saturday, February 28, 2015
Afternoon Thread
You can find out who won the CPAC STRAW POLL elsewhere, if you care about that sort of thing which for some reason people do.
Nothing To See Here
I used to be bit more of optimist with respect to global climate change, seeing at as more disruptive and expensive than necessarily catastrophic. Welp..
By catastrophic I mean extreme weather events or disruptive change that happens so fast that adaption in the short run is essentially impossible at any price.
In just two years, 2009 and 2010, sea levels along the Atlantic coast north of New York City jumped up by more than 5 inches, according to a paper published this week in the journal Nature Communications. That might not seem like much on its own, but consider that, according to the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, global sea levels are rising at a rate of less than a half an inch each year, and that’s causing all sorts of havoc.
By catastrophic I mean extreme weather events or disruptive change that happens so fast that adaption in the short run is essentially impossible at any price.
Bomb Trains
We get a lot of these rolling through Philly every day. If something bad were to happen, it would be, well, bad.
Friday, February 27, 2015
Rise Of The Nerds
Various people have been making this point in various ways, but once upon a time nerd stuff - like Star Trek - was for nerds. Admitting you liked that stuff was begging for a wedgie. Even video games were, for a long time, nerd stuff. Now basically everything is nerd stuff, and we even understand that sports fandom is actually just a different kind of nerd stuff. Those football jerseys are just cosplay of another kind.
I'd guess the X-Files started making it cool, or at least not totally uncool, to like nerd stuff.
I'd guess the X-Files started making it cool, or at least not totally uncool, to like nerd stuff.
Eated
Haven't had a major bank failure (that I noticed) in awhile.
The FDIC estimates that the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) will be $748.9 million. Compared to other alternatives, Banco Popular's acquisition was the least costly resolution for the FDIC's DIF.
Larger Than Life
I haven't seen Birdman, but agree that all the 'oh no all the superhero movies what about Real Cinema' stuff is a bit weird. Literature, broadly defined, hasn't exactly shied away from fantastic tales throughout the ages.
I don't know about the mechanics of acting in one of these movies. Maybe all the stunt doubles and effects and green screen acting makes it a bit less fun. But who wouldn't want to play a wizard or a guy who can fly?
And the great thing about the contemporary age is that actors are much less likely to get stuck in those roles. Star Trek actors had a hard time finding more work. Christopher Reeve didn't have a great post-Superman career. Harrison Ford managed to break out of it, but that was kind of surprising at the time. Now you can play Gandalf and Magneto and still go on to do other things.
I don't know about the mechanics of acting in one of these movies. Maybe all the stunt doubles and effects and green screen acting makes it a bit less fun. But who wouldn't want to play a wizard or a guy who can fly?
And the great thing about the contemporary age is that actors are much less likely to get stuck in those roles. Star Trek actors had a hard time finding more work. Christopher Reeve didn't have a great post-Superman career. Harrison Ford managed to break out of it, but that was kind of surprising at the time. Now you can play Gandalf and Magneto and still go on to do other things.
The Weekly Frontrunner
I'm reminded of the last GOP primary season, when it seemed like every single candidate had their brief moment in the sun, suddenly surging in the polls to become the frontrunner, only to do or say something stupid and then open the door for the next person.
I think it's time for Trump.
I think it's time for Trump.
Morning Thread
Everybody always talks about the weather, but nobody is willing to do anything about it.
For instance, Senator Inhofe threw a a snowball on the Senate floor to prove that there is no global warming. He chairs the Environment and Public Works Committee.
It really is too early to start drinking.
For instance, Senator Inhofe threw a a snowball on the Senate floor to prove that there is no global warming. He chairs the Environment and Public Works Committee.
It really is too early to start drinking.
Thursday, February 26, 2015
What's The Frequency
Net neutrality is one of those issues abobut which I really can't tell if people are stupid or lying. I mean, I know some are lying. I did a net neutrality panel once and the lobbyist who was also on the panel was, you know, lying. And paid to lie. But random conservatives who aren't in on the grift seem to be opposed to net neutrality because arglebargle.
Shit Is Still Fucked Up And Bullshit
The people who are supposed to be in charge really need to tell the cops... it's over.
INFLATION WILL KILL US ALL
Or not.
Consumer prices in January fell on an annual basis for the first time since 2009 as cheap gasoline continued to suppress inflation.
The consumer price index declined 0.7% month-to-month after dropping 0.3% in December. Economists expected a 0.6% fall. Over the past 12 months, prices are down 0.1%, the first annual drop since October 2009.
Wednesday, February 25, 2015
Yelling At People Is Fun
Congrats to the press for playing along all this time.
Chris Christie isn't dumb enough to think Chris Christie could win the nomination/presidency.
A high-ranking Republican source has told PolitickerNJ that he expects New Jersey Governor Chris Christie will end his yet-to-be officially declared run for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination shortly after the New Hampshire presidential primary to take a TV commentator job.
The source, who requested anonymity, referred to what he called the “Huckabee Model” when assessing what Christie, if he ultimately joins the presidential race, could do after the January 2016 Granite State primary.
Chris Christie isn't dumb enough to think Chris Christie could win the nomination/presidency.
Bad Ideas
I really hope to be proven wrong, but that my local transit authority's new payment system will require the card to contact the mothership every time it's "swiped" seems to be a really big design problem.
If you can't get the transaction time down to 1.5 seconds or so it's going to be a major problem.
If you can't get the transaction time down to 1.5 seconds or so it's going to be a major problem.
Shutting Schools
The obvious case against Rahm is that he shut down bunch of schools the neighborhoods of the poors so that the grifters could get their charterbucks.
But aside from the specifics of that, one thing that's long confused me in this whole "school reform" conversation is that forcing a kid to go to a new school is really traumatic. I thought we knew this. The "new kid in school" trauma trope is a pretty standard thing. I moved around some as a kid, and showing up at a new school was really really hard. You don't know anybody and every institution has their microcustoms and behavioral expectations that aren't easy for a 9-year-old to grasp.
But aside from the specifics of that, one thing that's long confused me in this whole "school reform" conversation is that forcing a kid to go to a new school is really traumatic. I thought we knew this. The "new kid in school" trauma trope is a pretty standard thing. I moved around some as a kid, and showing up at a new school was really really hard. You don't know anybody and every institution has their microcustoms and behavioral expectations that aren't easy for a 9-year-old to grasp.
Stop Frisking
Randomly frisking people is only either going to find drugs or guns or, in most cases, nothing. The war on drugs needs to end, and it's only in certain cities where certain kinds of people live that there are any meaningful gun laws that for some reason the NRA doesn't completely lose their shit about.
Just stop it.
Just stop it.
Tuesday, February 24, 2015
I Think We Won This One
Close enough, at least. Yay net neutrality.
It's an issue I follow though I don't claim expertise, but while it's a win by the "little guys" I think it was also an own goal by the big guys. They won too much in their major court case, with the ruling basically saying that the FCC can classify as Title II or do nothing. It didn't give the FCC many options.
It's an issue I follow though I don't claim expertise, but while it's a win by the "little guys" I think it was also an own goal by the big guys. They won too much in their major court case, with the ruling basically saying that the FCC can classify as Title II or do nothing. It didn't give the FCC many options.
If It Pisses Off Hippies
Yes there are people who will profit off of Keystone XL. Yes there are lobbyists who are paid to support it, and that money flows directly and indirectly to various players. Yes the fossil fuels industry generally has reason to see it as a symbolic loss/victory in the same way that that those nutty environmentalists do (I'm not saying it's just a symbolic victory for environmentalists, just that it is in part).
But why does, say, your average Limbaugh listener care?
But why does, say, your average Limbaugh listener care?
Billo
I bet to some degree he believes his stories. He was in some crazy foreign country filled with foreign people and they were in the streets doing in the streets stuff! It's war!!! He probably has PTSD from it.
Why Do People Do This
I was the first man to walk on the moon.
Robert A. McDonald, the secretary of the Veterans Affairs Department, apologized on Monday for falsely claiming last month that he had served in the Special Forces.
Where At Least We Know We're Free
Awesome.
The Chicago police department operates an off-the-books interrogation compound, rendering Americans unable to be found by family or attorneys while locked inside what lawyers say is the domestic equivalent of a CIA black site.
It Wasn't North Korea
People from the US couldn't easily travel to Cuba, the rest of the world could and did.
More evident to whom?
As Cuba opens the door wider to private enterprise, the gap between the haves and have-nots — and between whites and blacks — that the revolution sought to diminish is growing more evident.
More evident to whom?
Morning Thread
Travel day for me. I still have not looked at the weather forecast for Philadelphia. Don't want to know what I'm going to have to deal with before I need to.
Monday, February 23, 2015
Anatomy
Well then.
BOISE, Idaho — An Idaho lawmaker received a brief lesson on female anatomy after asking if a woman can swallow a small camera for doctors to conduct a remote gynecological exam.
The question Monday from Republican Rep. Vito Barbieri came as the House State Affairs Committee heard nearly three hours of testimony on a bill that would ban doctors from prescribing abortion-inducing medication through telemedicine.
Dr. Julie Madsen was testifying in opposition to the bill when Barbieri asked the question. Madsen replied that would be impossible because swallowed pills do not end up in the vagina.
Crappy Girlfriend Characters
I enjoy the superhero shows as at the end of a long day in the coal mines of reading stupid shit on the internet I just want to nerd out a bit, but, yes, the girlfriend characters are generally awful.
Agent Carter is pretty badass, but one imagines her girlfriend, if she had one, would be pretty horrible too.
Agent Carter is pretty badass, but one imagines her girlfriend, if she had one, would be pretty horrible too.
The Bikes, We Share Them
I'm too much of a coward to do the urban biking thing, and the destinations I might use it for if I wasn't a coward would require heading through the worst parts of the city for it. Still I'm all for others doing it, and the plans for bike sharing in the city seem to be very well thought out. Hopefully they get the price points right.
Disruption
Aside from privacy issues, these fake cell phone towers mess with your cell phone service. That, too, is an issue.
Sunday, February 22, 2015
Sunday Evening
Going from too fast (but then not fast enough) melting today to everything freezing tomorrow. Everything's going to be ice.
Well Everybody Does It
Busted.
I think tax avoidance by the rich is mostly sport. Sure there's real money involved, but I also think it's bragging rights. Gotta pay the accountants and tax lawyers a bunch of money anyway.
I think tax avoidance by the rich is mostly sport. Sure there's real money involved, but I also think it's bragging rights. Gotta pay the accountants and tax lawyers a bunch of money anyway.
A Mild Defense Of The Movie All Smart People Hate
Crash was not a great movie. Crash was not a good movie. I do not think Crash was a "Best Picture" though I also wouldn't call it the Worst Best Picture Ever.
Crash was "middlebrow pseudointellectualism." I don't think that's a bad thing! I get that it's annoying when such things are elevated to High Art when they aren't, so the Best Picture label gives people reason to criticize it on that basis. And if you're genuinely surrounded by people talking about how brilliant Crash is, then I get that it's annoying.
But, hey, Crash made a slightly more nuanced and multifaceted movie about race than we usually get, and people liked it. I'd probably nod along with basically every criticism of how it approached race (I haven't seen the movie in a long time, and probably won't again, so I don't remember the particulars well enough to really know), though I think anybody who tried to make such a movie would step on numerous landmines. Still it wasn't made for people like me who have spent more than a few seconds thinking about the nuances and complexities of racial issues in this country.
Yah it basically absolves white people, but at least it isn't quite a white savior movie like most Important Movies About Race are.
Crash was "middlebrow pseudointellectualism." I don't think that's a bad thing! I get that it's annoying when such things are elevated to High Art when they aren't, so the Best Picture label gives people reason to criticize it on that basis. And if you're genuinely surrounded by people talking about how brilliant Crash is, then I get that it's annoying.
But, hey, Crash made a slightly more nuanced and multifaceted movie about race than we usually get, and people liked it. I'd probably nod along with basically every criticism of how it approached race (I haven't seen the movie in a long time, and probably won't again, so I don't remember the particulars well enough to really know), though I think anybody who tried to make such a movie would step on numerous landmines. Still it wasn't made for people like me who have spent more than a few seconds thinking about the nuances and complexities of racial issues in this country.
Yah it basically absolves white people, but at least it isn't quite a white savior movie like most Important Movies About Race are.
Catapult The Propaganda
It's where the money is.
Though often described on conservative news programs as a “Harvard astrophysicist,” Dr. Soon is not an astrophysicist and has never been employed by Harvard. He is a part-time employee of the Smithsonian Institution with a doctoral degree in aerospace engineering. He has received little federal research money over the past decade and is thus responsible for bringing in his own funds, including his salary.
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