tingilinde

racist linguistic economy

He manages to get the 14 words down to 11...

Demographic change is the key to the Democratic Party’s political ambitions. - Tucker Carlson

 

 

after the cnc chainsaw ...

not lost in space

Patching software on a helicopter sitting on Mars is impressive, but a more interesting story took place about five years ago as the New Horizons spacecraft approached Pluto.

 

take the train

France may ban air travel on routes that trains can cover in 150 minutes. It only impacts a few routes and France has a robust passenger rail network, but it's a start.

 

log carving in the worst way

this last weekend

 

Trump: Damn right I tried to overthrow the government and I’ll do it again.  I won!!  Also McConnell is a dumb son of a bitch.

Press: Did you hear what he said about McConnell?

 

getting infected after being vaccinated

It's rare and if it happens you're extremely unlikely to go to the hospital or worse - but it can happen. Masha Gessen writing in The New Yorker. 

 

fun for the c-suite guys

Corporation's feet being held close to the fire.

They usually counter that they give to both sides (most do - but it's unequal).. the problem with that line of reasoning is that of the three ways corporations can give to parties .  one, direct funding of candidates, is legal in about half the states including Georgia.  If you're directly funding politicians, you bear should bear some responsibility for their actions.  At least justify them to your customers and shareholders.

Of course political funding is completely broken.

 

$199 lego set

A few people I know have already placed their order.

 

old coins and a very cold case

Some coins found in Rhode Island may shed light on a pirate.

a tip of the hat to Sukie

 

 

planting trees to sequester carbon

It isn't straightforward.

snip

...

The current focus on trees rather than grasses is partly a result of technological limitations: It’s far easier and cheaper to measure above-ground carbon held in vegetation than carbon held below-ground in soil. The repeated assessment of soil carbon stocks is currently too time-consuming and expensive to use at the scale that would be required to verify stocks for carbon credits. But excluding below-ground carbon from measurements biases the picture in favor of forests, which hold more carbon aboveground than grasslands do. Grasslands, especially waterlogged grasslands, can be shown to hold much more carbon than tree-covered landscapes if subsurface carbon is included in estimates

...

 

 

vaccines vs variants

An informative thread by John Burn-Murdoch

a tip of the hat to Dan

hcr on two pandemic responses

Heather Cox Richardson on a powerful education.

snip

...

Ever since President Ronald Reagan declared in his 1981 inaugural address that “government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem,” Republicans have argued that the best way to run the country has been to dismantle the federal government and turn the fundamental operations of the country over to private enterprise. They have argued that the government is inefficient and wasteful, while businesses can pivot rapidly and are far more efficient than their government counterparts.

And then the coronavirus came.

...

 

 

crafting lies

Lies that lead to dangerous behavior and more death..  and they celebrated.

snip

...

Alexander and other officials also strategized on how to help Trump argue to reopen the economy in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak, despite scientists’ warnings about the potential risks.

“I know the President wants us to enumerate the economic cost of not reopening. We need solid estimates to be able to say something like: 50,000 more cancer deaths! 40,000 more heart attacks! 25,000 more suicides!” Caputo wrote to Alexander on May 16 in an email obtained by the subcommittee.

“You need to take ownership of these numbers. This is singularly important to what you and I want to achieve,” Caputo added in a follow-up email, urging Alexander to compile additional data on the consequences of virus-related shutdowns.

...

 

 

what data can't do

Commentary by Hannah Fry on two books on the subject.  (via The New Yorker)