Month: December 2019

You watched the entirety of Season 8 in a single sitting the other daaaayyyy…

May have to go to the live show in Milwaukees with the other degens. March 29. Pitter patter.

Letterkenny

There are 5000 people in Letterkenny. These are their problems.

How awesome is this going to be? Incredibly awesome.

…she took action.”

When the call came, I was happy and honored to contribute to the building of Greenpeace’s Rainbow Warrior III. There’s a section of rail in the bow, and a bench in the conference room behind the bridge, named in my father’s and grandfather’s honor. One of them was born at sea, the other was a son of the sea, also a protector in his own way.

That was almost 10 years ago and the world hasn’t moved at all. In fact, we’ve made things worse. The oceans have become greatly acidified and are almost dead. The results we need will only come with massive change, and massive change only comes with radical action. 

The earth needs a new warrior. She needs you. Please join in the fight. Donations through the end of the year will be matched.

Donate to Greenpeace

We’re fighting for our environment, and we can’t do it without you.

Re-upping this one because it is more true every day. To understand Trumper beliefs, motivations, and behaviors, the closest model is the ethic of total retaliation, built out of resentment and famously deployed by the Hell’s Angels, people who felt left behind in the era immediately following WWII.

This Political Theorist Predicted the Rise of Trumpism. His Name Was Hunter S. Thompson.

In Hell’s Angels, the gonzo journalist wrote about left-behind people motivated only by “an ethic of total retaliation.” Sound familiar?

Abuse of power. Obstruction of Congress.

Impeachment is the only option.

Trump and Impeachment

The facts are clear: Trump asked a foreign power to interfere in the 2020 election for his own political gain.

Seven years ago today, and although there’s been some progress, it hasn’t been near enough. Remember. Honor. Act. Please donate to Sandy Hook Promise.

Tabletop Whale is a science illustration blog with some incredible infographics and animations, like this one.  Go here and you’ll lose an hour.

An Orbit Map of the Solar System

This week’s map shows the orbits of more than 18000 asteroids in the solar system. This includes everything we know of that’s over 10km in diameter - about 10000 asteroids - as well as 8000 randomized objects of unknown size. This map shows each asteroid at its exact position on New Years’ Eve 1999.

Excellent series on climate change, from The Washington Post. 

• Extreme climate change has arrived in America
• Dangerous new hot zones are spreading around the world
• Radical warming in Siberia leaves millions on unstable ground
• Facing unbearable heat, Qatar has begun air-conditioning the outdoors
• These Canadian islands, once protected by ice, are collapsing into the sea
• How climate change is triggering a chain reaction that threatens the heart of the Pacific
• A crisis in the water is threatening this once-booming fishing town
• Lives adrift in a rapidly warming world: A photographic portrait

2°C: Beyond the Limit

Extreme climate change has arrived in America

The call is coming from inside the house.

[from ABC News]

Ring security camera hacks see homeowners subjected to racial abuse, ransom demands

A spate of incidents has seen homeowners in four states fall victim to hackers.

Anyone who has been paying attention the last 20+ years already knew this.

[from WIRED]

Fox News Is Now a Threat to National Security

The network’s furthering of lies from foreign adversaries and flagrant disregard for the truth have gotten downright dangerous.

Like so many other source documents–the Justice Department’s Mueller Report, the SSCI report on Russian Actives Measures Campaigns and Interference in the 2016 US Election–these Articles of Impeachment will go unread by most Americans, who can’t find the time to read even the executive summaries.

Those people have no opinions. All they have is what someone else told them to think. All they have is something they heard on TV that sounds like they’d want to repeat it. But what they don’t have is their own informed opinions.

Annotated version here, or for deeper reading, try the House Judiciary Committee’s report on Constitutional Grounds for Presidential Impeachment.

[from The New York Times]

Read the Articles of Impeachment Against President Trump

House Democrats released two articles of impeachment charging President Trump with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. See them with context and analysis by The Times’s chief White House correspondent.

Speaks truth to power.

Or, Afghanistan since the beginning of time. Honestly, can we say that anyone was fooling anybody about this? It was apparent almost right from the moment we took Kabul.

“We don’t invade poor countriesto make them rich. We don’t invade authoritarian countries to make them democratic. We invade violent countries to make them peaceful and we clearly failed in Afghanistan.”

[from The Washington Post]

Confidential documents reveal U.S. officials failed to tell the truth about the war in Afghanistan

For nearly two decades of war in Afghanistan, U.S. leaders have sounded a constant refrain: We are making progress. They were not, documents show, and they knew it.

Solid home network security advice from the FBI and others. Your anti-virus and anti-malware software is essentially useless.

[from ZDnet]

FBI recommends that you keep your IoT devices on a separate network | ZDNet

The FBI also recommends changing factory-set (default) passwords and not allowing an IoT device’s accompanying mobile app to gain access to too many smartphone permissions.

As usual, we do this upside down.

[from Medium]

Interesting data: what’s important to Republicans and Democrats.

Republicans have only ONE issue that 90 percent of them agree on, and that crosses a 25% threshold of revealed importance. Know what it is? Universal gun background checks.

Democrats, on the other hand, have 5 such issues: universal gun background checks, of course, plus not separating immigrant children, dreamer path to citizenship, big environmental program,  and a low-income health care subsidy.

No socialism, and common ground on guns.

[from the New York Times]

What Is Voters’ Highest Priority? There’s a Way to Find Out

Peeling away preferences, a study shows impeachment is at the top of the list for Republicans, and is the second choice for Democrats.

“Is abomination impeachable? No. But the abuses of office of which the President now stands accused are the very definition of impeachable.”

[from The New Yorker]

The Impeachment Hearings and the Coming Storm

The madness of the moment lies in looking at how this came to pass, at how many people had to give up on the idea of democracy for things to come to this.

Daniel Craig is the best James Bond, by a wide margin.

Absolutely fascinating and well-written article about the unintended and serious consequences of our actions, and our unwillingness to address them even with simple solutions.

“Collisions may be road ecology’s most obvious concern, but fragmentation is roadkill’s pernicious twin.”

[from The Atlantic]

How Roadkill Became an Environmental Disaster

To save Brazil’s giant anteaters, scientists are grappling with one of the planet’s most transformative forces: roads.