Outside the temperature has warmed up to a sunny 32°. I did close the window last night, but had no need to turn on the heat. Now the sun has been hitting my wall, warming the brickwork, and radiating heat into the room, where it is now 75°. I may have to open the window. Now, perhaps you understand how hot things get here in the summer.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 4:15 (average 6:13). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From YouTube (Washington Post Channel): Meet the business tycoon Trump nominated to be ambassador to The Bahamas
Donating big bucks to the Fuhrer, abusing women, and lying during Senate confirmation is the Republican path to an Ambassadorial post. RESIST!!
From Chicago Sun Times: Facebook will soon rely on centuries-old technology to try to prevent foreign meddling in U.S. elections: the post office.
Baffled in 2016 by Russian agents who bought ads to sway the U.S. presidential campaign, Facebook’s global politics and government outreach director, Katie Harbath, told a meeting of the National Association of Secretaries of State in Washington on Saturday that the company would send postcards to potential buyers of political ads to confirm they reside in the U.S.
The recipient would then have to enter a code in Facebook to continue buying the ad. The method will first apply to ads that name candidates ahead of the midterm elections in November, said Facebook spokesman Andy Stone.
So what? It would be child’s play for Russian Republicans to maintain US mailboxes to receive the automated Facebook mailings. The Trump Reich would probably provide staff to monitor and reply, without colluding, of course. RESIST!!
From Gizmodo: Asteroid mining is about more than just heading up into space and bringing back a rock full of platinum—you actually need to land something on just the right asteroid.
Falcon Heavy, the world’s most powerful rocket launched by Elon Musk-led SpaceX two weeks ago, may have changed the game, says one astronomer.
“Instead of a few hundred we may have thousands of ore bearing asteroids available,” Martin Elvis from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics told an audience at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in Austin, Texas.
This is what I meant when I said that transporting billionaires into space for the day will be just the means to pay for the project’s real work, obtaining natural resources. RESIST!!
Cartoon:
11 Responses to “Open Thread – 2/19/2018”
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5:03 Light on the subject.
At least, in the summer the sun hits at a different angle. But maybe not different enough to help.
New (copyrighted) cartoons
WaPo – It was bad enough when they just polished up the handle of the big front door (instead of polishing the knob of … no, I won’t go there.)
Chicago – If they require a physical address in lieu of a box, though, it could become easier to catch anyone American who was acting as errand child for them. Also, it might pay for one person to handle 50 or 100 boxes, but not for one person to handle 50 or 100 physical addresses, and checking for duplicates would be not too difficult. It doesn’t appear that anyone on the story asked, but it would be an obvious precaution.
Gizmodo – That really is a good way to pay for something intelligent – ANYTHING intelligent – sort of a tax on the rich and stupid.
Cartoon – Ummm – because the Enron collapse hurt RICH people?
“Happy Presidents Day!”
I don’t know where this Library is located – but I like their chutzpah …
Excellent!
Especially when you consider that, out of the 44, Grover Cleveland is TWO of them. Nice to see you, Nameless. How ya doing?
When money is the criterion for a Presidential appointment, that shows just how horrendously corrupt our lame excuse for a government is. Don’t take it lying down – FIGHT BACK!!! Rise up, resist, persist, register to vote, get your progressive kith and kin to register, and above all, get your arses to the polls!
Cartoon: In Iceland, they jailed the bankers and bailed out the people. Why can’t we be more like Iceland? (Except for killing whales.)
WP: A bedroom suite on the 5th floor??! th?? Yea, right in league with Mr. Dump.
CST: “Stone said Facebook was also able to detect and remove “tens of thousands” of fake Facebook pages in advance of French, German and British elections last year using improved machine learning techniques.” If FB could do that back a year ago, why not enforce it here in the US now? I see problems with postcards, as anyone could get one, and then use the code.
Gizmodo: Amazing what is going on in this field. Passing on to friends too.
Cartoon: I remember when this happened. I knew a teacher whose friend worked at Enron, for years, and was close to retiring. She told me that her friend lost everything, including her life savings. I felt bad for her and the others who worked there when this happened.
Hope that you relax, and have a good evening. Take good care, and Thanks, Tom.
*Nameless, very apropos!!!
Apparently it’s not just money that gets one an ambassadorship, and there is much history on this, but sleaziness as well…in this administration!
Puzzle — 4:31 Kung Hei Fat Choy!
WaPo — Human Resources professionals say that when hiring new people to have around you, you should hire people with skills that compliment yours, not the same as yours. Obviously Drumpf has not heeded this advice. It seems that the pussy grabber looks for people just like him . . . sad, so sad!
Chicago Sun Times — ” … Russian Republicans to maintain US mailboxes to receive the automated Facebook mailings.” — As I was reading, my fraud investigator brain was thinking the exact same thing. FB etc has to come up with something much more comprehensive and accurate.
Gizmodo — We have screwed, glued and tattooed this planet! Why is it necessary to in essence screw the entire universe?
Cartoon — Which lead to such legislation as Sarbane Oxley which drove me crazy in my job before I retired.
Well it was sunny and cold here today but I heard that we are in store for more snow.
⛄
WP: Is Doug Manchester a brother of Drumpf? He certainly shares all the family characteristics: producing unintelligible word salads, misogyny, bullying, buying himself new business opportunities (ambassador to the Bahama’s), the morals of a turd… No wonder Drumpf has nominated him. BFF!
CST: Really, this is all Facebook can come up with? Weren’t many of those indicted by Mueller living in the USA? Even if they were to use only physical addresses, as Joanne suggested, it would be so easy to have a network of recipients at hand for Russians, or any other group for that matter. Criminal gangs have been known to intercept pin codes sent through the mail right at the mail centers where the mail was sorted and they were in special envelopes, not postcards which can be read by anyone. They at least should make them scratch cards.
Gizmodo: Oh yes, ore from asteroids is just the thing people, animals and the environment are in need of when we have come far beyond the point of no return in global warming because we didn’t invest in it and this planet is ravaged while rich billionaires take their space trips to have a look at what they’ve destroyed looks like from above.
Keeping my fingers crossed that the refurbished apartment building you’re going to move into has this problem solved for you, TomCat. Chances are that it was much better insulated in the process and you may get a room not in the sun all day long.
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Thanks all! Hugs!