{"id":23626,"date":"2016-08-25T10:26:14","date_gmt":"2016-08-25T17:26:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=23626"},"modified":"2016-08-25T10:26:14","modified_gmt":"2016-08-25T17:26:14","slug":"open-thread-8252016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2016\/08\/25\/open-thread-8252016\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread – 8\/25\/2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday the heat returned, groceries were delivered, and Wendy came for kitty-primping.  When I got out of the shower and dried, by the time I got back to my apartment, I had to dry off the sweat.  Finally, the site turned to mud, so I spent the first couple hours after breakfast on the phone with tech support.  The problem was that PP was chocking the cache system designed to speed up page load, because we have thousands of graphics that are poorly optimized.  She turned off the cache system and that fixed the problem.  However, cobbling the site together by someone who isn’t an IT pro (me) has taken its toll over the years.  The tech sent me detailed instructions on how to optimize all aspects of the site.  It looks like I have many hours of work to do in the coming months.  Tomorrow, I need to venture into the heat to submit to torture from Courtney, my Physical Terrorist.  Therefore I will probably have no more then a Personal Update for you tomorrow.<\/font><\/p>\n

Jig Zone Puzzle<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n

Today’s took me 3:22 (average 4:56).  To do it, click here<\/a>.  How did you do?<\/font><\/p>\n

Short Takes<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n

From NY Times<\/a>: <\/font>Another Earth could be circling the star right next door to us.<\/p>\n

Astronomers announced on Wednesday that they had detected a planet orbiting Proxima Centauri, the closest neighbor to our solar system. Intriguingly, the planet is in the star\u2019s \u201cGoldilocks zone,\u201d where it may be neither too hot nor too cold. That means liquid water could exist at the surface, raising the possibility for life.<\/p>\n

Although observations in recent years, particularly by NASA\u2019s Kepler planet-finding mission, have uncovered a bounty of Earth-size worlds throughout the galaxy, this one holds particular promise because it might someday, decades from now, be possible to reach. It\u2019s 4.2 light-years, or 25 trillion miles, away from Earth, which is extremely close in cosmic terms.<\/p>\n

When I first heard this, I thought it might be a good place to put Republicans, but on further consideration, a mere 4.2 light years is just too damn close!!<\/font><\/p>\n

From Daily Kos<\/a>: <\/font>Many people who are prone to allergic attacks are also prone to having their throat air passages close from the internal swelling and inflammation. Without immediate treatment this can cause many children and adults to suffocate and die. They die a terrifying death of asphyxiation. <\/p>\n

In 1977, the life-saving Epi-Pen was created. The self-injecting shot of adrenaline can sometimes halt the air passages from closing further, for a brief period, which gives the victim more time to seek emergency care. <\/p>\n

A pharmaceutical company called Mylan [capitalist pig delinked<\/em>] acquired the EpiPen in 2007, and immediately began hiking up the prices to a whopping 600%<\/a>. That\u2019s wonderful for the multi-billion dollar company, and it\u2019s been awesome for Mylan CEO Heather Bresch who gave herself a big fat pay raise.<\/a> Reports show that from 2007<\/a> to 2015, Bresch’s total compensation went from $2,453,456 to $18,931,068 [capitalist pig delinked<\/em>] \u2014 yet she can\u2019t afford to offer her \u201cgeneric\u201d drug at a fair price in order to save the lives of those who are in need and don\u2019t know how to obtain the life-saving medication any other way.<\/p>\n

As a former volunteer firefighter, I have used an EpiPen to save a life. I have seen what it does and now necessary it is for someone suffering a life-threatening allergic reaction. Heather Bresch’s Republican greed is obscene!<\/font><\/p>\n

From The New Yorker<\/a>: <\/font>Calling it \u201cthe best use of our resources at this time,\u201d the Republican National Committee has decided to pull money originally earmarked for Trump campaign ads and spend it on alcohol instead.<\/p>\n

According to the R.N.C. chairman Reince Priebus, the decision to reallocate the funds from television advertising to alcoholic beverages came after careful review of the polling in crucial battleground states.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith about seventy days to go until the election, we had to consider what was the optimal way for us to get through those seventy days,\u201d he added. \u201cWe are confident that we have found that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe decision was unanimous,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Dang Andy!! If you’re right, that’s the most intelligent idea for Republicans I’ve heard.<\/font><\/p>\n

Cartoon<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n

\"0825Cartoon\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday the heat returned, groceries were delivered, and Wendy came for kitty-primping.  When I got out of the shower and dried, by the time I got back to my apartment, I had to dry off the sweat.  Finally, the site turned to mud, so I spent the first couple hours after breakfast on the phone […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,3,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-open-thread","category-personal","category-politics","category-35-id","category-3-id","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23626\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}