Category: Media and Culture,

Census Citizenship Question: Jeff Sessions Told DOJ Not To Discuss Alternatives

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Money, Class, and Poverty,, Race,Leave a comment

The Trump administration is fending off six lawsuits across the country over a citizenship question that has been added to the 2020 census for, officials insist, one primary reason — to get better data on who in the country is and isn’t a U.S. citizen.

…But days after the Census Bureau received the Justice Department’s request, its staff concluded that collecting people’s self-reported information through the census would not be the best way to generate better citizenship data. Instead, compiling existing government records about people’s citizenship status, the bureau found, would not only produce more accurate information but also cost less money.

To top it off, research by the Census Bureau suggests asking about citizenship status in the current political climate could discourage noncitizens …from taking part in the constitutionally-mandated head count of every person living in the U.S. That would harm the accuracy of the information collected through the census, which is used to distribute congressional seats, Electoral College votes and an estimated $800 billion annually in federal funding among the states.

Census Citizenship Question: Jeff Sessions Told DOJ Not To Discuss Alternatives : NPR

hmmm

Meghan McCain: I regret contributing to polarization by saying ‘I hate Hillary Clinton’

On By peanutgallerynhIn Media and Culture,Leave a comment

Meghan McCain: I regret contributing to polarization by saying ‘I hate Hillary Clinton’ | TheHill

Fuck you, Meghan.

Too little. Too late.
…and you sounds like a media whore riding the wave of the latest trend without an ounce of sincerity in you. You proved again and again that you’re a partisan little douche-nozzle hack and there’s no disproving it now. Your Dad’s dead and it’s time for your fifteen minutes of useless pandering to be over. Shut the fuck up and go away.

Trump’s iPhone Is a Serious Risk

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Media and Culture,Leave a comment

In its earliest days, Donald Trump’s administration was plagued by security lapses. Aides made indiscreet use of cell phones. Classified information leaked chronically. A lot of unfortunate stuff ended up on social media.

…Trump has continued to use his personal iPhone, despite insistent warnings that he could be jeopardizing national security. And he has persisted even after being told that China and Russia are listening in.

A former White House chief information officer says it may be the “most significant breach of White House communications in history.” By any reckoning, it’s a serious risk. An unsecured smartphone offers a rich target for motivated spies. They could track its location, steal data, monitor its keystrokes, or even requisition its camera and microphone. They could easily intercept calls made over a wireless network.

Trump’s iPhone Is a Serious Risk – Bloomberg

But, her emails!!!

Meet The Mascot Of Our Broken World: The Plastic Pumpkin

On By peanutgallerynhIn Environment,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

“When you throw away that unnecessary plastic wrapper or dump a fake pumpkin that’s lost its charm, we don’t see the reality of it all ― the mining or drilling that’s gone into the energy it takes to make it, the transportation of it to our local store, the disposal of it to some tip that you probably don’t even know exists, or off onto a barge that then gets shipped abroad,” he said.

Weisman noted the true cost of our resource consumption over the past 50 years is now coming back to bite us.

…They wanted to grab all they could while it lasted, going farther and digging deeper and mining more and harvesting and shipping faster than ever before. Their aim? To create an illusion of abundance that has yet to wane.”

Today, the effects of this ecological exhaustion are stark: Nearly 90 percent of the world’s marine fish stocks are now fully exploited, overexploited or depleted; 9 out of 10 people worldwide breathe polluted air; forests, including precious wildlife habitats, have been ravaged to produce commodities like palm oil for snacks and cosmetics; and drinking water has been contaminated with everything from arsenic to mercury.

Meet The Mascot Of Our Broken World: The Plastic Pumpkin | HuffPost

hmmm

EU lawmakers vote to ban single-use plastics across Europe

On By peanutgallerynhIn Environment,, Europe,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

The ban includes a full prohibition of plastic plates and utensils, cotton swabs, straws and drink stirrers and calls for reduced use of plastic cups and other similar food packaging products.

…The ban targets pollution from cigarette filters, ordering manufacturers to reduce their plastic inclusion by 80 percent by 2030. And EU member states will be required to recycle 90 percent of plastic bottles by 2025.

EU lawmakers vote to ban single-use plastics across Europe | TheHill

Fishing equipment? B.U.L.L.S.H.I.T.

Oh, Shit! Study Says Shit Called Microplastics Is In Your Shit

On By peanutgallerynhIn Environment,, Money, Class, and Poverty,, Science and Stuff,Leave a comment

Due to their small size, microplastics are easily consumed by sea creatures, entering the food chain. This study, conducted by researchers from the Medical University of Vienna and the Environment Agency Austria, determined that these particles eventually reach humans.

…Microplastics have been found in seafood, bottled water, and even the air. With the amount of plastic packaging in our everyday lives, it’s difficult to avoid the synthetic material.

…”Plastics ultimately reach the human gut. Of particular concern is what this means to us, and especially patients with gastrointestinal diseases.”

…The smallest microplastic particles are capable of entering the blood stream, lymphatic system and may even reach the liver,” he continued.

Microplastics Were Found in Human Stool for the First Time, Study Says | Fortune

Sigh…

 

Dodgers Pitching Coach Wants Mean Red Sox Fans To Be Nicer To His Pitchers

On By peanutgallerynhIn Boston,, Media and Culture,Leave a comment

Dodgers pitching coach Rick Honeycutt wanted the fans at Fenway Park to stop taunting his pitcher. Whining about it in public after a resounding 8-4 loss was probably not the best way to silence Red Sox fans before Game 2 of the World Series.

…A reporter for WBZ (CBS Boston) stated:

Goodness gracious! People watching a baseball player at a baseball game! The horror. That’s quite the complaint from someone who has been in baseball for four decades.

the joy of sox: Dodgers Pitching Coach Wants Mean Red Sox Fans To Be Nicer To His Pitchers

Losah.

Rick Honeycutt whines about Fenway faithful taunting Clayton Kershaw

On By peanutgallerynhIn Boston,, Media and Culture,Leave a comment

The 6-foot-4 left-hander, whose once-blistering fastball has been reduced to 90 mph slop, was mocked with chants of “Keeer-shaaww, Keer-shaaww” as he tried to navigate out of jams in the first and third frames.

…“Brutal. Pretty brutal,” Honeycutt said. “What I don’t understand is why baseball allows it. You’ve got the rubber right there and people literally standing over you.”

That is an amazing quote that embodies how overmatched the Dodgers appeared to be Tuesday. Honeycutt has been around Major League Baseball for four decades, and he’s whining about the crowd being too close to his pitchers in the bullpen? Talk about a loser’s lament.

Rick Honeycutt complains about Fenway Park crowd taunting Clayton Kershaw | WEEI

What, did he expect opposing fans to gush all over themselves ad give out participation trophies to his pitchers?

Dodgers pitching coach says bullpens at Fenway Park are “brutal”

On By peanutgallerynhIn Boston,, Media and Culture,Leave a comment

Dodgers pitching coach says bullpens at Fenway Park are “brutal” | SI.com

Weh, weh, weh….
So you’re not hard and grown enough to can’t take it?
So called professionals can’t do their job  when actual fans support their team?
Why don’t you folks take your soft asses back to the left coast then, princess? Leave pro sports to the actual adults.

So many people have had their DNA sequenced that they’ve put other people’s privacy in jeopardy

On By peanutgallerynhIn Media and Culture,, Privacy,, Science and Stuff,Leave a comment

A new study argues that more than half of Americans could be identified by name if all you had to start with was a sample of their DNA and a few basic facts, such as the region where they live and about how old they might be.

More than 1 million Americans have already published their genetic information, and dozens more do so every day.

…One of them is the rise of direct-to-consumer genetic testing. Companies such as Ancestry.com and 23andMe can sequence anyone’s DNA for about $100.

…The other essential element is the proliferation of publicly searchable genealogy databases like GEDmatch. Anyone can upload a full genome to these sites and powerful computers will crunch through it, looking for stretches of matching DNA sequences that can be used to build out a family tree.

…After a long day of painstaking work, they researchers were able to correctly name the owner of the DNA sample.

The authors said the same process would work for about 60% of Americans of European descent, who are the people most likely to use genealogical websites, Erlich said. Though the odds of success would be lower for people from other backgrounds, it would still be expected to work for more than half of all Americans, they said.

…If you can find a person’s third cousin in a genealogical database, then you should be able to identify the person with a reasonable amount of sleuthing, Erlich said.

So many people have had their DNA sequenced that they’ve put other people’s privacy in jeopardy – Los Angeles Times

hmmmmm