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Archive for the 'News You Can Use.' Category

A Federal Judge Torches Two Lawsuits Trying to Blame Oil Companies for Climate Change

26th June 2018

Read it.

The lawsuits sought to recoup damages from sever weather from oil companies, as well as force the companies to invest into a fund that would pay for future infrastructure to protect against more severe weather and rising sea levels.

California has long had a collection of courts that are accustomed to weaken, sometimes to the point of invisibility, the traditional notion that you have to show that a particular party caused a particular injury before you can recover from them. I’m glad to see that it hasn’t infected the Federal Court system … yet.

Steve Hayward from Powerline gives us an analysis: Frivolous Climate Lawsuits Hit the Wall

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This Is How the Robot Uprising Finally Begins

25th June 2018

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The robot arm is performing a peculiar kind of Sisyphean task. It hovers over a glistening pile of cooked chicken parts, dips down, and retrieves a single piece. A moment later, it swings around and places the chunk of chicken, ever so gently, into a bento box moving along a conveyor belt.

This robot, controlled by software from a San Francisco–based company called Osaro, is smarter than any you’ve seen before. The software has taught it to pick and place chicken in about five seconds—faster than your average food-processing worker. Within the year, Osaro expects its robots to find work in a Japanese food factory.

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How to Make The Breakfast

25th June 2018

Eric S. Raymond has the answer.

I dearly love classic American breakfast food. I delight in the kind of cheap hot breakfast you get at humble roadside diners. I think it’s one of the glories of our folk cuisine and will cheerfully eat it any time of the day or night.

I posted a fancy breakfast-for-two recipe a while back (Eggs a la ESR). What follows is the slightly plainer breakfast I make for myself almost every morning. It’s the stable result of a decades-long optimization process – I haven’t found a way to improve it in years.

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Burger Robot Startup Opens First Restaurant

22nd June 2018

Read it.

Thank you, minimum wage.

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North and South Korea to Reunite Families Separated by War 70 Years Ago, Seoul Announces

22nd June 2018

Read it.

But you have to remember that Trump has accomplished ABSOLUTELY NOTHING during his term in office.

Justy bear that in mind.

Absolutely nothing.

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Jordan Peterson Sues Canadian University for $1.5 M

21st June 2018

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As Global News reports, the University of Toronto psychology professor’s suit alleges that faculty at Laurier defamed him when they dressed-down a teaching assistant for showing a video of Peterson debating gender-neutral pronouns with an opponent.

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Rats Destroy £13,300 Worth of Notes in Indian ATM

20th June 2018

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Third World problem?

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US Withdraws From UN Human Rights Council

19th June 2018

Read it.

I think that this is Trump’s latest move to make anti-Trump heads explode.

Let’s see whether it works.

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13 Incredible Facts About Frederick Douglass

19th June 2018

Read it.

They ought to be re-naming schools after him, not Obama.

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Medieval Christian Inscription Suggests King Arthur Might Actually Have Existed

19th June 2018

Read it.

SOME of us never doubted it.

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SPLC Agrees to $3.4 Million Settlement for Smearing Maajid Nawaz

18th June 2018

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SPLC reported in 2003 being worth $152 million, so I suspect this is just a flea-bite to them. Nevertheless, it represents progress.

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Graphene Battery Charges in Just Five Minutes

18th June 2018

Read it.

If, of course, that’s what you want to do.

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PolitiFact Rules It’s ‘True’ That Democrats Are Near ‘Their Lowest Representation’ in 100 Years

18th June 2018

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The X-Rite Color Challenge

17th June 2018

Check it out.

As if you didn’t have anything else to do today.

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The Best Way to Wipe Your Butt, According to the Experts

15th June 2018

Read it.

Now, imaging the Connected Home.

Now, imagine hackers taking control of your Butt Pressure Washer.

Now, be very afraid.

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The Race to Send Robots to Mine the Ocean Floor

14th June 2018

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Did you know that there was an ‘International Seabed Authority’? Whence comes their jurisdiction? Areas outside of the territorial waters of a nation-state are the common heritage of mankind, free for whoever wants to use them.

Basically it’s another U.N. power grab. I’m curious as to what would happen if a private company were to ignore what they had to say and went to work. Nothing good, I suspect.

Posted in News You Can Use. | 1 Comment »

McDonald’s to Begin Equipping Stores With Self-Ordering Kiosks, 1000 Per Quarter, Until All Human Order-Takers Are Replaced by 2020

13th June 2018

Ace of Spades has the skinny.

This doesn’t just make economic sense. It makes customer-service sense, too. With the country no longer insisting or even urging a proficiency in English (even among native English speakers), the most frustrating part of any visit to McDonald’s is the lengthy back-and-forth with an order-taker trying to get them to understand the words that have come out of your mouth.

I have had that experience.

Markets work, even when you don’t want them to.

Posted in News You Can Use. | 1 Comment »

Norwegian Lawmakers Nominate Trump for Nobel Peace Prize

13th June 2018

Read it.

Heh.

Posted in News You Can Use. | 1 Comment »

HarvestSignal

13th June 2018

Check it out.

This online tool purportedly lets you know, for a given zip code, what fruits/veggies are in season and local sources, plus a subscription service that gives you a weekly e-mail telling you what’s in season for the selected area.

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Organic Farmers Are Using Flamethrowers to Weed Their Fields

13th June 2018

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CAROLYN OLSON HAS A ROW-CROP farm in southwest Minnesota. There, she grows organic corn, soybeans, and alfalfa, among other crops. As with most farmers, organic and otherwise, she constantly fights against weeds. In Minnesota, lamb’s quarter, Canada thistle, and water hemp can threaten crops, she says. But for the last 15 years, Olson has had a weapon in her arsenal: a flame weeder, a contraption that combines farm machinery with firepower worthy of a heavy metal show.

We have the technology.

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Radical Plan to Split California Into Three States Earns Spot on November Ballot

13th June 2018

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“Three states will get us better infrastructure, better education and lower taxes,” Tim Draper, the Silicon Valley venture capitalist who sponsored the ballot measure, said in an email to The Times last summer when he formally submitted the proposal. “States will be more accountable to us and can cooperate and compete for citizens.”

I don’t see how the proposed division would solve the problem, the problem being the dominance of the coastal strip over the rest of the state.

Posted in News You Can Use. | 2 Comments »

Forget X-Ray Vision. You Can See Through Walls With Radio

12th June 2018

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Of course, X-ray vision would come with a downside, in that you’d be spraying all your surveillance targets with radiation. So researchers at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, actualizers of all things science fiction, have taken a different tack to seeing through walls: radio waves. By flinging ultra-low-power radio signals, 1,000 times milder than standard Wi-Fi, they can not only detect humans behind a wall, but track their movements in fine detail.

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Maine Becomes First US State to Use Ranked-Choice Voting. Here’s Why It Matters

12th June 2018

Read it. And there’s a video.

Ranked-choice voting means that voters rank the candidates based on preference rather than voting for one candidate. If one candidate is the first choice of a majority of voters, that candidate wins the primary. If not, the candidate who receives the least first-choice votes is eliminated. The votes of those who ranked the eliminated candidate first are given to their second choice candidate and the counting resumes until one candidate receives a majority.

This is the system pioneered by Australia. It works as an ‘automatic runoff’ that guarantees that the person eventually elected represents the preference of a majority of those voting. The Yale Political Union used this system when I was an undergraduate and it is very straightforward and easy to administer.

Posted in News You Can Use. | 4 Comments »

Does Canada Charge a 270% Tariff on Us Dairy?

11th June 2018

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Trump is right that Canada imposes very high tariffs on dairy products that limit U.S. participation in the Canadian market, though the exact percentages vary depending on the product and when it is imported.

Canada heavily regulates its dairy industry with a supply management system that impacts production and sets target prices for dairy products. As a part of that system, it uses set tariff rate quotas (TRQ) for imports. Dairy products imported before a quota on a product is met are subject low tariffs or no tariffs, while products imported after the quota are subject to tariffs ranging from 201.5 percent to 313.5 percent.

“As a whole, the 270 percent figure though represents a strong ballpark for the various exorbitant tariff rates that limit US dairy access to the Canadian market,” Shawna Morris, trade policy vice president at the U.S. Dairy Export Council, told The Daily Caller News Foundation in an email.

‘Mommeee! Johnny hit me back!’

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The Dakota Access Pipeline Is One Year Old and All We Got Was This Awesome Economic Growth

11th June 2018

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Funny how that works.

No ecological disaster. No ancient gods of the Native Americans taking revenge on a racist capitalist class. Just people, ordinary people, making money that they never made before.

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Europe Was the Birthplace of Mankind, not Africa, Scientists Find

9th June 2018

Read it.

Raise your hand if you’ve seen this reported in the mainstream news or on TV.

No? Didn’t think so.

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Sikh Guardsman Hopes Trooping the Colour Will Be ‘Change in History’

8th June 2018

Nulli secundus.

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World Gin Day

8th June 2018

Take whatever action you think is appropriate.

Posted in News You Can Use. | 1 Comment »

Dallas Woman Kills Husband for ‘Beating the Family Cat’, Police Say

4th June 2018

Read it.

‘Judge, he needed killin’.’

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Marijuana May Help Cure Eczema, According to Researchers

4th June 2018

Read it.

Well. There it is.

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Nearly Half of Bay Area Residents Say They Want to Leave

3rd June 2018

Read it.

Plenty of room in Texas, fellas.

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Big Game Hunter ‘Gored to Death by Buffalo’ Moments After Shooting Another Member of Herd

30th May 2018

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Let that be a lesson to us all.

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GOP Tax Reform Already Showing Major US Reinvestment

30th May 2018

Read it.

But you have to bear in mind that Trump has done ABSOLUTELY NOTHING during his first two years in office.

Bear it in mind.

Absolutely nothing.

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Where to Score Free Treats on National Doughnut Day

30th May 2018

Read it.

If, of course, that’s what you want to do.

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Glasses Wearers Really Are More Intelligent – It’s in the Genes

29th May 2018

Read it.

Actually, it would be more correct to say that intelligent people are more likely to need glasse.

But nobody expects ‘journalists’ to think any more. It’s asking too much.

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The Waiting Is Over!

25th May 2018

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The usual procedure when a prince marries a non-armigerous commoner is to grant a coat of arms to the father, which she then bears by courtesy. That won’t work in Megan Markle’s case because her father is not a gentleman, even by stretching the rules out beyond the orbit of the Moon. So the arms were give to her instead.

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Feeding Cows Seaweed Cuts 99% of Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Their Burps, Research Finds

25th May 2018

Read it.

If, of course, that’s what you want to do.

Hey, tenure doesn’t grow on trees, you know.

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Active Shooter Quickly ‘Shot to Death by Armed Citizen,’ Police Report

25th May 2018

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Well, there you go. Prediction: The DemLegHump Media will totally ignore it.

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How Long to Steep Your Tea, According to Science

23rd May 2018

Read it.

Long enough to completely flush it down the toilet.

Tea, along with coffee and tobacco, is for people who think that a habit that has to be acquired (i.e. your body rejects it given a chance) is a good thing. Such people ought not to be allowed to reproduce.

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The 6-Foot Chinese Giant Salamander Is in Serious Trouble

21st May 2018

Read it.

Ask me if I care. ‘Do you care?’ ‘No.’

Somewhere there is somebody, or a group of somebodies, who are panicking about this (women and minorities hardest hit, seas rising, bears dying, etc, etc.) and want to spend large quantities of YOUR money to correct this situation.

In a rightly-ordered society, such people would be terminated and used for compost wherever found.

Just sayin’.

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Indian Worker Tells His Bosses He Can’t Come to the Office Because He’s the 10th Incarnation of Vishnu

20th May 2018

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“I am Lord Vishnu’s 10th incarnation as Kalki,” he responded in writing. “I am doing penance at home by entering into the fifth dimension to change the global conscience.

“This work I cannot do in the office. Thus I don’t remain physically present in the office.”

Oh, well, that’s all right, then.

The engineer repeated his claim that he is an avatar of the Hindu god, usually depicted as having four arms and blue skin, when questioned on Indian TV on Saturday.

(Funny, he doesn’t look etc….)

I’m just jealous that I didn’t think of it first.

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Fertility Collapse—Minorities Hardest Hit! Electing A New People Delayed?

20th May 2018

John Derbyshire does the numbers.

One of the perennial errors that sky-is-falling alarmists almost always stumble into is thinking that the way things are right now will not change as time moves forward. Like the ‘climate change’ people, last century’s Malthusians (such as, famously, Paul Erlich) didn’t realize that as industrialization spread having children (outside of the Underclass) would change from being an asset to being a luxury. Mostly, what we have learned from history about ‘if this goes on…’ scenarios is that it won’t.

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Bach at the Burger King

19th May 2018

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The inspiration for the Burger King plan, a CMCBD official commented, came from the London Underground. In 2005, the metro system started playing orchestral soundtracks in 65 tube stations as part of a scheme to deter “anti-social” behavior, after the surprising success of a 2003 pilot program. The pilot’s remarkable results — seeing train robberies fall 33 percent, verbal assaults on staff drop 25 percent, and vandalism decrease 37 percent after just 18 months of classical music — caught the eye of the global law-enforcement community. Thus, an international phenomenon was born. Since then, weaponized classical music has spread throughout England and the world: police units across the planet now deploy the string quartet as the latest addition to their crime-fighting arsenal, recruiting Officer Johann Sebastian as the newest member of the force.

Experts trace the practice’s origins back to a drowsy 7-Eleven in British Columbia in 1985, where some clever Canadian manager played Mozart outside the store to repel parking-lot loiterers. Mozart-in-the-Parking-Lot was so successful at discouraging teenage reprobates that 7-Eleven implemented the program at over 150 stores, becoming the first company to battle vandalism with the viola. Then the idea spread to West Palm Beach, Florida, where in 2001 the police confronted a drug-ridden street corner by installing a loudspeaker booming Beethoven and Mozart. “The officers were amazed when at 10 o’clock at night there was not a soul on the corner,” remarked Detective Dena Kimberlin. Soon other police departments “started calling.” From that point, the tactic — now codified as an official maneuver in the Polite Policeman’s Handbook — exploded in popularity for both private companies and public institutions. Over the last decade, symphonic security has swept across the globe as a standard procedure from Australia to Alaska

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Fighting in Women’s Clothes: The Pictorial Evidence of Walpurgis in Ms. I.33

18th May 2018

Read it.

I guess the Patriarchy must have been sleeping at the switch during the Middle Ages.

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How to Make McDonald’s Chicken McNuggets at Home

17th May 2018

Read it.

If, of course, that’s what you want to do.

Personally, I prefer Chik-Fil-A. But that’s me.

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A Visual History of Captain America’s Shields

17th May 2018

Read it.

Just in case you were  bored. I know I was.

For extra credit, or just to say you did, blazon these puppies. Betcha can’t.

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Exercise Could Make Dementia Progression Worse Not Better, Warns Study

16th May 2018

Read it.

Hah!

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Hamas Rejects Israeli Medical Aid for Palestinians, Refuses to Improve Israel’s ‘Black Image’

16th May 2018

Read it.

Thus confirming that it’s all a put-up job, ‘street theater’ designed to generate victims and sympathetic coverage from the Proglodyte Press.

UPDATE: Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz Decries Biased Media For Emboldening Terrorism [VIDEO]

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Manuka Honey Helps Fight Allergies and Hay Fever, Expert Claims

14th May 2018

Read it.

Tracy Lockwood, a registered dietitian based in New York City, detailed how the MGL (methylglyoxal) that’s found in manuka honey can prove extremely beneficial for those experiencing a runny nose as a result of hay fever.

“The active ingredient, MGL methylglyoxal, has been shown to be effective for treatments against nasal mucus – which is [one of the symptoms] you experience when you have allergies,” she told Well+Good.

We have the technology biology.

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Think Organic Food Is Better for You, Animals, and the Planet? Think Again.

14th May 2018

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What we eat is seen as more important than ever. And everywhere we are urged to go organic: we are told it is more nutritious, it improves animal welfare and helps the environment. In reality, that is mostly marketing hype.

In 2012 Stanford University’s Centre for Health Policy did the biggest comparison of organic and conventional foods and found no robust evidence for organics being more nutritious. A brand-new review has just repeated its finding: “Scientific studies do not show that organic products are more nutritious and safer than conventional foods.”

Likewise, animals on organic farms are not generally healthier. A five year US study showed that organic “health outcomes are similar to conventional dairies”. The Norwegian Scientific Committee for Food Safety found “no difference in objective disease occurrence.” Organic pigs and poultry may enjoy better access to open areas, but this increases their load of parasites, pathogens and predators. Meanwhile the organic regulation against feeding bee colonies with pollen supplements in low-pollen periods along with regulation against proper disinfection leads to sharply lower bee welfare.

Heh.

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