mindstalk | Entries tagged with news

Macron's out of nowhere party seems set to win legislative landslide in France. http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2017/06/11/macron_wins_landslide_in_french_legislative_elections_ends_french_party.html

Meanwhile, in US elections, hacking can't change votes (yet) but could screw with turnout: https://www.vox.com/new-money/2017/6/6/15745888/russia-election-hacking-leak

Puerto Rico had another referendum, with a whopping 97% voting to become a US state -- but with 20-something% turnout.

Someone's roadd trip through Trump America https://qz.com/1000690/im-a-minority-my-son-is-disabled-its-an-unsettling-time-for-people-like-us-in-trump-country/

School buses 8x safer for kids than being driven by their parents. https://one.nhtsa.gov/Research/Crashworthiness/School-Bus-Crashworthiness-Research
This is roughly consistent with http://www.numberwatch.co.uk/risks_of_travel.htm but https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CE42rp_XIAAfhao.jpg has more extreme risk ratios. Both agree that motorcycling is deadly. But speaking for that: risk gaps: https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2014/7/14/texting-in-your-risk-gap.html

"End traffic stops!" https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2016/7/24/the-routine-traffic-stop

Interactive vote simulation. "I've said it before, and I'll say it again: IRV sucks." http://ncase.me/ballot/ Cool fireflies simulation from the same source: http://ncase.me/fireflies/

UberPool kind of reinventing fixed route buses: http://humantransit.org/2017/05/the-receding-fantasy-of-affordable-urban-transit-to-your-door.html

Conservatives despise fact-checkers. https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2017/06/09/study-conservatives-despise-the-fact-checking-industry/?utm_term=.ac97e946288b

Crossposts: http://mindstalk.livejournal.com/483799.html

"Someone forgets their gun" isn't that newsworthy; people make mistakes. This article is more interesting for the other terrifying information it includes:
"newly hired air marshals do not currently receive on-the-job training"
"Although it has an $835 million budget, agents cover less than 1% of US domestic and international flights"
"A CNN report in 2015 exposed the long hours, chaotic schedules and use of drugs and alcohol among federal air marshals"
"obtained a now-classified study commissioned by the TSA that revealed 75% of air marshals flying domestic missions were sleep-deficient"

I like that 'now-classified' bit. "Oh god, they found problems. Let's classify it so people can't see!" This is also part of why it's hard to take "leaked classified information" as an inherent civic sin.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/21/politics/air-marshal-gun-airplane-bathroom/index.html

Crossposts: http://mindstalk.livejournal.com/477791.html

It's a small thing in the world, but I feel compelled to counter-act their revisionism. For once, posting is direct action! http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/article71659992.html

Crossposts: http://mindstalk.livejournal.com/477245.html

Turkey's military is sworn to uphold secular democracy. This might be the sixth coup since 1960.

Turkey joined NATO in 1955: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO#Members so being a NATO member with a coup isn't new. For that matter, Portugal joined in 1949, and was run by the dictator Salazar until 1968. Greece was run by a junta of colonels from 1967 to 1974.

Erdogan has been undermining democracy, going after opposition MPs https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jun/08/erdogans-draconian-new-law-demolish-turkeys-eu-ambitions and prosecuting more than 1800 people since 2014 for "insulting" him.

And this weirdness, from what I'm told is the third largest newspaper in Turkey and legit: http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/no-one-should-do-politics-in-turkey-except-erdogan-says-chief-adviser-yigit-bulut.aspx?pageID=238&nID=100501&NewsCatID=338

'With President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at the helm in Turkey, there’s no need for anyone else in the country to engage in politics, presidential adviser Yiğit Bulut has said.

“There is already a leader in this country and he is engaging in politics. There is no need for anyone else to engage in politics. He is engaging in politics both at home and abroad. Our duty is to support the leader in this country,” Bulut, Erdoğan’s chief economy adviser, said during a program on state television TRT Haber on June 14.'

'Bulut, a former news anchor and editor-in-chief of the private broadcaster 24 TV, was appointed as then-Prime Minister Erdoğan’s chief adviser in July 2013 during which time he unraveled a vast and nefarious international conspiracy to assassinate Erdoğan “using telekinesis.” After Erdoğan’s election as president in August 2014, he was appointed as his chief adviser on economics.'

Crossposts: http://mindstalk.livejournal.com/455011.html

Greenpeace vandalizes the Nazca lines
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-30422994
http://io9.com/this-greenpeace-stunt-may-have-irreparably-damaged-peru-166972861
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/14/world/americas/peru-plans-to-charge-greenpeace-activists-for-damage-to-nazca-lines.html?_r=0

Before: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lignes_de_Nazca_D%C3%A9cembre_2006_-_Colibri_1.jpg
After: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B4sB_DBCQAAEEjK.jpg:large

Crossposts: http://mindstalk.livejournal.com/416063.html

Someone claims to have made a breakthrough with the Voynich manuscript: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-26198471 also http://stephenbax.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Voynich-a-provisional-partial-decoding-BAX.pdf
The reports introduced me to an idea for it that I hadn't noticed before: that it's a book in an novel script in an extinct language. That would sound romantic on its own, but compared to "massive hoax" or "medieval RPG manual" it feels almost banal. In his paper Bax notes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rongorongo the undeciphered script of Easter Island, and the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glagolitic_alphabet which isn't undeciphered but had a rocky early period and could easily have died out leaving us some book in a weird script and extinct Slavic dialect.

I also wondered "what if we had an Iliad-class epic in Linear A?"

There's also undeciphered texts, like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rohonc_Codex
and
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nova_N_176
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singapore_Stone
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Starving_of_Saqqara

Rohonc is most like Voynich, including in being suspected of being a hoax.

In reading around, I stumbled upon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yugtun_script which is a Yupik syllabary created in five years by Uyaquk, who like Sequoyah of Cherokee fame, started out as an illiterate. (Five years? Between this and Vai, Sequoyah starts to seem slow.) Unlike the Cherokee script, it didn't take off, and having a Bible translation in "what the hell is this" seems a plausible outcome.

***

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sundaland mentions some new work claiming people were on the SE Asian continental shelf aka Sundaland 50,000 years ago, with much older populations, and SE Asian culture starting there before sea level rise kicked them off; the Polynesian culture says Y chromosome + mitochondiral DNA shows 'Taiwanese' migrants move into existing Melanesian populations. Given that people were in Australia 40-60,000 years ago, people north of there seems like a no-brainer...

***

Disney princesses as Game of Thrones characters. http://www.buzzfeed.com/ariellecalderon/disney-princesses-as-game-of-thrones-characters
Related fanart:
http://laughingsquid.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/20130924-15541250-lannisterlions.jpg
http://hbowatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/house_baratheon.jpg
http://hbowatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/house_stark.jpg
https://gs1.wac.edgecastcdn.net/8019B6/data.tumblr.com/f6520061f08acfa0fb3fdb01513ff969/tumblr_mk4x90lRwU1qa5wxio1_500.jpg

***

Finns are pushing an initiative for gay marraige. I got excited, until I learned that all it does is push a bill into the legislature, where it can die in committee just like any other bill; it's not an initiative for a referendum, as in Switzerland or US states. Lame!

***

Venezuela is exploding.
http://caracaschronicles.com/2014/02/20/the-game-changed/
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/foreigners/2014/02/nicolas_maduro_s_venezuela_erupts_in_violence_the_venezuelan_president_appears.html

Crossposts: http://mindstalk.livejournal.com/391412.html

November vote on a 1:12 pay initiative. More interesting to me is the sidebar on the existing state of income disparity... I don't have anything to compare it to, but it feels rather low. http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/swiss_news/Voters_to_decide_on_tougher_salary_gap_limits.html?cid=37097114

Relatedly, on the Wikipedia income equality page, it seems that Switzerland's pre-tax/transfer Gini is among the lowest around, tied with the Nordics. The Nordics overtake it after transfers, to 0.25, vs. 0.3 for Switzerland and 0.45 (and climbing) for the US.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_income_equality#Gini_coefficient.2C_before_taxes_and_transfers

And of course at some point they'll be voting on a basic income scheme. An absurdly generous and unnecessary one to my mind: 30,000 francs a year vs. a GDP/capita of 70,000 francs. http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/swiss_news/Old_utopian_ideal_revived_on_Swiss_streets.html?cid=36104780

Norway's prisons became famous a few years ago, but Switzerland apparently has very liberal incarceration policies as well. You *can* get a life sentence, but you also get a review after 15 years. Only 11.5% of convicts get sent to prison, vs. fines or suspended sentences. "the Swiss incarceration rate is only 80 convicted offenders per 100,000
inhabitants. By comparison, the UK's rate is 155, the Netherlands' 100,
France's 96, Germany's 90, and the U.S.'s 760"

Small increase in taxes on the rich planned, to pad out unemployment funds. Unemployment is shockingly high at 3% -- allegedly they're more used to 1%. http://www.west-info.eu/switzerland-to-tax-the-rich-to-subsidise-unemployment/
3.2% youth unemployment, vs. 50% in Spain and Greece, 22% in the eurozone and EU. Dual track education, without a big prestige difference between practical apprenticeship and secondary education. http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/business/What_future_for_the_younger_generation.html?cid=32584024
This would be why I call the basic income unnecessary: try for full employment first, and they seem good at that already.

No official minimum wage, though collective bargaining agreements have a similar effect. http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/swiss_news/Weighing_up_the_consequences_of_a_minimum_wage.html?cid=35467568

Swiss human capital investments are pretty high. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/07/switzerland_0_n_4038031.html
Though one thing in that is misleading: government health care spending may be low, but overall they have the second more expensive system in the world, after the US. It's basically Obamacare with non-profit insurers and probably no per-state exchanges. So high spending, via mandatory premiums, largely affordable through egalitarian wages I guess.

Swiss prostitution history http://www.thefreelibrary.com/The+sex+trade+in+Switzerland%3A+prostitution+has+been+documented+since...-a0171887336
and Zurich's "drive-in" prostitution http://www.modernghana.com/news/485077/1/controlling-prostitution-can-ghana-learn-from-swit.html
Legal age was raised from 16 to 18 last month, which tells us that prostitution has a legal age, and also that it was 16... http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/09/10/switzerland-ups-legal-prostitution-age-from-16-to-18/

Universal male conscription got put to a vote, and passed http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/23/world/europe/swiss-vote-to-keep-mandatory-army-service.html

Possession of 10 grams of marijuana decrminalized. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/03/switzerland-decriminalizes-marijuana_n_4037400.html

Crossposts: http://mindstalk.livejournal.com/383112.html

Obama's supposed scandals:
http://www.politicususa.com/hours-obama-destroys-gops-benghazi-irs-scandals.html
The released e-mails http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/interactive/2013/05/politics/white-house-benghazi-emails/white-house-benghazi-emails.pdf
More on the process, and also the huge affect of the "Innocence of Muslims" video http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/05/15/an-insider-account-of-the-creation-of-the-benghazi-talking-points/

Meanwhile, the House GOP has voted for the 37th time to repeal Obamacare and is set to cause another budget crisis, while the IRS may have been balanced in its audits http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/05/15/the-morning-plum-the-other-story-behind-the-gops-scandal-triumphalism/

Crossposts: http://mindstalk.livejournal.com/366859.html

Woo-hoo! Rhode Island, Delaware, now Minnesota! 12 states plus DC and 3 tribes.

I'd somehow not noticed Maryland approving it in 2012 -- by popular vote, as in Maine and Washington.

Illinois will be next if the bill can escape the House; Senate has passed it and governor has said he'll sign. (Also, Michael Madigan is still Speaker? Wow.)

New England + NY is a bloc, Maryland and Delaware are a tiny bloc which will be hooked up to NE if New Jersey can override Christie's veto, or gets a better governor, and Minnesota and Illinois would make a bloc with Iowa.

Crossposts: http://mindstalk.livejournal.com/366583.html

In case you've missed it: huge protests in Spain, against austerity and for more democracy.
http://numeroteca.org/2012/09/26/500-days-indignados-from-15m-to-25s/
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/26/world/europe/protests-continue-in-spain.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

And by 'austerity' I mean "dumpster diving to eat":
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/25/world/europe/hunger-on-the-rise-in-spain.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=all

Greece is in general strike, too: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/19726478#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

Crossposts: http://mindstalk.livejournal.com/339422.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/17/greek-elections-voters-europe-chance
"Voters give Europe and euro a chance"

Not mentions is that pro-austerity parties New Democracy and Pasok got, between them, not quite 43% of the vote. ND gets to form a government with Pasok only because of a constitutional provision that grants an extra 50 seats to the plurality winner -- a provision put in by New Democracy, I'm told. In fact voters rejected parties backing the austerity/bailout/memorandum by a large majority. If the legislature properly reflected the election results, it would be leftist Syriza trying to form a government with all the other anti-austerity parties -- an interesting challenge, granted, with the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn having about 7% of the vote, thus the difference between a bare majority and the full 57%.

Granted, giving majorities to minorities is a pretty common result; just happened in France, and in Scotland earlier, and in Canada. But it's rarely such an explicit design feature; in fact in Scotland people were saying "the system was designed to make single-party majorities unlikely!" though from my POV these people can't do math.

In other news, an article on the French election includes

One of the biggest upsets for the Socialists came in La Rochelle, where the Socialist former presidential candidate Ségolène Royal was beaten by a dissident candidate expelled from the Socialist party for standing against her. Royal's battle was at the centre of a presidential private-life saga this week when Hollande's partner, the journalist Valérie Trierweiler, tweeted her support of the dissident. Hollande had backed Royal, who was his partner for 30 years and is mother of his four children.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/17/socialist-party-french-parliament

Just seems so weird to an American... though I'm not sure if 'partner' here means a purely private couple, or one registered as what we'd call a civil union, since those seem to have displaced 'marriage' in France even for heterosexuals.

Crossposts: http://mindstalk.livejournal.com/329017.html

Greek democracy, scary neo-Nazi Golden Dawn
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/may/11/greece-hope-fear-political-ruins
Italian anarchists kneecap nuclear executive
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/may/11/italian-anarchists-kneecap-nuclear-executive
Pentagon course was teaching Islam is the enemy, and the destruction of Mecca
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/may/11/us-military-course-islam-enemy
Romney thinks Russia is our top enemy
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/12/us/politics/romneys-view-of-russia-sparks-debate.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=all
"Russia figures prominently in Mr. Romney’s book, where he calls it one
of four competitors for world leadership, along with the United States,
China and “violent jihadism” embraced by Iran and terror groups."

NY prosecutor favoring ultra Orthodox
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/11/nyregion/for-ultra-orthodox-in-child-sex-abuse-cases-prosecutor-has-different-rules.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=all

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/10/nyregion/ultra-orthodox-jews-shun-their-own-for-reporting-child-sexual-abuse.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Crossposts: http://mindstalk.livejournal.com/325003.html

Crossposts: http://mindstalk.livejournal.com/307091.html

Guess I'm first on my friendslist... Senate passed the bill, 33-29, and Cuomo signed, to take effect 25 July. An article says this doubles the number of Americans who live under same-sex marriage laws; I haven't checked the numbers. Of course, California was even bigger, for all of 5 months.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Samesex_marriage_in_USA.svg
Apart from Iowa and DC, it's a solid bloc of states. Which touches Canada, where it's also legal. Infectious!

Given how Hollywood gets everyone thinking California's 18 age of consent is universal truth (it's not, 16 would be more representative) and convinces foreigners that they have Miranda rights, I wonder what would have happened if CA had managed to stay good. Gay marriage all over the United States of Television, convincing Americans it was normal...

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-notebook/stop-harper-placard-gets-senate-page-turfed-from-throne-speech/article2046548/
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/paging-protesters-page-protests-harper-government-senate-floor-213101529.html

http://ipolitics.ca/2011/04/21/ndp-surges-in-quebec-bloc-quebecois-dropping/
Overtaking the BQ in Quebec! Tying the Liberals in national polls!
Of course, (a) keeping this and (b) translating that support into actual seats in a flawed voting system will be another matter. But still, cool!

Crossposts: http://mindstalk.livejournal.com/283033.html

Wikileaks role in Tunisia revolution: honest revelation did what decades of quiet diplomacy didn't
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/01/25/whispering_at_autocrats?page=0,0
role of women in Tunisia; highly equal
http://www.npr.org/2011/01/27/133248219/in-tunisia-women-play-equal-role-in-revolution

Egypt off the net, cell phones off
http://foolab.org/node/7892
Mubarak retrospective
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/01/27/egypt.mubarak/

VP Joe Biden calls Mubarak not a dictator. Will the US sell out the Arab people yet again?
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Backchannels/2011/0127/Joe-Biden-says-Egypt-s-Mubarak-no-dictator-he-shouldn-t-step-down
police setting cars on fire
http://www.electronista.com/articles/11/01/27/egypt.shutting.down.most.internet.access/

Mubarak humor
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/01/02/three_decades_of_a_joke_that_just_wont_die

protests spread to Yemen
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/01/2011127100660857.html

TSA doesn't screen ground crews. You want to bomb a plane, subvert the
baggage handlers.
http://www.salon.com/technology/ask_the_pilot/2010/11/22/tsa_screening_of_pilots/index.html
TSA FUD
http://www.slate.com/id/2275839/
US airlines more crowded, have higher fees, fewer flights
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/24/business/24travel.html
TSA humiliation and willing submission of America
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/11/23-5
http://www.cracked.com/article_16656_6-brainwashing-techniques-theyre-using-you-right-now.html
TSA patdowns spreading disease
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=231733
TSA objectors referred to as domestic extremists, now intelligence targets
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/30286
"gate rape"
opt-out dealt with by turning backscatters off
http://gizmodo.com/comment/33032822
US may drop color coded alert system
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/24/AR2010112401239.html?hpid=topnews
TSA patdowns will kill Americans -- encourage people to drive, which is
more dangerous
http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2010/11/the_tsa_is_literally_killing_a.html?f=most-commented-24h-10
TSA scanner skin cancer concerns. probably worse for children
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/travel/news/full-body-airport-scanners-as-likely-to-kill-you-as-terrorist-bombs/story-e6frg8ro-1225958588299
Ebert vs. TSA
http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2010/11/where_i_draw_the_line.html
TSA workers punish mother over breast milk
http://www.menwithfoilhats.com/2010/11/x-ray-nation-tsa-glass-box-mother-over-stored-breast-milk/
TSA patdowns don't even work
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/28/nyregion/28critic.html
danger of X-ray backscatters
http://myhelicaltryst.blogspot.com/2010/11/tsa-x-ray-backscatter-body-scanner.html?spref=fb
police officer observes TSA lack of coherent policy, practices aimed at
compliance rather than security
http://gizmodo.com/5696160/why-the-tsa-could-lead-us-to-public-rebellion-or-a-terrorist-attack

TSA molesting surgery patients
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/15360808-post118.html
air safety myths
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/254351/eight-air-security-myths-john-c-wohlstetter

TSA searches diplomat
http://www.clarionledger.com/article/20101208/NEWS/12080332/Female-diplomat-patted-down-at-Jackson-airport

TSA San Mateo DA threatens prosecution for patdowns
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news%2Flocal%2Fpeninsula&id=7793386
Dayton agent sexual assault
http://www.ourlittlechatterboxes.com/2010/11/tsa-sexual-assault.html
opt out day
http://www.optoutday.com/
TSA glitch killed baby in 2008
http://www.samoanewsonline.com/viewstory.php?storyid=2342

Obama claims rights of assassination of US citizens without judicial oversight ('old' news but ongoing)
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/11/08

to the north,
Canadian provinces seek trade links with China, unencumbered by pesky
concerns about human rights
http://rfmcdpei.livejournal.com/2569844.html

BP hires private mercs to block reporters from public beaches, or at
least from interviewing workers
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/06/bp-hires-mercs-to-block-oily-beaches/
BP media restrictions
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/03/AR2010060300848.html
BP cost-cut safety measures. Even Halliburton thought it was a bad idea
http://wbztv.com/national/BP.email.deepwater.2.1751358.html
oil surf (click for big)

oil bird? I can't even tell

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Rich and Strange Aeons

Entries tagged with news

some news and links

US air marshalls

UC Davis trying to scrub pepper-spray incident.

Turkey context:

Criminal organization Greenpeace

Voynich, Game of Disney, Fiinns, Venezuela

Swiss news

Obama's supposed scandals

Gay marriage

Protest news

Greece: graaah crap reporting

Links of Joy and Happiness (not)

links, mostly Krugman

gay marriage in NY

Canadian gumption

NDP surge!

2011 Arab Revolution links

TSA links

more "land of the free" links

BP oil news special