Not that politics is off limits but this holiday week seems a good time to focus elsewhere.
What’s your favorite non-politics story?
I found it interesting to learn that the Milky Way is moving, revealing a dense supercluster of galaxies never seen before. And we’re moving toward it at 50 kilometers per second. But there is no cause for alarm: At that speed it will take us 5 trillion years to get there.
Science Magazine: “Our Milky Way and its neighboring galaxies are on the move. The whole Local Group of more than 50 galaxies is being tugged in one direction by, astronomers presume, the gravity of some enormous unseen object. Now, an international team believes they’ve found the culprit: a nearby supercluster—a collection of many hundreds of galaxies—that has never before been noticed.”
does that mean mounds and baby ruth next? god help us if we’re only left with kit kats!
and more space news from nat’l geo:
NASA Team Claims ‘Impossible’ Space Engine Works—Get the Facts
Scientists just published a paper saying that the controversial EmDrive produces thrust, even though that defies known laws of physics.
After years of speculation, a maverick research team at NASA’s Johnson Space Center has reached a milestone that many experts thought was impossible. This week, the team formally published their experimental evidence for an electromagnetic propulsion system that could power a spacecraft through the void—without using any kind of propellant
query: all these microwaves bouncing around? any chance that’s why we’re doing crazy things like destroying the planet, electing demagogues and watching reality shows?
Anytime you need to avoid Politics, the Smithsonian is always a great place to get away from it all.
how about “jowly” and “arse-y”? from wapo: Trump, breaching protocol, suggests his buddy Nigel Farage as ambassador to U.S. ‘No vacancy,’ says British P.M.
The word “cheeky,” meaning “insolent” or “impertinent,” is a favorite in Britain, as in, to quote the Oxford English Dictionary, “some even had the cheek to push their cameras through the front gate” or “If he gives me any of his cheek I’ll knock him down.”
In the world of diplomacy, a foreign leader suggesting publicly to another government whom it should send as ambassador is most definitely cheeky, even in the view of Britain’s cheekiest newspaper, the Sun, which called it “a highly unusual intervention that breaks with diplomatic protocol.”
When the man proposed as ambassador is a leader not of the party in power but rather a thorn in the side of the party in power, it transcends “cheek” and becomes “a corker.”
That was the word the Guardian’s Andrew Sparrow deployed to describe President-elect Donald Trump’s tweet….
[….]
British Prime Minister Theresa May was less than thrilled.
“There is no vacancy,” said a spokesman for 10 Downing Street. “We already have an excellent ambassador to the U.S.,” Kim Darroch.
Trump’s tweet could be treated as comic but for what Sparrow called its “serious implications.” Among them:
Space, the final frontier…
Pat: I hope that new propulsion system can do warp speed. Forget Canada, I’m ready to go where no one has gone before…ASAP! Never mind escaping Earth’s gravity I just want to escape a world where trump is in a position of power and has a nuclear button.
Jamie: My favorite place in Washington. Love their website. They also have a cool YouTube channel that I subscribe to. And also one for the National Zoo.
Guiliani now being considered for intelligence! Who’da thunk it ;o)
Stock Market hits all-time high – gooooooooooooo Trump!
Trump Foundation admits to violating ban on ‘self-dealing,’ new filing to IRS shows
President-elect Donald Trump’s charitable foundation has admitted to the IRS that it violated a legal prohibition against “self-dealing,” which bars nonprofit leaders from using their charity’s money to help themselves, their businesses or their families.
That admission was contained in the Donald J. Trump Foundation’s IRS tax filings for 2015, which were recently posted online at the nonprofit-tracking site GuideStar. A GuideStar spokesman said the forms were uploaded by the Trump Foundation’s law firm, Morgan, Lewis and Bockius.
The Post could not immediately confirm if the same forms had actually been sent to the IRS.
wall st journal: Donald Trump’s Foundation Engaged in Self-Dealing, IRS Filing Shows
remember earlier this month when american spectator called for “Clinton Foundation Should Be Investigated Under RICO” because of alleged self-dealing? what’s good for the goose is essentially demanded for the gander especially when the gander is about to become prez.
So who do you think Mike Pence will be pick as his vp–
I’m going with Dr. Ben Carson
kgc, paul ryan
but if the big pop vote count gets even bigger plus stories like the Wisconsin congressional bad districting keep coming up maybe… big maybe… the electoral college will decide otherwise
This is a very interesting read:
http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/donald-trump-personally-blasts-the-press
Carson has said he’s not interested in an appointment in the Administration – he would rather work from the outside. (Interpretation – I retired from medicine and if I’m not going to be the Big Cheese I’m not going to work full time. I have traveling to do.)
On the thread topic poobah, I caught a special with lots of bigwig smart guys like astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson, theoretical physicist Michio Kaku and others talking about black holes – there’s one at the center of our galaxy, but there are others that kind of wander and suck things like planets, dust, asteroids, stars and the like that cross their event horizon into them. It was pretty fascinating stuff. You may have heard that things that go into black holes emerge in an alternate or parallel universe – which sounds comforting, but it won’t help as the atmosphere gets sucked off the globe, followed by the oceans, and the globe elongates as it’s drawn into the black hole.
“the atmosphere gets sucked off the globe, followed by the oceans, and the globe elongates as it’s drawn into the black hole”
pogo, so how is that so much different than what’s happening under the drumpf?
btw, have you seen the stuff out today on his constitutional prob with foreign emoluments i.e. profits/conflicts in his international business? think giving business to the kids will be his solution?
wonder how many others of these will be found… and will it be in time?
daily kos story Clinton’s Popular Vote Lead Widens and NC’s Elections Board Lawyers-Up After Bombshell Revelation
The state BOE called an Emergency Meeting on Sunday November 20, where Josh Malcolm, the Board’s Democratic member dropped a bombshell. The ‘mill’ that was stamping out cookie cutter’ challenges. naming hundreds of voters as ineligible was the state Board, itself.
Specifically, the Board’s Information Technology Director, accessed the state’s database to gather information that he used to fabricate challenges against voters which he sent to the county BOEs. The other Board members at the meeting admitted that they knew about his actions and absolved themselves of any responsibility.
atlantic: A Video for the New Age
As a study of oratorical styles, this is genuinely worth watching, even if you don’t understand a word of Italian. Spend even 30 or 40 seconds and you will see what I mean. Or for a highlight skip to the passage from 0:50 to 1:50.
The speaker’s enunciation is so emphatic and precise, his wording so blunt and simple, and his argument so straight-ahead that even I, who last coped with Italian many years ago, can follow just what he is telling us. Oversimplified, the message is: make Italy great again! (And specifically its navy.) But again the real message has nothing to do with a particular language. It involves personal carriage, facial expression, stance of dominance, and interaction with crowd. I am sorry I had not taken time to watch this before. (Thanks to John Kenney for the lead.)
wapo:
Meeting at the newspaper’s midtown Manhattan headquarters, Trump spoke frankly about a number of topics with the paper’s editors, reporters and business executives.
Trump said he didn’t intend to prosecute his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, over her use of a private email server while she was secretary of state, countering his campaign rhetoric.
“It’s just not something that I feel very strongly about,” he said, according to Times journalists who livetweeted the hour-long session. “I don’t want to hurt the Clintons, I really don’t. She went through a lot and suffered greatly in many different ways.”
He also acknowledged that there is “some connectivity” between climate change and human activity, a softening of his campaign stance. But he said he is also thinking about “how much it will cost our companies” and how it will affect American competitiveness.
Asked about a meeting of white supremacists in Washington over the weekend, Trump said “of course…I disavow and condemn them.”
Trump left the meeting around 2 p.m., amid jeers and a few boos from a crowd of passersby assembled in the newspaper’s lobby.
Starting to wonder if the floater is going to make it to January without ending up in jail. While I read the history of presidential drinking I am drawn to how none of them were as crooked as the floater. Even Tricky Dick, the crook, was now where near the level of stuff the floater is in. He now thinks he is above the law, the same as Nixon, or Nixsclecht (very bad) as my macro economics professor called him. Yup, his voters went all out to break the U.S.
Belated thanks to Craig and everyone else. It’s been tough losing my mom, but everyone has been so nice to me and my family these last few weeks or so. One funny story from the visitation was one of my sister’s brother-in-laws plopping himself down on a couch at the funeral home, only to realize that the couch was on wheels. The couch slid backwards into a table and knocked off picture frames and a vase. One picture frame broke and the vase broke as well. I immediately said, “Mom always said “Don’t play ball in the house.” 🙂
Patd I good point. Trump, black hole, You say tomato, I say patahhhhhto.
I did see Trump’s emoluments problems. Seems irreconcilable to me. ?