Comments 6-18-13

This Ancient Medieval Tomb-Marker Is Older than Christina Aguilera!!! via @BuzzfeedArchaeology

Marco Rubio Votes Against Biometric Visa Control System Recommended by 9/11 Panel
Lando Calrissian just emailed me to say his own deal now looks better by comparison

OUT: Cheatriots In: Murdriots

Rubio’s Folly, Cont.
"The Gang of Eight bill does not serve the economic interests of the United States. The fact is that our public schools do an excellent job of producing an abundant supply of unskilled workers with little or no proficiency in English, and the national labor force is not achingly in need of a few million more." [rdbrewer]

The Greenland "Sleeper Shark," the World's Coldest-Water Shark
Really interesting thing about a shark you probably never heard of... including the odd fact that while the shark is edible, its meat is poisonous without careful preparation via @fredoso

Rep. Elbert Guillory explains why he switched parties [rdbrewer]

DHS hopes to get same cyber-spying powers as NSA
And here is the biggest problem with creating these huge databases. One day it's for "foreigners." After a stroke of the pen, the next day it's for everybody else. One day it's for terrorism; the next it's for tax collection. [rdbrewer]

Comments 6-17-13

Insane Timelapse of a Rotating Supercell Looks Like an Alien Spaceship [rdbrewer]


VDH: Illegal Immigration: Elite Illiberality
"The elites favor de facto amnesty for a variety of self-interested reasons. For the corporate echelon, creating a guest-worker program and granting amnesty — without worrying about securing the border first — ensures continued access to millions of cheap laborers from Latin America." [rdbrewer]

Interview: Helen Smith Talks Men on Strike [rdbrewer]

The Wealth Effect, RIP? Dems have long claimed that "trickle-down economics" is a myth; looks like their own policies have managed to strangle it, because those with money are now hoarding it. [Fritzworth]

Neil Munro: Obama runs immigration bill from White House, according to new report
"The White House is playing a larger role in developing the Gang of Eight’s immigration bill than its supporters publicly admit, according to a forthcoming article in The New Yorker. ‘No decisions are being made without talking to us about it,’ the official said of the Gang of Eight negotiations." Thanks to commenter "Vic." [rdbrewer]

Amesty bill equals disaster for low income workers
Democrats and liberal Republicans couldn't care less. The corporate interest is in more low wage workers. And money talks. [rdbrewer]


Navy Researchers Put Dark Lightning to the SWORD
Dark lightning? "Discovered “by accident” by NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope in 2010, dark lightning is a surprisingly powerful — yet invisible — by-product of thunderstorms in Earth’s atmosphere." Added: New map shows large scale cosmic structure. [rdbrewer]

Hot News Tip: The Democrats aren't pushing the amnesty bill because it'll help the GOP. Just sayin'. (Must credit rdbrewer.)

USA Today: 3 NSA veterans speak out on whistle-blower: We told you so
"They had spent decades in the top ranks of the agency, designing and managing the very data-collection systems they say have been turned against Americans." [rdbrewer]

An amazing essay on something you might not have heard of: "Survivorship Bias".
Successful people can't tell you what NOT to do because they didn't do it. (or they did it and got lucky) It's a long one. Coffee! [ArthurK]

Jonah: Freedom: The Unfolding Revolution
"The libertarian idea is the only truly new political idea in the last couple thousand years." [rdbrewer]

Forbes: Hubble May Have Discovered A Planet That Shouldn't Exist [rdbrewer]

Israel Builds Sinai Border Fence; Illegal Crossings Drop 99.9%
Don't they know fences don't work? According to our politicians, they'll just build a longer ladder or dig a deeper hole. [rdbrewer]

mooB
MAB! (yesterday's big news had the reset button pressed) [ArthurK]

DNCC tries an insurance/tax scam. Why else would they file a post-convention police report that includes a lost 13" MacBook Pro listed as being worth $75K, an iPhone worth $30K, a Blackberry worth $54K, and so on, for a total of over half a million dollars? [Fritzworth]

Boom
BAM! [ArthurK]