Why China Can't Lure Tech Talent

A Bloomberg article points out why China finds it difficult to attract tech talent.

The biggest problem is government control of the internet. For a software developer, the inconvenience goes well beyond not being able to access YouTube during coffee breaks. It means that key software libraries and tools are often inaccessible. In 2013, China blocked Github, a globally important open-source depository and collaboration tool, thereby forcing developers to seek workarounds. Using a virtual private network to "tunnel" through the blockades is one popular option. But VPNs slow uploads, downloads and collaboration. That slowness, in turn, can pose security risks: In 2015, hundreds of developers opted to use infected iOS software tools rather than spend days downloading legit versions from Apple Inc. 

And it isn't just developers who suffer. Among the restricted sites in China is Google Scholar, a tool that indexes online peer-reviewed studies, conference proceedings, books and other research material into an easily accessible format. It's become a crucial database for academics around the world, and Chinese researchers -- even those with VPNs -- struggle to use it. The situation grew so dire this summer that several state-run news outlets published complaints from Chinese scientists, with one practically begging the nationalist Global Times newspaper: "We hope the government can relax supervision for academic purposes."

A Possible Tool To Stop The Corruption

It's called the STOCK Act.

A section of that law states that “no executive branch employee may use nonpublic information derived from [or acquired through] their position as an executive branch employee as a means for making a private profit.”

“The STOCK Act bars the President from: using nonpublic information for private profit,” the independent Office of Government Ethics, which handles executive branch ethics issues, wrote in a Monday letter to Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.).

The measure was originally designed to apply only to members of Congress. But Republicans — annoyed that it covered the GOP-controlled House and Senate but not the Obama administration — made sure to extend it to the executive branch, including the president and vice president.

He wouldn't have immunity from this one and neither could he avoid running afoul of it.

What To Do With An Old Tire

Turn into diesel fuel. This process turns whole tires into saleable diesel, carbon, and steel. It is energy-efficient and emission-free. 

A Road Map from Jesse Jackson

Jamelle Bouie's article in Slate got me to thinking about how we build a stronger Democratic Party at this juncture in history. In recent campaigns, most politicians have built laundry lists of issues where each issue has an appeal to some subgroup of the voting population. But what they haven't done is make it clear how all those issues support one another and how all the subgroups need to support one another to get their particular issues addressed. The successful candidate must take seemingly disparate progressive agendas and knit them into a whole picture that include all of his or her constituents.It's like sewing a quilt in that each scrap of cloth is not really useful in itself. Yet when securely sewn together, all those scraps make up something extremely useful and even beautiful.
Candidates at each jurisdictional level should make a clear-eyed assessment of the needs and interests of their voters. Then they must make the case that in order for that variety of needs to be satisfied, all the various groups have things in common around which they can unite. Business is good when workers have the wages to buy things. Schools are good when the community takes the time and resources to support the children and the system that provides that education. People feel more secure when law enforcement has earned their respect. The institution of democracy is stronger for everyone when a few very wealthy people don't have the power to dominate campaigns and the crafting of legislation.

Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, Section 4

Section 4. Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.

Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session, within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.

This is Pro-Life

I believe that to be part of the battle in favor of life from the moment of conception until a dignified, natural death This includes the care of the mother during pregnancy, the existence of laws protecting the mother postpartum, and the need to ensure that children receive enough food, as well as providing health care throughout the whole length of life, and taking good care of our grandparents, and not resorting to euthanasia. Nor should we perpetrate a kind of killing through insufficient food or a nonexistent or deficient education, which are ways of depriving a person of a full life. If there is a conception for us to respect, there is a life for us to care for. --Jorge Bergoglio (now Pope Francis)

I just want to add that if you are going to be "pro-life", don't just do part of it. Be pro-life all the way and you will have my respect.

Environmental Good News

Amongst all the bad environmental news lately, here's a piece of good news. It seems that declining mercury emissions have resulted in a decline in the mercury concentration in tuna. Contrary to some opinions, it seems that environmental regulations actually work.

Wicked weeds may be agricultural angels

Getting it right in agriculture. This article talks about how having a few weeds mixed in with your otherwise monoculture field can help control pests.

12 Notes From A Political Autopsy

Here are some good notes for measuring our progress forward.
The short version is below. Read the article for a fuller explanation of each point.

1. The people aren’t the problem.
2. Even when you’ve been cheated, there can be room for improvement.
3. Don’t pretend you didn’t lose.
4. Accept responsibility.
5. It’s not about settling scores. It’s about changing the game.
6. Trade was decisive.
7. Some people got it right.
8. Bigotry and economic fear aren’t mutually exclusive.
9. It’s hard to win the votes of people you dislike.
10. The Democratic Party needs a “Democracy Spring.”
11. The left isn’t the enemy. It’s the future.
12. This is the call-up.

Can we meet global energy demands with nuclear power?

An international team of scientists suggests that we must ramp up energy production by nuclear power if we are to succeed in warding off the worst effects of greenhouse gas emissions on climate change. The team suggests that beginning in 2020 we could achieve an annual electricity output of 20 terawatts without needing to develop carbon dioxide trapping and storage technology for the tens of billions of tons of emissions that would otherwise drive global warming to catastrophic levels.

Problems with the Press

The press was played by Donald. The question is, what are they going to do about it? Are they going to continue to normalize him? Or are they going to take the focus off ratings just a bit and point out the unprecedented threat he is to the way our democracy works?

Krugman: The Long Haul

Paul Krugman looks ahead:

The true awfulness of Trump will become apparent over time. Bad things will happen, and he will be clueless about how to respond; if you want a parallel, think about how Katrina revealed the hollowness of the Bush administration, and multiply by a hundred. And his promises to bring back the good old days will eventually be revealed as the lies they are.

But it probably won’t happen in a year. So the effort to reclaim American decency is going to have to have staying power; we need to build the case, organize, create the framework. And, of course, never forget who is right.

It’s going to be a long time in the wilderness, and it’s going to be awful. If I sound calm and philosophical, I’m not — like everyone who cares, I’m frazzled, sleepless, depressed. But we need to be stalwart.

LAPD and Deportation

The LAPD plans to continue its existing policy of not participating with ICE in any immigration enforcement. It isn't a political statement, it's just good policing. You can't fight crime when victims are too afraid to talk to the authorities. Sometimes you have to decide what has the higher priority, protecting a vulnerable population or making them more vulnerable to criminals because they themselves might be guilty of a misdemeanor.

Hypocrisy Lives Here

It's OK to expose the Secretary of States's email but don't don't try to find out how much Pence wasted on a lawsuit that didn't involve Indiana. It's the Pence double standard.

What Democrats should do about the Supreme Court.

Dahlia Lithwick is just pissed.

His 100 Days

For reference, here's a summary of what has been promised for the first 100 days.

1. Term Limits
2. Federal Hiring Freeze
3. Two regulations removed for every regulation added
4. Five-year waiting period for officials becoming lobbyists
5. Lifetime ban for former White House officials lobbying for foreign governments
6. Complete ban for foreign lobbyists raising money for American elections
7. Renegotiate or withdraw from NAFTA
8. Withdraw from TPP
9. Label China as a currency manipulator
10. Identify foreign trading abuses that affect American workers and eliminate them
11. Open production of oil, natural gas, and "clean" coal.
12. Lift roadblocks on pipelines
13. Cancel support of UN climate change projects and us money on American infrastructure
14. Cancel all "unconstitutional" executive actions
15. Replace Scalia
16. Cancel federal funding going to Sanctuary Cities
17. Deport 2 million "criminal" undocumented immigrants
18. Suspend immigration from "terror-prone" areas. Vetting so extreme that no one can pass through it
19. Tax gift to the rich and corporations
20. Magical revenue neutral infrastructure development
21. Redirect public education funding to private schools
22. Repeal ACA and loosen approval requirements for drugs
23. Enact a deduction for child care and elder care
24. Build the wall, put illegal immigrants in prison. Remove foreign workers from the labor force
25. Poor money into law enforcement to stop a non-existent surge in crime
26. Remove requester on defense spending. Magically protect infrastructure from hacking. Only people who like America can immigrate
27. Ethics reform. Magically drain the swamp while leaving the stinkiest  denizen in the White House.

Pick your poison and pick your activism target.

Even Paul Ryan disagrees with the coming administration. Likewise with Kevin McCarthy.

We will see how this goes. 

Pop the Bubble

There are parts of the country that get forgotten. The people who live there 
don't see the country like the rest of us.

When you grow up in rural America, denying rights to people is an abstract concept. Denying marriage rights to gay people isn't that much different that denying boarding rights to Klingons.

We, as a culture, have to stop infantilizing and deifying rural and white working-class Americans. Their experience is not more of a real American experience than anyone else’s, but when we say that it is, we give people a pass from seeing and understanding more of their country. More Americans need to see more of the United States. They need to shake hands with a Muslim, or talk soccer with a middle aged lesbian, or attend a lecture by a female business executive.

We must start asking all Americans to be their better selves. We must all understand that America is a melting pot and that none of us has a more authentic American experience.

Liquid fuel from CO2 in the air

Given how bad our atmosphere is likely to get, there could be a great deal of use for this.

Young Aussie inventor builds a better Band-Aid dispenser

On a lighter note, why didn't anyone do this sooner? A 10-year-old figures out how to dispense Band-Aids with one hand. Hopefully, coming to a drug store and medical facilities near you.

Now What?

Krugman:

First of all, it’s always important to remember that elections determine who has the power, not who has the truth. The stunning upset doesn’t mean that the alt-right is correct to view nonwhites as inferior, that voodoo economics works, whatever. And you have to hold to the truth as best you see it, even if it suffers political defeat.

That said, does it make sense on a personal level to keep struggling after this kind of blow? Why not give up on trying to save the world, and just look out for yourself and those close to you? Quietism does have its appeal. Admission: I spent a lot of today listening to music, working out, reading a novel, basically taking a vacation in my head. You can’t help feeling tired and frustrated after this kind of setback.

But eventually one has to go back to standing for what you believe in. It’s going to be a much harder, longer road than I imagined, and maybe it ends in irreversible defeat, if nothing else from runaway climate change. But I couldn’t live with myself if I just gave up. And I hope others will feel the same.

Scott Walker's Law Crushing Unions Helped Trump

Daniel Marans looks at how the loss of unity in labor set the stage.

Workers who turn on their peers must realize they are next in line to get steamrolled...

Sadlowski, who now represents public-sector workers in northwest Illinois, warns workers who were looking for answers by voting for Trump that Trump will betray the workers who trusted him as well.

Just as the seeds for this debacle were sown at the state and local levels, the recovery must be done there as well. We need to be sure we fight the real enemies, not each other. 

Mourn. Then Organize.

Peter Dreier:

This is no time for liberals and progressives, Bernie supporters and Clinton followers, to point fingers. This is a time for cooperation and strategizing. Unions, Planned Parenthood, Sierra Club, the NAACP, community organizing groups, LGBT activists, and wealthy progressives have to collaborate. They need to raise the money, hundreds of millions of dollars, to send an army of paid organizers to key swing states and House districts now. We can’t just parachute organizers into swing states a few months before the next election. We need to build and expand the base by getting ordinary people organized around local and nation issues. We need to ramp up protest and civil disobedience to stop Trump’s initiatives. And we need to register voters so they’ll be “fired up and ready go” for the mid-term elections in two years and the presidential election in 2020.

We need to lay the foundation for Democrats to take back the Congress in 2018, and then elect Elizabeth Warren president in 2020.

Mourn our losses. Then organize.

George Takei's Advice For How To Prevail

George Takei:

1. We may not have prevailed, but we must not despair.
2. This does not feel like the America you love and honor. We are in unchartered waters.
3. In times like these we must reaffirm the values we cherish and have fought for: equality, justice, the care of our planet.
4. We must stand up defiantly to any dark or divisive acts, and look out for the most vulnerable among us. It is more important than ever.
5. Within our hearts we know the society we wish to live in. No one can take that vision from us. We are each of us keepers of that promise.
6. This country has seen wars and grave injustices, slavery and even civil war in its past. Yet we found our way through. We will now, too.
7. Hold your loved ones close. Tell them that it is in times of sadness and in the toughest of days where we often find our true mettle.

Forget Canada. Stay and Fight for American Democracy.

Jonathan Chait:

Never in my lifetime has the United States seen a period of darkness like the one that lies ahead of us. But we have seen periods of darkness before — segregation, McCarthyism, the internment of the Japanese, the Civil War, slavery. The American story is fitful progress punctuated by frequent reversals, some of which appeared at the time like they would last forever. None of them did.

The Trump years will be a horror. When I set out to write my long story in the magazine about Trumpism and the future of the Republican Party, I originally intended to focus on the immediate possibilities that lay before the Republican Party if it could capture full control of Washington. As this scenario grew less likely, I gave it less emphasis, but it is there. The Republicans will pass massive regressive tax cuts; they will take access to medical care from the poor and sick; they will deregulate the financial industry and fossil-fuel emitters.

And that is just the beginning, the best-case scenario. Trump is an impulsive, egotistical bully, intolerant of criticism and dissent and drawn to the ruthless application of power. Many liberals have been warning that American democracy is far weaker than we believed, and this was before any of us imagined a monster like Trump commanding the Executive branch. Trump will shake the Republic to its foundations.

…

I do not believe that the people who elected Trump will be helped by his program in any way. Trump avoided policy specifics to a comical degree. His health-care plan is “something terrific” that will take care of everybody at no cost to anybody. His wall paid for by Mexico is not even a punch line — it is a symbol of his supporters’ fascistic willingness to subordinate all critical faculties and endorse an obvious absurdity. What he will do is sign a quick succession of donor-driven laws written by Paul Ryan whose authentic support is confined to a trivial proportion of the party outside its big-money wing. To whatever extent people voted for Trump for reasons other than racial and cultural resentment, Trump will do nothing for them. He is a buffoon surrounded by a party apparatus that is unable to govern, as the Republican elite demonstrated during the George W. Bush era, and that has grown worse. 

22 Million Emails "Lost"

By the Bush administration. Yeah, crickets. Truly a double standard for the white, male war crimes perpetrator.

Selective Outrage

It should be noted that the voter fraud Republicans are so afraid of is not only vanishingly rare but is very difficult to do. They don't seem to care because the processes to prevent this rare fraud also make it more difficult for folks who tend to vote for Democrats to vote at all.

But the kind of voter fraud that is easy to do (with absentee and mail-in ballots) tends to occur with folks who tend to vote Republican. So once again we see that the true motivation about "voter fraud" is nothing more than an attempt to win an election that you can't win fair and square. They should be ashamed of themselves, but I guess that is asking too much. 

Democrats' Shot at Taking the House

An analyst has a key indicator.

Geoffrey Skelley, who closely tracks congressional races at the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, suggests there’s a crude shorthand for evaluating the battle for the House: Look to see if Clinton can beat Trump by 6 points or more in the presidential race. If that happens, Skelley projects 50 seats would be in play.

And recent polls show that she may be doing better than that. 

Grow Your Own Liver

We may be getting quite close to being able to grow a functional new liver from skin cells. 

"Based on the success in my lab generating tissue-engineered intestine and other cell types, we hypothesized that by modifying the protocol used to generate intestine, we would be able to develop liver organoid units that could generate functional tissue-engineered liver when transplanted," said Tracy C. Grikscheit, MD, a pediatric surgeon and researcher at The Saban Research Institute of CHLA and co-principal investigator on the study. Grikscheit is also a tenured associate professor of Surgery at the Keck School of Medicine of USC.

Closing Off Coal Trains

Since coal cars have to be open to keep them from spontaneously igniting and since Wyoming coal has to pass along tracks adjacent to the Columbia River in the Columbia Gorge, a lawsuit against the BNSF railroad may make it impossible for coal trains to cross the state at all.

Living on Mars

How is living in Eastern Washington like living on Mars?   It's those scablands, Baby.

The Divide in the Electorate

This isn't surprising, but there are real, fundamental differences in how the two camps view the type of people who should be in charge.

The latest ABC News/Washington Post poll, mainly released Sunday, finds that majorities of Hillary Clinton’s supporters believe minorities and women have too little influence in American society, while half say men and whites have too much influence. For all his outsider appeal, Donald Trump’s supporters, by contrast, are far more apt to endorse the status quo in this regard.

Universal flu vaccine

Here's something that could help stop future pandemics.

‘Alice in Wonderland’ mechanics of the rejection of (climate) science

Here is a paper on how climate change deniers have to believe multiple contradicting things to justify their position. 

There is considerable evidence that the rejection of (climate) science involves a component of conspiracist discourse. In this article, we provided preliminary evidence that the pseudo-scientific arguments that underpin climate science denial are mutually incoherent, which is a known attribute of conspiracist ideation. The lack of mechanisms to self-correct the scientific incoherencies manifest in denialist discourse further evidences that this is not the level at which rational activity is focused, and we must move to a higher level, looking at the role of conspiracist ideation in the political realm. At that political level, climate denial achieves coherence in its uniform and unifying opposition to GHG emission cuts. The coherent political stance of denial may not be undercut by its scientific incoherence. Climate science denial is therefore perhaps best understood as a rational activity that replaces a coherent body of science with an incoherent and conspiracist body of pseudo-science for political reasons and with considerable political coherence and effectiveness.

The Truth About Social Security

Nancy Altman talks about Social Security.

We are committed to revealing to policymakers, the media, and the American people how distorted the debate about Social Security has been. For decades, the conversation has been falsely premised on the lies that Social Security will not be there for young workers, and that the program is unaffordable, and therefore must be cut or, worse, radically transformed into savings invested on Wall Street.

...

The truth, of course, is that Social Security's benefits are extremely modest by virtually any standard, and the program is extremely efficiently run, spending less than a penny of every dollar on administration. As the wealthiest nation in the world, at the wealthiest moment in our history, there is no question that the United States could have a vastly expanded Social Security program if it chose. The issue is one of values, not affordability.

....

The idea of expanding, not cutting, Social Security is an idea that, once spoken and understood as possible, makes sense to people. This year's Democratic Party platform, with its strong Social Security plank calling for expanding, not cutting, Social Security shows how the party now has coalesced around that position. And President Obama announced, in a speech on June 1, that he is in step with the rest of the party in advocating expanding, not cutting, Social Security. The current Democratic position is best seen as a return to the position it has held historically. In some ways, moving away from expanding, not cutting, Social Security was the surprise. After all, expanding, not cutting, Social Security is both profoundly wise policy and winning politics.

The next step is for Republicans to feel the heat, see the light, and join the bandwagon or be voted out of office.

...

Social Security is projecting a modest shortfall which will require legislation sometime in the next decade or so. It will be a victory if that legislation expands and does not cut Social Security while restoring the program to long range actuarial balance. Given where the debate has been, it will be a victory, though smaller, if the program is restored to long range actuarial balance by increasing Social Security's dedicated revenue without cutting benefits.

...

Now it is our turn. In addition to increasing benefit levels, we should add paid sick leave, paid family leave, caregiver credits, children's allowances, and more. We should also expand Medicare, including by lowering the age of eligibility from age 65 to age 62 and then to age 55, add a counterpart program for children, and eventually have Medicare for All. These and other expansions will take many decades, particularly in light of the moneyed interests that always have been and always will be arrayed against Social Security.

...

supporters of Social Security should be part of the fight to make college debt free and affordable. Indeed, the right to receive free public education through high school should be extended through the receipt of a bachelor's degree. Social Security supporters should be part of the fight for raising the minimum wage, as well. Those who care about Social Security should be part of the fight to protect workers' rights to bargain collectively, too.

And everyone should be part of the fight to expand Social Security, which is best understood as a family program. Social Security is a program for all generations.

In addition to providing the nation's most secure source of retirement income—income that cannot be outlived—it generally is Americans' most important, and often, only, source of disability insurance and life insurance.

It provides children with monthly benefits when a working parent dies, becomes disabled or retires. Those benefits now stop at age 18 (or 19, if still in high school). Those benefits used to continue until age 22, if the child was in college, university, or post-secondary vocational training. Those benefits should be restored. As I said in response to the last question, paid sick leave, family leave, and other benefits that assist all generations should be added.

Beyond the Foundations

Let's compare how the candidates have performed in their personal charitable giving.

The total of all Donald Trump’s donations since 2001 comes to  0.038% of his supposed net worth. That’s not pocket change. That’s pocket lint.

...

The Clintons have donated 37.6% of their net worth. Simple math shows that the Clintons are almost 1,000 times more generous with their money.

A Tale of Two Foundations

Clinton Foundation has an excellent track record of doing good. The Trump Foundation 
may soon be in legal trouble and has done little good. Hillary is the real deal, while Trump is nothing but a slimy imitation.

Local case makes national headline

No charges in the Zambrano-Montes case. But you knew that.

Data Reveals Trump’s Base Is 'Deplorable’ and Clinton Is Right

When Hillary Clinton says that most of the people who support Trump are unsavory, she isn't engaging in political hyperbole. It actually turns out that she is understating her case. They really are racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, and Islamaphobic. What a country we are! 

How Melanoma Spreads

There's some big news on the melanoma front. Science now understands the mechanism by which melanoma metastasizes. And with that knowledge, it shouldn't be so hard to stop it from doing so.

AP’s big exposé on Hillary is not so much

In an effort to generate some sensational headlines, AP does some sloppy reporting.
There's no there there. No unethical conduct has been discovered. It's just another example of trying to generate dirt on the Clintons when there is none. Compare this to how fast wheels have come off the scooters for Roger Ailes, Donald Trump and other notables.

An effective and low-cost solution for storing solar energy

An article in Science Daily talks about progress on smoothing out the intermittentcy problem of solar energy. They have a demonstrated solution that uses proven technology without exotic elements.

The approach taken by EPFL and CSEM researchers is to combine components that have already proven effective in industry in order to develop a robust and effective system. Their prototype is made up of three interconnected, new-generation, crystalline silicon solar cells attached to an electrolysis system that does not rely on rare metals. The device is able to convert solar energy into hydrogen at a rate of 14.2%, and has already been run for more than 100 hours straight under test conditions. In terms of performance, this is a world record for silicon solar cells and for hydrogen production without using rare metals. It also offers a high level of stability. 

The other side of the equation would be an efficient hydrogen-base fuel cell and there has been much recent progress on that front as well.

Longterm Cause of Climate Change

You guessed it. It's us. Humans have been warming the planet for 180 years. If it takes that long to reverse it, we are probably doomed.

'Cocks Not Glocks' Anti-Gun Protest

Sounds like they are having some fun times down at my alma mater. In protest about the legality of concealed-carry of guns on campus, students are protesting with technically illegal open carry of sex toys.

SMR Plant would create more than 1,000 jobs in Idaho Falls

Our liberal friends on the wet side of the mountains probably helped Washington State
miss this boat. Our state needs to take another look at good ways to provide for Washington's economic future.

Who Wants Trump?

Here's a good analysis of who Trump supporters are. As you might expect, the results don't align with conventional wisdom.

What makes a Trump supporter? Surveys show that racial resentment is a much bigger factor than income, education, or view of the economy. A person with a higher income is more likely to support Trump than on with a low income. A large segment of Trump supporters are less-educated, blue-collar workers who are gainfully employed. A Trump supporter is likely to live in a zip code which is homogeneously white. Folks who have contact with immigrants are not Trump supporters. Manufacturing areas are less likely to support Trump as are areas which have high exposure to Chinese imports. It isn't the poor whites who are experiencing global economic dislocation who support Trump. His base seems to be reasonably well-off white folks who are concerned about maintaining their de facto segregated white bubble.

Sweden does guns right

There is a strong and deep hunting culture in Sweden that not only co-exists with strong gun regulation but is instrumental to it. Hunters don't want guns being used to kill people either and they are willing to do what it takes to make that happen. Getting responsible hunters in the U.S. on board with common sense gun safety regulation could help greatly.

The New Standard of Health Care Programs

As political forces wrangle about the future of health care policies in the U.S., it would be near-criminal if changes cause low-income people to lose the gains that have been made. Regardless of political philosophy, we have a moral obligation to maintain this minimum baseline.

Private Health Insurers Are Problematic

Wendell Potter has a good essay on how highly profitable insurance companies  want to drop ACA participation. They miss the good ol' days of being able to cherry-pick their clientele and to hell with the sick folks who really need good insurance. I think that forcing insurance companies to stay in the ACA will have constitutional problems. Eventually, there will have to be a public option. Perhaps the cost of that can be paid in part by taxing insurers who don't offer ACA plans.

West Richland delegate and the Sanders legacy

Our own Kate Moran is highlighted in an article from the DNC floor. She's going to take the Bernie Sanders issues into her political life at the local and regional level. Kudos to her.

Get Me Some Pomegranates

The humble, ugly pomegranate may be just the thing to hold back the biological insults of aging. Intestinal bacteria transform a molecule contained in the fruit into a molecule that enables aging mitochondria to rebuild themselves. Better mitochondria contribute to rejuvenated musculature and even reducing the effects of Parkinson's.

How Hillary Gets Things Done

Those outside her circle can be forgiven for being suspicious since she has been under attack for her entire political career. Yet, she has withstood all of that. Interestingly enough,
those closest to her are unwaveringly loyal. You would think that if she were half as bad as her detractors say, there would be, by now, some disgruntled insider ready to profit from a tell-all expose'. The problem with that scenario is that she is the real deal. She gathers information and listens to people. Then she turns all that data into well-considered action. Like Obama, she may not be a flashy, popular president, but she could very well be one of the best.

The Trump Danger

Historians assess Donald Trump and how he compares to similar historical figures. It isn't pretty.

Osmotic Power

Seawater on one side, fresh water on the the other, and a 3-atom thick membrane between them. The result, electricity. A potential new source of power arises.

Real Meat and Real Leather Without Animals

A Brooklyn startup is doing just that. Modern Meadow grows real leather from skin cells harvested from a real live (and unharmed) calf. They use the skin cells to produce collagen. In the normal tanning process the animal hide has to have hair, muscle, and fat removed to get down the collagen connective tissue from which leather is made. This lab actually grows the collagen without all that other stuff that a living animal needs. The lab-grown collagen is free of blemishes and makes perfectly good leather. They can even fine-tune things like thickness and elasticity to suit the needs of the final consumer. Right now, they are concentrating on leather because it's the most lucrative, but they could do muscle tissue for meat just as well.

First commercial carbon-capture plant set to open in Switzerland

A commercial carbon capture will open soon.

The firm expects to be opening the plant near Zurich in September or October. The plant will suck carbon dioxide out of the ambient air and sell it to an agricultural company to spur the growth of lettuce, cucumbers and tomatoes.
C0₂ is already taken out of the air in enclosed spaces like submarines and space capsules. Climeworks will be using a similar process called direct air capture (DAC), in which normal ambient air is pushed through a fibrous sponge-like filter material that has been impregnated with chemicals called amines, derived from ammonia, which bind to C0₂.

 

There was once a Black Wall Street

But it was destroyed by a white mob in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1921. 

The event is seldom mentioned in history books, but it is a big part of black history in America — an event that demonstrates the broader violence perpetrated against black Americans throughout the Jim Crow era.

Big Oil Subsidies

The next time Congress works on budget cuts, they should start cutting with the oil subsidies. Currently 4.5 billion taxpayer dollars go to the oil industry each year in tax breaks that may have been warranted in the past, but the rationale in today's industry is no longer there. Yet, because of intensive lobbying and Citizens United, there is no will in Congress to plug this "Giant" loophole.

Breath test for lung cancer

Lung cancer detection could be as simple as a breath test. Cancer cells give some signature compounds that can be detected in small concentrations.

Deadbeat Trump

Donald Trump has a history of not paying his bills. Many small businesses have failed after doing business with him. I'm sure glad he isn't going to get into public office or anything like that.

Changes in Transportation

And speaking of unexpected changes, could the future of transportation be something completely different than what we expect? How might the transportation landscape change with autonomous cars, full electrification, and distributed sources of energy?

New Model for Evolution

A new model for evolution hypothesizes that cooperation and niche expansion could be another driver for speciation rather than the classical assumption of competition as the driver. This could be an interesting expansion into studying natural systems.

It also raises an interesting idea in my mind. In what other areas should we rethink our assumptions about the role of competition in driving innovation and change? Could this be a different way to think about economic systems? What about studying how enterprises thrive by finding untapped demands and actually creating new markets rather than fighting for a bigger share of an existing market?

Trump Quality

To get an idea of the quality of expertise upon which Trump relies, look at who he enlists as his economic advisers. 

Larry Kudlow

Kudlow is to economics what William Kristol is to political strategy: if he says something, you know it’s wrong. When he ridiculed “bubbleheads” who thought overvalued real estate could bring down the economy, you should have rushed for the bomb shelters; when he proclaimed Bush a huge success, because a rising stock market is the ultimate verdict on a presidency (unless the president is a Democrat), you should have known that the Bush era would end with epochal collapse. 

Stephen Moore.
In a bid to preserve its journalistic integrity, one newspaper will no longer use him as a resource.

Beyond the empty bombast, don't count on Mr. Trump to be able to build a qualified staff on much of anythin.

Stopping The Outbreak Of Anti-LGBT Laws

A simple act of Congress could stop all these state-by-state anti-LGBT laws. It would save us all the bother of suits and counter-suits to take the issue to the Supreme Court. The Court has already ruled in favor of same-sex marriage for all 50 states based on the equal protection guaranteed in the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Based on Obergefell v. Hodges, I can't see how any court should have to go through the exercise of striking down all 100 or more discriminatory statutes which are currently being considered by various state legislatures.

The Abortion Myth

Abortion is much safer than giving birth. It’s also safer than a colonoscopy or getting wisdom teeth removed. When Texas and other throw-back states start requiring clinics and oral surgeons to have hospital-grade facilities, we might begin to think that they have some sense in their heads. But until then...well, here's your sign.

Five Pacific Islands Are Victims of Global Warming

Five of the Solomon Islands are harbingers of the things to come as they vanish beneath the waves. Sadly, the rest of the world moves to do something about far too slowly. Will we be in time for the major cities along our coasts or will they share the same fate?

Japan activates underground ice wall at Fukushima

Finally, Tepco begins freezing the ground around Fukushima to stop the influx of ground water into the site. Link to article in Gizmag. Link to article in World Nuclear News. 

Mercedes Boots Robots From the Production Line

Bloomberg Business reports that Mercedes has found with the many options that go into today's automobiles, automation can't keep up. The flexibility of a well-trained human work force is going to reduce the time it takes to assemble a car from 60 days to 30. It seems possible that eventually a normal customer might be able to have a car built from the tires up to his unique specifications. 

What the 2016 elections mean to the Supreme Court.

Dahlia Lithwick has a cogent analysis.

Exxon's Amazing Hypocrisy

While denying climate science, Exxon took steps to cope with the coming climate change that they very well knew was coming. And this was back in the 80’s!

Exxon and its affiliates set about “raising the decks of offshore platforms, protecting pipelines from increasing coastal erosion, and designing helipads, pipelines, and roads in a warming and buckling Arctic.” In other words, the company started climate-proofing its facilities to head off a future its own scientists knew was inevitable.

The Ultimate in Clean Fuel

Researchers have successfully generated methanol from atmospheric CO2 at a fairly low temperature. Previous method have required high CO2 concentrations and high temperatures. They expect to be able to scale the demonstration up to industrial levels in 5 to 10 years. It can't compete with $30 per barrel oil, but it would be a way to produce a carbon-neutral fuel cycle.

Mama Dragons

Mothers of gay Mormons combat the institutional discrimination of the Church.  Not only are homosexuals not welcome in the Church, but neither are their families. It stuns me that the leadership could think that this is a good thing.

Gun Non-safety.

Some myths die hard.

...statistically, it's more likely that someone with a concealed carry permit will set out to commit mass murder than prevent it. 

a 2014 study from the University of California–San Francisco found that people who owned a gun were three times as likely to kill themselves as non-firearm owners; by comparison, the annual per capita risk of death during a home invasion is 0.0000002 percent. Hell, even toddlers killed more people than terrorists in 2015. Guns are used far more often for killing than for self-defense, despite the fact that some 63 percent of Americans think guns make them safer. 

Only seven of the 160 of the mass shootings that took place between 2000 and 2013 ended because of some would-be Rambo came to the rescue

More than half (56 percent) were terminated by the shooter who either took his or her own life, simply stopped shooting or fled the scene. Another 26 percent ended in the traditional Hollywood-like fashion with the shooter and law enforcement personnel exchanging gunfire and in nearly all of those situations the shooter ended up either wounded or dead. In 13 percent of the shooting situations, the shooter was successfully disarmed and restrained by unarmed civilians, and in 3 percent of the incidents the shooter was confronted by armed civilians, of whom four were on-duty security guards and one person was just your average "good guy" who happened to be carrying a gun.

Gun Deaths Are Now Outpacing Traffic Deaths In 21 States

I'm glad to know that driving a car is safer than having a firearm. Maybe we need to license gun owners and require them to have appropriate insurance and registration. Just a thought.

Anti-GMO Research and Data

In one's zeal to protect public health, one should be really careful about using bad science. The short-term publicity rarely outweighs the damage done to the credibility of one's position when one plays fast-and-loose with the data.

'BPA-free' plastic has problems

A common substitute for BPA has problems. Given the complex chemical reactions possible with long-chain polymers, we should be cautious about using plastics in our food processing equipment and packaging. Well-behaved things like stainless steel and glass seem so much more attractive.

Boost C-section Babies

It's long been said that C-section babies suffer because they lose out on a good inoculation of gut bacteria. It's amazing how long it's taken for someone to be serious about providing them what they miss. This seems like such an obvious solution.

The Key To Halting Alzheimer's?

Brain inflammation has been found to be an accompanying factor of Alzheimer's. A recent study seems to show that the inflammation may be causing the disease.

An overactive immune system can result in chronic inflammation, which previous research has linked to Alzheimer's. These new findings makes it increasingly apparent that inflammation is not a result of Alzheimer's s much as a key driver of the disease.

This could explain why non-medical changes can produce improvements in mental functioning.

The findings also suggest that a diet and lifestyle focused on fighting inflammation could be important in preventing Alzheimer's. The researchers noted, however, that it's too early to make recommendations.

Other members of the scientific community are buzzing about the research, calling it "an exciting discovery" and "encouraging."  

Clays and Bacteria

Certain naturally-occurring clays have antibiotic properties. Certain metallic compounds in them work together to open up the cell wall and then flood in an excess of nutrients that poisons the bacteria. They even work well against antibiotic-resistant strains. This is leading to research into new ways to attack germs that resist our current arsenal of treatments.

More Solar Jobs Than Oil Jobs

We like to think of oil as the job-making behemoth industry in the U.S. Recently,
solar passed oil as a job-making industry.   Note that solar is bigger than oil and gas extraction. When you add in processing and refining, solar is only 2/3 as big. Nonetheless, it is a major player in the energy job picture.

Air Travel and Nuclear Energy

This article compares the mysteries and track record of air travel and nuclear energy. It's an interesting demonstration of the risks we accept as normal and risks we hyperventilate about.