August 28, 2019

Motion filed asking the Court of Session to suspend the Prime Minister's request

https://twitter.com/JolyonMaugham/status/1166658605182902272


https://twitter.com/joannaccherry/status/1166662361899556864

August 20, 2019

Robot coffee tastes great, but at what cost ? (about $5)

https://www.wired.com/story/coffee-haus-robot-coffee/

Airports have robot coffee now.

But first, consider that moment—you’ve experienced this—where your multiply delayed flight finally lands, maybe at the airport you expected and maybe not. Then you realize, taxiing across the tarmac, that it is in fact the middle of the night. So picture the terminal, the one in which you are alone. The Hermès shop is not open. The massage place is kneadless. The food court is no longer in session. Should airports also be shopping malls? I don’t know. Right now this one, which usually is, isn’t.

Let’s say you’re at San Francisco International Airport, Terminal 3, across from the Yankee Pier fish place. There’s a signpost, up ahead. A glowing beacon in the night. Since early August, a touchscreen has offered lonely travelers a mug o’ mud—exuded by the sleek, cargo-container-sized structure looming next to it. This is a “Coffee Haus,” brown, horizontal window on one side, big touchscreen on the other, and in the middle, a white-framed presentation space. As the great architect and known caffeine abuser Le Corbusier would definitely have said, “a Coffee Haus is a machine for coffee.”

A hundred times an hour, it can make a coffee drink. Kevin Nater, CEO of Briggo, the company that builds Coffee Hauses (Häussen?), says a fully staffed Starbucks can only do one coffee drink a minute. Sixty an hour—and that’s with human people! All that stuff about “third places” and interpersonal interactions, the thing where hey, you wanna get a coffee, the Coffee Haus burns all that away.

August 16, 2019

Putin: "Hey Oleg, I bet you 50 rubles I can make him think Greenland is for sale."

Putin: “Hey Oleg, I bet you 50 rubles I can make him think Greenland is for sale.”

Oleg: “C’mon, Vlad. Nobody’s that stupid.”

Putin: “Oh, but he is. Watch.”

*fifteen minutes later*

Trump: “Imma buy Greenland.”

Putin: https://twitter.com/elle_desylva/status/1162228387487727616

August 4, 2019

A graphic designer added special fx to footage of his son

https://twitter.com/Ffs_OMG/status/1157790836714889217

July 22, 2019

For all you Germanophiles and Angela Merkel fans: photo of her door plate in the Reichstag

Top line reads: CDU/CSU - Fraktion

Dr. Angela Merkel, MdB
Bundeskanzlerin

1 N 003 Anmeldung/Eingang Zimmer 1 N 002


I realize this is very trivial but was interesting to me on my trip to Germany last year in February. I have other pics of the Reichstag (external and internal) but this was the most quirky/interesting to me. Enjoy

July 7, 2019

Britain's man in the the US says Trump is 'inept'......

Britain's man in the the US says Trump is 'inept': Leaked secret cables from ambassador say the President is 'uniquely dysfunctional and his career could end in disgrace'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7220335/Britains-man-says-Trump-inept-Cables-ambassador-say-dysfunctional.html

(yes I know it's the Mail but it's the original source, sorry)

Britain's Ambassador to Washington has described Donald Trump as 'inept', 'insecure' and 'incompetent' in a series of explosive memos to Downing Street.

Sir Kim Darroch, one of Britain's top diplomats, used secret cables and briefing notes to impugn Trump's character, warning London that the White House was 'uniquely dysfunctional' and that the President's career could end in 'disgrace'.

His bombshell comments risk angering the notoriously thin-skinned President and undermining the UK's 'special relationship' with America.

In the memos, seen by The Mail on Sunday following an unprecedented leak, Sir Kim:

Describes bitter conflicts within Trump's White House – verified by his own sources – as 'knife fights';
Warns that Trump could have been indebted to 'dodgy Russians';
Claims the President's economic policies could wreck the world trade system;
Says the scandal-hit Presidency could 'crash and burn' and that 'we could be at the beginning of a downward spiral... that leads to disgrace and downfall';
Voices fears that Trump could still attack Iran.

*end of excerpt*

May 30, 2019

Rick Wilson: "It is without question that @realDonaldTrump is the most petty...shitbird....

https://twitter.com/TheRickWilson/status/1133922473941110791


A REPUBLICAN strategist calling him out, love it! haha

May 24, 2019

Cute red panda at Moscow Zoo

Not sure exactly what this animal is, sorry! Enjoy!

( eta: edited subject line )

https://twitter.com/moscowzoo/status/1131853574059778053

May 22, 2019

A 'Game of Thrones' Sequel Is Not an Option for HBO's Top Executive

*spoiler alert!!*

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/game-thrones-sequel-is-not-an-option-hbo-series-finale-1212749

*snip*

(The Hollywood Reporter interviewer: ) The three successor shows are all prequels. In the finale, Arya goes on to explore what's west of Westeros. Have you considered exploring sequels? Specifically, Arya Stark as she travels west of Westeros?

(HBO Programming president Casey Bloys: ) Nope, nope, nope. No. Part of it is, I do want this show — this Game of Thrones, Dan and David's show — to be its own thing. I don't want to take characters from this world that they did beautifully and put them off into another world with someone else creating it. I want to let it be the artistic piece they've got. That's one of the reasons why I'm not trying to do the same show over. George has a massive, massive world; there are so many ways in. That's why we're trying to do things that feel distinct — and to not try and redo the same show. That's probably one of the reasons why, right now, a sequel or picking up any of the other characters doesn't make sense for us.

*snip*

I think his reasoning is a bit weak, but maybe he will change his mind. If they are really careful with a sequel, it could do really well.

May 21, 2019

The Criminalization of Abortion Began as a Business Tactic

https://www.history.com/news/the-criminalization-of-abortion-began-as-a-business-tactic

If you opened up the Leavenworth Times, a Kansas newspaper, in the 1850s, you’d see an ad for Sir James Clarke’s Female Pills. These pills, the advertiser bragged, were ideal for bringing on women’s periods—and were “particularly suited to married ladies.”

Then there was Madame Costello, a “female physician” who took out an ad in the New York Herald in the 1840s. She advertised to women “who wish to be treated for obstruction of the monthly period.”

Both ads ran in plain sight, among advertisements for real estate and hair tonics. Both advertised abortions. And for a reader of the time, neither would have raised an eyebrow. Pregnancy was dangerous, and the consequences faced by unwed mothers were severe.

Though the 19th century is seen as a time of more restrictive sexual mores, abortion was actually common: according to at least one estimate, one in every five women at the time had had an abortion. Abortifacients were hawked in store fronts and even door to door. Vendors openly advertised their willingness to end women’s pregnancies. And in private, women shared information about how to prevent conception and induce miscarriages.