Saviolo
Saviolo's JournalBahrain cuts ties with Qatar for meddling in internal affairs (UPDATE)
Source: Reuters
Bahrain said on Monday it cut diplomatic relations with Qatar, accusing its fellow Gulf Arab state of backing terrorism and interfering in Bahrain's internal affairs.
A brief statement on the official Bahrain news agency said Bahrain, a close ally of Saudi Arabia, was also cutting air and sea contact with Qatar and was giving its citizens in Qatar 14 days to leave.
Update: Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt and Bahrain break diplomatic ties with Qatar over 'terrorism'
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain have broken off diplomatic relations and all land sea and air contacts with fellow Gulf Arab state Qatar, in the region’s most serious diplomatic crisis in years.
Saudi Arabia on Monday said the move was necessary to protect the kingdom from what it described as terrorism and extremism. The kingdom also pulled all Qatari troops from the coalition fighting the ongoing war in Yemen.
Qatar is home to the sprawling al-Udeid Air Base, which is home to the US military’s Central Command and some 10,000 American troops. It wasn’t clear if the decision would affect American military operations. Central Command officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
From The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jun/05/saudi-arabia-and-bahrain-break-diplomatic-ties-with-qatar-over-terrorism
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-gulf-qatar-bahrain-idUSKBN18W075
Summed up by two tweets on my timeline:
https://twitter.com/W7VOA/status/871562914842509312
and
https://twitter.com/wrightr/status/871559072679686145
Same-sex vulture dads hatch chick at Amsterdam zoo
Happy Pride Month!
Artis zoo said in a statement Wednesday that keepers who found an egg found on the floor of the vulture aviary initially put it in an incubator but later placed in a nest that the two male birds built together in the enclosure.
The zoo said the vultures, which have been a couple for years, took turns sitting on the egg until it hatched. Now, the new dads are taking care of the chick by feeding it regurgitated food.
Toronto Star article here: https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2017/05/31/same-sex-vulture-dads-hatch-chick-at-amsterdam-zoo.html
The #covfefe thing was funny, but (yes, there's something serious)
So, Trump deleted the tweet from last night and made a playful joking one this morning.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/869858333477523458
He thinks we're laughing WITH him, everyone.
And that may sound like a joke, but honestly, he's the kind of guy who thinks, "Hey, everyone's looking at me, that can only be good. Look at all the attention this Tweet got me!" The more attention he gets for crazy things, the more crazy his things will get, folks. His handlers at the high levels of the GOP know this. A little flattery, toss his name in there, stroke the ego, and *BAM* GOP policy pops out. He's easily manipulated by feeding his overwhelming need for approval while at the same time overloading his incredibly short attention span.
I giggled a lot over the whole thing last night ('cause don't we all need a laugh about now?) but it's a symptom of other things happening.
As Trump's Problems Mount, Breitbart's Numbers are Cratering
Full article at Vanity Fair here.
From the article:
Early on, Solov’s prediction seemed to be coming true. “Breitbart News is the #45th most trafficked website in the United States, according to rankings from Amazon’s analytics company, Alexa.com,” they wrote on January 9, 2017. “With over two billion pageviews generated in 2016 and 45 million unique monthly visitors, Breitbart News has now surpassed Fox News (#47), Huffington Post (#50), Washington Post (#53), and Buzzfeed (#64) in traffic.” A month later, the site had even greater cause to celebrate. “Breitbart News is now the 29th most trafficked site in the United States, surpassing PornHub and ESPN,” they crowed. In the article, its staffers bragged that their bonkers traffic reflected the site’s cementing a permanent place in American politics. “The numbers speak for themselves,” said Solov. (Many outlets, including The Hive, experienced traffic peaks around Trump’s inauguration.)
Just a few months later, the numbers have a different story to tell. As of May 26, 2017, according to Alexa.com—the same web-ranking analytics company that Breitbart drew its numbers from in January—Fox News is the 64th most-trafficked site in the country. Huffington Post is at 60. Buzzfeed is at 50. The Washington Post, on the strength of a series of eye-popping scoops, is at 41.
Breitbart is in 281st place.
Other conservative media sites have also experienced declines in traffic in recent months, but none as pronounced as Breitbart’s. According to Alexa data, National Review Online, Infowars.com, The Daily Caller, and Drudge Report all saw slumps in their rankings. Over the last week, as Trump was engulfed in the Comey scandal, Fox News’s viewership dropped to third place behind CNN and MSNBC for the first time in 17 years.
But for now, the simplest explanation may be that Breitbart’s traffic struggles reflect the struggles of the man they backed during the election, now mired in the difficulties of governance and scandal. “When you tie yourself to a candidate you shouldn’t be surprised,” said the former staffer. “If the candidate has trouble, you’re going to have trouble. And if your goal is to provide cover for that candidate and the news is about that candidate, it’s going to be difficult to cover the news in a way that’s interesting.”
Looks like there are some troubles on the right wing-o-sphere. People are either smartening up a bit about the insane right-wing coverage, or they're going EVEN FURTHER off the deep end, past Breitbart and straight into InfoWars territory.
Sad. Weak.
Spray a touch-pad onto any surface (New Scientist)
From New Scientist: Full article here.
“We can do this with a whole bunch of things,” says Chris Harrison at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Most touch-sensitive surfaces we encounter are built into flat and rigid structures like the screen on a smartphone, says Sriram Subramanian at the University of Sussex in the UK, who wasn’t involved in the work. He is excited by the idea of interacting with large or awkwardly shaped objects by touch.
Armed with a can of conductive spray paint, Harrison says it is possible to give almost any surface a touch-sensitive upgrade. For example, by covering a wall with the paint and attaching copper electrodes to a computer, Harrison’s team turned the entire surface into a touch-sensitive light switch. Tapping the wall turned on a light while sliding a finger along the wall dimmed or brightened the bulb.
It's a fascinating development, though the article does indicate that the young technology does have some problems that they're working on. The video has some amazing moments:
I can see uses for teaching and learning, as well as making huge control surfaces in houses so that they are more easily accessible/controllable for people with disabilities, palsies, or Parkinson's. Some of the things they show in the video, like registering two hands on a steering wheel, may be able to be connected to safety features in cars. I can imagine all sorts of useful things this could do.
How To Spot Fascism Before Its Too Late (Toon)
Please read the entire strip at The Nib here: Link
Troubled Wisconsin Man Goes on 50 State Killing Spree
From Medium: Full Article
Based on a manifesto he posted to the internet the evening before his assault, it is believed he was specifically targeting women, poor people, and people of color. A deeper dive into his public profile and social media shows a checkered past. He has expressed sexist, classist, and racist leanings for many years, although people close to Ryan say they did not expect him to act on them so effectively. Clearly a deeply troubled man, he has alternately blamed his actions on President Obama, President Trump, and God. Sources indicate he may be at least partially behind a conspiracy theory, widely circulated in certain circles, that the government has been secretly attempting to gain control of the wealth and guns of elderly Caucasian men, before castrating them.
Recently Ryan had aligned himself with a local gang known as ‘The Freedom Caucus’ notorious for their longstanding feuds with the groups American Women and Thugs. A family member, speaking anonymously, expressed there had been an ongoing concern among those close to Ryan about what he might do under the influence of this group.
Update: Not initially reported, Ryan is a Caucasian Christian, apparently radicalized as a child in Wisconsin through an organization called St. Mary’s Catholic School. Multiple sources have now confirmed that in addition to The Freedom Caucus, he also had connections to a radical Christian terrorist cell in D.C. comprised of lobbyists, CEOs, and other politicians, known as The Republicans. We understand a number of other members were taken into custody at the same time as Ryan, and a group mug shot has been released.
It's getting harder and harder for satire to keep pace with real life, but there are still a few articles out there that just nail it.
In case you didn't already think Mike "Mr. Comedy" Huckabee was a big enough pile of crap:
This is directly from his verified twitter account:
https://twitter.com/GovMikeHuckabee/status/860431958660325376
And screen cap'd in case he deletes it:
Who's up for dessert?
Okay, this is shameless self-promotion, but earlier this year I started a YouTube cooking channel with my husband (who is a chef). He does the cooking and the recipes, I do the filming, editing, and voice-over.
We're just getting started, and the quality's still not great (yes, I'm filming and voice recording on my smartphone), but the recipes are solid! We're also only about 15 subscribers away from being able to get our own personalized URL from YouTube!
So, please, enjoy this delicious lemon curd recipe, 'cause don't we all need something a little sweet right now?
Profile Information
Gender: MaleHometown: Ottawa, Ontario
Home country: Canada
Current location: Toronto, Ontario
Member since: Wed Oct 29, 2008, 04:34 PM
Number of posts: 3,280
