(no subject)

[conuly]

On Thursday, for the first time in its 14-year history, the U.S. Drought Monitor, a federal website, classified the entire state of California as being in a "severe drought." Texas is still in the clutches of a four-year drought that has shriveled crops and led to massive wildfires.

http://usat.ly/1gH0B5q

Beginner-friendly computer programming languages are making it easier for children and teens who are eager to try coding.

http://bit.ly/1lBfdPN

In a nondescript building in South Minneapolis, a small group of volunteers — all animal-rights activists — grab handfuls of musty old furs and tear them apart.

They aren’t venting their rage or trying to destroy the furs. Instead, they’re giving the furs new life as cuddly blankets for injured and orphaned animals across the country.

http://strib.mn/1vsQFk0

The Creeping Danger of Conspiracy Theorists

http://vnty.fr/1ndVmbR

Everyone should know just how much the government lied to defend the NSA

A web of deception has finally been untangled: the Justice Department got the US supreme court to dismiss a case that could have curtailed the NSA's dragnet. Why?

http://bit.ly/SaqijC

What Are Those Piles of Gunk on NYC Subway Platforms?

http://slate.me/TlW3XI

Why Libraries Matter (video)

http://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/371084/why-libraries-matter/

They mention that only 8 branches in the New York public library systems are open on Sundays. For a short time, two or three of our local ones were open Sundays, you can still see the ad on the boat, but they lost the funding for that. It's absolutely true that both the St. George and Stapleton libraries have lines before they open, and when I dropped off some books once at Battery Park City I noticed the same thing.

On that note, the NYPL and the Brooklyn Public Library are running their annual funding drives. Even if you can't donate anything, you can nag NYC elected officials.

http://www.nypl.org/speakout
http://misc.brooklynpubliclibrary.org/stb/

I Went to the Nutritionists' Annual Confab. It Was Catered by McDonald's.

http://bit.ly/1jgNDdy

Why Did AIDS Ravage the U.S. More Than Any Other Developed Country?

http://bit.ly/1nYY5tk

Comments

[siderea]

Children of fathers who are in technical occupations are more likely to have an autism spectrum disorder, according to researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth).

Actually, the acticle doesn't match its headline.

Actually-actually, the article is non-sensically self-contradictory.

Either the professions of mothers doesn't have a correlation, or children of both technical parents have higher rates of autism than those with just a technical father, but not both.

More critically, the article contends that the highest rate of autistic children is born to medical professionals and apparently (article unclear) this is considered "technical" work because they're jobs that are "less people-oriented" (vs. "more people-oriented jobs").

WUT

[conuly]

Actually, I often just skim science daily headlines. I should really, really stop doing that.

[siderea]

The one about nutritionists and McDonalds is even more jaw dropping than its headline.

Though it clashes with the one on conspiracy theories. Nobody gets to complain that conspiracy theorists are absurd -- most especially, nobody gets to complain that antivaxxers are absurd when they posit that medical professionals are promoting dangerous medication for personal profit -- when stuff like the previous actually happens.

[conuly]

I suppose it depends on what sort of conspiracy you think happened.

[ksol1460.livejournal.com]

Child development, hell! What about us oldies that haven't written a line of code since learning FORTRAN and TUTOR at university? The last programming language I used (if you don't count HTML) was Commodore Basic! I'd love another simple, easy-to-memorize language.