Science in America — Neil deGrasse Tyson

A very powerful video that speaks for itself.

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Trump Trash Can

Exactly what it sounds like. I think this could sell very well in Latin America (especially in Mexico) where most toilets throughout the entire region cannot flush paper. So, you wad up used toilet paper and put it in a covered trash can next to the toilet.

What trash can could be better for the purpose?

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1611259217/trump-trash-can

P.S. Garbage man. Garbage man. Does whatever a garbage can.

P.P.S. I’m not asking that anyone send money. I just think it’s funny.

De Niro Wants to Punch Drumpf in the Face, But Insults Animals Instead

Robert De Niro would like to punch Donald J. Drumpf in the face, a worthy goal indeed. But, disturbingly, he insults animals by comparing them to Drumpf in the process of telling us why he’d like to punch the Donald.

Remembering 9/11, with a twist

On this day 15 years ago, the United States experienced the largest terror attack in our history. It is a day that we will long remember. My heart goes out to the families of the victims.

On this day, I would also like for us to remember that Osama bin Laden who orchestrated the attack was of the house of Saud. 16 of the 19 terrorists were from Saudi Arabia. In response to our attack by Saudis, we attacked Iraq in what is now considered to be an enormous blunder of epic proportions.

We still treat Saudi Arabia as a friendly nation in that region. I don’t know why. We still talk about selling arms to Saudi Arabia. I don’t know why. We still buy oil from Saudi Arabia. I don’t know why.

Further, if we assume that every 3,000 lives lost prematurely is “one 9/11” then we have ten 9/11s on our highways every year. We have another ten 9/11s every year as a result of lax gun laws and a nationwide obsession with the damn things (should we consider the NRA a terrorist organization? perhaps). We have sixty-five 9/11s every year as a result of air pollution which we might have reduced tremendously if we took action on climate change (is ExxonMobil a terrorist organization? perhaps).

So, will we do anything for safer roads, stricter gun regulations, and strong regulation of pollution to actually prevent some or all of these 9/11s going forward?

I am not hopeful.

I grieve not only for the 3,000 victims 15 years ago, but also for the 3.9 million lives lost prematurely just from these causes and from many other causes as well since then. And, I grieve for the 260,000 we will lose in 2016.

Perhaps I should subtract out the highway deaths? We do, last I heard, have the safest roads in the world. Maybe we are already doing as much as we can about that. But, the other 230,000 every year can certainly be reduced by at least several 9/11s, if we were to pretend to care.

Baltimore Police Secretly Running Aerial Mass-Surveillance Eye in the Sky

All I can say is Holy Fucking Crap!!! Or, perhaps that should be “double plus ungood!”

Baltimore Police Secretly Running Aerial Mass-Surveillance Eye in the Sky

Vindicating the Electoral College?

Not just yet. But, I finally do see a potential for the existence of this abhorrent construct to be vindicated for the first time in my lifetime.

Some of you may know that for years or even decades, I have been outraged by the existence of the electoral college in the United States. This constitutional load of horseshit undermines both our pretense of being a nation and our pretense of being a democracy.

A democratic nation would have a national election. We do not. We have state elections and the states send representatives to vote on our behalf … unless they don’t.

A democracy would be a country where every citizen had an equal vote. We do not. Individuals in some states have 3 times the voting power of individuals in other states.

I have hated this construct with a burning, seething, fiery passion since I first learned the details of it. It makes me sick that the founders of this once-great non-nation thought that people should not be allowed to vote for president of the United States.

How could I change my mind so radically on this important subject?

You’re five times as likely to die in an extinction event as in a car crash

I’ve been talking about the Great Human Die-off for years and have felt like somewhat of a crackpot for doing so. I’ve usually qualified it as just my opinion based on hearing and reading a lot of environmental science.

Now, it seems that the idea of human extinction within the time frame of those alive today is no longer such a crackpot idea.

Human Extinction Isn’t That Unlikely