Josh's B-links: "There's One More Verse! But We Can't Remember."
Major Oil Companies Spend Most of Huge Profits on Shareholders and Executives, Not R&D or Capital
The article speaks for itself. Major oil companies spend an overall majority of their profits on stock buybacks and dividends. Only a minor fraction of these profits are spent on capital investments, exploration, research into alternative energies, etc., etc.
Like Schumer says, this profiteering just screams for a windfall tax on the oil industry.
Few Blacks Reach Highest Ranks
That’s an interesting story in itself, but I found the statistics included along with it to be even more fascinating. These give an idea of the size of the top of our military:
Only one of the 38 four-star generals or admirals serving as of May was black. And just 10 black men have ever gained four-star rank _ five in the Army, four in the Air Force and one in the Navy, according to the Pentagon.
According to Pentagon data, as of May:
_ 5.6 percent of the 923 general officers or admirals were black.
_ Eight blacks were three-star lieutenant generals or vice admirals.
_ Seventeen were two-star major generals or rear admirals.
_ Twenty-six were one-star brigadier generals or rear admirals.
_ Three of the black one-stars were women.
The Army has led the way with black officers, with nearly double the percentage at times over the past three decades as the other services. Blacks represented 11 percent to 12 percent of all Army officers during that time, compared with 4 percent to 8 percent in the Navy, Air Force and Marines.
Mirrors
Very interesting scientific data and trivia on mirrors. Some of the data includes variation in human behavior based on whether a mirror is present. The trivia has to do with the relative size of one’s own head (pupils, actually) in a mirror image. I tested it myself, and it’s true!
Fat Rant
This is a well-composed video about how being fat doesn’t mean one’s life has to be over. The filmmaker really puts this prejudice into perspective.
Camlann Medieval Village
So, with the Renaissance Faire not happening this year, I started looking at Camlann. It seems like a different kind of experience, with more focus on authenticity and less on the fanciful anachronisms we’ve come to expect from the faires. I might ask Kendra if she’d like to go. They’re having their summer feasts around this time of year. =)
Abandonia
Disappointed that I don’t have the hardware to play Grim Grimoire, I instead went looking for a repository of the downloadable video games from yesteryear. Such a place was surprisingly easy to find. I got SimTower, which I enjoyed playing back in the day, and also downloaded some other games, like Wolf. (It’s a nice idea…but not terribly fun.)
FCC Orders Comcast to Not Block BitTorrent Use
In a 3-2 ruling, with the Republican chairmate siding with the committee’s two Democrats, the FCC has ordered Comcast to stop obstructing its customers’ use of BitTorrent. This is a victory for the net neutrality principle, but a defensive one-a bad practice is dispatched rather than a good one promoted. More fundamentally, the telecommunications companies need to lay some fucking lines and get their infrastructure up to snuff. What are we paying them for?
Of course, the companies-and those other two Republicans on the FCC-believe that service expansion isn’t the right answer. Instead, they look at rising Internet traffic and see the need for some combination of network bias (the opposite of network neutrality) or volume-based pricing. Volume-based pricing means you pay more for using more bandwidth, and that’s fine to the extent that it reflects the costs of providing service at those speeds. However, network bias is completely unacceptable, and volume-based pricing as the only strategy moving forward-to the exclusion of laying some fucking lines-is avaricious corporate sloth at its best.
SpaceX Suffers Rocket Launch Failure
This is the third high-profile launch failure for the SpaceX, a company which hopes to spur development in the space industry from the private sector side, and who has a key role in replacing the Space Shuttle after its pending retirement. Their commendable goal is cheap and reliable access to Earth orbit. I guess they’ve got the “cheap” part down.
World’s Smallest Snake Discovered
Thought to represent the near-limit of how small a snake can evolve to be-theorized upon a certain minimum size threshold for snake hatchlings to be able to eat the sorts of things that snakes like to eat-this tiny snake could fit on a U.S. quarter and is apparently indigenous to just one tiny Caribbean island. Sadly, that island is now almost completely deforested, and the snake may go extinct soon after its discovery.
There were some old specimens of this snake in museum collections, but they had been misidentified. DNA testing makes it possible to identify speciary distinctions invisible to the naked eye.
Seven or Fewer Degrees of Separation for Almost 80 Percent of Text Messengers
I was thinking about the validity of the “Six Degrees of Separation Theory” just the other day, when Kendra told me that she had met Costco CEO Jim Sinegal once, as one of her clients is a friend of his, and had brought him out to the farm one day. (Thus, I am personally connected to some of the most powerful business leaders in the world by four degrees of separation, and far more business leaders as well as political officials and world leaders by a mere five degrees.)
Now I read that Microsoft researches have evaluated their database of text message contacts and have determined that 78 percent of any two users are separated by just seven links or fewer. Neat!
Experimental Alzheimer’s Drug Shows Early Promise
If successful, this would be the first drug to actually halt progression of the disease, rather than treat its symptoms. Further testing is needed.
The article speaks for itself. Major oil companies spend an overall majority of their profits on stock buybacks and dividends. Only a minor fraction of these profits are spent on capital investments, exploration, research into alternative energies, etc., etc.
Like Schumer says, this profiteering just screams for a windfall tax on the oil industry.
Few Blacks Reach Highest Ranks
That’s an interesting story in itself, but I found the statistics included along with it to be even more fascinating. These give an idea of the size of the top of our military:
Only one of the 38 four-star generals or admirals serving as of May was black. And just 10 black men have ever gained four-star rank _ five in the Army, four in the Air Force and one in the Navy, according to the Pentagon.
According to Pentagon data, as of May:
_ 5.6 percent of the 923 general officers or admirals were black.
_ Eight blacks were three-star lieutenant generals or vice admirals.
_ Seventeen were two-star major generals or rear admirals.
_ Twenty-six were one-star brigadier generals or rear admirals.
_ Three of the black one-stars were women.
The Army has led the way with black officers, with nearly double the percentage at times over the past three decades as the other services. Blacks represented 11 percent to 12 percent of all Army officers during that time, compared with 4 percent to 8 percent in the Navy, Air Force and Marines.
Mirrors
Very interesting scientific data and trivia on mirrors. Some of the data includes variation in human behavior based on whether a mirror is present. The trivia has to do with the relative size of one’s own head (pupils, actually) in a mirror image. I tested it myself, and it’s true!
Fat Rant
This is a well-composed video about how being fat doesn’t mean one’s life has to be over. The filmmaker really puts this prejudice into perspective.
Camlann Medieval Village
So, with the Renaissance Faire not happening this year, I started looking at Camlann. It seems like a different kind of experience, with more focus on authenticity and less on the fanciful anachronisms we’ve come to expect from the faires. I might ask Kendra if she’d like to go. They’re having their summer feasts around this time of year. =)
Abandonia
Disappointed that I don’t have the hardware to play Grim Grimoire, I instead went looking for a repository of the downloadable video games from yesteryear. Such a place was surprisingly easy to find. I got SimTower, which I enjoyed playing back in the day, and also downloaded some other games, like Wolf. (It’s a nice idea…but not terribly fun.)
FCC Orders Comcast to Not Block BitTorrent Use
In a 3-2 ruling, with the Republican chairmate siding with the committee’s two Democrats, the FCC has ordered Comcast to stop obstructing its customers’ use of BitTorrent. This is a victory for the net neutrality principle, but a defensive one-a bad practice is dispatched rather than a good one promoted. More fundamentally, the telecommunications companies need to lay some fucking lines and get their infrastructure up to snuff. What are we paying them for?
Of course, the companies-and those other two Republicans on the FCC-believe that service expansion isn’t the right answer. Instead, they look at rising Internet traffic and see the need for some combination of network bias (the opposite of network neutrality) or volume-based pricing. Volume-based pricing means you pay more for using more bandwidth, and that’s fine to the extent that it reflects the costs of providing service at those speeds. However, network bias is completely unacceptable, and volume-based pricing as the only strategy moving forward-to the exclusion of laying some fucking lines-is avaricious corporate sloth at its best.
SpaceX Suffers Rocket Launch Failure
This is the third high-profile launch failure for the SpaceX, a company which hopes to spur development in the space industry from the private sector side, and who has a key role in replacing the Space Shuttle after its pending retirement. Their commendable goal is cheap and reliable access to Earth orbit. I guess they’ve got the “cheap” part down.
World’s Smallest Snake Discovered
Thought to represent the near-limit of how small a snake can evolve to be-theorized upon a certain minimum size threshold for snake hatchlings to be able to eat the sorts of things that snakes like to eat-this tiny snake could fit on a U.S. quarter and is apparently indigenous to just one tiny Caribbean island. Sadly, that island is now almost completely deforested, and the snake may go extinct soon after its discovery.
There were some old specimens of this snake in museum collections, but they had been misidentified. DNA testing makes it possible to identify speciary distinctions invisible to the naked eye.
Seven or Fewer Degrees of Separation for Almost 80 Percent of Text Messengers
I was thinking about the validity of the “Six Degrees of Separation Theory” just the other day, when Kendra told me that she had met Costco CEO Jim Sinegal once, as one of her clients is a friend of his, and had brought him out to the farm one day. (Thus, I am personally connected to some of the most powerful business leaders in the world by four degrees of separation, and far more business leaders as well as political officials and world leaders by a mere five degrees.)
Now I read that Microsoft researches have evaluated their database of text message contacts and have determined that 78 percent of any two users are separated by just seven links or fewer. Neat!
Experimental Alzheimer’s Drug Shows Early Promise
If successful, this would be the first drug to actually halt progression of the disease, rather than treat its symptoms. Further testing is needed.