Friday, October 16, 2015

Friday Water Cooler

Researchers discover a massive body of water under China’s biggest desert (inhabitat.com). "These desert waters may contain more carbon than all the plants on the planet combined."

The Tarim basin in Xinjiang, China is a valley the size of Venezuela; bigger than California, New Mexico and Florida put together. Underneath: Ten times more water than all the Great Lakes combined.
No, Hedge Fund Billionaires Aren't Going to Save All the Children (alternet.org). The charter-school scam is just that. Also see:

The ongoing destruction of public education (esquire.com). How do you improve schools these days? "​Kick out any student who might blow up the data set and turn the ones who stay into extras in a Pink Floyd video."

You really don't need to work so much (newyorker.com). In America, workers willingly endorse their own slavery, because capitalism.


Gun violence costs every American $700 a year (motherjones.com). Read about what it costs to get shot.

Taser Cam shows Georgia police were likely tasering Matthew Ajibade in the groin before he died (alternet.org). Disturbing. More background here.

Gene patents probably dead worldwide following Australian court decision (arstechnica.com). Premature conclusion, IMHO. Too much money on the line.

Breast cancer cases among men on the rise (usatoday.com).

A third of Chinese men will die from smoking (bbc.com).

This study is forcing economists to rethink high-deductible health insurance (vox.com). "The new paper shows that when faced with a higher deductible, patients did not price shop for a better deal. Instead, both healthy and sick patients simply used way less health care." Obamacare is high-priced disaster insurance, not a plan for universal health care; let's be clear on the difference. We're never going to have what France, Germany, Canada, etc. have for their citizens, unless we get private insurance companies out of the way.

Scientists hope to attract millions to 'DNA.LAND' (nature.com). No, it's not a theme park. It's a scheme for crowdsourcing genome data.

Coca-Cola claims it doesn't owe $3.3 billion in back taxes, says IRS is wrong (grist.org).

Cable News Edits Out Rousing Sanders Attack on Vapid Media Coverage (theintercept.com). The least distrusted name in news (CNN) perpetrated one of the most vapid, mindless non-debates in recent memory.

At some U.S. ports, empty shipping containers outnumber full ones (wsj.com). "September was the eighth straight month in which empty containers leaving Long Beach outnumbered those loaded with exports." This is of interest to me partly because I live within a quarter mile of the port at Long Beach and see the containers daily with my naked eye.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy Enters Rehab After Admitting Struggles with Nouns, Verbs (newyorker.com).


A big thank-you to all the great people who retweeted me yesterday: 




Buy my books (or click to find out more, at least):
Have you added your name to our mailing list? Thank you. Be well.