Disinformation networks continue pumping out false posts at an incredible rate: in a typical day they publish more than a million tweets, the authors found.”

“The persistence of so many easily identified abusive accounts is difficult to square with any effective crackdown.”

Oh, Murdoch, you crafty old king-maker, even your mysteries suck. They aren’t even as good as Mike Tyson’s, and nowhere near as good as Laura’s.

Full disclosure: I haven’t seen a single minute of any of those shows. To me they are just names in the TV listings. So don’t write in to tell me the Murdoch mysteries are the best, or that they have nothing to do with Rupert Murdoch. Either I already know or I don’t care.

Jeff Sessions said in a statement that “states do not regulate interstate commerce – the federal government does”

Sessions’ point is accurate, but almost totally irrelevant to the law. While internet content providers (like Google or Twitter or even me) operate interstate and internationally, intent access providers (like Time-Warner and Comcast), while they may be giant international companies, operate locally as access providers, and frequently have virtual monopolies.

In reality, the California law probably doesn’t go far enough. Since Comcast and Time-Warner also provide internet content, they should probably be forbidden from controlling access at all, just as Microsoft was once forbidden to make their browser a critical component of Windows. Without net neutrality, Time-Warner or Comcast can, in theory, provide decent access speed only to their own content and block or stall everything else. While Time-Warner has been relatively transparent and fair so far (with some exceptions), Comcast has been caught many times blocking unfriendly content, and then lying about it.

Charles Aznavour, daring and adored French singer and composer, dies at 94 (WaPo)

Alternate Obit from The Guardian

I had no idea he was still alive.

“Mr. Aznavour was one of the last surviving links to the mid-20th-century golden age of the ‘chanson française,’ a song tradition blending street-wise, poetic lyrics and accessible melodies.”

I don’t usually learn much from the posts on Cracked.com, although I sometimes enjoy their take on things. This article is an exception. I learned a lot.

I didn’t know that there was an American town completely within Canada. In order to get from Point Roberts, Washington to any other part of Washington, there are only two options: take a boat, or drive through Canada! One of the coolest things about this situation is that Point Roberts is too small to have its own school system beyond third grade, so the children there have to be bused through Canada and back into the USA twice a day – four border crossings every single weekday.

I didn’t know there was a walled-in Spanish town (Melilla) completely on the continent of Africa.

I know that the Balkan borders are sometimes crazy, but I didn’t know that Croatia is split into two halves separated by a six-mile stretch of Bosnia. This presents so many border-related traffic problems that Croatia is trying to negotiate a plan to build a six mile bridge over the Bosnian territory. (Of course they need Bosnia’s permission to build the chain of supports on Bosnian territory.)

And some of the other examples are also fascinating!

 

Kavanaugh passed through the committee by an 11-10 partisan vote, although Republican Jeff Flake expressed reservations about his “yes” vote.

Frankly, Flake’s vote and the entire committee vote was meaningless, since McConnell was going to take up the vote in the Senate even if the committee had voted against Kavanaugh.

But …

“Flake said at the last minute that he could not promise to vote for Kavanaugh on the Senate floor and called for a delay of up to a week for a further investigation of sexual assault accusations.”

“They persecuted Jesus and look what happened. I’m not saying Mr. Cosby is Jesus, but we know what this country has done to black men for centuries.”

I can see the similarity between Cosby and Jesus. Neither of them thought plain water was a suitable drink for a festive occasion. In order to lighten the mood, Jesus changed it into wine, and Cosby added some gentle little pills.

The oddest part of this story is that Cosby’s publicist gratuitously added comments about Brett Kavanaugh, who presumably was considered somewhat less like Jesus. Or maybe not. I don’t really know because my knowledge of the Bible is a little hazy, and I just keep forgetting the part about Jesus whipping it out.

Bill Cosby has received his first sentence for one of the many women who have accused him of various forms of predatory behavior. In this case, as in most of them, he drugged, then assaulted a woman. The judge declared Cosby a “sexually violent predator.”

He was escorted away in handcuffs. Three to ten years was his sentence for his behavior with just this one woman. Given the number of crimes he has been accused of (60 women) and his age (81), he has probably spent his last day as a free man and will die in prison.

Was there any bigger surprise among the recently exposed sexual predators? And how did he keep it so quiet for so many years? Let’s  face it, everyone knew that Harvey Weinstein and Les Moonves were creeps. There were always whispers and rumors, even when everyone feared their power, but  … Dr. Huxtable ???? That was like finding out Tom Hanks is a serial killer.

Two small robots have begun hopping around the surface of asteroid Ryugu.

It’s a tricky process. Ryugu is tiny and has very little gravity, so the rovers there move around by hopping. When they land, some 15 minutes later, it is usually quite far from where they took off. On Saturday, Rover 1A returned an early picture of its new home world during one of its first hops.

This picture is indecipherable, but they are hoping for many more photos from the robots, as well as other forms of research. One goal of the project is to take surface samples and send them back to earth. I’m not talking about sending the analysis back to earth, but the actual, physical sample!

Ryugu comes very close to Earth – within a quarter of the distance to the moon at the closest point.

I personally like the redesign, but a couple of you have commented that you do not. If you prefer the old black/aqua style, you can switch back by clicking on “Use old theme” at the very bottom of “Key Links.” I do not recommend it, because I’m now creating the page with the new format in mind, so some things will look funky. If you do try it and want to escape, you can then find the comparable link at the bottom of the “Key links” in the old layout. Obviously, the text to be clicked in this case will read “Use new theme.”

Again, I do not recommend it, and I prefer that you not switch to the old theme.

If you miss being able to read the headlines and a text snippet without the pictures, a viable alternative is to use the RSS feed with one of the standard RSS readers. (I use the free version of Feedly, but I’m sure there must be others as good or better.) That is, in fact, how I read about 75% of the sites I check daily. If they have an RSS feed I use it. That lets me check something like 30 websites from a single page.

Will Joe Arpaio’s pardon be invalidated?

The legal debate hinges on whether the President has the power to override a contempt of court citation (as opposed to a jury decision).

There’s a reasonable case that such a pardon violates the constitutional separation of powers.

“PDP cites the Supreme Court opinion in the 1987 case Young v. U.S. ex rel. Vuitton et Fils S.A., which said the criminal contempt power is so central to the judicial branch, it may not be left to the mercy of the executive branch. The power to punish those who disobey judicial orders is essential to vindicate the authority of the courts, and should not be dependent on the legislative or executive branches.”

Maybe so, but the Constitution places only these limits on presidential pardons: (1) they are limited to offenses against the United States, so he may not pardon somebody for violating a state law; (2) they cannot be applied in impeachment proceedings.

In other words, both sides have a case to argue. I’m not sure how the hearing will go next week, but the Supremes will ultimately have to rule on it.

… depending on your point of view.

Research Says The More Sex You Have, The Longer You’ll Live

My reaction to this finding hinges on a key question: Does jerking off count as sex? (With the right answer I may be immortal.)

But …

If this is true, then why do nuns always live to be older than giant tortoises?