Cavalcade of Mammals

I’ve seen comments that Betsy DeVos (married into the Amway pyramid scheme) is unqualified to be Sec. of Education. This is Republican government–Republicans want to destroy much of the Federal government. They were circumspect about in the past, but the Republican party has become more extreme, gotten more power, and feels less need to mask their objective. When a Republican is elected, the Sec. of Education is tasked with destroying public schools and funneling government support to private Christian schools. This has the dual goals of destroying teacher unions (to cut teacher pay) and funneling public money to for profit school corporations. And recall, the Religious Right, modern white political Christianity, was created in the fight over government subsidies for private whites-only Christians schools started to circumvent desegregation.

A Republican Sec. of the Interior is tasked with giving public lands to mining and lumber companies. A Republican Dept. of Justice shuts down enforcement of Civil Rights laws, anti-trust enforcement, and lets companies cheat their customers. A Republican Labor department is tasked with reducing worker safety and enforcement of honest pay laws. A Republican EPA Administrator is tasked with not enforcing (and eliminating where possible) clean water and clean air laws. The head of the Energy Dept. doles out subsidies to the oil and coal industry, and he works with Interior to give these companies protected Federal lands and works with the EPA to to legalize the industry’s pollution.

A note on Donald Trump. When he takes office tomorrow, he will be in violation of a Constitutional ban on receiving money from foreign interests, “no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.” Trump still owns his company, and it takes in payments from foreigners in many ways. Since being elected, he has used his status as President-elect multiple times to meet with foreign officials and press them for help with his company’s business deals. Trump will also be in violation of the Constitution in another way. Trump properties in the US receive favorable tax treatment (tax abatements and rebates), these are a common part of real estate deals. The President is banned from receiving payments from the States under the Constitution. Trump has refused to sell his business, and plans to use the Presidency to increase his wealth. This is plain corruption, using the office of the Presidency for illegitimate private gain.

A don’t expect that conservatives will complain about Trump’s violation of the Constitution. Many conservatives have taken to calling themselves ‘Constitutional Conservatives’, but they will not utter a peep about Trump’s violation of these Constitutional anti-corruption measures. ‘Constitutional Conservative’ was always a proud name for shabby blanket opposition to President Obama. It was always about partisanship for them, not law or the Constitution. Trump’s self dealing will not attract the attention of the Republican majority Congress, they will do little or no investigation, nor demand Trump follow the rules laid out in the Constitution. Republicans will retreat to the President Nixon’s “If the President does it, it’s not illegal” excuse.

My Samsung CLP-415NW printer was giving a A1-4111 error. I found a post saying that this can be caused by a toner sensor electromagnet failing to hit the correct position because a foam pad squishes up. After removing the front door (remove black plastic extenders, pull up left side of door to pop out hinge), the front plastic piece, and the right side plastic case, the electromagnet can be uncovered. The electromagnet assembly can be removed with one screw, and pulled out for easier access. I added a 3-4 layers of masking tape to build up the pad. This cleared up the issue.

Meme: Trump learned discipline, respect, and hard work because his father sent him to a military academy.

Trump was such an insufferable a**hole, he failed out of his comfy private school and his dad sent him to a private military school. Because of this, Trump says “I always felt that I was in the military” and that he had “more training militarily than a lot of the guys that go into the military.”. Trump actually avoided service in Vietnam using 4 education deferments and then a Y-1 medical deferment for “heel spurs”. In college, Trump played football, tennis and squash. Trump has never held a job or done an honest day’s work in his life.

Repairing a Canon EF lens, photos

Rep. Meadows targets campus rape rule
The Republican Congress’s priority is eliminating rules to prevent rape on College campuses. The ‘Freedom Caucus’ is all about the freedom to rape. Republicans, the pro-rape party. Terrible headline–by quoting Rep. Meadows, it affirms his opinion of the rules.

what vichy france can teach us about the normalization of state violence by Aliza Luft
“…in August 1940, even before France and Germany embarked upon an official collaboration, the French Catholic episcopate formally endorsed the Vichy regime’s first anti-Semitic decree, the Statut des Juifs. Shortly thereafter, the State Council, Vichy’s highest judicial body, purged all Jews from public office. Simultaneously, more Catholics were ushered into government appointments than at any time since 1878.”

Leia Organa: A Critical Obituary by Malcolm Sheppard

Nixon’s Vietnam Treachery By JOHN A. FARRELL

To them all, Nixon insisted that he had not sabotaged Johnson’s 1968 peace initiative to bring the war in Vietnam to an early conclusion. “My God. I would never do anything to encourage” South Vietnam “not to come to the table,” Nixon told Johnson, in a conversation captured on the White House taping system.

Now we know Nixon lied. A newfound cache of notes left by H. R. Haldeman, his closest aide, shows that Nixon directed his campaign’s efforts to scuttle the peace talks, which he feared could give his opponent, Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey, an edge in the 1968 election. On Oct. 22, 1968, he ordered Haldeman to “monkey wrench” the initiative.

Science Of Rain-x and Aquapel
Rain-X is more hydrophobic, but wears off. Aquapel (fluorine based) bind covalently but is not as hydophobic.

Leaving Conservatism Behind by Matthew Sitman

Everyday Authoritarianism is Boring and Tolerable by Tom Pepinsky

Spy Agencies Say: Yeah, Russia Did It
The US intelligence agencies’s report is out–Russia hacked the US election to get Trump elected. Republican response–we think Russia is great now! Love Putin, he’s so old man hunky! Remember the good old days, when Republicans preferred America to its long time enemies?

Good for the Heart, Good for the Brain. Despite a growing conviction among researchers that lifestyle choices matter, Americans still view Alzheimer’s as a predominantly inherited disease. by Joshua C. Kendall

10 Discworld Quotes You’ll Desperately Need for the Next Four Years

And, while it was regarded as pretty good evidence of criminality to be living in a slum, for some reason owning a whole street of them merely got you invited to the very best social occasions. – Feet of Clay

Commander Vimes didn’t like the phrase “The innocent have nothing to fear,” believing the innocent had everything to fear, mostly from the guilty but in the longer term even more from those who say things like “The innocent have nothing to fear.” – Snuff

A supplement maker tried to silence this Harvard doctor — and put academic freedom on trial

2017 Total Solar Eclipse

Dr. Martin Luther King’s Economics: Through Jobs, Freedom

Why Do Republicans Hate Obamacare? by Kevin Drum

Why large dogs live fast—and die young By Elizabeth Pennisi

NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA—For most mammals, size matters: Large ones, such as elephants and whales, live far longer than small ones like rodents. But among dogs, that rule is reversed. Tiny Chihuahuas, for example, can live up to 15 years—8 years longer than their much larger cousins, Great Danes. Now, a team of undergraduates may be closer to figuring out why. The most likely culprit? More harmful oxygen free radicals in fast-growing, fuel-burning puppies.
…
In the adult dog cells, energy and free radical production was about equal in the two breed sizes. But in the puppy cells, that balance was off. Adult large and small dogs had about equal amounts of antioxidants, but the cells from large breed puppies had too many excess free radicals for the antioxidants to fight, the undergrads reported here last week at the annual meeting of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology. That’s likely because large breed puppies have fast metabolisms, growing faster and requiring more energy than smaller breeds, Winward says. Cell damage even at this young age can have long-lasting effects.

The results are preliminary, and there are other ideas about why dogs age the way they do. But if the findings hold up, it might be possible to extend large dogs’ lives with antioxidant supplements for puppies, Winward suggests. These antioxidants could help get rid of those young dogs’ extra free radicals before they do damage.

Antioxidants will not work to extend large dogs lifespans. Antioxidant supplements of many types have been tried in all types of animals with nearly all trials failing. I recall an antioxidant used as a preservative showed a positive effect in house flys where flight was measured as the flys aged. The flight muscles have a high oxygen demand.

2016 is hottest year, breaks records set in 2015, 2014, 2010, 2005!

Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes

An election fraud fake news masterpiece

How Purdue Pharma created the opioid addiction epidemic

Repealing the Affordable Care Act will kill more than 43,000 people annually

Blue Lives Matter by Albert Samaha
BuzzFeed News reviewed 62 incidents of video footage contradicting an officer’s statement in a police report or testimony. From traffic stops to fatal force, these cases reveal how cops are incentivized to lie — and why they get away with it.