Friday Links (death defying edition)

It’s the second Friday in August, and we’re surviving a tamped down heat wave and smokezilla. Those are related. While the unhealthy air quality is not good for us, on the other had, it’s blocking enough sunlight that (depending on which part of the region you’re in) temperatures have been between 10-16 degrees farenheit cooler than they would have been without the smoke. Prevailing winds have finally shifted, bringing in cooler air, so the temps will go down a bit and the air quality is improving.

We’re both still very busy and have been feeling less than well which we’re attributing to the haze–we’ve both got red eyes and painful sinuses all the time, and despite sleeping in a room with an air purifier and an air conditioner, neither us seems to be getting nice deep sleepl

Anyway, on to links! I’m still trying to sort it so that the science and other, mostly happy news is at the top, and then we get to less pleasant topics before finishing with music videos. Enjoy!

Links of the Week

The supposition that NK will soon have missile-capable thermonuclear weapons is, at best, stupidly generous.

The Last Death-Defying Honey Hunter of Nepal.

Science!

10 Badass Trees That Refuse To Die.

How America Really Lost Its Mind to Pseudoscience: Hint, It Wasn’t Entirely the Fault of Hippie New Agers and Postmodern Academics.

City-dwelling sea snakes are changing colors for a strange reason.

Early humans may have seen a supervolcano explosion up close.

Study: The Milky Way is swarming with black holes.

The Largest Space Telescope Ever Could Study an Earth-Like Exoplanet Next Door.

Prehistoric Baby Skull Shows What Our Common Ancestor With Apes May Have Looked Like.

Malicious code written into DNA infects the computer that reads it.

Rare Fossils Reveal New Species of Ancient Gliding Mammals.

Evolutionary psychology is the most obvious example of how “science” is flawed.

This Week in Weather and the Atmosphere

The Long Seattle Haze Shows How Climate Change Will Hit the Poor.

This Week in Typography

The Loveliest Living Fossil“Nº was the number sign before # became a number sign, and it refreshingly serves this one and only purpose.”

Science Fiction, Fantasy and Speculation!

Locus Online News » Dragon Awards Refuse Withdrawal.

The Story of the Bad Ugly Monster by May Peterson.

This Week in History

How Ice Cream Helped the U.S. Military at War.

Here’s Why the U.S. Hasn’t Brought ‘Fire and Fury’ to North Korea .

News for queers and our allies:

The Hero Who Saved His Gay Friends.

Conservatives Are Really Scared Of This Purple ‘Gender Unicorn’.

This Week in the Patriarchy

If Men Were “Just Polite” To Each Other – comic by Kasia Babis.

How a 19th century nude painting became a feminist meme.

This Week in Misogyny in Tech

I’M A GOOGLE MANUFACTURING ROBOT AND I BELIEVE HUMANS ARE BIOLOGICALLY UNFIT TO HAVE JOBS IN TECH.

Researcher reveals how “Computer Geeks” replaced “Computer Girls”.

Culture war news:

Court Blocks Federal Prosecution of California Pot Growers.

We Hold Sasha and Malia Obama to a Higher Standard Than the Trump Children, and That’s Ridiculous.

The Walls We Won’t Tear Down: “what used to be racial segregation now mirrors itself in class segregation.”.

Texas Transgender Bathroom Bill Falters Amid Mounting Opposition .

This Week Regarding the Lying Liar:

Nearly Half of Donald Trump’s Twitter Followers Are Fake Accounts and Bots.

How Twitter took on Trump’s bot army—and won.

‘I hate when people take credit for an election I won’: Trump blows his top over Bannon-praising book.

Twitter suspends army of fake accounts after Trump thanks propaganda ‘bot’ for supporting him.

News about the Fascist Regime:

What The Fuck Just Happened Today? Anyway, congratulations. So far you (and America) have survived Steve Bannon, Steve Miller, “alternative facts,” “Braggadocious,” Jeff Sessions, Anthony Scaramucci, Neil Gorsuch, and so many bad policies and apocalyptic pronouncements that a person needs a web archive like this to track them all.”>.

Video reveals how actions of US border officers led to tragedy: Investigation finds allegations of abuse (including sexual abuse of minors), impunity along U.S.-Mexico border.

This week in Politics:

Get Off Kamala Harris’s Back: Lately the Democratic senator has been criticized for being too establishment. But this discussion is much bigger than her.

Mueller Seeks White House Documents on Flynn.

A Congressional Candidate Asked Men If They’d Be Willing To Give Up Their Civil Rights.

This Week in Racists, White Nationalists, and other deplorables:

White people should be more afraid of other whites than they are of people of color.

This Week in Hate Crimes

Minnesota mosque bombed during morning prayers.

On average, 9 mosques have been targeted every month this year.

Farewells:

Glen Campbell Is Dead at 81 from Alzheimer’s.

Things I wrote:

Weekend Update 8/5/2017: Let’s stick with happy stuff.

Getting a better perspective on threats to knowledgee — and us.

By their fruits you will know them — when people show you who they are, believe them.

Videos!

P!nk – What About Us (Lyric Video):

(If embedding doesn’t work, click here.)

Move Your Body – Sia ft Kazaky:

(If embedding doesn’t work, click here.)