Links

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jul/31/paris-harasser-video-men-rejected-women-fear-violence
July 31, 2018
Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett:
When you combine the larger male physique with rejection and a bruised ego, the situation can become frightening and violent. There are men who take rejection with good grace, of course. But not enough of them. And so women learn to smile and look down, to defuse the situation with soothing words and platitudes, to make our bodies smaller, to comply. We undertake the emotional labour of minimising men’s feelings of pain and humiliation.
Some women are assertive or respond defiantly, but this carries a risk, of which women are always cognisant. This is why, in the midst of the #MeToo revelations, the people who said, “Why didn’t she leave?” or “If it were me, I would’ve kneed him in the balls,” appeared so wrongheaded. When you are frightened, your thought process can come down to “comply or die”.


https://www.yaleclimateconnections.org/2018/08/climate-change-could-cause-bumps-in-the-road/
[Increased cost for taxpayers to repair and replace.]
Aug. 1, 2018
“Roads and bridges and other types of physical infrastructure are designed to be able to handle a certain range in temperatures. When you look into the future to see what temperature ranges are likely to be, in some cases they’re outside the current design standards.”
Michael Meyer is with WSP, an engineering consulting firm in Atlanta. He says that occasional hot days do not typically cause problems. The real problem comes with extended heat waves, which can cause pavement to expand and crack.
Meyer: “So what you would see is a lot of buckling of road pavements, and deterioration of the pavement itself.”
Meyer: “Anything over 110 degrees consecutively for more than ten to fifteen days, you need to seriously ask yourself the question whether the pavement is designed to handle that.”
When a road heaves or buckles from heat, it can be dangerous for drivers.


http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/senate/399885-senate-rejects-effort-to-beef-up-states-election-security-spending
Aug. 1, 2018
Senators on Wednesday rejected an a Democratic proposal to provide states with more election security funding ahead of the 2018 midterm elections. 
Senators voted 50-47 against adding an amendment from Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) that would have provided the funding. Sixty votes were needed to include the proposal in the appropriations legislation under Senate rules. 

Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) was the only GOP senator who voted in support of the amendment to an appropriations measure. 


https://www.npr.org/2018/08/01/634474267/more-taxpayers-will-owe-the-irs-in-april-due-to-under-withholding-report-says
[I wrote and updated payroll programs. The IRS sends out withholding tables each time there is a change in taxes with the withholding that is supposed to be used against the taxpayer deliberately chooses otherwise. The republican Congress has cut back on the IRS budget is recent years, leaving them underhanded.]
Aug. 1, 2018
More Americans will be writing a check to the IRS in April because their employers are not withholding enough from their paychecks following the new tax law, the Government Accountability Office says in a new report.
The Treasury Department and the IRS are responsible for updating the tax withholding tables each year, but their roles and responsibilities are not spelled out in writing. The GAO recommends that the secretary of the Treasury work with the IRS commissioner to sort that out.


https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-45034092
Aug. 1, 2018
At a rally in Tampa, Florida, he said: "You know, if you go out and you want to buy groceries, you need a picture on a card, you need ID."
ID is not required at US supermarkets unless for buying alcohol or, in some cases, for credit card purchases.
The Republican president was arguing for tougher ID checks on voters.
"You go out and you want to buy anything, you need ID and you need your picture," he told the crowd at the "Make America Great Again" rally on Tuesday night.
CNN journalist Jim Acosta tweeted: "Trump out of touch here... you don't need an ID to buy groceries."
Acosta was later heckled live on air by Trump supporters who shouted "liar" and "CNN sucks". The presenter tweeted a clip, which contains strong language.
[So Trump voters confirm they don't care about truth.]


http://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2018/07/25/russia-election-interference-how-why
July 25, 2018
How And Why Russia Interferes In Elections
Russia is continuing to interfere in U.S. elections, former FBI agent Clint Watts says.
"It's not just to win an election," Watts says. "It is to demoralize, subvert the U.S. population and have an erosion of democratic institutions, and not be sure what to believe, what is fact or fiction. And we've seen that play out in a really devastating way over the last week and really over the last year."
"Active measures is a term going back to the Soviet era. Really it was a asymmetric information warfare technique the Soviets wanted to launch on the United States, which was to win through the force of politics rather than the politics of force: If you can't beat your enemy on the battlefield, go into your adversary, win over their populations and help elect officials that are sympathetic to the Russian viewpoint, and tie up your enemy, essentially, with politics and infighting so that they cannot resist you on the foreign policy playing field.
"They have adapted that approach for cyberspace. They've done it to a very devastating effect, whether it's the United States, the United Kingdom with the Brexit vote or even the French and German elections, we saw that as well, which is they're trying to engender, infiltrate and influence Western audiences to take a more pro-Kremlin position."


https://gizmodo.com/facebook-starts-showing-you-how-much-time-you-waste-on-1828022044
Aug. 1, 2018
Facebook is finally releasing its time-management feature
As expected, the new feature, which is being integrated into Facebook and Instagram apps on iOS and Android, will show you exactly how much time you’ve spent staring into the void that is your Instagram or Facebook feed, and let you know when enough’s enough according to your own limits. Still, with all these activity-limiting features at our disposal, do we have enough self-control to use them?


https://www.wkyc.com/article/news/local/cuyahoga-county/condition-that-took-officers-life-becoming-more-common/95-579113529
July 31, 2018
On Tuesday the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner confirmed that officer Vu Nguyen, a popular Cleveland Police Patrolman, died from rhabdomyolysis.
At one time rare, it has become more common as more people push themselves to exercise.
Also referred to as “rhabdo,” it happens when you work out too hard. Muscles release proteins into your blood that can cause kidney failure or worse.


https://www.uptodate.com/contents/causes-of-rhabdomyolysis
June 2018
Causes of rhabdomyolysis include the following
Rhabdomyolysis may arise with marked physical exertion, particularly when one or more of the following risk factors is present:

●The individual is physically untrained.

●Exertion occurs in extremely hot, humid conditions, which may lead to exertional heat stroke [24,25]. (See "Severe nonexertional hyperthermia (classic heat stroke) in adults".)

●Normal heat loss through sweating is impaired, as with the use of anticholinergic medications or heavy football equipment [25,26]. (See "Severe nonexertional hyperthermia (classic heat stroke) in adults".)

●Sickle cell trait is associated with a higher risk of exertional rhabdomyolysis. The best data to support this come from a large cohort of 47,944 black active-duty soldiers whose sickle cell trait status was known [27]. Rhabdomyolysis in the setting of sickle cell trait is discussed in detail separately. (See "Sickle cell trait", section on 'Rhabdomyolysis and sudden death during strenuous physical activity'.)

●Hypokalemia caused by potassium loss from sweating occurs [28,29]. The role of potassium in the regulation of skeletal muscle blood flow appears to be important in the pathogenesis in this setting [30]. During exercise, there is normally an appropriate increase in muscle perfusion to meet enhanced energy demands. This hyperemic response is mediated in part by the release of potassium from skeletal muscle cells. The ensuing local elevation in the potassium concentration causes vasodilation, which enhances regional blood flow [30,31]. However, the cellular release of potassium is impaired by potassium depletion. As a result, there is a lesser increase in blood flow, possibly resulting in cramps, ischemic necrosis, and rhabdomyolysis [30]. Hypokalemia-induced impairment in muscle metabolism also may contribute to muscle dysfunction [29].

Rhabdomyolysis can also occur in trained individuals following physical exertion in the absence of these risk factors



http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-california-fires-20180801-story.html#
Aug. 1, 2018
A new fire ignited Tuesday afternoon in northern Mendocino County, about nine miles east of Covelo. The Eel fire, as it is being called, was uncontained after burning 865 acres as of Wednesday morning, according to Cal Fire.

The Eel is the latest of 16 large fires burning throughout the state, according to Cal Fire. Another blaze that ignited Tuesday in Mono County north of Mammoth Lake, called the Owens fire, was 312 acres and also uncontained as of Wednesday morning, according to authorities.

The largest of the blazes is the Carr fire, which as of Wednesday morning had burned 115,538 acres and was 35% contained.