I’ve been up since about 4:00 AM, working on necessary tasks. I’m waiting for Safeway. They will be delivering my groceries sometime within the next four hours. I have to stay up, until they get here. Today is the last of the 70° days, but I can’t bask until I put my groceries away, either. Tomorrow’s appointment will take all morning, so figure on a Personal Update only.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:50 (average 6:00). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From NY Times: Some Republicans in Congress are calling for cuts to the Census Bureau’s budget that would impair the agency’s already strained ability to gather basic data.
An accurate census is essential to determining the correct number of representatives from each state, the effectiveness of voting laws and the allotment of federal aid to states. In fact, information from the census and other surveys by the bureau is crucial to anyone — policy makers and businesspeople, researchers and citizens — who wants to understand the United States, assess where it is headed and influence its course on the basis of hard data.
The White House has requested a slim $1.5 billion for the bureau for fiscal year 2016. Much of that would be for the 2020 census, the planning of which is already behind schedule because of previous budget cuts. Next year is critical for the testing of data-gathering technology; Congress’s failure to provide timely financing to try out hand-held computers before the 2010 census forced a last-minute reversion to paper forms, which proved costlier than an orderly roll out of the computers would have been.
Congress looks set to make the same mistake again.
There’s no mistake about it! With the Census Bureau starved tor funding, the people who will fall through the cracks, because they are not counter are the poor. Those are the people Republicans want to be under-represented.
From Alternet: Google could launch an effort to keep trolls and bad information at bay, with a program that would rank websites according to veracity, and sort results according to those rankings. Currently, the search engine ranks pages according to popularity, which means that pages containing unsubstantiated celebrity gossip or conspiracy theories, for example, show up very high.
New Scientist’s Hal Hodson reports on the proposed Knowledge-Based Trust score:
The software works by tapping into the Knowledge Vault, the vast store of facts that Google has pulled off the internet. Facts the web unanimously agrees on are considered a reasonable proxy for truth. Web pages that contain contradictory information are bumped down the rankings.
Google has recently implemented a kind of Knowledge-Based Truth score lite with its medical search results. Now, doctors and real medical experts vet search results about health conditions, meaning anti-vaxx propaganda will not appear in the top results for a “measles” search, for instance.
Even though the former program is just in the research stage, some anti-science advocates are upset about the potential development, likely because their websites will become buried under content that is, well, true.
I fully hope Google does it. It would be catastrophic for the Republican Reichsministry of Propaganda, Faux Noise, and the entire Republican bubble machine.
From TPM: Even if Obamacare tax subsidies survive in the Supreme Court, a future president may have a lawful way of unilaterally blocking them, legal experts say.
The justices met privately on Friday, two days after contentious oral arguments, to cast their votes in King v. Burwell, a case about whether the text of the Affordable Care Act allows the Internal Revenue Service to provide tax subsidies to Americans in three-dozen states who buy insurance on the federally-run exchange.
There are three ways the justices could rule: 1) They could side with the plaintiffs and say the law unambiguously forbids the subsidies, in which case no president can provide them; 2) They could side with the government and say the law unambiguously authorizes the subsidies, in which case no president can deny them; 3) They could say the statute is ambiguous and therefore defer to the agency that implements it — in this case, the IRS — under the longstanding legal theory of "Chevron deference."
If Obamacare subsidies survive — still an "if" — it’ll likely be because the justices find the law ambiguous and defer to the agency. That’s the basis on which the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, from which the Supreme Court took the case, upheld the federal exchange subsidies.
If that does turn out to be the third option, that’s all the more reason why Republicans must be denies the White House until pork is kosher.
Cartoon:
12 Responses to “Open Thread–3/10/2015”
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5:00 average up to 7:10. Dahlias are a challenge in the garden too, or so I hear. I'll stick to irises.
NY Times – You bet. we used to say there's method in their madness. Now we say, it's a feature, not a bug. Same point exactly. And so Republican.
Alternet – This would be wonderful, but the opposition it will get from big money, which has a vested interest in keeping us ignorant, will be ferocious. I wish Google the best of luck with implementing this. Can we help?
TPM – Well, that's a fine mess they'll have gotten us into. I guess we just wait and see.
Cartoon – Hmmm. I didn't think white sheep could dance that well.
The cuts also meant the planned extra efforts to improve accuracy on reservations and among the homeless got shelved in 2010.
I like Google's idea. Only those on an email distribution list would end up reading the pure tripe ones.
Glad the odds aren't equal for each of the three potential rulings.
I don't think I've seen the GOP showing that happy in years.
I never post my scores because I am usually 2 minutes or more over average. Today I will. My time 7:04. Average 7:10. Cheers to myself.
Well. Here’s to hoping that the census is not TOO screwed up this time. I have never trusted anything online for anything as important as this may prove to be!
3:36 I didn't dally around the dalhia.
3:36 Lookie thar! Another flower with a touch of purple on the crown, just like me!
3:16 Puddy tat, don't eat the dahlias!
NY Times: Of course they want to cut the census bureau budget, that will eliminate those pesky poor folk.
Alternet: I hope Google does it too. Maybe they could transfer it to Fox?
TPM: I sincerly hope the Repubicans are denied the White House! I saw where the latest scandal is called "Mail Ghazi", they hope to oust Hilary before she runs.
Cartoon: this is soooo true. baaa
Puzzle — 3:36 Lookie thar! Another flower with a touch of purple on the crown, just like me!
NY Times — "…anyone … who wants to understand the United States, assess where it is headed and influence its course on the basis of hard data." With all the BS coming from the Republicanus/Teabaggerum, the country already knows where it is going . . . straight into the crapper! Harper screwed with the Canadian census data collection (long form versus short form debacle) leaving insufficient information available for many things, including government data requirements. Surprise, surprise! Harper is a Republicanus!
Alternet — This would be great if Google could do this! But mark my words, someone will sue them for interfering with their freedom of speech!
TPM — "If that does turn out to be the third option, that’s all the more reason why Republicans must be denies the White House until pork is kosher." And that denial will involve changing the dance of the little fella in the cartoon. Maybe we should start talking about lamb chops!
Cartoon — A Republicanus/Teabaggerum line dance to "One step over the line sweet Jesus"!
Alternet – is Google proposing this seriously? I can't believe that they would do something that is so a) difficult and b) good. I hope they do though it would raise their popularity considerably.
I'm going to be an optimist and predict the King v Burwell vote will be 6-3, supporting ObamaCare.
Robers will vote w/ the majority because hewas the swing vote upholding it in the first place AND he's worried about his legacy.
Kennedy will also vote w/ the majority because of his voiced concern WRT federalism during his questioning AND because he actually has a conscience.
NY Times ~ Anther thought… could diminishing populations in Red states cut into the number of Representatives from those areas?
Alternet ~ FAUX is not happy about this. http://smd12364.newsvine.com/_news/2015/03/08/30550673-fox-news-regular-upset-google-will-rank-by-accuracy-let-the-public-decide-whats-the-truth
TPM ~ I nprefer to be optimistic like Nameless.
Cartoon ~ No! They aren't that cute. They resemble jackals a bit more.