This clip of Stephen Kinnock and @HelleThorning_S is absolutely incredible. Just after the exit poll at 10pm- you can tell who's been a former PM. #LaboursSummer pic.twitter.com/V9WL3OR6yk

— Jack Evans (@jackcevans) 20. November 2017

The Irish Times | Brexit: Barnier says EU at one with Varadkar on Border demand

Michel Barnier has made clear in no uncertain terms that Ireland's demand for UK assurances on the Border are completely at one with the EU Brexit negotiating task force position.

The EU's chief Brexit negotiator told a thinktank meeting in Brussels that it is up the UK government to provide a way to avoid imposing a hard border between the Republic and Northern Ireland when Britain leaves the European Union in 2019.

The onus was on the UK "to come forward with proposals" to avoid imposing a physical border in Ireland. "Those who want Brexit must offer solutions", said Mr Barnier.

You might find me At The Edge Of Time.

The Independent | Leaked diplomatic dossier says Tory party 'chaos' is undermining UK in Brexit talks

Internal chaos in Theresa May's Government is seriously undermining the Brexit negotiations, according to a leaked internal report drawn up by the Irish government.

The dossier, based on meetings between Irish diplomats and senior government officials in capital cities around the European Union, shows the low esteem Britain is being held in across the continent while talks sit in the grip of deadlock.

Leaked to Irish public broadcaster RTÉ, the document, which is based on diplomatic intelligence from the start of November, says that "chaos in the Conservative Government" has alarmed a number of European countries.

You might find me At The Edge Of Time.

The Guardian | How Brexit looms over the Irish border: 'It's the Berlin Wall approaching us'

Peace has been welcome, and now neither Parkes nor the rest of those living by the border know what is around the corner. "Border people, we are in a minority," he says. "Someone is going to decide our lives at a stroke of a pen. We don't have a voice in this."

You might find me At The Edge Of Time.

The New York Times | Where Brexit Hurts: The Nurses and Doctors Leaving London

"Brexit was a trigger," said Ms. Pardela. "It makes you reassess your life. You find yourself thinking: `I'm working really hard. I haven't had a pay raise in four years. Now they're telling me they don't want immigrants? Why am I still doing this here?' "

You might find me At The Edge Of Time.

Judges of NY's Top Court Dock Their Own Benefits

"We conclude the state's contribution is not judicial compensation protected from direct diminution by the compensation clause, and the reductions in contributions do not have the effect of singling out the judiciary for disadvantageous treatment," the panel wrote in a per curiam opinion on Tuesday.

archived:
Appointing Judges in Ireland

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

Annals of never-waste-a-crisis
Facebook (Still) Letting Housing Advertisers Exclude Users by Race
"The only ad that took longer than three minutes to be approved by Facebook sought to exclude potential renters 'interested in Islam, Sunni Islam and Shia Islam.' It was approved after 22 minutes."
Did You 'Like' Russian Propaganda? Facebook Will Tell You
"But it won't show users if they merely saw -- or even 'liked' -- posts from those pages."

()Nomenclature: the statement "bought ads" wherever it appears is incorrect; ProPublica ("advertiser") purchases publishing services for the advertisement supplied by the advertiser in terms of time, location ("placement"), and consideration (money payment) from Facebook (title "publisher"); the advertiser, its advertising agent, or employees, creates the advertisement contents.


Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

Autumn budget: the winners, the losers and the overlooked

The controversial help-to-buy scheme is also to be extended despite widespread concern that it contributes to ballooning house prices. The budget confirmed that an extra £10bn will go into the scheme to extend it to 2021, a measure previously announced in October.

&tc.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

Politics Gets Personal: Effects of Political Partisanship and Advertising on Family Ties

Research on growing American political polarization and antipathy primarily studies effects on public institutions and political processes, ignoring private effects such as damaged family ties. Using smartphone-tracking data and precinct-level voting, we show that politically-divided families shortened Thanksgiving dinners by 20-30 minutes following the divisive 2016 election. This decline survives comparisons with 2015 and extensive demographic and spatial controls, and more than doubles in media markets with heavy political advertising. These effects appear asymmetric: while Democratic voters traveled less in 2016, political differences shortened Thanksgiving dinners more among Republican voters, especially where political advertising was heaviest. Partisan polarization may degrade close family ties with large aggregate implications; we estimate 27 million person-hours of cross-partisan Thanksgiving discourse were lost in 2016 to ad-fueled partisan effects.

Current Affairs

If you'd like to be the subject of a long, humanizing profile story at a major national magazine or newspaper, the quickest route to free publicity is to start espousing Nazism. In 2017, it seems as if literally every white supremacist in the country, no matter how inconsequential they are, is entitled to thousands of column inches in the periodical of their choice.

It's very easy to attract the journalists to your doorstep. You might, like Richard Spencer, proclaim yourself the head of a made-up think tank: Spencer's "National Policy Institute" is little more than a website filled with "Lorem Ipsum" text, and its blog hasn't been updated in four years. No matter: Mother Jones and Politico both followed Spencer around, copying down his musings and photographing his "dapper" tweeds. (Side note: Richard Spencer is not actually dapper. Andre 3000 is dapper. Richard Spencer looks like a shabby College Republican.) But perhaps you're not terribly bright, and don't own a jacket. If you don't make a convincing "think tank president," why not lead a nonexistent political party? It worked for Matthew Heimbach: his "Traditionalist Workers Party" is pitifully small even for a fringe political group. No matter: The Washington Post dutifully published his thoughts, though conceding that "his party is still nascent," while The New York Times published multiple photographs of Heimbach's toddler son.

(links in the original, I haven't found a good html copy plugin for new firefox yet)

Talking points memo

Sanders called on American Urban Radio Networks reporter April Ryan first.

"I'm thankful for life. I'm thankful for my children. I'm thankful for 20 years in this job," Ryan said. "I'm thankful to be able to talk to and question you every single day."

"I feel the gratefulness there," Sanders replied.

"Now my question," Ryan pressed on. "I hope you felt the passion of my thankfulness."

Later in the briefing, another reporter offered, "I'm very thankful for you calling on me regularly."

"I am thankful for the First Amendment," ABC News' Cecilia Vega added before her question.

"Ooh, yes! We're thankful for that," a different reporter chimed in.

Good news! Only the US and Ukraine are against glorifying Nazis. Last time Canada joined them.

The UNGA Third Committee overwhelmingly passed a Russian-introduced resolution on combating the glorification of Nazism. The US did not break with its annual tradition of saying `no' during the symbolic vote. Ukraine also voted against.

The Moscow-drafted resolution against whitewashing and attempting to glorify Nazi ideology was approved by a majority in the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) human right committee on November 16. The resolution, introduced each year, was supported by 125 delegations, 51 states abstained, and the only countries opposed were the US and Ukraine.

RT on Russian-UK trade after Brexit.

Today, the Russian Federation is successfully expanding its trade with many different countries. Trade relations with the countries of European Union and the Asia-Pacific region are being rebuilt and developed. But especially telling, is the growth of trade with the UK. This is due both to the specifics of Russian-British trade and economic relations, and the fact that the British market and its partners traditionally react very sensitively to external signals and context, and in a good way, as we know, operate in a balanced and conservative manner, with an accurate assessment of the situation for the economic interests of their country.

AP | Robert Mugabe Resigns as Zimbabwe's President After 37 Years

Mugabe's resignation brought an end to the impeachment proceedings brought by the ruling ZANU-PF party after its Central Committee voted to oust the president as party leader and select recently fired Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa as his replacement, a move that eventually could lead to Mnangagwa  becoming head of state. Currently in exile, Mnangagwa served for decades as Mugabe's enforcer, with a reputation for being astute and ruthless, more feared than popular.

Mnangagwa added to immense pressure on Mugabe to quit?

Mnangagwa, who fled the country and has not appeared in public during the past week's political turmoil, said Mugabe had invited him to return to Zimbabwe "for a discussion" on recent events. However, he said he will not return for now, alleging that there had been plans to kill him at the time of his firing.

Regional leaders continued efforts to find a solution to the political turmoil?

It was not clear how long the impeachment process could take. The ruling party has said Mugabe could be voted out as early as Wednesday but some analysts believe the impeachment process could take weeks and would, if conducted properly, allow Mugabe to make a case in his defense.

archived: 6 days ago
"'nobody wants simply to see the transition from one unelected tyrant to a next. (...) We want to see proper, free and fair elections.'"


Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

Ha'aretz

In one short interview on the English language i24 News, Hotovely [Israel's deputy foreign minister] managed to step on each and every conceivable land mine. She slandered the American-Jewish campaign for egalitarian prayer at the Western Wall, describing it as a purely political ploy. She used the recent cancellation of her appearance at Princeton University to lambast a so-called "liberal dictatorship" that stifles free speech on U.S. campuses. She undermined the legitimacy of American-Jewish criticism of Israel with the stale rationale that they don't live here. But worst of all was her assertion that American Jews not only refrain from sending their children to fight in the Israel Defense Forces; they don't send them to fight for the U.S. Army, either. They lead "convenient lives," she said.

At least 235 killed in Egypt mosque attack

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

Haiti Police, Like the Old Army, Work for Uncle Sam

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

Fukushima Darkness

Seven years and they do not know what's going on inside.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

A mysterious radiation cloud spread over Europe in September. Russia finally acknowledged it. - Vox

But finally, in response to an information request from Greenpeace, the Russian meteorological agency Roshydromet released a report this week that acknowledged measurements of high ruthenium 106 levels.

Russian authorities said atmospheric radiation levels were higher outside of Russia, indicating that the source of the leak wasn't inside the country. However, the Institute of Nuclear Physics in Kazakhstan reported no radiation leaks from any of its facilities.

"The published data is not sufficient to establish the location of the pollution source," Maxim Yakovenko, the head of Roshydromet, said in a statement to the New York Times.

Greenpeace Russia said they are now asking the public prosecutor to investigate a possible cover-up of a radiation leak.

re: "lexical selection," cognate pairs, synonyms, categories, "association norms", intelligence, logic, associative, distributive, and communicative laws

Not just semantics: Strong frequency and weak cognate effects on semantic association in bilinguals
two parameters, three experiments

recommended reading
Knowledge and the Flow of Information
Language, Thought, and Other Biological Categories


Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

Possibly related sex harassment "outrage" circulating Twitter w/o 20 Nov.

Congressional Office of Compliance releases year-by-year breakdown of harassment settlements and awards: pic.twitter.com/vxbezi22wb

— Reid Wilson (@PoliticsReid) November 16, 2017

What the stenographer leaves unsaid is

A large portion of cases originate from employing offices in the legislative branch other than the House of Representatives or the Senate, and involve various statutory provisions incorporated by the CAA, such as the overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act, and the Americans with Disabilities Act. The statistics on payments are not further broken down into specific claims because settlements may involve cases that allege violations of more than one of the 13 statutes incorporated by the CAA.

and any link to origin of shocking insinuations.
Boston Globe | Congress paid $17 million in workplace violation settlements

The independent office doesn't break the figures down, meaning there's no way to determine how many of the 264 settlements and awards dealt specifically with cases of sexual misconduct brought by legislative branch employees. The office, which was created in 1995 by the Congressional Accountability Act, said the cases may involve violations of multiple statutes.

Besides, everybody already knows, US civil service is the safest work anywhere, right?

Office of Compliance

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

Over the past 10 years the Max Plank Institute research center online has rapidly adopted 'interdisciplinary' interest in the "science of human history" as classic isolationists' focus in paleo-anthropology and -archaeology has decayed. Inconclusive support for it from  Human Genome Project, retired, appears to be pushing research priorities toward ethnnographic domains of knowledge and subaltern geographical territories to instantiate 'diversity' of hominid species, 'diversity' within h. sapiens. Regions of continental Africa remain however beyond the pale (of The Rift), because

[a]lthough ancient-DNA research has revealed insights into the population histories of many areas of the world, delving into the deep ancestry of African groups has not been possible until recently because genetic material degrades too rapidly in warm, humid climates

other than those in Central America, South America, and southeast Asia, evidently.

One notable exception and exemplar of current research bias is the so-called "The Genetic Identity of the Bangande People: 'The Secret Ones'". Bangime is an 'isolate' language living in west Africa that exhibits a high degree of dialectic variation. This field project utilizes linguistic techniques to postulate a pattern of hereditary ("ethnobiological") and "population movements" traits suitable for matching "genetic diversity" elsewhere.

Here is the database build

archived: NCBI retiring HapMap Resource

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

In a fitting tribute to Edward Herman his obituary in the Times contained the claim that Manufacturing Consent had been "severely  criticized as having soft-pedaled evidence of genocide in Cambodia, Rwanda and, during the Bosnia war, Srebrenica." Despite predating all those atrocities except Cambodia.

Quote lifted from FAIR

Charges against dissident opinion require no evidence and...ideologically useful accusations will stand merely on the basis of endless repetition, no matter how ludicrous they may be.

20 NOVEMBER 1945
A trial of 24 Nazis officers by Allied victors begins in Nuremberg, Germany
21 NOVEMBER 1920
IRA and British troops execute each other and a number of by-standers. 56 years later the CIA reveals all.
22 NOVEMBER 2017
Flint Taylor recalls, instead of US President Kennedy's assassination, 3 November 1979 when a 35-member Nazi, Klan posse opened fire on "antifa" demonstrators in Greensboro, NC.
23 NOVEMBER 1888
Owners of the New York Giants baseball club attempt to sell an employee, John Montgomery Ward, to the owners of the Washington Nationals baseball club for a remarkable amount of money.
24 NOVEMBER 1917
NYT reporting on Slatin errs again.
25 NOVEMBER 1715-1998
A litany of consequential acts occur in the absence of "context".

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

I see "misinformation" everywhere.

Donation-Bin Charity Fights Baltimore Permitting Scheme

Planet Aid filed the [federal] suit in Baltimore ...

Baltimore city is the location of the physical US District Court for Maryland (state, all of it) and all business therein: 101 W Lombard St, Baltimore, MD 21201.

After 13 years of operating donation bins in the(sic) Baltimore, Planet Aid says ...

disambiguation: Planet Aid is suing Baltimore County.

Baltimore County is an administrative division of the state of Maryland. The boundaries of the county contain many incorporated and unincorporated towns and cities. The county's business is entirely separate from Baltimore city administrative division of jurisdiction, government, and electoral districts. Baltimore city functions in effect a county in itself. And like Montgomery County a densely populated blue isle in a sea of red people. Who elected Larry "maglev" Hogan governor.

archived:
This information is incorrect.


Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.