It Needs More Deck Space and Some Rod Holders

Você que confia em fusca, tem coragem?

Posted by 101% Eventos Esportivos on Thursday, March 19, 2015

World War Zero Fought in Germany 3200 Years Ago

From Dienekes' Blog: Bronze Age war in northern Germany

Slaughter at the bridge: Uncovering a colossal Bronze Age battle


About 3200 years ago, two armies clashed at a river crossing near the Baltic Sea. The confrontation can’t be found in any history books—the written word didn’t become common in these parts for another 2000 years—but this was no skirmish between local clans. Thousands of warriors came together in a brutal struggle, perhaps fought on a single day, using weapons crafted from wood, flint, and bronze, a metal that was then the height of military technology....

In 1996, an amateur archaeologist found a single upper arm bone sticking out of the steep riverbank—the first clue that the Tollense Valley, about 120 kilometers north of Berlin, concealed a gruesome secret. A flint arrowhead was firmly embedded in one end of the bone, prompting archaeologists to dig a small test excavation that yielded more bones, a bashed-in skull, and a 73-centimeter club resembling a baseball bat. The artifacts all were radiocarbon-dated to about 1250 B.C.E., suggesting they stemmed from a single episode during Europe’s Bronze Age.

Northern Europe in the Bronze Age was long dismissed as a backwater, overshadowed by more sophisticated civilizations in the Near East and Greece. Bronze itself, created in the Near East around 3200 B.C.E., took 1000 years to arrive here. But Tollense’s scale suggests more organization—and more violence—than once thought. “We had considered scenarios of raids, with small groups of young men killing and stealing food, but to imagine such a big battle with thousands of people is very surprising,” says Svend Hansen, head of the German Archaeological Institute’s (DAI’s) Eurasia Department in Berlin. The well-preserved bones and artifacts add detail to this picture of Bronze Age sophistication, pointing to the existence of a trained warrior class and suggesting that people from across Europe joined the bloody fray.

There was reason for skepticism. Before Tollense, direct evidence of large-scale violence in the Bronze Age was scanty, especially in this region. Historical accounts from the Near East and Greece described epic battles, but few artifacts remained to corroborate these boastful accounts. “Even in Egypt, despite hearing many tales of war, we never find such substantial archaeological evidence of its participants and victims,” UCD’s Molloy says.
...
Ancient DNA could potentially reveal much more: When compared to other Bronze Age samples from around Europe at this time, it could point to the homelands of the warriors as well as such traits as eye and hair color. Genetic analysis is just beginning, but so far it supports the notion of far-flung origins. DNA from teeth suggests some warriors are related to modern southern Europeans and others to people living in modern-day Poland and Scandinavia. “This is not a bunch of local idiots,” says University of Mainz geneticist Joachim Burger. “It’s a highly diverse population.”

Wombat-socho offers "Rule 5 Tuesday: All Easter Sweets 75% Off" this week.

Are All Feminists Crazy?

Probably not, but it seems like large fraction of them are: Recovering Coke Addicts for ‘Equality’!

. . . Say hello to Tiernan Hebron, who graduated from San Francisco State University in 2014 with a degree in psychology and a cocaine habit:

When I was nine, I finally found out the real reason why my parents got divorced when I was two. I remember my older sister and I would ask our mom what had happened between her and our dad, and she would always respond that our father would tell us when he was ready. . . . Well that day came. . . .
She explained to us that alcoholism and addiction is a disease and it can cause a person to do things they normally wouldn’t; it can even change a person completely. . . .
Molly, acid, pills; I loved them all. But cocaine, cocaine was my soul mate. . . . Blow just made me feel invincible and confident, like all the problems that usually come with risk-taking and impulsivity just didn’t exist for me. I was the life of the party, I got bartenders to dance on tables with me, I gave and got champagne baths, I did lines off all sorts of body parts, I got invited to every after party I wanted and then some.

“Party girl! Woo-hoo!”
We all know the type. Tiernan Hebron says she stopped doing cocaine in February 2015, although she didn’t stop drinking, and the reader may well be wondering, what does this have to do with feminism? Well . . .

I Took off My Top and Walked Down Hollywood Boulevard for Gender Equality

This summer, pictures of my naked breasts were plastered all over the city of Los Angeles and on social media. . . .
I’m a rally organizer for the Free the Nipple campaign and the walk that took place on Hollywood Boulevard [in September 2015] was the culmination of my work over the last two months. . . .
I felt empowered and free as we chanted, “Free the nipple” and “Desexualize the female body.” . . .

You can read the rest of Tiernan Hebron’s account of her topless activism for “gender equality,” or you could buy an Abnormal Psychology textbook from Amazon.com and read up on narcissistic personality disorder and borderline personality disorder and try to figure out exactly what kind of crazy Tiernan Hebron is. While I don’t have a degree in psychology, I know crazy when I see it, and Tiernan Hebron is definitely crazy.

Yep, she's nuts. And a Bernie Sanders supporter. Wait; that's redundant.

But did radical feminism make her crazy, or did being crazy make her more prone to drugs and feminism? Wombat-socho offers "Rule 5 Tuesday: All Easter Sweets 75% Off" and "FMJRA 2.0: The Shattering Triumph Of Kazika The Mad Jap" this week.

More Suspicious Eagle Deaths

This time, in Delaware:

State and federal authorities are investigating the suspicious deaths on the Delmarva Peninsula of 18 bald eagles and the injury of several others — all within the span of a month.

The first deaths were discovered in February in a field near Federalsburg, MD. A man searching for deer antlers found four of the birds and called Natural Resources Police, who found nine more. It was the largest die-off of eagles in the state in 30 years, according to the NRP. Investigators determined the birds did not die of natural causes, but aren’t saying much else.

“We know what happened to the birds in Maryland, but we are not disclosing that because of the nature of the investigation,” said Catherine Hibbard, spokeswoman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Office’s Northeast Region.

Her agency has offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in the Maryland case. She said the investigators know it was a human cause, but do not know whether it was deliberate or not.

We've already heard about the Maryland 13. That leaves five more.

Hibbard said the agency doesn’t yet know what happened to the eagles in Delaware. Five were found dead about 30 miles from the Federalsburg site, but investigators do not believe the cases are related. The Delaware birds, like the Maryland ones, will go to the agency’s laboratory in Oregon for necropsies. The cause of death can take a few weeks to determine.

Three eagles found impaired but still alive with the dead birds in Delaware were taken to Tri State Bird Rescue and Research in Newark, DE, where they remain under care.

I hope it's not people doing it in this instance, as it was in the first.

Spring into Obamacare Schadenfreude

Spring is here, and Obamacare is going about as well as we conservatives predicted six years ago.

It's covering fewer people than expected, and even fewer than the last time we checked: CBO cuts Obamacare enrollment projection.

The congressional budget office has revised its Obamacare enrollment target for 2016 downward by a million people. This is the second such downgrade the CBO has issued in 2016. The Hill reports:

About 12 million people are now expected to have ObamaCare coverage by the end of 2016, according to the nonpartisan budget office. Just three months ago, the office had predicted that 13 million people would have coverage.
The latest enrollment estimate is an even steeper drop from the CBO’s estimates from 2015, which predicted 21 million people would have marketplace coverage by this time.

The enrollment after the end of the last enrollment period was 12.7 million. At first glance it may sound as if Obamacare is exceeding the CBO’s new, lower expectations. However, as I noted earlier this month, there has been a steep drop off in the number of people who sign up for coverage at the beginning of the year over the months that follow. In 2015 that drop off was a full 25 percent.

If the enrollment numbers see a similar drops off in 2016 (25%) then the enrollment at the end of this year will be around 9.5 million. That’s well below the revised CBO estimate and even falls below the dramatically lowered HHS estimate of 10 million.

But that's OK, right, because the Administration is planning on expanding the mess: White House to lay out 'next chapter' for ObamaCare

“It’s important to lay out the next chapter in the [Affordable Care Act] — building a healthcare system that puts patients at the center and works better for all Americans,” the official said.

And costing more: Why Obamacare Premiums Are Climbing All Over US

The main reason many insurers are raising premiums this year is because they are experiencing higher than expected costs.

This update implies that the people currently signed up in the plans are less healthy than what was anticipated by the company when calculating what to charge for premiums last year.

Ah yes, the death spiral. If only someone had warned them!

And I'm sure this has nothing to do with it. ObamaCare Turns 6 — $55 Billion In Waste, So Far. Even Hillary Cheslea is complaining about Obamacare's costs. We gotta fix Obamacare’s crushing costs, says … Chelsea Clinton.

And, via Wombat-socho's "In The Mailbox: 03.24.16" Pepsi, Visa, and Chevron are Exempt From HHS Mandate, But Little Sisters of the Poor are Not…

Why do they hate the nuns, and exempt soft drinks, banks and big oil? They hate the Christian religion more.

Rolling, Rolling, Rolling at Clinton.com

The email scandal just keeps rolling:

Clinton Received Training On Classified Docs Just ONCE in Three Years At State

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton received no security briefings on the proper handling of classified materials in three of her four years at the State Department, according to documents released by department officials to The Daily Caller News Foundation under a Freedom of Information request.

Clinton’s sole briefing occurred on January 22, the day after the Senate confirmed her to the post. On that date, as the nation’s top diplomat, Clinton signed a document acknowledging she received a security briefing.

“I hereby acknowledge that I have received a security indoctrination concerning the nature and protection of SCI,” or the nation’s highest classified materials, was part of the pledge in the document.

But there is no evidence that she received any briefings after that, according to the documents provided to TheDCNF by the State Department. The department’s Foreign Assistance Manual requires all State Department employees to receive regular security training at least once a year.

You wouldn't want the Secretary of State to play by the rules, would you? Those yearly 15 minute tests are so onerous.

More on the newly recovered emails from the early days of the Clinton.com server, that, to say the least, call the accuracy of her claims into question.

Fitton, the Judicial Watch head, described Thursday’s email as a repudiation of Clinton’s timeline. “So now we know that, contrary to her statement under oath suggesting otherwise, Hillary Clinton did not turn over all her government emails,” he said in a statement. “We also know why Hillary Clinton falsely suggests she didn’t use clintonemail.com account prior to March, 18, 2009 — because she didn’t want Americans to know about her February 13, 2009, email that shows that she knew her Blackberry and email use was not secure.”

Brian Pagliano, the former Clinton campaign worker, who came to the State Dept. as a special "Schedule C Employee? Nobody seemed to know much about him: Role of tech who set up Clinton's server unknown to bosses at State. His testimony under a grant of immunity should be illuminating.

Like any good government agency, the State Dept. is using the Hillary Clinton email "crisis" to argue that it's understaffed and underfunded.  State: We don't have enough people to process Clinton records requests. You could have saved a lot of time and trouble by making her at least go through the motions of caring about security.

They got the whole world in their hands, they got everybody in it in their hands, James Comey and Loretta Lynch Hold the Whole Country in Their Hands.

The sometimes correct Ed Klein claims that the FBI May Seek Immunity for Huma to Nail Hillary, Not That There's Anything Wrong With That. Nope, there's a lot right with that.

Respect the 'stache! John Bolton warns that the FBI will explode if they recommend indicting Hillary, and Lynch passes it up. I think explode may be a bit hyperbolic, but, I'm not sure after watching "Quantico."

Another Hillary flip-flop remembered: Hillary Clinton wasn’t always against profiling Muslims



After Bill Clinton, either absentmindedly or deliberately dissed Obama on his last 7 years in office, Chelsea got into the act and said that her mother would have to fix Obamacare's "crushing costs". Demagogues got to gogue.

Congress Makes Catfish "Meat" and Causes Controversy

Sorry, Pescatarians: Congress Says Catfish are Now Effectively "Meat," and What this Means for Biodiversity - The new USDA catfish inspection program costs millions, solves no problem, and could hamper efforts to maintain the biodiversity of the Chesapeake Bay.

If you’re a pescatarian who enjoys a good southern fried catfish, bad news: Congress has decided that effectively, catfish are now ‘meat.’ No more corn meal. No more tartar sauce. You’ll have to stick to tilapia or salmon, which, according to our government, are still fish.

Of course, this is silly. Tilapia, salmon, catfish--all these things are meat. But a recent change in the government’s definition of catfish raises issues of international trade, food safety, government spending, and, according to some, even the future of the Chesapeake Bay, and the Atlantic fisheries that depend on it.

Pangasius catfish in Thailand

When I worked in tropical fish store in high school, the owner once got upset about their being regulated  as "animals". As a devout Catholic, he rationalized that they couldn't be animals because he could eat them on Friday.

The shift has its roots in the 2008 Farm Bill, which included an amendment designating catfish as a “species amenable to the Federal Meat Inspection Act,” which “requires appointment of inspectors to examine and inspect all meat food products prepared for commerce.” The 2014 farm bill made it official: Starting this month, all fish in the order Siluriformes, which includes catfish and Asian farmed species like pangasius and basa, now fall under the purview of the USDA’s Food Safety Inspection Service which requires inspectors to be present at facilities in which catfish are processed and labeled. All other fish and seafood however, will remain under the authority of the FDA Seafood Inspection Program, which engages in fewer inspections.

So why catfish? Are they especially unsafe that they deserve more government oversight than any other seafood? American catfish farmers seem to think so. During two 2011 public comment sessions that requested feedback on the proposed catfish inspection rule, representatives from the catfish farming industry applauded additional oversight and regulation of their businesses. They were all very concerned with consumer health and safety.

A catfish industry representative said in his comment: “For the sake of consumer health, first and foremost, and also for the health of an important job-creating domestic and import industry, it is critical that FSIS begin regulating catfish.” Other industry representatives weighed in similarly.

To anyone familiar with the food industry’s usual attitude towards moregovernment regulation—for any reason—these comments are extraordinary.

This is basically a bit of protectionism, making catfish more difficult and more expensive to import from abroad where they can be produced much more cheaply than in the US. Will it make it much difference in safety?

. . .The GAO found that FSIS’s decision to focus on Salmonella in its inspection program was based on “outdated and limited information in its risk assessment . . . For example, FSIS identified a single outbreak of Salmonella-caused illnesses, but this outbreak was not clearly linked to catfish.” Since that outbreak, GAO reported, the FDA in 1997 updated its seafood regulations, and “no similar outbreaks have occurred since.” The development of the FSIS catfish inspection program is expected to cost $14 or $15.4 million, depending whom you ask (with taxpayers on the hook for most of that), with annual costs of $2.5 million, though this may change as the program moves forward, according to a source at USDA. Contrast this with the estimated $700,000 the FDA currently spends inspecting catfish facilities. The new program will use hazard analysis methods that, according to the GAO, are basically no different from those that were employed by the FDA.

Just to reiterate: that’s an up-front cost of $14 million and an ongoing additional cost of $1.8 million to be spent on inspections aimed at preventing Salmonella infections from catfish based on an outbreak that may or may not have been caused by catfish nearly 20 years ago.

Chesapeake Bay Blue Catfish

So, probably not. But where does the Chesapeake Bay get into this?

John Rorapaugh, director of sustainability at ProFish, another Maryland wholesaler, told me that it makes sense that domestic catfish farmers want to stop Asian imports. His sales of domestic farmed catfish are 10 percent of what they were in the last two or three years. But that’s also partly due to a new newcomer to the food scene in the Chesapeake region—a fish that John is actually quite happy to be selling more of: the blue catfish.

Blue catfish were introduced as sport fish to the Chesapeake in the 1970s. “Once they were introduced, they spread pretty rapidly,” said Joseph Love, the tidal mass program manager at the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. The blue catfish is voracious. It is an apex predator, and has no natural predators, is considered an invasive fish, and described by NOAA as a threat to the balance of the Chesapeake ecosystem.

So, yes, the new rules will make it more difficult and expensive for commercial fishermen to take Chesapeake Bay Blue Catfish and sell them, too.

Wombat-socho offers "Rule 5 Tuesday: All Easter Sweets 75% Off"  this week.

Science Finds New Asshole

Why watching comb jellies poop has stunned evolutionary biologists

No buts about it, the butthole is one of the finest innovations in the past 
540 million years of animal evolution. The first animals that arose seem to have literally had potty mouths: Their modern-day descendants, such as sea sponges, sea anemones, and jellyfish, all lack an anus and must eat and excrete through the same hole. Once an independent exit evolved, however, animals diversified into the majority of species alive today, ranging from earthworms
 to humans.

I much prefer the two hole system, having had intestinal blockage once or twice upon a time.

One apparent advantage of a second hole is that animals can eat while digesting a meal, whereas creatures with one hole must finish and defecate before eating again. Other possible benefits, say evolutionary biologists, include not polluting an animal’s dining area and allowing an animal to evolve a longer body because it does not have to pump waste back up toward the head.

Sure, you could sit on the head, and eat a cheeseburger, but it's kind of gross.

However, several unprecedented videos of gelatinous sea creatures called comb jellies, or ctenophores, now threaten to upend the standard view of the evolution of the so-called through-gut. On 15 March, at the Ctenopolooza meeting in St. Augustine, Florida, evolutionary biologist William Browne of the University of Miami in Florida debuted films of comb jellies pooping—and it wasn’t through their mouths.

Browne’s videos elicited gasps from the audience because comb jellies, whose lineage evolved long before other animals with through-guts, had been thought to eat and excrete through a single hole leading to a saclike gut. In 1880, the German zoologist Carl Chun suggested a pair of tiny pores opposite the comb jelly mouth might secrete some substance, but he also confirmed that the animals defecate through their mouths. In 1997, biologists again observed indigestible matter exiting the comb jelly mouth—not the mysterious pores.

Mnemeopsis leidyi

Oysters, which do have through guts, also have a way to eliminate coarse and indigestible particles in a separate stream, so call pseudofeces, scientific talk for fake shit.

Browne, however, used a sophisticated video setup to continuously monitor two species that he keeps in captivity, 
Mnemiopsis leidyi and Pleurobrachia bachei. The movies he played at Ctenopolooza capture the creatures as they ingest tiny crustaceans and zebrafish genetically engineered to glow red with fluorescent protein. Because comb jellies are translucent, the prey can be seen as it circulates through a network of canals lacing the jellies’ bodies. Fast-forward, and 2 to 3 hours later, indigestible particles exit through the pores on the rear end. Browne also presented a close-up image of the pores, highlighting a ring of muscles surrounding each one. “This is a sphincterlike hole,” he told 
the audience.

Still a few surprises out there.

Mnemeopsis is one of two common ctenophores in the Chesapeake Bay. It was named after Joseph Leidy, a naturalist at my old institution, the Academy of Natural Sciences (of Philadelphia), recently taken over by Drexel University, by Louis Agassiz, of some note himself.

Voracious planktivores, they have been introduced to the Black Sea, where they are threatening the food webs. In Chesapeake Bay, their major function seems to be as food for the tedious Sea Nettle. But they sparkle nicely in the dark in the wake of boats.

Green Fail in Baltimore

Baltimore Scraps Its Waste-to-Energy Plan: Plans for an incinerator in South Baltimore have been halted, and the community could be better off that way.

A years-long, youth-led campaign to prevent the construction of a waste incinerator in the south Baltimore neighborhood of Curtis Bay has inched closer to victory.

Last week, the Maryland Department of the Environment alerted the New York-based company Energy Answers International that its permit to build an incinerator that would convert trash into energy is no longer valid. The proposed plant would generate 160 megawatts of electricity by burning an estimated 4,000 tons of solid waste per day. The facility would spread over 90 acres, making it the largest incinerator in the U.S. if built, according to the Environmental Integrity Project.

The incinerator would also sit just a stone’s throw from a number of schools and parks, not to mention hundreds of homes that are already in close proximity to a cluster of pollution-producing facilities. This is why students from those schools and their families have been protesting the construction of the waste-to-energy plant since Energy Answers began building it in August 2013. The Curtis Bay neighborhood already suffers the worst levels of air pollution in the state.

The map and chart below, created using the EPA’s EJ SCREEN mapping application, shows that the area within a mile of the proposed incinerator site registers extremely high levels of ozone and particulate matter emissions. Both of these air pollutants are responsible for asthma and respiratory disease-related deaths, especially among children and people of color. It may even play a role in increasing urban violence.

It is a rather nasty area in Baltimore. You can even smell it as you drive through. While I suspect that the added dangers due to this plant are being exaggerated, it is an area of the world that could be made better.

So what happens to the waste that would be incinerated? Likely it will get shipped out of Baltimore on a truck or ship and buried in some nice rural landfill, where it will provide a few jobs denied to the unemployed in Baltimore.

Climate Change Threatens Maryland Industry

More fear mongering from EPA Chesapeake Bay Program. Maple syrup may face not-so-sweet future in Bay region

When it comes to maple syrup production, Maryland isn’t first on the list—in fact, the state ranks near the bottom of U.S. syrup production (Vermont, of course, is number one). Of the Chesapeake Bay watershed’s six states, New York ranks highest, accounting for more than 15 percent of U.S. production. Pennsylvania typically accounts for around five percent, while Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia may produce a few thousand gallons of maple syrup a year. But much of the region falls along the southern edge of maple syrup production, meaning these may be some of the first areas to experience how a changing climate affects this cultural and economic tradition.

What kind of industry makes a few thousand gallons of syrup that retails for $65-150 per gallon? Not a very important one. Oh my goodness, we'll have to rely on the hippies in Vermont, and the Canucks for our maple syrup.

Late-winter temperatures—warm, sunny days followed by cool nights—are crucial to start the flow of the sugar maple’s watery, slightly-sweet sap. But temperatures across the globe have been steadily rising, with 2015 the warmest year on record, and these warmer temperatures could affect the habitat and health of trees like the sugar maple.

Could. Notice all the waffles, in bold. Quick, we must crash civilization as we know it, to save the Maryland maple syrup industry.

As temperatures warm, certain areas may no longer be suitable habitat for tree species that are common today, including the sugar maple. The Maryland Climate Action Plan suggests maple-beech-birch forests are likely to fade northward and be replaced by species currently found south of the state. Even low-range predictions from the U.S. Forest Service’s Climate Change Atlas suggest suitable habitat for sugar maples will retreat to the northern reaches of the watershed over the next 100 years.

According to scientists with the Acer Climate and Socio-Ecological Research Network, or ACERnet, the potential effects of climate change on maple syrup production could include not only the amount of trees available to tap, but also the health of those trees, the tapping season and the quality of sap. If suitable sugar maple habitat shifts northward, climate-stressed trees left in the area may become more susceptible to threats like pests and disease. And although syrup producers have already seen tapping seasons starting earlier and becoming more unpredictable, more research is needed on whether climate change will affect the sweetness of the sap.

Danger, Will Robinson. Be very wary of any organization that put "Socio-Ecological" in its name. It's bullshit and propaganda.

Sexbots, not Sexpots

What Women and Men Want from Sex Robots - You won't be shocked they don't always agree

Previous attempts to poll public opinion on sexbots have usually asked just several basic questions about whether or not people would have sex with a robot. Scheutz and Thomas Arnold, a research associate at Tufts University, went for a more complex survey by having people rank answers to a wide variety of questions on a 7-point Likert scale with 1 meaning “completely inappropriate” and 7 meaning “completely appropriate.”

The university researchers recruited 57 males and 43 females through the Amazon Mechanical Turk online service in an effort to get a more representative national sampling of the U.S. population. Their work was presented at the International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI 2016) on March 9.

One of the greatest differences in opinion came up regarding use of sex robots for sex offenders. Women showed disapproval on average by giving an “inappropriate” rating of 3.7 on the 7-point scale, whereas men gave a more favorable “appropriate” rating of 4.88 on average. Men and women also diverged in their “appropriate” versus “inappropriate” ratings for the case of using sex robots to practice abstinence.

On the other hand, both women and men generally agreed that using sex robots was more appropriate than hiring a human prostitute. They also agreed on sex robots being appropriate for use by disabled people and for reducing the risk of sexually transmitted diseases.

I suspect this means men are more likely to suspect that robots would be used a substitutes by sex offenders, rather than serve as an encouragement to commit more offenses on real humans.

In terms of sex robot form and appearance, both men and women strongly agreed that sex robots should not look like a human child. That finding may reflect general disapproval of pedophile behavior. But more significant gender differences emerged for every other possible form of sex robots presented in the survey. Once again, men consistently gave higher ratings than women to every possible form of sex robots.

Sex robots that look like an adult human received the highest approval ratings from both men and women. Men gave a very high “appropriate” rating of almost 6.5 on the 7-point scale. Women also gave such sex robots a reasonably high rating of almost 5.2.

The adult human form of sex robots was followed in descending order of approval rating by “a fantasy creature,” “any recognizable life form,” “a celebrity” and “one’s current partner.” All those sex robot forms generally received an enthusiastic approval rating of more than 5 from men.

But women gave a much more tepid response with most ratings hovering between 4.5 and 4. The average rating from women even dipped slightly below 4—more disapproval than approval—for sex robots that resembled celebrities. It’s not entirely clear whether the female ambivalence about celebrity sex robots directed more toward Jude Law’s Gigolo Joe character from “A.I.” or the idea of men lusting after robots shaped like Hollywood’s latest female stars.

Women don't want men getting the idea they have a chance with celebrities.

The differences of opinion were even greater for other possible sex robot forms. Men gave fairly high approval ratings above 5 for sex robots shaped like “one’s deceased spouse” and “one’s friend.” Women seemed to disapprove of such sex robots with average ratings between 4 and 3.

Besides the child sex robots, only two other sex robot forms drew universal disapproval from both men and women. Sex robots shaped like “one’s family member” had ratings of 3.3 from men and just below 2.2 from women, which suggests neither gender seems to approve of sex robots resembling siblings or parents. Similarly, sex robots shaped like animals drew general disapproval with an average “inappropriate” rating of 3.7 from men and an even lower rating of 2.6 from women.

It's interested that the incest and pedophile reaction is reflected so strongly, even when the sex partner is a robot, with no genetic relationship, and no real biological age.



Wombat-socho offers "Rule 5 Tuesday: All Easter Sweets 75% Off"  this week.

Court Case Favors Redskins

The Slants

Feds Thumb Nose at Court in Slants Case, Court Says “Oh Hell No”

In a nutshell, Ron convinced the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals sitting en banc that, as the court held: “The government cannot refuse to register disparaging marks because it disapproves of the expressive messages conveyed by the marks.” Accordingly, the court found that the provision in federal law that allows the USPTO to deny or cancel a trademark as “disparaging” is unconstitutional. The decision will undoubtedly serve as a help to the Redskins in protecting their trademark, and is a landmark First Amendment case.

Go Redskins!

In his talk, Ron told the assembled crowd what the USPTO had done in response to the Federal Circuit’s decision. The answer: precisely nothing. This is, of course, entirely unacceptable — and Ron hinted that he was going to take action, although he couldn’t talk about the specifics just yet.

Indeed he had. On the day after he spoke to us, Ron filed a petition for writ of mandamus, which you can read here. And on the very same day, the Federal Circuit issued an order to show cause. [UPDATE: A commenter corrects this to “an order that the USPTO respond to the petition.” Here is a link to the order. Thanks to commenter mh.] They have until this Tuesday to explain why they have taken it upon themselves to defy the court’s order. Marc Randazza at Popehat compares the USPTO’s inaction to Bartleby’s refrain: “I would prefer not to.”

Guess what, USPTO guys? Your preferences are subordinate to the U.S. Constitution and its First Amendment. Ron Coleman is holding your feet to the fire, and on Tuesday I will close my eyes and savor the aroma of your burning foot-flesh.

As I noted yesterday morning in the IRS case, the federal bureaucracies no longer fear any legal authority outside their own leadership, who has the power to make their lives miserable if little else. A court rules against them? Big whoop. No one get fired or  punished. Hell, they probably get promotions.

Wombat-socho offers "Rule 5 Tuesday: All Easter Sweets 75% Off" this week.

Court Whacks IRS's Tallies

Court rebukes IRS for tea party targeting, orders release of secret list

A federal appeals court spanked the IRS Tuesday, saying it has taken laws designed to protect taxpayers from the government and turned them on their head, using them to try to protect the tax agency from the very tea party groups it targeted.

The judges ordered the IRS to quickly turn over the full list of groups it targeted so that a class-action lawsuit, filed by the NorCal Tea Party Patriots, can proceed. The judges also accused the Justice Department lawyers, who are representing the IRS in the case, of acting in bad faith — compounding the initial targeting — by fighting the disclosure.

Like the little girl who begged the judge for mercy as an orphan after killing her parents, the IRS wanted to keep the secret list secret "to protect" the anonymity of the party's affected.

“The lawyers in the Department of Justice have a long and storied tradition of defending the nation’s interests and enforcing its laws — all of them, not just selective ones — in a manner worthy of the Department’s name.

The conduct of the IRS’s attorneys in the district court falls outside that tradition,” Judge Raymond Kethledge wrote in a unanimous opinion for a three-judge panel of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. “We expect that the IRS will do better going forward.”

Nothing can reform the various federal bureaucracies until people are able to hold federal bureaucrats personally responsible for their actions.

A Terrible Tragedy in Florida

Two trucks collide, spilling potato chips and beer on highway

The crash was reported at milemarker 187 in Pineda Causeway just after 3:30 a.m.

Florida Highway Patrol said the tractor-trailer carrying Busch beer was driving southbound on I-95 when the driver attempted to move into center lane and swerved to avoid another vehicle.

The front of the Busch beer truck then struck the Frito-Lay truck, prompting the Frito-Lay truck to overturn and spill beer and chips onto the roadway, according to FHP.

Troopers ticketed the Busch beer truck driver was ticketed for failing to maintain a single lane. No injuries were reported.

That's going to leave me with nightmares!

Obama: "Isis Not an Existential Threat"

Obama: Like I Said At The Baseball Game, ISIS "Can't Destroy Us," "They Are Not An Existential Threat"

Shorter Obama "I'm protected; if a few thousand Americans die to keep our borders open, and the civil liberties of radical Muslims inviolate, it's worth it.

Yeah, we can survive them. But I'd be more convinced if he volunteered to give up Secret Service protection for himself and his family, after his term is over, and he is no longer of existential value to the United States.

Whistling Past the Clinton.com Gravyard

Whistling past the graveyard, DNC Chair says This election isn’t about Hillary Clinton’s emails. No, but this election is about whether someone with utter disregard for the security of the United States, for personal conviencence and from a desire to hide her shady affairs should be elected president.

The National Review blames Donald Trump for giving Hillary cover. Hillary’s Really Bad Week No One Heard About Because Guess Who. While I would rank Hillary's really bad week as quite average maybe even sub par, based on my output in theses posts, the point is true. Regardless of who the Republican front runner is, the press at large will always focus mote in the Republican's eye rather than the beam in the democrats. That's not to say Donald doesn't give them a lot of material to draw on.

The Salacious Ammo Even Donald Trump Won't Use in a Fight Against Hillary Clinton Donald knows, and likes Jeffrey Epstein, the fellow New York billionaire with a private island, underage girls, and a penchant for giving Bill Clinton free rides to the island with the underage girls. They turned up evidence that Trump had at least one ride on the "Lolita Express" and at least two phone calls.

Hispandering Hillary says closing the borders is "unrealistic". Then the bombs went off in Brussels. Even Bill says that the migrants are a big part of Europe's problems:

On Monday, former President Bill Clinton blamed disaster in Europe on migrants. He also seemed to suggest the migrants are causing Europeans to fear diversity.

"Things are going better in America, the European Union is under terrible stress because of all those migrants that are coming there and the fights they're having within each other, many of them are moving to the right and becoming much more afraid of diversity even as we embrace it"

Heaven forbid someone change their minds because a policy is manifestly not working.

If This Is Wednesday, This Must Be Tahiti

Someday, maybe. Wombat-socho offers "Rule 5 Tuesday: All Easter Sweets 75% Off"  this week.

Did a Little Fishing This Afternoon

Trevor and I went down to Location X around 3 PM today. The lovely warm 10 mph wind from the west turned into a wicked cold 20 from the SE, and beat us up a little. I was happy to have the float coat.

Several other boats were there, including Pete's, Chad's and Francis's and even a couple I didn't know.

Fish were there, but not too thick. These are the biggest we caught, but we saw a few bigger come up on some other boats.

A Little Dab at Clinton.com

Hopefully, a little dab will do ya.

New emails from Judicial Watch shed more light on the Benghazi incident and the foreign payments to the Clinton Foundation. The Hillary Clinton State Dept. seemed to be acting as Bill Clinton's procurement center. It seems like everybody want to know:  James Comey is going to have to make a decision on Hillary Clinton soon. Yeah; by now he must really know if the misdeeds rise to a criminal level, and whether the Justice Dept. will be willing to burn the political capital necessary to make a tough call to prosecute the front runner from the President's party for criminal acts during the election year. Former NY Times Editor Jill Abramson hasn’t been following the Hillary email story. She seems to think it doesn't count if the secrets weren't marked in the emails and had to be classified later. However, many were clearly derived from classified sources, and had the markings filed off. The AP seems to think the fix is in: Experts See Little Chance of Charges in Clinton Email Case:

"One has to put this in perspective of what types of prosecutions have happened under the Espionage Act," said Jon Michaels, a national security law professor at UCLA. "And the universe of prosecutions under the Espionage Act is quite small compared to the amount of information transferred through non-secure means."

Brad Moss, a Washington lawyer who deals regularly with security clearance matters, said the Justice Department could conceivably look to bring charges in the Clinton email case but prosecutors would have to decide if they "really want to take that gamble." Inquiries into mishandling of classified information generally end with a security clearance revocation rather than a criminal charge, he said.

Is this the Justice Department setting the precedent? Justice Department declines to prosecute former U.S. diplomat

The Justice Department is declining to prosecute a former high-ranking U.S. diplomat who was investigated by the FBI on suspicion of providing secrets to the Pakistani government, according to U.S. law enforcement officials.

The diplomat, Robin L. Raphel, was at the center of a counterintelligence investigation, which became public after agents raided her Washington home in 2014.

FBI agents found classified information in the search, but the materials were many years old, according to former U.S. law enforcement officials familiar with the investigation. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the matter.

But, does Bill want her to be indicted? Bill Clinton slams ‘awful legacy of last 8 years’

Hillary Clinton Proclaims Our Border Is Secure

Was Hillary Clinton a stand-up comic in another life? She told an Arizona radio station in an interview that our southwest border was "secure" because "net illegal immigration" had been cut to zero.

In an interview with KTAR radio in Phoenix, Mrs. Clinton said improvements under President George W. Bush and President Obama, including several hundred miles of fencing, have cut net illegal immigration from Mexico to zero.

“Now I think it’s time to turn our attention to comprehensive immigration reform,” she said, using the term immigrant rights advocates use for legislation to legalize the 11 million illegal immigrants now in the country.

 Is a door closed because as many people go into it as out of it?

Poor, poor Lena: Lena Dunham Says She’s Received ‘More Hostility’ for Backing Clinton Over Sanders

“I have received more hostility for voting for a qualified female candidate than I have ever received anywhere from the American right wing,” she said at a Clinton campaign event at NeueHouse in Hollywood.

“The fact that other members of the Democratic Party have spoken to me like I was an ill informed child for voting for someone who represents everything I think this country should be is outrageous.”

That's because the American right wing as a certain level of respect for the rights of people to hold stupid ideas contrary to their own.

Terror Bombing in Brussels, ISIS Claims Blame

TERROR ATTACK IN EUROPE: BOMB BLASTS ROCK BRUSSELS AIRPORT; UPDATE: 13 REPORTED DEAD; UPDATE: ISIS TO BLAME; ‘LET’S STOP PRETENDING,’ OFFICIAL SAYS

Islamic terrorists struck early Tuesday morning in Europe, as bombs exploded in the Brussels airport. Early reports indicate at least two bombs were used in the attack, which came just days after authorities in Belgium arrested a fugitive sought in the 2015 massacre in Paris.

UPDATE 4:45 a.m. ET: The exact number of killed and wounded in the attack is unknown. CNN’s first online report:

Two explosions occurred at the airport in Brussels, Belgium on Tuesday.
Several people were killed, according to the country’s public broadcaster, RTBF. Initial reports say up to 10 people were killed and more than 30 people were injured.
Federal police at the airport at Zaventem told CNN that “there has been an explosion” and “something has happened.”
Dozens of people have been taken on stretchers out of the airport, according to eyewitnesses. . . .

UPDATE 5 a.m. ET: There are also reports early Tuesday of possible attacks on the Metro commuter rail in Brussels.

As of now, Drudge is reporting 34 dead, but the number is expected to rise. On Facebook, a usually reliable friend reported one of the airport bombs went off near an American Airlines check in station. No message there.

UPDATE 8:10 a.m. ET: The London Daily Express:

ISIS revenge: Terror group claims responsibility for Brussels attacksReports from Kurdish media said the terror group had admitted being behind today’s strike. . . .
Spanish Foreign Secretary José Manuel García Margallo immediately laid the blame with ISIS — also known by its Arabic acronym Daesh.
He said: “Let’s stop pretending, let’s worry about Daesh, which is the enemy.”
Describing the group as a “terrorist cancer”, he said: “We must be aware that as they are hit in Syria and Iraq, they are going to go elsewhere.
“They have sleeper cells all over the world and Belgium has a very serious problem.”

I  know! Let's take in a few tens of thousands of "Syrian" refugees. Then they'll stop hating us, for realz!