Blog Heap of Links for the day 3 April 2016

…I kept seeing this story about “black staffers” leaving the RNC in droves. … However, once you follow the link and read the stories, these black staffers are simply moving on to new and greener pastures, often within the GOP or in more lucrative media roles.…

…The Francis Crick Institute says its gene-editing research has nothing to do with eugenics; even British law prohibits pregnancies from gene-edited embryos, and its researchers plan to destroy them after seven days. Instead, it aims to learn about the role of genes in miscarriage. But if its research improves gene-editing technology, less scrupulous scientists can make use of that. This is why scholars like Robert Pollack, a professor at Columbia University, want a moratorium on the whole process of modifying human genes.…

…if you want an illustrated edition, I’ve got an illustrated edition!

Archaeologists believe they may have discovered a second Viking settlement in North America. The site at Point Rosee in southwestern Newfoundland was first identified using satellite imagery. Subsequent excavation uncovered what is tentatively identified as a Norse settlement dated somewhere between 800 AD and 1300 AD. The new site is more than 400 miles southwest of L’Anse aux Meadows in northern Newfoundland, the only other Viking site in North America.

In other news, after a brush fire broke out last week next to a power line in Tyngsboro, Massachusetts, emergency workers discovered incendiary devices resembling pipe bombs attached to the line. The police and the FBI investigated. Today a man named Danny Kelly was arrested in Chelmsford and charged with placing the devices on the power line.…

• FBI will help local police departments unlock suspects’ iPhones
• Donald Trump Sued For ‘Inciting a Riot’ During Kentucky Rally
• Canada to process 10,000 Syrian refugees ‘as fast as possible’…

…On this day in 1922 Uncle Joe Stalin took control of Russia and immediately began killing his opponents and consolidating power. His tinkering with the economy resulted in destroying most of the farms and produced a famine that killed millions.…

Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz took the first six national delegates awarded in Colorado, winning all the seats elected at two congressional district conventions Saturday.

Of the six delegates and six alternates elected, 10 pledged support to the Texas senator and two are unpledged.…

…I don't think even Trump thought he would get this far. And I don’t even know that he wanted to, which is perhaps the scariest prospect of all.

He certainly was never prepared or equipped to go all the way to the White House, but his ego has now taken over the driver's seat, and nothing else matters. The Donald does not fail. The Donald does not have any weakness. The Donald is his own biggest enemy.…

What was once Trump's desire to rank second place to send a message to America and to increase his power as a businessman has nightmarishly morphed into a charade that is poised to do irreparable damage to this country if we do not stop this campaign in its tracks.…

Fifty Wisconsin faith leaders joined Governor Scott Walker in endorsing Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) for president this week.…