Blog Heap of Links for the day 4 May 2016
Wars and Rumors
Kenyan authorities have uncovered a terror cell of extremist medics linked to the Islamic State group that is suspected of plotting a “biological attack” on the East African nation and recruiting university students to Libya and Syria.…
There is “worrying” evidence Islamic State is making its own chemical weapons, a global watchdog has warned, telling the West it should be vigilant against any attack. … evidence of the use of homemade sulphur mustard in attacks in Syria and Iraq.…
Know the Enemy
Earlier today, Ebay took down the Muhammad cartoon that winning artist Bosch Fawstin had put up for auction. The cartoon had garnered many bids and was up to $10,000.
When Bosch tried to relist, they refused him. So now eBay is enforcing the sharia.…
A Gizmodo report delves into the world of journalists hired by Mark Zuckerberg and entrenched into Facebook headquarters' basement to decide what trends on hundreds of millions of users' news feeds each week.… The people deciding what should be trending news on Facebook are millennial graduates of mostly Ivy League schools that previously held jobs at MSNBC, Bloomberg, and the Guardian. Not only did they have the power to choose the news trends, they were also given the authority to "blacklist" any topic for any reason.…
Pareidolia
Modern Family Life
…Andrea's friends, the baby's future parents, were no longer excited. They didn't want the hassle and potential heartbreak that accompanied this child, and even told her to terminate the pregnancy. It took a lot of soul-searching for her, but ultimately, she decided that she was going to keep the baby and raise it herself.…
Language Culture
…Thus readeth Johnson's Economist column on how punctuation is being changed by computers and the internet.
Most people take punctuation to be something obvious and settled.
… The first English writers, when they punctuated at all, availed themselves of long-forgotten symbols like the diastole and trigon, the interpunct and the diple. Printing began the process of settling the punctuation system, but even that took four centuries. Samuel Johnson’s commas, in the mid-18th century, were not only heavy; many would be ungrammatical today, and this style persisted into the first editions of The Economist in 1843.…
US Military Casualties
His fiancée was supposed to buy her dress this week. Charles Keating 1st American killed on Advise & Assist mission. …
Breitbart is Here
'Catastrophic' Fort McMurray wildfire surpasses 10,000 hectares…
Administration speeds up review boards for Guantánamo detainees…
Diamond the size of a tennis ball could fetch $70 million…
Survey: 34% of Bay area residents want to leave…
New York’s last remaining soda fountain signs…
Scenes From the First American Shopping Mall, Filmed in 1956…
Islamic State seeks news blackout in Mosul as Iraqi army nears…
IDF shells Hamas military posts in Gaza in third incident of the day…
Mass grave 'discovery' baffles Mozambique…
A fourth devastating fire at an Orthodox religious structure has been reported, this one in an historic building at the Valaam monastery in northern Russia. Like the other three — one in Manhattan and two in Australia — the fire at the monastery occurred after services on Orthodox Easter.
In other news, the number of unaccompanied children claiming asylum in Europe last year quadrupled to almost 90,000…
One fat lady has sung, another one is nervous…
Of course this doesn't fit the BLM narrative…
D.C. Metro Bus hijacked…
…On this day in 1836 the Ancient Order of Hibernians was formed in NYC. This is a Catholic organization dedicated to conservative principles of the Catholic Church and was initially intended to protect Catholic churches from anti-Catholic forces. They're most known in the US for their sponsorship and organization of the NYC Saint Patrick's Day parade. However in 1993, thanks to the efforts of the militant Gaystapo, the parade was turned over to an independent organization.…
US Election 2016
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) was declared the winner of Tuesday’s Indiana primary, beating Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton by at least seven points…
…An authoritarian progressive has hijacked conservatives’ party with all the good will of Mohamed Atta. If the mob of Kool Aid–guzzling cretins who helped him do it think conservatives will now obediently fall into line behind them while they fly the plane 9/11 style at what is left of America’s founding principles, they are even more delusional than I thought. Far better for the plane to go down in Shanksville.…
When Indiana got called for Trump last night, I went on Twitter to take the temperature of Trump supporters. … most of the tweets fell into one of two conflicting categories:
• You crybaby losers! Now unite behind our guy or it’s your fault if he loses!
• Screw you, crybaby losers! We don’t need you!
Well, which is it? You need all Republicans to unite or you don’t need all Republicans to unite? It can’t be both.…