Save The Date

 Northwest Extension Phase II Opening

On January 27, 2024, service begins on the Northwest Extension Phase II that helps connect the West Valley to destinations in Phoenix, Tempe and Mesa. The 1.6-mile extension from 19th Ave/Dunlap to the Metrocenter area adds three new stations, including the system’s first elevated station across I-17. Riders will be able to access a new transit center with bus connections and a new park-and-ride garage. Public art adorns the stations, transit center and park-and-ride incorporating the unique character of the communities they serve. The expansion of service to Metrocenter supports the community reenergizing that is planned over the next few years.

SNL Digital Short: People Getting Punched Right Before Eating - Saturday...

National Brotherhood Week

 National Brotherhood Week

13 Things You Might Not Have Known About John Steinbeck’s ‘Of Mice and Men’

 13 Things You Might Not Have Known About John Steinbeck’s ‘Of Mice and Men’

John Steinbeck’s dog Toby ate the first draft of the manuscript, leading the author to write a friend, “I’m not sure Toby didn’t know what he was doing.”

What The Prisoner's Dilemma Reveals About Life, The Universe, and Everyt...

Nice guys come in first

Portishead - SOS

Todays Thought

Just the other day, I was in my neighborhood Starbucks, waiting for the post office to open. I was enjoying a chocolatey cafe mocha when it occurred to me that to drink a mocha is to gulp down the entire history of the New World. From the Spanish exportation of Aztec cacao, and the Dutch invention of the chemical process for making cocoa, on down to the capitalist empire of Hershey, PA, and the lifestyle marketing of Seattle's Starbucks, the modern mocha is a bittersweet concoction of imperialism, genocide, invention, and consumerism served with whipped cream on top. No wonder it costs so much. 

-Sarah Vowell, author and journalist (b. 27 Dec 1969)

Todays Thought

I don't want to be a great leader; I want to be a man who goes around with a little oil can and when he sees a breakdown, offers his help. To me, the man who does that is greater than any holy man in saffron-colored robes. The mechanic with the oilcan: that is my ideal in life. 

-Baba Amte, social worker and activist (26 Dec 1914-2008)

California researchers gave homeless people $750 a month. Here’s what they found

 California researchers gave homeless people $750 a month. Here’s what they found

People who received the money also reported that they were closer to being able to afford all of their basic needs compared with people who did not receive the funds. More than a third of the money was spent on food, according to self-reported budgets given to researchers. Housing accounted for about 20% of the spending, followed by transportation at 13%, clothing at 12% and health care at 6%. About 14% was categorized as “other,” a category that included the 2% of funds that were spent on alcohol, drugs and cigarettes.

To Kevin Adler, the founder of Miracle Messages, the San Francisco nonprofit that helped distribute the funds, the findings were not surprising.

“People used the money better than we could have used it for them,” he said. “When we trust people, they can resolve their issues. They know what they need.”

BUILDING A MARBLE CLOCK - Pt. 3

NPR's Delicious Dish: Schweddy Balls - SNL

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Cable lobby and Republicans fight proposed ban on early termination fees

 Cable lobby and Republicans fight proposed ban on early termination fees

"Today's action proposes to adopt customer service protections that prohibit cable operators and DBS (Direct Broadcast Satellite) providers from imposing a fee for the early termination of a cable or DBS video service contract," the FCC said. "Additionally, the NPRM recommends the adoption of customer service protections to require cable and DBS providers to grant subscribers a prorated credit or rebate for the remaining whole days in a monthly or periodic billing cycle after the subscriber cancels service."

FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said, "Consumers are tired of these junk fees. They now have more choices when it comes to video content. But these friction-filled tactics to keep us subscribing to our current providers are aggravating and unfair. So today we kick off a rulemaking to put an end to these practices."

Billions are on the line for lenders as White House finalizes credit card late fee cap

 Billions are on the line for lenders as White House finalizes credit card late fee cap

Late fees upward of $41 “are significantly higher than the pre-charge-off collection costs” cited by an unnamed credit union trade group, per the NPRM.

Instead, the $8 fee cap shows the CFPB “dug down, did their research, looked at industry data and came out with a number that they thought best reflected a bank’s ability to recover the cost associated with a late payment,” said Shahid Naeem, senior policy analyst at AELP.

“The fact that the CFPB has determined that $8 is sufficient to cover the costs and banks are charging $41, that’s significant,” said Christine Hines, a legislative director for the National Association of Consumer Advocates. “And it shows that somewhere, there’s conduct that needs to be curbed. Clearly.”

CFPB Director Rohit Chopra told senators last month that banks should support the proposal “if it’s not a core part of their profit model.”

2023's Biggest Breakthroughs in Computer Science

Math Skills You Need for Quantum Computing

"Yablochko". Igor Moiseyev Ballet.

This Woman Deconstructs 100-Year-Old Books To Restore Them | Obsessed | ...

Opinion: Amazon’s takeover of the Inland Empire is a textbook case of corporate manipulation

 Opinion: Amazon’s takeover of the Inland Empire is a textbook case of corporate manipulation

A leaked memo from within Amazon details the company’s public relations efforts to sway decisions in the region to serve its own interests. The plan for 2024 included strategic donations, currying favor with local politicians, methods of cultivating allies and placing of “Amazonians” within community groups and local boards like sleeper spies. Together, these are intended to overcome vocal community opposition to Amazon’s labor exploitation and union-busting tactics and the environmental harms of warehouse proliferation.

The memo puts into words what environmental justice advocates have known all along: what we have traced through political donation patterns, what is facilitated by legal loopholes. The memo gives shape to invisible protagonists who have tilted city council loyalties toward outside developers instead of residents. These tactics are not illegal for the most part. But Amazon’s memo is a stark representation of the kind of manipulation that has systematically eroded community voices in places like the Inland Empire.

Todays Thought

The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed. 

-Steve Biko, anti-apartheid activist (18 Dec 1946-1977)

Todays Thought

For of all sad words of tongue or pen, The saddest are these: “It might have been!” 

-John Greenleaf Whittier, poet (17 Dec 1807-1892)

The Queen: NYC Drag Pageant Scene Before House LaBeija

Todays Word

 

lexiphanic

PRONUNCIATION:

(lek-si-FAN-ik) 

MEANING:

adjective: Using pretentious words and language.

ETYMOLOGY:

After Lexiphanes, a bombastic speaker, in the satire of the same name by Lucian (2nd century CE). From Greek lexis (speech, diction, word) + phainein (to show). Earliest documented use: 1767.

NOTES:

Lexiphanes, the title character of the satire, likes to use pretentious words and convoluted sentences in the belief that it shows his intellect. His friend Lycinus is concerned and has a doctor treat him. The doctor prescribes an emetic to purge Lexiphanes of his vocal clogging.

With Lexiphanes’s system cleaned, the doctor leaves him in his friend’s care. Lycinus prescribes reading great poets, orators, and philosophers, saying “We do not like even poetry to read like the dictionary.”

Lexiphanes is also a genus of leaf beetles. It’s not known what these beetles talk about when they use their fancy long words.

USAGE:

“Someone who reads dictionaries for fun. ... Been totally lexiphanic and proud of the fact.”
Debra Adelaide; The Household Guide to Dying; HarperCollins; 2009.

Todays Thought

In its original literal sense, "moral relativism" is simply moral complexity. That is, anyone who agrees that stealing a loaf of bread to feed one's children is not the moral equivalent of, say, shoplifting a dress for the fun of it, is a relativist of sorts. But in recent years, conservatives bent on reinstating an essentially religious vocabulary of absolute good and evil as the only legitimate framework for discussing social values have redefined "relative" as "arbitrary". 

-Ellen Jane Willis, writer (14 Dec 1941-2006)

The Insane Engineering of MRI Machines

Your Tattoo is INSIDE Your Immune System. Literally

Quantum Computers Explained – Limits of Human Technology

PacMan

 Pacman Doodle (google.com)

Todays Thought

He who allows oppression, shares the crime. 

-Erasmus Darwin, physician, scientist, reformer, and poet; grandfather of Charles Darwin (12 Dec 1731-1802)

Todays Thought

You only have power over people as long as you don't take everything away from them. But when you've robbed a man of everything, he's no longer in your power -- he's free again. -

Alexander Solzhenitsyn, novelist, Nobel laureate (11 Dec 1918-2008)

The Mathematics of Quantum Computers | Infinite Series

How Does a Quantum Computer Work?

Quantum Computers, Explained With Quantum Physics

björk : army of me (HD)

Xanadu

Todays question

 Are you an artist or a tradesman. Are you okay with that

Todays Thought

The real index of civilization is when people are kinder than they need to be. 

-Louis de Bernieres, novelist (b. 8 Dec 1954)

The top 1% of American earners now own more wealth than the entire middle class

The top 1% of American earners now own more wealth than the entire middle class

The top 1% of American earners now control more wealth than the nation’s entire middle class, federal data show.

More than one-quarter of all household wealth, 26.5%, belongs to Americans who earn enough money to rank in the top percentile by income, according to Federal Reserve statistics through mid-2023.

The top 1% holds $38.7 trillion in wealth. That’s more than the combined wealth of America’s middle class, a group many economists define as the middle 60% of households by income. Those households hold about 26% of all wealth.

Low-income Americans, representing the bottom 20% by income, own about 3% of the wealth.

Todays Thought

If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all. 

-Noam Chomsky, linguistics professor and political activist (b. 7 Dec 1928)

Layed off?

 I'm the former Microsoft VP of HR. Here's what I would do in the first 48 hours of being laid off from a job.

1. Read carefully

2. Consider pushing back

3. Consider legal options

4. Tune up your résumé and LinkedIn

5. Go modest when taking it public

6. Work your network

Apartments near Metrocenter in Phoenix

 Scottsdale-based company makes way for apartments near Metrocenter in Phoenix

Scottsdale-based MK Company is developing Metro Lofts, located near 29^th and Dunlap avenues, just south of the mall. The four-story apartment complex will have one- and two-bedroom units, and residents will have the ability to rent a garage, which will come pre-wired for electric vehicles.

Todays Word

 

diablerie

PRONUNCIATION:

(dee-AH-bluh-ree or dee-AB-luh-ree) 

MEANING:

noun:
1. Sorcery; witchcraft; black magic.
2. A representation of devils or demons in art or literature.
3. Mischievous manner or conduct.

ETYMOLOGY:

From French diable (devil), from Latin diabolus (devil), from Greek diabolos (slanderer), from diaballein (to slander), from dia- (across) + ballein (to hurl). Earliest documented use: 1653.

USAGE:

“[The hat] unquestionably lent a diablerie to my appearance, and mine is an appearance that needs all the diablerie it can get.”
P.G. Wodehouse; Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves; Simon & Schuster; 1963.

Todays Thought

I don't believe in playing down to children, either in life or in motion pictures. I didn't treat my own youngsters like fragile flowers, and I think no parent should. Children are people, and they should have to reach to learn about things, to understand things, just as adults have to reach if they want to grow in mental stature. Life is composed of lights and shadows, and we would be untruthful, insincere, and saccharine if we tried to pretend there were no shadows. Most things are good, and they are the strongest things; but there are evil things too, and you are not doing a child a favor by trying to shield him from reality. 

-Walt Disney, entrepreneur and animator (5 Dec 1901-1966)

Noah Kahan - Stick Season (Official Music Video)

The SAT Question Everyone Got Wrong

Todays Thought

Labels are for the things men make, not for men. The most primitive man is too complex to be labeled. 

-Rex Stout, novelist (1 Dec 1886-1975)