CapitalistImperialistPig

Feral cats are killing off many of the indigenous small animals of Australia.  Australia has responded with a program of mass felicide. I n the deep winter weeks of last July, Shane Morse and Kevin Figliomeni nearly always got up before the sun rose. They awoke next to the remains of a campfire or, occasionally, in a roadside motel, and in the darkness before dawn they began unloading poisoned sausage from their refrigerated truck. The sausage was for killing cats. One morning near the end of the season, Morse and Figliomeni left the Kalbarri Motor Hotel on the remote western coast of Australia, where they dined on steak and shellfish the night before, and drove along the squally coastline. They kept their eyes fixed to the sky. If it rained, there would be no baiting that day.

I recently found an old tuition receipt from my undergrad days.  College wasn't free then, but it was cheap: $99 per term.  In constant dollars, that would be about $800 dollars today.  The average equivalent for state universities today is about $5000/term, up to $25,000 per term at private colleges, roughly tripling in real dollars since then.  Meanwhile, the US GDP per capita in real, inflation adjusted dollars has roughly tripled since then.  It's absurd to claim that our then much poorer country could afford nearly free college or at least cheap college then but can't now. Elizabeth Warren's proposal for free tuition at public colleges is an idea whose time is overdue, as is her proposal to forgive substantial portions of existing college debt.  College debt is now the largest component of personal debt in the US, and it exerts a crippling effect on the economy.  Heavily indebted students can't afford to buy houses, start businesses or establish...

When the robots take over will they let us have mock elections just for fun? When the Trumps go to prison, will they get to take their post Presidential secret service protection with them?

Aside from the from the ridiculously transparent Barr/Rosenstein cover up, the other puzzle is how Mueller managed to whiff on what seems to have been a chest high slowball over the middle of the plate.  Despite overwhelming evidence, much of it public view, he wasn't quite convinced that Trump was guilty of obstruction.  Why not?  Well, he couldn't read Trump's mind, he claimed.  I guess all those people convicted of obstruction have more transparent minds than the guy whose every thought is a tweet. Among other enduring mysteries, there is the question of why he didn't interview Trump.  Was he intimidated by Trump's transparent attempts at obstruction, afraid of being kicked out of the Republican club, or what?  The no-collusion conclusion was also weird.  Many instances of contacts between the Trump campaign and the Russians were found, and these transparently were attempts to use a foreign power to influence the election.  Not a crime says M...

Is the black hole picture a disappointment?  Well, at least one Slate Troll  seems to think so.   By which they mean is not very aesthetic. What it lacks is interesting optical detail.  Compared to simulations, it lacks complexity. Does it tell us anything scientifically interesting or surprising?  That's the question that interests me, and I have no idea what the answer is. If not, it's as if scientists finally got a picture of a unicorn, and it turns out to be a blurry version of Harry Potter's Patronus. On the other hand, the technical feat is interesting, and might prove useful for other studies of what's going on in the hearts of active galaxies.

Suppose you have a billion dollars earning a nice 5.256% continuous interest (5.3966% APR) and decide to spend, give away, or burn $100/minute.   How much would you have left after one year? For extra credit don't use pencil, paper, calculator or similar aids. Hint: Rent SECOND HINT for my disappointingly sluggish readership: You don't need the pencil and paper etc. if you remember the lyrics of Rent , How do you measure a year.  If you don't know Rent, you really should listen to it. PS Ignore taxes - you're a billionaire!

The more I read , the more I think yes. This obsolete mess seems to be a total piece of crap.  I know that I don't want to fly in one.