Just Read the Links

I have nothing in particular to rant about today.

Oh, but have a pretty picture, anyway:

Links!

Without school librarians, we're on a dystopian path "Who needs to douse kerosene on a stack of books and light a match when it's so much easier to devalue our school libraries and lay off our librarians?"
Open access campaigners toughen stance towards publishers "Open access advocates want universities to be prepared to 'pull the plug' on their subscription deals with big publishers, in a sign of an escalation in tactics to open up more research."
Brian K. Vaughan Recommends 10 Comics You Need to Read—Because They’re Awesomely Unadaptable If you haven't read Vaughan's Saga, you need to read it. It is amazing. Now excuse me while I go put a bunch of these comics on my TBR pile...

House Votes to Restrict EPA's Use of Scientific Studies "...Democrats said the measure, called the Honest and Open New EPA Science Treatment Act, handcuffs the EPA and has the potential for abuse. The American Lung Association, National Medical Association and the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America are among the groups that opposed for the bill Monday in a letter to Congress.... Critics said the EPA would be prohibited from making regulatory decisions based on peer-reviewed research studies that involve information that cannot be made public, like medical records, severely limiting the data available to EPA regulators."

THERE'S NO TRICK; IT'S JUST A SIMPLE TRICK!
...Maybe the real moral of the story is that no matter how ridiculously strict a person is about financial habits, $7.25/hr just isn't enough money to allow an adult American in 2017 to do much of anything except survive paycheck to paycheck in the very best scenario. And that's if you get close to 40 hours on the regular, which you won't.

Americans are terrific at learning the wrong lessons from looking analytically at poverty. Were this a satirical effort to show that someone earning minimum wage is in a no-win situation it would be brilliant. Instead we have yet another example of how clueless the Silicon Valley Thought Leader types are and how willingly they ignore the reality that the system they exploit so well is not sustainable in the long term.

St Petersburg metro explosion kills 11 in Russia "Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said in a Facebook post that the explosion was a 'terrorist attack'. An anti-terror investigation has been opened, but other possible causes are being investigated."

Americans’ right to protest is in grave danger under Trump, United Nations warns '"The trend...threatens to jeopardize one of the United States’ constitutional pillars: free speech,' [Maina Kiai and David Kaye, independent U.N. experts on freedom of peaceful assembly] wrote. And the bills violate international human rights law, they said."
Bill O’Reilly Thrives at Fox News, Even as Harassment Settlements Add Up "The women who made allegations against Mr. O’Reilly either worked for him or appeared on his show. They have complained about a wide range of behavior, including verbal abuse, lewd comments, unwanted advances and phone calls in which it sounded as if Mr. O’Reilly was masturbating, according to documents and interviews."
Senate panel to vote on Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch "The Senate Judiciary Committee is set to vote on the nomination of federal appeals court Judge Neil Gorsuch just 62 days after his nomination by President Trump — a vote Republicans denied President Barack Obama's nominee, Merrick Garland, for 293 days last year."

Forget the Smoke. We Already Found Fire. "Donald Trump calls the investigation into Russia’s meddling in our election 'a witch hunt.' What it’s really become is a which hunt. We’re trying to figure out which misdeeds Donald Trump is guilty of: Disloyalty, treachery, betrayal, traitorousness, treason, or all of the above."
Trump on Twitter Renews Attacks on Clinton and Phone Tapping Claims "In a burst of four Twitter posts starting at 5:15 a.m., Mr. Trump sought again to turn attention away from the investigation into contacts between his associates and Russian officials by pointing back at Democrats. He has argued repeatedly that 'the real story' is how President Barack Obama’s administration targeted him and how Mrs. Clinton and her associates had ties to Russia, as well." Good grief...

Steampunk Gypsy