Check It Out

Links to cool places or things.

There are 1,515 posts filed in Check It Out (this is page 47 of 152).

Clinton allies blame Bernie for bad polls | TheHill

Here it goes. Clinton supporters are already blaming Sanders for Clinton losing to Trump. It has nothing to do with all of Clinton’s faults, of course. Oh no. If she didn’t win, surely it must Bernie Sanders’s fault.

I’m so tired of Clinton playing the victim card. All. The. Time. The same thing played out in this political cartoon.

Poor Hillary.

Poor Hillary.

Hillary Clinton allies worried about polls that suggest a tightening general election match-up with Donald Trump are placing blame on Bernie Sanders. They say that the long primary fight with the independent senator from Vermont, which looks like it could go all the way to the Democratic convention in Philadelphia, has taken a toll on Clinton’s standing in the polls. In the latest RealClearPolitics average, she is two-tenths of a point behind Trump, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee.

The surrogates say they’re concerned that Sanders is still — this late in the game — throwing shots at Clinton and the Democratic establishment.

“I don’t think he realizes the damage he’s doing at this point,” one ally said of Sanders. “I understand running the campaign until the end, fine. But at least take the steps to begin bringing everyone together.”

Source: Clinton allies blame Bernie for bad polls | TheHill

Exercise Is ADHD Medication – The Atlantic

Mental exercises to build (or rebuild) attention span have shown promise recently as adjuncts or alternatives to amphetamines in addressing symptoms common to Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Building cognitive control, to be better able to focus on just one thing, or single-task, might involve regular practice with a specialized video game that reinforces “top-down” cognitive modulation, as was the case in a popular paper in Nature last year. Cool but still notional. More insipid but also more clearly critical to addressing what’s being called the ADHD epidemic is plain old physical activity.

Source: Exercise Is ADHD Medication – The Atlantic

Russia’s military rejects U.S. criticism of new Baltic encounter | Reuters

The USS Donald Cook (DDG-75) was buzzed earlier this week by a pair of Russian SU-24 Fencer bombers as the Cook transited the Baltic Sea. The Fencers flew an attack profile and flew within 100 feet (and some say within 30 feet) of the Cook in what the Cook skipper CDR Charles Hamilton called an unsafe and unprofessional manner.

While the incident was unusually unsafe, this kind of response from Russia is no surprise. Russia has long been irked by the U.S. Navy’s stubborn insistence on exercising its right of free passage through international waters, including the Baltic and Black Seas near Russia’s coast. Russia has a history of aggressively challenging the U.S. Navy as it operates in these areas, behavior which has sometimes resulted Continue reading →

How one programmer broke the internet by deleting a tiny piece of code – Quartz


This is a fascinating story of how one programmer’s deletion of 11 lines of his code wound up breaking the Internet. Yes, we are really that interconnected.

A man in Oakland, California, disrupted web development around the world last week by deleting 11 lines of code.

The story of how 28-year-old Azer Koçulu briefly broke the internet shows how writing software for the web has become dependent on a patchwork of code that itself relies on the benevolence of fellow programmers. When that system breaks down, as it did last week, the consequences can be vast and unpredictable.

Source: How one programmer broke the internet by deleting a tiny piece of code – Quartz

Why Bernie Sanders Is Adopting a Nordic-Style Approach – The Atlantic


Good article taking issue with those who say Bernie Sanders’s healthcare and college proposals won’t work
here like they do in Nordic countries.

Bernie Sanders is hanging on, still pushing his vision of a Nordic-like socialist utopia for America, and his supporters love him for it. Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, is chalking up victories by sounding more sensible. “We are not Denmark,” she said in the first Democratic debate, pointing instead to America’s strengths as a land of freedom for entrepreneurs and businesses. Commentators repeat endlessly the mantra that Sanders’s Nordic-style policies might sound nice, but they’d never work in the U.S. The upshot is that Sanders, and his supporters, are being treated a bit like children—good-hearted, but hopelessly naive. That’s probably how Nordic people seem to many Americans, too.

Source: Why Bernie Sanders Is Adopting a Nordic-Style Approach – The Atlantic

Trump Rally No Joking Matter

Trump_Rally_No_Joking_Matter

Scary first hand account of the meanness inside a Trump rally.

I almost missed it. I saw this photo of 2 young men holding a Trump sign at a Trump rally in my Facebook feed, which disappointed me, and I was ready to move on to better things, when I saw that the fella posting the photo (Jordan Ray Correll) had written: “DO NOT JUST SCROLL PAST THIS PICTURE WITHOUT READING THIS POST FIRST. THANK YOU.”

As a result of his comment I decided to take the time to read what he had posted about his experience, and I realized that my initial assumptions about the photo had been incorrect.

Source: Trump Rally No Joking Matter

Al Franken to GOP, ‘Scientists tell us there are 10 and a half months left in this president’s term’

Man, I love Al Franken. Here are his comments on YouTube.

Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) sat through all of the statements made by all of the Republicans in the Senate Judiciary Committee’s “debate” Thursday, and he had a lot to say to set the record straight.He started out responding to Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) who railed about “activist judges” and making sure that the court kept its ideological balance and that President Obama wouldn’t nominate another justice who would “legislate from the bench.” That definitely set the good senator from Minnesota off:

“This idea of nine unelected justices making law from the bench, that is what we have seen with the Roberts court. […] We had 100 votes in the Voting Rights Act. Unanimous vote by the United States senate. And what did Justice Scalia say? He said that, well, the senators voting for it because it was named to the Voting Rights Act. Remember that? […] I mean, this is insulting. To hear that. It is just insulting.”

Source: Al Franken to GOP, ‘Scientists tell us there are 10 and a half months left in this president’s term’

How I built a hoverboard company and then blew it up | TechCrunch

This story has captivated me since I read it a few days ago. It has inspired me to maybe actually do something with those little side projects I’m always dreaming up.

I was first introduced to Hoverboards while watching Casey Neistat’s daily vlogs on YouTube. I thought, “Wow. That’s pretty cool!” and started searching online to purchase one myself. When I looked at the cost of an IOHawk at $1,800 or the Phunkeeduck at $1,500, I thought there had to be a cheaper way. That’s when I found out how cheap they would be if you bought them online in bulk straight from the manufacturer.

That was an intriguing idea, so I decided it wouldn’t hurt to order straight from China. I thought I would keep one and sell one, and if I could sell one, then maybe I could sell more. So I began the process.

Source: How I built a hoverboard company and then blew it up | TechCrunch

Highlights of 2015: Aunts Linda and Mary

Unfortunately, 2015 had its share of sorrow. In May, my Aunt Linda passed away after a long battle with cancer. I took bereavement leave from my job, hopped the southbound Amtrak, and went to the funeral in Winter Park, Florida. While the occasion could have been better, it was good to pay my respects and nice to see my cousins again. My Aunt Mary was married to my dad’s brother, Donald, and was quite active in her church.

In August, my Aunt Mary also passed away. Aunt Mary was married to my mom’s brother, Bub, and lived in Panama City. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend her funeral.

Both of my aunts were the sweetest women. It’s still hard accepting that they’re gone.

The Case for Bernie: 5 Reasons the Vermont Socialist Deserves Your Vote | News | Indy Week

Bob Geary on Bernie Sanders. I wholeheartedly agree.

Decimated. I’m watching Bernie Sanders following the South Carolina primary, and he’s not putting any gloss on the rout he suffered. Decimated is the word he uses.

So here’s where we are, Bernie fans. We had a tie and a close loss in the first two caucus states. We won big in the New Hampshire primary. We lost twice as big in South Carolina. This is all-too-familiar territory for those of us in Wolfpack Nation. Some early-season successes. Blown out by our first tough opponent. What did legendary N.C. State basketball coach Jimmy Valvano advise in such circumstances? “Too bad,” I think he said. “We’re hosed. We can’t win. We should drop out and root for Carolina.

”No! He didn’t say that! He said never give up! Never, ever give up! You know, like Hillary Clinton said this country will never, ever figure out how to ditch the insurance companies and save everybody money with Medicare for All—Bernie’s plan.

Well, Hillary has her never, ever, and Bernie supporters should have ours. We should vote for our guy if we want to, knowing he’s unlikely to win, but so was the ’83 Wolfpack—until they reeled off nine upsets in a row to take the national championship.

Notice, I am not trying to persuade Hillary’s fans to vote for Bernie. That would be like asking people in light blue shirts to put their thumb and middle fingers together while holding up the other two. Can’t happen.

Hillary’s voters have a right to their belief that the way the country’s going is the best we can hope for—and so what if we’re moving steadily to the right, ceding more and more power to corporations and the wealthy few? Because if the Republicans take the White House, we’d be worse off, and besides, Hillary has experience.

But for those not sold on Hillary, I offer these five reasons to vote for Bernie in the March 15 Democratic presidential primary.

Source: The Case for Bernie: 5 Reasons the Vermont Socialist Deserves Your Vote | News | Indy Week