Friday Morning: Afro-Cuban Coffee
I should just dedicate Fridays to different genres of jazz. Today feels like a good day for Afro-Cuban jazz.
This chap, Francisco Raúl Gutiérrez Grillo, who performed under the name Machito with his Afro-Cubans, was an incredibly important innovator shaping Afro-Cuban jazz as well as modern American music. He was important to race in the music industry as well, as his Afro-Cubans may have been the first multi-racial band.
I’m brewing some Café Bustelo before I bust out my dancing shoes. ¡Vamonos!
Judge applies ‘Parkinson’s Law’ to VW emissions cheat case
You know the adage, “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion”? U.S. District Court Judge Charles Breyer gave Volkswagen 30 days to come up with a fix* for all the emissions standards cheating passenger diesel engine cars in the class action lawsuits he oversees in San Francisco. Gotta’ love this:
“It’s an ongoing harm that has to be addressed … I’ve found the process is a function of how much time people have available to fill. The story about lawyers is that that if you give them a year to do something, it will take them a year to do something. If you give them 30 days to do something, they’ll do something in 30 days.”
As time passes, vehicle owners are increasingly damaged as no one wants to buy their cars and their investment is lost. Hence the aggressive time limit.
* Caution: that link to SFGate may autoplay video and ad content. Really, SFGate? That’s such hideously bad form.
Rough road ahead in Saudi Arabia to a post-oil world
This piece in WaPo paints a grim picture of cheap oil’s impact on Saudi Arabia — and there are huge pieces missing. Worth a read while asking yourself how much Saudis are spending on military efforts against Yemen and Syria, and what new industries they’re investing in to replace oil-based employment.
Took long enough: Software and social media firms get Apple’s back
Did their legal departments finally read the case thoroughly and realize they had skin in this game, too? Who knows — but Google as well as Microsoft are planning to file amicus briefs in support of Apple. Microsoft had already indicated they would support Apple in a congressional hearing yesterday morning; Google piped up later. The latest skinny is that Facebook and Twitter both intend to file briefs as well in favor of Apple. Looks like Microsoft’s current management took an 180-degree turn away from progenitor Bill Gates’ initial response, hmm?
Hit and run
- U.S. conducted ICBM test launch overnight from California bunker (ABC)
The launch took place at 2:01 a.m. EST, second in the last week purportedly testing the reliability of Minuteman missiles and missile launch teams. Sabre-rattling at North Korea or Russia? You decide. - DHS’s Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team says Ukraine’s pre-holiday power outage caused by hackers (Reuters)
Quel surprise. I am shocked, SHOCKED by this news. [end-snark] - Drug co Pfizer looking at $35B cool ones in tax savings via offshore merger with Irish co Allergan (Bloomberg)
Gee, mega tax savings! Another incentive for Apple to move offshore besides U.S. government’s demand for compulsory coding… - Encrypted chat app developer hired by Apple (Business Insider)
Couldn’t see this coming either, Apple moving toward increasing encryption of its products after USDOJ demands for compelled coding.
That’s a wrap on this week. Keep your eyes peeled for news dumps while folks are still picking apart last night’s GOP-cast reality TV show. And make time to dance.
EDIT — 8:40 AM — Ugh, why didn’t the Detroit News publish this piece *yesterday* instead of a Friday morning? Michigan’s Gov. Snyder’s “inner circle” exchanged emails advising a switchback from Flint River a year before the switchback took place, and only three weeks before Snyder’s re-election. There was enough content in this to go to press without waiting for a quote from one of the former advisers.