You want some magic this Monday to start your week? Check this short film Vorticity by Mike Olbinski. If you can launch it in full screen or cast it to a television, even better, and I hope you have decent speakers for the sound. Mike’s wife is a saint, a wholly different kind of magic off screen to support a guy who does this stuff.
Under the gun here today, too much real world stuff to check off my To Do List. Only a quick list of stuff worth looking at.
Kudos
Bravo to Michigan’s Rep. Dan Kildee (D-Flint Township) who filed the Families of Flint Act last week to provide $1.5 billion in relief funding for water system repairs, additional health care, monitoring and education, as well as economic development to support the struggling city. Co-sponsors include U.S. Reps. Sander Levin (D-Royal Oak), Debbie Dingell (D-Dearborn MI), Brenda Lawrence (D-Southfield MI), and John Conyers (D-Detroit), along with 167 other House Dems.
Lean on House GOP members to do the right thing and support this bill when they are next in session in August.
Leftovers
Couple of things screwed up or left unfulfilled before Congress left town:
- Some of the most important federal highways in the country stiffed on federal transportation grants (PressTelegram) — Southern California’s highways and railways include service to the two largest container ports in the U.S. at Los Angeles and Long Beach. Southern CA Dem representatives have asked Obama-appointee Anthony Foxx, secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation, why he stiffed them. Well, us. All of us. So much of the imported products we use every day cam through those two ports, not to mention produce shipping from southern CA to the rest of the country. Come on, Foxx. Fix this, stat.
- Vaccines for Zika virus now ready for human testing (PRI) — Gee, it’d be awfully nice if GOP-led Congress had done something effective about funding for Zika research, let alone adequate funding to prevent its spread including birth control.
Quick List
- Chinese group’s bid for Norway’s browser companyOpera falls through–but WAIT (Reuters) — The mobile and desktop browser were sold for $600M, while the rest of the business including Mediaworks, apps and games, and Opera TV were not sold. Terms must be completed before a 3Q2016 deadline in order to close the deal.
- 62 bidders qualified for 600Mhz spectrum auction, including Comcast (Ars Technica) — AT&T, T-Mobile USA, US Cellular, Verizon Wireless, and Dish Network’s wireless subsidiary are among the bidders.
- Japan’s Softbank bid for UK-based chipmaker ARM (TechCrunch) — One of the first big deals after the Brexit crash of the pound, making the chipmaker a bargain. Wonder if Japan will keep the chipmaker where it is or move it abroad to consolidate with another tech industry holding.
- Enthusiasm at ‘Women for Trump’ event palpable (@PennyRed via Twitter) — That is, if you go and shake the hand of the lone media intern in the nearly empty room, you’ll feel the excitement. Okay, perhaps ‘enthusiasm’ is too strong a word…
- Erdogan continues removing elected officials as Istanbul’s Sisli district deputy mayor shot in the head (The Independent) — Political cleansing, that’s what this is, with roughly 7,000 persons now arrested or detained. That Erdogan had a list prepared of persons who would object to his unilateral enlargement of powers is obvious. Secretary of State John Kerry said Turkey’s status in NATO is now at risk.
- Hostage standoff in Armenia enters second day (Twitter) — News about this situation remains extremely thin.
- Another beautiful SpaceX launch and landing overnight (SpaceX via YouTube) — You need a little mood boost? Watch the video at the link, especially at 25:14. Totally adore the youthful energy at mission control when the Falcon reusable rocket lands sticks its landing again, this time on land.
Catch you tomorrow, gotta’ dash!