I have been telling people for years that if they think things are tough now, wait until the international community abandons the dollar. JP Morgan is warning that the U.S.' unconscionable $22,000,000,000,000 debt is weighing on its status as a global reserve currency, so of course that warning will become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Funny how those things work.

How anonymous is anonymous data collection? According to a Belgian study, there's an 83% chance that you can be identified based on gender, birth date, and postal code.

More data points than that, and you're a fish in a barrel.

I am not well versed in the statistics of global hunger, but I do know the United States has the largest arable tract of land in the world and it pays farmers to watch it blow away.

Because disposable diapers don't cost enough, Pampers has developed a smart diaper that notifies you when your baby needs to be changed.

The New Yorker ran 12,000 words today about how Al Franken was unfairly deposed as a result of the MeToo movement; rationalizing his behavior in part because it occurred "in his capacity as a comedian." So, it's OK to abuse people as long someone think it's funny? Is that not the precise culture we are trying to change?

The Chaplain of the House of Representatives opened a session this week with a prayer to "cast out all spirits of darkness from this chamber".

Now there's no one left to vote on legislation.

Perhaps the most insidious aspect of Microsoft's software-as-a-service model is that it giveth and it taketh away.

One day you wake up and discover that Microsoft decided you no longer needed a given feature.

Somebody must have contaminated Charles Mountbatten-Windsor's Wheaties (AKA Prince Charles) this week because he rescinded his reprieve from destruction.

“I am firmly of the view that the next 18 months will decide our ability to keep climate change to survivable levels and to restore nature to the equilibrium we need for our survival.”

In 2009, he doomed humanity by 2017, but in 2015 gifted another thirty-five years.

Are the wires on the globigarchy's* marionettes starting to show? Perhaps, but few people are interested.

*portmanteau of "global oligarchy" (How often do you get to use the word portmanteau?)

Ten years after the government began guaranteeing student loans, an amendment was passed excluding student loans from discharge by bankruptcy (due to the record number of defaults).

Federally-guaranteed student loans are not about providing people access to education, they are about providing corporations access to government-guaranteed profits.

GM is in the process of laying off 15,000 North American workers while it expands production in South Korea and Mexico. Chalk up another victory for "Free Trade".

Aren't you glad you gave $51B to GM to succour them from bankruptcy?

Airline companies are exploring a new revenue stream that would charge passengers for psychological baggage.

Medievalism: The elites extract taxes from the peasants to pay to the government.

Capitalism: The government extracts taxes from the peasants to pay to the elites.

Of the twenty-three (23) protections provided by the Bill of Rights, thirteen (13) are Rights of the Accused.

Our entire criminal justice system is encapsulated in three amendments totalling 347 words.

Instruments in Tibet were impacted by a 500 TeV photon originating in the Crab Nebula, the most energetic photon ever recorded (The LHC in Geneva generates about 14 TeV).

National Security Advisor John Bolton has asked the Joint Chiefs to plan a retaliatory strike against the Crab Nebula as a warning sign to Iran. "And it had better not take 10,000 years!" he was overheard saying.

Apparently, it's Lampoon John Bolton Day.

Capitalism: Sink old ships in the ocean to avoid the cost of dismantling them.

Ecoism: Same thing, but call the ship a 'reef'.

The body count for U.S. citizens in the Dominican Republican is up to nine.

That's three times more than Jurassic Park.