1/. Yeay - we put a robot car on Mars....
Still got it. Illustration: NASA
Though a pandemic may be ravaging the country and most of Texas has been plunged into the 19th century, America can
still do one thing right: Shoot a robot into space.
2/. Paul Krugman on the Texas disaster, and the Republican efforts to deny, deny, deny responsibility....
Politicians are neither gods nor saints. Because they aren’t gods, they often make bad policy decisions. Because they aren’t saints, they often try to evade responsibility for their failures, asserting either that they did as well as anyone could have or that someone else deserves the blame.
3/ Trevor Noah with a segment on the Texas winter disaster and the efforts of right wing media to blame it on the Green New Deal
and AOC....he's created a very funny ad too - at the 8 minute mark....
A good summary of the coverage so far....9 minutes...
4/. The Lincoln Project with what may be their final video due to the harassment scandal....it's powerful!
5/. And a note from a Texan on how bad it is......he says it's worse than you can even imagine....
First off this isn’t localized or even limited to big or even medium sized cities. There are rural areas that don’t have power either. This is a classic cascade failure. It is worse than a hurricane.
1. It started with ERCOT misprediction of energy demand by about 30%.
2. Sunday demand spiked to new historic winter levels. A full 10 MW higher than the previous Winter peak. Texas runs on electric heat. Virtually no one has fuel oil heaters. Fireplaces are things you have for ambiance.
3. Then it froze. The whole state in one night.
6/. For you aficionados of advertising, Rolling Stone ranks the 2021 Super Bowl ads....for junkies only, you know who you are........
7/. Most interesting story on how to keep yourself from falling for disinformation, lies and fake news.
It's called SIFT, and it's relatively simple to do...
For an academic, Michael Caulfield has an odd request: Stop overthinking what you see online.
Mr. Caulfield, a digital literacy expert at Washington State University Vancouver, knows all too well that at this very moment, more people are fighting for the opportunity to lie to you than at perhaps any other point in human history.
8/. John Oliver is back, and he starts with a special on the pandemic....19 very good minutes...
9/. Tom Engelhardt with his take on how the US is now a failing state.....shades of Umair....
Like Gregor Samsa, the never-to-be-forgotten character in Franz Kafka's story "The Metamorphosis," we awoke on January 7th to discover that we, too, were "a giant insect" with "a domelike brown belly divided into stiff arched segments" and numerous "pitifully thin" legs that "waved helplessly" before our eyes. If you prefer, though, you can just say it: we opened our eyes and found that, somehow, we had become a giant roach of a country.
10/. Chris Hayes for a wonderful rant on how the Republicans are blaming AOC for the Texas disaster.....five very good minutes...
11/. Good story on how our infrastructure is unprepared for weather extremes, and how hard it is to cope with all
conceivable scenarios....the alternative to doing nothing is what we see in Texas right now....
Huge winter storms plunged large parts of the central and southern United States into an energy crisis this week, with frigid blasts of Arctic weather crippling electric grids and leaving millions of Americans without power amid dangerously cold temperatures
12/. Love this one.....an ad for Skoda cars, and an intelligence test too!
13/. A rather sad [because it's true] Tom Tomorrow....
14/. Arguably one of the best Super Bowl ads.....definitely one for the ladies....
15/. Nicolas Kristof with a question - how do we hold Fox News to account? Good column...
As America debates whether to hold former President Donald Trump accountable for inciting insurrection, what about his co-conspirator Fox News?
Fox helped sell Trump’s lie about a stolen election, propelling true believers like Ashli Babbitt — a fan of Fox personalities like Tucker Carlson — to storm the Capitol. Babbitt died in the attack, while this week Fox Corporation merrily reported a 17 percent jump in quarterly earnings.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/
16/. Randy Rainbow with an amusing roast of Marjorie Taylor Greene...he really has a nice voice!
17/. One of my favourite classic movies was Bullitt, with Steve McQueen.....here is the famous chase scene through the streets
of San Francisco....note McQueen did the driving in this movie, no stunt man....
Today's groaners....
Today at the bank, an old lady asked me to help check her balance. So I pushed her over.
I bought some shoes from a drug dealer. I don't know what he laced them with, but I've been tripping all day.
I told my girlfriend she drew her eyebrows too high. She seemed surprised.
My dog used to chase people on a bike a lot. It got so bad, finally I had to take his bike away.
I'm so good at sleeping. I can do it with my eyes closed.
My boss told me to have a good day.. so I went home.
Why is Peter Pan always flying? He neverlands.
A woman walks into a library and asked if they had any books about paranoia. The librarian says "They're right behind you!"
The other day, my wife asked me to pass her lipstick but I accidentally passed her a glue stick. She still isn't talking to me.
Why do blind people hate skydiving? It scares the hell out of their dogs.
When you look really closely, all mirrors look like eyeballs.
My friend says to me: "What rhymes with orange" I said: "No it doesn't"
What do you call a guy with a rubber toe? Roberto.
What did the pirate say when he turned 80 years old? Aye matey.
My wife told me I had to stop acting like a flamingo. So I had to put my foot down.
I couldn't figure out why the baseball kept getting larger. Then it hit me.
Why did the old man fall in the well? Because he couldn't see that well.
I ate a clock yesterday, it was very time consuming.
Whatdya call a frenchman wearing sandals? Phillipe Phillope.
A blind man walks into a bar. And a table. And a chair.
I know a lot of jokes about unemployed people but none of them work.
What's orange and sounds like a parrot? A carrot.
Did you hear about the italian chef that died? He pasta way.
Why couldn't the bicycle stand up? Because it was two tired!
Parallel lines have so much in common. It’s a shame they’ll never meet.
My wife accused me of being immature. I told her to get out of my fort.
Where do you find a cow with no legs? Right where you left it.
When a deaf person sees someone yawn do they think it’s a scream?
As I suspected, someone has been adding soil to my garden. The plot thickens.
How do crazy people go through the forest? They take the physco path.
And the lord said unto John, "Come forth and you will receive eternal life". John came fifth and won a toaster.
What did the traffic light say to the car? Don’t look! I’m about to change.
I just wrote a book on reverse psychology. Do *not* read it!
What did one hat say to the other? You stay here. I’ll go on ahead.
Why wouldn’t the shrimp share his treasure? Because he was a little shellfish.
Today's philosophical jokes...
.Having plans sounds like a good idea until you have to put on clothes and leave the house.It’s weird being the same age as old people.When I was a kid I wanted to be older…this is not what I expected.Chocolate is God’s way of telling us He likes us a little bit chubby.Marriage Counselor: Your wife says you never buy her flowers. Is that true?Him: To be honest, I never knew she sold flowers.Never sing in the shower! Singing leads to dancing, dancing leads to slipping, and slipping leads to paramedics seeing you naked. So remember…Don’t sing!My wife asked me to take her to one of those restaurants where they make the food right in front of you. So I took her to Subway and that’s how the fight started.During the middle ages they celebrated the end of the plague with wine and orgies. Does anyone know if there is anything planned when this one endsI see people about my age mountain climbing; I feel good getting my leg through my underwear without losing my balance.We can all agree that in 2015 not a single person got the answer correct to, ‘Where do you see yourself 5 years from now?’So if a cow doesn’t produce milk, is it a milk dud or an udder failure?If you can’t think of a word say “I forgot the English word for it.” That way people will think you’re bilingual instead of an idiot.I’m at a place in my life where errands are starting to count as going out.Coronacoaster noun: the ups and downs of a pandemic. One day you’re loving your bubble, doing work outs, baking banana bread and going for long walks and the next day you’re crying, drinking gin for breakfast and missing people you don’t even like.I'm at that age where my mind still thinks I’m 29, my humor suggests I’m 12, while my body mostly keeps asking if I’m sure I’m not dead yet.Don’t be worried about your smartphone or TV spying on you. Your vacuum cleaner has been collecting dirt on you for years.I’m getting tired of being part of a major historical event.I don’t always go the extra mile, but when I do it’s because I missed my exit.You don’t realize how old you are until you sit on the floor and then try to get back up.We all get heavier as we get older, because there's a lot more information in our heads. That's my story and I'm sticking to it
