Monday, January 9, 2017

@20:25, 1/8/17

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1
Opinion

As Donald Trump Denies Climate Change, These Kids Die of It

Droughts caused by global warming have left southern Africa starved for food.

The column is not overwrought.
The earth needs fewer people.
Choosing the dead is beyond me.

2
N.Y. / Region

New York City ID Holders Aren’t a Threat, N.Y.P.D. Official Says in Court

The city must continue to retain the documents used by applicants to obtain an IDNYC card as a lawsuit challenging the plan to destroy them continues.

Mr. Castorina and Ms. Malliotakis are being paranoid.

3
Opinion

Texas’ Transgender Bill Idiocy

North Carolina’s transgender restroom measure proved disastrous. Now Republicans in Texas have introduced a similar one.

Trying the experiment should be unnecessary.
Let people sort out lavatories for themselves.

4
Movies

Review: In ‘A Different American Dream,’ a Portrait of Resignation

In giving a voice to people dismayed by the disruption caused by oil drilling in North Dakota, “A Different American Dream” captures a melancholy defeatism.

A bad dream.
It is not yet a nightmare.

5
Real Estate

2017: Year of the Renter

Incentives abound as New York City landlords cope with a softening market.

The top of the market is not clearing.
There is demand at lower prices.

6
Opinion

Medicare and the Health Law

The Medicare Rights Center says Medicare recipients are at risk if the law is repealed.

Under alternative programs health insurance will be unaffordable  for many.
(20,000,000?)

7
N.Y. / Region

Cardinal Tobin, New Newark Archbishop, Cites ‘Chasm Between Life and Faith’

Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, who made headlines standing up for nuns and refugees, was installed on Friday as the leader of the Archdiocese of Newark.

Yes, it bothers some more than others.
The cited chasm is a personal matter for me.

8
Magazine

How to Drive Cattle

Know how to read your cows. Don’t reveal your stress.

Cattle or people, the rules are much the same.

9  
U.S.

Democrats Appeal for Compromise: Alter, but Don’t Gut, the Health Law

A group of Democrats sent a letter to Republicans, requesting that they slow down the repeal efforts and instead find bipartisan changes to the existing law.

It does not hurt to ask.

I will cheer on the dissident in the Republican coalition.

10
N.Y. / Region

In Port Authority 10-Year Plan, $3.5 Billion Is Seen as Pittance

New Jersey lawmakers objected to the amount allocated for a new bus terminal, while airport projects backed by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York were approved.

New Jersey can pay for as much of the bus terminal as they wish.
The Port Authority is responsible to the entire area.


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1
World

Once Upon a Time, a Guard Nearly Shot Queen Elizabeth by Mistake

One early morning on the grounds of Buckingham Palace, Her Majesty, unable to sleep, was mistaken for an intruder, according to The Times of London.

The guard was doing his duty.

2
The Upshot

How to Predict Gentrification: Look for Falling Crime

Violent crime was a major factor pushing people out of cities a few decades ago. Now its decline appears to be inviting them back in.

Low rents are another predictor. 

3
Opinion

Texas’ Transgender Bill Idiocy

North Carolina’s transgender restroom measure proved disastrous. Now Republicans in Texas have introduced a similar one.

Indeed idiocy.   If numbers of users object they will enforce gender segregation.

4
N.Y. / Region

Remaking Kennedy Airport Is Governor’s Next Big Plan

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York wants to spend over $10 billion to rebuild and modernize Kennedy Airport’s terminals and the ways to get there.

Let the intention stew for a few years.

5
Well

Owners Think Their Dogs Are So Smart. Scientists Are Smarter.

University researchers are tapping a growing interest in pets’ intelligence, even if they have their own ideas about how to define and measure it.

"Of course, we are still generally talking about dogs as a species. While stereotypes of breeds are deeply rooted, Dr. Hare said, there is no evidence to show that one breed is cognitively superior to another. But in 1999, Stanley Coren, now an emeritus psychologist at the University of British Columbia, produced a list of 110 breeds ranked by intelligence, based on his survey of some 200 professional dog-obedience judges. The top three: Border collie, then poodle followed by German shepherd."

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/smart
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/intelligence

Dogs are smart. 

They are not humans and do not socialise as humans do.
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/socialise#English

Intelligence does not seem applicable.

Dogs have joined the human pack.

6
U.S.

Democrats Appeal for Compromise: Alter, but Don’t Gut, the Health Law

A group of Democrats sent a letter to Republicans, requesting that they slow down the repeal efforts and instead find bipartisan changes to the existing law.

I am told and I understand that Obamacare is a metastable structure.
It will destroy itself if significantly altered.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patient_Protection_and_Affordable_Care_Act
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patient_Protection_and_Affordable_Care_Act#Opposition

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/?s=obamacare
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/04/11/the-obamacare-replacement-mirage/

"What you end up with, then, is community rating + individual mandate + subsidies — that is, with Obamacare. There’s nothing arbitrary about it, and you can’t pick and choose from the elements: it’s a three-legged stool that needs all three legs to stand. And it can’t be made cheaper, either — the subsidies are already on the low end, requiring that the allowed policies can involve higher deductibles than they really should."

7
Business Day

Macy’s Will Cut 10,000 Jobs After Poor Holiday Sales

The announcement on Wednesday continued a trend for the country’s largest department store chain, which in August announced it was closing 100 of its stores.

Macy's may be in a death spiral.
Ikea seems to have found the sweet spot.

8
Opinion

Crime and Gratitude in New York

Those responsible for the much safer city deserve kudos, though there still are hot spots that deserve more attention.

Flat numbers.
Corruption is better than extortion.

9
U.S.

Trump and Julian Assange, an Unlikely Pair, Unite to Sow Hacking Doubts

The president-elect used comments by Mr. Assange, the WikiLeaks founder long reviled by many Republicans, to buttress his questioning of the conclusion that Russia was at fault.

Fiction is not a good place to start.
Iran has not forgotten the C.I.A.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat

10
U.S.

Trump Says Focus on Russian Hacking Is a ‘Political Witch Hunt’

In an interview Friday morning before an intelligence briefing, he repeatedly criticized the intense attention to the allegations of hacking by Russia.

"Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wizard_of_Oz_(1939_film)#Plot
"Back at the Emerald City, the Wizard delays granting their requests. Then Toto pulls back a curtain and exposes the "Wizard" as a normal middle-aged man who has been projecting the fearsome image; he denies Dorothy's accusation that he is a bad man, but admits to being a humbug."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wonderful_Wizard_of_Oz

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