In the News

Here is some stuff in the news today...

[Content Note: Extreme weather] How y'all doing on the East Coast? "High winds and whiteout conditions swept across New England on Tuesday as a strong winter storm moved up the East Coast, leaving the island of Nantucket without power. The storm veered away from New York City, leaving less than a foot of snow in Central Park. Hartford also received less than expected, but the storm was barreling down on Boston, where forecasters were still expecting two to three feet. By 10 a.m., several areas of Massachusetts had reported more than a foot of snow, the Weather Service said, with an unofficial total of 31 inches in Shrewsbury and 27 inches in Ayer."

[CN: Class warfare] In the path of the storm, cities are scrambling to provide shelter for people who are homeless. After, you know, in many places, investing in policies that created more homelessness.

[CN: Surveillance] Whaaaaaat: "The Drug Enforcement Administration has initiated a massive national license plate reader program with major civil liberties concerns but disclosed very few details, according to new DEA documents obtained by the ACLU through the Freedom of Information Act. ...With its jurisdiction and its finances, the federal government is uniquely positioned to create a centralized repository of all drivers' movements across the country—and the DEA seems to be moving toward doing just that." Good lord.

[CN: Police brutality; racism] This is an excellent interview with Netta Elzie: "The Women of #BlackLivesMatter." Go read it!

Wowowowow: "Images from NASA's Kepler mission have found yet another set of Earth-sized planets, but these are something special: The set of five orbit a Sun-like star, and the system may be the oldest of its kind in our galaxy. ...Named Kepler-444, the star is about 11.2 billion years old. That's 2 1/2 times older than Earth, and well toward the earliest days of the universe."

Welp! "Scientists Find Way to 'Unboil' an Egg, and Say It Could Streamline Drug Development." All right then!

[CN: Multiple oppressions] Are you fucking kidding me? "ABC added to its pilot pickups Monday [including a comedy] from 'It Gets Better' LGBT activist Dan Savage. ...On the comedy side, the untitled Savage comedy is a single-camera semi-autobiographical entry based on the LGBT activist/boundary-pushing columnist's life. It centers on a picture-perfect family that is turned upside down when the youngest son comes out of the closet. What seems like the end of their idyllic life turns out to be the beginning of a bright new chapter when everyone stops pretending to be perfect and actually starts being real." I bet I'm not the only person who finds it objectionable that Savage is repeatedly identified as an LGBT activist, despite having unapologetically engaged in transphobia and biphobia, not to mention misogyny, fat hatred, disablism, rape apologia, etc. Gross.

In better entertainment news: Ava DuVernay (the director of Selma) and David Oyelowo (the star of Selma) will be reteaming for "a love story and murder mystery" set against the backdrop of Hurricane Katrina. Sounds interesting.

And finally! This cat just prefers taking a nap on top of her dog BFF. No biggie!