SoylentNews

Following the assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy in 1968, [Jimmy] Stewart, Charlton Heston, Kirk Douglas and Gregory Peck issued a statement calling for support of President Johnson's Gun Control Act of 1968.

Wow, really, Charlton Heston??

Every child in our family has asthma courtesy of my genes, but one of our sons in particular has had it bad the last couple weeks, to the point that he's started needing a regular nightly nebulizer treatment at bedtime. So much so that today I took him to the doctor and got him some extra medication, but I digress.

While sitting on the nebulizer machine when I was growing up I always wanted something to do and to keep my mind occupied. I couldn't talk, I couldn't watch TV well because the machine right next to me made too much noise to hear, so I usually read. I can remember reading Swiss Family Robinson and newspapers when the first Iraq War happened and lots of other stuff. But you really have to hold the nebulizer equipment level while using it, and in reading I always tended to bend my head down, so in practice TV is a better option now that captioning exists for just about everything.

We've been letting this son watch Garfield cartoons during his treatments, with the captions on and the volume all the way down (because the other children are in their rooms falling asleep and don't need to hear an interesting TV show or it will rouse them), but tonight I said "Hey, let's do something better with this time - which Star Trek would you like to watch?" and gave him his choice of series. He selected The Original Series, I complimented him for his choice, and now he's sitting next to me enjoying a silent run of This Side of Paradise. I should have thought of that several days ago and he could've made it quite a way through the series - hopefully the medicine he got today kicks in in the next 3-4 days and these nightly nebulizer sessions will become a rarity again instead of a predictable part of the evening.

Stories about two different Florida prisoners published within 24 hours of each other, as seen on Google News:

Transgender Prisoner Sues Florida to Get Hormone Treatments

Transgender inmate challenging Florida prison laws found dead in cell

Minecraft for Oculus Rift is out today

Megahit Minecraft arrives on Facebook's Oculus Rift VR headset

If you play VRcraft for longer than 4 hours, you could suffer from Minecraft persisting perception disorder and see pixelated blocks FOREVER.

Well, my wife is looking for a not too expensive new vehicle with room in the back for a wheelchair (for our son, due to sometime behaviour problems).
Took a used Ford for a test drive because my wife liked it's size, and MAN, the MS UI in that thing sucked!!!

When we got back, the salesman told me they had dropped it for Blackberry (QNX) for the new models.
Seems there is intelligence on Earth!

Just thought i'd put that out there.

Fascinating:

The Game Germany Deemed 'Harmful to Minors'

And some more fun:

'I found the intern curled up on the data centre floor moaning'

Even more fun:

At Swanky Federal Reserve Retreat, “Computer Glitch” Cancels Minority Protesters’ Hotel Reservations

Melania Trump's possible violation of Visa rules is the top news of the day: she might even not be a U.S. citizen?
OMG!!!

It is possible Hillary passed on CONFIDENTIAL info to the enemies, but 'meh'.

Sigh.

Ever since Trump went toe-to-toe with the parents of a dead Muslim veteran, the Republican Party has been in crisis mode.

Pence breaks with Trump, endorses Ryan

Pence: Trump 'strongly encouraged me to endorse Paul Ryan'

Paul Ryan is expected to win, so as irritating as the Trump non-endorsement may be to Party leaders, it might have a limited shelf life.

This fact is also amusing:

The GOP's Donald Trump freak-out

A GOP source told CNN's Dana Bash that Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus was especially frustrated because Paul Ryan and Priebus, both from Wisconsin, are very close. The source said Trump refusing to endorse Ryan in his re-election primary was "personal" especially since Priebus has "taken on a lot of water" for Trump. "He takes this very personally," said the source. Priebus "does want to show his support" for Ryan, a source tells CNN.

The chairman has been the main point of contact between Trump and the Republican Party, on which the billionaire has been relying heavily since he lacks the political infrastructure of a conventional political candidate. Priebus, who was said by the source to be incredibly upset with Trump's behavior, had expressed his disappointment and frustration to several leading members of Trump's entourage, the source said.

Is it all for naught?

A knowledgeable Republican source told CNN Tuesday that some of Trump's campaign staff -- even campaign chairman Paul Manafort -- "feel like they are wasting their time," given their boss's recent comments. But Manafort insisted to CNN Wednesaday that isn't true and any frustration centers on the media.

Posted July 21, Rejected around Aug 1

      ScienceDaily reports on a unique project:

For the first time ever, individuals will have the opportunity to send their own personal message and/or data into space via microchip. The project entitled "Voices of Humanity" is the creation of the Santa Barbara-based team of UCSB Physics Professor Phil Lubin, Ph.D. and Travis Brashears, an engineering physics major at U.C. Berkeley. Philip Lubin, a professor in physics at the University of California Santa Barbara, is the leading scientist on the endeavor. With his student Brashears who is working at the UCSB Physics Department this summer and went to San Marcos High School, they have launched a Kickstarter campaign called Voices of Humanity. They are inviting individuals to join them in a journey that will take their personal data to the stars via directed energy propulsion.

      The purpose of the campaign is to collect data of the dreams, visions, images, movies, DNA, and literal voices of all of humanity, place them on a Humanity Chip, download them onto their wafer scale spacecraft, and then launch them in a series of increasingly sophisticated missions into outer space.

      From the Kickstarter project page:

Once we reach our stretch goal of $100,000, we will be able to build a sophisticated ground-based laser and robotic telescope that allows your data to be optionally transmitted via laser to the target of your choice in space. We will then be able to "beam you up" by encoding and sending your data to the stars so you will travel at the speed of light into the universe. In both cases, we will be able to "back up humanity", using the universe as our "cloud" with your images, pictures, text, tweets, video, and DNA! Your data will live forever in the universe. You will be immortalized.

      [...]

      Voices of Humanity is brought to you by the same people that are working on the recently announced laser propelled, first interstellar missions through the DE-STAR project at University of California Santa Barbara and the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) funded project Phase I DEEP-IN and Phase II DEIS programs. Professor Philip Lubin is the leading scientist on all of these projects and is a professor at UC Santa Barbara. Travis Brashears has worked with Prof. Lubin on all of these projects and is an Engineering Physics major at UC Berkeley.

      (This project should not be confused with the similarly-named project at CCI)

Submitted July 20, REJECTED around Aug 1

      As many have anticipated, Turkish president Erdogan's retaliation for the failed 15 July coup. Including Turkish university staff. Nature reports:

More than a thousand Turkish university staff have been ordered to resign their faculty leadership positions -- and others expect to be sacked -- in the aftermath of the country's failed coup on 15 July.

      As president Recep Tayyip Erdogan continues to clamp down on political opposition, the Turkish Council of Higher Education (YOK) has called for all 1,577 of the country's university deans -- the staff that head up each institution's various academic faculties -- to leave their posts.

      Many of the deans may ultimately be re-appointed, but researchers say the move is designed to ensure that Erdogan maintains tight political control over the education sector, following earlier purges of the country's military, judiciary and police. And in what amounts to a temporary international travel ban for Turkish scholars, all vacations at universities have also been cancelled, and academics abroad for work and holidays have been told to return.

      Additionally, the purge has been extended to Turkey's schools where 15000 schoolteachers have been suspended and another 20000 have lost their teaching licenses. The article continues:

University associations oustide Turkey were quick to criticize the measures. On 19 July, the European University Association (EUA), in Brussels, issued a statement condemning the news of the university deans' forced resignations. "EUA calls on all European governments, universities and scholars to speak out against these developments and to support democracy in Turkey, including institutional autonomy and academic freedom for scholars and students," said its president, Rolf Tarrach.

      "We are all stunned by the deep and seemingly ruthless attacks on academic freedom by the Turkish government," said Horst Hippler, president of the German Rectors Conference, an association of Germany's state-recognized universities.