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Intel Has a Big Problem. It Needs to Act Like It

During the six months Intel was quietly working to try to fix the vulnerabilities, Krzanich sold $24 million in company shares. Intel says the stock sale was part of a plan that had been in place before anyone there knew about Meltdown or Spectre, but the day after Krzanich’s CES speech, two U.S. senators sent letters to the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice demanding investigations. Consumer and shareholder lawyers have filed a dozen class actions against Intel, and there are few signs the pressure will let up on Krzanich anytime soon. In a research note, an analyst for Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. called the stock sale “indefensible.”

President Donald J. Trump was sworn in on January 20, 2017. At his inauguration, he spoke of the movement which elected him, a movement motivated by “the crucial conviction that a nation exists to serve its citizens.”

Today, women gathered across the country to commemorate the anniversary of that historic day. President Trump has appointed more women to leadership positions than any other US president. Among his choices are:

• Elaine Chao, Secretary of Transportation
• Betsy DeVos, Secretary of Education
• Kirstjen Nielsen, Secretary of Homeland Security
• Nikki Haley, Ambassador to the United Nations
• Linda McMahon, Administrator of the Small Business Administration
• Kellyanne Conway, Counselor to the President
• Ivanka Trump, Advisor
• Anna Cristina Niceta Lloyd, Social Secretary
• Madeleine Westerhout, Personal Secretary to the President
• Mary Elizabeth Taylor, Deputy Director of Nominations
• Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Press Secretary
• Lindsay Walters, Deputy Press Secretary
• Lara Trump, Online Producer

In their proud service to their country, they exemplify President Trump's commitment to breaking the glass ceiling that impeded women in government for so long.

President Trump, in solidarity with the #MeToo movement, called for the resignation of disgraced Senator Al Franken—a call that was echoed by his fellow senators and to which Mr. Franken ultimately acceded.

Ambassador Haley negotiated a $285 million cut in the United Nations' budget, reduced the UN’s bloated management and support functions, bolstered support for key US priorities throughout the world and instilled more discipline and accountability throughout the UN system. She plans further reductions in next year's budget.

Construction of the southern border wall—a major campaign promise—commenced with the commissioning, fabrication, rigorous testing and evaluation of eight prototypes, and in the form of maintenance and renovation to existing walls and fences.

President Trump expressed his support for the Dreamers, promising to extend DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, by six months. He called on Congress to enact legislation that would make the program permanent.

After the deadly violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, President Trump spoke forcefully on the need to de-escalate long-standing racial tensions. He signed a bill to turn the Rev. Martin Luther King's birthplace in Atlanta into a national historical park, the first park of its kind in Georgia. He proclaimed a national holiday in honor of Rev. King. He appointed Dr. Ben Carson, a renowned neurosurgeon who is African-American, as his secretary of Housing and Urban Development, a Cabinet-level position.

President Trump worked with Congress to pass the most significant tax reform since 1986, legislation that will leave trillions of dollars in the hands of corporations and other taxpayers. The same law opened portions of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, an area estimated to hold up to 11.8 billion barrels of oil, to responsible drilling. Business responded swiftly to the tax relief plan; notably, Apple announced its intention to invest $350 billion, including approximately $200 billion repatriated from abroad, in the U.S. economy over five years. Other companies have awarded bonuses to their employees.

President Trump promised to put “American workers first.” His Secretary of Labor, Alexander Acosta, has undertaken far-reaching reforms, lifting onerous regulations to give employers new opportunities for flexible hiring and for greater profitability. They responded by creating 1.7 million new jobs. Over half a million women have entered the work force since he took office. Unemployment rates among African-Americans and among Hispanics fell to their lowest levels since the government began tracking those statistics in 1973. Overall unemployment fell to 4.1%, the lowest in 17 years. Average hourly earnings rose by 65 cents during 2017.

Shortly before taking office, President-elect Trump met with Masayoshi Son, CEO of Japan's SoftBank. The company agreed to invest $50 billion in the United States, creating 50,000 jobs.

On the day of President Trump's inauguration, the Dow stood at 19,827.30. On Friday, it closed at 26,071.72—an increase of 31.5%.

In November, consumer confidence in the economy reached a 17-year high.

President Trump's campaign advisors predicted his pro-growth policies would bring annual growth of 3.5 percent in the gross domestic product (GDP)—a rate of growth not seen since the year 2000. In fact, GDP increased at an estimated, seasonally adjusted, annualized rate of 3.2 percent in the third quarter of 2017.

President Trump promised “to lift the restrictions on American energy, and allow this wealth to pour into our communities.” His Interior Secretary, Ryan Zinke, ended an Obama-era moratorium on leasing federal land for coal mining. The mining industry responded swiftly, with a $22,850,000 bid by Canyon Fuel Company for a lease on the Greens Hollow tract in central Utah, which is estimated to contain over 55 million tons of recoverable, high-energy-producing coal.

Also in support of the President's goal of energy independence, Secretary Zinke announced a plan to open 98% of U.S. waters to offshore oil and gas drilling, while recognizing the unique attributes of the Florida coastline.

President Trump withdrew the United States from the controversial Transpacific Partnership, or TPP.

With the advice and consent of the Senate, President Trump appointed Neil Gorsuch as a justice of the Supreme Court, to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia. In his tenure on the Court, Justice Gorsuch has proven stalwart in upholding traditional values.

The President reinstated the prohibition on funding for overseas family planning groups that assist or counsel women seeking abortions.

The U.S. military, in cooperation with Iraq, Russia, Turkey and other militaries, drove ISIS from its strongholds in Syria and Iraq, including Mosul, which had been under ISIS control since 2014.

U.S. Navy warships delivered a stern rebuke to the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad, when it launched 59 missiles at the Shayrat airfield in response to that government's use of poison gas in an attack that killed more than 70 people, many of whom were children.

President Trump traveled to Saudi Arabia, where he signed a nearly $110 billion arms deal to help the Middle Eastern country defend itself.

President Trump traveled to Brussels, where he addressed NATO allies, calling on them to pay their share of security costs. He also convened with Donald Tusk, President of the European Council; Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission; and President Emmanuel Macron of France.

President Trump traveled to visit President Enrique Peña Nieto of Mexico, one of America's closest neighbors.

President Trump negotiated with President Xi Jinping of China to secure the release of three UCLA basketball players, one of whom is the brother of Los Angeles Lakers guard Lonzo Ball, who had been convicted of shoplifting in Hangzhou, China.

President Trump authorized the placement of a sophisticated THAAD missile defense system in South Korea, and called upon South Korea to pay for it. He engaged in a vigorous dialog with the North Korean government. As a result, Chairman Kim Jong-un declared that his country is “open for dialogue with South Korea” and will participate in the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. Athletes from North and South Korea will march together under one flag and will compete on a unified women's ice hockey team.

President Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel—a key campaign pledge—and directed the State Department to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv. Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales followed suit; the two countries were the first to commit to moving their embassies to Jerusalem. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the announcements. Honduras, Panama and Paraguay are also expected to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

From The Guardian:

Intriguingly, the Ancient Greeks had a word for what’s missing: isegoria, which they thought must accompany freedom of speech, and which means equality of speech – people need to hear their own voices reflected in political discourse.

Well, we have Farcebook and Witter.

Wow, this Christmas season was crazy. They always are for me, but this one was particularly stressful.

My parents are divorced, so any event (Christmas, birthdays, Easter, etc) has to be done twice. Typically, for Christmas, that means having Christmas Eve at my Mom's, then Christmas day at my Dad's. This year my brother couldn't make it into town until boxing day so everything was delayed a couple days. It becomes a challenge to choose days that work for everyone and that causes me stress. Anyways, we got things mostly sorted out.

One of the days I headed over to my Dad's for our Christmas dinner, mashed potatoes in hand. Just as we are arriving, my dad is leaving. He tells us that he just got a call from 'The Home' and that they said that Gramps was on his last legs. It was time for the family to say our final goodbyes. We all head down to The Home and say goodbye. He was in a coma or something. Not conscious, but seemed to be quite peaceful. I said my goodbye, conscious of the rest of the family watching me.

I'm not really good with death. The rest of my family was pretty upset (Gramps was the patriarch of the family), but I never really feel anything. It's kind of uncomfortable because I feel like I should feel sad or something, but I felt nothing. Gramps was an old man. He was almost 100 years old and lived a good life. So, I'm there with the rest of my family who are crying and hugging and all that, feeling like I should be feeling something.

Gramps died the next day. That turned an already stressful time into an extra stressful time for me. Now, in addition to multiple Christmas dinners, I had a family pub night, prayer ceremony, funeral, reception, burial, and family skating party. Oh, and also my daughter's first birthday. Being that busy really stresses me out, as do changes to plans.

The day after Gramps dies, my wife and daughter got a stomach bug and were puking. The first night, my daughter puked in the bed 5 times. I was mentally exhausted, and now physically exhausted too. My poor wife felt horrid, so I did what I could. Mostly changing sheets and getting drinks. Just as they start feeling better, it was my turn to get the bug. It's been a while since I have puked and I had forgotten how unpleasant it was.

We had planned to have a party for my daughter's first birthday. The poor girl was sick on the day we had planned, so we rescheduled it. The day we rescheduled it to was the day I was sick, so we just ended up cancelling her birthday. (We did get her a cupcake from Crave and put a sparker in it for a mini family ceremony).

After that we did the funeral circuit, then back to work. My wife is also back at work part time now. We have each Grandma take our little girl for one day per week and I have her alone on Sundays. So far it's been going pretty well.

We've also made a change to the sleeping arrangement. My daughter has been waking up like 5 times per night to nurse. As mentioned previously, we all sleep together in one bed. We think that a big reason why she wakes up is because my wife's boob is right there. We decided to have my wife sleep in the other bedroom for a while and I sleep in the bed alone with my daughter. That way someone will be there to comfort her when she wakes, but there is no boob for her to actually feed on. Eventually, she will realize there is no reason to wake up, and we'll all have a wonderful sleep. That's the plan anyways.

I've done 3 nights alone so far. The first 2 went really well. She would wake up as normal (about 5 times), but I could just rub her back or squeeze her foot and she would go back to sleep in a couple minutes. Last night also went pretty well, but around 6:00am she wouldn't stop crying and my wife came in from the other room to take over and nurse.

I'm feeling a little tired from the night duty, but it's not too bad. It seems like a pretty good plan to me, so I hope it works out for us. Between the night duty and daddy-daughter Sundays, I can definitely feel a stronger bond between my daughter and I. It feels really good.

On the dating front, I mentioned in my last entry that I had placed that on hold for a bit. It is still on hold. I just don't have the energy for it right now. I don't think I have the time for it either, although maybe I could make things work. I need to get used to our new schedule now that my wife is back at work and reassess. My wife and I are both pretty tired from the day-to-day and because of that, our sex life is not that great. It's not quite dead bedroom levels, but it would be within spitting distance. It's not my wife's fault. I'm tired too. Most nights I just don't have the energy and I would prefer to spend an hour just sitting on the couch.

Because of the missing intimacy, I really want to start dating again. I would love to have someone that I can spend a few hours with here and there and just be an adult. No baby talk. No baby monitor. No toys strewn all over the floor. I crave the excitement that comes with someone new. That being said, I think I need to improve things between my wife and I first. She's still my best friend, and we are very much in love but since the birth of the baby, the romance part of the relationship has taken a big hit. It feels like my daughter takes everything out of me and at the end of the day, there is nothing left for my wife. I think my wife feels the same. We are just tired. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to keep the romance in a relationship with a baby?

All in all, the Snow family is doing pretty good. I'm really happy that Christmas is over and we are back on a normal schedule. My daughter is growing up and I'm finally feeling a strong connection with her, and aside from the sex/romance life, my wife and I are great.

-- Snow

Bella Emberg, aka Blunder Woman (Cooperman's faithful sidekick), has died at the age of 80.

NASA, Partners Discuss Power for Future Space Exploration

NASA and its partners will host a news conference at noon EST (9 a.m. PST) Thursday, Jan. 18, at the National Atomic Testing Museum in Las Vegas, to discuss a recent experiment involving a new power source that could provide the safe, efficient and plentiful energy needed for future robotic and human space exploration missions.

Audio of the news conference and presentation slides will stream live on NASA’s website.

Representatives from NASA, the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA’s) Los Alamos National Laboratory and Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) will discuss and take questions on the Kilopower project, which aims to demonstrate space fission power systems technology that has the potential to enable future crewed surface missions to the Moon, Mars and beyond. Testing began in November 2017 and is expected to continue through March.

Previously: NASA's Kilopower Project Testing a Nuclear Stirling Engine

In rural China, calling someone a 'witch' has serious social consequences

Population structured by witchcraft beliefs (DOI: 10.1038/s41562-017-0271-6) (DX)

Anthropologists have long argued that fear of victimization through witchcraft accusations promotes cooperation in small-scale societies. Others have argued that witchcraft beliefs undermine trust and therefore reduce social cohesion. However, there are very few, if any, quantified empirical examples demonstrating how witchcraft labels can structure cooperation in real human communities. Here we show a case from a farming community in China where people labelled zhu were thought capable of supernatural activity, particularly poisoning food. The label was usually applied to adult women heads of household and often inherited down the female line. We found that those in zhu households were less likely to give or receive gifts or farm help to or from non-zhu households; nor did they have sexual partnerships or children with those in non-zhu households. However, those in zhu households did preferentially help and reproduce with each other. Although the tag is common knowledge to other villagers and used in cooperative and reproductive partner choice, we found no evidence that this assortment was based on cooperativeness or quality. We favour the explanation that stigmatization originally arose as a mechanism to harm female competitors. Once established, fear that the trait is transmissible may help explain the persistence of this deep-rooted cultural belief.

How 'wi-fi' connects human brains and explains why people have 'gut feelings'

vs.

What Is A Coffee Enema? Goop Is Facing Backlash For Linking To This Potentially Dangerous Cleanse

Fire at home of Moore accuser being investigated for arson

Roy Moore accuser's Gadsden home burns; arson investigation underway

Tina Johnson.

Donald Trump Didn’t Want to Be President (long excerpt)

Trump Bannon row: 11 explosive claims from new book

Trump Bannon row: Lawyers seek to halt book's release

Read the excerpt at New York Magazine. It seems entirely believable.