Sunday Favorites

Hear this, you who trample upon the needy
and destroy the poor of the land!
“When will the new moon be over,” you ask,
“that we may sell our grain,
and the sabbath, that we may display the wheat?
We will diminish the ephah,
add to the shekel,
and fix our scales for cheating!
We will buy the lowly for silver,
and the poor for a pair of sandals;
even the refuse of the wheat we will sell!”
The LORD has sworn by the pride of Jacob:
Never will I forget a thing they have done!

Amos 8:4-7

Sunday Favorites inspired by Slacktavist

What instrument do you play?

What instrument do you think they play?  Take a guess...

When the murder victims oppose the death penalty

Two wonderful people, two nuns who served the community selflessly, were murdered near Jackson, Mississippi last week.  Follow the link to see how they served the rural poor as nurses at a clinic and in their neighborhood.

The prosecutor is debating whether to suggest the death penalty for Rodney Sanders, who has been charged with the crime.  But it says in the article ...

"Relatives and colleagues of Sisters Margaret Held and Paula Merrill have publicly expressed their opposition to execution."

It is also likely that the sisters opposed the death penalty themselves.  So I think that the answer is simple, no death penalty.  Don't read the comments in online newspapers  (why do I do that?) because it is a long list of people who don't get it saying that he should be executed.  If I am ever murdered I am going on record right now to say I do not want the prosecutor to seek the death penalty.

At the end of the article is the list of incarcerations for Rodney Earl Sanders, the murderer.

This guy has been in and out of prison since 1986.  I myself am always conflicted between punishment and rehabilitation.  If you think the person is going to leave prison some day how do you make it so they don't return?  By helping them with the problem that cause them to go to prison or by making prison so horrible so they never want to go back there again?

In his case repeated incarceration didn't stop the subsequent crimes.  Here is the list in chronological order since it is a bit jumbled in the article.

• 1986 in Mississippi, served 6 years for armed robbery (1986 to 1993?)
• 1996 in Iowa, April to October for 3rd offense drunk driving
• 1999-2002 in Iowa, theft
• 2004-2011 in Iowa, 2nd degree robbery
• 2015 currently on probation after prison term for felony drunk driving conviction (doesn't say how long in prison)

and now

• 2016 the current 2 counts for capital murder.

What is wrong with this person?  Why didn't he or we fix the alcoholism, fix the stealing, fix the violence before he murders two people.  Fix the circumstances that produced him.

I know we want to hold people accountable for their actions, but at some point you have to ask "Given this pattern of behavior, what can we do to protect the public and help this person who has demonstrated they do not have control of themselves to live in society?"

Honest Hypocrite as Stranger Things

I hear good things about Stranger Things, but would need a Netflix subscription to confirm.

Who has voted so far and who the candidates have to woo to win.

Howard liked this infographic from the Times, but wished it was all together.  Some simple MSPaint work produced this:

From the article

• 103 million of them are children, noncitizens or ineligible felons, and they do not have the right to vote.
• 88 million eligible adults do not vote at all, even in general elections.
• An additional 73 million did not vote in the primaries this year, but will most likely vote in the general election.
• The remaining 60 million people voted in the primaries: about 30 million each for Republicans and Democrats.

The candidates have to woo those who voted, even from other candidates, those who didn't but might, and maybe energize those that have never voted.

(Note:  How can you not vote!?)

Pokemon GO Panic in Rocky Mount, NC

Rocky Mount, NC officials want all of the regions Pokemon Go stops and Gyms removed from the app.  Seems a little overkill and killjoy to me.  Don't you want people walking around your town? Did you ask the Pokemon player who you represent?  By their own admission there seems to be no incidents provoking this step

"We have not had any accidents regarding Pokemon Go, but we wanted to take steps to make sure not[sic] accident do take place," said Tameka Kena-Norman, City of Rocky Mount public affairs manager. 

I think overreaction is the next reaction.

Pokemon GO useful links

I need not explain the allure and power of the new Pokemon GO game to you all, if you aren't already playing, just google the new stories surrounding it.

My family and I are enjoying playing it.  It gets people out and walking to play the game and it is face to face social, since those wanderers you encounter are playing as well and you can help each other play by pointing out the Pokestops and Gyms and telling where you found your pokemon and finding out where they found theirs.

I am compiling some useful links in this post for my reference and yours.

Firstly, are the servers working:

Down Detector for Pokemon Go in the US.

Is Pokemon Go up or not, for the different regions.

More to come here later.

Need a Chemical Engineering degree to get this joke

The author of the SMBC (Saturday Morning Breakfast Club) tweeted the other day that he needed to know "For a joke: Anyone know how much pressure needed to prevent water from boiling at 700 degrees F?".  There was much discussion, I suggested steam tables, I helped others with their suggestions.

The comic finally came out.

You might need this pressure-temperature phase diagram for water to interpret.

How does one think of this stuff?  I mean combining the expression with the science to build a joke.

"Darth Vader" lightsaber tongs

Come on, Disney.  Your Darth Vader lightsaber tongs, which I did not get, have picture of Kylo Ren on them.

Perhaps Kylo Ren is the face (mask?) of the franchise now.

Picture of the Elusive Blue Heron on Shellpot Creek

Finally captured in focus pictures of the blue heron that sometimes flies up the creek to us.  This bird is so sensitive that any movement inside the house causes it to fly off.  The white herons are much less easily scared off.   Other sightings were just as difficult.

The blue heron was still hiding behind a rock but you can see hits head and upper coloring pretty well.  This bird is likely a Great Blue Heron.  The white herons that we see from time to time are likely actually Great Egrets.