https://twitter.com/jackjonesbabe/status/990693703407763458?s=20

“I hope that life without a chaperone is all you thought it’d be.”

Wow, wotta lyric.

I’m listening to “Damage” by Kosheen on Pandora.
https://www.pandora.com/kosheen/damage/damage/TR99fKp6cJlf3Jc?shareImp=true&isGooglePlay=1&sp=1&isBrowse=true

Been a while since I listened to this feed. Still like this song. Don’t care if it’s 20 years old.

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/04/30/trump-doctor-health-technology-508297

«Dr. Bruce Moskowitz, an internist and friend of Trump confidant Ike Perlmutter, who advises the president informally on vet issues, objected to the $16 billion Department of Veterans Affairs project because he doesn’t like the Cerner Corp. software he uses at two Florida hospitals, according to four former and current senior VA officials. Cerner technology is a cornerstone of the VA project.

….

“Shulkin would say, “Who the hell is this person who practices medicine in Florida and has never run a health care system?” said the source. He said Moskowitz’s involvement was one of the irritants in Shulkin’s dealings with other White House-appointed officials, which contributed to his being fired March 28.

The behind-the-scenes talks, where Moskowitz questioned various aspects of the program, illustrate the degree to which members of Trump’s circle have been able to influence government decisions, even about extraordinarily specialized subjects.

That involvement has stupified policymakers, especially since members of Trump’s family had pushed the opposite agenda: Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, was instrumental in Shulkin’s June 2017 decision to choose the Cerner Corp. system with a no-bid contract.

….

While Moskowitz’s complaints about the software he’s used in Florida are not unusual, IT specialists at the VA felt that he was out of his league in evaluating the Cerner deal. After listening to his complaints, a team of investigators from VA’s Office of Information and Technology looked into the Cerner system that Moskowitz uses at two Tenet Corp. hospitals in Florida and found that it was out of date, two sources said.

Yet Moskowitz assumed that if his hospitals lacked a feature, it meant that Cerner could not produce it for the VA, they said.

‘”He’d be, like, ‘It doesn’t’ have voice-recognition software.’ Yes, Cerner does have voice-recognition software. But it isn’t installed in all Cerner hospitals.”

“This was part of the rub between Shulkin and the Trump people,” the first source said. “This guy’s whispering in Trump’s ear, ‘I know because I have to use it!’”»

Mayor of a small town in the heart of Trump country:

https://www.theatlantic.com/notes/2018/04/reinvention-of-america-two-views-from-the-prairie/558995/

«Ideologically motivated incompetence combined with unjustified arrogance is leading our federal government rapidly toward system-wide malfunction.

These things, if not reversed, will unavoidably worsen things for our entry-level households and make my city less livable for all.

If city Department heads [here] were of comparable quality and qualifications to those now in DC, that would turn this city into a disaster in a matter of months. It won’t happen as fast on fed level, but it will happen.»

Yeah, but we get the Northwest Passage, so it’s a net win.

https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2018/3/14/17109336/allergies-climate-change-pollen

A company puts some thought into its hiring process. Amazing!

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/04/how-slack-got-ahead-in-diversity/558806/

«In 2015, Slack worked with Textio, a company that analyzes job descriptions to ensure they appeal to the widest possible audience. (Slack’s job descriptions feature phrases like “care deeply” and “lasting relationships,” which statistically draw more applications from women. Microsoft’s, by contrast, feature words like “insatiably” and “competing.” Amazon’s keywords: “maniacal” and “wickedly.”)

….
But tracing one’s thought process with a dry-erase marker in front of a live, skeptical audience can create extra stressors for people from underrepresented groups. Interpersonal phenomena like stereotype threat, in which people from stigmatized groups spend mental energy grappling with negative stereotypes about those groups, can lead women and minorities with the same skills to perform more poorly.»

(Answer was take-home assignments.)

«When it became clear, last year, that this approach presented additional challenges for candidates who cared for children and didn’t have dedicated time for homework, the company shifted gears again. Candidates now have the option to do the assignment in the office if they prefer. “It’s a huge competitive advantage to be empathetic,” Grace told me. “Candidates know that the company is excited to accommodate them.”

….
In 2016, Slack also revamped how it interviews candidates. Bias has the potential to wreak havoc on that process: Interviewers may inadvertently favor candidates who resemble themselves, and if criteria for a job are ambiguous, interviewers may mentally rejigger those criteria to fit whatever a favored candidate has. The technical term for this is “redefining merit,” and it’s a classic manifestation of bias. (In one study, people evaluating candidates for police chiefs were asked whether education or experience were more important for the job. When the male candidate had more education, they said education was more important. When the female candidate had more education, they preferred experience.)»

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/29/us/politics/us-allies-trade-war-tariff-negotiations.html

«In terms of the potential disruption to the global economy, the dispute with Europe may be the most critical. The United States and the European Union account for about one-third of world trade.

Only a few years ago the United States and Europe were discussing the possibility of eliminating almost all trans-Atlantic trade barriers. Now they are stymied by fundamentally different worldviews. As the Europeans see it, Mr. Trump is demanding concessions that would make them accomplices in dismantling a postwar trade framework they hold sacred.»

Good movie. Longmire meets Three Billboards.

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/wind_river_2017/

What happens when you get history geeks writing content:

https://www.extremetech.com/computing/268379-troubling-news-amd-moves-7nm-gpu-production-back-to-tsmc

«GlobalFoundries is now on its fourth CEO in a decade. If we put the situation in terms of Roman Emperors, that’s far better than the Year of the Four Emperors (self-explanatory), and roughly on par with the average length of rule during the Crisis of the Third Century. (Note: From this point forth, I intend to suggest that all tech companies be compared with obscure bits of Imperial Roman history). Then again, it was called the “Crisis” of the Third Century, as opposed to “That 51 Year Period in the Third Century When Everything Was Awesome.”»