A really big bang

Fabricio Alvarado became a leading candidate for president in Costa Rica when he came out strongly against same-sex marriage. This was just after the Inter-American Court for Human Rights called for all countries in the Americas to support our love.

Fabricio’s opponent was Carlos Alvarado (no relation) who campaigned for same-sex marriage.

And Carlos won, 61% to 39%.



Another example of data manipulation. The Sunday Times of London reported that “London overtook New York in murders for the first time in modern history.” In a Twitter thread Patrick Greenfield has a takedown – and graph. The headline implies that the murder rate in London has risen to dangerous levels (New York is so dangerous!!!). But since 1990 the London murder rate has been rather flat, though there has been a slight rise since 2014. This reporting obscures what really happened. In the 1990s the New York murder count dropped from about 2250 in a year to 600 and has steadily fallen since then to about 300. So there is no reason for Londoners to go into a tizzy over living in a dangerous place. The article appears to be an attempt to smear London’s mayor who is Muslim.



There was a computer failure at Eurocontrol, which does air traffic control for Europe. About half of all flights were delayed. Some wonder if the glitch had a little help in happening – was it a hack?

There are Russian subs lurking around trans-ocean fiber-optic cables. Are they planning to cut them or intercept the messages flowing through them? Russians appear to have been mapping our telecommunication infrastructure, perhaps to disrupt it. And they supposedly have a cyberweapon to crash our electrical grid. As for those 60 Russian diplomats the nasty guy expelled – Russia is allowed to replace them. All this prompts Melissa McEwan of Shakesville to write:

We are in real trouble, my friends. As far as I can tell, it looks like we are fucked if Donald Trump continues to do Putin's bidding, for obvious reasons, and we are fucked if he doesn't, because Putin is prepared to pull the trigger on our infrastructure. Which he may do anyway, once Trump outlives his usefulness.

Immigration judges are not a part of the judicial branch of government, but of the Department of Justice. So their boss is Attorney General Jeff Sessions. These judges face a huge backlog of cases so the AG is trying to speed up deportation cases. He is doing so by creating a quota system, in amongst several other tactics to speed up cases. These quotas will affect a judge’s performance review.



Outrider has created an interactive map to show the size of the devastation after a nuke is dropped on your city. Of course, I checked it out for Detroit. I could choose city, the size of the bomb (4 choices), and whether the bomb is detonated on ground or in the air. The map then shows the size of the fireball, the shockwave, the radioactive zone, and the heat blast. Click on the various zones and it describes the kind of destruction, such as a body is vaporized in the fireball and gets 3rd degree burns in the heat blast.

It’s not much help that the blast from the smaller bombs don’t reach to Dearborn, a suburb between me and Detroit. The death toll for the size bomb that North Korea is reported to have is likely above 80,000. And then there is the big bomb, the largest detonated by the USSR. It’s effects reach almost to Ann Arbor with over a million dead.

Motherboard mentions a couple other maps, the Nukemap and Ground Zero.

Guam! Mexico! Costa Rica!

Guam is a US territory that falls under the 9th Circuit Court. So after the 9th Circuit ruled in favor of same-sex marriage and the Supremes allowed the ruling to stand, a lesbian couple filed suit to overturn Guam's ban. Though Guam is conservative the Attorney General refused to defend the ban. The Republican governor said he would not allow marriage licenses for same-sex couples without legislative action or court order. It seems, though, he went to the local Federal Court saying please rule in favor of this couple. The judge did. Applications for marriage licenses will be accepted starting Tuesday.



Mexico has a rather confusing legal system. If there are five successful suits over an issue in a state than the issue becomes law. Suits are no longer necessary. That has now happened for same-sex marriage in five Mexican states. It also seems the rule of five applies at the national level – once five states grant the ruling then it applies nationally. However, that appears to mean the first five couples in any state still must sue to get married, though now we know what the result of those cases must be. After those five then legal challenges are no longer necessary.



In Costa Rica a couple that has been together for five years and is approved by a judge is granted the rights of marriage. A judge has now done that for a gay couple.

Why do we hate our kids?

A correction to yesterday's note about Costa Rica. The accidental legislation wasn't about gay marriage, but gay civil unions. Which, according to many of the voices I've heard, is bad enough. One step at a time.



And some places in Latin America aren't as nice to gays as Costa Rica (never mind Argentina). A bill in Peru's Congress would have provided penalties for those convicted of assault of gay people. It was voted down.



Massachusetts is starting work on a public accommodations bill for transgender people. This allows me a chance to review what public accommodation includes. I've normally thought of it as access to hotels, restaurants, and stores without discrimination. But it also includes health care facilities, lodging (including campsites), places serving food, all forms of retail, places of public gathering (such as convention centers), places of public display (such as museums), places of recreation (such as zoos), public ways (such as streets), service establishments (such as funeral parlors), transport facilities (such as trains and train stations), professional services (doctors), places of government (polling places). Quite a list!



The ball-and-chain we attach to our graduating seniors (in the form of debt) makes some people wonder why we hate our kids. Alas, I don't remember who said that.

It appears Oregon is going to do something about that. The state legislature has approved a pilot project for a plan to allow students to attend public universities without tuition or loans. In exchange, students would pay the gov't 3% of their paychecks over the next 25 years. That's significantly less than what current graduates are paying. The money would go into a fund to pay the way for future students. Why should banks make a profit from education?

One small detail to be worked out. Startup costs will be about $9 billion to pay for students until the first ones start earning a paycheck.

Costa Rica?

Did Costa Rica enact marriage equality and do it by accident? I don't understand Spanish, so I can't read the original text of the bill. That bill has both several things about services for youth and a few things about marriage. Along the way it clarifies the rights and benefits of civil unions, free from discrimination.

It was after lawmakers passed the bill that someone noticed what that "free from discrimination" phrase might mean. Since the country is very much against gay marriage lawmakers asked the president to veto the bill. She said she will sign it, probably because of all the other stuff in it, and she'll let the courts sort it out. And even though she is very much for traditional marriage, she'll abide by whatever the courts say.