Howdy y’all!

Well, last week was the week that real life reared its ugly head and snatched me back from being a full-time blogger to being a full-time teacher. Not that being a full-time blogger actually made much of a difference in the performance of the blog or the amount I posted. Thanks, PDA! This week we started new teacher orientation. Next week, the full faculty gets oriented. The week after that, classes start. We star on distance learning, but the government says they MAY be letting students back in the classroom soon, so fingers crossed.

In related news, Ma Belle Femme gets out of quarantine next week just in time to miss orientation but begin classes. And there was much rejoicing in the masses at Ye Olde Blogge as a more regular order may descend upon us.

Finally, this Friday the 13th was Reinstatement Day as in the day that the My Pillow Guy predicted that the Former Guy would become, once again, the Current Guy. I’m sure it is a day that will live in infamy and we will all have formed a flashbulb memory and be able to talk to anyone about what they were doing on this day when they heard the news just like generations have done with Pearl Harbor, the JFK assassination, 9/11, and the 6 January Insurrection. At least, it dovetails with all of Ye Olde Blogge’s posts on conspiracy theories and cognitive dissonance and drives some search engine traffic to us! #SilverLining

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some Schadenfreude to indulge… and some classes to prepare for.

In this Week’s Reading

In the Blogs this Week

• Friday the 13th: By Hook Or By Book had a pretty impressive set of Friday the 13th memes! It must be seen to be believed. Thanks to Tengrain over at Mock, Scissors, Paper for alerting us to it.
• In PDA News: You know we love us some Pathological Demand Avoidance around Ye Olde Blogge, so I was happy to come across Riko’s PDA Journey’s post about LGBTQIAP+ PDAers discussing the intersection of gender-sexual identity issues and PDA and autism issues. Not only does she discuss the reasons there may be a correlation between autism and gender-sexual identity issues but the dearth of research into women with autism and research into PDA. Bonus: she supplies a handy-dandy glossary of terms so you can sort out what all those letters mean and have your complete menu of choices.
• File this one under haters gonna hate: A flyer asking a homeowner to remove a Black Lives Matter sign from her yard because “she hasn’t done enough to promote Black Lives Matter.” What? Trolling is complete out of control. We need new guardrails, y’all.
• As America’s Messy Adventure in Afghanistan comes to a messy end, spare a thought for the unfortunate Afghanis that we leave behind from Ken Flottman’s AFRICOMMONS blog.. I don’t know how anyone thought it would or could end in any other way than it is, but haters gonna hate.
• What can dogs teach us about travel? Apparently, quite a lot according to Usfman over on one of our favorite travel blogs, Snippets of a Traveling Mind.
• Talk about the dog chasing its tail! Over on Feathered Sleep, Candice, suggests that all the time Ye Olde Blogge spends chasing readers across the social mediaverse could be better spent writing blog posts. I get that, man. I get that. Way too much effort, for way too little gain. Food for thought. Thanks to the maddest of all the mad pingbackers, Robert, over on Of Cabbages and Kings for the link.

In Neuroscience News this Week

There’s enough happening in the world of psychology that is interesting that it makes sense to create a separate section for our favorite website for keeping up with psychology news, Neuroscience News.

• Cat naps, power naps, whatever you want to call it, it doesn’t help with sleep deprivation; although, it may help you feel better and be more alert.
• Our natural state is nervous alertness. It is only the presence of an inhibitory neurotransmitter, GABA, that keeps all from being nervous agitated anxious wrecks. But, understanding how GABA functions in the brain is extremely complex, but a new report studying genetically modified mice suggests that anxious behavior may be regulated in the hippocampus through specific GABAcergic proteins.
• Holy Microchips, Batman! Maybe that conspiracy theory about microchips in the #COVID19 vaccine was onto something after all! We’re now able to make brain-chip interfaces (BCI’s) that will sense neural firings and then communicate with assistive devices. These chips are about the size of a grain of salt; they can be implanted in your brain to record the impulses of and stimulate a few hundred neurons; and they can signal a computer that will interpret the signals and coordinate a response.

In the News this Week

• The biggest legislative accomplishment since LBJ’s signing of the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts and the biggest reshaping of the US economy since FDR’s New Deal legislation is about to happen. With the passage of the bipartisan infrastructure bill and the budget reconciliation version of the bill, Biden will have passed three major pieces of legislation — the #COVID19 bill has to be included — in his first year. Take a moment to bask… as long the usual suspects don’t muck it up, that is. To quote, Handsome Joe, This is a big fucking deal!
• The fight the Texas state Democratic legislators are waging over voting rights is nothing short of epic. About half have returned to the state but have won an injunction in a Travis County court that prevents them from being arrested or otherwise compelled to return to the state capitol so that a quorum of state legislators can be formed and the session convened. They have until 20 August when the case will be heard. They are kicking Greg Abbott’s sagging ass and poll numbers up and down the state, so take a moment to enjoy this one, too. To use that tired old phrase, again, It’s a big fucking deal.
• Man sentenced for ten years for shooting a black teenaged girl after a 6 December 2020 Trump rally. You may recall this story. It was a big fucking deal at the time. Some big old well armed and armored good old boys got into a name calling spat with a car full of black teen girls… you know, as you do when you’re adults. They surrounded the girls and were surprised when the drive tried to escape the situation… by driving. She managed to bump a pick ’em up truck in the process causing the big well armed well armored macho man to become afeared for his life. HIS LIFE! So, he shot into the car because there was no choice his life was at stake. He struck the girl in the leg. He’s got ten years to do in the state pen for his trouble. Thanks, Trump! Expect an increase in hate crimes as we go forward.

In the Pingbacks this Week

Take a moment to visit the folks who make their bread and butter off of driving traffic to other people’s blogs!

• As mentioned already, Of Cabbages and Kings pingbacks to Ye Olde Blogge pretty often and comments, too. Check out what Robert has linked to recently!
• Every Sunday, Burr Deming over at Fair and Unbalanced provides a snarky annotation of various and sundry news and blog items from around the web.
• We spend a bit of everyday over at Tengrain’s emporium of snark and sarcasm, Mock, Paper, Scissors, catching up on the “news,” which turns out to be real news. Who knew?
• We keep hoping for a link to Mike’s Blog Round Up, which I’m sure will happen any day now. It is a daily feature on Crooks and Liars. where they offer links to quality smaller blogs.
• For another fun Sunday list that suffers the same fate as Burr’s, have a visit to INFIDEL 753 ‘s weekly posting of interesting stuff from around the Internet.

Cambodia #COVID19 News

The Good News

• Eight months ahead of schedule, Cambodia will vaccinate 90% of its 10 million adults or close to 55% of its total population! Their vaccinating folks at a clip of one million per week. Cambodia has it going on.
• In the first two weeks of vaccinating children between 12 and 17, almost half a million children received their first dose.
• The Kingdom is not going broke with over $50,000.00 (US) in fines already having been paid for violations of the curfew. #SilverLining!

The Bad News

• After teasing us that they wouldn’t extend the curfew, they decided to extend the curfew and alcohol ban for two weeks. Instead of alcohol going back on sale on 12 August, we have to wait until 26 August… unless you have a friend.
• The curfew and alcohol ban are taking a toll on the population with tempers flaring and stressors stressing. People are violating the curfew by the thousands with the total number of arrests increasing daily.
• The first increase of cases in twelve days occurred on the day following the reopening of the border with Thailand and Cambodians laborers were allowed to return home.
• More Delta Variant has been found among those with new cases with an 8 year-old boy and 7 year-old girl both testing positive for the variant.

HUZZAH!
Jack

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Image Attribution

“Dog in car” by Consumerist Dot Com is licensed under CC BY 2.0