Midweek filler -- some of it biting and some way-cool!

For this mid-week posting, let's offer up a series of interesting snippets and links... many of them thought provoking but across a wide variety of topics.

First... some terrific journalism and a real life adventure story! Read this riveting tale of goodguy “pirates” against genuine evil-villain pirates, as eco-vigilantes tail and pursue the most notorious, Interpol-listed rogue fish-poaching ship. “Industrial-scale violators of fishing bans and protected areas are a main reason more than half of the world’s major fishing grounds have been depleted and by some estimates over 90 percent of the ocean’s large fish like marlin, tuna and swordfish have vanished.” Vividly illustrated, this cat and mouse saga has a dramatic conclusion… and a lesson that we need better law at sea.

A major shift in religious tendencies: "The United States is a significantly less Christian country than it was seven years ago. That's the top finding — one that will ricochet through American faith, culture and politics — in the Pew Research Center's newest report: America's Changing Religious Landscape," reports USA Today.  "Atheists and agnostics have nearly doubled their share of the religious marketplace, and overall indifference to religion of any sort is rising as well. Only the historically black Protestant churches have held a steady grip through the years of change." 

Speaking of which, did any of you see the advert for the Freedom From Religion Foundation, - narrated by Ron Reagan - during the last week of the Daily Show? Wow. I am not actually an atheist!  But the message here is not "hate God."  The message is leave each other alone and keep government out of it.

Except -- as I describe elsewhere -- when politicians wear religion on their sleeve and openly declare that specific doctrines will control their use of policy and governmental tools. Including nuclear weapons. At which point, take them at their word. Especially watch out for politicians who avow to praying for the end of the world. 

== smarter people ==

This will be the first year that I miss the annual FiRe (Future in Review) conference — one of the best tech-futurist meetings on the planet. Held this year at a ski resort in Utah in October. Do look into attending, if you are a tech industry CTO or other C level person. Opening night talk will be by Dirk Ahlborn, CEO of Hyperloop Transport Technologies. Dirk, who earlier worked at SpaceX, has taken this idea and moved it into the world of not just crowd-funding, but crowd-design, with a crew of 200 engineers working collaboratively for stock, uniting their skills to design and build the world's first Hyperloop.  Now, that is exciting.

Is all of this leading somewhere cool? Phil Plait has more fun with the science of Star Trek.  And mostly I agree. Though a couple of nopes might be “maybes.”  Above all, Trek encourages geeks to ask such questions. "Wars" doesn’t do that. Star Wars is vivid, visually gorgeous silly stuff -- with a patina of outright evil that I hope Disney will finally exorcise.

Kind of interesting shows!  TED talks by master illusionists.  A kewl interview with the brilliant Penn and Teller.  And yes, Teller speaks!

== A potpourri of "outcomes" ==

Take that, Blue America - we’re number one! Montgomery, Ala., has more cases of syphilis, gonorrhea and chlamydia than large U.S. cities like Baltimore, Philadelphia and New Orleans, according to a report released today from a renter’s website. Southern cities such as Memphis, St. Louis, New Orleans; Killeen, Texas; and Fayetteville, North Carolina also made the top 10 of the list. 

What… ALL of the top ten? And how many more? Please dig this well... I did not start this and I am only fighting back, when I point out that Red America is not, as they relentlessly claim to be, "more moral."

I’ll gladly stop talking about such things — along with rates of teen sex, teen pregnancy, divorce, domestic violence, gambling etc… when Mike Huckabee and Ted Cruz and Fox News stop yammering lies about how much “more moral” bubba-folk are than all those pencil-neck university types. You’re not. Not by even a single metric.  Not one.  So can it and let's work together like grownups.

Meanwhile, the number of uninsured Americans decreased from 36 million people in the first three months of 2014 to just 29 million people in the same period in 2015. Of the top 10 states that witnessed the sharpest declines in uninsured rates, seven of them have expanded Medicaid and launched a state-based marketplace exchange or state-federal partnership under the Affordable Care Act, while two have established one or the other. 

Oh, but Obamacare was going to destroy the American health system, remember?  Send rates through the roof? Well, insurance rates had been seeing double digit rises all through the decade before the ACA passed, so let’s see how much worse it’s gotten!

“Monthly premiums for California's 1.3 million Covered California customers will rise a modest 4 percent, on average, officials with the agency said Monday. This increase is slightly less than last year's increase of 4.2 percent for consumers who bought policies on the state's health insurance marketplace.  Some consumers could even achieve a reduction in their premium, of an average of 4.5 percent, if they choose to shop around.  "This is another year of good news for California's consumers and further evidence that the Affordable Care Act is working," said Peter Lee, Covered California's executive director.”  And -- "Throughout our negotiations, consumers in California saved more than $200 million."

Okay, here’s what’s going to happen.  The Cult will deny or refuse to look at such facts – (or those regarding Climate Change, or a myriad other wrongheaded incantations) – until the evidence is as overwhelming as a tsunami.  At which point, Rupert Murdoch's spin machine will suddenly announce: “Of course public exchanges and individual mandates work! It was OUR PLAN all along!”

And here is the infuriating irony. When they claim credit for the success of Obamacare... they'll be right! It truly was the Republicans’ own damn health care plan, all through the 1990s and until 2008… whereupon they suddenly reversed and declared it to be satanic, because Barack Obama adopted it, and gave it coooooties.

Trust me, a time will come when they will loudly claim credit for Obamacare.  And you heard it here, first.

=== FINALLY... help me post a grand list of future-oriented sites! ===

This coming weekend I will post one of my major Resource Blogs -- a list of online sites that deal with the future.  From iO9 and the Long Now all the way to the CIA... places where you can reassure yourself that at least some members of your species have prefrontal lobes and are using those "lamps on the brow" to peer ahead.

At least a little. You are invited to suggest your own contributions to the list, under comments.