The Ravens already blew the week, so I can look at today’s games with objectivity, as a fan of football rather than a fan of the Ravens. In Jewish tradition, an adult male starts the day with a prayer thanking Yahweh that he’s not a chick. Today, I started the day thanking Yahweh that I’m not a Cowboys fan, unlike certain Irish midgets whose handles I will not mention beyond “it rhymes with ‘cruddy dishes.'” And if he’s up early and looking in, I can only say, “You know who ELSE was a Cowboys fan?”

Some auspicious birthdays. Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, of course, but even more importantly, Korla Pandit.

This is a horrifying story, and inevitable given that our government puts armed agents out in the wild without a lot of scrutiny. I’m sure this guy passed his polygraph tests as part of CPB’s rigorous screening, right?

Ortiz is a 10-year veteran of the border patrol and had been working as a supervisor with the U.S. Border Patrol in the town located roughly 150 miles south of San Antonio on Texas-Mexico border, according to local media reports.

Authorities said they plan to file four murder charges and one charge of aggravated kidnapping against Ortiz.

Ortiz was arrested around 2 a.m. Saturday morning after a woman he allegedly tried to abduct fled and gave police a detailed description of Ortiz, including his tattoos, Alaniz said.

But at least he kept our country safe from drugs.

Did you know that Silicon Valley has a diversity crisis? A CRISIS! I had no idea. But thank the various gods, there’s people who recognize this and know the solution: a formal program of discrimination.

Silicon Valley wants to believe that we live in a meritocracy, but we need to accept that we live in a sexist, racist and anti-LGBTQ world, and that investing in pipeline programs and unconscious bias training alone is not going to close the hiring gap.

So we took a simple step and implemented quotas: 50% of our speakers had to be women of color. Later, we mandated that 10% of our speakers be non-binary and trans and 20% of our speakers be black and latinx. We’re not done: we plan to do the same for veterans, mothers, and people living with a disability.

Implementing quotas not only changed the way we operated—we created tracking systems to make sure we were on target to meet our quotas, because what gets measured is much more likely to get done—but it changed our community. It meant thinking about representation during every hiring process, planning meeting, or public event. It meant having some difficult conversations with friends, colleagues, and even with myself. It meant saying no to very successful and established white women. But change and evolution is often uncomfortable, and discomfort and friction are the keys to growth.

By “discomfort and friction,” I guarantee you she doesn’t mean hers. And I’m sure people of color like Asians are underrepresented in tech, right?

The mystery of how the Baltimore Orioles got so bad so quickly is suddenly evident.

The Baltimore Orioles will make history Tuesday when they become the first American professional sports team to feature Braille lettering on their uniforms.

This explains the inability to hit.

National Federation of the Blind President Mark Riccobono, who will throw out the ceremonial first pitch before the game, expressed his appreciation for the Orioles’ initiative.

This explains why they can’t pitch.

Man, those scientists are just not giving up.

The Associated Press consulted with 17 meteorologists and scientists who study climate change, hurricanes or both. A few experts remain cautious about attributing global warming to a single event, but most of the scientists clearly see the hand of humans in Florence.

For years, when asked about climate change and specific weather events, scientists would refrain from drawing clear connections. But over the past few years, the new field of attribution studies has allowed researchers to use statistics and computer models to try to calculate how events would be different in a world without human-caused climate change.

“Attribution studies.” That’s a new one for me. Apparently a synonym for, “ignore the actual data and pimp for funding and more government.”

There was some discussion last night about First World Problems. And here’s a perfect example, massive outrage over… a fucking pattern on a sweater.

“Michael Kors copied a Mexican sweater design and I’m pissed. It’s not fair that he is stealing ideas from people that make their own pieces to make a living, for him to come and not even credit or pay Mexican artisans for taking their ideas.”

I may protest by making a breakfast burrito.

Here’s a great story from the NY Times. I hope you’re sitting down, because this is shocking: if you make fundamentally bad life decisions, things don’t go well for you.

Vanessa Solivan and her three children fled their last place in June 2015, after a young man was shot and killed around the corner. They found a floor to sleep on in Vanessa’s parents’ home on North Clinton Avenue in East Trenton. It wasn’t a safer neighborhood, but it was a known one. Vanessa took only what she could cram into her station wagon, a 2004 Chrysler Pacifica, letting the bed bugs have the rest.At her childhood home, Vanessa began caring for her ailing father. He had been a functional crack addict for most of her life, working as a landscaper in the warmer months and collecting unemployment when business slowed down. “It was something you got used to seeing,” Vanessa said about her father’s drug habit. “My dad was a junkie, but he never left us.”

In May, Vanessa finally secured a spot in public housing. But for almost three years, she had belonged to the “working homeless,” a now-necessary phrase in today’s low-wage/high-rent society. She is a home health aide, the same job her mother had until her knees and back gave out. Her work uniform is Betty Boop scrubs, sneakers and an ID badge that hangs on a red Bayada Home Healthcare lanyard. Vanessa works steady hours and likes her job, even the tougher bits like bathing the infirm or hoisting someone out of bed with a Hoyer lift. “I get to help people,” she said, “and be around older people and learn a lot of stuff from them.” Her rate fluctuates: She gets $10 an hour for one client, $14 for another. It doesn’t have to do with the nature of the work — “Sometimes the hardest ones can be the cheapest ones,” Vanessa said — but with reimbursement rates, which differ according to the client’s health care coverage. After juggling the kids and managing her diabetes, Vanessa is able to work 20 to 30 hours a week, which earns her around $1,200 a month. And that’s when things go well.

So, no skills, no education, no spouse, three kids, and we need to be shocked that this has consequences. The comments, of course, run heavily toward the notion that bad decisions should not cause any problems for people.

I’m Black, a woman, 28, disabled and I work- everything I want to say about how miserable it is to live in this country cannot FIT into this comments section. The constant racism, isolation and looks of pity from other people, the bend-over-backwards work I do with a compromised body for 10 bucks an hour that will never get me off SSI- on and on. All I can say is TRUTH to every word of this piece. BTW: for those shaming Vanessa (“why did she have the audacity to have 3 children when she knows she’s poor and undereducated, why did she drop out of high school”)- human nature cannot be policed, no matter how much America excels at shaming. So what she had three kids, the rich often have twice that number and no one says boo. I have no children, I’ve only got my own mouth to feed and even I cannot make it! Trump voters need to learn to punch up and not down: corporations are the enemy, not the poor and brown skinned.

Of course. It’s racism, greed, and Trump. There’s no agency.

Fuck it, let’s spin some Old Guy Music. And although I was going to answer the other question from last night (“Desert Island, which music do you have with you, the Beatles, the Stones, or the Kinks?”) with, “None of the above, the Byrds,” and put up some classic Clarence White, I fell into an alternate YouTube hole. And damn, Annie Ross really was the best.