IT HELPS IF YOU HAVE THE REFEREES ON YOUR SIDE: Elections are a game — and Clinton plays it better.

ONE PSYCHIATRIST? ONE? BEFORE DOING SOMETHING LIKE THIS ONE SHOULD REQUIRE A PANEL OF A DOZEN PSYCHIATRISTS OR MORE: Children’s minds are plastic.  They are influenced by their parents, their peers, the media.  We wouldn’t allow them to drink, but we want to rush them into this? Team Obama’s new low in the name of ‘trans rights’.  If the change is legitimate, it can always be done later.  BUT once done it’s irreversible.  Wouldn’t this be a case for caution in creating irrevocable modifications?

SELLING DREAMS: As ‘Star Trek’ Turns 50, a Complicated Legacy for Creator Gene Roddenberry.

OH, IS IT LEBENSUNWERTES LEBEN TIME AGAIN? Killing the Mentally Ill in Netherlands.

GEEK, YOU IZ DOING IT WRONG.  OR PERHAPS STOP CULTURALLY APPROPRIATING MY (SF/F) PEOPLE: Congress faces physicists’ ‘multiverse’ of issues including IRS, Zika upon impending return.

YOU MEAN THE LAYERS AND LAYERS OF EDITORS AND THE PROCESS OF PEER REVIEW DON’T CATCH THOSE?  THIS IS MY SHOCKED FACE. Turns out that scientific papers are full of computer-created mistakes.  Take for instance:

You see, genes are often referred to in scientific literature by symbols — essentially shortened versions of full gene names. The gene “Septin 2” is typically shortened as SEPT2. “Membrane-Associated Ring Finger (C3HC4) 1, E3 Ubiquitin Protein Ligase” gets mercifully shortened to MARCH1.

But when you type these shortened gene names into Excel, the program automatically assumes they refer to dates — Sept. 2 and March 1, respectively. If you type SEPT2 into a default Excel cell, it magically becomes “2-Sep.” It’s stored by the program as the date 9/2/2016.

Even worse, there’s no easy way to undo this automatic formatting once it has happened.

Read The Whole Thing: An alarming number of scientific papers contain Excel errors.

GEE, WHAT COULD THEY BE THINKING? Amazon is piloting teams with a 30-hour workweek.  Oh, wait, the key is that more “diverse” thing.  Of course.  Making jobs for married women.

NPR JOURNOLIST SUFFERS KINSLEY-GAFFE SYNDROME, ACCURATELY DESCRIBES THE CLINTON FOUNDATION: Clinton Global Initiative Moderator Describes Group’s Events As ‘Creepy,’ ‘Disgusting,’ ‘Gross.’

IF YOU ARE A SCIENCE FICTION FAN, CONSIDER REGISTERING TO VOTE IN THE DRAGON AWARDS: It’s free and you have till Sunday to register.  Register here.

MY FRIEND STEPHANIE OSBORN WON THE SILVER FALCHION AWARD: This is the book she did it with.  And today she has a post at my blog, too, about space weather which is one of her specialties.

IT IS NEEDED: Teaching American Government.

THE ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION AGENCY: EPA spills again in Colorado.

HOW WE’VE COME SO FAR, SO FAST: The Mote in Gernsback’s Eye.

OF COURSE IT DOES: Clinton campaign finds legal loophole to collect big donations.

MORE OF HAVING ILL-FITTING BRAS:Men at bra company forced to feel the pain of having boobs.

FUNDAMENTALLY TRANSFORMING AMERICA: Howard Johnson’s restaurant to close in Maine, leaving only 1 more.

I DON’T THINK THERE IS ENOUGH HAY TO HIDE THAT ELEPHANT: Covering up the $1.3 billion payoff to Iran.

OF COURSE SHE DOES: Hillary’s worst scandal is that she really thinks she’s clean.

WILL YOU READ THE TERMS WHEN IT’S FOR IMPLANTED BRAIN AUGMENTATION DEVICES? Like Most People, You Would Sell Your Firstborn for an App.

NEW SCIENCE FICTION AWARD, VOTING IS FREE: You may register to receive a ballot by Sunday the 28th.  If you’re a fan, give the Dragon a try.

OF COURSE IT IS: The Obama administration is withholding from Congress details about how $1.3 billion in U.S. taxpayer funds was delivered to Iran.

DRIP DRIP DRIP: A terrorist attack in Roanoke.

REALLY? ASTONISHING: Pregnancy Can Be Hard—and Other Shocking Life Lessons.

PAPER BALLOTS, AN IDEA WHOSE TIME HAS COME:  And none of that vote by mail machinery of fraud, either. Princeton professor easily hacks voting machine in seven minutes flat.

OH, HI GREENS, RADICAL ECOLOGISTS AND ALL THOSE WHO THINK HUMANS SHOULD JUST DIE.  HERE IS YOUR MIRROR:

“It was a quirk of Nazi philosophy, so inhumane to humans, that animals were treated with the utmost care and kindness,” writes Letts. “In a cruel and ironic twist of fate, the German invaders, whose express aim was to relocate, enslave, massacre and eventually annihilate Poland’s human inhabitants, prized the well-bred Polish horses.”

Read the whole thing. Why US troops risked their lives in WWII to rescue horses kidnapped by Nazis