Suzie Chicken has passed away this morning.

To all of my wonderful readers.

You have seen Suzie Chicken's picture in so many of my post over the years.

This morning she was in distress, not moving, and was having a very hard time breathing.

On a Sunday morning finding a vet that is open for emergency chicken care is not easy.

On the long drive from Costa Mesa to Fullerton Suzie was struggling with each breath.

Then suddenly she squawked loudly and struggled to get out of my arms and then her head went limp and she was gone.

The vet found that her lungs were filled with mucus.

Apparently when she could no longer get air she suffocated. What a painful way to pass away.

In the bird kingdom, birds never show when they are sick or in distress because healthy birds will attack them and kill them. So it is hard to see when they need us until it is too late.

Last night she was lethargic and my wife noticed. So we figured to take her to a vet in the morning.

I awoke this morning to my wife talking on the phone to a vet at 6 AM.

Diana was distraught because her baby was not opening her eyes and had labored breathing.

In my groggy not awake yet mind I knew that this might be "it."

All of us pet lovers know that we out live our pets and that the "day" will eventually come when we will suffer their loss from our lives.

Well actually if all goes well Tommy T Jones, the parrot. will out live us and have to live with my son's family one day.

Here is my Facebook tribute as it were to Suzie for the moment:

https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=David%20Sloane

Businesses Microsoft Co-founder Pledges $30 Million To House Seattle's Homeless (cnn.com)

Homeless to migrate to Seattle?

Paul Allen, a founder of Microsoft has pledged $30 million to house Seattle's homeless.

 From a report: 

Seattle Mayor Ed Murray said Wednesday the city was partnering with Paul G. Allen's family foundation to build a facility to house homeless families with children. Allen's foundation will provide $30 million toward the development of the facility, while the city of Seattle has pledged $5 million for its maintenance and operation. It will be owned and operated by Mercy Housing Northwest, a nonprofit housing organization. Seattle is in King County, which has 1,684 families that are homeless, according to the mayor's announcement. More than 3,000 homeless children were enrolled in Seattle's public schools during the 2015-2016 year, it said.

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Now if more 1%ers were as kind we could end homelessness.

US Space Firms Tell Washington: China Will Take Over the Moon if You're Not Careful (yahoo.com)

The US space industry is prodding the US government into refreshing its outdated laws on commercial activity beyond earth: scare it with talk of Chinese galactic domination.

 A report adds: 

 At a Senate hearing on the space industry this week, companies that build rockets and space habitats and manufacture electronic goods in space spoke about a standard laundry list of complaints, from regulatory burdens to fears of subsidized competitors. But their message was wrapped in patriotic concerns about China's growing capacity for space action. These companies are eager for the US government to allow and invest in commercial activities in orbit and around the moon. Many think the laws governing action in space, and particularly the UN Space Treaty, need refreshing for an age when private companies are close to matching the space capacity of sovereign nations. The last major change was a law on asteroid mining passed in 2015.

Facebook Pledges To Crack Down on Government-led Misinformation Campaigns (theverge.com)

Facebook is pressing its enforcement against what it calls "information operations" -- bad actors who use the platform to spread fake news and false propaganda. 

From a report: 

The company, which published a report on the subject today, defines these operations as government-led campaigns -- or those from organized "non-state actors" -- to promote lies, sow confusion and chaos among opposing political groups, and destabilize movements in other countries.

 The goal of these operations, the report says, is to manipulate public opinion and serve geopolitical ends. The actions go beyond the posting of fake news stories.

 The 13-page report specifies that fake news can be motivated by a number of incentives, but that it becomes part of a larger information operation when its coupled with other tactics and end goals.

 Facebook says these include friend requests sent under false names to glean more information about the personal networks of spying targets and hacking targets, the boosting of false or misleading stories through mass "liking" campaigns, and the creation propaganda groups. 

 The company defines these actions as "targeted data collection," "false amplification," and "content creation." Facebook plans to target these accounts by monitoring for suspicious activity, like bursts of automated actions on the site, to enact mass banning of accounts.

Kill Net Neutrality and You'll Kill Us, Say 800 US Startups (google.com)

A group of more than 800 startups has sent a letter to the FCC chairman Ajit Pai saying they are "deeply concerned" about his decision to kill net neutrality -- reversing the Title II classification of internet service providers. 

The group, which includes Y Combinator, Etsy, Foursquare, GitHub, Imgur, Nextdoor, and Warby Parker, added that the decision could end up shutting their businesses.

They add, via an article on The Verge: 

 "The success of America's startup ecosystem depends on more than improved broadband speeds. We also depend on an open Internet -- including enforceable net neutrality rules that ensure big cable companies can't discriminate against people like us. We're deeply concerned with your intention to undo the existing legal framework. Without net neutrality, the incumbents who provide access to the Internet would be able to pick winners or losers in the market. They could impede traffic from our services in order to favor their own services or established competitors. Or they could impose new tolls on us, inhibiting consumer choice. [...] Our companies should be able to compete with incumbents on the quality of our products and services, not our capacity to pay tolls to Internet access providers."