Maggie's Farm

Time 2021-11-02 14:07:16

Web Name: Maggie's Farm

WebSite: http://maggiesfarm.anotherdotcom.com

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Maggie's Farm

We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

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Monday, November 1. 2021 Reposted: Tuscany in October, with truffles

October is the best time of the year to visit Italy. The weather is cooler (low 70s), tourist crowds are way down except in Rome, the vineyards are turning golden yellow, and prices are off-season. Very cheap deals at elegant places to stay. Just try to stay out of the hospitals because that is no picnic.

Best thing of all: it is truffle season. Every decent place to eat had at least one truffle item on the menu, and we brought home two truffle pecorinos for Thanksgiving. Our lovely place outside Montepulciano (Villa Poggiano) put up a chalk board of things they would arrange for you to do each day. One of them was truffle-hunting. (Among others were a cooking class, horseback riding along the back dirt roads, and a rental Ferrari for 4 hours).

I declined the truffle hunt because you have to pay but of course you don't get to keep the black truffles. Also, I do not trust myself with a Ferrari although I do enjoy driving around rural Tuscany (in daylight only). We did happen to see a truffle hunter with his dogs on one of our own back-country hikes on which we got happily lost. I always have a half-roll of toilet paper in the bottom of my Osprey daypack. Who does not?

An American honeymooning couple at our place did everything on the list during their stay. Ah, youth.

As we drove around southern Tuscany looking at various hill towns and things (MapQuest got us everywhere), we stopped by a Roman bath, Bagno Vignoni. We had a nice light lunch there, pecorino ravioli with black truffle. Roasted root veggies on the side.That's Italian! I doubt that you have ever seen so many truffle slices in the USA. Naturally, I had a glass of Vino Nobile de Montepulciano. Fine for the purpose and helpful for driving confidence.

A few more pics, and a truffle hunting vid below the fold -

Continue reading "Reposted: Tuscany in October, with truffles"

Posted by Bird Dog in Travelogues and Travel Ideas at 17:36 | Comments (6) | Trackbacks (0) Jumping

Readers know that we like jump rope as an intense cardio (ie real cardio) exercise. The heavier the rope, the more challenging. I have used a 1 lb rope a few times and it is brutal.

Speed rope vs. Weighted rope

About jump ropes in general

Posted by Bird Dog in Physical Fitness at 14:24 | Comment (1) | Trackbacks (0) Monday morning links

Jeremy Clarkson on why he won’t be giving up pheasant shooting

NYT on Cape Cod sharks

California condors: Virgin births discovered in critically endangered birds

How the FBI Discovered a Real-Life Indiana Jones in, of All Places, Rural Indiana. A 90-year-old amateur archaeologist who claimed to have detonated the first atomic bomb was also one of the most prolific grave robbers in modern American history.

'We're being pressured into sex by some trans women'

WaPo:What is an ‘emotional push-up’? Exploring the concept of mental health gyms.

Life is a mental health gym

University Allegedly Attempting To Fire Professor For Saying Hurt Feelings Are ‘No Big Deal’

Border crisis hits classrooms as unaccompanied minors flood NY schools

Elites Are Using Climate Hysteria to Immiserate the Working Class

Dems Try To Pass Off $10,000 IRS Reporting Threshold as Merely Going After the 1 Percent.Proposed IRS surveillance now limited to non-wage net annual transactions of $10,000 and above. Which is still ridiculously low and intrusive.

Judge Finds Teenager Guilty in Loudoun County Bathroom Assault

In Defense of Meritocracy.It’s the worst system for deciding who gets society’s most important positions—except for all the others.

Transgender fiction is about political control -Elite gather at G20 and in Glasgow to talk about their religion

Lectures From Limousine Liberals.The same people who sat at home praising essential workers as heroes now repay them with exclusion and sneering condescension

China Warming.The CCP is by far the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases on the planet. Is that a problem?

Progressive Craziness Of The Day: Critical Race Theory In K-12 Schools And Corporations

The Next Democratic Crusade: Taxing Hypothetical Income

Posted by Bird Dog in Hot News Misc. Short Subjects at 05:25 | Comments (14) | Trackbacks (0) Sunday, October 31. 2021 You are Old, Father William

Two verses from Lewis Carroll's parody of an old sanctimious verse:

You are old, said the youth, and your jaws are too weak
For anything tougher than suet;
Yet you finished the goose, with the bones and the beak—
Pray, how did you manage to do it?

In my youth, said his father, I took to the law,
And argued each case with my wife;
And the muscular strength, which it gave to my jaw,
Has lasted the rest of my life.

Posted by The Barrister in Saturday Verse at 17:48 | Comments (3) | Trackbacks (0) Thank you, Roger, etc. from Italia

If Roger, semi-retired King of Sicily, would take over my morning links job here, we'd be a far more interesting, amusing, and educational website. But he won't.

Mrs. BD and I have been driving around northern Italy for 12 days, staying in cool places, tasting real Italian foods (avoiding pasta and pizza as usual - they are just not the best Italian food), and trying to keep to my limit of 1 museum (limit 1 hr) and 1 old church/day. And on this trip 1 Etruscan ruin/day. It got to the point that I called everything, including newstands,Etruscan just to calm things down.

As usual, I will post iphone photo travelogues when I get organized. For now, though, a menu from an ordinary cafe in Porto Santo Stefano. Nice lunch right on the fishing docks. We drove out there to the island Monte Argentario to look around while we were staying in Orbetello (in the Maremma). Fun to look at all of the frutti di mare in the fish stores.

Vecchia Pesa. Here's the menu.- click on it.

I am always amazed by the rate at which Octopi must reproduce given the rate at which Italians and Greeks eat them. Best grilled, I feel. I love seafood of every type.

Random bonus trivia: The police in Siena drive Alfas - Alfa Guiliettas, in fact. Me? I drive a Stelvio here at home. Fun, but this time in Italy we had a big diesel Citroen which was great especially on the highways. Mrs. BD loved driving it. Mapquest is excellent in Eurolandia.

Second tip re tourism: October is the only time to visit Italy. Off-season hotel prices, far fewer tourists, no hot weather and no rain, and everything open, cheerful, and lively. Plus it's truffle season.

Third thing: Tourists in Italy are still there in October, but in manageable and not-annoying numbers. We only saw them in Siena and some in San Gimignano. Mostly Scandinavians and Germans, bunches of Brits, a few French. Almost no Americanos or Asians at this time of year. You can ID tourists by dress, manners/mannerisms, posture, etc. Brits look and dress quietly elegantly, tastefullly, and always get lost; Scandinavians hip with their babies running around randomly or in backpacks and do not care if they get lost; and Americans and Germans dowdy, clunky, and overweight. You can easily ID the natives because they are skinny and fashionable at all times. La bella figura. If you want to look local, good luck: a cigarette, a dog on a leash in the bar, Max Mara, a Prada bag, and good shoes (so testifies Mrs. BD, who can pass for Italian even without Prada).

Re the flag - Italy has not been a nation for very long, if they even are a functional nation now. Began 1861 or so. The history of this peninsula and its surrounds is long, complex, and fun but not important in the long run. The only reason they all now speak Italian is because the Tuscans took over. Mrs. BD: How does this country function? Nobody works hard or pays their taxes (We prefer cash), and everybody looks great and seems happy. And they love their untrained, ill-behaved dogs. Yeah, their dogs are terrible, untrained menaces but they all have them. They might love dogs, but they do not have a clue how to train one for a use or for civilization. All on leashes.

Posted by Bird Dog in Hot News Misc. Short Subjects at 10:01 | Comments (13) | Trackbacks (0) From today's Lectionary

Mark 12:28-34

12:28 One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, he asked him, Which commandment is the first of all?

12:29 Jesus answered, The first is, 'Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one;

12:30 you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.'

12:31 The second is this, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these.

12:32 Then the scribe said to him, You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that 'he is one, and besides him there is no other';

12:33 and 'to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength,' and 'to love one's neighbor as oneself,' --this is much more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.

12:34 When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, You are not far from the kingdom of God. After that no one dared to ask him any question.

Posted by Bird Dog at 03:36 | Comment (1) | Trackbacks (0) Saturday, October 30. 2021 Chocolate Cream Pie

Yes, you can make it at home but it's always better in a diner.

Many things taste better in a diner, especially breakfast after church.

Posted by Bird Dog in Food and Drink at 16:03 | Comments (4) | Trackbacks (0) Was John Lennon a top guitarist? Posted by The News Junkie at 14:42 | Comments (5) | Trackbacks (0) Saturday Stuff and Junk

Architect Resigns in Protest over UCSB Mega-Dorm

A consulting architect on UCSB’s Design Review Committee has quit his post in protest over the university’s proposed Munger Hall project, calling the massive, mostly-windowless dormitory plan “unsupportable from my perspective as an architect, a parent, and a human being.” In his October 25 resignation letter to UCSB Campus Architect Julie Hendricks, Dennis McFadden ― a well-respected Southern California architect with 15 years on the committee ― goes scorched earth on the radical new building concept, which calls for an 11-story, 1.68-million-square-foot structure that would house up to 4,500 students, 94 percent of whom would not have windows in their small, single-occupancy bedrooms.

A crypt-keeper pal of vulture capitalist Warren Buffet came up with the plan, and the money to build it -- as long as you don't change his plan. From the photos, the rooms would be illegal as prison cells. A dorm room on the oceanfront with no windows. It's genius, I tells ya.

‘The Friends of Eddie Coyle’: Peter Yates’ Crime Masterpiece that Chose to Rely on a Completely Different Kind of Spectacle

Despite the fact that Mitchum has been married to his wife, Dorothy, for 32 years, he has the reputation of running through women like a stray dog through tall cane, and sure enough, when Mitchum emerges from his two-room camper, he’s trailed by two pretty admirers—”Girl A and Girl B,” as Peter Boyle snickeringly dubs them. “Gahdamn, man,” Boyle mutters, ogling the two women in a parody of lust. “Ol’ Bob’s entourage is swelling. I had either one of those babies, I’d die of terminal euphoria. Zowie! You know what the 2001 theme is? That’s the sound of Mitchum waking up.”

The Friends of Eddie Coyle is a great movie, based on a book from a guy who knew Boston criminals inside and out. It's also the first place I heard this quote: This life's hard man, but it's harder if you're stupid!

How to think like a detective

Detectives are often portrayed as misanthropic masterminds. They seem to possess almost mythical personal gifts that the average person can only dream of. I’m sorry to disappoint you, but this isn’t entirely true. Not all detectives are masterminds, and you actually don’t need to be a detective to think like one. A few tools and methods can improve your inner detective, help you find facts, and learn to better understand the relationship between them.

A four-year-old with a badge and gun would be the perfect detective. Just keep asking Why?

The New Bogeyman

The fact is the threat from China is not really from China but from the pirates that run the economy who like doing business with China. The threat is the Western scientist who are willing to take Chinese money to perform forbidden research. It is the American tech companies willing to sellout the country for the opportunity to make money helping the Chinese communists. China is a symptom of a much graver problem, one that exists in the ruling class of the American empire.

The ZMan is a lively writer and an interesting thinker.

North and West Africa: INTERPOL report highlights human trafficking for organ removal

Organized crime groups are known to be behind trafficking in human beings for organ removal, drawn by the substantial profits that can be made. Information suggests a wide spectrum of actors are involved in organ trafficking in North and West Africa with connections to the medical sector in countries from Africa and beyond, notably in Asia and the Middle East.

See, that's why I drink plenty of whiskey. That way, no one will want my liver or kidneys.

Western Maryland lawmakers ask West Virginia officials to ‘consider adding us’ to their state

Western Maryland lawmakers have periodically raised concerns in the Maryland General Assembly that their part of the state is different from the rest of the state, with a more conservative political outlook, unique economic drivers, a media market based in Pittsburgh and close borders with surrounding states.

Many states could use a reshuffle. Rhode Island shouldn't even be a state. Delaware shouldn't be a state. Vermont should be folded into New Hampshire and stapled to Maine. California should be -- sawn off and pushed out to sea.

The 37-Year-Olds Are Afraid of the 23-Year-Olds Who Work for Them

Ms. Fain is old enough to remember when millennials determined what was in vogue: rompers, rose pink, craft beer, Netflix and chill. Now, she gets the foreboding sense from colleagues that her AARP card awaits. Subtly yet undeniably, as generational shifts tend to go, there’s a new crop of employees determining the norms and styles of the workplace. And they have no qualms about questioning not just emoji use but all the antiquated ways of their slightly older managers, from their views on politics in the office to their very obsession with work

We went over this yesterday. Zoomers don't like Millennials much. Never mind that. Try to wrap your head around this New Yoik Toims writer who thinks Millennials have an obsession with work. That must be why they were all able to pay off their student loans early, huh?

Why AC won the Electricity Wars

Both direct and alternating current could light up a light bulb just fine. And both could be generated easily enough (although the AC generator was more elegant, omitting the brush contacts). DC’s advantage in electric motors was leveled when the brilliant engineer Nikola Tesla invented an AC motor (it depended on “polyphase” AC, that is, multiple alternating currents where the alternations were out of phase with each other). The real, insurmountable difference was in transmission, because here AC could do something that DC could never do, something that would solve the problem of long-distance power lines and establish it as the electrical standard.

The Current War is a terrific movie about this topic, despite being badly written and chaotically directed. Westinghouse was the shizzle.

Responsibility Without Power

In this context, however, PTSD should surely stand for “pre-traumatic stress disorder”; that is to say children are being trained up so that, when they really do suffer from something rather than merely imagine it at some time in the future, having hitherto lived privileged lives by the standards of all previously existing human beings, they will be nice and vulnerable, requiring an army of therapists, counselors, social and auxiliary support workers, etc., to get through the rest of their lives. This is necessary demand management for the professionally compassionate, who need a constant supply of the wretched upon whom to exercise their compassion.

I'm always worried I'll run out of things to worry about. Thank heavens for social media.

Microsoft Becomes World’s Most Valuable Stock as Apple Slumps

Doesn't matter. Next year is the year for Linux on the desktop. Just like last year was.

Zillow’s Zeal to Outbid for Homes Backfires in Flipping Fumble

The shift has been on display in places such as Atlanta and Phoenix, two markets where home prices have been surging. Zillow’s roughly 250 active listings in Phoenix are currently priced at 6% less, on average, than what the company paid for the homes.

I remember when fixing dilapidated homes was a job for regular people and first time home buyers, not page thirteen on some arsehole's slidedeck pitch to venture capitalists for a javascript empire. I hope Zillow chokes on it.

Enjoy your weekend, folks!

Posted by Roger de Hauteville in Hot News Misc. Short Subjects at 06:01 | Comments (48) | Trackback (1) Friday, October 29. 2021 Serious hiking and climbing kit

Do you aspire to climb Ben Nevis in winter? Or, God forbid, Mount Washington?

Autumn is the time for serious hiking in whatever the weather serves up. Adventure.

We feel the best stuff is made by Montane.It's a Euroland company so it has an Alpine feel.

LL Bean is fine, but not for winter climbing. Patagonia has the brand, but check out Montane. Bear in mind that they use Euroland sizing, which is different.

Posted by Dr. Joy Bliss in The Culture, Culture, Pop Culture and Recreation at 15:20 | Comments (7) | Trackbacks (0) A Little Roundup on The Internet's Weeds

Scientists recreated classic origin-of-life experiment and made a new discovery

This finding supports the authors' original hypothesis. Corrosion on the surface of the glass (due to the hot and caustic water circulating through it) plays a key role, since this releases silicon-dioxide molecules into the solution. This in turn acts as a catalyst to speed up the chemical reactions between the nitrogen, carbon, and hydrogen atoms that ultimately create organic molecules.

No, this finding supports my hypothesis that the glass was dirty. You know, with organic molecules. Scientists haven't been very scientific for a long time now.

Why do dogs tilt their heads? New study offers clues

A quick internet search turned up plenty of speculative results positing that dogs tilt their heads to hear better, to listen for specific words or tones, or to see past their snouts. Sommese found one poster hypothesizing that shelter dogs do it more often because they know on some level that humans find it irresistible.

Well, pit bulls tilt their heads to make them more irresistible to humans, and to make it easier to get the toddler's head in their mouths. Duh.

Remote-first work is taking over the rich world

One possibility is that they can more easily focus on tasks than in an office, where the temptation to gossip with a co-worker looms large. Commuting, moreover, is tiring. Another factor relates to technology. Remote workers, by necessity, rely more on tools such as Slack and Microsoft Teams. This may allow bosses to co-ordinate teams more effectively, if the alternative in the office was word-of-mouth instructions that could easily be forgotten or misinterpreted.

So, That meeting should have been an email was right on the money, and at least fifteen years ago at that.

HTTP 419 Never Gonna Give You Up

I get tired of error reporting services, like Rollbar, blowing up when a bot scans my websites for URLs like the infamous /wp-admin.php so why not rickroll them? It won’t do much except make website owners feel better, but I’d say that’s worth it.

A website error message that Rickrolls the bot. Like most coder things, it's almost clever, but not quite. It's also childish, kinda pointless, and the name of the object of the exercise (Rick Astley) is spelled wrong.

Troll A – The Tallest Structure Ever Moved by Mankind

Located about 80 km off the west coast of Norway is Troll A, a colossal natural gas platform and the tallest structure ever moved by mankind. It’s construction is regarded as one of the largest and most complex engineering projects in history.

It is construction? Man, noone can spell anymore. They're's mispellings everywere.

Practical Time Machines

Your computer can travel to the future even more easily than a DeLorean. The UI isn’t quite as cool, but it doesn’t require plutonium. Simply open your system control panel, turn off the “Set time automatically” option, and click the button to adjust the system date/time to your target.

Isn't that supposed to be spelled Time Masheen? Oh well. It's an interesting idea about checking software reliability. Of course a much more useful tool is to set your computer's clock backwards in time. You can use timestamped software trials forever that way. You didn't hear that from me.

Neuroscientist argues the left side of our brains have taken over our minds

The left hemisphere's goal is to enable us to manipulate things, whereas the goal of the right hemisphere is to relate to things and understand them as a whole. Two ways of thinking that are both needed, but are fundamentally at the same time incompatible.

Nope. I've seen Twitter. The spleen has taken over our minds.

‘Astounding’ Roman statues unearthed at Norman church ruins on route of HS2

More than 1,000 archaeologists have worked at more than 60 sites along the HS2 route between London and the West Midlands over the past three years. At Saint James’s Garden near Euston station in central London, more than 50,000 skeletons were exhumed from a burial ground. In Birmingham, more than 6,500 skeletons were uncovered from an 18th-century cemetery.

A new railway built on bulldozed graveyards. I think I've seen that movie.

Elon Musk wants to start a university in Texas that will have epic merch

Tesla SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has just posted on Twitter that he wants to start a new University in Texas. He wants to name it “Texas Institute of Technology Science (TITS)”.

I've seen college bookstores. There aren't any books in there, so worrying about the college themed merchandise before founding the college isn't that dumb. Infantile, but not dumb, which is what Musk should have on his business card.

Feds cuff Russian said to be developer of 'Trickbot' ransomware

Indictment reveals org behind banking trojan even had nifty jobs titles like 'Malware Manager'

I still prefer infantile but not dumb.

For the Price of a Tesla Model S, You Can Buy a Flying Car That Doesn’t Require a License

For that price, you will get a half assembled kit, which includes an aluminum space frame, motor controllers, propellers and motors, as well as an assembly guide. Weighing only 40 kilograms (88 pounds) when empty, Jetson One is categorized as an ultralight aircraft in the U.S., which doesn’t require a pilot license to fly.

John Denver acutely unavailable for comment.

Facebook’s lost generation

At the same time, a rising crop of younger social networks has continued growing in popularity with young people — a phenomenon Facebook has closely tracked with its own research. In an internal presentation earlier this year, employees estimated that teens spend 2–3x more time on TikTok than on Instagram and that Snapchat is the preferred method of communicating with best friends for young people.

Zoomers ain't Boomers. Sorry to break it to dullard Millennials who think Zoomers are going to help them smother Boomers with a pillow, but Zoomers don't like Millennials much, either.

Have a great Friday, everyone!

Posted by Roger de Hauteville in Hot News Misc. Short Subjects at 07:36 | Comments (29) | Trackback (1) Thursday, October 28. 2021 A broad-stroke review of human civilization

About guns, germs, and steel

Posted by The Barrister in History at 14:40 | Comments (7) | Trackbacks (0) The two best meals of your life: A Maggie's Scientificalistic Survey

I would amend that to foods or meals.

I'll start it off: A dinner which included woodcock ravioli with gibier sauce, followed by roasted (boned) Quail stuffed with foie gras. The appropriate wines, of course. Followed by a tarte tatin - with a hard caremelized crust. Ice cream on top.

My second might be a dinner when we indulged in 24 Wellfleet oysters each, followed by broiled Cod, Portuguese-style.

I could go beyond two, but that's the science.

The Mrs. would list Maryland Crabcakes in a Eastern Shore crab shack, and a burger she and her gal-pal had in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. She claims they are both worth a trip, and I concur with real crab cakes.

I've had fancy meals all over NYC and Europe, but those are my best.

What about you?

Posted by The Barrister in Food and Drink at 13:55 | Comments (28) | Trackbacks (0) Stop the violence Where does language vandalism stop? Posted by Bruce Kesler at 12:10 | Comments (5) | Trackbacks (0) Hither and Yon and Here and There

Hackers steal $130 million from Cream Finance; the company’s 3rd hack this year

The attackers are believed to have found a vulnerability in the platform’s lending system —called flash loaning— and used it to steal all of Cream’s assets and tokens running on the Ethereum blockchain, according to blockchain security firm BlockSec, which also posted an explanation of the security flaw on Twitter earlier today.

People prepping for the end of the world love cryptocurrency. You know, money that only works if everything on the internet does. Good luck with that.

Forget “Best” or “Sincerely,” This Email Closing Gets the Most Replies

The first shall be last and the last shall be first and Best shall be last.

Why the U.S. Navy Never Built Titanium Submarines Like Russia

There was simply no conceivable supply chain in place to make the serial production of titanium even remotely cost-efficient. The Papa-class prototype cost an astonishing 1 percent of the Soviet Union’s entire 1968 GDP, and that doesn’t factor in titanium’s unique maintenance and component degradation costs.

Yeah, but titanium submarines sure helped the Russians beat the Afghan navy pretty quick. Anyway, the US Defense department also seems to be based solely on the money is no object procurement plan. Wait until we're totally soviet to find out what that really means. You won't have to wait long.

Hardy Kruger Would Approve

This guy literally makes a working miniature Airbus RC airplane right in front of you. It turns out that Hardy Kruger in the Flight of the Phoenix was right all along.

The original Flight of the Phoenix was a great movie. The remake, not so much.

China limits construction of 'super high-rise buildings'

Every building aims to be a landmark, and the developers and city planners try to achieve this goal by going extreme in novelty and strangeness.

That's the 21st century in a nutshell.

The Great Competition to Give Away Money

The word people are most comfortable using to describe the current moment right now is “froth.” But some people are willing to go further in describing what, to a cynic, can seem like irrational exuberance. “The VCs are reacting rationally to the environment that they're in,” said Martin Kenney, a UC Davis professor who studies the venture capital industry. “But the environment could be irrational.”

The headline describes venture capital investment as giving away money. That's the 21st century in a nutshell.

Why The Metaverse will be Bigger than Facebook and Google Combined

Metaverse is a collection of various virtual worlds, game worlds if you want, capable of possible cooperation. This means that these worlds and the games they are represented in them will be connected at some point in the future. But it doesn't stop with the games. In the metaverse, you can virtually check an NFT gallery of famous real-world artists, play a game on your mobile while your friends play the same game from XBOX or PS5, you can then check a new musical artist in his recent virtual streamed performance, and finally to perform almost every programmable simulation of a situation from our lives, such as learning to drive a car, plane, a rocketship, and so one.[sic]

I'm sure guaranteed basic income and phony empty box refund claims from Amazon will make this wonderful new world possible.

Solid-State Batteries Rev Up Electric Cars, Boost Grid Storage

In tests, a laboratory prototype delivered 500 charge and discharge cycles with 80% capacity retention at room temperature. In contrast, previous studies with silicon anodes usually only achieved roughly 100 stable cycles.

Not really a battery per se. It's a (super)capacitor. Supercapacitors are the only thing that will make electric cars really viable. They'll figure it out eventually, and think of all the money you can make running a superfund recycling site for Tesla batteries when they do.

The fluoride wars rage on

Some toxicologists and epidemiologists are now questioning whether even low doses of fluoride can have systemic effects, including causing a dip in IQ in children who were exposed to it in utero. The first indications of this came from studies that compared unfluoridated villages and communities with fluoridated ones (where fluoride is either naturally occurring or added to water), followed by better-controlled studies that measured fluoride in individuals.

I once heard someone whose medical coverage didn't cover dental work describe teeth as luxury bones.

Home Values Soared in 2020 -- but So Did Property Taxes

The average property tax bill for a single-family home rose from $3,561 in 2019 to $3,719 in 2020, according to ATTOM Data Solutions. All told, property taxes for single-family homes increased $323 billion last year, or 5.4%, from the year before.

I'm sure towns and cities will use this extra money wisely, by investing in the additional police officers needed to arrest all the citizens who attend school board meetings, for instance.

Unvaccinated people are set to be BANNED from Berlin’s Christmas market after officials approved shutting them out in latest example of two-tier post-Covid society

That's truly the Christmas spirit, isn't it? I suggest Germans follow Groucho Marx's advice in these matters: Don't join any group willing to have you as a member.

Have a great Tuesday, everyone! Best, Roger. Oops
Posted by Roger de Hauteville in Hot News Misc. Short Subjects at 07:45 | Comments (16) | Trackbacks (0) Wednesday, October 27. 2021 DIY Links

Democrats, Pick a Fight with Parents at Your Peril

The ‘Prisoners’ Dilemma’ in Biden’s Title IX Policies

Posted by Bruce Kesler at 17:30 | Comment (1) | Trackbacks (0) Fruit is for dessert

Fruits are designed as attractions for critters to spread their seeds. Thus they contain sugar (fructose, not glucose) and a bit of fiber to hold it together.

Fruit is a fun snack, especially with pears. Pears are perfect with cheese.

If you want to lose weight, fruit is something to avoid. Fructose goes directly to fat storage.

Posted by Dr. Joy Bliss in Medical at 16:14 | Comments (9) | Trackbacks (0) Olivier in blackface

A Professor’s Apology for Showing a Film With Blackface Was Not Enough

Burn the witch!

Posted by The Barrister in Hot News Misc. Short Subjects at 14:56 | Comments (4) | Trackbacks (0) Exertion and the brain

This article is about stressful exercise, not about walking or long slow 'cardio':How does the brain respond to a single bout of exercise?

Posted by Dr. Joy Bliss in Physical Fitness at 14:14 | Comments (3) | Trackbacks (0) Wednesday Notes From All Over

Jobs that Marry Together the Most

It's fun to press the random occupations button and see who's schtupping whom. Of course homemakers aren't on the list, because they don't exist and you're weird for asking why they're not.

Bitcoin is largely controlled by a small group of investors and miners, study finds

As opposed to the Federal Reserve, which has a single director, Beelzebub.

France moves to shield its book industry from Amazon

This law is necessary to regulate the distorted competition within online book sales and prevent the inevitable monopoly that will emerge if the status quo persists, the ministry told Reuters.

Wow. French people talking sense. Truly it must be the end times. Oh, they fix the problem by charging the customer more. Never mind.

How Much Do Los Angeles Interns Get Paid?

Interns get paid? Who knew? According to the graphic, a social media intern makes about double what a healthcare intern makes. Legal interns make the most, probably because medical malpractice lawsuits caused by low wage healthcare interns pay great.

Giant, free index to world's research papers released online

No thanks. I get all my vital information from brilliantine dullards who read scripts written by social media interns on the TV news.

Securing your digital life, part one: The basics

Pro Tip: Leaving your password on a Post-It note appended to the screen isn't good. It's especially not good if you're using the computer at the library.

Walmart Billionaire Marc Lore Is Planning a $500 Billion “City of the Future”

He’s devised a “reformed version of capitalism” with Telosa he calls “equitism,” where anyone can build and sell homes, but the city retains ownership of the land underneath.

Hmm. That sort of arrangement isn't new. It's called a favela overseas, or an Indian Reservation around here. Good luck with that.

Scientists claim that planet 9 could actually be a primordial black hole with a diameter of just a few centimeters

Planet 9 is a hypothesized large planet that would be located in the outer parts of our solar system, far beyond the orbits of Neptune and Uranus. The existence of planet 9 would explain the weird orbits of some transneptunian objects that are hard to be explained without it.

Women, minorities, Neil DeGrasse Tyson hardest hit.

A photographer and artist walk into a fake news factory

Ostensibly a photobook on the small Macedonian town of Veles, which made international headlines in 2016 as the unlikely factory of pro-Trump fake news, The Book of Veles created a furore after Bendiksen revealed that the project’s images were synthetically generated using 3D software and the book’s text was written entirely by artificial intelligence. Fascinated with the story of Veles as well as with developments in synthetic imagery, Bendiksen set out to see just how “real” he could make his images. Although he left breadcrumbs throughout the text, to his surprise the book was published in April 2021 to “nice, positive echo-chamber feedback,” said Bendiksen. No one questioned the authenticity of the images or text.

So, every molecule of the story was fake, except the part that smears Trump. That was totally legit. Got it.

Humans Are Actually Terrible at Navigating Cities, Study of Over 14,000 People Shows

According to mobile phone data from over 14,000 people living their daily lives, humans are terrible at calculating the shortest route through city streets. And the reason is really simple: our brains want us to face the direction we are going in, even if that's not the most efficient way of getting to our destination.

Better headline: Cities are actually terrible at accommodating humans.

Microsoft beats revenue expectations, reporting 22% growth

Microsoft is IBM now. Kinda staid, reliable, always makes money. No one gets fired for hiring Microsoft, as they say. IBM is now, oh, I don't know, Fotomat.

The Unique Pros and Cons of Being An Older Dad

According to life-expectancy charts issued by the CDC, she can expect to lose me before she is 30. Then, after my wife dies — if she doesn’t precede me — my daughter will be all alone in the world.

That's why being a sugar daddy makes more sense. You can be a sugar daddy at any old age. And your protege won't mind if you die. She might even help.

Posted by Roger de Hauteville in Hot News Misc. Short Subjects at 05:39 | Comments (23) | Trackbacks (0) Tuesday, October 26. 2021 Cleaning waxed cotton and waxed canvas garments, re-posted for autumn

Inverness has several shops which sell waxed jackets. They sell models that are more for working purposes rather than the more style-oriented ones available in the US. If any place in the world is right for a Barbour or similar brands, it is Scotland.

Gore-tex made waxed clothing obsolete, more or less, but people still like it. What is not widely-known is that Gore-Tex, over time, loses its waterproofing effect and you have to replace the item. Waxed cotton and waxed canvas can be re-proofed. I have waxed canvas Filson hunting pants, waxed canvas hunting brush chaps, a Barbour, maybe something else too. Damn things are heavy to wear compared to Gore Tex.

If these things get too dirty or muddy on the outside, you just brush then off or hose it off with cold water. But what about when the lining gets sweaty and smelly? Ideally it won't because of the other stuff you are wearing, but if you want to clean it out, how?

I read up on the topic. The only way to do it that protects the wax is to hose down the lining with cold water. No soap, etc - just cold water. Let it soak, then hose it again and let it air-dry. That's all you can do until the jacket needs re-proofing, at which time the company cleans the lining too.

Posted by Bird Dog in Hunting, Fishing, Dogs, Guns, etc., The Culture, Culture, Pop Culture and Recreation at 15:39 | Comments (6) | Trackbacks (0) Pull-ups

The Perfect Pull-Up

Whether you want to view pull-ups as weight-lfting or as a calisthenic, it is a strength-builder for the entire upper body. The problem is that many middle-aged people have trouble doing reps without assistance. Does assistance really help over time?

A couple of years ago we had a one-month push-up challenge, and it worked for those who kept with it daily. The goal was 100 push-ups/day by the end of the month (not 100 at once, but 100 daily). Turned out that it was quite do-able with good results even for push-up beginners - and for women. Their reps got longer, and their muscles got tougher.

There are a couple of women I see in the gym doing 20 pull-up reps. They look fit, but neither muscular nor skinny.

A 60-day 100 pull-up challenge might work too, but I do not know how to begin it for those who cannot do a single one.

Ideas?

Posted by Bird Dog in Physical Fitness at 14:04 | Comments (8) | Trackbacks (0) How did the Humanities end up in formal education?

The “Permanent Crisis” of the Humanities

Initially, the term studia humanitatis didn’t signify the pursuit of theological, metaphysical, or philosophical knowledge, or, as some contemporary commentators claim about the modern humanities, the cultivation or training of the soul as an end in itself. But they propounded a more modest notion: that the kinds of technical skills and knowledge that humanists taught—reading, writing, and speaking about ancient Latin and Greek texts—helped prepare students for study in the higher faculty, as well as for lives as active citizens.

It is that modest notion which eventually led to the devaluation of the studia humanitatis in the 17th and 18th centuries. According to Wellmon, scholars began to look down on the humanities because they didn’t prepare students to do anything in particular—but rather just imparted generalized knowledge intended to groom the elite...

Posted by The Barrister in Education at 13:15 | Comments (4) | Trackbacks (0) DIY Links

The Next Democratic Crusade: Taxing Hypothetical Income

Deliberate falsehoods

Remote-sensing reveals details of ancient Olmec site in Mexico

Posted by Bruce Kesler at 12:55 | Comments (2) | Trackbacks (0) This, That, and the Other Thing

This is what the coming Depression will look like now that we have Instagram.

On to the news!

Why aviation’s compass is shifting towards True navigation

I guarantee your luggage will stick with the old method.

Privacy is a Human Right

Rights have concomitant responsibilities. Stop clutching homing beacons and sending randos pictures of your private parts, and then we'll talk.

Here's the FBI's Internal Guide for Getting Data from ATT, T-Mobile, Verizon

The only question remaining about the FBI is whether it's always been evil.

We need to talk about how Apple is normalising surveillance

I don't.

New York Times Journalist Ben Hubbard Hacked with Pegasus after Reporting on Previous Hacking Attempts

They took over his iPhone with an email attachment. He gets his online privacy advice from his granny, I guess.

Right-to-disconnect policies included in new labour legislation being introduced by Ontario government

They'll still time warehouse workers in the bathroom, however.

Hertz Order for 100,000 EVs Sends Tesla Value to $1 Trillion

Hertz just went bankrupt. Now they're spending Wall Street Bets dough. Wisely, as usual.

Accidental leak reveals US government has secretly hit Google with 'keyword warrants' to identify ANYONE searching certain names, addresses, and phone numbers

That's why I only search for porn online. It's safer.

Facing sky-high connection fees, rural Ontarians go off the grid

They use a substantial amount of electricity, too, which is unusual for off-grid. Good for them.

Facebook Reports Third Quarter 2021 Results

An obscenity wrapped in a travesty inside a perversion.

Blacklisted Chinese tech giant Huawei paid Tony Podesta $500,000 to lobby the White House

They should have skipped the middleman and sent it direct to the Big Guy. He must have a drive-up window at this point.

Viewing website HTML code is not illegal or “hacking,” prof. tells Missouri gov.

Conservatives are never going to figure out how the internet works. Hint: it doesn't work for you.

Chicago poised to create one of the nation’s largest ‘guaranteed basic income’ programs

This sounds like looting with extra steps.

Decades after polio, Martha is among the last to still rely on an iron lung to breathe

Did she write the bulk of any series?

From Homes to Cars, It’s Now Time to Electrify Everything

That's funny. Stalin said the same thing.

Have a great Tuesday, everyone.

Posted by Roger de Hauteville in Hot News Misc. Short Subjects at 07:30 | Comments (16) | Trackbacks (0) (Page 1 of 1380, totaling 34496 entries) next page A Chris Southern Consulting website.

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