Finally, we come to the end of the longest short month on the calendar (right? This isn’t leap year, is it? I lost track after they fucked with the Olympics). While we did manage to dodge the foot-o-snow they predicted (incorrect weather forecasts – how unusual), it’s still really goddamn cold out there, and my wife informs me that, while the driveway was passable this morning, it could use a “quick” plow (it’s about 3° out there, so “quick” goes without saying). February, for the most part, has pretty much sucked and I’ll be happy to see it in the rear view mirror (not that March is shaping up to be much better – at least to start. Comes in like a lion and goes out like a mountain lion and all that). At least when March gets out there, you know there’s light at the end of the tunnel and only six more weeks of winter.
I bought Greek yogurt the other day. Not on purpose, really – it was all they had that wasn’t in the little tiny cups. I had no idea what the difference was between that and “regular” yogurt, but I know it’s gotten to be a big deal, which is good for the local economy (‘cuz yogurt is made from milk, and one thing we’ve got a lot of around here is cows. And chickens). So I read up about it, and apparently they strain it multiple times until it comes out really thick and slightly chalky, so it’s got like 2-3 times the protein and less carbs (and no fat if you buy the fat free stuff). I wasn’t overly thrilled at first, but with some blueberries in there, I got used to it and developed a taste for it (I think the shit would work really well as joint compound and/or spackle, too).
Well, I guess I’d better get some work done before I go out and plow.
My recently found friend from Latin classes continues to send me right wing crap daily. At first she sent me mildly funny stuff but it has become solely anti-muslim, anti-healthcare rants. I have stopped opening it. I do not remember her to have ever expressed such ideas. In fact, all that ancient Latin we got to read made her question the uniqueness of Jesus as there were many references to similar stories from other cultures in our lit. But, she went on to teach Latin in a Catholic school. Apparently that experience has not led to any actual Jesus like thoughts. I hesitate to tell her how wrong and offensive her emails are because I know it will hurt her feelings. I don’t know why I care about that but for some reason do. I guess eventually I will remind her that I’m that old hippie who used to make fun of misogynistic Cicero and write assignments that always included a few very leftie ideas. (Latin professors liked that.)
Sp, can’t you simply ask her to refrain from sending you political emails? Blame it on your desire for a peaceful retirement. I’ve seen a few folks take a nose dive into the swill of Faux news and its online ilk. :sheep:
***
We reached close to 70 degrees yesterday and later today the wintery mix arrives. The roller coaster continues. :rant1:
WTF!
Here’s What Is Going To Happen With Ukraine
Following up on the previous post, if you do want to fret about Ukraine, I have just the thing for you. I’m going to tell you how this will all unfold:
1. Vladimir Putin will do something belligerent. (Already done.)
2. Republicans will demand that we show strength in the face of Putin’s provocation. Whatever it is that we’re doing, we should do more.
3. President Obama will denounce whatever it is that Putin does. But regardless of how unequivocal his condemnation is, Bill Kristol will insist that he’s failing to support the democratic aspirations of the Ukrainian people.
4. Journalists will write a variety of thumbsuckers pointing out that our options are extremely limited, what with Ukraine being 5,000 miles away and all.
5. John McCain will appear on a bunch of Sunday chat shows to bemoan the fact that Obama is weak and no one fears America anymore.
6. Having written all the “options are limited” thumbsuckers, journalists and columnists will follow McCain’s lead and start declaring that the crisis in Ukraine is the greatest foreign policy test of Obama’s presidency. It will thus supplant Afghanistan, Egypt, Libya, Syria, Iran, and North Korea for this honor.
7. spite of all the trees felled and words spoken about this, nobody will have any good ideas about what kind of action might actually make a difference. There will be scattered calls to impose a few sanctions here and there, introduce a ban on Russian vodka imports, convene NATO, demand a UN Security Council vote, etc. None of this will have any material effect.
8. Obama will continue to denounce Putin. Perhaps he will convene NATO. For their part, Republicans will continue to insist that he’s showing weakness and needs to get serious.
9. This will all continue for a while.
10. In the end, it will all settle down into a stalemate, with Russia having thrown its weight around in its near abroad—just like it always has—and the West not having the leverage to do much about it.
11. Ukraine will….
Actually, there’s no telling about #11. Maybe Ukraine will choose (or have foisted on them) a pro-Russian leader that Putin is happy with. Maybe east and west will split apart. Maybe a nominally pro-Western leader will emerge. Who knows? What we do know is that (a) the United States will play only a modest role in all this, and (b) conservative hawks will continue to think that if only we’d done just a little bit more, Putin would have blinked and Ukraine would be free.
You may now go about your regular weekend business.
Good, but you left out Captain Macho, Johnny McCain’s BFF and honorary president of the He-Man Women Haters Club, Li’l Lindsey Graham.
(Bonus geezer points if you get the HMWHC reference)
I awoke to the wind chill at a balmy – 4 and snow. Now we’re getting a thunder ice storm. :omg:
Movies
Alain Resnais, Acclaimed French Filmmaker, Is Dead at 91
By DAVE KEHRMARCH 2, 2014
🙁 :gate:
I used to like Jerry Brown, but am now having second thoughts.
Plus he’s starting to look an awful lot like Matt “The Rat” Lauer.
They can’t all be snotballs. Besides, legal weed might actually be a bad thing for the Caliconomy.
I would happily trade Mario’s boy for Jerry.
Me too!
Can I trade mine, too?
Sorry, I meant illegal weed. The medicinal pot thing has been pretty engagde here for a while. Not sure what Jerry’s problem is but he usually has a thoughtful reason.
Happy Mardi Gras, Y’all!
:40: :bong: :alc: :boobs: :spank: :blues: :priest: :pope: :kub: :fire:
Mazrdi Gras time? It’s freezing and the ice on the driveway has not melted. Snow is forecast for Thursday and either Saturday or Sunday! The groundhog is getting its revenge for being awaken so early in February.
It sounds like it’s a mess everywhere.
Try over here.
Richard Manuel left us 28 years ago.
🙁 :gate: :blues: :bow:
Holy crap. I can’t believe it’s been that long. Then again, it’ll be 20 years for my dad in September.
I’d write a post about it, but….
in 1843 the NY Times published an account of the rescue of Solomon Northrop (Twelve Years A Slave).
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9E03EEDC1438E334BC4851DFB7668388649FDE&smid=fb-nytimes
I meant 1853
1843 is the new 1853.
The really interesting thing is that he was living in Minerva, NY when he was kidnapped into slavery. Minerva, today, is as rural as rural can be. Basically about a 1/4 mile stretch of cleared road in the midst of a heavily wooded area. God only knows what it was like at the turn of the 19th century.
While I’m sure a black guy stuck out like a sore thumb up there in 1808, it’s still astounding that anybody would bother to go up there and kidnap him and make him a slave.
It’s quite a horrible story. I wonder how common it was to kidnap people and sell them as slaves. The kidnappers got a lot of money for Northrop. I don;t know what it would be in today’s dollars but it was probably more than an average year’s wages. There also seemed to be no requirement that the person presented as a slave be proven to be one. Not surprisingly, the Fugitive Slave Act gave all the advantages to the slave holders who, no doubt, presented themselves as the persecuted. Man’s inhumanity never ceases to amaze. Nor does the whining of the persecutors.
Wish I could understand the math, because the ideas in the article and the comments are fun. :blues:
Math aside, the author is very much overthinking things. Since he’s a Physics professor, that’s not surprising.
First off, the image of the land mass of the Earth as a sphere with a nice smooth and even surface is quaint, but that’s just not how it is. Parts stick up, parts sink down, there are flat mesas, rolling hills, and pointy mountains.
But even if the Earth’s surface was smooth, when you build a permanent structure, you don’t follow the shape of the land you’re building it on. You dig it out level and pour a foundation. They actually spend a lot of time getting the foundation of a building square, level, and plumb before they start putting a building up (at least you better hope they did).
I mean, imagine them saying, “when you dig for the foundation, be sure to maintain the curvature of the earth.”
If one end of the building is a lot lower than the other then you build two (or as many as it takes) level sections and connect them via steps (and if it’s an airport, hopefully there’s an escalator).