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.
There are distinct and deep-rooted traditions of rational empiricism and religious sermonizing in American history. But these two modes seem to have become fused together in a new form of argumentation that is validated by elite institutions like the universities, The New York Times, Gracie Mansion, and especially on the new technology platforms where battles over the discourse are now waged. The new mode is argument by commandment: It borrows the form to game the discourse of rational argumentation in order to issue moral commandments. No official doctrine yet exists for this syncretic belief system but its features have been on display in all of the major debates over political morality of the past decade. Marrying the technical nomenclature of rational proof to the soaring eschatology of the sermon, it releases adherents from the normal bounds of reason. The arguer-commander is animated by a vision of secular hell—unremitting racial oppression that never improves despite myths about progress; society as a ceaseless subjection to rape and sexual assault; Trump himself, arriving to inaugurate a Luciferean reign of torture. Those in possession of this vision do not offer the possibility of redemption or transcendence, they come to deliver justice. In possession of justice, the arguer-commander is free at any moment to throw off the cloak of reason and proclaim you a bigot—racist, sexist, transphobe—who must be fired from your job and socially shunned.
12 bedrooms, 5 baths. And a two-story giant barn which needs work. In fact, it all needs work. No report on plumbing and heating. Roof looks ok for now.
Huge lawn for croquet, lawn tennis, badminten, frisbee, dogs, etc. Gee, as a bonus you get a Resident Beach Pass. It's in town - no waterfront. Own a piece of history, with plenty of room for all of your best friends.
What is it in the human heart that wants to possess wonderful, charming things? I mean, rather than just appreciating them. Is it a transmuted sexual thing?
I have posted often about grass lawns in the past.
Meadows are far better than lawns, but pretty lawns are a suburban real estate necessity. They are completely artificial. They rely on irrigation, fertilizer, weed and bug chemicals. etc. Like hydroponic gardening.
I happen to feel that lawns are perfect parts of English-style gardens. Lawn is one part of an appealing garden.
How can one minimize the artifice and fragility of the unnatural thing which is a mowed lawn (especially in the northern half of the US)?
- Irrigation. It fools the grasses into thinking it's Spring.
- Topdressing. It's what woodland grasses get naturally from fallen leaves and detritus.
- Aeration. It's what grasses get naturally from worms, moles, and digging animals.
What the hell is going on in this country? When did we, the majority, stop speaking up for ourselves? Crimes against common sense seem to happen every week, yet most of us stay silent.
It's been decades since we spent time on the Cape in June, mainly because our annual family weeks are in August. This was a Father's Day gift.
June is better. Too early for swimming, but perfect for the outdoor fun that August is too warm for. No skeeters. Also, few vacationers. The birding is better in August, with all of the travellers heading down from the north. Still, Eagles and Ospreys and nesting herons. Nothing special except the Terrapins digging their eggs and the fox trying to find their nests for breakfast eggs.
We opted for a marsh-side cottage on Lieutenant Island, a quiet corner which is only accessible during lower tides.
I hope all our readers who are fathers enjoy this day with their families.
My father and mother divorced when I was 8, though he'd already left the house when I was 6. For a good portion of my life, my memories of him were of weekend visitations, driving around with 4 kids in Triumph TR5, (2 in the front, 2 in the 'back', which wasn't really a seat). There was a period of several years when he lived in Micronesia with his wife and my half-sister, so our direct contact was minimal. By the time I was 14, I was usually taking a bus to see him for weekends, once a month or so, or for a week in the summer. Eventually I spent three full summers with him while I worked at the Jersey Shore. I was in college, and it was a good place to spend my summer months.
Divorce is difficult on everyone involved. I remember spending time being angry at my father for leaving. I give my mother a lot of credit for knowing that it's important for children to have a father in their lives, encouraging and enabling us to take time to see him. Even scolding us when we spoke ill of him. Eventually, as I got older and more educated, my relationship with my father became much closer. I am lucky to still have him around, and I will be seeing him later today for the first time in 4 months (thanks to this lockdown).
In a way, I may have been lucky, as my mother remarried, and I wound up having a step-father (though he was not officially a step-father as I still had my father). A tough WWII vet, a good man who did his able best to raise 6 children, 4 of which were not his own. He passed 15 years ago. I was able to have conversations about the war, the Depression (which he grew up during) and learned about real estate (his profession). He was a do-it-yourself man, unfortunately not very skilled, but taught me how to do plumbing, auto, and minor electrical work. There were things he passed on to me that my father never could have.
Being a father has no template. We are certainly not perfect. Hopefully, our mistakes are good learning experiences, for both us and our children.
Today will be a good day to share some of the better stories, both good and bad, with our fathers or our children. Of course, we can do that any day, but it's nice to have a day to really focus. Enjoy your day with your family.
10:24 "A disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above the master;
10:25 it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher, and the slave like the master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household!
10:26 "So have no fear of them; for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known.
10:27 What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops.
10:28 Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
10:29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.
10:30 And even the hairs of your head are all counted.
10:31 So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.
10:32 "Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven;
10:33 but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven.
10:34 "Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.
10:35 For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
10:36 and one's foes will be members of one's own household.
10:37 Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me;
10:38 and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me.
10:39 Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.
Octopus is good food, grilled, sauteed, in a cold salad, whatever. We probably learned in high school bio that they are molluscs, same as squid. Cephalopod molluscs.
Compared to shelled molluscs, these creatures are advanced and have multiple brains. As far as eating goes, with squid we gut them and eat the rest, but with polpo we cook just the feet. I have never heard of eating an octopus head and guts as we happily do with clams and oysters (which have no heads, really. No eyes - but scallops have sort-of eyes...).
We had a lovely June visit to Wellfleet. Cool weather, blue skies, perfect for hiking and biking. The only downside is that not many places are open yet, including the beach sticker place. We worked around it. Lots of restaurants closed forever, some open with outdoor seating.
Why Maskachusetts? You can imagine. Masks in cars, masks walking the dog, masks walking the beaches, masks on runners and bikers. Crazy.
Well, we decided to do a stretch of the Cape Cod Rail Trail (CCRT). Rent a bike and off you go. It is wonderful, riding through marshes salt and fresh, antique villages where you can stop for coffee, woodlands. It's the old railbed for the train from Boston to Provincetown but as of now the relatively flat route is only Wellfleet down to Dennis.
Anyway, at one road intersection I pulled to a stop behind a distinguished professor-looking guy who scolded me "Too close, too close." I said "Sorry, I did not expect you to stop." He raised his voice: "It's not a fucking joke."
By then, Mrs. BD was on the other side of the crossing with that guy's wife, who put her arm over her face and yelled at her "Corona, Corona!" Yelled like a crazy lady.
Mind you, Mrs. BD and I are fairly polite and refined people, but Mrs. BD had had it and responded to the lady "Finally, I have met a real Karen." We went off ahead of them to their relief.
Below the bar is a strong statement of our values and politics by the editors of Commentary, actions to prevent the great unraveling of America. Please read it, and pass it on.
A very weird list written by someone who's heard of older workers, but never met one, and who doesn't know that you don't put a period after each item in a bulleted list. I noticed "editor" isn't on your list.
What has CHAZ (or is it CHOP? They grow up so fast!) done for us? CHAZ has done us a favor by highlighting some truths about the far left. 1. Borders are important, and knowing who you want to allow in, is important to them. 2. Gun ownership is a thing! 3. They have created walls 4. They are self-segregating, so diversity is a questionable value in a 'communal' society 5. Strong policing of the area is taking place...but just not 'the police' (meet the new boss, same as the old boss) 6. Deportations are common 7. Stealing is legitimate, particularly if you're taking land. 8. Freeloading is a legitimate means of support. The more 'free stuff' the better.
You imagine no doubt, gentlemen, that I want to amuse you. You are mistaken in that, too. I am by no means such a mirthful person as you imagine, or as you may imagine; however, irritated by all this babble (and I feel that you are irritated) you think fit to ask me who I am--then my answer is, I'm Roger Bosso.
“The Agency for years has developed and operated IT mission systems outside the purview and governance of enterprise IT, citing the need for mission functionality and speed,” the CIA observed. “While often fulfilling a valid purpose, this ‘shadow IT’ exemplifies a broader cultural issue that separates enterprise IT from mission IT, has allowed mission system owners to determine how or if they will police themselves.”
It's almost like the security services didn't want any oversight. I wonder what they were doing. On second thought, no I don't.
In amateur photos given to authorities, she is seen wearing a T-shirt that says, "Keep the immigrants, deport the racists." They were able to trace the T-shirt back to an Etsy shop, where a review was left by a user that displayed a Philadelphia location. Investigators say open searches for the username led them to a Poshmark user by the name of lore-elisabeth. Open searches for a Lore Elisabeth in Philadelphia led investigators to a LinkedIn profile for a woman who was employed as a massage therapist.
Lore has since left a one-star review of the food served at the Philly police lockup on Yelp.
Wirecard AG delayed the publication of its annual financial results for the fourth time after auditors were unable to find about 1.9 billion euros ($2.1 billion) in cash, causing analysts to question liquidity at the German payments firm. The shares collapsed.
Everybody calm down. The cleaning crew probably just removed one of the Post-It notes from Karen's screen, and she can't remember where she put the two billion without it. She'll remember eventually.
Connecting your phone to a car’s infotainment system is very helpful. By connecting, you can take calls, respond to texts, and get GPS directions without touching your phone. All of these features would have seemed magical just a decade ago. Even though these conveniences help drivers stay safe while driving, a new problem arises. What happens to your data after you connect your phone to the rental car?
Never mind my data. Can someone help me refold this Rand McNally map? I've been trying since 1987, and I still can't get it back in the glove box.
A newly discovered spyware effort attacked users through 32 million downloads of extensions to Google’s market-leading Chrome web browser, researchers at Awake Security told Reuters, highlighting the tech industry’s failure to protect browsers as they are used more for email, payroll and other sensitive functions.
As is usual with modern news stories, this one doesn't have a list of the offending extensions, or a link to find one. You know, information you could use.
Kearns may not have realized that his negative cash balance displaying on his Robinhood home screen was only temporary and would be corrected once the underlying stock was credited to his account. Indeed it’s not uncommon for cash and buying power to display negative after the first half of options are processed but before the second options are exercised—even if the portfolio remains positive.
Suicide: The permanent solution to your temporary problems.
This kind of thinking leads people to 2 year cycles. On most modern software teams, it takes roughly one year to really feel like you have your feet under you. By that time the kind of learning novelty people are used to isn’t there. By 16 months they’re restless. By 24 months they’re gone. This is a problem. It’s a problem because the majority of durable and transferable knowledge comes after achieving basic competency. Mastery of a skillset, understanding and learning from the outcomes of decisions made years ago, architecture and design, leading projects - these all come well after basic competency.
If Twitter, Facebook and other tech companies shift toward everyone working from home, it will mean less reliance on esprit de corps and morale to ensure performance, and more management using direct financial incentives and project- and output-based monitoring.
That's funny. Normal people call "direct financial incentives" wages. We call "output-based monitoring" work. We call "esprit de corps" bullsh*t. You'll get used to it, poindexters.
Among the issues catalogued at Electrek, on Reddit, and on YouTube channels are excessive road noise and alignment issues, rear hatches that don't close properly, charge port doors that don't close, misaligned doors and exterior trim, scratched body panels, substandard paint, underfloor panels that weren't fully attached to the car, dirty or damaged interiors, broken seat belts, and even rear seats that aren't actually attached to the rest of the car.
I guess this means that Tesla is finally a real car company, because that sounds just like a Chevy to me.
Video has emerged online that shows the remains of three AGM-114R9X missiles used in a recent strike on Al Qaeda-linked terrorists in Syria, providing the best look yet at the innards of this mysterious version of the venerable Hellfire, which has six pop-out sword-like blades in lieu of a traditional explosive warhead.
Cool. Will sharks with fricken laser beams attached to their heads go into production soon?
Well, there's today raft of nonsense. I hope you all enjoy a Thursday filled with cheap happiness or lofty suffering, whichever you prefer.
There are now only two kinds of people extant in the US. Let's call them Goofus and Gallant.
Goofus is currently vandalizing cemeteries and demanding that policemen carry ice cream cones instead of batons. Goofus doesn't know how he got that way, but he's constitutionally incapable of voluntarily cooperating with Western Civilization in any way, at least if he's told not to by his peers. He has no idea where his peers get their ideas. He thinks everyone but his peers are sheeple and deserve any ignominy he can heap on them. He'll lie, cheat, or steal at the drop of the hat, but he won't call it that. He'll use any form of justification necessary to go along with his friends. The sophistry might come first, or after the fact, but he's striking a blow for freedom all day, every day, by illegally downloading movies or burning a nunnery or anything in between. It's his opponents who are lawbreakers, even though they're not breaking any laws. They're not cool, and that's that.
Gallant, on the other hand, is constitutionally incapable of openly breaking any law. Gallant is wearing a surgical mask while driving alone in his car because dems the rules. No matter how stupid the rules are, he'll queue up to follow them. He's angry all the time about the laws, because they're in complete opposition to how he wants the world to be ordered. But the rule of law is at the top of his totem pole, and that's that. Every once in a while a Gallant hairdresser opens up her shop during a Goofus shitshow lockdown, and is exalted for her bravery, but one toe in the pool is not swimming.
Gallant thinks Goofus is off the hook right now, because cities are being burned to the ground, but Goofus really isn't. Goofus is performing in a very calibrated political Kabuki play, planned for him by people unseen. If you really took all the Goofuses off the hook, you'd see an army of Lavrentia Berias right quick. They're timid by nature but they're the people who run death camps if they get the chance.
Goofus accuses Gallant of being off the hook all the time, but of course that's silly. Gallant might be a combat veteran or a biker or a lumberjack or something similar. If he was off the hook you'd get Carthage, not placards waved outside the state capitol. Gallant is armed to the teeth, but he never shoots anybody because there's rules against that. He mutters about it under his breath constantly, but the total tonnage of nonsense he'll endure before losing his cool is nearly infinite. Nearly. It would take more than some defaced statue dedicated to a general who lost to get him to stop sorting his recyclables, never mind take to the barricades. Conservative presidents keep putting Gallants on the Supreme Court who say dems the rules so we have to follow them, no matter how nutty the rules are, for instance.
No one's going to ring a bell and tell Gallant the rules don't matter any more so let it rip on Goofus. No one is going to ring a bell and tell Goofus to make a frontal assault on Gallant, which would look like a synchronized swimmer turned welterweight punching Mike Tyson at the weigh in. Goofus thinks he has the upper hand right now because no one's stopping him, but he's being humored, nothing more. His minders are using him to get the upper hand. That's a different thing entirely. They'll get as far as they can with this nonsense, but eventually things will strike a new Overton equilibrium. Gallant will put up with kneeling to see his football game, and maybe notice a decided lack of stars and bars on race cars next year. He'll try to follow the new, very weird rules as best he can. Goofus will go back to handing out flyers from card tables in the park while normal people avert their eyes and scurry past.
Let's examine today's news items through the Goofus and Gallant prism:
On Monday, Walmart said it will open its online marketplace, which reaches 120 million monthly visitors, to Shopify's more than 1 million business clients. That means Walmart shoppers will be able to find goods from some Shopify merchants.
Goofus would rather die than shop at Walmart. Goofus loves the proletariat. It's people he can't stand, and people shop at Walmart. Gallant's wife shops on Etsy and at Costco because have you seen the way the proletariat dresses?
After publication of this story, Google backtracked Tuesday, clarifying that The Federalist had been warned about policy violations but still had time to address them. It now has three days to remove the violations before a ban goes into effect.
This is what Goofus' handlers are up to. Zero Hedge is low hanging fruit. Gallant works at the Federalist and is busy doing whatever Google tells them to. How else could they afford season tickets to the kneeling sessions at the Washington Indigenous Downtrodden People football games?
The robot is meant to be a flexible platform: Boston Dynamics has spent many years refining the hardware and software that give the robot incredible mobility, but attachments will help qualify Spot for specific jobs. A software development kit allows operators to further customize how the robot behaves and senses its world, incorporating computer vision models, for instance, to detect certain landmarks around a job site.
Goofus will continue binge-watching Westworld and wait for a robot girlfriend. Gallant has a Belgian Malinois that cost half that.
The feature, which will start rolling out on Wednesday, allows users to turn off political, electoral and social issue adverts from candidates and other organisations that have the "Paid for" political disclaimer. The company said it plans to make the feature available to all US users over the next few weeks and will offer it in other countries this autumn.
Everyone who works at Facebook is a Goofus and will gleefully charge Gallant for Trump ads that never get shown to anyone.
Martin Landray, Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at the Nuffield Department of Population Health, University of Oxford, one of the Chief Investigators, said, ‘Since the appearance of COVID-19 six months ago, the search has been on for treatments that can improve survival, particularly in the sickest patients. These preliminary results from the RECOVERY trial are very clear – dexamethasone reduces the risk of death among patients with severe respiratory complications.
Goofus doesn't care as long as it's not quinine. Gallant doesn't care because he keeps his parents away from nursing homes run by Andrew Cuomo.
The foundry’s director of metallurgy, Elaine Thomas, 66, of Auburn, Washington, was charged criminally with one count of major fraud against the United States. Thomas, who worked in various capacities at the lab for 40 years, was due to make an initial appearance in federal court June 30. Her attorney, John Carpenter, declined to comment.
Goofus hopes the subs sink anyway. Gallant wants his money back. Submariners would like to take Elaine for a shakedown cruise. Strapped to the hull.
Biologist Kathy Niakan and her team at the Francis Crick Institute wanted to better understand the role of a particular gene in the earliest stages of human development. So, using CRISPR, they deleted that gene in human embryos that had been donated for research. When they analyzed the edited embryos and compared them to ones that hadn’t been edited, they found something troubling: Around half of the edited embryos contained major unintended edits.
As long as human embryos are destroyed, Goofus is happy. Gallant's ex-wife donated the embryos.
A few weeks ago I stumbled across a Youtube live stream that was clearly faked. It claimed Elon Musk was giving away 5000 BTC (roughly $47 million as of June 16, 2020). I flagged it as a Bitcoin scam and I assume the feed went down once a moderator saw the flag. Then the weird part happened. Youtube’s algorithm, knowing my interest in blockchain technology and my brush with a “giveaway” now recommends subsequent scams as they go live.
Goofus works at Google and is too busy policing Zero Hedge to police YouTube scams. All of Gallant's money is tied up in ammo bought at Cabela's with cash so he's safe.
In the study, the team found that replacing half of the blood plasma of old mice with a mixture of saline and albumin — where the albumin simply replaces protein that was lost when the original blood plasma was removed — has the same or stronger rejuvenation effects on the brain, liver and muscle than pairing with young mice or young blood exchange.
Goofus is thirty-three years old and dresses like a toddler. Old age never enters his mind, except to vote for Bernie so he can collect Social Security before he graduates college. Gallant loses so much blood at his construction job that this treatment would be superfluous.
The European Commission has opened formal antitrust investigations to assess whether Apple's rules for app developers on the distribution of apps via the App Store violate EU competition rules. The investigations concern in particular the mandatory use of Apple's own proprietary in-app purchase system and restrictions on the ability of developers to inform iPhone and iPad users of alternative cheaper purchasing possibilities outside of apps.
Goofus adores Apple and the EU in equal measure, so his head might explode. Gallant has heard of Europe, but isn't quite sure if it's a real place or not, so he doesn't care one way or the other.
Vast neolithic circle of deep shafts found near Stonehenge - 
wns are a suburban real estate necessity. They are completely artificial. They rely on irrigation, fertilizer, weed and bug chemicals. etc. Like hydroponic gardening.
Thanks, Roger, for filling in our morning links once again. 
