Saturday, September 25. 2021
Fossil footprints show humans in North America more than 21,000 years ago. The footprints, the earliest firm evidence for humans in the Americas, show that people must have arrived here before the last Ice Age.
Vanderleun takes a look at deToqueville
Thousands of NYC teachers haven’t been vaxxed. What — they’re all Trump supporters?
What's that about Trump and vaccines? Trump led the way in making the vaccine happen in record time, and asked people to get it
Man, 20, and woman, 23, are arrested after cops find 21kg of carfentanil - enough to kill 50 MILLION people
Black man arrested for ‘N-word’ graffiti, swastikas at Emory University
Photographer Who Took Photos of Border Patrol's Horse Unit Takes a Sledgehammer to 'Whipping' Lie
Yet another political hoax
Melbourne Australia Police and Riot Squads Fire Upon Peaceful Protestors While Media Frame COVID Anti-Lockdown Protests as Domestic Extremists
Consequences of Failure: The Politics of Saigon and Kabul
Friday, September 24. 2021
Thursday, September 23. 2021
The Wild Cherry (aka Prunus serotina) is a common woodland tree in the eastern half of the US.
Their strands of small black and red berries ripen in September. A Wild Cherry tree in September will be full of birds until the tree is stripped. That happened here this week.
Two other facts about Wild Cherry: Its wood (Cherry) is of course a popular lumber. Its leaves are toxic (contain a cyanide precursor), so you do not want them close to horses or cattle who might nibble on them.
As seen by a friend in New England this week
Wednesday, September 22. 2021
Tuesday, September 21. 2021
Unless you are a Captain-level seaman, I advise avoiding rough waters. Lobstermen and fishermen know how to do it safely, but most recreational boaters do not. It is a skill, or an art. It takes years to get the feel. Besides that, I read that fishermen have the highest fatality rates.
The sea wants to kill you. I believe I have better feel in sail than in power.
Rough water
Related, How different hull types react in rough water
Unlike the Spring songbird migration, which comes in giant waves, Fall migration is scattered and gradual. I've seen a few fall warblers in recent days (difficult to identify because they are so drab), and our Catbirds have departed.
As in Spring, small birds (Passerines and the like) migrate at night.
For birders, the cool thing in Fall are the hawk, eagle, and, to some extent, owl migrations. They are daytime migrants. Our breeding Ospreys left last week, headed mostly for the Caribbean.
Actually, not sure about how owls move south but they do not do extensive migrations.
At Quillette: Can we have sex back?
The folly of Woke Math
New York City high school issues useless diplomas for all
INEVITABLY: Texas women in New York restaurant vaccine brawl say race a factor.
They assaulted an Asian server
How Clinton invented Trump-Russia
Indictment of Campaign Lawyer Demonstrates How Hillary Clinton Is The Most Systemically Manipulative Politician Of Our Lifetime. Hillary Clinton opreatives perpetrated a massive Russia-collusion fraud on the American public which not only manipulated the 2016 election process but also froze the Trump presidency and nearly paralyzed the nation politically for years.
Is Larry Elder in the KKK?
Z Man via Taki:
The two most important features of the long-running culture war in the United States are that the left has won every fight and the right has never learned from failure. In all of its manifestations over the years, the American right has never figured out why they lose every engagement with the left. Instead, they have internalized failure, making it a key feature of how they engage with the world.
The reason that the right never wins is they insist that facts and reason are the solution to the conflict...
VDH: The Afghanistization of America - We are doing our best to become a Third-World country of incompetency, constitutional erosion, a fractious and politicized military elite, and racially and ethnically obsessed warring tribes.
Illegal Immigrants Rush to Mexico From Texas Camp to Avoid Deportations
"It is almost as if President Franklin D. Roosevelt had stuffed his entire New Deal into one piece of legislation, or if President Lyndon B. Johnson had done the same with his Great Society, instead of pushing through individual components over several years."
Monday, September 20. 2021
Sunday, September 19. 2021
Mark 9:30-37
9:30 They went on from there and passed through Galilee. He did not want anyone to know it;
9:31 for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, "The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again."
9:32 But they did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him.
9:33 Then they came to Capernaum; and when he was in the house he asked them, "What were you arguing about on the way?"
9:34 But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another who was the greatest.
9:35 He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, "Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all."
9:36 Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them,
9:37 "Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me."
Saturday, September 18. 2021
Friday, September 17. 2021
Thursday, September 16. 2021
Wednesday, September 15. 2021
A few sips of Generations 80 Years Old from Glenlivet Distillery
No, there will be no Wooly Mammoths
Meta-dishonesty
Can better schools significantly improve the academic performance of minority kids?, I think that the answer is unequivocally yes.
As US Schools Prioritize Diversity Over Merit, China Is Becoming the World’s STEM Leader
Europe’s Climate Lesson for America. As wind power flags, energy prices are soaring amid fuel shortages.
As Biden Says Islam is Peaceful, D.C. Imam Calls for Jihad
Tuesday, September 14. 2021
His name came up in conversation this weekend and I figured Bulldog would have included his famous arch in Washington Square in our urban hike plans. I'm wondering whether there might be other White buildings near our hike.
White was a bad guy by today's standards but nobody complains about his architecture. He had a crazy, reckless life (and dramatic death), but nobody at McKim, Mead, and White made an issue of it. It's not clear to me whether his wife cared either. Despite his behavior, he was friends with everybody including Mark Twain.
Yes, he did design Rosecliff in Newport (been there?) and tons of other appealing places:
Monday, September 13. 2021
Sunday, September 12. 2021
“Believe me my young friend, there is nothing – absolutely nothing – half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.”
So says Ratty to Mole in Kenneth Grahame's classic 1908 novel 'The Wind in the Willows'.
Mark 8:27-38
8:27 Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that I am?"
8:28 And they answered him, "John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets."
8:29 He asked them, "But who do you say that I am?" Peter answered him, "You are the Messiah."
8:30 And he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him.
8:31 Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.
8:32 He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
8:33 But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, "Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things."
8:34 He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.
8:35 For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.
8:36 For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life?
8:37 Indeed, what can they give in return for their life?
8:38 Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels."
As weather gets cooler, I think today will be the last day of the year we have Rose for sunset boat drinks. I do not know how to put accents on letters, but I mean the wine.
We've done a fair bit of day touring and have learned all we can about our engine and other systems. Still practicing docking but, as I always say, boats are not designed to be near land. Next year we will take on longer overnight trips although I will never do nighttime or fog.
Saturday, September 11. 2021
Friday, September 10. 2021
The chorus of crickets chirping on these late summer evenings is one of the finest things in life, and last night they were loud. That evening bug-song has followed me through most of my life, and fills me with joy.
Field Crickets are found across the US. In New England, we have the Black Field Cricket (photo) who is at his prime in early October until the first hard frost. They are mainly nocturnal insects and eat almost anything.
Taxonomically, crickets (along with grasshoppers, locusts, katydids) are in Order Orthoptera of Class Insecta.
The males rub their forewings together producing the chirp or trill, of which the frequency is temperature-related. The function of the trill is, of course, to attract females desirous of fertilization - or to fight. Only males chirp.
Around here, we still have the Katydids singing at night along with the rapidly-growing Field Crickets. Open the windows. Or open the doors: two Field Crickets are occupying the Maggie's HQ right now, and I need to leave them some crumbs from my Subway sandwich to keep them happy.
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