Maggie's Farm

Your microwave is a Faraday Cage, and other good advice.

I've been boating in thunderstorms. Not recommended.

We are lucky to have readers all over the world. To all of our American readers, Happy 4th of July.

I blame climate change.

Even in theory? Much less a marine alternator...Yeah, we had to make a little one in Jr. High School Science. Fun with wires and magnets and stuff. But a functional explosion-proof marine one? God forbid. A/C current is cool.

The people who design and make such things are smarter than I am. 

That Pompeii fresco could never have been pizza as we think of it. Sure, humans have put stuff on breads since bread was first made because bread alone is boring. It probably was like focaccia with stuff on it. No tomato or mozzarella though. Maybe fruit, oil, herbs.

Pastry stuff less boring, as in our galette post yesterday. Looks like a pizza.

While the typical Italian-American "tomato pie" is what Americans tend to think of, pretty much anything can be cooked on a pizza crust. In Southern Italy and Sicily, the menu will have 40-50 choices, most without tomato. Consider figs with goat cheese.

Or, in my photo from Sicily, egg and olive with pureed red pepper. 

 Some US cities are replacing 4th of July fireworks with environmentally friendly drones

Isn't the noise the thrill? 

 Success Academy smashes Regents AND lefty lies on standardized testing

Wow. Do NYC charter schools admit any white kids?

 RFK Jr. denounces Supreme Court ruling striking down affirmative action

Hmmm 

 Musk's Tweet-Limiting Move Is To Prevent The Completion Of The "AI-Censorship-Death-Star"

 And Just Like That, Sex Talk Comes to Work. Younger workers have less sex, but they talk about it at the office

 I'm Afraid We Have To Talk About "Her Penis"

 The trans revolution, the most startling and unforeseeable in human history, is all the more remarkable for its scientific illiteracy and philosophical incoherence. 

 Defiant Harvard vows to continue to use race in admissions decisions

Of course. They do not want to be an all-Asian school 

 The shoplifting epidemic taking over America with a $100B annual price tag

 Asian Americans Celebrate Affirmative Action Ruling With 5-Minute Study Break

 More gloomy news from Biden! White House backs plan to BLOCK sunlight from hitting surface of the Earth in bid to limit global warming

 Bill Gates wants to spray millions of tonnes of CHALK into the stratosphere to reflect sunlight and slow global warming 

EVs pay no gas taxes 

 LIBERALS BECLOWN THEMSELVES IN REACTION TO SCOTUS DECISIONS

 Winsome Sears Nukes Ketanji Brown Jackson's Dissent: ‘Chosen Because She’s Black’

 Michelle Obama rage-tweets about blacks being oppressed -- from a fancy Greek yacht vacay out in the Mediterranean

THE FRENCH RIOTS: WHAT HAPPENED?

 France Has Fallen: Migrant Mob Torch Mayor’s Home, Wife and Kids Injured Escaping

 The Wagner 'Coup' Was Staged by Putin—and the West Fell for It | Opinion

It's like a fruit pizza, with pastry dough.

As reader commented, "easier than pie." 

Recipes here. 

It's not a law, it's a rule of thumb. What is the Pareto Principle?

Politics has made me more aware of race. The crazy thing is that in my life (say, in my gym or walking down a street in NYC), it's often difficult to identify many peoples' races. Lots of mixing. Given centuries, how many American-born "blacks" are pure genetically southern African? It's rare, but I think Clarence Thomas is one. And I don't know what "Hispanic" means, but I have known a guy whose father was a Spanish aristocrat who got into Princeton, in part, as a Hispanic. Impressive person.

People, especially those with resources, often game college admissions for the most competitive and well-known names.  That's how people tend to be. Despite the Supremes, very few colleges are highly-competitive. America has thousands of colleges, and most will give almost anybody a try. They need warm seats, and can be excellent for motivated young men and women.

What is the history of the Racial Diversity ethic?  The always thoughtful Peter Wood: Why the Supreme Court’s Harvard decision matters

8 Surefire Ways To Get Your Wife To Stop Being Mad At You

 Glorious Renée Fleming on her Kennedy Center honor and wild, globe-hopping tour

 Feminists have a greater preference for premium beauty products, study finds

 Why do people think conservatives are mean?

WSJ: Why K-12 education is in decline 

 Rochelle Walensky: America needs more despair

How Higher Ed operates as a cut-throat business 

TGIF:  Affirmative action is illegal. Hunter Biden is unlawful. D.C. murders are up. Media profits are down. Plus, DeSantis reminds us he’s running for president.

 Yesterday, Public reported on the new House Judiciary Commiteee report on how the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has been engaged in an effort with big tech companies to censor American citizens.

 Traumatized DeSantis Venezuelans: Martha's Vineyard ROCKS!

Powerline:  Disparate treatment on the basis of race is wrong. Racial discrimination is wrong. Today is a great day for the United States.

 ‘Affirmative Action’ Was Racist from Day One — And It Will Continue

Harsanyi:  Justice Jackson is free to make the case that our history has robbed black Americans of their agency, and so the Fourteenth Amendment should be rewritten. She is free to believe that Asian Americans and whites, and perhaps others, do not deserve equal protection under the law. But those arguments belong in the editorial pages of The Atlantic or The New York Times, not in the Supreme Court.

Tucker on RFK Jr and Covid

Yes, politics is entertainment. It's fun the way the Dems now term RFK "the threat to democracy and science." Sheesh - I thought Trump was. All he does is ask questions, but not too medically-sophisticated. Not dangerous. True, he has an allegedly ugly Kennedy-esque past which will all come to light (not just the drugs) but nobody's perfect.

Tucker is wrong about autism. There is an explanation for the diagnosis rise: the diagnostic criteria changed to include many people who had been called Asperger's or other sort-off odd and eccentric things. 

Tucker is right about upspeak/uptalk. It is awful. 

Is Bobby Kennedy now the most censored person in the US? 

The Supremes' decision on affirmative action, I think, will make no practical difference. It's very American, though, to say that nobody is special. 

His comment on Justice Roberts' majority decision:

He's a bright, but more verbal (despite his hoarse voice), guy with what used to be a magic last name. Doubt I would vote for him but I'd be glad to have a beer with him.

He's being censored. 

Image from somewhere 

 An Enormous Gravity ‘Hum’ Moves Through the Universe

Yeah. I thought it was my tinnitus but it's probably climate change 

World Gone Cuckoo - Theodore Dalrymple

Spectator:  You can never escape the suburbs. How I learned to stop worrying and love the ’burbs

 Netherlands euthanizing autistic and intellectually handicapped people, researcher finds

 Jordan Peterson battles in court over demand to undergo remedial training or lose license

 UCLA refuses to hire professor who criticised DEI. Yoel Inbar's appointment has been blocked by a student petition

 The Demise of the Garage Inventor - How Hollywood forgot the tinkering dad

 NYC Mandates All Pizza Must Be Cooked Under A Bathroom Hand Dryer

 SWEDEN GOES NUCLEAR

 Man, I love hard work. I could watch it all day.

Closing schools, forcing them to wear masks and endure the hardships of social distancing, and vaccinating them, could only be justified in terms of stopping community spread. None of these measures had a reasonable impact on the dynamics of infection.

 At $200B, COVID Aid was the Biggest Fraud in History. "17 percent of all funds issued under the two programs"

 Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs Signs Executive Order to Allow State Employee to Have Sex Change Surgeries Covered By Health Insurance

Sheesh. At the least it's cosmetic surgery for Self-dysphoria

 "Nonbinary" claims in NJ are "skyrocketing"

 250 Hollywood Celebrities Sign Letter Demanding Big Tech Censor Anyone Who Opposes Trans Surgeries On Kids

Social contagion is an interesting phenomenon 

 Even progressive voters don’t like racial affirmative action

Ramaswamy on cultural rot

 THE NEW YORK TIMES CONFIRMS IT: IRS WHISTLEBLOWER TOLD THE TRUTH

Two of Aaron Burr's homes (downtown and uptown), and Hamilton's farmhouse, are still be be seen on Manhattan. 

That's Mrs. BD's brief review after seeing "Hamilton" on Broadway last night. She's well-informed about such things. Snippets:

Musk is a common-sense fellow, and good fun. Tucker interviewed Elon Musk a few days ago:

 Still Waiting For The Magical Future Of Free Wind Power

 Why Pride lost the public - ‘Gays and women are bearing the brunt of the gender ideology nonsense’

 NYT Accidentally Shows Why Sex Changes Are So Dangerous

Economist: Should you send your children to private school? As shortcuts to elite universities, American schools work better than British ones

 School performance is even worse than you think

 Biden Admin Says Its COVID Spending for Schools Will Boost Test Scores. Districts Used the Funds for Staff Bonuses.

 Professor admits American flag makes him 'anxious' during Flag Day interview

 Out-of-Touch Obama in Massive Self-Awareness Fail

 NYC Milestone: Migrants Outnumber New Yorkers in Homeless Shelters

 Tucker Carlson Dares To Ask "Why Exactly Are We At War With Russia?"

It's always good for a reminder: Marine VHF Radio: The Basics

We're told it's always a good idea to have a hand-held VHF too. If not a boater, it's interesting anyway.