Maggie's Farm

I was curious about the term. No, they are mostly not rare at all, but are materials that can be difficult to extract.

Perplexity says:  While rare earths are relatively abundant, they are difficult to extract because they are often mixed with other minerals and require complex, costly processes to separate them at usable purity levels. This makes economically exploitable deposits sparse, even though the elements themselves are widespread.

Do we load faster yet? Working on it.

Damn shame that I lost my links this morning but that won't be normal.

Instead, these Easter eggs have already hatched (Owls, hawks, and eagles lay eggs early):

Easter menus from New York’s restaurant past

Think reptiles like crocodiles and caimans are slow learners? It’s probably because you’re human.

Women unconsciously tune into infant distress, regardless of parental status, study finds

Dave Portnoy unloads on ‘lazy, entitled’ Gen Z as they take over the workplace

The Climate Crisis Con Game

Stanford Activists Charged with Felonies for Building Takeover

Trump Authorizes Military Occupation Of Public Land Along Southern Border To Repel Migrant ‘Invasions’

Trump’s aggressive approach to border pays off

CDC Staff Cuts Alarm Anti-Gun Advocates

All Eyes on Vance as Turmoil Over Gutting USAID Grows

Are the Democrats drifting further Left?

CNN Calls Poll 'Shocking' as GOP, Dems Tie on Empathy

Here’s What Blew Bill Maher’s Mind After Having Dinner With Trump

Kamala Harris mocked for reported interest in think tank creation: ‘The Coconut Tree Institute’

The Future of Foreign Aid

David Stockman On Why The Houthis Aren't America's Problem

The EU Thinks It Can Rob America Blind

The Most Important 4-Minutes On America's Middle East Wars We Have Ever Heard

Luke 19:28-40 - Entrance into the final days

19:28 After he had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.

19:29 When he had come near Bethphage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of the disciples,

19:30 saying,
"Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it you will find
tied there a colt that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it
here.

19:31If anyone asks you, 'Why are you untying it?' just say this, 'The Lord needs it.'"

19:32 So those who were sent departed and found it as he had told them.

19:33 As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, "Why are you untying the colt?"

19:34 They said, "The Lord needs it."

19:35 Then they brought it to Jesus, and after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it.

19:36 As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road.

19:37 Now
as he was approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole
multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud
voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen,

19:38 saying, "Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!"

19:39 Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, order your disciples to stop."

19:40 He answered, "I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out."

We'll have 12 or so for after-church brunch. My suggestions for our (mostly-Italian) menu:

Primi: Lasagna
Secondi: Leg of lamb with garlic and rosemary, and mint pesto
Contorni: Steamed spinach, Potatoes Anna
Dessert: Wheat Pie and cannoli

After that, a hike with family friends and kids. 

What's on your Easter menu? 

1: Those digital photo frame things are great fun. We sometimes find it challenging to figger out where our pics were taken. The 17" one is better.

2: Those metal outdoor firepits. Yes, I'd prefer a serious masonry one but you get what you can. 

Ten Environmentalist Myths

Dysfunctional parenting may lead to adult problems through personality traits like low conscientiousness

Feds’ $4.6B furniture splurge is beyond-telling abuse of taxpayer funds

California's Disastrously Run College Financial Aid Program Is Filled With Fake 'ChatGPT' Students

Saturday Miscellany

Democrats continue to run 2024 playbook, apparently unaware they have already lost

The lesson of DOGE is that there is an enormous amount of waste and fraud in everything the government does.

U.K. Educators Rewrite History to Include Gender Ideology Nonsense

 America Poured Billions into DEI Initiatives. Who Benefited?

Bill Maher Finally TELLS ALL About His Meeting at the White House With President Trump (VIDEO)

High Tax + High Welfare + Low Defence = European Good Life Threatened by Trump

If you have a bright but somewhat directionless kid who isn't interested in school or the military, I have recently been made aware of a few interesting trades that are best learned by apprenticeship: Gunsmithing, Watch Repair, and Clock Repair. Iron fabrication is cool too.

So is making upholstery and covers for boats? So many cool skills. 

My clock repair guy has a 14-month backlog. Takes a while for learning though, like most things.

San Francisco Giant? A Towering Metallic Naked Female Statue Will Now Greet Ferry Visitors in CA City

Nice

Not back from extinction

It's a simulacrum

Teachers Need To Ditch Their Union

RFK Jr. Says HHS Will Determine the Cause of Autism by September

But I can tell you today: Genetic/developmental errors

FDA reverses course on telework after layoffs and resignations threaten basic operations

TGIF: Yippy and Afraid - Americans are sent
to sweatshops, Gen Z goes to church, Mississippi becomes the education
capital of the world, real showers are back, our military is big again,
and much, much more.

DOGE Makes Three Major Findings Regarding Unemployment Benefits Fraud, Including One Discovery That Left Elon
Musk Shocked: “So Crazy I Had to Read It Several Times”

A Pragmatic Trump

 Swiss Pharma Company Announces $23 Billion U.S. Investment Days After Trump Pledged ‘Major Tariff’ on Drug Imports

Democrats Desperately Fight Against Citizenship Requirement to Vote

House Passes SAVE Act, Which Requires Proof of Citizenship to Register to Vote, It also requires “states to remove non-citizens from existing voter rolls, while giving them necessary tools to do so.”

AfD Tops Polls For First Time In History As Merz's Public Support For Chancellor Plummets

I know. We can fix it.

Bannon is thought-provoking:

And removed all of my morning links.

Formal logic is above my IQ, but I always thought of P values as meaningful while always having a skepticism about all studies.

"I am asking much of you, because this means rejecting the great bulk of modern science"

Before saying anything else, let's be clear that the diagnosis of Autism, or Autism Spectrum, has changed and expanded so much in the recent decade that far more kids have been caught in that net.

The "epidemic" is caused by changes in diagnostic criteria. Maybe, more attention to mental differences.

Even so, given the complexity of the human brain and the complexity of brain development, it's a wonder to me how often it works out sort-of ok - but never perfectly.

Autism and genetic glitches.

Terrorist Sympathizers Swarmed Grand Central Station

The American Jacobin: How Some On The Left Have Found Release In An Age Of Rage

New Research Confirms Standardized Tests Are Predictor Of 'College Success - Without Bias'

‘No Specific Memory’: Columbia University’s Armstrong Tells Feds She
Can’t Recall Specifics of Any Anti-Semitic Incident on Campus. Armstrong will now take sabbatical to 'spend time with family,' university says

Jews for Hamas

Nashville Police Lied to the Public About Transgender Killer Audrey Hale's Motivations

Let’s Kill the Republicans

VDH:  Don’t Like Trump’s Plan for the Economy? Let’s Hear Yours

President Trump’s Energy Dominance Agenda Leaves Climate Juggernaut on Brink of Collapse

Trump Makes a Huge Move Against Illegal Immigrants

The economics of Statecraft

Younger People Don’t Want to Work in Manufacturing

Wanting or Not Wanting to Work in Factories Doesn't Matter

It was Chinese imports that finally drove most US factories out of
business, taking much of our remaining industrial base with them.

By selling things Americans want

Gov Workers Can’t Figure Out How to Work in an Office Anymore

Hey Europe - Wake up

Don't Make the Mistake of Thinking That What's Now Happening is Mostly About Tariffs

The far bigger, far more important thing to keep in mind is that we are
seeing a classic breakdown of the major monetary, political, and
geopolitical orders. This sort of breakdown occurs only about once in a
lifetime, but they have happened many times in history when similar
unsustainable conditions were in place.

The History of the Domestic Cat

I do not care much for domestic cats but a barn cat might be ok.

"Having revisited “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out” last week, I thought it might
be fun to post a set of 10 songs with a New York City theme if I could
avoid show tunes and limit myself to folk, pop, and rock artists."

Why we can’t squash the common cold, even after 100 years of studying it

Benjamin Franklin’s Scandalous Praise of Vanity

This Nonprofit Got $22 Million in Government Grants to Teach Kids About Sex Toys

Protesting what?

An obituary for the greatest mass migration fiasco in American history.

Real Mann of Science™ Told to Pay National Review Legal Fees STAT

 Sedition in Rochester, New York - Sedition is ‘conduct or speech
inciting people to rebel against the authority of a state.’ That is
exactly what the concept of sanctuary cities represents.

Now It Can Be Told: "Reporters" Writing About Biden's Mental Decline Now
Admit That Everyone In DC Knew He Had "Lost a Step" In 2020, But For
Some Reason Never Reported It Until Biden Had Retired from Politics

Bill Maher Had This Acute Observation About Trump

Today's Boogeyman Is Elon Musk

Don’t be misled about what’s driving our budget deficit

European Union offers to remove industrial tariffs on US goods: ‘Ready for a good deal’

Scott Bessent is right. Cheap goods are not the American dream

Trump’s focus isn’t on the stock market; it’s on the 10-year bond market.

Our friend AVI puts this in a mental health frame but I think it's more generalizable.

T S Eliot: "Humankind cannot bear too much reality." Applies to me, for sure.

Unaware vs Denial

Harvard University: The Ivy League teaching remedial math

Ways Out of California's Forest of Problems (Part 2 of 2)

Democrats Want 'Misgendering' And 'Deadnaming' To Be Considered Child Abuse

She was America’s parenting hero. Then the backlash came. Emily Oster
set out to empower moms through data. Now she has angered everyone from
gentle parenting advocates to the medical establishment — but she
doesn’t mind at all

Lonely individuals are more likely to be sick, study finds

UConn med school drops mandatory ‘DEI-infused’ Hippocratic Oath

Oh, Look! More 'Awareness' No One Cares About: J.K. Rowling ROASTS 'International Asexuality Day'

Love on the Spectrum, Bitter Pop Queens, Studio Ghibli—and More!

SpaceX Fram2 Private Mission Successfully Concludes Historic Orbit around Earth’s Poles

Guess Why a Federal Judge Blocked Venezuelan Deportations?

Your Discomfort Means It's Working

If Trump’s Tariffs Work, It Will Be Epic

Musk Says He Hopes for 'Zero Tariffs' between US and Europe

Could it be that Trump really knows what he’s doing?

Destined for Defeat: Behind the Democratic Disaster of 2024

Times Finds Evidence Suggesting Hunter Acted As Foreign Agent

Why the left fears Tulsi Gabbard, even as she protects America

Alice Weidel’s Right-Wing AfD Surges to the Top and Is Now Tied with Incoming Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s CDU

John 12:1-8 - Mary anoints Jesus for his burial

12:1 Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead.

12:2 There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him.

12:3 Mary
took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus's
feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the
fragrance of the perfume.

12:4 But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said,

12:5 "Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?"

12:6 (He said this not because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.)

12:7 Jesus said, "Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial.

12:8 You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me."