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- In the Infosphere, United States
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Felix Jumper
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My dentist said he needed a hand like this...
3,525 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 801 – 1000 of 3525 Newer› Newest»Now that I'm home, it turns out that a cycad flushed out an entire new set of leaves while I was gone, and a native green fly orchid came into flower. Not spectacular, but lovely. Gobs of flowers. It must be a happy plant.
We're in rainy season. Not much quantity locally, but there's a bit of cabin fever among the locals. There's a planned visit to Orlando on Saturday.
We finally planned our summer trip. We are driving to to Glacier National Park and back. We're going to hit places like Jasper, Banff, Coeur D'Alene and go to the Calgary Stampede.
Thanks, Calypso. I am not 100% sure if I will go because there is always the possibility of a health emergency popping up, but for now I pretend I am going, in August.
Since we have electric storms here daily with lots of rain, the slugs are proliferating to unbelievable numbers. I tried for the first time diatomaceous earth, which I sprinkled around the seedlings. That worked very well, even with all that rain.
But my early morning slug picking still is very successful, too.
Amazon buys Whole Foods, Walmart buys Bonobos.
Dave, which one will become the 800-pound gorilla? ;-)
(Yes, yes, I realize a Bonobo is instead a type of chimpanzee, but I Just.Couldn't.Resist).
And Lidl is taking a whack at the US market. Virginia through South Carolina for starters. Sounds like they're going after Food Lion.
Aldi is still not yet coming to us, even as we're getting a second Wawa.
Walmart + Bonobos seems an extremely odd combo. I assume the latter's internet marketing must be among the best, but I assume their customers are precisely the people who would never patronize Walmart.
Has anyone else seen this "Make America Sober Again" commercial on TV yet? I can't seem to discover via Google what group is behind it. Obviously I have no objection to sobriety as a way of life. Yet I find this text, narration, patriotic imagery and even background music disquieting, to say the least:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHu3S8z_FcY
Bonobos is a funny name for a men's clothing store. Those chimpanzees live in pretty much female dominated societies.
Bonobos pants were fairly un-serious, un-macho. You can get clothing for hunting elk in wildernesses elsewhere.
I'm thankful to have made one visit to Cuba. I should perhaps fly to Havana or Cienfuegos just for the heck of it, before the door slams shut. I'm not big on doing a cruise with minders. Too communist.
Maybe Trump is tightening restrictions on US tourism to Cuba because he wants to leverage Cuba, in order broker a deal to build Trump resorts, golf clubs and casinos there. Wouldn't put it past him.
Yellojkt, that sounds like a great trip. I love Glacier NP, although the glaciers are disappearing. Very busy in the summer. We lived near there for about a year, and I would love to get back sometime. Get some huckleberries! Jasper and Banff are beautiful - saw bighorn sheep many years ago near Jasper. I've never been to the Calgary Stampede, but it looks like fun. Some friends of ours wound up there during the Stampede by accident, and they had a good time.
I'm having a heck of a time getting my garden going. Still cool and rainy here. We need some warmth. I broke down and bought some tomato and pepper plants, and even a squash, because my seeds weren't germinating. Now of course a few have, even an acorn squash (I bought a zucchini).
seasea
Rice.
I'm finishing my bag of Jasmine rice (Thai). It's good, except I can't seem to wash it thoroughly enough to make it non-sticky. So I think the next bag will be Basmati again, which can be made fluffy with washing. Does that seem reasonable, or can Jasmine rice be tamed?
Seasea, I don't understand starting with seeds rather than seedlings from the nursery unless you're going to grow hundreds where the cost difference might matter, or the nursery doesn't have a variety you require. Their seedlings are viable -- you can look and pick the best ones. At least that applies to me here in SoCal; maybe in a region where only a few things will grow without special treatment and therefore the nursery has little selection, the decision is different.
Why would you want your rice not to be sticky? For the most part, stickiness is a function of how much water you use. Each variety (and even brand) can be a bit different. Just keep decreasing the amount of water you put in the rice cooker. You do have a rice cooker, don't you?
You can roughly divide rice into long- and short grain. Long grain has less surface starch therefore is less sticky.
The Newquay photos are up.
https://flic.kr/s/aHskXoNrKk
And Syon Park
https://flic.kr/s/aHsm2N8CQR
I tend to forget how lovely the English landscape usually is. If it weren't for the baked tomatoes for breakfast and the weather I'd really like to go back.
Great pictures.
I was surprised that some of the bus and train photos turned out rather nicely.
Personal favorites were a pair of Tolcarne Beach at Newquay. Nice colors withs some sort of purple hollyhock in the right corner. A few shots were more or less hand-colored via Lightroom. An unpromising, underexposed image would turn out to have some lurking color, which could be encouraged.
My favorite rice dish is the Persian one where first it's boiled and drained, and some butter is put into the bottom of the dish and then it's slowly cooked until the bottom layer is caramelized. It's my experience that Persian and Indian rice, that may have saffron, is fluffy, not sticky, probably Basmati, and washing it is part of getting it not to stick. I probably eat more sticky than fluffy rice, because I consume a lot of sushi, but when I make it in the rice cooker I don't intend it to come out sticky. I will not get more Jasmine rice, as it seems it's always sticky, despite having relatively long grains. (For the Persian rice with the crust on the bottom, I boil it rather than use the rice cooker.)
gmbka, you don't like broiled (probably) tomatoes? My main dislike of English B&B breakfasts in 1958 (long ago = more "authentic") was the toast was dry and cold, having been toasted a long time before, and the bacon rind was not removed. I liked the eggs and tomatoes, never having tomatoes for breakfast here in the US. Maybe that started as a source of vitamin C because they didn't have orange juice, but could grow tomatoes in hothouses.
To make the Persian rice, boil it with extra water. The idea is to cook the rice and then pour off the excess water and the starch in the water, not to incorporate all the water and starch into the rice, which what a rice cooker does.
Dave, it's interesting that you travel the world, seeking out surfers, even though apparently you don't surf at those places. I would not take a picture of flat ocean water with a few people on surfboards apparently waiting for a wave to appear, but what pictures would I take that aren't beautiful but tell a story? My favorites were sheep in Oz, how a flock observes strict alignment protocols. And then the groups of Japanese tourists, who take pictures of themselves in front of the shrine (or the Grand Canyon), rather than of the shrine.
I have some Kodak 35 mm slide carousels of pretty good pictures. I've asked my sister, a semi-pro photographer, for a suggestion on how to turn them into digital images. They are mostly 30 yrs or more old but my favorite Agfachrome seems to hold up well. Maybe I'll be able to post them.
I've long been more of a swimmer than surfer, with a Florida habit of keeping swim fins in the car if anywhere near a beach; now, I'm severely limited by what the doctors call dizziness--not being able to go from prone to erect without a short spell of disorientation. Of course bodyboards are OK.
In New Zealand, I badly strained something in my right knee the day after arrival (in downtown Wellington, no less) and was reduced to limping around. Toward the end of the trip, I was good enough for a long swim at Raglan beach, which proved therapeutic. Cornwall was messed up by a small corneal ulcer on the right eye; I was doing eye drops four times a day. I was well behaved and kept my eye dry.
In London, I walked past a familiar store, James Smith & Sons, the umbrella and cane shop on Oxford Street near the British Museum and picked up a clever folding cane for the next knee disaster, cut to precisely the right length.
I inadvertently had an hour and a half to kill waiting for a train, so got that pile of shots of the circular surf lesson ritual (another surf-lesson outfit at another beach was much more interested in getting the students to dash in and out of the water, even doing a few mock group rescues). I was vaguely impressed by the Aldi-Travelodge building overlooking the beach. A cheap hotel with a good view and a reasonable walk down the cliff.
BTW, I've got a big pile of old Kodachromes, Agfachromes, and Fujichromes that ought to get transferred to digital format. A local store that used to do it finally closed.
Ugh, Dave, you look too young to have those health problems.
Ritual and cult came to my mind when I saw the picture of the surf lesson and I consider you a passive member of this cult.
What fascinates me about those surfing pictures is that they tell the story of people who chose to use an element to prove with knowledge and skill that they can master it. It seems that for many nature presents a challenge, whether they climb rocks, kayak on whitewater, ski, or surf waves.
The closest I ever came in this regard was hiking up mountains for hours, just for the feeling of satisfaction that standing on the summit and enjoying the view provides. Odd indeed, but I liked it.
Yesterday I made the most delicious dessert for a hot summer day.
Recipe for Sweet Lasagne
Cover the bottom of a flat dish with lady fingers, completely cover them with a mixture of yogurt and mascarpone, put about a pound of raspberries on top and refrigerate for 4 hours. Sprinkle with grated white chocolate.
Everybody took seconds.
I don't think anyone masters the ocean. At best, they learn to respect it.
Have been plodding along on work (in tortoise mode).
William Finnegan's memoir "Barbarian Days" earned its Pulitzer. He's taken to surfing Long Island and New Jersey in winter, and writes that he's taken to swimming a mile a day.
Speaking of winter surfing...
http://wbur.org/onlyagame/2013/03/09/sufs-up-lake-superior (sic]
I met an actual Great Lakes surfer, some seven years ago. The Lake Superior ones are somewhat crazy, more for the air temperature than the water. Of course I've never dealt with really cold water. Oregon doesn't count.
In the Georgia congressional race, it appears Republicans are ahead in early voting by some 11 percent. Assuming Republican-registered voters are voting for the Republican.
Macron's party won the absolute majority in the parliamentary election, a result Mrs. May was dreaming about. The drawback is that just a little more than half of the electorate showed up at the polling stations.
Listening to BBC World Service for updates. "Van strikes crowd near mosque in London; one person is arrested":
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/van-strikes-crowd-outside-mosque-in-london-one-person-is-arrested/2017/06/18/5a93993e-5489-11e7-b38e-35fd8e0c288f_story.html
One chatter indicated that Fox News is doing its usual shameful job of coverage.
Bus trip to St. Ives, a town that is as twee and classy as Newquay is somewhat rude and tacky.
https://flic.kr/s/aHskXi3DUh
The Leach Pottery museum and workshop has tight connections to the Mashiko Museum north of Tokyo, which by chance I visited last fall (it was part of the tour).
http://www.mashiko-museum.jp/en/index.html
In turn, there is a looser connection to Rick Rudd's Quartz Museum of Studio Ceramics in New Zealand, visited this spring.
http://www.visitwhanganui.nz/quartz-museum-studio-ceramics-whanganui/
Chutzpah 101 (I never could've made thus up). "Creationist Ken Ham Blames Atheists For Ark Park Failure":
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/progressivesecularhumanist/2017/06/creationist-ken-ham-blames-atheists-ark-park-failure/
"How Cats Used Humans to Conquer the World / Ancient DNA from 209 cats over 9,000 years tell the story of their dispersal":
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/06/cat-domination/530685 (love the kitty in the photo at the top!)
Surfing the Great Lakes?!
All right, Dave. YOU WANT A WAR??!!
I can't un-see that image of the Great Lakes surfer in my mind.
Don't think about this!
http://www.freakingnews.com/pictures/54000/Al-Pacino-Artichoke-54219.jpg
The University of Florida is figuring out how to grow artichokes in Florida. They need a bit of air conditioning, it seems.
Neat little b&w film from a Cornwall clothing and surfing lifestyle enterprise. I missed their St. Agnes main store, visited their London outpost, a carefully low-key shop in a low-key but likely high-rent corner of Covent Garden.
https://vimeo.com/201834586
Dave, mightn't Globe artichokes have to be cultivated in air-conditioned greenhouses in such a warm climate as Florida's? After all, they thrive along California's central coast, including the area where Boodler Pacifica lives.
Would greenhouse pineapples be a more remunerative greenhouse crop in Florida?
I think it was something to the effect that artichokes (at least some varieties) needed chilling only for a short time. Of course they'd never make a summer crop.
Jumper, I'll see your Al Pacino and raise you THIS:
http://c8.alamy.com/comp/A9PHFK/giant-artichoke-at-the-giant-artichoke-restaurant-castroville-california-A9PHFK.jpg (the conventional rooms evidently were added on later)
Artichokes are perennial plants, a member of the thistle family (hence the prickly choke in more mature heads):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artichoke
According to Barbara Damrosch, who knows everything, an artichoke won't bloom during its first year so you have to chill it briefly to make it think that winter has come and gone.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/home/raising-artichokes-from-seed/2014/08/05/d6028ebc-1716-11e4-88f7-96ed767bb747_story.html?utm_term=.82cb4591cdc3
So, there you are, a sneaky gardener, getting ready to deceive a trusting artichoke plant --
How to grow artichokes in Florida. The cheating is by using a plant hormone (gibberellic acid) instead of chilling.
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/hs1289
Early in my home gardening "career," I'd try to game the weather in order to have a double season for hardier crops, as well as earn bragging rights for the earliest tomatoes, beans, corn, etc. But it was a lot of work (as Dena Dietrich famously said in the old margarine commercial, "It's not nice to fool Mother Nature").
Ultimately I decided it wasn't worth all the trouble. Instead, I learned to "go with the flow" and plant each crop for its optimal growing season, which produced just as good (if not better) yields with less work. Ever since Mr. P had to take over yard duties, he's become even more mid-season than I ever was, and doesn't even try for a second early crop, except for salad greens.
I liked starting crops from seed, and even saved some of my own open-pollinated tomato seeds, selecting for traits like earliness and size. E.g., I'd typically transplant 10 dozen tomato seedlings, so it was cost-effective to start my own indoors rather than buy. The only seeds I had difficulty starting were celery, so would buy a half-dozen seedlings to transplant; I'd use the stalks and leaves on a cut-and-come-again basis, like parsley and other herbs and greens, rather than harvesting the entire head (like in the store).
Clarification: Spring and fall crops of salad greens, since the plants bolt in the summer heat.
I've been re-watching the two seasons of Alpha House. It's kind of a kinder gentler Veep. In season 2 one character (Senator Louis Laffer-R-Nevada) is in an electoral contest by Penn Jillette (as himself). In the season finale, while tied in the polls, he offers this speech while bowing out of the race:
Interviewer: It looks like you got another bump in the polls last Friday.
Jillette: Really, are you serious. I didn't campaign last week. I was on vacation in Maui.
Interviewer: People loved it apparently. You're running dead even with Laffer.
Jillette: This is insane.
Jillette (staring into the camera): Listen Folks! An election is serious business. We need our elected officials to be qualified. I ran because (1) I have nothing to do during the day, (2) I crave attention, and (3) Libertarian views don't get aired enough. So that means I should be in the United States Senate? I'm a magician for christ sake! An entertainer, I run naked through the Bellagio fountains to promote my show. I say F*CK on TV! I paint my fingernail. I pull down $100-grand a night for pulling rabbits out of my a**. You want me for Senator? What is wrong with you people? Do you totally hate democracy?
Jillette (turning back to the interviewer): I'm sorry John, this is just so f***-ed up.
Jillette (staring back into the camera): The seat is yours Louis. Enjoy.
This aired in October of 2014. I wish it had penetrated the public consciousness at the time...
Good show, wish it had carried on.
"How Cute Animals Could Save Your Marriage":
http://health.usnews.com/wellness/health-buzz/articles/2017-06-20/how-cute-animals-could-save-your-marriage
Zooborns, anyone? :-)
I'm a day or two behind, so don't know if this has been mentioned yet. It's a story about John McPhee. Excerpts from "Oranges", some history of his joining New Yorker, and one thing leads to another.
http://www.oxfordamerican.org/magazine/item/1233-after-oranges
Jim, are you in the grips of that terrible western heatwave? Or are you near enough the ocean to be enjoying some relief? Friends of mine in the Central Valley are roasting, and the news reports re Phoenix's airport are amazing (Embraer planes not being allowed to fly due to the heat).
Today the forecast was 100 (San Fernando Valley), but it only got to 95 in my back yard. I didn't venture out, and the AC kept the house pleasant. The forecast for Death Valley was close to 130!
Supposed to be hotter tomorrow.
"Oranges" reminds me of Riverside, CA, where I went to college. From the 1880s, the orange industry developed. The "parent navel orange" is still there, imported from Brazil in the 1870s, with a stopover in Florida, where that variety didn't do very well. Navel oranges would go for a dollar on the east coast (not so much for the growers, but still a lot), and that's 1900 dollars! For my Chicago-born dad, an orange was a common Christmas stocking gift, and I got them when I was young (although, living in SoCal, they weren't luxuries). As a result, Riverside was fabulously wealthy for a while. Then I suppose the orangiers, if there is such a word, decided their land was more valuable as urban real estate, a pretty common phenomenon, which I guess will continue worldwide as farm land shrinks, and eventually there is so little that the population has to stabilize, or maybe we all learn to eat crickets.
So the Dems fail to win seats in GA and SC. Will they ever learn that they need to have policies that the Drumpf voters might support, rather than just assuming that because he's such a jerk that people will vote against the party he's associated with.
Jim, I'm reminded of the 1920s, with the stupid and corrupt Harding, callous Coolidge and ineffectual Hoover. Only when red-state underclass Trump supporters get their oxes seriously gored (e.g., for want of adequate medical care) will they wake up and smell the [whatever].
Ditto for Republicans in 1958 after six years of doddering old Ike, in what was then the worst Recession since the Great Depression, when many future Democratic lions were swept into office.
Would I ever be grateful to have doddering old Ike back now.
NP, by oxen seriously gored, do you mean the great depression? I hope it doesn't have to come to that. The last version of nearly that gave us Obama, but of course he had personal attributes the Confederacy people could never support, so they opposed everything with his name on it, good policy or not. Stupid way to govern. (Who's today's Dem FDR, a member of the ruling class?)
Democrats in the "ruling class"? If you mean pedigree:
Joe Biden (self-made).
Jerry Brown (whose father was elected Governor in the aforementioned 1958 tidal wave). Alas, Jerry's getting up in years.
Andrew Cuomo (son of Mario).
Mark Dayton (scion of wealthy Minnesota family).
Tom Udall (from eminent Democratic political family).
Beautiful work. "A Syrian artist’s ‘sweet revenge’: Painting Trump and other world leaders as starving refugees":
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/06/20/a-syrian-artists-sweet-revenge-painting-trump-and-other-world-leaders-as-starving-refugees
The Democrats failed to gain seats in the special elections. This pretty much shatters my hopes that they could take back Congress next year. The people prefer Trump and his party and to emigrate is attractive again.
Jim, it wouldn't take a full-scale Depression, just a Recession à la 2008.
In response to your query "Who's today's Dem FDR, a member of the ruling class?" I thought of two who might have been: JFK Jr. and Beau Biden.
The district was +10 R which is really conservative. Price won it by +23 7 months ago. Ossoff lost by +5. The estimate is "on track for 40 seats, not 80."
That said, while this really turned out the Dem vote in GA-08 wich will help for the seat runoff in August for Session's old seat (temporarily filled by Strange).... I am really concerned that the elections are hacked and that it may not be fixed by 2018 unless we can take all the people involved down, disrupt Russian hacking and GOP dirty tricks.
Ossoff got exactly the percentage he got in the runoff. A bit suspicious, IMO.
But its over and we can move on to the immediate battles-- health care, etc.
By the way, Joel is continuing his opiod abuse crisis series in America. Latest went up yesterday on 20th. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2017/06/20/in-just-one-year-nearly-1-3-million-americans-needed-hospital-care-for-opioid-related-issues/
I admit these articles would not make great kits, but he is really working on this and I really hope this makes a difference, whether he wins a Pulitzer for it or not.
I must say he is getting a lot of comments on these stories. Quite a few are chronic pain patients who worry about the backlash on their medical needs, others are former opiate users who never became addicted.
If this kind of traffic is a sign, I think he's doing good.
The comments have been worth reading, perhaps a sign of well written stories.
The opioid epidemic is hugely important, something every major media outlet needs to cover, but also something where outstanding coverage seems difficult. There's been excellent visits to affected communities, some good analyses of what it may take for communities to recover from outbreaks (and it does seem to be a community problem), but I think it's difficult for a single paper, however good, to stand out in the mass of coverage.
Government statistics matter a lot, and I suspect that statistics will mysteriously stop being reported. What we'll get is "it's morning in Kentucky!"
A short and despairing piece on "Chris Christie's Opioid Commission and the Future of the A.C.A." at the New Yorker.
http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/chris-christies-opioid-commission-and-the-future-of-the-aca?mbid=nl__daily&CNDID=38981442&mbid=nl_TNY%20Template%20-%20With%20Photo%20(183)&CNDID=38981442&spMailingID=11311245&spUserID=MTMzMTg0NTUwMTkyS0&spJobID=1181828862&spReportId=MTE4MTgyODg2MgS2
Of course the Affordable Care Act will be ditched, just when Medicaid expansion is essential for treating the addicted (I wonder what's going on in Florida, where there's no expansion and likely few programs, but lots and lots of drugs).
Re opioids, I have maybe 10 Vicodins left from my back surgery a few years ago. Initially I would have one daily, then less, and now I haven't had any for a few years, after the pain got down to the level that naproxen would deal with it instead. They are great for major pain. The last one I had was after refereeing a soccer game, where they assigned me to a game above the level I wanted. Let's not assume everyone taking these pills is an addict -- they have a real use.
Opioids are extremely important drugs, as are garden-variety pain relievers and anti-inflamatories. Recently, when hobbled by knee pain, one ibuprofen a day (I'm supposed to just use acetaminophen) was very effective.
Ibuprofen has been proven to be very effective in our family, too, but unfortunately it is contraindicated for coumadin users.
This SLAPP [Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation] will likely have a "Streisand Effect" of attracting even further negative public attention to Murray Energy and its eponymous CEO.
"John Oliver, a giant squirrel and a defamation lawsuit by a coal industry titan":
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/06/22/john-oliver-a-giant-squirrel-and-a-defamation-lawsuit-by-a-coal-industry-titan
...Murray was a “geriatric Dr. Evil,” he said, who mistreated his employees and tried to weaken coal safety regulations through litigation. He suggested Murray was “on the same side as black lung” and criticized his response to a deadly 2007 mine accident in Utah found to have been caused by safety violations.
He called up a satirical article in the United Mine Workers of America’s journal that described a squirrel hopping onto Murray’s porch and telling him, “You should be operating your very own mines” (the company said this was not, in fact, a true story).
Finally, in a stunt fit only for late night television, Oliver brought out a man in a giant squirrel costume and paraded him around the stage... [see video of squirrel embedded in article]
Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation [SLAPP]:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_lawsuit_against_public_participation
Do NOT drink any liquids while reading this article, unless you want to clean up a lot of spray from your computer screen and keyboard.
"Trump: Russian interference is ‘all a big Dem HOAX!’":
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2017/06/22/trump-russian-interference-is-all-a-big-dem-hoax
As your humble commenter observed:
Yet in summer 2016 Trump called on guess who, Russia, to turn over additional material they'd hacked from the DNC to Wikileaks. Ya can't have it both ways, Donnie!
Let's go to the tape...
Ibuprofen has been nicknamed Vitamin I among my dance crowd. It's used quite heavily on festival weekends.
I'm moving away from it. My family is sensitive to nsaids.
Am I the only Boodler who still tolerates aspirin well? Not that I need it often, maybe a pair of tablets once every few weeks for a headache or backache. It was originally considered a miracle drug, derived from willow bark:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspirin#History
The history of Ibuprofen is interesting. Boots, a chain of chemist's shops (pharmacies) in the UK was making a lot of money selling aspirin, but Bayer in Germany was making the real money, so Boots wanted its own analgesic. Dr Adams worked through the 50s on various formulations, and eventually hit on one that cured his own hangover! That's what we now know as Dr I.
http://www.bbc.com/news/health-34798438
Various features of ACA will be phased out, but not for a few years, until after the 2018 and maybe 2020 elections. If I were an insurer, would it make sense for me to phase out those features right away, even though I don't need to? In other words, the Rs want to hide the effects for as long as possible, but insurers may not want short-term policy holders who depend on subsidies, and might end some programs right away.
Not to mention that when you have a R majority in Congress and POTUS, the uncertainty is much higher. Companies of all sorts, esp those with a lot at risk like the insurance industry.
If we had single payer, everyone pays like Medicare, it would be so much simpler. I wonder how many people involved in denying claims (a million?) would lose a job, and how that would be advertised.
We can expect a boom in claim-denial jobs over the next few years.
It looks like employers will be less obliged to provided health insurance to employees (and won't be held to standards) so more people will be on the individual markets, which of course will rapidly become loaded with worthless "insurance." May Republican members of Congress, who will be on the individual markets, buy stinking policies and get easily treated but horribly expensive health problems.
I don't know employers have ever been obliged to offer group health insurance. Starting in WW2 employers have been able to do that without their contribution being part of the employees' income, which is effectively a benefit. As long as the deduction exists, employers would be likely to offer this. Or even if the deduction didn't exist, it might still be better for the employee to belong to the employer's large group with no conditions, if the employer had a lot of employees.
More detail. I work for a company with about 200,000 employees, and elect one of the more expensive group health insurance plans. That costs about $15K per year for me and spouse, of which I "pay" $6K and the employer "pays" $9K. The $9K does not count as income for me, so I save about $3K in taxes. But even if I had to pay that in taxes, I think I would be better off than buying that same insurance in the individual market.
The Affordable Care Act has an insurance mandate for employers with more than 50 employees. There were widespread complaints that small businesses would avoid expanding so as to escape the mandate. It seems not to have been so much of a problem.
https://www.irs.gov/affordable-care-act/employers/employer-shared-responsibility-provisions
Especially for Dave. Did anyone else see this on the CBS Evening News? Mr. P and I had the same reaction re the risks of being unable to spot sharks very well.
"Surfers take to the night to avoid crowds":
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/surfers-ride-waves-at-night-to-avoid-crowds/
Seems to me like playing golf at night. It would be harder to maintain balance without vision -- staying aligned with vertical features or perpendicular to horizontal features in the environment is an important if unappreciated part of it.
Night surfing is an oddity. You don't need that much light and as for sharks, they tend not to be seen anyway. Fistral beach in Newquay, Cornwall was going to hold a nigh surfing event. I suppose that means lots of lights aimed at the water, probably blinding the surfers.
Here's a video on the making of a night surfing video in a huge water park wave pool (like Disney's Typhoon Lagoon but bigger and better) in the Canary Islands. Then you can watch the polished video with its graceful piano soundtrack.
https://vimeo.com/26338701
Big ambitions for maple syrup.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-39375257
1. Yummmm,maple syrup. I need to make some Belgian waffles soon.
2. If you watched the "Bread" episode of Great British Baking Show, here's the recipe for the technical challenge Dampfnudel:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/dampfnudel_36590
Have any boodlers ever had them?
3. I hope they nab some of the Neo-Nazis responsible for the creation, placing and upkeep of the granite marker. Surely they broke *some* laws. "Six Nazi spies were executed in D.C. White supremacists gave them a memorial — on federal land":
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2017/06/23/six-nazi-spies-were-executed-in-d-c-white-supremacists-gave-them-a-memorial-on-federal-land
Architect David Adjaye, known in Washington for the National Museum of African American History and Culture, has signed on to design a new library and civic center for Winter Park, an old, leafy, and affluent suburb of Orlando, the one with a museum full of Louis Comfort Tiffany glass and other works. It'll be a $30 million project. (Orlando Sentinel).
From the Orlando Sentinel's story on the Florida Democratic Party:
"But the party raised $843,000 in the first quarter of 2017, less than the $1.1 million it raised in the same time period in 2013, the year after the previous presidential election. Republicans brought in $2.5 million in the first three months of 2017."
The Democrats haven't won a statewide office in 20 years. We're in Oklahoma.
Isn't US Senator Bill Nelson a Democrat? He's won statewide election in Florida.
True, but Nelson is sort of a living fossil. The last passenger pigeon, if you like. His successor is likely to be another Marco Rubio, someone term-limited out of the legislature. The governorship is untouchably Republican.
Guess that makes Mr. P a living fossil, too :-(
Mr. P is defined by his ideas. The FL Senators and Reps are defined by the voters in their districts.
Mr. P has always been indeed a person of great intelligence and integrity (also still hawt!).
Your observation that "Senators and Reps are defined by the voters in their districts" (not only in Florida but elsewhere, I'd add) wouldn't be so distressing if it weren't for the gerrymandering.
Especially for Boodle dogs, and the people who serve them ;-)
"The Sometimes Sh*tty History Between Humans and Dogs":
http://www.thedailybeast.com/the-sometimes-shtty-history-between-humans-and-dogs
gmbka, here's an article from today's Post about the German election. It suggests that Merkel is in a very good position over the more left Social Democrats. How does that measure with your reading of the German media?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/heres-why-germanys-left-has-dwindling-hopes-of-unseating-merkel/2017/06/23/f6ed5042-576b-11e7-840b-512026319da7_story.html?utm_term=.5bfcbf0c1a3f
The Left may not be able to unseat Merkel, but she is not insane. Over here, the problem when Rs win any seats is their lunatic fringe is strong and Drumpf, needing their support (to avoid impeachment, for one thing), will sign anything they pass. I would trade Drumpf for let's say Mitt Romney. Not so sure about Pence.
1. a) "Can Plants Talk?" (in part, discussing the Wood Wide Web [sic]):
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05618p6 (audio online)
b) "The Secrets of the Wood Wide Web":
http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/the-secrets-of-the-wood-wide-web
2. Re Jim's observation that "the problem when Rs win any seats is their lunatic fringe is strong," in addition there's the threat of primarying a Republican who considers bucking them. E.g., Senator Dean Heller's sudden plight, "TV ads flood Nevada to win a Republican senator’s health-care vote":
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2017/06/24/tv-ads-flood-nevada-to-win-a-republican-senators-health-care-vote
If Heller moves too far right, he risks losing a general election to a Democrat in a once red state now increasingly purple.
George Lakoff has an excellent segment on Ian Masters tonite. On the web site in about 45 minutes, 630pm PDT.
http://www.salon.com/2017/01/15/dont-think-of-a-rampaging-elephant-linguist-george-lakoff-explains-how-the-democrats-helped-elect-trump/
The world is complicated. If I can get myself away from junk reading, "The Phytochemical Landscape: Linking Trophic Interactions and Nutrient Dynamics" by Mark D. Hunter (Princeton University Press) awaits, as does "Darwinian Agriculture", also from Princeton. Also need to get around to Sean B. Carroll's "Serengeti Rules." and "Brave Genius." It's been a privilege to be able to read such authors halfway knowledgeably.
I thought the Senate health bill was headed for the rocks. Paul Waldman's Plum Line piece has disabused me. Scream bloody murder starting later this morning.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2017/06/26/will-the-gops-awful-health-bill-pass-heres-what-you-need-to-know/?tid=hybrid_collaborative_2_na&utm_term=.c2f83ba2aee9#comments
Dave,
I fear that those of us with Dem Congresscritters are just preaching to the choir.
"Google will never be a substitute for your brain / Context is key, and it's something machines just don't have yet":
https://www.mnn.com/green-tech/research-innovations/blogs/why-google-will-never-substitute-your-brain
"Puppy befriends baby goats on Maine farm":
http://abcnews.go.com/Lifestyle/puppy-befriends-baby-goats-maine-farm/story?id=48287467&google_editors_picks=true
I got Carandini's Atlas of Ancient Rome, for the maps and illustrations. They are beautiful. Mary Beard has some unkind things to say about the English translation (especially) and some of Carandini's historiography, so if you are planning to read the zillions of words rather than just look at the pictures, be warned. Her review in New York Review is unfortunately behind the paywall.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2017/07/13/reading-the-ruins-of-rome/
The puppy-goats video is cute, but it seemed the goats were all leery of the friendly puppy's advances, so they didn't become friends.
Once I had three cats and a dog, and one of the cats and the dog would play together, sleep together, and all four of them coexisted without aggression. Then we acquired two more dogs as a favor to someone who couldn't keep them any more. The new ones didn't know the protocol, so the friendly/neutral dogs were transformed into a pack that would chase the cats. The cats would find safety, but they ended up becoming outdoor cats, which they remain to this day, maybe 6 years later.
"People of color in the United States, particularly young black men, are often assumed to be guilty and dangerous. In too many situations, black men are considered offenders incapable of being victims themselves. As a consequence of this country’s failure to address effectively its legacy of racial inequality, this presumption of guilt and the history that created it have significantly shaped every institution in American society, especially our criminal justice system."
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2017/07/13/presumption-of-guilt/
Jim19, you are a true Roman. I still haven't visited. I've got a book of a photographer's efforts to catch Piranisi's views.
I don't know about getting around to Europe. There's good excuses to do a followup to Paris. Air fares to cities served by Norwegian and Aer Lingus can be pretty cheap. Western Ireland before Brexit?
At the moment, I figure that Istanbul could be a priority, to see Hagia Sophia before all the Byzantine art is plastered over as it reverts to being a mosque. Or before an earthquake comes along.
I haven't thought of other places to visit before possible calamities. If I were 25, I'd be thinking of Venice while it's still there. There's a long list of natural areas that will soon be gone or badly impaired.
Charleston is probably even more doomed than Venice. I guess they can build levees, but will they? Miami can't build levees. They'd have to raise everything. Galveston did that.
Florida Keys and Great Barrier Reef are both looking bad. Rising sea level will ruin beaches and whatever lives on or near them.
A third or more of California's forest trees died in the drought.
I wonder about West Virginia's Canaan Valley and Dolly Sods succumbing to warming climate. Washington, stuck in a zone of non-performing governance, will likely see its low-lying areas ruined, though a flood barrier crossing 17 St. SW, south of Constitution Ave., is a promising sign.
Dave, I'd think the Keys and Everglades would be convenient for you to visit by car.
Re other continents, my philosophy is that I never know when my health will take a major turn for the worse, so try to treat each trip to Europe as though it might be my last. I'm pretty much limited to Western Europe, in terms of shorter flights (with a day upon arrival to sleep off jet-lag from the red-eye).
Longer trips are no longer physically realistic for me, which is disappointing as I'd always wanted to visit South America. But even from Miami (with a day's layover in between), let alone Atlanta or Houston, the flights would be too long for me any more. I was invited to speak at a pair of back-to-back biennial conferences there this summer (I go to these groups' ones in nearer locations, most recently Toronto), but sadly had to decline this offer for health reasons.
Eventually I'll probably wind up like a treasured mentor in his mid-80s, an emeritus professor who still writes and publishes prolifically, but is pretty much homebound. He now needs a walker with wheels on the front end just to get around the house (and he's glad of even that modicum of independent mobility). At least he's still mentally as sharp as ever. He's always interesting, and grateful for my emails, to which he replies promptly during the day.
The Keys are on the wrong side of the Miami-Dade obstacle course. Miami itself is a workable destination if you arrive early Saturday morning. The traffic has become typical of America's largest urban areas. Most of the Everglades is of limited access. Airboat outside of the National Park, some good walking trails on Long Pine Key within. Big Cypress National Preserve has some good access by four wheel drive, which I don't have and don't particularly want.
I figure on having just a few years of competence for driving in New Zealand or Australia. Bus tours will remain feasible for some time, but they tend to be expensive and/or full of activities I'd much rather not do. Then there's the "if it's Tuesday, this must be Belgium" syndrome. I do not get one-day visits to anywhere.
I have enough airline miles to go to Perth, the farthest airport on the planet from Orlando.
In politics, a well written NYT analysis of why McConnell seems blind to the health care disaster he's creating for his constituents and an interesting story at Politico claiming the Secretary of State dressed down the head of the White House personnel office in front of Reince Priebus and others. I've been suspecting Tillerson might be a short-timer.
Dave, I agree we should try to do as much (including travel) as we can while we're still able. Beats living an old age full of regrets.
Long time since we were at the Everglades and the Keys, have always wanted to go back. Who knows?
Different from Christo's umbrellas, but enchanting in its own way. "Vibrant umbrella art display dazzles Sardinia visitors":
http://abcnews.go.com/Lifestyle/vibrant-umbrella-art-display-dazzles-sardinia-visitors/story?id=48337816
I'm dumbfounded someone like Tillerson would want to stick around this chaos.
Tillerson doesn't get his kickback for the privatization of Rosneft until sanctions are lifted. That his only policy agenda.
Travel department: £1 = $ 1.30 is an extraordinary opportunity.
The pound has been around $1.25 for quite a while. At $1.30 it has gone up, but it's still a bargain compared to what it was before the Brexit vote. It takes London from being an extremely expensive city to merely a very expensive one.
Hi pj,
as to your question a while ago about the German election, the journalists think that Merkel will be reelected. The Social Democratic Party, the second largest party, has caught up a little by pushing progressive issues, but then Merkel declared that she is not opposed to some of those. She is quite a shrewd politician.
Gone are the days when London was pretty cheap. I did well with small hotel rooms in London and Paris. Checking GSA per diem rates, it's pretty clear that New York is to be visited in January or February.
United Airlines is changing the awards for its mileage program, mainly for international flights. I should probably make reservations for 2018.
The Euro has risen from $1.06 to $1.14 just since our trip this winter. Worry how high it will go by the time of our next scheduled trip this fall. Maybe I'd better lock in our (foreign) airfare soon.
OMFSM, today's the last day of FY 2017. Where'd the half-year go already? The good news is that last night I completed a huge project to which I'd assigned a self-imposed deadline of tonight, so I might just loaf today, maybe go back to bed.
T's been talking to Rand Paul, HF. Oh, and FREEDOM!
seasea
If the current R proposal can't pass, then I don't see how repeal without replacement can.
My March trip to Paris was well timed and cheap.
The NY Times shows Kentucky and West Virginia losing enormously from Republican health care "reform." I suspect they might remain among the safest Republican states.
The best situation for Trump may be for him to play his little celebrity gossip games and eat cake in the White House. Nevermind that Qatar has been given an ultimatum rather like the one that started World War I, and China, having secured the South China Sea and clarifying that Hong Kong answers to Peking, seems more than ritually displeased with a big US arms sale to its province of Taiwan.
Um, I was looking at the Post, not the Times.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/politics/obamacare-repeal-coverage-loss/?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_healthgraphic-945a%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.2ed969fcaa81#12
I dunno, Dave. KY and WVa voters might be glad if there were no longer a major program named after that Kenyan commie, but the effects of friends, relatives, oneself losing Medicaid may be so severe that even they would notice. I'm sure a lot of effort will be expended to point that out.
Joel might be sorting out what voters in red parts of the country expect.
My undergrad animal behavior class introduced the concept of umwelt, that different organisms in the same environment will live in very different perceptual worlds, or umwelten. I share a big welt with assorted natural history people but did not understand at all how the Republicans could nominate the worst candidate ever and get more than about 35% of the vote.
The last Senate bill made an effort to postpone the nastiest stuff until after 2020. I think McConnell might be willing to go farther in that direction, especially if he could get one or two Democrats to make up for Rand Paul and Mike Lee. He's successful enough that a 48 Republican, 2 Democrat bill would probably not cost him his job, and might let Trump crow about bipartisanism. As one story put it, he's got plenty of money in his pocket.
"The Republicans", if you mean people like Senators and Representatives, didn't nominate Drumpf, primary voters did. Our neighbors, at least in some states.
The rabble who greeted Trump shortly before the election at Melbourne airport didn't much resemble the Romney crowd who came to the Quail Club and donated generously four years earlier.
A piece in the Atlantic connects dislike of Obamacare to the Prosperity Gospel. If you live a good life, God will prosper you and make you healthy. If you get opioid addiction, or or HIV, or cancer, or whatever, you're a sinner and God is punishing you. And of course Obamacare seemed set up to help nonwhites, who of course were always on the American reject lists. It's amazingly nice to be the grandson of European immigrants who looked "white." Maybe even better to sound vaguely Canadian.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/05/the-prosperity-gospel-of-american-health-care/525264/?utm_source=atlfb
Politifact dinged Sen. Marco Rubio for "misleading" about Floridians losing Medicaid if a Senate bill passes. Rubio said he'd consulted with Florida political figures and everyone had been sure that no one would lose.
I assume that Rubio was being honest and that the other politicians were, too. If so, they all might be living in a bubble of misinformation. But if they're sure they have the facts, it'll be very difficult to persuade any of them that their unwelt is somehow inadequate and some other unwelt better fits the sort of reality that Medicaid recipients and politicians live in.
http://www.politifact.com/florida/statements/2017/jun/30/marco-rubio/marco-rubio-wrong-conclude-senate-bill-wont-lead-m/
I'm sure we could find someone that wants to give them a new welt.
Hm. Spell check was not accepting "umwelt." As in your own sensory world. Plural, umwelten. Republicans live in different umwelten from Democrats and nearly all scientists.
A freshly published book arrived, "Jack London: A Writer's Fight for a Better America" by Cecelia Tichi, a professor at Vanderbilt. She presents him as a major public intellectual.
I spent the morning watching a replay of the Metropolitan Opera's broadcast of Verdi's "Macbeth." The chorus served as Weird Sisters, soldiers, party-goers at the castle, and most importantly, refugees from the Macbeths' reign of terror.
I'm not in favor of giving them welts, but if they managed to return to the real Welt, our Umwelt would be much better.
Very nice, gmbka!
Refreshing to have a day or two with no new Drumpf fiasco. The previous ones continue, of course
I wonder when the Flynn and/or Mueller s*** will hit the fan, but nothing new that's very major appeared today. Maybe he went off to play golf.
I suppose that when he has played golf more times than BO in a typical year, and it's only July, that will be announced. I wonder who will care. His supporters won't, and people like me who think he lies about everything, will say so what. Does his mean his supporters also don't care about truth in general? Perhaps, which makes them hard to argue against.
Now that we see how many Drumpf supporters there are in the US, I suspect that the number of racists and nearly has always been large. When I was a kid, the Official View was Cronkite and similar, so those attitudes didn't get to the public via mass media, but I guess they were always around. Now with Internet, they are everywhere. What a dreamworld I used to live in.
Bradd Jaffy of NBC keeps track of T's golf outings: "Trump is at his NJ golf club today, his 33rd day at one of his golf courses since taking office 23 weeks ago"
I imagine he's already outgolfed Obama, who didn't go every weekend, I don't think. The other weird thing about T is that he never says he's golfing, just going to one of his courses, then disappears for about as long as 18 holes take.
seasea
Arguing against people who don't care about facts is hard. Look up George Lakoff, about how the Rs argue on the basis of values, and win, against the weaker D arguments based on facts. Who cares about facts that disagree with my values?
Sarah Ruden, whose translation of Vergil's Aeneid was an instant classic, now has her version of Augustine's Confessions on the market, from Modern Library.
Via the New Yorker.
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/06/19/how-st-augustine-invented-sex?mbid=social_facebook
"The Unlikely Power of Cookbooks":
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p056lfh4
Synopsis: Even if you’ve never picked up a book of recipes - cookbooks will have had a huge influence on how you live.
What may appear to be mere collections of ingredients and cooking methods, sometimes tell us just as much about social class, politics and gender.
We explore how cookery books have been used to demonstrate power, strengthen colonial and soviet ideology, and divide society by class and race.
Do we see these dividing lines reflected in today’s publishing industry? And what does your choice of cookbook say about you?
Plus - why did a stuffed peacock leave 150 Harvard undergraduates aghast?
With contributors: Barbara Ketcham-Wheaton, food historian and honorary curator of the culinary collection at the Schlesinger Library at Harvard University; Polly Russell, food historian and curator at The British Library; Sarah Lavelle, publishing director at Quadrille; and Katharina Vester, professor of history at American University, Washington DC.
Presenter: Emily Thomas
Especially for Jim. "A Tale of Two Rivers: Los Angeles":
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p056hnb2
Synopsis: In Los Angeles Susan Marling speaks to Frank Gehry. The famous architect has been charged with creating a master plan for the improvement of the Los Angeles River. It is a tough job. Since the 1930s when the river was straightened and lined with concrete to mitigate flooding, the waterway has been a hidden, polluted channel that many Angelenos did not even know existed.
But now the money and the political will (we speak to mayor of LA, Eric Garcetti) are in place to ‘green’ the river, create parks, continue the development of cycle paths and to spark a swathe of new housing and connections between neighbourhoods. The big question is whether this can be done without displacing the poorer people and the small businesses who currently live and work close to the river. And if LA becomes host of the 2024 summer Olympics, will it have a new clean river to show the world?
Producer: Victoria Ferran
seasea, you know what else I'd love to know? How many Mulligans does Trump exact from the other golfers in his party?
Dave, your bring back recollections of translating four books of The Aeneid during two semesters of high school Latin. Between them, Caesar's Gallic Wars Ovid's Metamorphoses and Cicero's orations in the original Latin, I swore that after I passed my college entrance foreign language exam for Latin (exempting me from having to take any foreign language courses toward my degree), I would never study another foreign language again, as long as I lived! Never say never. I managed to keep my vow for a quarter century, until a trip to Montréal loomed on the horizon and I realized that knowing a few basics of French would enhance my experience there.
Flipping Out, a Bravo TV reality show, will have an episode feature finishing the interior of Orlando's most famous mansion-in-the-works, the 90,000 square foot Versailles. It was the subject of a weird 2012 documentary, "The Queen of Versailles."
I'm proud of my grad school roommate.
http://press.princeton.edu/titles/10830.html
Congrats to the old roomie, Dave! I almost mentioned above that translating Cicero's Orations did wonders to improve my rhetoric style!
Jim had a rigorous reading schedule.
I think it would be a good exercise to find out how many of our values we cannot support with facts.
The LA River, in San Fernando Valley, would become a shallow lake every year (when the winter was rainy). That's all prime residential real estate in Encino, Tarzana, Sherman Oaks, etc. And south of downtown LA the river would sprawl out in periodic floods, inundating more prime residential real estate. (LA was founded and grew as a real estate development scheme. The early purchasers at each stage became wealthy from the later purchasers. The LA Aqueduct allowed this game to extend to the San Fernando Valley. Owensmouth Avenue in Canoga Park honors the way the mouth of the Owens River had been moved from Mojave Desert to Chatsworth Reservoir in western San Fernando Valley.) Having the water go wherever it wanted was a real problem, so the channelized LA River was created. Having less infiltration for ground water is a problem, but the view is the periodic floods were more of a problem. Now that the river is confined to a channel, it is thought that the concrete lining can be removed in places, to make it more visually attractive, and the water will continue to stay in the channel. In Sepulveda Basin, part of the river has been de-concretized and canoe trips are offered.
Massive manipulations were the norm for quite some time. The Corps of Engineers constructed enormous jetties (2 miles long for Jacksonville and I think comparable for Charleston and Savannah) and relocated inlets without much understanding of sediment transport along beaches, resulting in permanent sand relocation issues. A river mouth was relocated to empty into Charleston Harbor, seemingly so Charleston could be on a bigger river. It was a Depression project.
The tiny jetty, not much more than a bunch of pilings, at Sebastian Inlet has become an engineering study case for cheaper-better and also for design to enhance surfing waves. The Inlet's sterling wave was badly degraded by changes made around 2003, and there's a local movement to fix the problem. It helps that the jetty is owned by a local government entity with considerable autonomy, so long as it doesn't make serious demands for property tax revenue.
A post World War II Corps project replaced the Kissimmee River (runs from Orlando to Lake Okeechobee) with a big drainage canal. Very efficient and created a lot of flood-resistant cow pasture, but made for huge fluctuations in water volume entering the lake, and ruined water quality. There have been vast expenditures to partially restore the river.
A history of unintended consequences of environmental engineering would be a worthwhile project.
John McPhee's "the Control of Nature" went in that direction. There's been a number of apparently excellent books on water and forest management in the western states. I haven't read any of them.
"Fifty Ways to Make a Mess With a Dam" The book could look at a bunch of tragedies, including one in Los Angeles, not to mention any number of dumb-cluck engineering disasters. The Mosul Dam is like a small one in Wyoming that was merely a waste of money.
Not so attractive for writers, soil scientists were always dubious of irrigation in dry climates as a permanent basis for civilization. Iraq was ruined long ago and Utah depended on moving on to new ground as older areas became saline.
There must be excellent writing on the creation and nurturing of Holland.
I have a book lying around somewhere on east Asia's rice civilizations. Farming, the complicated way. To grow food, rice growers had to cooperate far more than Europeans did with their simple grain crops.
Managing the North Carolina Outer Banks has been a long series of compounded blunders. "The Battle for North Carolina's Coast: Evolutionary History, Present Crisis & Vision for the Future" is a good recent intro. It will end badly, as will Miami.
NY Times reviewed "Talking Pictures: How to Watch Movies" by Ann Hornaday.
1. Especially for yellojkt and gmbka. "In Some Places, Germany's Bike Autobahn Is Faster Than The Car Version":
http://www.npr.org/2017/07/03/535325263/in-some-places-germanys-bike-autobahn-is-faster-than-the-car-version (audio available online, transcript later today)
Germany is building Europe's biggest bicycle autobahn to connect 10 cities — and hopefully remove thousands of cars from German roads.
2. Re "A history of unintended consequences of environmental engineering would be a worthwhile project": How about the northern Canadian hydroelectric project that would flood a vast area of relatively flat land? I think it's this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Churchill_Falls_Generating_Station#Legal_challenge_and_controversy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lower_Churchill_Project
3. Re "I think it would be a good exercise to find out how many of our values we cannot support with facts": See Trump and his lackeys.
4. Cute Google doodle honoring the start of Wimbledon: https://www.google.com
5. After a few days of loafing, I'm back in the figurative saddle again, now designing my talk for this fall. Have just completed a first draft PowerPoint slideshow, which will guide my narration.
Israel is selling desalinated water to Jordan.
A Florida state judge has ruled that the Florida Constitution forbids the legislature to enact the sort of court procedures that were prescribed in this year's new-improved "stand your ground" law. That's reserved to the Florida Supreme Court. Now for appeals and, no doubt, end runs around the Supreme Court. The law is genuinely awful, offering a free pass no nearly anyone with an adept lawyer.
As I understand it, Jordan and Israel buy water from each other. It's more of an exchange.
http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/New-Tech/Israeli-Jordanian-officials-signing-historic-agreement-on-water-trade-392312
Complicated. Sending the brine from desalinization at Aqaba to the Dead Sea seems reasonable, better than trying to dispose of it in a corner of the Red Sea, though I think there had been complaints about sending anything other than fresh water. Better Dead than Red.
Very funny!
Thanks, Dave. I have been meaning to catch up on McPhee, so you jogged me to order two copies of The Control of Nature. Apparently the nephew reads nonfiction.
Back in the '60s when environmentalists were campaigning for creation of a Redwoods National Park in order to save old-growth trees from loggers, their slogan was "Better Redwood than Dead Wood."
Farrar, Straus & Giroux publish two (that I am aware of) McPhee readers that are a nice introduction to his work. If you really like something in there, you can order the book it's from and read the rest of it.
I see Peter L Berger died. About 45 yrs ago a sociology student in one of my geography classes recommended Berger & Luckmann's "The Social Construction of Reality" to me, and what an eye-opener! Not to mention funny in parts where they posit with a straight face some ridiculous situations that are of course possible in current society. Such as Trump being elected, I suppose. Anyhow the point is our world is created by shared social models more than Newtonian physics, which leads to outcomes that tend to maintain the social structure even if that is not generally beneficial.
Re what it would take for a substantial portion of Trump's base to turn against him, "Why the Media's Defense Against Trump Has Proven So Ineffective / The press may never succeed in eliciting popular sympathy—instead, it needs to convince members of the public that the president’s rhetoric will hurt them, too":
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/07/the-presss-ineffective-defense/532596/
In short, the author says that the media harping on how Trump's attacking the media is a non-starter with Trump's base, and advocates that the media need to point out how Trump's Presidency is hurting his base. However, as observed above, some of the base will vote against their own best interests in the name of "values."
RANT ALERT: Now Trump wants the US to bring in that suffering terminally-ill British baby for experimental treatment, while he simultaneously advocates repealing health insurance for 23 million Americans. Of course he's just demagoguing, and besides, crowd-funding (i.e., not US taxes) will pay for the baby's treatment. IOW for those who can pay for it, all possible medical care even if medically contraindicated, but only emergency room care in a crisis for those who don't have health insurance. Rant over, but only for now. Grrr...
Stat has a gracefully written story on the child's condition.
https://www.statnews.com/2017/07/03/trump-tweet-dying-boy/
In the US, the story seems to have become propaganda item for European moral perfidy. As if we didn't have a lousy record for the health of mothers and infants.
David Brooks at the NY Times writes about the American fondness for life without safety nets. They only serve to encourage people to behave badly. Think of the deeply weird "It's a Wonderful Life." Those non-dancing Methodists were just a hairs-breadth away from becoming drunks and addicts.
Thanks, Dave. Also found this article on Stat. "Trump wasn't always so linguistically challenged. What could explain the change?":
https://www.statnews.com/2017/05/23/donald-trump-speaking-style-interviews/
I'd seen the Stat story on Trump's speaking style a while back. Psychology and psychiatry have severe ethical standards about diagnosing public figures, and the story seems to stay clear of those limits.
Trump's tweets are not so much a problem of speaking style as of purpose, discipline, and perhaps of even being fully awake. The latest, aimed at North Korea, looks like a disaster. Even if he has special inside info from the Chinese president, he's in no position to threaten NK with a Chinese crackdown.
When I read about Trump's tweet suggesting that China may "put a heavy move on" North Korea, it rang a bell, although I couldn't quite place the phrase initially. But now I recall: Trump bragged to Billy Bush on the infamous Access Hollywood p***y-grabbing recording, "And I moved on her very heavily" regarding (then-married) TV personality Nancy O'Dell. Trump's words speak for themselves, and not in a flattering way.
Go submit that "heavy" observation at the NY Times editorial. Unusual for an editorial, they're taking comments. It's remarkably difficult to submit anything useful. The North Koreans (or at least Kim) think nukes are essential to their national survival (remember what happened to Libya), while Washington would ikely do any number of high-risk things if they seemed sure to work.
About the best we can hope for is a divine plague of mice that eat all the food and nibble all the electrical cable insulation in North Korea.
I wonder if someone's done a graphic novel on the hypothetical North Korean network of explosive-stuffed tunnels beneath Seoul.
July 4 Ian Masters very good, very sad, esp Robert Johnson. That's ianmasters.com, which redirects to https://fdmedia.org/. The system is bankrupt and the Dems are parties to the bankruptcy.
Dave, I'm not a NYT subscriber, but I'd be honored if you or any other boodler who is would post my observation (in your own words).
Just finished today's work goal, so am off to dream-land now.
Although so far away and so different, the Turkish opposition to their dictatorial president restores a bit my belief in mankind.
In Turkey, where "more than 50,000 people have been jailed pending trial, 150,000 have been suspended or dismissed from their jobs. Ankara has also shut down 130 media outlets and some 160 journalists are in prison, according to union data", the opposition leader started a protest march.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-turkey-security-march-idUSKBN19P16P?il=0
On NPR this AM, "Thousands Turn Out For March For Justice In Turkey":
http://www.npr.org/2017/07/05/535594010/thousands-turn-out-for-march-for-justice-in-turkey (audio embed already available, transcript online later today)
Synopsis: People unhappy with the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have hit the road. Some 250 miles of road, from the capital Ankara to Istanbul.
Locally, a guy stuffed his car with propane tanks and rammed it into his (ex) girlfriend's apartment. Firefighters were on the scene immediately, so only one tank blew.
It's the sort of news item you'd almost like to see suppressed.
A new state law allowing anybody to complain about school curricula, text books, library books, whatever, makes it look likely that biology will be taught about like in Erdogan's Turkey. Will school libraries have to block internet access to bad sources? Do science-for-kids news sources have special editions for Texas and Mississippi?
I would suppose the FL law on curricula permits "comment" not just criticism. If so, if you think stressing climate change or evolution or whatever else is a burr under the saddle to right-wingers, you should be able to promote it.
Back in the saddle after the holiday. Than you for the cookbook link, NP, alas it is audio, no transcript.
Bee Wilson indicated a lot of interesting nuances to cookbooks in her "Consider the Fork." (there's one "fact" i do not agree with and would like hard sources because it sounds anti-Asian, otherwise good book.)-- as an Australian who has lived in the US she also discussed the historical reasons for cups vs weights in the different countries.
I have tried two wildflowers this week as a foraging thing, and to expand my tisane inventory (ah, the tisanes.)
Wood sorrel, a childhood favorite, I cooked sorrel soup and tea from for the first time. I would do it again. Tonight trying pineapple weed tea ( http://www.eattheweeds.com/matricaria-matricarioides-for-your-tea-salad-2/ ) I dislike chamomile but was curious about the strong pineapple scent on the flowers vs the chamomile-piney scent of the leaves, so I looked it up.
No allergic reactions to it, and mixed with black tea and sorrel, it is not bad. I think salad bits would taste better (I did put some of the buds and tea in my stirfy)
As I used the flower heads, it tastes pineappley with faint chamomile taste, but as I have never drunk more than one sip of chamomile tea (yech, tastes like cotton across my tongue), I am fully unfamiliar with chamomile's sedative effect. This tea has similar, if not stronger effect (both have apigenin, which is the suspected sedative component in chamomile.)
It makes me a little lightheaded and I have buzzing in my ears. I'm inclined to head to bed, yes. Mr. Hastings is already out cold thanks to some chicken stirfy with said tea in the sauce. We both need it.
University Press of Florida has a recent book, "Sea Level Rise in Florida: Science, Impacts, and Options" that perhaps should be in every coastal high school's library.
I just checked the National Center for Science Education. Looks like it might be the very best place to see what's going to get banned.
Of course the Legislature is promoting charter schools, basically meaning for-profits.
HP, it's frustrating that the BBC (unlike NPR) doesn't eventually post transcripts of its programs online. Out of general interest (because the latest deadline is past), here's a bit more re Barbara Ketcham-Wheaton, the main person interviewed on the program:
https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/event/2017-reading-historic-cookbooks
"Charming 19th-Century Atlases Were the Facebook of Their Day / County atlases from the late 1800s provide a fascinating—if idealized—look at life in rural America":
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/07/rural-county-farm-atlas-maps-history
...The images of neat farm houses and well-tended fields, in addition to the glowing biographies of county residents, paint a rosy picture of life in late 19th century rural America. In a way, the atlases were the Facebook of their day: people put their best selves forward and tended to sweep the ugly bits under the rug. You won’t get the whole story from these pages, but you’ll get the story of how people in these communities wanted to be seen and remembered. (Read "Historical Atlases Rescued from the Trash Could Be a Boon to Historians" http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/03/historical-atlas-maps-american-west)...
“What Putin’s team is probably telling him about Trump”:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/what-putins-team-is-probably-telling-him-about-trump/2017/07/05/6f5e1a5c-619e-11e7-a4f7-af34fc1d9d39_story.html
...Consumed with its failing politics, the United States is not paying attention to our work around the world, let alone pushing back. We have made important gains. In our near-abroad, we have taken steps in Ukraine, Georgia and Belarus that make clear that our neighbors must defer to our interests; in Syria and the broader Middle East, we are showing that we are a key player while weakening the United States; and, by supporting U.S. opponents in places such as Libya and Afghanistan, we are ensuring that U.S. policies will fail there. To be sure, our gains relative to the United States did not start with Trump, but they have accelerated under him.
Our objective for this meeting is simple: Keep the momentum in our favor. On style, you will want U.S. reporters to capture the two of you as close friends, smiling and laughing, which will feed the turmoil over the Trump campaign’s possible collusion with us (which you know the full truth about). This issue weakens America, and we want to keep it front and center. Obtaining the necessary media coverage can be accomplished by stroking Trump’s large ego, which you did so effectively during the U.S. presidential campaign...
Swimming to work. A man in Munich got tired of clogged bike-paths, not to mention roads. Since he lives upstream on the river Isar and his workplace is downstream, he decided to swim to work. He got a large waterproof pouch for his work clothes and laptop which he is wearing on his back and now floats more than swims to work. Since it's only a 2km distance, he can walk back home or take a bus because swimming upstream would be quite a challenge.
I personally cannot quite see myself showing up at work dripping wet but it works for him.
Only in Florida. HSN gobbled up by QVC and Blue Man Group acquired by Cirque du Soleil.
gmbka,
You might go watch the Top Gear episodes where they race cross town (London and St. Petersburg) in different modes of transport. Across London (S.10, E5), it's a car, a boat, a bike, and public transport. St Petersburg (Russia not Florida, S.22, E1) swaps the boat for a hovercraft. They're a bit silly, but fun. They're available with Amazon Prime, and there are some youtube clips.
Dave, Blue Man acrobats probably will not happen-- that makeup from head to toe is beastly hot to perform in, according to a first-hand account I read once. Pity, because I sort of would really watch that. The clips I see of these performances are certainly energetic.
Gmbka, beats showing up sweaty to work like avid bikers may do. Maybe if the lobby has a bathroom to refresh and change in and he carries laptop, clothes AND a towel, he'll be dandy for work and certainly not smelling TOO much like algae, no way. :-p. I am imagining him floating downstream on his back like a happy otter, even though the pack is on his back so he is probably doggypaddling instead. More power to him.
Horsepox. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2017/07/07/scientists-synthesize-smallpox-cousin-in-ominous-breakthrough/?utm_term=.316ae7384aa8
The media keeps talking about the long intimate meeting between Trump and Putin. I keep visualizing them looking deeply into each others eyes with the sax solo from Careless Whisper playing in the background.
Yes, Joel is still on the doomsday plague beat. At least it's a change from opiates. The hunt for Deep Beaker continues.
At the G 20 summit the G 19 affirmed the Paris climate agreement. We are so alone and lonely, sob.
Thanks, Dave; I might have misses that. It's worrisome to me, what with parallel biotech advances.
Here's one on sneaky manipulation, tricks done to various news media.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/07/07/rachel-maddows-urgent-warning-to-the-rest-of-the-media/
Wish they'd make every Dem Congressperson and staffer read this twice.
Jumper, do you think the creator(s) of the forgery sent to Maddow will be found out? Presumably major Trump advisors all have "plausible deniability."
Average commute times by county. Interesting graphic, especially for people in the Washington-Baltimore area.
http://overflow.solutions/demographic-data/what-is-the-average-commute-time-in-each-u-s-county/
"'First class' passenger service on restored historic 1948 train":
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bal-first-class-passenger-service-on-restored-historic-1948-train-20170708-photogallery.html
The B&O Railroad Museum is offering "first class" passenger service on board the Mile One Express -- a restored historic 1948 "Royal Blue" Observation Lounge Car that's being used in a ride along America's first historic mile of railroad right-of-way.
"Present at the Destruction: How Rex Tillerson Is Wrecking the State Department":
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/06/29/how-rex-tillerson-destroying-state-department-215319
...America is not a country in decline. Its economy is experiencing an unprecedented period of continuous economic growth, its technology sector is the envy of the world and the American military remains unmatched. Even now, under Trump, America’s allies and enduring values amplify its power and constrain its adversaries. America is not in decline—it is choosing to decline. And Tillerson is making that choice. He is quickly becoming one of the worst and most destructive secretaries of state in the history of our country.
I see comments that White House staff complain that Tillerson's holed up in Foggy Bottom with a few of his staff and won't talk.
Tillerson has come from a very tightly organized corporation where every management employee has his own handbook of what he's expected to do, who he reports to, whatever. He might be lost in the State Department and he might be even more lost in the structure of the top level of government, though that may be in a peculiar condition at present. I'd expect him to at least be working with the National Security Council and Defense.
I purchase airline tickets 10-12 weeks ahead of departure, to maximize savings while increasing the likelihood that the flights I seek still have seats available.
"Did your great airfare suddenly disappear? Blame ‘dynamic pricing’":
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/travel/did-your-great-fare-suddenly-disappear-blame-dynamic-pricing/2017/07/06/9c83f4fe-56c5-11e7-a204-ad706461fa4f_story.html
https://www.publicintegrity.org/2016/08/22/20079/america-scrubs-millions-voter-rolls-it-fair
No more fair elections exist here now.
Those commute time numbers are subject to so many factors that it's hard to take them seriously. Let's look at, for example, Elbert County CO, average time a little over 40 mins. The County Seat Kiowa is a bit more than 30 miles from Denver, and I suspect that's where most of the commuting is headed, so OF COURSE it takes time. If the people were commuting to a job in Kiowa then the time would be very small, but they don't, and it's their choice to work in Denver and live in Elbert County, so I don't feel sorry for them. That's pretty much the case everywhere with little public transport, which is most of the country. Even if there were public transport, say a light rail line on a dedicated right-of-way from Kiowa to Denver, it would take time for work-vs-residence patterns to adjust and jobs to move to the newly accessible locations. Places like Chicago and NYC where the network has been in place for a long time have an advantage in these sorts of numbers.
Northeastern Pennsylvania is a bedroom area for New York City and vicinity. There seem to be lots of bus services. "Affordable" housing. Staten Island of course has long commute times--lots of ferry people.
Chicago's transit network doesn't seem to have grown much but there was a massive transfer of population from the city to suburbs, so that the metro area's density dropped enormously, leaving big swaths of half-empty city. At the present time, the urban area as a whole seems to be losing population, very unusual. Houston has been adding people like crazy, and I think Seattle is, too, but with the difference that the locals don't think there's much opportunity to build enough roads, so they are building vast new transit facilities.
Dave, Interesting commute map. I notice many of the high commute counties out west are home to government facilities... rather large and remote ones. Yes the commutes take some time. I know Utah provides vans for vanpools to these places in lieu of any sort of public transport.
A place like NE PA is going to have long commute times to NYC, no way to avoid that. NYC is such a magnet it's always going to attract millions, many of whom will necessarily live far away. Better transit can reduce the travel time, but not eliminate it.
Over here in LA the Metro is being extended, but still the density will be nothing like London Transport, with large swaths of the city reliant on cars or bikes or buses, all of which are limited by congestion on the street network. We have plenty of streets - maybe some should be dedicated to buses and residents, sort of like a private right of way.
HF, the commute time map needs to be weighted by how many commuters. As you point out, some lengthy commute Counties are in the West, with few commuters.
Back in the 80s I was working on Space Shuttle projects that took me to the Rockwell factory in Downey CA 2 or 3 times a week. NASA and Rockwell were supposed to minimize commuting, so they measured it, and I saw a report that showed a surprising number of people commuted from Wrightwood and Lake Arrowhead, both two hours or more away, people who wanted to live in the mountains, whatever the cost in travel time. In the general world of data, I would call them outliers that should be removed from the statistics.
Jim, don't a lot of Southern Californians commute to work from the Inland Empire, due to housing costs?
Blissful distractions from the news (including eating carnivorous plants!): http://www.bbc.com/travel/columns/culinary-roots
I think people in Los Angeles underestimate their density. The old downtown area became denser than San Francisco (!) and the urban blob as a whole is much less spread out than urban areas in the leafy East. I suspect that LA's exceptional road system and buses led to neglect of rail transit for a very long time. The end of LA streetcars was a cause célèbre, but streetcars never coped well with traffic, so few of them survived. My parents did live in a house that was demolished to make way for a tunnel entrance where the streetcar would go underground.
A recent history, "Madness Rules the Hour" explains how Charleston provoke the Civil War. I was looking up an elusive item from the editor of the Charleston newspaper that did a lot to push things along; the first paragraph or two suffice.
http://docsouth.unc.edu/imls/secession/secession.html
Streetcars were a problem in LA, although the Pacific Electric "Red Cars" in large part had dedicated right-of-way, although not in Downtown. Many of the super-wide divided boulevards got that way because of a PE line down the middle.
As we start a new page, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Jumper once again for the hospitality of the bunker.
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