I’m not sure who this is, but I’d sure like a boon from her.
Friday Afternoon Links
About The Author
Riven
[riv-uhn]
noun
1. a gaming, lifting, shooting, intoxicated, ravenous, and happily-taken nerd.
2. often aims to misbehave.
3. and though she be but little, she is fierce.*
And rumor has it that she (and her husband) are also delightful dinner companions. You didn't hear it from me, though.
Given the armor and I think I can see wings behind her — I’m guessing Athena (and there’s an owl behind her somewhere). Goddess of War and Wisdom after all.
Mayyybe if the blue highlight is supposed to be a crescent moon Artemis — but Artemis was always supposed to be more of a “forest hunter” type, so I’d stick with Athena. She much more looks like Goddess of Ass Kicking.
Afternoon, folks!
There’s a shot of Artemis elsewhere in the article – as you say, ‘forest hunter’.
There’s also a shot of Aphrodite…
Rowr.
I know it’s tough to read the articles, so I’m going to help you out.
Here’s Athena and Artemis from Hades. They did redo Artemis for Hades 2. I’d be surprised if they redid Athena so differently, but I’ve been surprised before.*
*Not here, of course. Never here.
I did read the article, dammit… they never said who that was. Okay, I have X/Twitter links turned off by default, but I read what was there….
Kicks a pebble or two.
The AT-AT set is cool, but not $849.99 cool.
Yikes.
Legos has sets for all ages. That big yellow brick full of random Legos is a great thing for small kids. Build on it each year with wheels, gears, motors and you can make a budding engineer over time. I got two sets from them: GhostBusters and Scooby Doo. I kind of qualify as an adult, at least physical age-wise.
I recall getting my grandson one of the more complicated ones, that he had just aged into…
Having him scream and cry at it while trying to put it together was somewhat comical for a little while.
I recently did the Great Wave set, as well as the Retro Sci-fi postcard set.
Naturally almost of these sets can be found as knock offs on AliExpress for around $100 shipped. Depends on the number of bricks. Something that big maybe like $200.
Iâm tempted to get the bonsai tree set from this page.
https://www.lego.com/en-us/categories/adults-welcome/article/meaning-of-plants
Itâs discounted at Walmart. Probably going to be retired soon.
Britain: Outlawing tobacco today will be used as a precedent for outlawing alcohol in the future, Iâd bet my gin and tonic on it.
There’s a great Chesterton novel called The Flying Inn. It’s about a dystopian UK ruled by Muslims where alcohol is illegal. As if such a preposterous thing could ever happen in Sadiq Khan’s London…
Anyway, if Muslims do end up running the show, there will be plenty of places to smoke hookah.
Fun fact: Hookah is a Persian word that means jar. Levantine Arabs called arghileh.
*call it arghileh
typos, I make them
Yalla narghileh means let’s smoke hookah. It reminds me of “narfle the garthok” from Coneheads.
So we will all go to the Jar Bar? How about Jar-Jar?
Have a narghileh, Derpy.
Smoking hookah and speaking Arabic with DLI teachers is one of my happy Army memories. Many of them came from war zones and so have a greater appreciation of simple pleasures.
This arghileh song is so hot, it’s almost haram!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ye3Tw13ZA8
Pretty sure the title means “pass me the hookah”
Ugh, “have an argileh.” My fingerz no work gud.
Still have a hookah? I have a single-hoser(waits for it…).
I’m embarrassed at how long it took me to untangle this pun.
hookah = hooker
single hoser = unmarried Canadian man
Here’s an old chestnut: what’s the difference between an enzyme and a hormone?
In Kuwait, they were called shisha (maybe refers to the tobacco itself?). There was a shisha bar ran by MWR.
Shisha is from a Persian word also used by some Arabs.
***
“Narguile”[34] is the common word in Spain used to refer to the pipe, although “cachimba”[35] is also used, along with “shisha” by Moroccan immigrants in Spain. The word “narguilĂŠ” is used in Portuguese. “NarguilĂŠ” is also used in French, along with “chicha”.
Arabic Ř´ŮŘ´ŘŠ (ĹĄÄŤĹĄah), through Ottoman Turkish word Ř´ŰŘ´Ůâ (ĹĂŽĹe), itself a direct loanword from Persian Ř´ŰŘ´Ů (ĹĄÄŤĹĄe) meaning “glass container”, is the common term for the hookah in Egypt, Sudan and also other Arab world regions such as Arab Peninsula (including Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, UAE, Yemen and Saudi Arabia), Algeria, Tunisia. It is used also in Morocco, Somalia[36] and Cyprus. In Yemen, the Arabic term ٠داؚ؊ (madÄ`ah) is also used, but for pipes using pure tobacco.
In Persia, hookah is called “qalyÄn” (ŮŮŰاŮ). Persian qalyan is included in the earliest European compendium on tobacco, the tobacologia written by Johan Neander and published in Dutch in 1622. It seems that over time water pipes acquired a Persian connotation as in eighteenth-century Egypt the most fashionable pipes were called Karim Khan after the Persian ruler of the day.[37] This is also the name used in Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Russia, Lithuania and Belarus.[38]
In Uzbekistan and Afghanistan, a hookah is called chillim.[39]
In Kashmiri, hookah is called “Jajeer”.[40]
In Maldives, hookah is called “Guduguda”.[41]
In Germany, Austria and Switzerland, hookah is called “Shisha”.[42][better source needed]
In the Philippines, hookah is called “hitboo” and normally used in smoking flavored marijuana.[43]
In Sindhi, another language of South Asia, it is called huqqo (ŘŮŮŮ / चŕĽŕ¤ŕ¤źŕĽŕ¤ŕ¤źŕĽ).[44]
In Vietnam, hookah is called hookah shisha (bĂŹnh shisha) and shisha is called “shisha tobacco” (thuáťc shisha).[45]
***
Here’s a question for you – prior to the introduction of tobacco, was there anything smoked in a similar manner in the old world?
Or was the technology developed for tobacco and expanded to other smokables?
Opium
***
By 1100 BCE, opium was cultivated on Cyprus, where surgical-quality knives were used to score the poppy pods, and opium was cultivated, traded, and smoked.[14] Opium was also mentioned after the Persian conquest of Assyria and Babylonian lands in the 6th century BC.[1]
***
Related
***
It appears evident that opium was used in ancient times:
By inhalation of its vapours (through the nostrils);
Internally as a hypnotic and narcotic, taken in the form of a variety of preparations of the capsule or of opium: juice (mekonion), tablets, and other confections (diakodion);
Anally by means of suppositories;
Externally in the form of unguents and poultices, lotions for diseases of the eye, and liquids for earache;
As a means of euthanasia in combination with hemlock (the Keian custom);
In some forms also as a means of suicide.
We propose to devote attention chiefly to the use of opium by nasal inhalation, as reported in the texts, inasmuch as this is directly connected with the study of relevant archĹological finds.
***
https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/data-and-analysis/bulletin/bulletin_1967-01-01_4_page003.html
If there’s evidence they were snorting it, someone must have thought of burning it like incense and inhaling the smoke. Smoking opium is less likely to cause and overdose than eating.
Thank you. Mere curiousity had motivated the initial question, but it reminded me that I am in the middle of a story where I was thinking of having a character be the operator of an opium den. Given the wider context of the setting, I was unsure of the kind of ground I was on with that.
NHS means if they can argue you’ll cost the public money in the future, they can outlaw it. Smoking now. Alcohol, red meat and risky behaviors to come.
And putting my cynical hat on — anything that also happens to offend the Religion of Peace coincidentally… because the demographics will have them in Sharia soon enough.
I find most people’s wet dream of how my life should be a nightmare.
Of course by risky behaviors, they don’t mean anal sex with 40 anonymous partners a year, but things like riding a bike without a helmet.
See also: “People are enjoying this and not thinking about our politics! We must stop them!” — which seems to be the dominant force when it comes to digital design these days.
They made every female avatar androgenous. Then you look at the game director and it’s some tranny who just lopped off their breasts and it all makes sense. Then they are selling this as some way of making the avatars more customizable.
Warhammer meanwhile is just going the route of arguing that they’ve always been at war with East Asia.
Not just that, those Pokemon avatars are just poorly designed crap. De-rezzed characters with nearly blank faces, like the early 2000s. The bow legs is a great comment too. WTF?
They’re trying to get more trainers to use water types?
Going swimmin’ with the bow legged women…..
Meanwhile meanwhile — I have to confess I’ve considered picking up a PS5 just to support Stellar Blade. If I do, I expect I’ll completely suck at it (if there’s a Story Mode, I’ll need it) since my reflexes ain’t what they used to be… and I never was great at twitch reflex games.
Um… no shit, Sherlock? In other news, water is wet — and we should attempt no landings on Europa. Especially after giving AI contradictory primary directives.
Every kid needs a big box of legos they can just make random shit with. Alls I see are sets these days that teach kids to follow directions at best.
Those random sets are still out there, see comment above. I have given many as gifts.
I couldn’t find one at Target recently – it was all movie tie-in crap. I suppose you have to go online. I wasn’t buying, just browsing for s’n’g.
I had a few Lego, K’nex, and off-brand Erector Set sets as a wee lad. After following the directions and admiring my work, I took them apart and did my own thing.
I made a K’nex robot that would kowtow to me when powered on.
“Your job is to pass the butter.”
The random bits are out there, and one of the neat things is they repurpose the bits for the other kits. As an example, the orchid set uses pieces that were designed for a frog set for the leaves, the Great Wave set uses little white birds to add depth to the piece.
My son would build the set according to the instructions- once. Heâd then take it apart and throw all the pieces in the random box. The set was really just good for some specialized parts.
Any of you guys have Major Matt Mason toys? I inherited them from my older brother (born in 1964) and thought they were great. Every time I put together the space station it was a little different.
I liked to incorporate big styrofoam packing slabs too. All the nooks and crannies in the foam to accommodate the TV or other appliance that it shipped made for cool looking space station rooms and corridors.
There were only two surviving Matt Mason astronaut figurines by then, so I populated my sets with Princess of Power action figures.
Matt Mason:
https://2warpstoneptune.com/2013/08/06/major-matt-mason-mattels-man-in-space-space-station-playset-1966/
Princess of Power:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/276137075278?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-117182-37290-0&mkcid=2&mkscid=101&itemid=276137075278&targetid=2295557531910&device=m&mktype=pla&googleloc=1027744&poi=&campaignid=20385089669&mkgroupid=167959972944&rlsatarget=pla-2295557531910&abcId=9316496&merchantid=663992882&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAAD_QDh-_Pp0TbwPl0UkOsEyKzzAPi&gclid=CjwKCAjwrIixBhBbEiwACEqDJVFBdMrT6HRuGb9voroVdYzG-yEQeqcmydiAoULdwP0gqguAJea4bxoCdxoQAvD_BwE
I always figured they were like tits — designed for kids, but it’s the dads who mostly play with them.
But Duh-mocracy means the Collective gets to tell the individual what to do for the good of the Body. All are One in Landru Representational Government!
Less sarcastically — I hope they don’t seriously think that’s a convincing argument. Because it is pretty obvious that any form of consensual government is going to have to balance keeping order (i.e. establishing some collective sense of how people are intended to act, at least in public if not to some extent in private to protect property rights, etc.) versus full anarchic individualism. Where that balance lies is the rub — but there has to be a balance. Prohibiting individuals from pursuing some vices is probably part of that.
Ones that don’t harm others (if you don’t stupidly set up Collective Health Care such that the collective gets to argue “We’re paying for that!” and slippery slope you into Matrix pods) should be left alone, I’ll agree — but not every vice is only harmful to the vice-ee? (vicer? viceroy?)
Every vice can be argued to have some greater effect on society.
The notion of the individual existing to serve the greater body politic needs to die. Period.
One of the best arguments in favor of universal healthcare is that it solves the problem of no one wanting to insure high-risk people. Everybody’s in the same pool, everyone’s covered, and it has more money available than any insurance company could get.
Someone, in car insurance, the market has solved the problem of insuring high-risk people. Alas, unlike driving, many people think healthcare is a right. Hence the dispute.
“High-risk” or people with -re-existing conditions already aren’t looking for insurance.. They are looking for healthcare and for someone else to pay for it.
The notion of someone being able to buy insurance after coming down with a condition is asinine. It’s not a market failure.
Agreed, but such people need care, and charity is sometimes not enough.
Insurance is for high-cost, low risk events. It’s dumb to apply it healthcare in most cases because everyone needs healthcare eventually. What most people could benefit from are cheap plans to cover catastrophic injuries. You might recall Obama referring to them as “junk insurance” and banning them. And so the cheap insurance market was vanquished before it could hurt anyone else again.
I’m sure he fantasizes about a choir singing around his casket as he gazes down from heaven. He really deserves the Mirth and Girth treatment.
Yup — isn’t that how medical insurance started, actually? Catastrophic coverage, with bog-standard stuff out of pocket. Then the coverage crept down until people got to the point of checkups being covered by employer derived insurance… and we were on the road to the shitfest ACA has inflicted upon us.
Some guy wrote a whole article about it years ago and posted it here:
https://www.glibertarians2017.link/2017/03/26/understanding-insurance/
That’s a completely disreputable site which exists only to publish scurrilous rants, and puerile fiction.
âAgreed, but such people need care, and charity is sometimes not enough.â
I feel like thereâs a step or two missing between this and âpay for their healthcare, or elseâ.
Well, democracy is typically majority rule. A consensus is more than a majority, typically a lot more, but doesnât need to be unanimous. Thereâs a stolen base or two in saying a democracy gets the consent of the governed. After all, government is what gets used on people who donât consent.
My limit when it comes to rap is more like this, I’m afraid.
Woe is me. So sorry to disappoint.
Ouch… just saying I’m not a rap aficionado… not denigrating your tastes. If this dumbass has offended…
I don’t understand even half of your gamer linx Riven, but I love them.
I can use a quick scan to learn just enough to deeply upset the Altar Girl and Boys with my hepness. I’m sure this weekend I can spout off “I can’t even with Pokemon Go and those crappy avatars” and my kids will roll their eyes, but secretly worry that their favorite game is so lame that I know about it.
Keep up the good work! Us Spring Chickens appreciate it.
âsecretly worry that their favorite game is so lame that I know about itâ
This is the way.
HOUSEKEEPING / OLD BUSINESS: Everyone who submitted a manuscript or author query to me via email, or via the Leads/Submissions link at the top of the main page (aka feed) should have received a reply. If you haven’t, holler back.
I will continue my normally scheduled -Firsting, as well.
Tonio is just trolling for Gwen…..
Ever since Tragic Kingdom…
Great album. She was my one of my faves in the ’90s.
Sorry, I’m on team Reel Big Fish.
I blame her for mentally hearing a mispronunciation of the station between Shibuya and Yoyogi
Fourscore, to the white courtesy phone, Fourscore…
As noted on NASAâs website, Ioâs âconstant volcanism and intense radiation make Io an unlikely destination for life.â However, itâs still a fantastic laboratory for researchers trying to understand solar system evolution.
With geologic (Iologic?) change happening at such a rapid pace, you’d have a hard time getting sedimental about any features that you become attached to.
I read an article the other day about the discovery of large amounts of methane on Neptune. That’s odd, because most scientists would say that Uranus is a more likely location.
Anyway, natural gas is a fossil fuel, meaning it supposedly came from living things. Since natural gas is 97% methane and there are large amounts of it on Neptune and other gas giants, that means either there was life on those planets or that methane can form without life.
A Soviet scientist named Kudryavtsev proposed the existence of abiogenic petroleum and made some headway in proving that theory.
***
Nikolai Alexandrovich Kudryavtsev (Russian: ĐикОНаК ĐНокŃандŃĐžĐ˛Đ¸Ń ĐŃĐ´ŃŃвŃов; Opochka, October 21, 1893 â Leningrad, December 12, 1971) was a Soviet Russian petroleum geologist. He is the founding father of modern abiogenic theory for origin of petroleum, which states that some petroleum is formed from non-biological sources of hydrocarbons located deep in the Earth’s crust and mantle.
***
Makes more sense than ferns & dinos.
I misread that at first as “ferns and dildos”.
That’s where the petroleum jelly comes from….
Natural rubber products, aka latex, are not compatible with petroleum-based lubricants.
Remember, kids, Jesse brand lube, now available in Party Size (1 liter pump bottle) at the Glibs online store, is glycerin-based and compatible with latex, neoprene, glass, and metal toys.
Ok then….
See also: broadcasting you’re a square… đ
Yeah — I thought it was pretty well understood that given Carbon and Hydrogen (and to some extent Oxygen) and energy you’re going to get hydrocarbons. And gas giants have more than enough energy once you get deeper into them because of the pressure.
Which is yet another reason I laugh at the “Peak Oil! BLAAAGGGH!” folks. Absolute f’ing worst case — before we let civilization collapse, we could build an Orion (and I mean real Orion, not the Boeing who whomever crap) and go scoop hydrocarbons from the gas giants and bring it back.
Much more likely, given the utility — use wide scale nuclear to then capture the energy into hydrocarbons. Both the best way to “store” hydrogen for burning (and carbon neutral if you get the carbon out of the atmosphere to begin with) and you have oil for plastics and whatnot. There’s zero chance we would ever completely forsake hydrocarbon usage barring nuking ourselves into the stone age or Magical Replicator Tech.
About 10 years ago, I wrote to famous doomsayer James H Kunstler about peak oil. I said the large amounts of methane on gas giants proves that natural gas can form without life, so that might be true for oil as well. I guess that stuck in his craw, because in his response, he said something like “how about we just build a pipeline to Jupiter, eh smart guy?”
What a dick. His views on architecture are amusing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1ZeXnmDZMQ
Anything-to-oil, also called thermal decomposition, is way to solve the supposed energy and plastic pollution crises. Use nuclear energy to make the heat, turn the plastic back into oil. There are some more steps needed to turn into gasoline or diesel, but it’s feasible. Just not profitable for now.
Germany made gasoline and diesel out coal during WW2 as did South Africa during the embargo. The US currently has an 800-year supply of coal at the current rate of consumption, and even if all of it was diverted into making gasoline, diesel, and kerosene, there’s still at least a 500 year supply.
Supposedly some anecdotal and scientific evidence for this based on dry wells coming back. I read a plausible study a couple of years ago.
Plenty of methane in Uranus.
Huh, huh, huh.
abiogenic
It can happen, certainly on other planets.
It might happen on earth at some depth, but there is zero evidence of it. There has been some fun wishing it were so, but no well has ever gone deep enough to find an unambiguous source for it. Any other findings in non-sedimentary rock over the past half century have all been contiguous to sedimentary zones; leaching and percolation are the understood dynamics, not spontaneous and local formation.
Lastly, we can now type oil so well that we really know where it comes and how old it is from by it’s composition and signatures. Too much to go into (quite a bit beyond good old CG), but all oil we have ever seen is constituted from understood bits and places. None of the sources or phenomena described by Kudryavtsev or by Thomas Gold remain unexplained: there is zero data or room left to support their suppositions; their findings were not findings.
I don’t have the usual axes to grind: I married into and am now divorced from the O&G community, so their undermining would not necessarily bother me. I’m not a religious nut who desperately needs the earth to only be 6,000 years old. I’m not a contrarian who needs to point and laugh at peak oil or global warming. I’m just a guy who heard all this 40 years ago and have since noticed the unabated advance in data pulling down any hope that the theory is remotely in play in any reachable stratum. There is no reason to believe it happens, so I don’t believe it; it was a neat idea that turned out not to be true, and anyone who wishes to understand the truth can readily confirm all I have here written.
You could write up an article to explain how it works…
ugh: you got me
** scribbles note to self **
We won’t let you smoke, because it “might be” bad for you, but the NHS must have the authority to withhold treatment as they see fit.
5 hours of Graham Hancock debating an archaeologist on Joe Rogna.
If you are interested in ancient archaeology, it’s a must watch.
Can you just post like a couple sentence summary?
K thanks
“The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.”
SPOCK
MUST
DIE.
“Sometimes, the needs of the one outweigh the needs of the many.”
SPOCK
MUST
LIVE.
(Bonus: “Then you stand here due to a mistake made by your flawed… Human friends…”
AMANDA
MUST
MILF.)
Paging the nw/rg’s…a newly-minted Wisconsinite would like to get in touch. If anyone knows how to contact the rg/nwses, let me know! But hope to see them on Zoom, of course!
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87821224358?pwd=eW55MTRDbDNtQkh2aHd3M1Nmenlzdz09
This is even more incomprehensible than Riven’s gamer links.
New Wisconsinite would like to get in touch with old Wisconsinites
get in touch
What ever happened to romance? Can’t this newcomer at least engage in a bit of hair sniffing before they jump right into the touching?
I’d rather people say they’ll “get in touch” than use the more recent apparently-trendy phrasing “reach out.” đ
If I get a cold call from a would-be vendor wanting to âtouch baseâ I instantly block them.
“What’s wrong with a kiss, boy? Hmm? Why not start her off with a nice kiss? You don’t have to go leaping straight for the clitoris like a bull at a gate.”
Old Wisconsinites
AKA Brandy-sucking-heathens.
Are Family and Faith Staging a Comeback?
Funny that. I’m not religious, but my wife is. There are both religious and nonreligious Glibs here that somehow manage to get along and support each other. Amazing.
Incels and cat ladies are the butt of many jokes, yet every man that doesn’t get married means a woman who doesn’t get married. That’s not good on average in the long run, because it means lots of single mothers and fatherless kids. I’m non-religious, yet my views on marriage children are conservative/traditional.
I’m 39 and I read that about 25% of 40-year old men have never been married, and that of those, only 20% will get married. My mom says I’m a catch, but moms are obliged to say such things. I’ve being doing online dating for 14 years which means I am now qualified to be a tour guide in hell. Whatever, I’ve had an OK run: dated 50+ different women got 4 gal pals out of it. I’ve been attending to my male needs solo for a quarter of a century, so I can do that long-term if need be. Better alone than with bad company. My siblings both had messy divorces and I remain unscathed by that.
Sweet, I always wanted to be a 5%-er.
Count me among those 40+ who have never been married. Not religious, and I don’t want (nor need) the government involved in my love life.
It’s OK, some of us have made more than one lady happy (or sad). We have to pick up the slack for those not doing their share.
Trust me, Neph, the 15 minutes you spend getting your marriage license is pretty much the sum total of government involvement in your married life as such. Less than decimal dust, really.
Me, Iâm old fashioned. I think cementing a lifetime commitment with an oath has value. But, of course, YMMV.
How about when you file your income taxes every year?
Taxation being theft, reducing it is a good thing.
You can always file separately.
https://frinkiac.com/caption/S05E18/282281
Was this the problem? (please pardon ugly link)
https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gcqVCWyuBMQ/VDxMHm6-q5I/AAAAAAAAAEg/58B_NhJLBSU/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2014-10-13%2Bat%2B11.54.54%2BAM.png
I laughed at the Milhouse one. “NOBODY likes Milhouse!”, as Mr. Largo would say.
All my gal pals were above average intelligence. My first one was a Latin translator and my last enjoyed Alan Watts, drawing, The Simpsons, and video games. She was smoking hot too. I miss her. Unfortunately, she was a hardcore alcoholic, and we parted ways but stayed in touch after she entered a rehab/treatment program. I looked her up on Facebook, and she’s doing way better. It’s a good thing we met. My successful pick-up line with her was “it’s OK to fall apart; tacos do, and we love them.” She gave me her number 2 minutes after I sent her that.
But yeah. I’d have to be a Pablo Picasso level genius to be the chick magnet he was. My blog is my version of Bickford Shmeckler’s Cool Ideas.
***
The film starts out with the quote “Nothing can ever be truly, fully understood. Not even the most simple idea. Not even this.”
Bickford Shmeckler is a lonely college student who keeps a journal known as “The Book” of his philosophical ideas and theories. One night during a loud toga party, his book is stolen by the inebriated and beautiful Sarah Witt, who briefly meets Bickford and is shown to be a kleptomaniac. Sarah becomes enamored with the writings, and experiences what she calls “braingasms”. After showing The Book to her boyfriend Trent, she rants about how she would love to meet the author (and have sex with him). Later that night, Bickford discovers that the book is missing and begins to panic.
***
To answer the question, though, no they are not.
High immigration is the only thing preventing the US from having the religious profile of Sweden.
Japan is doing everything it can to keep young women barefoot and pregnant
Anecdotally, when I visited my Japanese in-laws last fall my niece (who was preggers) was telling me that she basically cannot be fired for 2 years after having a kid and that the govt would pay 75% (may not be that high, can’t remember for sure) of her salary.
When she had her previous kid, the product line she and her husband worked on (they met at work) was canned. Her hubby had to transfer to a different job. She is still on the books as working for Product Line X even though it is dead in the water. The kid she was about to have was timed perfectly and her phony baloney job was going to be extended another 2 years.
I was teasing her that she was going to have to have another 8 kids so she could retire with a full pension.
There is a great Japanese short story called Mr. English about a Japanese guy who is probably the best translator in Japan. His massive ego annoys people, so his employer never hires him officially but keeps him as a permanent temp (now there’s a fun oxymoron). Mr. English deeply resents having to sign into work with other temps instead having a regular employee badge.
Tell me about it. I was a “permatemp” through Manpower at a Delphi Automotive Systems engineering center back before they spun off from GM. There was a definite caste system dividing “real” Delphi employees from lowly contractors. I waited around for a while after Delphi became independent, but finally concluded that they would never hire me as a full-fledged employee nor deal with a problem Delphi employee who made my working life (and no doubt the lives of other workers) unnecessarily difficult. So I bailed and ended up in the best job I’ve ever had..for 24 years now.
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/the_nail_that_sticks_out_gets_hammered_down
My understanding is the daycare situation is screwed up.
There is subsidized like almost free universal daycare, but insane waiting lists. NaturallyâŚ.
And private daycare is a bitch to find and hard to actually do as a business because of regulation and licensing. Again, shockingâŚ
Why come the low fertility despite âfreeâ daycare?
Why are they in daycare? Those groceries won’t shop themselves.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Enough!
It’s been done.
He is the founding father of modern abiogenic theory for origin of petroleum, which states that some petroleum is formed from non-biological sources of hydrocarbons located deep in the Earthâs crust and mantle.
I have been called crazy, or worse, for suggesting whatever process created petrochemical deposits must still exist and be actively producing more petrochemical deposits.
Macroscopic life has only been around for about 10% of the earth’s history, and there were long stretches of that where extinction events meant there was very little life. Did all the coal, oil, and natural gas form during the Carboniferous period? Maybe, but that hasn’t been proven, and at least in the case of methane, some abiogenic process is at work.
The process must still exist, but relative to what we are pumping out of the ground it might be producing close to zero.
I feel lucky this afternoon.
I decided that, in order to force myself to leave the house nd move, I’d walk to the hardware store and buy some drill bits that I couldn’t find my existing sizes for. On the way there, I felt something wet hit my head. I went “That had better not be bird poo. But if it’s not…” It was rain. The light drip-drip-drip followed me to the hardware store. With little hope of an affirmative answer, I asked “Do you guys sell umbrellas?” The response I got was “Well, I ordered some that are supposed to be here by tuesday… but we did just get a shipment of stuff in, lets check that.”
Lo and behold, in the last pallette was a box of brand new umbrellas.
From the way the rain came down on the walk back to the house, I already dubbed it my lucky umbrella. â
Obligatory
đś
I wish I was spry enough to dance.
My wife and I were watching that movie, and comparing the relatively attractiveness of Debbie Reynolds and her daughter, Carrie Fisher.
Our conclusion?
Gene Kelly is prettier than either of them
Cyd Charisse.
Don’t know about prettiest, but as I’ve mentioned, I once heard Cyd described as having “legs up to her armpits.”
And Jean Hagen had the very best lines in the whole movie.
I once heard Cyd described as having âlegs up to her armpits.â
Ditto Ann Reinking.
There’s also old Charlotte Greenwood movies….
Coming soon to the US of A. It will in no way add additional burden to the seller or increase prices, right?
To Fight âShrinkflation,â France Will Force Retailers to Warn Shoppers
Merchants will be required to put signs in front of all products that have been reduced in size without a corresponding price cut.
Paywall
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/19/business/france-economy-food-prices-shrinkflation.html
So… a 10% price cut and a 15% reduction in size?
Sure, why not — our politicians have already more than adequately demonstrated they’re economic morons after all.
OK OK, weâll keep the item the same size and jack the price through the fucking roof. Why so these scrunts think theyâre shrinking stuff in the first place?
Rough road
The European EV market is experiencing a sharp decline in sales, indicating that the market is not yet self-sustaining. This has raised concerns about the regionâs ability to meet its climate goals, as reported by Bloomberg on Friday.
“The market is no longer growing, and the share of electric cars in the market is actually decreasing,” said Mattias Bergman, chief executive officer of auto industry group Mobility Sweden.
The decrease in demand for EVs has led to a surplus, congesting ports and prompting manufacturers to scale back production. This has raised concerns about the potential impact on the regionâs climate goals and the risk of job losses, following Tesla Inc.âs recent mass layoffs.
“People just don’t earn enough to buy these cars,” said Laurent Favre, CEO of French auto-part supplier OPmobility. “There’s a gap between supply and demand and it’s normal that the subsidies won’t last forever. Reality is catching up with us.”
Maybe everybody who wants one has one. Or they are awaiting further developments.
“Feature, not bug!” cry the Davos crowd pushing said “climate goals”.
Boy would I love a mass “right wing populist” set of governments (because you know that’s what they’d call them) to come in and say “These are stupid, we’re not doing them.” — and not immediately be told by the courts “But Thou Must — Because We Want It!” (like a certain 2016-2020 timeframe)…. Scotland might be close to waking up… but I think that’s optimistic of me to hope.
Oh shit… Florida man into conspiracies… anyone check on Brett?
Wasn’t me. I’m all aboard for the Trump Train, woo-woo!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19oUVarhM4Y
I think Putin is the way Biden would be if he wasn’t senile and had unquestioned power. Here’s a visual aid for that, for which I suggest the Star Wars Imperial March as musical accompianment:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NA3Outfs7K8
The Kazoo Orchestra version of the same works even better.
Even at his brightest, Biden couldn’t come close to the level of cunning Putin demonstrated during his rise to power. He would never have made it as anything but a puppet, so no unquestioned power for him specifically.
The Soviet leader with the most in common with a Biden in his prime is Malenkov. Malenkov was nominally the head honcho for a while, but that was mainly because he was Stalin’s puppet/lapdog.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiWCVWzCVh0
Also, Yeltsin was an affable and charismatic drunk. He was an easy guy to outsmart. Guy had balls to spare though:
***
On 10 September 1987, after a lecture from hard-liner Yegor Ligachyov at the Politburo for allowing two small unsanctioned demonstrations on Moscow streets, Yeltsin wrote a letter of resignation to Gorbachev who was holidaying on the Black Sea.[87] When Gorbachev received the letter he was stunned â nobody in Soviet history had voluntarily resigned from the ranks of the Politburo. Gorbachev phoned Yeltsin and asked him to reconsider.
***
Boris was not Vlad’s only opponent in that viper pit.
Vlad was Yeltsin’s hand-picked successor. The real hate for Putin started when he stopped the looting of the old Soviet Union and saddle-broke the oligarchs. Those who didn’t play accidentally fell out of windows or got permanent food poisoning.
Imagine if Soros or Zuckerberg had such a mishap…
Correct, he reigned in our excesses from the Yeltsin years and allowed the oligarchs to keep most of their stuff at the price of toeing the line. A ruthless and politically brilliant man no doubt.
Because he forced them to keep their manufacturing in Russia – and maintained some state-owned military factories – they can now crank out shells, tanks, and missiles much faster and cheaper than us. One of the nasty surprises of this war.
Both times I hitchhiked in Moscow we drove by the White House, the Russian parliament building. Both drivers pointed and said with a smile, “White House. Yeltsin on tank. Boom boom!”
Putinâs way smarter than Biden ever was even way back when he was whipping Corn Pop with a chain. Bidenâs always been a Class A dumbass and the years havenât helped him.
Compare and Contrast
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p55qkzcxn1k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYTRgtTQOdU
One is an empty suit propped up by machine politics and fraud. The other is a guy who actually had to be cunning to gain power.
Exactly. Not a good guy to put out front if the goal is to prevent the cunning and unscrupulous from starting wars.
Some maniac set himself on fire in front of the Trump trial. Is this a trend? How long can this keep up? He wasnât a commie, just a crazy person.
If he makes it, the guy needs serious mental help which I fear he will not get.
I think this guy heard about how someone did this in front of the white house and then immediately peace in the Middle East happened.
I think we should encourage nuts to set themselves on fire.
A responsible guvt would release a press statement saying: “We wanted to throw Trump in jail, but after seeing only one person set themselves on fire in protest, we just don’t think that is what people really want. If there had been a few more, we totes would have done that. Which is too bad because we had a plan to erect a monument with the names of the martyrs to the cause etched into stone.”
Then alert the fire dept because NYC would be in danger of being burnt to the ground.
Of the last few people who Thich Quang Duc’d themselves, one was bleeding heart liberal protesting the Gaza war and the other was twitterpated about global warming. Thus, it’s very likely this guy was from the Orange Man Bad camp.
I’ll say this, it takes guts and principles to do what he did, horrifying as it is. It’s more humane than a suicide bombing, kind of like seppuku.
He was holding a sign saying Trump and Biden were performing a coup. So both Orange Man and Blue Man Bad?
So he hated both sides.
Ok I’m kinda starting to like this guy. Too bad he combusted.
Andy Palmer, interim CEO of charging company Pod Point and former head of Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings Plc, expressed concern that the grants were lifted prematurely.
He noted consumer reluctance to invest more in electric vehicles (EVs), particularly given the lagging charging infrastructure. Palmer emphasized the need to reduce car costs, aiming for a $20,000 to $30,000 price range to accelerate EV adoption.
Maybe if you didn’t focus 90% of your energy on the luxury/performance/status segment of the market…
But we can all be sure you will do everything in your power to keep “affordable” Chinese EVs off the market.
$20K would barely cover the battery, wouldnât it?
The European EV marketâs struggles come in the wake of the regionâs ambitious plan to phase out sales of new combustion-engine cars by 2035. However, the current market conditions and consumer sentiments are casting doubt on the feasibility of this plan.
The EU should just forcibly confiscate all privately owned internal combustion vehicles and crush them.
Problem solved.
They are probably already working on that.
Thank doG! Minnesoda will finally be able to rid itself of its White Supremecist/Klan problem!
Uffda? What exactly is the “greatest assault on voting rights” here in Minnesoda? We don’t even require ID to vote. C’mon Mr. Journalo! Ask Pernick exactly what is keeping black people from voting in Minnesoda.
Maybe it is because the White Supremacists don’t believe 140 voters can live at one address? (For those of you not steeped in knowledge about Minnesoda politics, Phyllis Khan is an uber progressive and she ended up losing to Omar Ilhan)
Greatest assault on voting rights since Jim Crow. It was a disaster worse than 9-11 and Pearl Harbor combined. Worse than the civil war even. If he is elected there will be a blood bath.
Jeebus, how can anyone take these people seriously?
Why is it that nebulous language in pursuit of noble goals always seem to result in the opposite of their stated purpose?
I asked my grandfather once where, when and how the socialists managed to get their claws into our society. He grumbled “The goddamned mid-west farmers.”
So, here they are two generations later with the same policies and getting the same results.
Lot of those mid-west farmers came from neo-socialist societies like Norway, Sweden and Germany.
The came here, had giant families and didn’t see anything wrong with everyone chipping in and helping out. That attitude has been warped ever since by the grifters.
Yes, and that is a very important point.
As I recall they felt they were being fucked over by the railroads, their primary complaint being demurrage, a complaint I can understand.
So if someone in your state or district votes illegally, can you sue for vote dilution?
Anyone out there who works for the State of New York can explain why I just received a tax refund check that says “This is not a check” on the envelope? đĽ´
Two reasons –
A: The Envelope is indeed not a check.
B: It helps the check not get stolen in transit.
It’s not an “envelope” really, but one of those tear-the-stubs-off things. It says “not a check” on the interior.
People have tried to fraudulently cash the stub half.
That half is not a check.
I associate that disclaimer with notices of a direct deposit. In this case, was there a really truly paper check attached?
Same thought.
Mystery solved.
It is a real check. Apparently my software decided behind my back to choose “check” refund instead of the “direct deposit” that I have chosen for the past 30 years or so.
Because even if they had to refund some of your money, they do not consider that a “check” on their future spending plans?
I imagine to deter theft.
Spent some time in Bolivia back in the early ’80’s. It was impossible to get mail as it was so poor the postal workers would not steal the mail…they stole the postage stamps and dropped all of the mail through cracks in the floorboards of the post office.
Just to be clear….. I didn’t set myself on fire.
https://twitter.com/CollinRugg/status/1781400756190670989?s=19
Whereâs Brett?
He was willing to kill himself in an excruciating way, yet never bothered to briefly explain what the grand conspiracy is. Poor SOB. Also, I was wrong when I guessed he was of the Orange Man Bad tribe.
Are they going to change the name of Burning Man because of this?
I think protesters should start bringing bags of marshmallows and extendible campfire sticks to protests. Just in case it happens again.
Self immolation seems to be more of a lefty thing rather than a MAGA thing. I was putting it at about 90/10 leftie.
âWe are victims of a totalitarian con, and our own government (along with many of their allies) is about to hit us with an apocalyptic fascist world coup.â
You know, I actually mostly agree. Shouldnât have set yourself on fire though bud.
That’s what I say to my wife when she complains about the ammo budget.
Does it work?
Sometimes.
If not, just set yourself on fire to prove your point. Thatâll show her!
That would probably prove her point.
Yeah. No argument here.
But I agree with Derp- other than supposition and reading the news ever day, dude needed to write down some pacifics.
Office Space in real life
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interest_on_Lawyers%27_Trust_Accounts#:~:text=Interest%20on%20Lawyers'%20Trust%20Accounts%20(IOLTA)%20is%20a%20method,on%20certain%20lawyer%20trust%20accounts.
What a shock that lawyers on scotus found their brethren can steal moneys and use it as a do gooder slush fund.
I had no idea that crocodiles lived this long, over 120 years old:
https://youtu.be/hr4zzW-H-n4?si=ZnpO6y16jPOI2opv
No way in Hell Iâd get in the pen with that big fucker.
Reptiles are generally long lived for their body size.
Crocadilians are too ornery to die.
Obligatory
Try finger checking that thingâs cloacha and youâd be dead in seconds. Even a guy standing by with a 12 gauge wouldnât be able to save you.
A (possibly) topical tune
a possible tropical tune
C’mon, be a TEAM player
Environmental groups are condemning Robert F. Kennedy Jr.âs presidential bid and his environmental policy in new efforts on Friday, portraying him as a candidate who will increase the chances former President Donald Trump is reelected.
The Natural Resources Defense Council, a climate advocacy group where Kennedy previously served as senior attorney for 28 years, is planning to run a full-page advertisement in newspapers through its political arm in six battleground states on Sunday. According to a copy of the ad obtained by CNN, the group is calling on Kennedy to drop out of the race to prevent him from being a spoiler for Trump, who they call âthe single worst environmental president our country has ever had.â
âWe have spent our careers fighting to protect the planet and its people. As current and former leadership and board members of the NRDC Action Fund, as well as former colleagues of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., we have one message for him: Honor our planet, drop out,â the ad reads.
âIn nothing more than a vanity candidacy, RFK Jr. has chosen to play the role of election spoiler to the benefit of Donald Trump â the single worst environmental president our country has ever had,â the ad continues.
Burn the apostate.
Yeah, RFK Jr. was a piece of shit when he was with NRDC. It’s part of why I roll my eyes when people here think he’s a great candidate because he agrees with them on one issue. If he somehow magically won the election he’d be an unmitigated disaster.
Yes.
+ Camelot!
But Camelot hates him so he must be great. That’s how this works, isn’t it?
Thatâs how this works, isnât it?
Nope
ZeroHedge has a writeup on our self-immolator. He was communist, anti-fascist . And not far off the mark with some of his conspiracy theories.
Coming from the ZH commentariat, “My love for you burns like 6M jews”
In a separate effort, a dozen environmental organizations have penned an open letter urging voters to reject Kennedyâs climate proposals, attacking his views on climate and warning his candidacy could help Trump win re-election and lead to âthe complete erosion of vital environmental and social gains made to date.â
âRobert F. Kennedy, Jr. is not an environmentalist. He is a dangerous conspiracy theorist and science denier whose agenda would be a disaster for our communities and the planet,â the letter reads. âHe may have once been an environmental attorney, but now RFK Jr. is peddling the term âclimate change orthodoxyâ and making empty promises to clean up our environment with superficial proposals. The truth is, by rejecting science, what he offers is no different than Donald Trump.â
The shit flinging howler monkeys are very very angry.
How droll.
A phrase that has no meaning has….well, no meaning.
not far off the mark with some of his conspiracy theories.
They’re better at identifying the problem than coming up with rational solutions.
I see that.
Yeah, there is a lot of that going around.
In an interview with the New York Times on Thursday, Kennedy said environmental organizations are âmaking a mistake to settle for crumbs that have been given to us by the Biden administration.â He also pushed back on the argument his candidacy would help Trump defeat Biden.
âPresident Biden does not need my help to lose to Donald Trump,â Kennedy said.
Well played.
Itâs part of why I roll my eyes when people here think heâs a great candidate because he agrees with them on one issue.
You’re unquestionably right about him, but I can’t help being amused by his court jester digs at The Big Guy. He’s the only one on that side with the balls to say anything unflattering about Joe.
And people talk about how Trump has the Republicans cowed into submission.
You think the long knives will only come out for Joe when he loses?
I played https://squaredle.com 04/19:
59/59 words (+3 bonus words)
đŻ In the top 4% by accuracy*
Finally! Jeeminy criminy, I thought I’d never get this thing done!
*I contest the puzzle’s refusal to accept “lordy” as a legit word.
I played https://squaredle.com 04/19:
59/59 words (+20 bonus words)
đ In the top 3% by bonus words
I did not play https://squaredle.com 04/19:
0/59 words (+20 bonus words)
đ In the top 0% by bonus words
Heh… nicely (not) played there, Tres.
Re: lordy
INORITE? Although lordy doesn’t appear in the official Scrabble dictionary, and it is flagged by my computer as an unknown word.
What really pisses me off is it not accepting “off-color” words, including some that have perfectly ordinary meanings.