The pics were from Thanksgiving morning. Lily and I got to the park before anyone else, putting the first tracks in the snow (with the exception of some squirrels). The rabbits are in full fluff. The place confirms my theory that sufficiently beautiful location can support more dysfunctional societies before peoples’ GTFO points are reached. My new phone records video such that the files are too big to upload, I’ll try and figure out/solve that problem.
The week starts off with the Earth moving out of being between Jupiter Retrograde and MERCORY RETROGRADE, but there’s still probably some spillover of spillage. By Tuesday though, MERCURY RETROGRADE lines up with Mars retrograde, so expect some Major Military Malfunctions. That risk should be over by Thursday, but there is another alignment involving Mars retrograde after that, one that classically means “soldiers coming home in disgrace.” This was considered much worse back in the day than by modern audiences. Important days for said homecoming will be the 13th and 14th.
The East and Southeast entrances to the woods
Sagittarius: The Magician – Skill, diplomacy, address, subtlety; sickness, pain, loss, disaster, snares of enemies; self-confidence, will.
Capricorn: 6 of Wands – Victory, great news, hope.
Aquarius: The Empress reversed -Light, truth, the unravelling of involved matters, public rejoicings, vacillation.
Pisces: Page of Coins reversed – Prodigality, dissipation, liberality, luxury; unfavorable news.
Aries: Ace of Coins reversed – The evil side of wealth, bad intelligence.
Taurus: 10 of Swords reversed – Advantage, profit, success, favor, but none of these are permanent; also power and authority.
Gemini: 9 of Wands – Strength in opposition, delay, suspension, adjournment.
Cancer: 2 of Wands reversed – Surprise, wonder, enchantment, emotion, trouble, fear.
Leo: 3 of Cups reversed – Expedition, dispatch, achievement, end. It signifies also the side of excess in physical enjoyment, and the pleasures of the senses. The upright of this card is a party, the reversed the downside/aftermath of one.
Virgo: 5 of Swords reversed – Degradation, destruction, revocation, infamy, dishonor, loss. Basically the grownup equivalent of getting your lunch money taken in front of the entire class.
Libra: 4 of Wands reversed – Prosperity, increase, felicity, beauty, embellishment.
Scorpio: 8 of Swords – Bad news, violent chagrin, crisis, censure, power in trammels, conflict, calumny, sickness.
I feel pity for her brother in Houston.
This got served up by the algo and it had a remarkably salubrious effect on my mood, so I’m sharing.
Maybe my annual evaluation at work isn’t going to be as good as I expected. 😳
I’ll take it.
The place confirms my theory that sufficiently beautiful location can support more dysfunctional societies before peoples’ GTFO points are reached.
Hello from Colorado!
Lily looks so happy! Great video, pics and musical selection! Thanks as always, NA
I’m enjoying this tune despite my better inclination.
Yeah, it’s not normally my thing but I really like it.
Yes, my children. This way, into the light.
Sagittarius: The Magician – Skill, diplomacy, address, subtlety; sickness, pain, loss, disaster, snares of enemies; self-confidence, will.
This seems… inconclusive.
Aquarius: The Empress reversed -Light, truth, the unravelling of involved matters, public rejoicings, vacillation.
Well, I did fix the leak from the wife’s bathtub, and I am pretty sure I know how to wire in the drum switch for the motor to fit my little mill. Now, all I need to do is hang some Xmas lights.
“Cancer: 2 of Wands reversed – Surprise, wonder, enchantment, emotion, trouble, fear.”
Woohoo! More sex! Loving all these readings.
Wait a second… I’m starting to detect a pattern to your response and interpretation of these science presentations, and they seem to bear no relation to the actual words!
100% accuracy though…
Pisces: Page of Coins reversed – Prodigality, dissipation, liberality, luxury; unfavorable news.
Sounds like this week is going to be costly.
ya think? – Steve Sarkisian
Nice dog butt in the first thumbnail.
Nice dog video.
Expedition, dispatch, achievement, end. It signifies also the side of excess in physical enjoyment, and the pleasures of the senses. The upright of this card is a party, the reversed the downside/aftermath of one.
This almost sounds sufficiently shitty.
HuffPo story:
The two words you never ever want to say to a really angry person
“Try it”?
SMU in; Alabama, Miami out.
https://apnews.com/live/cfp-playoff-bracket-schedule
I’ve written enough here about why the CFP is wrong-headed,
but, in particular, it seems so pointless for Tennessee:
there’s nothing that is going to happen in a gaunlet run through tOSU, Oregon, and whomever
in the hopes of winning the fourth game against, say, Georgia or Texas, that is worth the candle.
It’s spectacularly stupid.
Shorter version:college playoffs are pointless
Taurus: 10 of Swords reversed – Advantage, profit, success, favor, but none of these are permanent; also power and authority: Hedgin’ the positive with some nasty, just a bit, eh? I’ll take the first four and ignore the rest. Perception > Reality.
As for The Ting Tings.. I fucking love that song. Bit of a guilty pleasure, but It shouldn’t be. IIRC, someone in our cover band semi-casually suggested adding it to our set list. Actually would’ve been an easy one for the bar-folk to join in on. For some reason it’s found its way into my airplay more than I’d expect. It’s remarkably hard to boil something catchy down to 3-4 minutes.
lol I’m probably outside its age range but I’m digging it anyway. Never heard of this band.
Taurus: 10 of Swords reversed – Advantage, profit, success, favor, but none of these are permanent; also power and authority: Hedgin’ the positive with some nasty, just a bit, eh? I’ll take the first four and ignore the rest. Perception > Reality.
As for The Ting Tings.. I fucking love that song. Bit of a guilty pleasure, but It shouldn’t be. IIRC, someone in our cover band semi-casually suggested adding it to our set list. Actually would’ve been an easy one for the bar-folk to join in on. For some reason it’s found its way into my airplay more than I’d expect. It’s remarkably hard to boil something catchy down to 3-4 minutes.
I just offended half of Chiefs Twitter. Truth is truth, people.
What did you tell them?
That they had been playing sloppily all year and the O-line was trash. Yeah, we have an 11-1 record, but only BARELY for most of the games. When your QB is sacked 10 times in 2 games, you might wanna consider you have a problem. We barely beat the Raiders and the Chargers are not crap. But noooooooo only blind faith and slathering sycophantism in the almost-infallible 11-1 record is acceptable.
Only half?
Look, there’s only so much one girl can do.
Wow! I’ve not watched many (any?) games this year, just followed some of the text reports. And I can think of at least three fairly lucky wins.
To wit.
Say, do you do anything with medieval history? Like, say, 1423? I have to get people from northwest England to Italy, and I’m having a problem finding YouTube resources on EUROPEAN history during this time. Just English.
@ Mo. Not directly, but I might have some thoughts. Fiction? Figuring out a transportation method?
How hostile are they to the French. How big is the party travelling? What is their economic status? Pilgrims?
Party of 3 adults, one earl, one countess, (possibly a child, haven’t decided yet) and one thief (who is actually a duke), soon to pick up one more adult female.
They have NOTHING. Maybe. Their castle has fallen to a rival lord after a helluva siege with new-fangled things called cannons. They’re exiled as punishment instead of killed. I haven’t decided whether to let them find a pouch of gold in one of their castle’s hidey holes or not. Anyway, before they fell to the siege, they found out that most of the earl’s fortune went to Italy with their clerk to be put in a bank against the earl’s express wishes (the earl’s father and the countess both wanted this to happen, so they facilitated this), leaving insurance policies behind to let them know where it went.
They don’t have their horses (war horses) or dogs (war dogs) or weapons.
The thief is keeping them in food until the others can find work. The countess has already once traversed Europe alone, on foot, with a war dog that had attached itself to her (cane corso, to be exact), working in noble houses from Lyon to Edinburgh, so she can do that again going the other way. The knight is now blind in one eye, so he has to learn to joust (if he can find a horse) half blind so make some money.
The idea is for them to blend in, living in the shadows/woods/forests most of the time, often stopping so the countess can work a while to make some money and for the earl to learn how to fight/war/joust half-blind.
They pick up a girl on the way, as the romance part will be the thief and this girl.
Anyway, the goal is to go to Italy, fetch their money from Medici Bank, raise an army and go back to reclaim the earldom and install the thief as the rightful duke (yes, he has always known he was the rightful duke, but couldn’t prove it).
This book is ONLY their journey to Italy and back. The third book, if there is one, will be retaking the earldom and then the earl’s heir’s romance will be the focus.
I don’t know how long this will take or what path they might take (the Silk Road?). I had in book 1 that it took the countess 3 years to get from Lyon to Edinburgh on foot, and working her way up Europe and England.
If I were advising the party I’d say pretend to be pilgrims, walk from hospital* to hospital monastary to monastary along the well-trod route towards Rome. It would be less conspicuous than trying to make the wilderness route.
*for those glibs unaware medieval hosptial is nothing like a modern. They were religious sites travellers could stop at. Some sought treatment for ills, but others were just fine.
**Yes, I get that their end destination is not Rome, but Pilgrims walking towards Italy wouldn’t stop at Florence and turn around when Rome was just a little further along
I hope I made sense.
Yes, thank you! I hadn’t thought of that.
See this is why I have only ever attempted to write future fiction. I am way too lazy to do historical research.
I like what UCS wrote (and he probably knows more about the period than I do).
Couple of additional thoughts: there was a significant uptick in trade & commercial activity in the 1400s (https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/medieval-trade-fairs-and-commercial-revolution). Some of this was repercussions from the black death but there were other factors. It did mean more trade fairs across a lot of Europe. There were also more travelers – not just because of the fairs but because, in some parts of Europe, peasants and others were migrating looking for better working conditions. My point (albeit long-winded) is that it became more common to see travelers and, generally, as long as they weren’t trying to settle in a small village, they weren’t harassed.
Re: traveling to Italy from England.
Adding to what UCS has said, traveling via river, at least partially, is also an option. It is well documented that Scandinavians navigated the river systems of Europe all the way across to the Black Sea and on to Constantinople since the 8th or 9th century.
Also, they could have an interesting encounter on or around a bridge like the Krämerbrücke, if you like that kind of thing.
Neat. Weirdly, my hometown had a bridge like that.
is Wanya Morris most of the problem?
is letting Trey Smith (go Vols!) get away a big mistake?
even after a good year, is Kevin Zeitler still a short-term answer at best?
IDK, but parity in this league is real. The Vikes have a gaudy record but have barely squeaked by a couple times, while the Bears are not nearly as bad as their record.
I still dig Sundays.
And of course as soon as I type that the Vikings go on a fucking tear in the 4th.
Sorry, Kirk.
To be fair, there are a couple stinkers. Just saw two of them limp off the field.
This popped up in a youtube ad referencing Gaia’s plight in some manner. (They want money! Remarkable!): “United Nations • Climate change refers to long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns. Human activities have been the main driver of climate change, primarily due to the burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas.”
Indeed, by *this* definition, a “climate denier” may be anyone who rejects our opening precepts! That phrase is such an Orwellian Red Flag. The self-flagellistic won’t hear anything against it. Thinking that human forces are the “main driver” behind the climate is fucking snortin’ your blow through your own ass. Impressively flexible, lithe, and excellent straw-control.
Human activities have been the main driver of climate change, primarily due to the burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas
Every time I hear this sort of framing, my goto response (even if gotos are, for some unfathomable reason, poor coding practice) is “A significant fraction of North America was covered by a mile of ice 12000 years ago. Care to revise and extend your statements?”
The first part may or may not be true (there is a lot of fudging of the data going on) but there is absolutely no proof whatsoever of the second part – it is pure conjecture meant to terrify the rubes and make the submit to your demands.
Muh stimulus
Donald Trump’s transition team is considering canceling the United States Postal Service’s contracts to electrify its delivery fleet, as part of a broader suite of executive orders targeting electric vehicles, according to three sources familiar with the plans.
The move, which could be unveiled in the early days of Trump’s administration that begins on Jan. 20, is in line with Trump’s campaign promises to roll back President Joe Biden’s efforts to decarbonize U.S. transportation to fight climate change – an agenda Trump has said is unnecessary and potentially damaging to the economy.
——-
In 2023, Congress gave USPS $3 billion as part of a $430 billion climate bill to buy EVs and charging infrastructure. It plans to buy some 66,000 electric vehicles to build one of the largest electric vehicle fleets in the nation by 2028.
As part of that, Oshkosh is expected to deliver about 45,000 electric vehicles, with the remaining coming from mainstream automakers like Ford, according to the USPS. The initial batch of 14,000 chargers are being supplied by Siemens, ChargePoint and Blink, according to the USPS.
Put Ramaswamy on it.
Make evrey Fedgov worker walk to and from work. Save far more energy that way.
Decarbonizing is an apt term for their desired end state.
Can we just set that money on fire? It would be more productive to heat our homes with it than to throw it at grifters.
Let’s ignore all of the other large scale transportation systems that have tried this and pretend it wont be a disaster. I wonder who will end up with the money.
one of these guys is as tall as UCS
Now, I’m between six-one and six-six depending on which convenience store I’m leaving – Ron White
how tall was Hitler?
He must have been 6’3″ as that is what Literally Hitler’s height is.
You know who else was tall?
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar?
This guy? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tall_Man_(2012_film)
In 2021, Biden issued an executive order on EVs declaring that 50% of all new passenger cars and light trucks would be zero-emission vehicles. To achieve that goal, Biden directed various federal agencies to undertake rules on new emission and fuel standards designed to speed adoption of electric vehicles.
That Trump, always pushing the boundaries of Presidential power.
Well, Trump is the fascist – duh.
I fucking hate birds. Why do they do enjoy shitting on my vehcles?
I should get a pellet gun…
Or a garage.
I have a single car garage. There’s no room in it for my car. 😕
I saw, ok half saw, a movie this morning where someone was driving. It was an action scene that cut from one point of view to another over and over. In once shot a giant shit splats across the driver’s window. I dont think it was a bird, it had to be a pterodactyl. Two shots later…three seconds in the continuity, it was magically disappeared.
Let us all pause and think of Winston’s Mom.
https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/paul-krugman-goodbye-and-good-riddance/
I secretly hope he has incurable ass cancer.
The good news… Trump is going to make heads explode.
The bad news… One group that could be protected from mass deportation is “DREAMers,” non-citizens brought to the U.S. illegally as children who have lived almost their entire lives in America. Trump told NBC he wants to work with Democrats on a solution to keep them in the country.
“I will work with the Democrats on a plan,” Trump said. “We’re going to have to do something with them.”
It seems unlikely. Even dunder-headed Americans have no desire to punish people who had no say in the situation they are born into. Agreed, it is a difficult situation with no good answer – as it was calculated to be. The people who created the situation are evil and guilty. My solution would be to grant one citizenship for one prison sentence for the pols and NGO employees that created it.
Meh, he’s not going to get a lot of support for kicking out the Dreamers after they ramp up the sob stories.
Honestly I dunno WTF to do with them. Only I think there are higher priorities. Like the violent criminals that keep flowing through the revolving doors back onto the street.
Yeah…numbers wise, a much higher priority kicking out most of the ones from the last 4 years – and should be a lot simpler to track down too. (unless they registered all the DACA folks…like in a binder?)
The deal:
If they have no criminal history, they have one year to become citizens and renounce the citizenship of their home country. Otherwise, deport them.
Pick a fucking team, DREAMers.
Your terms are acceptable.
Love love love “That’s Not My Name”. It’s been on my hype playlist for years.
It’s good enough to add to my list of library wants.
Didn’t see KK comment on it earlier, but Mike Rowe was on Joe Rogan this week – listening to it right now – another great episode.
I saw that and it certainly piqued my interest. Rowe’s new show on Fox Business, How America Works is good television. I’m biased, but I found myself quickly pulled into the screen, a fairly rare occurrence. He’s good at his job, especially focusing on work Everyday Folk can do, pretty much with a high school degree. We need more emphasis on that type of success, frankly. Far too many kids are sent off after high school with no real skills.
A ‘high school degree’ in America pretty much means ‘is literate,’ or used to. I’m highly doubtful of the literacy rates of schools today. *beat* Shit. First search kinda matches my guess:
54% of adults have a literacy level below sixth grade.
1 in 4 children in the US grows up without learning how to read.
Students who don’t read proficiently by the 3rd grade are four times more likely to drop out of school.
2/3rds of students who cannot read proficiently by the end of 4th grade will end up in jail or on welfare.
The US edu system is fucked. The acceptance of its shittyness is astonishing. Add those being paid to work the system (teachers included); indoctrination of the ultra-importance of public Ed; and the combined reliance folk have on the edu system is a powerful blast of cultural inertia. It will continue to be fucked until it ruptures itself.