"This was the voice of moderation until 13 Sept, 2025"
by Ugh Just when the GOP is getting ready to drop their huge (yuuuuge!) plans for tax reform on Wednesday, Mueller drops his first indictment: of Paul Manafort for….tax fraud! Or at least failing to file FBAR reports. You can't make this sh1t up. Perhaps the GOP proposal can be labeled tax fraud, instead of … Read more
by wj However much our political concerns dominate our focus, it is well to remember that the universe is bigger than our day to day concerns. So we shouldn't miss this one: For the first time ever, an asteroid or comet from another star has been caught hurtling through our solar system, astronomers announced late … Read more
by wj I was caught by this article. It appears that sucking up to the Trump administration has spread (or maybe this is just me belatedly noticing). Briefly, a tiny Montana firm (run by a friend of the Secretary of the Interior) has gotten a no-bid, $300 million contract contract to re-build Puerto Rico's power … Read more
by liberal japonicus We've just passed the halfway point for Las Vegas shooting victims. Lisa Romero Denise Salmon Burditus Rhonda LeRocque Victor Link Charleston Hartfield Chris Hazencomb Calla Medig Thomas Day, Jr. Jack Beaton Keri Galvan Rocio Guillen Cameron Robinson Jennifer Irvine Candice Bowers Kelsey Breanne Meadows, 28 Stacee Ann Etcheber, 50 Carrie Rae Barnette, … Read more
by liberal japonicus Marty, in the comments, points to this interesting article A 45 year old married father of two with a mortgage and a pair of college educations to fund. The remote yet persistent threat of a nuclear war is not what keeps him up at night. In fact, he might almost see it as … Read more
by wj This is really more Dr Science's area. But since she is having problems connecting, I figured someone else needed to put it out there. Basically, on August 17 (but just formally announced today) astronomers detected both electromagnetic radiations and gravitational radiations for an explosive merging of two neutron stars. These sort of events are … Read more
by liberal japonicus With this comment by the Count, which names Las Vegas shooting victim Michelle Vo, age 32, 19 out of the 58 victims names,or just about one-third, have been posted as comments. Janie and the Count have been doing this, I went back after I realized what they were doing and added links, but … Read more
by liberal japonicus Not meaning to make light of the Harvey Weinstein revelations, but this was funny: On Oct. 5, The New York Times published a disturbing report detailing sexual harassment allegations against film producer and executive Harvey Weinstein, some of which dated back nearly three decades. After news of the allegations broke, the Weinstein Company fired the 65-year-old … Read more
by wj I really wanted to share this, but couldn’t find a reasonably recent thread to fit. (Besides, we seem to be overdue for a new Open Thread.) Senator Corker definitely turn a phrase here: It’s a shame the White House has become an adult day care center. Someone obviously missed their shift this morning. … Read more
by liberal japonicus I’m a fast reader. Too fast sometimes, and when I drop into ObWi, it’s often more to see that people aren’t reenacting Lord of the Flies. So when the Count started to post single names, my eyes went right over them. Janie joined in. I didn’t notice until an offlist email from … Read more
by russell a follow-on, perhaps, to a side discussion in the beautiful thread about software and the people who write it. from the Atlantic Monthly, a discussion of complexity and risk in software, and how folks are trying to deal with it. the technical lead of my development group circulated this, as being of interest to … Read more
by liberal japonicus
This story recently caught my eye
In "Ways of Grace," Blake details the arrest, using it as a springboard to talk about broader issues of social justice and how law enforcement treats black Americans. Frascatore said that he became "very angry and upset while reading it," telling the Post and that he plans to sue for emotional distress and slander.
The suit, or more specifically, the threat of it, prompted the fairy tale below the fold
by Doctor Science Here’s something you can do to help Puerto Rico right now: process satellite images to map where the damage is. The Planetary Response Network at the Zooniverse just put up a new batch of low-resolution images for wide-scale mapping. Tomnod is using high-resolution images to pinpoint damage. I’ve been working on both … Read more
by JanieM
From the Prologue to The Fellowship of the Ring:
The Shire at this time had hardly any ‘government’… There remained, of course, the ancient tradition concerning the high king at Fornost, or Norbury as they called it, away north of the Shire. But there had been no king for nearly a thousand years, and even the ruins of Kings’ Norbury were covered with grass. Yet the Hobbits still said of wild folk and wicked things (such as trolls) that they had not heard of the king. For they attributed to the king of old all their essential laws; and usually they kept the laws of free will, because they were The Rules (as they said), both ancient and just.
This post grew out of my recent sidetrack into barn basketball memories, but it starts with a travel story.
Once upon a time, when my kids were small, we three went traveling. As soon as we were inside the terminal at Logan, one kid toddled one way and the other crawled the other, and there I was in the middle, stuck with the luggage and trying to decide which kid to go after first.
Out of that experience came “The Rules of Travel”:
1. Stick together
2. Keep track of your stuff
3. Be nice
Those rules obviously weren’t ancient, and whether they were just or not, they were at least short, sweet, and in the case of the first two, concrete.
They worked pretty well.
Skipping over to barn basketball…
by Ugh I've been neglecting my posting duties so thought I'd put this up. Having sh1t for brains for President is turning out to not be a good thing. Whoocoodanode! I especially like all the people abandoning him left and right in the past couple months, as if he's somehow changed from the campaign. "That's … Read more
by liberal japonicus
Below the fold, a medical story that may be of interest to:
-men of a certain age (over 50)
-people interested in national health comparisons
-people interested in how Japan may be refracted thru their health care
If you are not interested in hearing details about my health, I encourage you to skip this. Ret's go…
by JanieM The last lines from the poem Questions of Travel, by Elizabeth Bishop: ‘Is it lack of imagination that makes us come to imagined places, not just stay at home? Or could Pascal have been not entirely right about just sitting quietly in one’s room? Continent, city, country, society: the choice is never wide … Read more
by wj Sometimes, I come across things that just totally blow my mind. This, from the Wall Street Journal: The federal flood insurance program has paid more than $1.8 million between 1979 and 2015 to rebuild a single house in Kingwood, Texas. The house has been flooded 22 times since 1979 H/T FiveThirtyEight The house … Read more
by liberal japonicus
Regular commenter wonkie posted this and I wanted to lift it to the front page. She wrote:
My dog rescue book has just become available on Amazon. It’s the story of the rescue of the Olympic Animal Sanctuary dogs—the largest dog rescue to be carried out without support of local authorities. It’s is a story of assaults, protests, lawsuits,and small town corruption and abuse of power. I took me two years to write. The text includes the police files released under state law, eye witness accounts, lots of photos, and additional essays by professional dog behaviorists. All proceeds will be donated to the rescues that took in the surviving dogs.
She said that the proceeds will go to
Safe Haven in Nevada (facebook)
Lionel’s Legacy in California
Gentle Giants in New Jersey
Chicagoland Eskie Rescue
AARF in Seattle
and others if there is more money. Buy the book, check out the websites.
I’d also like to point out that wonkie also published a book of short stories, one of which she shared in a post here. You can get that at this link. (she published it under a different name)
Below the fold, stories about my pets and in the comments, you are encouraged to talk about your pets.
by wj I couldn’t find a place to put this, so . . . new open thread! I ran across this: President Trump and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) have agreed to pursue a deal that would permanently remove the requirement that Congress repeatedly raise the debt ceiling. Getting rid of the debt … Read more
by liberal japonicus this from http://grist.org/article/irma-the-strongest-atlantic-hurricane-in-history-keeps-getting-stronger/ via LGM Should the hurricane make landfall in Florida or elsewhere in the Southeast, it will set a regrettable record — the first-ever back-to-back U.S. landfalls of Category 4 or higher storms. Hurricane Harvey’s catastrophic impact in Texas and Louisiana now ranks as the worst natural disaster in U.S. … Read more
by Doctor Science I drove back to NJ from New England on Saturday, and unexpectedly found myself one of the first 100,000 or so people to cross the new Tappan Zee Bridge. Right now, only the westbound lanes are open; eastbound is scheduled to open in June 2018. My report: As bridges go, not bad![1] … Read more
by liberal japonicus Hope I’m not stepping on wj’s excellently titled previous post (I do love me a good post title), but I thought I would open one about Houston, flooding and how it is ridiculous that these pointy headed squints are pointing at climate as being a possible cause when Houston has a lesbian … Read more
by wj I had been under the impression that the President’s pardon power was pretty much absolute. But once again IANAL raises its interesting head. After his Presidential pardon, Joe Arpaio’s lawyers naturally filed a petition with the court to have his conviction vacated. But the Arizona Republic reports that, rather than just doing so, … Read more
by wj The Count said in the previous thread: Watch local Texas municipalities try to implement more rational land use and building code policies and then see how vermin libertarian republican right wing crypto christian fascists in the Governor’s Manse and in the State House deprive their local rights and thwart all improvement. And then, … Read more
by Doctor Science I’m spending E-Day in Connecticut, where there weather is decent but the eclipse only so-so. I am so consumed with envy for totality-watchers (including Mr Dr Science, who’s road-tripping to NC) I’ve been dreaming I was one of you. The other night I dreamed I was trying to map the totality path … Read more
by wj It can be all too easy, it the flood of stuff happening these days, to overlook something which would be stunning in other times. I wonder what all there might be…. For example, consider these tweets from last week: Events in Charlottesville unacceptable & musnt be tolerated @USNavy forever stands against intolerance & … Read more
by Ugh It's 2017, do you know where your neo-Nazis are America? Meanwhile, the NYTimes is showing us their terrific editorial balance on the issue by letting Erick Fncking Erickson write an op-ed on yesterday's events. Erick. Fncking. Erickson. Not gonna link. Both sides, people, both sides. U! S! A! Jesus. Open Thread.
by JanieM bobbyp in the electric cars thread: For some strange reason, I found myself re-reading some of this thread. Hint hint? Here’s an open thread, with a prompt for a possible topic very much off the top of my head: A bunch of candidates have already declared that they’re running to replace Paul LePage … Read more
by JanieM
In 1966, the summer I was sixteen, the Saturday Evening Post published an article entitled, "The Hobbit-foming World of J.R.R. Tolkien." The subheadline called The Lord of the Rings "the hottest-selling item in U.S. campus bookstores."
I would like to think I was drawn in by the description of the story itself, not just by the desire to be cool like the college kids, and subsequent history supports that conceit. I bought and read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings that summer, then reread the trilogy every year for almost the next fifty, long after I let go of the desire to be cool like the college kids.
It has been a few years since I stopped reading LOTR word for word every single year. Some years I do need the solace of the whole thing; usually this happens in the winter. Other years it's enough to read scattered bits, some chosen at random, some deliberately.
"I will diminish, and go into the West, and remain Galadriel…"
But I really sat down to write about rereading. ….More below the fold.
by wj Friday, Nissan and Mazda announced that they would work together to develop electric vehicle technologies. work together to develop electric vehicle technologies. And to build a $1.6 billion assembly plant in the U.S., which will have a capacity to produce 300,000 cars a year and provide jobs for about 4,000 people. However, the … Read more
by liberal japonicus Cracking open a new thread from the recent comments about John McCain's no vote. Some interesting things in the comments about this, which I will let others expand on, but two links from Nigel and wonkie. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/07/mccain-goes-high/535218/ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/joe-biden-john-mccain_us_597cb903e4b0da64e8797fa9 Please play the ball, not the man, I have a feeling that the latter … Read more