Tuesday February 25, 2014 The University of Minnesota Law School has a hockey team called the Fighting Mondales. And a chess club called the Fighting Pawndales.
***Comments of Comment:
Lee Gold 2/24/14: "Thursday February 20, 2014 My birthday. I don't feel 71 years old."
Congratulations anyway.
Now close your eyes and imagine: "How old does 71 years feel?"
I remember sometime in the mid-1950s some public service announcement trying to get people to re-imagine age. "What does a grandmother look like?" the nice man's voice asked, and showed a white-haired lady in a wheelchair, knitting.
Then it showed a busy woman, shopping. "This is a grandmother," the nice man's voice said, and showed clips of her busy life, ending up with her going to a party with adult children and teenaged grandchildren -- and her mother, who was the white-haired lady in a wheelchair.
When people have told me now and then, "You don't look [fill in the age]," I tell them, "This is exactly how I look at that age." (I turned 71 on October 7th, 2013.)
Reply: My head hair is black. My maternal grandfather's hair stayed black till the end of his life. But I first grew a beard at 26 or so; and it had some gray in it.
***From Facebook:
Tweets of Old
Girls, you had better hustle to keep pace with one 15-year old Maine maiden who drives oxen, studies Latin, and runs a saw-mill. VA1910
***From Twitter:
Susan Cosmos @SusanCosmos "The only thing we know about the future is that it is going to be different." - Peter Drucker #quote
Thursday, February 27, 2014
Tuesday, February 25, 2014
Monday February 24, 2014 "Finally, in my survey of world history in the two centuries following the fall of the Bastille, I come to the question of why the workers never took over the idea of revolution."
Kenneth Minogue, "What if Karl Marx Had Drowned in a Cross-Channel Ferry Accident (1847)" In Nelson W. Polsby (ed.), What If. The Lewis Publishing Company, 1982
Historical point of divergence: Karl Marx died before writing a complete exposition of his theories. Which meant there was no adequate theory for working class revolution, and no such revolution could occur.
I place this in the "If roosters didn't crow, the Sun wouldn't rise" category. Factory workers would have adapted some other philosophy to their needs.
As peasants have done with Marxism in our timeline. As groups across political and social spectrums have done with Christianity and other religions.
***The University of Minnesota's Metro-area campuses will go smoke-free in July. The ban will include electronic cigarettes.
***From minnpost.org:
"Fake" ... Twitter followers? Nick Winkler of KSTP-TV writes: "5 EYEWITNESS NEWS audited high profile politicians in Minnesota and found they have thousands of fake twitter followers. For instance, approximately 6,000 of Governor Mark Dayton's twitter followers are not real. We checked and candidates for the Republican nominee for Governor have fake followers as well."
***From Twitter:
Brainwave Architect™ @brainwavetweets You will either step forward into growth or you will step back into safety. ~ Abraham Maslow.
Kenneth Minogue, "What if Karl Marx Had Drowned in a Cross-Channel Ferry Accident (1847)" In Nelson W. Polsby (ed.), What If. The Lewis Publishing Company, 1982
Historical point of divergence: Karl Marx died before writing a complete exposition of his theories. Which meant there was no adequate theory for working class revolution, and no such revolution could occur.
I place this in the "If roosters didn't crow, the Sun wouldn't rise" category. Factory workers would have adapted some other philosophy to their needs.
As peasants have done with Marxism in our timeline. As groups across political and social spectrums have done with Christianity and other religions.
***The University of Minnesota's Metro-area campuses will go smoke-free in July. The ban will include electronic cigarettes.
***From minnpost.org:
"Fake" ... Twitter followers? Nick Winkler of KSTP-TV writes: "5 EYEWITNESS NEWS audited high profile politicians in Minnesota and found they have thousands of fake twitter followers. For instance, approximately 6,000 of Governor Mark Dayton's twitter followers are not real. We checked and candidates for the Republican nominee for Governor have fake followers as well."
***From Twitter:
Brainwave Architect™ @brainwavetweets You will either step forward into growth or you will step back into safety. ~ Abraham Maslow.
Monday, February 24, 2014
Saturday February 22, 2014 "Ada [Lovelace] and [Charles] Babbage tried to apply their mathematical skills to predicting the outcome of horse races, and Ada died deeply in debt."Julia Cresswell, Naming Your Baby; entry for Ada.
I recommend this book. Partly for asides such as this one. Mostly because when there are conflicting explanations of a name's origin, or the standard explanation is dubious, Cresswell says so. And there's a good bibliography of books and websites.
***From Friday's minnpost.org:
We’re No. 40! And I know why … City Pages' Aaron Rupar writes: "[A] sexual stamina study uses data from Spreadsheets, a mobile app that 'monitors data from user's movement and audio levels through the accelerometer and microphone to provide statistical and visual analysis of their performance in bed,' according to its website. … Anyway, using data from 10,000 users, Spreadsheets broke down the relative stamina of each state, and it turns out Minnesota is home to a bunch of two-pump chumps. Here are the results:
38. Oklahoma — (2:21)
39. Colorado — (2:21)
40. Minnesota — (2:19)
41. Ohio — (2:18)
42. Louisiana — (2:17)
43. Kentucky — (2:14)."
Do they have any idea how exhausted we are from shoveling snow?
I recommend this book. Partly for asides such as this one. Mostly because when there are conflicting explanations of a name's origin, or the standard explanation is dubious, Cresswell says so. And there's a good bibliography of books and websites.
***From Friday's minnpost.org:
We’re No. 40! And I know why … City Pages' Aaron Rupar writes: "[A] sexual stamina study uses data from Spreadsheets, a mobile app that 'monitors data from user's movement and audio levels through the accelerometer and microphone to provide statistical and visual analysis of their performance in bed,' according to its website. … Anyway, using data from 10,000 users, Spreadsheets broke down the relative stamina of each state, and it turns out Minnesota is home to a bunch of two-pump chumps. Here are the results:
38. Oklahoma — (2:21)
39. Colorado — (2:21)
40. Minnesota — (2:19)
41. Ohio — (2:18)
42. Louisiana — (2:17)
43. Kentucky — (2:14)."
Do they have any idea how exhausted we are from shoveling snow?
Thursday February 20, 2014 My birthday. I don't feel 71 years old.
"June or July?," someone asked as I looked at a pile of snow taller than my head.
He meant when I thought the snow would be gone.
"June," I said. "But I'm an optimist."
***Shopped at Steeple People Thrift Store.
***Someone blessed me in Jesus' name. I thanked him. (Later, occurred to me I could have thanked him for the birthday present.)
***Adult Children Anonymous meeting. Rather smaller than usual, due to bad weather.
***On the bus home, one non-American was explaining to another that in the US it's customary for bus passengers to sit in each others' laps.
***Comments of comment:
seawasp 2/18/14: We aren't even sure how to MEASURE the actual computing power of the human brain; heck, I just saw articles claiming a revival of the "quantum structures involved with human thinking" which would utterly change any of the estimates, and even the existing estimates are equal parts barely-justified assumptions and handwaving. So I'm doubtful on that 2050 date.
Especially since even if I assume Moore's Law holds through that date, I'm only getting the typical computer being roughly one million times more powerful in 2050 than the typical computer today, which would imply that a typical computer today has the computing power of 7,000 human brains.
Reply: If people like you were right, we wouldn't have had Mars colonies by 1970. And we'd still have ground cars instead of aircars.
Lee Gold 2/19/14: FWIW, I think I'm a liberal (or at least a yellow dog Democrat) and I prefer B&W cocker scandals to cats.
Reply: I took the quiz, and scored as 58% conservative. This is unlikely to be accurate.
al_zorra 2/19/14: Happy Birthday! I hope it's thawing where you are.
Here, it's thawing and raining upon the piles of filthy snow and lagoons of dirty slush. Much, much better than snow and below freezing temperatures.
Reply: Above freezing temperatures. But sleet mixed with rain, followed by much more snow.
[Screen reader warning: next three paragraphs aren't in English.]
Mpls Snow Emergency @MinneapolisSnow Lub zos Minneapolis tau txiav txim tso xov hais tias yuav muaj kev thob dau ceev. Hu rau. http://www.minneapolismn.gov/snow/hmoob/index.htm … … (Snow info, Hmong)
Mpls Snow Emergency @MinneapolisSnow Minneapolis waxay ku dhawaaqday gurmad baraf. Fadlan wac (612) 348-7669. http://www.minneapolismn.gov/snow/somaaliga/ (Snow Emergency info, Somali)
City of Minneapolis @CityMinneapolis La Ciudad de Minneapolis ha declarado una Emergencia por Nevada. (612) 348-7669 y pulse 2 http://www.minneapolismn.gov/snow/español (Snow info, spanish)
***From politicalwire.com:
"The Constitution mandates that the minimum age to serve in the U.S. House is 25. That won't be a problem for Joe Newman," USA Today reports.
"Newman, 101, is seeking the House seat held by Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-FL) as a write-in candidate."
***From Twitter:
LiveScience @LiveScience Has someone finally decoded the mysterious #Voynich manuscript? http://oak.ctx.ly/r/qafl pic.twitter.com/1bbkH7NoN6
Dan Goodman @dsgood Give atheists same right to refuse service to religiously-married couples #tellusatoday
(Context: proposed Arizona law allowing restaurant owners etc. to refuse to serve same-sex couples on religious grounds.)
"June or July?," someone asked as I looked at a pile of snow taller than my head.
He meant when I thought the snow would be gone.
"June," I said. "But I'm an optimist."
***Shopped at Steeple People Thrift Store.
***Someone blessed me in Jesus' name. I thanked him. (Later, occurred to me I could have thanked him for the birthday present.)
***Adult Children Anonymous meeting. Rather smaller than usual, due to bad weather.
***On the bus home, one non-American was explaining to another that in the US it's customary for bus passengers to sit in each others' laps.
***Comments of comment:
seawasp 2/18/14: We aren't even sure how to MEASURE the actual computing power of the human brain; heck, I just saw articles claiming a revival of the "quantum structures involved with human thinking" which would utterly change any of the estimates, and even the existing estimates are equal parts barely-justified assumptions and handwaving. So I'm doubtful on that 2050 date.
Especially since even if I assume Moore's Law holds through that date, I'm only getting the typical computer being roughly one million times more powerful in 2050 than the typical computer today, which would imply that a typical computer today has the computing power of 7,000 human brains.
Reply: If people like you were right, we wouldn't have had Mars colonies by 1970. And we'd still have ground cars instead of aircars.
Lee Gold 2/19/14: FWIW, I think I'm a liberal (or at least a yellow dog Democrat) and I prefer B&W cocker scandals to cats.
Reply: I took the quiz, and scored as 58% conservative. This is unlikely to be accurate.
al_zorra 2/19/14: Happy Birthday! I hope it's thawing where you are.
Here, it's thawing and raining upon the piles of filthy snow and lagoons of dirty slush. Much, much better than snow and below freezing temperatures.
Reply: Above freezing temperatures. But sleet mixed with rain, followed by much more snow.
[Screen reader warning: next three paragraphs aren't in English.]
Mpls Snow Emergency @MinneapolisSnow Lub zos Minneapolis tau txiav txim tso xov hais tias yuav muaj kev thob dau ceev. Hu rau. http://www.minneapolismn.gov/snow/hmoob/index.htm … … (Snow info, Hmong)
Mpls Snow Emergency @MinneapolisSnow Minneapolis waxay ku dhawaaqday gurmad baraf. Fadlan wac (612) 348-7669. http://www.minneapolismn.gov/snow/somaaliga/ (Snow Emergency info, Somali)
City of Minneapolis @CityMinneapolis La Ciudad de Minneapolis ha declarado una Emergencia por Nevada. (612) 348-7669 y pulse 2 http://www.minneapolismn.gov/snow/español (Snow info, spanish)
***From politicalwire.com:
"The Constitution mandates that the minimum age to serve in the U.S. House is 25. That won't be a problem for Joe Newman," USA Today reports.
"Newman, 101, is seeking the House seat held by Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-FL) as a write-in candidate."
***From Twitter:
LiveScience @LiveScience Has someone finally decoded the mysterious #Voynich manuscript? http://oak.ctx.ly/r/qafl pic.twitter.com/1bbkH7NoN6
Dan Goodman @dsgood Give atheists same right to refuse service to religiously-married couples #tellusatoday
(Context: proposed Arizona law allowing restaurant owners etc. to refuse to serve same-sex couples on religious grounds.)
Saturday, February 22, 2014
Wednesday February 19, 2014 Met Nate Bucklin for conversation at the Dunn Brothers coffee house in the Minneapolis Central Library building.
The Friends bookstore was having a 25-cent sale. I bought two name books.
***From politicalwire.com:
Missouri House Appropriations committee chairman Mike Lair (R) appropriated $8 "for two rolls of high density aluminum to create headgear designed to deflect drone and/or black helicopter mind reading and control technology," according to the Columbia Daily Tribune.
The money was tied to an amendment removing language barring the state from accepting federal grants to implement Common Core standards for public schools which some conservatives believe is President Obama's attempt to indoctrinate children.
Explained Lair: "Basically, when you deal with conspiracy theorists, you do logic first... If you can't deal with folks with logic, you use humor. This is to stop all the problems from the black helicopters and drones. This is high density foil."
***"Arguing that we need more carbon dioxide, not less, in the atmosphere," Utah state Rep. Jerry Anderson (R) "has proposed legislation that would limit the state's ability to regulate emissions of the greenhouse gas," the Salt Lake Tribune reports.
Said Anderson: "We are short of carbon dioxide for the needs of the plants. Concentrations reached 600 parts per million at the time of the dinosaurs and they did quite well. I think we could double the carbon dioxide and not have any adverse effects."
The Friends bookstore was having a 25-cent sale. I bought two name books.
***From politicalwire.com:
Missouri House Appropriations committee chairman Mike Lair (R) appropriated $8 "for two rolls of high density aluminum to create headgear designed to deflect drone and/or black helicopter mind reading and control technology," according to the Columbia Daily Tribune.
The money was tied to an amendment removing language barring the state from accepting federal grants to implement Common Core standards for public schools which some conservatives believe is President Obama's attempt to indoctrinate children.
Explained Lair: "Basically, when you deal with conspiracy theorists, you do logic first... If you can't deal with folks with logic, you use humor. This is to stop all the problems from the black helicopters and drones. This is high density foil."
***"Arguing that we need more carbon dioxide, not less, in the atmosphere," Utah state Rep. Jerry Anderson (R) "has proposed legislation that would limit the state's ability to regulate emissions of the greenhouse gas," the Salt Lake Tribune reports.
Said Anderson: "We are short of carbon dioxide for the needs of the plants. Concentrations reached 600 parts per million at the time of the dinosaurs and they did quite well. I think we could double the carbon dioxide and not have any adverse effects."
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
Tuesday February 18, 2014 Warm enough that I saw a man wearing shorts. Up to the mid-40s F.
To Southeast Library. Picked up hold: Jack Bickham, Setting.
On to the Wedge Coop.
Then to Steeple People Thrift Store. Bought two used golf balls for hand exercises, and an exercise band.
***From politicalwire.com:
Liberals Like Cats More Than Conservatives Do
A TIME survey found that preferences for pets or particular kinds of food can accurately predict partisanship.
"Loving cats may not make a person a liberal, but it does increase the odds that a person already is one. To see how accurate our survey was, we analyzed the data from 220,192 TIME readers who took the quiz and then volunteered their actual political preferences, and found that all 12 items did in fact predict partisanship correctly."
***From sciencedaily.com:
Theory on origin of animals challenged: Some animals need extremely little oxygen
Date: February 17, 2014
Source: University of Southern Denmark
Summary: One of science's strongest dogmas is that complex life on Earth could only evolve when oxygen levels in the atmosphere rose to close to modern levels. But now studies of a small sea sponge fished out of a Danish fjord shows that complex life does not need high levels of oxygen in order to live and grow.
To Southeast Library. Picked up hold: Jack Bickham, Setting.
On to the Wedge Coop.
Then to Steeple People Thrift Store. Bought two used golf balls for hand exercises, and an exercise band.
***From politicalwire.com:
Liberals Like Cats More Than Conservatives Do
A TIME survey found that preferences for pets or particular kinds of food can accurately predict partisanship.
"Loving cats may not make a person a liberal, but it does increase the odds that a person already is one. To see how accurate our survey was, we analyzed the data from 220,192 TIME readers who took the quiz and then volunteered their actual political preferences, and found that all 12 items did in fact predict partisanship correctly."
***From sciencedaily.com:
Theory on origin of animals challenged: Some animals need extremely little oxygen
Date: February 17, 2014
Source: University of Southern Denmark
Summary: One of science's strongest dogmas is that complex life on Earth could only evolve when oxygen levels in the atmosphere rose to close to modern levels. But now studies of a small sea sponge fished out of a Danish fjord shows that complex life does not need high levels of oxygen in order to live and grow.
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
Wednesday February 12, 2014 Non-allergenic love potion in one a day
capsules. (Permanent love potions have gone out of fashion.)
***To Waite House for this month's NAPS package (Nutritional Assistance Program for Seniors.) Took some stuff other recipients didn't want, gave away stuff I didn't want.
Also got food from the twice-monthly produce distribution.
***David Gerrold on Facebook: "And the good news is, I just sold a new story to F&SF. That Pesky Dan Goodman returns in this one and the results are ... hysterical."
***From Twitter:
MarkMillerITPro @MarkMillerITPro "By 2050 $1,000 worth of computing will have the power of all the human brains on the planet." -Jim Seifert, Cisco Canada CTO
Atlas Obscura @atlasobscura This #Singapore shrine is to an unnamed German girl who has become a local deity - http://bit.ly/1eStRCG
***From politicalwire.com:
Gay Republican Runs Ad with Same-Sex Partner
Wall Street Journal: "Carl DeMaio is one of three openly gay Republicans running for Congress this year, and he would be at least the third to serve in the House if he wins. But Mr. DeMaio on Thursday will take a step that none of them has, airing a campaign ad that features a shot of him with his same-sex partner."
***To Waite House for this month's NAPS package (Nutritional Assistance Program for Seniors.) Took some stuff other recipients didn't want, gave away stuff I didn't want.
Also got food from the twice-monthly produce distribution.
***David Gerrold on Facebook: "And the good news is, I just sold a new story to F&SF. That Pesky Dan Goodman returns in this one and the results are ... hysterical."
***From Twitter:
MarkMillerITPro @MarkMillerITPro "By 2050 $1,000 worth of computing will have the power of all the human brains on the planet." -Jim Seifert, Cisco Canada CTO
Atlas Obscura @atlasobscura This #Singapore shrine is to an unnamed German girl who has become a local deity - http://bit.ly/1eStRCG
***From politicalwire.com:
Gay Republican Runs Ad with Same-Sex Partner
Wall Street Journal: "Carl DeMaio is one of three openly gay Republicans running for Congress this year, and he would be at least the third to serve in the House if he wins. But Mr. DeMaio on Thursday will take a step that none of them has, airing a campaign ad that features a shot of him with his same-sex partner."
Saturday, February 15, 2014
Tuesday February 11, 2014 Comment of Comment:
Stardreamer 2/11/14: Note that Minnesota gets lots of snow regularly every winter. Atlanta gets a really bad storm once every 3 or 4 years. It makes a difference.
Reply: I'm aware of this. It still amuses me. And I suspect people in Arizona are amused when Minnesotans complain about unusually hot summer weather.
***Urban bees using plastic to build hives
Once the snow melts, bees will be back in business -- pollinating, making honey and keeping busy doing bee things. For at least two urban bee species, that means making nests out of plastic waste. A new study reveals that some bees use bits of plastic bags and plastic building materials to construct their nests.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/02/140211103340.htm
***From Twitter:
Matt Novak @paleofuture travel tip: only refer to san francisco by it's proper name "san fran" to show that you're hip and down with the local lingo
***From politicalwire.com:
Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX) accused a group that supports Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) of lying about him, by asserting that he had been "jailed more than once" and was "charged with a felony," the Dallas Morning News reports.
"That is strange, because Stockman has admitted to these facts, several times."
The Texas Tribune broke the story and has Stockman's mugshot from 1977.
Stardreamer 2/11/14: Note that Minnesota gets lots of snow regularly every winter. Atlanta gets a really bad storm once every 3 or 4 years. It makes a difference.
Reply: I'm aware of this. It still amuses me. And I suspect people in Arizona are amused when Minnesotans complain about unusually hot summer weather.
***Urban bees using plastic to build hives
Once the snow melts, bees will be back in business -- pollinating, making honey and keeping busy doing bee things. For at least two urban bee species, that means making nests out of plastic waste. A new study reveals that some bees use bits of plastic bags and plastic building materials to construct their nests.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/02/140211103340.htm
***From Twitter:
Matt Novak @paleofuture travel tip: only refer to san francisco by it's proper name "san fran" to show that you're hip and down with the local lingo
***From politicalwire.com:
Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX) accused a group that supports Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) of lying about him, by asserting that he had been "jailed more than once" and was "charged with a felony," the Dallas Morning News reports.
"That is strange, because Stockman has admitted to these facts, several times."
The Texas Tribune broke the story and has Stockman's mugshot from 1977.
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
Monday February 10, 2014 Steeple People Thrift Store has a $2 sale on some clothing and some furniture. I got a winter jacket slightly lighter than my bitter-cold one.
Steeple People's building is to be replaced by an apartment building; and they'll have inventory reduction sales till they find a place and move into it.
***From Twitter:
pourmecoffee @pourmecoffee Texas, ladies and gentlemen. "Police cite man dressed as banana carrying AK-47" http://www.click2houston.com/police-cite-man-dressed-as-banana-carrying-ak47/-/1736084/24388136/-/vs4cvuz/-/index.html … pic.twitter.com/9qJDHiLjqg
The Daily Galaxy @dailygalaxy "Alien Electromagnetic Signals Will Be Discovered by 2040" --SETI's Chief Astronomer http://goo.gl/ihVfrM
Language on the Move @Lg_on_the_Move As previously excluded people have gained access to higher ed, the privileged are shifting away from schooling http://ow.ly/tum1h
Which suggests a future in which the very rich are completely unschooled, and the merely rich don't go beyond elementary school.
Steeple People's building is to be replaced by an apartment building; and they'll have inventory reduction sales till they find a place and move into it.
***From Twitter:
pourmecoffee @pourmecoffee Texas, ladies and gentlemen. "Police cite man dressed as banana carrying AK-47" http://www.click2houston.com/police-cite-man-dressed-as-banana-carrying-ak47/-/1736084/24388136/-/vs4cvuz/-/index.html … pic.twitter.com/9qJDHiLjqg
The Daily Galaxy @dailygalaxy "Alien Electromagnetic Signals Will Be Discovered by 2040" --SETI's Chief Astronomer http://goo.gl/ihVfrM
Language on the Move @Lg_on_the_Move As previously excluded people have gained access to higher ed, the privileged are shifting away from schooling http://ow.ly/tum1h
Which suggests a future in which the very rich are completely unschooled, and the merely rich don't go beyond elementary school.
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
Saturday February 8, 2014 Worst Day of the Year Ride Canceled Because of Bad Weather
February 6
Riders won't ride through the hills with snow on them, but will take a shorter route through city streets and then party.
It's a moment that Portland cyclists will be living down for years, if not decades: the challenging portion of the 2014 Worst Day of the Year Ride, which had been scheduled for this Sunday, has been canceled because the weather will be bad.
By bad we mean that there will be as many as eight inches of snow on the ground in Portland. The ride is, of course, supposedly timed to the worst weather day of the year. And just yesterday, ride organizers were encouraging riders to "have no fear about the forecast."
http://www.wweek.com/portland/blog-31223-worst_day_of_the_year_ride_canceled_because_of_bad.html
Thanks to Jay Lake
***From Twitter:
Co.Exist @FastCoExist These fake eyelashes can control your TV. http://f-st.co/MDMlKmp pic.twitter.com/DK3tZAliLQ
Sunday February 9, 2014
***LONDON — The British immigration minister has resigned after revealing that his house cleaner of six years was living in the country illegally.
Mr. Harper, who had been leading a crackdown on illegal immigration in Britain, was an important part of a "go home" campaign, which included posters pasted on vans across the country encouraging illegal immigrants to leave the country.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/10/world/europe/britains-immigration-minister-resigns-over-employing-illegal-immigrant.html?hp&_r=0
***From Twitter:
Retweeted by Lillian Cohen-Moore
89.3 KPCC @KPCC LAPD detectives say a witness to a murder early Sunday in #Koreatown ran the suspect down with his car http://kp.cc/1gcRIfS
February 6
Riders won't ride through the hills with snow on them, but will take a shorter route through city streets and then party.
It's a moment that Portland cyclists will be living down for years, if not decades: the challenging portion of the 2014 Worst Day of the Year Ride, which had been scheduled for this Sunday, has been canceled because the weather will be bad.
By bad we mean that there will be as many as eight inches of snow on the ground in Portland. The ride is, of course, supposedly timed to the worst weather day of the year. And just yesterday, ride organizers were encouraging riders to "have no fear about the forecast."
http://www.wweek.com/portland/blog-31223-worst_day_of_the_year_ride_canceled_because_of_bad.html
Thanks to Jay Lake
***From Twitter:
Co.Exist @FastCoExist These fake eyelashes can control your TV. http://f-st.co/MDMlKmp pic.twitter.com/DK3tZAliLQ
Sunday February 9, 2014
***LONDON — The British immigration minister has resigned after revealing that his house cleaner of six years was living in the country illegally.
Mr. Harper, who had been leading a crackdown on illegal immigration in Britain, was an important part of a "go home" campaign, which included posters pasted on vans across the country encouraging illegal immigrants to leave the country.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/10/world/europe/britains-immigration-minister-resigns-over-employing-illegal-immigrant.html?hp&_r=0
***From Twitter:
Retweeted by Lillian Cohen-Moore
89.3 KPCC @KPCC LAPD detectives say a witness to a murder early Sunday in #Koreatown ran the suspect down with his car http://kp.cc/1gcRIfS
Monday, February 10, 2014
Friday February 7, 2014 "...he swears sex with others would simply be like going to the gym...." Advice column letter in Vita.mn (Twin Cities entertainment guide.)
***Comments of Comment:
Lee Gold 2/06/14: According to http://darulfiqh.com/is-it-permissible-to-consume-elephant-meat/
it is forbidden for Moslems to eat "fanged beasts of prey" and an elephant counts as a fanged beast.
"Although an elephant is different from other predatory animals in that it does not prey and live on other animals like other animals. However, due to the fact that an elephant can harm, kill and attack other animals, it has the attributes of natural predatory animals. Thus the jurists gave the elephants the same ruling as natural predators."
--Lee Gold, search engineer
Cattle, goats, sheep, and camels are also capable of attacking, etc. other animals.
thnidu 2/06/14: Well of course they wouldn't! Pachyderms don't have hooves, let alone split hooves, or chew the cud, href=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosher_foods#Clean_and_unclean_animals, both of which are _required_ for an animal to be kosher.
I was sure mammoths wouldn't be kosher-- but having seen some results of "I don't have to look it up, the answer is obvious," I checked anyway.
Has anyone yet written a kosher cookbook for time travelers?
***Comments of Comment:
Lee Gold 2/06/14: According to http://darulfiqh.com/is-it-permissible-to-consume-elephant-meat/
it is forbidden for Moslems to eat "fanged beasts of prey" and an elephant counts as a fanged beast.
"Although an elephant is different from other predatory animals in that it does not prey and live on other animals like other animals. However, due to the fact that an elephant can harm, kill and attack other animals, it has the attributes of natural predatory animals. Thus the jurists gave the elephants the same ruling as natural predators."
--Lee Gold, search engineer
Cattle, goats, sheep, and camels are also capable of attacking, etc. other animals.
thnidu 2/06/14: Well of course they wouldn't! Pachyderms don't have hooves, let alone split hooves, or chew the cud, href=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosher_foods#Clean_and_unclean_animals, both of which are _required_ for an animal to be kosher.
I was sure mammoths wouldn't be kosher-- but having seen some results of "I don't have to look it up, the answer is obvious," I checked anyway.
Has anyone yet written a kosher cookbook for time travelers?
Sunday, February 9, 2014
Monday February 3, 2014 "Voldemort Votes Republican" bumpersticker. Unlikely; he's not a US citizen.
***It's official: coldest Minnesota winter in 30 years.
I looked at piles of snow higher than my head, and thought about Atlanta being shut down by about two inches of snow.
Shopped at the Wedge coop, picked up prescription meds at HealthPartners Riverside pharmacy.
***From Twitter:
Al Jazeera America @ajam Kansas considers bill to ban municipal broadband service http://alj.am/1k5h3MB
BringMeTheNews @BringMN Dinkytowner panhandles for Bitcoins; photo goes viral http://dlvr.it/4rXXCd
[Dinkytown is a Minneapolis neighborhood.]
Dan Goodman @dsgood Left Behind, Thank God
Dan Goodman @dsgood 1,001 Places to See After You Die
Bristol Bites @BristolBites BBC News - Bristol police hunt for crocodile under bridge http://bbc.in/1foV0us
***It's official: coldest Minnesota winter in 30 years.
I looked at piles of snow higher than my head, and thought about Atlanta being shut down by about two inches of snow.
Shopped at the Wedge coop, picked up prescription meds at HealthPartners Riverside pharmacy.
***From Twitter:
Al Jazeera America @ajam Kansas considers bill to ban municipal broadband service http://alj.am/1k5h3MB
BringMeTheNews @BringMN Dinkytowner panhandles for Bitcoins; photo goes viral http://dlvr.it/4rXXCd
[Dinkytown is a Minneapolis neighborhood.]
Dan Goodman @dsgood Left Behind, Thank God
Dan Goodman @dsgood 1,001 Places to See After You Die
Bristol Bites @BristolBites BBC News - Bristol police hunt for crocodile under bridge http://bbc.in/1foV0us
Thursday, February 6, 2014
Tuesday February 4, 2014 Would mammoths be halal? Searching on "elephants" and "halal" didn't bring up a definitive answer.
I did confirm that mammoths wouldn't be kosher.
***DFL (Democratic-Farmer-Labor) precinct caucus.
A bit over half the residents of SE Como (my neighborhood) are college age; the University of Minnesota's Minneapolis campus is close by. Last year, most caucus attendees were US-born senior citizens who looked Northern European. This year there were also a number of Somalis.
The incumbent state representative has a Somali challenger this year. Her campaign literature makes a point of her having Somali supporters.
This part of Minneapolis votes left of San Francisco (not left of Berkeley, usually.) The state DFL is farther right -- a bit left of the UK Labour Party, I think.
The caucus was entitled to elect delegates to various upcoming party conventions. I became a delegate to the part of the city convention which will choose school board nominees.
Almost everyone who wanted to be a delegate was elected. The rest became alternates.
There were also party positions to be filled, and fewer candidates than positions open.
Nearby, the Cedar-Riverside precinct caucus was shut down after a fight broke out between supporters of the state representative candidates. Apparently, both groups were made up of Somalis.
***Comments of Comment:
seawasp 2/04/14: It may also be "Yes, I think this is a good idea, but if it's not enacted and no one seems likely to, why should I deprive myself and my family of obviously gainful opportunities that are currently perfectly legal and that many argue AREN'T ethically problematic?"
***From Twitter:
Julieanne Smolinski @BoobsRadley How sad for bathing suit designers that they have never ever seen or touched a breast. I mean, I'm assuming.
I did confirm that mammoths wouldn't be kosher.
***DFL (Democratic-Farmer-Labor) precinct caucus.
A bit over half the residents of SE Como (my neighborhood) are college age; the University of Minnesota's Minneapolis campus is close by. Last year, most caucus attendees were US-born senior citizens who looked Northern European. This year there were also a number of Somalis.
The incumbent state representative has a Somali challenger this year. Her campaign literature makes a point of her having Somali supporters.
This part of Minneapolis votes left of San Francisco (not left of Berkeley, usually.) The state DFL is farther right -- a bit left of the UK Labour Party, I think.
The caucus was entitled to elect delegates to various upcoming party conventions. I became a delegate to the part of the city convention which will choose school board nominees.
Almost everyone who wanted to be a delegate was elected. The rest became alternates.
There were also party positions to be filled, and fewer candidates than positions open.
Nearby, the Cedar-Riverside precinct caucus was shut down after a fight broke out between supporters of the state representative candidates. Apparently, both groups were made up of Somalis.
***Comments of Comment:
seawasp 2/04/14: It may also be "Yes, I think this is a good idea, but if it's not enacted and no one seems likely to, why should I deprive myself and my family of obviously gainful opportunities that are currently perfectly legal and that many argue AREN'T ethically problematic?"
***From Twitter:
Julieanne Smolinski @BoobsRadley How sad for bathing suit designers that they have never ever seen or touched a breast. I mean, I'm assuming.
Tuesday, February 4, 2014
Comments of Comment:
Lee Gold 1/30/14: "'How do you define 'hate'?"
Being constantly angry at the person for existing.
"I've never devoted much energy to being angry.
I've sometimes despised people or (more properly, in my judgment) their actions.
I've sometimes feared or been wary of people because they might hurt me.
But most of those attitudes were intellectual decisions, not emotional ones.
"Does your synesthesia extend to emotions?"
Not as far as I'm aware.
"I tend to think of anger as fire color: red or red-orange.
Most of my negative attitudes are ice color: white or gray.
"As a pre-teen, I did lose my temper a few times physically in a fiery berserk rage,lasting for a minute or two, but never felt like that as a constant emotion. Your remark sounds as if you did once experience hate as a constant anger. What color / pattern was it?"
Not as a constant anger, but only when I thought about a person (or organization.)
What I did have constantly was anxiety. Partly from ADHD, partly from family heritage.
And my synesthesia isn't primarily colors these days, but visual/tactile patterns.
stardreamer 01/30/2014 "***From politicalwire.com:
"Deal Book: 'Sheila C. Bair, a former head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation who once argued that former regulators should be barred from joining the banks they oversaw, is joining the board of Banco Santander, the Spanish bank said on Monday.'
"From her 2012 book, Bull by the Horns: 'There should be a lifetime ban on regulators working for financial institutions they have regulated.'"
Re Bair, I suspect that this is a close-parsing issue. As a member of the FDIC, she did not directly oversee banks _in Spain_, so it skates by on a technicality. Whether it passes muster on a moral or ethical basis is a different question.
Why yes, I _have_ read a lot of genie's-wish stories, why do you ask?
Lee Gold 1/30/14: "'How do you define 'hate'?"
Being constantly angry at the person for existing.
"I've never devoted much energy to being angry.
I've sometimes despised people or (more properly, in my judgment) their actions.
I've sometimes feared or been wary of people because they might hurt me.
But most of those attitudes were intellectual decisions, not emotional ones.
"Does your synesthesia extend to emotions?"
Not as far as I'm aware.
"I tend to think of anger as fire color: red or red-orange.
Most of my negative attitudes are ice color: white or gray.
"As a pre-teen, I did lose my temper a few times physically in a fiery berserk rage,lasting for a minute or two, but never felt like that as a constant emotion. Your remark sounds as if you did once experience hate as a constant anger. What color / pattern was it?"
Not as a constant anger, but only when I thought about a person (or organization.)
What I did have constantly was anxiety. Partly from ADHD, partly from family heritage.
And my synesthesia isn't primarily colors these days, but visual/tactile patterns.
stardreamer 01/30/2014 "***From politicalwire.com:
"Deal Book: 'Sheila C. Bair, a former head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation who once argued that former regulators should be barred from joining the banks they oversaw, is joining the board of Banco Santander, the Spanish bank said on Monday.'
"From her 2012 book, Bull by the Horns: 'There should be a lifetime ban on regulators working for financial institutions they have regulated.'"
Re Bair, I suspect that this is a close-parsing issue. As a member of the FDIC, she did not directly oversee banks _in Spain_, so it skates by on a technicality. Whether it passes muster on a moral or ethical basis is a different question.
Why yes, I _have_ read a lot of genie's-wish stories, why do you ask?
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