Back from an exciting trip to the Fire Station to vote with Fang and Vlad. It was busy, but the line was only about five people. Now I can forget the election entirely.
In further news, my Mexican dress and my preserved frogs were delivered. The day is a success!
I visited the mothership this morning. I noticed there were a few posts consisting of "content unavailable." That must be the person I blocked the other day because I got fed up with that person's tendency to aim "friendly fire" unilaterally. Some of those posts had replies beneath them that I could un-collapse, but that whole thing is kind of confusing.
All this reminds me that I have been thinking about writing a "Disqus explainer" to post somewhere on the mothership. (You know, what the red bubble is, where you can find stuff, what it means.) I think someone or someones deserve to be shamed a little over the failure to tell people the basics. I realize that these days the story is that everything is obvious and intuitive, but IMHO that claim is made by lazy IT people looking for a way to justify their contempt for users.
Well, crap!! We've all got secrets, but the cat's out of the bag now, I guess.
Thanks a lot there, Cynthia.
Maybe some illegal migrant will eat it before it gets too far afield.
But if not, that's *Mr. Shirley* to all those whom I don't consider actual friends, or who are merely friendly acquaintances. But sometimes I do let my real friends call me Shirl...
And you all know who you are. If it comes to that. Which, knowing you the way I do, it probably will.
We’ve had a couple of really cold mornings, in the 30s! Now I see that we are supposed to get up to 80 one day this week! But, we’re also going to get some more rain. 🤷🏻♀️
Good morning. My official last day before (semi) retirement is coming up on Thursday, but now I have three days off and am already adjusting to having less pressure in my life, though I will also have to find ways to limit how much time I waste online, so I can get to the things I want to do but found I never had time for. Also, I need to get my sleep and eating patterns readjusted to a sustainable set of biorhythms that let me have some time to take it easy and yet be productive. I want my surges of energy to happen at the right time of day, and to get hungry at standard mealtimes, and so on. One takes this stuff for granted when one is young. Now's my chance to be more intentional.
We had a rather chilly weekend here. Tomorrow and Wednesday are supposed to be well above average (low 80s) and then Thursday it cools off and gets rainy. Typical.
Eating patterns...breakfast for me is blueberry (or other berry) smoothie with a scoop (30grams) of egg white protein, occasionally a scrambled egg sandwich. Roughly 3/5's of my daily protein early in the AM = good energy in the late AM, early afternoon. Regular lunch of whatever I want, and very minimal (or no) dinner. No dietary restrictions...just don't consume mass quantities. Portion control.
The one thing that surprised me was how much busier I was after retiring. My husband has noticed the same thing. But, then again, we have horses, and a fair amount of land to care for, the barns, etc. If we lived in a condo or apartment, I think we’d be looking for things to do. One of the hardest things for me is keeping myself organized, and keeping some kind of schedule. I do waste a fair amount of time, but enjoy yourself! I hope you have a wonderful retirement, and that you discover all kinds of things you didn’t have time for. (We still haven’t cut back the dead flowers!)
"The human mind is inspired enough when it comes to inventing horrors; it is when it tries to invent a Heaven that it shows itself cloddish.".....Evelyn Waugh
In the affordable housing jokefest.... Most folks in here are likely not familiar with the net zero house idea. If not, you'll be hearing more about it, as the political push is to get it written into our model building codes.
I did a lot of yard work this weekend. I moved a woodpile, raking a 20' x 30' area of fallen branches, twigs, sticks, etc. I began burning all that, as well as some old stumps of a tree which fell ten years ago. I started the fire Saturday morning, and I still have coals! Other than incidental leaves, I haven't burnt any leaves. A good chunk of the area will be ready for daffodils this fall, but a 10' x 15' area needs dug up a bit, smoothed, etc. I also began cutting down a bramble which produces red berries. IDK if they are poisonous or not, so I didn't eat any of them.
Last night I visited my in-laws, Bob and Janet. We took to them to "The gas grill", which is their favorite restaurant: It's at an interstate exit, and has an attached gas station/convenience store. I like it. We chatted for two hours over various and sundry items. Thanksgiving this year is a mess, so basically no one is coming. It got scheduled over another Thanksgiving for us (despite people knowing that), so no one is angry we're not attending, but there's more ruffled feathers than a duck pond fight. We asked them to come over the Saturday before Thanksgiving, and they agreed. We might end up having Pam's two sisters and their families come over as well; we'll see.
We didn't discuss inheritance, but Bob indicated there is squabbling over their estate already. The two daughters are arguing with each other on a myriad of topics, and it spills over into the estate. Katie gave some practical advice on estate logistics from her father's death (e.g. have someone have access to the checking account so they can pay bills while the estate is being settled). Bob indicated he's gonna do that, thanking her for the advice.
I guess some of the family is already asking for stuff, bluntly, so they kinda asked me what I wanted. I told them in the quilt room Janet painted three cabinet doors, one of each of her daughters. I asked for the cabinet door of Pam; and I'd give it to Chris. Janet smiled at that, and told me she'd give me the door now but the cabinet is so stuff full of fabric she's afraid it'd spill to the floor. But she and Bob got it; I just wanted a keepsake. Janet has an 8 place table setting: she's thinking of giving a set to each grandchild: I liked that idea.
Driving home, Katie and I spoke. She's not gonna say a word, but she'd love a keepsake from the quilt room (and neither daughter is a quilter), but she won't ask for anything; she plans to wait until they're ready to throw stuff out, then she'll grab something small. She is dismayed at how it is being handled. Our goal is to keep Bob and Janet happy, let them enjoy their sunset years. And the squabbling is not helping that. I did leave my deviled egg container with her; I made five deviled eggs for them. I add a touch of Splenda brown sugar to them, but not too much, and Janet loves them. The joke is I am welcome to visit anytime if I bring deviled eggs.
I remember asking my aunt and uncle for a couple of things. But they didn’t have any children, and were like second parents to me. My brothers and I didn’t fight over anything our parents left. We all have a few things, but mostly I ended up getting a couple of local women in to do an estate sale. People get way too crazy over “stuff.” It’s nice to have a remembrance, but by the time most of our relatives are ready to pass things on, we already have plenty.
I always love how they know “it’s going to transform a lot of things.” But, I will say that I’m glad for human curiosity and creativity. Someone will figure this out.
As a professional materials and recycling person, kinda have to disagree on some of this my friend.
The raw material inputs that are hazardous needed for the solar and wind farms are as yet not easily recycled.
Hazardous is a broad term. Most of a wind turbine is aluminum and steel, iron and copper. All easily separated and remelted. The blades are fiberglass reinforced epoxy. They last up to 20 years. Are field repaired. Landfilling them is pretty inert actually.
At least so far, they cannot be separated and reused at costs that are less than the amount of energy it takes to separate them and make them “clean.” I disagree above
They are disposed of in toxic waste dumps that will have to be more numerous than the waste dumps for fossil fuels, since the energy in wind and sun isn’t as concentrated.
Also disagree. Fossil fuel waste predominantly is created when converted. It's dispersed widely upon use.
Not arguing, my positions on the subject are way out beyond the left field fence, but some edits are in order...mainly, the application of the word "easily" to processes that are not easy.
Also, the thing about turbine blades being "easy" to deal with. No, they aren't. I'm a big supporter of wind turbines, I think they're beautiful, I love driving through the wind farms in Texas, etc., etc.,... but turbines are not "easy". There's a lot of built in problems, the main one not being widely discussed is getting the juice from the turbines and into the homes of folks living a thousand miles away. We got the tech. We don't have the political will or ability to march transmission lines across folks property and sight lines.
I've been in the villages and towns in China that operate on wind and solar. I don't think Americans are ready to accept just how much square mileage of turbines and PV stuff is necessary to operate just one small town, let alone a metro area.
Well easy is a relative term. Essentially one would bring automotive scale rotary choppers and munch the blades up. The chips have use as further filler in non tensile load type materials. Most any compressions loaded types should be possible. Flooring. Roads, guard rails. Could probably repurpose blade sections as guardrails o roads and bridges
Mark Mills reckons the amount of copper to “electrify everything”, including making all motor vehicles into EVs, implies mining a quantity of copper in a year to match all the copper that has been mined so far.
The problem is that the ores available now have a lot less copper per ton than in past decades and centuries—by vast amounts.
The electricity to supply a interstate “gas station” that can handle as many cars as today’s interstate gas stations would be enough to power an average steel mill—that’s per fueling station, and assuming “quick charge” is used so that customers have a turnaround time of under 20 minutes per passenger car.
Thanks for the link, Phil. I know you post a lot of them to French, and I've enjoyed and appreciated French's writings in the past. Subscribed to the French Press when he was still at your mothership and even exchanged a few emails with him personally about different things, finding him to be a pretty gracious sort with his time.
I skimmed the piece just now, thinking I'd peruse it more thoroughly later, and I guess my reaction would be that there's not much reason to go deeper into it, since the four "lessons" are ones I think any even casual (and openminded) observer of American politics in the age of Trump would have learned quite some time ago. But I did appreciate his speaking of "values" and quoting C.S. Lewis, which attached the notions of virtue and courage to same. (He seems to have a thing for Lewis; he spoke to me of him a couple of times in our exchanges).
> C.S. Lewis wrote, “Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means at the point of highest reality.” We don’t know if we’re actually honest until we tell the truth when the truth will hurt us. <
This brought to mind a quote I recently thought about from Ben Franklin in light of the whole Jeff Bezos / WAPO and Patrick Soon-Siong / L. A. Times non-endorsement hullaballoo. (I'm shocked, shocked I tell you, to find servility and supplication by stealth in the service of protecting personal business interests and wealth in the face of a new and rising iteration of the F-word. But I digress.)
“Sell not virtue to purchase wealth, nor Liberty to purchase power.”
Good ol' Ben. He did know how to turn a phrase. And the point of my little screed here - I did the whole TL;DR thing yesterday, so I promise I'm about done - is about what we as a society *know* these days, and its relationship to what we've *learned* (apparently very little) over the last nine years.
And what that is - as is perfectly exemplified by this recent action of the biggest purveyor of cheap consumer goods and near instant gratification (through near instant delivery) in the country - is that as a society we know the cost of nearly everything, but the value of little to nothing that's actually important. And that's no virtue to brag about, and by my dim lights a significant reason for the political moment in which we and Mr. French find ourselves,
I gave a Like to Earl King, because he's a pal, and got back to my real life. We weren't feeling well last week, and F and D got behind on Envirothon homework.
Cuba with electricity is no picnic. I have to admit, however, being shocked at Gurri's depiction of Cuba under Casto's successors. It sounds like a failed state, nearly as bad as Haiti. All that's missing is anarchy.
From what little I know of the situation, as bad as Cuba is, I think it's got a ways to go before it would be on par with Haiti. Between political violence, natural disasters and growing international indifference, Haiti's been a de facto failed state for decades, even when there was a recognizable and at least semi-functioning government in place.
I have no way of knowing for sure, but I think a lot of Haitians would trade their chunk of Hispaniola for Cuba any day of the week.
Any time I hear something about Haiti, I can't help thinking of this story concerning the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake there, which killed 300,000+ people, give or take a few thousand. Apologies if I've posted this here before; I'm not sure whether I have or not, though I know I've posted it a couple of other places over time to make a point about something. Usually that the aggrieved whiners in our own country who think things are sooo bad here should have to spend a little time in "The Fields of Less Than Nothing" down there.
No, hadn't noticed. Probably because I was busy watching morning soaps on the tube. Will try to be more attentive. Nothing like a good 📣 to go with my morning ☕. Makes the rest of the day seem... calmer and easier? 😉
Yes, but focusing all attention upon the dumbest MF's imaginable doesn't necessarily indicate anything in particular, other than that one is focusing on really dumb stuff and imagining it means something.
Aw, give 'em a break. They were probably just practicing their ghoulishness to prepare for Halloween. Some folks are *really* into Halloween, you know...
The scheduled opening date here is November 27, the day before Thanksgiving. Ski area opening dates are.....fluid. As I noted last week, Wolf Creek in the San Juan Mountains of southern Colorado, received 21 inches and decided to open. Just. Like. That. In the Northeast, Thanksgiving skiing is a memory, at least for me. One area in Vermont tries to make as much early snow as they can as they are on the World Cup schedule for an early event. I think that answered the question *checks* Yup.
Back from an exciting trip to the Fire Station to vote with Fang and Vlad. It was busy, but the line was only about five people. Now I can forget the election entirely.
In further news, my Mexican dress and my preserved frogs were delivered. The day is a success!
I almost voted earlier today when I was at the county courthouse, but decided there wouldn’t be a line on election day here locally.
We're going to the paper mill on election day.
I visited the mothership this morning. I noticed there were a few posts consisting of "content unavailable." That must be the person I blocked the other day because I got fed up with that person's tendency to aim "friendly fire" unilaterally. Some of those posts had replies beneath them that I could un-collapse, but that whole thing is kind of confusing.
All this reminds me that I have been thinking about writing a "Disqus explainer" to post somewhere on the mothership. (You know, what the red bubble is, where you can find stuff, what it means.) I think someone or someones deserve to be shamed a little over the failure to tell people the basics. I realize that these days the story is that everything is obvious and intuitive, but IMHO that claim is made by lazy IT people looking for a way to justify their contempt for users.
I think that last there about IT people is obvious and intuitive. :-)
Shirley there’s a YouTube tutorial!
His name is Shirley? I hadn't realized ...
Well, crap!! We've all got secrets, but the cat's out of the bag now, I guess.
Thanks a lot there, Cynthia.
Maybe some illegal migrant will eat it before it gets too far afield.
But if not, that's *Mr. Shirley* to all those whom I don't consider actual friends, or who are merely friendly acquaintances. But sometimes I do let my real friends call me Shirl...
And you all know who you are. If it comes to that. Which, knowing you the way I do, it probably will.
We’ve had a couple of really cold mornings, in the 30s! Now I see that we are supposed to get up to 80 one day this week! But, we’re also going to get some more rain. 🤷🏻♀️
Good morning. My official last day before (semi) retirement is coming up on Thursday, but now I have three days off and am already adjusting to having less pressure in my life, though I will also have to find ways to limit how much time I waste online, so I can get to the things I want to do but found I never had time for. Also, I need to get my sleep and eating patterns readjusted to a sustainable set of biorhythms that let me have some time to take it easy and yet be productive. I want my surges of energy to happen at the right time of day, and to get hungry at standard mealtimes, and so on. One takes this stuff for granted when one is young. Now's my chance to be more intentional.
We had a rather chilly weekend here. Tomorrow and Wednesday are supposed to be well above average (low 80s) and then Thursday it cools off and gets rainy. Typical.
Per sleep and eating patterns....
Sleep...good luck.
Eating patterns...breakfast for me is blueberry (or other berry) smoothie with a scoop (30grams) of egg white protein, occasionally a scrambled egg sandwich. Roughly 3/5's of my daily protein early in the AM = good energy in the late AM, early afternoon. Regular lunch of whatever I want, and very minimal (or no) dinner. No dietary restrictions...just don't consume mass quantities. Portion control.
The one thing that surprised me was how much busier I was after retiring. My husband has noticed the same thing. But, then again, we have horses, and a fair amount of land to care for, the barns, etc. If we lived in a condo or apartment, I think we’d be looking for things to do. One of the hardest things for me is keeping myself organized, and keeping some kind of schedule. I do waste a fair amount of time, but enjoy yourself! I hope you have a wonderful retirement, and that you discover all kinds of things you didn’t have time for. (We still haven’t cut back the dead flowers!)
"The human mind is inspired enough when it comes to inventing horrors; it is when it tries to invent a Heaven that it shows itself cloddish.".....Evelyn Waugh
I have several Evelyn Waugh books. Sharp guy.
In the affordable housing jokefest.... Most folks in here are likely not familiar with the net zero house idea. If not, you'll be hearing more about it, as the political push is to get it written into our model building codes.
Tell us more because I’m not sure I remember that one!
g'morning all:
I did a lot of yard work this weekend. I moved a woodpile, raking a 20' x 30' area of fallen branches, twigs, sticks, etc. I began burning all that, as well as some old stumps of a tree which fell ten years ago. I started the fire Saturday morning, and I still have coals! Other than incidental leaves, I haven't burnt any leaves. A good chunk of the area will be ready for daffodils this fall, but a 10' x 15' area needs dug up a bit, smoothed, etc. I also began cutting down a bramble which produces red berries. IDK if they are poisonous or not, so I didn't eat any of them.
Last night I visited my in-laws, Bob and Janet. We took to them to "The gas grill", which is their favorite restaurant: It's at an interstate exit, and has an attached gas station/convenience store. I like it. We chatted for two hours over various and sundry items. Thanksgiving this year is a mess, so basically no one is coming. It got scheduled over another Thanksgiving for us (despite people knowing that), so no one is angry we're not attending, but there's more ruffled feathers than a duck pond fight. We asked them to come over the Saturday before Thanksgiving, and they agreed. We might end up having Pam's two sisters and their families come over as well; we'll see.
We didn't discuss inheritance, but Bob indicated there is squabbling over their estate already. The two daughters are arguing with each other on a myriad of topics, and it spills over into the estate. Katie gave some practical advice on estate logistics from her father's death (e.g. have someone have access to the checking account so they can pay bills while the estate is being settled). Bob indicated he's gonna do that, thanking her for the advice.
I guess some of the family is already asking for stuff, bluntly, so they kinda asked me what I wanted. I told them in the quilt room Janet painted three cabinet doors, one of each of her daughters. I asked for the cabinet door of Pam; and I'd give it to Chris. Janet smiled at that, and told me she'd give me the door now but the cabinet is so stuff full of fabric she's afraid it'd spill to the floor. But she and Bob got it; I just wanted a keepsake. Janet has an 8 place table setting: she's thinking of giving a set to each grandchild: I liked that idea.
Driving home, Katie and I spoke. She's not gonna say a word, but she'd love a keepsake from the quilt room (and neither daughter is a quilter), but she won't ask for anything; she plans to wait until they're ready to throw stuff out, then she'll grab something small. She is dismayed at how it is being handled. Our goal is to keep Bob and Janet happy, let them enjoy their sunset years. And the squabbling is not helping that. I did leave my deviled egg container with her; I made five deviled eggs for them. I add a touch of Splenda brown sugar to them, but not too much, and Janet loves them. The joke is I am welcome to visit anytime if I bring deviled eggs.
I remember asking my aunt and uncle for a couple of things. But they didn’t have any children, and were like second parents to me. My brothers and I didn’t fight over anything our parents left. We all have a few things, but mostly I ended up getting a couple of local women in to do an estate sale. People get way too crazy over “stuff.” It’s nice to have a remembrance, but by the time most of our relatives are ready to pass things on, we already have plenty.
> It’s nice to have a remembrance, but by the time most of our relatives are ready to pass things on, we already have plenty. <
Well said.
Thank you. I’m always glad when I post something that doesn’t irritate people! (Especially lately!!)
Few things are as depressing as family squabbles about estate distribution.....ouch...
Magma power! https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1e8q4j1yygo.amp
"drilling into volcanos"
What could possibly go wrong there? :-)
I always love how they know “it’s going to transform a lot of things.” But, I will say that I’m glad for human curiosity and creativity. Someone will figure this out.
As a professional materials and recycling person, kinda have to disagree on some of this my friend.
The raw material inputs that are hazardous needed for the solar and wind farms are as yet not easily recycled.
Hazardous is a broad term. Most of a wind turbine is aluminum and steel, iron and copper. All easily separated and remelted. The blades are fiberglass reinforced epoxy. They last up to 20 years. Are field repaired. Landfilling them is pretty inert actually.
At least so far, they cannot be separated and reused at costs that are less than the amount of energy it takes to separate them and make them “clean.” I disagree above
They are disposed of in toxic waste dumps that will have to be more numerous than the waste dumps for fossil fuels, since the energy in wind and sun isn’t as concentrated.
Also disagree. Fossil fuel waste predominantly is created when converted. It's dispersed widely upon use.
Not arguing, my positions on the subject are way out beyond the left field fence, but some edits are in order...mainly, the application of the word "easily" to processes that are not easy.
Also, the thing about turbine blades being "easy" to deal with. No, they aren't. I'm a big supporter of wind turbines, I think they're beautiful, I love driving through the wind farms in Texas, etc., etc.,... but turbines are not "easy". There's a lot of built in problems, the main one not being widely discussed is getting the juice from the turbines and into the homes of folks living a thousand miles away. We got the tech. We don't have the political will or ability to march transmission lines across folks property and sight lines.
I've been in the villages and towns in China that operate on wind and solar. I don't think Americans are ready to accept just how much square mileage of turbines and PV stuff is necessary to operate just one small town, let alone a metro area.
Well easy is a relative term. Essentially one would bring automotive scale rotary choppers and munch the blades up. The chips have use as further filler in non tensile load type materials. Most any compressions loaded types should be possible. Flooring. Roads, guard rails. Could probably repurpose blade sections as guardrails o roads and bridges
I can fantasize all sorts of stuff too. Fantasy is easy. Turbine blades might be becoming the single use plastic bag of the wind energy initiative.
Mark Mills reckons the amount of copper to “electrify everything”, including making all motor vehicles into EVs, implies mining a quantity of copper in a year to match all the copper that has been mined so far.
The problem is that the ores available now have a lot less copper per ton than in past decades and centuries—by vast amounts.
The electricity to supply a interstate “gas station” that can handle as many cars as today’s interstate gas stations would be enough to power an average steel mill—that’s per fueling station, and assuming “quick charge” is used so that customers have a turnaround time of under 20 minutes per passenger car.
https://www.power-technology.com/features/solving-winds-dirty-secret-innovation-in-wind-turbine-blade-disposal/#?cf-view&cf-closed
Great link!
That’s actually got some hints of hope in it.
From JohnM on the Mothership:
Worth Your Time II : 'Four Lessons From Nine Years of Being ‘Never Trump’ -- David French
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/27/opinion/never-trump-maga-evangelicals.html?ogrp=dpl&unlocked_article_code=1.Vk4.AOtC.mcV_LPngIwAB&smid=url-share
Thanks for the link, Phil. I know you post a lot of them to French, and I've enjoyed and appreciated French's writings in the past. Subscribed to the French Press when he was still at your mothership and even exchanged a few emails with him personally about different things, finding him to be a pretty gracious sort with his time.
I skimmed the piece just now, thinking I'd peruse it more thoroughly later, and I guess my reaction would be that there's not much reason to go deeper into it, since the four "lessons" are ones I think any even casual (and openminded) observer of American politics in the age of Trump would have learned quite some time ago. But I did appreciate his speaking of "values" and quoting C.S. Lewis, which attached the notions of virtue and courage to same. (He seems to have a thing for Lewis; he spoke to me of him a couple of times in our exchanges).
> C.S. Lewis wrote, “Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means at the point of highest reality.” We don’t know if we’re actually honest until we tell the truth when the truth will hurt us. <
This brought to mind a quote I recently thought about from Ben Franklin in light of the whole Jeff Bezos / WAPO and Patrick Soon-Siong / L. A. Times non-endorsement hullaballoo. (I'm shocked, shocked I tell you, to find servility and supplication by stealth in the service of protecting personal business interests and wealth in the face of a new and rising iteration of the F-word. But I digress.)
“Sell not virtue to purchase wealth, nor Liberty to purchase power.”
Good ol' Ben. He did know how to turn a phrase. And the point of my little screed here - I did the whole TL;DR thing yesterday, so I promise I'm about done - is about what we as a society *know* these days, and its relationship to what we've *learned* (apparently very little) over the last nine years.
And what that is - as is perfectly exemplified by this recent action of the biggest purveyor of cheap consumer goods and near instant gratification (through near instant delivery) in the country - is that as a society we know the cost of nearly everything, but the value of little to nothing that's actually important. And that's no virtue to brag about, and by my dim lights a significant reason for the political moment in which we and Mr. French find ourselves,
I read that. It tempers my general opinion of DF as being brilliant. I'm in the "how could DF have believed any of that dreck?" category of amazement.
A comprehensive summary of the tradeoffs involved in the major energy sources today, which I wish more “greenies” would pay attention to.
Good morning. 32 degrees and a frost this morning. The mothership is covering the Israeli airstrikes on Iran over the weekend.
Sadly the commenters are at each other's throats. I left a few attempts at humor, but otherwise am staying clear. Nothing good will come of it.
I gave a Like to Earl King, because he's a pal, and got back to my real life. We weren't feeling well last week, and F and D got behind on Envirothon homework.
Earl's "Daily Rant" could be an energy source all by itself.
He has vim.
So, considering Phil's observation, if he had some vigor as well, he could light up a small town?
Morning, Cynthia. Thanks for your "patience" yesterday, by the way.
Only if there was a power converter, and you're welcome.
I read about it at the Times of Israel over the weekend.
https://www.thefp.com/p/martin-gurri-communist-cuba-power-grid-blackout
Having the power totally out reduces carbon dioxide emissions. And if people die, they're no longer exhaling it.
That’s an excellent article, and I wouldn’t have seen it otherwise. Thanks so much.
You're welcome.
That's a bit grim, no?
Yes, it is. So is going without electricity for days in Cuba.
Cuba with electricity is no picnic. I have to admit, however, being shocked at Gurri's depiction of Cuba under Casto's successors. It sounds like a failed state, nearly as bad as Haiti. All that's missing is anarchy.
From what little I know of the situation, as bad as Cuba is, I think it's got a ways to go before it would be on par with Haiti. Between political violence, natural disasters and growing international indifference, Haiti's been a de facto failed state for decades, even when there was a recognizable and at least semi-functioning government in place.
I have no way of knowing for sure, but I think a lot of Haitians would trade their chunk of Hispaniola for Cuba any day of the week.
Any time I hear something about Haiti, I can't help thinking of this story concerning the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake there, which killed 300,000+ people, give or take a few thousand. Apologies if I've posted this here before; I'm not sure whether I have or not, though I know I've posted it a couple of other places over time to make a point about something. Usually that the aggrieved whiners in our own country who think things are sooo bad here should have to spend a little time in "The Fields of Less Than Nothing" down there.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/magazine/148058/love-among-the-ruins/
Please!! Somebody kick the soapbox out from under me before Phil kicks me out the 🚪 for being a terrible preacher rather than a half-a**ed punster.
I tolerate preaching much better than puns. I even have my own soapbox, if you haven't noticed.
No, hadn't noticed. Probably because I was busy watching morning soaps on the tube. Will try to be more attentive. Nothing like a good 📣 to go with my morning ☕. Makes the rest of the day seem... calmer and easier? 😉
Violent anarchy is an important thing to be doing without.
I am sure Greta Thunberg is nodding happily at the people's paradise of Cuba, thanking them for their contributions to reducing greenhouse emissions.
Greta should take to holding her own breath on a regular basis. Would help cut down on noise pollution as well.
It wouldn't surprise me.
True dat.
I recall people during the worldwide COVID shutdowns, exulting about how this helped the planet by reducing CO2 emissions.
Yes, but focusing all attention upon the dumbest MF's imaginable doesn't necessarily indicate anything in particular, other than that one is focusing on really dumb stuff and imagining it means something.
To be fair, being theoretically in favor of stopping all human activity doesn't mean you'd actually try to make it happen permanently.
True. But celebrating a result of an event that caused millions of deaths is a bit ghoulish at least.
Aw, give 'em a break. They were probably just practicing their ghoulishness to prepare for Halloween. Some folks are *really* into Halloween, you know...
https://www.newsweek.com/halloween-fanatics-spending-decorations-speak-out-1839518
Hannibal Lector could not be reached for comment.
Yeah. Because he's in custody and being held in max security with all the appropriate safeguards. 🤐
I agree.
https://youtu.be/LJBZmuv7FtQ?feature=shared
Still on this one, I see. Apparently rants are a renewable resource.
Good morning. 33 degrees outside. High of 40 today. Though it may get to 70 on Thursday. Huh? Then back to more seasonable temps.
Renewable but not necessarily sustainable. Folks usually run out of ranting at some point. Normal folks, anyway.
Have you met Incognito?
No, fortunately?
Edit: Maybe? How would I know, him being (I can't believe I'm about to say this; actually, yes, I can) Incognito?
bwaaah haaah haaah haaaaaaahhhhhh !!! (just a little Halloween spirit there)
Please seek help.
I have. And I get the same response from every mental health professional I've approached: 🚪
This is my shocked face 😳
🍻🍸🥴
With fronds like these, who needs anemones?
Well, Cynthia would, if she were into writing about plants the way she writes about critters.
Anemones are animals.
Did not know that. Man. Plants *and* animals...
Don't tell the politicians. They'll freak right the hell out trying to make hay out of that.
" Apparently rants are a renewable resource."..... That made me chuckle.
🙏
Now if rants could only be turned into an energy source. . .
I’m the very model of a concerned citizen.
Mid-30s here under starry skies. Warmer than on your mountain—maybe reaching 70 today.
That would be a Model T?
Some stop at Model O and never continue down the alphabet.
https://www.gearpatrol.com/drinks/modelo-bestselling-beer/
I see what you did there -- 🚪
I thought we agreed that you would stop day drinking.
I'm saving up my drinking for Election Night.
So, what's your preferred beverage and the brand? Want to buy stock in the company before next Tuesday.
Incognito is engaging in what we call "pre-gaming."
Good morning. When does ski season begin?
In the Upper Midwest, where we used to start snowboarding on Thanksgiving, it doesn't begin.
The scheduled opening date here is November 27, the day before Thanksgiving. Ski area opening dates are.....fluid. As I noted last week, Wolf Creek in the San Juan Mountains of southern Colorado, received 21 inches and decided to open. Just. Like. That. In the Northeast, Thanksgiving skiing is a memory, at least for me. One area in Vermont tries to make as much early snow as they can as they are on the World Cup schedule for an early event. I think that answered the question *checks* Yup.
Does "opening dates are fluid" mean the snow isn't cold enough yet?
Exactly!
"They are free—until we try to tap into them."
Excellent summary, widely applicable.
And good morning. 71 in the house, and the youth get about half an hour more to sleep.
Right. Electricity generation is not net zero. Not even close.
You can't escape the second law of thermodynamics.
True. Johnny Law of the physical universe has a very long arm.
No, nor any other kind of energy. Burning wood for heat, for example.
Right.
Morning. May cooler temps and dryer conditions prevail! Better for sleeping youths and others.