"Look for the helpers." There are good people in the world. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/craigsilverman/facebook-ignore-political-manipulation-whistleblower-memo She turned down a $64,000 severance package so that she wouldn't have to sign an NDA.
What kind of an asshole bribes with so little money? Anyone who can do that kind of work, that's a fraction of an annual salary.
UCSF has developed what might work out as a cheap prophylactic in spray form that makes SARS-COV-2 much less dangerous, inspired by something found in llamas.
Why they were looking into the llamas, I don't want to know.
That picture makes me want to replace our cloth masks with the fancy kind.
Nanobodies. Camels and their relatives are weird.
Does it count if you have two new kittens? :)
1. My 1-year-old nephew is in love with flowers, so his 80-year-old neighbor created a route for them to walk around their neighborhood and see lots of flowers at his (stroller-height) eye level.
2. Tiny weed-killing robots might help save the planet and reduce pesticide use.
3. The Norwegian concept of friluftsliv may help us make it through a Covid winter.
I don't know any Norwegians, but in the heat of this summer, I bought a second hand Filson jacket, so I'm ready for cold weather and wool enthusiasm.
I finally finished listening to the Empire of Cotton audiobook, for which my daughter has given me so much crap for months: could literally anything be more boring than a 650-page history book about cotton?? (Why audiobook = long story, but I'm not sure I would have finished it if I'd been able to set it down every time I found my mind wandering. My ADHD is no reflection on the book, which is good, although the reader's voice at 1.35x will haunt my dreams, winding up for a fraction of a second each time before spitting out the imprecation "WAR capitalism".)
I like being reminded that civilization still exists, that people are capable of wonderful achievement, both refined endeavor and also enthusiastic amateur work.
For high culture, I have been genuinely loving Gilbert Strang's lectures on matrix methods in data analysis. He's a genial wizard who can come off as just a guy talking to you to make a thoughtful point, but his scope and lecture material are very carefully thought through. For me, he's tying a bunch of stuff I knew as separate properties and techniques into an integrated whole. MIT 18.065, all on youtube.
Also I really liked Amanda Podany's Ancient Near East lectures, available through one of the subscription options on Amazon and I'm sure via the web as well. Mostly just her talking, a few helpful visuals in each lecture- statues, seals, slides to explain ancient flood plain farming and the like.
For enthusiastic amateurs, I like watercolors a lot
I'm happy that people are continually pointing out topics for additional research. Such as:
Read this, it'll make you smile: https://twitter.com/wfmu/status/1305905980560023556?s=21
I've been very much enjoying Clive James' Cultural Amnesia. Also, learning julia has been fun, and not too much of a stretch if you are familiar with python.
I'm kind of amazed that there is yet another new documentary about the the Jeffrey MacDonald ("Fatal Vision") murders. This one seems to challenge Errol Morris' book that challenged 2 other books that challenged the original Joe McGinniss book. Am I the only one who finds it weird that people are still interested in re-litigating murders that took place half a century ago?
I've enjoyed seeing the rise of People's Budgets in west coast cities. Don't know that they've had any success yet, but it has only been a few months since the protests started and already a pretty organized effort is moving in Sacramento (with what looks like shared organizing from L.A. and Oakland).
13: In difficult situations, I try to behave constructively, but I'm sorry, if I am attacked by a bear, I am going to crap myself.
More things to make you smile: https://twitter.com/WineandHair/status/1305520867162677252
15: Whilst channel-hopping the other day, I stopped and watched most of a Charles Manson documentary. I have to confess, I found it pretty interesting. (Tarantino's latest, however, wasn't very good.)
17: That's fine. We need pilot data before we can design a study with random assignment to shitting yourself.
Also ten year old British musical prodigy Nandi Bushell's reaction video to Dave Grohl's writing/performing a song about how awesome she is, her feed's great too: https://twitter.com/Nandi_Bushell/status/1305568424769269769
19 Not remoralizing, pf. Also Tarantino's latest was awesome.
I'm struggling with this one and had to delete a few comments, but Barry clearly understands the assignment.
19: If your interest holds, I recommend Karina Longworth's history of Hollywood podcast You Must Remember This. It's good in general, and the series "Charlie Manson's Hollywood" is excellent.
That Argentine cruise ship thing was a particularly intriguing piece of evidence. But N95s are worth their weight in gold again (if they ever weren't) . . .
This article about Jeopardy resuming filming offers the calm reassurance of a world in which things are being done carefully and competently.
In March, the coronavirus pandemic forced production of the show to grind to a sudden halt, a month ahead of its planned season finale. Now, in the middle of the show's usual summer break, Trebek had a sense of urgency. Nearing his 80th birthday and nearly a year and a half into treatment for advanced pancreatic cancer, he wanted to work.
"His frustration was, we should be in there taping," says Mike Richards, who this summer became Jeopardy!'s first new executive producer in nearly 25 years. "We should be shooting. Even though it was during our hiatus, he wanted to get back in there and shoot more Jeopardy!s. So I was definitely hearing him on my shoulder going, 'Let's go. Figure it out. We're Jeopardy! We're smart enough to figure this out.'"
...
With Jeopardy! more than a month into its modified pandemic protocol and the systems seemingly functioning safely, Lindsey Shultz calls it "a microcosm of how it would be good for society to approach" the pandemic.
So much love for 14, particularly the little detail of folding down the seats in his 2001 Saturn. I have been there! (Once when lourdes was picking the kid up from preschool, years ago now, her 3yo classmate was also being picked up and the two kids ran out to the sidewalk and paused before the waiting cars. The classmate saw our hand-me-down 2002 Saturn sedan, turned to her and said, "That's a garbage car. You should throw it in the garbage and get a new one." His mom pretty much died on the spot, but I could not stop laughing when I heard about it. Our poor garbage car!)
Anyway I recently bought a cheap bass! And lourdes bought a nicer bass. So now we both have new basses, which are not as cute as kittens, but are still pretty fun.
Also thanks Minivet for the Aeronabs thing! It would be great if Llamas rescued us.
Delurking again because I actually have something to contribute ... If you have 20 minutes to spare I highly recommend a short film, "Bis Gleich" (Till later) that's available on Youtube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIcW-aifN8w&feature=youtu.be. It features two older neighbors and only a few lines of dialog towards the end (in German with English subtitles). I've been telling everyone I know about it since I saw it recommended on MDK (knitters will know what I mean) and so far reaction is 100% in line with mine - it's a gentle and hopeful reminder of how much little acts of kindness can mean. I reminds me a little of the thought behind the flower walk described in 9.
19: The recent Manson documentary? My dad is in that, briefly.
I watched the Mason documentary. It was jarring.
32: I honestly don't know. I don't even know what channel it was on.
Not sure if it's remoralizing, exactly, but the hoverboard dentist is going to prison.
I like that Alaska has a Department of Law rather than Department of Justice. Seems more honest.
re: 3
I think that's based on (or independently echoes) work by a team that a friend/acquaintance* of mine leads. His team published a paper on alpaca/lama proteins and COVID back in about May.
* also, when we were younger, one of the most magnetically attractive-to-women guys I've ever known.
re: 21
That's great. I've come across Nandi's stuff via general music nerd Instagram/Youtube. In the same vein, although not as recent, there's, Yoyoka, whose stuff is pure joy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91pz1E8pAOY
Whenever I walk the dogs, the three-or-four-year-old two houses down comes running out from wherever she is yelling "Cupcake! Spwinkles!" and comes to give the dogs pats. Cupcake, on seeing her, obediently sits down and awaits her affection. (Sprinkles is more hyper.)
I have a Lab named Luna. On a recent perusal of Facebook, I learned that my best buddy from high school and part of college recently acquired a Lab mix and named her Luna. Not that anyone else will get a smile out of that, but I did.
Also, apparently I remember how to do hrefs!
42: A while ago back in the Beforetimes I was in a vet waiting room and a woman was retrieving her cat and I overheard that it was named Leo. I couldn't see it since it was in a carrier, but I told her, cheerily, that we too have a cat named Leo. She did not seem to share my enthusiasm, and replied, quickly and rather brusquely, "Yellow tabby, huh?".
Now, our Leo is indeed a yellow tabby, and it was at this point that I realized that Leo (as in Leo the Lion) must be a damn common name for yellow tabbies. I was too abashed to explain that Leo was short for Leopold, which we had named him for reasons having nothing to do with zodiac signs. I just muttered "yeah . . ." and we went our separate ways.
45: I was sure that with that set up, she'd turn around her carrier and it'd have a dog in it!
If we are posting Youtube videos, I dearly love this sketch.
45: I hasn't considered that with your cat's name (since he is obviously nicknamed for Leopold)! We named our orange tabby Milo, for The Phantom Tollbooth, and because it seemed like a good cat name (ie can I call the cat without sounding nuts?). I'd utterly forgotten there was a Disney movie called Milo and Otis, starring . . . Milo, an orange tabby. Oops. The vet techs usually seem pretty tickled, at least.
In other joyous child musician fandom, I think these two sisters are phenomenal (if not so fresh as Nandi). The Reigning Blood cover is epic.
Last summer, back when other countries still let us in, I got to spend a couple weeks in Germany with Rory and my fella. Spent a full day with my former in-laws, with my father in law shuttling the fella to and from a football match in Belgium. And spent a memorable evening (of which my memory is somewhat fuzzy) drinking with my former sister-in-law and her husband. And another day with a dear friend who now lives in France. The fact that we can't travel now makes me feel extra grateful for the time with them.
Oh, also, I am now on friendly terms with UNG and his wife,. When their oldest daughter suggested that they should move to a farm with a family in their bubble, she added that "Rory's mama" should be included, too.
Other hapoy-making things of the past 6 months: have you guys seen Letterkenny? I am on my 5th run-through if the 8 (short, like 8 episode) seasons since November. Hysterically funny if you find filth and wordplay and deliberate aggressive meanness funny, especially set in rural Ontario.
And I think I may have cracked a tattoo conundrum--i have been toying with getting "The only way out is through," as a commemoration/reminder that putting one foot in front of another is sometimes the only way, which was a useful mantra the first few years post-divorce. But I couldn't figure out pleasing line breaks even with the assistance of a graphic designer friend.
And then I learned the same phrase is tattooed on the able of a Modern Family actress. But, in researching where the phrase came from, I skipped happily past a dumb Robert Frost poem to this from Macbeth:
"u am in blood
Stepped in so far that, should I wade no more,
Returning were as tedious as go o'er."
...which is so fucking badass and perfect that I think my solution is at hand.
Last year in the beforetimes I was having a pint in a bar in SF, the TV was playing a show with closed captioning and no sound, and against my will my attention kept getting drawn to the oddness of it such that I eventually had to Google some phrases to see what it was. It was Letterkenny. I meant to follow up but finding time for TV is hard.
In happy news I've hired three young women for engineering positions in the last month or so and they are all impressing everyone. My not-secret-at-all goal is to end up with 50/50 split on this group and it's looking likely.
In news which is certain exhilarating my lovely little house is being sold on Oct 1st and unless something goes hideously wrong a larger one is being bought the same day to make a nest with Ume.
But there will be at least a fortnight's work to purge it of woodworm, damp, and other ills that ancient houses suffer from before we can move in. The big fireplace in the sitting room is almost certainly older than the USA and we hope it is in more functional shape.
In any case, touching (sound) wood, I think the formation of a household is remoralising news since so many of of us have been divorced or broken up since coming on here.
Other remoralising news: someone is paying me to do a serious comparison of Alice in Wonderland with Trump's foreign policy.
31 is really, really good. I'm actually basically crying right now after watching it, which I suppose says something about my general emotional state at the moment.
I have been reading "No More Champagne: Churchill and his money" by David Lough which is an absolute gem. Biography of Churchill told pretty much entirely from the point of view of his personal finances. Minimal attention paid to any non financial events. Sample:
[four paragraphs discussing his negotiations over sale of rights to his memoirs to the publishers Harraps]
"...As D-Day came and went, the dispute between Churchill and the Harraps advanced towards resolution..."
D-Day doesn't even get an entire sentence to itself. It doesn't even get a main clause.
Anyway, the specifically remoralising bit is that Churchill's history of the First World War was called "The World Crisis" - his original preferred title was "Seapower and the World Crisis", though a Times journalist suggested the title "The Great Amphibian".
This is simply too good a title to waste.
I am now determined to write a book called "The Great Amphibian" and am taking suggestions for genre and subject matter.
It made me think immediately of the Gowachin's Frog God, but there must be other possibilities.
Also Susanna Clarke has written another book!!!
62 is indeed a reason to be cheerful. Apparently she has been dealing with CFS, so modified rapture. It sounds like a book I would very much want to read, and she's also talking about a sequel to JSMN at some future date, which is hugely ambitious if she's ill, but welcome.
51: That's what I appreciates about you, Chopper. You like good TV.
50 last and 56 are both good news!
Someday I want to go to England and meet all the UK folks in person.
64: oh is *that* what you appreciate about me Squirrely Di?
57: I have been known to invoke Humpty Dumpty when discussing Trump:
"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean--neither more nor less."
"The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many different things."
"The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master -- that's all."
Meaning is socially constructed and society has many complete shitheads.
God, I really should watch The Jerk with the kids. Or will I regret that?
No, it's okay. I have had some cringey moments with other old movies and the kids, but this was, e.g., not racist at all for an oldish movie with racial jokes.
What do you do to purge a house of woodworm? (And who is it who said they couldn't get rid of the woodworms, if the woodworms stopped holding hands all the beams would fall to dust?)
The early woodbirds get the woodworm. Maybe PetSmart?
The dull answer is that you poison them in some way. Since I'm not sure exactly what woodrworm are -- presumably the larvae of woodflies or even the terrestrial wontflies -- I've ner thought about it much. All the houses I've had before have only had the holes left by dead woodworm in them.
Yeah you basically inject poison down each wormhole until they're all dead. When my parents moved into their current house they had to deal simultaneously with a toddler (me), woodworm, frozen burst pipes and dry rot. Then the English attacked.
I know you're not fond of the English right now, but that kind of dehumanizing rhetoric is out of line.
I go eat dinner and people take all the good straight lines.
UNG and his wife
I remember what the NG stands for, but was it Unusually Nice Guy or Unexpectedly Nice Guy?
The only thing I know about woodworm is that it's discussed in my personal theme song for 2020
There's flooding in the basement
There's water all around
There's woodworm in the attic
And the ceiling just fell down
80: I thought UNG was for "Ugly Naked Guy." Am I really, really wrong?
Yes. Utilitarian Naked Guy. Because the veil of ignorance hides nothing.
83: You are banished to Standpipe's blog. Read DK again and you will see that I am correct:
I am now on friendly terms with UNG and his wife