A persistently tough week. I noticed a cough and some minor flu-like symptoms Sunday morning, but rapid tests kept coming up non-covid. I felt able to work, but got texts on Monday that one member of a medium-size gathering from Saturday had a kid now with covid, so I went for a PCR test. Negative again, for both covid and flu (same, later, for the parent in question).
But on Tuesday my symptoms started worsening, and I realized in the afternoon just participating on work phone calls was an effort. I had a bachelor party trip to Vegas Thursday-Sunday, so to make sure I was in condition, I resolved not to work until then.
Didn't help: I developed chills, and a very painful and persistent cough that kept me from sleeping more than an hour or two at a time. I had to pull the plug on the trip, which was disappointing. I did have a video call with the friends there. And I had to take the rest of the week off anyway.
Now the painful parts are mostly gone. I'm sleeping again, even catching up some on the sleep during the day. My cough is different, drier and mostly not painful.
One of the novel-to-me aftereffects: the coughing made my eyes water enough (I suspect including while asleep) that I found chunks (salt?) on my eyelashes, plus frequent rubbing made my eyelids tender and inflamed. A warm washcloth helped with both of those issues, but now when my eyes water again my eyelids feel it - as if I'm crying acid. (Also I took extra showers and for a while water was stuck in one of my ears.)
That eye-stuff sounds like allergies. Maybe the rain is giving plants the ability to pollinate like you've never experienced before.
I have been enjoying the on-again-off-again start of Spring, but I feel slow and middle-aged this weekend.
Coincidentally, I just learned via wikipedia how absurdly productive Euler was:
Euler is credited for popularizing the Greek letter π \pi (lowercase pi) to denote the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter, as well as first using the notation f ( x ) f(x) for the value of a function, the letter i i to express the imaginary unit − 1 {\sqrt {-1}}, the Greek letter Σ \Sigma (capital sigma) to express summations, the Greek letter Δ \Delta (uppercase delta) for finite differences, and lowercase letters to represent the sides of a triangle while representing the angles as capital letters. He gave the current definition of the constant e e, the base of the natural logarithm, now known as Euler's number.
Euler was also the first practitioner of graph theory (partly as a solution for the problem of the Seven Bridges of Königsberg). He became famous for, among many other accomplishments, solving the Basel problem, after proving that the sum of the infinite series of squared integer reciprocals equaled exactly π2/6, and for discovering that the sum of the numbers of vertices and faces minus edges of a polyhedron equals 2, a number now commonly known as the Euler characteristic. In the field of physics, Euler reformulated Newton's laws of physics into new laws in his two-volume work Mechanica to better explain the motion of rigid bodies. He also made substantial contributions to the study of elastic deformations of solid objects.
...
It has been proposed that Euler was responsible for a third of all the scientific and mathematical output of the 18th century. Euler's name is associated with a large number of topics. Euler's work averages 800 pages a year from 1725 to 1783. He also wrote over 4500 letters and hundreds of manuscripts.
And so it has come to pass that my 10 or so linear shelf feet of records need to not be where they are or, really, anywhere in the house. Not even a first world problem -- sort of a 1% world problem -- but it's kind of sad to give up on things. I have a storage unit for old files at my office, and there's enough room for boxes of records. (Especially if I finally get around to shredding some old files long past the need to keep.) What would I be doing, really, though?
Euler could have written a few more papers.
4: What would I be doing, really, though?
Demonstrating the validity of one of my proofs. Still room in the hotel records storage!
Acute food poisoning sucks. How is it possible to be barfing up large quantities of stuff (in this case stuffed grape leaves) well over 24 hours after I'd eaten them and I didn't have that much to begin with!
I should not have done my hydro PT today (no incident thankfully) or gone into work (I was supposed to close and we are currently short staffed. I ended up throwing up all over my office whiteboard as I sprinted for the bathroom.
5. I'm sure you would have been happy to coauthor some with him if you'd been around at the time.
Euler's record is more impressive when you consider that they all had to be written long-hand with a quill.
Oh, I forgot: I told my community college teacher on Monday night I couldn't attend class due to sickness, and she directed my attention to a message on the college portal I had not checked, that seven people had already sent her similar emails.
Also that we were not meeting in person that night and none of the eight of us had remembered.
So something's got to be going around.
I've decided I'm immune to covid. I don't know about the other respiratory crud. It's been a long time since I've been sick.
A long time for me too. Turns out I just needed to wash my hands that one year.
You should wash your hands when stuffing grape leaves too.
It sounds like there's a virus going around Unfogged. Remember to wear a mask while posting!
PSA: Apparently non-dairy products cannot legally be labeled "cheese." It's ok to label them "cheese substitute," or similar, as long as "cheese" and "substitute" are the same size. If you want "substitute" to be in 8 point, then "cheese" must also be 8 point.
But there apear to be no restrictions on the font size for words such as CHEDDAR or PARMESAN on the labels of microscopically labeled cheese substitutes. Nor is there any legal requirement that such products taste like anything other than tofu.
If you buy Velveeta, you know what you're getting.
I just got over COVID (second time in five months) and this version was the mean bronchitis version. I'm still coughing but the doctor says it's just mild pleuritis and could last for a year but probably won't.
I need one of those cure-all seaside vacations, I think.
You should try declaring that you're immune to covid. It's worked for me.
It only works if you're vaccinated, because science.
Listen to this insane bullshit. So one of Texas's solution to school safety is to randomly audit the schools, and see if their little henchmen can get in.
The day before spring break, the local high school is hosting 3 sports tournaments and a Battle of the Bands. There are 34 teachers out and 3 assistant principals out. It's a chaotic day. Sure enough, they get audited.
Random adult shows up. Through the tennis tournament, they're able to find a gate that's not secure. They enter the gym, which is not connected to the rest of the campus.
A student walks up and says something like, "Oh, let me get the teacher." The coach sees that the person doesn't have a badge and says something like, "You're not supposed to be in here unauthorized. Let me escort you over to the main office."
So far everything is by the book. The coach takes the stranger out of the building. But of course, you're also not allowed to abandon your class. So he has to find someone to take over his class. So he send the stranger outside and says, "Wait here, I need to let an adult know I'm leaving."
Coach does this. As he's heading back out towards the stranger, the stranger makes eye contact... and then takes off running. Coach takes off running after him. A student in the main building sees and adult running towards him, and holds the door open for the stranger.
FAIL! F! You completely fail your audit! No credit for the first 15 minutes of people who took appropriate actions! SUCKERS! How do you expect to prevent another Uvalde if you can't even get 5000 teenagers to ignore years of etiquette towards their elders and block a door when someone comes at them?!
And apparently, if you fail two audit, then the state will publish a fucking newspaper article in your local paper that says, "Texas Education Agency determines that Local High school is an UNSAFE CAMPUS!"
It's all so fucking punitive and vindictive. The state holds all the resources, but rather than providing any fucking resources, they're just going to punch down if you can't keep up with their hoops. Oh, but you could apply to arm your teachers. Why not that?
I hate them.
(Oh, and what should the coach have done, rather than find someone to cover his class? Call 911. Great. That's your goddamn solution to avoid requiring the most bare, minimal of gun regulations.)
I don't wish ill on anyone, but I might not cry if the next badge-less adult who takes off running towards the main building, coach in pursuit, catches a bullet in the leg. Isn't that the polite but well armed society the citizens of Texas are hoping for?
Yeah that was my thought. If your school has applied to arm teachers will they not audit again because they don't want their agent to get shot for a simulation?
Obviously the student holding the door open had the best shot. That's who should have the gun.
"Come on, you apes! You wanna live forever?" would make a good high school motto.
Its only a matter of time before an auditor gets shot.
It's a guaranteed pass though, right?
Men don't give passes to auditors with shot asses.
Vent: I just realized I made a small-ish mistake with AJ's taxes for 2020 and 2021 and need to file amended returns on top of this year's taxes. On top of that, my normal tax software doesn't have a form I need (UGH), so my options are either to mail paper forms (estimated processing time 6 months per the IRS) or pay for different software (which I did). AJ is leaning towards "fuck this, let's get an accountant" and I am leaning towards "I just need to file amended returns, live and learn."
I had a great joke in mind but it turned out there's no Israeli politician whose name is "Goofus" or rhymes with it.
I used Free Fillable Forms. I filed them tonight and return was already accepted. I think this is the first time my return was accepted on my first try.
I got identity thefted and some asshole filed an electronic return in my name, so I was told to use paper. I forget if that was only for a couple of years or what.
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Transparent resin oozed out of the cuts like very slow, very deep grief.|>
1: The eyes sound like either allergies or some sort of infection that's traveled up your sinuses (I've had both). Besides allergy meds, you might want to try a neti pot/nasal rinse. The year my allergies were the absolute worst and I could barely pry my eyes open, it was a neti pot that finally made the difference.
Soon to be new Scottish First Minister.
Somewhat shocked that he's only 37. Obviously had a hard paper round.
I had questions about the SNP!
1. Whither SNP? (Given (a) the courts have found IIRC only Westminster can grant a referendum and (b) Westminster has no intention of doing so.)
2. Can SNP be the Rejoiner Party? Someone has to.
3. How real/meaningful are SNP-Russia links?
re: 36
1. Well, that's almost always been the case. There were referenda in 1979, 1997 and 2014 (on varying degrees of independence) but incredibly long periods in between with no prospect of constitutional change. Mostly, since 2014 they concentrated on being the party of government in Scotland. There's quite a lot of internal disagreement within the SNP about how and when independence should be advanced.
2. I think they basically explicitly always have been. Scotland as part of the EU is basically their entire political position. In 2014 the UK government and major opposition parties, with the support of a lot of EU countries keen not to encourage their own independence movements, campaigned strongly against independence on the grounds that independence would result in Scotland leaving the EU. The leaves a slightly sour taste in hindsight. I suspect given the reality of Brexit, the vote in 2014 would have gone the other way.
3. No idea. As far as I know, there isn't really anything there, but it's entirely possible I'm wrong.
N.B. I'm not an SNP supporter and have never voted for them, so I have no inside knowledge other than the stuff anyone can read in the papers.
Would you believe this is the week my brother planned to visit my mom in Israel?
But he picked a really unfortunate week to try to get to Israel.
39: I appreciate that. I will strive to be worthy of that trust
40: Yes.
So, the guy who shot and killed a guy in Pittsburgh's Bloomfield neighborhood had '23' tattooed on his face.
I have a good Michael Jordan gif in mind for 42, but I guess that's not how it works here.
I'm pretty sure that just means thy murderer was a Nazi.
Here is a bit of ridiculousness that some colleagues are engaged in:
So now that we've all weathered Covid, my institution has in-person classes, remote synchronized classes, and remote unsynchronized classes. I assume most institutions do at this point. We also have mostly 3 credit courses, but some 4 credit courses.
It has arisen that some faculty members want to convert a 3 credit in-person class to be 3 credits in-person plus 1 asynchronous remote hour. In other words, they want to get an extra credit of teaching credit for assigning a lot of homework. I am rolling my eyes hard, but I don't really know their department. Maybe there's some pedagogical reason why this is best.
Now someone in my own department has taken a 4 credit in-person course, and unilaterally changed it to be 3 credits in-person and 1 credit asynchronous. This is really absurd and lazy. That is all.
The Washington Post started today with a big article on the AR-15. Does it count as foresight or were the odds of a school shooting involving an AR-15 so high that it's just expected?
Isn't assigning homework the worst since you have to grade it?
Nah, we have student graders for most courses. Or online homework.
When I last taught, I heard it as "Student graters" and though "Why do I need cheese?"
47: Oh hell, it looks like the shooter was trans, and while most national media outlets are currently holding back from foregrounding that fact, guess which one isn't. This is going nowhere good.
50. Cheese always makes boring tasks more tolerable. But you don't need to grate it. Marking assignments with a plate full of Roquefort and crackers in front of you sounds almost pleasant.
Nothing to add to ttaM on point 2 regarding the SNP.
Whither SNP: there is a bit of a split within the party (now coming into the open) between the "let's just govern Scotland well" faction and the "new referendum NOW" faction. This is complicated by the facts that a) they aren't actually governing Scotland very well and b) saying "new referendum NOW" is also a good way to hide a).
The SNP-Russia link was a thing - former leader Alex Salmond ended up running a splinter party called Alba and being paid by Russia Today. Presumably for the same reason that Russia funds divisive politics elsewhere - Front National in France, NRA in America and so on. Not sure it's still a thing now, that was a while ago.
The other big political split in the SNP, apart from whether to go for independence now, is of course the Isla Bryson case.
I shall choose to believe that the Isla Bryson case concerns a territorial dispute with the Manx.
Re (2) I was thinking more in terms of running candidates outside Scotland.
Re (2) I was thinking more in terms of running candidates outside Scotland.
I would be extremely surprised if the SNP put up any candidates outside Scotland at any level. Changing into a generic centre-left/rejoin the EU party would be a huge shift for them and would be seen as abandoning or deprioritising the independence campaign, which remains their main motivation.
Though, fun fact, the furthest-south place to have an SNP elected representative is the Brunswick & Adelaide ward of Brighton, on the south coast of England, because they had a Labour councillor who switched parties in 1999 for reasons best known to himself.
Would you believe this is the reincarnation I chose to spend as an Israeli? Everything sucks, you guys. Please send help.
One would think that you would live, by definition, in boring times.
58: We tried to send peep's brother.
57 - A decades-early protest of Southgate's inexplicable refusal to name Albion man Solly March to the Lions.
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By late 1992 Kravchuk was determined to press forward towards an alliance with Poland directed against Russian predominance in Eastern Europe, perhaps one in which Ukraine would provide a nuclear umbrella with the weapons it had inherited from the Soviet Union.|>
Re: 58 - is there enough interest for an Israeli protests thread? I wouldn't have anything to add to it, and the crisis seems to be resolving? But I'd be interested in what the unfoggedtariat has to add.
Personally, I get very worried when a right wing politician asks for a police force that they directly control.
56: ironically, one of the strongest arguments for Scottish nationalism is precisely that the rest of the country pays so little attention to Scotland they think the SNP is a sort of generic nice stuff party, or alternatively, the revolution, but either way, a blank slate to project their fantasies on. In reality it's mostly rather like a replacement level Blair era Labour government *but with a massive obsession with nationalism*. This is pretty logical when you think that a) it's the Scottish nationalist party, nationalism is its defining feature and unique selling point and b) it's mostly competing for votes with Labour, so its policy positions tend to end up close to those of the median Labour voter they're targeting, who is probably a schoolteacher or a mid-level NHS manager.
This has some funny results, so you have both the kind of weaksauce BBC liberal types who think it's the rejoin party of liberal niceness AND you have left-wing radicals who think it's the rule of the saints. In reality its actual independence referendum manifesto was so radical that it proposed to keep the Queen, the BBC, and restore all the traditional army regimental titles, and its record in government is pretty much being the kind of replacement level Labour authority the radicals most despise. On the liberal front, the party has absolutely no use for you if you're not going to vote for independence, its relationship with the EU is far, far down the list of priorities, and it also wants the votes of the substantial number of Scots who voted for Brexit. Nor does it have any scruples at all about indulging in nationalism in the pejorative sense (like "white nationalist"), as anyone who's ever tangled with their appalling internet fans knows.
What it really does like is winning at all costs; in many ways it's the epitome of a professional, cynical, media-trained, on-message postmodern political organization, just what its fans outside Scotland claim to hate most.
66.2 I can see being for bringing back the Black Watch
I haven't worn a watch since I got a smartphone.
69: maybe more seriously, you can see that if you softpedalled the nationalism there wouldn't be much point, you could just vote Labour
Well, I'm not terribly optimistic about how this will wind up, but on the plus side, Netanyahu's delay got people back at work, so my brother made it to Israel, and even eventually got his luggage.
72: That's good. Traveling during strikes sounds unpleasant.
73: nice, inoffensive Unfogged liberalism was very much to the point!
62: I think I've been convinced by the arguments from Cheryl Rofer of LGM (among others) that independent Ukraine did not have the infrastructure to maintain its own nuclear deterrent. (Perhaps eccentrically, and based on nothing but the country's proficiency with 1930s and 1940s technology, I think Poland would be fastest in ECE to its own atomic weapons if the nonproliferation regime blows up falls apart.)
The Budapest Memorandum gave Ukraine 20-28 years of peace, depending on how you count it. That's more than what the Baltics and indeed Poland got after the Great War. Ukraine didn't entirely squander it, but unfortunately the key word in that clause has to be "entirely." I think the flop of the Viktor and Yuliya Show -- in its first season, even -- is one of the great tragedies of the region's post-communist history.
I'll add to that list the Russian parliamentary elections in 2011, how thoroughly and unnecessarily they were stolen, and the failure of the biggest post-1991 demonstrations in Moscow to do anything about it.
This is not the reassurances part of the thread, obvsly.
The Budapest Memorandum gave Ukraine 20-28 years of peace, depending on how you count it.
The Budapest Memorandum was 1994, so counting 28 years from that gets you to 2022, which includes the annexation of Crimea and the eight years of warfare - including massive shelling, tank battles, extensive urban combat and 13,000 deaths - from 2014 to 2022, which is an unusual way of counting it. I'd stop counting "years of peace" when the war started, myself.
Obviously SNP running outside of Scotland is insane and makes no sense (unless the suggestion is to run in Northern Ireland, in which case it's also insane but in a rather different way). And it's not like them running in England would make things better anyway, the problem in England is with the *voters*. If Labour thought moving left would help them then they'd do that.
That said, Sturgeon was a pretty appealing politician, and there's worse things in the world than a charismatic Blair type. Both SNP and Scottish Labour are pretty solidly left of the current English labour party, no? And the nationalism does lead to looking outside of the anglosphere a little more, resulting in sometimes some nice stuff coming in from Scandinavia (nothing huge, I'm thinking of the Baby Boxes, for example). (Now if only this lead to them learning how to build tunnels from Scandinavia...) If I'd moved to Scotland (which I'd seriously considered at various times), I'm pretty sure I'd have been an SNP constituency + Green list voter in the last few elections. I don't think SNP is some magical unicorn, just hoping for a likable professional center-left leader, and I have no personal investment in the UK as a project and so independence has some appeal.
Time for a Scottish-Irish National Party?
I don't think nationalism works like that.
"Both SNP and Scottish Labour are pretty solidly left of the current English labour party, no?"
Highly debatable in both cases, I would say!
The far-left bloc of Corbyn supporters are all English Labour, ans mostly London: Abbott, McDonnell, Corbyn himself, Ken Livingstone, Landsman, Burgon, Long-Bailey, Jones, Murray. Kezia Dugdale couldn't stand him and neither could a lot of Scottish Labour.
SNP meanwhile is a broad church with, to extend the metaphor, not a few bats in its belfry, and I think you could make an argument for it being left or right of Labour...
What I was alluding to in the 79 parenthetical was that there's some overlap between DUP and the Kate Forbes wing of SNP, and you could imagine someone crazy deciding that Scotland and Northern Ireland should stay part of one country without England/Wales. This is insane, but for totally different reasons from SNP running in England where there's literally no logic to it. You can more easily imagine a world where Scottish nationalism has some appeal among Ulster Scots than where it has appeal among English people.
The Free Presbyterian Party, as it were.
If only Leonard Skynnard lived long enough to record that.
87: Is that the teacher that the band is named after?
So I have had four months of inexplicable back pain, and the spine guy, after getting the results from my third MRI, tells me to get to the emergency room RIGHT NOW. I have an infection in my spine apparently.
I think he asked me four times for my date of birth. Given that I was doing a video visit from work, he couldn't believe someone in my condition was not out sick. He wanted to make sure he had the right MRI.
And so now I am in the ER, waiting for service and sufficiently bored to advise y'all of my plight.
Funny thing is, I am having a good day today, pain-wise.
Yikes. Hope they can clear the infection.
Yikes! On the other hand, now that they know what it is, maybe it gets solved fast?
Dr. Google proposes a range of outcomes, from antibiotics to surgery. The really weird thing is that Dr. Google believes I am in much worse shape than I actually am.
And for the ER nurse, I just finished answering the same questions I have been asked for months: No numbness, no weakness, no incontinence. Just pain. Dr. Google seems pretty sure I should be experiencing these other things.
My doctor (the third MD I have seen about this) was pretty freaked out, though. He absolutely was not going to let me finish the work day, and he wanted to make sure I was going to a BIG hospital ER with lots of specialists available.
He also bumped up my appointment by a half hour. I assumed he just had some time on his hands.
94: Wow, that sounds concerned and on the ball... it can be very odd when the medical establishment moves quickly from "live with it" to "urgent, fix now!" without going through any intermediate phases. (My wife is going through much the same for her back.)
We started our week with a sick cat and a no appointment/wait in line visit on Monday. They did a pretty good job of squeezing DC in and quickly figured out that it was bladder blockage again. Fortunately, they unblocked him and his recovery is going well so far.
Good lord, PF. Keep us posted and I hope you feel better soon.
Make sure they give you the people Ivermectin.
Is anyone else getting hit by the adderall shortage or just my fam?
Good luck pf!
And Spikefam, and Moosecat!
Geeblets are on one of the Ritalin varieties.
Be careful clearing urinary tract blockages by extemporaneous means.
Good luck, pf! Hope the clear it up quickly and you continue to feel better than you should.
@ (especially) Doug:
Reconstruction of Nations, well worth reading, mostly for the drawing out of the many possible alternate histories of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. This book also I think shows the Commonwealth's territory is the basis for Snyder's later "bloodlands" conceit (compare the opening maps), which I found unconvincing. Keeping the Commonwealth as the organizing framework I think would have been much more coherent.
Complaints:
The absence of Belarus. Snyder is definitely aware of this and tries to address it, but Belarusian nationalism is mostly a history of things not happening, which is tough.
In parts, collapses into a compendium of atrocities (my other major beef with Bloodlands; not nearly so bad here, though).
The final section on Polish policy. The construction of Polish eastern policy is in fact very interesting, and new to me, but Snyder's descriptions of its execution through the 1990s become repetitious, and extend into strong and thinly sourced claims about the interaction between it and the domestic politics of the late- to post-USSR, especially Ukraine. In fairness, at the time of writing the primary research to evaluate those claims likely hadn't/couldn't have been done; nonetheless, I am skeptical.
https://www.flipsnack.com/56E99EAA9F7/tech-sites-illuminating-the-path-to-technology-awareness.html
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/anetopto18Z/a-beginner-guide-using-drama-cool-kodi-addon-streaming-k-dramas
https://trove.nla.gov.au/userProfile/user/salmakhan/about
https://althemist.com/theme-collections/best-multi-vendor-wordpress-themes-2022/?unapproved=16912&moderation-hash=c9787c256179264e6a0822b2160a5b72#comment-16912
https://www.bitchute.com/channel/sINpXl92fZyV/
https://musescore.com/user/57827536/sets/6076651
https://linkhay.com/blog/532617/how-to-configure-and-customize-drama-cool-kodi-addon-settings-for-better-user-experience
https://emaze.me/iptv-stalker-addon-on-kodi#untitled
https://we.riseup.net/salmakhan/update-drama-cool-kodi-addon-latest-version
https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/mesa/mesa3d.org/-/issues/18
March Week 5-day 1 URL's
https://anetopto1858.wixsite.com/realclobber
http://worldtech-111.square.site/
https://salmaarz.art.blog/2023/03/27/what-is-drama-cool-kodi-addon-and-how-to-install-it/
https://highfinews.com/the-risks-and-legality-of-using-1channel-primewire-addon-on-kodi/
https://eventregist.com/e/CN8hxfbi08F3
http://blog.b92.net/text/30638/LEKARI-DANAS-SVE-VISE-LECE-BOLESTI-A-SVE-MANJE-LJUDE/#k2288702
https://www.turnkeylinux.org/blog/v17.1-stable-release-5#comment-54624
https://www.babelio.com/questions/32243/Quel-est-votre-livregenre-litteraire-prefere-
"there's some overlap between DUP and the Kate Forbes wing of SNP,"
Well, there's *some*. There's some overlap between AOC and Donald Trump. But you should, for a start, consider what the U in DUP stands for.
78: Well, that's why I put 20 as the first number. But do we consider Georgia as at peace now? Did we in 2007? What about Armenia and Azerbaijan? Is Moldova at peace? And that's just the immediate neighborhood.
108: if there's actual warfighting going on in a country, with the shooting and the guns and the explosions and so on, I would not consider that country to be at peace.
There was virtually constant fighting in eastern Ukraine from 2014 to 2022 - per wiki there were 29 ceasefires, none lasting more than two weeks.
If a country is partly occupied by another, it doesn't mean that the country is perpetually at war for as long as the occupation continues. It's all about the actual violence.
So, in answer to your questions: yes (as far as I know there isn't active fighting), yes (there was a lot of diplomatic and economic pressure by Russia on Georgia, but no war), no, yes.
105: Thanks! You've moved it up in my TBR list, along with the Secret War book. You and I may become that kind of Snyder fan, preferring his work from before he got really popular. The phrase "alternate histories of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth" is catnip to me.
Belarusian nationalism is mostly a history of things not happening, which is tough
So very true! (Although at the moment, it's a matter of not sending their army to join the invasion of Ukraine, which seems better for all concerned.)
at the time of writing the primary research to evaluate those claims likely hadn't/couldn't have been done
For sure. It was very recent history at the time of writing. And Poland's overwhelming foreign policy priority post-1989 was anchoring itself within Western institutions, so eastward policy would have been subordinate. On the one hand, that might have made it easier for an academic to get interviews with the participants. (Documentary sources would have been more "leaks" than archives.) On the other, it might have made them less useful, as the policy itself was more subject to change.
Still, it sounds fascinating!
OT: If you schedule a campus visit, try to pick a day when nearby high schools aren't being swatted.
107: Right as I said it's still crazy, but you need to know slightly more to see why it's crazy than you would for running candidates in England. Eg this article about rising Scottish nationalist sentiment in Northern Ireland. In a world where 30% of Rangers fans voted SNP, it's not inconceivable that they could get some votes in Northern Ireland if they wanted to (but not enough to actually win anything).
https://theconversation.com/amp/scottish-ballot-is-not-stoking-nationalism-in-northern-ireland-25175
Yikes, PF, that's scary. Have you found out anything more since yesterday?
There were so many cops and other emergency vehicles that went to the swatted schools in Oakland. Obviously not as bad as a school shooting, but a school shooter really only gets one chance and a swatter can keep making calls.
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I've just started playing around with the google Bard chatbot (I haven't tried any of the others, and signed up for Bard because it didn't require creating a new account) and it is really shockingly bad. Most of the answers have factual errors, but this may be the least impressive answer yet.
Prompt: Write a poem in the style of ee cummings about the new york times
Response: Sure, here is a poem in the style of E.E. Cummings about the New York Times:
the new york times
is a thing of beauty
a work of art
a symphony of words
a poem of ideas
it is a window to the world
a mirror of our time
a beacon of hope
a voice of reason
it is a treasure
a gift
a legacy
it is the new york times
and it is beautiful
I don't think I've written this before on unfogged but fuck you, clown.
|>
At least it knew not to use capital letters.
116: it mastered E.E.Cummings style!
1. No capital letters.
2. No rhymes
A+
When I asked ChatGPT to do e e cummings a couple weeks ago it just did a normal rhyming poem, so this is better than I was expecting.
114: The consensus seems to be that this will be treatable with a biopsy and 6-8 weeks of daily injected antibiotics. It's possible that I will be able to do the injections myself.
But the location of the infection is such that they want to knock me out before sticking me with the biopsy needle, and they won't be able to work me in until Friday.
And they won't let me go home -- basically for the same reason I got sent to the ER in the first place: There is concern that the infection could break loose from its hiding place and lead to sepsis.
So apparently I have been carrying around a ticking bomb for four months.
But the prevailing theory also seems to be that I haven't fucked up anything permanent -- that this was caught in time.
Wow, dude. Good that they're on top of that.
Yes, great that they caught it despite your apparently high tolerance for pain. Hope you heal quickly.
Spines, sir, are like women. A man should have one of them on whom he can rely absolutely, and they should only be poked with long, sharp, painful needles when it is absolutely unavoidable.
Good luck with the spine stuff. My back issues linger on with slight improvement, but do not think the cortisone injection a few weeks ago really did much of anything. See the guy again in a few weeks to figure out what next.
In other health stuff they keep taking pictures of various parts of me and then finding possible deficits in other stuff. Latest was n MRI for heart leading to a thyroid ultrasound which found "nodules" at the borderline for doing anything about. (One source described an "epidemic" of thyroid nodules as otherwise non-palpable nodules are found--generally incidentally though other imaging.) Inside of an older human it's too stupid to read.
Anyway, fuck all that shit. Thank God the world in general is in such great fucking shape as it provides a cheery backdrop to my quotidian aches and cares...
I like my spine like my coffee. I hate fucking coffee.
On the other hand re-quoting:
He was old and tired, and death was already lurking, but life would not yet let him go. Like a cruel host it held him fast at the table because he had not yet tasted all the bitterness that had been prepared for him.
From Roth's Radetzky March which I assume all have started reading by now.
Good luck, pf! Your story reminds me a little of my experience of being diagnosed with leukemia --my gp was astounded that I felt ok, given my blood test results. But, in my case the leukemia specialists weren't surprised at my lack of symptoms.
And speaking of courts (in another thread); freaking Reed O'Connor in Braidwood V. Becerra ( categories of ACA preventive care required to be paid for).
Maybe someone can explain how this not just more judicial terrorism. I had no idea something like this was being contested, how many more of these type things are lurking in the hands of these barbaric jerks.
134: It is judicial terrorism, although this particular guy's rulings have apparently had a bad time at the Supreme Court.
The similar thing waiting in the wings is going back after the contraceptive mandate (not part of this case).
112: I happened to be on a HS campus across the river. Lockdown and updates from the principal over the PA but classes continued. Students very distracted, unsusrprisingly.
Personally, I wonder if the assholes who listen to the police scanner and tweet about it aren't to blame for much of the panic. Not that the cops helped by standing around in camo with assault rifles.
Best wishes, all. Take care of yourselves.
The initial call shouldn't have been very believable to anyone who knows the area and I don't think it was by the authorities. Obviously, the police need to check regardless, but the half-assed way the news spread cause way too much concern.
Ok, a bleg: A dear friend that I rarely see had her house burn down last night and lost everything. I already donated money. She's got a place to stay for the next month.
What are good, tangible ways to support her? I told her that I was going to brainstorm a list of ideas so that I could roll them out over the next month or two.
Brainstorm for me! (please)
A copy of Jane Eyre, to illustrate the positive side of your house burning down.
keep it coming!
I'm supposed to ask chatgpt, aren't I.
Can't keep that out of my head when I see that post title. Surf rap could be a genre and probably is.
140: Photos. Ask any mutual friends, too. I'm sorry for your friend.
Thanks, Yd. That's a good idea.