Wednesday, March 29, 2017

Watching Maple Cotton Candy being made



Just had to add this, to make Susan smile at the end of a tough day...


24 comments:

  1. An idea from Germany that sounds promising: (Temporarily) toy-free kindergartens [Click] Yes, that was the way we used to play.

    Decline of Gary, Indiana [Click] "Residents who know the ugliness of racial politics all too well blame automation, not immigrants, for the destruction and despair that Trump promised to fix." Good folks. What they describe is not limited to blue-collar jobs; It has pursued me all through my working life.

    --Alan

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    1. A lot of Gary's problems trace back to very bad business decisions by US steel companies. In the late 1970s, traditional open hearth furnaces were replaced by blast furnaces and electric furnaces -- in Europe and Japan. US companies took the position that they didn't need to replace open hearth furnaces until they wore out. That worked for four or five years as European and Japanese companies struggled to pay off the huge loads of debt they had taken on. But then the debt was paid and US steel was no longer competitive. Bye-bye steel mills and bye-bye Gary.

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  2. The Gravity Is Strong, Part #2[Click] Conclusion: “Whatever is there will take a firm hand to uncover. Like the violent gravitational forces around a black hole, the force of this story will just tear a hapless goober like Nunes to pieces.” Hapless goober? Ouch!

    A SCOTUS Obamacare Ruling [among others] May Doom Trump's Sanctuary Cities Crackdown[Click]

    Democrats Could Retake the House In 2018[Click]


    Trump Fuels Democratic Fundraising
    [Click]

    Leavers, beware: Theresa May is offering the exact opposite of what you voted for [Click]

    —Alan

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    1. Yes, good indeed. Someone is quoted in the column as saying that the "religious right" took years to rise to its current degree of influence (wake up: it has been weakening for some time), but it got its start not just before Facebook, but before the Internet. Organization is faster nowadays. And I think it would be foolish to underestimate either the tried and true rhetorical heavy guns (pharisees, eye of a needle, ten commandments, etc. --take your pick) they have available to them, or the assertiveness their predecessors have shown they are capable of. John Brown would be exhibit No. 1--despite the general acceptance of pre-Civil War propaganda to the contrary, he was no madman; he was a revolutionary fully comparable to Fidel Castro. Not that I think we need someone of that caliber. At least I hope not.

      Alan







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    2. Oops--I accidentally put a bunch of empty lines at the end of my reply. Sorry about that.--Alan

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    3. I take the white space as a most appropriate contemplative pause, Alan.

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  4. Planet Nine may have been found![Click] Report toward the bottom of the article.

    —Alan

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    1. I misunderstood[Click] Not Planet Nine, but another Kuiper Belt Object that seems to be graviationally coupled to Planet Nine.—Alan

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    1. The thing is - that as you get down to his "core support" you find the real loonies. The ones who really *would* support him even if he shot someone on Fifth Avenue.

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    2. Well, it would be interesting to finally know exactly how many of them we're dealing with, I suppose.

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    3. About 25%, I'd estimate. Higher proportions in some places, so I suppose lower in others.

      Alan

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  6. Ugh, I forgot I have a meeting of the Miami Valley Progressive Caucus tonight. I really do not want to go, but they're having a neighborhood clean-up on Saturday that I wanted to work in and I need more info. Sigh. The thing is that I don't want to make calls - I HATE the phone, and I don't much want to talk to people either - getting them to register to vote, etc. So about the only two uses I can be put to are showing up for marches and working in clean-ups. Just being a body to count. Well, and postcards - I can do postcards and I think I'll KEEP doing postcards.

    I had my MRI today - that machine makes an astonishing array of noises! I had earplugs. Technician said he got good clear pictures, so that was good. I will have the results in 5 days or so.

    Now the meeting starts at 7, so I've got to get in gear.

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    1. Susan, I added something out front to bring you a smile at the end of a tough day. I salute you for doing so well in the MRI machine! Can you imagine Ally had to go into that sort of machine several times a year from the time she was a year old???!!! She didn't like it, but she was a real trooper about it. They would put a picture of a Teddy Bear for her to look up at. I'll be eager to hear how your results turn out. Prayers ensuing.

      How did the meeting go? I hope it was short thus a tad more sweet. You, too, are a real trooper. And I don't make calls either. I'd feel like such a hypocrite since I hate like poison to get calls of that sort.

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    2. I've had MRI's of the torso, and you're right, Susan--clicks and clunks and whirs and hums and voices etc. For the torso they put a thing kind of a like a blanket (which is really a radio frequency antenna in padding) over one's body; I could feel it heating my innards just a bit--the technician said some people notice it, and others don't. It works kind of like a microwave oven, but not tuned to the frequency of water. I suppose that for an MRI of the head the antenna should be more like a pillow.--Alan

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    3. listener, the cartoon is great and very accurate as well as funny!

      Alan, for a brain scan they put your head in a cradle and put this mask thing with plastic "windows" over your face. I don't know whether or not I'm claustrophobic, so I just kept my eyes shut and pretended I was out in the open.

      Oh, and the meeting was EXCELLENT! I'm so glad I went. I hate early mornings and the Saturday clean-up starts at 10 a.m., but I'll do my best to get there.

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  7. Tqlkingpointsmemo.com: Everything We Learned Today About The Senate Intel Committee’s Russia Probe[Click] Sounds a lot more serious than the House committee, as it should.—Alan

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    1. That's a bit of all right, listener; thanks for the link.

      --Alan

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  9. An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power is a new Al Gore film coming to theaters on July 28th.

    Here's the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huX1bmfdkyA

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    1. I agree, Bill. We might yet be saved by the Administration's incompetence, but I'm not placing any bets either way.

      Alan

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