Wednesday, October 06, 2021

Long Growing Season

 




35 comments:

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    1. Memory” from Cats

      Gee, I was half expecting “Soft Kitty” from Big Bang Theory.

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  2. After 350 years, astronomers still can’t explain the solar system’s strangest moon [Click] “Saturn's Iapetus, discovered way back in 1671, has three bizarre features that science still can't fully explain.”

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  3. 38.5 hours later...fever is down!

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  4. Air quality obviously better here this morning--reported visibility nine miles, AQI 112.

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  5. Facebook Takes Defiant Stance [Click] No more Mister Nice Guy? I am reminded of the cave bear skull discovered with a stone spear point lodged in it.

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  6. LA Times: California is shaking off the worst of the Delta variant surge [Click] Hospitalization rates have decreased significantly, including in Fresno County. All very good, but we won’t be dropping our guard any time soon.

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    Replies
    1. Cases and hospitalizations are trending down in Illinois as well, but Gov. Pritzker has stated that the mask mandate will not be lifted any time soon.

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    2. So good to hear of governors keeping a mask mandate! Ours is apparently already running for office again, as he has dropped interest in the subject. Instead he says it's all about vaccination. Which it is. But with 88.3% of eligible Vermonters vaccinated, it would really put us over the edge and bring down case numbers if he reinstated the mask mandate. Apparently, in Vermont, he can't do that without declaring a state of emergency and he's loathe to do that again.

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  7. What if Canada had spent $200bn on wind energy instead of [tar sands] oil? [Click] Slanted by assumption that Canadians would all be able and willing to drive Chevy Bolts year round, but still a very striking comparison.

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  8. ‘Economically illiterate’: PM’s Tory conference speech gets frosty reception [Click] And let’s not forget “bombastic but vacuous” and “nothing but hot air” among other observations.

    UK [sugar] beet growers fear Brexit threatens their future [Click]

    Hundreds of healthy pigs slaughtered amid UK shortage of abattoir workers [Click] Farmers warn that up to 120,000 animals face being slaughtered as they lack space to house them. And it isn’t legal to burn or bury the carcasses.

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  9. Scholz moves step closer to succeeding Merkel as German chancellor [Click] Greens and [Free Democrats] say they are willing to enter formal coalition talks with Scholz’s Social Democratic party.

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  10. What Happened When Facebook Became Boomerbook [Click] “Leaked documents reveal that a company that was once rebellious and optimistic is now bloated, regretful, and uncool.”

    “A part of me feels like I’m interviewing the head of a tobacco company right now,” the CNN host Brian Stelter recently told Nick Clegg, Facebook’s vice president for global affairs and communications. Clegg called the comparison “profoundly false,” but it should concern him nonetheless, because it could stick. A wildly popular pastime, with emerging negative side effects, promoted by companies that want to get young people hooked as soon as possible? Certainly sounds like smoking.

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  11. Cold case team says Zodiac Killer ID'd, linking him to another murder [Click] Not the clearest writing, but it’s from Fox News.

    Former Supreme Court Justice Gableman, head of Republican review of Wisconsin election, says he does not understand how elections work [Click]

    Pennsylvania Candidate Sean Parnell (R) Seeks Gag Order Against His Wife [Click] Seems he thinks some people might not care to vote for a wife-beater.

    UK secretary slammed for not knowing what the word misogyny means [Click] Evidently a command of the English language is not required to graduate from either Oxford [BA] or Cambridge [MA Law].

    Kentucky Bourbon distillers face big tax bills and higher tariffs after a record year for production. [Click] Hey, DT said trade wars are easy to win, right?

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    1. UK Secretary...apparently civic affairs/cultural concerns/morality not required either.

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  12. Replies
    1. This Is McConnell’s First Blink
      By Josh Marshall October 6, 2021 1:54 p.m.

      McConnell just told a closed meeting of Senate Republicans that he would offer a short-term debt ceiling extension today. Or offer Schumer an expedited reconciliation process.

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  13. We can see the first range of foothills and part of the second; the clouds look like some rain might be in the offing, and the AQI has fallen to 65. Much better.

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  14. https://polinews.org/axios-report-claims-donald-trump-is-attention-starved-as-interest-in-him-is-in-a-free-fall/?fbclid=IwAR28qcR26w_3UsoF5WH37x09tpgn6m4o5peiWmuYOTJ184d98-rBHshM23g

    "According to a report from Axios, there is an explanation for why “attention-starved” Trump is desperate to get his accounts back.

    “Trump has tried press releases styled as tweets, launched his own “platform” and held campaign-style rallies, yet the numbers suggest his social media megaphone has no true replacement,” the outlet reports.

    The public isn’t interested in content about Trump anymore."

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    1. Well. I'm *actually* QUITE interested in reading his Obituary some day in the not-too-distant future.

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    2. I should be most interested to read about his presidential campaign from the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary.

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    3. Or from the Georgia State Prison; I'm not particular.

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    4. Best smile of my day! Thanks, you two...!

      Temp went up to 99.2ºF today and I needed a big nap. Fuzzy headed...like having severe eye strain. Hoping to be back to myself tomorrow.

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    5. Yep; time's up tomorrow morning! One thing that seems very strange to me is that the "flu-like symptoms" occur when the viral particles each have one antibody on them; those are called "immune complexes." When one outnumbers the other, no flu-like symptoms. Or so I understand.

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    6. Quite interesting!

      It took longer this time, and with a massive headache all day. I wonder why.

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  15. L.A. to require proof of COVID vaccination at indoor restaurants, salons, other venues [Click]

    Women Who Stole Pelosi’s Beer Charged In Riot [Click]

    Many Landlords Hold Off on Evictions, Wait for Federal Funds [Click]

    Minnesota GOP's lone secretary of state candidate leaves party [Click] Sounds like a dysfunctional candidate in a dysfunctional party. “Republicans have not won a statewide race in Minnesota for more than a decade.”

    Ex-Chief of Staff to Larry Hogan Indicted
    October 6, 2021 at 4:35 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard
    Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan’s (R) former top aide, Roy McGrath, “faces dozens of federal and state criminal charges that he misled officials into paying him a six-figure severance, embezzled funds for personal purposes, and illegally recorded phone calls with the governor and other members of Hogan’s staff,” the Baltimore Sun reports.

    Democrats Take McConnell’s Deal on Debt Limit [Click] “After a long caucus meeting, multiple Democrats tell Politico they will accept the short-term increase laid out by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell but that they will not use the budget reconciliation process for a longer-term solution for the debt ceiling.”

    Sounds to me like they will take his short-term deal and then carve out a filibuster exemption.

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  16. Abject Fold
    Josh Marshall

    This is open and shut. McConnell caved when Democrats refused to budge. Now they can focus on their reconciliation bill. It comes up again in December. But McConnell has already shown he doesn't have the stomach for it. With recon out of the way he'll have less leverage not more.

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