I drove around with a friend who owns a sheet rock company one day as he made his rounds and he told me his crews party in unfinished houses all the time. I’d have a neighbor check periodically.
We are taking a simple vacation later this summer, and I decided this year to find a house sitter. I'm not that concerned, someone would have to actually be able to find my house to stay in it, but I figured better safe than sorry!
I house and dog sit for my sister and her dogs, as well as the addition of my niece's dogs every year. They get so much more out of the vacation knowing their home and beloved pets are well cared for and safe.
Back in the day, your neighbors would keep an eye out if you let them know you would be away. Now they are just as likely to be the ones stealing from you or throwing parties in your empty house. 😝
Two out of the three other owners on our street are very decent people, and we do tend to let our next-door neighbors know when we plan to be gone more than a couple of days, because they will keep their eyes open for us.
Not so sure about the folks on the other side of the alley. I suspect that many of the houses on that block are rentals.
10 years ago my son would do it for our neighbours....not sure about now. We've been in this house for over 20 years, and many of the original neighbors have sold and a few of the houses are now rentals.
I had a neighbor go one step beyond. She asked someone to clear cut a small area on my land so she could set up house after loosing hers in a divorce and nasty domestic dispute. I felt like Gandalf - YOU SHALL NOT tresPASS!
Wow! What was her version of 'setting up house'? Did she plan to move an RV or camper onto the land? Or was she actually going to build something there without your permission?
Wanted to set a prefab. The answer would be no even if she wasn't already proven an insane liar. Think of the sanitation issues! We had two discussions about the legal owner of the property. The second time was about bringing proof. Her response was, well I was desperate and thought I'd give it a try.
So her desperation was supposed to override everything else, including the issue of sanitation? Or did she think you would pay (thousands!) to install utilities for her out of the goodness of your heart?
One of the VERY FEW things we miss about California is having former students house and pet sit. They vied for the ‘honor,’ for which we paid quite well, and were always trustworthy.
Our house is well armed and a mile up a mountain at the end of a dirt road, but since our feral kitty has become house dependent, no more trips for us.
Our cats do okay by themselves for up to a week. Any longer than that and I have someone look in on them to make sure they haven't gone through their food and water too quickly.
It's actually our chickens who are more likely to keep me close to home. I have a feeding and watering system that lasts them up to a week, and since I installed an automatic coop door earlier this month, I don't need someone who can let them out in the morning and shut them in at night. But eggs still need to be collected, and systems need to be checked for unexpected failure.
“China’s Ministry of Commerce has demanded business leaders share lists of all the mineral experts they employ in an effort to prevent rare-earth materials knowledge from landing in foreign hands. China is the leading global producer and processor of rare-earth minerals, and currently manufactures about 90 percent of the world’s rare-earth magnets.”
This! This right here is one of the REAL issues we need to solve.
Didn't I read on C & C that Trump negotiated a peace with Rwanda and DRC (Congo) that included a trade deal with rare earth minerals? That would put us in play to acquire these without China.
The niece I wrote about here pored in the Congo for the IRC. Rare minerals essential for cell phone manufacturers exist in abundance in few places on Earth and the DRC is one. She said sketchy militia groups are in constant conflict as it’s the 21st Century version of gold or diamonds
POTUS is working on it. He is negotiating with China to secure the continued viability of this supply source. He obtained an agreement with Ukraine for rare earths and is working in the USA to eliminate the regulatory burden currently in place to allow for US production. It will take time. But the process is underway.
No remorse and/or awareness that it's not OK to fill someone else's house with hundreds of people they don't know. Hmmmmm.
I went to a park in upstate NY (near Hudson) where there's a waterfall. I didn't have the right shoes (nor funds to purchase them). I had warned my host about this. When we arrived, the rangers said I needed to steer clear of the waterfall, adding that they pull out X number of (you) a year. There were numerous obese young people frolicking there. I didn't go near -- again -- wrong shoes.
But it seems that increasingly, people have lost the reverence for how dangerous is the natural world. It's not a video game. But they don't get it.
And btw, a story I can't get enough of is the story about the plane crash in the Andes, and how (my hero) Nando Parado got out of there.
Speaking of obese young people -- they voted for Mamdani as the D candidate in the mayoral NYC primary.
They are entitled to the free stuff that he promises.
A nurse friend was with another nurse friend on a trip over the mountain pass here last summer and they watched a couple in their 50's get out of their RV in shorts and flip flops and try to hike down the slippery, snowy slope. The woman fell and hit her head and my friends , one of whom used to be an EMT as well as now being a nurse and she is also an expert skier, told the husband to stay where he was and they would help his wife got back up to the road. The husband ignored them and went after his wife and then he fell. So of course they now had to rescue both of them! My friend is in her 60's btw. She was wondering how the couple had actually survived to live into their 50's as quite frankly they seemed too dumb to live.
On snow no less. I assume they were coming from sunny hot eastern WA. Maybe they thought the mountain terrain and the snow was just for looks like a photo shoot or something. Who knows.
Well, there are sandals and then there are sandals. The sandals I wear are actually *designed* for hiking, with very sturdy soles. But I'd never hike in mine, because I routinely cut off the strap that goes around the back of the ankle, so I can wear them as slip-ons.
I wear almost exclusively slip ons these days as I cannot bend over so easy to tie laces or fasten straps. I also walk with two hiking poles and am super cautious about where I put my feet. Sadly no big trail hikes for me anymore.
As someone whose job required walking many miles and wearing comfortable durable shoes, I can’t imagine anyone entertaining the thought of hiking in flip flops.
Another side effect from social media seems to be losing a sense of how to manage personal risk. Slip on your COVID mask and go hiking in flip flops. No sense of what is truly a danger and what is virtue signaling performance art.
Bingo! That and RMW’s point about young people viewing the world as just a video game background. The more I interact with Gen Z I wonder if all those screens have mediated reality to the point that they don’t get the real world is a very dangerous place and not Grand Theft Auto 4
I saw that years ago. In fact, victims at Columbine said they weren’t that worried because they thought the gunfire was fireworks or, “like in video games.”
Many kids in my last school were so inured to violence and bloodshed in computer games and movies, they couldn’t understand why adults were so upset about 9/11.
It's enough to make one stay indoors. It's hard for me to feel much compassion for an idiot who would jump into THAT waterfall. Perhaps he had a death wish? Two buddies jump in to save him? I imagine they meant well, but this not particularly heroic to me. What about their families? Maybe they don't have any close friends or family? They certainly weren't thinking about the people who had to deal with the consequences of their reckless, risky behavior.
I can see that, and I can see the other side. I very much appreciate and respect your perspective.
I suppose in one way this is what puts the "toxic" in masculinity for many people, but for me...I really honor the guys that run into burning buildings, run towards gunfire to help, and jump into lakes to save a drowning buddy.
Through one perspective those are stupid acts, and through another perspective those are the brave acts that we write songs about.
I found more sadness in reading this story than anything. I'm not sure if I would be the one who jumped in to help or not; I'm not sure any of us do until we are faced with a life or death situation.
I agree with your perspective, as well, and I thank you for it. Jumping into that waterfall just seemed so stupid! I do feel sadness over the loss of human life. Hopefully, it will serve as a warning sign for others not to engage in death defying acts with Mother Nature.
I think you're onto something when you mention video games. Back in the arcade days, if you 'died,' the game was over...unless you had another quarter (and very few of us could keep feeding in quarters). But home video systems provide an endless number of 'lives' for players. Apparently you even get to 'respawn' near where you 'died,' so the consequences of a 'fatal' mistake are even further minimized.
It seems very probable that constant exposure to this kind of consequences-free experience would shape young minds in exactly the ways that we see: a failure to understand that you don't get infinite chances when you screw up (something our schools have only reinforced) and that some errors can be permanently fatal.
That is spot on Celia. I was part of that first arcade generation. I’d take the roll of laundry quarters my Mom sent me to a place on the Drag named Mother’s where we’d smoke weed, drink beer, and try to make our quarters last as long as we could. Then I’d drive home with piles of dirty clothes and have our housekeeper wash them without telling Mom. I was a bad boy 👦. Top 5 Old School video games: Berserk, Tempest, Ms. Pac-Man, Galaga and Frogger.
I was constantly the best Frogger player at the arcade at the mall in Houston near where I grew up, and was respectable at Ms. PacMan and Galaga. I sucked at Berserk and Tempest.
When I was playing well I could make four quarters last a very long time!
Memorial City? Maybe we should do a topic day about our favorite old school videos games? Up to the boss, of course but like her, I favored Ms PAC Man as I could milk that quarter longest.
Yep, Memorial City. It plays a big role in my childhood, all the way from playing my first video game, to seeing Bambi as a child, to Raiders, to my first job at the Chick-fil-a there.
Good memories.
I still have reasonably good Ms. PacMan chops. About a year ago our team from work had a work outing at one of those bowling alley/restaurant/video game/laser tag places. I took a quarter over to Ms. PacMan and after a while several of the millennials were standing there amazed at how long the old guy could play. Then they tried to play, and I got to give them a very hard time for not being able to stay alive for long!
I have a ton of college friends who went to Westchester and my niece and nephew went to Stratford. My sister and brother in law had a house at Dairy Ashford and Memorial for 30 years.
Galaga (physical machine) was awesome. The video game (maybe Nintendo?) not so much, not nearly as much fun when you don't have a quarter riding on the outcome.
You are so right, and I never thought of that particular thing! Playing Asteroids or Ms. PacMan for 30 minutes, only to die right before you get high score, meant you had to feed in another quarter and start from the lowest level again. Just to enter your initials on the high score screen.
If you think about it, that probably increased resilience and gave the kids that did that more of a "can do" attitude. I'd pay a quarter of that for all the younger people I know that give up after the first little setback, or seek counseling for bumping their head on a difficult problem!
There is a wide gulf between reckless behavior and calculated risks. The latter take a full, realistic measure of one's abilities versus the risks. For example, I would never at my advanced age, try to surf the waves I did when I was 30. But even at 30, I knew my limits and would never venture out in conditions that called for much greater levels of skill and stamina. There are reasons why only a handful of people can surf Nazare or free dive or do any of the truly amazing things we see people do. To think otherwise is to court catastrophe.
Yet the military is heavily recruiting video gamers. My heavy gamer nephew was recruited by and just enlisted in Navy. He is being paid a $75k bonus because they desperately need nuclear engineers and he qualified for the program. I'm thinking of encouraging my oldest son (14) to pursue a similar path. He's ridiculously smart, loves video games and is very talented but would really benefit from the discipline and structure. I think he'd be passionate about serving the country.
Video games are double edged sword. Our kids can run circles around our ability to grasp technical concepts. Their reaction times are
amazing. However, they are
more impulsive and lack
patience. I could see some
accidentally killing
themselves before thinking about the consequences. I think social media is far more dangerous for young people than video games. You can teach kids real vs. make believe in games but social media blurs that.
As a gamer myself, many games are absolutely incredible. The graphics, story, depth, score, and emotion can be as high quality as the best movies or books. They make you think through puzzles, strategy, planning, etc.
Ugh, sorry for typos. My phone is being difficult and won't let me edit.
Hi Underdog I don’t enter any body of natural water without wearing surf moccasins, a lesson leaned early from growing up on the Texas Gulf Coast. Stores like Big Lots or Academy sell them for around $5 and it’s seasonal but worth the investment.
Hi Brian So did I. Damn that was some salty water. I stayed at a nearby resort with the most beautiful Ethiopian housekeepers: tall, thin, friendly. And I remember the piano had a bar so I sat and played an instrumental set. When I went to check out, someone had comped my bar tab. Will work for food. Lol 😂
I'm jealous! My best friend and her husband vacationed in a resort on the Dead Sea in April. The pictures she sent made me green with envy. The resort was in Jordan. You could see Palestine in the distance. Too close for comfort for me. I wouldn't be able to sleep at night.
Every year the stretch of the Mississippi River near me claims lives, often of people who have been going out on it for years. It only takes a moment's inattention or one bad decision to give Nature the opportunity to remove you from the gene pool.
I do, but it's easy to forget unless I have to cross over into the People's Republic of Illinois for some reason. Unless you live in the big fancy houses along the bluff, you never SEE the river from day to day.
You got me curious about where they are! Le Claire, IA, which is far upstream from us. Other side of the Quad Cities. Not so far that you couldn't make a day trip of it, but there's no way I would go anywhere near the Quad Cities if I could help it.
I try to stay as far as possible from Chicago these days. If we have to travel to points east, we take back roads across central Illinois.
I grew up near the Kern River. So peaceful to walk along. So much fun to collect tadpoles and splash along the edge. But, I always knew the Kern was a cruel seducer: not just because Mama said so - the local newspaper and evening news programs carried a steady stream of accounts of victims (and their erstwhile rescuers).
The Merle Haggard ballad, “Kern River” always takes me right back.
I did guided class III and IV rapids on the Kern. Wouldn't dream of doing it without proper equipment and a guide. The guide gave some great visuals about just how fast 1500 gallons per minute is. No matter how many people died (it's posted and updated at the foot of the mountain, as I'm sure you know) there are always people in the water - with their kids.
My best friend was always begging me to go tubing with her at Hart Part, which is bisected by the Kern. I always found an excuse. She finally stopped asking when she lost her dog (and, almost, her brother) to the undercurrents.
I live by the Rio Grande River....there were numerous deaths from "undocumented migrants" in the past...and the water in places is shallow enough it won't reach your knees when walking across.
Years ago my friend, her husband, two young sons, and the nanny went to the Florida Keys. They had just purchased two jet skis. My friend took a break with the boys on the beach. She told the nanny to take a turn on her jet ski. Her husband and the nanny collided and the handle bar was impaled in Michael's chest. He didn't survive. Mary and her two young sons, both under ten years of age, witnessed this tragedy from the shoreline. This happened over thirty years ago. Your comment struck me as to the danger of jet skis. They are like motorcycles on water, and can be very dangerous even when driven with caution.
I know one highschool kid who was killed and an adult who is paralyzed from the waist down from jet ski accidents. They're more dangerous than people know.
My martial arts teacher were watching fascinated some video of an idiot who got out of his car at a game park to get a better shot of a lion. I could not bear to watch it. Talk about Darwin Award winners.....
Another Hollywood remake is in the works albeit without the late great Robin Williams : Moscow on the Hudson. But this time it's neither funny nor romantic. Perhaps a new title: Gaza on the Hudson or Beijing on the East River? Note that all the focus is on white college grads wanting subsidized rent and little if any mention of defunding cops ( and likely prosecuting cops since big al bragg ( Soros stooge) getting a landslide victory that hasn't received much attention). How beautiful would it be for those NY cops with vested pensions to say adios Manhattan, start receiving their pensions in Florida, GA , gge Carolinas or Tennessee and then join the force in their new locales.
That scene where he has a faux heart attack seeing the amazing abundance of a standard supermarket is one I still reference. RIP Robin Williams. That’s a movie I’m hard pressed to see as a reboot, such as when Steve Martin remade The Pink Panther. Love Steve Martin but no way he could fill Peter Sellers’ massive shoes as the classic Inspector Clouseau
I am now humming the theme song. Another of my sellers faves is" being there" ( I thought about that one a lot the last four years when someone was barely there)
He wasn't exaggerating in that scene. Had a colleague from the Ukraine here for a visit, took him to HEB to pick something up....he was hypnotized by the sheer size and selection.
Remakes of classic films is a dumb idea IMO. No knock on Martin, but no way anyone could come close to Sellers performance. Why even try? That mistake was about as egregious as thinking a remake of “The In Laws” was a good idea.
We’re probably not far from a remake of “The Godfather” starring Queen Latifah in the role of Vita Corleone.
Read this morning Discourse what is the best and fastest way to communicate truth on social media. It had a great example how to debunk Elon’s numbers on how many dead people are getting social security checks: include visuals. Too bad I didn’t know how to show it here 😡
Thanks for sharing the link, Barry. I agree with the author that Elon Musk is pretty careless with the facts, but I also believe most of our political and business elites are just as careless. That to me is seen as a feature, not a bug. They exploit non-critical thinkers, being about 99% of the human population and it helps them maintain their status among the specific constituency they are exploiting. It goes deeper, of course. When he talks about memes or videos going viral and how difficult it is to make something viral, he misjudges viral memes completely (at least political ones — cat memes are a different variety of viral). If he actually posted the AI generated meme he offered as an example it would probably go viral because its math example is wrong and people love it when someone tries to take down a person or policy and inadvertently fails in the same way they are accusing their target of failing.
The author comes across as being a bit naive. Musk, Trump, AOC, Bernie, Hitler, Mao, Kennedy, Gates, Reagan, Clinton, and countless influencers say things because they want to plant ideas, they don’t care if the vehicle for the idea is a little white lie or a barn burner of calumny. It’s the seed of an idea that shapes option. The efforts to counter mis- and disinformation would appear to be futile in the face of human nature.
(At one of my last roles I was in charge of analytics for our digital streaming products. I depended on the business analytics group for data collection and statistical applications. Data analytics is powerful but it requires careful reasoning to identify actual, valuable trends. One day the business analytics folks released an analysis to another department before my review. They said a 300% improvement in engagement had occurred after a new user interface was introduced across platforms. The news took off like a California brush fire. I quickly tried to stop it (300% was not in the realm of possibility and I could see where the error occurred), but it was good news for upper management, verifying their belief in their own good judgment. You can’t stop good news even if it’s clearly wrong. At least that’s been my takeaway!)
Thank you. I relate to your points as many of us prefer confirmation bias or being in an echo chamber to sometimes painful truth. Another form of cognitive dissonance.
Yes. It appears to me that we collectively now believe analytics, statistics, polls etc are supposed to tell us how we are supposed to collectively to think. It's helluva lot easier and, in a survival sense, perhaps even smarter, to go with the crowd (or the supposed crowd) then to research and think for oneself.
Like my late Auntie S., I am eschewing all news. A Greek living in Istanbul, she escaped during the great "exchange of populations," came here and, having had enough excitement, and married well, devoted her time and wealth to charitable causes and enjoyed her cocktails at five o'clock.
Yesterday I watched the whole of the wrenching film "Gettysburg" and return to you today with an apology for my foul language.
I did hear about the drowned men. And the young influencer who fell into a volcano. There but for the grace of common sense go I.
My elders would have sagely nodded their heads and remarked that the spirit of the waterfall was 'hungry'. We have a waterfall here that periodically someone slips and falls from horsing around and even a few suicides over the years. There are big fences and warning signs around said waterfall these days but of course there are still those who ignore those. However no one to my knowledge has jumped into the waterfall just for fun! I wonder if social media clips have made things like jumping into a waterfall look more attractive and 'doable'. All this virtual reality is doing something to our brains imo.
I wasn't able to find anything that explained why these men thought it was a good idea to jump into a waterfall. Or even whether they literally jumped into the falls or just into the pool at the bottom (which would likely be just as fatal, considering the forces involved). Based on what little their fellow hikers were saying, I got the impression that the guy who had been there before may have been in the pool before, since apparently he was saying something about the surprising strength of the current before he went under.
But when it turned out that it was only one guy who initially jumped, and that the other two died trying to rescue him, I had to wonder what might have been driving the first guy. Bravado? Suicidal ideation?
(See comment) Quick version: It's VERY hard to watch your bud go under without trying to help. Even when you know better. Is it a guy thing to wonder how one watches a friend die and...?
There was an incident in Yellowstone where someone's dog fell into a horribly hot thermal pool. A bystander jumped in to try to save the dog, apparently without pausing to think first. Both he and the dog were doomed from the moment they hit the water. Even though the guy got out (the dog didn't), he died at the hospital.
It seems that many times folks just react instinctively to crisis. I remember in lifeguard training they made a point to train us out of the urge to jump in the water immediately to save someone, rather to stop, take a breath, assess the situation and then take hopefully the action most likely to be effective.
I went to take the garbage out about six months ago on a holiday Friday when I saw a line of unusual lights on my neighbor’s property; It’s about a hundred yard walk to the road so as I rolled the bin. I noticed the line was trucks leaving his land, bracketed by the blinking red lights of law enforcement vehicles. I immediately texted him to ask what was happening. He replied that he and his wife had been out on separate errands and when they returned, a group of men he didn’t know had gathered in his yard, looking like they were preparing to BBQ. He called the sheriff, who arrived to lead them off the land. I speculate it was illegal aliens who saw his open gate and deduced to take advantage. So the landscaper story hits a bit close to home. I done have much n the waterfall story except a Darwin Award nomination. From what I’ve read, Boeing has deteriorated into a DEI cesspool, where everyone from engineers to factory floor workers neglects basic safety protocols. Fortunately my global travel days are mostly behind me but I’d be wary of their Dreamliner series, as it appears plagues by a variety of mechanical failures. Btw I like the format of a couple obscure stories.
My best friend usually prefers to fly, but the number of incidents with airplanes in the past year has made her nervous, so she drove up from Texas instead. She has a hybrid truck (a Ford Maverick) that gets over 40 mpg, so it was actually cheaper to drive. She made a few cosmetic changes so her truck wouldn't scream 'woman driving alone,' and she seems to have had no problems.
LOL! Her truck is a pretty dark blue-green color, not pink. But she replaced her flowered plate frames with plain ones. Ditto her steering wheel cover.
I say that because I was taking my daughter to her appointment Tuesday and there was an SUV that was the same hot pink color of my toenail polish. I remarked that I wouldn't drive a car that color and my daughter replied that it was a Lamborghini!
Smart. Also keeping a man's cap/hat on the dash or in back window is a good idea. My granny used to do that. I have a friend who puts two American Rifle Association caps on the dash.
Darwin Award nomination. That should be a “thing” Time polls and reports on in a yearly magazine. With the cover showing the winner. The 2025 Darwin Awards, cataloguing various people fucking themselves up because of their stupidity. That would sell like hotcakes. P.S. I hope I used the quotes correctly 🤯.
They have these videos on you tube like "Fail Army" "Best Fails of the Year" and suchlike, where you can watch clips of people doing incredibly stupid and foolhardy things. They don't allow videos of people who get killed doing dumb things, but I am sure those exist. I was morbidly fascinated my a story I saw about young people getting themselves killed by trying to take selfies while hanging at the edge of cliffs or leaning out of the windows of cruise ships or skyscrapers. Common sense is no longer common!
When my son was in middle school and during his early years of high school, he routinely "pet sat" for another family in the neighborhood (3 cats, one dog). My son took the responsibility very seriously, and to the best of my knowledge left the house cleaner than he found it.
Then - one year - when my son wasn't available due to conflicting vacations, our neighbors hired another local kid to handle the pet sitting. While in the middle of their "once in a lifetime" extended family vacation to Ireland, they received a call from the local police advising them that there had been a massive party at their house (hosted by the pet sitter) and that the place had been completely trashed. The husband had to fly home in the middle of vacation to take care of the mess. From that point forward they took their pets to a boarding kennel when they were out of town.
The lack of personal responsibility in much of society is really disappointing.
That is really depressing! How can people be so disrespectful of others' property? When I was a kid, if my ball went over the fence into the neighbors' yard, I wouldn't have dreamed of going into their backyard for it without knocking on the door for permission to do so. I was more likely to wait until they were in the yard and ask if they could please throw it back.
Once when we were visiting my aunt when I was a kid, my local friends and I went over to the Catholic elementary school and started playing on their playground, which had several cool play features I'd never got to play on before. A teacher came out unexpectedly (seems like it was after school hours, so we hadn't thought there would be any problems) and told us that it was private property and we weren't allowed to play there.
I was horrified! I'd been *trespassing* without realizing it. What if my parents found out I'd done such a thing?? I felt guilty over that for years.
That teacher could have cut y’all some slack but in Texas we learn young that you never enter anyone’s land without permission as the owner is likely armed and can use lethal force. As an adult I’ve never seen a grand jury bring back a true bill on a property defense case. Guarantee no bill if the prosecutor is even stupid enough to present the case. A guy from England was visiting a friend once and said over there he can just ramble the moors. I told him he’d be sent back in a pine box if he tried that here.
It's quite sad really the state we are in here in America regarding disrespect of other's property. I felt such incredible freedom in Scandanavia being able to walk as needed wherever. I simply could not believe it was possible. The difference there being that EVERYONE was respectful when on other's property. They passed through quietly with the 'leave no footprint' mentality and everybody had known everybody for generations so there was social accountability if someone abused the privilege. Also It seemed like well over 95% of the land was family owned for generations. No huge swaths of land owned by folks elsewhere or mega acres of corporate controlled land like here in America.
I got kicked out of the Cub Scouts because I was an atheist at ten and wouldn’t say the Pledge of Allegiance. I’ve traveled a long circuitous path to God. Like one of the ancient Church fathers, it took a lifetime of decadence to appreciate Great Spirit
Yes, but there's a tradition of paths and open lands in England. In Cornwall there's a neat coastal path that takes you along the cliffs, and sometimes up and down them, and past grazing cows. It's along private property, but walkers in England seem pretty respectful.
We did the one from Boscastle, just recovering from a miserable flood, to Tintagel -- lots of seabirds, and a bouncing but well-behaved springer spaniel and his companion.
Surprisingly, here in MA we have a "presumption of openness" law, which means unless a landowner has posted their property against trespassing you can walk on it, and hunt, without permission. We also have statutes that preclude such users from suing the landowner if they get injured, unless there is evidence the landowner did something specific intended to harm people (e.g., string a wire across a pathway). However, some towns have bylaws requiring written permission for things like hunting, which supersede the presumption of openness (many towns also have bylaws prohibiting the discharge of firearms, though those rules don't apply on state-owned land in the town). Or course, most responsible people will ask permission, regardless.
I’m surprised! Is it fair to assume those laws have existed since very, very early on in MA history, and no one has bothered to challenge them? Seems like the sort of thing that would be based on English Common Law.
Yes, they are definitely old statutes. As a hunter, in our current political environment I always advocate that we don't bring too much attention to that law as it would be easy to see our legislature reversing it (they'd say "modernizing" it) and require written permission whether posted or not.
I must have been taught from a very early age not to trespass, because I can't remember a time when I didn't know that I couldn't just go into the neighbor's yard. It probably helped reinforce that lesson that we had a fence around our whole property, with only the driveway open to the street. Also had gates between the front part of the driveway and the back part, and another gate between the back part of the driveway and the backyard proper. So I learned to respect boundaries from an early age.
Ever seen 'em shut the door on a commercial airliner? They finagle the door through the doorway such that it closes from the INSIDE. Every boiler and pressure vessel ever made that has a manway or similar opening has a closure that fits through the opening so that it closes from the INSIDE. (I'll grant an exception to such as autoclaves and canning retorts but those have elaborate closure mechanisms that are in a whole different league.) Boeing uses bolt-on-the-outside door plugs. If they'd had to comply with the ASME Code, they never would have flown.
RE: The waterfall. Far too many unanswered questions but in a less natural setting: Historically, people entering confined spaces (tanks, pits, and such) have occasionally succumbed to lack of oxygen and/or the presence of toxics. VERY common multiple fatalities; the guy who found out the hard way about the atmosphere and one or more would-be rescuers. ("Historically" in that, as with so many industrial hazards, protocols have developed and incidents are far fewer. But of course not everyone follows the rules all the time...)
Yes. And the nasty thing about H2S is that while it is very stinky (rotten egg smell), with long exposure it inactivates your olfactory neurons and you no longer smell it. So you think you’re out of it and then you’re dead.
aka 2-step gas in at least some refineries -- that's how far ya get. As PhDBioMom observed, the first step kills the schnoz; the second is a kind of bonus. But it doesn't take that or hydrogen cyanide or any other fun stuff; in a confined space, iron oxidation ("rust"), absent ventilation, can deplete the oxygen enough to be lethal. And that doesn't stink (unless sewage or other stuff is involved).
CNN AND MSDNC ( kudos to trump on that one) prove once once they truly are sex workers. Like sex workers they are paid for services rendered. You can complete the thought as to what they are paid for and what their objective the past few days has been ( trying to keep it clean here)
Did you see the Hegseth press conference this morning? I have a liberal friend who says the way Trump calls out the Fake News is the best thing Trump has done
Regarding the Air Alaska finding, my brother spent his career in aircraft maintenance, much of it in quality assurance. My father went from rockets to planes as a contractor for the DoD. My brother has been a contractor for Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Bell Helicopter, among others. He is afraid to fly and has to be sedated for overseas flights. He says that planes as designed are supposed to fly and fly well. But the modifications made to existing planes, like "plugging doors", weaken them.
My father was an engineer at one of the three big aerospace companies on Long Island until he retired in the late 1980s. He never much worried about his only kid flying.
Then he began to see an increase in sheer carelessness on the part of the guys in his department.
I think that started with embracing CEOs because of their MBA credentials rather than knowledge of the item being manufactured. Then throw in DIE and it was a recipe for disaster. Management was ill-informed and labor was increasingly inept. When the old school whistleblowers who tried to shed light on the problems started dropping dead I knew it was over.
Thanks for the heads up - we’re leaving for a month while our kitchen is being demolished and rebuilt -leaving this story for my contractor… 🤣
To give him permission?
I drove around with a friend who owns a sheet rock company one day as he made his rounds and he told me his crews party in unfinished houses all the time. I’d have a neighbor check periodically.
We are taking a simple vacation later this summer, and I decided this year to find a house sitter. I'm not that concerned, someone would have to actually be able to find my house to stay in it, but I figured better safe than sorry!
I house and dog sit for my sister and her dogs, as well as the addition of my niece's dogs every year. They get so much more out of the vacation knowing their home and beloved pets are well cared for and safe.
Thanks to you! They are able to have peace of mind and a more enjoyable vacation. Pat yourself on the back JBell!
Worth the $$. I pay $100/day for relative to stay with my cat!!!
Wow! I am gonna have to tell my sister about this being a paid gig , LOL !
I hope your cat is taking good care of her😁
Back in the day, your neighbors would keep an eye out if you let them know you would be away. Now they are just as likely to be the ones stealing from you or throwing parties in your empty house. 😝
You have INTERESTING neighbors -- I'm on good terms with mine.
Two out of the three other owners on our street are very decent people, and we do tend to let our next-door neighbors know when we plan to be gone more than a couple of days, because they will keep their eyes open for us.
Not so sure about the folks on the other side of the alley. I suspect that many of the houses on that block are rentals.
I made money as a teenager feeding neighbors’ cats, watering their yard, and checking the house. Wonder if kids still do that 🤔
10 years ago my son would do it for our neighbours....not sure about now. We've been in this house for over 20 years, and many of the original neighbors have sold and a few of the houses are now rentals.
I haven't found any.
At risk of sounding Comrade Walz friendly ... we MN kids house/pet sat for free. Back in the day when "MN Nice" didn't mean psycho-liberal.
I had a neighbor go one step beyond. She asked someone to clear cut a small area on my land so she could set up house after loosing hers in a divorce and nasty domestic dispute. I felt like Gandalf - YOU SHALL NOT tresPASS!
Wow! What was her version of 'setting up house'? Did she plan to move an RV or camper onto the land? Or was she actually going to build something there without your permission?
Wanted to set a prefab. The answer would be no even if she wasn't already proven an insane liar. Think of the sanitation issues! We had two discussions about the legal owner of the property. The second time was about bringing proof. Her response was, well I was desperate and thought I'd give it a try.
So her desperation was supposed to override everything else, including the issue of sanitation? Or did she think you would pay (thousands!) to install utilities for her out of the goodness of your heart?
One of the VERY FEW things we miss about California is having former students house and pet sit. They vied for the ‘honor,’ for which we paid quite well, and were always trustworthy.
Our house is well armed and a mile up a mountain at the end of a dirt road, but since our feral kitty has become house dependent, no more trips for us.
Me too. Hard to admit I'm housebound because my cat doesn't like to travel.
Our cats do okay by themselves for up to a week. Any longer than that and I have someone look in on them to make sure they haven't gone through their food and water too quickly.
It's actually our chickens who are more likely to keep me close to home. I have a feeding and watering system that lasts them up to a week, and since I installed an automatic coop door earlier this month, I don't need someone who can let them out in the morning and shut them in at night. But eggs still need to be collected, and systems need to be checked for unexpected failure.
Thanks for letting me know we’re not alone! In many ways, Meowsolini is a blessing. As the old saying goes, God works in mysterious ways.
From TFP line-up:
“China’s Ministry of Commerce has demanded business leaders share lists of all the mineral experts they employ in an effort to prevent rare-earth materials knowledge from landing in foreign hands. China is the leading global producer and processor of rare-earth minerals, and currently manufactures about 90 percent of the world’s rare-earth magnets.”
This! This right here is one of the REAL issues we need to solve.
And i thought communism was all about "to each according to.his needs." Awaiting reactions from Tampon Tim and The Bern
China seems to be buying up parts of Africa to corner the market on all the resources they don’t have. Heads up, world!
Didn't I read on C & C that Trump negotiated a peace with Rwanda and DRC (Congo) that included a trade deal with rare earth minerals? That would put us in play to acquire these without China.
Yes
The niece I wrote about here pored in the Congo for the IRC. Rare minerals essential for cell phone manufacturers exist in abundance in few places on Earth and the DRC is one. She said sketchy militia groups are in constant conflict as it’s the 21st Century version of gold or diamonds
And yet no one talks about China's modern 'colonialism' in Africa....
There are a few. They're all named Cassandra.
My comment was late to the party again!
Or about Fauci's medical doings over there!
There’s a good book by Siddartha Kara called Cobalt Red which is eye opening on the rare earth metals mining in Africa. Highly recommended.
Yes.
Apparently it's okay for China to colonize and strip the land of wealth using child labor.
China seems to be up to something in the South China Sea as well, more so than normal. I wonder what their strategy is, and why now?
POTUS is working on it. He is negotiating with China to secure the continued viability of this supply source. He obtained an agreement with Ukraine for rare earths and is working in the USA to eliminate the regulatory burden currently in place to allow for US production. It will take time. But the process is underway.
No remorse and/or awareness that it's not OK to fill someone else's house with hundreds of people they don't know. Hmmmmm.
I went to a park in upstate NY (near Hudson) where there's a waterfall. I didn't have the right shoes (nor funds to purchase them). I had warned my host about this. When we arrived, the rangers said I needed to steer clear of the waterfall, adding that they pull out X number of (you) a year. There were numerous obese young people frolicking there. I didn't go near -- again -- wrong shoes.
But it seems that increasingly, people have lost the reverence for how dangerous is the natural world. It's not a video game. But they don't get it.
And btw, a story I can't get enough of is the story about the plane crash in the Andes, and how (my hero) Nando Parado got out of there.
Speaking of obese young people -- they voted for Mamdani as the D candidate in the mayoral NYC primary.
They are entitled to the free stuff that he promises.
I’m always amazed when I see people on CO hiking trails in flip flops. 🤦🏼♀️
A nurse friend was with another nurse friend on a trip over the mountain pass here last summer and they watched a couple in their 50's get out of their RV in shorts and flip flops and try to hike down the slippery, snowy slope. The woman fell and hit her head and my friends , one of whom used to be an EMT as well as now being a nurse and she is also an expert skier, told the husband to stay where he was and they would help his wife got back up to the road. The husband ignored them and went after his wife and then he fell. So of course they now had to rescue both of them! My friend is in her 60's btw. She was wondering how the couple had actually survived to live into their 50's as quite frankly they seemed too dumb to live.
Wow, trying to hike in flip-flops??
On snow no less. I assume they were coming from sunny hot eastern WA. Maybe they thought the mountain terrain and the snow was just for looks like a photo shoot or something. Who knows.
The Israelis hike in stout leather Israeli sandals, and so did we (in Israel, and in Greece), but at our age. . . .
Birkenstocks and up-may be hiking apparel for our Sapphic sisters but dollar store flip-flops? Lmfao
I wear Birkenstocks around the house but I would never hike in them or even take a walk on the green belt.
Sounds like you're describing the Editorial Board of the unFree Press.
Well, there are sandals and then there are sandals. The sandals I wear are actually *designed* for hiking, with very sturdy soles. But I'd never hike in mine, because I routinely cut off the strap that goes around the back of the ankle, so I can wear them as slip-ons.
I wear almost exclusively slip ons these days as I cannot bend over so easy to tie laces or fasten straps. I also walk with two hiking poles and am super cautious about where I put my feet. Sadly no big trail hikes for me anymore.
I wouldn’t pit any sandals against a copperhead or timber rattler.
We see it in the Smokies all the time. Most people have ceased to think,
I believe.
I know of a middle-aged woman who hikes Mt. Hollywood in flip-flops every day.
As someone whose job required walking many miles and wearing comfortable durable shoes, I can’t imagine anyone entertaining the thought of hiking in flip flops.
Omg RMW! A certain Darwin Award nominee! Hiking boots are literally a trope. Hiking flip flops..not so much 😳
The name “flip flops” makes it hard to take them seriously. Hiking requires serious footwear.
Stupid.
Obviously, they were Democrats.
Darwin Award runner ups!
People are stupid and getting stupider. Everywhere. About everything
Sad but true.
People are strange when you’re a stranger
Mr. Mojo Risin’
My daughter visited his grave in Paris.
Cool !
Another side effect from social media seems to be losing a sense of how to manage personal risk. Slip on your COVID mask and go hiking in flip flops. No sense of what is truly a danger and what is virtue signaling performance art.
Bingo! That and RMW’s point about young people viewing the world as just a video game background. The more I interact with Gen Z I wonder if all those screens have mediated reality to the point that they don’t get the real world is a very dangerous place and not Grand Theft Auto 4
Not to mention people getting mauled by bears or crushed by bison because they think they're just big cuddly animals. I blame Disney cartoons.
Disney introduced peace-loving, vegetarian, gentle-natured talking animals in the 1920s. Don’t blame him for modern idiocy.
I saw that years ago. In fact, victims at Columbine said they weren’t that worried because they thought the gunfire was fireworks or, “like in video games.”
Many kids in my last school were so inured to violence and bloodshed in computer games and movies, they couldn’t understand why adults were so upset about 9/11.
It's enough to make one stay indoors. It's hard for me to feel much compassion for an idiot who would jump into THAT waterfall. Perhaps he had a death wish? Two buddies jump in to save him? I imagine they meant well, but this not particularly heroic to me. What about their families? Maybe they don't have any close friends or family? They certainly weren't thinking about the people who had to deal with the consequences of their reckless, risky behavior.
I can see that, and I can see the other side. I very much appreciate and respect your perspective.
I suppose in one way this is what puts the "toxic" in masculinity for many people, but for me...I really honor the guys that run into burning buildings, run towards gunfire to help, and jump into lakes to save a drowning buddy.
Through one perspective those are stupid acts, and through another perspective those are the brave acts that we write songs about.
I found more sadness in reading this story than anything. I'm not sure if I would be the one who jumped in to help or not; I'm not sure any of us do until we are faced with a life or death situation.
I agree with your perspective, as well, and I thank you for it. Jumping into that waterfall just seemed so stupid! I do feel sadness over the loss of human life. Hopefully, it will serve as a warning sign for others not to engage in death defying acts with Mother Nature.
I totally agree with you, by the way, that jumping into that specific waterfall seems like a suicide mission as opposed to bravery!
About ten years ago, a man jumped into a bubbling geyser at Yellowstone to save his unleashed dog. I can’t remember if his family was with him.
I read the story in horror, but watched the news report and came away so impressed by the diver who recovered the bodies (no spring chicken himself!).
You're so right, Unwoke. And what's worse, there SO MANY of them!!!
I think you're onto something when you mention video games. Back in the arcade days, if you 'died,' the game was over...unless you had another quarter (and very few of us could keep feeding in quarters). But home video systems provide an endless number of 'lives' for players. Apparently you even get to 'respawn' near where you 'died,' so the consequences of a 'fatal' mistake are even further minimized.
It seems very probable that constant exposure to this kind of consequences-free experience would shape young minds in exactly the ways that we see: a failure to understand that you don't get infinite chances when you screw up (something our schools have only reinforced) and that some errors can be permanently fatal.
I believe you are correct. I think folks are having real trouble separating out virtual online reality and real reality.
That and super human feats in supposedly realistic action movies!
What an astute observation, Celia!
That is spot on Celia. I was part of that first arcade generation. I’d take the roll of laundry quarters my Mom sent me to a place on the Drag named Mother’s where we’d smoke weed, drink beer, and try to make our quarters last as long as we could. Then I’d drive home with piles of dirty clothes and have our housekeeper wash them without telling Mom. I was a bad boy 👦. Top 5 Old School video games: Berserk, Tempest, Ms. Pac-Man, Galaga and Frogger.
Ms. Pac-Man was the only one I was any good at, so of course it was my favorite. But when I ran out of quarters, that was it.
I was constantly the best Frogger player at the arcade at the mall in Houston near where I grew up, and was respectable at Ms. PacMan and Galaga. I sucked at Berserk and Tempest.
When I was playing well I could make four quarters last a very long time!
Memorial City? Maybe we should do a topic day about our favorite old school videos games? Up to the boss, of course but like her, I favored Ms PAC Man as I could milk that quarter longest.
Yep, Memorial City. It plays a big role in my childhood, all the way from playing my first video game, to seeing Bambi as a child, to Raiders, to my first job at the Chick-fil-a there.
Good memories.
I still have reasonably good Ms. PacMan chops. About a year ago our team from work had a work outing at one of those bowling alley/restaurant/video game/laser tag places. I took a quarter over to Ms. PacMan and after a while several of the millennials were standing there amazed at how long the old guy could play. Then they tried to play, and I got to give them a very hard time for not being able to stay alive for long!
I have a ton of college friends who went to Westchester and my niece and nephew went to Stratford. My sister and brother in law had a house at Dairy Ashford and Memorial for 30 years.
Galaga (physical machine) was awesome. The video game (maybe Nintendo?) not so much, not nearly as much fun when you don't have a quarter riding on the outcome.
You are so right, and I never thought of that particular thing! Playing Asteroids or Ms. PacMan for 30 minutes, only to die right before you get high score, meant you had to feed in another quarter and start from the lowest level again. Just to enter your initials on the high score screen.
If you think about it, that probably increased resilience and gave the kids that did that more of a "can do" attitude. I'd pay a quarter of that for all the younger people I know that give up after the first little setback, or seek counseling for bumping their head on a difficult problem!
There is a wide gulf between reckless behavior and calculated risks. The latter take a full, realistic measure of one's abilities versus the risks. For example, I would never at my advanced age, try to surf the waves I did when I was 30. But even at 30, I knew my limits and would never venture out in conditions that called for much greater levels of skill and stamina. There are reasons why only a handful of people can surf Nazare or free dive or do any of the truly amazing things we see people do. To think otherwise is to court catastrophe.
Yet the military is heavily recruiting video gamers. My heavy gamer nephew was recruited by and just enlisted in Navy. He is being paid a $75k bonus because they desperately need nuclear engineers and he qualified for the program. I'm thinking of encouraging my oldest son (14) to pursue a similar path. He's ridiculously smart, loves video games and is very talented but would really benefit from the discipline and structure. I think he'd be passionate about serving the country.
Video games are double edged sword. Our kids can run circles around our ability to grasp technical concepts. Their reaction times are
amazing. However, they are
more impulsive and lack
patience. I could see some
accidentally killing
themselves before thinking about the consequences. I think social media is far more dangerous for young people than video games. You can teach kids real vs. make believe in games but social media blurs that.
As a gamer myself, many games are absolutely incredible. The graphics, story, depth, score, and emotion can be as high quality as the best movies or books. They make you think through puzzles, strategy, planning, etc.
Ugh, sorry for typos. My phone is being difficult and won't let me edit.
Hi Underdog I don’t enter any body of natural water without wearing surf moccasins, a lesson leaned early from growing up on the Texas Gulf Coast. Stores like Big Lots or Academy sell them for around $5 and it’s seasonal but worth the investment.
I floated in the Dead Sea with surf moccasins.
Felt much safer.
Hi Brian So did I. Damn that was some salty water. I stayed at a nearby resort with the most beautiful Ethiopian housekeepers: tall, thin, friendly. And I remember the piano had a bar so I sat and played an instrumental set. When I went to check out, someone had comped my bar tab. Will work for food. Lol 😂
That’s cool.
I remember several resorts nearby.
I'm jealous! My best friend and her husband vacationed in a resort on the Dead Sea in April. The pictures she sent made me green with envy. The resort was in Jordan. You could see Palestine in the distance. Too close for comfort for me. I wouldn't be able to sleep at night.
Jordan is on one side of the Dead Sea, Israel is on the other.
Palestine is not a place.
It’s a fiction of someone’s imagination.
We stayed at the Society for the Preservation of Nature in Israel field house below Masada. The air conditioning was not working.
For anyone interested, the Preservation tours, and I'm not one for tours, are great. Small buses, lots of walking through wadis to here and there.
Sounds great.
I wish someone had told me to use footwear in the Dead Sea! My feet were cut up by the time I got out. :(
Ouch, and the salt content is very high as well.
I agree, people have zero sense of how dangerous nature can be.
I can’t tell you how many deaths there are when people on vacation in the islands go jet skiing or otherwise and do stupid things.
Every year the stretch of the Mississippi River near me claims lives, often of people who have been going out on it for years. It only takes a moment's inattention or one bad decision to give Nature the opportunity to remove you from the gene pool.
You live near the Mississippi? Won’t give identifying data but when I sent you that book and chapbook I wouldn’t have guessed that from the address
I do, but it's easy to forget unless I have to cross over into the People's Republic of Illinois for some reason. Unless you live in the big fancy houses along the bluff, you never SEE the river from day to day.
The one with the Fat Lenin?
ROFL!
Close to Antique Archaeology? Used to love that show.
Nope.
Close is relative. Where I live close is within 300 miles 😊
You got me curious about where they are! Le Claire, IA, which is far upstream from us. Other side of the Quad Cities. Not so far that you couldn't make a day trip of it, but there's no way I would go anywhere near the Quad Cities if I could help it.
I try to stay as far as possible from Chicago these days. If we have to travel to points east, we take back roads across central Illinois.
I grew up near the Kern River. So peaceful to walk along. So much fun to collect tadpoles and splash along the edge. But, I always knew the Kern was a cruel seducer: not just because Mama said so - the local newspaper and evening news programs carried a steady stream of accounts of victims (and their erstwhile rescuers).
The Merle Haggard ballad, “Kern River” always takes me right back.
The Kern was the stuff of nightmares when I was a kid, one county south. It seemed people were always drowning in it.
I did guided class III and IV rapids on the Kern. Wouldn't dream of doing it without proper equipment and a guide. The guide gave some great visuals about just how fast 1500 gallons per minute is. No matter how many people died (it's posted and updated at the foot of the mountain, as I'm sure you know) there are always people in the water - with their kids.
It seems to be a deadly aspect of human nature to think "It couldn't happen to ME."
My best friend was always begging me to go tubing with her at Hart Part, which is bisected by the Kern. I always found an excuse. She finally stopped asking when she lost her dog (and, almost, her brother) to the undercurrents.
It is wise to remember that humanity is NOT the master of nature!
I live by the Rio Grande River....there were numerous deaths from "undocumented migrants" in the past...and the water in places is shallow enough it won't reach your knees when walking across.
I hope you have bazooka for safety.
I've been accused of being a "hoarder" when it comes to guns and ammo...
But them were folks from California, so it don't really count
👍👍
Correct.
Years ago my friend, her husband, two young sons, and the nanny went to the Florida Keys. They had just purchased two jet skis. My friend took a break with the boys on the beach. She told the nanny to take a turn on her jet ski. Her husband and the nanny collided and the handle bar was impaled in Michael's chest. He didn't survive. Mary and her two young sons, both under ten years of age, witnessed this tragedy from the shoreline. This happened over thirty years ago. Your comment struck me as to the danger of jet skis. They are like motorcycles on water, and can be very dangerous even when driven with caution.
That’s very sad, I agree.
Very dangerous.
I know one highschool kid who was killed and an adult who is paralyzed from the waist down from jet ski accidents. They're more dangerous than people know.
My martial arts teacher were watching fascinated some video of an idiot who got out of his car at a game park to get a better shot of a lion. I could not bear to watch it. Talk about Darwin Award winners.....
I’ll just get closer for a better picture.
🤦♂️🤦♂️
Another Hollywood remake is in the works albeit without the late great Robin Williams : Moscow on the Hudson. But this time it's neither funny nor romantic. Perhaps a new title: Gaza on the Hudson or Beijing on the East River? Note that all the focus is on white college grads wanting subsidized rent and little if any mention of defunding cops ( and likely prosecuting cops since big al bragg ( Soros stooge) getting a landslide victory that hasn't received much attention). How beautiful would it be for those NY cops with vested pensions to say adios Manhattan, start receiving their pensions in Florida, GA , gge Carolinas or Tennessee and then join the force in their new locales.
Bragg was re-elected.
Exactly . 70%
Bragg was renominated. The election is November. Having quibbled I concede that in NYC it's not likely to change anything.
I would be ecstatic to be wrong.
😡😡😡
When? How? I saw no ballot!
It was supposedly on the ballot on Tuesday. But all they could talk about was Mamdani. What a joke NYC is.
But Tuesday was a primary election. Was Bragg just thrown back on the D ticket?
I can't vote in primaries.
I guess so. I don't know the mechanics of it, but that's what I read.
That scene where he has a faux heart attack seeing the amazing abundance of a standard supermarket is one I still reference. RIP Robin Williams. That’s a movie I’m hard pressed to see as a reboot, such as when Steve Martin remade The Pink Panther. Love Steve Martin but no way he could fill Peter Sellers’ massive shoes as the classic Inspector Clouseau
I am now humming the theme song. Another of my sellers faves is" being there" ( I thought about that one a lot the last four years when someone was barely there)
Absolute genius! Biden should have just used gardening metaphors when he spoke
Gave me a good chuckle that.
He wasn't exaggerating in that scene. Had a colleague from the Ukraine here for a visit, took him to HEB to pick something up....he was hypnotized by the sheer size and selection.
Oh... I miss HEB !
Remakes of classic films is a dumb idea IMO. No knock on Martin, but no way anyone could come close to Sellers performance. Why even try? That mistake was about as egregious as thinking a remake of “The In Laws” was a good idea.
We’re probably not far from a remake of “The Godfather” starring Queen Latifah in the role of Vita Corleone.
Read this morning Discourse what is the best and fastest way to communicate truth on social media. It had a great example how to debunk Elon’s numbers on how many dead people are getting social security checks: include visuals. Too bad I didn’t know how to show it here 😡
https://open.substack.com/pub/discoursemagazine/p/the-truth-needs-to-get-dressed-faster?r=o30r9&utm_medium=ios
Thanks for sharing the link, Barry. I agree with the author that Elon Musk is pretty careless with the facts, but I also believe most of our political and business elites are just as careless. That to me is seen as a feature, not a bug. They exploit non-critical thinkers, being about 99% of the human population and it helps them maintain their status among the specific constituency they are exploiting. It goes deeper, of course. When he talks about memes or videos going viral and how difficult it is to make something viral, he misjudges viral memes completely (at least political ones — cat memes are a different variety of viral). If he actually posted the AI generated meme he offered as an example it would probably go viral because its math example is wrong and people love it when someone tries to take down a person or policy and inadvertently fails in the same way they are accusing their target of failing.
The author comes across as being a bit naive. Musk, Trump, AOC, Bernie, Hitler, Mao, Kennedy, Gates, Reagan, Clinton, and countless influencers say things because they want to plant ideas, they don’t care if the vehicle for the idea is a little white lie or a barn burner of calumny. It’s the seed of an idea that shapes option. The efforts to counter mis- and disinformation would appear to be futile in the face of human nature.
(At one of my last roles I was in charge of analytics for our digital streaming products. I depended on the business analytics group for data collection and statistical applications. Data analytics is powerful but it requires careful reasoning to identify actual, valuable trends. One day the business analytics folks released an analysis to another department before my review. They said a 300% improvement in engagement had occurred after a new user interface was introduced across platforms. The news took off like a California brush fire. I quickly tried to stop it (300% was not in the realm of possibility and I could see where the error occurred), but it was good news for upper management, verifying their belief in their own good judgment. You can’t stop good news even if it’s clearly wrong. At least that’s been my takeaway!)
Thank you. I relate to your points as many of us prefer confirmation bias or being in an echo chamber to sometimes painful truth. Another form of cognitive dissonance.
I must say Mr Lederman I chuckled at your new tagline “normie”. Kids nowadays use that as an insult.
Yes, it's been used for decades for other things as well. (I'm NOT a 'normie' as I understand it).
It’s amazing how analytics have replaced critical thinking
Liars figure?
Yes. It appears to me that we collectively now believe analytics, statistics, polls etc are supposed to tell us how we are supposed to collectively to think. It's helluva lot easier and, in a survival sense, perhaps even smarter, to go with the crowd (or the supposed crowd) then to research and think for oneself.
True but I suspect this group is an exception to that general rule
Which is why we are here.
And the media is one of the most guilty of this group think collectivism.
Like my late Auntie S., I am eschewing all news. A Greek living in Istanbul, she escaped during the great "exchange of populations," came here and, having had enough excitement, and married well, devoted her time and wealth to charitable causes and enjoyed her cocktails at five o'clock.
Yesterday I watched the whole of the wrenching film "Gettysburg" and return to you today with an apology for my foul language.
I did hear about the drowned men. And the young influencer who fell into a volcano. There but for the grace of common sense go I.
My elders would have sagely nodded their heads and remarked that the spirit of the waterfall was 'hungry'. We have a waterfall here that periodically someone slips and falls from horsing around and even a few suicides over the years. There are big fences and warning signs around said waterfall these days but of course there are still those who ignore those. However no one to my knowledge has jumped into the waterfall just for fun! I wonder if social media clips have made things like jumping into a waterfall look more attractive and 'doable'. All this virtual reality is doing something to our brains imo.
I wasn't able to find anything that explained why these men thought it was a good idea to jump into a waterfall. Or even whether they literally jumped into the falls or just into the pool at the bottom (which would likely be just as fatal, considering the forces involved). Based on what little their fellow hikers were saying, I got the impression that the guy who had been there before may have been in the pool before, since apparently he was saying something about the surprising strength of the current before he went under.
But when it turned out that it was only one guy who initially jumped, and that the other two died trying to rescue him, I had to wonder what might have been driving the first guy. Bravado? Suicidal ideation?
(See comment) Quick version: It's VERY hard to watch your bud go under without trying to help. Even when you know better. Is it a guy thing to wonder how one watches a friend die and...?
There was an incident in Yellowstone where someone's dog fell into a horribly hot thermal pool. A bystander jumped in to try to save the dog, apparently without pausing to think first. Both he and the dog were doomed from the moment they hit the water. Even though the guy got out (the dog didn't), he died at the hospital.
🥲
It seems that many times folks just react instinctively to crisis. I remember in lifeguard training they made a point to train us out of the urge to jump in the water immediately to save someone, rather to stop, take a breath, assess the situation and then take hopefully the action most likely to be effective.
If he’d been alone I’d have opted for suicidal ideation. In the company of friends it was more likely a matter of bravado.
I went to take the garbage out about six months ago on a holiday Friday when I saw a line of unusual lights on my neighbor’s property; It’s about a hundred yard walk to the road so as I rolled the bin. I noticed the line was trucks leaving his land, bracketed by the blinking red lights of law enforcement vehicles. I immediately texted him to ask what was happening. He replied that he and his wife had been out on separate errands and when they returned, a group of men he didn’t know had gathered in his yard, looking like they were preparing to BBQ. He called the sheriff, who arrived to lead them off the land. I speculate it was illegal aliens who saw his open gate and deduced to take advantage. So the landscaper story hits a bit close to home. I done have much n the waterfall story except a Darwin Award nomination. From what I’ve read, Boeing has deteriorated into a DEI cesspool, where everyone from engineers to factory floor workers neglects basic safety protocols. Fortunately my global travel days are mostly behind me but I’d be wary of their Dreamliner series, as it appears plagues by a variety of mechanical failures. Btw I like the format of a couple obscure stories.
My best friend usually prefers to fly, but the number of incidents with airplanes in the past year has made her nervous, so she drove up from Texas instead. She has a hybrid truck (a Ford Maverick) that gets over 40 mpg, so it was actually cheaper to drive. She made a few cosmetic changes so her truck wouldn't scream 'woman driving alone,' and she seems to have had no problems.
I am curious .... "her truck wouldn't scream 'woman driving alone,' " ....like painting over the pink paint color?
LOL! Her truck is a pretty dark blue-green color, not pink. But she replaced her flowered plate frames with plain ones. Ditto her steering wheel cover.
That we haven’t rid ourselves of such residual sexism saddens me. But I know women need to be cautious for their personal safety.
I watch too much ID channel to not know about the vulnerabilities that women have in this world.
When I travel around I take my badass German Shepherd with me. The sketchy people step aside when they see me coming.
I say that because I was taking my daughter to her appointment Tuesday and there was an SUV that was the same hot pink color of my toenail polish. I remarked that I wouldn't drive a car that color and my daughter replied that it was a Lamborghini!
Wow J I didn’t even know Lamborghini made SUVs. They’re usually flashy but crappy sports cars, like Italian Corvettes
I think she said it was a Montana. I was driving, so I cannot verify.
My husband and I just had this conversation when we saw a neon green Lambo! Money does NOT = taste!
Yes, just like the fools who pay 100k for a cyber truck.
Smart. Also keeping a man's cap/hat on the dash or in back window is a good idea. My granny used to do that. I have a friend who puts two American Rifle Association caps on the dash.
When I travelled alone, all over the US, I would leave a pair of men's muddy boots outside the hotel door (when applicable).
Sometimes they were stolen ! 😮
Lol.
Wow, that's a great idea!
😬😬
I drive a Maverick and love it.
Darwin Award nomination. That should be a “thing” Time polls and reports on in a yearly magazine. With the cover showing the winner. The 2025 Darwin Awards, cataloguing various people fucking themselves up because of their stupidity. That would sell like hotcakes. P.S. I hope I used the quotes correctly 🤯.
That would be super fun and I bet folks who normally don't buy Time mag would definitely scoop up that issue!
And sadly, stupid people would try to get in on the action just for attention 🤦♂️.
Oh My Gosh. That had not even occurred to me! You are right I fear.
like the show "Jackass"!
They have these videos on you tube like "Fail Army" "Best Fails of the Year" and suchlike, where you can watch clips of people doing incredibly stupid and foolhardy things. They don't allow videos of people who get killed doing dumb things, but I am sure those exist. I was morbidly fascinated my a story I saw about young people getting themselves killed by trying to take selfies while hanging at the edge of cliffs or leaning out of the windows of cruise ships or skyscrapers. Common sense is no longer common!
Don't want to be callous, but perhaps it is best these folks took themselves out of the gene pool!
Nice allusion to the FP yesterday. Professor Jones won’t red pen you lmfao 🤪
I read the word "Darwinization" the other day ........
I like it.
When my son was in middle school and during his early years of high school, he routinely "pet sat" for another family in the neighborhood (3 cats, one dog). My son took the responsibility very seriously, and to the best of my knowledge left the house cleaner than he found it.
Then - one year - when my son wasn't available due to conflicting vacations, our neighbors hired another local kid to handle the pet sitting. While in the middle of their "once in a lifetime" extended family vacation to Ireland, they received a call from the local police advising them that there had been a massive party at their house (hosted by the pet sitter) and that the place had been completely trashed. The husband had to fly home in the middle of vacation to take care of the mess. From that point forward they took their pets to a boarding kennel when they were out of town.
The lack of personal responsibility in much of society is really disappointing.
That is really depressing! How can people be so disrespectful of others' property? When I was a kid, if my ball went over the fence into the neighbors' yard, I wouldn't have dreamed of going into their backyard for it without knocking on the door for permission to do so. I was more likely to wait until they were in the yard and ask if they could please throw it back.
Once when we were visiting my aunt when I was a kid, my local friends and I went over to the Catholic elementary school and started playing on their playground, which had several cool play features I'd never got to play on before. A teacher came out unexpectedly (seems like it was after school hours, so we hadn't thought there would be any problems) and told us that it was private property and we weren't allowed to play there.
I was horrified! I'd been *trespassing* without realizing it. What if my parents found out I'd done such a thing?? I felt guilty over that for years.
That teacher could have cut y’all some slack but in Texas we learn young that you never enter anyone’s land without permission as the owner is likely armed and can use lethal force. As an adult I’ve never seen a grand jury bring back a true bill on a property defense case. Guarantee no bill if the prosecutor is even stupid enough to present the case. A guy from England was visiting a friend once and said over there he can just ramble the moors. I told him he’d be sent back in a pine box if he tried that here.
I was under the impression that the moors were public land. Big difference, Brit Rambler!
I think you are right
This is correct
It's quite sad really the state we are in here in America regarding disrespect of other's property. I felt such incredible freedom in Scandanavia being able to walk as needed wherever. I simply could not believe it was possible. The difference there being that EVERYONE was respectful when on other's property. They passed through quietly with the 'leave no footprint' mentality and everybody had known everybody for generations so there was social accountability if someone abused the privilege. Also It seemed like well over 95% of the land was family owned for generations. No huge swaths of land owned by folks elsewhere or mega acres of corporate controlled land like here in America.
I was taught in girl scouts to leave no trace. Leave things the way you found them. Especially gates.
I got kicked out of the Cub Scouts because I was an atheist at ten and wouldn’t say the Pledge of Allegiance. I’ve traveled a long circuitous path to God. Like one of the ancient Church fathers, it took a lifetime of decadence to appreciate Great Spirit
Yes, but there's a tradition of paths and open lands in England. In Cornwall there's a neat coastal path that takes you along the cliffs, and sometimes up and down them, and past grazing cows. It's along private property, but walkers in England seem pretty respectful.
We did the one from Boscastle, just recovering from a miserable flood, to Tintagel -- lots of seabirds, and a bouncing but well-behaved springer spaniel and his companion.
Surprisingly, here in MA we have a "presumption of openness" law, which means unless a landowner has posted their property against trespassing you can walk on it, and hunt, without permission. We also have statutes that preclude such users from suing the landowner if they get injured, unless there is evidence the landowner did something specific intended to harm people (e.g., string a wire across a pathway). However, some towns have bylaws requiring written permission for things like hunting, which supersede the presumption of openness (many towns also have bylaws prohibiting the discharge of firearms, though those rules don't apply on state-owned land in the town). Or course, most responsible people will ask permission, regardless.
I’m surprised! Is it fair to assume those laws have existed since very, very early on in MA history, and no one has bothered to challenge them? Seems like the sort of thing that would be based on English Common Law.
Yes, they are definitely old statutes. As a hunter, in our current political environment I always advocate that we don't bring too much attention to that law as it would be easy to see our legislature reversing it (they'd say "modernizing" it) and require written permission whether posted or not.
...and you were a kid, but you knew better!
I must have been taught from a very early age not to trespass, because I can't remember a time when I didn't know that I couldn't just go into the neighbor's yard. It probably helped reinforce that lesson that we had a fence around our whole property, with only the driveway open to the street. Also had gates between the front part of the driveway and the back part, and another gate between the back part of the driveway and the backyard proper. So I learned to respect boundaries from an early age.
I don't care what Robert Frost thinks, I say good fences make good neighbors.
Ever seen 'em shut the door on a commercial airliner? They finagle the door through the doorway such that it closes from the INSIDE. Every boiler and pressure vessel ever made that has a manway or similar opening has a closure that fits through the opening so that it closes from the INSIDE. (I'll grant an exception to such as autoclaves and canning retorts but those have elaborate closure mechanisms that are in a whole different league.) Boeing uses bolt-on-the-outside door plugs. If they'd had to comply with the ASME Code, they never would have flown.
I've closed and locked many doors from the INSIDE as a flight attendant. You've reminded me of the girt bar. Thanks for the memories.
RE: The waterfall. Far too many unanswered questions but in a less natural setting: Historically, people entering confined spaces (tanks, pits, and such) have occasionally succumbed to lack of oxygen and/or the presence of toxics. VERY common multiple fatalities; the guy who found out the hard way about the atmosphere and one or more would-be rescuers. ("Historically" in that, as with so many industrial hazards, protocols have developed and incidents are far fewer. But of course not everyone follows the rules all the time...)
Hydrogen sulfide
Yes. And the nasty thing about H2S is that while it is very stinky (rotten egg smell), with long exposure it inactivates your olfactory neurons and you no longer smell it. So you think you’re out of it and then you’re dead.
aka 2-step gas in at least some refineries -- that's how far ya get. As PhDBioMom observed, the first step kills the schnoz; the second is a kind of bonus. But it doesn't take that or hydrogen cyanide or any other fun stuff; in a confined space, iron oxidation ("rust"), absent ventilation, can deplete the oxygen enough to be lethal. And that doesn't stink (unless sewage or other stuff is involved).
C & C is Fantastic today!
The ACIP's first meeting was glorious to behold!
https://www.coffeeandcovid.com/p/draining-thursday-june-26-2025-c?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=463409&post_id=166890341&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=15nx69&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
CNN AND MSDNC ( kudos to trump on that one) prove once once they truly are sex workers. Like sex workers they are paid for services rendered. You can complete the thought as to what they are paid for and what their objective the past few days has been ( trying to keep it clean here)
You mean whores.
I didn't say that. I am trying to just use the newest phrase to describe the oldest profession
😇
They do a service for a chronically underserved market: guys who can’t get laid unless it’s paid.
Are you talking about the CNN anchors? 🙃
There are sex workers, there are prostitutes and then there are whores.
Yup
Did you see the Hegseth press conference this morning? I have a liberal friend who says the way Trump calls out the Fake News is the best thing Trump has done
No but my wife told me it was spot on
On another note: I am far from a Pete Hegseth fan, I don't think he is qualified at all, but this, right here. Give me more of this:
https://x.com/i/status/1938210240568209726
Wow, he really burned the press there. A well-deserved burn, too.
Now here’s a story that will warm the cockles of your heart particularly since airports generally don’t do this.
https://www.news-journalonline.com/story/news/good-news/2025/06/24/daytona-beach-airport-reunites-girls-with-lost-toys/84276536007/
heartwarming
Regarding the Air Alaska finding, my brother spent his career in aircraft maintenance, much of it in quality assurance. My father went from rockets to planes as a contractor for the DoD. My brother has been a contractor for Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Bell Helicopter, among others. He is afraid to fly and has to be sedated for overseas flights. He says that planes as designed are supposed to fly and fly well. But the modifications made to existing planes, like "plugging doors", weaken them.
My father was an engineer at one of the three big aerospace companies on Long Island until he retired in the late 1980s. He never much worried about his only kid flying.
Then he began to see an increase in sheer carelessness on the part of the guys in his department.
I don't fly much anymore.
I think that started with embracing CEOs because of their MBA credentials rather than knowledge of the item being manufactured. Then throw in DIE and it was a recipe for disaster. Management was ill-informed and labor was increasingly inept. When the old school whistleblowers who tried to shed light on the problems started dropping dead I knew it was over.