I have no idea what hibiscus are. They look like cartoons so I bought them.
Wednesday, March 22, 2017
From an absence of armpit hair on a fictional girl to the presence of braided hair on a real one: It's objections all the way down
Via Instapundit: Authorities charged a Hampshire College student with assaulting a member of Central Maine Community College's basketball team over a dispute about cultural appropriation. Really.
The Hampshire student, 20-year-old Carmen Figueroa, allegedly started a fight because the basketball player had braided her hair in a manner that upset Figueroa. She walked up to the visiting player—during a basketball game—and demanded that the player remove the braids from her hair, according to masslive.com.
Figueroa is a female student of color. The basketball player was a member of the women's team. Her ethnicity is not stated in news articles, though it seems likely she's either white, or belongs to some other race whose members aren't allowed to braid their hair Latina-style, according to Figueroa's world view.
The Hampshire student, 20-year-old Carmen Figueroa, allegedly started a fight because the basketball player had braided her hair in a manner that upset Figueroa. She walked up to the visiting player—during a basketball game—and demanded that the player remove the braids from her hair, according to masslive.com.
Figueroa is a female student of color. The basketball player was a member of the women's team. Her ethnicity is not stated in news articles, though it seems likely she's either white, or belongs to some other race whose members aren't allowed to braid their hair Latina-style, according to Figueroa's world view.
(Link to the whole article)
Tuesday, March 21, 2017
"Wonder Woman Absolutely Should Not Have Armpit Hair, Sorry"
Via Instapundit: Wonder Woman doesn’t even come out until June, but people are already complaining that the movie is not feminist enough, because the superhero is conforming to unrealistic, patriarchal beauty standards by not having visible armpit hair.
The trailer for the film was released last week, and columnists have been writing think pieces about how problematic it is that Gal Gadot’s armpit hair appears to have been edited out in one of the shots. For example: In a piece for Forbes (titled “Wonder Woman Doesn’t Have Armpit Hair Because Women’s Bodies Freak Men Out”), Susannah Breslin mused that “maybe one day in the future, young girls will be brought up on images of a different kind of Wonder Woman — one who shaves nowhere and hides nothing.” In a piece for Refinery 29, Shannon Carlin writes that she finds it “hard to believe that Wonder Woman, who has been on an island filled with strong women her entire life is worried about waxing and then bleaching her pits to make sure there isn’t a hair left on those babies.”
Now, certainly, there are a lot of things that are “hard to believe” about how Wonder Woman looks considering her line of work, and they go way beyond her armpits. For example: She leaves her long, flowing cascade of loose curls down while she’s fighting enemies and it stays looking perfect the whole time; I can’t even do ten minutes of half-assed yoga in my room without tying mine back and it still gets tangled. She goes into battle wearing a tiny little dress; I feel like I might want to cover more of my skin if I knew I were going to be swordfighting in a field full of explosions.
But here’s the thing: That’s who Wonder Woman is. There is no room for debate about what Wonder Woman should and should not look like, because DC Comics already decided what she looks like when it created her in 1941: She always has a fresh blowout, she fights her enemies club attire, and she does not have armpit hair.
(Link to the whole thing)
"Doctor's office charges a monthly fee and doesn't take insurance"
Via Reddit: Dr. Bryan Hill spent his career working as a pediatrician, teaching at a university, and working at a hospital. But in March 2016, he decided he no longer wanted a boss.
He took some time off, then one day he got a call asking if he'd be up for doing a house call for a woman whose son was sick. He agreed, and by the end of that visit, he realized he wanted to treat patients without dealing with any of the insurance requirements.
Then he learned about a totally different way to run a doctor's office. It's called direct primary care, and it works like this: Instead of accepting insurance for routine visits and drugs, these practices charge a monthly membership fee that covers most of what the average patient needs, including visits and drugs at much lower prices.
That sounded good to him. In September, Hill opened his direct-primary-care pediatrics practice, Gold Standard Pediatrics, in South Carolina.
He took some time off, then one day he got a call asking if he'd be up for doing a house call for a woman whose son was sick. He agreed, and by the end of that visit, he realized he wanted to treat patients without dealing with any of the insurance requirements.
Then he learned about a totally different way to run a doctor's office. It's called direct primary care, and it works like this: Instead of accepting insurance for routine visits and drugs, these practices charge a monthly membership fee that covers most of what the average patient needs, including visits and drugs at much lower prices.
That sounded good to him. In September, Hill opened his direct-primary-care pediatrics practice, Gold Standard Pediatrics, in South Carolina.
(Link to the rest of the story.)
What's a sign that things are about to go south fast?
Reddit top voted comments....
When someone who has been doing this a whole hell of a lot longer than you have looks frustrated or nervous.
Someone asks to speak with you somewhere else rather than just tell you immediately. (like when I got laid off)
If you are having an argument on the street and a dudes friends slowly work their way behind you. Thats a bad sign. It's about to go south.
When someone goes inside their house to get something in the middle of an argument.
You get that strange, watery feeling in the back of your throat; the universal I'm about to hurl feeling.
The locals all clear out... like before the 2004 tsunami in Thailand. All of the locals were running for their lives while the tourists just stood and watched the approaching wall of water.
When someone who has been doing this a whole hell of a lot longer than you have looks frustrated or nervous.
Someone asks to speak with you somewhere else rather than just tell you immediately. (like when I got laid off)
If you are having an argument on the street and a dudes friends slowly work their way behind you. Thats a bad sign. It's about to go south.
When someone goes inside their house to get something in the middle of an argument.
You get that strange, watery feeling in the back of your throat; the universal I'm about to hurl feeling.
The locals all clear out... like before the 2004 tsunami in Thailand. All of the locals were running for their lives while the tourists just stood and watched the approaching wall of water.
Monday, March 20, 2017
"Confessions of a climate denier"
Via Instapundit: A few days ago I had a conversation with a very smart university professor of history and somehow the climate change subject came up. Almost instantly he responded to my thoughts by saying: “You must be one of those deniers who rejects the science consensus.”
This is the new form of intellectual bullying and it’s intentionally designed is to stop the conversation not advance it. In the academies it is a technique to close off scientific inquiry.
When the liberals talk of consensus, what consensus are they talking about? Of whom? About what? Here is John Kay of the Financial Times on the so-called consensus:
Then he adds: “… there is a clear attempt to establish truth not by scientific methods but by perpetual repetition.… The consensus was reached before the research was even begun…”
Kay and Lindzen are not alone.
This is the new form of intellectual bullying and it’s intentionally designed is to stop the conversation not advance it. In the academies it is a technique to close off scientific inquiry.
When the liberals talk of consensus, what consensus are they talking about? Of whom? About what? Here is John Kay of the Financial Times on the so-called consensus:
Science is a matter of evidence, not what a majority of scientists think…. The notion of a monolithic “science,” meaning what scientists say, is pernicious and the notion of “scientific consensus” actively so. The route to knowledge is transparency in disagreement and openness in debate. The route to truth is the pluralist expression of conflicting views in which, often not as quickly as we might like, good ideas drive out bad. There is no room in this process for any notion of “scientific consensus.”Richard S. Lindzen, the Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Atmospheric Science at MIT, has noted that too many environmentalists “ignore the fact that the earth and its climate are dynamic; they are always changing even without any external forcing. To treat all change as something to fear is bad enough; to do so in order to exploit that fear is much worse.”
Then he adds: “… there is a clear attempt to establish truth not by scientific methods but by perpetual repetition.… The consensus was reached before the research was even begun…”
Kay and Lindzen are not alone.
Link to the whole thing
What's some popular saying that you think is total bullshit?
Reddit top voted comments....
It can't get worse from here!
The whole "you have to love yourself before you can expect anyone else to love you"
I brought this up with my therapist once and she got angry, calling it "pop-psychology bullshit" and then ranted for 5 minutes about how humans are social creatures that need to be appreciated as a part of a group, and having that appreciation shown in at least some aspects is usually necessary for one to appreciate themselves.
"work like you don't need the money."
If I lived by that saying, I'd be fired
"People get what they deserve."
Bullshit! Many people get away with being narcissistic assholes their entire lives without consequence.
On romantic relationships: "Don't look for anyone... you'll meet someone special when you least expect it."
No, actually there are many people who've been "least expecting" for years and they're still single, still alone, never meeting anyone special.
"Flattery will get you nowhere"
It's usually the opposite.
A million people can't be wrong.
It can't get worse from here!
The whole "you have to love yourself before you can expect anyone else to love you"
I brought this up with my therapist once and she got angry, calling it "pop-psychology bullshit" and then ranted for 5 minutes about how humans are social creatures that need to be appreciated as a part of a group, and having that appreciation shown in at least some aspects is usually necessary for one to appreciate themselves.
"work like you don't need the money."
If I lived by that saying, I'd be fired
"People get what they deserve."
Bullshit! Many people get away with being narcissistic assholes their entire lives without consequence.
On romantic relationships: "Don't look for anyone... you'll meet someone special when you least expect it."
No, actually there are many people who've been "least expecting" for years and they're still single, still alone, never meeting anyone special.
"Flattery will get you nowhere"
It's usually the opposite.
A million people can't be wrong.
Superfolder file
Uploaded by YouTube member TheDylan Gamer206. Of the ten or so videos about these books that I watched three were uploaded by boys excited about the books. Their raw enthusiasm is a pleasure to see. The first video is a pre-teen talking about the books separately along with other books that he's excited about. The second video another boy describes a few books in the set purchased separately. He's only read half of one of the books and he's stoked about reading the other two that he has.
I think this boy here is the best.
I think this boy here is the best.
Nice video! He's quite the presenter. I love him discovering the book of colored paper.
8-book boxed set available on Amazon (nearly $40.00) but not through Amazon Prime.
Sunday, March 19, 2017
fish belt buckle
Seen on Amazon, here. Usually $20.00, marked down to $14.00.
See? It has a tape measure pulled from it's mouth. It's just a tiny tape measure glued to the back side inside the hollowed area.
Only two people rated this buckle on Amazon.
* This belt buckle is terrrrific! It is solidly made and with the tape measure built in, has turned out to be lots of fun.
* Love it!
Win.
Just the other day I needed a tape measure. Imagine having one on your buckle. All the other buckles are ordinary and rather boring. Even the turquoise ones.
XYZ vocabulary encountered online
It's a small group of words. Nearly useless. Arcane and barred from conversational use even with professionals on pain of alienation based on putting on airs. Still, the Zimmerman Telegram is interesting and we already know zaftig from Heidi Klum using it on Project Runway to describe one of the designer's mother, but at some point this word was not widely recognized.
* Xhosa Prophetess Nongqawuse: Nongqawuse (c. 1840s – 1898) was the Xhosa prophetess whose prophecies led to a millennialist movement that culminated in the Xhosa cattle-killing crisis of 1856–1857, in what is now the KwaZulu Natal province of the Republic of South Africa.
* Yapok: The Water Opossum, Chironectes minimus, a marsupial of the family Didelphidae. It is the only member of its genus, Chironectes. This creature is found in the freshwater streams and lakes in Mexico, Central and South America to Argentina, and is the only living aquatic marsupial. It is also the only living marsupial in which both sexes have a pouch. The Thylacine, commonly referred to as the Tasmanian Tiger, also exhibited this trait, but is now believed to be extinct.
The animal lives in bank side burrows, emerging after dusk to swim and search for fish, crustaceans and other aquatic animals, which it eats on the bank.
* yawp: To utter a sharp cry; yelp. To talk loudly, raucously, or coarsely. A bark; a yelp. Loud or coarse talk or utterance:
* Yggdrasil: an immense tree that that is central in Norse cosmology; the world tree, and around the tree exist nine worlds. It is generally considered to mean "Ygg's (Odin's) horse".
* you are cold: Prior to announcing his sentence, Burns told Balfour: "You have the heart of an arctic night. Your soul is as barren as dark space.
Which is unpervaded space. An unreality so unreal it's not even a word. Space unpervaded by forces and energies, objects, events, material, phenomena of pervaded space, that's how barren and dark your soul is. For I am judge and expert on these matters.
Let's see, you got your heart your soul. Spirit. Your spirit's so cold it has to be melted to be cryogenically frozen, and that's one cold ass soul.
And your hands like ice cubes that mostly float but only show at the surface something like, what?, 10% or something and the rest remains hidden in the cold water. Cold, that the theme here. And your feet are like those penguin feet that stay in sub zero cold without wearing any penguin boots or any penguin foot protection at all and if you think those won't send a shock under the covers then think again.
And your eyeballs are like two frozen ice cubes the round kind that are made in a speciality ice molds like novelty ice golf balls, that's what your eyes are like, totally lifeless and cold.
And your bum is as cold as that grueling frigid race they do, the Iditarod or something, a race so cold and hard some of the sled dogs die.
You have cold arms and legs too but they're not that bad.
* zaftig: chubby
* zek, zeks: A memory of the canal is also preserved in the Russian language, in the words "zeka", "zek, z/k" for "inmate". In Russian, "inmate", "incarcerated" is заключённый (zakliuchyonnyi), usually abbreviated to з/к in paperwork, and pronounced as зэка ("zeh-KA"), which gradually transformed into зэк and зек ("zek"). The word is still in colloquial use. Originally the abbreviation stood for zaklyuchyonny kanaloarmeyets (заключённый каналоармеец), literally "incarcerated canal-army-man". The latter term coined in an analogy with the words "krasnoarmeyets" meaning "member of the Red Army" or trudarmeyets (member of a labor army). The history of the term, attributed to Lazar Kogan, is described as follows. In 1932, when Anastas Mikoyan visited Belomorstroy (construction of the White Sea – Baltic Canal) Kogan told him "Comrade Mikoyan, how shall we call them? (…) I thought up the word: 'kanaloarmeyets'. What do you think?" Mikoyan approved it.
* zelig: a person, typically an ordinary, unimportant person, who seems to turn up with surprising or unaccountable frequency in a variety of settings, any highly adaptable, opportunistic person
* zentai: a common term for skin-tight garments that cover the entire body.[1] The word is a contraction of zenshin taitsu (全身タイツ) ("full-body tights"). Zentai is most commonly made using nylon/spandex blends, but other materials such as cotton and wool are used as well.
* Zimmermann Telegram: a 1917 diplomatic proposal from the German Empire to Mexico to make war against the United States. The proposal was intercepted by British intelligence. Revelation of the Telegram angered Americans and led in part to a United States declaration of war on Germany in April.
The message came as a coded telegram dispatched by the Foreign Secretary of the German Empire, Arthur Zimmermann, on 16 January 1917, to the German ambassador in Washington, D.C., Johann von Bernstorff, at the height of World War I. On 19 January, Bernstorff, per Zimmermann's request, forwarded the telegram to the German ambassador in Mexico, Heinrich von Eckardt. Zimmermann sent the telegram in anticipation of the resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare by Germany on 1 February, an act which German Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg feared would draw the neutral U.S. into war on the side of the Allies. The telegram instructed Ambassador Eckardt that if the U.S. appeared likely to enter the war, he was to approach the Mexican Government with a proposal for military alliance. He was to offer Mexico material aid in the reclamation of territory lost during the Mexican–American War (the Southeastern section of the area of the Mexican Cession of 1848) and the Gadsden Purchase, specifically of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. Eckardt was also instructed to urge Mexico to help broker an alliance between Germany and the Japanese Empire.
The Zimmermann Telegram was intercepted and decoded by the British cryptographers of Room 40.[4] The portrayal of its contents in the American press on March 1 caused public outrage that contributed to the U.S.'s declaration of war against Germany and its allies on 6 April.
* zugspitze: 2,962 ft., the highest peak of the Wetterstein Mountains as well as the highest mountain in Germany
* Xhosa Prophetess Nongqawuse: Nongqawuse (c. 1840s – 1898) was the Xhosa prophetess whose prophecies led to a millennialist movement that culminated in the Xhosa cattle-killing crisis of 1856–1857, in what is now the KwaZulu Natal province of the Republic of South Africa.
* Yapok: The Water Opossum, Chironectes minimus, a marsupial of the family Didelphidae. It is the only member of its genus, Chironectes. This creature is found in the freshwater streams and lakes in Mexico, Central and South America to Argentina, and is the only living aquatic marsupial. It is also the only living marsupial in which both sexes have a pouch. The Thylacine, commonly referred to as the Tasmanian Tiger, also exhibited this trait, but is now believed to be extinct.
The animal lives in bank side burrows, emerging after dusk to swim and search for fish, crustaceans and other aquatic animals, which it eats on the bank.
* yawp: To utter a sharp cry; yelp. To talk loudly, raucously, or coarsely. A bark; a yelp. Loud or coarse talk or utterance:
* Yggdrasil: an immense tree that that is central in Norse cosmology; the world tree, and around the tree exist nine worlds. It is generally considered to mean "Ygg's (Odin's) horse".
* you are cold: Prior to announcing his sentence, Burns told Balfour: "You have the heart of an arctic night. Your soul is as barren as dark space.
Which is unpervaded space. An unreality so unreal it's not even a word. Space unpervaded by forces and energies, objects, events, material, phenomena of pervaded space, that's how barren and dark your soul is. For I am judge and expert on these matters.
Let's see, you got your heart your soul. Spirit. Your spirit's so cold it has to be melted to be cryogenically frozen, and that's one cold ass soul.
And your hands like ice cubes that mostly float but only show at the surface something like, what?, 10% or something and the rest remains hidden in the cold water. Cold, that the theme here. And your feet are like those penguin feet that stay in sub zero cold without wearing any penguin boots or any penguin foot protection at all and if you think those won't send a shock under the covers then think again.
And your eyeballs are like two frozen ice cubes the round kind that are made in a speciality ice molds like novelty ice golf balls, that's what your eyes are like, totally lifeless and cold.
And your bum is as cold as that grueling frigid race they do, the Iditarod or something, a race so cold and hard some of the sled dogs die.
You have cold arms and legs too but they're not that bad.
* zaftig: chubby
* zek, zeks: A memory of the canal is also preserved in the Russian language, in the words "zeka", "zek, z/k" for "inmate". In Russian, "inmate", "incarcerated" is заключённый (zakliuchyonnyi), usually abbreviated to з/к in paperwork, and pronounced as зэка ("zeh-KA"), which gradually transformed into зэк and зек ("zek"). The word is still in colloquial use. Originally the abbreviation stood for zaklyuchyonny kanaloarmeyets (заключённый каналоармеец), literally "incarcerated canal-army-man". The latter term coined in an analogy with the words "krasnoarmeyets" meaning "member of the Red Army" or trudarmeyets (member of a labor army). The history of the term, attributed to Lazar Kogan, is described as follows. In 1932, when Anastas Mikoyan visited Belomorstroy (construction of the White Sea – Baltic Canal) Kogan told him "Comrade Mikoyan, how shall we call them? (…) I thought up the word: 'kanaloarmeyets'. What do you think?" Mikoyan approved it.
* zelig: a person, typically an ordinary, unimportant person, who seems to turn up with surprising or unaccountable frequency in a variety of settings, any highly adaptable, opportunistic person
* zentai: a common term for skin-tight garments that cover the entire body.[1] The word is a contraction of zenshin taitsu (全身タイツ) ("full-body tights"). Zentai is most commonly made using nylon/spandex blends, but other materials such as cotton and wool are used as well.
* Zimmermann Telegram: a 1917 diplomatic proposal from the German Empire to Mexico to make war against the United States. The proposal was intercepted by British intelligence. Revelation of the Telegram angered Americans and led in part to a United States declaration of war on Germany in April.
The message came as a coded telegram dispatched by the Foreign Secretary of the German Empire, Arthur Zimmermann, on 16 January 1917, to the German ambassador in Washington, D.C., Johann von Bernstorff, at the height of World War I. On 19 January, Bernstorff, per Zimmermann's request, forwarded the telegram to the German ambassador in Mexico, Heinrich von Eckardt. Zimmermann sent the telegram in anticipation of the resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare by Germany on 1 February, an act which German Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg feared would draw the neutral U.S. into war on the side of the Allies. The telegram instructed Ambassador Eckardt that if the U.S. appeared likely to enter the war, he was to approach the Mexican Government with a proposal for military alliance. He was to offer Mexico material aid in the reclamation of territory lost during the Mexican–American War (the Southeastern section of the area of the Mexican Cession of 1848) and the Gadsden Purchase, specifically of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. Eckardt was also instructed to urge Mexico to help broker an alliance between Germany and the Japanese Empire.
The Zimmermann Telegram was intercepted and decoded by the British cryptographers of Room 40.[4] The portrayal of its contents in the American press on March 1 caused public outrage that contributed to the U.S.'s declaration of war against Germany and its allies on 6 April.
* zugspitze: 2,962 ft., the highest peak of the Wetterstein Mountains as well as the highest mountain in Germany
My Date With A Stripper
[continued-in-part from here]
Work on the stairs:
After removing both the rails and the metal balusters, I started to sand away the paint coating the lower rail. This proved slow going -- even with 60 grit paper on a new random orbit sander. So I went all chemical on it:
Stripper contains methylene chloride which dissolves practically anything (except wood). You just slather it on as a paste and wait for the paint to blister and then scrape it off- right onto the concrete floor in my case. I had to do a couple cycles of strip and sand because the paint was so durable. It's still unfinished because the sides are particularly hard to treat. But here is some real progress:
Bonus photos:
Recall the end grain detail from the rail:
Here is the end grain from the base:
And here is the end grain from a small decorative piece which is off to the right in the first photo:
That is a flat top rail adjacent to the steps. You can see a closet door knob for scale. The wood appears to be doug fir but its growth ring pattern suggests it's intermediate between the rail and the foot rail. Also note that it's made of two joined pieces.
I await Sixty's expert opinion.
Work on the stairs:
After removing both the rails and the metal balusters, I started to sand away the paint coating the lower rail. This proved slow going -- even with 60 grit paper on a new random orbit sander. So I went all chemical on it:
Stripper contains methylene chloride which dissolves practically anything (except wood). You just slather it on as a paste and wait for the paint to blister and then scrape it off- right onto the concrete floor in my case. I had to do a couple cycles of strip and sand because the paint was so durable. It's still unfinished because the sides are particularly hard to treat. But here is some real progress:
Bonus photos:
Recall the end grain detail from the rail:
Here is the end grain from the base:
That is a flat top rail adjacent to the steps. You can see a closet door knob for scale. The wood appears to be doug fir but its growth ring pattern suggests it's intermediate between the rail and the foot rail. Also note that it's made of two joined pieces.
I await Sixty's expert opinion.
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