... is a place where you can bring up some other topics. I wasn't trying to adhere to a theme-of-the-day approach to the blog this morning, so let me turn it over to you to talk about other things here.
July 9, 2016
The Looking-For-Something-Else Café...
... is a place where you can bring up some other topics. I wasn't trying to adhere to a theme-of-the-day approach to the blog this morning, so let me turn it over to you to talk about other things here.
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Gretchen Carlson should move to MSNBC. Either as co-host with Rachael Maddow at night or her own afternoon show. Ratings could only improve at MSNBC.
Our rose of Sharon bush is starting to pop.
I make it a point not to anthropomorphize my pets.
The Monks of New Skete warn that you ought not give your dog a human name because of the risks of anthropomorphism.
I think that's going a bit too far.
It's another beautiful day in Madison. Once I've done with work-related stuff here at the coffee shop, I'm off on a bike ride. I was paddleboarding at sunrise on Wingra this morning, and realized that sunrise has slipped to 530ish. We've lost about 15 minutes of sun at the start of the day already. The inevitable slide to winter. :(
This afternoon I might paint the trim on the house.
The person next to me at the coffee shop is dozing. Go home, man!
I'm looking for the smartest woman in the world. What ever happened to her?
I wasn't trying to adhere to a theme-of-the-day approach to the blog this morning,
black and white dog, looking for love
awesome
"I'm looking for the smartest woman in the world. What ever happened to her?"
So, every time you agree w/Althouse she's the smartest woman and when you disagree she's not.
t in vt, you've been coming to this blog because you think Althouse is the smartest woman in the world? Bless your little heart. Please go upstairs and mommy will give you a cookie!
Dry and tolerable this morning.
So no monsoon yet.
Played golf yesterday. Very diverse golf course. Whites, Asians, old people, young people, men, women.
Peaceful.
The reason she ought to be president, over and above her vision and her plans is that she has proven in every position she has ever had in life, whether it was in elected office or not, that she is a world-class genius in making positive changes in other people's lives." - Bill Clinton
Bill said everything but "bless her heart."
Hillary is shedding perceived IQ points faster that Bill does STD virions.
Our Lady Banks roses are are flowering.
How do you throw away books which do not give you joy - (the Kondo method)?
I have a large selection of books written by eugenicists which I call the Hell section of my bookshelves. These I cannot throw away but I moved them so they were behind a door which is open when that room is in normal use.
Then I carefully studied a feminist list of books for summer reading and decided to get none of them. Happy face
Then I looked at Esau's Plant Anatomy on Amazon - still over 100 dollars. sad face
Then I remembered I was throwing out, not adding. bad doggie. But I will get a book about Ravilious, the painter. bad, bad doggie.
And I will not even look for a book that captures or resembles this summer. Althouse is right - Obama is giving those who missed the Sixties a chance to live in them. They'll find out. I think I'll study orchid form.
Bob Ellison
The link to the picture does not work
Whatever this is, it isnt the 60s.
I was a bit too young for that, and living in backwaters, but what I saw, mainly, was beautiful young women behaving badly. That was interesting.
These days the beautiful young women are very conservative it seems, they arent in the media much. Those misbehaving are generally rather homely.
Here in the city of love there are few teenagers, no real hippies, and people seem very scared of breaking out of prevailing social conventions. They are different social conventions, but they are much more strictly enforced.
We've gained about 15 minutes of dark at the end of the night already. The inevitable slide to winter. :)
Fixed your post for you, MM.
wildswan, sorry about that.
Try this link if you're still interested (or just want to help me QA this).
wildswan, BTW, I appreciate your response on this. I screwed it up and want to solve it, and am interested in your response. (The picture really isn't that great, though.)
Spoiler alert: Serena won Wimbledon.. BLM is not a friend of the AAs in this country. People like Serena are. And fuck Hillary for saying whites (WHITES!) have to change. What has this country come to? Don't fucking talk about Whites and Blacks when the division is at its highest. I am from India and when some of the other Indians would say Whites, I would cringe. I don't like to acknowledge or promote such divisive language.
" I don't like to acknowledge or promote such divisive language."
"White"is not a skin color but a culture. Like "Acting white."
I was referred to as 'colored' by a white woman once and a professional woman at that and she was talking about it in the context of my (wrongful) tenure denial. It felt weird. I have never thought of myself in those terms maybe because I didn't grow up here but I would like to think everyone else would have my supreme confidence in who they are as individuals and live their lives the way they see fit to the best of their abilities and circumstances. I see a boulder (not a chip) on most AAs who grew up here -- even the rich ones who have made it have not got past the old history -- they should help their own to forgive and move beyond. The difference I saw in academia and elsewhere between AAs who have been here for generations and new African immigrant students/others is huge. The new immigrants are confident and hungry for success. I think the question is for how long do you entangle yourself in the past? Break free. Hold yourself accountable. Maybe I am naive.
Sadly, you are naive. As I was, as a foreigner here also.
The problem here is, as you see, not merely a matter of race, but of tribe. And its more than two tribes. It is at least four or five significant tribes.
Politics and academia are fantasylands.
Reality is cleaning up after your father in law's diaper leaks while you are spoon feeding him breakfast.
Wrong Airport!
When I was learning to fly, my dad said I have to become proficient in flying at night. So we picked a nice clear night for my first night flight. After take-off it was beautiful with all the lights. The city lights were so bright it wasn't a problem.
Dad then handed me the map and said, I want you to fly to Skyroads airport. I find it and set my course. It gets darker and darker the farther out we fly. Then it becomes pitch black and I'm getting a little vertigo. My dad asks me where we are, and I tell him where I think I am, and he doesn't say anything.
Finally I get to where the airport should be and I key my microphone to turn on the airport landing lights, and out of the darkness I see two lights. Two! One at each end of the runway. So I start my approach and my dad asks me "are you sure you have it" and I say "I'm sure".
I landed on the grass strip and it was so short I had to veer from side to side in a wild S-turn to not go flying off the end. I pulled off and shut down the engine so dad could give me my critique, and we both needed a cigarette.
He said it wasn't too bad, a lot of minor errors, but as they say we didn't break anything, and no one died. I asked him why the hell he picked this damned place, and he said any fool can land in Oklahoma City at night. That's not what night flying is. Night flying is in the middle of Idaho with no moon, no stars, no lights on the ground, and an 11,000 foot mountain to the left and right. Oh God, I had a bad feeling about the next flight.
When I got my pilots license the reviewer was reading my log book. He looks at me and says I think you made a mistake here. It says you landed at Skyroads at night. Oh yes I said. I landed there three times. No, no, he said, there's no landing lights there, you must be mistaken. No, I keyed the microphone and two lights came on. One at the start and one at the end of the runway.
He fell out of his chair laughing. Holy crap! No, no, those aren't landing lights, they are just barn lights. What!?? No way! So I called my dad and he said yep, that's true. The microphone had nothing to do with it. They are always on at night. I said, you could have killed us. Naw! I used to land in places darker than that.
Dad got his license in 1939 when they had the Civilian Pilot Training Program (CPTP) in Minot just before the war, when he went to the Teachers College there. He said they had one plane there that had a bent wing. The instructor would go up with them and cuss them out for not flying with any skill. Then when they landed he would tell them the wing was bent. He thought it was always a good joke.
I thought the world's smartest woman was that Marilyn vos Savant chick.
Something to do with switching from the first door you picked on "Let's Make a Deal."
I still don't understand the explanation, so I'm sticking with my first choice, dammit!
@coupe, great story but you had to have realized it was not a runway after you landed and perhaps got out of the plane after you landed. what did you do after you landed? Didn't you get off the plane and look around? Bear with me .. I know nothing about flying.
coupe: Great story
My dad (NASA pilot) flew around with me casually a bunch of times, but he refused to be my formal instructor. In hindsight that was probably the right choice. His standards were so high I don't think I could have ever achieved them, and the stress would have killed me. Besides, he wasn't actually a CFI.
But I did get to land a CV-340 at Oakland when I was about 16, so that was fun. (The statute of limitations on that has expired, I hope? Anyway, Dad is beyond the reach of even the FAA administrator now...)
pm317 said......you had to have realized it was not a runway after you landed...
Sorry pm, probably not well stated, but it was the real airport. It was a grass strip airport used for crop dusters and such. It was very visible in the night, being all nice and trim, and wild fields everywhere else.
Well Bob,
I used to have several Rose of Sharon bushes, purple, not white, and I liked them. The picture is nice (the dew and morning feeling) but the particular interest I have in form used to make me shoot straight down the flower axis when it was opening. It spirals as it unfolds. You might like it or we might be a different tribe of flower picture takers.
Thanks..great story Coupe.. Good that you were a better pilot than John Jr. and your dad had to have known you were ready, otherwise he wouldn't have made you do it.
Fred Drinkwater said...His standards were so high I don't think I could have ever achieved them
I know what you mean. My dad had a limitation in that he was not strict. He was kind of old school in that he never got excited about anything. After I would screw up, he would just say: "there now, see, let's not do that anymore."
That CV-340 looks scary with the props being only one foot off the ground.
pm317 and buwaya puti
You might be interested in the writer, Owen Wister, who tried to write stories about the different regions of the US around 1900. He wrote one southern classic, The Lady Baltimore Cake, he founded the western genre with The Virginian and he wrote about Boston, Philosophy 4. He was a racist, understand this in advance, but he saw something about the different tribes in the different parts all at the same time.
He had no understanding of the Boston of the Irish, my grandparents, living when he wrote - and he wrote as if they weren't there though they got to Harvard. He never wrote about the Midwest hence not about the Swedes then living there, my grandparents.
But on both sides of my family they charged ahead and did get somewhere. It was done, it is being done but for some reason it isn't the literary fashion to acknowledge that part of life here today. People think it's being Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. I think when a real story is told it's far more interesting than picking scabs and putting on Red Guard displays of contrition and self-righteousness. I think there isn't a one-size-fits-all national narrative of coming of age or of coming into the country. So that's why I like Owen Wister though he had no understanding of immigrants or the Irish. He did try to feel the different American narratives of those he did understand, how they were different, how they were American though different. Current writers seem to me to be straining to be "teacher's pets", to prove what good little boys and girls they are with what sweet little attitudes.
When I first came to this country, my hubs had a coworker, another Indian who had just learnt flying and he talked about it all the time. I started thinking about it and wanted to learn (anything is possible in America! right?) but my stupid PhD and chasing tenure got in the way of it and now I feel too old..
PM, yea John Jr. was in conditions like flying in a cloud. Night flying is much easier. Even though it's dark, the rods in your eyes have a black and white TV look. In the clouds, they have a TV is "off" kind of look :-)
P.S. To remember the test question of which part of the eye do you use at night, the rods or the cones?, it's easy for men to remember you use your "rod" at night...
@wildswan, growing up in India, I perhaps know about 'tribes' more than others. There are some 22 well developed languages and 10s of religions with micro-religions and sects and 1000s of deities and other related everyday practices. Intermarriages are looked down upon on a micro scale though things have changed in the last couple of decades. It is diversity like no other but they all bond together as one India. How does it do that? It is perhaps a little easier for it because most of them look like the same species. America on the other hand has built its communities taking 'tribes' from all over the world, a true melting pot of sorts. It was a human experiment done well but it is going downhill fast.
2 Things....
1. Tim in Vermont, the smartest woman I know was my college roommate and still, 43 years after we graduated from college, my bestie (next to my hubby). You know who you are, Janet. She reads this blog and she is, by far, the smartest woman I know.
2. My grandson is playing in his little-league all stars championship game today. Go Pasadena South!!! Go Luke!!!!
Vicki from Pasadena
The inevitable slide to winter. :(
I get that feeling that the summer is soon coming to an end when Mimosa trees start blooming. {ha.. disappointed in Google when I searched for Mimosa, all it brought up was the drink}.
Nice. Hillary is accusing Comey of lying.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/clinton-fbi-director-was-speculating/article/2596020
Yeah, not indicting her made sense. She STILL denies she did anything.
wildswan, thanks for the reply. I'm a terrible photographer. My interest was mostly in fixing the link. It's a pretty bush that a good photographer could do well.
Nice. Hillary is accusing Comey of lying.
It's a denial dump. She did her denial on a day when journalists are preoccupied with something else. She needed to deny, but she didn't want anybody paying attention or challenging her on it.
In the future, if she is asked about it, she can say, "I already addressed that." And she will be condescending!
It's a metaphor:
A mixed black and white individual stands looking at his reflection. Moments before the photo was taken he held a bone in his mouth...the bone, in his grasp, was.a symbol of racial healing. He spied the reflection in the water of what appeared to be a bigger bone....this one represented transformative political power. He reached for the seemingly larger bone....
An opportunity lost, sinking into the depths.
Oops, sorry, we were supposed to change the subject.
Williams sisters win the doubles at Wimbledon.
" see a boulder (not a chip) on most AAs who grew up here -- even the rich ones who have made it have not got past the old history"
My black medical students are mystified by American blacks. The students are from Africa and Trinidad and one was from Eritrea.
They just don't understand American blacks.
My black dental hygienist is Ethiopian who grew up in Israel and is married to a white Jew. They go to Israel every year to see her family. She has 10 or 11 siblings, mostly in Israel but all over the world. We talk about race once in a while. She tells me she gets hate stares from black women who see her with her husband.
I had one American black medical student who was well adapted and had no issues. He had played water polo in college so was probably a mutant. After he had graduated and was an intern, I saw him on the ward one day and grabbed him. He had not done a rectal exam on a patient he had admitted.
I told him, "You just thought medical school was over." He laughed and then went and did a rectal exam on the patient.
I watched her explain that she trusted the State Department professionals to do their job right. It's not her fault they sent her classified information.
Nobody will ask why she still relies on the same people who couldn't do their job right. I mean, Huma sent her a lot of stuff like that. And she sent emails with classified info. If she is incapable of recognizing what is and what is not classified when she sends it herself, is she qualified to be President?
As a matter of fact, these professionals should have called the FBI the minute she sent her first private email, or requested they bypass the firewall to let her private server in.
They'd have been fired.
Probably charged with mishandling classified info.
And probably punished.
That'd be some good irony.
People keep ignoring that SHE didn't reveal her server. She didn't volunteer that it existed. That was found out during the investigation.
Little Miss Can't Be Wrong.
"it's easy for men to remember you use your "rod" at night..."
For greatest sensitivity you use averted vision.
"averted vision" brings back more memories.
I used to be a member of San Jose Amateur Astronomers. Naturally, being mostly young guys, we had to indulge in ***-size contests, even during the observation nights.
So there was one guy, with a Questar 3.5 (drool...) who always claimed to be able to see things with averted vision that the rest of us could mostly not make out even with 8" or 10" scopes. He was right just often enough that we never called him on it.
Of course, the Questar had some bee-u-tee-full optics. The only Maksutov you could buy retail, in those days.
coupe: The fun things about the CV-340 were 1) the guys with fire extinguishers during starts in case a backfire through one of the toilet-bowl sized carbs lit us on fire, and B) the push from water injection at full power during takeoff.
Dad used to say "Real pilots fly behind round engines". He always had a soft spot for the PW R-2800 on the 340 because the Corsair he flew in Korea had one.
@Coupe,
Any relative of yours fly for Delta?
Wildswan mentions writing about the midwest, and recalling my SJAA days, reminds me to recommend the book "Starlight Nights" by Leslie Peltier. An absolutely wonderful book about growing up on a farm in NW Ohio in the early 1900s. He also became one of the most prominent amateur astronomers of that era.
"Starlight Nights explains WHY observe the night sky" - David Levy
"There are old pilots and there are brave pilots, but there are no old, brave pilots."
Well, Coupe seems to have beat the odds - so far.
In other news, I read on another blog, Obama wants to become a venture capitalist. Not build a library (so boring), no charities (he wants the millions for himself) and he wants to strike it rich quickly with that insider advantage.
"Seeking out every hole is vagina greed" from "She's On THE Rag" used to appear to me as a straight forward concept called being horny.
And yet, the more I considered vagina envy contrasted with penis envy, the more the Steel Panther lyric seemed to contain profundity.*
Consider, men have evolved over millennia to see the life givers, woman folk, as higher beings than themselves and hence sought to give birth to ideas and/or things. This allows folks now to deny their envy of the human-birth abilities of the Best among us, mothers, because of the men's births holes filled.
The fact men are far far superior and advanced morally and physically and intellectually than lifelong barren women, especially a thousand fold if a barrenness of choice and not a faulty star conglomerate of repression inconceivable, doesn't appease men hence the envy label.
*same with their name which I associate with as being the opposite of a paper tiger.
Thanks for the reading tip, Fred. Going out tonight with the 15" for the first northen hemisphere observing of the year.
Not quite true. Have observed Mars and the Mercury transit this spring with the 5".
It's a new-fangled airplane that has a radio and lights. It probably had a starter too.
"In 2005, Mitch Mustain was the top high school quarterback in America; the first ever consensus Gatorade, Parade, and USA Today Player of the Year. He began his college career with eight consecutive victories. Then, momentum stopped.
Director: Matthew Wolfe
Writer: Matthew Wolfe
Stars: Mitch Mustain, Nolan Richardson, Joe Schad | See full cast & crew »"
The UW adapted during their Bowl game win the same season Mustain played for Arkansas, a year which could have been great for the Razorbacks but was, to put it very mildly, not great at all.
Meltdown. With all the talent one could hope for, in the end too many egos were actually quasi-ids instead.
Go Badgers.
"I was referred to as 'colored' by a white woman once and a professional woman at that and she was talking about it in the context of my (wrongful) tenure denial. It felt weird."
I'll bet it was shocking to you to be lumped in with those African Americans and their dark skin. Some people from India have even darker skin than many American blacks.
In other news, I read on another blog, Obama wants to become a venture capitalist.
Good for him! That's a huge step up from his socialist roots. Venture capitalism is pure capitalism. He would learn so many lessons as a venture capitalist. The world needs more venture capitalists!
What we do not need is corrupt government insiders siphoning money into venture capitalist firms. Stealing tax payer dollars is evil shit! I'm talking to you, ManBearPig!
Anyway, venture capitalist is way, way better than lobbyist. And I'm not at all convinced Obama is a greedy man. Where is his greedy history? He's not corrupt in that way. I applaud his move into the VC industry! Barack Obama as a venture capitalist is thousand times better than Barack Obama as a hectoring socialist. That's my kind of VC!
Ho Chi Minh bad, Kleiner Perkins good!
(Probably wants to be a green venture capitalist, but one of those guys will do awesome things. I would love a flying car that flies on garbage. Work on that!)
Hagar said...Any relative of yours fly for Delta?.
Nope. My parents were married.
I retired from aviation in 1993. The only danger I face now is if my recliner malfunctions.
I'll bet it was shocking to you to be lumped in with those African Americans and their dark skin
No, it didn't shock me to be lumped in with AA and their dark skin (I am not fair but I am also not dark). But it felt strange being called that because I never have or would describe myself using my skin color. Indian people have all shades of very fair to very dark. My mom was very fair and my dad was dark while his own sister was very fair. We are used to different shades.
Also, unlike every other politician in the world, Barack Obama has no contacts in Congress or anywhere else. He is an isolated man. He is not an ordinary politician in that sense.
I picture him in the VC industry, motivated by the intellectual challenges, and working hard to find the right solution and try to fund people who need funding.
Consider that Barack Obama is a very good man who is in the wrong job, and is bad at it. He could actually thrive in the right situation.
What we do not need is corrupt government insiders siphoning money into venture capitalist firms.
Like he did with Solyndra and other things? He is just waiting to make his millions. I just can't believe you bought his socialist shtick.
motivated by the intellectual challenges, and working hard to find the right solution and try to fund people who need funding.
You are joking, right?
did you forget the joyce foundation and annenberg initiative, that was his only real executive experience,
You are joking, right?
I am not joking.
California has at least two amazing industries. One is the film industry, which dominates the world. The other is the venture capitalist industry. This are liberal industries, where people take big risks with their money. That is a liberal at his best, when he takes big risks with his own money.
A liberal at his worst is when he takes big risks with other people's money. They do that, too!
Anyway, the venture capitalist industry (like Hollywood) is a capitalist industry. I find it very encouraging that Obama wants to become a banker. Yes, he wants to be a liberal banker. But a banker!
these are liberal industries
sheesh
The important thing for Obama, as a human being, is to cut him off from the coercive power of the state. Only conservatives should be put in charge of taxing citizens.
But out in the real world? That's a great fit for him! I applaud it.
See, I agree with what you say about VC. What I don't agree with is trusting Obama to do the right thing with it. Since I don't trust him, I don't want him corrupting it (with his government insider advantage). But it is swimming with the sharks kind of world and in my estimation, he is no shark but he might do things to muck it up.
Indian people have all shades of very fair to very dark. My mom was very fair and my dad was dark while his own sister was very fair. We are used to different shades.
And how does Indian society treat people of different colors...isn't it true that light skinned people get treated better than dark skinned people in India? Aren't the high castes dominated by light skin, and the lower castes dominated by dark skin?
Yeah, there is racism and a preference for light skin color. But the numbers don't cooperate, so you can't always be racist and prefer fairer skin. Higher caste does not always mean light skin. South Indians are darker skinned and many North Indians with their Afghan/Iran/Aryan influence are almost Caucasian looking.
India is a sub-continent with probably something like 2 billion inhabitants depending on where you decide to draw the boundaries. There is hardly anything you can't find at least some of there.
In my experience there's two flavors of venture investors. There's the kind that walks away from a deal with significant continuing government support or subsidy, and there's the kind that likes getting in the "investor marriage bed" with government.
A remark made at a diligence meeting I was at (regarding a Green Energy startup): "What we're really thinking about investing in here is not the founders and their company, it's the stability and rationality of the California legislature."
Turns out that's a deal-killer for some folks - go figure.
Original Mike:
A night nurse for my Father in law pointed at the sky recently and said "What's that?"
It was Mars, which I didn't realize was near closest approach until I looked it up, and then I dragged out my C-8 to show him. Jupiter, also. I used to have the sky calendars from Sky & Telescope on my wall, but life intervenes, don't it?
So many folks have never looked. SJAA used to do public observing parties in terrible places like K-Mart parking lots, but we always attracted a crowd to look at the obvious bright things.
I even found the kit for a 10 inch mirror I got to a first polish about (insert large number here) years ago in my parent's basement. It was my second try at a 10 inch, since I dropped and broke the first just as I was starting to parabolize it. Who has the time to make their own optics anymore?
There are always two sides to a story and this one is disturbing Why are there not whistle blowers? Why are not the prominent names he recites in the article playing a much bigger part in this conversation? Why is it left up to street thugs like the BLM? So many questions.
Only God knows all the facts.
I learned that from a Kid Rock song.
Along with Iris Dement, but separate.
Oh, and Catholicism* too, lest I forget.
*autocorrect is the most handsome, friendly, kind, just, entity conceived.
Vox, shirley you can't be serious, this is the story we are hearing 24/7, not the 44% increase in dead cops,
Have no fear for atomic energy; none of a them can a stop a the time.
Won't you help to sing?
Redemption songs.
Songs of freedom.
These songs of freedom.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFGgbT_VasI
I'm unable to raise a New Zealand guy this morning in the 6:45am 40m Oceana window, but he's barely audible and that means that my 5 watts are even less barely audible on his end. ZL2AGY
Fred: Yes, Mars was in opposition at the end of May but we're pulling away now. It's been really bright. I observed some surface features this time around, but Mars is a tough object. It's so damn small.
Cleardarksky.com let me down last night. Sky conditions much worse than predicted. Thin high clouds, transparency sucked. Heavy dew as well, everything's soaked. Did get some valuable experience shaking down my kit, though, so worth the effort. Time to go to bed now.
rhhardin said...
I'm unable to raise a New Zealand guy this morning in the 6:45am 40m Oceana window, but he's barely audible and that means that my 5 watts are even less barely audible on his end. ZL2AGY
My BIL is a Ham too.I'll find out his call sign or whatever its called and drop it here.
Turns out, according to German intelligence sources, Iran is trying to buy nukes.
I was assured ,by very reliable sources, that this could never happen.
There's a valuable lesson to be learned here.
If something appears to be a load of shit it is a load of shit.
Turns out, according to German intelligence sources, Iran is trying to buy nukes.
That makes me feel better because I was afraid they already had nukes!
It gets better.
http://www.defenddemocracy.org/media-hit/benjamin-weinthal-iran-sought-chemical-and-biological-weapons-in-2015-says-german-intel/
A rational person can conclude that Germany isn't the only place Iran is shopping for nuclear materials.
I would like to understand the thought processes that would lead a supposedly intelligent person to convince themselves that an arms agreement with Iran is a good idea. And give them billions of dollars in the bargain.
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