The color is unusual. I hope you like it, you, out there, not needing to breathe it. The air quality was officially rated unhealthy. Canadian smoke. We've got their geese and we've got their smoke. Have mercy on us, Canada. Talk about whatever you like in the comments. And please support the Althouse blog by doing your Amazon shopping going in through the Althouse Amazon link.
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41 కామెంట్లు:
I wonder if the next SpaceX rocket crash is going to accidentally hit the White House.
Screw the Canadian trade deficit. I'd much rather pay for Canadian lumber then get all of this Canadian charcoal dust for free.
With some cropping of the last photo into a portrait frame it could look like a long lost Rothko
Fantastic and surreal! Brava!
Smoke on teh water
In other news, apparently it's no longer racist and sexist to call Karine Jean-Pierre dumb.
Since Althouse has mentioned Julie London, I'll say that I think her version of "Blues in the Night" is one of the best. Peggy lee is good too. Sinatra probably has the best male version.
Was listening to some Tony Bennett's duets and wasnt impressed. tony is obviously past his prime, and the other younger star singers.... cant sing!
Probably the funniest video seen this week on YT, was a Elvis Sinatra duet. Both men were cracking up on camera. Amazing you could see on 50s TV, for free.
You may tariff our car parts, but you will NEVER tariff our wildfire smoke!
Pretty cool pics!
Hit up my secret used record store ( it's so secret I couldn't even find it and I know where it is ) which has an extensive set of $1 bins. By utter happenstance, I picked up an absolute gem of an album from 1972 "Jackie" by Jackie DeShannon. I grabbed it on whim - was only $1, how bad can it suck? WOW - was I ever wrong. Imagine a cross between Dusty Springfield, Bonnie Raitt and Carole King. Van Morrison even shows up for a duet. Great songs with good production values. My favorite tunes being "Laid Back Days" with a long guitar solo over the last half of the song... (https://youtu.be/6El7bHSPTjU?si=idGt2ZEVF8Y9kBPoand) and "Would You Like to Learn How to Dance" (https://youtu.be/NN9GQ4D2VS4?si=1WBbSxIRLxn5_g0a)by Steve Goodman (Seven Bridges Road). Not one filler song on this entirely killer album. We've listened to it three times now in two days. Great covers of John Prine, Neil Young and Van Morrison tunes. It's on eBay and fairly cheap if more than $1. Highly recommended.
Vinyl - VG condition.
Note: Tom Dowd of Allman Bros fame produced this exquisite record album.
Is that the Smokey Mountains?
Maybe Curtis LeMay is back.
So we are buying a kind of distressed house in a great neighborhood, and I was looking for some design ideas. I uploaded a couple of pics of the outside from Zillow into ChatGPT, and wow, it renders the house photo-realistically in whatever color you want. You can take a door you see on Wayfair, or something and upload a pic of it, and it will insert the door into the picture, admittedly it's hit and miss, and you have to wade through some results, but I managed to get a design with color, the door, and it even picked out some really great sconces, and it rendered it photo-realistically and it looks like it came from a design pro.
One funny thing was that we were brainstorming colors and I asked for a Palm Beach pink, the house is in Florida, and it rendered the house in pink, alright, but it made the lawn overgrown and put a fishing pole on the porch! So maybe it was making a joke, or maybe most of the pink houses in Palm Beach County that it was trained on are out in the Acreage or Loxahatchee.
Anyway, I don't know if AI is coming for everybody's jobs, but it does work that a person might ordinarily have paid a professional for, pretty cheap.
Beautiful sickly pallor. Sorry you're getting it, glad I'm not.
Like millions of homeowners, and many of you, I have been getting calls, cards, and letters for the last several years offering to buy my house.
Today I got a letter with a twist--they'll buy my house and lease it back to me as part of one transaction. Maybe this has been going on in other markets already, but it's a new concept to me.
Budgets of over 6 trillion.
Trump’s rescission package has a Big Beautiful 9.4 Billion in cuts.
This year the MLB will pay players approximately 5.1 billion dollars.
I’m making a plan and running some numbers; I’ll get back to you later.
I am Laslo.
I would not be happy there. I only ever smoked a pipe, and I quit over fifty years ago, but ever since quitting I cannot stand the smell of tobacco or wood smoke. Anyone else out there who quit smoking and now reacts badly to smoke?
There’s an online rumor that the Canadian wildfires were deliberately set by climate freaks to destroy Canada’s oil shale reserves. That the rumor is even plausible says a lot about the climate alarmists and the crazed fools who believe their bullshit.
I’m liking the last photo. An ominous vibe, good analogy for the shit show that was today.
And— thank you heartless Aztec for that primo rec!
Jaq, I’m planning to remodel and paint this year. ChatGPT (or any AI) for color suggestions is a great idea.
The last photo reminds me of Monet.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impression,_Sunrise
Oh my Lord, tuned in after away for awhile and the worlds two biggest narcissistic, ego driven man babies are airing each others dirty laundry in public, with the trump Epstein tapes and his big beautiful debt raising abomination of a bill and the graft and contracts by the government and the Russia Russia contacts with the drug guy. Its like the ENQUIRER with these people. Plunder and pillage of the American people .What is the matter with Republicans who put up and cosign for this public crap. Bannon and Musk calling to impeach trump, trump sayIng hes gonna have DOJ investigate Musk ,hes an illegal. Musk says trump is wherE he is because of his money and he would have definitely been nowhere without him..WTF ALL THE USUAL SUSPECTS UP IN HERE WILL BE MAKING EXCUSES FOR THESE TWO CHILDREN in mans clothes. Spoiled ass divas! trump tells Putin I guess your gonna have to bomb more kids if thats whet you think,, No your right no sanctions on putin because of the "fake ass peace deal: WEAK as putin rolls over the manchild..Leaders around the world watching the two eog nuts trying to scratch each others eyes out. :(
I hope Musk goes on Rogan and explains himself. It would be great entertainment and likely do him some good. The JRE Confessional.
It's stupid to be happy about the split. It's too bad they couldn't make it work. Chalk one up for the DC establishment.
Trump’s childish vindictiveness towards Musk is a step too far. Maybe he deserves everything he got and gets.
@Heartless Aztec:
"I grabbed it on whim - was only $1, how bad can it suck?"
Back in the day, the only difference between a big hit record and disapperance was payola, or having the budget to manufacture and distribute 45 records to every radio station in the country. It also helped if the performers were attractive and their product could be tied to a movie or TV show (e.g., Elvis).
I find the quality of music in the discount bin (or, unknown DIY modern streamers) equals or beats the quality of the big name performers. It surely has more variety. Still, I don't stick with 90% of what I try regardless of name and reputation.
Judge Blocks Trump’s Ban on Foreign Students at Harvard ~ WSJ
'Ivy League school argued in court filing that president’s move is illegal retaliation'
Prediction: Trump will lose this one, too.
Harvard should sue for damages. It's beyond egregious at this point.
Harvard trains the best lawyers of the country and has emeritus law professors in its rank. Any legal battle against this institution is foolish, the classic Trump tactic of legal harassing is going the other way.
@ Heartless Aztec, the full album is also on YouTube:
I can't copy the direct link, but if you search "Jackie DeShannon Jackie full album," it comes up at top of the list. I'm looking forward to giving it a listen! Thanks
One thing about using Chat, anyway, for colors is that you have to coach it a little bit. You can upload a swatch, some screen grab of a color you like, but it might be a little bit off, and you have to say things like "a little paler" or "a little more green," but it will listen and get it right. It could be the Grok is better at it, but I stay away from Grok the same way ex smokers avoid cigarettes.
It looks like we might have a whole summer of "Canadian Sunrise" photos. These massive wildfires take weeks and sometimes months to dissipate. Ecoterrorists playing their sick games.
There's been discussion here in recent days concerning whether the Trump administration's going after miscreants within the preceding Biden administration is mere unjustifiable “revenge” on Trump's part, and thus (if so) should be eschewed.
No, it shouldn't. Because pace Lord Acton, power doesn't corrupt; immunity corrupts.
So said John W. Campbell, Jr.—a man who has been termed the “father of modern science fiction”—a powerful writer in his own right (e.g., author of “Who Goes There,” filmed as The Thing), but also editor for many years at Astounding/Analog magazine, from which influential position during the last century Campbell cultivated a whole generation of hugely influential science fiction and fantasy writers: Robert A. Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov, A.E. van Vogt, Poul Anderson—the list goes on and on. Nor do I accept the latter-day slandering of him by the “Woke.”
Anyway, it was Campbell who pointed out, in one of his characteristically thought-provoking editorials in Analog, that it isn't power per se that is so corrupting (or if power is unlimited, absolutely corrupting); rather, it's immunity from negative consequences from the improper use and abuse of one's power, that's corrupting—and which finally (if one is totally immune from encountering such consequences) becomes absolutely corrupting.
1. As a for instance (these examples are mine), perceptive French visitor to the fledgling United States, Alexis de Tocqueville—in his famous (1835-40: originally 2-volume) tome Democracy in America—observed how American polities would often grant magistrates very considerable powers; but then simultaneously made them stand frequently for reelection—moments when they can be tossed out on their ear if the electorate sees them as abusing their powers. Tocqueville noted that, as a result, at least in democratic America of that day, politicians gratifyingly-frequently did not abuse their power—at least not flagrantly, despite oftentimes wielding a great deal of it—precisely because they were not immune from consequences if they became (noticeably) corrupt, and they knew it.
2. Another, commonly experienced exemplar might be public interactions with petty (and less than petty) bureaucrats (employees of the proverbial “DMV” [Department of Motor Vehicles], for example), who in reality may possess little actual power, but—because bureaucrats are often largely immune from suffering consequences as a result of throwing their weight around—the public gets trashed, with little recourse.
Thus—according to Campbell—it's immunity, not power as such, that's at the root of (much) human corruption.
I think we're seeing that principle in operation big-time in society today.
____
(John W. Campbell, Jr., editorial: “Breakthrough in Psychology,” Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, December, 1965. The piece also appears in: John W. Campbell, Collected Editorials from Analog, selected by Harry Harrison, 1966; pp. 33 ff.)
@Michael McNeil: "Tocqueville noted that, as a result, at least in democratic America of that day, politicians gratifyingly-frequently did not abuse their power—at least not flagrantly, despite oftentimes wielding a great deal of it—precisely because they were not immune from consequences if they became (noticeably) corrupt, and they knew it."
With hindsight the underlying difference was 90%+ were true believers in northwestern European protestantism. Many were fresh-off-the-farm idealistic immigrants without much nuance in their thinking. The USA was indeed a "Christian Nation" until the Moral Majority of the 1980s and Promise Keepers of the 1990s faded to political footnotes.
The left dove headlong for Hollywood hedonism in the 1950s and 1960s, and tribal identity politics too (Black -> Women -> Gay -> all Brown people -> Transgender -> infighting and the hatred of Asians, Jews, all things White, and bio-Women). By the 2000s they had no link to any stable, sustainable, or coherent moral framework. See Harvey Weinstein's career and the lyrics to Whitney Houston's "Greatest Love of All" song.
A moral framework need not be Protestant, just sustainable and sincerely enforced to control corruption. This rules out Catholicism (embedded politics), Hindism (embedded economic classes), and many more tribal-culture-religion mashups that guarantee immunity for their leaders.
Recently, purportedly science- and astronomy-oriented pages on X (and likely elsewhere) have posted photos of a brilliant star-spangled sky as being what the night sky supposedly looks like on Mars—which is fake, fake, fake. Why? Because Mars' atmosphere—though thin, about 1% as thick as earth's—is thick enough to support (much) dust hanging around in the air; nor is there ever precipitation (rain), which on earth can thoroughly clear the air of lingering dust. Beyond just ordinary blown-up dust, there are local and even planetary dust storms on Mars which can raise the aerial density of suspended dust (sometimes planet-wide) to extreme levels, for months at a time.
To quantify this effect, there's the concept of “optical depth”—a measure of the amount of optical scattering occurring due to particulates in the air. Very clear skies on earth have an optical depth of about 0.1. On Mars, during a dust storm, the optical depth can be 5.0 or greater. But even after such dust storm(s) cease, the residual level of dust lingering in the martian air typically stands in the range of 0.5-1.0—corresponding to severe urban air pollution, drifting/falling volcanic ash, or smoke from wildfires, on earth.
Thus, during the day on Mars—in footage taken by, e.g., the Curiosity rover (in Gale Crater) or Perseverance rover (which recently departed Jezero Crater)—those (several km or miles distant) crater walls are nearly always, to a great extent, hazed almost out of visibility by ambient dust in the air.
In other words, what the “seeing” is like right now in Madison (at night) due to the distant Canadian wildfires, is about what the night sky would look like—during relatively good viewing conditions—on Mars.
The smoke is so thick here that it's noticeable in the air just looking across the street.
Just now, Apple Calendar popped up an alert for Eid al-Adha.
I'd have to be in a permanent post-vegetative state to care less than I do right now for Eid al-anything.
So I click on the unsubscribe button, only to discover that, according to Apple, Eid al-Fuckall is a US holiday.
The red cat is about to pounce.
If you look at the manufacturing jobs tab on the BLS graph you see that manufacturing lost 8,000 jobs in May — so much for Trump's Tariffs encouraging domestic manufacturing. The problem is that any domestic business making things generally imports components. And now these imported parts are more expensive. Yet another self inflicted wound by Trump.
https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm
“The red sun was painted in the sky like a wafer, “ Stephen Crane, “Red Badge of Courage, “
“The red sun was painted in the sky like a wafer, “ Stephen Crane, “Red Badge of Courage, “
@ Heartless Aztec
Thanks for the recommendation on the Jackie DeShannon album. I streamed the 2003 re-release version today at work, Jackie… Plus, which has an additional 12 songs that were not on the original album in 1972. The additional material was excellent as well. I’ll post about it in tonight’s sunrise cafe.
A house fire had my wife, two pups and me in a hotel for three weeks that turned into 3+ months. The hotel bordered a large pond, home to a huge flock of geese.
When I walked the dogs I passed a bag station with an admonition to pick up the dog's waste.
I dutifully did so on walk number one.
The geese made that a joke. A ballerina on point could not have walked through that goose crap minefield.
Bring back the Christmas goose!
WTF! Pam Bondi,Karolin Levitt,The lady who shot her dog in the face,Marco Rubio, all the trump circus entertainers,said He is never coming back, ever, guess whoe back today to finally get his DUE PROCESS ,THE GAMES THESE PEOPLE PLAY WITH OTHERS LIVES and the right wingers who cheer them on, Shame on you/ABREGGO GARCIA is back..WTF you guys lie like a rug. Everyone of these people need to face the public and fess up they lied HE IS BACK...SICK....and the meaantime the 2 billionaire children are still cat scratching for the world to see. Get rid of these puppets to the wanna be authoritarians who dont give 2 craps about the American people.. Cant wait to see the spin the righties put on this...:(
Its the whole point"in America the right to due process ,nothing to do with innocense or guilt.If he is guilty ,prove it,try him and issue just punishment if not he goes free. Thats how it works in AMERICA, not so far in trump and his loyal toadies thought process illegal or unconstitutional as it may be. Rule of like right...
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