cyclonefence
cyclonefence's JournalI wonder if someone here can help me
This morning (I'm in SE PA) a little bird--goldfinch size--landed on a small tree outside my window. It was nondescript grayish, with gray/black stripes. But it had a big bright yellow patch on its butt! This was not a goldfinch; I know what they look like in early spring before they get their yellow. It was shy and flew when I tried to get a closer look. This guy looked like somebody had painted a big yellow spot on his butt--not his tail, his/her backside. Roger Tory Peterson was no help; I'd hoped it was a Confusing Spring Warbler, but I couldn't find a picture that even remotely resembled it. Any ideas? It has not returned today, and we have heavy bird traffic here.
Active shooter in Bucks County PA
Well, it came to us in bucolic Bucks County this morning, three dead (so far):
https://www.fox29.com/news/falls-township-shelter-in-place
I'm not so much worried about another civil war
as I am about another Dark Ages, when a majority of people scorned science and actively persecuted people engaged in things most people didn't understand. There are people today who believe the earth is flat; how soon will it be before someone points out that it's clear the sun goes around the earth, not the other way around.
A friend of mine believes the moon landing was a hoax "because it's impossible to maintain radio communication that far away." He is ill-educated yet basically intelligent (really!) and if I had the skills to teach him I would. But how soon before people who don't understand science (we already have creationists who have a foothold in some school districts) question everything we know about--oh, vaccines, say--because they don't understand how they work. So they make up stories about what's going on--vaccines are a way to implant chocolate chips for mind control, for instance.
I said to my friend the other day that he is living in the Matrix, where nothing is what it appears to be, and everything is controlled for some malevolent reason, like making your kids want to change their gender.
If Biden doesn't win, and Trump does, I truly feel we're heading down a road darker than anyone can imagine.
Why isn't there more mocking from Dems
of Trump's spectacular ignorance about just about everything? We post clips and quotes here and have a good laugh, but I can't help remembering how ruthless popular media--not just SNL--were about George W.'s stupidity. Why aren't we as Dems in congress and campaign workers and editorial writers more blatant about the astounding depth of Trump's ignorance--this is a guy, President of the goddam USA, who had to ask an aide "what's the big deal about Pearl Harbor?" And he went to fucking *military school*.
I know that part of the problem is preaching to the choir. MAGAs do not read or listen to anyone who disparages the Orange Rapist, but if we are relentless, our smirking at his stupidity might soak down through the layers of cotton wool his supporters have wrapped themselves in.
Making fun of him is our most potent weapon.
An idea for EV charging
It seems to me that it would help sales of EVs if there were more charging stations, especially on long stretches of road through farmlands and forests. Why couldn't property owners install (if they don't already have them) outdoor electrical outlets and charge, say, $5 for a measured amount of electricity? My sister-in-law's Prius charges up at my house twice a week, with no increase in my electric bill, so I think something like $5 or whatever would give the property owner a profit and would be attractive to someone like a farmer who might have room at the edge of her property for a car to pull over and charge up.
My husband and I have been investigating EVs and one thing we look for is range of mileage on a charge. If there were ample charging stations, the range would not be so important and might make many people more interested in going electric.
There's money to be made all around. Not only the property owner, but the state taxing authority, as well as some entrepreneuse who develops a self-serve charging station.
What do you all think?
Does Trump smell worse than a sumo wrestler?
My husband and I are fans of sumo (no judgment, please; so is Paul McCartney) and were watching a match filmed long ago when Trump was pres. and Abe still alive and PM of Japan. The Trumps were seated with an empty chair between Trump and Melania, who sat next to Mrs. Abe and Trump next to Abe. At the start of the match.
When the camera next showed the distinguished visitors, Abe had moved a seat away from Trump, so there Trump sat in the crowded stands with an empty seat on either side of him.
When I saw this the first time, I was struck by how envious Trump must've been of the sumo hairdo, which is almost as elaborate as his and which is cemented so firmly that it endures a fighting match. On second viewing, however, it's the isolation of Trump and his aura that I found fascinating.
Grammar nazis can't help them(our)selves
From a column in last Sunday's Philadelphia Inquirer, by regular columnist The Grammarian:
A new study in the Journal of Neurolinguistics from researchers at the University of Birmingham found that when certain people come across grammar errors, their bodies respond physically.
Heart rates change. Stress increases. Bad grammar activates the part of our nervous system that provokes the fight-or-flight impulse we get when being chased ... like by a tiger. All of that happens when we encounter someone breaking grammar rules. To some of us, it can feel like an attack.
Interestingly, we don't respond so violently when the errors are made by a non-native speaker/writer or someone with an accent (Polish, in the study).
So there's a scientific explanation for why bad grammar makes us angry. That's the good news.
The bad news: It's biology. It's instinct. It's the tiger that won't stop chasing us.
And there's nothing we can do about it.
But a good thing happened while I was in the hospital
I got a visit from a bariatric surgeon who told me he could fix my hernia!
I have the biggest hernia in the world. It's in my diaphragm, and my stomach and sometimes my colon pop up into my rib cage, making it hard to breath. My stomach is up there permanently, and the colon comes and goes.
This guy says there is a new robotic technique that he can use that will cause my own scar tissue to invade the mesh he'll put in there to make it stronger than ever, even if I cough a lot--I have copd.
So that will be wahoo! if it works. It's scheduled for Jan.2 as long as my cardiologist and pulmonologist sign off on it. I know my lung guy will be all over this like white on rice.
And I never would have met this bariatric surgeon if I hadn't been in the hospital for all that diarrhea.
Well, here's my terrible hospital story
Don't ignore persistent diarrhea.
My default setting is constipation. Then I got diarrhea. I figured Diarrhea? So what--it'll run its course. It went on and on. I ate only toast and bananas, then after consulting Dr. Google added plain boiled chicken breast. The first week I figured it was a virus, but nobody else got sick.
The second week (and into my second pack of Depends) I figured I must have food poisoning, so I continued with lots of fluids and chicken noodle soup.
The third week everyone was sick and tired of me talking about my bowels so I made an appointment to see the doctor early in the fourth week.
I felt fine this whole time, btw.
She sent me for blood work so I got that done, and as soon as I got home she called and told me to go to the ER because my potassium was dangerously low. All those bananas. I lollygagged because who wants to go to the ER plus I felt like the diarrhea was slowing down.
I got there and sat for hours and finally saw a doctor who said my heart was beating 133/minute, and they started doing stuff to try to slow it down, including a chemical stress test. Nothing worked, so they admitted me.
I felt fine.
I ended up, after ten MFing days in the hospital with a defribillator/pacemaker installed, and now I feel awful.
Plus I can no longer use our almost brand-new induction range, or the headphones I use to get to sleep at night, or the electrologist to rid me of chin whiskers, or have anything with a magnet in it near my chest.
I felt fine before all this.
I think Donald Trump is selling his mailing list
I've received two emails from Gym Jordan, and now some guy NavySealMeehan from Montana who wants me to send him money.
I've never sent money (duh) to Trump or to any Republican; I think I'm on Trump's mailing list because several years ago I answered a questionnaire. I haven't unsubbed because I like keeping track of what he and DJTJR are up to, and I've never until now had any emails from any other Republican candidate, much less a candidate from outside my state.
Is this an indication of desperate need for funds in the Trump camp? I sure hope so.
And keep those emails coming, Gym and NavySeal--I need a good laugh in the morning.
Profile Information
Member since: Mon Dec 5, 2016, 05:05 PMNumber of posts: 4,483