April 15, 2024

are macaques using stone tools

do we have an "animal rights" forum, because this needs to be on the radar.

if, as this article indicate, macaques are teaching their young to make and use stone tools, they have entered a paleolithic era.

that alone entitles them to, i think, extraordinary protection , not only as endangered or threatened species (macaques usually don't qualify) but as fully sentient beings.

should we help them along? or should we enact some kind of "prime directive?."
my instinct is to allow them to make their own mistakes.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-stone-wielding-macaques-can-tell-us-about-early-human-tool-use/

April 14, 2024

Home Coming - a very short story of uncertain genre

Home Coming 4/13/2024

"Cassie, my love, come forward. we're home!"
My king. Always the greeking drama.
"At once, my lord"
MY LORD!!
"What a quaint village of mud hovels, my lord."
"Welcome to my kingdom, and you are my queen."
Again with the Greeking Drama. Who does this barbarian think i am? Ava Gabor?
"You are most gracious, your grace, but you took me out of Troy for this?"
Then this king breaks in to mansplain
"But Cassie, Troy was burning to the plain at the time."
Get me started.
"Only because you burned it to the plain. ..."
"It isn't my fault Odysseus forgot to warn me about lighting the torch inside that damn horse...."
"Forgive me, my lord, but this great joy to be home for our honeymoon is making me emotional"
After all, a priestess of Apollo must comfort the afflicted.
"Not now, Cassie, that is my wife on the pier with her new king.
Again with the Greek Drama. Maybe Orestes is cute.

rampart 4/13/2024

April 12, 2024

misgivings about the stormy danials trial

this crime involves a violation of campaign finance law, and could be used by media to explain these obscure laws to the public and perhaps call for their wider enforcement and if necessary, modification or strengthening.

but i think we know that is not going to happen. the one thing that no politician or lobbyist or media inc that runs campaign ads does not want to happen is actual application of these laws to them.

no. from a cable news standpoint this trial will be a parade of playmates and porn stars. if they are dressed frumpy for court, not to worry, there is plenty of video out there showing every square millimeter of stormy danials and (tastefully edited i'm sure) it will be running 24/7 during the trial.

do you really expect these girls to dress frumpy? the danger is visually confirming to trump's moronic fan boys that their hero is america's "alpha male.."

but this trial, unfortunately, is not about the girls, it is about the money.

March 31, 2024

Alan Toussaint - sneakin' sally throught the alley

there are a few pop versions of this song robt palmer is good , little feat better, but this is the man

March 24, 2024

Has Local News gone pre_Gutenburg?

The Greatest Show on Earth.

In the distant past, the publishers of a small local newspaper did not have a reporter available to review a show I was producing. This was great because i carry my own reviews and most newspaper publishers are happy to fill a column with words. That kind of frames the advertisements with gray space in the lay out.

We had great reviews. It was a terrible show.

Fast Forward to the Twenty First century.

I want to place an ad in a local paper.

Both of the publishers are dead. There is no small local newspaper.The reporter whose byline i borrowed so long ago was working at a motel.on the old us highway through town.

The reporter commented." the paper was a rag; It died."

I guess they were all rags. I guess they all died.

3/24/24 TMS

January 20, 2024

seriously it is time to talk about peace in the ukraine.

this will have to be negotiated sooner or later , why not sooner?

here is my proposal to begin negotiations

the 4 state solution -



1. immediate cease fire in place

2 look down at the new zelensky-putin line, eastern boundary of of ukraine

3. ukraine full nato membership-

4.those areas between the "zelput line" (or maybe just the "z line&quot and the former western boundary of russia to be divided appropriately between 2 or 3 statelets. each state self governing with assistance from goldman sax or the world bank.

5, the statelets to be totally disarmed and protected by a contingent of blue helmeted bangla deshis, or sherpa or canadians. maybe assigning canadians not such a good idea? can only try.

6. after a generation or 2 allow the statelets to join alliances and such



move we immediately and unanimously agree to proposal 1 , and adjoin until tomorrow to begin negotiations on proposal 2.

those children in the trenches, on both sides, could use a warm fire and a cup of potato squeezins on what must be a chilly night on the steppes.

January 6, 2024

maybe i'm an original series anti villain? spoiler alert

my old lady came out into the garage and breathed a cloud of something that i promised not to do before i got a prescription for it.

i feel as if william shatner had marooned me here whith a million clones of the reason i left the solar system in my rear view mirrors to get a pack of cigarettes in the first place.;

January 5, 2024

propaganda offensive 2024

i'm beginning to hear the chatter of the first propaganda offensive of election year.

they think they can hang epstein's life, and his death, on us.

i think we know better, who epstei'n's wing man was for decades.;


. the flight manifests prove that epstein shuttled people from dc to palm beach. not the island. are the released manifests and the lists of passengers real? consider the source. it will be coming from the usual suspects.

and why are they so happy that trump is not on the manifest? sense of relief? who expects an egotistic billionaire to ride in some one else's jet? more likely the pedophiles raced each other to the island.

so far i don't have a link. just their goofy message board posts.

December 15, 2023

14th amendment, paragraph 3

i can only think of 2 cinfederate who had gis block lifted by comgress, and became governor. can tiy think of any ithers?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_T._Nicholls

these are good quotes from the congressional record ........

"I think that we made the attempt [the war for secession] under the most favorable circumstances...of course we all regret our want for success; but I do not believe that there is anywhere any desire for a renewal of the attempt." f t nicholls

nichills lost an arm in the shenandoah valley and a leg at chancellorsville.he also lost an eye at ruchmond before robt e lee sent west for a desk job. from the congressional record ......

"My war record is a source of private misfortune without a corresponding gain to anyone. My services to my country (in 1874 he is NOT talking about the usa as his country). were not worth the price to me. Every battle I went into I was wounded, and so I could not serve all the time." f t nicholls2]

one more quote, from gen nicholls opponent in 1876"

"i'm, twice the man the general is" stephen packard repub nominee

that 1876 election was contested across the south. nicholls became governor as part of the "corruot bargain" that made rutherford b hayes president and ended reconstruction.

back to the present, and trump is compared to this guy, who did not shirk his duty to a lost cause for bone spurs or anything rlse.

April 15, 2023

jardiance vs januvia

i recently lost abt 40 lbs which lowered a1c dramatically. my endocrinologist called as soon as she got the results and stopped my lantus immediately. later that week my primary md took me off of januvia and started jardiance.

within days my appetite went to zero with nausea and weakness with a little dizziness. i stopped the jardiance and messaged the doctors to let them know. they are, of course, supportive and we are now monitoring the situation. blood sugar is a little higher but considerably more variable .

anyone else taking jardiance? how is it working for you?