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I do think N Pelosi was putting a lot of pressure on him to bow out. But Pelosi seems to want a run--off to pick the nominee, not simply nominating K Harris. I didn't really think he could win this time around and in this political climate, but I felt his slide in the polls wasn't so much gains for D Trump, rather losses for J Biden amid Republican, and Democrat, criticism of his mental health. And I'm not sure any other nominee, including K Harris, can do any better. Democracy in the US is between a hard place and a rock.

Delegates are now free agents, by party rules, but likely it will be seen a better chance of winning if they accept Joe's endorsement of Harris (especially given her sterling resume) rather than waste time on all the horsetrading and pyrotechnics of an open convention. If they still do the early pre-convention nomination balloting, they can give Kamala and Veep a couple extra weeks. I'm hearing all kinds of weird buzz. One is a Unity ticket, e.g. Harris-Cheney or Harris-Kinzinger. While such a hypothetical fistful of bipartisanship could be interesting and motivating to some Log Cabin Republicans and Indies, I doubt it would happen. More likely, a strong governor as a VP, like Beshear, Newsom, Shapiro or Whitmer. Or a Mindbending Number of Firsts ticket, Harris-Buttigieg. I want to be the first to point out that a Harris Beshear pairing could be called (cough) the Barber Ticket. 🙄

https://www.theonion.com/loyal-dog-spends-hours-each-day-humping-owner-s-grave-1850042397

TIL that children's tendency to dislike vegetables may actually be an evolutionary advantage. Vegetables tend to be somewhat bitter, but so are poisons. Children have more taste buds than adults, since we lose them as we age, which makes them more sensitive to this bitter taste. With their smaller size, it takes a smaller amount of poison to be lethal, so a greater tendency to spit out bitter foods decreases the chances of ingesting enough toxins to be fatal if they put the wrong thing into their mouth.

Today I learned that sometimes you can increase photosynthesis in plants by reducing the sunlight they are exposed to. While listening to a gardening podcast there was a discussion of the impact of heat on photosynthesis. Some garden plants stop photosynthesizing at about 85 F. If you provide some shade you can locally cool the area and provide potentially a couple of extra hours per day of plant growth.

One of the many oddities about the hippopotamus amphibious is that they can neither swim nor float in water: https://animals.sandiegozoo.org/animals/hippo Here is a photo of a hippopotamus at rest in shallow water which I took myself a few years ago - coincidentally in the zoo at San Diego California.

I have not heard of this guy. What are his qualifications and areas of expertise?

No. The weight of the Saturn V at launch was ~3,000 mt: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn_V But that rocket was able to carry up to 130mt into Earth orbit. Perhaps that is what you have picked up.

Blast! I was just about to link my "String's Pulled-Out-Of-My-Arse-and Evidence-Free Lectures On Things you Didn't Want to Know But I Think You Should" channel.

I'm unsure why that makes us "funny".

All the sick bastards are ill wishing Trump.