TheVat

There are many minor conditions that are almost inescapable. Almost everyone over 65 starts to have some lactose intolerance, even if they didn't when younger. Almost everyone has some drop in natural melatonin production, which means needing to take more care to get enough sleep. Some loss of muscle mass is almost inevitable, which affects strength and resistance to cold. The immune system declines (with considerable variation between individuals) and recovery from illness is slower. Joints wear out, no matter how robust your overall health, and will need some extra attention. Other changes are common in western societies but less common in low tech pastoral societies where people do physical labor throughout life and eat less processed food and breathe less nasty city air, e.g. high blood pressure, acid reflux disease, diabetes, constipation, atherosclerosis, etc. So...walk everywhere, use your muscles, do chores minimizing machinery assist, eat lots of plants, pour on the olive oil and fish oil, do core strength exercises, and try to avoid biking behind a bus.

I also wouldn't rule out Jared as possible Mar A Mole. Emphatic denials notwithstanding. His remarkable two billion dollar check from the Saudis suggests he could have been in fairly deep and needed to provide something big to flip on TFG. The Guardian, earlier this month, reported that multiple Trump aides believe it was a family member who tipped off federal law enforcement about the classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. And Michael Cohen sees Jared as a possible mole.

I think your big worry, in terms of survival, would be alveolar rupture from the sudden depressurization. Also, strokes and other tissue damage from dissolved gases coming out of solution. IIRC, they tried some monumentally cruel experiments with dogs and found they could recover if the vacuum exposure was only a couple minutes. After that, there was often too much damage to lungs and other tissues to recover.

I find Barbour useful, even when disagreeing with him, on what time could possibly be other than a perceived rate of change that's essentially an illusion. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Barbour Warning: May contain traces of nut.

There are people who did not watch Game of Thrones and will not get that meme at all. The pop culture here in the USA is so besotted with fantasy these days, that there seems to be a common assumption that GoT is the watercooler show which everyone will get references to. Anyway, just a heads up: there are millions of us who aren't into the genre and won't know who Reek is unless we go a-Googling. Which I did. (GoT puts me in the same space I was in for years with Lord of the Rings - watching a few video clips, checking a wiki now and then, so that I'm not completely clueless when someone fires off a LotR reference, and of course fending off looks of shock, followed by either disgust or pity, when I mention that I've never read Tolkien or watched Peter Jackson's adaptations) (my daughter finds it a source of amusement, on the order of "My dad lives in the deep woods in a shanty, where he speaks in tongues all day and lives on moss and crickets.")

This kind of odds setting will probably be more informed in 2024. I couldn't see the source in the OP. What is it? Will be interesting to see if smart seasoned politicians who can pull in moderates, like Amy Klobuchar, will have another go at it. Or maybe a vigorous Progressive with charisma like Cory Booker. I also wouldn't rule out Gretchen Whitmer - in the current climate, a Midwest governor might get more traction than, say, Gavin Newsom (do Democrats want a former mayor of San Francisco when they try to woo Independents?). Biden has eighteen months to awaken to the realities of the aging process that are pretty evident to others. I don't want him to run because I don't like him, but because I do like him. He's earned a rest. I believe that, in his heart, Joe understands how vital younger blood is for the Democratic party, and will eventually throw his support that way.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/22/alexander-dugin-daughter-car-bombing-distrust-official-narrative/ First, Dugin is far less important than some people are suggesting. He’s not “Putin’s brain.” There is no evidence that Dugin has ever met Putin in person, much less offered him regular advice, and I am yet to be convinced that the Russian president spends his leisure time poring over turgid political tracts. Putin didn’t have to read Dugin’s writings to come up with plans to annex Crimea or undermine Ukrainian statehood — both of those ideas have long been widespread among certain members of the Russian elite. Putin has his own brain. Second, killing Dugin will likely have zero direct effect on Russia’s war against Ukraine. Staging such an attack in Putin’s backyard might boost Ukrainian morale a bit. But that seems like a lot of risk for the sake of eliminating someone who plays no actual role in the conduct of the war. Dugin, it is worth noting, has no government position; his only function is as a propagandist — and Russia is oversupplied with those. (Both Dugin and his daughter have indulged in genocidal rhetoric against Ukrainians — which, sadly, places them solidly in the mainstream of Russian public discourse today.) And that brings us to the most important point — that we shouldn’t take Kremlin statements at face value. Russia is a paranoid dictatorship prosecuting one of the most brazen acts of international aggression in decades. In 2014, Putin wholeheartedly denied that his troops were seizing control of Crimea until the operation was finished; today, six months after the start of the invasion, it remains a crime to state the truth that Russia is waging “war” in Ukraine. Dictatorships, by their nature, do not deal in truths. Any information released by the Russian authorities should be treated less as a description of reality than as a political tool. https://archive.ph/XIeh4 Non-PW version of above

I came from a real tough neighborhood. I bought a waterbed and found a guy at the bottom of it.

The ambassador to Kazakhstan? Wow, they really had to do some digging there. Maybe they should get a sound-bite from Borat, too. Re the Gingrich/Tea/Trump devolution, the one positive about many US voters is that they are fickle. Dangle a different set of shiny car keys in front of them and Trump will be forgotten. And, as Zapatos noted, the eternal battle will go on, driven always by the tension between oligarchy and democracy. And the dismal trend of running on "owning" some opposition rather than real problem solving with innovative policy.

Three guys walk into a bar. Whoa, said a bystander, that must have hurt! I don't know if that was a Rodney Dangerfield joke, but it sounds like one he'd make. I hear his voice when I read that.

Also wondered. False Flag is SOP for Russians. With satellite photos and live video on the ground these days, conventional FF (military attacks) is harder to pull off so it makes covert attacks like car bombings more attractive.

Many kinds of thinking do not require a framework of words. Using images, or anticipating certain physical movements, is often primary in the arts, and in crafts. And scientists often manipulate visual symbols in a mental space to develop a concept or work out a procedure. And there are ordinary activities, like rearranging the furniture in a room, where much of your planning will be visualization and not needing words. Maybe you could try extending that kind of manipulation of visual symbols to other categories? Like this: instead of making a grocery list, start visualizing the store where you usually shop and where food items are located that you like. Create a mental map of your coming trip and how you will move through the store, using as few verbal labels as possible. (Just an example - don't blame me if a spouse or partner yells at you because you forgot to get the Dijon mustard!)

If Sanna Marin ever chooses to carry on the above tradition, please post here ASAHP.

Russians like people to share houses (at least, based on my last viewing of Ninotchka), so maybe they can talk the Snowdens into making their hideabed available.

Sposiba for that, tovaritch! Meanwhile, blowing up the Kerch Strait bridge would be a nice setback for Russia. Good luck and straight shooting to Ukraine. https://archive.ph/kzvt0#a-bridge-to-crimea-is-a-vital-russian-link-and-a-potential-ukrainian-target (screenshot of New York Times coverage, for the paywall challenged)

I would think the high menaquinone content is key to the better mineral uptake with Jarlsberg. Evidence keeps piling up for K2 as a bone density protector. Somewhat whimsical, the science thread turning into a cheese pricing lamentation. Perhaps transport prices could be reduced (and carbon footprint, as well) by converting all hard cheeses into wheels and rolling them to market?

Am a little skeptical of a Jared-MBS deal on nuke secrets - though I'm sure the Saudis want something for their billions. I would still look to Putin having control over Trump, perhaps some kompromat. The blackmailing the FBI theory, if there's anything to that, would suggest a Trumpian lack of awareness of what happens to people who mess with the FBI. Would love to be a fly on the wall in the room where Trump attempts to blackmail the FBI.

Holding my breath causes me to see small blue dots.

Thanks, I had a spasm of undue optimism re human nature, but all better now. And you're right, there will always be remoras. And LOL the former guy rooting for Langella. (if there is a media character he really aspires to emulate, it's my guess it's Frank Underwood on House of Cards)

I don't know, it seemed like this is Julius and Ethel Rosenberg serious was a useful prod to discussion. With some news, res ipsa loquitur. Can anyone conceive of an innocent reason why someone would take H bomb design information home with them? (grandkids like coloring in the diagrams? make spectacular 4th of July fireworks? tired of real estate, thinking of second career in nuclear engineering? Offbeat theme for wallpaper?) If this proves true, I think Trump's supporters will start to melt away like they did in that room at the end of Dave, where Frank Langella, the villain, looks around and his crowd has quietly vanished.

Hehe! What he said. It would be cool of the creatures were a sort of mnemonic for the element. You achieved that with the carbon creature, which looks like a lump of coal. Or the iron, which seems to have metal armor. Some of the others it's harder to discern the connection. Phosphorus looks like the Grinch with an aura - not getting that. I have an idea for plutonium, but Disney might sue me.

The National Archives exploded that lie promptly. Wish all TFG's lies could be handled so quickly. The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) assumed exclusive legal and physical custody of Obama Presidential records when President Barack Obama left office in 2017, in accordance with the Presidential Records Act (PRA)," NARA said in a statement. "NARA moved approximately 30 million pages of unclassified records to a NARA facility in the Chicago area where they are maintained exclusively by NARA. Additionally, NARA maintains the classified Obama Presidential records in a NARA facility in the Washington, DC, area. As required by the PRA, former President Obama has no control over where and how NARA stores the Presidential records of his Administration," the statement from National Archives said.

(started writing this before exchemist posted) Due to the inverse square law, the gravitational effects of distant stars are negligible. When you were born, a neighbor in a house near the hospital was running their vacuum cleaner. This created some EMF emissions that might interfere with old tv signals back when they were on VHF frequencies, and would very slightly impact baby you's atoms. Would that make you a Vacuum Cleaner Baby, destined to go through life being tidy? Or perhaps there was a garbage truck backing up outside the wall of your birthing room. Would the miniscule gravitic force of that truck make you a Garbage Baby, destined to pick up debris? That's about how much sense astrology makes.

Yep. He called the bluff. And if the warrant stayed sealed, the Republican Right could push conspiracy theories from now up till the midterm elections in November. I would speculate that Jared is very relieved that the affidavits (the documents that you present to the magistrate judge in order to obtain a warrant) are staying sealed, since they would reveal witnesses. That could have made for some awkwardness at family dinners.