TheVat

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.

There's also an Occam's razor take on the notion that precise planetary and solar positions at birth influence your life and character - isn't it more likely that your DNA and nurturing and environment would have more effect? Sure, there could be some early seasonal effect from being born into hot weather and lots of airborne pollen v being born in cold midwinter, that kind of thing. But isn't it more likely that I'm analytical because my parents were, rather than because I'm a Virgo and the sun was blasting me with analysis-loving telepathy beams? Which causal explanation requires the fewest outlandish assumptions? Astrology annoys me, not least because I feel its pseudoscience tug the way many of my generation did. It's so easy to talk yourself into people fitting their sign, cherry picking examples as you go. Here's a concrete example: are Scorpio and Sagittarius people athletic because of celestial influence or because they are born in late Fall and thus among the oldest children in a primary school grade? A Canadian study found the latter, which seemed to be a result of early school athletic programs favoring the older children in a grade level - at age eight, say, an age difference of even half a year makes a difference in size and strength and coordination. Coaches pick selectively, and begin a process of favoring the oldest kids in a classroom. Think about how many small differentials like that, among schoolroom peers, can add up over a few years, creating a birth-seasonal effect on child development.

No, no, you don't need armies or weapons if you have feminine wiles and winsome smiles! Why do you think women keep pushing soy milk at men? Soy is a secret sterilizing agent that makes man-boobs appear and reduces any motivation to reproduce. Gradually, men are being pushed out (especially white men, who no longer control government, the Congress men are now just following marching orders from their wives!) and being replaced by females produced by parthenogenesis. Women are making up fake statistics to cover up this trend and conceal the secret war of extermination. Nolite te bastardettes carborundorum! I am sorry I said you are pontificating freely. That was wrong. Sometimes I am very stupid. From the soymilk and all the vegan entrees I am being fed. Did I mention the undescended testicles? Not important. Thanks again for your courageous struggle to get the word out on those deluded soymilk-addled kale-chewing elitist Liberals who are trying to exhume Ayn Rand's corpse and do unspeakable things to it! Onward, brother!

And yet here you still are, pontificating freely! Have to say, the quality of censorship has really declined since the X chromosomes started taking over. BTW, have you heard of the secret parthenogenesis lab those Civil War era ladies were running? My sister told me they had the process worked out in the Buchanan administration, which was the deciding factor in starting The War of Male Extermination a couple years later. Clara Barton was in charge. The nursing gig was just a cover. And why would my sister make that up?

Getting complete nutrition from a vegan diet is difficult - we humans evolved as omnivore hunter-gatherers. If simplicity you seek, a soy milk or pea milk with added B12 is a good start. Then whole grain, nuts, green vegetable (broccoli is handy as it provides both K and C), yams, mushrooms, and olive oil. And a little variety in your pulses (which are lentils, beans, chickpeas, soy) helps reduce gaps in nutrition. If you are willing to bend a little it may not be a bad idea to once a week have a few free range eggs or a few sardines. Compare how you feel (energy, alertness, strength) on the pure vegan diet with the almost-vegan diet.