TheVat

Je suis désolé que mon français soit si mauvais. I guess, logic aside, I was given to understand (while traveling in Europe) that Americans starting out speaking in English was viewed as part of our whole aura of obnoxious entitlement. Asking if people speak English, in their country's language, is seen as a show of respect for where you are and sometimes even wins you a compliment like "Oh, are you Canadian?" (i.e. not acting entitled causes some to conclude you're not American) This phrase, of course, opens many doors for you in France: Mon aéroglisseur est plein d'anguilles.

A somewhat more balanced analysis of the issues of wildlife management and interaction with human populations. https://theconversation.com/colorado-voters-weigh-a-ban-on-hunting-mountain-lions-as-attitudes-toward-wild-predators-shift-238265#:~:text=Colorado's Proposition 127 would ban,is currently legal in Colorado. There is also, imo, a cause for concern when the pelt of the animal has a high monetary value. History has shown repeatedly that species populations can be decimated by (sometimes illegal) over- harvesting, when there's a profit incentive. Apex predator populations are quite vulnerable, in this regard. Non-lethal methods of management often better protect the species and actually reduce dangerous human-animal encounters.

Yes, especially for hunter-gatherers who might be camping next to water - a smell of decomp would be a warning of fouled water. Or finding a carcass - if it's gone off, they don't scavenge it. We came to perceive sulfur compounds like hydrogen sulfide as stinky because it indicates food unfit to eat or water not potable.

Who would fardels bear, To grunt and sweat under a weary life, But that the dread of something after death, The undiscovere'd country, from whose bourn No traveller returns, puzzles the will, And makes us rather bear those ills we have Than fly to others that we know not of?

My guess is Havel is pointing his pen at ideology of the type that gaslights, e.g. Stalinism, Natl Socialism, Trumpism, etc. I have to read further, but it seems like he's saying many people aren't finding real living philosophies in the slogans and aphorisms they're hearing. When he speaks of their conscience being deceived, it's likely he is not targeting, say, civil rights ideology or the human rights principles of liberal democracy generally. I will try to return to this - things be busy in the vat today.

When you use a Q-tip to clean your ear, you need to stop pushing it in when you encounter resistance. I'm sorry this advisory didn't reach you earlier!

You answer quite slowly: a girl with colitis goes by.

Reading The Power of the Powerless, by Vaclav Havel, came across this bit. "Ideology is a specious way of relating to the world. It offers human beings the illusion of an identity, of dignity, and of morality while making it easier for them to part with them. As the repository of something suprapersonal and objective, it enables people to deceive their conscience and conceal their true position and their inglorious modus vivendi, both from the world and from themselves." https://hac.bard.edu/amor-mundi/the-power-of-the-powerless-vaclav-havel-2011-12-23

I went to a costume party at a bar last weekend. I dressed up as a harp. When I walked into the bar, the bartender said, "Hey, what are you supposed to be?" I said, "I'm a harp." He said, " You're way to small to be a harp." I said, "Are you calling me a lyre?"

Spec thread, maybe?

I knew it! The French ARE a different species!

Wonder how many NK soldiers see this deployment as a possible way to get the hell out of NK and attempt to defect to the west.

Would humbly request our "bruh" consider dialing back the pseudo rapper talk, for purposes of reader comprehension.

Hmm. So...the boy is hiding where the house's landline is located, and that's in a place where trained personnel can't find you and no one hears the ring. I so want this joke to work, but...

Paging Abraham Wald! Note the OP article title: Religious Affiliation and Suicide Attempt. So statistically we have survivorship bias - just like with Wald's ww2 combat planes being the sample that made it back home. We have no reports from those who succeeded at offing themselves. For all we know, they did the job properly partly because they were filled with religious confidence that a better afterlife awaited them. Dead people tell no tales. Yet another skew. And this, Unaffiliated subjects were younger, less often married, less often had children... Younger, yes, as religious affiliation rises with age. Yup, "horribly" skewed was about right.

Also depends on the kind of standing. If you aren't standing at parade rest (the formal military position, quite motionless), then you can flex the calves occasionally and keep blood from pooling. I recall a standing job where I'd rise up on tiptoes - flexing the soleus and gastrocnemius periodically. It reduced fatigue and made it much more comfortable to keep standing.

This not seeing beyond immediate effects is what the party out of the WH tries to encourage every election cycle. Our party system stinks.

That's sort of what I did. Informal consultation confirmed that leaving it open was their best option. They have to get one of those Elizabethan collars for a while, so she will leave the wounds alone and not lick off the hydrogel. Those, fortunately, are $10-15 at a pet supply store.

And there was the polymath Cardano (complex numbers pioneer, among other things) who published an astrological horoscope of Jesus (at a time when astrology was considered a science) and was imprisoned for several months and lost his professorship in Bologna. The Church could be hostile to both good science and bad. And Mercury was retrograde in Libra at the time.

Welcome to the USA. Much of the working class can no longer afford health care, veterinary care, or home ownership. The loveliest blossom of capitalism the world has ever seen! And the family wouldn't accept money from me. The cat is hanging in there. Cheers.

Is that Terry Pratchett? Sounds like him. On a different (lower) plane of humour: With the passing of Mitzi Gaynor, I am reminded of this knock knock joke... Knock knock. Who's there? Sam and Janet. Sam and Janet who? (sings): Sam and Janet Evening...

I've been asked to help save a mauled cat (stable ATM - I've cleaned and debrided the wound with saline, cleared back some pelt, and applied vetericyn as a hydrogel over the gaping wounds - she's now sleeping and doesn't seem febrile). The veterinary option doesn't work for the cat's owner, and I have enough basic medic skills that I offered (reluctantly) to do what I can. Two big openings which suggest canine upper and lower jaws coming in and ripping out some hunks. Looks like the visceral peritoneum is intact, with skin and fascia torn away. Emough missing that it would need either a very tensioned purse string suture or some kind of graft (clearly beyond me). There's a whiff of infection, so I want to leave it open for now. What is hard to tell is if there's any suture pattern that will really close things up and not rip when she moves. The alternative is "healing by secondary intention," where wound stays open and collagen fibers start to grow over and form scar tissue. This will leave bald spots prominent

If the mere fact is they are a deliberately lying sociopath who has openly stated they will begin a dictatorship and use the military to round up enemy Democrats, then the cliff option is an excellent one.

What he said! Amusing to hear that Trump, at a rally this past weekend, advised people to get out and vote on Jan. 5. In the social sciences, a result may be considered statistically significant if its confidence level is of the order of a two-sigma effect (95%), while in particle physics and astrophysics, there is a convention of requiring statistical significance of a five-sigma effect (99.99994% confidence) to qualify as a discovery.[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/68–95–99.7_rule A thin reed I shall cling to the next three weeks, bobbing on an anxious ocean. On an unrelated topic, do any of you Canucks have a sofa-bed?