mtbc | Reading

Stressful day, also stressful preceding night. Bref: toilet started leaking nonstop yesterday, not gushing but chronic trickle as well as its wonted 5 second whoosh. Called plumber first thing this morning and emailed back and forth all day about replacement. Can't have the one I want because my toilet has a ten inch setback while twelve inches is more standard. But plumber comes tomorrow afternoon with new toilet and will take the old one away for an extra $125. Their practice is to leave it out front for the garbage guys to remove, but I see old toilets sitting on front lawns for weeks because the garbage guys are picky. And of course, if it's at all cracked they will not touch it because broken porcelain is sharp and the longer you leave it, the likelier it is to break or be broken.

Tell me anxiety is hereditary because boy is it. Am deliberately not thinking about what might go wrong still, but it's a battle.

Also common wisdom is that toilets only last ten years, which is excuse *me*, someone's got a sweet racket going. Mine is 19 years old so I suppose I've had good innings.

dewline

This system's about 34 light-years away.

This paper argues for five:
https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.09343

This one argues for six:
https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.06413

If I understand what I'm reading correctly.

For Trek purposes? Romulan territory until the supernova that burns Romulus and Remus is my guess.

http://hygmap.space/index.php?select_star=853855&select_center=1&u=ly

For Marvel, DC, Honorverse, Babylon 5, Galaxy Quest, Alien, Traveller, or anything else? I dunno yet. (Well, maybe Solarian League for the Honorverse? Do I want to keep caring about that anymore?)

Current Mood: nerdy

shadowkat

Disclaimer: As always, good news is often in the eye of the beholder and mileage may vary on the below. Hopefully you'll find something to make you smile.

1. Only about a quarter of medical schools include training on how to discuss safe gun storage and firearm injury prevention with patients. Scrubs Addressing the Firearm Epidemic is working to change that — and ensure that future doctors play a role in preventing gun violence.

https://www.thetrace.org/2025/07/medical-school-gun-violence-prevention/

2. Great land protection story from the Port Townsend Leader about the exciting recent purchase of 81 acres of forest and wetlands by our friends at the Northwest Watershed Institute (NWI)! The land will be permanently protected and stewarded as part of NWI's 500-acre Tarboo Wildlife Preserve in the Quilcene area. Jefferson Land Trust is proud to have played a facilitation role in this project by working with the U.S. Navy to secure matching funds through the Navy’s Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration (REPI) Program. The Navy’s funding purchased a restrictive easement on the land that prevents development (but does not grant any rights to the military for use of the property).

https://www.ptleader.com/stories/northwest-watershed-institute-purchases-forest-for-addition-to-tarboo-wildlife-preserve,215813

3.Senator Chris Van Hollen’s amendment in the Senate Appropriations Committee to "retain, preserve and compile" any records related to Jeffrey Epstein passed unanimously. On that note, the Epstein files are proving to be a real thorn in Trump’s shoe, and I’m here for it.

https://www.ksby.com/politics/senate-committee-unanimously-approves-amendment-that-would-preserve-jeffrey-epstein-files

[The fight over the Epstein files and release of the client list is amusing, partly because it's one of the many platforms that the Doofus ran on, and right now, his base, Magna is furious at him. Over on Twitter, Stephen King got into trouble with his fans - for stating that the Epstein Client List was about as real as the Tooth Fantasy and Santa Claus. ]

4.L.A. Mayor Karen Bass has signed an executive order to provide cash cards worth several hundred dollars—funded by philanthropy—to undocumented immigrants who miss work due to fear of ICE raids.

https://mayor.lacity.gov/news/mayor-bass-issues-executive-directive-support-immigrant-communities

5.US District Court Judge Nina Wang has fined two of Mike Lindell's attorneys $3,000 apiece for their error-riddled AI-generated legal brief. Lindell, of My Pillow, lost the defamation case and is on the hook for $2.3M in damages.

[Yeah, don't use AI to write things folks. It's a computer code created by IT - and IT can't write that well, and some can't write to save their lives.]

https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/5389852-mypillow-ceo-mike-lindells-attorneys-fined-for-inaccurate-ai-generated-brief/

6. Poland generated more power from clean energy sources than coal for the first time in June.

https://www.ft.com/content/ae920241-597e-49d9-a4b9-bfdfa9deabb6?accessToken=zwAGOQFSub4YkdOukgJBWX5J2dOkub_fqd6rtg.MEUCIC7wxgJShKjVR3u717YcwKFA3kRvRTs4yUanM49uZ5ZYAiEAiv7r4PrLesRguLHgvVlrgsCiItG8QsBG5GNgqjqgj5A&sharetype=gift&token=4a8b6641-d698-4252-8c2f-e667b96f2351&ref=climativity.com

7.Michael Jordan opened his fourth free clinic for people who are uninsured or underserved in North Carolina, his home state.

https://www.newsweek.com/sports/nba/michael-jordan-opens-another-free-health-clinic-native-north-carolina-2050274?sh_kit=7a2950363f4b90b1881ae76c68d24551846eea9063b67a6a14e9fa39bc419e40

8.NEW ORLEANS FINANCIAL COLLAB GETS $1M GRANT TO INVEST IN LOCAL START-UPS
The Financial Wellness Collaborative received the $1 million grant to help small businesses manage their financial health and scale-up.

https://www.blackenterprise.com/new-orleans-financial-collaborative-grant-invest/

9.Mexico sent water rescue teams and firefighters to help in Texas after the holiday weekend floods.

https://www.newsweek.com/mexico-sends-help-texas-floods-2095878

10.A new Gallup poll taken over the month of June shows Trump support on “handling the immigration issue” now stands at 35% with 62% opposing.

https://news.gallup.com/poll/692522/surge-concern-immigration-abated.aspx
( the rest of the 44 beneath the cut - the science stuff is towards the end of the list. )

And just in case you found zip in that list to smile about? Here's a photo of flowers.

darkoshi

By happenstance, today I found out that:
A set of spanner wrenches (like the ones shown in the Wikipedia entry) laid out on a rug sounds like a xylophone when you tap them with another small wrench or other metal tool.

I took two videos to demonstrate it, and maybe someday I will post them. The sound may not have come out very good in the recordings. I will have to see.

That happens every so often, me finding that everyday objects make nice sounds. Another such thing is the empty tins from nuts after the nuts have been eaten; the ones with cardboard sides and metal ends. When I accumulate a set of them, it's neat comparing the different tones each makes even when they are from the same product; the same size. One of the last set had a special twang to it.

There was also that frying pan I mentioned in a prior post.
There was something else recently too, but I don't recall what. It's not always metal objects.

susandennis

Julie aka Daniel Boone

conuly

is when an organization feels the urgent need to say something both in officialese and also everyday talk. I can think of three very relevant examples in NYC:

1. Every time you do your taxes or do almost anything that involves interacting with the state government, you'll have to pick your county, and if you live in Brooklyn or Staten Island that means they list the county with the coterminous borough in parentheses.

2. If you have a kid in school, every year they send you a form reminding you to fill out your Emergency Contact Card, and every year they include the phrase "Blue Card" right afterwards. Because that's what we all call it. Because they're blue.

3. And here's one I haven't thought about much since adolescence, but if a job is apt to hire teens then they will ask for their Employment Certification and then, inevitably, add "Working Papers" right afterwards, again, because that's what everybody calls them.

There must be other examples I'm missing, as well as non-NY examples. I sometimes wonder if it'd be easier for them to just cave to the inevitable and start listing the everyday term first and then list the "real" term afterwards.

dewline

I may have been premature in assuming that Season 3 will not be available on CTV Sci-Fi Channel.

I may have misunderstood. I just checked the PVR's "Guide" function to look ahead to Thursday night. I saw short blurbs for "Hegemony II" and "Wedding Bell Blues".

I'll know for sure on Thursday night, it seems.

Current Mood: hopeful

susandennis

I've been toying with the idea of getting Xfinity wifi service again. I had it from October 2023 until October 2024 for $50 but killed it with the austerity kick. So I've been on Timber Ridge free wifi only for the past 8 months. The free wifi here is pretty good but it has its ups and downs. Most often it's just long enough to make me reboot Alexa and reconnect the TV. It's irritating. Today, the wifi went out and then we got an email saying it was way out and indefinitely and taken the Timber Ridge business side down with it.

So I thought I would just get a hold of Xfinity and find out how much. I started with chat. But, I knew that wasn't going to work and, sure enough it didn't. He asked to connect me via phone to their specialist. Fine.

While I was waiting, I thought. Ok. If it's $50, I'll do it. If it's $80, nope.

I was soon talking to Marquita whose voice sounded like she just woke up from a nap and was ready for another one. I did not hold out any hope. But, I told her I wanted to find out how much internet would be. And I'll be damned if she didn't quietly and methodically do exactly what I wanted, with efficiency and no chit chat or up sell. $50 for a year or $65 for five years. $10 off for direct withdrawal from checking account. At my age, you don't fuck around with five year deals. Oh and that includes a modem and a free telephone with service. I said no thank you to all of that and gave her the Mac address of my modem and she hooked me up on the spot. Plugged it all in and I had internet. Way faster than the free stuff, too. From hello to thank you, goodbye was 14 minutes and 54 seconds. Incredible.

I hope I get a survey.

Meanwhile, my friends, Julie and Scott. When I saw their route, I DEMANDED they include Wall Drug and The Corn Palace in their itinerary. They did. Today. And my prize was this. It is cracking me up. Julie sent it and said that was a Walmart and she was pretty sure a dollar store so she cut the email short.

oursin

Have been involved over the last day or so in the discovery and revelation of a hoohah over an esteemed bibliographer having copped to having fabricated a set of letters, of which the transcriptions appear on their website, with, true, a provenance note that might give one to be a tad cautious when citing.

But anyway, someone I know did actually cite something from one of these letters - fortunately not as a major pillar of an argument or anything like that - in their book which is only just published (and copy of which for review I finally received last week). And was informed by the perpetrator.

Cue kerfuffle. The ebook can be readily corrected but not the hardback copies.

But anyway, this led to me (particularly given subject and period) to think upon an instance I had encountered of learning - from the author no less - that a series of supposedly authentic Victorian erotic novels had been knocked up (perhaps that is not the phrase one should employ?) as remunerated hackwork for a paperback publisher in the 1990s.

A few of these are now accessible via the Internet Archive and I discover that they have introductions setting them up as Orfentik Discoveries of the writings of a Private Gents Club.

Anyway, I wrote this all up for my academic blog, and there has been discussion on bluesky about hoaxes and fakes and also I introduced the topic of people being misled by fictional pastiches that were not meant to mislead (or at least, like 'Cleone Knox''s work, have long been known to be made up).

(Ern Malley complicates this like whoa, since it has been claimed that the authors of the hoax actually produced SRS surrealist poetry whether they meant to or not.)

And as a scholar and an archivist I am against hoaxes and fakes and people inserting false documents into archives and so on -

- but I still have the occasional qualm that some naive reader will not read the disclosure of the real origin story right at the back of the volumes and think that the Journals of Mme C-, subsequently Lady B-, actually exist.

Current Music: Paperback Writer

dewline

These stories are about outlier cases, sure. That they happen at all? Still worth knowing about.

https://www.upworthy.com/bereavement-leave-for-new-hire

Current Mood: excited

brithistorian

Colossal Biosciences is planning to bring back the giant moa, a 3m (10 foot) tall flightless bird that went extinct around 600 years ago, shortly after humans arrived in New Zealand. Peter Jackson is one of the major investors. Considering the difficulties the Australians had when dealing with emus, which are only 2/3 the size of the great moa, they really need to consider that there was probably very good reason that the early New Zealanders wiped them out.

poliphilo

Picture Diary 98

1. Good cop, bad cop

2. Fairy godmother

3. Scarab

4. Dawn patrol

5 The white dress

6. And who are you, exactly?

maju

Well, I spent way more than my self-allocated 15 minutes today on clearing stuff away. I picked up my two tech recycling boxes at the post office this morning, then a bit later I started the process of packing up the various computers and cables to go into the boxes. First I had to scan a code (a separate one is included with each box) so I could print a UPS free delivery label, and before I could do that I had to put new ink into my printer. That took longer than it should have because I kept getting error messages from the printer ("Your device is busy" - huh?) when I tried to align the new ink cartridges. Eventually I got the printer working and printed the label for the first box, but I still have to attach the label and seal up the box, and then I have to go through the process again for the second box. It should go much more quickly the second time around though.

Yesterday in the late afternoon/early evening we had a dramatic thunderstorm with a lot of very heavy rain. (We had more than two inches in an hour or so.) The rain was so heavy that it washed some pieces of wood someone had put out for trash collection today some metres down to my car, where they stacked up against the front wheel. At least I assume that's why there were some random pieces of what looked like bed frame wedged against the front wheel of my car.

I went for a run this morning; the humidity at the time was around 95% so I was dripping with sweat after an hour of running.

LJ is *still* being weird for me, taking forever to load my friends feed.

susandennis

I've gotten into this annoying pattern of bad sleep on Mondays and Wednesdays and, sometimes, Fridays. The night before volleyball. Maybe it's because I sleep too late on the other days - usually it's only an hour longer if that. Or sleep too well. Last night was also interrupted by Hazel. John is back in the hospital and she'd forgotten to bring home the phone number and wanted to call him but also couldn't remember how to work the phone. Mainly she was just exhausted and frazzled and worried. I was in bed listening to my book when she came in. So we went back and I played her voice mail messages for her and found the number and we called John. And she seemed much more calm and settled when I left. Her son is coming over this morning. They cannot seem to control John's excess fluid retention. Hazel says he's peeing every 30 minutes but is still swollen up everywhere like a whale. Heart or kidneys, I'm sure and neither option is that good at 89.

We talked some last night and she said she understands that this may be it and she's prepared. That was comforting to hear. They've been together for 65 years.

Laundry is laundrying.

I watched most of the home run derby last night so I could see Mariner Cal Raleigh and his family participate. His dad did the pitching and his 15 year old brother did the catching. It was cute. And he won which was cool since no other catcher had ever won. That's it for baseball for me until Friday.

When they were here, my friend, Scott, used my phone number every time he was asked for one. It was just easier than saying no. For some reason, it tickled him to use it at Walmart to get the receipt. And now, every time they stop at Walmart, I get the receipt. They are buying some weird shit and not nearly enough Krispy Kremes but it is fun to track their trip which I am now dubbing the Walmart/Family Dollar Tour. He sent me a text yesterday that they had found HUGE Dollar Tree and he hadn't spied Julie in a long time. I told him it was 911 and not 111 for emergency if she never showed. They are off to Soux Falls today.

It's house cleaner day.

And I have an Amazon return plus I am perilously close to running out of mayo so a stop at Safeway is in order. I would wait until house cleaning time but I think I'll go when the clothes are done in hopes that it will be a little less hot.

conuly

Gosh it's thunderstorming out there!

**********************************

( Read more... )

poliphilo

This is an antique copy of a very popular classical statue known variously as Pan and Olympus and Pan and Daphnis. We know it was popular because we possess so many versions of it. From what I've seen, this version- at Petworth House- is one of the better ones.

Pan is teaching his protege Olympus or Daphnis to play the Pan pipes. The original was created c. 100 CE-and- on the basis of an inconclusive passage in Pliny- has been attributed to a sculptor called Heliodorus of Rhodes.

These days we treat antique statues as archaeology and- apart from cleaning them up- leave them pretty much as found- but the 18th century thought of them as art and had no qualms about making them as good as new. The Earl of Egremont's statue passed through the hands of a couple of Italian restorers before achieving its present form- and I'm not competent to say how much of it is original. One thing I do know is that Daphnis/Olympus was found without a head- and the one he now wears once belonged to a quite different statue. It's remarkable how well it fits.....

oursin

Happy birthday,

owlectomy and

talking_sock!

brithistorian

I love YouTube Music — it's a great streaming system and gives me access to music that I could only have dreamed of when I was younger. But there's one thing about it — a small thing really, but still big enough that it bothers me: When you have a playlist, it should be a trivial thing for the software to add up the running times of all the songs in the playlist and give you a runtime for the playlist, and this works for shorter playlists, but once a playlist reaches 5 hours or more in length, the program gets lazy and anything over 5 hours is either "5+ hours" or "5 hours [XX] minutes," where [XX] isn't the actual number of minutes past 5 hours, instead the point after 5 hours where the software got lazy and decided to stop adding. Not a deal killer, not even that big of a deal, really, but it's annoying.

flemmings

Smoke from a not distant enough fire turned the morning sky apocalyptic. Might also have conduced to the knives in the throat sensation, though I've been having that off and on for a few weeks now. Not covid because it comes and goes, certainly allergies because I also have the itchy ears of prime allergy season. So stayed in until late afternoon when the worst of the mug was over, and then filled a bag with seedlets and stuff from the front walk. In spite of massage, back had conniptions at my daring to wear shoes. Have no idea what to do about this.

But I did rebook a dentist appt from Thursday to a week Thursday and immediately felt better, because this Thursday will definitely rain and next may not. If the weather's dry I might chance transiting to and from my dentist, but in any case I will not be trying to get taxis in the rain. I hope.

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Mark T. B. Carroll

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Mark Carroll's Journal

thoughts and questions

Reading

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Exoplanets: L 98-59 and the Argument Over Five Vs. Six Planets

The Weekly Good News Report from the American Resistance & It's Global Allies..

music in everyday things

And now the companion piece

Something that's always interested me

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds S3

14 minutes and 54 seconds

Feeling just slightly disingenuous

Best Practices re: Bereavement

You'd think that Peter Jackson would have seen Jurassic Park...

Picture Diary 98

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Tuesday

Thunderstorms!

Interesting Links for 15-07-2025

Pan And.....

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Computers, do computer things better!

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July 2025

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