It was 30 degrees, sunny, and breezy when I took Colin out at 8am.
Al went by to see Bob yesterday morning. They had downsized his trach tube to the smaller one. Speech therapy can now work with his swallowing and teach him to use the speaking valve. Al put his phone on speaker so I could talk to him for a minute.
Saturday December 30, 2017
38 Comments and discussion on "Saturday December 30, 2017"
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All good news!
Progress, but prayers and best wishes for Bob and Barbara.
And I cannot forget plenty of prayers and hopes for OFD.
As for Colin missing RBT, that’s yet another way in which cats are superior pets. A dog will notice the person’s absence and act all worried and then go all spastic when the person returns. A cat may notice but won’t care, so long as the food dish and litter box are taken care of.
Cats keep humans as pets. Dogs partnered with us when they gave up their wolf-ness.
n
More good news about RBT. Hoping for lots more.
n
Dog says: They feed me and take care of me and play with me! They must be gods!
Cat says: They feed me and take care of me and play with me! I must be a god!
Cats keep humans as pets.
Cats keep humans as slaves.
Fixed it for you.
Dogs have owners.
Cats have staff.
I’m glad to see that some people realize the true position of cats and dogs. A “yes man” (dog) might stroke your ego, but a cat puts you in your place. Give me an independent mind (cat) any day.
Those recent studies that say that dogs have more neurons than cats just shows that cats make better use with what they have.
BC – “The Age of Leisure”
http://www.gocomics.com/bc/2017/12/30
Bah. Elephants have more total neurons than do humans (by a factor of three) and some kinds of whales have more cortical neurons than do humans (by a factor of two). Aside from a few flakes who are probably high on incense, does anyone seriously argue that pilot whales are twice as intelligent as humans?
What’s a lot more important than raw number or mass of neurons is the number of connections between them. I don’t think there’s anything better than a rough estimate of synapse count for any species, including humans. (Exception: some animals, such as sponges, have no nervous system at all. It is an easy conclusion that their synapse count is 0.)
SteveF, I have spent a lot of time among Asian elephants and can tell you they are spooky smart. Octopusses are, too! I’d hate to piss either of them off. (insert joke about divorcing the pilot whale)
Need some help and wish OFD were here because he’d nail it faster than a speeding bullet. My mind is going, I can feel it, Dave…
What’s a famous sci-fi book about the religious implications of encountering extraterrestrial life? I could have sworn it was written by Connie Willis, but after perusing her bibliography on Wikipedia, nothing rang a bell.
Ideas?
Contact?
Here is a list:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_religious_ideas_in_science_fiction
Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land?
Nope to either of the above. Driving me mad! I think it had a bird (a dove, no doubt) on the cover of the paperback. My cuz and I were discussing the topic and it occured to me he probably hasn’t read it.
Came up with anew game a few minutes ago — I must be bored or something.
Come up with a theme song for various diseases.
E.g.,
Scabies — _I’ve Got You Under My Skin_
Leprosy — _I Fall to Pieces_
Ringworm — _Go little Gloworm, Shimmer, Shimmer_ (under UV)
Add to it… I dare you!
Something by Philip José Farmer?
Dogs have owners.
Cats have staff.
And some cats run a news service, “Secret Sneaky Snack Attack”:
http://www.gocomics.com/breaking-cat-news/2017/12/30
_Go little Gloworm, Shimmer, Shimmer_
Thanks. Now I’m gonna have that earworm in my head for the rest of the day!
What’s a famous sci-fi book about the religious implications of encountering extraterrestrial life? I could have sworn it was written by Connie Willis, but after perusing her bibliography on Wikipedia, nothing rang a bell.
I ran a YASID (yet another story id) on rec.arts.sf.written. Here is an answer:
“I would nominate “The Sparrow” by Maria Doria Russell.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sparrow_(novel)
“children of God” is the sequel.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children_of_God_(novel)
I sold a lot of copies of “Sparrow”, but I never read it. I’m not religious, and survived a Catholic upbringing. I took a look at it and thought, “Meh. I’ve read Clarke’s`The Star.’ She’ll have to go some to beat that.”
A co-worker who was in grad school for theology loved it.
Wiki notes Blish’s “A Case of Conscience” in the Russell article.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Case_of_Conscience
Kevin R”
Diarrhea — _You Send Me_
Erectile Dysfunction — _(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction_
What’s a famous sci-fi book about the religious implications of encountering extraterrestrial life?
Something by Arthur C. Clarke? “Childhood’s End” perhaps…. it’s been a long time since I read it.
Heart attack — _Cardiac Arrest_
Fever — _Hot Blooded_
VD (or kidney stone?) — _Why Does It Hurt When I Pee?_
Suicide — _Ode To Billie Joe_
Alcoholism – I’d rather have a bottle in front of me…
Itchiness- Cat Scratch Fever
lynn,
You nailed it, thanks! _The Sparrow_ it is. Maria Doria Russell.
Silly parlor game, but it’s great fun. I’ve only sent the idea to you guys and my cousins and have about 20 pretty damn funny ones already. I’ll post the results here once our tradition of ‘Silly Sunday’ has concluded. Best one so far has been,
Diarrhea — _Blowing in the Wind_
No one would EVER want a defensive gun at work, right?
“Disgruntled former worker opens fire on Houston auto shop shooting dead two colleagues and then himself
A man walked into a Houston auto shop where he used to work and fatally shot two employees
After killing the two, the man, whose name is not yet released, then shot himself
Several people were at the shop when the shooting happened Friday afternoon
The motive for the horrific double murder and suicide is not currently clear
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5222299/Police-Man-kills-2-Houston-auto-shop.html”
Vegas-
“Gunman ‘shoots and kills two security guards at a Las Vegas hotel and casino before trying to commit suicide’
The two security staffers were killed Saturday in a room at the hotel-casino
The suspect initially escaped, but was found by law enforcement with a self-inflicted gunshot wound
The condition of the suspect is unknown
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5223351/Two-security-guards-shot-killed-Las-Vegas-casino.html”
Reap what you sow- German edition
“Jewish life in Germany is ‘under threat’ and only possible with police protection says country’s ex-Council of Jews chief who claims ‘aggressive anti-Semitism is now commonplace’
Charlotte Knobloch said abuse and even physical attacks were ‘commonplace’
She referred to several recent incidents of anti-Semitic crime in the country
Claimed these attacks meant Jewish life had to take place under ‘protection’
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5223333/Jewish-life-Germany-threat-says-leader.html”
I know, let’s spend MORE money on sh!t that doesn’t do anything, while restricting our own citizens’ rights even MORE —
“DHS Announces Program To Illegally Scan Our Faces
Sat, 12/30/2017 – 12:55
Authored by Rachel Blevins via The Free Thought Project,
Both Congress and the Department of Homeland Security have never justified the biometric scanners at airports that could cost Americans $1 billion in 2018.”
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-12-29/dhs-announces-program-illegally-scan-our-faces
NB- they are scanning OUTBOUND passengers. WTF? What about INBOUND?
Got preps? This is the scenario with a severe EMP or CME-
“Tempers flare as more than 660,000 still don’t have power in Puerto Rico THREE MONTHS after Hurricane Maria devastated the island
More than 660,000 power customers across Puerto Rico still lack electricity more than three months after Hurricane Maria
It’s the first time the government of the U.S. territory has provided that statistic, which was released as authorities warned that a lot of work remains
Officials said 55 per cent of Puerto Rico’s nearly 1.5 million customers have power
One of Puerto Rico’s 78 municipalities remains entirely without power
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has said that power will likely be restored to all of Puerto Rico by May
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5222405/Anger-dejection-grows-half-Puerto-Rico-power.html”
And now we have the Army Corps of Engineers doing the reconstruction. And by the way, who could have possibly known that it would be hard in a mountainous, poor, extremely rural, and corrupt country, with NO spending on infrastructure.
And one last one, innocent man killed by overzealous, amped up cop as a result of an internet “swatting” and he’s not even the guy the online murderer had the beef with–
“REVEALED – Call of Duty ‘swatting’ victim had NEVER met hoaxer: Online gamer gave police the WRONG address when he ‘called 911 pretending he had shot his father and was holding hostages’ before innocent man was killed by armed cops
LAPD on Friday arrested a 25-year-old gamer they say made a prank call that led a SWAT team to fatally shoot an innocent man over an online gaming dispute
The suspect has been identified as Tyler Barriss, a resident of Los Angeles
In 2015, Barriss pleaded not guilty to charges of phoning in a false bomb threat that triggered the evacuation of a local television news station
Authorities suspect Barriss called 911 and concocted a story about a hostage crisis in a Wichita, Kansas home
When the resident of the home, Andrew Finch, 28, came to his front door, he was shot dead by a police officer
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5222963/Call-Duty-player-25-arrested-fatal-swatting-hoax.html”
nick
Dandruff– _Dust In The Wind_
Just logged in and approved my own comment, and one good wish that got stuck in spam.
n
@Nick: your comment probably got held because of too many links in the comment.
Yeah, I forgot. then I was surprised to see it was in moderation. But I let it out, and freed another that was stuck, and cleared the spam file….
I feel like a real computer guy!
n
I feel like a real computer guy!
Dude, you are now a sysadmin. Where do I send the pager ?
I carried my Skytel nationwide pager for far too long. I had an [ir]rational affection for it after 9/11. Despite carrying 2 cell phones, on different networks, my skytel pager was the only device that had signal that morning. I was able to send “I’m OK” emails to friends and family back west. I carried it for years after that. Finally though, it got to the point where cell coverage was almost universal, and the extra $40/month was a bit of an extravagance and I didn’t want to be quite that paranoid for my new wife… and I dropped the service.
It’s been some time since I habitually reached for it to check the time, so I guess I’m finally over it. I still can feel the muscle memory of reaching for it, checking the display, and snapping it back……….
nick
(and if you are too upbeat in your life, you can go to wikileaks and read thru the skytel and local traffic from that morning. It is exceptionally painful, like watching an explosion in slow motion, as all the M2M messages change from “Online and ok” to “no response from unit 1762…” and as the secret service, FBI, and other agencies come online and begin to self deploy. Lots of traffic amongst FedEx employees, as they originally thought one of the planes was theirs. Lots of (unanswered) plaintive calls for people to confirm they are ok. Lots of “Plan Charlie is activated, national conference bridge is up on 800-xxx-xxxx” as companies woke to the attack. I had to stop reading at a point before I saw my own traffic. It still saddens and enrages me.)
lynn,
You nailed it, thanks! _The Sparrow_ it is. Maria Doria Russell.
You are welcome. Kevin R. got it for you on
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/rec.arts.sf.written/ZLTuF1JNVG0
Anyone remember a story, probably in Boy’s Life, about some kids living in a school, something post apoc, with one character named “Tomorrow Tommy”?
I looked thru scans of hundreds of issues but didn’t find anything.
I also seem to remember a scene about an orrery and they are hiding from something…
Sometime in the mid-70s to mid 80s I got a huge stack of Boy’s Life magazines from an older cousin, and I spent the summer reading them all, but especially any sci-fi short stories. It’s bugged me for years that I can’t remember anything else about the story besides “Tomorrow Tommy.”
nick
(since it worked once, thought I’d give it a shot…)
and off to bed fer shur to dream
“Bill Nye: “We Want to Engage Everybody” – by Declaring Economic War on Climate Skeptics”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2017/12/30/bill-nye-we-want-to-engage-everybody-by-declaring-economic-war-on-climate-skeptics/
“Bill Nye wants to “engage everybody”, get everyone on board his global warming action bandwagon by punishing “hillbillies” and imposing economic sanctions on red states which don’t comply with his climate demands.”
I am ashamed that Bill Nye is a Mechanical Engineer (as am I).
lynn,
I’ll add that iirc, _The Sparrow_ wasn’t polemical at all. Again, iirc, the theme was how to reconcile “If God created man in his own image” with extraterrestrials. Also toys with anthropocentrism in general, and probably more topical today than when it was written.
Kidneystones — _Mr Sandman_
HIV — _Another Prick in the Wall_
Anyone remember a story, probably in Boy’s Life, about some kids living in a school, something post apoc, with one character named “Tomorrow Tommy”?
I looked thru scans of hundreds of issues but didn’t find anything.
“I remember a back-up feature to “Superman” in ACTION COMICS for many years called “Tommy Tomorrow.”
[quote]
He first appeared in short ‘stories’ in Real Fact Comics #6, 8, 13, 16 (1947–48). He then appeared in Action Comics #127–251 (1948–59), then moved to World’s Finest Comics #102–124 (1959–62). Showcase #41, 42, 44, 46, 47 (1962–63)
[/quote] – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_Tomorrow
https://www.comics.org/issue/17248/cover/4/
[quote]
Once, he was drawn by Virgil Finlay, whose meticulously detailed illustration was familiar to sci-fi readers of the time, but who did very little work in comics.
[quote] – http://www.toonopedia.com/tomorrow.htm
Otto Binder wrote most of the scripts.
Kevin R”
Hmm, nope, not him, but maybe there was a nod to the comic character.
Been buggin’ me for decades.
nick