238 replies to this topic

[TheGreenOne]

Moth Butterfly on concrete the fucking ground.

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[jaded prol]

It's a butterfly, not a moth. Nice image though.

[TheGreenOne]

Fixed.

[Kirk]

is that really concrete?

[TheGreenOne]

A restaurant in an alley.

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[Bognoz]

Definitely not concrete.

It's striated not pebbled.

[Bognoz]

I lick the nipple

at the end of alley.

[TheGreenOne]

Fixed.

[TheGreenOne]

An office building.

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[Bognoz]

The Hollywood Squares™ set

was repurposed as an office building?

[TheGreenOne]

Kegs

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[Bognoz]

Paulaner?

DAB?

In kegs?

 

Those dead soldiers gave their lives

a long way from their mothers' breasts.

[artemis]

Good. No reason Germans should drink all the good beer.

My brother-in-law just returned from somewhere.

I guess you heard?, he said.

I heard something about Austria and motorcycles, I said.

Yeah, well, Germany mostly, he said.

Southern Germany, then. A lot of good beer there, I said.

Seemed mostly ordinary, not dark, he said.

You have to know what you're looking for, I said. People drink lightish beer everywhere.

So, you what, rented a motorcycle for this expedition?, I said.

Yeah, a Harley, he said.

WTF? Why would you go to Germany and not ride a BMW?, I said (implying, having no desire to offend, that they are faster, smoother, better than a piece of shit Harley in every way).

Yeah, well those were flying by us all day. Two and three side by side in the same lane. Are they allowed to do that?, he pondered.

[artemis]

The butterfly looked liked it was on a muscle seen through a microscope to me.  Kind of nasty really.  The thought of it being concrete was soothing but dubious.

The building, I don't like.  It looks like it should be on Okinawa, about to be destroyed by a hurricane.

The cafe puts me in mind of Ted's coming out, behind the cathedral in NOLA, but only because it's in an alley.

The kegs remind that life has often been worth living.

A good set of photos, all considered.

[TheGreenOne]

 A brewer's castle.

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[jaded prol]

Where?

[TheGreenOne]

I think that one stays inside my head most of the time.

[TheGreenOne]

Four flavors of Icee Delight

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[louchefabrik]

 It was a few months ago, but still worth sharing.

 

Edited by louchefabrik, 16 September 2018 - 09:12 AM.

[TheGreenOne]

Xit. Didn't know you were still alive.

[artemis]

I saw this on the kitchen counter.

 

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And it was good to see.  Eight days from start to finish (sourdough culture).  I'm learning.  There's more to bread than meets the eye.  Much science behind something that people have done for thousands of years, without knowing the whys and what fors - it's every bit like brewing beer.  Tastes as good as it looks, too.

 

Too bad my rennet has failed - no more cream cheese until I get a more stable product.

 

With a slab of this, and creole cream cheese, and some of the figs I preserved in July, it's all homemade (pisses me off when restaurants say that shit - in whose home was it made?).  And good for body and soul.

[TheGreenOne]

XIt, that looks really good. Probably tastes even better with the cheese and preserves.

[jaded prol]

Looks good indeed. My fig preserves are coming along too.

[TheGreenOne]

Thank you!

[artemis]

It was very good, and successful for my first try at a real sourdough culture. I turned the last of it into croutons a couple of days ago. The thing about these artisan breads is, at least the ones I've made so far, is the crust is too damned tough. It's like armadillo hide. Even a really good bread knife makes me queasy when cutting it, lest the blade slip and take off a finger. You almost need a chainsaw ...

[Kirk]

It's hard for me to get excited about a bread unless I fear it might cut my lips off

[artemis]

Indeed, although I always make this shape (a boule, the Frogs would say), because it's baked inside a cast iron kettle which is circular, this is the first time I've scored the top before baking (you need a straight razor or the equivalent - something thin and sharp enough to cut with almost no force applied) and the result surprised me a little - the resultant blooming of the top crust made the boules into caltrops - those flakes and peaks you see could cut a lip, no kidding. I agree there's nothing inviting about boring bread. Somehow a slice of white "bread" is just right with a pile of pulled pork and a shot of vinegar, but with little else.

[Kirk]

I wait for the first good tomato and then buy a loaf of white bread for a tomato sammich.

[artemis]

A very thin slice of onion can be nice with that. Unfortunately, bugs and rodents ate all my tomatoes this year. They beat me to every one before fully ripe. Hummingbird Moth caterpillars (big nasty green bastards) defoliated my habanero bush as well, but it's coming back strong with fresh new leaves, so I'm almost sorry I killed them. When I was a boy and often alone at home and hungry, what we always had was white bread, and sometimes nothing else. I would search the cabinet for things to put on the bread. Deviled ham (the one with the red devils on the white wrapper) is good with peanut butter. I kid you not. Try it. Good salty/sweet balance. And there was a type of BBQ sauce, unique to this area (can't find it anymore). It had chunks of onion and garlic and stuff in it and was not red in color. Very nice on a slice of white bread. So, I stand corrected. White bread is good. I just read that yeast isn't even used for inflating the dough in commercial white bread - they whip air into it with machines.

[TheGreenOne]

My grandfather once took a slice of white bread, rolled it up into a ball, muttered something about raw dough and threw it away. I don't eat it to this day.

[artemis]

I've done that too, but ate it anyway. You can put that ball on a fish hook and catch a fish, too. I don't buy it but I'd be lying if I said I will never eat it. There was a place near Paducah when I lived up there, in an old gas station, that smoked pigs for pulled pork. That's all they sold. They had no published hours, other than an opening time. If you got there after all the pig they had prepared for that day had been sold, it would be locked up, no explanation and no apology. A pile of pig on butcher paper, with exactly one thing to accompany it - a slice of white bread. Any other bread would have been pretentious.

[jaded prol]

Mmmm, Barbecue.

 

I used doughballs for fishing bait years ago.

[Absinthe_1900]

Since I was a kid, I can only eat white commercial bread if it's toasted.

 

Everyone said I was a strange kid.

[TheGreenOne]

Was?

[artemis]

Bebête contemplating the bats.

 

 

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[TheGreenOne]

A seafoam green coffee cup.

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[Bognoz]

I bet Bebête is waiting

for the low flying bat with one wing

by the light switch to turn

into a grounded mouse.

[Bognoz]

Sea foam green is good butt betterer

when set off by repurposed old door.

[Kirk]

Even better when lit by a tea bro

[artemis]

My daughter does the Halloween stuff. She has some floating tea light candles, but I will have to have her take a photo - her cell phone takes better photos than my ancient digital camera that was top of the line when I bought it.

 

I like the cup. Nice dregs in there, too.

 

Nothing gets a cat all trembly like a flying mouse. One night in our 100-year old house in Illinois, my wife was sleeping under our customary blanket of cats when they all turned into bouncy tiggers, going straight up into the air and coming down, like on a trampoline. She turned on the light and saw a bat fledermausing around the room - the cats had been playing SAM missile to the bat's invading their airspace.

[artemis]

Speaking of dregs, I have been seeing this daily for some time.   Espresso machines cost a lot of money, even the cheap ones.  I'm no expert, but it seems pressure is the key, and for good pressure you need a good pump.  I know a little about pumps - for the price I paid for one to power a Rotovap, I should have been able to drive it for a nice coffee somewhere.  Anyway, this thing puts out some pressure and makes the best coffee I've ever had at home (except for my mom's cafe au lait, but I don't know how much of that is nostalgia).  It foams just like in the picture, at least it does with the pods I use.  My daughter got it for nothing, but they sell for $80 or less, certainly a bargain since you can spend a thousand easily on an espresso machine.  It uses Nespresso type pods, but it sells for well less than those machines as well.  I recommend it.

 

[Kirk]

I saw a dead mouse in front of a bee hive today, stung to death while trying to find winter quarters

[artemis]

I need some bees at my place in Arkansas. A mouse set itself up in there last winter and filled a drawer with acorns, stuffing it stole out of a chair, knitting needles, colored ink markers, and about twelve other different things - anything colorful or shiny. That mouse had to work hard to round up all that stuff ...

[Kirk]

sounds like a pack rat

[Bognoz]

Knot a mouse.

Mebbe a magpie.

[artemis]

No, a rodent.

I only got a glimpse of him as he fled.

He had gnawed his way in through the wall. I blocked the hole with a piece of cedar backed up by a twenty-pound rock, and saw no trace of him after that.

I had a list of the things he had stolen; it made a nice poem all by itself.

 

Splendid Things:

Chinese brocade. A sword with a decorated scabbard. The grain of the wood in a Buddhist statue. Long flowering branches of beautifully colored wisteria entwined about a pine tree.

Sei Shonagon, the Pillow Book - some things she had seen on todays a thousand years ago.

[artemis]

Anyway, the only magpies I've seen in the U.S. were in the high plains - Idaho. None in the South for sure. I do have Phoebes - they build mud nests under the eaves every year. But they don't steal. They devastate flying bugs, though.

[Bognoz]

Magpies Über Alles,

particularly rodents.

[artemis]

U.S. magpies are spectacular birds.

 

[Hans Conried]

Anyway, the only magpies I've seen in the U.S. were in the high plains - Idaho.

 

 

I was just west of Boise a week or so ago and did a walk around the Deer Flat Wildlife Refuge. Saw some there, prior to that I'd only seen them in the UK. My first visit to Idaho, I was expecting Ohio and got Wyoming.

[Kirk]

Holy moley, it's Hans

[Absinthe_1900]

U.S. magpies are spectacular birds.

 

 

 

Yes they are.

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[jaded prol]

He lives!

 

Hans, that is.

 

Idaho is pretty wild west.

[artemis]

I almost linked to Heckle and Jeckle - one of my favorite cartoons.

Idaho is pretty wild and very west.

I lived there for a few weeks, and made a foray into Wyoming.

Got to see the Big Tits.  They're so big you have to back off for miles to appreciate them.

 

 

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[artemis]

This is Idaho.  Abandoned mining town.  Can you say High Plains Drifter?

I would have liked to explore closer, but there was a man down there watching me though a rifle scope ....

 

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[artemis]

Go only a little farther North in Idaho and it's like this:

 

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[artemis]

That road got scarier until we abandoned the truck and walked, to this place, a frozen lake.  I skipped rocks on it and it made an unearthly sound, with doppler effect echos.  Nobody else was there, except for bears, cougars and wolves.  Didn't see them, but I saw their footprints in the snow.  Many times I heard what seemed to be voices in the wind, but it was like ghost voices, with no discernible content.  Maybe the most surreal place I've ever been.  It's called Meadow Lake.

 

 

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[Kirk]

That's a spooky looking place, can't imagine settling there

[artemis]

I think the only reason anybody did was for the mining (copper, I believe), but when that ran out, so did the settlers.

[artemis]

The blue effect is because a digital camera has a "white balance" that has to be adjusted when snow is all around like that, and I didn't know how to do it. Still don't. The brain does it automatically. It didn't look blue to the eye ....

[TheGreenOne]

I need caffeine.

[TheGreenOne]

I like to take my caffeine with arak.

[Bognoz]

Whatever happened to benzedrine?

Kids today are so soft.

[jaded prol]

A coupla shotz of Ol' Overcoat worx well with cawfee.

[Absinthe_1900]

Whatever happened to benzedrine?

Kids today are so soft.

Harry The Hipster put it in Mrs. Murphy's Ovaltine

[Bognoz]

True dat.

[TheGreenOne]

Brick circles and a painted wall.

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[Kirk]

tile, for weeks

 

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[Bognoz]

shimmering birch leaves

a landscape like gahd's profile

that dog by my side

[Bognoz]

No photos allowed!

It's my private little world

perfumed with wood smoke.

[Grim]

Are you nearly done, Kirk?

[Kirk]

Grouted today, start the linen closet tomorrow

[TheGreenOne]

A combination gym/pasta bar.

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[Bognoz]

If there's a Pinto or a Gremlin

in the parking lot then it's okay.

[artemis]

Guitar is not dead.

 

Interesting that 50% of new players are female.  They can get it done, too.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vn8phH0k5HI

 

She plays, she sings, she know how to work that digital shit in addition to, not instead of ....  And mom peeks out from the kitchen around 2:24 - nice.

[artemis]

I came across this comment about what a certain song "means".

 

 

Now I think about it, this song is also possbily about embracing the new machine age, both in music and in life. I would go into more detail, but my sister is bothering me as she needs to use the fone line.

 

[TheGreenOne]

When a company has to explain in great (and interesting) detail why their product is not dead, well.....

[TheGreenOne]

A company resorting to facts, that's likely a sign of desperation.

 

Nothing Fender says suggests that learning to play guitar will make me cool and maybe get me laid. Learning is good for me? Learning? In 20 whatever the fuck this is? Training sure, but learning? Sounds to me like the parrot is fast asleep.

[TheGreenOne]

But dead can be kind of a funny word and sometimes its hard to know what it means.

[Kirk]

Learning is dead, with no known descendants

[TheGreenOne]

But learning is the definition of life.

[Kirk]

We thought consuming was

[TheGreenOne]

i'm glad the training worked out. Usually there's an adjustment period,

[TheGreenOne]

How is Arak made? – Homemade Style

 

Usually the preparation of Arak is kind
of celebrated with a party, lots of amazing Lebanese food, lots of
drinking and socializing. Below is a bit technical summary of the long
making process, the fun part for later!

The start is by harvesting the vine
grapes, squeezing the juice out and putting the whole in barrels for two
or three weeks to make sure the fermentation process is completed. The
mixture is usually stirred every other day to make sure that the vapors
do not get stuck in the lower parts.

 

Distillation – Three stages or “Mtallat”

Before going into the distillation
process we need to speak about the “Karkeh” (picture below) - This
is the main tool used to distill the alcohol out of the mix. This is a
copper contraption and is usually made by copper smiths in the bazaars
of Tripoli, very much medieval style. It is made of two main parts, the
lower part where the alcohol mix goes in and the top part which is
filled with cold water to cool the vapor and transform it into liquid.

 

 

After the fermentation is complete, the
grapes and their juices are put in the lower part of the karkeh with a
small quantity of coal at the bottom to start the first distillation
process. Once the first distillation is done, the product is alcohol,
this is not Arak, it is just raw alcohol that cannot be drank.

The alcohol than rests in new barrels
waiting for the second and crucial distillation process. This 2nd stage
is when anise is mixed with the drawn alcohol. The quality and quantity
of anise are as important as a good vineyard. The Karkeh is than placed
over a very feeble fire, just enough to cause the alcohol to evaporate
into a steady very weak crystal clear stream. This process is aided by a
steady flow of cold water on the upper part of the still.  The third
distillation process is a repeat of the second process and is done to
raise the alcohol by volume level to its maximum value around 70%. The
final liquid is than collected in a glass jars.

 

 

 

[TheGreenOne]

A rat ambling down the street.

[louchefabrik]

Two Germans (style) and a C z  e c h  (CZ P0-10c) sitting on a rail. Sounds like the beginning of a bar joke.  20180707_201557.jpg   60.66K   1 downloads

[artemis]

It was not today, it was All Saints Day.

Tell me what it is:

 

 

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[artemis]

This made my cry.  Still does.

 

[TheGreenOne]

Indeed.

[artemis]

I've been made aware of an article critical of that picture, or more accurately critical of "animal people", whom the writer "doesn't understand". I don't understand soulless cunts. There once was a forum that had a secret room, to which proposed entry was discussed in private - one blackball was sufficient to keep any proposed member out. I only ever blackballed one person, who had previously professed hatred for dogs. My explanation for the black ball was that, hate me if you want, but I could not trust any person who hated dogs. Any guesses as to my mystery photo?

[Kirk]

cranberry  harvest?

[artemis]

Nope. Live oak acorns.

I was at the cemetery for an All Saints Day service, and it had rained like hell earlier that day.

Live oak acorns, you almost never see them with the cap intact - the acorns fall and the cap stays on the tree. And they're more bullet shaped than the traditional image of an acorn.

You can see the pool that floated those off the ground in this shot, to the left, under the tree, at the interface of the clamshell part of the road with the dirt part:

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[artemis]

Obviously, the squirrels are enjoying a bountiful harvest this year.

[TheGreenOne]

Devotion.

 

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[Bognoz]

Snow and overcast skies.

I didn't get a glimpse

of the moon.

[TheGreenOne]

A glimpse of the moon can be too much. 

[Bognoz]

[TheGreenOne]

[artemis]

Did I see someone hold a cell phone to the telescope? Obviously, the telescope man needs a goon, to take those away and smash them. The recent winter solstice coincided (almost) with a full moon, something that will not happen again for 70 years or so. How many people saw that moon? Five thousand years ago, it would have been everybody who wasn't blind. A recent TV documentary on Stonehenge claims that after construction that lasted for well over a thousand years, when it reached its final form, it was used for midwinter celebrations that drew people from all over what is now Great Britain, all the way from islands off the north coast of Scotland. It would have taken those people a month to get to the monument, and a month to get back home. The construction process probably similarly involved the whole population of what is now Great Britain! But that Solstice louchefest (I know, mead don't louche) died out in possibly as little as one generation. What changed? The show had no answer, other than that the Stone Age ended. Something is ending now - Facebroke and cell phones are greasing the skids to hell.

[artemis]

The midwinter feast featured, of course, pork, and lots of it. Whole racks of ribs were discarded untouched - such was the bounty and the dedication of resources to the celebration. Analysis of these bones is what allows determination of the origins of the celebrants - the bones retain trace elements of what the pigs ate. Said elements vary across the landscape, and are today well mapped out, such that ancient pigs can be traced to where they were raised. Imagine walking to a louchefest, a 30-day walk, bringing all your pigs with you ...

[artemis]

How did people do these things, some people (not me) wonder. Must have had help from aliens. No, they merely REALLY wanted to accomplish something, and worked together to get it done. Then iron tools came along - the cell phones of the time?

[Bognoz]

Mebbe they jest

diddenav anything

betterer to do.

[Bognoz]

While they was waiting

for summer to cum.

 

[TheGreenOne]

Then iron tools came along - the cell phones of the time?

 

That one's worthy of thought. The Inuit people have been pretty good at navigating the Arctic, predicting the weather, knowing when and where various hunting seasons are, etc for a bunch of centuries without having so much as a measuring stick let alone iron tools or cell phones. But I don't think the modern toys would be very good at keeping anyone alive during an Arctic winter.

[Bognoz]

Or a period of global warming and climate change?

 

Instantaneous global connectivity and social media

serve both to fracture society, devaluing real face time,

while also facilitating social groups that never

would have had the opportunity of finding each other

and reinforcing values their immediate community

does not value, share or help to promulgate.

[Bognoz]

We're a long way from understanding

our own evolving human complexities.

But no worries, very soon that problem

will be in the hands of super-intelligents

extrapolating from our faulty and very

very, very poorly understood initial input.

[Bognoz]

What could go wrong?

[Bognoz]

We can look out for our own collective welfare, right?

 

[artemis]

Or a period of global warming and climate change?

 

In fact, in the earliest days of construction at Stonehenge, if I have understood correctly, people could have walked from France to England - no English Channel ...
 

Instantaneous global connectivity and social media serve both to fracture society, devaluing real face time, while also facilitating social groups that never would have had the opportunity of finding each other and reinforcing values their immediate community does not value, share or help to promulgate.

 

Indeed, yet, analysis of the trace elements of human bones unearthed near Stonehenge shows that some of them were born and raised right there, while others were born in Germany, etc.  So, while computers and satellites have made communication quicker, in the old days, people still found each other and interacted across great distances.  The working of iron spread to England from, if memory serves me, closer to Poland than to Stonehenge.

[Bognoz]

people could have walked from France to England - no English Channel ...

 

Chalk that change up to erosion.

[Kirk]

I look for people to rule themselves, kick the fed to the curb, the states move forward without them, the fed is useless and obsolete, burn it down.

[artemis]

It was originally conceived to have a limited role - national defense, conduct of agreements with foreign states, etc. It has been profaned and co-opted for selfish interests in the name of power. It is now the surrogate mommy. You know what the most common graphic used in Stone Age art is? The pussy. They revered mommy too, maybe for different reasons, though.

[Bognoz]

It's got a beat you can dance to.

[artemis]

I thunk he was talking about the federal gummint, not the "bank", but in any case,

Adgx9wt63NY

Youtube - Fire Water Burn

[Kirk]

The Federal government is obsolete, the states need to break it up, bring home their congressmen and senators and begin to regain some comportment.

How is it that over half the states can legalize something that is against federal law? By breaking federal law they have proven the fed is extraneous, they have taken the first step, burn it to the ground and move on, cut it down to the bloody stump and water it with the tears of lobbyists.

[Bognoz]

Isn't that what people were voting for

in the last presidential election?

[Bognoz]

Isn't that what the president is delivering?

[Kirk]

I don't know the first thing about his policies, in fact, I can't pretend to understand anything about world affairs, I read the paper, watch the news, I know some facts but am entirely uninformed by them. It's the man himself I can't stand, too bad the other side won't admit that about the last administration. Whatever it is he is saying, I can't stand the way he says it.

[Bognoz]

Too many werdz.

 

his policies, in fact,... can't pretend to understand anything about world affairs

 

There, that seems closer to the nut of it.

[Bognoz]

My take is that he's so self absorbed,

self serving, self involved, self centered

that he'll plow through anything that gets between him

and hisself interests. Including the federal gubmint,

moral principles, and the constitution.

[TheGreenOne]

Or a period of global warming and climate change?

 

The Inuit have a keen understanding that the planet is warming.

http://www.inuitcirc...assessment.html

[Kirk]

We are eating our way to the bottom.

[TheGreenOne]

A sign I don't understand.

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[artemis]

https://www.thebesa....g-safety-guide/

[artemis]

The Inuit have a keen understanding that the planet is warming.

 

"That kerosene and fuel oil no longer resemble milk and jelly in mid-winter is the compelling indicator of climate change offered by long-time resident Andy Carpenter."

 

How much time is a "long time"?   They didn't have kerosene before 1854, therefore I find it less than compelling.  This is the problem with "global warming".  It's happened before, and it will happen again.  It's not a permanent thing, and the question is, how much we can do to change it.  Not much, is my guess.

 

I don't know, but I've been told, Eskimo pussy is mighty cold.  The drill sergeant said so.

[TheGreenOne]

 the people all call her Alaska.... it's so cold in Alaska 

[Bognoz]

A sign I don't understand.

[Bognoz]

They didn't have kerosene before 1854, therefore I find it less than compelling.

 

I can't say I don't see the validity of what you're saying.

 

I also can't say that science isn't based on direct observation.

[Bognoz]

When we're so wrapped in boredom

that we finally put our phones down

and step away from our computer games

and pompous academic research papers

to take time to smell the wild roses

we make inferences based on our senses.

And we swear by those conclusions.

We all do it. All the fucking time.

It advances our knowledge of the world.

Especially if we can repeat it in a lab.

[artemis]

I also can't say that science isn't based on direct observation.

 

Anecdotal evidence may be direct, but it's not scientific.  As you said above, repeatability according to scientific protocol would be compelling, but we're talking about something that takes hundreds or thousands of years, so something noticed and attributed to it within one lifetime only compels the easily convinced; dare we say gullible.  If the Esquimaux had documented over the last thousand years patterns of polar bear population, or glacier size, or temperature changes, that would be more telling.

[Kirk]

All those things are written in the fossil history, to deny that we have consumed our home would be to deny the fossil record, of which we are soon to become a part of.

[artemis]

I'm not denying anything other than the fact that jelly-like petroleum products aren't compelling evidence of anything other than it's cold.  I've been in Minnesota in the winter and my gearshift felt like it was stirring molasses.  If that guy remembers it being different in Alaska, his fuel was probably in a warmer igloo.

[Kirk]

I'm old and tired, an old story for humans, but new to me

the earth can say the same thing, but you can't say we have seen that before.

This is the first time humans have seen the earth grow old and tired, add it the list of things the greatest generation will witness

the only die off greater than the last twenty five years happened when a comet struck, and it is almost over, few birds and bees are left.

[Bognoz]

          The New Colossus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

 

-- By Emma Lazarus

[Bognoz]

     To Those Who Have Gone Home Tired
 
After the streets fall silent
After the bruises and the tear-gassed eyes are healed
After the concensus has returned
After the memories of Kent and My Lai and Hiroshima
lose their power
and their connections with each other
and the sweaters labeled Made in Taiwan
After the last American dies in CanuckyFuckyLand
and the last Korean in prison
and the last Indian at Pine Ridge
After the last whale is emptied from the sea
and the last leopard emptied from its skin
and the last drop of blood refined by Exxon
After the last iron door clangs shut
behind the last conscience
and the last loaf of bread is hammered into bullets
and the bullets
scattered among the hungry

 

What answers will you find
What armor will protect you
when your children ask you

 

Why?  

 

-- by W. D. Ehrhart

[Kirk]

After the children are gone no one will be there to care

[Kirk]

If all the money in the world is in the hands of a few, then we know who is killing the planet for profit.

They have names and addresses, and the list is very short.

[Kirk]

.

[artemis]

The list of "adult" people living in mom's basement would wrap around the dying planet. Some of them don't know what it's like to establish an address of their own, much less to do anything useful about anything. The brain-dead shall inherit the earth. Today I'm going to prepare brioche. That's what I'm going to do about it today.

[Kirk]

They are not exactly the problem but brioche is a good solution, today I chose varnishing wood work, later it will be my garden

[Bognoz]

I'm not sure I get the gripe about multi-generational homes

at all. Among my neighbors I've seen the conveyer belt of time

in action as the older ones fall off the far end as younguns come

to play on near end in the same house, same address, sometimes

with a different name. Kind of been the standard for a lot of human

history. None of them I'd call brain dead, with all due respect.

And a couple of the elders weren't all there as they came to the end,

but brain dead? Nah, just dependent. It happens to the best of 'em.

[Bognoz]

Butt brioche? Good gahd, I hope

your kneading that by hand, my friend.

That is the silkiest sexiest dough

reminiscent of post-pubescent t.n.a.

I've ever put my hands on. Fortunately

it's a lot of werk to get all that butter in.

[artemis]

I'm not sure I get the gripe about multi-generational homes at all.

 

I'm all for it in theory.  I mean, I live in one.  It was a poor choice of slanderisms.  I was talking about people who lack initiative but complain about everything - look, I have seen lots of examples of multi-generational homes wherein there are young people following that model, and parents (understandably, I mean there's love and all), tolerant, to their own great disadvantage.  So, brain-dead, maybe not, but lazy, zombie-like - in a foreign country, your experience will obviously vary.

 

qu’ils manget de la brioche -

 

I've made it before by hand, a number of times, for two reasons:

A. I didn't have a machine

and, number B., I was regusted by all the people saying you have to have a machine.  Marie Antoinette didn't have a machine, or a drudge who had a machine.

 

And I agree about the tactile satisfaction, in less pornographic terms.  But, the more I learn about bread, the more I respect the science, and there are sound reasons for using a machine.  So today, for the first time, I used a machine.  But that's mostly because someone in the house is involved in a Chinese plot to take over the world economy and every now and then they send her something at low cost - lately it was a stand mixer.   So for the first time, a machine was at hand.  As much as I respect and enjoy all that physical labor and butterfingers doing it by hand, I have to say I didn't miss that, either.  Baking is tomorrow - we'll see.  The proof of the pudding is in the eating.  The next time you hear somebody say the proof is in the pudding, I think it's legal in some places to kill him.

[artemis]

I've been making it for years, but I only make it to serve as the base for sticky buns.   I always bake some plain Brioche as well, because my dough procedure is for two batches and I don't want that many buns, but I probably wouldn't go to the trouble for the plain brioche alone.   I think maybe I've posted a photo of the buns here.  It's a whole ordeal; takes two days.  Worth it though.  Eating one a day for a month would probably kill some people, but probably not the ones who say meaningless shit, unfortunately.

[Bognoz]

The blue effect is because a digital camera has a "white balance" that has to be adjusted when snow is all around like that, and I didn't know how to do it. Still don't. The brain does it automatically. It didn't look blue to the eye ....

 

I've been un-automatizing my eyes this winter

Seeing depths of blue in the white, white snow

almost everywhere I look. At least a little.

It's an interesting phenomenon. I've noticed

the snow is bluest when it's wettest.

But it's almost always there to some extent.

[artemis]

I haven't seen any snow this winter. The brioche turned out well in spite of the fact that I kept adding flour because the dough wasn't wrapping around the dough hook the way I thought it should. Youtube was of some help. It looks like it would be sweet, but it's not - just rich.

[Bognoz]

I never tire of seeing snow.

I've always lived where it goes

away. Finally. To reveal a grim

reality after all the white|blue|ness.

 

Butt I feel for all facing the bitter iciness

now attacking the heartland. This too

shall pass. Though no joke, some will die.

[TheGreenOne]

The cold will kill some people but will save others.

 

The least violent January for Chicago since 2010 — that year police tallied 19 homicides for the month — comes as the city

ended the month with historic cold weather. Wind chills dipped to minus 50 degrees this week and the city endured 14 straight days of measurable snow.

 

The bulk of gun violence in the city tends to happen in the warmer months.

[Bognoz]

Air temperature changes bullet trajectory. Count on it.

 

But it must have a much greater effect

on the trigger puller's will to be out in the arena.

 

So much for the saying, "Packing heat."

[artemis]

Maybe a rifle bullet over 400 yards.

Most "gun violence" is about pistols, and most of the shooting involves maybe seven yards between gun and target.

Also, in this parish, there's the lowest crime rate, and not just shootings, but the lowest overall in 20 years.  I heard the NOLA police chief say something similar on the radio recently.

So, be careful about attributing global warming or Chicago koom ba yas to Chicago, much less to one winter.

[Bognoz]

Most "gun violence" is about pistols, and most of the shooting involves maybe seven yards between gun and target

 

Most "gun violence" in Amerika

can be attributed to suicides.

The distance is considerably less.

[artemis]

Bee says it's high noon.  Some of the hours are missing, maybe eaten by a lepus.

 

 

 

 

 

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[Kirk]

I've been adding absinthe to my winter bee feed, (25 ml to 3 gallons sugar) the bitches love it, they  quiver when they smell it, the volume knob goes to 11, sugar and honey makes them dance but absinthe makes get out and sing

[artemis]

If I had to suspect, I'd say that hyssop is at the heart of it; maybe they even recognize your hyssop in the absinthe. All we have is clover for them right now, nice patches of it. Some of the assholes around here get mowers out and raze it down this time of year, so their yards can look like a pool table that's been pissed on too many times. I spare it even in the summer. A yard covered with clover would be okay with me. Bees in the daylight and bunnies in the darkness.

[TheGreenOne]

Bees do maths.

[artemis]

Honeybees can learn to add and subtract, according to research showing that while the insects have tiny brains, they are still surprisingly clever.

 

Fascinating, but I don't think "clever" is the best choice of words there.

[Bognoz]

Every language has its strengths.

I like clever, covers ground I yousta

find troubling. Not so much now.

[Bognoz]

Butt I don't speak bee.

What a wonder that wood...

[Bognoz]

U.S. magpies are spectacular birds.

 

In 2008, a magpie—a member of crows’ extended family of corvids, or “feathered apes”—became the first non-mammal to pass the “mirror test.” The magpie’s neck was marked with a bright dot in a place that could be seen only in a mirror. When the magpie caught sight of its reflection, it immediately tried to check its neck.

[artemis]

Clever has a negative connotation of the ability to put something over on somebody. Something tricky, not necessarily something intelligent. Even in a good sense, it means to me more innovative than intelligent. I would have used the word "intelligent".

 

But before I made that post, I looked it up and was surprised at what I found, so I didn't do the more intensive criticism to which I was first inclined. It turns out that "clever" once had to do only with manual skills, such as manipulating needle and thread. And now it's devolved into almost interchangeable with "intelligent".

 

What interested me the most about what I found was the story about the dolphin coming to listen to a little girl singing, then splashing her.

 

https://english.stac...gent-and-clever

[jaded prol]

Mmm, Plague water

 

https://www.nytimes....ge&section=Food

[Bognoz]

Doesn't anyone remember

how to make jenkem anymore?

[Kirk]

Making a sterling fruit basket

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[Kirk]

been at it for a year

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[Kirk]

On the bottom I will engrave a bear holding a hive. I will forge all the knots into various insect fauna and fuse them together to make an undulating rim. It's massive, holding at red hot with my face buried in it was a real hoot.

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[Kirk]

Queen bee

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[Bognoz]

I think that's gonna bee byootiful.

Straw skeps are so fucking iconic.

[Bognoz]

Wallace's bee, thought to be extinct

but recently sighted in Indonesia.

 

 

 

Yeah, it's a giant fucking bee.

It lives in termite nests

collects resin and cuts leaves.

[Kirk]

It's yuge and elusive, so was Wallace

[TheGreenOne]

I heard Darwin was a giant wuss who deserves no credit

[Kirk]

We all try to stay busy

[TheGreenOne]

I thought this was an ad for absinthe.

 

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[A.B. Normal]

I saw this almost six months ago.
It has completely consumed my thoughts ever since.
So Im going back in a few weeks.
And after I come back home and get my xit in order,
Im going back and never leaving again.

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[jaded prol]

Where is it?

[Kirk]

Hibernia

[A.B. Normal]

Scottish Highlands.

[Bognoz]

An old euphemism meaning:

"why a wombin looks for a manan a skirt"

[A.B. Normal]

I hereby take back anything I may have said
over the years about SqueeGee in a skirt.

[Absinthe_1900]

Hibernia Welcomes You.

 

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[TheGreenOne]

Scotland where men are men, women are scare, and sheep are scared.

[TheGreenOne]

I think the snake looks angry.

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[TheGreenOne]

Convenient medical care.

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[artemis]

Actually, yesterday.  Strange that there's not a word about it at the French absinthe forum.  Haven't been there in a very long time; it appears to be moribund at best.

 

[Absinthe_1900]

After all that has passed in history, to be burned during a renovation...

 

Facebook killed the forums, and I deleted Facebook, Hopefully what remains of Notre Dame will outlast Zukerbook.

[Kirk]

What a shame, nothing fine stays that way.

They were showing some of the relics held by the church, the caption under each read something like this;  Some religious historians believe this to be the actual. . ". . .  crown of thorns, piece of the cross etc.

Reminded me of when I watch History channel : "Some ancient astronauts theorists believe". . .

[Bognoz]

Say what you will about the relics

The reliquaries are generally exquisite.

[Kirk]

Yes, extensive use of rock crystal gets my blood pumping

[artemis]

I think about the 50 acres of forest that was cut down to build it, in the 1100s. I think I would have missed the forest more than the cathedral. Druids didn't need a house for God ...

[Kirk]

True, if you want a fence post white you will need to return and paint it, over and over forever, entirely unsustainable.

[artemis]

What a shame, nothing fine stays that way.

 

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

Frosty the Snowman

[artemis]

Some ancient astronauts theorists believe

 

Much depends upon the definition of "ancient astronaut theorists".

If it means "crackpot", then I wonder if there would still be a TV show about them.  Given the shit that's all over TV now, I wouldn't bet against it.

I like the show with the halfwit who thinks he's handsome or funny or smart or some shit, running around the world looking for Excalibur and the like.  He's pitched at the start of the show as having been trained in Archaeology.  Of course, lots of people trained in French poetry work at Starbucks, so .... 

He'll interview, on location, an old woman who rented a cottage to an alleged descendant of Arthur himself, learn that something had indeed once happened on the very spot, and then beam at the camera like Merlin had made him invisible and he had just cut a thunderous fart during Easter mass.

[artemis]

On the other hand, I recently saw a legitimate science show about Tintagel, legendary home of Arthur.  It was worth watching just to see this:

 

[artemis]

Legend says that after the Romans left, Saxon hoards invaded from the east.  Arthur personally killed almost 500 of them using Excalibur.  In the same fight.

 

As it turns out, actual scientific research indicates that there was no hostile contention over that part of England.  People from the mainland simply came, settled, farmed and interbred with the native population.  On the other hand, Tintagel, being situated on tin deposits, prospered in trading by sea with people from as far away as Turkey.  Everybody was happy except the Romans.

[artemis]

As to the Christian relics, cathedrals all over EuroFuckyLand were the Wally Worlds of the time.  Any one of them, to be in contention for tourists, had to show at least one relic - nail from the cross, toe of a saint, etc.  I see that the one and only crown of thorns was rescued from the fire at Notre Dame.  A little over the top on the gilding, I think.

 

A very old lady from Throssil

found a mighty peculiar fossil

She could tell from the bend,

and the knob at the end,

twas the Peter of Paul the Apostle

[A.B. Normal]

I think I may have discovered
why I instantly fell in love with
the last place I visited in Scotland.

On the left, a photo posted today on their regional page
On the right, a photo taken back home from my childhood best friend

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[artemis]

That also hits home. One of my oldest memories is of a grove of fig trees, in the midst of a triangle formed by the intersection of three dust roads. My sister took me into the midst of the trees and showed me the carpet of violets inside the shady bower. It was like stepping into another world.