I’m going to Lavecon in Northhamptonshire, and spending a couple days in London at the V&A and the Brit. So my posting frequency will drop slightly. If you’re a new commenter, or want to argue with me, you may experience some delay but I promise you a full measure eventually.
Normal ranting and raving will resume after the 19th.
I will delete this posting upon my return.
Did you realize that raw sewage still goes into the Hudson River? As recently as the 90s. And guess who was one of the premier proponents of pumping poo? The Donald! From the Daily Beast:
Trump had two choices with a billion-dollar West Side project: build a sewage treatment plant or bow out. But there was a third option: flood the Hudson.
Slate has an article about the sewer opening off the Florida
Outflow off Hollywood
coastline. It sounds horrible, and I agree: don’t eat the grouper.
The ancient Romans had The Cloaca Maxima, which worked basically the same way: throw stuff in and it eventually winds up in the Tiber and goes downstream and you can forget about it. Bacterial bloom? What are bacteria?
I often listen to the “Stuff you missed in history class” podcast as I am drifting off to sleep* but the episode I was listening to last night kept me bursting out into laughter.
For some reason this is not getting a lot of attention over here at the US. I can’t imagine why.
Chelsea Manning is apparently in the hospital following a suicide attempt. Solitary confinement is used as a torture technique in US prisons, and can be applied for the most trifling of reasons (“did you look at me?” “hey, look at me when I’m talking to you!”) or supposed gang membership. In some cases, like Manning, or Jose Padilla, it’s applied out of sheer nastiness.
Supporters of “remain” at a ‘brexit’ rally.
The US is deploying another 560 troops to Iraq. They will be deployed wearing Birkenstocks so that there are “no boots on the ground.”
I do a lot of projects involving nasty gooey things – ranging from benzoin for candle-making to epoxy resin for cold casting, and tuna fish or onions for lunch. These are all things that you want to cut, spill, mix, chop, and whatnot, without making a mess of anything that’s expensive to replace. For example: shaving partially cured epoxy resin off of a granite counter-top can distract you from real fun.
Many people make a subtle distinction between true religion and superstition; they tell us that the latter is but a cowardly and inordinate fear of Divinity, that the truly religious man has confidence in his God,
Jean Meslier Portrait
and loves Him sincerely; while the superstitious man sees in Him but an enemy, has no confidence in Him, and represents Him as a suspicious and cruel tyrant, avaricious of His benefactions and prodigal of His chastisements. But does not all religion in reality give us these same ideas of God? While we are told that God is infinitely good, is it not constantly repeated to us that He is very easily offended, that He bestows His favors but upon a few, that He chastises with fury those to whom He has not been pleased to grant them?
Another protest took place, fortunately it ended peacefully. In fact, cops with riot gear didn’t even show up, in spite of some of the protestors being dressed in paramilitary gear associated with anti-government militia.
Armed African-American man fatally shot by Houston police. Police say he was threatening. Video shows he was not.