Hope everyone enjoyed their 4th and that you got to do something fun.
I’ve been criss crossing Ohio going to parties. It’s been pretty fun but I’m real tired. Also, I’ve just been crashing with friends/family. Tonight I move into an actual hotel for the rest of the week. Hopefully that will give me a little space to recharge.
Lotta Trump signs still out (or back out I guess) here in Ohio
US investigators zone in on Trump election-plot lawyer John Eastman
Sprots!
Teenager Aldrich Potgieter shoots rare par-four hole-in-one in PGA Tour qualifier – not that he saw it
https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/04/sport/aldrich-potgieter-par-four-hole-in-one-spt-intl/index.html
Stonks!
Stock futures are little changed Tuesday night in a holiday-shortened week: Live updates
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/07/04/stock-market-today-live-updates.html
Check out the big brain on this guy
OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush sent his submersible down to the Titanic with a thruster facing the wrong way last year and had to troubleshoot it on the fly
https://www.insider.com/oceangate-stockton-rush-sub-thruster-facing-wrong-way-last-year-2023-7
Hear that guys? We’re NORMAL
Meeting friends online is normal. Here’s how to do it.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/07/03/adult-friends-meet-people-online-bumble-meetup/
Today in turtle content:
Have a super day!
That turtle’s shell is pretty impressive!
It’s a tortoise and the bumps are an indication of a bad diet. It’s called “pyramiding” and it happens when the tortoise gets too much of the wrong types of food (they need a high-fiber, grass-based diet). With the wrong foods it grows too fast and you get those lumps on the shell. It also dramatically decreases the tortoise’s lifespan.
If you think about it, the bumps are really counter-productive. Tortoises don’t swim but they do burrow, and all the lumps on top makes that more difficult. And yes, turtles can develop pyramiding too, but it’s not that dramatic.
So it looks like the chimp is smuggling forbidden food to his tortoise buddy. Apples are high in sugar and should only be given to tortoises in moderation, if at all.
Sorry to ruin the cute video for everyone.
So probably a stupid question time but I don’t know healthy tortoise or other herp management.
Can the pyramids be filed down to help reduce them?
It’s actually not a bad question. People ask it a lot. But no, it’s not possible. You’ll make the shell really thin and that’s dangerous for the tortoise. Plus shells are basically bone and have blood and circulatory systems. It’s possible to fix pyramiding but it’s a long, slow process of changing the tortoise’s diet. Tortoises shed scales (so do turtles) and over time, the shell will go back to normal, but it could take years.
It’s also a serious reproductive issue. Males can’t climb on top of females with severe pyramiding.
Oh interesting! I assumed tortoise shells were more like dog toenails where you have that thick keratin layer and at the base is the quick. I didn’t realize the shell was more involved systemically.
That’s a pretty good analogy. The outer layer is composed of keratin like hair and fingernails. The scales (called scutes) can dry up and be shed, just like trimming nails. But if you go too deep there is a circulatory system (which carries materials to “build” the shell and replace the scutes) and nerve endings. Yes, Sheldon can feel it when I touch his shell. He gets a bit pissy when I pull off old scales, but they need to go, because they block heat absorption. But you have to wait until they’re loose and flappy.
“Shell” is kind of a misnomer, because people associate it with things like shellfish. Those shells are totally different. A turtle’s shell is part of its skeletal system. The internal skeleton is fused to the shell.
It’s only been relatively recently that keepers of captive chimps have realized that commercially available fruit and vegetables aren’t ideal for them, either.
What chimps and other primates eat in the wild is typically lower in sugar and higher in fiber than cultivated, hybridized versions, and captive primates tend to get less exercise than wild ones.
And so they can get similar health issues as humans even when they’re getting calibrated amounts of calories and nutrients. Their guts and ours are set up to work harder to process food, but modern agriculture delivers food that short circuits that process.
We’re so normal that I mentioned my “online friends” in passing and my grandmother didn’t even blink.
Holy fuck, what morons.
https://apple.news/AeCCzHj8yTpqjnHan0tSCKw
I wouldn’t have been shocked if it was this one. Or the Nazi Germany one either.
This is probably the most egregious example of the GOP mistaking the Liberian flag for the American one, but it’s not the first. As I recall, Steve Mnuchin also reached for it in emoji form in one of his tweets a couple of years ago, and that came up in a spat that he was having with Axl Rose, of all possible adversarial permutations. (I can’t go track it down now that Fickle-Me-Elmo’s decided that those of us without a profile don’t even rate enough to read ’em, which somehow makes me not care all that much anyway — such a winning strategy you got there, Apartheid Boy.)
Hee hee @Fickle-Me-Elmo.
The unbelievable stupidity is just jaw-dropping. Have they never seen an American flag? At all? Or is counting the issue here? The difference between 1 and 50 is pretty dramatic, but Republicans don’t value education so …
😂😂😂
A thought occurred to me (ha I know)
Maybe whoever the RW affirmative action intern thought it was the Libertarian Flag?
The one star representing who this nation looks out for…
Actually I thought something similar. The Texas flag is red, white, and blue with a single star. Possibly some halfwit conflated that with the US flag.
The carbon fiber Stockton Rush used for the Titan’s hull was apparently expired… JEESUS!
The irritating thing for me is Stockton is no different that many of the dipshit bosses I’ve had over the years. It’s just the major difference is that his failure is all over the international media and people died because of his “vision”.
A coworker wondered why I’m so “mean” to incompetent higher ups. This is why. When you put your ego above all else… well.
As awful as I feel for the other 4, and their families, I’ve gotta say, there’s a part of me that’s just kinda 🤷♀️ about Rush dying on that thing…
Playing stupid games, and winning Stupid prizes, and all…
Dude basically nominated *and* successfully ran his own candidacy for a BIG ‘ol Darwin Award, didn’t he?
Yeah I won’t lie, I was pleasantly surprised a CEO actually faced consequences for their dumb decisions.
I can’t get over the fact that no one bothered to Google Rush before handing him money. One would assume that billionaires have the resources to check out these “opportunities” before allowing themselves to be murdered.
If you asked a billionaire to fund a business, you’d have to provide every detail of your life including your last colonoscopy, but ask one to climb into a flimsy tin can with a history of mechanical failure and drop to the bottom of the sea? “Sure, let me get my checkbook. Oh, and I want to take my son, too.”
I think in this case it was that the Dad was a total Titanic freak and jumped at any opportunity to visit the wreck. The son didn’t really care but Dad wanted him along, probably in that paternal way that some Dads have that “my interests will be your interests.” Not mine, thank God. My father was an engineer who was a little car-obsessed. Two topics that I know absolutely nothing about, to this day.
Yes, but that doesn’t change the fact that the guy could have determined this was a crappy shoestring operation with a basic search. Rush has been sued repeatedly, and there’s tons of information about how unsafe that damn thing was. It’s not like the information was hidden. I mean, I read fucking Amazon reviews before I click “Buy.” And that’s for things that cost a few dollars and can’t kill me.
GQ published online a very critical article about Discovery-Warner hack CEO David Zaslav, then quickly edited out a ton of critical material, and now has taken it all down.
https://www.allyourscreens.com/en/component/k2/item/3874-gq-editors-rewrite-then-pull-david-zaslav-profile
The article started with the classic thin skinned exec proclaiming that (other) people need to learn to get along with difficult people, but I’m putting serious odds that he is the kind of weak ego who never wants to see anything like this.
The original was saved on archive.is
https://archive.is/ftmBd
Impossible to respect the guy who turned TLC from The Learning Channel to Touch Little Children (inappropriately) with all the creepy fucks they turned into “stars” and who touts cost cutting while he got paid $250 mil in salary, bonuses and options in 2021.
Well, that’s the whole point of cost cutting. If you can’t find a way to fill your personal bank accounts with all of the money that was meant for employees and providing a decent product for consumers, then why even bother?
Somebody used my desk chair while I was at home the last few business days and I’m annoyed by that.
I’m short and keep the chair as high as it goes. It was down as short as the seat will go this morning.
I don’t keep anything valuable at my desk so it’s not like anything could go missing. And I don’t keep company sensitive printed materials. So there’s no risk of anything.
I’m just a pissy only child who doesn’t like other people using my stuff.
See, that’s interesting to me. I’m tall, but I likewise lift the chair as high as it will go because I don’t want to feel like I’m sitting at an elementary school desk. I can’t say I know too many short people who do the same thing.
…I think (if I think about it, which I guess I don’t always) that I generally aim for whatever height leaves my legs forming an approximate right-angle when my feet are flat on the floor…unless the table is too low & then I drop it enough to get my knees (& sometimes the arm-rests of the chair) low enough to slide under?
My wrists and hands are arthritic so I need the chair high enough to try to get my damn elbows parallel or above the desk or else fucking sore very fast.
Exaaaaactly!!!
I’m short, so I *do* prefer my chairs at approximately Kindergarten height!😉💖
If I’m in an office-y setting, the chair goes *exactly* tall enough, for me to spin on the seat, without my heels banging/catching on the wheels….
Because what’s thd purpose of a spinny-chair, if one *never* moves it to thd middle of the floor, to *spin* on it?!?
Might as well have a boring ‘ol stationary chair, if you aren’t gonna spin, for cryin’ out loud!
And to get *good* momentum and enough velocity to truly *feel* the centripetal force pushing *jn* on one’s body, you HAVE to have good xontact with the floor… but banging your ankles on the wheel-lehs hurts like a mother….
So *low* but with ankle-clearamce ALLLLLLLL the way!😉😁🤗
I used your seat. With those adjustable chairs I put the chair down low. I’m not afraid I’ll look short, but I prefer to have my feet touching the ground as keeping my legs dangling for hours hurt my knees.
I think people severely overestimate how high my work chair goes. The company is cheap, they’re not getting useful chairs for lots of body shapes.
Even on the highest setting which gets my elbows at desk height, my feet can still flatly be on the floor. I’m 5’4″.
Keep your hands off other peoples’ stuff, Manchu.
The worst thing is when you come back to a chair and on top of being readjusted it’s still warm from where they were sitting.
Shoeburyness!
Have you ever read Jeffrey Eugenides’s Middlesex? It’s been a while since I have. It’s an amazing novel. Fairly early on there’s a riff about conditions for which there should be a word. One of them is where you sit in a warm seat, especially a toilet seat. Another one is the uncomfortable feeling you get when you see family members age.
…the (adams, lloyd) attribution is on account of it’s from the meaning of liff…which is also why there’s a place called shoeburyness, since they made up definitions but used place names for the terms being defined
…also…it was a gag because in the monty python credits for the meaning of life there’s a bit where it says liff until the second f is struck by a thunderbolt or something that turns it into an e?
My response is that it’s rude of the person who used it not to put it back the way they found it. (Of note: Also an only child.)
Boy, this story is not over.
‘He lived by the troll, he dies by the troll’: Putin takes on Prigozhin’s business empire
…in other news…popcorn futures are going gangbusters
it was a bit windy here today…
https://nltimes.nl/2023/07/05/storm-poly-first-ever-severe-summer-storm-netherlands-wind-gust-146-kmh
no new damage on my end…least none immediately visible…pretty happy i moved all my potted herbs and veggies into the shed for the day tho….dont think many of them would have survived it
…looks like the buildings stood up pretty well…unless the trees are blocking the damaged bits…but it’s always more surprising that it should be when they make paving or tarmac look like paper
…hope you’ve got your sticky shoes on & don’t need to take the bike anywhere…I remember there being a short-lived fashion for a while some while back for covers that fit over the spokes to make one, other or both wheels look like they were solid…which turned out not to work as good as they thought it looked in more than a mild crosswind
the trees didnt have very far to fall before the houses stopped them so the damage is probably just a bunch of tiles..probably want to check on the roof support beams
way the roots made to road bulge i’d have some concern for all the piping and electric cables there tho
anyways its calmed down over here now so nothing to worry about…cept a bunch of tree mess everywhere…and wheelie bins where you least expect them
far as im aware bicycle racers like to use the solid wheel covers for time trials and i think short track racing….i assume theres an aerodynamic advantage to them…when used in the right conditions…..would definitely be a nightmare for daily use over here tho..lol
…pretty sure that’s where it came from…thing designed for use on indoor &/or steeply cambered tracks that are basically the sloped walls of a well as far as wind is concerned…quick lack of consideration later they’re “I’m a serious person who goes really fast on their bike” accessories…& approximately one stiff wind later…or story of someone getting blown into a parallel lane with traffic that wasn’t expecting them, as I fear the case might have been…& they’re on the trash heap was about the way I think that went?
146 K is pretty intense. I hope they rethink the tree species they replant there.
that would be smart….so probably not
not before we get a few more storms like this or stronger anyways
so give it a few years of this happening over and over…and then we’ll probably start seeing things change
hope they dont go with weeping willows….those things will slap the shit out of you when you least expect in even a mild breeze
Those damn Ents… you got ‘am alllll drunk and trying to climb up on the roofs again, Huh, Farscy?
who me?
*hides booze*
Let’s go ahead and take the heat seriously, too.
Woman dies while hiking Grand Canyon in excessive heat
I’m kind of wondering if she was out there intentionally knowing what would happen in that heat.
i mean..it was only 8 miles…..and far as i know the grand canyon is not particularly challenging terrain….unless you are going to climb in or out of it
sooo….if it wasnt intentional they didnt drink enough water coz dry heat me thinks
…I haven’t been to the grand canyon in years…but a few things about it leave a pretty lasting impression…one is the sheer scale…which for my money defies description…every time you (or I at any rate) think you’ve adjusted your sense of perspective you find some new indication that you’re still off by an order of magnitude or two
…two of those for me were realizing that the gossamer thread you could just about make out from the top if you had sharp eyes or some binoculars…was the colorado river…which apart from supporting a sort of corridor shaped habitat that supports various flora & fauna that would otherwise be shit out of luck in the surrounding desert…has been, if it doesn’t get below a tipping point in depletion…providing the water needs…agrarian, domestic, industrial, commercial & all…for a whole lot of people in a bunch of states…to the point that wikipedia reckons it & the rio grande are the two most heavily litigated watercourses in the world
…the other is that people routinely fuck up on their timings…there’s an approximate rule of thumb that it’ll take you twice as long to come back up as you’ve taken heading down…which more people ignore or somehow fail to learn before setting out…or forget…so people sadly go further than they mean to & are struggling back at half the speed they expect for more than twice the effort with very possibly less of their water left than they ought to have budgeted even if they took enough of the stuff with them…more often than not against the clock in at least one sense
…it’s bigger than you think, is what I guess I’m saying…but so much so that it’s still bigger…& steeper where the trails are concerned…than you think even when you’re standing there looking right at it with your own eyes
…which isn’t to say @brightersideoflife might not have the right of it…but I can certainly see it as being more by way of death by misadventure?
Tuweep is brutal, remote, beautiful country. More questions than answers in my mind.
(Emphasis is the NPS’.)
So they had to get a permit in advance. Possibly not a typical US tourist? Hope that there will be follow-ups on this.