I’m just going to apologize in advance. I had high hopes of having a lot of extra time this evening (last night if you’re reading this Friday AM) to work on a DOT but that did not happen.
Instead, I ended up over at the Gunny Hall in my hometown drinking with my Dad and his friends. Is my dad a vet? No. But apparently his local is the VFW for some reason. Probably because it’s cheap and close by.
I spent a lot of the evening cornered by one of his high school buddies hearing about his time in the Coast Guard and the poltergeist in his house. It’s wasn’t uninteresting, it was just a bit much. It was better than the guy who was telling my Dad all about his cellulitis or the other woman telling me about her ancestors who were burned as witches and the fact that she is descended from Lady Godiva (truism, she said).
I also managed to avoid the person whom they refer to, to his face, as Loud Mouth Mike.
It’s now midnight and I’m eating a Nachos Bell Grande in my king size suite at the local hotel.
So, like I said, apologies and please, do fill everyone in with what is going on in the wide world.
The below is all that’s going on where I am. XO
Have a great day!
I have something.
A couple of months ago I was reading an interesting article about what would happen to humans physically if we were to colonize another planet. I think there are a couple of hot prospects in our solar system. I think one of Neptune’s 14 moons might be one of them.
We would want a planet where the gravity was less than our own, lest we be crushed upon arrival. Supposing we could get there in a reasonable amount of time and could build out some infrastructure to actually live there, then what? Well, assuming we arrived as fully formed adults and could replicate Earth-like conditions that would be OK but we’d probably change a little physically. Being colonists, we would want to have children, and that’s where the weird stuff would start. It’s posited that the lesser gravity couldn’t be completely overcome, so our bodies would mutate and evolve over generations. We’d never be able to go back to earth, because the greater gravity would crush our internal organs, among many other unpleasant things. There was more to it but it was very interesting.
This article made me think of that article:
https://www.nj.com/nets/2022/11/adam-silver-calls-kyrie-irving-reckless-says-hes-disappointed-he-hasnt-apologized.html
Come on, Silver is just a simple Iowa farmer.
https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Grant_Wood_-_American_Gothic_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg
I’m a day late to this comment but they touch on this exact thing in The Expanse – people not born on Earth can’t really go to Earth because of gravity. Also, the Belters(born in space) have different physical attributes  than the planet born humans because of being born in low to zero gravity.  It’s details like this that make The Expanse so good.
This article from six months ago is astonishingly bad. It’s written as if reporter Paul La Monica was taking dictation from Morgan Stanley:
https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/26/investing/morgan-stanley-elon-musk-twitter/index.html
Now Morgan Stanley and its partners are forced to keep the debt on their books, instead of selling it off to other suckers investors, and they’re looking at $500 million in losses instead of the big fees La Monica was sure were headed their way.
What’s worse is banks were already stuck with $30 billion in debt from bad debt financing deals. They have been making a lot of bad deals and are now losing hundreds of millions while worsening their balance sheets.
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/banking-law/twitter-musk-deal-drama-is-just-beginning-for-wall-street-banks
Don’t worry. If the Twitter deal becomes a big enough catastrophe, then the feds will be right there to bail out the financiers. Because “moral hazard” only applies to people who aren’t rich.
One thing that’s interesting is that the stuck capital on the books of big firms right now, despite all of the market mess since Covid, is still a pretty small fraction of what it was around 2007-8. The stricter capital requirements passed since then have helped keep this kind of stupid lending down.
But it’s obviously a big risk that the GOP will try to blow up those requirements. I don’t think even the big established financial firms want a return to 2008 — they’re capable of profiting just fine without the unregulated race to the bottom mentality that existed then.
But there are always outliers in the junk debt arena who don’t care if the markets crash, and the GOP has become extremely easy for a few bad actors to manipulate.
PSA: RSV is surging, filling up children’s hospitals and also causing a shortage in the only treatment currently available called palivizumab. I just found out that my 4 year old has it. Luckily not bad enough to be hospitalized. So far the rest of us have no symptoms but we are staying isolated anyway. Stay safe everyone (wash hands, mask in public, avoid sensitive groups if you have cold-like symptoms), especially those under 5 and over 65.
Hope your little one feels better soon.
We have a nephew that we think has it (my wife baby sits) but his parents (her brother and his teacher, non vaccinated wife) just keep him home for a day or two and then send him back saying he is fine, but he is not. He is not super sick, just tired and shit, but definitely sick. They are not bad parents, but they are full time plus workers who are trying to juggle the madness. Hopefully they take my wife’s advice and get him checked out.
Poor kid and poor parents. It’s terrible that parents are forced to make these choices because of our capitalist society.
Can’t wait until this fascist is our next president!
https://www.levernews.com/in-climate-change-ravaged-florida-ron-desantis-insurance-giveaway/
Why is this guy still in charge?
https://truthout.org/articles/companies-price-hikes-fuel-inflation-why-isnt-the-fed-talking-about-it/
and your family values candidate of the day…
https://www.rawstory.com/republican-arrested-2658598770/
I am hanging out at the wrong places. This sounds like current-day fiction.
SPROTS (<- auto-correct keeps trying to change this):
Brooklyn Nets suspend Kyrie Irving over ‘failure to disavow antisemitism’
WORLD POLITICS:
Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu comeback brings despair for leftwing parties
ECONOMY:
US adds 261,000 jobs in October as unemployment rate rises slightly
DOUCHEBAG:
Twitter sued by former staff as Elon Musk begins mass sackings
I voted this morning.
The ridiculous part of it all is that they could have wrapped a few feather boas around the horses (or another silly little accessory) or added fake small wings like a Pegasus and it would have been delightful.
Oh no no, they had to go with the KKK costumes.
And I guarantee several cops knew exactly what they were doing.
I find it frustrating that cops keep doing this stuff and keep being exposed for having white supremacists etc yet we keep being told it’s just a few bad apples. Like, okay, it’s been my whole life, maybe we can start removing the bad apples instead of transferring or promoting them (I know it’s not just a few).
i just chased a black guy out of the supermarket….. to give him the slab of salmon he forgot after getting his backpack checked
then security came out to ask if i was alright and what happened…..
they also declined to check my backpack at the checkout….
(tho i was admittedly just being a pain in the arse about it….like i’d put stolen shit in my backpack…. i just walk it out in my basket using the self checkout)