I’m doing my part and keeping the drains clear so our storm water can make it to the Mississippi and head your way. We’ve had almost nonstop rain for the last 3 days. We had a very dry summer and it’s almost like the rain statisticians wanted to fix the rain total before snow comes.

Link to video

Glad you liked it! Go see Palminteri do it if you get the chance. He'll be at the Des Plaines Theater 11/5. https://chazzpalminteri.net/pages/a-bronx-tale-schedule

@Mik said in Life lessons from Warren Buffett: I'd disagree. There are many people who I don't care much for their company, but I respect their contributions to the society we live in and I'm willing to associate with them. I just won't invite them for dinner. If you were closer, I'd invite you over. I would happily accept! It’s my understanding that the food there is excellent. But I don’t think I’m too far afield by interpreting “high opinion of someone” as “liking someone”. I suspect most people, even ones of impeccable virtue, deliberately prioritize other things on occasion. Being on the “right side of history” for instance implies that one is spending present likability, with an expectation of future likability in return. That investment is understood to not necessarily provide returns by the time of one’s passing.

@Axtremus said in Nearly 1/3 of polled Democrats believe Americans have “too much freedom”: @Jolly, a lot of your proposed syllabus for Civics are covered between the typical public middle/high school courses on “American History” and “American Government” type classes. @Jolly said in Nearly 1/3 of polled Democrats believe Americans have “too much freedom”: And yes, a good civics course should teach the role of a good citizen in our country. With our rights come responsibilities. We are responsible for electing the best people to office. We are responsible to advocate for writing and passing the best laws our legislators can craft. Citizens are the ultimate authority on taxation levels, who and what should be taxed, and how the money raised should be spent. That’s all you have to say about “responsibilities” of citizens? How much of this are you willing to codify into law? If it's covered, why couldn't a large percentage of recently interviewed Americans name the three branches of government? Why did the majority of them not know what rights the 1st Amendment covers?

Seriously, I think a lot of it is coaching, but I also think Ram has taken a step back from All-pro since his knee injury. Secondly, I think Brees made his line look better, just like Brady did in New England. Both QB's got the ball out in under 2.4 seconds.

Tell the repairmen to watch out for dust. A study has recently shown that human neuron and lung cells exposed to simulated lunar dust experienced DNA damage and cell death, even in very small quantities. https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/did-you-know/did-you-know-moon-dust-incredibly-toxic-humans#:~:text=A study has recently shown,bronchitis and emphysema when inhaled.

@Axtremus said in Ornamentation Question: That YouTube plays it like a turn rather than a modern. In the score it's not a mordent, it's a trill. [image: 1695648830435-mordent-1431521941.jpeg] [image: 1695648908986-image.jpeg] My take: your ways looks pretty good to me (I would likely do that myself), but more generally I would say play whichever way manageable by and sounds good to you. It’s Bach, it’s baroque, they improvised and played things many ways and took many liberties with ornamentations back then. If the baroque musicians could take liberties with ornamentations, so can you. Agreed. As long as I don't use any pedal, right?

I was busy with the kids, so I didn't see your story. https://www.space.com/meteorite-impacts-moon-february-2023-video

He appears to have gone from being dismissed as too lowbrow to being dismissed as being elitist. No mean feat.

Dayum

Not sure I agree that the change to EV cars will require more manpower and jobs. But, like anything, a lot of jobs have moved outside the US. Maybe what they are doing with the EV tax credit is good - requiring higher sourced or manufactured in the US to qualify for the higher tax credit.

idiot

I was surprised at the high % number of people that live in urban areas. From the Census bureau, here is the definition of urban area: For the 2020 Census, an urban area will comprise a densely settled core of census blocks that meet minimum housing unit density and/or population density requirements. This includes adjacent territory containing non-residential urban land uses. To qualify as an urban area, the territory identified according to criteria must encompass at least 2,000 housing units or have a population of at least 5,000.

Taiwan and Singapore have most of the expressways set up to allow this. The center is not a grass or anything, but movable planters that can be pushed out of the way to allow planes to land and take off. I thought I read somewhere that the US expressways were originally set up for this also. Cool idea for sure.

https://x.com/drefanzor/status/1705404974531052026?s=20

Per the article, the surprise billings are due to insurers not updating their computer systems promptly. The vaccines should be covered by insurance without out-of-pocket cost. This is yet another example of the insurer as an unnecessary middleman in the way of delivering healthcare screwing things up. Single-payer universal healthcare FTW!