From the category “stuff one stumbles across on the internets”.
I’m gonna be away for a few hours, so until better pickings come along, entertain each other.
This post is in: Music, Open Threads
From the category “stuff one stumbles across on the internets”.
I’m gonna be away for a few hours, so until better pickings come along, entertain each other.
Comments are closed.
Ultraviolet Thunder
Gonna go walk the dog, then pull weeds. But that’s every Saturday.
Enjoy your weekend.
shell
Looks like it’s gonna be sunny for Belmont.
lamh36
Wow. Beau def looked like his dad. But am I wrong in thinking Hunter sounds a lot like VP Joe?
lamh36
Hunter Biden recalled his first memory of childhood waking up in a hospital, age 3, w/Beau holding his hand, saying over & over again: I love you.
Apparently, Chris Martin (Coldplay) learned thru grapevine that Beau Biden was a big fan and volunteered to sing at the memorial.
POTUS Eulogy did Joe Biden proud
RIP Beau Biden
WereBear
I don’t think I can watch the funeral, but I very much appreciate my fellow Juicers filling me in.
And because I haven’t found an open thread early enough until now:
Way of Cats Fund Drive
is underway, and close to the top! For those so inclined.
Thanks.
the Conster
@lamh36:
I’m crying here just reading about it – can’t bring myself to watch such sadness. Joe has felt too much sorrow.
Elizabelle
Iowa Old Lady’s comment from previous thread. Sums it up.
ETA: C-Span 1 will rebroadcast remarks by Odierno, PBO, and the Biden family at 8 p Eastern tonight.
SiubhanDuinne
@lamh36: it was an incredibly moving service for a man who was, by all accounts, extraordinary. Even allowing for a bit of possible eulogistic hyperbole, Beau’s decency came through loud and clear, and the love and support the Biden family* all have for each other is palpable.
*(Including POTUS, a self-described “honorary Biden”)
Elizabelle
@the Conster: The Biden family was very strong and dignified.
Elizabelle
C-Span 1: “next up is Senator Tom Cotton talking about foreign policy. …”
Click goes the remote. Back to a sunny Virginia Saturday.
the Conster
@Elizabelle:
It’s too much to bear. They’ll fall apart later.
NotMax
Popped awake much, much too early, about 6:30. Had nearly forgotten the Sun is up at such an unfortunate hour.
Not a morning person. *grumble, grumble* Gonna be logy all day now.
Gimlet
The Florida House of Representatives voted Friday to reject a state Senate bill that would have expanded Medicaid for thousands
The proposal would have used $18 billion in federal funds over a decade to help low-income workers purchase health care plans from private providers. The program would have expanded Medicaid for hundreds of thousands of Floridians.
Opponents derided the legislation as expensive, overreaching and “just Obamacare with a clever name,” as state Rep. John Wood (R) put it.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Florida has the second-highest uninsured rate in the country, with 24.3 percent of residents lacking health care in 2013.
Friday’s vote marks the third time Florida legislators have rejected expanding health care since the Affordable Care Act passed.
DCrefugee
@Gimlet: Forget it Jake, it’s Florida Man…
Elizabelle
Learn from the wolves. NY Times today: Tapping your Inner Wolf:
of course, the pack is small and select:
But:
Learn up, people. (ETA: people, generically. The BJ community pretty much already follows this credo.)
Elizabelle
Stepping away from the laptop. Catch up with you guys for the Belmont. Cheers.
fuckwit
@SiubhanDuinne: After reading Obama’s autobiography, it became very clear why and how he became so close to and had so much affection for Biden, and for Clinton actually too.
Biden seems, from Obama’s description, very much like Obama’s grandfather who raised him, and with whom he was very close. Clinton seems very much, from the somewhat sparse description he gives, like Obama’s mother, who was very nearly the same age.
It’s interesting to me that Obama wrote a wonderful autobiographical book about his search for his absent father, but didn’t get around to writing about his mother. Maybe he intended to but didn’t have time or didn’t think the time was right. But I predict once he’s out of office, the first book he’ll write will be something personal and introspective and it will be about Dr. Dunham. And it’ll bookend his other autobiography.
Germy Shoemangler
Basketball Commentary from Key and Peele.
Pretty much what all sports talk sounds like to me.
Amir Khalid
Andrew O’Hehir’s political punditry is even sillier than his film criticism.O’Hehir seems to be arguing that Caitlyn Jenner’s media debut, the Josh Duggar scandal, and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign are all aspects of one big thing that O’Hehir doesn’t quite manage to define. They aren’t. They are three different things going on at the same time, that’s all.
Salon has really lost its way in the past few years.
Germy Shoemangler
@Amir Khalid: True about Salon. Years ago I used to enjoy reading. Now I actually find myself getting irritated when I click on an article and find the headline has nothing to do with the subject. Clickbait. And the commenters seem to be growing sick of it.
Andrew’s bullshit essays are a big part of it, but there are other writers there equally bad.
And when they have space to fill they just reprint some dense book excerpt and tack on an irrelevant, overly dramatic headline.
What is Joan Walsh thinking?
gogol's wife
My husband’s back from his archive trip. So I’m ecstatic despite the broken washing machine and inoperative cable TV.
Mark B.
This song title was the answer to one of the clues in the NYT crossword puzzle I worked this morning. It’s published in the NYT last week, but the local paper publishes it on Saturday morning. I hadn’t heard it before. I’m not a big Billy Joel fan, but this is a nice song. Glad I heard it.
MomSense
Here’s a snippet of my day.
Son: Say “toast” five times fast.
Mom: toasttoasttoasttoasttoast
Son: Say “toaster” ten times fast
Mom: toastertoastertoastertoastertoastertoastertoastertoastertoastertoaster
Son: What do you put in a toaster?
Mom: Bread
Son: Oh darn it.
Son: Oh I told my teacher you would make a cockroach hat or gloves for the science fair auction.
Mom: Isn’t that on Wednesday?
Son: What gets wetter as it dries?
Mom: I have no idea.
Son: A towel (exits)
Wait what about this science fair thing? No response.
and scene
Amir Khalid
@Germy Shoemangler:
Walsh hasn’t been running the place in years. She’s an editor-at-large now, and apparently all she does these days is her own punditry. The changes of the past few years — the increasingly tabloidish tone, the clearing out of the better contributors like aviation guy Patrick Smith — were made by her successors.
lamh36
Serena Williams wins her 20th Grand Slam, beating Martina. 2 more and she beat Graff for most Grand Slam wins.
As usual, the haters gonna hate and for 20 years now belittle what the Williams sisters have done for themselves and women’s tennis, but Serena keeps going and has to be considered one of the GOAT in American athletics.
And her winner’s speech was in French, LIKE A BOSS!
Serena Williams Wins French Open
Iowa Old Lady
@MomSense: A cockroach hat or gloves? Are we talking costumes? For the science fair? LOL
How does one make such a thing?
raven
@Amir Khalid: Is this futbol game a biggie?
WereBear
Do the hat. You only need to make one.
Tree With Water
Lest We Forget: Digby has posted a photo shot from a landing craft showing men of the 29th Division stepping onto Omaha Beach.. (which occurred in the blink of an eye ago, constructive imagination-wise). It was taken by Robert Capa, who naturally was forced to pause near the edge of the landing ramp to take it. As he told it later, the sailor piloting the landing craft assumed he was stalling and shoved him from behind and onto French soil. He didn’t like it there, either, and with perfect candor admitted he was soon looking for a ride back to the fleet offshore. He got it, and his film was rushed to London where a nervous dark room operator, cognizant of the film’s historical import, botched the job. Only a very few shots (in addition to Digby’s frame) were salvaged.
Six months later Capa accompanied Patton’s relief column in the Ardennes, and was among the first Americans to breach the perimeter of surrounded Bastogne. Capa was Hungarian, and the joke was that while he spoke six languages, he spoke none of them well. Paratroopers from the 101st took one look at his camera gear, and then another few seconds to discern his accent, and proceeded to steal everything of value he was carrying. It got straightened out, however, and he got it all back (with no hard feelings on his part, either).
dmsilev
@Iowa Old Lady: Very small knitting needles?
raven
@Tree With Water: Almost all of the film of D-Day was collected by one officer on the beach and dropped into the sea when he climbed up a net with the duffel bag and dropped it. That’s why you see the very short clips over and over.
Iowa Old Lady
@dmsilev: But what happens at the science fair? The ones I was compelled to go to had posters plus one incredible project done by some kid’s dad. Nothing as fun as someone in a cockroach costume happened.
SiubhanDuinne
@fuckwit:
That’s a really good point. I read Dreams when it first came out, and again shortly after the first Inauguration, but not since. I’ll have to go back and read it with your observations in mind, vis-à-vis Biden.
I also agree he probably has a lot to write about his mother, and I hope he does so after he leaves office. But I don’t want that to be his first post-presidential book. I’m counting on finding out what he really thinks about Boner, McTurtle, Grampa Walnuts, the Mittster, and all the rest.
Amir Khalid
@raven:
UEFA Champions League final. Biggest game in club football.
dmsilev
@Iowa Old Lady: Dunno. Most of the ones I’ve been to recently (as a judge, generally) have been like that. The really competitive national ones have truly amazing projects, but the “held in the school’s gym” type things tend to be a bunch of posters and maybe a few visual aids, but not much else.
Iowa Old Lady
@raven: One time at the National Czech and Slovak Museum in Cedar Rapids, I saw this photo exhibit from the Prague Spring in 1968. They’d been taken by an American college student bumming around Europe on a motorcycle. He heard interesting stuff was going on in Prague and went there. He woke up the next morning to Soviet tanks rolling through the streets.
He took all kinds of pictures, fighting to keep his camera at one point, then headed out of town. Cars were lined up at the border crossing, but on his bike, he rolled right through. He took the film to the AP in Paris, as I recall. They bought some of the pics and one of them was on the front page of the NYT the next day.
Then he went home and became a doctor. It was years before he dug out all the pics and this exhibit was put together. I was struck by how young most of the people involved on both sides were.
Tree With Water
@raven: Fantastic knowledge. Do you recall the source the information? The history of WW2 has always has always fascinated me, and I’ve never read that particular in the oft told accounts of Capa’s invasion film (I’d remember if I had).
Amir Khalid
@lamh36:
Actually, no. Two more Grand Slam titles and she’ll be tied with Steffi Graf on 22, the most any player has won in the Open era beginning in 1968. Australia’s Margaret Court is the all-time champion of Grand Slam titles with 24. That’s the mark Serena has to beat to become all-time champion herself.
NotMax
@dmsilev
And always one volcano which either doesn’t function or which does, but too vigorously.
NotMax
@Iowa Old Lady
Somewhere on YouTube (IIRC; too groggy to go searching at the moment) is the only film footage reporting by a Western journalist in Poland during the German invasion.
Part of it shows the destructive aftermath by artillery of the photo lab, where the film had finished being developed mere minutes beforehand.
Germy Shoemangler
Tanned, Exquisitely Coiffed Bernie Sanders Tells Supporters Corporations Actually Have A Lot To Offer
He looks like John Boehner
MomSense
@Iowa Old Lady: @WereBear:
I think I’ll make a hat and use several colors? Believe it or not there aren’t any knitting patterns for cockroaches.
Thank goodness it isn’t a costume. I’ve already made a preying mantis costume with clear plastic wings even.
shell
@WereBear: Get a plain hat and a couple of fabric paint colors from your local craft store. Paint a tasteful cockroach motif
WereBear
@MomSense: This video of what the world looks like through compound eyes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnfgPipV7UE
Might give you pattern ideas. In fact, if you get a couple of cheap compound eye filters for the brim, you could SEE THROUGH COCKROACH EYES.
And maybe win a prize :)
Iowa Old Lady
@MomSense: I am so impressed
Gimlet
@MomSense:
And a set of tasteful Deely Boppers to set it off nicely.
Keith G
President Obama’s eulogy for Beau Biden was amazingly personal. Not totally so in it’s verbal construction, but if one notices the body language and occasional waver to his voice, one can sense the emotions that the President was feeling.
At about a minute twenty into the eulogy, President Obama states:
As he delivered the last half of that line, he looked directly at Vice President Biden for about two seconds. In public speaking terms, that is an emphatic length of time.
Very moving.
MomSense
@dmsilev:
Ha!
His project is on the Stroop Effect and apparently they are putting visitors to their booth through examinations of some kind. It involved building models of the brain and lots of computer time. They are having an auction to raise money for future science fairs since this is the first one his elementary school has done and the kids are hoping to start a tradition.
MomSense
@WereBear:
Awesome
RaflW
Maybe this was noted last night here since MJ ran it yesterday morning, but I just saw it. A woman has come forward saying she told ABC news 10 years ago that Dennis Hastert sexually abused her brother while Hastert was a coach. I can see why the network might have dismissed her allegation, her brother had been dead 6 years at the time.
But Hastert is toast. Crispy, disgusting burnt toast. What a scumbag for going after Bill Clinton while he had this nasty child molesting skeleton in his closet. Sheesh.
Iowa Old Lady
@RaflW: The man was second in line after the VP to be president. Now there’s a horrifying thought.
Tree With Water
@RaflW: Which begs the question, then, given that the blackmail payments were of more recent vintage, just just how many kids did Hastert rape?
trollhattan
@Tree With Water:
I would say “all of them, Katie” but that’s cold comfort to his victims. Many smelled a Sandusky in the room when this story broke and it would appear this is exactly what we have.
The sad fact is he has basically gotten away with it, and everything else: damaging several boys and damaging the nation. So his income stream has been disrupted now. What sort of price is that to pay? Not bloody much. He’s probably not going to jail and if there’s a trial it will be in civil court. He can block, delay and obfuscate from now until he’s dead. Nobody is likely to be satisfied with the outcome.
wmd
There were a couple of front page posts yesterday about the labor report. Did anyone comment on the employment by educational attainment data?
It’s surprising. From May 2014 to May 2015 the labor force with a Bachelors degree or above increased by 1,732,000 people (3.4%). Over the same time period 1,899,000 more people with a Bachelors or above became employed – the unemployment rate for BH or higher dropped while absorbing near a 1.75 million workers. This is astounding.
Suzanne
I am trying to buy a new car. I have had my 2000 Honda CR-V for eleven years, and it has over 200K miles on it, and it’s just been too problematic for the last year and a half or so. So I think I am going to pick up my new CR-V tomorrow. Love the car, hate the payments. I will miss my old girl. Sniffle.
I cannot watch the Beau Biden funeral. Just such an unbelievably tragic loss, and POTUS will make me cry. I signed the digital condolences book for the family. Love the Bidens so much.
Botsplainer
Beautiful afternoon at Churchill Downs – wanted to be here if Pharoah wins. I
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Botsplainer: I am nervous as a cat. I really like this horse. He has both talent and a great brain, though he can get a little wound up in/on the way to the paddock if there’s a rowdy crowd. Earplugs help, and once he’s on the track he’s all business. It rained earlier, quite hard at Belmont, and while they’ll have worked the surface, you can only get so much done with equipment.
Did I mention that I really like this colt. And I know (believe, IIRC) Baffert is a family friend of yours. When Wayne Lukas says a horse he doesn’t train is special, I pay attention.
Germy Shoemangler
Open thread:
Sen. Bernie Sanders on the O’Really factor:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EO4Ko-v-q0g
Tree With Water
@wmd: Those stats lend ammo to Sanders call for tuition-free colleges, don’t they?
Germy Shoemangler
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): I agree this is a special horse. I didn’t know about earplugs. Do horses tolerate them?
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Germy Shoemangler: Mine did (show horses not racehorses) and the big colt seems to. The fact that he’s much less skittish with them (they are cotton or yarn; his seem to be cotton) suggests it’s noise that bothers him.
Noise got a couple of mine really wound up also, and they were better with their ears stuffed. Some horses find the stuffing really annoying, so you’re better overall with noise. Long way to say “it depends on the horse.”
Iowa Old Lady
@Germy Shoemangler: I tried to watch that and found I still can’t stand O’Reilly smug, obnoxious manner for more than 60 seconds.
trollhattan
@Iowa Old Lady:
You made it 60 seconds in? Tough stuff, that of which you are made.
Sibelius
@Suzanne: Looked at the CRV 3 years ago. Liked it, almost bought it until we looked at the Acura RDX. LOVED it, 6 cyl, better transmission, not too much more. Still love it 3 years on. The only problem with the CRV was the power. I’ve got a left turn I have to make every day and I need to GOOOOOO. The Honda transmission wasn’t available as a “manumatic” so you had easy access to the shifter at the time, always thought that would have made me buy the CRV and save the money on the Acura. We really wanted the Audi Q5, but that was just ridiculously priced. Good luck with the car.
Germy Shoemangler
@Iowa Old Lady: He really is so pompous it’s almost like a put on. But he’s serious. He gives me a headache, but I wanted to see how Sanders would handle him. Very even and thoughtful, never tricked into giving answers he doesn’t want to give.
trollhattan
@Sibelius:
Probably shouldn’t recommend the A4Q Avant then. Spousal unit loves her ’07, as it’s a car the 95% of the time one wants a car and a hauler for the other 5%. We’re wannabe Eurotrash.
Sibelius
@trollhattan: I was surprised they discontinued that one for awhile, then brought it back. My wife just wants an A4. She works across the street from the Audi dealer and sees them get delivered in their little white blankets. Great Great car. Our Mercedes C280 is old now and gets taken in on Monday for probably $3000 worth of work. I’d much rather put that down on the A4, but have to wait until our remodel is done, or at least started.
Iowa Old Lady
I’ve decided we’ll have dried cherry and blue cheese pizza for dinner. I need to go do something about that.
trollhattan
@Sibelius:
Sounds similar to what we experienced. Dealer floor and lot were packed with A4 sedans–pick any package and color you like–zero new Avants and a couple “executive” (i.e., loaner) used Avants, which is what we ended up with. They’d order us one with a 10-week turnaround at precisely the sticker price.
Uh, no on that chief.
Every time I’m on a sopping wet road (too, too rare in California lately) I am remided why I wanted this car. Test drove it in a heavy rainstorm and the salesdude kept telling me, “give it more gas.” He understood who he was dealing with while I was thinking, “Okay, it’s your neck too; how many airbags, again?”.
Germy Shoemangler
@trollhattan:
Just curious: Did he made a xerox of your drivers’ license before letting you test drive?
Because that was my experience the last time I test drove (with the sales guy in the car). He said it was a rule, but I was suspicious.
trollhattan
@Germy Shoemangler:
Hazy recollection is they did, but this was eight years ago. Since at any given time in our metroplex probably a third of the drivers are unlicensed/have fake licenses and no insurance, I can probably understand the extra step.
Quite a change from when shopping for my current car and they offered me a tester overnight.
Sibelius
@Germy Shoemangler: When I was last test driving I had everything from DL copy, to phone numbers, e-mail, mother’s maiden name etc. down to here are the keys just bring it back. They’re all different, and most angling for any hook to keep you there. I finally got fed up with dealers and once I decided what I wanted I used my credit union buying service. I’ll never buy a car any other way. Funny that the nicest sales guy when test driving turned into the biggest A-@*&% once it was time to buy. I walked and never went back.
Germy Shoemangler
@Sibelius: Funny you mention the credit union. Wife & I had the conversation last week. Next time we need to buy a car, we’ll use our credit union. I’ve had my fill of the hard sell and tricks.
The xeroxing my license made me suspicious because I remember reading somewhere that there’s no “rule” and that they simply give the copy to the manager while you’re on the road with the salesman. He can go online and learn all sorts of things from the info on your license. They want to see how much you can afford to spend.
I remember the bullshit chit-chat which was really the sales douche asking personal questions. (“So what does your wife do for a living?” when I mentioned my wife would be using the car.)
EDIT: Just found this:
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2009/09/car-dealers-can-use-your-drivers-license-to-access-your-credit-report/index.htm
Major Major Major Major
Been binging on Psycho-Pass to catch up with my friends.
Holy shit, that gets dark.
trollhattan
@Germy Shoemangler:
In ways it’s worse now than that article, since they can Google Earth your damn house. “That van in front, are you planning on trading it in?”
Elizabelle
Hi peeps. G&T in hand; waiting to root for American Pharoah.
Kind of wishing for a C-Span like feed for horse racing, vs. the pomp and commercialism of NBC Sports.
Beautiful conditions for racing, no?
Elizabelle
And they’re off. Anybody else out there? Where are you?
Pogonip
@Amir Khalid: Yes and I’m not happy about it. They used to be very good about reporting the latest in autism research. Now they’re a parody of liberalism, but the problem is I don’t think they intend it as parody.
Elizabelle
Triple Crown!!!
And all the horses healthy?
Pogonip
@RaflW: Say ” Hastert” ten times fast…
debbie
@Elizabelle:
That was a beautiful run!
Pogonip
@MomSense: Don’t try to make hats for cockroaches. They invariably knock them off as they run under the fridge.
Elizabelle
@debbie: Always in the lead (or no?), and pulling away at the end.
Textbook.
Racing needed a Triple Crown. I am still personally mad at Tonalist. Faker.
debbie
@Elizabelle:
Yes, always in the lead.
I always root for the grays, and I was secretly hoping for a tie with Frosted, but American Pharaoh ran so easily, it looked like he could almost go for a second lap.
catatonia
AP didn’t labor at all. Impressive win.
Jeez, the trifecta only paid 54 bucks. Even for a TC 7-horse race where the 3:5 favorite won, that’s still seems pretty low. Didn’t see the odds on the place and show, though.
Elizabelle
@efgoldman: Hello there. I think it’s a bigger deal. Long drought.
I think Barbaro could have been a Triple Crown winner. Still haunted by that. Gorgeous horse.
Elizabelle
@debbie: Frosted is beautiful. We can root for him if he races more.
Do you think retirement for Pharoah?
debbie
@Elizabelle:
I’ve never heard of a Triple Crown winner not retiring. Have you?
debbie
@catatonia:
Frosted was 9:2, but that’s all I remember.
Elizabelle
Your wish is NBC’s command. Who are the Goldmans rooting for? (Forgive me if it’s totes obvious. Don’t follow sports…)
Elizabelle
It was nice to see a field of horses fewer than the GOP field. (Nags all, the second group. Not roadworthy.)
Elizabelle
@efgoldman: Very good.
Heading back outside. It’s beautiful out. Catch up with you guys later.
Suzanne
@Sibelius: The Acura looks great, but is definitely more than I can spend. Hell, the CR-V is at the top end of my budget. But I want something that will last. I have loved my current CR-V, and I want that same reliability.
Had to put my student loans into forbearance until the end of the summer. God damn. I feel like I will never be financially secure ever. Not ever. And after this week at work, I almost wish I had become a plumber or welder or something. Something where I don’t have to deal with clients who hate me.
Yay for American Pharoah. First Triple Crown in my lifetime.
Botsplainer
Lots of cheering and tears at Churchill Downs today, a delightfully mixed crowd, young, middle aged and old. All economic strata, all races, all genders.
Among race fans, this is a big f’ing deal – thoroughbred racing needed this attention, and the story is VERY positive.