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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Friday Night Open Thread

Friday Night Open Thread

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This post is in: 

I got nothing to add to the conversation, so here is an update on the bird’s nest in my fern. In order to not disturb them, I just put my phone over the hanging fern and snapped a bunch of pictures (good thinking Tammy):

As soon as I got within a few feet of the fern mom flew out and landed on a wire and flung obscenities at me until I left, so she is still around watching the kids. I’m not going to go near it for a couple more days and will take some more pics then.

Reader Interactions

111Comments

  2. 2.

    Nicole

    I found out today that one of the actors I cast in my latest podcast episode happens to be the Laurel-Yanny voice that broke the Internet this week. He’s a really nice guy.

  4. 4.

    ruemara

    OOOooooo they are adorbs! Thanks for keeping up with them, Betty.

    @Nicole: How strange. Was there an actual point to this audio thing? It ‘s just weird what people distract themselves with. Also, what’s the podcast? Take the stage & shine a bit, because I don’t recall any other podcasters on here who do audio drama, besides me.

  6. 6.

    satby

    Nice pic of the snuggled down baby birds. Do we know what type of bird they are?

    For those who may have missed the earlier update, my dog Hershey is home, has restrictions on his activities,and taking some heavy duty pain killers. He tore some sort tissue in his shoulder (no idea how). I honestly thought I was going to get some horrible old dog bone cancer diagnosis… I was having a flashback to my other big old lab Biggie. Fortunately, not this time. So that was a nice birthday gift to me. Whew!

  8. 8.

    Mnemosyne

    My doctor wants to put me on statins because my good cholesterol is really, really low, and I don’t want to because once you’re on statins, you’re on them for the rest of your life. Feh.

  11. 11.

    Nicole

    @ruemara: I think what started it all was a kid recorded the audio of him saying “laurel” as it played out of speakers and it heightened the high frequencies and that’s why people with younger ears than mine thought they heard something like ”Yanny.”

    The podcast is a sort of 21st century southwestern style Twilight Zone. Here’s the link to the episode Jay is in:

    https://audioboom.com/posts/6833497-our-better-angels-s2-ep7

    This episode is much more allegorical than the other ones I’ve done for it so far. The male lead has a recurring role on “The Americans.” All the performances are great, and Jay Aubrey Jones, who is now Internet famous, is really wonderful at it.

  12. 12.

    Mnemosyne

    Also, keep a close eye on Steve when he’s outside. He would see those tiny dinosaurs as a crunchy snack.

  15. 15.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    On my drive out to the mountains to photograph the Milky Way this morning, I managed to miss a suicidal, and very large rabbit that scampered out in front of my car just before my turn on to the Boy Scout Camp Road*.

    *There’s a Boy Scout camp(Camp Three Falls) at the end of the road that I went to back in my lost youth.

  16. 16.

    Emerald

    Californian Jackals: I need expert guidance and assistance. I have received my sample ballot and the thing has got pages of candidates for Governor.

    I want to keep Jerry Brown but I can’t.

    I have zero idea whom (grammar!) to choose. Advice? Muchas gracias.

  21. 21.

    YetAnotherJay formerly (Jay S)

    @John Cole:

    I’m not betty

    What are you doing on betty’s turf?
    ETA didn’t she shoot some eggs as well? Duelling nest bloggers?

  23. 23.

    JeanneT

    Thank you for baby bird pictures: that’s a little mental respite from despairing over humanity. Earth is such a fantastic amazing place – why do we humans have to mess it (and each other) up in so many ways?

  24. 24.

    Elizabelle

    I’ve never seen birds that tiny.

    @satby: Glad to hear that Hershey is on the mend. A happier birthday to you.

    Who’s gonna be up at O dark hundred for the royal wedding? I will, although don’t have a fascinator or scone in the plans.

  25. 25.

    JPL

    @NeenerNeener: I had seen that earlier on another site. It’s doubtful that I’ll watch it in the theater, but I can envision it as the family movie xmas day.

  28. 28.

    Josie

    @Mnemosyne: I’ve been on generic lipitor for years due to inherited high cholesterol. The numbers are not budged by dietary changes, but the lipitor does the trick with no side effects. The doctor tried to switch me to a newer, more impressive statin at one point, and it made me hurt all over. Even my teeth hurt. I insisted on going back to the old tried and true and have been good ever since. If you do decide to take something, be sure they check your blood work pretty often at first and pay attention to your body’s signals.

  30. 30.

    Mnemosyne

    @Emerald:

    I’m leaning towards John Chiang. He’s on the boring side, but at least he can keep his pants zipped, unlike Newsom and Villaraigosa.

  34. 34.

    Emerald

    @Mnemosyne:

    Actually, I rather like Chiang too. Not a fan of either Newsom or Villaraigosa.

    Thanks Mnemosyne! That helps a lot!

  38. 38.

    jl

    @trollhattan:
    The semi-fictitious folkloric legend ‘John G Cole’ types lots of stuff on this blog. Some of it should not be taken seriously. Particularly, this absurd ‘I am not Betty’ claim. I mean, look at the pic, you can tell what’s is in it.

    Betty: thanks for the update on the eggs/little birdies, Keep us posted.

  39. 39.

    NotMax

    Crap. Stepped on the punchline with too quickly proofread code. Fix.

    Fernwoodnest 2night.

  41. 41.

    Roger Moore

    @Emerald:

    I want to keep Jerry Brown but I can’t.

    I have zero idea whom (grammar!) to choose. Advice?

    I’m going to go with John Chiang. I’ll take competent over flashy any day.

  43. 43.

    Balconesfault

    Am I the only person who thought, when I heard about the shooting this morning, about Santa Fe School District V Doe, the landmark Supreme Court decision?

  44. 44.

    Steve in the AIR

    @Mnemosyne: which network is that? If I’m going to have to listen to my wife watching it, I at least want to be amused.

  46. 46.

    Anne Laurie

    @satby: That’s GREAT news, thank you for sharing!

    (Poor Hershey; getting old means you can hurt yourself and not even know how it happened… )

  47. 47.

    maya

    @Emerald: You want straight Democratic ticket?
    Ca Guv…. easy.. Gavin Newsom.
    Lt. Guv.. you might want to go with Elani Kounalakis, but there are other dems
    Controller… Betty Yee (incumbent who has done a good job)
    Treasurer… tossup btw Fiona Ma or V V (you’ll figure out who that is)
    AG … Becerra
    The rest you can determine yourself or read up.

    As for US Senator, personally, I can’t stand the idea of 6 more years of that DINO DiFi. I’m going with Kevin De Leon
    The rest are about local districts and would vary.
    Good Luck.
    P.S. Lived here in Ca since 1972. Only Repo I ever voted for was Pete Wilson and that was a big mistake. Never again

  48. 48.

    cain

    I find it funny that for once his pictures are clear, usually it’s fairly blurry except when he takes pictures of Lilly apparently. :)

  49. 49.

    Anne Laurie

    @Josie: Second your recommendation! I’m on boring old ‘hardly anybody uses that any more’ pravastin sodium, because apart from the constant muscle aches, the “improved” varieties gave me brain fog. Told the doctor I’d almost managed to pour the boiling water over my hand instead of the tea leaves, so it was change the medication or I’d go cold turkey & she’d be to blame.

  51. 51.

    Mnemosyne

    @Josie:

    Yeah, I’ve always had low HDL, but now it’s an issue because I’m almost 50. Sigh. I got tested for sleep apnea late last year and never saw the results, for some reason. I should probably check back on that.

  53. 53.

    cain

    @satby:

    Nice pic of the snuggled down baby birds. Do we know what type of bird they are?

    Given that a parent was yelling at Cole, I suspect it might be a robin. They are very protective. One time, I was inside and we heard this commotion outisde, and I run out and see a mexican stand off between my cat and a fledling who was stiff as a statue. Meanwhile robins are dive bombing all over the place yelling at the cat. The cat was very very confused as to why there was so much cacaophony. Neighbors were coming out trying to figure what the commotion was.

    The hapless cat, got itself yanked unceremoniously and toss back into the house. The other one was trying to get out because that one was a total bird eater. I eventually picked up the fledgling and took it to the audobon society, but we managed to realize it was just acting dead. I took it back to where I found it and put it on a bush and promptly walked away. Meanwhile parents were still screaming at me. Crazy stuff.

    I love my cats, but (especially the one I yanked out) no eating the local creatures.

  58. 58.

    Roger Moore

    @maya:

    Lived here in Ca since 1972. Only Repo I ever voted for was Pete Wilson and that was a big mistake.

    I’ve been here since 1994* and the only Republican I’ve voted for in that time was Steve Poizner. I would have voted for the Democrat, but I couldn’t bring myself to vote for an Insurance Commissioner whose election campaign was largely funded by the industry he was supposed to be regulating. Fortunately, I don’t have to worry about voting for a Republican in any of the local races, since there aren’t any on my ballot for US Representative or CA assembly.

    *Technically I’ve been here since 1990, but while I was in college I still voted back in Colorado.

  60. 60.

    cain

    @Mnemosyne:

    Also, keep a close eye on Steve when he’s outside. He would see those tiny dinosaurs as a crunchy snack.

    Or those fucking raccoons.. .cute critters that can form a violent gang.

  62. 62.

    maya

    @Roger Moore: When you get down to the local levels (County Supes and City Councils, etc) the COIs are even more noticeable and differences between R & D is almost meaningless. Many of them don’t even claim party preference – like they’re Indies or sumptin.

  63. 63.

    Fair Economist

    @Nicole: After some work I managed to hear both “yanny” and “laurel”. They are in different registers and not even synchronous – “yanny” starts well before “laurel”, and “yanny” is in a high tenor while “laurel” is in more of a bass. On my laptop speakers the “yanny” sound is much louder. In a nutshell, there are two different “voices” recorded onto the same track and the way human hearing works, you hear one and suppress the other (that’s how you can have a conversation in a room full of other people having conversations). The claim is that the “yanny” sound was an accidental distortion from cheap speakers but I am suspicious it was intentional.

  65. 65.

    Another Scott

    @satby: Excellent news! Hope he recovers quickly.

    Glad it turned into a pretty good birthday after all! :-)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  67. 67.

    Original Lee

    I think that we BJ Jackals ought to upgrade to Space Jackals. Or, at a minimum, Flying Jackals. We’re too awesome to be plain old Jackals.

  71. 71.

    Brachiator

    @Emerald:

    I have zero idea whom (grammar!) to choose. Advice? Muchas gracias.

    John Chiang is probably the most qualified. He is state treasurer, previously served as controller, and has a solid record.

    However, Newsom and Villaraigosa lead in the polls. Both are former mayor’s with controversy and scandal attached. There are so many candidates that the result might unexpectedly please nobody.

  72. 72.

    FlyingToaster

    The amount of down shed makes me think they’re robins. I have one (I suspect it’s nesting in the top of the pine out front) that spent two weeks freaking out every time we went out of the front door to the newly replaced front steps.

    Today, however, it had no problem with me planting the front pots and the first pass* at my hellstrip. That was after the 8am visit to the estate plant sale, the clearing and planting of the patio pots, the inventory of remaining spaces, the check on the coldframe plants, and the trip to Mahoneys to fill in the gaps.

    Tomorrow is rain and music school and the composition concert and page layout — don’t ask, I should be doing it tonight, but I’m tired and achy and my daughter is over there felting and occastionally sticking herself, so I’m supervising washing the wounds.

    * 14 pot marigolds. Keeps the dogs from pooping there, since they HATE calendula. Sunday I hope to add the vinca alba. And dig out the “between the stones” spaces adjacent to the garden where grass replaced what was supposed to be there (usually creeping thyme or other steppables).

  73. 73.

    satby

    @Amir Khalid: do dogs have labrums? I think it’s that. I didn’t speak directly to the vet, I had dropped him off and they squeezed him in between patients. He’s not supposed to be allowed to run, jump, or play for a couple of weeks. Hustled walking. He’s a couch potato most days anyway, so I’m not expecting too much trouble keeping him quiet as long as he doesn’t see bunnies or squirrels in the yard.?

  74. 74.

    jl

    @Brachiator:

    ” John Chiang is probably the most qualified. He is state treasurer, previously served as controller, and has a solid record. ”

    I agree. I might vote for him in the primary, though he has no chance. In his previous positions he showed he thinks things through and takes good positions, and then doesn’t back down.

  75. 75.

    Brachiator

    @Fair Economist:

    In a nutshell, there are two different “voices” recorded onto the same track

    Has this been confirmed? I heard it was a matter of pitch.

  79. 79.

    Amir Khalid

    @Emerald:
    “Whom” is grammatically correct here but most people, including some who offer grammar advice on the intertubes, don’t know that.
    What’s that? You were asking about whom to vote for in California? (Shrug) I’m a foreigner. What do I know?

  80. 80.

    jl

    @Brachiator: I just watched some youtubes, but don’t have time to find them. Story supposedly is a student found it on a web dictionary recording of ‘laurel’ Audiologist says and neuroscientist say it is poorly recorded and maybe different frequencies distorted or out of phase. So, I dumno.

    I know there are BJ commenters who work in audio, so I’ll keep an eye our if they have insights

  84. 84.

    MobiusKlein

    @Major Major Major Major: If you’re still in the market after your interview, apply for this job say hi to a fellow BJ’er (tho less prolific than you)

    I’ve been there for 5+ years, so can’t be that bad.

  85. 85.

    jl

    @Major Major Major Major: And the acoustics of the recording you are listening to. I heard one youtube clip where it was obviously (to me) ‘yanny; and another where it was obviously (to me) ‘laurel’. Which I didn’t expect. The first time I heard it, the word was obviously (to me) ‘laurel; and I had the fixed idea that it what it really was and anyone who said different was a loser and a critic and not high class or a top person.

  87. 87.

    Mnemosyne

    @Major Major Major Major:

    Was it in one of the other threads where you said you got great feedback from an editor on your short story? If so, yay!

    I got the Hearts Through History score sheets back today, which I didn’t expect so quickly. I was still not a finalist, but still did pretty well and got some helpful feedback. Out of a possible top score of 60, I got two 51s and a 55.

  89. 89.

    lurker dean

    @satby: happy birthday and good news about hershey!

    If anyone is bored and looking for some entertainment and simple recipes prepared in short videos, check out https://www.kitchenpolitic.com. it’s a friend’s site, i’m guessing juicers will like its subversive undercurrent.

  90. 90.

    Luthe

    @Mnemosyne: Another statin resistor! And it sounds like you’ve got genetic cholesterol issues, too.

    I’m not sure why my doctor is so set on adjusting my cholesterol. The screwed up numbers are genetic and aren’t going to kill me anytime soon, so I don’t see cause for concern. Can anyone explain why I should care?

  92. 92.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Mnemosyne: yep we’re literally wrangling a few words into place before I sign!

    55 sounds great for you!?

    ETA “for you” is just there to make it obvious that sentence is about you, not that you’re a bad writer or something

  94. 94.

    Mnemosyne

    @Luthe:

    At least one of my non-smoking, non-diabetic aunts has had heart issues, so that’s concerning to me since it may mean that her cholesterol caused the problem. ?

  95. 95.

    Mnemosyne

    @Major Major Major Major:

    I’m pretty happy about the 55, though it would have been nice to have at least one score in between the high and low. Oh well. I’m still waiting for my score sheets from the 3rd contest, though I already know I didn’t place in that one.

    As I told G, I feel like this is a sign that my revision is on the right track, so I’m going to take it that way. My heroine needs to be tweaked a little, but everyone loves my hero so far, which is important for a romance.

  98. 98.

    joel hanes

    Fascinating to me that no one who read the thread about the earlier picture of the nest and eggs seems to have commented on this one, which is about the same nest.
    https://balloon-juice.com/2018/05/04/would-you-look-at-that/
    In short: the nest looked too small and deep to be a robin, and the eggs were rounder, deeper blue, and more spotted than is common in robin eggs.

    It seemed likely that they were house finch. IIRC, Cole is no birdwatcher, but he should be able to tell a house finch (like a big streaky sturdy-billed sparrow with splashes of reddish about the head) from a robin, and settle the question.

  103. 103.

    Another Scott

    @Luthe: I’ve been on statins a while. 10 mg didn’t do much for me, but 20 mg finally seems to be working. I’m on a generic Crestor. I also take CoQ10 and Magnesium Oxide and haven’t noticed any muscle pain or weakness. (I seemed to have some issues on an earlier statin I tried.)

    As for why, read some of the latest stories here: https://www.sciencedaily.com/news/health_medicine/cholesterol/

    Cholesterol is just one number, and I’ve always wondered why our bodies make too much – just lowering the number doesn’t appeal to the scientific-side of my noggin. Recently, they’re starting to look into other factors. E.g.:

    A Vanderbilt-led research team has discovered genetic variations that increase the risk of heart attack even when patients are receiving a statin drug like Lipitor or Crestor to lower their blood cholesterol.

    The findings, published by the journal Circulation, helps explain why some patients experience a heart attack or the need for coronary revascularization to open blocked heart arteries while taking statins. It suggests that drugs targeting the genetic variations could lower the heart risk in these patients.

    The study demonstrates the power of genome-wide association studies and longitudinal electronic health records (EHRs) to find links between genetic variation and disease, said the paper’s first author, Wei-Qi Wei, MD, PhD, assistant professor of Biomedical Informatics in the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.

    Some of the patients were followed for heart disease for up to a decade after starting on their statin drug. The study found that the effect of the genetic variations or variants was independent of how much their cholesterol improved while taking statins.

    “People with these genetic variants were at a higher risk for heart disease, even considering those who have ideal cholesterol levels on their statin,” said Joshua Denny, MD, MS, Vice President of Personalized Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) and the paper’s corresponding author.

    […]

    With the caveat that we still know very, very little about the workings of our bodies (they’re amazingly complicated, especially when one considers the foreign DNA inside us and all the various bacteria in our guts, etc., etc.,) the consensus on the importance of having lower LDL numbers seems pretty solid.

    HTH a little.

    Cheers,
    Scot.

  106. 106.

    J R in WV

    @Anne Laurie:

    ME too. I was on another also early ‘statin, and after coming home to WV from a period of heavy exercise, my bloodwork didn’t satisfy my family doc, Dr. Bill, who I have been seeing for nearly 40 years. After three months on no statin, and rising levels he added Pravastatin to my daily intake. That was 10 or 12 years ago.

    Evidently that muscle pain can be from the statin OR from exertion, which I suspect was my cause in the beginning. I haven’t noticed any side effects, and it’s cheap. My ER Dr buddy keeps telling me that correlation is NOT causation, regarding statins and blood levels, but I pay Dr Bill to care for me.

  110. 110.

    SgrAstar

    @Brachiator: Newsom and Villaraigosa are accompanied by a faint but ineradicable odor of sleaze. Chiang is solid and would prolly make an excellent governor. My 2 cents.

  111. 111.

    laura

    @Emerald: John Chaing. Work horse, not show pony. Hes been a very steady elected official. He stepped up for state workers when Schwarzenegger furloughed them three days per month after the great bankster getaway of ’08.
    I’ll gladly vote whoever’s the dem nominee come November -and I hope its not Villarigosa-, but Chaing is worth your vote in the primary.

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