So… John finds scheduled posts annoying, because to him they clutter up the “back end” so I thought i would try scheduling the On the Road posts on Sundays rather than on Thursday or Friday.
Well that didn’t work, because instead of Albatrossity Monday, we had no On the Road at all this morning.
Sorry John, back to scheduling on Thursday or Friday!
So am I the only one who screwed up today? Surely some of you are also in the club? I get to be the charter member today because not only did I fuck up On the Road, but when I opened the door to the porch to let Henry outside this morning, I discovered that poor Mr. Bear had been locked out on the porch all night. Many apologies and lots of snuggling ensued. At least it was a relatively cool night.
*In the super hot weather we had been having I did offer a bedtime snack so I could do a head count before heading to bed.
Open thread.
Baud
Nope. Another perfect day in a perfect life.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I’m excited because of the hearing tomorrow. I feel like my favorite TV series is releasing two more episodes
Whomever
Speaking of scheduling, but I don’t know if anyone was watching the Biden press conference on the Webb Telescope. Finally started about an hour and 15 mins late. We are seeing pictures.
You know, Biden in his opening really sounds excited by this. Can you imagine Trump doing this press conference?
WaterGirl
@Baud: If only we could all be Baud!
Eunicecycle
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I know! I wish we could binge watch!
HumboldtBlue
For the Star Wars geeks, this is damn good.
Bring your kids to work day.
CaseyL
@Whomever: I’ve been waiting for that since it was first supposed to air.
The photo is stunning: galaxies nearly as old as the universe. I like how the director noted that bit of sky appears to our unaided eyes as big as a grain of sand balanced on your fingertip.
I’m also floored by him saying that 100 years ago, we thought there was only one galaxy. Is that true??
JAFD
Laundry room on my floor, two of three washers out of order, third needed some ‘purcussive maintenance’ to get started. so did four loads one after another. Yay Clean Underwear !
UncleEbeneezer
Shared this in another thread but it is a good bookmark/resource for the activism threads. What has Biden done for us lately?
Ivan X
Sorry, I only do things right 100% of the time. Like that time I accidentally referred to the jackaltariat in a slightly dismissive third person as though I didn’t belong to it myself, which was super well received.
Baud
@UncleEbeneezer:
Ancient history. What did he do yesterday?
Another Scott
Sorry, WG.
In other news, Evan Hurst at Wonkette:
Tis a puzzle.
Grr…,
Scott.
Ruff the Dog
We’ll, I didn’t lock the snake’s cage securely after I cleaned it and the next day spouse called out “there’s a snake loose.” Said snake’s human is off at college. Said snake, a 4-1/2 foot, very personable corn snake, was peeking out from under the dresser and let me take her into custody. No harm done. That’s not the only thing I got wrong this week, but the only one I’m talking about.
zhena gogolia
@UncleEbeneezer:
That’s amazing. If even this part alone got any attention, things might be different:
schrodingers_cat
@zhena gogolia: How much credit did he get from the lefties bleating about forever war for Afghanistan?
None is my recollection.
Jerzy Russian
@CaseyL:
That is roughly correct. Many of the brighter galaxies were seen/discovered in the 1800s, but their true nature wasn’t firmly established until the 1920s.
artem1s
screw up couple of weeks. If I didn’t believe astrology was largely BS, I’d say all the planets were in retrograde, everything was in opposition to everything else and the moon was in void. Good news is I’m about at the point where I can let myself give up on the more F’d up problems without too much guilt anxiety. Perfection is the devil and the enemy of getting anything done.
Another Scott
@CaseyL: Yup.
Wikiville:
The universe is a mind-bogglingly big place.
Cheers,
Scott.
JaySinWA
@zhena gogolia: That
“US not at war” thing kind of makes the “Airstrikes down 54%” stand out
ETA not to mention the drone strikes.
Brachiator
I had a lot of stuff on my To Do list for today. Did not get any of it done, except for ordering some supplies from Amazon.
UncleEbeneezer
@Baud: Didn’t. Even. Try.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I don’t know if that’s a rotating tag, but it’s a memorable phrase!
FelonyGovt
I’m dealing with the consequences of a dumb decision I made a few years ago to take on some new time-consuming and very low paid work. I’m old and I want to retire and not work anymore.
So I didn’t really screw up TODAY but I am dealing with the screw up by several-years-ago-FelonyGovt.
JaySinWA
@Baud: On the seventh day he rested.
UncleEbeneezer
@zhena gogolia: Look, we can’t expect people who shouted DRONEZ!!1! for 8 years during Obama (and then didn’t say shit for 4 years during Trump) to care about actual reduction in drone strikes…
zhena gogolia
@schrodingers_cat: None.
HumboldtBlue
@Another Scott:
It really is.
zhena gogolia
@UncleEbeneezer: I hate them.
Baud
OzarkHillbilly
I screw up every day, just ask my wife. Or the dogs. Or the cat. Or my sons. Or my DiLs. Or my Granddaughters. or….
It’s a wonder anybody allows me to be in their lives.
WaterGirl
@UncleEbeneezer: Bookmarked!
WaterGirl
@Ivan X: Thanks for the laugh!
Luckily, none of us recall that you did that, so no grudge-holding here.
OzarkHillbilly
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I’m excited because tomorrow we get the first Webb Telescope photos.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
Teaser released right now at Biden press conference.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@OzarkHillbilly: Those promise to be gorgeous
dmsilev
@CaseyL: It’s a beautiful image. Webb has had a long, winding, and somewhat troubled history to get to this point, but it offers a unique look into the deep past of the Universe and I’m sure we’ll learn all sorts of weird and fascinating things from it.
Grumpy Old Railroader
No problem here. Retired so every day is Saturday. I honestly have no idea what day it is when I boot up and zoom into Jackal Land (jackaland?). Thus I never realized certain posts even had a “day of the week” schedule. <yawn> Time for another nap
dmsilev
@OzarkHillbilly: Here’s a link to the first “teaser” image released earlier today:
NASA Twitter link
The full set will be released at a press conference tomorrow morning.
Edit: Some context. This is what’s called a “deep field” image, looking not so much at one object in particular but instead pointing the scope at a nominally empty part of space and counting up all of the galaxies that are in the field of view. Tomorrow we should get some pictures of closer-in objects as well, nebulas and so forth.
PAM Dirac
@Another Scott:
It is correct he did the work to find the Cepheid variables in the Andromeda galaxy and thus proved conclusively that Andromeda is not part of our galaxy. As mentioned, before this, galaxies as “fuzzy” objects were know, but the distance to these objects wasn’t known so no one was sure whether they were very large objects very far away or smaller objects much closer. The key work to establish the utility of Cepheids for measuring distances was done by Henrietta Swan Leavitt one of the Harvard “computers”. I very highly recommend the book “The Glass Universe” by Dava Sobel that tells the story of these women and how their work and ideas were essential to much of modern astronomy.
ETA: I also really love the story because it is a wonderful example of how immersing yourself in the “boring” details of the data can lead to incredibly important discoveries that are missed by the “big picture” guys.
ETA2: Unfortunately it is also an example of when the worker bees who know the data inside and out come up with something, the big picture guys take all the credit. And of course the computers were women and the big picture guys were guys.
WaterGirl
@Ruff the Dog: shudder.
Grumpy Old Railroader
That galaxy is 5 Billion years old! And here I thought I was ancient just because I was a wet-behind-the-ears brakeman on the first train across the Red Sea after Moses parted the waters
WaterGirl
@artem1s: Good for you!
Old Dan and Little Ann
My poor 4 year-old lab spent 9 days with a good friend while we were on vacation. They have an older dog that kept Yogi company. He wore himself out. Picked him up yesterday no problem. Hopped in and out of car. Took several laps around block when we got home. No sign of stress whatsoever. He then settled in for a 4 hour nap. Woke up and yelped trying to stand. He could barely walk last night or today. He is just now gingerly making his way around backyard. I hope to dog it’s nothing serious. Vet is booked til Friday. Ugh.
WaterGirl
@FelonyGovt: Oh yikes, that doesn’t sound like fun. I presume that if you felt there was a way you could get out from underneath that, you would.
Ken
@OzarkHillbilly: We got at least one today.
I admit to twitching a little when I see “first full-color infrared image”. I assume the scientists decided a sensible mapping of input wavelengths to visible light.
Oh, and I see it has both six-pointed and four-pointed spikes.
frosty
@Brachiator: We’re the supplies from Amazon needed to keep the to-do list current? It’s important to do that!! //
Grumpy Old Railroader
Oh my. I guess my procrastination is a blessing. I almost didn’t get around to posting this
Grumpy Old Railroader
Oh my. I guess my being in a hurry all the time is a blessing. I posted this before I thought the whole thing through, dang it
WaterGirl
@Old Dan and Little Ann: Fingers crossed.
HumboldtBlue
@Old Dan and Little Ann:
I bet they’ll check for Lyme disease. Best of luck and here’s hoping the pupper recovers quickly.
OzarkHillbilly
And a teaser: James Webb telescope takes super sharp view of early cosmos
Despite our many faults and problems, America is still capable of amazing things.
MomSense
@HumboldtBlue:
That’s awesome – sort of a smash mouth (Shrek) and Star Wars mashup.
MomSense
@HumboldtBlue:
Bring your kid to work day also awesome!! Kids don’t keep secrets.
WaterGirl
I am scheduling the Jan 6 Hearing post for tomorrow (sorry John!) and it looks like the time has changed from 10 am ET to 1 pm ET?
Can someone confirm, over?
Brachiator
@UncleEbeneezer:
This is great stuff. Thanks for the link.
I have used a shorter version that tries to give a sense of the positive impact of Biden’s actions.
I wish that Biden and his surrogates would present this information in smaller bites, and use charts, graphics and animation to highlight key successes. And of course blast this all over social media. A lot of this information can be found at the White House web site, but often in the form of long documents and press releases. But visual and social media rule today, not newspapers and magazines. The Democrats need to take advantage of new media.
Former Clinton Administration Labor Secretary Robert Reich does this well with his economic policy Videos.
Baud
Hubble vs Webb
https://i.redd.it/9uyhwijeo0b91.gif
MomSense
Things have been too busy at work, familial relationships have been strained in unexpected ways, all three kids in transition professionally, personally and , with each other, and parents are changing rapidly – so yes I’ve been fucking up A LOT lately. Everyone expects me to be superwoman but I’m just a tired woman whose back has decided to go on strike.
Also, too I’m desperate to find sheets that stay cool.
munira
Happy to report I’m in the screw-up club. Giving no details, however.
OzarkHillbilly
@OzarkHillbilly: A whooooooole lot of you folks (pronounced “fucks”) are more on top of the game than I. I should probably just change my nym to “aDayLateAndaDollarShort”.
sab
@Ruff the Dog: I had to look corn snake up. Very pretty.
CaseyL
@WaterGirl: From the CBS News site:
I don’t know if 1:00 is when CBS starts blathering, or the hearing actually starts, though…
OzarkHillbilly
@munira: Plenty of room here on the Group W bench.
Baud
@MomSense:
{{{Hugs}}}
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: Wonderful.
PAM Dirac
@OzarkHillbilly: It’s fun playing with the pencils.
dmsilev
@Ken:
That’d be a very boring image if accurately rendered for our eyes.
The Webb image is false color of course, but it is multi-color. They did several exposures with different filters in place.
Brachiator
@Another Scott:
My middle school science books included the judgment of contemporary scientists that ours was the only solar system with planets. The others had stars, but not any planets.
I sometimes feel very lucky to have been born in an era of discovery and great social change.
MomSense
@Baud:
Back atcha
OzarkHillbilly
It may feel like that, but you are just going thru the same unblazed territory all of us face sooner or later. We magnify our mistakes while minimizing our successes. Trust me on this tho: You are doing far better than you think you are.
sab
@CaseyL: MSNBC says hearing starts at 1:00 and their blather starts at noon.
Geminid
@zhena gogolia: There has also been a ceasefire in Yemen going on three months now. It’s imperfect, but most of those poor people are now finally getting some relief from what the UN has called the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. There was a long op-ed in yesterday’s Washington Post under Joe Biden’s name, where he talked about the goals of his upcoming Middle East trip. One of them was strengthening and extending that ceasefire. It’s a long read but well worth it.
A couple weeks ago I checked out a couple articles about Yemen in a “progressive” outlet. They were about legislation to limit U.s. involvement in the Yemen war. There were the usual condemnations of the Saudis and our country’s support for them, and praise for the usual “progressive heros” in Congress leading the fight. They barely mentioned the ceasefire! It was like oh yeah, by the way, that country has a ceasefire now. This reinforced my suspicion that for some people on “the left,” the human suffering involved is less important than the opportunity to club the Biden administration.
I see this in the uproar over the Dobbs decision. There are people who never showed any particular concern about women’s reproductive freedom hollering, “to the barricades!” That group of green kerchiefed “activists” who demonstrated at the White House yesterday are a good example. This outfit sprang up like a mushroom, and was incorporated as a business less than a month ago, on June 16. A kind of opportunistic, vulture activism.
MomSense
@OzarkHillbilly:
Thank you. I joke with my dear friend that being in the sandwich generation feels more like a panini.
Sending hugs to you, too.
debbie
@MomSense:
Nothing worse than summer heat to really blow things out of perspective. Is there a porch you can sleep on nights? If so, we used to store our sheets in the refrigerator and quickly make the bed and dive into the sheets. It lasted for hours!
sab
@debbie: My pitbull has separation anxiety, so she insists on snuggling at night so that she will know I am there in the dark. Dog average body temperature is about 101°. It was nice last winter.
HumboldtBlue
Some heartening news out of Yosemite.
John Cole
What is it like living having been potty trained at gunpoint?
MomSense
@debbie:
I feel like sheets were cooler when we were kids, but it’s probably just the climate that was cooler. When I was a little kid we had to wear lifht jackets summer mornings and evenings because it was so chilly. We had three , max four days at the end of August when it was so hot (high 80s) that we used to go to the cellar for little breaks. Air conditioning was unheard of. We slept with blankets and quilts in summer. Between the hormone induced inferno blasts and the climate – Im ready to walk into the ocean and let the great whites get me (we have those now too).
CarolPW
@MomSense: Waterbed. You cannot generate enough heat to keep that big water bag from taking it away. Turn it up in the winter and down in the summer.
Scout211
@WaterGirl:
Yes, 1:00 ET
Here’s the official word from the committee:
https://january6th.house.gov/legislation/hearings/071222-select-committee-hearing
Old Dan and Little Ann
@WaterGirl: Thanks. And to HuboldtBlue. I do think he may just have some tissue damage or sore joints. He has never been around another dog 24 hours straight for 9 days. He is one energetic dog. When he’s with me he gets enough exercise but TONS of sleep, too.
MomSense
@CarolPW:
I forgot all about waterbeds!
UncleEbeneezer
@WaterGirl: Here is the website version.
CarolPW
@MomSense:
Even hot flashes can’t make headway. And elderly pets really like the warmth in the winter.
mrmoshpotato
You’ll never be as terrible as Doctor Oz.
Steve Hofstetter reports.
JCJ
One thing I absolutely did not screw up Saturday – I went to see Rage Against the Machine. They were as good as I hoped. They opened up with “Bombtrack” and closed with “Killing in the Name”.
Scout211
@CarolPW:
We had a waterbed in the 70s and 80s which we really liked. But as we aged, we found that the support just wasn’t there anymore.
Waking up shivering because the heater went out in the winter? Waking up wet because the damn thing sprung a leak? Good times. LOL.
Sandia Blanca
Here’s the confirmation of the 1 p.m. Eastern time from the official site of the Committee: https://january6th.house.gov/committee_activit
ETA: I see Scout211 got there first.
mrmoshpotato
@Baud: Your modesty is an example to us all!
WaterGirl
@CaseyL: I have now seen it on several sites. Plus, this:
WaterGirl
@PAM Dirac: Your two OTR posts are going up on Thursday and Friday!
Albatrossity
No problem. Here’s a teaser from Mondays to come.
mrmoshpotato
@JAFD:
Hooray!
Hopefully your washers get fixed soon (including the one that needed help starting)
WaterGirl
@John Cole: Is that a general question or is it directed at anyone in particular?
HumboldtBlue
Oh, and Yul Brenner was born on this date in 1920. Between 1981 and 1985 he performed the role of the King of Siam 4,625 times.
Omnes Omnibus
@John Cole: I thought you were excessively German about this kind of thing. You should know.
PAM Dirac
@WaterGirl: Thanks for the heads up.
WaterGirl
I suppose it’s a bad thing when it gets to be 7 o’clock at night and you think, “oh fuck, I never looked at my calendar today, I wonder what I forgot.”
HumboldtBlue
This is news:
lowtechcyclist
@Another Scott:
“You may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist’s, but that’s just peanuts to space.”
PBK
WaterGirl, I’ve been meaning to thank you for the work you did getting this place back up and running. So THANK YOU!
Poor Mr. Bear! A poorly positioned fan blew the bedroom door closed the other day and our shy kitty was trapped in there, fortunately only for about three hours. Apologies and snuggles was the remedy used as well!
Josie
@John Cole: I cannot imagine who would be able to answer this question. One would definitely need some background information.
Delk
I thought the radio in the other room was playing Rush which was odd because they would never play Rush. So I went in for a closer listen. It was 4 non Blonds.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
One funny tidbit in the Liebovich extract that got posted here a couple times: People around trump think Lindsey is a cheap moocher– he likes free golf and free food– as well as a pathetic toadie
Josie
@WaterGirl:
The other grandmother and I take turns on a schedule of sorts to deliver and pick up the munchkins from school, summer camp, etc. Very often I get a panicky feeling and check my daily calendar, thinking I might have missed an assignment.
WaterGirl
@UncleEbeneezer: I found that earlier from your link and saved it as a .pdf just in case he takes it away. :-)
WaterGirl
@Albatrossity: wow!
WaterGirl
@PBK: Thank you. It was a labor of love! So sad to see only the banner and the comment box, I didn’t want anyone else to have to see it that way.
HumboldtBlue
lowtechcyclist
@Geminid:
The ceasefire in Yemen is a BFD. Between ending the war in Afghanistan, supporting Ukraine (now with HIMARS!) in its defense against the Russian invasion, and this, Team Biden is doing a hell of a good job with its foreign policy.
WaterGirl
@Josie: That wasn’t a question from John, that was John’s commentary to me. :-)
lowtechcyclist
@HumboldtBlue: Yay!!!!
HumboldtBlue
@lowtechcyclist:
Yup, I’m all for it.
dmsilev
@HumboldtBlue:
That’s a lie. Over the course of my professional career, my colleagues and I have killed many many diamonds. Chips, cracks, broken in half or smaller pieces, even had one explode into powder once.
UncleEbeneezer
@JCJ: Nice! No Freedom? Take the Power Back? Wake Up?
Still probably my all-time favorite album for when I feel like raging (a lot in these last few years)
Old Dan and Little Ann
@JCJ: I’ve been listening to them on youtube for the last 30 minutes.
Scout211
Thursday evening hearing has been postponed.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/jan-6-hearing-trump-advisers-extremist-groups_n_62cc8de7e4b0359fa47f4984
satby
@John Cole:
WaterGirl
I’ll put up a post with this later this week, but I’m so excited to have found this that I will share a photo here. I wanted to find a special something to plant in honor of my sweet Tucker, and today I found it.
WaterGirl
@WaterGirl: I think the individual little flowers are charming.
WaterGirl
@John Cole: @satby:
You guys are too kind. Really.
PBK
@WaterGirl: That is so lovely; will you keep us in suspense or can you let us know what it is? I also like the delicate small flowers making up a greater whole.
zhena gogolia
@WaterGirl: beautiful
Eyeroller
@Baud:
Maybe I’m a wet blanket, but I don’t see a qualitative difference there. JWST is sensitive in the infrared so of course distant galaxies will look brighter (due to redshift) but I don’t see much new. Maybe a few very distant galaxies that were barely visible in optical that are much more apparent in infrared.
MomSense
@WaterGirl:
beautiful.
Josie
@WaterGirl:
What a lovely flower.
HumboldtBlue
Eldest daughter doesn’t want another baby and gets very upset at daddy when she asks how the baby got into mommy’s belly.
Sure Lurkalot
@Albatrossity: Looking forward to your next OTR!
Ksmiami
@OzarkHillbilly: will there be pencils?
eachother
2 cuts and a scratch.
At the count of three hits of my head I walked away. Low branch. Focus on debris. Both in the same place.
A dumpster on its third fill.
Rough winter. Lost a juniper. Plus 2 years general debris accumulation.
And everything else feels like it relates to a metaphoric dumpster.
Changed a sprinkler today. Backfilled it. Haunted by concern I may have neglected making it a little bit tighter.
persistentillusion
@Albatrossity: Beautiful! What a shot!
Madeleine
Sometime early this afternoon I began to feel that something was wrong with the day. Slowly I came to realize that No OTR had appeared in my morning posts. Hmph.
persistentillusion
@Scout211: More leaks! Rubs hands gleefully.
JCJ
@UncleEbeneezer: They did Freedom and Wake Up. Their cover of The Ghost of Tom Joad was amazing. The only one I really would have liked to have heard that wasn’t performed was Down Rodeo.
Ohio Mom
@HumboldtBlue: Not quite. First the oldest sister is absorbing the news, then gets upset and starts to cry when she hears the new baby will be another girl. She is already sobbing when she asks, Who put that baby there, and the dad answers, I put it there!
For whatever reason she is upset, her parents don’t care. Her mother hugs the other sister and her father laughs uproariously at himself. What a mean, unempathetic bunch. Probably all Republicans.
ETA: Though I will give Dad credit for his matter-of-fact approach to sex ed.
Lyrebird
Definitely screwed up more than usual today, but hey, if WG your and my travails are the price for loathsome toad (wait sorry toads!) Bannon having everything go wrong, a good deal indeed.
dww44
@WaterGirl: I agree. This is a hydrangea, right? What’s the cultivar?
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@Ruff the Dog: Ooooh, I just googled “corn snake” and they are pretty. Pretty and personable – what a nice combo.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@Grumpy Old Railroader: Now that I’ve been retired about 7 years, I too, have trouble keeping track of which day it is. I have noticed that people who are still working do not want to hear about this.
With the start of COVID, my husband and I started a special weekend evening routine, just to give shape to the weeks/weekends.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@Albatrossity: Ooooh, pretty!
eclare
@WaterGirl: Beautiful tribute.
topclimber
Late to the party, which is one of today’s many failings.
My non-meta contribution is a “faux papa” from a trip driving my daughter to her new digs in NYC. After pulling into a rest stop along the way, I forgot that I had parked on the other side of the premises, where patrons from the other side of the parkway parked. I merrily merged into traffic and rode 30 miles before realizing I was headed back home. Oh the profanity!
Perhaps I had a subconscious mandate to avoid the Big Apple? Nah. Just stuck being someone who muddles through whatever obstacles fate and I create, except when I don’t.
mvr
I just want to know how he got it to hold still like that . . .
Another Scott
@Albatrossity: It’s astounding how great a picture that is!
I’ve seen a Baltimore Oriole once – very briefly in a fruit bush/tree of some sort (mulberry?) just off a path we were walking on in NoVA. I was surprised how big it was.
Google Lens tells me that your photo is not a Baltimore Oriole. That must mean it’s a Red Tailed Hawk??
:-)
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
prostratedragon
@HumboldtBlue:
That must be 1951. The movie of that with Brynner and Deborah Kerr is the first movie I remember going to see in a theater, with my parents. Made a spectacular impression. Fine actor, and gorgeous man.
Diceros bicornis
Open thread? Well I just got back from a 9 week tour of damn near the whole United States (20/50!) to discover there’s a nationwide shortage of mustard in France.
Supply chains, how do they work? And why oh why did I not bring any mustard back with me in that extra suitcase I paid for? Mustard-less vinaigrette…oh noes.