Links. Shit. I’m still only in Links. Every time I think I’m gonna wake up back in the edit function. When I was home after my first tour, it was worse. I’d wake up and there’d be nothing. I hardly said a word to the Glibs, until I said “yes” to editing. When I was linking, I wanted to be editing; when I was editing, all I could think of was getting back into the links. I’m here this week now, waiting for a submission, getting softer. Every minute I stay in this post, I get weaker, and every minute readers squat in the comments, they get stronger. Each time I looked around the walls moved in a little tighter.
So, anyways, after a fun weekend with my oldest friend, best friend and kidney brother, I am back to this. So here are some links.
- So, what kind of money do you make Popin’ anyways? (h/t nw)
- A (retired) Brown may have found a new way to let Neph down?
- Ah, can’t win ’em all.
- Who, us?!
Music. Not very recent at all.
Comments are open and belong to you.
“The average Pope in the US makes $45,931. Popes make the most in San Jose, CA at $90,685 averaging total compensation 97% greater than US average.”
Well, duh.
Yep, AI is taking all of our jobs later this year.
Artificial Indulgences?
*Widens gaze at SDF-7*
Nicely done.
On average, there’s 2 popes per square mile in Vatican City.
I laughed… thanks, Neph.
The Rounding Error of Avignon?
It is closer to 5.
Per capita.
Is the Pope of San Jose really a job anyone wants?
Not for $90K.
Yeah, you might actually need the Swiss guard!
Wait… what?!? Is this a 3rd Removed Blessed Church of the Mainframe Pope or something?
And I suppose we’ll have to wait for His Holiness Jimbo to chime in… until then, I think we’ll be mostly indifferent.
I would have expected it from a Cavalier… illegal traveling and all.
The NBA stopped calling that as a penalty decades ago.
And now y’all have some sense of the last time I cared to watch the NBA, I suppose… sorry.
How hard can it be? Not like it is rocket science or something!
Dictators don’t make as much as I expected. It probably doesn’t include bribes and theft.
Yeah… I bet Putin could pay himself a dollar. Having all the national wealth under your personal discretion makes all the difference.
I’m just wondering what exactly Splunk is doing with their Dictator….
Putin may have billions but is he enjoying them? I haven’t heard anything about him entertaining a boatload of bimbos on his yacht in Cannes, or playing golf with Tiger Woods at St. Andrews, or cheering for his horse at the Derby, or doing any of the other things filthy rich folks are up to.
What about pushing various people out of windows? It happens often enough I would think he gets a little thrill out of it…
Some folks just don’t like the flashy trappings, after all…
(In all seriousness — if I won the lottery or something, barring a slight temptation to go to a F1 race or two, I doubt anyone outside my immediate family would ever know it. The only obvious sign would be that I’d retire once I had money actually in hand… otherwise, I’m actually fairly comfortable with my life — and I think most others would find it decidedly dull. It just works for me… and I don’t really need more.)
Mrs. TOK have a running joke about “there will be signs” if we won the lottery. One is that we’ll buy the expensive ice cream at the store even when it’s not on sale.
My Calvinist family in the Netherlands would fiercely scowl at me if I became that extravagant, TOK.
SDF-7 and TOK – that’s me.
Not much would change. I think the first thing I would do is replace my poorly functioning Samsung washing machine with a Speed Queen, then….uh….a new table saw?
seriously, take the cash and put it into an index fund, have portion of the dividends paid monthly for the rest of your life. Roll the majority back into the index fund. Also, form a revokable trust to own the index fund…pick a name no one would connect to you…say ‘Cabrao Trust’ or something like that. Oh wait, that might be a giveaway.
Maybe they should become Kelvinists, and give you a much colder gaze!
That is absolutely cold.
That makes me think that ELO has miles to go before they sleep….
Love the linked track. 🎶
I don’t blame Trump for circulating that picture last week. I’d rather be the Pope too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUpBCH5dpAE
EOS-09 failed to do the needful.
Ha! Because of that I heard the article in Indian-accented English when I read it.
Bummer about today’s failure, but ISRO has been doing some good work and has big plans.
Irrefutable science!
https://x.com/TiffanyFong_/status/1924507801860374999
I very much want to be a good husband and help my wife with her health regimen early and often.
Penile cancer doesn’t get the attention it deserves.
The French government “at the highest level” covered up a scandal over the treatment of mineral water by food giant Nestle, including the iconic Perrier brand, a Senate investigation said Monday.
I have a feeling that the whole “scandal” is gonna fizz out.
I don’t know — it looked like some sparkling legal analysis. The unfiltered truth, even.
That much is clear.
They’ll put a cork in it for sure.
The truth will bubble up!
Nah, they’ll keep it bottled up.
This is a clear case of TDS.
*mass narrowed gaze*
Arsenic is a mineral
More phoney music
“How do you link to stories about women and children?”
“Easy! You don’t lede them as much.”
Boo! Boo this man.
I love the smell of puns in the afternoon.
I can’t boo him — he’s the definite article!
*NARROWS GAZE*
Hey Swissy, I have two things in for submission and there they sit, any word on schedule?
This is a made for TV movie.
An Affair, a Murder and the Shattering of an Expat Dream
https://www.wsj.com/business/goodyear-international-chief-leave-chris-delaney-vandeput-e236bcbc?st=zAYJAm&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
Chris isn’t fluent in French, so police said when he discovered his wife’s body after work on March 17, he called someone who could help: his executive assistant. Vandeput contacted the police at 8:22 p.m.
That always amazes me. They send these foreign fixers all over the globe and they generally don’t speak the regional language. Far from unique here.
What do you call a person who spends 20 years in China and doesn’t speak a word of Chinese?
-British
Foreign language skills are frequently undervalued. Foreign language majors have some of the lowest starting salaries post graduation.
Many people think that if they are not understood, they must speak louder, not slower or more simply.
When I worked in China, when I couldn’t think of the Chinese word, I would sometimes say the Spanish word. It worked about 25% of the time.
/Spend 2 weeks with itinerant brick layers from China, and you will know every Chinese cuss word and slang for female body parts.
Mais elles sont dures, les autres langues!
Not everyone can be as brilliant as you, Derp. I know someone like you, gifted in another area, who gets similarly frustrated. Lonely at the top. Heavy, head, crown, etc.
I can do half a dozen menu-level languages and I still get mixed up. Prego? Danke!
I should have said “difficiles”. Je regrette: just woke up.
All I know is you call every Mex on the loading dock Chupa. That is how you get shit done. Though, sometimes you need to congecate that shit: tu chupar.
Geez. You don’t become a fixer by listening to the people doing the work. They’re already fuck ups. You’re there to tell them what to do based on your past experience (if any) and your own gut feelings.
If it works, it’s because of you. If it doesn’t, it’s because they sabotaged your master plan.
That’s taught in consulting 101.
Sort of like fishing. A good fisherman has the explanations ready before leaving the dock.
Too windy, not enough wind, too hot (too sunny), too much boat traffic, wrong moon phase.
You get the idea.
You’d think that with a billion people getting a rocket to deploy would not be a problem.
Srindi does Bombay?
Meanwhile, down at the Greatest Spectacle in Racing…
Two of Penske’s cars have been sent to the last row for illegally modified bodywork. I find it hard to believe there was a meaningful aerodynamic gain, but it’s not a good look. Rules is rules, especially when you own the track and the series.
I’m sure they just thought the cars looked nicer that way.
“IndyCar technical director Kevin Blanch found the team had illegally modified seams in the cars’ attenuators by filling in gaps that may have given them an aerodynamic advantage.”
That makes it completely clear to everyone that doesn’t follow the minutiae of IndyCar rules.
So, Nestle was actually making the water safer by using UV treatment to nuke any bacteria, etc.
Nestle makes the very best… carbon.
I would love – LOVE – to hear the French government’s justification for prohibiting UV treatment of water. This whole thing sounds like a collision between regulatory capture and homeopathy…
Well, ultraviolet light causes cancer, right? So shining it on water must make the water carcinogenic. That’s just Science, man.
Seems that nobody watches Midnight Express anymore. https://www.sfgate.com/warriors/article/former-warriors-minor-leaguer-cannabis-arrest-20335167.php
Or Brokedown Palace (see cabin attendant story from a day or two ago).
Links. Shit. I’m still only in Links. Every time I think I’m gonna wake up back in the edit function. When I was home after my first tour, it was worse. I’d wake up and there’d be nothing. I hardly said a word to the Glibs, until I said “yes” to editing. When I was linking, I wanted to be editing; when I was editing, all I could think of was getting back into the links. I’m here this week now, waiting for a submission, getting softer. Every minute I stay in this post, I get weaker, and every minute readers squat in the comments, they get stronger. Each time I looked around the walls moved in a little tighter.
I think Swiss is trying to tell us something.
I didn’t realize I was a psychic vampire — feeding through my lurking…
That he misses ‘Nam?
The company paid a €2-million ($2.2-million) fine to avoid legal action over the use of illegal water sources and filtering. It said at the time though that the replacement filters were approved by the government and that its water was “pure”.
“Approved by the government”. What’s the saying? “You fucked up, you trusted us!”
“IndyCar technical director Kevin Blanch found the team had illegally modified seams in the cars’ attenuators by filling in gaps that may have given them an aerodynamic advantage.”
Formula 1 teams don’t spend millions of dollars’ worth of wind tunnel time studying the airflow at the tunnel exits for no reason.
But they made it fair and equal!
How Mercedes’ Wind Tunnel Mistake Ended Their F1 Dominance
This crap is one of many reasons I don’t watch open wheel racing.
A Minnesoda company called MTS builds the moving roads that go inside those wind tunnels. It’s like an upside down belt sander but with a steel belt instead of sandpaper (and, of course, scaled up).
Who does the Indian space agency call for tech support?
Pakistan actually has a call center industry. I’m sure that would have no issues!
Example of calling Pakistani call center.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDL5-iOUKFk
Philippines?
I’m sure that Swiss will understand this phenomenon.
Is that a long distance narrowed gaze? On a work phone?
What’s the plural of ruckus? Ruckusus? Rucki?
A rucksack?
Ruckalaboo?
I meant ruckabaloo.
*curses*
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110892
That is a fine rucksnack.
You can’t not spend money- it’s un-American
A panel of appellate judges on Monday appeared skeptical of EPA’s reasons for terminating $20 billion in Biden-era climate grants, but it indicated the dispute could end up in a different court.
During over two hours of oral arguments, the three judges questioned the timing and authority of EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin’s termination of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund grants, which were intended to support climate and affordable housing projects using funds from Democrats’ climate law.
——-
“If the money were to go out, and then the government were to ultimately prevail, the government would be out of these billions of dollars,” Rao said while trying to determine what is in the public interest.
But Katsas and Rao also had hard questions for EPA, including over its concession that it has made no specific allegations of wrongdoing by the recipients themselves.
“What is your claimed basis for termination on the theory that there’s no breach, there’s no waste, fraud or abuse — but there’s a contract structure that might facilitate that?” asked Katsas. “I’m not sure I see that in the grant agreement.”
The underlying premise of the program is bullshit.
Period. The End.
“And the next thing to be withheld is your own paycheck, your honor”
Huh, a shrew’s brain mass is 10% of its body weight vs 2% for humans. Maybe mice and rodents really are the smartest animals on earth.
Hell, “shrewd” is named after the little smart asses.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ajaG8Uog4o
Open wheel racing as it should be
If you don’t want to listen to Peter Windsor’s intro, skip o 5:40 or so.
***SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION ALERT***
In response to the pitiable pleas of TPTB, I submitted a post that’s scheduled to go up this evening. (Check your local listings for time.) It’s designed to promote maximum audience
regurgitationparticipation, to which end you can earn POINTS for correct responses to a series of clues.PRO TIP: To earn points, I recommend you NOT wait to post all your guesses in one comment, as the point for each correct answer will only be awarded to the earliest one posted for each question (or part thereof) based on the time stamp shown on the comment/answer.
A A B D C B D C B A
What do I win?
WIN DATE WITH STEVE SMITH TO ATTEND FAMILY REUNION SLEEPOVER
Do we get to play Cornhole?
UUDDLRLRBAS
CORNHOLE INVOLVED
every minute readers squat in the comments, they get stronger
Warty approves.
TOO LOCAL NEWS: Brave sentenced
After all his lies, his cheating, and his criminal convictions, former Strafford County Sheriff Mark Brave on Monday was still trying to game the system on Monday as he received his 3.5 to 7-year prison sentence.
Brave, who turns 40 later this month, was a rising star in the Democratic Party after becoming both New Hampshire’s youngest sheriff and first elected Black sheriff in 2020. His career crashed and burned after he was caught stealing close to $20,000 in taxpayer money to fund a series of extramarital affairs.
He compounded his crimes by lying to a grand jury about his actions, which led to his prison sentence from Strafford Superior Court Judge Daniel St. Hilaire.
Rather than accept his sentencing, however, Brave once again tried to delay the inevitable by telling the judge he needed an extra day to make arrangements for his teen daughter.
And once again, it didn’t work.
“You should have planned for today,” St. Hilaire said, reminding Brave he had 90 days between his plea hearing in February and Monday’s sentencing to get his life in order.
Obligatory Blazing Saddles joke.
“It’s so dark in here. Where are you” ?
Brave once again tried to delay the inevitable by telling the judge he needed an extra day to make arrangements for his teen daughter.
Never to be seen again?
What Constitutional crisis?
A federal district judge on Monday tossed out the takeover of the U.S. Institute of Peace by the Trump administration and the Department of Government Efficiency, declaring that actions by “illegitimately-installed leaders” were “unlawful” and had to be declared “null and void.”
U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell ruled that “the removal of USIP’s president, his replacement by officials affiliated with DOGE, the termination of nearly all of USIP’s staff, and the transfer of USIP property to the General Services Administration” were “effectuated by illegitimately-installed leaders who lacked legal authority to take these actions, which must therefore be declared null and void.”
——-
Howell wrote in her decision that the institute’s acting president, George Moose, would continue to serve as president of the organization and banned defendants from “further trespass against the real and personal property belonging to the Institute and its employees, contractors, agents, and other representatives.”
The Institute of Peace was founded under President Ronald Reagan, and Howell wrote that it is “unique in its structure and function” because it was neither a “traditional Executive branch agency nor an entirely private nonprofit corporation.”
An essential nongovernment government agency. Without their skillful guidance, war might break out.
Gentlemen! You can’t fight in here!
(There are Americans named Beryl?)
This is complete insanity.
They want to open this can of worms?
How about none of the judges appointed under the Biden sock puppet are legit and all tossed off of the bench and all of their rulings thrown out?
Anyone sanctioned under any Biden EO or law he signed have their sentences reversed and made whole for any penalties they paid?
Mind you I am imagining a world where the R’s actually have honor and spine instead of being a bunch of snakes in the grass cowards.
I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
I.e. white supremacists, it goes without saying.
Speaking of cheese, I got to try a smoked gouda with Hatch chilis in it.
Good heavans, that was good.
At$20 lb. I only bought a small wedge.
Mmm, I would have too (both bought some but in a small amount). There’s always room in the budget somehow.
Smoked gouda is gouda.
It supports both the executive and the legislative branches “as an independent think tank that carries out its own international peace research, education and training, and information services,” Howell continued.
Day care center for the otherwise unemployable offspring of the DC mandarins.
Young physicist complains about Feynman at great length:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwKpj2ISQAc
She also has a much longer video about Star Trek. Draw your own conclusion.
At great length? No thanks. Feynman has his own section on my bookshelf. I have a few from other physicists but Feynman has a section.
She and others seem to have trouble understanding that it is possible, in fact common, for highly intelligent people to be unsavory in some way.
Good lord, how many great artists and musicians have been scumbags?
Yesterday I had an interesting gun failure. I got up early, pulled my competition CZ Shadow 2 out of the safe, and found that the double-action trigger was no longer engaging the hammer. Single action worked fine to release the hammer, but DA did nothing.
Annoying. So I got my spare Shadow 2 out of the safe, stuck it in my bag, and went to the match. Did pretty well, too. 3rd in my division, 4th overall (but the first overall shooter was the MD and he was running a rifle, so he doesn’t really count). Hanging in with some local GMs.
The lesson here is: For anything important, have a spare.
I’ll post some match vids if anyone’s interested in seeing them.
Good lesson. Sure, put up the vids.
Bah, fix bayonets and charge in that case. Or in the case of a pistol, draw your sword.
***
Alexander Suvorov, a Russian military leader, is known for the quote: “The bullet is a mad thing; only the bayonet knows what it is about.” This statement emphasizes the importance of close combat and the use of bayonets in warfare.
***
***
Mad Jack Churchill once said, “Any Officer Who Goes Into Action Without His Sword is Improperly Dressed”. Winston Churchill famously said, “While the Hindu elaborates his argument, the Moslem sharpens his sword. Between these two races and creeds…the gulf is impassable.”.
***
Also, the AI failed to distinguish between pope as a pontiff and Pope as a surname.
I’m astounded by the stupidity I’m seeing on X today.
A few years of playing cowboys and Indians would have helped with that.
Let’s not waste time on why em-dashes are the most perfect punctuation ever.
AI is trained on a vast amount of human-generated literature. If AI is spitting back em-dashes, it means humans use exponentially more than a shit-ton of them.
And they say there are no dumb questions. 🙄
The Pope was actually Mormon.