Wednesday Open Thread: It's International Girls Day

It's Day 318 of the Year 2018 CE
So, November 14, 2018 - for my reference if nothing else.


ronniemac2



With Girls Day for a theme or topic, I got nuthin. I was taught to respect females, and have tried to always do so. Nonetheless, I'm a guy, a male raised in the US. I am really not one to speak on such matters or to speak to such matters. I have never been there. I have known many brilliant, talented an fantastic women, and that is all the more reason that I feel unqualified to address anything relating to women beyond that we're all humans and by rights, should be equals in all things. So, there is a real need for International Girls Day, and a real duty to headline it, but I'm going elsewhere with this.

It is also Loosen Up, Lighten Up Day That's something I can handle, though it can get to be a chore at times. At some early age I developed a sense or irony instead of a sense of humor. My favorite comedians were Lenny Bruce, Mort Sahl and Dick Gregory, not a particularly jolly crew. I liked nonsense as much as the next person, but it was the sombre nonsense of Genet, Ionesco and that crew. All the same, I know that silliness is to be valued, because Wittgenstein said so, really:

Never stay up on the barren heights of cleverness, but come down into the green valleys of silliness.
If people never did silly things nothing intelligent would ever get done.

Heh, Wittgenstein, such a clown.
So, apropos of nothing, except that I turned to my stash of massively miscellaneous whatever for inspirational help with this and found The Jolly Boys, and what could be more conducive to lightening up and loosening up than a group named The Jolly Boys?

So, always remember:

You are a fluke of the Universe.
You have no right to be here, and whether you can hear it or not,
The Universe is laughing behind your back.
-- Deteriorata --

Kick back, relax, laugh at yourself and be kind to each other.

(Image: author's photo of David's Renaissance, 2011, by Giuseppe Veneziano )

OK, it's an open thread, so go for it ...

Speaking of kicking back -- I will be kicked back in a grove of trees by the big water down along the coast and won't be here when this posts.

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Sonoma County Office of Education establishes guidelines for school closures on smoky days

The Sonoma County Office of Education established the general rules on Tuesday advising districts to base decisions on school closures on local air quality levels measured by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Air Quality Index. District officials should view the air quality index at purpleair.com at 5 a.m. the day school closures are being considered and are recommended to cancel classes when the index shows air quality at a “very unhealthy” level of 275 or higher.

Several parents reacted with swift criticism saying it’s a health risk for students to attend schools when air quality levels are as poor as the 275 threshold.

“Generally, we believe that students are in a safer air environment when they are in school. This is because schools typically use filtered air while many homes may not have this ability,” County Superintendent Steve Herrington said Tuesday evening in a statement.

Head count is how the State gets paid, right? How disgusting to make a rule based on money, and call it health.

“This is just as much about the health and safety of students and faculty as it is about the principle of collective decision and shared governance,” Gorelick said.

OIC, the principle of... ~shrug~ Need to work on my compassion for the greedy now. oom

the future happens here first

What do you after the band breaks up? Let it go, let it flow like a river. I went to the boat ramp yesterday to scry. Toxic algae warnings and it smells like sewage, but I saw a GB Heron, and lots of Phoebes. I like Phoebes.

Dave Mason - Let It Go, Let It Flow
https://youtu.be/illeTgLbowg

LOL! Two ads in there for me before I could listen, one for Group Selfies. AI yi yi! fake intelligence

let it flow through you
peace

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@eyo
A possible reason for the crying. Wink

In a different vein, patient and nurse are doing fine so far. Venal surgery okee dokey.

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@QMS thanks for the positive surgical news, keep going. I have varicose veins (thanks mom), get horrible leg cramps after a good day walking. Everything below my knees is ugly as hell, takes forever for sores to heal. ick

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrying
Skip to my woo. Woo is what I call the mystical side of life. I can't escape it, in fact I try to ignore it now. I have been trying to ignore my premonitions as long as I can remember, 'cause they are usually bad news coming down the pipe. Pre-loading the future with negative vibes doesn't seem so smart. I am trying to dispel the premonition where I would not be here after December. I am getting no clue as to where I will be, only that I won't be here.

Help me Magic8! shake shake shake
-Reply hazy try again
-Ask again later
-Better not tell you now
-Cannot predict now
-Concentrate and ask again

Yep, keep going.
peace

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@eyo
Scry is a great concept. Thanks

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@eyo check your pm.
Later.

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Ya got to be a Spirit, cain't be no Ghost. . .

Explain Bldg #7. . . still waiting. . .

If you’ve ever wondered whether you would have complied in 1930’s Germany,
Now you know. . .
sign at protest march

enhydra lutris's picture

@QMS
Havea good day.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

enhydra lutris's picture

@eyo
one.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

NCTim's picture

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The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

enhydra lutris's picture

@NCTim
Good stuff, of course, as is expected

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

NCTim's picture

Game, set, match.

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The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

WaterLily's picture

Always among my favorites for lightening up:

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLlv_aZjHXc]

(Laughter really is the best medicine, for all sorts of things).

Thanks for the OT, EL!

(edit for slight typo)

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enhydra lutris's picture

@WaterLily

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

enhydra lutris's picture

in the wee hours ffrom the local Great Horned Owls; close harmony, even. Great stuff. Everydody have a great day.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Lookout's picture

@enhydra lutris

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

lotlizard's picture

https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-million-trumps-of-india/

Right now, over half of India’s population, perhaps 600 million people, are under the age of 25, making them the largest number of young people for any country on earth. This generation’s male population, Poonam writes, are the most desperate since India’s independence. Every month, one million Indian youths enter the workforce, yet only 10,000 of them get jobs — a staggering statistic. The rest feel left behind and abandoned by their own country, so they turn to scams and violence to make money.

As a result, the men Poonam writes about are not driven by morality, but by how fast can they achieve money and fame. Their ability to flip between right and wrong depends only on what they stand to win or lose. Anxious about their future, these men feel they must succeed now or else risk being left behind. Since India’s infrastructure still operates on a foundation of bribery, scams, and corruption from bottom to top — so much, that corruption is often viewed as a virtue — this generation of young Indian men, Poonam writes, will cheat their way to their dreams because it’s all they ever see from politicians, businessmen, and celebrities. If these young men don’t embark on such an ideology right now, they will lose their shot at world domination.

“No matter how poorly placed they find themselves now, they make up the world’s largest ever cohort of like-minded young people, and they see absolutely no reason why the world shouldn’t run by their rules,” Poonam writes.

“The consequences for the rest of us, inside and outside of India, of young India’s determination, won’t just be economic. The idea that only they can help themselves will lead this generation of Indians to redefine everything according to their perspective: work, success, morality. It will change our world in ways we can’t yet imagine.”

 
Mahatma Gandhi? Spiritual India is so last century.

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My downstairs neighbor's son has an "anger problem" which they "sent him away" for to get his head right. I don't know where he went but it didn't work. He is in their yard smoking cigs and weed, pinching and squeezing one of their little dogs until it yelps with pain. I'm surprised he got a hold of it, 'cause it learned fast to run away when he approaches, hides under their porch. I guess he figures no one can see the marks on that poor puppy, so it's all good. I used to say real loud "call 911" to snap him out of his sadistic moods, but now he just laughs and squeezes harder. omg
---
"trying to forget as long as I can remember" huh! That didn't come out right when I wrote it. Also, I forgot the second "do" in "what do you do when the band breaks up?" but I'm too lazy and upset to edit.

peace
where is it

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WaterLily's picture

@eyo For the poor pup, and for you to have to witness.

Would calling 911 for real invite unintended bad consequences for you?

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@WaterLily thank you, but I have a history of mental illness so calling 911 does bring more grief than satisfaction, that's a good way of putting it. Sorry I shared too much, and upset you or anyone else.

I went to the store and bought some incense, came home and lit it and played reiki house cleansing music. woo Later, I will probably see the two dogs playing with their rope, one on each end. That always makes me lol and feel better. I want to think good thoughts for my neighbor's son, he must be in his own hell sometimes.

peace

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lotlizard's picture

What this security researcher at Symantec then found was alarming.

http://web-old.archive.org/web/20181101205425/https://www.wired.com/stor...

I reverse-engineered the machines to understand how they could be manipulated. After removing the internal hard drive, I was able to access the file structure and operating system. Since the machines were not wiped after they were used in the 2012 presidential election, I got a great deal of insight into how the machines store the votes that were cast on them. Within hours, I was able to change the candidates’ names to be that of anyone I wanted. When the machine printed out the official record for the votes that were cast, it showed that the candidate’s name I invented had received the most votes on that particular machine.

This year, I bought two more machines to see if security had improved. To my dismay, I discovered that the newer model machines—those that were used in the 2016 election—are running Windows CE and have USB ports, along with other components, that make them even easier to exploit than the older ones. Our voting machines, billed as “next generation,” and still in use today, are worse than they were before—dispersed, disorganized, and susceptible to manipulation.

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magiamma's picture

@lotlizard
voting machines are not safe. Love it that someone actually reverse engineered one.

Mail in ballots are good. We now have last-voting-day voter registration and we registered over 800 students up at ucsc for the final gotv on the 'day'. It may win us a forth city council seat which will give us a progressive majority vs a pro development majority. Keeping fingers crossed.

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Anja Geitz's picture

Where I work that has a kids whiteboard affixed to the wall. Along with the whiteboard there are letters of the alphabet, a variety of animal figures, and a child standing in front of the board adding their personal vision of the moment.

I walk by that white board all day long and each time I do, another child has created something new. I'm always fascinated by the patterns, messages, and pictures they create, each one wholly different than the next.

It reminds me of how our brains used to work. Unfettered with the conventional way of doings things, our imaginations were fertile and completely our own. There was no "wrong" way to create. There was only the medium and our minds.

If I wasn't actually at work, I'd pull up a chair next to them, and create something of my own.

In honor of loosening up and lightening up, play like you're 5 years old again.

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There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

magiamma's picture

Thanks for the ot. Hope your adventures are relaxing. Love the music. peace

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