Open Thread WE 24 MAY 23 ~ Hunter


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Scavenger Hunt Day

Searching is half the fun: life is much more manageable when thought of as a scavenger hunt
as opposed to a surprise party.
— Jimmy Buffett

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Given a few clues and a mysterious map, perhaps some treasures can be found in the news.
What have your searches turned up today?

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Some events on this day ..

1915 Thomas Edison invents telescribe to record telephone conversations
(He was on to something there)
1957 Anti-American riots breakout in Taipei, Taiwan
1970 Peter Green quits Fleetwood Mac to join a religious cult
1988 John Moschitta set record for fast talking: 586 words per minute

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prune-7-960x1211.jpg

Bronze sculpture by Prune Nuorry in which he painted the smooth metal in a trompe l’oeil style so that the works appear as if made of rope,

https://www.prunenourry.com/en/artworks

~

Chime-in with whatever you have.

"You can either be a victim of the world or an adventurer in search of treasure. It all depends on how you view your life.”
― Paulo Coelho, Eleven Minutes

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Lookout's picture

Off to the FL folk fest today. I'll be out of pocket the rest of the week, but I'll be back next Tuesday with a report. Hope you all have a good week.

Still packing, so I'll close there. See you soon...

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

@Lookout

Sounds like there will be lots of good music to be made and played.
Cheers!

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dystopian's picture

@Lookout Hey LO! Have a great trip, and some great music!

Keep yer eyes out for Mississippi or Swallow-tailed Kites on the road. Swallow-tailed Kite is the most graceful bird in the air, in America.

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We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

Lookout's picture

@dystopian

Swallow-tailed Kite is the most graceful bird in the air

Reminds me of the frigates. Hope you're doing well!

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

@Lookout We are headed to Luckenbach for some Austin Outlaw sounds. Ray Wylie Hubbard is the headliner.
Avoid gators.
Let us know all the details when you return.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

enhydra lutris's picture

@on the cusp

you can maybe explain why you go to Luckenbach for Austin sounds. Do you also go to Austin for Luckenbach sounds? Asking for a friend

be well and have a good 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 --

@enhydra lutris Austin is getting too dangerous to go music venue hopping. Not like it used to be. Austin performers show up in Luckenbach, Fredericksburg, and Albert.
Unfortunately, we have to drive through Austin to get to all 3 towns. Austin traffic is slow, bumper to bumper, and to go around it would add 75 miles to the drive.
One suffers for music.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

enhydra lutris's picture

@Lookout

be well and have a good 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 --

mimi's picture

ministers and state secretaries in the German Bundestag. Sounds like kids who try to find the best answers to avoid to reveal their own failures (interest conflicts). so, I am going to shut down TV now.

Have a good day all. Thanks for still keeping C9p alive. I tried to donate, but my cards of my bank are not in compliance what the donate page of c99p wants to have

But one day it will come.

Have a good day all.

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mimi's picture

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@mimi

A burgher was a rank or title of a privileged citizen of medieval towns in early modern Europe. Burghers formed the pool from which city officials could be drawn, and their
immediate families that formed the social class of the medieval bourgeoisie.

So yeah, a double Burgher is unhealthy Wink

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mimi's picture

@QMS

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usefewersyllables's picture

I've decided to restart my pursuit of some light research that I abandoned a while back, when we lost the ranch. Along with my weather station that was connected to Weather Underground, I had set up a monitoring station on Radiation Network to watch what was happening with airborne radiation when we were out in the country (Fukushima-era). I uploaded data to those for over a decade, and kept all of it around for analysis on some rainy day. I had packed all of that gear away when lost the ranch and moved into town years ago. And, of course, it was in the basement when the house burned, so that was that for the gear.

But I'm now getting interested in watching for what can be seen locally in real-time again, given the likelihood that our pet UKR conflict will go seriously dirty at some point. In the case that it goes merely dirty (in other words, does not just go abruptly use-'em-or-lose-'em apocalyptic), I'd like to document any Sunshine-Unit-laden plumes as they drift by.

The technology has improved, and costs have been driven a long way down. So I just grabbed a couple inexpensive detectors, and will set one up out in the local breeze on the patio to log data and see what can be seen from here in town. With the work I'd done previously, I'd been able to document how well my data matched with the EPA's RadNet data, the diurnal variation of the background counts, radon rainout/hailout/snowouts, and to document the impact of solar flare contributions to some of the variations. We're coming into a solar max as well, so there'll be things to see from that, even if we are at 5-600 feet lower altitude than we were.

I already have hit the no-tools-in-the-kitchen limit: my wife instantly ran out of patience with me yesterday when I showed her that the radiation levels from the pretty granite countertops in our new apartment were 15x the normal background level. (;-) Good thing I didn't get near the bananas!

Gotta go grab the RadNet data for the last ~10 years to fill in the gap in my dataset. So I guess that you could say that I've gone hunting again. It feels a bit like tuning up the fiddle on the deck of the Titanic, but we have to seek our amusements where we can, right?

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Twice bitten, permanently shy.

enhydra lutris's picture

except what I was looking for. What is it, exactly, to hunt. To what extent, must it involve prey? (As an aside, I learned today that

Orcas have learned how to kill great white sharks, to remove and eat their livers

https://boingboing.net/2023/05/23/orcas-have-learned-how-to-kill-great-w..., but that was before I began looking for something, and specifically, something about hunting.

Queuing off of "Hunter" I wanted to specifically address whether or not a hunter was simply a thing which hunted, and my mind called up a locution from my younger days, specifically, that sometimes a compass (needle) will "hunt" and, by extension, that other gauges will also "hunt". Does this make them "hunters"? Preparatory to do considering, I decided to refresh my aging recall by verifying that particular usage, to wit, that a compass will hunt. Going no more than a page or two deep in various search phrasings on various search engines, I found no instance of any such locution, but yet, the more I think about, there is a whole batch of similar locutions.

CAVEAT - haven't tried the OED yet, need to fire up another device to assess it and have to run soon.

be well and have a good 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 --

@enhydra lutris

especially in the higher latitudes
magnetic fields and such

Originally named this hunt, but changed it at the last minute
thinking maybe a vent for the criminal hunter B getting away with

Engine will also hunt, seeking another spark / compression fire.

Thanks for coming in here!

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usefewersyllables's picture

@QMS

is that if you want your hunting compass to hunt more *accurately*, you get to play with Lord Kelvin's Balls!

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Twice bitten, permanently shy.

and hold an eye to it. There is less doubt in my mind DC will get hit with a message
bomb in the future. The surrounding area will not fare well, but rads are going to
head east mostly. Maybe I will be in the stream? dunno

Good of you to share your project with us.

Q

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usefewersyllables's picture

@QMS

back in the Fukushima days, for sure. It is also interesting because my local data has always been far more reliable than the Radnet data. Da Gummint pulls their detectors offline at random times, for arbitrary reasons and nondeterministic periods. So having local NGO sources to fill in the gaps can potentially be useful.

There are a lot more stations out there than there used to be- it is kind of gratifying to see that people kept going with it even after the initial thrill of tracking the Fukushima plume wore off.

And for the interested student, here's where you get the EPA Radnet data, just in case you want to know what Da Gummint thinks is going on at any moment... https://www.epa.gov/radnet/near-real-time-and-laboratory-data-state

beta-air-filter-results.jpeg

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Twice bitten, permanently shy.

@usefewersyllables

one of my new favorite activities when I have the chance
is to orient my face to the sun in a relaxed position
and allow the rays to penetrate the skull and eye lids
better than the shit they give you in hospitals
relaxing in small doses

think the sun is getting stronger with the
atmosphere depletion

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usefewersyllables's picture

@QMS

I need to be doing more of that was well. Be well out there, and sunscreen up!

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Twice bitten, permanently shy.

At a staff meeting where I work guys from Texas said that Texas chili does not have beans. Say what? Not a big meat eater but will try my hand at making a Texas Red Chili bowl as was recommended. There is a Texas style bbq in the area that serves the real deal supposedly but will try my own.

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@MrWebster , for some, beans in chili is anathema. As for me, I want more beans than anything else in my chili.

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@randtntx I was watching a popular chef on Youtube making Texas chili. Looked good but at last moment he said to heck with it, he loaded up on the beans. Loved my mother's chili and remember getting a big spoon full of beans, onions, and celery with a little bit of hamburger. Oh so good.

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@MrWebster , that's funny about the beans at the last minute.

When we lived in the midwest, my mom made chili that was with hamburger (no beans) but she put it on top of mashed potatoes, so there was a carb involved. It sounds very similar to your mom's recipe.

I second the choice of pork carnitas in red sauce...it's a good one.

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@MrWebster

I use red, black, pinto and sometimes white
lived in the southwest for several years and did
hear about tehas chili, but tomato and beef is
too much like eye talian food
gotta have the beans

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4 users have voted.

@QMS Looked up some recipes. Looks appealing but just as well to make beef stew. If I want an all meat dish, sorta of, will make pork carnitas in red sauce and put the carnitas in a soft or rice tortilla.

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@MrWebster or tomatoes. Texas drifted toward Tex Mex ever ago.
Chili is all about the spices. If you do not have the right spices, doesn't matter what you add, it will suck.
I make it with pintos, and I do add roasted diced tomatoes.
I am addicted to it.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

dystopian's picture

@MrWebster Growing up in CA we were taught chili had beans, often kidney or navy, but others too, as pinto. Here in TX I use Wolf brand chili in a can on chili dogs, and it comes in 'beans' and 'no beans' varities. One of our favorite things is venison chili. Great stuff!

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We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

oneself might be a compass. But why is the word 'orient' also the location...'Orient'. The Orient, as in "the treasures of the Orient" is a location. From Latin orient means rising, or east. OK then.

You're sending us on a treasure hunt with a compass ?
(Intuitive compasses may work?)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAKSJEs9oCE

Don't want breakfast by the railroad track, also "end is almost here" may be true but my intuition tells me I have a few more seconds at least, so I'll see what I find under 'hunt'...

....results were too aggressive. Stuck in 'searching' instead....got a lot of stuff about religion and preaching and light. Nah, not what I was looking for....I'm looking for treasure I think, or at least a clue.
Came up with this;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGJjWLknUos

Oh well, both are treasures of a certain kind. That's all I got for today.
I do like the tree spirit art piece...nice...thanks!

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@randtntx

most rely on GPS
cardinal points should be
taught at elementary levels
the darn smartphones will not
always work
know your stars
from there
you will know your direction

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usefewersyllables's picture

@QMS

and (mechanical) chronometer, and (paper) ephemeris, will travel...

Figures that I'm landlocked. Ahh, well, maybe someday.

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Twice bitten, permanently shy.

@usefewersyllables

from this political earth
you have the tools
so wandering is possible

you seem to know your way

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usefewersyllables's picture

@QMS

take noon sights, just to make sure that Colorado hasn't dragged its anchor... (;-)

Not all who wander are lost, after all.

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Twice bitten, permanently shy.

@usefewersyllables

most of the wanderers I've met on the road to anywhere
were like treasure seekers with a passion for finding the way
with a mysterious map and a couple of obscure clues
and all this time I thought I was running away ...

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@QMS . I'd have to learn how to sail first since I can't really see the stars very well from where I am on solid ground. Plus, I'd have to buy a boat...not on my budget right now.
I'm sticking with the compass, it works, along with a map....I'm good to go.
Forget the smart phone though...don't like 'em Smile

I got good shoes though.

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@randtntx @randtntx

the stars I saw in the mountains of AZ were way more
spectacular -- less atmosphere on the surface
don't need much, but a good pair of traveling shoes
helps you to get there

good hearing your voice rand

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@QMS , about the comparison between the night sky over the ocean vs over the mountains in AZ.
I think I kinda get what you're saying. I've seen the night sky in the mountains in WY, you get the feeling that you're enveloped by the stars. It's kind of weird and very spectacular. Same is true about the night sky anywhere it's really dark. When there is no light pollution it is just wow.

Thanks for the conversation and the OT. Good to hear you as well.

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dystopian's picture

@QMS The deal on the ocean is the humidity layer really wreaks havoc with seeing the night sky. After a front passes you can get some nice clear, usually in winter though. The dry desert has none of that and this is a big part of why it is so clear out there. Here in Texas the summer sky is very frustrating if you are not in dry west Texas. It is that dang Gulf moisture that covers about 80% of the state all summer. The winter sky in Texas is often fantastic, as long as a front has been by to wipe the moisture out of the sky.

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We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

@dystopian we have no ambient light at my property. We are 2 miles from "town", which only has a few street lights. Humid as a sauna, and yet, there are many nights of clear sightings of the moon planets, and stars. Dear One is an astronomy buff, and we have shopped for him a telescope because it seems at times we can touch those yellow and white spots in the sky.
We are just over an hour from Galveston.
Weird, huh?

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

dystopian's picture

@on the cusp Anywhere out of the city is much better than that gawdawful light pollution. I hate it. How are people supposed to know their place in the universe when they can't see it?

You will see a big difference in summer and winter sky here. Especially if you use a telescope, whence such things are magnified. There is a reason observatories are on top of mountains above the fray, at places like the Davis Mtns. in west TX, or Kitt Pk. I think it is in AZ, Palomar in San Diego, dryness of atmosphere is of major import with major magnification. Altitude helps to get above it too. In CA the star guys are out in the desert with their 20K computerized tracking rigs.

Enjoy that beautiful night sky!

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6 users have voted.

We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

@randtntx

Intuitive Compass is bazar to the max. I like it. Reminds me of some CO band

and the accompanying squeeze box ..

old time circus freak and accordionist, Aurelia Anne Cohen.

Is this what you guys listen to up there?
Way cool.

I was there for this one in CO Springs one day

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@QMS , is very klezmerish, with a halloweenish feel. I like it.
I blame my mother for some of my musical taste. She had me listening to Bertolt Brecht and and Kurt Weil collaborations when I was just a small defenseless child. I'm forever strange.
Yup, I would go see this group and enjoy them.

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@randtntx

look at you now! I also was subjected to absolute strange in my youth.
Not sure the harms done is worse than whatever I see around me
whenever I stick my head out of the shell. Oh well.
Not much lost by trying.

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@QMS , and say my mama is a good one. My embryonic intelligent self choose a good one. Some may say I had no agency in that choice...they may be right.

True though, about the current level of crazy all around being off the charts.

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dystopian's picture

@randtntx Hey Rand! I learned them early due to trips to the mountains in Mexico. In Mexico there are two Sierra Madre mountain ranges running down the east and west coasts of the northern bulk of Mexico. The Sierra Madre Oriental, and Sierra Madre Occidental. The Eastern, and Western Sierra Madre. Bogey did not specify which in his movie. The Western Gull is Larus occidentalis. There is a college in CA with a great zoology department, Occidental College. Often though with scientific names of animals (binomials) the specific epitaph orientalis will refer to something of the orient, as in Asian.

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We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

@dystopian . I have to say I never use the word 'occidental'. I may have seen a western gull while on the West Coast but I was never properly introduced and I certainly didn't learn his Latin name. How did I miss this in my education? I took a class on Latin and Greek roots and I enjoyed it very much. I also took multiple history courses where I presume the word occidental is used frequently. Did I just forget? But I can't find 'occidental' in anywhere in my brain. It's a mystery.

Then again, it does matter where you are oriented, or, should I say, located. Do the peoples of Asia consider their location in the Orient? After all, some of those countries have adjacent countries that are even further to the east than they are. Or is the 'Orient' another Western (of the infamous Collective West) conceit?

Either way, the Western Gull will be my memory guide henceforth.

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dystopian's picture

Hey all, Hey Capt. QMS!

Be a good hunter in life. A jaegermeister.

The key to hunting is to remember, it is the journey. All the great outdoorsman, not just birders, but many hunters and fisherman I have known, really get it. The proverbial bad day fishin' (or huntin') is better than a good day at work. Because it is about the journey. I knew of someone all in the smokey camo on a stump with their bow and arrow. Pretty soon they are listening to birds and watching the carpenter ants work a fallen stump, the deer pops out into an opening, and they just remain frozen and watch it too. Maybe if they moved it would bolt, but they didn't. They had become too engulfed in the nature. The journey. The deer walked away.

It is THE thing about the treasure hunt that is birding, or any outdoor natural history endeavor. You go to all these places hunting for things, sometimes you see them and sometimes you don't. Often as not you don't see what you are looking for, but something more fascinating you hadn't planned on. I went to a thousand places I never would have gone if I were not hunting some bird I wanted to see, and maybe photograph. From the Okeefenokee Swamp to Bangor Bog, Rhododendron thickets in the Appalachians to the sky islands of SE AZ, from above the treeline in the Sierra Nevadas or Rockies, to below sea-level, and a couple hundred days offshore at sea, sure you remember some animals especially, but you really remember the trip, the journey, the people, the places, the habitats. I find with only a few exceptions I forget how bad the bugs were. It is the journey.

Have good journeys all!

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We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

@dystopian .

with only a few exceptions I forget how bad the bugs were.

I forgot that I forgot about the bugs! We all know how irritating they can be...and yet they don't figure much in our memory (usually).

A jaegermeister, one who opens up to the journey as you say, does not fit the stereotype in my comment above about the hunt (and by extension, the hunter) as being "too aggressive" . Your characterization is counterintuitive, but true. Yours is a great paragraph about how being an outdoors person can be transformative. Thanks for that.
Good to see you dystopian.

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mimi's picture

@dystopian @dystopian
to do with it?
https://www.prospektangebote.de/geschaefte/trink-und-spare/angebote/jage...

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janis b's picture

What an interesting artist.

Another look at her work ...

https://edulearnweb.com/by-means-of-trompe-loeil-bronze-prune-nuorry-fus...

and dance collaboration ...

Cheers

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