Open Thread WE 9 AUG 23 ~ heading out


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International Day of the World's Indigenous People
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Welcome to today's edition of generally interesting concepts. We have a bit of art, music,
history and truth to sample. well, relative truth maybe.

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1901 -- Kiowa land in Oklahoma is opened for white settlement, effectively dissolving the contiguous reservation
1930 -- Supreme Court Justice John Force Crater disappears in NYC
1945 -- Atomic bomb dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima by the US B-29 Superfortress "Enola Gay"
1962 -- Jamaica becomes independent after 300 years of British rule
1964 -- Prometheus, the world's oldest tree aged at least 4,862 years old, is accidentally cut down in Nevada, US
1970 -- "Festival for Peace" concert held at Shea Stadium, NYC to mark 25th anniversary of Hiroshima bombing; performers include Janis Joplin, Paul Simon, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Steppenwolf, Miles Davis, Johnny Winter, Herbie Hancock, Dionne Warwick, John Sebastian, The Rascals, and the Broadway cast of "Hair"
1991 -- Tim Berners-Lee releases files describing his idea for the World Wide Web. WWW debuts as a publicly available service on the Internet.

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Open thread and all that implies. Please post whatever is on your mind. Unless you
happen to be a mole, then post whatever 'they' told you to replicate.

Aside: heading out on a road trip to Michigan tomorrow to see all the old buds
to celebrate our 50 year graduation. Should be fun! Will be in-and-out, getting
loaded today. Maybe look up Pricknick while there?

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Credits ~

Sculpture 370H55V by Chris Millar

https://www.chrismillar.ca

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Cassiodorus's picture

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"The most revolutionary thing one can do is always to proclaim loudly what is happening." -- Rosa Luxemburg

enhydra lutris's picture

Good morning QMS, thanks for the OT. Great looking creation there in the photo.

Today I get my first serious PT, but I suspect I'm well beyond that now, except for shit like stairs.

Sixty degrees F right now, but only supposed to go up to 75 (that means probably 80 to 85 at our exact location because the weather goobers get the Bay Effect and we don't thanx to a ridge to our west) Still, will allow use of oven and hence I'll make enchiladas for tonight.

Picked most of our pears yesterday because they're dropping. Left maybe a couple of dozen in the hopes that they will ripen further in the next couple of days.

NEWS ITEM: At least 45 people injured in factory explosion near Moscow but cause not clear. Guardian says Reuters says explosion at the Zagorsk optical-mechanical plant in Sergiyev Posad.

Have a good trip, as they used to say.

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

meant getting loaded as in packing the truck for the trip
does have a couple other meanings Wink

handing out a batch of fermented pickles to friends
had an overabundance of cukes, did a brine solution.

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and what a morning it is!
I observed 2 lizards mating. A first for me, although these lizards seemed to be quite familiar with the process.
Also, after a 4 hour mediation to split assets and debts of a marital estate, my client discovers an $18,000 building was sold without disclosure to us through pre-trial discovery. A CROOK is a crook, after all. Very difficult to change the terms of a settlement agreement.
Q, tell pricknick we said "hi", have a safe and fun journey.
Bon voyage!

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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

Hi all, Hey Capt. QMS! Have a great trip and voyage!

So 50 years, let's see now, carry the one, my dang abacus is acting up... and so you were of the illustrious often called world's greatest (by those in it) class of '73? Was that high school or college? All those Class of '73 folk please step forward. (everyone steps back). Here, present, but can't account for why. Big Pine High School, class of '73, all 22 of us.

Sorry to report the Kirtland's Warblers will be gone already though. aka Jackpine Warbler, found only in Jack Pines in the upper central lower peninsula of Michigan, and MI's only endemic bird species that nests nowhere else in the world. They winter in the Bahamas. Took me two trips to the Grayling-Mio area to see them. Early-mid Aug. was too late the first time. Smile June was good though a decade later.

1964 -- Prometheus, the world's oldest tree aged at least 4,862 years old, is accidentally cut down in Nevada, US

I would offer a correction to the 'accidently' part of how the Prometheus Bristlecone Pine was cut down. It was that idiot scientist. Studying the Little Ice Age, and killed something that would have had useful evidence, seemingly of more value alive than dead? I got the sense there was a ego-driven rush to be the one to find and claim 'the oldest living thing' at the time amongst that circle of scientists. A fair number of ancient trees were cut down chasing this claim to fame.

As the wiki points out, the Prometheus cutdown was a motivator for protecting Bristlecones and their places. I have seen some of the 4000+ year old trees, as I hiked a bit around the White Mtns. You can drive to within about a mile of easy trail to some of the oldest ones. Take the road east out of Big Pine (168) up into the White Mtns. and turn north up on top at Westgard Pass following the Bristlecone Pine signs. That first overlook out the Bristlecone Pine road is perhaps the single best view of the crest of the Sierra Nevada range. Looking across the Owens Valley from about 8-9k feet in the Whites. The pines themselves are one weird woodland. Bone dry, with little bird life and diversity. There is a fossil bed somewhere in the area too, you can walk to Trilobite and other fossils at 6000'.

EL - totally green here over yer temps... Low of 76F here last bunch of days... record highs in low huns. Pears are one of my fav fruits... enjoy!

OtC - GREAT you got to see some lizard love action. A lot of them have a surprisingly complex very ritualized process of touching in all the right places, just right. Hmmm ... that sounds oddly familiar? Wink Kinda rings a bell... Smile

Even better you are going to the mountains where the air is cool! Have a great one. I camped at a place there I never got back to despite swearing I would. It was in the N.C. part of the Smokies, I think in or adjacent to the Nat. Pk., it was called Baxter Creek. It was awesome. Nice campground. Beautiful eastern forest, their creek was bigger than our Sabinal River here. Spent several days there and hated to leave. I have birds on my life list from Baxter Creek, NC.

some lizard love
6line-racerunner-a_0.jpg

have good ones all, and especially good trips, of all sorts and manners!

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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 the male lizard held on tight, rested his head on the back of her neck. That went on for 5 minutes. This is what I imagined her saying to him...

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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

small rural agricultural school in south central Michigan
We started with about 120 kids in kindergarten, ended up
with about 60 grads. We grew up together, and we all knew
each other like brothers and sisters, later - lovers and etc.

after '73, we all went our separate ways, most stayed around
doing the family farm routine or factory jobs. Was not an option for me,
so I hit the road, then the seas. Be a blast to gather the stories of
the survivors and compare notes. Probably the last hurrah for us.

Love getting out on the road again. Feels free.

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@dystopian I worked throughout the school years, graduated without owing a student loan debt. Never had to get a loan.
Different story for Law school. Took me 10 years to pay off that damn loan.

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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

This is what they do!

You do not have to be a member to read the article.

https://theintercept.com/2023/08/09/imran-khan-pakistan-cypher-ukraine-r...

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@humphrey @humphrey @humphrey

out of existence. None too soon, IMO.
Sanction Russia, Africa, China. Now Belarus
and any other trading partners over the globe.
Venezuela, Guatemala, Syria, Libya, Lebanon,
Iraq, Iran, probably even the Solomon Islands?
They are digging their own grave. BRICS up next.

There is no sharing in the quest for world domination.
Except for maybe the Brits?

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@QMS

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/4145980-biden-issues-order-r...

President Biden on Wednesday issued an executive order blocking Americans from investing in certain Chinese sectors, citing the risk that those investments could spur military or intelligence capabilities.

Biden’s executive order will designate China as a “country of concern,” and it will limit American investments in three categories of national security technologies: semiconductors and microelectronics, quantum information technologies, and certain artificial intelligence systems, according to the Treasury Department.

The Treasury Department said the order is “narrowly targeted” in an effort to protect U.S. national security interests while maintaining a commitment to open investment.

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usefewersyllables's picture

@humphrey

"I've already made my money there, so you don't get a chance to....".

This isn't going away, this time. Gonna get ugly.

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Twice bitten, permanently shy.

@usefewersyllables

Lots of likes and retweets.

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@humphrey

The seepage of facts is beginning to catch-up with the criminality of his acts.
The biggest, and most obvious, is the Ukraine war to cover his tracks.
Unfortunately, the stooge exlensky is still demanding more ransom.

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@QMS

receiving some payola from the MIC due to his war mongering actions.

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that road trip thing, Q.
I hope you have a wonderful time.
At least if you forget to pack something, you can buy it easily, being clothing, over the counter meds, or electronics. Just imagine running out of something, or forgetting something, in S. Africa, or Dubai. I ran out of a makeup product in Madrid. The hoops I jumped through to buy it at a mall where nobody understood what I said, vice versa. Or, replacing a broken camera in Budapest. A travel pal offered to take a picture of me, dropped my camera! Man, oh man.
A year or so ago, we spent a night in Memphis, Texas, sort of last minute, on the fly plan. Had no idea they had been in drought, or how hot as all hell it was! Man! We had been in much cooler Colorado, so we found a Dollar General, bought some cheap cotton tee shirts. The clothes we had would have been wildly inappropriate for the town.
I have a travel pal in Honolulu, and her mantra is: "With travel, it is always something."

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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

Part of the Apache tribe.
I am headed to Alabama next week, will do some research on the connections.

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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

janis b's picture

I was intrigued by the sculpture, and wanted to know more. The artist didn't talk about the source of his inspiration on his website, but I read the following post which is more revealing. I think with much artwork you have to be there in living colour to get an impression of its life and meaning. At times spoken reflections from the artist, along with excellent photos of the work can offer a lot to appreciating the work.

Check out this page ...

Worlds within worlds emerge from the kaleidoscopic visions of Canadian artist Chris Millar, whose meticulous sculptures encompass a range of materials, mechanisms, and sound. Using clockmaking components along with cast resin, electronics, styrene, acrylic paints, and other materials, he constructs science fiction-inspired microcosmos in which enigmatic narratives unfold.

Spurred by ideas around portals and secret gateways, magic, and non-linear storytelling, Millar describes his approach as “kenophobic,” or characterized by an aversion to empty spaces. He densely fills tiny vignettes, platforms, and compartments with gem-like shapes, cameo portraits, architectural features, lighting elements, clocks, dials, and miniature landscape paintings. He says, “My practice has evolved into a highly detailed, high-craft process that pushes materiality and an excess of imagery to the limits of saturation.”

https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2023/07/chris-millar-sculptures/

What do you listen to or not when you’re on the road?

Safe travels and enjoy!

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@janis b

Listen to whatever is available in each vehicle. One is FM (Astro), Camry it is CD's, and the
Tacoma has XM (which is my ride on this trip).

cheers!

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janis b's picture

@QMS

and good listening ; )

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