January 16, 2017 Open Thread; Martin Luther King Day

January 16 is the 16th day of the year. There are 349 days left.

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Today's number is 16

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16 = 4 squared and 2 to the fourth or 4**2 and 2**4. Coincidence? I don't think so.
(I know of no other number that is both a**b and b**a where a is unequal to b)
16 is the base for the Hexadecimal numeral system, aka Hex
Counting in Hex runs from 0 to 9 then A,B,C,D,E, and F for 10 through 15
Hex is used a ton in computer science, computers and computing
16 is sulfur
There are 16 ounces in a pound

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Title 16 of the US Code is CONSERVATION

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The year 16 BCE was the Year of the Consulship of Ahenobarbus and Scipio
Caesar Augustus reorganized the German provinces and made Trier their capital.
(Trier is way cool. It has a ton of Roman ruins and Marx spent a chunk of his childhood there, in the Salmonish second story dwelling in the center of this picture:

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T-Marxhouse5

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This is, of course, commercially exploited, from fashion
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ModehausMarx2

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to transport
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T-MarxBus2

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Elsewhere in 16 BCE,

Roman legate Marcus Lollius was defeated by a Germanic horde. This was/is called "The Lollian Disaster" because the German raiders bagged the legionary standard (the Eagle).

The year 16 CE was The Year of the Consulship of Taurus and Libo (sounds like bull to me)
A Roman army of 50,000 men commanded by Germanicus won a victory at Idistaviso, defeating the German war chief Arminius and recovering the lost eagles of Varus' legions. (Those were the 3 eagles Varus lost in 9 BCE, not the paltry lone eagle Lollius lost in 16 BCE.)

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On this day in:

0027 BC -- Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus became "Augustus" which started the Roman Empire.
0378 -- General Siyaj K'ak' conquered Tikal
0550 -- The Ostrogoths conquered Rome
1605 -- The first edition of El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha was published
1786 -- Virginia enacted Jefferson's Statute for Religious Freedom
1909 -- Ernest Shackleton's expedition found the magnetic South Pole.
1919 -- Misguided zealots in the US ratified the Eighteenth Amendment
1920 -- The League of Nations held its first council meeting
1938 -- Benny Goodman and his band performed in concert at Carnegie Hall
1945 -- Hitler went into his underground bunker
1969 -- Soyuz 4 & Soyuz 5 did the first docking of manned spacecraft & first crew transfer
1979 -- Shah Reza Pahlavi fled Iran
1991 -- The start of the Gulf War
2003 -- The Space Shuttle Columbia launched on its final mission.
2006 -- Ellen Johnson Sirleaf became President of Liberia * Africa's first elected female ruler

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Born this day in:

1836 -- Francis II of the Two Sicilies, last King of the Two Sicilies
1838 -- Franz Brentano, philosopher and psychologist
1855 -- Eleanor Marx, socialistleader, activist and author
1874 -- Robert W. Service, poet and autho
1901 -- Fulgencio Batista, fascist mass torturer & murderer beloved of the US Government
1901 -- Frank Zamboni
1908 -- Ethel Merman, actress and singer
1914 -- Roger Wagner, conductor and educator (Robert Wagner Chorale)
1933 -- Susan Sontag, author and playwright
1934 -- Marilyn Horne, soprano and actress
1942 -- Barbara Lynn, singer, songwriter and guitarist
1943 -- Gavin Bryars, bassist and composer
1943 -- Ronnie Milsap, singer and pianist
1944 -- Dieter Moebius, keyboard player and producer
1944 -- Jim Stafford, singer, songwriter and actor
1944 -- Jill Tarter, astronomer, SETI researcher, and biologist
1956 -- Greedy Smith, singer, songwriter and keyboardist
1959 -- Sade, singer, songwriter and producer
1961 -- Kenneth Sivertsen, guitarist and composer
1962 -- Maxine Jones, singer, songwriter and actress
1965 -- Jill Sobule, singer, songwriter and guitarist

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Died this day in:

1891 -- Leo Delibes, pianist and composer
1917 -- George Dewey, admiral
1957 -- Arturo Toscanini, cellist and conductor
1967 -- Robert J. Van de Graaff, physicist and academic, electrifying personality
1973 -- Edgar Sampson, musician and composer, stomped at the Savoy
2000 -- Will "Dub" Jones, singer
2000 -- Robert R. Wilson, physicist and academic
2009 -- Andrew Wyeth, painter
2012 -- Jimmy Castor, singer, songwriter and saxophonist

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Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days and such:
Martin Luther King Day (US)
National Nothing Day (US)
National Religious Freedom Day (US)

So, for music 
Benny Goodman
Ethel Merman
Robert Wagner
Marilyn Horne
Barbara Lynn
Gavin Bryars
Ronnie Milsap
Dieter Moebius
Jim Stafford
Greedy Smith
Sade
Kenneth Sivertsen
Maxine Jones
Jill Sobule
Leo Delibes
Arturo Toscanini
Edgar Sampson
Will "Dub" Jones
Jimmy Castor
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Benny Goodman

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Ethel Merman

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Robert Wagner - Wow, I never heard this done as a dirge before

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Marilyn Horne

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Barbara Lynn

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Gavin Bryars

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Ronnie Milsap

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Dieter Moebius

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Jim Stafford

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Greedy Smith

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Sade

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Kenneth Sivertsen

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Maxine Jones

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Jill Sobule

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Leo Delibes

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Arturo Toscanini

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Edgar Sampson

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Will "Dub" Jones

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Jimmy Castor

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OK, what's on your minds?

Hey, mega bonus, the concert that put jazz on the map

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Comments

About 20 years ago Billy Bragg updated the words to The Internationale and put it on an EP by that name. He also made a beautiful arrangement of the song. Sorry I lack the computer skills to put it here but I think that it's on youtube and is worth a listen. In this age of Trump/Clinton it's an antidote to both identity politics and reactionary politics.

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"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"

thanks duckpin

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the words ring true to me.
Again: thanks for doing this.

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"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"

Lookout's picture

I hadn't heard the socialist anthem. My crowd calls the song Image the communist theme song, but they ask me to sing it regularly.

Thanks again for the introduction to Internationale

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

@Lookout I think The Internationale was the national anthem of the USSR - not sure but I know I was told this.

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"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"

enhydra lutris's picture

I learned in the early sixties, because I could no longer recall it exactly, having heard so many versions. During that process, I naturally heard Billy Bragg's version among many others. One I've taken to using whenever I post it is Pete Seeger's rendition of the original in the original French. It is worth a listen.

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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 --

riverlover's picture

@enhydra lutris Comprehensible in French, essentially this:

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Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.

Thanks for hosting el. Most mis-quoted "If I can't dance, it's not my revolution!" and similar.

Free love? As if love is anything but free! … Love is free; it can dwell in no other atmosphere.

Emma Goldman
This makes me happy, I hope others feel it too. Thanks

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riverlover's picture

the change to color on film or TV (the biggie), we could translate backward. That nice portrait of a proud woman who had blue eyes.

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Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.

Honeymoon in Russia, omg Putin! I wonder how Bernie and Goldman Sachs would get along.
Thought this was a great series, still do: Talking Shop with Bernie Sanders 1 of 6 Economic Freedom

Also this: Cornel West, Killer Mike, Bernie Sanders and Nina Turner discuss Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy

I cram in more listening speeding up to 1.5, but Mike talks too fast. Smile He is worth slowing down. Thanks

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offered it, had the skills, knowledge, and ability to carry these changes out and he(we) were cheated out of the president we needed.
It was recently reported that 8 families own as much wealth as 50% of humanity. That's not only grotesque but is bad for human society.

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"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"

enhydra lutris's picture

@duckpin Recently, the heard of the World Economic Forum has been heard to murmur that Capitalism needs to be controlled/modified and they need to heed to populist rhetoric a bit. Perhaps they too see it at last, probably by seeing and fearing the threat of global uprisings.

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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 Between Brexit & Bernie & some stirrings in Europe, I think those in control of the world's political economy do indeed want to let up a little on the greed pedal so as not to "lose" the whole thing.

Moving to a sustainable people-centered world economy is what we need because of the deepening climate crisis and accepting some popular regulations and showboating isn't going to cut it; Obama proved that. I personally think Trump will try to max out the greed index especially with petro exploitation in Russia, particularly the Russian Arctic, directly supervised by the incoming Secretary of State.

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"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"

riverlover's picture

@enhydra lutris Controlling is what they desire. Nope.

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Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.

gulfgal98's picture

Congratulations EL! It looks like your OT is the first essay to get the new format. And the new format really looks so clean. It's great!

Lots of nostalgia in the music today. I just googled Barbara Lynn and apparently she is still active. I grew up with Benny Goodman playing on the record player in our house. My parents were big fans of the Big Band era.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

enhydra lutris's picture

@gulfgal98 Well, thanks. Dunno about your paragraph, I swear that I did not take it.
Single return, 5 space indent.
Single return, no indent.

Double return no indent.

we shall see.

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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 --

gulfgal98's picture

For some reason, the paragraph break I put in the comment above did not show when it posted. What did I do wrong?

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

CS in AZ's picture

@gulfgal98

GG - it looks like that's a coding issue that is affecting all comments. I just looked at a fairly long comment I posted yesterday that had several paragraphs with line breaks between them, now it displays as one very long paragraph. Nothing you did wrong but hopefully JtC can fix it or let us know if there's something new to do when posting to get line breaks. Smile
Adding a smiley creates a space above so there's a faux line break. Otherwise I love the new look! Smile

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enhydra lutris's picture

@CS in AZ For now, it seems like line breaks work at random, see comment #7, both single CRs generated line breaks, but the double CR did not. To get a CR+LF pair (return with line feed) one has to use break enclosed in angle brackets or the break tool 10th cartoon from the left un the menu above the text entry box
like that

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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

Let's just go and see if it is systemic. Perhaps one needs to use a tool? So this might be enough text to be a paragraph.
Return, no indent
Return with indent.

Double return
Used break tool from toolbar
Inserted break manually

used pre for
this
little 
section here
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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
OK, I didn't anticipate that. The same problem happened on the dev site.

Give me some time to remember how I fixed it, heh!

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@JtC
Line break check.

Line break check.

Looks like I got it. I had to edit a style sheet.

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enhydra lutris's picture

@JtC
I thought it had made a brief appearance there, and then been fixed. Thanks for the prompt resolution, and, of course, for the new format, and the whole site and, etc.

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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 --

Azazello's picture

What interested me more was the picture used for that vid. They used a picture of an Arizona sunset. How do I know it's AZ ? Easy, saguaro cactus. That picturesque plant is often used to illustrate "the West" in general but it only grows in a very limited area. It is the indicator species of the Sonoran Desert.

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We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

gulfgal98's picture

@Azazello One thing I love about this site is that I learn something new (not necessarily political) every day. Thank you for the geography lesson! Good

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

Azazello's picture

@gulfgal98 De nada ...
Now you can be a nut like me. Once you know this simple geobotanical fact you'll start seeing mistaken images everywhere; in movies, cartoons and artworks. It drives me crazy. The most common mistake is when they combine two iconic features of "the West", the saguaro and the geological formations of Monument Valley, into one image.
Like this:

Monument Valley, where John Ford shot so many classic Westerns, is in Northern Arizona. Saguaros won't grow up there, it's too damn cold. I've always thought this one was cool though:

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We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

PriceRip's picture

@Azazello           I learned this when I lived in Arizona:

          Temperatures below 23 degrees Fahrenheit (-5 deg C) will damage saguaro.
Death will occur after exposure to below freezing temperatures for 29 or
more consecutive hours.

          So the range is defined by weather conditions and the developing climate shifts could well destroy this species, surprise.

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enhydra lutris's picture

@Azazello Yep, but the old "wile west" of legend certainly included a chunk of Az - Yuma and Tucson come immediately to mind. And then we get Bisbee too. What I'm not seriously clear on, however, is the "range" back in the day, but rangelands did seem to be pretty widespread at one time.

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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 --

Azazello's picture

@enhydra lutris There's a movie set/amusement park here,
called Old Tucson Studios where they shot a lot of movies and TV shows, so you'll see saguaros in movies that are set in Texas, for example, not to mention Roadrunner cartoons.

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We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

PriceRip's picture

@enhydra lutris

          Back in the Day: Open range is still extant in the West. From time-to-time some eastern city slicker destroys their car hitting a steer and gets real upset when they have to pay damages to the rancher. Some people don't understand the "rules of the road" out here.

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enhydra lutris's picture

@PriceRip I was thinking in terms of graze and desertification. Some areas that were once "rangeland" are now dune fields, and I know not where, back in the day, as it were, good, bad and indifferent range in terms of carrying capacity were.

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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 --

PriceRip's picture

@enhydra lutris
          Overgrazing was rather ubiquitous. It took some longer that others to work out a way to use the grasslands sustainable. And, of course some will never learn (referring to the jerk that took over my favorite Sanctuary for a time).

          As we drive around the West we often comment about the obvious past abuses as we "read the signs" in the land. My wife (with a better geography background) is the better observer of these signs. Much of the abused "grassland" is actually a sagebrush forest where the over grazing has given the sagebrush an advantage to the point that the carrying capacity has collapsed to near zero cow-calf units per section. See the above referenced jerk.

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riverlover's picture

It does not help that my L eye has a huge floater in it, that makes me R-eyed. Back to see him Tues.

New statement socks. Dots on the bottom.

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Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.

shaharazade's picture

had some coffee I can read the small type.Or is it? cleaning my glasses helped. It also seems that the paragraphs are back. Looks slick and the music videos are coming in good.Thanks for the Monday numbers EL.

This morning it's somewhat warmer in Portland. If you call 20.2 degrees warmer. No wind so maybe that's why it feels warmer.Yesterday we ran out of provisions for us and the cat so we layered up and walked 7 blocks to the grocery store. It's not the snow that makes it hard to walk but the ICE.A young one I met walking said to walk like a penguin. I tried it yesterday as the sidewalks and streets are compacted snow which is now ice. So I walked with my toes turned out and did not take steps until one foot was firmly implanted. this morning my ankles and the top of my feet are sore as it uses different muscles.

Interesting winter were having. I have noticed that people on the street both neighbors and strangers are much friendlier and chatty since we all got snowed in. Time is slower as walking like a penguin is not a speedy way to travel. Hard to hustle or bustle with out slipping and sliding. Everyone has cabin fever and they are mostly all glad to see and interact with their fellow humans.A good sense of community has reappeared. The couple across the street who are both firemen gave us a ride home from the store.It was getting dark and I had filled to the brim the back pack and and another grocery bag.We appreciated the lift.This was my first time in a car in about 2 weeks.

Well that's enough blather. Have a great day everyone. I'm off to explore the new site. thanks again EL for the numbers and great music this morning.

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PriceRip's picture

@shaharazade

          Unless you are talking about another Portland some other place than Oregon : "A good sense of community has reappeared."

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skod's picture

Ahh, change. Can't live with it, can't live without it...

A little Chris Daniels with Freddi Gowdy- more local Denver heroes.

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Shahryar's picture

I find that I'm skimming, then skipping comments because the font is too small and the lines, therefore, are too long across the page. I know it'll be taken care of, though. And sadly I imagine this comment of mine will be skimmed and/or skipped for the same reason!

Anyway...so John Lewis says Trump's is an illegitimate Presidency and Trump says Lewis has done nothing and then all these people go "hey, Lewis is a hero!" but you know...I've seen photos and I don't think that's John Lewis marching with Martin Luther King Jr. I think, if you look closely, it's Bruce Rappaport.

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@Shahryar
a little, is that better?

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Shahryar's picture

@JtC @JtC still small for me. I'll look for ways to enlarge it on my end.

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skod's picture

@JtC I know that it would take some coding, but that might be a good candidate for a profile item: allow users to set their font size in their profile, along with signatures, avatars, and whatnot. That would allow some of the more visually-challenged of us to be comfortable while preserving the overall look of the site in its default mode... Just a thought.

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gulfgal98's picture

@Shahryar I always have to enlarge everything on my screen. I am at 133% right now.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

Shahryar's picture

let's see if the new look affects videos and photos...

ok, nice to see the photo thing is still choking my old laptop. Now for videos...

Here's one we enjoyed in junior high

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