frog zoetrope

I've been watching a lot of zoetrope videos lately. A basic zoetrope is an entertainment device that consists of multiple 2D frames or 3D sculptures that, when spun and viewed via a strobe light, give the illusion of motion. The making of these things is fascinating enough, but watching zoetropes in action (there are a gazillion such vids on YouTube) is positively compelling. Below is a video of a frog zoetrope, with the frogs eternally jumping.

Modern 3D zoetropes involve computer-aided design and 3D printing. Even with modern conveniences, though, the making of a zoetrope takes an unbelievable amount of time and patience. And devotion to the task. Pretty humbling.

strangely hungry

I'm not sure what these are, but when I look at them, I experience a strong urge to eat them... or at least to lick them.

who's more likely to see a shrink?

Headline:

An interesting look at who raises more well-adjusted kids

For a long time, it’s seemed that the “touchy-feely” aspects of progressivism have dominated just about everything to do with child-rearing. Almost everything we see in the media appears to at least line up with what the left seems to favor.

It would be easy to look at this and assume, if these experts actually know anything, that non-liberal parents would raise kids who were less well-adjusted.

Obviously, that depends on how you define “well-adjusted,” of course, but one might be forgiven if you made that assumption.

You’d be forgiven, but you’d also apparently be wrong.

Children who grow up in politically liberal households are more likely to suffer mental health problems than their conservative peers, according to a new study.

An Institute for Family Studies-Gallup report found that "political ideology is one of the strongest predictors" of which caregiving styles a parent adopts, and conservative parents are associated with the best mental health outcomes for their children.

"Conservative and very conservative parents are the most likely to adopt the parenting practices associated with adolescent mental health," study author Jonathan Rothwell, who is also the principal economist at Gallup and nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, wrote. "Liberal parents score the lowest, even worse than very liberal parents, largely because they are the least likely to successfully discipline their children."

Conservative parents have several key distinctions in their relationships with their children that inform mental health outcomes, Rothwell explained, including being able to "effectively discipline their children, while also displaying affection and responding to their needs." The right-leaning parents also have better quality relationships with their children, "characterized by fewer arguments, more warmth, and a stronger bond."

Most of the liberals I know have gone through or are going through therapy. But: (1) one guy I know here in Korea started conservative, went at least partially liberal, and has never seen a shrink, so maybe he counts as an exception. (2) Another liberal I know also has no history of therapy that I know of. (3) Conversely, I know one or two conservatives in the States who are undergoing therapy. That said, and exceptions aside, I think it's generally true that the leftie way of thinking and acting leads more quickly and easily to neurosis and other types of social maladjustment. So many lefties are chronically unhappy people.* Aside: while I don't automatically think of trans people as mentally ill (something many on the right reflexively do), there's no denying that big, fat 45% attempted-suicide rate (sometimes cited by pro-trans activists who may not realize the stat doesn't help their case) that has dogged trans people for years—a big indicator of some level of emotional anguish.

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*Yes, I'm making this claim, but I acknowledge there's plenty of room for discussion and debate here. You don't have to think back far: just think back to the Dubya years when a lot of conservatives were the unpleasant prudes and moral scolds, i.e., the meddling, misguided Karens, to use current language. Even then, though, the issue was complicated because those seemingly fun-loving Democrats included purse-lipped über-prudes like Tipper Gore, wife of Al Gore, who wanted to slap labels on rap CDs because of their lyrics. (Nowadays, of course, it's somehow life-affirming to sing "Wet-ass Pussy" at the Grammys.)

more Biden corruption

In a just world, people like the Clintons, Bidens, and Pelosis would all be in jail—or better, standing before a firing squad. Alas, that's not the world we live in. We live in a world where evidence of Joe and Hunter Biden's malfeasance can mount as high as the Washington monument, and no one on the right or the left will ever lift a finger to do anything about it.

as predicted, SF's homeless population returns:back to shit and needles

Here's Chris Chappell with his happily sarcastic take on San Francisco's shenanigans:

Surely, you saw this coming.

Riley Gaines versus Summer Lee

Riley Gaines is a swimmer who has been in the news as a fighter for women's rights by protecting women's sports from the intrusion of biologically male trans athletes (some of her complaints have been specifically about trans co-competitor Lia Thomas). In the video below, Gaines is at a hearing and sitting before Representative Summer Lee, who is for trans women in sports. What's notable is that Gaines, in her statement, calls Lee "misogynistic," and an incensed Lee tries to have Gaines's remark stricken from the record (not that it matters: it's all on video now, bitch). I'm not sure I understand what happens next, but I think Lee's request to strike gets denied. Gaines, meanwhile, calls Lee out on the hypocrisy of being allowed to accuse Gaines of transphobia for her pro-woman stance while denying Gaines the right to label Lee a misogynist. I have to agree with Gaines. Hypocritical.

Clickbait alert: no, Riley Gaines doesn't "destroy" Summer Lee with her remarks. Lee will stupidly soldier on.

the most horrible thing I've read today

Since I'm now feeling depressed, it is my duty to make you, Dear Reader, feel depressed along with me because, as the popular saying goes, suicidality loves company. What put me in this funk? In trying to confirm that Virginia Woolf had walked into a river and not a lake when she filled her coat pockets with rocks and stepped into the water, I read her heartbreaking suicide note to her husband. I was, in fact, reading the note aloud to my boss when my throat tightened and I couldn't continue. It's a sad, sad note, and the only half-joke I could make of the situation, when I found my voice again, was to say that this sort of thing would really resonate with Koreans—the self-sacrificing, dramatic nature of the note sounds like any number of real-life and fictional TV suicides in Korean society. Suicide in Korea is often portrayed as an "I'm doing this for others" situation, something of a rebuttal to the notion, articulated on this blog and in much of the West, that suicide is a fundamentally selfish act because the person committing suicide hasn't thought about the consequences to those around her. It's hard for me not to think of suicide as ultimately selfish, but I have to remember that Koreans are a group-first people, so the notion of altruistic suicide probably makes total sense from the Korean point of view. Sacrifice yourself for the hive.

Please now depress yourself by reading Woolf's Korean-sounding note to her beloved husband. To modern eyes, this screams clinical depression. And if you're unaffected by the note, you're either not human or made of far steelier stuff than me.

Dearest, I feel certain that I am going mad again. I feel we can't go through another of those terrible times. And I shan't recover this time. I begin to hear voices, and I can't concentrate. So I am doing what seems the best thing to do. You have given me the greatest possible happiness. You have been in every way all that anyone could be. I don't think two people could have been happier till this terrible disease came. I can't fight it any longer. I know that I am spoiling your life, that without me you could work. And you will I know. You see I can't even write this properly. I can't read. What I want to say is I owe all the happiness of my life to you. You have been entirely patient with me and incredibly good. I want to say that—everybody knows it. If anybody could have saved me it would have been you. Everything has gone from me but the certainty of your goodness. I can't go on spoiling your life any longer. I don't think two people could have been happier than we have been. V.

Woolf drowned herself in a river named Ouse (yes, pronounced "ooze"). She killed herself on March 28, 1941, and her body wasn't found until April 18. I'm trying not to imagine how funky she must've looked by then, but I have a vivid, horror-movie imagination.

South China Sea powder keg

Another Philippines versus China video for you. China basically claims the entire South China Sea for itself, much to the chagrin of neighbors like the Philippines. Making friends with China is just plain stupid—something that American businesses should have learned by now.

fascinating, and I don't even smoke cigars

Roll, roll, roll your 'gar...

I've never seen this process before. It's kind of hypnotic.

leftie/Muslim nonsense redux

Tim Pool with a surprisingly compassionate take on the trans guy-turned-Muslim who's going to be in for a rude awakening when he discovers what mainstream Islam thinks about those pretty little rainbow folk:

the age we live in: being a simp for AI girls

Why chase after real-life poonanny when there's AI poonanny?

Vivek rules the fourth debate

Yeah, yeah—you can say the real winner of the fourth GOP debate was, once again, Donald Trump. But in terms of who was most memorable, the prize goes unsurprisingly to Vivek Ramaswamy, who bashed both Chris Christie and Nikki Haley with some memorable rhetoric. Ramaswamy rightly called out Haley for being a corrupt, warmongering, neocon shill, and he told Christie to pack up and "enjoy a nice meal"—quite possibly the politest way ever to say "You're a fat fucking pig." Vivek also noted that the deportation of illegals can absolutely happen now, under existing law—something no other GOPer is saying.

Styx, however, remains unimpressed with Vivek:

By Styx's reckoning, DeSantis and Haley are jockeying for second and third place, but I think it depends on which polls you're relying on. At least Styx agrees that Vivek distinguished himself the most this time around, with both DeSantis and Haley as little more than background characters. I remain a Vivek fan despite his corporatist flaws. You're not going to find anyone in this race who's perfect, so don't let perfect be the enemy of the good.

the most entertaining video on hippos ever made

I had a good laugh at this "nature" video about hippos.

yeah, it's not working

Democrats ditch "Bidenomics" messaging.

Related:

Economists Predict Recession in 2024; Oil Likely to Hit $100 Per Barrel Again.

Oops.

Galactica talk: an interview with Tricia Helfer

Lots of behind-the-scenes talk, and some thoughts on the new, upcoming Galactica series:

So, yes: the new Galactica series is a go. It's not a reboot of Ronald D. Moore's "Battlestar Galactica"; it's supposed to take place in a different part of Moore's universe. I have mixed feelings about the new series (Moore might be distantly involved as a consultant), but I'm open-minded enough to give it a whirl for at least a couple episodes. If it turns out to be trash, I'll turn it off. Life is too short—and only getting shorter—to waste on bad entertainment.

Tricia Helfer has led a charmed life. If I remember correctly, "Galactica" was her first-ever major acting role (she'd had less important roles in "CSI" and a show called "Jeremiah"); she had a background as a model, so someone took a big risk bringing her into such a serious sci-fi drama. And she knocked it out of the park because, as it turned out, the chick could act. Helfer was easily one of the most crucial members of the cast, quite capable of performing opposite veteran actors like Edward James Olmos, Katee Sackhoff, Jamie Bamber, and especially James Callis. After "Galactica" ended, Helfer went on to dozens of other roles; I saw her do a multi-episode stint in "Burn Notice." At 49, she's no longer a spring chicken, but I'd say she still has a bright future ahead of her.

the leftover luncheon

I've used up my leftover components to make three last pies, the same as before: pumpkin pie, quiche (using leftover stuffing, and technically a tart), and turkey pot pie (using leftover turkey). The pumpkin pie recipe was altered slightly: I added 1.5 times more potato starch plus an additional egg. This firmed the texture of the pie up, but I noticed there was a strange and slight loss of sweetness as a result. People without a sweet tooth might welcome such a change, but I found myself slightly disappointed by the result. The quiche came out properly baked except for the bottom crust which, when I ate a slice, had a soggy underside. Solution: pan-fry slices of quiche at the office. This solved the problem nicely. The pumpkin pie and turkey pot pie had no crust problems at all. While I was making the turkey pot pie, I noticed I had all these extra scraps of pie dough left over from the other two pies, so as you see below, I simply layered on the dough scraps, unmindful of any pattern, but just leaving a hole in the center to keep the pie from exploding. I thought I'd have enough pot-pie filling to make two pot pies, but I was able to cram all of the remaining filling into a single pie. So in my fridge, I've got another whole lump of pie crust remaining. I'm giving that to my Korean coworker tomorrow. He now has a whole container of my homemade pie filling plus a lump of pie dough, so it should be hard for him to fuck up whatever pie he makes now. I simply pray he doesn't waste my ingredients by making another thin pie that's all crust and no filling.

The boss didn't even come in today, and my Korean coworker made noises about eating some of the food but didn't eat any. He says he'll eat some tomorrow. I'm beginning to realize it's best never to take him too literally; as with a lot of Koreans, he rarely goes straight from A to B, so if he says he'll do X, you have to wait and see whether he actually does it. He's a good guy, but his stereotypical nonlinearity makes him a bit hard to trust.

The food:

top to bottom, counterclockwise: pumpkin pie, quiche, turkey pot pie

turkey pot pie—more thoroughly cooked this time

quiche in a cake pan

pumpkin pie in a Korean jjigae pan

the... trinamic trio

quiche (top) and turkey pot pie (bottom)

pumpkin pie: much-improved texture, slightly diminished taste

All in all, a good lunch. I just wish the pie were a wee bit sweeter, like last time. Maybe next time, I'll keep the increased potato starch but not add the extra egg. Or vice versa.

3 related vids

Here are 3 videos about Disney's self-own and how to cope with woke entertainment.

Matt Walsh on the deeper implications of Elon Musk's "fuck you" moment:

Nerdrotic on the larger issue of Disney, which can't seem to help itself:

Dave Cullen on the need to create a parallel entertainment ecosystem:

your moment of Star Wars humor

What if Leia wanted Tarkin to blow up her adoptive home planet?

2 from Tim Pool

Tim Pool on the failure of Disney's Get woke, go broke strategy:

Trump seems to be doing well in swing states:

NYC hoi polloi... pro-Trump?

Hard to believe, but man-on-the-street interviews in New York City, of all places, are getting reactions from non-white folks who think it's time to bring Donald Trump back. The left will call this wishful thinking, of course, and to be realistic, the preponderance of NYC residents will undoubtedly vote Dem no matter what in 2024, but this seeming shift in attitude might still point to something bigger. People are sick of loser Joe Biden.

pot-pie Pop Tart

Sam the Cooking Guy, whose specialty is comfort food, makes a pot-pie Pop Tart as well as some more-or-less regular pot pies.

an awesome, incredible interview with Javier Milei

President Javier Milei might come off as a bit of a kook, but he does seem to have a pretty precise vision for Argentina as well as a clear idea of what he believes in. He's animated, energetic, and full of fiery conviction, which means he's going to attract both strong allies and implacable enemies. I do have to wonder whether there will be attempts on his life given the amount of cancer he's trying to excise from the Argentinian heart and soul. Latin America, as a rule, has been hypnotized by some form of el socialismo for decades and decades; that's not something you can cure overnight. 

A bit of superficial research shows that the presidential term length in Argentina is four years, with the possibility of reelection for one more consecutive term, and with a chance to be reelected for a third term, but only after a four-year break. Could Milei bless Argentina with twelve years? Only time will tell, but he's going to need all twelve years to accomplish his grand plan. And much depends on the mettle of the Argentinian people: the initial phases of whatever transition Milei has in mind will be painful, to say the least (and Milei is going to need bolstering from foreign friends like the US). The people will have to hold fast and keep faith. Can they? Will they? These are exciting times for Argentina, without a doubt.

Here's a brief, 9-minute clip of Tucker Carlson's interview with Milei:

I still can't get over how Milei looks like a 70s-era TV villain.

once more unto the breach as we tackle the myth yet again

The myth that Trump is a fascist simply will not die, mainly because people who use the term fascism don't really know what it means, and they don't seem to understand that, were Trump truly a fascist (he's been out of office for three years, guys!), the people loudly decrying him would have been locked up long ago. Styx defines fascism in the video below, using what I think is a slightly more precise definition than that offered by Dictionary.com.

two on China

Chris Chappell thinks time is running out for Xi Jinping because of "factional infighting":

Could China invade Taiwan depending on how Taiwanese elections go?

other ways for Hollywood to learn lessons

The new Japanese release "Godzilla Minus One" has earned rave reviews in the States. Made on what Hollywood would consider a shoestring budget of about $15 million, the movie features a compelling story, relatable human characters, and CGI effects that make you wonder why $300 million Marvel movies look like such crap. So maybe Hollywood could learn something from the Japanese about CGI-blockbuster filmmaking.

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*One exception is Adam Olinger, who found the movie mediocre at best. Adam swings left politically, and it's tempting to say that it's the righties who love this new movie most, but I don't think that explains his lack of enthusiasm: Chris Stuckmann, another leftie whose reviews I watch, loved the movie, citing the compelling human story. Jeremy Jahns, yet another leftie, rated the movie "Awesometacular," if I remember correctly. Jahns went in not knowing what to expect and was blown away. Needless to say, I am now mildly curious and might end up watching the film via streaming video.

2 from PJW

Elon Musk, Carron Phillips, and trumped-up charges of racism:

If you're gay and pro-Muslim... how does that work, exactly?

The left makes no sense on several fronts, especially when it comes to Islam. Muslim-dominant countries' awful treatment of women elicits not a peep from Western feminists, and the gay left cheerfully supports religious believers who, in their own countries, would gladly toss these "deviants" and "perverts" off the top of a tall building. How does the Western left's stance make any sense? The mind reels.

the Critical Drinker takes on "Lady Ballers"

I'll be watching this movie soon. The following review, though, does not leave me hopeful:

I get the impression that Conservatives can't do humor is still a stereotype with some truth to it. Righties remain good with memes—something the left generally has trouble with—but when it comes to movie-length comedy, well...

Before this review, though, the Drinker did take time to interview Jeremy Boreing, who wrote, directed, and starred in the film. It was an illuminating discussion, and arguably a more productive use of time than the making of the film itself:

I'll give Boreing credit for both his modesty and his realistic outlook: he knows the Daily Wire movies are only a beginning, an initial answer to what the right-leaning public wants (and maybe more than just the righties), the mere start of a parallel ecosystem to cater to a market starved for classic entertainment not drenched in wokeness. He's aware that, in terms of quality, DW movies currently don't hold a candle to what Hollywood cranks out when it comes to production value and star power.

the Muslim "Abandon Biden" campaign

The run-up to the 2024 election (or "election") takes a new twist as Muslims, especially in Dearborn, Michigan, come together as part of an "Abandon Biden" campaign thanks to Biden's pro-Israel stance. In reality, Biden seems basically pro-Israel, but he has also honked out some weird, apologetic noises to the US Muslim community, so his ultimate stance isn't clear to me. Anyway, Muslims unhappy with Biden's stance on Israel and Hamas are now showing their displeasure. Styx comments:

did John Kerry fart while onstage?

Did John Kerry recently fart in Dubai while making a point onstage? I watched the embedded X video at this site, and while it does sound as if a fart slipped out, it's not nearly as dramatic as what I was hoping for. 

I'm not sure the Dems have topped George Bush Sr.'s stellar moment when he vomited on the Japanese prime minister in 1992 thanks to a bad case of gastroenteritis. Should the Dems get the prize for the moment when Jerrold Nadler shits himself while onstage?*

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*Confession: after a quick, one-minute search, I can only find rightie videos of Nadler in which poop sound effects have been added. Raw footage is hard to find, I guess, but as entertaining as the altered footage is, with Nadler awkwardly waddling/sidling off the stage, I won't link to any of it. Unless this YouTube Short is raw footage. It might not be; I honestly can't tell. The sound you hear in that vid could be doctored. If it's not, then that's an impressively wet fart from Nadler, and it's what I'd hoped to hear from Kerry. 

I guess we can recycle the old joke:

Boxers or briefs, Mr. Nadler?
Depends.

I shouldn't laugh too much. That's going to be me pretty soon.

third time's a charm?

First announcement.

Second announcement.

Third announcement: the postmortem has been up since December 4.

start your day with some dog humor

When Casper the Dog starts to sing (a YouTube Short).

the secret of Davy Jones's success

Question: why did Davy Jones, a CGI creation performance-captured by actor Bill Nighy for the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, look so awesome even way back then, and why do current CGI characters look so lame in comparison?

a dram of justice, but only a dram

Jussie Smollett's latest attempt to appeal his conviction after having faked a hate crime has failed, and he is returning to prison. Alas, it's only for 150 days, so he'll be out in a jiffy.

plump and juicy

In the video below, Ethan Chlebowski discovers that—as with human women—in the chicken world, bigger breasts are not necessarily better.

source: NY Post (I would not eat those)

Canada: Christmas is "colonialist"; NYC won't deal with shoplifters

Things are insane everywhere:

Ryan Kinel on the failed "Dr. Who" special

I recently said I no longer like watching the rightie critics gather in their sewing circles to regurgitate the same talking points over and over. That's true, but I'm fine with listening to these critics when they present individually: that's how I originally came to know them. Here's Ryan Kinel on "Dr. Who" having a get woke, go broke moment:

noods by Andy

I know how much my buddy Charles loves to hear the term noods (short for "noodles" in culinary slang). Here's Chef Andy, down in Oz, talking about three noodle dishes:

What's up with Andy's porn 'stache? It's a thing he does for charity every November.

the left says, "Et tu, Chris?"

Like some other recent lefties, former CNN anchor Chris Cuomo (derisively nicknamed "Fredo" not long ago) says he's at least open to the idea of voting for Donald Trump. First, Fetterman calls for Menendez's ouster, now this. The end times must be upon us. And you've got other lefties like Ana Kasparian (of the Young Turks) coming out and saying right-aligned things (I wouldn't call her a rightie convert by any means—any more than I'd call Tim Pool or Dave Chappelle or Joe Rogan a rightie). It's hard to know who's who anymore. 

Best advice: forget what all the talking heads say, do your own research, reach inside yourself, examine your own damn conscience, and figure out where you stand. You don't have to establish a position on every single issue, but gain some idea of who you are politically, then be true to that alignment. And yes, it's OK to change your position based on further information. God knows I've changed, and this blog is littered with my admissions of being wrong on this or that issue. Change is fine, but don't be a hollow shell that needs to be filled solely with the thoughts of others, and by the same token, don't be the person who is constantly uprooting and reinventing himself based on others' opinions while never engaging in his own self-reflection. Neither type of person is authentic.

is the truth finally coming out about porous US borders?

The Biden administration has done what it can to lie about the border crisis, from insisting the border is absolutely secure to denying that there's a crisis at all to saying it's all Trump's fault. But despite all the gaslighting, the truth keeps popping up, again and again, like the mole in a game of Whack-a-Mole. Is the video shown below enough to be considered "damning evidence"? Of course not. This won't topple the Biden administration. But to the extent that the truth gets out there, it might affect the minds of a few on-the-fence voters. One can hope.

Funny how one of the illegal border-crossers says he's from Turkey (oops—Türkiye). Christ.

you missed the announcement, didn't you

I announced earlier that my Kevin's Walk 7 postmortem is up.

some buyer's remorse about ejecting George Santos?

Quite a few conservatives, despite deploring the scandal-ridden NYC District 3 Rep. George Santos (a Republican accused of multiple counts of fraud, but thus far not convicted), think that his ejection from Congress was a mistake. Styx comments:

In related news, John Fetterman, of all people, has come out saying that the Dems need to eject Senator Bob Menendez who, according to Fetterman—a fellow Democrat!—has committed far worse crimes than Santos (viz. Fetterman's "senator for Egypt" gibe, in reference to Menendez being in the pocket of foreign powers). 

For Fetterman to come out like this is shocking, especially in a time when Democrats (and, frankly, Republicans) tend to close ranks reflexively in an effort to protect their own. I admit I've said some unkind things about Fetterman—who appears to have regained some measure of coherency, post-stroke, when speaking—but I'll give credit where credit is due. Fetterman is also ruffling leftie feathers by clearly siding with Israel. (Don't buy the Hamas propaganda that Israel is committing genocide. That's Hamas itself, and essentially Hamas's charter: the destruction of Israel. As the righties like to say: when people keep telling you they want to kill you, believe them.)

Aussie reacts to "Lady Ballers"

I've determined that I'm going to watch "Lady Ballers" and a few other Daily Wire films. Normally, I'd never subscribe to explicitly conservative sites,* but the only way to see these movies is to sign up as a Daily Wire member, which I've now done, God help me. Aside from "Lady Ballers," the two other DW films I want to see are "Run, Hide, Fight" (about a school-shooting scenario) and "Terror on the Prairie" (a cowboy flick starring Gina Carano; the Daily Wire gave her work after Disney shitcanned her from "The Mandalorian"). 

Meanwhile, here's an Aussie podcaster's reaction to the "Lady Ballers" trailer:

This movie focuses on the one area where I think moral arguments about trans people are crystal clear: the takeover of women's sports by biological men. Trans people can live their lives however they want as far as I'm concerned, but they shouldn't trample on women's achievements (nor should they beat women up in MMA). Hence the bitter joke about how men are better at everything, including being women.

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*Conservative sites are often just as agenda- and message-driven as leftie sites. And with conservatives still being fairly new to the game of being entertaining, it's always a risky proposition to watch, say, a comedy put together by a team of righties.

I enjoyed "The Hunt," which Tim Pool argues is an explicitly conservative movie (I saw it as poking fun at the extremes on both sides). Maybe it was, and maybe "Lady Ballers" will amount to something, too. We'll see.

no captions yet, but...

I just enlarged all the images for the short photo essays on the walk blog. So that means the following days have enlarged pics:

10/14 (Day 1, Leg 1)

10/15 (Day 2, Leg 2)

10/18 (Day 5, Leg 4)

10/23 (Day 10, Leg 8)

10/31 (Day 18, Leg 15)

11/4 (Day 22, Leg 18)

11/6 (Day 24, Leg 19)

11/10 (Day 28, Leg 22)

11/12 (a.k.a., the photos just shown in the postmortem)

If we count the postmortem post as a kind of Day 30 for the walk, then this means 8 out of 30 days' worth of pics have been enlarged. The rest of the days will take longer because each of those days has several hundred pics, so I'll progress through those at a rate of maybe one post per day. If I start work tomorrow and don't work on Christmas, I ought to have all the pics enlarged by the 27th of December. Then comes the captioning. Assuming I'm able to take a vacation between Christmas and New Year's, I ought to have plenty of free time to caption everything before the new year. We'll see.

There could be other work interruptions, though. For example, the office luncheon for December, which will involve banh mi two ways—classic and bulgogi. I may also be out of town on some weekends as I do a few more long walks in December.

Hmmm. Now that I think about it, it might be better to set my sights for the first half of January. I'll do what I can to get as much done as possible in December, but the more I think about it, the less likely it seems I'll be able to finish all the enlarging and captioning before the end of the year. Sorry. But thank you for your patience.

octopus smarts, revisited

For a while, at least, engineer Mark Rober owned an octopus (as you'll see below, he later released it back into the wild). He tested the octopus's intelligence by building a maze with a series of challenges. When I was a kid, I was obsessed with these animals and even thought of becoming a marine biologist because of them. What the hell happened to me? Anyway, I can still appreciate a good octopus video:

A lot of people remark on the sadness of the octopus's evolutionary curse: it's gifted with an amazing intellect, but it has a life expectancy of barely two years. Imagine gathering so much knowledge throughout your life, then not living long enough to pass that knowledge along to your descendants. That feels almost like some form of hell.

China Uncensored on Henry Kissinger

I guess as far as many China hands are concerned, Kissinger's kiss-up-to-China policy can't be jettisoned fast enough:

You know my mantra by now: decouple from China; pivot to India.

are these ladies the saviors of the culture?

Joe Biden, sphynx

Joe Biden speaks in riddles (YouTube Short).

a good breakdown of a nettlesome math problem

I'd heard about this before—the one about how an SAT question listed four possible answers, but the actual correct answer was missing. Because I'd heard this one before, I realized that the seemingly obvious answer, 3, was not the correct one. The Veritasium video below goes into detail as to why it's not correct, and what the correct answer is.

ghoulish

Headline:

DEVELOPING: Police on hunt for serial killer who is gunning down homeless people

Five homeless people were shot, leaving two dead, in Las Vegas – just hours after cops revealed they are hunting for a serial killer who murdered another three in Los Angeles.

A lone gunman opened fire on the group of homeless people at 5:30 pm near a highway overpass in the northern part of Vegas. One victim, a male in his 50s, was pronounced dead at the scene due.

Two other males in their 30s are listed in stable condition while another male of similar age is listed as critical. One male male who is in his late teens is said to be in stable condition.

The Vegas bloodbath came on the same day LA officials revealed they are hunting for a serial killer who shot three homeless people dead in their sleep in alleyways during separate attacks on Sunday, Monday, and Wednesday.

The Californian killings led to an unprecedented warning from Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who told the city’s homeless population: “Our message to the unhoused community is clear – do not sleep alone tonight.”

images

real craftsmanship

One day, I will make that kind of love. And it will be epic.

one of the universe's great mysteries

yes

I'm sad, too, about the leftie friends who unfriended me. To me, they were friends first, but at least now, I know their priorities.

I hope this is a real Reagan quote and not one of those Anything's a dildo if you're brave enough "Lincoln" quotes.

There're way more examples of that nonsense.

I don't know why, but this one made me laugh and laugh as I remembered back to those old commercials.

They know to stay away from the armed people.