by Grania
Jerry is busy doing Stuff & Things so I am charged with the Hili dialogue this morning. He may pop in later on.
Today in history Mikhail Baryshnikov defected from the Soviet Union to Canada while on tour with the Kirov Ballet in 1974, the following year Steve Wozniak tested his first prototype of Apple I computer.
In 1972 the United States Supreme Court ruled in the case Furman v. Georgia that arbitrary and inconsistent imposition of the death penalty violates the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments, and constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. I would have thought that this would be a good case to cite as a defence in any death penalty trial as studies show that death penalties are applied inconsistently all the time. But apparently not.
Today Hili appears to be shocked and horrified and is channelling Edvard Munch as a scream passing through nature.
A: Have you seen an alien?
Hili: No, some ladybirds copulating.
In Polish:
Ja: Kosmitę zobaczyłaś?
Hili: Nie, biedronki kopulują.
Leon is discovering the garden of Eden.
Leon: When the sun hides behind the hill I will go hunting.
On Twitter today:
Who would make the most interesting (even if legally unqualified) Supreme Court Justice?
— Geoffrey Miller (@primalpoly) June 27, 2018
What’s wrong with having hate speech laws?
Exhibit A. TL;DR: it will get used against the people you thought you were going to protect.
Gosh, what a totally unpredictable use of badly drafted hate crime laws.https://t.co/2zBVtKWa5L
— Don’tEverTalkToTheHatThatWay (@Popehat) June 28, 2018
Wind farms actually change the weather locally. I did not know this. You can read more about the phenomenon here.
Isn’t it interesting how the clouds form around the wind turbines? Physics is brilliant. pic.twitter.com/A0SkTIC4YG
— Brian Cox (@ProfBrianCox) June 28, 2018
Math nerd humour
— Amir Sariaslan (@AmirSariaslan) June 25, 2018
Lunchtime for sand martins
Sand martins waiting to be fed at the entrance of their nest. #Highlands #earthcapture #scotland @BBCEarth @BBCSpringwatch @_BTO @BBCHighlands @ScotsMagazine @Natures_Voice @wildscotland pic.twitter.com/sRfek7QpdZ
— Pete Walkden (@PeteWalkden1973) June 27, 2018
Grey goose
This little stunner is a young Greylag goose. Another Essex bird showing off at Weald Country Park. pic.twitter.com/SaqYmssPUB
— incidental naturalist (@IncNaturalist) June 27, 2018
Another example of amazing mimicry
Swallowtail butterfly caterpillars often resemble bird droppings to avoid detection by predators. When attacked, the caterpillars change their appearance by suddenly growing a pair of large, brightly colored, smelly “horns” known as osmeteria. https://t.co/NkyWjsES2B. pic.twitter.com/BQ9SAlyIV8
— Piotr Naskrecki (@naskrecki) June 28, 2018
A magnificent obsession
Cambodian artist Visoth Kakvei Is Taking Doodling To Another Level. pic.twitter.com/wgjaOW3aun
— John Evans (@Distinctboxes) June 28, 2018
A fascinating look at what humans throw away. I see a couple of Irish coins in there.
Amsterdam drained a canal and put everything they found online, organized by time from 1300 – present day… from pokemon tokens, to pipes, to guns, to human bones https://t.co/vHwxeEcqrv pic.twitter.com/UWlHAYDXGr
— Adam J Calhoun (@neuroecology) June 28, 2018
And finally
I’m sorry I said you weren’t very scary. pic.twitter.com/1R1Qs39RP3
— trouteyes (@trouteyes) March 25, 2018
Hat-tip: Matthew
What’s wrong with having hate speech laws. It wouldn’t be free.
I was wondering where those hats the troopers are wearing came from? I think they may have come from the military. The TI’s or Training Instructors in all branches wear those hats. Maybe they think it adds some type of authority to their uniform. The military has always been big on hats. This allows for yelling at the troops to either put their hats on or take them off depending on the situation.
They were in use at least from late 19th Century…
The old 1877 campaign hat is the father of the current iteration of the campaign hat [or Smoky Bear hat], beloved of State Troopers, Mounties, DIs, Rangers, Scouts etc.
The original wearers didn’t put in the four indents & it wasn’t “for best” but for fatigue duty & campaigning [travelling around on a horse all day] – it was of felt or straw construction & could fold flat. The four indents [lemon squeezer] were found to be an ideal way to shed water – no place at the top for water to gather.
The Park Rangers caught the fashion from the Buffalo Soldiers who they employed after military service & the Buffalo Soldiers got it from the frontier cavalry of which they were part [1870s/80s & injun wars]
The absurd modern version has morphed into standard issue – worn even at ceremonials & is pretty well useless as it’s dark-coloured, stiff & can’t be worn in most vehicles [& what would be the point in a vehicle?].
The Pennsylvania State Troopers in the pic are wearing the straw version & it makes them look very butch! Back in the day I suspect those same troopers would not have been so ‘bulky’ – it was PA that set the trend for other State police
As you can see here: PA State Police – history & pics the first state cops looked more like Theodore Roosevelt’s Rough Riders – hardly surprising as he played a major part in their formation
Yep, those PA Trooper hats look goofy with the chinstrap in front. But as one of them pointed out, the summer straw hats use a strap in the back. You’d think they’d at least allow individual preference, but no, those are the required formats with each.
Also re. uniforms, a WV State Trooper told me that when they were formed right after WWI, the uniform was the US Army uniform, presumably since most everyone had one, or if they didn’t, they were readily available.
I was a park ranger and wore such a hat for many years. Never understood why Smokey Bear wears one, as he is a symbol of the USDA Forest Service and they do not use them as part of their uniform. They are great for shade on sunny days and with a plastic hat cover, they do a good job of rain protection. Without the cover, the rain will ruin a straw hat in a few minutes. They also are quite aerodynamic, like a frisbee, in a high wind.
I thought it was obvious! Smokey wears a hat because park patrons would shoot him otherwise.
“What’s wrong with having hate speech laws.”
Because is you have them, you are making ideas illegal.
It is going to be hot – forever…
http://www.climatechangenews.com/2018/06/27/warming-2c-substantially-harmful-1-5c-draft-un-report/
Yes, well forever may not be that far off then. Notice how everyone who causes this will be dead.
In the 1972 Furman case, SCOTUS issued a one-paragraph per curium (unsigned) decision holding that that imposition of the death penalty in the consolidated cases before it would constitute cruel and unusual punishment in contravention of the Eighth Amendment. There was a feeling at the time — or at least a hope — among many in the legal community, and in the nation at large, that we might be rid of the death penalty for good.
Alas, many of the states would not have it, and they began the struggle to enact legislation that might allow them to re-institute capital punishment. Four years later, in Gregg v. Georgia, SCOTUS upheld the constitutionality of Georgia’s new death-penalty scheme, and executions recommenced, ending the nation’s brief death-penalty moratorium.
“Look, why don’t you come inside and vomit daemonic ectoplasm over some kids…that always cheers you up”
That bit about the stuff found in the Amsterdam canal is great. Imagine if they could do that for the Seine in Paris, or the Thames in London.
They did do this under the Thames River in London. I saw some of the stuff they found in a museum a few years ago. Sorry, I forget which one it was.
I can’t see a gray goose without thinking of Leadbelly’s “Gray Goose” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uj41fhds0W0
Hili looks positively horrified, scandalized. Poor thing. Fie on those promiscuous butterflies
Interesting SCOTUS Justices:
Ric Flair
Michael McKeen but always in character as David St. Hubbins
Frank Miller (bonkers dissents)
George St. Pierre (would be amusing listening to him question people in his silly accent)
Paul Bissonnette and/or Don Cherry (even though they’re Canadian)
Does anyone know if wind farms change the weather in their area in any substantial way?
Depends on what you mean by “substantial change”, and “know”. I’ve read summaries of a couple of studies that suggest about a 0.5 Kelvin increase in local minimum temperature. I’ve also read some that suggest mild changes in wide area rainfall patterns.
Here is one that seems to be well received, apart from the fury it induces in the comments section anywhere it is cited:
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms4196
Usual caveats and disclaimers: I am not a physicist or climatologist. I’m assuming this peer review thingy is doing its job here. etc.
Re: Wind farms affect climate:
Could it be otherwise? The farms, by definition, take large chunks of energy out of local systems besides, so I am told, making an awful racket and killing birds. Commercial large-scale solar power has its own drawbacks, the most critical, in my view, is companies turning natural diverse desert and other economically marginal land into biotic dead zones.
I back nuclear power. Now that most bugs are out — and people have learned not to build plants on geological faults — nuclear seems much less harmful to the environment than land-gobbling so-called “green” alternatives. France has apparently never had a major nuclear accident.
In my country, the largest wind farm is on Kaliakra Cape at the Black Sea. Nobody ever talks about the influence of wind turbines on the weather, but many are worried about their influence on birds. Kaliakra is on a major bird migration route, and a number of birds are killed by the turbines every year. For that reason, some conservationists want the turbines to be dismantled. I think, however, that we badly need the electricity and almost every other way to produce it would do more environmental damage.
Thanks for the good info on wind farms, everyone.
Great cow pix, but suspect y = x exp3 is Photoshop.
https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/portrait-long-haired-highland-cattle-winthrop-1058028737?src=FH9SCsqrWbcpTo5_vp0VKw-4-23
There is a reunion movie for the Brady Bunch called A Very Brady Christmas. All of the cast members come back except for Cindy who was on her honeymoon at the time. Jan is an architect and married to a professor, Philip. They are planning to divorce and then Mrs. Brady calls to invite them for Christmas. They reluctantly go but are still not happy. At one point, Jan is explaining to Philip that she really needed him there for the opening of one of the buildings she worked on. Instead of being there, he was off studying the greylang goose. “GreyLAG goose,” he immediately replies.
If you think criminal laws should protect groups instead of individuals, I think you have misunderstood them? That was an excellent example of objective use, AFAIU.
No,that is not what I think.
My position is that no such laws should exist. Criminal law already covers assault or property damage etc.
Laws that essentially criminalize speech on the basis that someone can claim to be offended by it, are laws that are going to be abused by anyone who thinks there is something to gained by effectively silencing their opponent. /Grania
http://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/collections/works-in-focus/photography/commentaire_id/the-vampire-20869.html?tx_commentaire_pi1%5BpidLi%5D=847&tx_commentaire_pi1%5Bfrom%5D=844&cHash=ee6a328320
Charles Nègre (1820-1880) 1853
gargoyle or grotesque ?
Certainly not a gargoyle as you know. It could be described as a grotesque [the catch-all term for all the lets-scare-the-bejasus-out-of-the-sucker-citizens statuary], but I prefer “chimèra” for this guardian demon – the term used by Viollet-le-Duc himself for these non-functional nightmare fancies.
Personally – I prefer them to the Medieval originals that they replaced or augmented. They work better as monsters, perhaps because of a keener understanding in the 19th C of the underlying anatomy of beasts – these things could [bar the wings of course] exist & eat ya up!
You sampling titles from Douglas Sirk films?
That photo of Leon is beautiful! Worth framing.
The photo of Leon reminds me of a Maxfield Parrish painting. It, is indeed, a beautiful photo. Would not mind having it as my wallpaper on my iPad.