Flutterby™! From 2018-09-03 to 2018-09-30

Hanging out in the Sandia Mountains

[ related topics: Photography ]

Off the tram, back down into the warmth of the valley.

[ related topics: Photography ]

Paid the premium for valet covered parking so that @EspressoParking would charge the car. They didn't. Won't be making that mistake again. Favorite Oakland airport parking that actually does car charging?

[ related topics: Aviation Bay Area Automobiles ]

Reductress: Straight Woman Wondering Who’s the Asshole in Lesbian Relationship

“I understand that Francesca, who has only dated cis men, was trying to understand the dynamics of a queer relationship,” said Parker Miletus, one member of the couple. “But it’s honestly very heteronormative to assume one of us has to be the asshole in the relationship.”

W

[ related topics: Sexual Culture ]

Dude, that's not why you don't have any...

[ related topics: Photography ]

Comes highly recommended, may have to make: Cornmeal Pudding Pone. A Caribbean desert thing...

This thread: RT foone @Foone:

So, programmers, you know those systems that have been maintained for TOO LONG? that are just too expensive (in terms of technical debt) to replace, that are just hacks on hacks on hacks at this point, are a never ending maintenance nightmare that can't be killed?

Starts with the sulfur eaters and works up...

Off-duty CHP officer kills wife, shoots self outside Amador County store, authorities say:

Sheriff’s deputies received a call about 10:45 p.m. Monday from the owner of Get Ripped Nutrition, a vitamin and supplement store, who said a man he knew to be a CHP officer and later identified as Brad Wheat was banging on the door, demanding to be let in, authorities said. The owner of the business was inside the store with Mary Wheat, 42, the man’s wife.

[ related topics: Health Marriage Rocky Horror Picture Show ]

National Academies: New Report Identifies Steps to Secure Americans’ Votes; All U.S. Elections Should Use Paper Ballots by 2020 Presidential Election; Internet Voting Should Not Be Used at This Time .

[ related topics: Invention and Design Net Culture ]

"For the good old American life: For the money, for the glory, and for the fun... mostly for the money." RIP Burt Reynolds

[ related topics: Currency ]

One from a friend (whom many of you know, even if you don't know it): Gillian's Eye is a Spec Fic adventure/revolution story, with a fun cast. Their first book was getting its legs, this one really caught me.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Books Todd Gemmell ]

Just back from Cabaret at the Cinnabar Theater. Lands a little more heavily in the current political climate...

[ related topics: Politics moron Theater & Plays Burlesque Global Warming ]

Sure glad they're keeping flyers safe: Houston police officer mistakenly fires AR-15 at Hobby Airport baggage claim

[ related topics: Aviation Bay Area Law Enforcement Guns ]

The Rialto Report: Adult Film Locations – Part 12: The Misty Beethoven Mansion. Tracking down locations from the golden age of porn films.

[ related topics: Erotic Sexual Culture ]

Auto-corrupt just got "lusty" from "list". I'm not sure it's wrong.

Just pondering the differences between a ruby throated hummingbird and a redneck hummingbird.

While we're looking at Dallas police malfeasance, how about whoever set up Ms. Guyger with a 15 hour shift? We know officers on duty that long make fatal mistakes, upper brass should be held accountable too.

Addendum: Document details Guyger’s account of shooting; Jean’s attorney tells different story

[ related topics: Law Enforcement Model Building ]

Kuba Shand-Baptiste in The Independent: Lily Allen's decision to hire an escort during her tour is nothing to be ashamed of

The singer’s openness is great, but now is the time to pay attention to the studies, activism and voices of sex workers all over the world who have long been fighting for decriminalisation

[ related topics: Erotic Sexual Culture ]

Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, July 2018 Volume 121, Issue 1, Pages 77–81.e1: Food allergy to previously tolerated foods:

Conclusion: Food allergy to previously tolerated foods primarily appears after an elimination diet in atopic patients. Anaphylactic reactions are common. Health care providers should consider these risks before recommending elimination diet of tolerated foods.

[ related topics: Health Food ]

Human gut study questions probiotic health benefits:

Cell: Post-Antibiotic Gut Mucosal Microbiome Reconstitution Is Impaired by Probiotics and Improved by Autologous FMT (PDF). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2018.08.047

Cell: Personalized Gut Mucosal Colonization Resistance to Empiric Probiotics Is Associated with Unique Host and Microbiome Features. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2018.08.041

The upshot appears to be that:

• Expelled fecal matter doesn't really give enough information about what bacteria are in the mucosal lining to be a useful diagnostic tool.
• There are some people whose guts will be populated by probiotics, and some whose native gut bacteria will suppress the newly introduced bacteria.
• In the study on repopulation after an antibiotic series, the control group's natural biome repopulated fairly quickly, but for both of the groups that were normally either resistant or not to the probiotic population, the probiotics dominated the gut for a long time. So taking probiotics after antibiotics may actually long-term fuck up your gut biome.

[ related topics: Health Invention and Design ]

A few years ago we discovered square dancing, just about the time that the Petaluma square dance club folded. I (formerly an "I hate dancing" person) liked it so much I became a caller. We're tired of driving out of town to dance, and want to build a community around square dancing here in Petaluma, with a new take (which partly means it ain't all gonna be fiddle and bass music).

On Thursday September 20th at the Hermann Sons Hall, 860 Western Ave, Petaluma CA, we'll have the first of a series of introductions to square dancing. Come alone. Bring friends. Drag along your partner even though they think they hate dancing. We're LGBTQ and straight friendly.

The event is free (though we'll accept donations to cover hall rental and such). We'll likely do a couple of these using slightly different sets of calls each time to keep it fresh and then figure out where we're going with it, so come by and dance and say "hi"!

[ related topics: Music Invention and Design Community ]

Always amusing to talk with college folk about retention, and watch themselves try to not tie themselves in knots about admissions policy, and whether retention is about helping students succeed, or pre-filtering.

[ related topics: Movies Education ]

Every time I see a picture of Bruno Mars he's in these awkward poses and I think it's great that someone who must be deeply impacted by a degenerative muscle or joint disease at such a young age is accomplishing what he is... #offmylawn

[ related topics: Astronomy ]

Kacey Musgraves sings "Burn One With John Prine" to John Prine (YouTube video)

(You might be familiar with her from Follow Your Arrow (YouTube))

[ related topics: Movies Video ]

Organic Wines Uncorked: The Dark Side of Sonoma's Sustainability Movement: Part 2 - Reactions and A Mancozeb Honor Roll. On "organic" and "biodynamic" certification and pesticide use and...

The pile driver for the float house has arrived. Cool to see how the digger was paddling the barge around with the assistance of that little boat.

[ related topics: Boats Machinery Whitewater Real Estate ]

Does 'right to work' imperil the right to health? The effect of labour unions on workplace fatalities.

RESULTS:

The Local Average Treatment Effect of a 1% decline in unionisation attributable to RTW is about a 5% increase in the rate of occupational fatalities. In total, RTW laws have led to a 14.2% increase in occupational mortality through decreased unionisation.

[ related topics: Health Work, productivity and environment Government ]

National Review: End Qualified Immunity:

I'm going to start with a story that will break your heart. In the early morning hours of July 15, 2012, a young man named Andrew Scott was up late, home with his girlfriend. They were playing video games when they heard a loud pounding on the door. Alarmed, Scott grabbed a pistol and opened the door. He saw a man crouching outside in the darkness. Scott retreated, gun still at his side, pointing down to the ground.

How the NRA’s allegiance to cops undermines its credibility on gun rights

Also, if you haven't been seeing how the Dallas PD has been playing the news on this Dallas cop who stumbled through the wrong door (and her stories have changed on this several times) and shot a man in his own home, it's worth looking at coverage. If your blood pressure can handle it.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Games Movies Current Events Journalism and Media Law Enforcement Civil Liberties Guns Video Woodworking ]

Eccentric Flower with some worthwhile thoughts on tags and genres, or why, yes, it's great if your book ends up as mainstream literature, but there are values to the fringe labels too.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Books ]

Why PayPal’s crackdown on ASMR creators should worry you — Misogyny, weaponized (again).

The thing is though, the men purposely attacking the women making sound-effect videos don't want to just harm them. Read the threads behind this harassment campaign and you'll see that these guys actually want to destroy the women they're harassing. It's a trip into the mind-set of an incel who really wants to kill women, who thinks it's heroic.

And, of course, PayPal is helping them.

[ related topics: Psychology, Psychiatry and Personality Art & Culture Travel ]

Another giant study confirms that your coffee habit is probably good for you

JAMA: Association of Coffee Drinking With Mortality by Genetic Variation in Caffeine Metabolism — Findings From the UK Biobank. JAMA Intern Med. 2018;178(8):1086-1097. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2018.2425

Almost half of US cellphone calls will be scams by next year, says report:

The percentage of scam calls in US mobile traffic increased from 3.7 percent last year to 29.2 percent this year, and it's predicted to rise to 44.6 percent in 2019, First Orion said in a press release Wednesday.

[ related topics: Current Events ]

Shadow forwarded along this Reddit post of a video of a bunch of cool tables. Gonna go call an intro to square dance demo this afternoon, but might have to go into the shop and make some sawdust, 'cause that gets the creative juices flowing again.

[ related topics: Video Furniture ]

Texas Border Patrol agent accused of "serial killing spree" in Laredo:

Juan David Ortiz, an intel supervisor for the Border Patrol, has been accused of killing four women, including one transgender woman, and kidnapping a fifth woman, who escaped and alerted law enforcement.

[ related topics: Sexual Culture Law Enforcement ]

For Charlene: Video of three humpback whales breaching one after the other

[ related topics: Video ]

Detroit kids’ lead poisoning rates higher than Flint. Some of this is probably due to fucked up water delivery systems, some of this due to lead paint in houses being torn down. That latter is something to remember when you see lobbying for limiting paint company liability...

[ related topics: Children and growing up Real Estate ]

Wow. Linus Torvalds on stepping back and his conduct and attitudes with respect the process of building Linux and working with people https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/C...2wxUmGsz9ZJzqgJQ@mail.gmail.com/

[ related topics: Free Software Open Source Work, productivity and environment ]

Mormon Bishop Sam Young excommunicated for wanting to stop sexually explicit interviews of children.

Young, founder of "Protect LDS Children," said in August that he had been sent a letter informing him that a formal disciplinary council would convene on his behalf to discuss his future in the church following his public outcry aginst the interviews, which can involve bishops asking children about masturbation or pornography.

[ related topics: Religion Children and growing up Erotic Sexual Culture ]

When The WaPo goes full on Borowitz or Onion... Every man should be worried. At least, I’m worried.

Meanwhile, of the 66 women the GOP said signed a letter in defense of the Kavanaugh nomination, many do not support him when contacted on the matter by reporters.

Alumni of Blasey Ford's high school circulate letter of support

[ related topics: Food Current Events ]

So one route to popularity is apparently to have a sound system during campaign season. So many people want to borrow my speakers for events...

The Difference between Bluegrass, Old Time and Celtic bands, now finally
 explained!

Old Time and Celtic songs are about whiskey, food and struggle. Bluegrass
songs are about God, mother and the girl who did me wrong. If the girl isn’t 
dead by the third verse, it ain’t Bluegrass. If everyone dies, it’s Celtic.

[ related topics: Religion Interactive Drama Food Education ]

So it's Talk Like A Pirate day? "Got any w@r3z, d00d? Copyright is theft."

[ related topics: Copyright/Trademark ]

Some Interpersonal Verbs, Conjugated By Gender:

He is drinking; he is drunk; he was drunk.

He is just 17; he was just 17.

Remember that he is just a kid; remember that he was just a kid; you must remember he was just a kid.

...

She is drinking; she is drunk; she was drunk.

She is 15; she was 15.

She is putting herself in this position; she put herself in that position.

[ related topics: Current Events ]

Vancouver mayoral candidate who vows to crack down on "lawless" cyclists fails to appear in court over distracted driving citation

[ related topics: Current Events ]

Why do all these racists keep joining the GOP?

But the vast majority of conservatives will tell you that they strongly believe in racial equality. Even the donor who wrote “F— THE MUSLIM N—–” about Obama says he is “absolutely not” a racist. They do believe, however, that they are constantly being unfairly accused of being racists by liberals. They eat up laughable pseudo-histories such as the work of Dinesh D’Souza claiming that Democrats are the real racists. ...

[ related topics: Food Political Correctness Work, productivity and environment ]

The undersea and the ecstasy: MDMA leaves octopuses loved up

Normally antisocial sea creature becomes friendly and tactile after being given the drug, scientists say

Scientists Gave MDMA to Octopuses—and What Happened Was Profound

“This was such an incredible paper, with a completely unexpected and almost unbelievable outcome,” Judit Pungor, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oregon not involved in the study, told Gizmodo. “To think that an animal whose brain evolved completely independently from our own reacts behaviorally in the same way that we do to a drug is absolutely amazing.”

Octopuses Get Strangely Cuddly On The Mood Drug Ecstasy

[ related topics: Health Education ]

Interesting to see so many of my libertarian friends elated by this: Sidewalk vending is decriminalized across California. Allowing vendors to impede pedestrian traffic while not paying rent seems like a large externality.

[ related topics: Politics Libertarian California Culture ]

Why does everyone's thread abstraction library always make things more complex and harder to deal with than just using the pthreads API directly? (Today's facepalms brought to you by Apple)

[ related topics: Language Apple Computer Books ]

When the previous programmer's tests were non-deterministic because despite all the threaded code said programmer wrote, they apparently didn't know about condition variables... :eyes:

[ related topics: Software Engineering ]

Self-driving homes could be the future of affordable housing. If parking and road use remain essentially free, then, yeah, autonomous RVs make a hell of a lot of sense as a housing option.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Real Estate ]

It's no secret that Proposition 13 has massively messed up California's revenue generation. This is an interesting look at how the emphasis on income tax for revenue, and the willingness of California's higher earners to consistently vote for higher taxes on themselves, might be causing some uncertainty and risk in long-term budget planning.

It's especially stark on just how much subsidy of rural and agricultural areas the state extracts from the tech sector. Can California’s next governor fix the state’s problems? It depends on Palo Alto

[ related topics: Politics California Culture Economics Government ]

RT David Burbach David Burbach @dburbach:

Wait, Gorsuch & Kavanaugh's "Sex and Marriage" teacher at Georgetown Prep later went to federal prison for child porn, and was suspected of molesting his own daughters? wtf?

Commenting on: ‘100 Kegs or Bust’: Kavanaugh friend, Mark Judge, has spent years writing about high school debauchery.

[ related topics: Children and growing up Erotic Sexual Culture Sociology Writing Law Gambling Marriage ]

Sometimes we see snapshots of a person's life, and then, later get the chance to step back and see the larger arc. This is a worthy cause. https://www.gofundme.com/law-school-and-a-trailerapartment

[ related topics: Children and growing up ]

Volkswagen is a NodeJS NPM package that detects when you're running on a continuous integration server and reports that all your tests passed.

[ related topics: Sports ]

The funniest thing about the Scion with the "hoonigan" and "it's lit" stickers is that for all that noise he's accelerating no faster than my '97 Ford Ranger.

[ related topics: Automobiles ]

Minnesota legislator quits race after daughter says he molested her:

In a statement Friday, Jim Knoblach, of St. Cloud, Minn., denied the accusations but said he was ending his campaign because he was “not willing to spend six weeks fighting with my daughter in the media.”

The Reddit thread from which I got this link is full of tons more stories of why we need to be having more of these conversations and talking about this ealier.

[ related topics: Politics Journalism and Media Heinlein Eric's Life ]

Mitch McConnell 2018:

That's what we have here - the weaponization of unsubstantiated smears.

Mitch McConnell 2009:

... McConnell's press secretary said that when his boss was asked, McConnell affirmed Obama's legitimacy as president; but the spokesman would not say anything beyond that about Obama's citizenship or the birther movement. ...

[ related topics: Politics ]

New York Times: The Dangers of DNA Testing

In a new study, 74 out of 108 crime laboratories implicated an innocent person in a hypothetical bank robbery.

NIST interlaboratory studies involving DNA mixtures (MIX05 and MIX13): Variation observed and lessons learned. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fsigen.2018.07.024 |

[ related topics: Invention and Design New York Gambling ]

Uber drivers and other gig economy workers are earning half what they did five years ago — More people are working for ride-sharing and delivery companies but on average they’re making less. Commodity labor costs falling to marginal returns. Who'd have thought?

[ related topics: Work, productivity and environment Currency Economics ]

Stored for later recall: Twitter thread on some of the psyops and false info floating around concerning Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, Deborah Ramirez, and the Kavanaugh hearings.

[ related topics: Automobiles Boats ]

A Twitter thread on Git tips leads to this:

Fast tip: Enable git rerere right now. "rere" (reuse recorded resolution) replays previous conflict resolution when replaying conflicts in branch merges. git config --global rerere.enabled 1 enables it globally.

git config --global alias.pf 'push --force-with-lease' sets up an alias for pf. Various articles on this are easy to find.

git add -p and git reset -p give you the interactive mechanism for doing what you're probably already doing with git diff and carefully editing away unintended changes.

[ related topics: Weblogs ]

Today in "color me skeptical" news...

[ related topics: Photography Current Events ]

Megan Stielstra: An Axe for the Frozen Sea — Learning to Throw Axes in 2018

I throw two-handed, fists stacked at the base of the axe handle. My right foot is at the line, my left just behind, and I rock, my weight shifting forward, back, forward, back. This strength is mine. This body, mine. The target: concentric rings painted on 2X10 pine boards and drilled into the wall. It’s fifteen feet in front of me. Fifteen feet is the full rotation of an axe. When I started throwing axes I read articles by physicists about velocity and angle and centrifugal force. I read governing rules from the National Axe Throwing Federation and the World Axe Throwing League including etiquette, scoring, and foot faults. I watched countless instructional videos, the majority featuring dudes in fields, and one where the actor Jason Momoa nails a bullseye while drinking a very large beer.

I watched that last one many times.

[ related topics: Movies Beer Education ]

Shadow forwarded along a video, which I've only had a chance to watch a small bit of, proposing that in all of the rush to pillory Kavanaugh for an alleged sexual assault, we're missing all of the other good reasons to keep him from any further participation in the justice system, starting with his various horrendous stances on mass surveillance and 4th Amendment issues.

I listened to a good bit of the testimony of both Kavanaugh and Dr. Ford yesterday, and aside from Kavanaugh sounding an awful lot like he'd had a few at lunch to steady his nerves, and like he's an angry drunk, I found his inability to answer a question frustrating.

So did Vox, and they made a chart: Every time Ford and Kavanaugh dodged a question, in one chart.

As more and more information comes out supporting Ford's memory, including, now, apparently Kavanaugh's released calendars from that era, I hope he gets nailed down on specifics.

[ related topics: Politics Erotic Sexual Culture Movies Law Enforcement Automobiles Video ]

Mark Manson: Why Being an Asshole Can Be a Valuable Life Skill

A great rundown of the testimony: How we know Kavanaugh is lying