tingilinde

coco art

and then you drink it.

 

echolocation and bats

fascinating piece on BBC's In Our Time podcast  (42 minutes audio .. it's lovely that so many of the BBC's podcasts are 42 minutes long. Douglas would approve.)

 

 

 

 

build well or don't build at all

We can't afford damaging infrastructure projects  (via Nature)

snip

...

Esteemed Brazilian scientist Eneas Salati once said that the best thing that could be done for the Amazon was to blow up all the roads. By 2050, Earth could accumulate another 25 million kilometres of paved roads, according to the International Energy Agency — enough to encircle the planet more than 600 times. When a new road penetrates intact forest, it can facilitate illegal deforestation, poaching, fires and land investors bent on encouraging a building boom — factors that are rarely considered in cost–benefit analyses of planned infrastructure projects.

Around nine-tenths of new infrastructure is slated for developing nations, which contain nearly all of the world’s tropical and subtropical forests — biologically, the richest real estate on the planet. Yet many ‘greening’ measures, such as adding rope-bridges or underpasses to help species cross roads, bring relatively trivial benefits, akin to treating cancer with a Band-Aid.

...

 

perhaps liberals should ignore conservative narratives about them

An interesting story about the Ocasio-Cortez "protest" from  John Stoehr (collected tweets)

snip

...

Thing is, when you actually listen to the women, a different picture comes to light. Not only was Ocasio-Cortez doing what young dynamic liberal legislators are supposed to do—bring new energy and new ideas to the table—she was charting her own course while forging alliances with established powers. She created a bridge between an energized under-30 base & the party’s leadership. She’ll likely be an invaluable ally as Pelosi plots a way forward.

Few can say they’ve accomplished more on their first day.

Bloomberg reported the incident was a challenge to “party unity.” The Times said earlier these renegades may be unwilling to “toe the party line.” Fox’s Laura Ingraham thrilled at the sight of Nancy Pelosi trying to wrangle newly elected “insurgents.” None of it was true.

...

 

comments from radio opensource

Chris Lydon has some of the more interesting discussions online - a quick look at the last election with  David Bromwich, Jill Lepore, David Bosworth, Briahna Gray, and Mark Blyth.   I'm all ears whenever he has Mark Blyth of Brown on.

snip

...

Donald J. Trump has fixed his name on the era, his whims on the agenda, his temperament on the rattled American mood. But the midterm campaign results say he’s not in control even of his own fate; he hasn’t dented dissent, much less broken the opposition. Historian Corey Robin makes the point that there’s no Trump political order in the making yet — nothing like the Roosevelt or Reagan realignments – but rather the continuing breakdown of an old order. Finger-pointing at President Trump comes next – for his firing of chief law officer Jeff Sessions; then from Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller about Trump’s Russia connection; and (come January) from the several House committees with subpoena power, under new Democratic Party management. We are sampling the delights of American politics this hour – the swell of woman power, and also what’s being called Kavanaugh’s revenge on Senators who opposed his Supreme Court nomination. We are calling on voices we admire from vantage points anthropological, economical, and historical more than journalistic.

...

 

who voted and how that changed over the last few elections

Interesting indications of change.

what is it about republicans in the trump administration and bigfoot?

ah yes - conspiracy theory people.

and Matthew Whitaker may be the nutjob .. the evil/scammy nutjob - to rule them allsnip

...

● Asserted that “time travel” could be “possible, perhaps within the next decade” and tried to raise money using bitcoin for time-travel research by one of Whitaker’s fellow board members. 

● Announced, in the same media release heralding Whitaker’s appointment to the board, a patent application for an extra-deep “masculine toilet” for the well-endowed. Specifying the size of “average male genitalia,” the release said “this invention is designed for those of us who measure longer than that.”

Some think Whitaker’s association with the company (he did legal work for World Patent Marketing in addition to lending his name and hawking its wares) makes him patently unfit to serve. To the contrary, it is patently obvious he is the right man for this moment.

Only a man steeped in time travel and Bigfoot could successfully sell the notion that special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s inquiry is a “hoax” that should be shut down. In tapping, as the nation’s top law enforcement officer, a man with experience with hucksterism and conspiracy theories, President Trump has embraced his inner crackpot.

...

Time travel may be the best sales point to the right.

 

 

 

 

quantum accelerometers as a gps backup

a cake

for a dinosaur loving kid.  there is a sugary fossil under the ground they're digging.

how blue was the wave?

Perhaps bluer than you might think.  And, of course, orange is the new red,.

 

a tip of the hat to Jim

the psychology of trump supports

There will be a range, but this is interesting.

a tip of the hat to Julia

 

an office in a hanger

A Google office in the old Spruce Goose hanger.

 

the art of letterlocking

before envelopes

a tip of the hat to Sukie

 

wow

The Art Institute of Chicago has put over 52,000 images of their collection online.

a tip of the hat to Jim

 

navigation skills

Bats v dolphins

of course there are a number of species of bats and with their own echo location variations.