That's a big pigeon!
2023-10-17
The dodo, the giant, flightless, extinct bird was actually a type of pigeon. Imagine St. Mark's square being full of Dodos!
jdilla.xyz
Age limits for elected officials
2023-10-16
82% of Republicans and 76% of Democrats support putting a maximum age limit in place for elected officials in Washington, D.C. 82% of Democrats and 68% of Republicans favor one for Supreme Court justices.
This is from Pew Research's weekly round up.
I continue to think this is an underrated idea. If we accept age minimums, why shouldn't we accept age maximums?
Semaglutide fact of the day
2023-10-16
United Airlines Holdings Inc. would save $80 million a year if the average passenger weight falls by 10 pounds, Sheila Kahyaoglu, a Jefferies Financial analyst, estimated in a report Friday.
From Matt Levine's newsletter last week.
2023 Gardening Update
2023-09-30
In 2022, I was finally stable enough to start an herb garden with my daughter. We started too late in the year to do anything ambitious and basically everything we planted died, except for a sage plant that bravely pushed through the winter.
In 2023, we were more organized. We did tomatoes, basil, oregano, rosemary, lavender, hyssop, and some wildflowers.
Our wildflowers did better than anything else. We actually spilled the seeds all in one spot then had a rain storm scatter them wildly and still they thrived more than anything else. Our front yard has been full of bumblebees and hummingbirds all year. Next year, we're going to forgo the lavender and hyssop, at least in the front patch where we don't get enough sun, and focus entirely on wildflowers.
The basil and tomato plant did well also. Our tomato plant would've probably produced 10-20 tomatoes except it took me too long to realize that the blackish spots I was seeing on it were a big deal. Next year, I'll be using neem oil on it from the beginning of the season.
The hardest thing about gardening is that it requires so much feel. I can't tell you how many times I looked up something happening with a plant to find that it could be a symptom of over watering or under watering... and then I had to try and deduce which is might be. Still, it gets easier with practice.
When I think ahead to next year, I think we'll most likely do: * One or two tomato plants in our raised garden * Basil in the pot I used for the tomato this year; potentially a second pot for basil * Lots more wildflowers in front of the house * I'll keep my trusty sage plant and the oregano, assuming they make it through the winter * I'll skip the rosemary (I don't use that much of it anyway), lavender and hyssop
The basil harvest
Wildflowers from our front garden
Are word processors creating all our problems?
2023-09-22
Okay here's a ridiculous (but true) take: word processing is bad.
— Christian Keil (@pronounced_kyle) September 22, 2023
Before it, document length was bounded by the human capacity to copy long-form text.
After word processing, the tax & legal codes grew without check. And became incomprehensible to anyone but career experts. pic.twitter.com/tZMEBlQb22
Speculative, but interesting. A form of the medium is the message.