Today it was warm enough to walk the dogs naked!

[conuly]

They were naked, that is. I wore clothes.

***************

Where Nobody Knows Your Name

With Musical Cryptography, Composers Can Hide Messages in Their Melodies

The 1940s Mermaid Show That's Still Pulling Crowds (Video)

A somewhat different take on the "gender reveal" party that some expectant parents throw...

In Sweden’s Preschools, Boys Learn to Dance and Girls Learn to Yell (Don't bother with the comments.)

The Case Against High-School Sports

No Need To Sign On Dotted Line: Credit Cards Are Phasing Out Signatures

We asked a neural network to bake us a cake. The results were...interesting.

The Americanization of an Ancient Faith

Solar power’s greatest challenge was discovered 10 years ago. It looks like a duck.

Legal Pot Is Notoriously White. Oakland Is Changing That.

A century after WWI, munitions still making way onto beaches

Syrian Refugees Are Learning Stonemasonry to Rebuild Their Country

The Myth of the Criminal Immigrant

US to require would-be immigrants to turn over social media handles (I can't help but think that if I hated the US, and wanted to come here just to be a terrorist or a criminal, I'd have the brains not to blast that all around Twitter first.)

Sam Harris, Charles Murray, and the allure of race science (I skimmed.)

One in three families can’t afford diapers. Why are they so expensive?

Behold this chorus of local news teams, reading in unison from an identical script of conservative talking points

America's made-up culture of guns

Black students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School want to be heard

A Culture of Violent White Guys

The FBI Agent Who Can’t Stop Thinking About Waco

Secret world: The women in the UK who cannot report sexual abuse

A gym built on fear: Larry Nassar molested them. Now gymnasts describe a different kind of abuse by famed Olympic coach John Geddert

Comments

[jesuswasbatman]

I'm in Britain, and we haven't used signatures on credit card payments for about ten years.

[conuly]

It pains me to admit this, but sometimes the US isn't exactly on the bleeding edge.

[mommy]

Back when I worked retail, a large box of diapers cost more than $30. Some boxes pushed $50. There's a point where we need less fancy technology and more affordability. And of course basic hygiene products should be untaxed.

[conuly]

Untaxed and you should be able to buy them with assistance. Increase SNAP, and add a special section that can only be used to buy toilet paper, diapers, menstrual products, condoms (!!!!), soap, detergent, and toothpaste. Problem freaking solved.

[peoriapeoriawhereart]

I fear that the people making the laws want the poor to be as poor as poor was in Lyndon Johnson's day. Which won't make them even acceptable as employees at Wal-Mart.

[conuly]

That way ultimately breeds pitchforks.

[peoriapeoriawhereart]

While the poor never start class war they will finish it. History shows that time and again. It's the difference of not losing what little they have versus having nothing to lose if they don't.

[conuly]

You'd think so, but maybe not. I glanced over a popular-press article on a study about moneyed families in various societies over 500 years - Venice, China, England, and so on. Families that had money and were prominent 500 years ago tend to still have it today - even when those families went through Maoist China. Which is remarkable, and here I am remarking on it!

And if it does get to that point, things are bound to get a lot worse before they begin to get better - and we'd have to have sunk pretty far even to get there in the first place.

[peoriapeoriawhereart]

I suspect that the most moneyed (aka Moneyed!) families have sufficient ranks of Not the 95% that they stay insulated until they find all the new levers.

But yes, the damage during the interim is incalculable without an actuarial table and stern stomach.

Perhaps 'class battle' is more accurate? You can win a battle and still the war is unending.

[wpadmirer]

Weeki-Wachee! Cool. I had a friend when I was in college who was a mermaid.

[conuly]

Awesome!

[calimac]

Credit card signatures: Usual policy where I am is currently for a signature if the purchase is over $50.

Terrorists: You'd think they wouldn't blast their intentions around, wouldn't you? But it's amazing how stupid many would-be terrorists are.

Musical cryptography: One of the more interesting recent examples of the musical-notes-name code was the attempt by the Finnish composer Aulis Sallinen, in a work inspired by The Lord of the Rings, to encode the name Gandalf. "n" and "l" aren't musical note names, so he wrote a G-A-D-A-F theme instead.

[conuly]

Terrorists: You'd think they wouldn't blast their intentions around, wouldn't you? But it's amazing how stupid many would-be terrorists are.

It's still security theater, and massively intrusive.

[adafrog]

lol

[dariaw]

Thanks for the cool links as always!

Sure you meant the dogs...

[conuly]

:D

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

But it was warm enough that you could walk the dogs naked, even though you didn't in fact do so, right?

[conuly]

Not unless I wanted to shiver! But close! Real close!