The winter solstice, hiemal solstice or hibernal solstice, also known as midwinter, occurs when one of the Earth's poles has its maximum tilt away from the Sun.
Check out Ryan Selvy’s work at https://linktr.ee/nothingsuspicious
"The virus hadn’t yet reached the mills it works with, clustered in breadbasket states; Heald says none of their mill partners had staff out sick with COVID-19 or waiting on test results until much later. In the spring and summer, everyday people couldn’t buy flour because of tight bottlenecks in a national logistics system built around the logic of consumerism. The problem wasn’t the flour. The problem was getting it into bags."
In Philadelphia the Costco had 10 and 25 pound bags of King Arthur Flour. When we drove back I bought a 25 lb bag for something like 12.50. It was super cheap. I only had room in my suitcase for 1, otherwise I would've tried to buy 2.
I know. It's just so expensive there. Safeway had it for 3.99 for a bag so I bought one. Should've bought 2. Been making pizza every couple of weeks to use up the sourdough starter.
Last time I made it the day before and put the dough in the fridge overnight. Was really good.
I also make homemade sauce using the 28 oz Italian tomatoes. I just put the can in the food processor and then put it in a pot with crushed garlic and around 1/4 cup olive oil. Then the mozzarella cheese loaf sliced up from Costco.
I want to buy one of those home wood fire pizza oven, like the Ooni ones. They had a black friday special that I was going to buy from but then I forgot to order it. For now I just put the oven at almost 500 and put parchment paper on a thick baking pan. I left the baking stone on Louisville so I haven't bought one of those yet.
Tennessee reportedly opting out of the Liberty Bowl. Could this create an opportunity for Army, who qualified for a bowl, which was cancelled out from under them?
Bowl season has blossomed into a sham by playing a whole season to have the same four teams play, including two that are not undefeated
Going bowling this year: South Carolina (2-8), MS State (2-7), Arkansas (3-6), Kentucky (4-6), Ole Miss (3-4), North Texas (4-5), Houston (3-4), W Kentucky (5-6), Hawaii (4-4), Wake Forest (4-4), Wisconsin (3-3)
What other choice did he realistically have? He's been below average to OK his first 2 seasons and looked much improved, if you can call it that, this season.
I won't be surprised if we learn you started celebrating the season heavily early in the weekend. That said, it was an entertaining and competitive game.
That last interception was a great play. But the ball never should have been thrown that close to the field of play. So you get bad offense and good defense all in one play!
I think this is completely fine, no sarcasm. I really don't think LA County and Pasadena should be expected to relax their rules and indeed given the rate of spread in southern California, they'd probably be exporting cases back with the teams and their families. I don't know that the Texas standards are terribly rigorous, but given an inconsistent national standard, the CFP might as well shop for more advantageous local standards.
As a sports traditionalist that has waited his entire life to see Cal play in Pasadena on New Year’s Day, and while completely understandable & not surprising, this news is nonetheless disappointing.
As a sports traditionalist, I hate seeing anyone other than Pac 12 and B1G champs playing in the Grandaddy, so I'm actually happy they are moving it to Texas. They should call it something else too.
My sister's place is probably 1.5 miles from the parade route. Not sure I'll wake up early to watch the parade but I could walk there if I wanted to. Or most likely catch an Uber or take the bus straight down Lake.
Trump invited Flynn to come to WH to explore martial law to re-run elections in some states. His cabinet and advisors strongly objected. He then invited Flynn and Sydney Powell to discuss having Trump appointing Powell as Special Counsel to overturn electronically counted ballots. Cabinet and advisors pointed out that only an AG can appoint Special Counsel. Barr today said no to a special counsel.
"The House panel probing the Trump administration's coronavirus response released new documents detailing political appointees’ extensive efforts to modify or scuttle scientific Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports, as it also ordered top Trump health officials to quickly provide documents.
Trump appointees attempted to “alter or block” at least 13 scientific reports on the coronavirus as outbreaks surged across the spring and summer, Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), the chair of the House select subcommittee on coronavirus, wrote on Monday in a letter that was shared with POLITICO.
"Top political officials at [Health and Human Services] and [the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] not only tolerated these efforts, but in some cases aided them," Clyburn added in the letter to HHS Secretary Alex Azar and CDC Director Robert Redfield.
Clyburn issued subpoenas to Azar and Redfield, ordering them by Dec. 30 to produce "full and unredacted" documents that Clyburn said his panel has sought for months. "
Trump issues an executive order limiting government buildings be built in one of six styles. No word on whether six government-permitted haircuts is next.
Everton won, and Arsenal might be relegated. My in-house fashion consultant (the 18 year old) thinks that Arsenal's atrocious away shirts might not be helping.
Speaking of Croteau -- check out this play. Q4, 4th-and-1 at Cal's 18 with Oregon down by 4. Ducks call a strong side-dive off the left guard. On the left side of the ball, the TE in the H-back spot stonewalls Goode with a good block. The 6-8" 245 lbs TE Tyler Nanny takes on Zeande and loses badly. Left tackle George Moore surges into the linebacker corp - specifically Tattersall and pushes him out of the play. Oregon's left guard and center double-team Brett Johnson, who is shocked backwards by a yard. The right tackle George Moore fires into Tevis and buries him, continues onward to Johnson who collapses under the triple team. Kuony Deng steps up, but is not in the play because his zone is a pile of bodies. Oregon even has a spare lineman, right guard Ryan Walk, who pulls down the line. At this point, Oregon has beat Cal in five of the seven players in the box. The two winners are Zeande, who bends his blocker backards two yards right into the ball carrier's way. The other winner is Croteau, who is left unblocked under the assumption that he's on the outside of the wrong side of the dive. Croteau follows Ryan, see the ball carrier and buries him in the backfield. Oregon would have gotten the first down and probably the win if they did a QB sneak, blocked Croteau, or didn't use a walk-on TE to block.
https://www.eater.com/22178960/king-arthur-flour-supply-chain-baking-boom
"The virus hadn’t yet reached the mills it works with, clustered in breadbasket states; Heald says none of their mill partners had staff out sick with COVID-19 or waiting on test results until much later. In the spring and summer, everyday people couldn’t buy flour because of tight bottlenecks in a national logistics system built around the logic of consumerism. The problem wasn’t the flour. The problem was getting it into bags."
we stalked up early on flour and have been using quite a bit more than usual since this began.
In Philadelphia the Costco had 10 and 25 pound bags of King Arthur Flour. When we drove back I bought a 25 lb bag for something like 12.50. It was super cheap. I only had room in my suitcase for 1, otherwise I would've tried to buy 2.
I've seen a lot on my past two trips to Berkeley Bowl West, just fyi
I know. It's just so expensive there. Safeway had it for 3.99 for a bag so I bought one. Should've bought 2. Been making pizza every couple of weeks to use up the sourdough starter.
how do you make pizza? with sourdough crust? and then in the oven?
we usually make some sort of crust, but with a one day recipe and some yeast. then we grill the pizza in the Big Green Egg.
also .. Eater is a Vox Media property in case you didnt know
I use the best homemade pizza crust from kitchn.com. It's the 2nd best pizza crust.
https://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-homemade-thin-crust-pizza-recipes-from-the-kitchn-45499
I also use the King Arthur Flour sourdough pizza dough recipe for the sourdough starter discard. When I have the two younger ones I make both recipes.
https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/sourdough-pizza-crust-recipe
Last time I made it the day before and put the dough in the fridge overnight. Was really good.
I also make homemade sauce using the 28 oz Italian tomatoes. I just put the can in the food processor and then put it in a pot with crushed garlic and around 1/4 cup olive oil. Then the mozzarella cheese loaf sliced up from Costco.
I want to buy one of those home wood fire pizza oven, like the Ooni ones. They had a black friday special that I was going to buy from but then I forgot to order it. For now I just put the oven at almost 500 and put parchment paper on a thick baking pan. I left the baking stone on Louisville so I haven't bought one of those yet.
Solstice
Time to eat tangyuan! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tangyuan_(food)
the good news is that the days will start getting longer again
Every day! The sun is out here in celebration, and it looks like early spring.
live stream of tonight's conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter through a 36" telescope...
https://theskysearchers.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&p=129799#p129799
fyi I am a co-administrator of the site
What's their function?
Hooking up words and phrases and clauses.
[That's all I remember]
I hope it's clear enough to fire up the 'scope. May have to go out to the edge of town though.
I'm in the middle of Oakland, city lights aren't an issue for this at all.
yes, but trees at our house are. ;)
Ah, deck on top of the tallest building around removes that issue.
I've been watching via my trusty Meade - pretty cool.
Thanks. I may need to rely on that. Weather conditions not looking good here. It's been cloudy for days though a little blue sky is peeking out.
Elsewhere in college
Tennessee reportedly opting out of the Liberty Bowl. Could this create an opportunity for Army, who qualified for a bowl, which was cancelled out from under them?
Bowl season has blossomed into a sham by playing a whole season to have the same four teams play, including two that are not undefeated
Going bowling this year: South Carolina (2-8), MS State (2-7), Arkansas (3-6), Kentucky (4-6), Ole Miss (3-4), North Texas (4-5), Houston (3-4), W Kentucky (5-6), Hawaii (4-4), Wake Forest (4-4), Wisconsin (3-3)
Only Vandy doesn't bowl in the SEC.
This biggest sham was Larry Scott's "game changer" daily testing which saw the conference cancel an average of 2 games per week.
This biggest sham was Larry Scott's "game changer" daily testing which saw the conference cancel an average of 2 games per week.
Wazzu up 3 TDs at half. And as sure as the sun rises in the morning, they Coug it and do it in epic fashion.
https://www.cougcenter.com/wsu-cougars-football/2020/12/19/22190677/wsu-cougars-vs-utah-utes-football-recap-final-score
The end of the UCLA-Weenies game was insane
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_TQHv7gSJI
DTR just said he's coming back next season
https://twitter.com/DoriansTweets/status/1341124910005907456
What other choice did he realistically have? He's been below average to OK his first 2 seasons and looked much improved, if you can call it that, this season.
Yup, his body of work would entice zero GMs
SJSU goes into MWC championship game with an all-time 0-15 vs. Boise State. Win to stay undefeated and earn first ever MWC championship.
https://twitter.com/SanJoseStateFB/status/1340483642980593664
USC opts out of bowl game
https://www.conquestchronicles.com/2020/12/19/22191206/usc-football-bowl-bid-trojans-opt-out
I had thoughts: https://twitter.com/DCTrojan/status/1340660001153691654?s=20
I think it is the right call. the whole season should have been skipped, imo.
LOL. Pac12 goodness.
3 different Pac12, North, and South champs + CU highest ranked team
Hilarious...way to go Larry. That musta triggered some sort of executive bonus for them as well...
although: was there a championship game? I don't seem to remember that 😬😂
I won't be surprised if we learn you started celebrating the season heavily early in the weekend. That said, it was an entertaining and competitive game.
Yeah, it was and so was the SEC game - not entertaining: ACC championship game.
I didn't watch any games on Saturday but I was pleased to see that Notre Dame got tattooed and is getting lined up to get another walloping.
I'm going to guess they're going to play even if family members can't be there.
it was BS that they were selected. Yet another ND gets exposed because the NCAA wants to pick them for $$$
Because TV wants to pick them for audience. Which indirectly translates to $$$.
correct. in the olden days of people at games ND travels well.
and we get to watch them get their asses handed to them again in two weeks.
I might tune in for that.
opened as a 19.5 pt dog
My son would take that bet.
I mean it was entertaining if you enjoy bad football, and that is exactly why I watch Pac12 games.
That last interception was a great play. But the ball never should have been thrown that close to the field of play. So you get bad offense and good defense all in one play!
the most Pac12 of Pac12 results.
Rose Bowl game relocated from Pasadena to Dallas...
https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/college-football-playoff-relocates-rose-bowl-semifinal-to-dallas-amid-covid-19-concerns-attendance-policy/
Finally a playoff game in Dallas. Rejoice Cowboy fans
Snark!
I think this is completely fine, no sarcasm. I really don't think LA County and Pasadena should be expected to relax their rules and indeed given the rate of spread in southern California, they'd probably be exporting cases back with the teams and their families. I don't know that the Texas standards are terribly rigorous, but given an inconsistent national standard, the CFP might as well shop for more advantageous local standards.
As a sports traditionalist that has waited his entire life to see Cal play in Pasadena on New Year’s Day, and while completely understandable & not surprising, this news is nonetheless disappointing.
As a sports traditionalist, I hate seeing anyone other than Pac 12 and B1G champs playing in the Grandaddy, so I'm actually happy they are moving it to Texas. They should call it something else too.
Yes, that's my bigger issue. I agree - the Rose is Pac v Big10...sure I get all the reasons for the move, but the Rose Bowl is in Pasadena.
Yep. Rose Parade also canceled. One day we will see the Cal band marching on Colorado Blvd before the Bears are victorious in the game,
Sigh....
My sister's place is probably 1.5 miles from the parade route. Not sure I'll wake up early to watch the parade but I could walk there if I wanted to. Or most likely catch an Uber or take the bus straight down Lake.
One of these days...
OUR CRUMBLING DEMOCRACY
Trump invited Flynn to come to WH to explore martial law to re-run elections in some states. His cabinet and advisors strongly objected. He then invited Flynn and Sydney Powell to discuss having Trump appointing Powell as Special Counsel to overturn electronically counted ballots. Cabinet and advisors pointed out that only an AG can appoint Special Counsel. Barr today said no to a special counsel.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/tuberville-electoral-challenge-trump-conversation/2020/12/20/1658573e-42db-11eb-b0e4-0f182923a025_story.html
[Yahoo] Trump asked whether he can get an international airport or an aircraft carrier named after him
https://news.yahoo.com/trump-already-wondering-airport-bear-095256622.html
What's the smallest ship the Navy has that gets a name? PT-DJT?
"The House panel probing the Trump administration's coronavirus response released new documents detailing political appointees’ extensive efforts to modify or scuttle scientific Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports, as it also ordered top Trump health officials to quickly provide documents.
Trump appointees attempted to “alter or block” at least 13 scientific reports on the coronavirus as outbreaks surged across the spring and summer, Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), the chair of the House select subcommittee on coronavirus, wrote on Monday in a letter that was shared with POLITICO.
"Top political officials at [Health and Human Services] and [the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] not only tolerated these efforts, but in some cases aided them," Clyburn added in the letter to HHS Secretary Alex Azar and CDC Director Robert Redfield.
Clyburn issued subpoenas to Azar and Redfield, ordering them by Dec. 30 to produce "full and unredacted" documents that Clyburn said his panel has sought for months. "
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/12/21/house-watchdog-cdc-covid-reports-449517
This is so unbelievably vile, just completely despicable.
hee hee
https://twitter.com/jkass99/status/1340877787318476800?s=20
Trump issues an executive order limiting government buildings be built in one of six styles. No word on whether six government-permitted haircuts is next.
https://twitter.com/AndrewFeinberg/status/1341061088729845765
this seems like the sort of thing that will be decryed by the foxes when it gets dumped the afternoon of the 21st.
I would love to be the WH exec in charge of undoing all the stupid shit like this.
not our crumbling democracy, but this is fantastic: Russian opposition leader essentially prank calls someone who tried to kill him into making a confession: https://twitter.com/joshrogin/status/1341087030323929093?s=20
Wow. Someone's going to die of toxin poisoning soon...
NRA staying on brand (the brand is being creepy assholes)
https://twitter.com/ziyatong/status/1341028032753135625?s=20
jfc. I've about reached my limit for news of awful people and ideas for the day. it's 9:11 am here.
PRO
ICYMI: India's horrific inning in 36-all-out vs. Australia.
That's like scoring 9 points in basketball
https://i.redd.it/orm20s5i03661.jpg
Does the duck mean they didn't score at all? And why a duck?
In Victorian English, it was a duck egg = 0, which was shortened to "duck"
ahh..that makes sense
Look at this handsome catch
https://twitter.com/HoustonTexans/status/1340734053050400775
ISWYDT
Glad to see he is finally getting playing time. Dude was too good for the practice squad.
Everton won, and Arsenal might be relegated. My in-house fashion consultant (the 18 year old) thinks that Arsenal's atrocious away shirts might not be helping.
oh I didn't realize things were that dire for the Arse. Sad times in Islington.
If bad uniforms are a criteria for demotion, there are some FBS teams coming to a D III league near you!
Jets are so bad, they can't even tank correctly
CAL
[WBB] Some good things happened for the Bears, but they lost to USC 54-77
https://twitter.com/CalWBBall/status/1341168397275426819
Go Bears!
[Daily Cal] Profile article on Braxton Croteau.
https://www.dailycal.org/2020/12/21/no-tricks-up-his-sleeve-braxten-croteaus-formula-for-success-is-simple/
Speaking of Croteau -- check out this play. Q4, 4th-and-1 at Cal's 18 with Oregon down by 4. Ducks call a strong side-dive off the left guard. On the left side of the ball, the TE in the H-back spot stonewalls Goode with a good block. The 6-8" 245 lbs TE Tyler Nanny takes on Zeande and loses badly. Left tackle George Moore surges into the linebacker corp - specifically Tattersall and pushes him out of the play. Oregon's left guard and center double-team Brett Johnson, who is shocked backwards by a yard. The right tackle George Moore fires into Tevis and buries him, continues onward to Johnson who collapses under the triple team. Kuony Deng steps up, but is not in the play because his zone is a pile of bodies. Oregon even has a spare lineman, right guard Ryan Walk, who pulls down the line. At this point, Oregon has beat Cal in five of the seven players in the box. The two winners are Zeande, who bends his blocker backards two yards right into the ball carrier's way. The other winner is Croteau, who is left unblocked under the assumption that he's on the outside of the wrong side of the dive. Croteau follows Ryan, see the ball carrier and buries him in the backfield. Oregon would have gotten the first down and probably the win if they did a QB sneak, blocked Croteau, or didn't use a walk-on TE to block.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPnvVv9bH7s#t=5m43s