No 2's favorite place in North Beach, Franchinos, closed down. He loved their Fetuccine Alfredo. Of course he hasn't had any other places in North Beach. Anyways, he just found it was closed. We're getting dinner in SF after the Dodgers/Giants game and wanted to see if anyone has a good recommendation in North Beach.
Oh I forgot about checking Eater. Thanks. He said that he really wanted to go to Franchinos so he's not locked into North Beach. I guess we'll decide what to do. We were invited to eat brunch at the Gotham club with one of his best friends' family so we'll do that, watch the game, then get dinner somewhere.
"The base model starts at $39,974 — and that’s before factoring in tax incentives for electric vehicles. Including those incentives, such as a $7,500 federal tax credit, the Lightning is expected to be one of the least expensive full-size pickups on the market, gas or electric, when it hits the road next year. Possibly the least expensive, if you live in a state offering additional generous tax breaks.
This is no pokey, jelly-bean-shaped car designed for tree-huggers. Nor is it a spaceship-like ride for Bay Area tech bros. This is not a vehicle designed for virtue-signaling concerns about climate change, though it absolutely does broadcast the virtues of a bright, decarbonized, lower-pollution future."
***
"Yet whenever Democratic politicians talk about the coming transition away from fossil fuels, they’re treated as though they’ve made a huge gaffe, or are trying to banish coal and oil by socialist-style fiat, rather than accurately characterizing existing market forces. Republicans suggest we have to hang onto “dirty energy” because switching to renewables would raise energy prices for U.S. firms and make us less competitive.
Maybe Republicans are operating off of decades-old facts and have yet to update their understanding of how cheap and therefore economically attractive renewables have become. Or maybe it’s just more politically useful to treat green energy as a cultural wedge issue, akin to guns. The Lightning — and other fast, cool, affordable products attractive to conservative and liberal customers alike — will make this strategy harder to sustain."
I'm not going to get excited about this truck, until they start selling them. An electric truck is perfect for fleet type operations (where you generally are not doing a lot of miles, but need to carry a lot of crap).
I took a trip to the Henry Ford last November (my second time there...mostly to see the test tube that supposedly held Edison's final breath) and ended up doing the Rouge Factory tour (which they had just restarted at the time) which turned into a personal tour because I was the only person at that time slot. As much as they tried to brainwash you about how the F150 is great, pickup trucks are just not my thing (though the factory was still interesting to see and looks very boring to work at).
I got to drive one semi-regularly when I used to go to New Mexico for my PhD experiment (and famously drove opposite a town parade where I had to honk at a 10-year-old beauty queen on ATV who almost collided with me).
I have no personal interest in it (I have no need for a truck), but I am very impressed by it. $40k for 230 miles of range, plenty of towing/hauling capability, onboard power capabilities (essentially turning it into a mobile generator), and 426hp/775lb-ft. That's all very impressive, especially for a Ford product.
Price is subsidized by other models in the line in order to capture market share. It is still impressive in terms of power; range is going to be problematical, as will be operations during power disruptions like we get every winter.
Having seen what happens when Teslas hit regular cars (because of the battery packs), I'm super excited to see what happens when people start hitting regular cars in Lightnings.
Hopefully the thing isn't obscenely tall like most modern pickup trucks. 1800lbs of battery at head-level for normal coupes/sedans would be non-optimal.
Really? Damn! I guess that explains why I keep getting itchy rashes on my arms. Even since I read that MSG was “a naturally occurring substance,” I’ve been putting it on anything that I could eat. I mean everything. Eggs, potatoes, vegetables, fish, meats...etc. I even put it on some oatmeal! And, it was good!
Damn! ‘The Man’ (via Scootie) really stuck it to me this time!
Very much no. MSG has two components. One is sodium--the very same stuff in table salt. The other is a naturally occurring amino acid. MSG is in all kinds of foods like tomatoes and mushrooms (although the latter should not be considered a food).
The tales of it being bad for your health was based on one racist, xenophobic paper. If you're okay with eating salt, then you should be okay with eating MSG.
If you can't make it a day ahead, spread out freshly cooked rice on a plate or metal sheet pan until it cools down under or next to a fan, then put it in the fridge.
If you don't even have time for that, don't sweat it.
"But here's the thing: Even freshly cooked rice worked great. In fact, it worked better than rice that had been stored loosely covered in the refrigerator for one to six hours. What gives? Most of my other tests indicated that dryness matters, but surely fresh rice is the moistest of the lot?
Well, not necessarily. Freshly cooked rice spread out on a plate will steam a great deal as its surface moisture is evaporated. That's the important part. It's the surface moisture that is going to cause your rice to rapidly suppress the temperature of the wok. It's the surface moisture that's going to cause your rice to stick together."
I started a new job in April last year so have never seen my office, but I'm told there will be a a TV in it. What is appropriate content for an office TV? I don't want to have the news running all day.
Filming went very well, we'd work with 18/20 of the people again. She is working with the editor on the first cut right now, while I try to get our budget all organized for post production. Hoping to have picture locked by the end of August.
Haha I'd love to! Unfortunately we moved to Chevy Chase Canyon in Glendale last January so we just both work on the west side and then enjoy the 25mi (45min to 1hr 45min) commute.
Which means none of our westside friends like making the trek to hangout, which I totally understand.
Luckily I can avoid most of the really bad traffic because I set the sailing schedule. And she only has one bad direction, because she has a 6am call most days.
Spencer Hall (everyday should be saturday) and Bomani Jones (ESPN) had an all time podcast talking for about 40 minutes about Stevie Wonder. One of the best pods I've listened to, and will be listening to Stevie all weekend.
I'm convinced that my days of enjoying extremely spicy food has dulled my taste buds because my wife can taste differences in flavor far better than I can.
I think there might be some truth to that, I know my son, who is something of a super taster, has always had an issue with food that is spicy, and especially foods that are very pungently aromatic, Wasabi, Indian food, Turmeric, etc...
Texas PUC was on phone with Gov. Abbott 32 times about natural gas shortage before the governor went on Fox News to falsely blame frozen wind turbines.
State senator Anthony Bouchard (R-WY), who is a challenger to Liz Cheney's (R-WY) US House seat - revealed yesterday that he had a "Romeo and Juliet" relationship. That is, he committed statutory rape, impregnated her when she was 14, married her, divorced her, and she later committed suicide. Tybalt and Mercutio unavailable for comment.
Vornado Realty Trust and Trump Organization complete $1.2 billion refinancing of 555 California Street, after a buyer for the property was not found. Trump owns a 30% stake in the building (sniff).
who would buy a huge class A office tower these days? A fair number of tenants are not coming back to full time office work. All you need for a large fancy office now is file storage and conference rooms.
That's the rub. The T.O. is looking to get out of its obligations and tenants that would want a large footprint at 555 Cal are scarce. The refinancing starts out at 1.9% APR, gradually increasing to 2.3% over 20 years. So Trump is still not out of the woods on this one.
Trump DOJ obtained phone and email records of CNN reporter for two months in 2017. DOJ defends itself, citing that it was tracking down illegal info leaking
Marr is an aerosol scientist at Virginia Tech and one of the few in the world who also studies infectious diseases. To her, the new coronavirus looked as if it could hang in the air, infecting anyone who breathed in enough of it. For people indoors, that posed a considerable risk. But the WHO didn’t seem to have caught on. Just days before, the organization had tweeted “FACT: #COVID19 is NOT airborne.” That’s why Marr was skipping her usual morning workout to join 35 other aerosol scientists. They were trying to warn the WHO it was making a big mistake.
Over Zoom, they laid out the case. They ticked through a growing list of superspreading events in restaurants, call centers, cruise ships, and a choir rehearsal, instances where people got sick even when they were across the room from a contagious person. The incidents contradicted the WHO’s main safety guidelines of keeping 3 to 6 feet of distance between people and frequent handwashing. If SARS-CoV-2 traveled only in large droplets that immediately fell to the ground, as the WHO was saying, then wouldn’t the distancing and the handwashing have prevented such outbreaks? Infectious air was the more likely culprit, they argued. But the WHO’s experts appeared to be unmoved. If they were going to call Covid-19 airborne, they wanted more direct evidence—proof, which could take months to gather, that the virus was abundant in the air. Meanwhile, thousands of people were falling ill every day.
On the video call, tensions rose. At one point, Lidia Morawska, a revered atmospheric physicist who had arranged the meeting, tried to explain how far infectious particles of different sizes could potentially travel. One of the WHO experts abruptly cut her off, telling her she was wrong, Marr recalls. His rudeness shocked her. “You just don’t argue with Lidia about physics,” she says.
The amount of hard-to-source or caveat-filled numerical thresholds taught as fact in medicine and engineering is frustrating, as well as the inertia to change until enough people die.
In their latest submission to Science, Weifeng Shi, director and professor at the Institute of Pathogen Biology at Shandong First Medical University in China, and George Gao, head of Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, have warned that “the global spread of H5N8 avian influenza viruses is a public health concern.”
The Oakland A’s pitching staff still hasn’t figured out how to retire the Houston Astros’ lineup.
For the second straight day, the Astros overwhelmed Oakland’s starter and then continued piling on against the bullpen, while the A’s offense couldn’t do enough to keep up. This time it led to an 8-4 final score, and a series victory for Houston at the Coliseum.
The frustration of the last two games can be summed up with the following split. The A’s have allowed 204 runs this season in 45 games, and it breaks down like this:
The San Francisco Giants accomplished the most glorious of regular season feats on Thursday, sweeping a four-game road series. It doesn’t get much better, unless the Los Angeles Dodgers are on the receiving end.
It was also over in the third inning, when the Giants flexed their muscles in ways that you had not envisioned that they would.
It was a fun inning, in large part because the Giants scored seven runs before the Cincinnati Reds recorded a single out. It was also a fun inning because it had all the makings of a dink and dunk inning, until it didn’t. The Giants led 1-0, and it seemed as though the would just slowly add to it.
Albert Pujols hit his first home run as a Dodger and Will Smith delivered in the clutch twice, as the Dodgers got the sweep over the D-Backs with a 3-2 victory.
The Dodgers jumped on the board first thanks to a two-run home run from.... Albert Pujols? Yup. The Machine hit his first home run in Dodger blue, the 668th of his Hall-of-Fame career. Pujols now has an RBI or hit in all four games he’s appeared in for the Dodgers so far.
As long as he doesn't have to run fast. There was a ground ball in the hole and the SS was playing in short LF, went to backhand it, and still threw out Pujols.
ICYMI: Remember the rookie who hit the 3-0 HR off a 47 mph fat pitch? They threw at him two days ago in retaliation. Pitcher ejected, suspended 3 games. Manager suspended 1 game.
For better or worse, that's baseball, 100+ years of it. Mercedes was told by coaches not to swing 3-0, though, and swung anyway...LaRussa should've just benched him the next game, told him why, the Twinkies throw behind him one game, and that's that.
The worst is when one team throws at a batter and then warnings are given and the other team doesn't get to get payback. Usually the other team is hit and then that's that.
Also you get when the umpire ejects a pitcher for hitting a batter when it wasn't warranted.
Now, if it is because Mercedes is a young player and you want to coach up his ability to determine if what he is swinging at on 3-0 is a meatball or outside the zone, fine. But if he's judged correctly, you congratulate him, and you certainly don't condone "consequences" against your own freaking player.
That's my point...LaRussa could have made this a coaching issue, rather than an unwritten rules one. That said, there's still a sportsmanship aspect associated with it, as there is in all sports.
I would love to see a team you coached, tho, Clap....fines for walks...swing at EVERYTHING!!!! ;-) ;-)
Beyond the fact that is not what I said, I would make a horrible coach. In high school my batting average was really low but I had a .500 OBP. Also, I was more of a pitcher.
I understand baseball, but I don't understand some of the unwritten rules that seemed solely designed to protect players' and managers' feelings. If a dude wants to try pitching in a blowout loss because it's not his usual position, go right ahead. In fact, I thoroughly enjoy watching position players pitch. But it's silly to expect his opponents to go easy on him because he's not a pitcher. If he wants to try pitching without fear that his opponents will take advantage of his sub-par pitching, he can find a local rec league in the offseason.
It's not that he hit the homerun off a position player. That happens, no biggie. Usually they laugh about it.
It's that he swung with the count 3-0, after being instructed NOT to, while up with a big lead, against a position player in a blowout.
But the unwritten rules of baseball are slowly (very slowly) being phased out. Unfortunately, La Russa is one of the old school guys that will contribute to this nonsense. Awful hire.
My issue with with the instruction to not swing 3-0. If you are giving that instruction because you want to try to milk a walk, fine. But that instruction always comes with the caveat that if you see a fat piece of cake (TBB signal) in the middle of the plate, you eat it.
If you are giving that instruction because "you just don't do that..." well, that's wrong.
Well it's a courtesy thing. Like dribbling the basketball out at mid-court of a game that's out of hand as the clock winds down. Sure, the PG could take the ball to the tin and get an easy layup, but they don't.
I agree that he shouldn't have hit in that situation. It's like you don't run up the score in a blowout in football. You still play, you don't intentionally fail, but you don't have to try so hard. If it weren't a blowout, hitting from 3-0 should always be okay.
You mean when Tedford was running the ball up the middle on 1st and 10 every single time he was getting the team ready for playing when they're blowing out UOP?
I'm not against unwritten rules, but throwing fastball at a batter (or behind them) is just too dangerous. It may have been okay for 100 years, but that doesn't really justify it.
Sterling "Scoot" Henderson, the No. 7 prospect in the ESPN class of 2022 recruiting rankings, has signed with the NBA's G League Ignite program, the league announced on Friday.
Signaling a shift in the nature of the G League Ignite thinking, Henderson is the first high school junior to commit to the Ignite program and marks the first player signed that is not NBA Draft-eligible the following year, due to his age.
Henderson has finished all coursework and will graduate high school a year early next week, a prerequisite for joining the G League Ignite. Because he will not turn 19 until 2023, Henderson will not be eligible for the 2022 NBA Draft age-wise and is committing to spend two years with the Ignite program.
Looks like incoming HS seniors can now sign up to play 2 years in the Overtime Elite league and be paid well. They'll be eligible to be drafted after their "college freshman" year.
Matt, Ryan Bewley first high school juniors to join Overtime Elite league
Two 6-foot-9 Florida twins ranked among the top 15 high school juniors in the country -- Matt and Ryan Bewley -- are signing with Overtime Elite, the league announced Friday, marking the first prep underclassmen to sign contracts with an American professional basketball league.
Matt, who is ranked No. 3 by ESPN for the Class of 2023, and Ryan, ranked No. 12, will forgo high school and college eligibility to join the startup league in September for contracts that are expected to pay them each seven figures over the two-year range of the deals, sources told ESPN.
Oregon & Ohio State schedule home-and-home games in 2032 and 2033. Oregon gets paid about $3.5m for their trip to Columbus this year because the Oregon leg was cancelled last year.
DBD SF restaurant
No 2's favorite place in North Beach, Franchinos, closed down. He loved their Fetuccine Alfredo. Of course he hasn't had any other places in North Beach. Anyways, he just found it was closed. We're getting dinner in SF after the Dodgers/Giants game and wanted to see if anyone has a good recommendation in North Beach.
If he wants old school Italian like fettuccine alfredo, go Original Joe's. Also good for veal or chicken parm.
Oh...is that the place that used to be on Broadway and the slogan was "Rain or shine there's always a line"
https://sf.eater.com/maps/best-restaurants-san-francisco-38
Looks like more than one choice.
Oh I forgot about checking Eater. Thanks. He said that he really wanted to go to Franchinos so he's not locked into North Beach. I guess we'll decide what to do. We were invited to eat brunch at the Gotham club with one of his best friends' family so we'll do that, watch the game, then get dinner somewhere.
Cobalt
F150 Lightning
I can't see this model name and not think F35 Lightning.
Maybe they should put a hovering fan in the middle of the F150.
Because EVERYTHING is political:
"The base model starts at $39,974 — and that’s before factoring in tax incentives for electric vehicles. Including those incentives, such as a $7,500 federal tax credit, the Lightning is expected to be one of the least expensive full-size pickups on the market, gas or electric, when it hits the road next year. Possibly the least expensive, if you live in a state offering additional generous tax breaks.
This is no pokey, jelly-bean-shaped car designed for tree-huggers. Nor is it a spaceship-like ride for Bay Area tech bros. This is not a vehicle designed for virtue-signaling concerns about climate change, though it absolutely does broadcast the virtues of a bright, decarbonized, lower-pollution future."
***
"Yet whenever Democratic politicians talk about the coming transition away from fossil fuels, they’re treated as though they’ve made a huge gaffe, or are trying to banish coal and oil by socialist-style fiat, rather than accurately characterizing existing market forces. Republicans suggest we have to hang onto “dirty energy” because switching to renewables would raise energy prices for U.S. firms and make us less competitive.
Maybe Republicans are operating off of decades-old facts and have yet to update their understanding of how cheap and therefore economically attractive renewables have become. Or maybe it’s just more politically useful to treat green energy as a cultural wedge issue, akin to guns. The Lightning — and other fast, cool, affordable products attractive to conservative and liberal customers alike — will make this strategy harder to sustain."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/05/20/why-fords-f-150-lightning-could-elevate-green-energy-culture-wars/
But she's not wrong.
I'm not going to get excited about this truck, until they start selling them. An electric truck is perfect for fleet type operations (where you generally are not doing a lot of miles, but need to carry a lot of crap).
This is why I have a significant portion of my investment portfolio in a global clean energy fund as a long position.
I took a trip to the Henry Ford last November (my second time there...mostly to see the test tube that supposedly held Edison's final breath) and ended up doing the Rouge Factory tour (which they had just restarted at the time) which turned into a personal tour because I was the only person at that time slot. As much as they tried to brainwash you about how the F150 is great, pickup trucks are just not my thing (though the factory was still interesting to see and looks very boring to work at).
I got to drive one semi-regularly when I used to go to New Mexico for my PhD experiment (and famously drove opposite a town parade where I had to honk at a 10-year-old beauty queen on ATV who almost collided with me).
I have no personal interest in it (I have no need for a truck), but I am very impressed by it. $40k for 230 miles of range, plenty of towing/hauling capability, onboard power capabilities (essentially turning it into a mobile generator), and 426hp/775lb-ft. That's all very impressive, especially for a Ford product.
Price is subsidized by other models in the line in order to capture market share. It is still impressive in terms of power; range is going to be problematical, as will be operations during power disruptions like we get every winter.
Having seen what happens when Teslas hit regular cars (because of the battery packs), I'm super excited to see what happens when people start hitting regular cars in Lightnings.
Hopefully the thing isn't obscenely tall like most modern pickup trucks. 1800lbs of battery at head-level for normal coupes/sedans would be non-optimal.
perhaps Ford learned their lesson from having to fit a crash bar under the front of the Excursion, but one wonders
Although my expectations of a reasonable height truck are low.
Having driven a competitor (Toyota Tundra) for work, I do not like driving a large pick-up truck.
I usually don't either, but enjoyed the Ram I rented last fall and am thoroughly intrigued by an all electric truck.
Depending on how drives and handles and the price I can get, I've pretty much landed on getting a lightly used Toyota RAV4 Prime when I return home.
It's really weird that the RAV4 Prime is Toyota's second-quickest car after the Supra.
My mom has a RAV 4 and it feels as safe as a tin can.
Thin walls?
the other standout feature for the Supra is how unsightly it is, yech
We just bought a new Mazda CX-30 for the wife a week ago; I would pick that over RAV4- so would Car & Driver
CX-30 isn't a plug-in hybrid though
Fair
Hammocks
I am fostering kittens and they fall asleep in the cat tree hammock and it is ADORABLE
Oh hey Max, if you haven't read Circe, you should drop what you're reading and grab a copy, it's great.
I haven't been able to bring myself to read Song of Achilles yet though, because I don't do well with heart-wrenching sadness.
The DBD: heart-wrenching sadness.
Read it and loved it! It's been my go-to rec for most people for the last year.
Risky Click of the Day #1
https://dutchwaregear.com/product/banana-hammock/
well played, sir.
DBD Test Kitchen (new topic category)
I'm still working on making fried rice that is better than what I get from restaurants, but haven't figured it out yet. Tips/recipes appreciated.
Watch Uncle Roger for advice on how not to cook fried rice.
Or this video where he makes good fried rice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGBP3sG3a9Y
Or... don't listen to uncle roger.
MSG is apparently my missing ingredient
I learned from Scootie (I think) that MSG is a naturally occurring substance.
She is a PR plant representing Big Headache and Big Hives industries. Do not believe her lies.
YOU'RE THE LIAR!!!!11!
Technically, this has now become a bit of a food fight.
hahaha
Really? Damn! I guess that explains why I keep getting itchy rashes on my arms. Even since I read that MSG was “a naturally occurring substance,” I’ve been putting it on anything that I could eat. I mean everything. Eggs, potatoes, vegetables, fish, meats...etc. I even put it on some oatmeal! And, it was good!
Damn! ‘The Man’ (via Scootie) really stuck it to me this time!
Now I have to go back to eating bland food.
Very much no. MSG has two components. One is sodium--the very same stuff in table salt. The other is a naturally occurring amino acid. MSG is in all kinds of foods like tomatoes and mushrooms (although the latter should not be considered a food).
The tales of it being bad for your health was based on one racist, xenophobic paper. If you're okay with eating salt, then you should be okay with eating MSG.
Ha! Now I feel better (and worse) at the same time - I just poured the MSG down the disposal!
We should create a topic just on MSG and see who has what to say on the subject. Until then, I am on an MSG hold.
if you eat doritos or fritos or any number of major snack foods, you're consuming a bunch of msg
It has the same down side as salt if you have elevated blood pressure.
Or consume it in excessive quantity.
You can use Trader Joe's mushroom powder instead if you want.
You mean the Umami powder? I've been meaning to try that.
That does sound less heart-attacky
MSG is not heart-attacky.
So, it's not like salt?
it's a sodium salt of glutamic acid
Then it is heart-attacky they way NaCl is, got ya.
Do we think that's his real accent?
no it isn't. He's Malaysian and lives in England and speaks with a british accent. His real name is Nigel Ng and is a comedian.
He also bent over for the Chinese Communist Party so screw him.
yes that's true he did do that.
so he's an American corporation?
Make small portion and don't put too much at once. Use a large wok.
Make the rice a day ahead.
If you can't make it a day ahead, spread out freshly cooked rice on a plate or metal sheet pan until it cools down under or next to a fan, then put it in the fridge.
If you don't even have time for that, don't sweat it.
https://www.seriouseats.com/the-food-lab-how-to-make-best-fried-rice
"But here's the thing: Even freshly cooked rice worked great. In fact, it worked better than rice that had been stored loosely covered in the refrigerator for one to six hours. What gives? Most of my other tests indicated that dryness matters, but surely fresh rice is the moistest of the lot?
Well, not necessarily. Freshly cooked rice spread out on a plate will steam a great deal as its surface moisture is evaporated. That's the important part. It's the surface moisture that is going to cause your rice to rapidly suppress the temperature of the wok. It's the surface moisture that's going to cause your rice to stick together."
Yeah the baking sheet method works as well if you don't have time to do it overnight.
Yes this!!
But also don't be afraid to put in too much oil. Kinda like good Mexican food has a lot of lard.
🥓 🐷 🍖
I guess we were the guinea pigs for this last night, Cugelwife made Asian Udon sesame chicken and veggies of her invention; very tasty.
my cooking style is sort of "test kitchen every day" depending on what is in the fridge
the problem is that even if it is amazing (1 out of 10 times) there is no way to recreate it because i barely remember what thing was improvised.
DBD AV Club
I started a new job in April last year so have never seen my office, but I'm told there will be a a TV in it. What is appropriate content for an office TV? I don't want to have the news running all day.
Cal Football highlights.
Well suited for morning break.
Or the mid morning dump
Ted Lasso 24/7
Haha, appropriate, given that I work for Apple Studios now. Maybe I should only be playing Apple shows.
Nice! My wife is working on S3 of For All Man Kind, but they are based out of Sony
Does she work on the show at the Sony Studios lot in Culver City? My apartment is across the street!
Yep, she started with them on S2 and previously worked on The Morning Show. So she's been CC based for most of three years now.
How's the movie going?
Filming went very well, we'd work with 18/20 of the people again. She is working with the editor on the first cut right now, while I try to get our budget all organized for post production. Hoping to have picture locked by the end of August.
Oh I didn't realize filming was done. That's awesome.
CAN WE BE FRIENDS?!
Haha I'd love to! Unfortunately we moved to Chevy Chase Canyon in Glendale last January so we just both work on the west side and then enjoy the 25mi (45min to 1hr 45min) commute.
Still doable! Maybe we can grab lunch or dinner (before you make the trek back to Glendale)
Definitely a possibility!
Which means none of our westside friends like making the trek to hangout, which I totally understand.
Luckily I can avoid most of the really bad traffic because I set the sailing schedule. And she only has one bad direction, because she has a 6am call most days.
Urg, 6AM. I am impressed.
Yup that is why I suggested it. I was also going to say Apple Originals only but thought maybe that was going too far.
I can't being to imagine having an office, far less one with a television in it! My answer is "screensaver."
new Gruff Rhys album out today (he's the former lead singer of Super Furry Animals). It's *great*. Next up, the new Chai album.
Spencer Hall (everyday should be saturday) and Bomani Jones (ESPN) had an all time podcast talking for about 40 minutes about Stevie Wonder. One of the best pods I've listened to, and will be listening to Stevie all weekend.
The 5/19 pod http://www.espn.com/espnradio/podcast/archive/_/id/12563086
I like Stevie Wonder and I generally am willing to trust your advice but I' afraid I am not listening to a 40 minute podcast about Stevie Wonder
Spicy
I put chili powder and/or Sriracha in my omelette every morning
I'm convinced that my days of enjoying extremely spicy food has dulled my taste buds because my wife can taste differences in flavor far better than I can.
I think there might be some truth to that, I know my son, who is something of a super taster, has always had an issue with food that is spicy, and especially foods that are very pungently aromatic, Wasabi, Indian food, Turmeric, etc...
that was always my claim all along
Our Crumbling Democracy
Texas PUC was on phone with Gov. Abbott 32 times about natural gas shortage before the governor went on Fox News to falsely blame frozen wind turbines.
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/05/texas-gov-knew-of-natural-gas-shortages-days-before-blackout-blamed-wind-anyway/
@I'm shocked he tried to blame wind turbines@
State senator Anthony Bouchard (R-WY), who is a challenger to Liz Cheney's (R-WY) US House seat - revealed yesterday that he had a "Romeo and Juliet" relationship. That is, he committed statutory rape, impregnated her when she was 14, married her, divorced her, and she later committed suicide. Tybalt and Mercutio unavailable for comment.
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/554730-cheney-primary-challenger-impregnated-14-year-old-when-he-was-18
in slightly related news, today's stage of the Giro ends in Verona.
i tried to tell my kids about it this morning, but they were not impressed
Vornado Realty Trust and Trump Organization complete $1.2 billion refinancing of 555 California Street, after a buyer for the property was not found. Trump owns a 30% stake in the building (sniff).
who would buy a huge class A office tower these days? A fair number of tenants are not coming back to full time office work. All you need for a large fancy office now is file storage and conference rooms.
That's the rub. The T.O. is looking to get out of its obligations and tenants that would want a large footprint at 555 Cal are scarce. The refinancing starts out at 1.9% APR, gradually increasing to 2.3% over 20 years. So Trump is still not out of the woods on this one.
Trump DOJ obtained phone and email records of CNN reporter for two months in 2017. DOJ defends itself, citing that it was tracking down illegal info leaking
https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/20/politics/trump-secretly-obtained-cnn-reporter-records/index.html
That is a funny way to spell "journalism."
Giuliani: I'm a lawyer. I get special privilege.
Judge: Yeah, but no.
https://twitter.com/KlasfeldReports/status/1395568988734857223
Lawyers are often the last people to get special privileges in courtrooms.
He did get a special privilege, the Judge took the request seriously and gave a serious response, not a blanket 'F* you, denied.'
Today in Covid-19
US sends thousands of stimulus checks to Japan
https://www.newsweek.com/confused-couple-japan-receive-latest-round-1400-covid-19-stimulus-checks-1593525
I thought this was really interesting (open in an incognito window if you don't have a Wired subscription)
The 60-Year-Old Scientific Screwup That Helped Covid Kill
https://www.wired.com/story/the-teeny-tiny-scientific-screwup-that-helped-covid-kill/
Marr is an aerosol scientist at Virginia Tech and one of the few in the world who also studies infectious diseases. To her, the new coronavirus looked as if it could hang in the air, infecting anyone who breathed in enough of it. For people indoors, that posed a considerable risk. But the WHO didn’t seem to have caught on. Just days before, the organization had tweeted “FACT: #COVID19 is NOT airborne.” That’s why Marr was skipping her usual morning workout to join 35 other aerosol scientists. They were trying to warn the WHO it was making a big mistake.
Over Zoom, they laid out the case. They ticked through a growing list of superspreading events in restaurants, call centers, cruise ships, and a choir rehearsal, instances where people got sick even when they were across the room from a contagious person. The incidents contradicted the WHO’s main safety guidelines of keeping 3 to 6 feet of distance between people and frequent handwashing. If SARS-CoV-2 traveled only in large droplets that immediately fell to the ground, as the WHO was saying, then wouldn’t the distancing and the handwashing have prevented such outbreaks? Infectious air was the more likely culprit, they argued. But the WHO’s experts appeared to be unmoved. If they were going to call Covid-19 airborne, they wanted more direct evidence—proof, which could take months to gather, that the virus was abundant in the air. Meanwhile, thousands of people were falling ill every day.
On the video call, tensions rose. At one point, Lidia Morawska, a revered atmospheric physicist who had arranged the meeting, tried to explain how far infectious particles of different sizes could potentially travel. One of the WHO experts abruptly cut her off, telling her she was wrong, Marr recalls. His rudeness shocked her. “You just don’t argue with Lidia about physics,” she says.
I decided to do a search on aerosol behavior, but focussed on pre-covid to avoid all the churn. Here is one from 1968: https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/apme/7/5/1520-0450_1968_007_0944_fsoap_2_0_co_2.xml?tab_body=pdf
Figure 1 shows that at sea level, 3 micron particles of water density fall at about 1 mm/sec.
The amount of hard-to-source or caveat-filled numerical thresholds taught as fact in medicine and engineering is frustrating, as well as the inertia to change until enough people die.
H5N8 avian flu emerges as next public health concern
https://www.bioworld.com/articles/507335-h5n8-avian-flu-emerges-as-next-public-health-concern?v=preview
In their latest submission to Science, Weifeng Shi, director and professor at the Institute of Pathogen Biology at Shandong First Medical University in China, and George Gao, head of Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, have warned that “the global spread of H5N8 avian influenza viruses is a public health concern.”
Guess all these masks I bought will continue to be useful...
I've stopped having dry lips since wearing masks, so I think I'll continue to wear them for a bit.
Make the Colonies Great Again!
https://apnews.com/article/us-news-smallpox-coronavirus-pandemic-health-795b86e0d8fd632034cf70fc320e4c91
Pro
Game #45: A’s pitching overwhelmed by Astros again
https://www.athleticsnation.com/2021/5/20/22446755/oakland-as-game-45-houston-astros-score-result
The Oakland A’s pitching staff still hasn’t figured out how to retire the Houston Astros’ lineup.
For the second straight day, the Astros overwhelmed Oakland’s starter and then continued piling on against the bullpen, while the A’s offense couldn’t do enough to keep up. This time it led to an 8-4 final score, and a series victory for Houston at the Coliseum.
The frustration of the last two games can be summed up with the following split. The A’s have allowed 204 runs this season in 45 games, and it breaks down like this:
vs. Astros: 67 runs in 10 games, or 6.7 per game
vs. others: 137 runs in 35 games, or 3.9 per game
Giants continue to win 100% of the games in which they score 9 runs in a single inning
https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2021/5/20/22446025/san-francisco-giants-reds-recap-steven-duggar-brandon-crawford
The San Francisco Giants accomplished the most glorious of regular season feats on Thursday, sweeping a four-game road series. It doesn’t get much better, unless the Los Angeles Dodgers are on the receiving end.
It was also over in the third inning, when the Giants flexed their muscles in ways that you had not envisioned that they would.
It was a fun inning, in large part because the Giants scored seven runs before the Cincinnati Reds recorded a single out. It was also a fun inning because it had all the makings of a dink and dunk inning, until it didn’t. The Giants led 1-0, and it seemed as though the would just slowly add to it.
Pujols looks like he's having fun again playing baseball.
dammit...wrong thread
you hope he continues to look like he's having fun playing baseball this weekend, you mean.
Albert Pujols and Will Smith guide Dodgers to sweep over DBacks
https://www.truebluela.com/2021/5/20/22446835/albert-pujols-will-smith-los-angeles-dodgers-mlb-recap-arizona-dbacks
Albert Pujols hit his first home run as a Dodger and Will Smith delivered in the clutch twice, as the Dodgers got the sweep over the D-Backs with a 3-2 victory.
The Dodgers jumped on the board first thanks to a two-run home run from.... Albert Pujols? Yup. The Machine hit his first home run in Dodger blue, the 668th of his Hall-of-Fame career. Pujols now has an RBI or hit in all four games he’s appeared in for the Dodgers so far.
https://twitter.com/BlakeHarrisTBLA/status/1395580641140350982
Yeah we noticed that while watching the game last night. I can't wait for when the Asstrisks are in town to see what Dieter plays.
Pujols looks like he's having fun playing baseball again.
Doesn't look like he's close to done either.
As long as he doesn't have to run fast. There was a ground ball in the hole and the SS was playing in short LF, went to backhand it, and still threw out Pujols.
That tends to happen when someone no longer plays for the Angels.
ICYMI: Remember the rookie who hit the 3-0 HR off a 47 mph fat pitch? They threw at him two days ago in retaliation. Pitcher ejected, suspended 3 games. Manager suspended 1 game.
https://twitter.com/MLBONFOX/status/1394838883989401601
Why wait until the 7th inning? Seems like an odd time in the game to do it. Game was still close.
It's funny. They think hitting from 3-0 is not okay, but they think intentionally throwing a fastball at batter is okay.
Good on the hitter for keeping his composure. I would have been pretty salty about a team retaliating like that in response to such a trivial slight.
For better or worse, that's baseball, 100+ years of it. Mercedes was told by coaches not to swing 3-0, though, and swung anyway...LaRussa should've just benched him the next game, told him why, the Twinkies throw behind him one game, and that's that.
The worst is when one team throws at a batter and then warnings are given and the other team doesn't get to get payback. Usually the other team is hit and then that's that.
Also you get when the umpire ejects a pitcher for hitting a batter when it wasn't warranted.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5TIO4WvHzI
I think I remember another one instance where the pitcher was ejected and Utley tells the ump that he shouldn't be ejected.
I didn't realize he was told not to swing 3-0.
Rather, the Twins should try not to give up home runs, and LaRussa should encourage Mercedes to continue hitting good.
That's not how it's done, Clap. You know that. 3-0 tho is a take 90% of the time...those silly un-written rules.
Now, if it is because Mercedes is a young player and you want to coach up his ability to determine if what he is swinging at on 3-0 is a meatball or outside the zone, fine. But if he's judged correctly, you congratulate him, and you certainly don't condone "consequences" against your own freaking player.
That's my point...LaRussa could have made this a coaching issue, rather than an unwritten rules one. That said, there's still a sportsmanship aspect associated with it, as there is in all sports.
I would love to see a team you coached, tho, Clap....fines for walks...swing at EVERYTHING!!!! ;-) ;-)
Beyond the fact that is not what I said, I would make a horrible coach. In high school my batting average was really low but I had a .500 OBP. Also, I was more of a pitcher.
Your team would be fun to watch tho.
It should be that if you see something you can hit, hit it.
this is why I fundamentally don't understand baseball
I understand baseball, but I don't understand some of the unwritten rules that seemed solely designed to protect players' and managers' feelings. If a dude wants to try pitching in a blowout loss because it's not his usual position, go right ahead. In fact, I thoroughly enjoy watching position players pitch. But it's silly to expect his opponents to go easy on him because he's not a pitcher. If he wants to try pitching without fear that his opponents will take advantage of his sub-par pitching, he can find a local rec league in the offseason.
It's not that he hit the homerun off a position player. That happens, no biggie. Usually they laugh about it.
It's that he swung with the count 3-0, after being instructed NOT to, while up with a big lead, against a position player in a blowout.
But the unwritten rules of baseball are slowly (very slowly) being phased out. Unfortunately, La Russa is one of the old school guys that will contribute to this nonsense. Awful hire.
My issue with with the instruction to not swing 3-0. If you are giving that instruction because you want to try to milk a walk, fine. But that instruction always comes with the caveat that if you see a fat piece of cake (TBB signal) in the middle of the plate, you eat it.
If you are giving that instruction because "you just don't do that..." well, that's wrong.
Well it's a courtesy thing. Like dribbling the basketball out at mid-court of a game that's out of hand as the clock winds down. Sure, the PG could take the ball to the tin and get an easy layup, but they don't.
I agree that he shouldn't have hit in that situation. It's like you don't run up the score in a blowout in football. You still play, you don't intentionally fail, but you don't have to try so hard. If it weren't a blowout, hitting from 3-0 should always be okay.
I give him an extra bit of lenience because he's a rookie. If I were a rookie, I'd have a hard time passing up an opportunity for a homer.
You mean when Tedford was running the ball up the middle on 1st and 10 every single time he was getting the team ready for playing when they're blowing out UOP?
And it is....unless your coach gives you the take sign. La Russa should've made THAT the issue.
The unwritten thing of stealing bases or swinging 3-0 with a big lead are silly, tho. They should just mercy rule it then.
I'm not against unwritten rules, but throwing fastball at a batter (or behind them) is just too dangerous. It may have been okay for 100 years, but that doesn't really justify it.
Neither do the people that play it!!!
The Eastern Conference play-in series has been a dud. The average margin of victory has been 24 points.
Anger Russ was awesome though.
Other College
Five-star junior point guard 'Scoot' Henderson to join NBA's G League Ignite next season
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/31484406/five-star-junior-point-guard-scoot-henderson-join-nba-g-league-ignite-next-season
Sterling "Scoot" Henderson, the No. 7 prospect in the ESPN class of 2022 recruiting rankings, has signed with the NBA's G League Ignite program, the league announced on Friday.
Signaling a shift in the nature of the G League Ignite thinking, Henderson is the first high school junior to commit to the Ignite program and marks the first player signed that is not NBA Draft-eligible the following year, due to his age.
Henderson has finished all coursework and will graduate high school a year early next week, a prerequisite for joining the G League Ignite. Because he will not turn 19 until 2023, Henderson will not be eligible for the 2022 NBA Draft age-wise and is committing to spend two years with the Ignite program.
Looks like incoming HS seniors can now sign up to play 2 years in the Overtime Elite league and be paid well. They'll be eligible to be drafted after their "college freshman" year.
Matt, Ryan Bewley first high school juniors to join Overtime Elite league
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/31482947/matt-ryan-bewley-first-high-school-juniors-join-elite-league-sources-say
Two 6-foot-9 Florida twins ranked among the top 15 high school juniors in the country -- Matt and Ryan Bewley -- are signing with Overtime Elite, the league announced Friday, marking the first prep underclassmen to sign contracts with an American professional basketball league.
Matt, who is ranked No. 3 by ESPN for the Class of 2023, and Ryan, ranked No. 12, will forgo high school and college eligibility to join the startup league in September for contracts that are expected to pay them each seven figures over the two-year range of the deals, sources told ESPN.
Oregon & Ohio State schedule home-and-home games in 2032 and 2033. Oregon gets paid about $3.5m for their trip to Columbus this year because the Oregon leg was cancelled last year.
https://twitter.com/11w/status/1395436561517404165?s=21
A rich school like Oregon getting cash - must be nice.
Cal
Go Bears!!!