Comment

I had really thought that life would settle down.  I had really thought this.  Even that idiot apparently thought that last weekend - lo scorso fine settimanna, to work in a little of my Italian study -- in the Big White House would be pleasant.  It did not turn out that way.

Part of it was the enormous number of people who turned out to express hate and discontent regarding his -- I hesitate to call them policies; more like legislative temper tantrums.  I doubt that the people in his inner circle discuss this, but I would bet that they quickly agreed Don't tell him, denigrate the marchers, tell him its just a passing thing, they'll get over it. Which may actually be the case, but I don't think so.

I believe that the flurry of spiteful, hateful actions this week are in response to that.  Telling the EPA that they could not publish their findings until a politician says they are acceptable -- doesn't that sound like East Germany when there was an East Germany? Saying that organizations could not use Twitter (his preferred method for getting to the people.  And of course, telling people who want to communicate with the White House that they must use a specific venue in Facebook - one that, as it happens, does not exist.

I really hate this.  I am proud and amazed by the hundreds of thousands of people who came to the march on Saturday in DC, as well as at other locations -- I did not go, but I picked up my wife and two friends afterward, and just the sensation of being surrounded by people who were happy, laughing, glad to be there -- it was delightful.  It was invigorating.

I don't know what happens now.   But never have I feared so much for the integrity of my country.  Which is in a way ironic, because those are the kinds of words that right wing zealots -- the kinds who put up web sites with names like Patriots, Assemble! and Liberty's Guardians and the like -- like to use to describe the country. Its not going the way we of the fierce right think it should go, and so we are all doomed!  I used to laugh at them.  I still do, a little.

But mostly, I just want this nightmare to end.

It's pretty creative.  (I'm taking a break from saying omg omg omg omg omg.... as I await the horrors to come.)

Reading

I picked up a biography of Guy Grissom which was well written but seriously in need of a decent author, and ended up returning it quickly.  While there, I happened to notice Spaceman, a partial autobiography by Mike Massimino. He's got a really nice writing style that is both informative and self-deprecating.  Much more to my liking, not the least because it reminded me of when I was a kid, and NASA was still exciting, and we really did think we'd be building spaceships by now.

Why didn't I think of that?

"One of my theatre-geek friends had a Les Miserables wedding – you had to steal the bread and silverware at the reception, and a bunch of people piled up all the chairs and started singing.”

Conservatives

At least, those who comment on Facebook pages for conservative news sources -- seem to be an angry, bitter bunch.  And frankly, they make me less likely to want to understand them and their grievances.

Comix

This is bizarre.  I am avidly awaiting the next edition of a comic strip.  A comic strip.

Fabergé

I know that this is (probably) a Fabergé egg, but to me it looks like the model of a Jules Verne spacecraft.  Complete with comfy couches inside and small chandeliers.

Stray Thought

Driving one of the Google mapping cars must be the most boring job in the world.

What An Interesting Idea...

Siro Ortiz is an 11 year old kid from New York and every Sunday he brings his folding table out to the streets and offers emotional advice for only two dollars. Siro says he's been bullied in school and that has hardened his emotions, and he just wants to share his wisdom with people in need.

 Original Site

Staring Contest

I'd say that they are evenly matched.

New Year

I hope that we have a year of peace and prosperity.

I won't hold my breath, but that's what I hope. 

And I'm changing my party affiliation to Republican, just to be able to do a little bit against the ton of slime and stupidity that's headed our way. 

Technology

One of the tools that I use in my quest to get a basic grasp of Italian is a Berlitz text called Italian in 30 Days.  It's a decent book, and though nothing is as good - or as scary - as actually talking to someone in a new language, it helps.  Though anyone who says that you can get basic competency in 30 days is either lying, very, very good with languages, or has a much more minimal defintion of 'basic compentency' than I do.

One of the things that I like is that the book supplies a series of vocabulary words with each chapter.  There's about forty or so.  When I encounter them - or I come across words in other situations - I type them into Anki, a freeware flash-card application that lets me review them, with the frequency of show-up related to how difficult it was for me to remember the word, the last time.  When I was first learning French (and I think I will always be learning that language), I used it for a month to see what it could do for my vocabulary - and was astonished at how quickly I learned the words.  I wasn't perfect -- never am, never will be -- but I learned a whole bunch of words much faster than I'd been learning them prior to that. So Berlitz is good, and getting their vocabulary into Anki is good.

But typing those words into Anki is tedious, and, the tireder that I am, the more tedious and error-prone.

When we had bought our latest printer - it really is true; you buy a printer without the expectation that it will last a long time - it said that it came with ReadIRIS, an optical character recognition software tool.  Well, it didn't.  But the idea of being able to simply scan a page, and tell the software to change it into a digital format that I could then modify to Anki's liking - that was attractive.  Consequently, I bought ReadIRIS.  It's not cheap, but I thought hey, Christmas present.  Or something.  I installed it, and pointed it to a JPG I had which included text.  It worked.  Not perfectly, but at about 80% accuracy.  For the others, I had to correct the 'word' that it came up with, and in a few cases, change its hieroglyphics to letters -  pretty sure that &4((({ doesn't spell anything.  So not bad.

Reading the documentation, I noticed that the software said it could work directly from a scan - rather than having to create the JPG and read it, I could simply scan the original and take the output directly into ReadIRIS. This sounded good, so I decided to try it. Didn't work. Long story short, I learned that I would have to deinstall and reinstall the software that drives the printer.  Which was,, at last count, about 15 different pieces.  With no guarantee that ReadIRIS would work at the end -- and possibly not the printer, either.  (There seems to be an inverse relationship between how new a piece of technology is and how willing it is to work after being removed and reinstalled.)

Maybe its a sign of age, but I think I'll just stick with making JPGs.

Observation

Every time I think that I have finally accepted this disaster that's occurring to my country, he does something else so incredibly stupid as to beggar belief.

Study

Most studies, I think, do not show what their publicists confidently proclaim.  They suggest, they allow one to infer, but they don't say, black and white.  And when they do, they aren't always right.  In fact, they usually are not right....

None of which stops us from glomming onto the ones that support our position.

observation

I have not lost any friends over voting for Trump, because I don't actually have all that many friends.  I do know that some relatives voted for him, and I just don't discuss it with them, because doing so would not change their minds - and even if they did, en masse, change their minds, it would affect nothing. 

But it does occur to me: finding out that someone whom you valued as a friend did, in fact vote for Trump must be like finding out that your clean-cut, friendly neighbor --- is a child molester.  It must be incomprehensible, and completely out of the scheme of normal thought.

Fortunately, normal thought is not a problem for Trump supporters.  A daily feeding of pseudo-news and hyped garbage, and they're good to go. .

What's a qubit?

Not Without Phaser Controls!

Emails

Had an odd experience today.  I received an email, with this content:

You’re a strong Democrat, right?

That’s why I’m emailing you. I need your help.

Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress are pledging to undo decades of American progress. They want to:

-Repeal Obamacare
-Overturn Roe v. Wade
-Dismantle Medicare
-Ban Muslims from entering the US
 
As a Democrat, I refuse to sit by and let Republicans get away with it. We need to hold them accountable.

And today, I need your help to fight against their backwards priorities:
  TAKE A STAND: Stand with me against the dangerous policies pushed by Donald Trump and his Republicans.

As a member of our team, we’ll keep you informed about news that’s important to Democrats.

Thanks for standing with us.

   
And I thought well, sure, anything I can do to stop, block, or deny that guy,  I would be glad to do.   So sure, I'll give money to --  and then I noticed the signature block.


Kelly Ward
Executive Director, DCCC

and I thought The DCCC?  Isn't that what that Wasserman-Shultz woman ran?  The one who cheated so that Hillary would win the nomination?

No, as it turns out. That group was the Democratic National Committee.  This group is the "Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) ... the official campaign arm of the Democrats in the House"

But still, I hesitate.  Because right now any major political organization leaves a bad taste in my mouth.  
 

Decay

Found here.

Found Ya!