We all seem to be in agreement that summer is time to kick back and relax a bit. So with that in mind, here is the first of the summer’s Writers Chatting open threads.
Enjoy!
by TaMara| 81 Comments
This post is in: Authors In Our Midst, Open Threads, Writing Group
We all seem to be in agreement that summer is time to kick back and relax a bit. So with that in mind, here is the first of the summer’s Writers Chatting open threads.
Enjoy!
by John Cole| 75 Comments
This post is in: Music, Get off my grass you damned kids
For the past several months I have been undertaking the herculean effort of finally importing every cd I own. I have several terabytes of music (the vast majority of which is dead and little feat and other live music from the archive), but I probably have about a terabyte of cd’s.
I got completely done with the import several weeks ago, and the itunes organized my library and fucked everything all up. So I dutifully started over, backing up my entire non live music library every night.
The most frustrating thing for me so far has been the artwork. I know there are taggers and the like, but I have found they make mistakes and do not import the art as I remember it. So I am doing it manually. A lot of the time, itunes will autopopulate, but since it is a public thing where any reject with no sense of decency can upload his shit and it fubars everything.
The other problem is it is just hit and miss. For example:
HOW THE FUCK CAN YOU NOT FIND THE ARTWORK FOR EXILE ON MAIN STREET ITUNES
— I'm So Over This (@Johngcole) June 4, 2017
I'm using discogs and allmusic, but the point is it should be able to autopopulate one of the greatest 100 albums ever made https://t.co/IENdKgWucK
— I'm So Over This (@Johngcole) June 4, 2017
george harrison all things must pass, no problem
elton john live in australia, got it right here.
exile on main street- NEW PHONE WHO DIS
— I'm So Over This (@Johngcole) June 4, 2017
I mean fucking hell.
At this point, many of you are probably wondering why the artwork is so important- “Why don’t you just listen to the music?”
Well, for starters, it fucks with my sense of order. When I open itunes and there is:
Instead of this:
It hurts my soul a little bit. People spent a lot of time designing album covers. There were multiple revisions to them, the artists had to approve them, and it meant something. It’s part of the whole feel of the album. It’s part of the experience. And let me take a moment to give a big fuck you to Tipper Gore for those fucking warning labels.
Second, a very formidable portion of my important years as a teen was spent in two places on the college campus on town- first in the computer lab playing on dummy terminals connected to the PR1ME mainframe and the Apple desktops, and at the college radio station working as a dj. I spent thousands of hours there, either actually live on air, or engineering a show (I did Monday Night Oldies with a professor who was technically incompetent and the Ashborne Hour playing classical music with another professor), but I spent most of my time just learning how to do things and listening to music.
And I would sit there on the floor, or lie under the turntables, and hold the album in my hand and look at it while listening to whatever it was. It’s one of the reasons I love music, and the album art not only means something about the album, but it brings back good memories. Maybe this is lost in the digital era, when people don’t listen to albums but just have playlists. But when I listen to music, I listen to the entire album. The way it was meant to be. From start to finish.
I mean, if you are at a bar or a club or listening to radio, I understand mixed tapes and shuffle and playlists. And I get greatest hits albums- I am not a complete monster.But if you are at home or driving or whatever, it makes no sense to me. You don’t just pick up a book and randomly read a chapter. Oh, I really like chapter four of The Sun Also Rises, and after that maybe chapter seven of Naked Lunch. Oh, and maybe a chapter of Brautigan.
I mean, maybe that works for you all, but not me. Rambling. The end.
Fuck you itunes users who can not get your tags and labeling right. You probably voted for Trump.
I’m Making Myself Mental But Enjoying It AnywayPost + Comments (75)
This post is in: Open Threads
There are many windows for Ric and Zooey to look out, and now it’s warm enough for them to be open. They particularly like this one.
The Orange One is tweeting again, so that and the aftermath of the London attack will take up too much of my Twitter feed.
In news you can use, this article contains a good list of how to call BS on big data. Samples:
Upon encountering a piece of information, in any form, ask, “Who is telling me this? How does he or she know it? What is he or she trying to sell me?”
Remember that if a data-based claim seems too good to be true, it probably is.
Watch out for unfair comparisons.
Much more good advice at the link.
I’m going to try to limit my internet intake today. Just fed up with so much of it. Will practice piano, work on another post, maybe scan some family photos. You?
This post is in: Garden Chats
All the dedicated gardeners have been too busy this week to take any pics (or at least to send them to me), so here’s a good read as a placeholder. From the NYTimes, “Hunting Down the Lost Apples of the Pacific Northwest”:
STEPTOE, Wash. — David Benscoter honed his craft as an investigator for the F.B.I. and the United States Treasury, cornering corrupt politicians and tax evaders. The lost apple trees that he hunts down now are really not so different. People and things, he said, tend to hide in plain sight if you know how and where to look.
“It’s like a crime scene,” Mr. Benscoter, 62, said as he hiked down a slope toward a long-abandoned apple orchard planted in the late 1800s. “You have to establish that the trees existed, and hope that there’s a paper trail to follow.”
About two-thirds of the $4 billion apple industry is now concentrated in Washington State — and 15 varieties, led by the Red Delicious, account for about 90 percent of the market. But the past looked, and tasted, much different: An estimated 17,000 varieties were grown in North America over the centuries, and about 13,000 are lost.
From New England through the Midwest and the South to Colorado and Washington, where small family farms were long anchored by an orchard, most apple trees died along with the farms around them as industrial-scale agriculture conquered American life a century ago.
But some trees persisted. They faded into woods, or were absorbed by parks or other public lands. And the hundreds of varieties that have been found in recent years are stunning in their diversity and the window they open into the tastes and habits of the past…
Apples are where food meets history, hunters say, and a community has risen up around the pursuit of them. Mr. Benscoter fell into it after retirement here in eastern Washington when a friend with a disability asked him to pick apples from an old orchard behind her house, and no one could identify what they were. John Bunker, an apple hunter in Maine, became entranced by the old trees he found growing in the woods. Lee Calhoun, a retired Army lieutenant colonel, started hunting in North Carolina and began to see old apples as a remnant of faded Southern life.
Now, some old varieties have become available again, through small specialty nurseries like the co-op that Mr. Bunker helped start in Maine and through university agricultural programs…
***********
All my mail-order tomato plants have been transferred into new red rootpouches filled with fresh potting mix, and the bags lined up (on the driveway extension) where they’ll get as much sunlight as possible. Today, weather permitting, I’ll get the tomato ladders installed. Twenty-two 15gal planters’ worth of potting mix is a lot of lifting for an old fat lady with creaky joints…
The Spousal Unit has a half-dozen plants of his own to tend this year — he’s convinced there’s plenty of light in the east-facing side yard for tomatoes, which was (barely) true when we first bought this place, but not since the cherry-tree sapling we planted that year has grown into a flourishing tree that shades the one bare wall where the tomato pots used to go. Of course, even if “his” plants set fruit, he’ll still have to share them with two of our three little dogs, who are shameless tomato thieves when given the opportunity.
Long range weather predictions for this part of New England say it’ll be another coolish, rainy summer (dammit). Serenade is an amazing product, but reapplying it twice a week on all my tomatoes, lilacs, and rose bushes is more exertion than I can reliably keep up. Neither my hand strength nor my back muscles are up to coping with the multi-gallon hand or backpack-style sprayers I’ve tried, so I’ve been contemplating investing in a wheeled battery-powered model. Any of you experts got an opinion about utility, brands, etc?
What’s going on in your garden(s) this week?
Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Johnny(s) Apple-SeekingPost + Comments (44)
This post is in: Because of wow., Open Threads, Photo Blogging
by Adam L Silverman| 167 Comments
This post is in: Foreign Affairs, Open Threads, Religious Nuts 2, Silverman on Security, War, Not Normal
Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, has issued a statement in regard to the attack at London Bridge and Borough Market.
My statement on the cowardly terrorist attack in London tonight: https://t.co/PaGXogN60N
Please continue to follow @metpoliceuk for updates pic.twitter.com/AcGaju2Svp— Mayor of London (@MayorofLondon) June 4, 2017
As we wait for the Metropolitan Police and other British authorities to provide further information, please take note that a variety of social media accounts, both automated bots and the alt-right, are using bogus imagery and information for their own particular ends.
Bots and alt-right accounts are sharing fake video claiming to be from the #LondonAttacks pic.twitter.com/JqMvEPNqwW
— The OSINT (@theosint) June 3, 2017
Unfortunately not everyone has gotten the message!
That a major news organization had to say this about the President of the United States is something else. pic.twitter.com/UHPalFCKQQ
— Yashar Ali (@yashar) June 3, 2017
Bjorn Stritzel of Bild reported that ISIS has been promoting these types of attacks:
ISIS channels published this graphic earlier today, calling for attacks. Looks almost like a check list now. pic.twitter.com/c9ku3Pkebd
— Björn Stritzel (@bjoernstritzel) June 3, 2017
(Before anyone asks, that is a full sized Springfield Armory XDM and based on the size of the muzzle I’m relatively sure it is a .45 ACP in caliber)
James Cox of The Sun has reported that the explosions are controlled detonations:
Just had confirmation explosions in London Bridge area are controlled and police monitored
— James Cox (@jcoxwriter) June 4, 2017
NBC has reported that a number of folks fought back in a very British sort of way:
JUST IN: Witness to @NBCNightlyNews: People used pint glasses and chairs to fight back as at least 1 attacker entered a pub in London.
— NBC Nightly News (@NBCNightlyNews) June 4, 2017
Until more information comes in it is important to remember that no matter how good law enforcement, intelligence and counter-terrorism services are, it is virtually impossible to stop every act of terrorism. Especially in a liberal democracy where freedom of movement, speech, association, and religion is valued and protected. This is largely because of resources and not limited just to money. There is only so much time and so many personnel to go around. As a result people and their plans are going to slip through the cracks.
Just yesterday the Irish authorities were able to break up an IRA plot for a massive car bomb in Dublin.
A massive New IRA bomb plot was foiled after gardai seized a staggering 6kg (13.2lb) of explosives in Dublin’s north-inner city.
Heavily armed detectives carrying sub-machine guns stopped a seven-seater taxi during a dramatic arrest in Ballybough shortly after 6pm yesterday.
Gardai, aided by the army and the bomb disposal unit, arrested two men and seized the lethal explosives.
Investigating gardaí now believe the material seized is TNT. It was initially believed to be semtex.
The arrests are part of an ongoing investigation by the Special Detective Unit (SDU) into dissident republican activity.
The Herald can reveal that:
- A massive 6kg of explosives, as well as detonators, were recovered.
- The new, military grade explosives were recently sourced and brought into the State.
- Two men were arrested at the scene, one with close links to the New IRA.
It has also emerged that the second man arrested has no known connections to any criminal gang, leading to fears of a new recruitment drive by the dissident republican terror group.
Armed gardai also raided the house of a politician’s relative, who has close ties to one of the men arrested.
A senior source last night stated that the explosives recovered were “big enough to blow up a street”.
Damage
The explosives “would have caused serious damage if used. It is a major catch for gardai,” said the source.
With relatively easy access to the Internet and social media the drift into radicalization and extremism is easier than ever. And harder to detect and stop. If these attacks are inspired/coordinated by ISIS, then expect to see more of them as they are squeezed and ultimately run out of the physical caliphate they attempted to establish in the Levant. Such attacks will be an attempt to pressure coalition members to abandon the US led coalition against ISIS.
Update on the London Bridge and Borough Market AttackPost + Comments (167)
by DougJ| 120 Comments
This post is in: Foreign Affairs
What’s the deal with Jeremy Corbyn? I’m impressed by how much establishment media hates him.
And why on earth are the Tories attack him about something he said about the IRA once? Do people in England still spend a lot of time thinking about the IRA?