2016 — 14 June: Tuesday
Having fended off a few invitations over the years (from strangers, ex-colleagues, and one ex-neighbour)1 that I join LinkedIn, the news that Microspit is dropping $26 billion buying this once-hacked network gives me no great incentive to change my mind about its merits in my case. (But then, I am retired!)
Weatherwise...
... it's probably a bit "touch and go" whether work can resume today up among my ailing bricks and the bottom of the roof-line. I will know if it starts, however, as the process of cutting out the existing degraded mortar to make room for the new stuff is (I'm assured) noisy.
A reader more alert...
... than the present writer tells me my set of "Black Mirror" DVDs got their first mention on this very ¬blog, on 18th June. He's right! I shall be alerting the media and updating my local DB "real soon now". And (it turned out) I could take only a few minutes of "Truth" yesterday evening before retreating (temporarily) to the more congenial, less-demanding / annoying diet of "Suits" for a couple more episodes.
Having read...
... stuff along the lines of Leo Rosten's mordant syntax in his "The Joys of Yiddish" many years ago, I must admit I have a weakness for such "linguischtiks". Though I also (naturally) have a few doubts about the authenticity of this. Source and example snippet:
"Judean Harvester" sounds entirely fabricated, don't you think?
My first encounter...
... with the concept of multi-generation interstellar travel was Heinlein's "Orphans of the Sky", longer ago than you can shake a stick at (as it were). Pushing aside the idea that, no matter how you travel, your destination is always populated (by the time you reach it) by the descendants of people who set off later but travelled faster in better technology... Aeon has an interesting essay on some of the moral issues involved. Source and snippet:
The success of the enterprise will depend on (at least most of) them having children, which ensures that they will be (at minimum) under great pressure to reproduce. They will have little choice over whether they partner up, too, and perhaps not much choice over whom they partner with (once some have partnered up, others must settle for those who remain).
I don't recall pondering such matters at the time.
Just back...
... from a hastily-decided walk, brought forward by a day in the face of the worsening weather prospects for the rest of the week. Technology Towers is currently bereft of both vans and their workers, though there's plentiful evidence (drifting sand) of much mortar grinding. And, in fact, one van has just returned. Also, the two (rather large) stacks of accumulated garden waste (a very high proportion of which was brambles) has been teleported elsewhere. Christa's little concrete patio is once more available to me. Neat.
In the dim distant...
... I was told not to eat apple pips. I asked "Why?" (as I invariably did) and was told "they contain cyanide". Sadly, I was an odd enough child to be aware of the properties and uses of cyanide even before I stopped insisting that my apples be peeled for me. (Christa never believed this for a moment, by the way. Neither about the cyanide content, nor my wimpy need for apple skin to be peeled.)
I had no idea that adults might sometimes be economical with the actualité, but I figured "Why take a chance?" and put it on my mental list2 of "Things not to do". I still don't eat apple pips.
Today I learn not only that a cup of apple pips contains enough natural cyanide to kill an adult human but, far worse, that Botulinum, produced by bacteria that grow in honey, is more than 1.3 billion times as toxic as lead and is the reason why infants should never eat honey. That was news to me. (Link.)
What's a chap to do?
Try as I might...
... I just don't see terrorism appearing on this "Top 15" causes of death in the U.S. as of 2011. And your prescription meds are more likely to "do you in" than any other source of injury. I couldn't find any stats on apple pip fatalities. But, if you look closely, even this...
... is funny when viewed in the correct light.
Skylark's Ubuntu 16.04 system...
... now sports a later level (1.14.1) of its MATE desktop, by following these simple instructions:
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ubuntu-mate-dev/xenial-mate sudo apt update sudo apt dist-upgrade
It thus now matches the Linux Mint 18 Beta that I've been running in a VirtualBox on BlackBeast Mk III. Just sayin'.
I exchanged...
... views with today's walker on the EU "Should we stay in or should we get out?" issue. Peter and his g/f at the weekend made it clear they felt we should get out. I remain a lot less convinced. In fact, I also swapped views with Carol a while back as they seem about to get Trumped:
Well, before you have your Trump of Doom we have this referendum stupidity about "Brexit" to contend with. Why anyone with half a brain or more thinks a peaceful Europe is a Bad Thing completely baffles me, but there's a huge and horrible Little Englander streak that's come out from under a midden and is now cavorting madly for attention. It's not unlike the Sir Humphrey line of reasoning that suggests we only joined U-rop to get one over on the French while stopping Germany from becoming too much of a central power...
The unholy alliances that are now being forged are weird and wondrous to behold. And the lies and less-than-half-truths being flung around are frankly shameful. The trouble being that mud sticks, of course. Much as I despise the boy Dave I fear I loathe his opposition (within his own party, that is!) more, which is not the best way to make a decision.