First Looks category archive
Meta: PVF Endorsements 0
I’ve removed Cheryl Turpin from my list of endorsements because she has withdrawn from the race.
I’ve known Cheryl for a long time and am saddened that she found this necessary, but life goes on, even when we don’t want it to.
(I’m researching additional endorsements. It’s my blog and I can endorse who I want to.)
Meta: Site Maintenance 0
Sometime this week soon one of these days I shall be making adjustments to this site. It may be unavailable for a time. But, be assured (or be afraid), it will be back. (I must confess, sadly, that I am getting lazy in my old age.) I’m looking to implement SSL when I get a round tuit, not that this site needs it, as it handles no confidential or financial information, but it seems to be the in thing that all the cool sites are doing.
Useless Trivia 0
I just learned from an episode of Forensic Files that the “SKU” in “SKU number” stands for “stock keeping unit.”
(I am a long-time fan of Forensic Files, because it’s about real science, not science fiction a la CSI.)
Profane Processional 0
And AL.com’s political cartoonist, J. D. Crowe, asks and answers a question (follow the link for his cartoon):
Land Grab 0
The Las Vegas Sun comments on the Trump administrations selling out public lands along with the public trust. Here’s a bit from the editorial:
Precisely.
Oil leasing and fracking threaten our natural habitat and rob us of acreage that supports our growing outdoor tourism industry. It also diminishes the scenic beauty of the region, bespoils land of cultural and religious significance to Native American communities, and poses a threat to our most vital resource — water.
Etymology of “Jazz” 0
Thanks to the Kerry Greenwood mystery, The Green Mill Murder, I learned tonight that the word “jazz” has a much more interesting history than I would have ever expected.
The Entitlement Society, Verbal Gymnastics Dept. 0
David Kyle Johnson, writing at Psychology Today Blogs, pierces the smokescreen raised when someone tries to end an argument by saying, “I have a right to my opinion.” A snippet (emphasis added):
Simply put, the answer is no. Indeed, in almost all circumstances in which they are uttered, such assertions are false.
Note the qualifier in the last sentence above. Johnson is not saying that persons don’t have a right to their opinions in matters of opinion. Rather, he suggests that, when someone is reduced to actually uttering the words, “I have a right to my opinion” (or equivalent), he or she is justifying cleaving to an opinion shown to be demonstrably wrong, wrong, wrong.
Methinks he may be onto something.
Follow the link for the full article.
A Cavalcade of Spots 0
Sam muses about how advertisers are harnessing the current pandemic to pander to their potential purchasers by creating commercials of confoundingly conventional conformity.
All That Was Old Is New Again 0
My local rag reports on a recently-discovered letter written by a man’s mother, when she was still a teen, to her brother, who was in France during World War I, about life during the 1918 flu pandemic.
It is both fascinating and eerily familiar.
The Impossible Dream 0
Aside:
If you are looking for something to read, try Project Gutenberg, the most worthwhile site on the inner webs.
Droning On 0
During a test flight, a drone went rogue in Latvia. From El Reg:
Latvian news agency LETA added: “During a controlled test flight on Saturday, communication with an unmanned aerial vehicle owned by drone manufacturer SIA UAVFactory was lost. The company’s representative, Jevgenijs Sinikovs, confirmed that the aircraft can fly for up to 90 hours, and added that its gliding in orbit depends on the wind.”
The story adds that flight restrictions have been put in place pending recovery of the wanderer.
The Quest 0
A local columnist at my local rag describes her search to keep her family supplied with the tissue of necessity.