Enough with the upgrades!

 Windows and Apple Operating Systems (OS) regularly update their systems. This is driven by the need to hire and employ software engineers. Okay, that is not true.

However, OS updates do appear mainly to drive new PCs / MACs or software package sales. This is infuriating. (I will stipulate that after a new release, they often make subsequent releases to fix things they were too stupid to find in the testing. Having worked with testers, I know this is usually lazy testing or a choice of things they don't fix.)

Apple and Microsoft add new features that either a small % of their customers requested or just something they brainstormed that would be cool. That would be okay, but these take up space and need more computing power, so they don't run on older machines. In particular, Apple benefits from this since they sell the computers you need, and then ends support for older models.

Most of the upgrades aren't worth the trade-offs, but both Windows and Apple make it difficult to stop the automatic portion of it. And, if you do, Apple stops supporting old OS version PDQ.

More than once (like 7 times in three years), the PC I used to show the training on for Project Management classes just crapped out and started an upgrade in the middle of my presentation. Since I only used it for training, I didn't upgrade it in a "timely" manner. I had to boot it up the night before to ensure it wouldn't upgrade. That still didn't always work.

We know upgrades aren't always needed, as seen with Southwest Airlines in the last crash that affected everyone else; Southwest was fine because it ran on Windows 3.1. Our ATMs ran on Windows NT (from the 90s) for over a decade. Maybe they still do, I don't know. I know the swap from Windows 3.1 to Windows NT required new hardware in every ATM. (A project management nightmare for yours turely, FYI.)

When Microsoft stopped supporting the release, we could still purchase support from Windows. And MAYBE these releases were safe from cyber-attacks because it wasn't worth it to hack for so few machines, but I don't know.

Without giving too much away, I know a young lady in Florida who is still running very old Microsoft, and she isn't having issues.

It is a sucker's game.

Bruins in the Olympics

 Tom Daley is a Diving Coach for the Bruins:

The Bruins have 49 Athletes in the games, representing 16 different countries. They compete in most events, concentrating on Men's and Women's Volleyball, Men's and Women's Water Polo, Men's and Women's Tennis, Men's Track and Field, Women's Golf, Swimming, and multiple other sports.

The Badgers of Wisconsin are sending 17 Badgers who clinched a bid will compete in seven separate sports. Badger faithful will be able to watch former UW greats take part in rugby, soccer, women's rowing, men's basketball, women's volleyball, track and field, swimming and diving during the event.

And, speaking about the Pommel Horse

 My favorite men's gymnastics event is the Pommel Horse. It is a visually simple task that is actually really hard to perform. You must always keep your body in motion - technically, you are not allowed to stop. You must keep your feet together, except on flairs (called "Thomas Flairs" because American Kurt Thomas first did them in competition). It is tedious to train on because it isn't flashy or likely to be on highlight reels or endorsements. And the US habitually falls down on this event.

I can't show the NBC Olympic coverage of the win, but here is an image and a link. To see him in action, I used last year's Worlds, in which he won the gold with the same routine.

You can see this on NBC here LINK

American Stephen Nedoroscik hit his routine hard last night and was instrumental in getting the United States' first medal in team gymnastics in 16 years.>

I was there (in Beijing) in 2008. And the final routine that sealed the deal that year was also a pommel horse routine by Alexander Artemev (Sasha). I loved him because of his excellent pommel horse routine. I was sad he didn't make the squad, but then he was a last-minute replacement for an injured American. He cinched their win too.

You may wonder what made me love this. When I was a UCLA yell leader decades ago, Tim Dagget was on our squad and practiced next to the fast food place that I managed. Of course, being the great guy I am, the gymnasts ate for free from us. It had nothing to do with how cute they were. 

Anyway Tim Dagget was a great guy and an expert on the Pommel Horse (he still is the commentator at the Olympics on this). I talked with him a lot (he was a Freshman and happy for free food). He explained the pommel, and I saw him do it often. I have a huge appreciation for it. So GREAT JOB Stephen. I'm happy.

And speaking of Tim Dagget..

Speaking of Vultures

 In the post below, I talk about the surprising role of vultures in the Indian ecosystem. I wanted to add one thing about vultures. We tend to think of them negatively (how many movies use the idea of vultures circling as a symbol of imminent death?).

White-backed Vultures of Africa

Why? Because they eat disgusting things and they are ugly. But they are ugly for a reason. 

They have long beaks and look like witches because they need to reach inside a carcass to eat the last pieces of food stuck on the bones. Their heads pull back into the body because their necks have to be very strong to yank out dead flesh, so they are effective. However, those big strong necks are not very aerodynamic, so they are "stored" inside their feathers. And their heads are bald and devoid of feathers because they stick them inside dead animals. Baldness means insects and blood don't get on feathers they cannot clean.

They are ingenious inventions of evolution (or God - should you swing that way). Their very ugliness is there for a reason.

California Condors (the are a type of Vulture).

The story of surprising "Keystone Species" of Vultures (and Wolves)

A "keystone species" is an animal that plays an oversized role in an environment. Typically, removing this species has a follow-on result that disrupts a stable ecosystem*. Think of the absence of Mountain Lions in California. The lack of these predators allowed skyrocketing numbers of deer in the state. Or the vast numbers of impalas in Africa, which are the main diet of nearly all large predators on that continent.

And occasionally, we find a surprising species we did not know was essential and only find out after they are gone. Like honeybees. Or, in this case, vultures.

Vultures are carrion eaters; that is, they pick clean the carcasses of dead animals after the primary and secondary predators are through with a dead body. In India, the case for vultures was made in a surprising way. The 10s of millions of birds started dying in the last '90s and early 2000s. In 2004, it was found that the new generics of an anti-inflammatory medicine used on cattle were toxic to vultures. By 2006, the number of vultures had declined by 95%. They were functionally extinct.

The results have been horrible. Without vultures to eat all the dead flesh, it rotted and entered the environment, polluting rivers, and drinking water. The number of wild dogs (feral - if you do Wordle, you know) grew exponentially, dining of dead animals. These dogs in India carry rabies, infecting millions of people. All told, scientists have pegged the extra deaths at 500,000 a year. With no practical way of changing this in the short term.

The introduction of wolves back into the Northern US also had an unexpected result. I've talked about how they positively affected the ecosystems of the Northern Rockies and negatively affected ranchers in Montana and Wyoming. But another effect has been to keep deer populations down. This has actually reduced car / deer accidents by 25% in Wisconsin. The economic benefit is 63 TIMES the negative effect on livestock in the area.

Of course, livestock farms don't profit from those savings which is a problem of who benefits and who is hurt. But that is for a different time. LINK 

*My first major at UCLA was Geography Ecosystems, which I loved. But you had to take Biology, which I hated (and got a D in) and so it was on to Geography & Economics. I don't think they offer a Geography Ecosystem degree now as Geography itself expanded to focus on this.

Nice News

 Apparently, the LA Zoo has implemented new methods of raising successful Condor chicks.

This story makes me happy.

Hay-on-Wye

Hay-on-Wye (to differentiate it from the other towns of Hay, they include the name of the river it sits on) is a charming small town devoted to books and booksellers.

I have always wanted to visit this town, albeit the driving force is less important now that the internet has opened up used book sales everywhere and online. But it was still a draw. There is a literary convention twice a year that pulls in famous authors and thousands of fans from across the world. 

Ed and I spent a fair amount of time wandering the streets and used book stores of the town, and visiting the Castle.

The story of Hay is surprising. Up until the 1960s, it was another small market town down on its luck. But in 1967, a Bohemian artist bought the castle, brought friends in to visit and make art, and promoted the city as a haven for used bookstores. He offered them low rents and old buildings to keep the town alive. It worked. Think of him as Britain's a more famous, but less talented Andy Warhol.

And I loved it. There were a fair amount of tourists, but the literary celebration had finished 3 weeks earlier, so it was quiet.

The Castle

Early on a Sunday in town.

Looking from the Castle Cafe.

Parts of the Castle that were not improved by the artist.

Parts of the castle have since been incorporated into a museum.

The Palace of the Bishop of Wells

While visiting Wells, the city with the superb Cathedral, we also saw the Palace of the Bishop of Wells. Now, when I think of a Bishop, the first thing I think of is NOT a Palace. He is a holy man and should be above that, I thought. 

I was wrong. In very old times (this palace was built in the 1400s), the bishops were very political. The Bishop who built this Palace designed it for himself to entice royalty to visit. His wish was not granted in his day by King Edward III, but later, royals graced it when it was inhabited by later Bishops.

So, I did not expect the lavish living quarters that dwarfed the city and other dwellings.

Some of the older Bishops.

This palace is next to the cathedral, but it has its own church for influential people.

See the crown above the gate. That means at least one King or Queen has visited it.

Remains of the dining hall, built for King Edward's proposed visit.

From the courtyard of the Palace. Humility is a virtue.

The windows above the city gate were where the Bishop could watch the public and see any sins.

The desperate lies are past the point of interesting or believable

Excluding Donald Trump, who is contractually obliged to lie at least every third sentence, the Republican Party has decided to embrace an outrage that seems a satire to reality. These non-Trump quotes are unattached to the Republicans that said them, but I can give details.

Before we start, let's share some details about Kamala Harris because many of these lies are about her intellectual capabilities.

She is the daughter of an Indian woman who graduated from UC Berkeley and was a prominent researcher for a Breast Cancer cure. 

Her father, a Black Jamaican, received his PhD in Economics in England. He was a professor at Cambridge, Yale, and Stanford and the economic advisor to successive Jamaican governments. 

VP Harris graduated from Howard University and the UC Hastings College of Law. She was California's Attorney General and was later elected to the Senate. She is married and has 2 stepchildren. As a child, she was bused to other schools to fight segregation as ordered by the federal government.

These comments were made (and made up) by Republicans within the last 5 days:

• Vice President Harris wants a "De Facto Holocaust for Humanity."
• Harris is "Incredibly vapid, unaccomplished"
• Biden uses body doubles.
• Paris Olympics "Insulted Christians"
• Demanded the FBI "correct" the bullet information.
• The country is run by "Crazy Cat Ladies"
• "Childless people don't care about the future of the country because they have no stake in it."
• "Birth control for 17-year-olds should be decided by parents."
• "Harris hates religion but loves LGBT."
• "Harris doesn't care about the Jews." (FYI, VP Harris's husband is Jewish.)
• "The Olympics are a weird satanic ritual."
• "Childless Americans should pay more taxes."
• Harris is a "Marxist Fraud."
• Harris hates Jews and Israel because she refused to listen to Netanyahu's speech.
• "Childless Democrats want to brainwash your kids."
• "Iran was behind the attempt on Trump's life." 
• "Joe Biden was behind the assassination attempt on Donald Trump."
• "Texas arts support Drag Shows."
• "Harris is controlled by the Hamas Caucus."
• "Americans should be run by married people with children."
• Parents with adopted children or stepchildren aren't really parents."
• "People with children should get extra votes."
• “She’s not a woman of color. She is an Indian-American woman and in her own book — this is one of the ways the media is trying to sensationalize and glamorize a braindead bimbo who sucked so much cock in order to get to the political position that she’s in today."
• “I mean I don’t need to tell you. You are well aware of how much powerful black cock this woman has sought — has sucked — over the course of her career in order to obtain the political power she has today."
• "And in her own book she says she identifies as an Indian-American. Her mother has a red dot on her forehead. She is an Indian. Not a Native American like Pocahontas Elizabeth Warren. An Indian-American. And nowhere does she ever identify as a woman of color until — right — until she is then selected as Joe Biden’s vice presidential pick and she wants to drive home this idea that she’s a Black woman.” 
• "Harris is one of the weakest candidates ever. Intellectually, the bottom of the barrel. She was a DEI pick."

Speaking of SciFi annoyances...

 As long as I am talking about things that annoy me in Science Fiction lately, it is the laziness of the "Multiverse." This is the idea that different universes are close to one another which we, or superheroes, can cross.

It is an exciting idea that turns the movie into a zero-stakes game. So, this particular hero is killed, but they still live on somewhere else. Then, who really cares if they are dead or not? Because they are Schrodinger's Cat of heroes. In this type of reality, we ALL are either alive, dead, or never even born. 

Some stories try to up the stakes by saying that the hero saves or loses all the timelines. Loki, Dr. Strange, and a raft of books use this device. I hate to break it to you, but in a Multiverse these protagonists always win. But kids, there will be another reality where they lose. So again, who cares?

Some of these stories are interesting and fun to watch or read but ultimately have zero real stakes.

And yet, they are very popular. Probably because we like to think that somewhere there is a version of us rocking life.

I get the outrage - but come on

 I get it that the Paris Olympics got shit from Christians regarding the image of the Last Supper, but let us be honest for a moment.

This is the picture they show now that pissed them off.

Drag Queens, a jew, a gay, and a Black woman partway through the show. In a tableau that was purposefully jolting.

But the image is midway through the image. The tableau wasn't complete in that picture. This is the actual final act in this diorama

This is the final image (not shown in "outrage" sites) with women, children, rappers, gays, Jews, drag queens, Blacks, and Dionysus. There are very much more than 12 or 13 participants.

The Paris Olympic Committee intended: The group was eventually joined by a man dressed as the Greek god Dionysus, part of the Olympics’ intent to reflect “the absurdity of violence between human beings.”

My Absolute Favorite Clip from Kamala

 During the Vice Presidential Debate, this moment was my favorite and it is coming back in a BIG way.

Low stakes Star Wars annoyance

 

This is a very low-stakes annoyance. It would be better to air it here than talk to Ed because Ed could not care less.

So here is my annoyance. For a highly advanced civilization, they have some pretty backward planets. I kind of got it in the first (now 4th) movie. Luke was stuck on Tatooine, which was very backward on purpose to keep him from the prying eyes of the Empire.

But in all the movies, the constant theme is very rich or very poor planets. And it isn't just "high tech bad, low tech good;" it is just random. In some ways, it is a Production Designer's wet dream. There is no Star Wars Wisconsin-type planet, but it is lazy.

I'm just saying...

Crap Planets

Luxury Planets

And finally, I totally agree with this:

This duet with Rosanne Cash and Keb' Mo' came out 5 years ago.

This duet with Keb' Mo' , featuring Rosanne Cash, came out five years ago and rings truer than ever today.

Bornean Clouded Leopard with Cubs spotted

The Bornean Clouded Leopard has not been seen in the Indonesian portion of Borneo for decades. Minimal populations have been seen in two other areas far in the north. Here, a trail camera spotted a Clouded Leopard and two cubs (kittens?) in southern Borneo. 

The second image is that of one of the cubs that inspects the camera himself.

Just a bit about trail cameras now. Trail cameras have been around for a while. For example, trail cameras were used in the hills of Los Angeles 90+ years ago. But the old trail cameras had to be checked by hand, and the film developed with no idea what was on it until the process was complete.

But the advent of remote and constant monitoring - with images sent now via the cloud and web allows a person (or AI) to monitor the camera as it takes pictures every few seconds. The camera area now doesn't smell like people, so animals are more interested in something out of place than afraid.

That is why we have seen the presence of unique animals or animals in places we thought the animals had been driven out of. Anywho, here are the pictures.

The cub

Mom

Let us look at the Media for a moment

 Man, I am ignoring my own rules quickly. But the devil drives where the needs must.

So, the "both sides" of the media can be infuriating. Let's look at this example from this morning.

If you think about it, the phrase "... has turned political" is asinine. 

It hasn't "turned" political. Maghats MADE it political. Do you know how it "turned" political? Trump and his doctors will not allow Trump's actual injury or follow-up check-ups to be shared with the FBI! It would NOT be political if the doctors talked or shared information with the FBI or Secret Service. 

It didn't suddenly turn political. It was turned political so Trump and his followers could tell us all God saved him. As if God had nothing better to do.

And now, back to your regularly scheduled programing.

Save me from both sideism.

Fear of Crazy Maga with Guns

 I was just talking to Lynn, and the country does scare me now. I remember some people worrying when putting on the (Bill) Clinton bumper stickers. At the beginning, with my group of friends, we worried that people would see the sticker, know we were gay, and be pissed off.

Now, I wouldn't put a Harris sticker on my car for fear of being shot at. Really. They are full-on crazy. Last election, a bunch of them tried to push Biden's bus off the freeway into a ditch. Cars were vandalized, and people were threatened with guns while driving.

These people have actually worked as terrorists. See definition:

Dictionary

Definitions from Oxford Languages · Learn more

ter·ror·ist

/ˈterərəst/

noun

1. a person who uses unlawful violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims.

   "four commercial aircraft were hijacked by terrorists"

   Similar:

   bomber

   arsonist

   incendiary

   gunman

   assassin

   desperado

   hijacker

   revolutionary

   radical

   guerrilla

   urban guerrilla

   subversive

   anarchist

   freedom fighter

   insurrectionist

   insurrectionary

adjective

1. unlawfully using violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims.

   "a terrorist organization"

But I think with Harris, we have a little hope.