Colby Jack is the most badass non-gendered name I can think of right. Mostly because “Colby Jack” is in my brain right now.
3 Likes
Correlation is not necessarily causation.
It’s like when people claim sleeping more causes health problems, when health problems can cause people to sleep more. Or that fantasies of becoming female cause gender dysphoria. Or that hard work can protect against disabilities, which is one of the rationales for Medicaid work requirements. Or that believing you control your fate can lead anyone to prosperity and protect anyone from misfortune or injustice.
5 Likes
I’m tempted to make some kind of image “Breaking News! Eating healthy food reduces chances of death! May potentially be a cure for starvation!”
But more seriously, fermented/pickled foods etc. seem to be good in ways that we don’t even understand yet. We have whole biomes living in/on us in symbiosis, but so far all we seem to know is that gut bacteria is somehow important, but it seems like no one really knows the details yet.
5 Likes
6 Likes
Isn’t living in the future grand?
5 Likes
The tinfoil hat guys are on to something. Gah, how insidious.
4 Likes
5 Likes
This is why we need a Space Force!
Interestingly my high school physics teacher in the 80s mentioned you could turn an old microwave oven into a type of microwave gun.
8 Likes
Herf gun.
2 Likes
4 Likes
I think I’m an imperialist running dog.
when reading about this horrific fire
I was reminded, in part, of this story.(set in a completely different country)
let us hope that the Museo Geológico José Royo y Gómez has fire suppression systems that don’t give one pause.
4 Likes
It’s really tough to accept that people get to decide what they want to do with their own stuff.
I knew an Egyptologist in Cairo (native to the country) so I followed with personal interest the saga of trying to save as much as possible from the Cairo Museum (etc.) during the Arab Spring. People love their country, and their heritage, and will do whatever it takes to save as much as humanly possible.
But for every story like that, you get willful destruction of historic monuments/statues by rebel forces. Or, the incredibly sad reality that not everyone can afford high-end protection: fire, vandalism, theft, and acts of war.
Which is the bigger loss to humanity: the willful destruction of the Library at Alexandria, or the inadvertent destruction of the National Museum in Rio de Janeiro?
Ugh.
8 Likes
The shrike is a hawk trapped in the body of a finch. From a distance, it looks like any other songbird, perched on a high vantage point. But from those perches, the two-ounce bird frequently swoops onto its prey, and subdues it with the murderous, hooked tip of its beak. “It’s like seeing a rabbit running around with long canines and a mane and acting like a lion,” says Margaret Rubega from the University of Connecticut. “I personally think they’re very badass.”
9 Likes
8 Likes
Except the point of museums was that it was an entire nation’s stuff. In Brazil’s case, people have been saying for a long time that the infrastructure needed desperate help, but the government chose to spend money on the Olympics and football stadia instead.
13 Likes
6 Likes
Right, and Brazil’s government is taking a lot of massively unpopular actions. Particularly with regard to science - most of the funding for the Brazilian equivalent of the NSF is gone next year.
I don’t know that the humanity has ever lived in a time with more voice in our governments (in any nation), but it’s quite clear that we also live in an era of corruption. My guess would be that if you asked Brazilians what they wanted to do with these things “Let them fester, then burn” would not be the answer [the only Brazilians I know are all scientists, though, so I could be wrong].
7 Likes
I can’t help but think that getting rid of that pesky “other” culture is a factor.
3 Likes
That article is old and speculative.
By way of contrast, here’s wikipedia’s take.
At the time of sale, it was one of the top two most expensive artworks ever sold, together with van Gogh’s Portrait of Dr. Gachet , which was also purchased by Saito. Saito caused international outrage when he suggested in 1991 that he intended to cremate both paintings with him when he died. However, when Saito and his companies ran into severe financial difficulties, bankers who held the painting as collateral for loans arranged a confidential sale through Sotheby’s to an undisclosed buyer.[3] Although not known for certain, the painting is believed to be in the hands of a Swiss collector.[ citation needed ]
(Ironically, the Musée d’Orsay owns a larger version of Bal du moulin, and a second version of Portrait of Dr. Gachet, both painted by the original artists)
2 Likes
My reaction is mainly about the idea that it’s okay to destroy an artist’s work, even if one holds the copyright.
To me, it seems a supremely selfish act to remove a work that has entered the collective consciousness.
On the other hand, graffiti artists and muralists contend with the fact that their work will not stand the test of time, but that’s a pact they’ve already made with themselves. I think there are likely very few portrait painters who paint with the intent of having their works destroyed on a whim.
11 Likes