Small Talk: Out of Genoa

[Snaporaz]

I love Gertrude's markings!  I don't think I've ever seen a Calico Tuxedo!  

[valleycliffe]

the bat signal was seen over vancouver last night

vancouver = gotham

[jpagan05]

On 3/13/2019 at 1:31 PM, Petunia13 said:

I’m throwing freight of 35-50 lbs for the entire eight hours. I also have to bartend and of course order. 

Love that you do that physical work and your handle is Petuna💪 <3

On 3/15/2019 at 9:23 AM, PatsyandEddie said:

George Michael's art collection raises $14.6 million at auction
https://www.cnn.com/style/article/george-michael-art-scli-intl-gbr/index.html

Awww man, I covet! Damien Hirst? Tracey Emin? Yes please!

8 hours ago, pearlite said:

Happy St Patrick's Day to those who celebrate it!

I did just learn that it's also St Gertrude's Day, and she's the patron saint of cats. I also have a Gertrude...who is not particularly saintly...

Also love that you have a kitty named Gertrude!🐾 <3 

🐍🔨Sláinte!

[Cupid Stunt]

Why are So Many Teachers Women? 

Where eagles flirt: A DC tale of love, loss and raccoons

The man's got dance skills to pay the bills ^

A look at attacks on houses of worship over last decade

Mayor Pete Buttigieg wrote a letter to the Muslim community in South Bend after the New Zealand terrorist attack.

Species by the dozen moved north during marine heatwaves

[pearlite]

17 hours ago, Snaporaz said:

I love Gertrude's markings!  I don't think I've ever seen a Calico Tuxedo!  

Me neither, Snaporaz!

PLL rescued her when she was about a month old, trying to cross a busy street near us. I always think that her face looks a bit like Daffy Duck--Gert of course thinks that spoils her dignity.

[Cupid Stunt]

19 hours ago, pearlite said:

White whiskers and eyebrows forever … Gertie's a beauty.

10 minutes ago, pearlite said:

Me neither, Snaporaz!

PLL rescued her when she was about a month old, trying to cross a busy street near us. I always think that her face looks a bit like Daffy Duck--Gert of course thinks that spoils her dignity.

Cat dignity is part of their charm. When they drop the façade and their dignity eludes them, they are even more endearing.

[Cupid Stunt]

Dick Dale died March 16 at age 83. No other details were available.

Born Richard Anthony Monsour in Boston on May 4, 1937, Dale moved to Los Angeles with his family in 1954, where he immediately fell in love with surfing and the electric guitar. As a child, he listened to Lebanese and Polish folk tunes played by his parents. Eventually he graduated to big band, swing, country and rockabilly. Self-taught on guitar, the left-handed Dale couldn’t afford a custom-made model, so early on he played a standard right-hand guitar upside down and backward. That ended after a meeting with legendary guitar builder Leo Fender, who offered to make Dale his own left-handed model if he’d test a line of guitars and amplifiers Fender was developing.

At the turn of the 60s, Dale was pivotal in the development of the Fender Stratocaster guitar. “Everything that came out of Leo Fender’s head, I was his test pilot,” Dale told the Miami New Times in 2011. “He used to say: ‘When it can withstand the barrage of punishment from Dick Dale, then it is fit for the human consumption.’ So I blew up over 50 amplifiers. And that’s why they call me the Father of Heavy Metal. "

"I became Leo’s personal guinea pig,” Dale told The Associated Press in 1997. “Anything that came out of the Fender company, I played.” He played so loudly that he blew up one amplifier after another until a frustrated Fender built him a “Dick Dale Dual Showman” doubled-sized amp. It was a model that would become popular with aspiring Los Angeles guitarists.

As he began to become well known, he began calling himself Dick Dale, explaining years later that a radio disc jockey had suggested it was a better name for a rock star than Richard Monsour. His surfer buddies had already nicknamed him King of the Surf Guitar, a title he said he initially resisted, fearing it would limit his audience. When the spirit of surfing caught on everywhere, however, he came to embrace the crown.

Dale, whose pounding, howling loud power-chord instrumentals on songs like Miserlou and Let’s Go Trippin’ earned him the title King of the Surf Guitar, liked to say it was he and not the Beach Boys who invented surf music, and critics agree. 

An avid surfer, Dale started building a devoted Los Angeles fan base in the late 1950s with repeated appearances at Newport Beach’s old Rendezvous Ballroom. He played Miserlou, The Wedge, Night Rider and other compositions almost to the point of distortion on a custom-made Fender Stratocaster guitar. Miserlou, which would become his signature song, had been adapted from a Middle Eastern folk tune Dale heard as a child and later transformed into a thundering one-string surf-rock instrumental which became a national sensation after Dale performed it on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1962.

His fingering style was so frenetic that he shredded guitar picks during songs, a technique that forced him to stash spares on his guitar’s body. “Better shred than dead,” he liked to joke, an expression that eventually became the title of a 1997 anthology released by Rhino Records. Dale said he developed his musical style when he sought to merge the sounds of the crashing ocean waves he heard while surfing with melodies inspired by the rockabilly music he loved. He pounded rather than plucked the strings of his guitar in a style he said he borrowed from an early musical hero, the great jazz drummer Gene Krupa.

“Dale pioneered a musical genre that Beach Boy Brian Wilson and others would later bring to fruition,” Rolling Stone magazine said in its “Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll” adding Let’s Go Trippin’ was released in 1961, two months ahead of the Beach Boys’ first hit, Surfin.’ The magazine called Dale’s song “the harbinger of the ’60s surf music craze.”

Although popular around Southern California, Dale might have remained just a cult figure if surfing had not exploded in worldwide popularity during his peak creative years. When the first of a series of “Beach Party” movies made to cash in on the phenomenon was released in 1963, it included Dick Dale and the Del-Tones performing Secret Surfing Spot as teen heartthrob Annette Funicello danced on the beach.

Dale had released his first album, Surfer’s Choice, a year earlier. He followed it with four more over the next two years while appearing in several “Beach Party” sequels and other surfer movies. Other popular Dale songs included Jungle Fever, Shake-N-Stomp and Swingin’ and Surfin’. His star dimmed after the Beatles led music’s British invasion onto the pop charts in 1964 and his record label dropped him. His career also was sidelined by a battle with cancer in the 1960s and a serious foot infection in the 1970s that was the result of a surfing injury.

His musical influence was profound and included guitar virtuosos Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan and movie director Quentin Tarantino, who selected Dale’s Miserlou, as the theme song of his 1994 film “Pulp Fiction.” That helped pull the guitarist back into the pop-culture spotlight. Dale himself had begun to launch a comeback with the 1987 film “Back to the Beach,” which reunited Funicello and her co-star Frankie Avalon as a middle-aged couple returning to their old surfing haunts. He teamed up with Vaughan to record the classic surf instrumental Pipeline for that film, earning the pair a Grammy nomination.

In 1993 he released Tribal Thunder, his first album of all new material in nearly 30 years. He followed it with Unknown Territory the following year. Dale continued to tour into his 80s, in part he said to pay the medical bills that advancing age was saddling him with. Having beaten cancer in the 1960s, he suffered a serious recurrence in 2015.

Dale once said in an interview that he wanted to die onstage in an explosion of body parts. -- “You tell the people, ‘Don’t be scared of dying.' When your mind leaves this body, it is a beautiful thing and it is not to be feared. Don’t let that fear of dying affect the way you live. You take that fear and you use it as a driving force to keep moving forward, no matter how much pain you have. That’s how I do what I do on stage. I’m not afraid to die because it all gets beautiful from here.”

Dale is survived by his wife, Lana, and son James, a drummer who sometimes toured with his father.

Surfing the never ending wave …

Vaya con Dios, Dale.

[jpagan05]

A friend's surf band used to open for him when he played on the east coast. He talked about how ill  Dick Dale always was and that he still performed to pay for medical bills. Sad.

[Cupid Stunt]

Peggy Whitson: Record-Holding Astronaut

US detects huge meteor explosion -- On December 18th, 2018, but you probably never heard about it, because scientists just noticed it. The area where the fireball exploded, over the Bering Sea, is extremely remote. NASA's Planetary Defense Officer Lindley Johnson told the BBC such a powerful meteor event only happens a few times every 100 years. (As a side note, "Planetary Defense Officer" is probably as close to a real-life "Avengers" title as you're gonna get. No bread and circuses Space Force for NASA). In case you're not worried enough about flaming extraterrestrial objects continuously pelting our fragile planet, they do so all the time. NASA keeps track of most of the notable fireballs and bolides (astronomical term for a large meteor that explodes in the atmosphere) that reach Earth. So far in 2019, there have been five notable fireball events. Don't worry, most are very small. And if the big one ever comes along to make dinosaurs of us all, NASA's Planetary Defense Office is on the job and will record the event.

The spring equinox is Wednesday: 7 things to know about the first day of spring

Satellite images show Nebraska and Iowa rivers swallowing towns

Homes flood as Missouri River overtops, breaches levees

The final supermoon of the year occurs as an asteroid zips close by

People tour the inside 'The Vessel,' a large public art sculpture made up of 155 flights of stairs, during the grand opening of the The Hudson Yards development, a residential, commercial, and retail space on Manhattan's West side in New York City. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

Reuters Editors Choice Pictures -- Mar 18, 2019

[jpagan05]

https://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2019/03/19/young-and-restless-star-kristoff-st-john-died-alcohol-poisoning-heart-disease/ 

[Cupid Stunt]

This International Women’s Day, support liberal democracy by defending women’s rights against authoritarianism

-- Why are authoritarian rulers so threatened by feminism? The subjugation of women is a common feature in virtually all authoritarian regimes.

Putin signed a law in 2017 that partially decriminalised domestic violence in Russia, making it much more difficult for women to report abuse.

In Hungary, the autocratic Prime Minister Viktor Orban has banned gender studies programmes at universities. Putin, Orban and Xi, among others, are fixated on pushing women into more traditional roles in the home and having more babies for the state…

Far too often, women in resistance movements are overlooked by journalists and the narrative revolves around male opposition figures.

Yet more young women in authoritarian states have become fed up with the misogyny in their daily lives, demanding equality, dignity and an end to pervasive gender-based violence.

Young women standing up for their rights pose a growing challenge to male autocrats everywhere – not just in China – which is why authoritarian rulers are so threatened by the prospect of any large-scale women’s movement developing.

Male autocrats see patriarchal authoritarianism as crucial for their political survival, but one of the core demands of feminism – that women should be free to control our own bodies and reproductive lives – is in direct conflict with the coercive, often pronatalist policies of authoritarian states, which see declining birth rates as an existential crisis. 

Lake Mead marina June 2014

US official declares drought plan done for Colorado River

Mouse Housekeeper

 Grace Coddington's Roomba Cats

Nearly all Americans fail to eat enough fiber

Edited March 20, 2019 by Cupid Stunt

[peacheslatour]

Quote

Male autocrats see patriarchal authoritarianism as crucial for their political survival, but one of the core demands of feminism – that women should be free to control our own bodies and reproductive lives – is in direct conflict with the coercive, often pronatalist policies of authoritarian states, which see declining birth rates as an existential crisis.

Women must be the brood mares for their endless need for cannon fodder for their wars and wage slaves for their corporate overlords. No other role is valuable to them.

[Cupid Stunt]

Women in Television  -- Promoting and Advocating for Change

"It defies culture in so many ways. It affects the way we see ourselves and the way we are seen by others. It gets into the DNA of how we treat each other, the policies we make, what we’re able to say and do to each other. For there only to be one dominant voice determining what’s said and saying it is something that all like-minded people who believe in the dignity of everyone should be concerned about." - Ava DuVernay

Why a cat always lands on its feet -- It's Physics!

Minnetonka’s Andy Steinfeldt, 71, Breaks World Planking Record

Aidy Bryant’s clothes in Shrill are a plus-size dream. Here’s why you can’t buy them.

Why retailers overlook women who aren’t quite plus or straight size

Edited March 21, 2019 by Cupid Stunt

[Cupid Stunt]

9 hours ago, Bunnyto4 said:

Yes!! Mutiny!! Consider me all in. 

Welcome! We meet daily at the Dorothy Parker Piano Bar on the Lido Deck.

It's tacky, but the bartender has a liberal pour and everyone knows your handle. We scare off the tourists before the 8pm shellfish service in the Caribe dining room.

Bring your notes and SL outlines; we storyboard, discuss, snark and drink until Peacheslatour drops trou and starts baton twirling … You've got to draw the line somewhere … Or so we've been told.

8 hours ago, Porterest said:

I really miss Simon Neville. He was great, and yes, he was a believable love interest. 

In a mostly unrelated note, I also miss Kevin. 

He was wonderful. Letting Michael E. Knight go was a mistake, but TIIC didn't see it that way. <shrug> What are you going to do? TIIC have been bone morons for the last five regimes.

I miss the Chipmunk, but his character was ruined by shackling him to Chloe and Bella. Elizabeth Hendrickson poisoned everything she touched on Y&R.

6 hours ago, bannana said:

I still use a BlackBerry.  I do get some odd looks from others.

I got my fair share of side-eye, but their platform for business use is excellent.

I used Blackberry's for years until the keyboard on my Q5 died. I tried their Key2 for a month, but it didn't work for me. I'm waiting on their next generation Evolve.

[jewel21]

Ugh, welcome cold/flu #3. 

*sobs brokenly*

[peacheslatour]

Quote

Bring your notes and SL outlines; we storyboard, discuss, snark and drink until Peacheslatour drops trou and starts baton twirling … You've got to draw the line somewhere … Or so we've been told.

Hey! You said you'd never bring that up again! *runs away sobbing*

[Cupid Stunt]

1 hour ago, peacheslatour said:

Hey! You said you'd never bring that up again! *runs away sobbing*

<hands over a Dirty Martini>

What'cha takin' bout? Those were your coed salad days. We all love to go back to those simpler, naked times …

All the bar manager and Algonquin members ask is that you keep your pants on so we don't get 86ed to the Sky Deck again. We all understand how difficult that is for you with belly full of gin and the piano player strikes up a little Carly Rae Jespen, and suddenly you're a slip of a girl, high-stepping in front of the marching band …

That milkshake brings all the boys to the yard ...

Bunny deserves to know what sort of sewing circle she volunteered to join.

Edited March 22, 2019 by Cupid Stunt

[bannana]

4 hours ago, Cupid Stunt said:

I got my fair share of side-eye, but their platform for business use is excellent.

I used Blackberry's for years until the keyboard on my Q5 died. I tried their Key2 for a month, but it didn't work for me. I'm waiting on their next generation Evolve.

Pretty sure I am going to use a BlackBerry until I die, unless of course they do before I do. 🙃😕😁

[Bunnyto4]

5 hours ago, Cupid Stunt said:

<hands over a Dirty Martini>

What'cha takin' bout? Those were your coed salad days. We all love to go back to those simpler, naked times …

All the bar manager and Algonquin members ask is that you keep your pants on so we don't get 86ed to the Sky Deck again. We all understand how difficult that is for you with belly full of gin and the piano player strikes up a little Carly Rae Jespen, and suddenly you're a slip of a girl, high-stepping in front of the marching band …

That milkshake brings all the boys to the yard ...

Bunny deserves to know what sort of sewing circle she volunteered to join.

I mean-are you kidding me? That, my friends, sounds like a partay! Just say the word and I'll be there with a ream of legal pads and nice hefty pens for all ( and lots of blue cheese stuffed olives for them dirrrrrrty martinis)!! Let's do this thing!

[basiltherat]

Now, who is going to be able to march let alone make words and  pictures after all those martoonies??!!

[PatsyandEddie]

That’s so yucky jewel! Feel better soon 🤧🤗

[Bunnyto4]

9 minutes ago, basiltherat said:

Now, who is going to be able to march let alone make words and  pictures after all those martoonies??!!

Come on, basil, you know who. Our new scriptwriting consortium, "The Not Mal Young Writers Theatre" tm. All are welcome to attend-bring nibbles.

[Cupid Stunt]

The fear of powerful women and how the media punishes women for the bad acts of others -- Tayla Harris: How 'repulsive' social media comments sparked outrage in Australia 

There’s finally a drug for postpartum depression. Too bad it’s $34,000. -- Brexanolone was designed to address an unmet medical need. It’s also complicated to use.

The Fertility Doctor’s Secret -- And then DNA testing came along

It took one mass shooting for New Zealand to ban assault weapons

Exhibit explores keen senses, abilities of man's best friend

[Cupid Stunt]

13 hours ago, jewel21 said:

Ugh, welcome cold/flu #3. 

*sobs brokenly*

Not again!

(((Jewel)))

Try to get some rest this weekend. Drink fluids and a zinc/mineral supplement because of all the fluids you're going to sweat/snot/cough/eliminate.

[Cupid Stunt]

1 hour ago, basiltherat said:

Now, who is going to be able to march let alone make words and  pictures after all those martoonies??!!

You held up your end just fine at the last meeting, Basil. And ate all the stuffed mushrooms and jalapeno poppers.

Featherweights are monitored by the designated teetotaler (chosen by lottery) until they move up two weight classifications.

1 hour ago, Bunnyto4 said:

Come on, basil, you know who. Our new scriptwriting consortium, "The Not Mal Young Writers Theatre" tm. All are welcome to attend-bring nibbles.

No worries, Basil. Bunny's in for a penny, in for a pound. And the other members are gathering … Put on your wighat and cocktail dress and get your rat ass in the dance line for the Electric Slide!

[pearlite]

5 hours ago, Bunnyto4 said:

I mean-are you kidding me? That, my friends, sounds like a partay! Just say the word and I'll be there with a ream of legal pads and nice hefty pens for all ( and lots of blue cheese stuffed olives for them dirrrrrrty martinis)!! Let's do this thing!

Welcome from Pearlite! A charter member, and Empress of Unpopular Opinions--those little suckers follow me around ever since I started feeding them...

1 hour ago, Bunnyto4 said:

Come on, basil, you know who. Our new scriptwriting consortium, "The Not Mal Young Writers Theatre" tm. All are welcome to attend-bring nibbles.

Weirdest thing about this group is that some of us actually are professional writers here. And, if you're sitting along the piano bar with me, professional drinkers as well.

Now, excuse me, Troy the piano player has promised to let me sing along with "Anything Goes."

[Waldo13]

On 3/21/2019 at 11:58 AM, Cupid Stunt said:

Burial at Sea … Like a demised goldfish ... An excellent ending for JT, but it was not to be.

Maybe the city was flushing out fire hydrants or someone was pumping out winter melt and cleaning the swimming pool -- Who can say when Maleficent is spinning dross out of compost.

You'd think it was a play on Absurdism, but it's Maleficent Misogynist Boilerplate 3.0.

In Garbage City regular prison escapee wimmin'folks are helpless damsels in distress, and have been taken hostage by their tormenter with dain bramage/tumor/migraine/hemorrhoids. They need the Leather Manx (man Spanx) of Virility and the Silver Briefcase of Justice, the Hardy Boys and Phyllis to save their coifed and manicured bacon from having to wear no-name Canadian tuxedos.

I miss my Blackberry.

Breaking the glass on locked French doors isn't a bad alarm system if you're using the Abbott Death Cabin as a hiding place, but we have super spy JT Helstrom where no lock or grave can hold back his malevolent presence and super spy know-how.

Cricket has spent a lifetime setting aside her past personal and professional behavior to service short-term goals and individual bias. It's her jam.

Back up, Waldo! Defaming the brilliant legacy of Sergio Leone is a bridge too far. Do not insult the Dollars Trilogy in the same breath with Maleficent's choleric last gasps on Y&R. 

Sorry about that Cupid. Sergio's Spaghetti Westerns actually deserve more appreciation than a they ever got when they were made.  I’m pretty sure they are more popular now. I actually watch them whenever they are on TV. The Good The Bad and the Ugly is my favorite. Clint and Eli 👍.  

Christine should have recused herself since she had a conflict of interest. Christine and Paul recruited J.T. to get dirt on Victor.  Christine and Paul didn’t obtain warrants and knew but turned a blind eye to how J.T. was operating above the law.  Christine also tried to nail Phyllis’ ass to the wall, when she was the victim. 

[Bunnyto4]

50 minutes ago, Cupid Stunt said:

You held up your end just fine at the last meeting, Basil. And ate all the stuffed mushrooms and jalapeno poppers.

Featherweights are monitored by the designated teetotaler (chosen by lottery) until they move up two weight classifications.

No worries, Basil. Bunny's in for a penny, in for a pound. And the other members are gathering … Put on your wighat and cocktail dress and get your rat ass in the dance line for the Electric Slide!

Cupid, is there any chance we were separated at birth? That's the only explanation I can come up with for someone I've never met to know me so well. Not to mention that when I joined this amazing group I was planning for my handle to be Cunning Runt. Coincidence? I think not. Have a fabulous weekend, everyone,  and I have Duke winning the big dance, so keep a good thought. Thanks for the laughs!

[Cupid Stunt]

3 hours ago, pearlite said:

Welcome from Pearlite! A charter member, and Empress of Unpopular Opinions--those little suckers follow me around ever since I started feeding them...

Pearlite keeps the Unpopular Opinion Sepulcher lively and tidy.

I leave a trail of unpopular opinions wherever I go.

Quote

Weirdest thing about this group is that some of us actually are professional writers here. And, if you're sitting along the piano bar with me, professional drinkers as well.

Now, excuse me, Troy the piano player has promised to let me sing along with "Anything Goes."

You were fabulous in top hat, tail coat and fishnet stockings! And what a charming dance routine!

I love musical theater.

3 hours ago, Waldo13 said:

Sorry about that Cupid. Sergio's Spaghetti Westerns actually deserve more appreciation than a they ever got when they were made.  I’m pretty sure they are more popular now. I actually watch them whenever they are on TV. The Good The Bad and the Ugly is my favorite. Clint and Eli 👍.  

No harm, no foul, Waldo.

Just gotta' wave my Sergio Leone flag. Leone's the master of film technique. By slowing the pace of confrontations, allowing the silence and suspense to build creates an exquisite tension in his films. The way he follows how the characters move and closeup reactions tell so much of what is happening internally, all without saying a word. Leone's action sequences happen very quickly in a stunning final act against the slow build. His camera work and crane shots draw you into the scene, and his attention to detail and background action makes you want to return again and again. Leone told simple stories on a grand and eloquent scale.

Quote

Christine should have recused herself since she had a conflict of interest. Christine and Paul recruited J.T. to get dirt on Victor.  Christine and Paul didn’t obtain warrants and knew but turned a blind eye to how J.T. was operating above the law.  Christine also tried to nail Phyllis’ ass to the wall, when she was the victim. 

Considering that the only time we see the DA involves Newman-related criminality, recusal would mean Cricket would be prosecuting property crimes and public vagrancy, while sneering at defendants in bond court -- Hey! That's not a bad idea. 

In cross examining Victoria, Cricket made a passing mention of JT hired by the DAs office to investigate Victor on some pie-in-the-sky pricing conspiracy, but neither Michael or Britany made any hay out of it -- Obvious to the viewer, but Maleficent was producing this dreck and that's why we have to put up with Nicki, Victoria and Sharon's conviction, return to the Abbott Death Cabin and the rest of this idiocy.

2 hours ago, Bunnyto4 said:

Cupid, is there any chance we were separated at birth? That's the only explanation I can come up with for someone I've never met to know me so well. Not to mention that when I joined this amazing group I was planning for my handle to be Cunning Runt. Coincidence? I think not. Have a fabulous weekend, everyone,  and I have Duke winning the big dance, so keep a good thought. Thanks for the laughs!

Cunning Runt? Sisterhood of Different Mother's? Hmmm … My father is a sphinx on several subjects.

Duke should be a cakewalk.

The more time I spend on the Interwebs, the more I find I have in common with its inhabitants. 

[valleycliffe]

i think all y'all can relate to this.

[bannana]

19 hours ago, jewel21 said:

Ugh, welcome cold/flu #3. 

*sobs brokenly*

Me too, as of this morning.  Although I haven't been sick in almost two years, so there is that.

[peacheslatour]

9 minutes ago, bannana said:

Me too, as of this morning.  Although I haven't been sick in almost two years, so there is that.

I don't know if what I have is a cold or allergies. Constant sneezing with runny nose but no sore throat or anything. Fingers crossed.

[bannana]

4 minutes ago, peacheslatour said:

I don't know if what I have is a cold or allergies. Constant sneezing with runny nose but no sore throat or anything. Fingers crossed.

Mine started with a sore throat that I just got yesterday.  Had a great workout last night and woke up sick.☹️

[jewel21]

5 hours ago, bannana said:

Mine started with a sore throat that I just got yesterday.  Had a great workout last night and woke up sick.☹️

Same. Sore throat started yesterday evening and today. Now a bit of runny nose. We'll what comes next I guess.

Thanks for the suggestions, Cupid Stunt and everyone for the well wishes and sympathy. 

Also, I saw "Us" today. Freaky and really good. And then I saw "Rock of Ages" the musical with my cousin. It was her birthday present. It was fun but apparently I don't know as many 80s songs as I thought I did and I was the one born in the actual 80s, heh. I'm going to pay for all of this activity tomorrow. 

[bannana]

16 minutes ago, jewel21 said:

Also, I saw "Us" today. Freaky and really good.

I really want to see Us.  Thanks for the reco 😮

[Cupid Stunt]

Karen Uhlenbeck is first woman to win prestigious maths Abel prize

-- Uhlenbeck, an influential mathematician who was for decades a professor at the University of Texas at Austin and who has sought to encourage women to study mathematics, has become the first woman to win the Abel Prize — often called the Nobel Prize of math.

Uhlenbeck's complex and wide-ranging work includes analyzing the "minimal surfaces" of soap bubbles and finding ways to unite geometry and physics through new mathematical approaches. She's widely respected for her work on esoteric topics, such as partial differential equations and the calculus of variations.

"Uhlenbeck's research has led to revolutionary advances at the intersection of mathematics and physics," said Paul Goldbart, a professor of physics who is also the dean of UT's college of natural sciences. In a statement about Uhlenbeck winning the Abel Prize, he added, "Her pioneering insights have applications across a range of fascinating subjects, from string theory, which may help explain the nature of reality, to the geometry of space-time."

The Norwegian academy said it recognized Uhlenbeck "for her pioneering achievements in geometric partial differential equations, gauge theory and integrable systems, and for the fundamental impact of her work on analysis, geometry and mathematical physics."

The Abel Prize includes an award of 6 million Norwegian kroner (around $700,000). Uhlenbeck will formally receive the prize from Norway's King Harald V, in a ceremony in Oslo on May 21.

"Karen Uhlenbeck is a founder of modern geometric analysis," said Hans Munthe-Kaas, chair of the academy's Abel Committee. "Her perspective has pervaded the field and led to some of the most dramatic advances in mathematics over the last 40 years."

The Death Of ‘Badass’

Flower fields of Carlsbad

It's National Puppy Day!

Tens of thousands in southern Africa need help after cyclone

AP Explains: Why southern African cyclone is so shattering

[AngelKitty]

5 minutes ago, Cupid Stunt said:

differential equations

Heh, heh, I actually loved differential equations when I majored in math at Tufts. I just couldn't figure what to do with them in the real world and switched to economics.

[jpagan05]

@Cupid Stunt Thor in that puppy video, omg, my heart!

[Cupid Stunt]

Deborah Szekely is the 96-Year-Old Queen of Wellness

This high school drama club put on a stage production of Alien, and it looks fantastic

Paleontologists report world's biggest Tyrannosaurus rex -- Nicknamed 'Scotty,' the record-breaking rex is also the largest dinosaur skeleton ever found in Canada

A rare solar storm may bring the Northern Lights south to the US

All cats go to heaven

This is a thing -- Florida man Googles self to find out which Florida Man he is and why so many crazy stories come out of the state of Florida

[Cupid Stunt]

The Oldest American Picture Book Still in Print is Obviously About Cats Ahem: Millions of Cats

The country’s biggest meat companies are investing in vegan foods … The unlikely partnership that might decide the future of meat

Nikola Tesla, as a Peep bunny by H. Piper, J. Piper

How crafters are using Peeps to explain science -- I prefer to use Cadbury Mini Eggs in my dioramas, but that's just me … Delicious!

[Cupid Stunt]

From a PBS broadcast series Women, War and Peace -- A group of 16 women who'd been imprisoned and raped by Serb-led forces in a Bosnian town took the witness stand in an international court of law.

The truth about wasabi is that it's probably dyed horseradish

Report: Great Lakes feeling effects of rapid climate warming

For the dinosaurs -- Myspace, which still exists, accidentally deleted 12 years’ worth of music

Nuclear industry pushing for fewer inspections at plants -- Because self-monitoring and reporting has proved so effective 

[jewel21]

The new Apple Cinnamon  London Fog from Tim Horton's is lovely. I've had it four times in two days. Each time it tasted different though, heh. 

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to lie under the covers and wait for the Nyquil to kick in. 

[boes]

3 hours ago, jewel21 said:

The new Apple Cinnamon  London Fog from Tim Horton's is lovely. I've had it four times in two days. Each time it tasted different though, heh. 

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to lie under the covers and wait for the Nyquil to kick in. 

I hope you're starting to feel better!

[Cupid Stunt]

Meet the women who are reshaping Afghanistan

What happens when a major metropolitan area runs out of water?

AI disaster won’t look like the Terminator. It’ll be creepier.

The 2nd Plague Arrives in Florida -- ABC News Reports:  A Florida suburb is being plagued by thousands of poisonous toads.

Experts say the amphibians are bufo toads, also known as cane toads. Residents in the infested Palm Beach Gardens neighborhood worry toxins secreted by the toads will harm their pets and children.

News stations broadcast images of the small toads clogging pool filters, hopping en masse across driveways and sidewalks, and lurking in landscaped lawns.

Resident Jennifer Quasha told WPBF her family first noticed the toads Friday. She said hundreds of them were in her swimming pool.

Mark Holladay of the pest removal service Toad Busters told WPTV that recent rains coupled with warm temperatures sent the amphibians into a breeding cycle.

Holladay said even more toads are likely to spread throughout South Florida in the coming weeks.

'Doomsday vault' town warming faster than any other on Earth

[AngelKitty]

The first year we moved into our house, one morning I went out to my car and the driveway was black which was odd. As I stepped out, the black moved and I realized the surface was covered with tiny toads. Brought to mind the movie The Frogs. Creepy.

[valleycliffe]

when my daughter lived in savannah ga. we went on a road trip to visit her...we went in may...while there, we were all invited to go see my daughters mil who lived in jacksonville fl..one evening while we were there my husband went outside to take some video and he was amazed that the lawn was covered in frogs.  we had never seen that before.

[peacheslatour]

44 minutes ago, valleycliffe said:

when my daughter lived in savannah ga. we went on a road trip to visit her...we went in may...while there, we were all invited to go see my daughters mil who lived in jacksonville fl..one evening while we were there my husband went outside to take some video and he was amazed that the lawn was covered in frogs.  we had never seen that before.

Oh, gross.

[bannana]

I just got goosebumps on the back of the my neck reading those posts about toads and frogs 🐸

[peacheslatour]

4 hours ago, valleycliffe said:

when my daughter lived in savannah ga. we went on a road trip to visit her...we went in may...while there, we were all invited to go see my daughters mil who lived in jacksonville fl..one evening while we were there my husband went outside to take some video and he was amazed that the lawn was covered in frogs.  we had never seen that before.

Just now, peacheslatour said:

The closest thing I've ever seen to this was when we went to stay at the Hidden Valley Ranch in Eastern Washington. We were walking from the mainhouse down to the lodge and the lawn was covered in grass hoppers. Just millions of them.

Edited March 27, 2019 by peacheslatour

[jewel21]

20 hours ago, boes said:

I hope you're starting to feel better!

Thanks, not yet but hopefully soon! I lost my voice this evening. Answering the phones tomorrow at work should be interesting, heh. 

I actually like toads. When my grandparents had their country house they would get a lot of tiny toads the size of my baby nail. They were cute. That being said, I don't know how I would feel about thousands of them on my driveway, heh.