I've deleted one thread in the last... probably five days or so. If you're seeing other things disappearing, it isn't me. Happy Friday!

California ‘party mom’ hears from parents...(I had to divorce that crazy b*tch...

Spent a few days in Philly last week. Love the downtown area so much! Vibrant, friendly, and totally walkable. It's as old a city as the US has to offer with incredible history. 

It's great having family in the area. 

So distressing to hear because I'm related to half the town.

Agree that downtown Philly is way better than perhaps it's rep.  Even it's small Chinatown is nice.  Public transport works well.  EASY to imagine it being the 1700s there in the old section.  Lots of character.  *Kinda* Boston-ish, but definitely not fully.

I have made probably a dozen trips to Philly, twice the number of trips I've made to Boston. One of my kids lived in Boston while working on MRI/brain function research at one the Harvard hospitals; his betrothed was completing her PhD at Harvard. I visited half a dozen times, but they lived several stops on the Green Line from the city center. We visited downtown Boston often enough, but I am far more familiar with Philly. I agree that Boston and Philly are different critters. I like them both. 

I ventured down to the local hardware store for some grass seed for a bit of turf repair. $10/lb for cool season mix. Holy crapoli!!! The cost of grass seed has exploded to about 10x what it was 5 years ago. No idea why. 

I only learned of this today:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/peculiar-story-giraffes-medieval-china-180963737/

Non-human animal sentience:

Argentina court recognizes two goldfish as sentient beings with rights | CNN

Sandra the orangutan, freed from a zoo after being granted ‘personhood,’ settles into her new home | CNN

An iPhone can accept a USB SD card reader and read the stored data. 

Vocal fry? More like vocal whine!

(Snow) skiing in Lesotho:

https://apnews.com/article/lesotho-skiing-afriski-subsaharan-africa-801dd6efc429feeabb874087e155ae32

Well..............that's not strictly true.  It's *mostly* true, but there are some exceptions.  I won't go into all the *possible* interactions here, as anyone can look those up.  (Withdrawal, especially sudden, can be a big problem.)  But an underappreciated possibility is lengthening the QT wave, which is dangerous for those with atrial fibrillation, especially those taking an anti-arrhythmic (which in general also lengthen the QT wave interval).  So there's an additive effect.  To my knowledge there hasn't been a full study of this, but it's a 'known' possibility.

Katya, where are you? 

Cardiovascular Safety of Gabapentinoids | Current Emergency and Hospital Medicine Reports | Springer Nature Link

"Pregabalin and gabapentin have been associated with a dose-related increased risk of atrial fibrillation. Most evidence for adverse cardiovascular effects of gabapentinoids derives from case reports and observational studies."

Maybe I will have to worry about that, but not for at least a decade or two...

(I may not have a superior cardiovascular system, but I also do not possess an inferior cardiovascular system...

...and I'm really only toying with a couple grams (kids stuff for the way kids pop pills today...

...and I am already prescribed 200mg b.i.d....

Well, the doomsday clock is never far from midnight. 

Just one little tick closer to adding another data point to the Fermi Paradox.........⏳️ ---> ⌛️

There's a dude on the Senior Tour whose name is Gogel...if that had been my name, I would have regularly misspelled it until its spelling became obvious.

"...in the Primordial Era..." - The Five Ages of the Universe

There's tons of new info even since the 2013 update, not surprisingly.  Hubble is part of it, but the theories around expansion are just utterly complex and challenging beyond normal comprehension.  It's a task to keep up with it all - even the highlights. 

That's why I love the book, it doesn't go too deep mathematically for me...and conceptually it's like a drug.

WNBA's "Team Spoon"? They sound exciting!

I would lean toward team Co-op, where you can go to get locally sourced organic produce. A necessity in these uncertain times. 

"Yo me and my lover were spooning last night and they fell asleep so fast. They said my boobs were warm on their back and i was like no sh*t they're practically organic heaters." - Urban Dictionary

That's nice; hopefully the team's enjoying similarly.

Whales!

https://apnews.com/video/caught-on-camera-a-300-strong-humpback-whale-supergroup-gathering-to-feed-073e228c0dd54f948b48323f4aa159cc

I'm gonna learn all this code bullsh*t; with data centers here there and everywhere it'll be indispensable, 'cause the Information Age AIN'T slowing down a whit...

Having read as much as I have regarding this individual's actions ca. summer '69, I'm utterly amazed Patrica Krenwinkel was granted parole on May 26, 2022, and was free until October 14 that year...respect to Governor Newsome for reversing said decision, and doing so again three years later...Leno LaBianca's nephew is still alive, and spoke at hearing--yeah, that Leno LaBianca--the one who had a carving fork shoved into his midsection, pre- or postmortem his or his wife's death (being within earshot) I am not fully sure, but YEEEEESH! 

Certain violent creatures should not be kept around humans. 

Neat.....

https://apnews.com/article/florida-jellyfish-museum-42ce970d4d7bc9c5e2e20e061cb7829b

This weekend's race around the Capital...makes me imagine being cab driver there at three am when you can go wherever however...like I did in Madison, wild times... 

WalMart stocks off over seven percent...YES! Sell short like a fox, inside info or no...

It was a deli on Beecher Street, so of course it's Beecher Meat.

With all due respect, that woman's face is way way horse.

Once in a while, a person should say to oneself: "How the fuck do I know better?"

'living in a pond' for five years with mystery condition

It was Leonid Breschnev singing "Hello Dolly."

I'd bargain to get the rodent's pancreas...

Target pulls...this should be talked about.

When people flip out, it just perpetuates the issue...

LOTS of food/facts for thought:

https://harpers.org/harpers-index/

I almost added the link to the previous month's index, but there's a 'bad word' in one of those data points, so I demurred - but you're free to click on the link to it at the top of the  one I did post.

None of the extant threads with "Maps" in the title seemed fitting for this, so here it is:

UN votes to adopt new map that makes our world look very different | CNN

Woman's ponytail got gnarled up in axles and such at go-kart track...not to end well at all...

At a bar with predominantly biker people, I jukebox jammed LED Sound-system, knowing when 72 beats had dropped, AND DROP IT NOW!! All exasperated by self...

...musical prodigy of some sort...