The grotesquely wealthy contribute a much smaller proportion of their income to the economy than those of modest or meager earnings, simply because they sit on most of it. It does them no good, it does nobody any good. It needs to be returned to the churn of commerce, and used to turn on the lights and water for society.

IF, and we all know that’s a big IF, the disgustingly rich all started to compete with each other in philanthropy, funding this and that needy cause (not political shenanigans, actual aid) throughout society, they might argue taxation wasn’t necessary. They’d still be wrong, because the distribution should be according to need rather than the giver’s interests. But at least they’d have a point. But right now they just hoard, without even the honor of dragons, more like trolls or gollums.

Cringing at the memory of things you did in the past is a sign you’ve learned better. And a reminder that you’ve still got work to do. Applies to countries as well as individuals.

What if you put some of the teeth from body A into the mouth of body B and vice versa?

Oh, if you haven’t yet, you need to read them Equal Rites and The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett, and also The Amazing Maurice…!

Well if you would just demonstrate that you know how to catch and kill your own, she could relax about trying to teach you.

64 fluid ounces = 128 servings of 1 Tablespoon = 11,520 total calories, if you use a child-cheater to scrape out every drop.

Speaking from near the Palisades in Los Angeles:

After we all knew the hurricane-force Santa Anas posed a big danger of fire, because of both news stories and phone alerts, the whole city accidentally got a major “evacuate now” warning, with the big WOOPy noise from our cellphones, that was only supposed to go to residents in a particular area. I had my quadriplegic husband dressed and out of bed and our old go-bags and medical equipment thrown in the car in the 20 minutes it took for the retraction to come out. I also had a bit of a panic attack.

Some people decided to turn off their alarm settings because of that error. But I took it as a warning that we were not ready enough.

I went into the bags and made sure, for instance, that the pants fit me, as I’d gained weight in a year. I stashed the fridge meds in a cold carrier, handy in the fridge. And put the right cat food for the new cat in the cat-kit/litterbox. And created a go-box for the box turtle.

Then I stowed as much as possible in the actual car, including the Important Paperwork file.

All along, we were monitoring as the fires started to pop up and spread.

At 9 pm, we got another WOOP alert. Our address had become part (the far edge) of the Yellow Zone. Not the Red Zone. But as you said, who’s going to catch a warning at 2am? (Well, me! But it’s a lot harder to react at that hour) In fact, I’m sure that’s why CalFire expanded the zones so wide at 9 pm, because they wanted to be sure they wouldn’t have to issue a new one overnight.

So we bailed immediately but calmly. Spent 5 days at a hotel near LAX.

Fortunately we had no damage, but had to dip into our emergency drinking water for a few more days until they lifted the Boil Water notice.

Super glad we had and heeded those early warnings about how dangerous those hot dry winds were going to be, and the 9 pm evacuation zone warning.

The relatively low death count in the Palisades fire came from the accurate weather forecast.

Not monotonous, it’s musical in that there are high/low notes and downbeats, but… it’s as if the “song” was written first and the “lyrics” don’t quite fit.

Think of a song that was originally written in English and translated to your home language. You understand the words because they’re familiar but some sound weird because they’re forced to fit the music. Then think of a clever song written in your own language, often funny songs are a good example, where they start with the idea, and some phrases, maybe some rhymes, and then create and weave the music around the words to bring out the meaning.

Getting the “music” right is one of the hardest things about learning another language, because we learned and babbled the tune of our own language before we even spoke it.

As a step, make sure to learn the syllable(s) that get the hard accent in each word, and stick to it every time. Because English is such a jumble of stolen words and phrases, it’s not consistent about which part of (for instance) three-syllable words gets the beat, but it is pretty consistent about each individual one.

Edited to put in some beats, and highlight the accented syllable in the long words. The bold isn’t stronger than the italic, it’s just a different purpose.

First thing they teach first responders: don’t become a second victim, it helps nobody. Look at your big-ass self, you think cat can save you? And if cat goes running for help, who’s gonna listen? Maybe they’d give cat some salmon but you’ll still drown.

Cat loves you and will sit with you while you finish drowning. Then when you get your next life you can go together for some salmon. You still have some lives left, right?

A tip from an average American:

Although a few vowel sounds are off, your words are understandable and those clipped consonants of the RP accent are helping with that. But there’s a singsong quality to your speaking (at least in this reading) that seems to not only cause you to sometimes accent the wrong part of a word, it also overrides the usual emphasis on the most important words. Talk to your coach about how to break up the rhythm, lean on the words that make your point, and whip past the rest, while also using higher and lower notes 🎶 for expression. In English, a word can be spoken with different tones depending on how it’s being used in the sentence.

We’re just embarrassed our assholes aren’t as beautiful as our pets’

Hot AIR rises. And it can also move sideways, and both are possible with this mesh. Looks like the hot air would go up and out in 3 directions (plus through) and cooler air would be pulled in from the yard. Wouldn’t it be interesting to test it with colored smoke? Or as you said a fog machine

Imagine baby Kal-El showing up in an Iowa cornfield today.

Sleep deprivation can make people do stupid things. Also a baby can sometimes demand all your attention so you forget everything else.

It’s nice that this turned out to be a safe situation!

(And also that there wasn’t a bomb in those bags, just possibly a used diaper.)

You need to proceed immediately to a place which has a friendly pettable cat. Or cats.

You can look at a cat and do the Slow Blink a few times to say “I’m not threatening you, nor threatened by you.” Which is the closest cats get to “let’s be friends.”

Sad kitty is sad. Hope they fully recover soon.

I’m all for free travel across borders, and simpler ways to support legal emigration/change of citizenship. But I’m highly suspicious of any whole-world government. Because even if it’s founded in decency and humanitarianism, there will come the inevitable day when it falls into the hands of the corrupt, who will exploit, undermine, and finally countermand all its wholesome measures. And there will be nowhere to run.

It’s pretty and I like the shape of your nails. If it bothers you they don’t last, be sure to do your toes, because there’s much less problem with chipping. You don’t work your toetips as hard as you work your fingertips.

Article says the camp has been there for a century, and the water washed away the cabin while the girls were asleep… Sounds like climate change to me. Even though the building is surely newer, they’d know where the river had risen to in the past.