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Off Key - General Discussion

A place to talk about whatever you want

2.1k Topics 15.3k Posts
  • Contingency planning

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    wtgW
    @Piano-Dad Yes, I know how to reach you. We do have some folks who signed up and who have either never posted or haven't posted in a long time. I don't want to pester them with updates unless they want to be pestered. You can choose the option to hide your email address from casual observers, but people with superpowers can see that info. Mostly I just wanted to know who wants to be notified if we have a major outage. Additionally, a few folks who signed up early might not have had to provide an email address to create a user ID because registration was open and didn't require authorization by an admin or mod. Eventually we locked the door and deleted all the spammers who had signed up while this was the backup site. I just wanted people to check their profile and see if they have an email addy where they can be reached.
  • Pinned threads

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    S
    Great!
  • How smell guides our inner world

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  • Bloomscrolling--what's in bloom where you are?

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    wtgW
    There are lots of videos on pruning lavender. I kinda like this one: Link to video
  • The dictator protection program

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    C
    Jeez, somebody make the brat stand in the corner.
  • Puppy !

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    C
    Got ENERGY???
  • Not the most attractive dish I’ve ever made

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    MikM
    Does look like it was already eaten once. But tasty is tasty.
  • Ambroxol and Parkinson's dementia

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    C
    THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!! Will send that to Bob
  • Texas Floods

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    wtgW
    At 4:22 a.m. on Friday, as Texas' Hill Country began to flood, a firefighter in Ingram – just upstream from Kerrville – asked the Kerr County Sheriff's Office to alert nearby residents, according to audio obtained by ABC affiliate KSAT. But Kerr County officials took nearly six hours to heed this call. "The Guadalupe Schumacher sign is underwater on State Highway 39," the firefighter said in the dispatch audio. "Is there any way we can send a CodeRED out to our Hunt residents, asking them to find higher ground or stay home?" "Stand by, we have to get that approved with our supervisor," a Kerr County Sheriff's Office dispatcher replied. The first alert didn't come through Kerr County's CodeRED system until 90 minutes later. Some messages didn't arrive until after 10 a.m. By then, hundreds of people had been swept away by the floodwaters. https://abcnews.go.com/US/kerr-county-officials-waited-90-minutes-send-emergency/story?id=123631023
  • Faunascrolling--what's visiting where you are?

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    A
    That is so very like our Song Thrush which perches top of a tree to sing
  • Field trip! For Andy, at least

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    A
    Very probably. Also hoping to see this tapestry soon: https://aucklandproject.org/support-us/donate/help-us-save-henry-viiis-lost-tapestry/
  • Higher ed programs gutted

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    AxtremusA
    It's not that liberal arts and universities should be reduced to tech schools. Just that we may have way too much higher-ed capacity for liberal arts degree programs. These eliminations of liberal art degree programs may actually be "right sizing" rather than "gutting" our liberal arts higher-ed capacity.
  • Laughter is the best medicine

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    [image: 1752118575813-tumblr_31c2df4b756e91066cff103b0c75c872_52214dc5_540.jpg]
  • Lithuanian space tech

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  • Rain event in Chicago last night

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    wtgW
    You can also purchase a NOAA weather radio to receive alerts. It’s affordable, doesn’t rely on cell service, and will wake you up in the event of an emergency overnight. https://www.nbcchicago.com/weather/stories/tuesdays-chicago-flooding-a-one-in-500-year-event-heres-what-that-means/3785773/ We had a tornado warning in the middle of the night some years ago and the alert on our phones didn't wake us up. The town didn't sound the sirens because of some screw-up. Nothing happened in our town but there was significant damage not very far away. I think I'm going to buy a NOAA radio. Cheap insurance.
  • Best analysis I have seen on the big bill.

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    Rural and working-class areas receive proportionally smaller benefits despite often supporting the policies politically. Yup. It doesn't pay to be ignorant. Supporters acknowledge the high costs but argue pro-growth policies will create prosperity that makes the debt manageable. Supply-side advocates believe tax cuts will generate enough additional growth to ultimately resolve fiscal imbalances through higher tax revenues from a larger economy. Does "trickle down" ring a bell for these fantasizers? We know from experience that prosperity is not the bottom line for corporations. Profits is the name of the game. Public understanding of the bill has been shaped by media coverage that focuses heavily on political process rather than policy substance. This reflects broader problems in how complex legislation gets presented to voters. Yup. The MSM is failing its duty. The combination of these effects would create a more manufacturing-oriented, fossil fuel-dependent economy with less universal healthcare coverage. Whether this represents progress or regression depends largely on one’s political and economic philosophy. I guess that's what it boils down to. The reliance on omnibus procedures and party-line voting represents a departure from deliberative processes that historically characterized congressional decision-making. A big problem that bears repeating over and over again.
  • Chisels made in USA

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    S
    Congratulations on your getting really good tools! I hope they prompt you to pick up a new hobby, do some really good work and enjoy the process!
  • Mottled Pluot

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    @AndyD I’m sure you can. The taste and texture are very much like a plum but sweeter.
  • FLW house #1

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    with all that oak woodwork the interior is more Craftsman than Prairie, yet the owners put 1940s/50s furniture in there. It is definitely NOT midcentury modern. I think they are confused. Having said that, I love the kitchen, especially the aqua tiled backsplash over the stove. Lovely house. Just needs more privacy from the neighbors.
  • Impact of immigration policy

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    wtgW
    Jermaine Thomas, whose very citizenship was once the subject of a U.S. Supreme Court case a decade ago, was forcibly removed from the United States last week and deported to Jamaica-a nation he had never seen-leaving him unequivocally stateless. Thomas, born on a U.S. Army base in Germany to a U.S. citizen father who served nearly two decades in the military, now faces a desolate future without a recognized nationality. "I'm looking out the window on the plane, and I'm hoping the plane crashes and I die," Thomas confided to The Chronicle from a hotel in Kingston, Jamaica, to his despair. He was reportedly shackled at his wrists and ankles during the journey to this unfamiliar land. According to court documents, Thomas is not a citizen of Germany, where he was born in 1986, nor of the United States, despite his father's extensive service. He also holds no citizenship in Jamaica, his father's birth country. Thomas's perplexing status stems from his birth abroad to a military parent, a legal grey area that led to his case reaching the nation's highest court. The complexities of his origins ultimately led to his expulsion from the country he had known mainly, despite his father's sacrifice. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/son-of-u-s-soldier-left-without-citizenship-deported-to-jamaica/ar-AA1HBiTO?ocid=TSHDHP