Well I played a bit today badly of course; tuned and left out on a stand, so fingers crossed. Back in the 1990s in Malaysia, a brother in law who plays with a bannd lent me a cassette (I think it was called 3.5 Hours) by David Qualey. It had an acoustic version of Scarborough Fair like this earlier version: https://cover.info/en/song/David-Qualey-Scarborough-Fair I loved his playing so much it ended up me buying one of his guitars! The steel string I have was bought because of this: https://m. Link to video Although it's not a 12 string, the tuning would drive me crazy. If I ever indulged again, I'd like a really small deep bodied one like this, I think its Japanese, hand made yamaha? https://m. Link to video

How kind. Thanks so much Dol and jon.

It's all about priorities.

What could go wrong?

Black-eyed Susans and glads. Classic late summer flowers! My Susies are going great guns, now that I've eliminated the rabbit menace. They used to eat them down to the ground by June and I never used to see any flowers. I'll divide and move some around either later this fall or next spring. They've been flower for three solid weeks and show no signs of slowing down.

Paint it British Racing Green and you'd never notice it was there

I took these photos in April 20202, when I was WFHing because of the pandemic. Very cute — until it started chewing on the wooden window sill and then we kicked it out. It never came back (or if it did, it stopped eating the sill) [image: IMG-6294.jpg] [image: IMG-6295.jpg] [image: IMG-6296.jpg] [image: IMG-6298.jpg]

Makes perfect sense.

@Bernard said: Rahm's name isn't on the list. I wonder why. He may be followed by the "mayor 1%" name he earned during his Chicago years... https://inthesetimes.com/article/rahm-emanuel-chicago-retirement-schools-mental-health "Their main focus was not his policing strategy or position on gun laws, but rather his failure — or refusal — to invest in the South and West sides: African American and Latino neighborhoods ravaged by violence. While the national movement ignited by the teenagers from Parkland, Florida has focused largely on gun control, in Chicago, marchers on the expressway and countless other residents say devastating gun violence has caused by Emanuel’s actions over his tenure in City Hall: closing public schools, slashing city jobs, shuttering mental health clinics and investing in trendy neighborhoods while struggling ones languish." He was BAD for kids in Chicago public schools when I worked there...

@wtg those are fun! I have a piano score the for Wellerman Sea Shanty, but it’s not very fun as a solo piano piece! @axtremus that’s hysterical!

@Daniel Website is josephkubera.com. Thanks for asking.

@Daniel said: 80 is a good age to reach. RIP As is 90. 80 isn't so far in the distance for some of us to find comfort.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/05/technology/ai-china-africa.html In African tech hubs, developers are picking China’s cheap, freely available artificial intelligence models over more powerful U.S. ones. China’s A.I. is surging, especially in developing countries, as people look for the best possible system at the lowest possible cost. Unlike models made by the leading American A.I. companies OpenAI and Anthropic — which are closed and charge fees — the Chinese systems are publicly available to download and modify without payment or approval. In more than two dozen interviews across Kenya, Uganda and other countries, developers, policymakers and executives described a rapidly changing A.I. market where cost, computing resources, data control and customization mattered more than where a model was made. Often they were not looking for bleeding edge A.I. They just wanted something that worked well enough on limited resources.

6, 2, 4

The Spencer ancestry is as clear as day to me when I look at pictures of him.

Actually, all US intelligence services concluded some time ago that it came from the lab in China. Fauci is a psychopath hiding behind the mask of secular saint. Fauci aka as quote "I am science" has a preemptive pardon. He didn't deserve it (is this actually legal?) but certainly needs it. He arranged the funding for this research and then profited after the predictable result of it.

His lack of consistency and repetitiveness are not confidence inspiring.