Certainly worth monitoring. The two largest losses of life in Pennsylvania due to dam failures occurred over a century ago. Most people have probably heard of the Johnstown flood caused by the failure of the dam upstream from that city. David McCollough wrote an excellent book on that disaster. The next-biggest, upstream of Austin, PA was the result of a paper mill's dam failure and killed 78 people (more details here: https://w.wiki/HJBV). Remnants of that dam remain to this day in a park-like setting. Big Al

I’ve seen the bracket-like long pause but not the peaked-roof one.

No - not sold in the US.

@RealPlayer Exactly. Except it’s best described as an eating framework. Nothing is strictly forbidden, nothing is absolutely required. Keyes wasn’t selling diet books.

I get a low dose of aspirin in my generic Excedrin. A super-healthy product, Excedrin. I kid. But you know what? Just like people say with caffeine or sugar, I'm addicted to it.

@AndyD said in 25 years into the century: Superb, the photos and article. If I can pick one photo that fascinates, the tsunami wave at Fukushima is an amazing snap. I was on a plane headed to Beijing when that happened, chaperoning a group of 20 high school students. When we landed we headed to the Olympic park straight from the airport. My first memory of being in China was a crowd of people huddled around the massive screens outside the Bird’s Nest and Water Cube, watching the news unfold. Our guide, who we met when he picked us up at the airport, was trying to navigate listening to the news story to figure out what was happening and translate it for 20 high school students without scaring them half to death. It was unnerving to be so cut off from the news with such a major event happening.

It's in the '50's at night with no heating. I can't wait for the '40's. / Snark Actually, I'm making moves to get out of this dump.

@Steve-Miller said in Anybody doing wild New Year's Eve stuff?: Remember tinsel? I remember finding it in the cats poop. Sometimes he’d walk away from the litter box with a poopy piece of tinsel hanging out his rear end. Prolly good for them that we stopped using it.

Went to a friend’s house for their traditional new Years meal - Bavarian style sauerkraut and roast pork. Sauerkraut, and fermented foods in general , are having a moment, but it’s a pretty assertive flavor and hard to incorporate in the day to day menu. This stuff is different - I could eat it every day. I recommend omitting the caraway seeds.

@Bernard said in Had a screw loose…. (A piano thread…): Wow! I'm glad for you that the problem was pinpointed so quickly. He diagnosed it at the last tuning (summer IIRC) and of course now that he’s fixed it, it’s dealt that he was right. I don't recall seeing (or paying attention to) the back action. Same. I don’t think I even knew it was back there, and when people talk about “the action” on a grand piano, they’re generally only focused on the part that connects the keys to the hammers. But of course, that doesn’t control the dampers.

Given the wide variety of planets in our own solar system and some even stranger moons, there seems to be alot to learn about even our solar neighborhood, let alone the flocks of exoplanets now being found. I really hope we don't curtail our exploration of the universe. If the USA is short-sighted, then at least there are other nations and entities in the search for more knowledge. Big Al

This one is one of my favorites. I never learned it all the way - but I still like to muddle through it. So beautiful.

NPR on the topic: https://www.npr.org/2025/12/26/nx-s1-5649395/public-domain-2026-copyright-betty-boop-pluto

Absolutely disgraceful.

Those who forget the past...

Thanks all!