Will people pay more if a product is made in the US? Apparently not. A business owner tested if customers would pay more for American-made. The results were 'sobering.' From Business Insider: https://archive.is/g0KWA

The wildflowers in the Columbia River Gorge are at least two weeks ahead of where they were last year. I went to the same place, and there was just a couple patches of bloomed out balsamroot left, unlike last year. [image: 1747007176709-img_1437.jpeg] [image: 1747007205837-img_1439.jpeg] Bitterroot is always pretty, too.

@AndyD said in He’s gone off the deep end: Is he at all serious? That's going to cost a bob or two I think this is part of his new reality show called The Potemkin Presidency. But he's still directing people to look at it, which is a waste of time and resources.

Happy Mother’s Day!!!

I watched the movie "Watch the Skies." In English, presumably lip synced with this AI technology. Even forgetting about the AI stuff, it's actually a very good movie on its own right. It's not one that emphasizes great cinematography, so you don't necessarily need to watch it on a big screen. But it tells a good story with a lot of heart. So I highly recommend it.

@wtg said in Gargening help! Can my weigelia be saved?: It will be a little lopsided for a while, but hopefully it's well on its way to coming back strong! That's my hope!! It won't take much to make it not-horrible.

Zelensky, European leaders tell Trump they are ready for 30-day ceasefire https://www.axios.com/2025/05/10/trump-russia-ukraine-ceasefire-zelensky-putin

Joe, thanks. I expect the recommendations will be very specific. I remember something about a paste from a video. I compartmentalize tasks like this and just haven't found the right time to figure it out yet. I bought an adult tricycle. It's 24", 1 speed, and folds in half. It has a basket in the back of course and I plan to use it to get exercise, go the mailboxes, haul garbage to the dumpsters, and I've decided I'll ride on the sidewalks to my nearest CVS and Publix a little more than a mile away when I get lights and reflectors to make it safe. It's not assembled yet. I made a deal with housemate to assemble it. The bike shops balked at doing it and offered me prices of $240 and $250. I couldn't pay that. That would be ridiculous. I haven't had a bike in forever. I'm looking forward to it.

@Mik said in The future as imagined in the 1950s: Fallingwater writ large. No kidding! This came up in my feed this morning. From a house on the French Riviera that Sean Connery owned back in the 1970s: [image: im-12141289?width=784&size=1.3333333333333333&pixel_ratio=1.5] https://www.mansionglobal.com/articles/sean-connerys-bond-villa-on-the-french-riviera-hits-the-market-for-23-5-million-4ba02d7a?mod=article_inline

The court isn't going to buy the whole invasion/AEA thing, period. Anywhere from 7-2 to 9-0.

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This is the perfect opportunity for a little malicious obedience. Start with burying that guy in paperwork.

@Mary-Anna said in hi chat I need your help writing an essay: controlling their eyes seems too weird, but separating them from the internet and machine learning software does not! Indeed. What a world we find ourselves in.... When I took my PhD qualifying exams, we used laptops provided for us by the university tech support office. That way the profs knew exact what was, or was not, included/available on the machines. They couldn't connect to the internet at all, and there would have been no way for an exam taker to "plant" something on the machines. But at most, you might have five students taking quals in one sitting. Maybe more in a large program, but still a pretty small number. That's the best scenario, to my mind. The student can use a word processor and edit, structure their text etc. But that would never scale unfortunately.

Is there anyone left at Fox News?