Chuckled. Then it sank in.

Is there a banjo and player on the boat? Riverboats need banjos. Glad you are toasty and warm. Hope you have a great time.

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Lol, Ax!

@RealPlayer said in 16 acres. Big house. 200K: Well, it is along the NY Thruway, central NY, but still not a place folks are moving to…yet. There’s a real migration of NY City people to upstate, at least the Hudson Valley. And some action around Albany. Artists and musicians! That surprised me. Hudson River towns, they’re becoming unaffordable. True, but as you probably know the Truway is built over the ancient Iroquois south to north road. It's only two lanes unless they've changed it. It has no streetlights and very few gas stations. It's the only way to drive from NYS if you want to go to Albany. I've driven it many times to Albany in Winter. You'd better be sure your tank is full and hope your car doesn't break down. People with money in NYC have many better options for a house in the country. I don't know anything about Montgomery County but I can't imagine there's the kind of economic opportunity that would support renovating this house considering the cost of gutting the interior and most likely starting from scratch with the wiring and plumbing not to mention the exterior renovation. It could happen for all I know but it doesn't seem likely.

Kind of a low bar…

I’d like to see the whole interview. As much as I can see here he has two arguments - autocracy is more efficient, which is correct, but prohibited, for very good reasons, in our Constitution, and social progress, I.e. emancipation, has some problematic consequences. Also true, but what’s the alternative? Continuing slavery? Far worse. The only thing of possible value is if you interpret his idea as boiling down to leaders who actually lead.

Maybe unify the country (masses) against the Uber wealthy?

Andy, the reality is, government agencies don't get enough money in appropriations to pay for every desireable program. If non-essential programs are to happen, they need the support of volunteers. Don't want to volunteer? Nobody is making you. But the fact is, you aren't creating paid jobs by eliminating volunteers. You are eliminating valuable programs that Congress didn't fund.

What Bernard said. All of it. Thanks, Bernard.

PD, your family and mine were under the same circumstances, same time and place.

I made this muesli and we both love it. Didn't have any coconut oil, so I left that out. And I added dried apricots. https://cookieandkate.com/cherry-pecan-muesli-recipe/ Toasting the oats and pecans enhances their flavor a lot.

The ophthalmologist who did my mom's cataract surgery used to present an African violet in bloom to his patients when they came in the day after surgery to have their bandage removed. Mom couldn't believe how different colors looked! @CHAS , so glad to hear things are progressing for you.

PD the law allows the president to grant a one-time 90 stay if he believes a prospective sale is in the works. It doesn’t go into detail about any conditions that need to be satisfied so I am quite sure he can just do it. But only once, and only for 90 days.

@Bernard said in Ph.D.-level AI: It's artificial, but it's not intelligence. Yep. Add to this, not original, and far too obvious. I have a unit I do with my students to walk them through what AI is, how it works, what kinds of tasks it might be useful for, and what kinds of tasks we really should not be farming out to it. I continue to be surprised at the number of students who don't know what an LLM is or how it works. Then we give GenAI some prompts and evaluate the output, based on course content we've already covered. I am comforted that students generally have not been impressed and can see through the hype. So far... This semester, I had a student shyly approach me to ask if they could do an alternative assignment for the AI activity. I said "maybe, but why?" They said they are a conscientious objector and don't want to use it themselves. Ahh, in that case, of course. We haven't figured out yet what the alternative assignment will be, but we will.

Can't get bird pathogens from sushi! Other stuff, yes. But they tend to be relatively minor and fairly easily dealt with as long as you don't have a compromised immune system. Alcoholics and raw oysters are a dangerous combination!

Only because he didn’t get tapped for senate. I think Dave Yost will beat him for the nomination. He’s just after whatever he can get. I cannot vote for him.

And that folks, is a microcosm of what's going on in our world. Misinformation repeated through YouTube and so many of other sites gets people to believe and repeat things that are easy enough to research and correct, but by the time the fact checking happens, the damage is already done. Just ran into this the other day when out for a happy hour and someone was repeating about the Oregon firetrucks getting turned back from helping fight the California fires. Looked it up later and sure enough, false.

The fish swimming pool freaks me out.