@Steve-Miller said in New favorites in the condiments aisle: I’ll have to see if I can find it. Try your local Kroger; our Mariano's carries it.

The garden has suffered a bit the past few weeks as rain has been scarce. We had a bit of rain last evening, but we need a lot more. Nevertheless, flowers keep coming. The latest are these white lilies that have never blossomed before. The foliage is looking pretty ratty as they get attacked by those vicious red beetles. [image: 1755209314694-8142.jpg] The Phlox has also started to blossom. This one is my favorite for the color and scent. [image: 1755209348227-8143.jpg] A few Turks Caps. They also get attacked by the beetles. [image: 1755209366330-8144.jpg] These geraniums are in their second year; I brought them indoors last fall and kept them going all winter. Sadly, they are getting hit with rust. [image: 1755209414619-8141.jpg] This thistle popped up this year (likey came from the bird seed). I love it it reminds me of my childhood. I saw a goldfinch approaching it last week. [image: 1755209488872-8145.jpg]

So what happens if the BLS numbers aren't reliable anymore No savvy investor makes a decision off a single data point, but there are some numbers that carry more weight than others. For many macro investors, the North Star has long been the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unit within the Department of Labor that measures, among other things, inflation, unemployment rates, and wage growth. Those in charge of the BLS have long been non-partisan economists, but President Donald Trump's firing of Commissioner Erika McEntarfer on August 1 and his top pick for her replacement, chief economist at the right-leaning Heritage Foundation, EJ Antoni, have many concerned with the validity of future government data, especially as Antoni floated pausing monthly jobs reports. Love Business Insider? Log in to Google and make us a preferred source. It's concerning for macro traders who rely on this data to make their bets, but there are non-governmental data sources that many already use. While helpful, these alternative databases can't replicate the widespread foundation BLS numbers provided for decades, where all market participants worked for the same set of basic facts about the state of the world's biggest economy. Still, traders are ramping up their use of this data in light of Trump's moves. "What's going to be tricky here is how to judge numbers coming out of the Bureau of Labor Statistics moving forward," said Andreas Steno Larsen, onetime macro investor and researcher, on his weekly podcast. He compared the firing to something that would happen "in Latin America" and predicted that investors would "look for alternative sources" to get a second opinion on the official data. https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/government-data-is-now-in-question-here-s-where-macro-investors-are-turning-to-fill-the-gaps/ar-AA1KvuDG?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=8d54448ac3d14808b74ac19e8f64821f&ei=18

Steak

@Mik said in Why would a party buy a property for 4 times it's assessed value?: Of all our resources, fresh water should be the most protected. Yes indeed!

@Daniel. It is quite unclear what Mitford is referring to when she says "someone did it for me", and it's equally unclear that she knows the actual events that occurred behind those closed doors where Hitler presumably met his demise. Historians would have been most interested in any new light that Jessica Mitford could have shone on the matter; anything to help wade through the Soviet misinformation campaign. Pity she didn't enlighten them.

@AdagioM, Thought you might enjoy these diamonds. 2 ct and M but that's just me. Link to video

Link to video

The institutional facilities in New York State for those with developmental disabilities were large in scale and existed throughout the State. I know because my mother worked for this agency for 20 years and received vesting and a pension. Geraldo Rivera - Wikipedia https://share.google/ihaKUoRcUOvUWbSNG "Rivera was hired by WABC-TV in 1970 as a reporter for Eyewitness News. In 1972, he garnered national attention and won a Peabody Award[14][15] for Willowbrook: The Last Great Disgrace, his report on the neglect and abuse of patients with intellectual disabilities at Staten Island's Willowbrook State School and Rockland County's Letchworth Village,..." Conditions improved tremendously by the time my mother started working at one the facilities. There was a parallel set of similar State psychiatric hospitals. Reagan started to dismantle these facilities and many of the residents ended up on the streets. So, it's come full circle. Go directly to jail. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200. Incidentally, the money my father left my brother and me was inherited from my mother who inherited from her father. My grandfather was NCO Air Force. He retired with a 20 year vesting. Then he worked for the VA and retired with a 10 year vesting but worked three more. My grandmother predeceased him. She worked for Fireman's Fund and received a 20 year vesting before American Express bought it. She then worked for two years at a Dr.'s office. My grandparents worked for over 50 years. It's my grandfather's, my grandmother's, my father's, and my mother's money my brother and I will be receiving. Yet there are people who do not deign to treat me as being a person from the middle class for various twisted reasons, who know nothing about my family and nothing about me. Where are their stereotypes now? Sometimes ignorance isn't bliss. It's just ignorance.

My daughter lived there while student teaching. It’s a visually interesting city.

It’s a good thing. Skepticism won’t help anything, but it plays into the narrative of Trump as monster.

I wonder if he's familiar with the Constitutional prohibition. Mark Cuban said on Monday that it's a good move to have Nvidia and AMD pay the US government 15% of their China chip sales revenues. "This is a 'billionaire's tax' structured as a royalty or sales tax on semiconductors from the most valuable company in the world, sold to China," Cuban wrote on X, after the Financial Times first reported that President Donald Trump had imposed the requirement on the two chipmakers. Cuban — who spent the 2024 election campaigning for Vice President Kamala Harris — said Trump deserves praise if the government does get a cut from Nvidia and AMD's China chip sales. "Everyone knows how I feel about POTUS, but he doesn't get everything wrong," Cuban said on Monday, referencing his past criticisms of Trump's tariff policies. "Will this make up for the explosion of the deficits we face? Not as it stands now. Not close. But give him credit for knowing how those CEOs approach problems and opportunities, and using his leverage to generate tax revenues," Cuban added. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/mark-cuban-lauding-trump-potus-070045505.html

Link to video What about the individuals and families who were priced out of the housing market and are being priced out of it every day? Crickets. This is disgusting on so many levels.

My grandmother's sister had a Cadillac her husband bought her. It was North Carolina in the mid-century. It was kind of a big deal. I remember as a child the FM radio was always tuned to an elevator music station. I remember many things about her car. The music was one of them. It seemed like a good soundtrack for riding in her car.

I missed this announcement from a few months ago. Vaccine experts are perplexed by a project the Trump administration has launched to develop a universal flu vaccine, which has long been a goal, though an elusive one, in medical research. Dubbed Generation Gold Standard, the project is aimed at creating a flu shot that doesn't have to be updated every year to match the latest strains of the virus. The project also aims to produce a vaccine that could protect people against other respiratory viruses that could cause a pandemic, such as bird flu and coronaviruses. "Generation Gold Standard is a paradigm shift," said National Institutes of Heath Director Jay Bhattacharya in a statement announcing the project. "It extends vaccine protection beyond strain-specific limits and prepares for flu viral threats — not just today's, but tomorrow's as well — using traditional vaccine technology brought into the 21st century." The announcement surprised vaccine researchers, given the anti-vaccine stance of health officials like Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. "I'm glad to see that this administration is still wanting to invest in developing next-generation influenza vaccines or respiratory vaccines in general," says Ted Ross, director of Global Vaccine Development at the Cleveland Clinic. An old vaccine technology back in the spotlight But Ross and other outside vaccine experts are mystified by many aspects of Generation Gold Standard. https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/05/13/nx-s1-5384934/trump-universal-flu-vaccine There was this assessment in Science: https://www.science.org/content/article/gold-standard-or-appalling-hhs-s-500-million-vaccine-bet-inactivated-viruses-puzzles