Getting back to the 60 Minutes piece a bit...it focused on distressed companies that are acquired by private equity groups who try to turn them around. What Stavros is doing is sharing the profits with employees if the company becomes successful. He's also trying to get other investment groups to do the same. Not just the investors making money, but also saving jobs and improving the economic lives of the people in the company...

I never invested in real grow lights and simply used my fluorescent, and later LED, shop lights to grow orchids in the basement. Those did OK, but the orchids are all long gone because I got tired of taking care of them.

Shop lights that don't have bulbs with the proper spectrum don't work very well; the seedlings are usually pretty spindly. When I've looked at what a decent setup would cost, I haven't wanted to spend that much money. I just buy the veggie seedlings I need from a nursery or direct sow seeds into the garden.

Seems you had a cool time. That is what refrigerators do best.

@AdagioM and @Mik both good points.

Mik, let us know what you decide to do!

😂

Biden interview on why he dropped out of the Presidential race:

@wtg said in Tornado!:

Frozen pipes aren't an issue if you shut off the water supply, and even better, drain the syst

I thought about doing that one time when we were away, and at this point I don't remember the details, but I decided I didn't want to do that. I think it was because of the water heater? Although now we have a new water heater...

@wtg said in Tornado!:

for you, is a non-functioning sump pump really a disaster?

Probably not, but when you're not at home, you don't know what you don't know. And we had some water problems in our last house, so we're a little gun shy, as it were.

The other thing motivator for getting some kind of generator is just being without electricity for an extended time (when you'e home), and of course worrying about the indoor climate for the piano.

But I will probably drag my feet so much that we do nothing for a good long while! 😛

Thanks for that, @AdagioM .

Up till now, I've made items where the size isn't critical (scarves, hats, afghans). "Negative ease", mentioned in that first table, is a new term for me. Obviously important when one is making slippers, or especially for socks!

🤣

What started as a press conference on future presidential debates quickly spiraled into Donald Trump venting about media coverage of his rival and insisting that his rally crowds — especially in South Carolina — are bigger.

"I have hundreds of thousands of people," Trump declared at his lectern Aug. 8. "In South Carolina, I had 88,000 people.

But as the former president stood before reporters, he fumed.

"Nobody's had crowds like I have, and you know that. And when she gets 1,000 people and everybody starts jumping. You know that if I had 1,000 people (you) would say, people would say, 'That's the end of his campaign,' " he said.

That's when he claimed he draws hundreds of thousands of people, including an 88,000-person rally in South Carolina.

But the rally Trump appeared to be referencing wasn't a rally at all. It was a football game.

The former president seemed to be mentioning his Nov. 25 appearance at Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia for the state's biggest college football spectacle of the year: the Clemson-South Carolina football matchup.

The game was not a Trump campaign rally. It's a college duel that takes place every year.

His appearance was brief.

Trump walked onto the field, standing at the 25-yard-line with Gov. Henry McMaster. Loud cheers greeted him along with scattered boos. Trump waved to fans and the student section.

He made no remarks. He just smiled and waved.

Bakari Sellers, a former South Carolina lawmaker who is now a well-known political commentator on CNN, ripped into Trump for his claim.

"Donald Trump is lying. In South Carolina he did not have 88,000 people," Sellers wrote on social media. "He showed up to a Carolina-Clemson game. Hell, I was there!!"

https://www.postandcourier.com/politics/trump-88000-sc-rally-fact-check-not-true/article_44834f04-55b7-11ef-b33d-4345fa6aa03d.html

I thought they put the top rocks up there first.

😉

@CHAS said in RFK Jr. and the bear:

Also when I was a kid, a friend of my Uncle Ed, put a bag of fish under the seat of his new Cadillac. His friend did not know that Uncle Ed would park the car at the Memphis airport on a summer day and leave for a month.

Have you seen the movie Grumpy Old Men?

😉 🤣

I had exactly the same thought about what current espionage efforts might look like. I can't even imagine the risk that these folks take.

I'm totally risk-averse. I'd make a lousy spy.

Don't know if you caught the other spy story I posted a few days ago.

Agent Zo

A Republican activist who signed a document falsely claiming Donald Trump had won Arizona in 2020 became the first person to be convicted in the state’s fake elector case.

Loraine Pellegrino, a past president of the group Ahwatukee Republican Women, has pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of filing a false document, Arizona Attorney General’s Office spokesperson Richie Taylor said Tuesday, declining to comment further. Records documenting her guilty plea haven’t yet been posted by the court. Still, court records show Pellegrino was sentenced to unsupervised probation. Before the plea, she faced nine felony charges.

Seventeen other people had been charged in the case, including 10 other Republicans who had signed a certificate saying they were “duly elected and qualified” electors and claimed Trump had carried Arizona in the 2020 election. President Joe Biden won Arizona by 10,457 votes. Joshua Kolsrud, an attorney representing Pellegrino, said in a statement that his client has accepted responsibility for her actions. “Loraine Pellegrino’s decision to accept a plea to a lesser charge reflects her desire to move forward and put this matter behind her,” Kolsrud said.

https://www.12news.com/article/news/local/arizona/republican-activist-becomes-first-person-convicted-in-arizonas-fake-elector-case/75-753edbba-2bbc-49dd-9b00-f82254ed2e43

@jon-nyc

And weird. Really weird.

What an extraordinary set of images. A stunning result of the cooperation of multiple specialists.

Big Al

Oh, that makes it even sweeter.