WTF-Beta

A study from researchers at Loma Linda University in California suggests that eating eggs — fairly frequently — could be linked to lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease among older adults.

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/5870124-alzheimers-study-eating-eggs-lower-risk/

It's absolutely rational. Skyrocketing utility bills for starters. Degradation of environment. Competition for scarce resources like water. For what? So billionaires can impose their idea of utopia (read "$$$") on society, which will lead to job losses, more stupidity, invasion of privacy, ad nauseam.

I remember flying out of the Marine Air Terminal decades ago. It's beautiful and a reminder of a time gone by.

In NO particular order,

Harris
Newsom
Buttigieg
AOC
Pritzker
Kelly
Shapiro
Beshear
Ro Khanna
Booker
Whitmer
Emanuel

The smartest of the list probably won't make it for being either female or gay. The pro-Israel won't make it, thanks to Netanyahu. The unknowns will struggle to make themselves known at the same time that they have to fight off falsehoods from republicans. The centrists won't make it, the base of the party is fed up with business as usual. The ultra rich will struggle to be relatable.

That doesn't leave a lot left. None of the candidates checks off all the boxes. Beshear comes close but he could very well struggle to capture the progressive wing. Pritzker comes close, but taxes in Illinois will be an issue.

45% of the electorate now registers as Independent and a large percentage of them are now dead against Trump's agenda.

We can not have same-old, same-old. Too many feel the DNC has been too heavy handed in picking and rigging nominations.

There will be several contenders for the Dem nomination. It's still very early.

But they are progress. Pope Francis' legacy moves forward, I believe.

Vatican Criticizes Conversion Therapy in Historic Report

" It's a big deal because they included testimonies and published testimonies from two LGBTQ people, both of them married, which is also unusual for the Vatican to do," said Fr. James Martin, a founder of Outreach, an LGBTQ Catholic ministry. "As far as I know, it's the first time that in any official publication of the Vatican, they've included witnesses and testimonies and stories from LGBTQ Catholics in any kind of detailed way."

@ShiroKuro That is Garrick Ohlsson. He's one of my favorite pianists. He's the first pianist from the US to win the Chopin International Piano Competition, in 1970, after which he performed a lot and made many recordings.

Short, and sweet. There are quite a lot of dissonances in Chopin.

Totally green. In fact, for me, barbecue is all grilling, no smoking.

He's out there labeling Democrats he disagrees with as having 'Trump Derangement Syndrome". He can jump in a lake as far as I'm concerned. Trump made fun of a cripple in front of a national audience. Trump boasts about grabbing pussy, because as a celebrity, he can. Trump is the most foul President we've ever had. Trump is a war criminal and law breaker. Trump has broken his promises, what a surprise. Anyone with even the thinnest of ethical veins could discern that Trump was all lies. So for Fetterman to accuse Democrats of TDS is just beyond the pale. He can go off and be the turncoat he's desperately wanting to be. Anyone who says they want to meet Trump in the middle has lost their way. And that goes for those who say that not all Trump voters are the same. Yes, they are. They all saw the videos of his foul behavior, and it did not matter to them. Their record speak volumes about their values or lack thereof. How quickly Trump's behavior has been normalized and acceptable.

@AndyD Why is it different for women?

@ShiroKuro Yes, it's the last (in my book, not chronologically) Nocturne op. posthumous. No. 21 in C Minor, KK IVb/8.

An issue with reading vs memorizing is the need to spot large jumps, especially in my left hand. So my eyes come off the page and need to return in a split second to where they left off. I'm working on some blues music in hopes that it helps me improve my left hand 'marksmanship' without looking as much. Another issue is the brain power needed to read... but on the other hand, if I memorized there would be the brain power needed to recall. So I guess that balances out.

This week I'm working on setting up 'clues' so I don't need to have my brain racing so much while reading. (For example, noticing that every other 8th note in the first half of the first page is almost always a G, and it doesn't stray far from there throughout). I had actually taken note of this at first readings, but fell out of consciousness at some point.

Re: page turning. It's only two pages long, but last week I played from photo copies so I could avoid the page turn. Made a huge difference. Will be doing this from now on.

That's weird. Both vasectomies and tubal ligations are reversible with high success rates, which makes it hard to understand the 'regret' argument.

Fun at a party, anything casual. But I wouldn't pay money for it. It's just a bit of fun.

@ShiroKuro I'm glad for you that it went well.

I was able to maintain my focus pretty well and the flubs I made were not disastrous.

Kudos to you for maintaining focus.

Class this spring has been challenging. I'm slowly working through why. Part of it is because there's only one other student in class. That's both a pro and a con. The pro being that we each get half an hour of class time. The con being lack of varied input.

I'm also noticing, since I don't memorize, that reading through one of the pieces I'm working on is pretty much doable, but as soon as I start to incorporate some suggestions from the class, it gets harder. Sometimes, much harder. My focus moves from reading to the suggestions so I start missing notes, etc. It's kind of frustrating. But that's the process. Once it all gets incorporated, things smooth out a bit. Just something of a bumpy ride, I guess.

How did it go, SK?

@Daniel There is no war. Lunatic in chief sent a letter to Congress telling them hostilities are over and he no longer needs their approval. Iran has their uranium stockpiles, the Straight of Hormuz is closed, oil is still over $100/barrel.

We won. /s

@Daniel I suspect AIPAC is probably one of the reasons Ken Martin isn't releasing the report. This will hurt the party. There are way too many Democrats who want to see big money out of politics. Martin, as a fundraiser is obviously kissing a** to raise funds which will, in turn, require Democratic candidates to bend the knee to the moneyed interests sending in checks. This is no longer a viable approach for Democrats. I hear a lot of acquaintances saying they will no longer give to the DNC and prefer to send checks directly to the candidates themselves. I think this is a good idea. DNC money is as dirty as GOP money when it comes to politics and it steals politicians away from the average voter's interest. Not always, of course, but way too often.

If this goes on much longer, the guillotines will be rolling out.

The problem is not that people are getting rich, the problem is the inequality of it. For the richest to have so much more than the average worker is an obscenity, a gross side effect of unfettered capitalism. Something is structurally very, very wrong with our current economic system.

CEO Pay Soared in 2025, 20 Times Faster Than Worker's Pay

When adjusted for inflation, global worker pay declined 12% between 2019 and 2025, the equivalent of 108 days of free work during that time period. In comparison, CEO compensation increased by 54% between 2019 and 2025.

I immediately thought of you while watching this. I love her experiments.