WTF-Beta

@Bernard said:

@wtg What a coincidence that "SMART" was expanded to all control centers just a few days ago. Uh-huh.

Really.

@Axtremus said:

Not entirely. That’s also what you get when you keep electing governments that doesn’t fund infrastructure development and maintenance adequately.

You're making my point for me. Governments aren't funding public infrastructure. They're selling it to the highest bidder.

@wtg said:

Boebert is out.

BWAHAHAHAHA

Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., a conservative firebrand who was caught up in several headline-grabbing controversies during her six years in Congress, has been defeated by Democratic challenger Eileen Laubacher, NBC News projects.

Laubacher is a retired Navy rear admiral and Afghanistan war veteran who served on the National Security Council in the Biden administration.

“Integrity matters. Character matters. Truth matters, and public service should always be about what you can do for other people, not what you do for yourself,” Laubacher told supporters on election night, according to The Colorado Sun. “Those things were worth fighting for when we started.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2026-election/rep-lauren-boebert-conservative-firebrand-colorado-loses-race-re-elect-rcna607652

I don't think I want to say what I'm thinking but good riddance.

@bernard

Thanks so much!! Very kind.

Pathetic. This is what you get in a privatized world. Enjoy.

As well you should be.

@Mik said:

Daniel, your life just keeps getting better. That’s great.

Fluff n fold is what I use traveling. The ones in NYC are great.

Mik, Thanks.

I used to use a Chinese Laundromat in New Orleans that picked up and delivered. Sometimes.

Amazing service.

Of course I should have been taking my laundry to a Laundromat every time, but I admit it. There were many times in my youth when I chose adventure over practicality.

Not anymore.

My dishwasher broke the second week I lived here. All the major appliances were the lowest price point machines the owners could buy at Lowe's. They had bought all of them 4 months previous. They left a folder with the receipts.

These people left a burning lightbulb that was broken in half and an air filter that hadn't been replaced in at least 2 years.

They clearly bought the appliances because they needed all them for their final 3 month vacation.Theynhad more money than sense.

I decided I didn't want to replace the dishwasher.

I'm only one person and don't host holidays and don't have dinner parties.

I'll probably let it just sit there forever.

I would upgrade my new clothes washer and buy a matching dryer in the future.

I'm like to have a flat top electric range.

Much easier to clean.

I won't but one.

No need.

What I did is spring clean the stove top, and order replacement heating elements and drip pans.nThey should be delivered any day now.

The range is a GE and its fine.

The refrigerator is a Whirlpool and it's fine too.

So 2/5 major appliances broke on me, 4 months after they were bought.

But yes. Washing clothes by hand is physical labor. No doubt.

@Mary-Anna said:

Those pics are pretty close to what I was thinking, wtg. That jewel screams out for a really, really simple outfit, so that the only things that get noticed are the bracelet and, of course, the wearer.

Agreed!

Let me guess without looking.

I saw the jewel and scrolled immediately.

Cartier?

Edit: Yes! Cartier, c. 2015

197.80-carat Romanov Sapphire is currently set in a platinum and diamond bracelet created by Cartier in 2015.
The piece sold for 4.12 million Swiss francs (approximately $4.9 million) at Sotheby's Royal & Noble Jewels auction in Geneva on November 11, 2026.

Details of the Cartier Setting & Stone History

• The current Cartier design. Created circa 2015, the geometric, Art Deco-inspired platinum bracelet features brilliant-cut and shield step-cut diamonds. It also includes an interchangeable, engraved rock crystal centerpiece embellished with triangular diamonds that can replace the sapphire.
• Imperial Russian origins. Originally mined in Ceylon (modern-day Sri Lanka) with no heat treatment, the cushion-shaped stone entered the Russian Crown Jewels in the 19th century. It was originally mounted in a diamond border by Fabergé and worn by Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, mother of Tsar Nicholas II.
• Previous remountings. After the Bolsheviks seized and sold off imperial treasures in the 1920s, opera singer and socialite Ganna Walska purchased the stone through Cartier in 1927. Over the next century, it was remounted several times into various diamond, emerald, and sapphire bead necklaces before Cartier crafted its current bracelet setting.

The Mughals, the Persians, and to a lesser extent the Russians. The usual suspects. The price doesn't surprise me. It doesn't matter what the price for something this rare. They'll come a time when it sells at an even higher price. Magnificent as if it needed to be said.

There's almost certainly even more unreleased material.

Incidentally, apparently she was a great businesswoman. She said she had observed men all her life and learned business, and she never let herself be taken advantage of, and never compromised.

She said Elvis wanted to sing I Will Always Love you but she refused him cold because she wouldn't give up the publishing rights.

She said her songs were like her children, and in fact she protect them and herself.

I didn't realize I was such a big fan time back. I was just a fan. But I came to be big fan.

Loved her personality, her music, her beauty, her humanity, and rare for me there wasn't anything I didn't like about her.

RIP

@mary-anna Interesting!

@mark I will!

I have no root canals or anything like that (and thanks be to God I never got cosmetic work, because it falls apart at 20 years, and would have done).

But this was the worst dentist evaluation appointment I've had by a mile.

2 cavities I knew about, 3 more in the space of 1 year, and never before spots where the reverse of mineralization has happened.

In 1 year. Yikes.

Aging FTW.

I'll die with my natural teeth, and I plan to do everything I can (on a timely basis now) to keep them sealed, not rotting, and clean.

I've come to the same conclusion. At our age...

I want an electric toothbrush, with rotating round heads, and definitely plan to buy one.

In the meantime I just bought some brand name ones like the one the dentist gave me- Colgate- to replace the generic ones I've been using for years- Walmart Equate- because the free one was worked so much better. Very nice.

The generic ones- Soft-was too soft, the bristles were too small, and they fell out in your teeth.

Not Elizabeth I bad but not good. The worst quality toothbrushs

So the new ones are in the mail. I have plenty of the cheap ones. I'll put them in a zip lock bag and use them for house cleaning.

TANGENT

OMG. The strangest thing just happened.

UPS delivered a Christmas present to me from "Secret Santa".

One of those 3D theater type boxes that has a light you can turn on, with a Christmas theme of white deer in a white snow covered forest.

Love it. Wouldn't have bought it.

The package was addressed to my address, and the unfamiliar name must belong to (or probably) the owner who lived here before the couple I bought the place from. It might be a gift someone sent "my" previous owners.

Either way- delightful!

Link to video

Ex-banker who has a global understanding of the financial systems, national, international, and trans-national, their history, the laws pertaining to them, and about all of the alternative financial systems that now exist, or might exist in the immediate future, around the globe.

Do you see what I did there?

She will explain to you exactly how AI systems can steal your life's savings.

She will tell you about the BIS. If you don't know about the BIS, maybe you should.

She will tell you practically everything there is to know about global financial systems, about how they connect to each other, about their history, and about the directions in which they are headed, and why.

We shouldn't be treating AI as a shiny object that must be good because it's technology.

WE SHOULDN'T BE TREATING AI AS A SHINY OBJECT THAT MUST BE GOOD BECAUSE IT'S TECHNOLOGY.

Btw, how is AI being used in warfare and in genocide?

I'm sorry but Bernard had this one right.

Will nobody think of AI and hold the data centers and all of the existential problems they bring , and bring without the consent of people, and against the expressed wishes of them?

I don't know. Maybe it's not necessary to breathe clean air, maybe it's fine for the water to be poisoned. Maybe people don't need any water to drink at all.

AI? Where are you?/ i

Catherine Austin Fitts warns that artificial intelligence could automate the power to stop people using their own money. She calls this the third lock: a system in which a financial intermediary can block a transaction even when the buyer and seller agree to it. Starting with the difference between cash and a bank payment, she explains how existing restrictions can require human review. Her concern is what happens when surveillance and algorithms can make those decisions automatically across a much larger financial systems."

/r

The idea that technology necessarily and forever makes our lives better is a hoax.

It doesn't necessarily make our lives better.

It makes our lives different.

I'll just repeat my PSA. Financial transactions using AI are legally construed under federal law as you having designated AI as your agent. The banks are legally liable for $0.00 if hackers hack the AI function and drain your account. Be careful.

@AndyD said:

Yes, toothpaste with fluoride, whitener etc

We have a consensus.

@RealPlayer said:

Daniel, the fact that you have a prescription for fluoride toothpaste may mean that your dentist believes you have a condition that necessitates MORE fluoride content than is allowed in over-the-counter toothpaste. For a time, I was using it when I experienced acid reflux.

Joe, This makes sense.

Please clarify? How was your floride use related to your acid reflux if at all?

@jon-nyc said:

I buy fluoride toothpaste, no script needed.

It’s in my water.

I did a quick check and it looks like all the places I lived in the US for more than a year since moving to upstate New York for high school had fluoridated water. Where I was born did too (TX). But from age 2 to 14 (OH, FL) it wasn’t. That was probably the more important time to have it. Lol.

@jon-nyc I'm seriously considering it because I have two previous cavities that didn't filled because I missed an appointment. I had to start the process again and I have 3 new cavities.

Also demineralization.

They only have time do do 1 or 2 per appointment.

So I have to go to get cavities filled 3x in a row.

Then it it will be time for a 6 month cleaning.

So 4 more appointments within six months.

Yikes.

@bernard @wtg @mary-anna @adagiom

It's all Greek to me!

These are my sewing needles.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/HF2a5Z4Zk1hTGPZW6

I like them a lot. I also bought a spool of cotton thread.

I didn't try using them because I realized I had zero chance of success.

I'm keeping them because you never know.

That was my quixotic recent attempt at sewing.