WTF-Beta

One of the last Fabergé eggs in private hands sold for £22.9 million ($30.2 million), with fees, on Tuesday, breaking its own record as the most expensive work by the Russian jeweler ever to appear at auction.

Commissioned by Tsar Nicholas II as a gift for his mother in 1913, the Winter Egg went to an unidentified buyer following a 3-minute bidding battle at Christie’s auction house in London. The record sum slightly exceeded Christie’s pre-sale estimate of £20 million ($26 million).

The astronomical price tag reflects the growing rarity of the House of Fabergé’s Imperial Eggs, none of which has been seen at auction in over 23 years. The historic St. Petersburg jewelry house only ever made 50 of them, and the Winter Egg is one of just seven left in private hands. The others are either missing or owned by institutions or museums.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/12/02/style/faberge-winter-egg-auction-sold

@Axtremus

Think they might be looking for guaranteed retirement income? I wonder if Social Security would be included under their term "pension".

@mary-anna

Hope you are well and that you have a wonderful birthday!!

I tried a sleek new window heat pump that can be installed in less than an hour
Midea’s quick-install heat pump was designed for New York public housing. Now it’s available for anyone.

https://www.fastcompany.com/91448042/midea-heat-pump-review

Hugs, @chas .

@realplayer

Sounds delish. Your Lebanese recipe sounds like the lentil soup they serve at the Pita Inn, one of our favorite lunch places. They do include carrots.

Vegetable Lentil Soup

Homemade vegetarian soup made with lentil, carrots, onions, celery and spices.

An Altadena homeowner says he has been living with a massive and uninvited roommate — a 500-pound black bear that has taken up residence beneath his home, all caught on his outdoor surveillance cameras.

Ken Johnson told KTLA that he installed cameras near a crawlspace after noticing items around the area knocked over or damaged. What he found left him stunned.

“It was really big. I’ve seen him before, but he was going through the trash and then the next morning he’s coming out from underneath my house,” Johnson said.

Since then, the bear hasn’t just returned — it’s moved in. Johnson says he sees the animal slipping in and out of the crawlspace every day “like it owns the place.”

Video and rest of story here:

https://ktla.com/news/local-news/bear-takes-up-residence-under-altadena-home-startles-homeowner/

Retiring overseas is more than a dream; it’s a life-changing decision. But choosing where to go can feel overwhelming. That’s where we come in.

The 2026 Annual Global Retirement Index is your essential tool for cutting through the clutter and zeroing in on the places that offer the best lifestyle, value, and ease of transition abroad. Based on more than 40 years of on-the-ground experience and in-depth reporting from our trusted network of expats and correspondents, this Index is built to help you take action.

And here’s the thing: the world is changing—fast. Cost of living, visa rules, healthcare access, and even climate patterns are evolving. That’s why our team has re-evaluated and recalculated everything for 2026. We’ve surveyed our experts on the ground and leveraged real-time data to pinpoint where your dollars stretch further, where you can thrive year-round, and where you’ll find a warm welcome.

Our Index isn’t just a list; it’s a decision-making framework. We score destinations across multiple categories: climate, healthcare, cost of living, housing, visas, and more. But we also bring a human touch. Our correspondents are living the life you want to live. Their insights are candid, personal, and practical.

Whether you’re dreaming of a coastal village, a colonial city, or a rugged mountain retreat, we’re here to help you find a location that matches your lifestyle, priorities, and budget.

This isn’t just about moving abroad. It’s about building the best possible life overseas—on your terms.

So, where should you retire in 2026? Let’s find out…

https://internationalliving.com/the-best-places-to-retire/

Próspera.

Thiel, Altman, Andreesen = "many people that I greatly respect" who said Hernandez was "treated very harshly and unfairly"

OK, now I get it.

Thanks for the explanation.

I have potatoes from my garden. I bought a huge leek. I went in search of recipes and found some possibilities.

https://www.thekitchn.com/leek-recipes-63430

Donald Trump’s drive to secure peace in Ukraine must not let Vladimir Putin off the hook for war crimes committed by Russian forces, a top EU official has warned, effectively setting a new red line for a deal.

In an interview with POLITICO, Michael McGrath, the European commissioner for justice and democracy, said negotiators must ensure the push for a ceasefire does not result in Russia escaping prosecution.

His comments reflect concerns widely held in European capitals that the original American blueprint for a deal included the promise of a “full amnesty for actions committed during the war,” alongside plans to reintegrate Russia into the world economy.

https://www.politico.eu/article/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-war-crimes-volodymyr-zelenskyy-ukraine/

In 1990, in the last breaths of the Cold War, a delicious act of American subversion unfolded in Moscow. It’s long been forgotten. It shouldn’t be.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2025/11/pizza-hut-cold-war-us-history-russia.html?ref=readtangle.com

I'd forgotten about Gorbachev's appearance in the Pizza Hut commercial.

Trump pardons the former president of Honduras, who was convicted of conspiring to import cocaine into the US. After a long legal process and a jury trial, Hernandez was sentenced to 45 years.

Meanwhile, Trump has Hegseth going after alleged drug runners from Venezuela. No charges, no convictions, no legal process. We're just supposed to take his word.

I don't get it.

Background...

Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, of Louisiana, was critical of the pardon, saying Sunday on social media, "Why would we pardon [Hernandez] and then go after Maduro for running drugs into the United States? Lock up every drug runner! Don't understand why he is being pardoned."

"This is shocking," Sen. Tim Kaine, a Democrat of Virginia, said of the pardon on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan."

"He was convicted in a federal court in the United States," said Kaine, the ranking member on the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere. "One of the bits of evidence was his statement that was picked up by those near to him that he wanted to shove drugs up the nose of gringos and flood the United States with cocaine, more than 400 tons. He was the leader of one of the largest criminal enterprises that has ever been subject to a conviction in U.S. courts, and less than one year into his sentence, President Trump is pardoning him, suggesting that President Trump cares nothing about narcotrafficking. Suggesting possibly that pardons are now for sale by this White House."

Mr. Trump defended the move to reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday, claiming, "Many of the people of Honduras said it was a Biden setup. ... He was the president of the country, and they basically said he was a drug dealer because he was the president of the country. And they said it was a Biden administration setup, and I looked at the facts and I agreed with them."

When asked what evidence he had seen to indicate Hernandez's case was a setup, Mr. Trump said, "You take any country you want, if somebody sells drugs in that country, that doesn't mean you arrest the president and put him in jail for the rest of his life."

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-says-he-will-pardon-former-honduran-president-juan-orlando-hernandez/

Appeals court disqualifies Alina Habba, Trump's former personal lawyer, as acting U.S. attorney in New Jersey

Habba was tapped to serve as interim U.S. attorney in New Jersey earlier this year, but her appointment to the role was limited to 120 days, unless the U.S. district court in New Jersey voted to extend her tenure or she was confirmed to the post by the Senate. Habba's nomination, however, was unlikely to win approval in the upper chamber, as New Jersey's two senators, Democrats Cory Booker and Andy Kim, opposed her nomination.

Ahead of the 120-day deadline, the judges in New Jersey declined to allow Habba to continue serving as U.S. attorney and instead voted to install her deputy, Desiree Leigh Grace, to the position. But that decision was met with swift pushback from Attorney General Pam Bondi, who fired Grace.

Then, Mr. Trump and top administration officials employed a multi-step maneuver to keep Habba in the role of U.S. attorney and get around the district court's decision. First, the president withdrew Habba's nomination for U.S. attorney in New Jersey. Then, Habba resigned as interim U.S. attorney. Bondi then appointed Habba as "special attorney" and to fill Grace's role as first assistant U.S. attorney. Finally, because the position as the New Jersey's top prosecutor was vacant, Habba was elevated to the role of acting U.S. attorney under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act.

That law, also known as the Vacancies Act, limits the government employees who can temporarily fill the roughly 1,300 federal offices that require nomination by the president and confirmation by the Senate.

In their decision, the judges on the 3rd Circuit found that the Trump administration's argument in support of Habba's role "should raise a red flag," since it would allow the Justice Department to circumvent the Vacancies Act and effectively allow anyone to hold a U.S. attorney position indefinitely.

"Under the Government's delegation theory, Habba may avoid the gauntlet of presidential appointment and Senate confirmation and serve as the de facto U.S. Attorney indefinitely," Judge Michael Fisher wrote for the court. "This view is so broad that it bypasses the constitutional [presidential appointment and Senate confirmation] process entirely. It also essentially eliminates the requirements of the FVRA and the U.S. Attorney-specific statute."

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/alina-habba-appeals-court-us-attorney-trump/

Blogger who talks woodburning cookstoves:

https://woodcookstovecooking.blogspot.com/2021/03/great-majestic-ranges.html

Not a Majestic but very cool looking:

@jon-nyc said in Happy Thanksgiving - What's your story?:

My decaf coffee is 'more processed' than regular.

I missed this first time around.

Does that mean it's worse for me?

It depends. Is it chemically decaffeinated or is it Swiss Water Process?

(where's that devil emoticon when you need it?)

Hey @kluurs ! How did your Thanksgiving go?

@pj just sent me this.

From the comments:

You know, this is a breath of fresh air in a world full of AI content, just a man in a cool jacket and hat harvesting red/purple cabbage. Thank you. The YouTube algorithm finally did its job

Edit: His jacket is Alexander McQueen. Guess the cabbage business pays well.

https://editorialist.com/p/alexander-mcqueen-mcq-purple-fleece-cabbage-jacket/

Federalist No. 75. Wonder how this survived this administration's history purge...

However proper or safe it may in governments where the executive magistrate is an hereditary monarch, to commit to him the entire power of making treaties, it would be utterly unsafe and improper to entrust that power to an elective magistrate for four years duration. It has been remarked upon another occasion, and the remark is unquestionably just, that an hereditary monarch, though often the oppressor of his people, has personally too much at stake in the government to be in any material danger of being corrupted by foreign powers. But a man raised from the station of a private citizen to the rank of chief magistrate, possessed of but a moderate or slender fortune, and looking forward to a period not very remote, when he may probably be obliged to return to the station from which he was taken, might sometimes be under temptations to sacrifice his duty to his interest, which it would require superlative virtue to withstand. An avaricious man might be tempted to betray the interests of the state to the acquisition of wealth. An ambitious man might make his own aggrandizement, by the aid of a foreign power, the price of his treachery to his constituents. The history of human conduct does not warrant that exalted opinion of human virtue which would make it wise in a nation to commit interests of so delicate and momentous a kind as those which concern its intercourse with the rest of the world to the sole disposal of a magistrate, created and circumstanced, as would be a president of the United States.

https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-04-02-0227