A ok. Thanks for the clarification.

I had to look up who was mayor during the pandemic. Bill de Blasio. I just remember seeing an overhead view on CNN and thinking “Is that an honest to god mass grave in NYC?!?” That’s a hell of a legacy.

That’s very interesting. Thanks for the write-up. Reminds me a bit of the premier of Ontario where I am. Started life as a petty drug dealer before getting into right-wing politics, and quickly fell out of popularity cutting services and tearing down wind turbines across the province. But with his career on the rocks, the pandemic suddenly hit. That was basically his 9/11 and people rallied behind him. Never mind that his previous cuts to healthcare had exacerbated the crisis. But he’s back to his douchebag ways now.

Any New Yorkers here? I’m interested in your perspective on Giuliani. I only have a cursory knowledge of him. He first came to my attention when he made headlines busting some crime family as a DA way back when. Then he was in the news a lot as the mayor of NYC during 9/11. He seemed pretty respected at the time? I dunno. And next thing you know, he resurfaces as an enforcer for the Trump administration, winding up getting disbarred and generally shunned by society. I guess I’m curious as to whether he was always a scumbag or grew into the role?

So he doesn’t want to be interviewed because it would contribute fake news? I mean he’s not wrong.

I once knew a guy from the deep south who’d say stuff like yoostacud. I yoostacud run a marathon. I thought that was marvellous! Another one was fixina. I’m fixina get tickets to the game tonight. You in?

Sounds useful in Minecraft. Like you put a sign in a cave “exit widdershins” to tell people to follow the left wall.

For the most part, I choose the generic version for pharmaceuticals where available, but there are a few exceptions. For example, for something like a nasal spray, the generic version’s dispensing mechanism may be inferior?

I saw Godzilla Minus One recently and wow, that hit close to home. My mother grew up in post-war Japan and had the whole survivor guilt thing. Nearly tossed herself off a bridge.

I find as I get older and my vision is not what it once was, I need bigger screens with good contrast but don’t care so much about resolution. I think it was on the show Corner Gas where they were talking about how big a screen you should get and concluded the size in inches should match your age. That made me laugh but I have to confess now there may be some truth in that…

It’s been a long time since I got my astronomy degree, but your version is what I recall also. Whatever small rotational perturbation in the initial gas becomes more pronounced as it coalesces in on itself and defines the plane of the star system. Planets form within this plane after it is defined, and they all travel in the same direction around the star.

Regarding galaxies, the most common spiral ones like our own Milky Way follow the same principle at a larger scale. But there are also elliptical galaxies, not to mention irregular ones. In an elliptical galaxy, there is a more random movement of stars in a cloud around its core. So they look more 3D I guess, to go back to what the OP was asking about. I seem to recall the most accepted explanation for how these form is from the aftermath of a collision between 2 spirals? So presumably, when our galaxy collides with Andromeda in several billion years time, the resulting combined galaxy may emerge as an elliptical?

Can he put actual kombu (as in Japanese kelp) into kombucha?

Yeah, I rolled a d20 and can confirm. Wow, critical miss!

I’m wondering how far I can get learning to play the cajon from YouTube tutorials?

I’d say I kind of suck at this point, but I’m having a good time and it’s early days still.

Probably, but he had to leave something for bored celibate monks to do. There are worse callings than to devote a lifetime to finding all manner of ways to fortify wines.

I’ve actually been having more trouble with Apple Maps lately.

My last trip was to perform at a country fair type thing and it couldn’t locate the venue. So I thought maybe if I put on the satellite view, I could spot it and drop a pin? But the whole area was behind a cloud. Wow.

Then later, when we were returning, it tried to send me on a shortcut through a mall parking into an overgrown field.

Thanks! I hadn’t heard about that one. Here another article on it. Wow.

Articles like this really float my boat! It reminds me a bit of the discovery of the Wollemi Pine in Australia.

Thought for a moment there the dude on the right was Emperor Palpatine?

Our mayor has been a mixed bag. He has been fairly progressive in terms of improving public infrastructure, but has had a poor track record on social issues.

Currently, he is courting a scandal involving a violent altercation at a safe injection site where someone got bludgeoned to death. His response was a rather draconian closing of the facility (he claims it’s only temporary) and essentially telling the homeless in the area to get lost. As you might imagine, this is not going well.

I have no interest in running for any political office, though if I did, the city council would likely be highest on my list. I actually enjoy watching them in session from time to time on the local cable channel, as there is less partisan bickering at the municipal level and, as you say, the decisions they make are more likely to affect your day-to-day life.

I am sort of half-heartedly angling to get on a committee involving the city’s cycling infrastructure, but that’s about the extent of any political ambitions.