While pushing ‘America First,’ Trump set to accept Qatar’s luxury jet as Air Force One

The Qatari plane and its whiff of excess would also seem at odds with Trump’s message that Americans may have to make do with less as he remakes the global economic order.

Well, if anybody knows whoring, it Qatar.  This situation just begs for a bra-drop cartoon.  Or maybe a stripper pole.

Because I was going to do this yesterday, but time is soup.

What I've recently finished reading:

I went back to the Nantucket Trilogy and read the last book, On the Oceans of Eternity by S. M. Stirling, which yay, did deliver on the exploration of the American continent which I complained about in my review of #2. But I think these books could have done with some rearrangement and editing and maybe being four books instead of three, because this was a (virtual) doorstopper, and it still felt as though a few of the threads came to abrupt ends. I mean, I liked it overall, though I did skim battle battle battle battle. And the characterization is pretty minimal - none of these characters are particularly compelling, or distinctive other than by tricks of locution, and the Evil people are Evil and the Good people are Good and Good wins yay. But the characterization of the situation is pretty good, the whole "modern people dropped in the Bronze Age" thing is just great, even if it does strain belief that they have enough intellectual resources and physical skills to make a go of it.

What I've recently listened to:

I recently found out that an acquaintance of mine, a neurologist, started a podcast late last year, and as I wanted to listen to something while running that wasn't politics for a change I picked out an episode from February (there are only nine episodes) that sounded interesting. Stranger Tongues, Stranger Tides is about communication between humans and non-humans; it starts with his own experiences with a scrub jay in his back yard, and moves on to discussions of experiments in communicating with animals, and attempts to communicate with his autistic son, and eventually communication with (possible) aliens and "AI" LLMs.

I really enjoyed it, and I think that if you liked Ed Yong's An Immense World and/or Adrian Tchaikovsky's Children of Time series (and especially if you read my post from 2023 about Ezra Klein's interview with Tchaikovsky and their discussion of how his work is an exploration of personhood and AI) you may too. The entire podcast series is available at https://www.significant-podcast.com/ but I just typed Significant into my podcast app and found it that way. I plan on listening to the rest!

Leases not mentioned. That may not mean much at this point, though.

https://www.ctvnews.ca/business/article/hudsons-bay-to-sell-brands-to-canadian-tire-for-30-million/

The European Citizens initiative to an on conversion practices in the European Union needs more signatures before its deadline of saturday may 17. Please share and sign if you can.

For the job I would like the least, but any job is a job, right? So wish me luck. (Edit: No, nevermind. Dude called me before I left for the interview and kept me on the phone for an hour all to tell me he was certain the commute would not work out. This did not require an hourlong phone call, or, indeed, a phone call of any length at all.)

Also, today is A's birthday, so happy birthday! They will never see this.

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Baby Is Healed With World’s First Personalized Gene-Editing Treatment

Instead, KJ has made medical history. The baby, now 9 ½ months old, became the first patient of any age to have a custom gene-editing treatment, according to his doctors. He received an infusion made just for him and designed to fix his precise mutation.

THIS is what gengineering is for. It's also why research into human genetics and gengineering is essential.

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Coming into the office today, I saw the temporary air conditioning kit was switched off everywhere, so it seemed the air conditioning was now back to its normal working conditions, and that was confirmed by the office manager later in the day. Yesterday, when I was coming up the stairs to our floor I heard voices from the top floor, which houses the services only, so I suspect the work was in progress, so it was good to see it finished.

Today is the Global Accessibility Awareness Day and the accessibility team at work had organised a conference style programme for today, with sessions held in the head office in person and available via Teams to everybody. At our office, we had a meeting room booked so we watched and listened to the sessions together, rather than huddling at our desks just across each other. It was a good mix of talks. Some offices, including ours, held an empathy lab session yesterday, with kit and tools to try to put yourself into the shoes of somebody with an impairment. So I tried some of the glasses simulating different eye conditions, including tunnel vision, diabetic retinopathy, and cataracts. As I put those glasses on top of my own, the simulations probably weren't quite as intended, but the tunnel vision glasses certainly brought home how difficult it was to navigate or type anything. With the diabetic retinopathy glasses I didn't see well enough to even do the task that came with them—the solution there would probably have been to use voice commands or something. I also tried one of the exercises without wearing my own glasses, and that was certainly a case of nose-to-the-monitor and zooming out the text so it was much, much bigger than usual.

Today is the last day of Three Weeks for Dreamwidth. It's time to wrap up your projects from this event.

You can revisit my opening post above to see what other folks did during this event. Today is a good time to revisit new friends or communities and think about adding them if you have not already done so. Check for finished lists from folks who set a goal of posting every day, or making three anchor posts, to catch anything cool that you might have missed in the scurry. Revisit recent friending memes (some are linked in that post) and Add Me communities to read late entries.



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Today is sunny, steamy, and hot. :P It's 86°F with a heat index of 92°F. I still have a bunch of things to plant, but I doubt I'll get much yardwork done in this weather. A beautiful day to stay indoors and write! Or possibly work on the in-progress terrarium with the fern. Tomorrow is supposed to be a little cooler.

I fed the birds. I've seen a mixed flock of sparrows and house finches, two brown thrashers, and a male cardinal.

I put out water for the birds.

I put out the 3 partial flats of pots and watered them, along with the strawberry towers.

EDIT 5/15/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

It's currently 87°F with a heat index of 92°F.

I've seen several mourning doves, a female goldfinch, and a young fox squirrel.

EDIT 5/15/25 -- I've seen a brown-headed cowbird.

The pink bergamot in the strip garden is blooming! :D I confess that I picked off the trumpets from an entire flower head and ate them all.

EDIT 5/15/25 -- I assembled the cookie jar terrarium. \o/

I've seen a female rose-breasted grosbeak. :D No male, but one visited earlier in spring.




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US reportedly plans to slash bank rules imposed to prevent 2008-style crash

The move follows heavy lobbying by the banking industry, with lenders such as JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs having long complained that competition and lending have been hindered by burdensome rules governing the assets they must hold versus their liabilities.

Regulators are expected to put forward the proposals this summer, aimed at cutting the supplementary leverage ratio that requires big banks to hold high-quality capital against risky assets including loans and derivatives, according to the Financial Times, which cited unnamed sources.


There is a limit to how much you can do to defend yourself against other people's poor life choices. Every time the 1% go for a joyride and crash the economy, the 99% pay the price. But you can choose where to store your funds, and that can make a huge difference. If you put your money into a credit union instead of a conventional bank, then there is much less tendency toward risky ventures because the officers are elected from among the members who keep their money in the credit union. Find a credit union near you.

Fossil tracks show reptiles appeared on Earth up to 40 million years earlier

The origin of reptiles on Earth has been shown to be up to 40 million years earlier than previously thought -- thanks to evidence discovered at an Australian fossil site that represents a critical time period. Scientists have identified fossilized tracks of an amniote with clawed feet -- most probably a reptile -- from the Carboniferous period, about 350 million years ago.


So exciting!  :D

This year during Three Weeks for Dreamwidth, I'm writing about goal-setting frameworks for goals_on_dw. Read Part 1: Introduction to Goal-Setting Frameworks, Part 2: The 1-3-5 Rule, Part 3: The 12-week Year, Part 4: ABCS (Achievable, Believable, Committed, Specific), Part 5: Backward Goal, Part 6: BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goals), Part 7: BSQ (Think Big, Act Small, Move Quick), Part 8: CLEAR (Collaborative, Limited, Emotional, Appreciable, Refinable), Part 9: Goal Pyramid, Part 10: Golden Circle, Part 11: GROW (Goal, Reality, Options, Way Forward), Part 12: HARD (Heartfelt, Animated, Required, Difficult), Part 13: KPI (Key Performance Indicators, Part 14: MASTER (Measurable, Achievable, Specific, Transforming, Evolving, Relevant), Part 15: NCT (Narratives, Commitments, and Tasks), Part 16: OKR (Objectives, Key Results), Part 17: PACT (Purposeful, Aligned, Continuous, Tracked), Part 18: Tiered Goals, Part 19: Theme Word, Part 20: WISE (Written, Integrated, Synergistic, Expansive), Part 21: WOOP (Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, Plan).

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We skipped the one with the weird future Borg drone, because it's sad. And also the plot makes no sense - how can Seven's nanoprobes make a future drone just by assimilating the Doctor's mobile emitter? The logic does not hold up. Anyway, we'll go back to that episode later.

Then there's the one where we're told that Torres has been spiraling for months and that Paris has been pushing for his new Delta Flyer for at least as long, but actually both those things show up out of nowhere because TV hadn't really committed to arc-based storytelling at this point. And they resolve just as fast, too! Chakotay cures B'Elanna by shoving her forcibly into a holosimulation of watching all her Maquis friends die and then giving her a tough love lecture about how much people care about her. This can not be a valid therapeutic technique! Seems more likely to make it worse. But it doesn't - she develops new motivation, shakes off those survivor guilt blues, saves the (extremely rapidly built) Delta Flyer and all aboard with her brilliant quick thinking, and then eats banana pancakes with enthusiasm and a renewed zest for life.

Also, if she's got the medical knowledge of a first year nursing student then why the hell isn't she the one picking up extra shifts in Sickbay instead of Tom? That man gets too much plot. (For that matter, when Harry was in that weird AU, we found out that if he hadn't been on Voyager he would've gone into ship design and done pretty well for himself. The building the Delta Flyer plot should've been his endeavor, properly spread out over several episodes. Harry doesn't get enough of the plot.)

But really, Voyager needs to hire a few nurses, hire an extra doctor, and hire a fucking therapist. The Alpha Quadrant cannot possibly have a monopoly on therapy. (And in the meantime, would medication help B'Elanna?) The nurses and doctor could be hired temporarily, exchanging work for passage in Voyager's general heading. There's sure to be plenty of people willing to take that deal. The therapist would really be better off as a more long-term gig, but if they'd stop for a few weeks and really look I'm sure they could find somebody qualified who'd like to do some serious traveling.

Also also: Back when we met the Malon, the garbage hauler was pissy about them talking to their government about those converters because, as he strongly implied, the government would absolutely accept this technology, especially if it came free, with help from experts in setting it up. But... did Voyager even bother to talk to the Malon government, because they seem to have written off the entire culture.

And then we watched the episode where it turns out Species 8472, convinced that humans are a serious threat, have replicated the Academy in order to learn how to infiltrate Starfleet and gather intel for future defense. Which... honestly, the evidence they have against humanity is pretty damning. They only really have ever met two other cultures, one of whom is the Borg and the other of which allied with the Borg in order to slaughter them. And yes, Voyager even has a Borg on their very ship, like, I'd be worried about this too!

But this time Janeway flipped a coin and it landed on "diplomacy", so they tried that and it worked beautifully.

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This year during Three Weeks for Dreamwidth, I'm writing about goal-setting frameworks for goals_on_dw. Read Part 1: Introduction to Goal-Setting Frameworks, Part 2: The 1-3-5 Rule, Part 3: The 12-week Year, Part 4: ABCS (Achievable, Believable, Committed, Specific), Part 5: Backward Goal, Part 6: BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goals), Part 7: BSQ (Think Big, Act Small, Move Quick), Part 8: CLEAR (Collaborative, Limited, Emotional, Appreciable, Refinable), Part 9: Goal Pyramid, Part 10: Golden Circle, Part 11: GROW (Goal, Reality, Options, Way Forward), Part 12: HARD (Heartfelt, Animated, Required, Difficult), Part 13: KPI (Key Performance Indicators, Part 14: MASTER (Measurable, Achievable, Specific, Transforming, Evolving, Relevant), Part 15: NCT (Narratives, Commitments, and Tasks), Part 16: OKR (Objectives, Key Results), Part 17: PACT (Purposeful, Aligned, Continuous, Tracked), Part 18: Tiered Goals, Part 19: Theme Word, Part 20: WISE (Written, Integrated, Synergistic, Expansive).


Part 20: WISE (Written, Integrated, Synergistic, Expansive)

WISE stands for Written, Integrated, Synergistic, Expansive. First, the goal must be written down to make it clear and committed. Second, it must integrate well with your overall ideals and strategy. Third, it must synergize with your other goals to maximize results. Fourth, it should promote big-picture thoughts to encourage growth.



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Any ideas? Should we give up and order new ones? What is that disgusting stuff anyway?

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These pictures are from the savanna and prairie garden.

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Today I took some pictures around the yard.  These are from the house yard and south lot.

( Walk with me ... )