Posts

Neighbor

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When You Just Can't Bear It The Joys of Living in the Mountains Trump's on TV again? I'm outta here. This guy (I'm pretty sure) was having a drink last night from a pond about  a mile away. Looking good. Ripped. He'll gain some weight in the fall for the long winter's snooze.  We've had three bear visits to our house this year, but I haven't gotten any pictures, so I'll use this one. Our Airedales love it when the big boys drop around.  We have a high powered electric fence ("Will Stop an Angry Bull" - Lowes) around the outside of the top of our fence, and the bears have learned about the yellow wire. No intrusions in a couple years. Amidst all the craziness going on these days, these guys just improve my attitude.

My New Hero

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Way to Go, California At last, a governing person who hates bots as much as I do! California state Senator Robert M. Hertzberg Bots of the Internet, Reveal Yourselves! A bill in the California legislature would regulate bots by making them disclose their automated nature. But how? Gitchee, gitchee, BOT! Bots are the body lice of the Internet. Bots are stealth brain boring parasites. Bots are the pliers and screwdrivers in the Devil's workshop. Other than those, my opinions about bots are neutral.  SEND THIS GENT YOUR BEST WISHES. SEND HIM MONEY. SEND HIM WHATEVER YOU CAN TO ENCOURAGE HIS BILL - SOME OF THE MOST IMPORTANT LEGISLATION TRYING TO GET BORN. WE NEED IT DESPARATELY. Perhaps you have noticed, I have been honking this horn for a while, including "how to do it." "Like Bots" - the newest weapon BAN BOTs! ...To Save Our Country 50,000 Russian Bots... and Counting Deliver the Coup de Grace! The bigger Bot comment list.

Bullbat

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The Common Uncommon Nighthawk Swarming over our humble mountain cottage . Back in Bonham, Texas, we called them bull-bats. I'm not sure why. Oh yeah, they fly like bats and boom like bulls. (I've never heard the bull-bat booms, but I believe in them.) * You can call me Bull. I have rarely seen them by the flock, a swarm of dozens. Mostly I see them in pairs or four or five at most. Tonight, after an afternoon of thundershowers, there was a nighthawk convention right over our bit of land. I grabbed my phone and started taking video. The bull-bats are just flickering spots mostly, but the clouds are cool. Here's three and a half minutes of clouds with a few flickerings . Grab a beer and check it out. Scooter *Nighthawk pix credit

China's Pharma Invasion

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"Biotech*," the Growth Wing of Pharma Didn't know that? The Chinese certainly do Look for us on your shores... and in your medicine cabinets. Some headlines and paragraphs spelling it out Money is rushing into biotech at breakneck speed this year, and one part of the globe is accounting for much of the uptick: China. VC deals were teeming with Chinese investors in the first half of the year, with China-based firms participating in US biotech investment rounds worth $5.1 billion, according to data from PitchBook. For some perspective, that beats 2017's total figure of $4 billion — and we're only six months into the year.   ENDPOINTS NEWS** Chinese funds participated in investment rounds in US biotech companies worth $5.1bn in the first half of this year, beating the $4bn in 2017, the first year of large Chinese inflows into the sector, according to PitchBook.   → Financial Times   🔐 Shanghai Pharmaceuticals on the prowl for acq
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New Secret Russian Troll Weapon Now being unleashed.   Guard Your Mind! Just when you thought the master propagandists couldn't do more damage, they UPPED THEIR GAME. Introducing the LIKE BOTS Ooooo! We LIKE whatever nonsense you just said. Here's how they work...                                     Troll #1 writes some hyperbolic comment ("All Californians are pedarists!")                                    Bot #1 shoots out a nasty insult . ("Go back to your safe place, coward!")                                    Bots # 2-10 starts "liking" the hyperbole.   Like , like, like, like, like, like ......         Now there is a full suite of deception: Fake troll statement; fake nastybot response; fake "likes"         The reader, not on full alert for false propaganda tricks,  thinks, "Wow, a lot of people agree with that; it must be true! " He is deceived. Again.  Careful what you believe. The tsunam

OK, I Just Don't Get It.

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Seven Republican Senators* in Moscow on the  4th of July What in the world?..... Lavrov:  Here's why I called you together. My international sophistication (Yuge, I tell you) is boggled.  These worthies slipped over to Russia to do what?  Grease the skids for Trump's visit with Putin? Secretly urge even more pro-Republican election interference? Just wanted some real caviar?  Or as the author of this piece asked the questions:  "Why are they there? How did they get there? Who invited them? What were the discussions? Did any of that link back to the things we know Bob Mueller is looking at?" When you find out, please slip me the answers so I can look less dumb about this! *  (and one Congressman) Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL)  Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) Sen. John Hoeven (R-ND)  Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS)  Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT)  Sen. John Thune (R-SD) Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) Rep. Kay Granger (R-TX)

SOLVED!

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The Answer to My Ig-runt Question            From the Geology sub-Reddit (It was all because of that sneaky   Upper Cretaceous   Thank you "v7x" I'm a Selma chalk smiley face! I was once the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, long time ago. Even More The fertile soil has origins in the Cretaceous Period, when the shoreline of the Gulf of Mexico was much farther inland. Over millions of years, plankton that lived in the Gulf left behind exoskeletons rich in calcium carbonate—the accumulation of which resulted in the Black Belt’s chalk subsoil. As a result of all the calcium, the soil is very fertile and good for growing crops. I truly appreciate the response.  Now we know. ("We" means quite a few of us'ns.) MacGown, Brown and Hill