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Shooting at Pittsburgh Synagogue, 11 Dead
Some Big Propellant Tanks for BFR
Clear Linux.
I've been using Fedora 28 since it's been out. It's ok, it works. It's slow on my old computer CPU E2180 (made in 2007). I was thinking switching to Clear Linux. Before I do, I'd like to get any comments from people who have tried Clear Linux or are currently using Clear Linux.
I'm not sure what package manager it uses or the package format. Do they provide the packages you needed? What if anything was missing? Any deal breakers?
I've got a golden ticket!
Or at least someone smarter than me does:
http://physicsfromtheedge.blogspot.com/
Job opening to work on actual science instead of hand-wavy, platform nine and three quarters, oompa-loompa dark matter magic.
There's no earthly way of knowing
Which direction we are going
There's no knowing where we're rowing
Or which way the river's flowing
Is it raining, is it snowing
Is a hurricane a-blowing
Not a speck of light is showing
So the danger must be growing
Are the fires of Hell a-glowing
Is the grisly reaper mowing
Yes, the danger must be growing
For the rowers keep on rowing
And they're certainly not showing
Any signs that they are slowing
TED, Mike Rowe, Castrating sheep
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRVdiHu1VCc
(Warning, not a webpage, I assume the reader is probably familiar with the site and takes proper precautions.)
A large part of his talk concerns castrating sheep. Technically speaking, I have absolutely zero experience with this. I do, however, have first-hand experience with castrating goats, with my grandfather, who certainly castrated a few sheep in his day and as best I understood it's the same exact process.
The bit about doing it with your teeth is pure redneck bravado, it's a great way to humiliate the noob but it's unsanitary and should not be done for that reason. That said, I'm sure I knew people that had done it that way, saliva is fairly antiseptic, and it is the sort of job where you always wish you had an extra hand so it's sort of an obvious thing to try in that sense.
Better off to just literally get another set of hands though. That was my role with grandad. He did it just as described by Mike Rowe, up to the point of leaning the head forward. At that point, he got the skin gathered up so his left could hold it all securely, freeing his right hand, which he extended in my direction, to receive a very sharp (and properly sterilized) scalpel.
It *is* better for it to be done quickly than slowly, that was no redneck bullshit but the truth. Whether it should be done at all is another matter. Always made me sick to see it done.
On the other hand uncut billy goats become unholy terrors, and anyone that keeps goats wants as few of them around as possible. The alternative to this procedure is generally immediate conversion to food. So I can't say it's cruel in any absolute sense.
What do you think? Anyone know sheep?
Russian Orthodox Church Severs Links With Constantinople
Russian Orthodox Church severs links with Constantinople
In a major religious split, the Russian Orthodox Church has cut ties with the body seen as the spiritual authority of the world's Orthodox Christians.
The break came after the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople recognised the independence of the Ukrainian Church from Moscow.
The row is being described as the greatest Orthodox split since the schism with Catholicism in 1054.
Relations soured after Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.
Many Ukrainians accuse the Russian Church of siding with Russia-backed separatists in the east.
Russia sees Kiev as the historic cradle of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Church now fears losing many of its 12,000 parishes in Ukraine.
Constantinople holds sway over more than 300 million Orthodox Christians across the world. The Russian Orthodox Church is by far the biggest.
Also at Reuters and The Guardian.
See also: Archbishop’s defiance threatens Putin’s vision of Russian greatness
Tales of Flushing
Hong Kong Expels FT Journalist
China’s Media Crackdown Spreads to Hong Kong
Hong Kong’s expulsion of a British journalist after he led a foreign correspondents’ meeting with a pro-independence activist is, first and foremost, an attempt by Beijing to tamp down any dissent in the former British colony.
Hong Kong officials have not given a reason for rejecting a journalist visa for Victor Mallet, the Asia news editor for The Financial Times. China’s only comment has been that Hong Kong authorities are within their right to do so. But that’s the typical legalistic evasiveness of authoritarian regimes when they do something they know is hard and embarrassing to defend.
The authorities have never criticized Mr. Mallet’s reporting. But he was the main spokesman for the Hong Kong Foreign Correspondents’ Club in August when it hosted a talk by Andy Chan, head of a political party that called for Hong Kong’s independence from China. Hong Kong and Beijing officials blasted the event in advance and subsequently banned the party.
Beijing took back control of Hong Kong from the British in 1997 after nearly a century of colonial rule, and agitation toward independence has never pleased China’s leadership. Hong Kong as an “inalienable” part of China is written into the territory’s Basic Law.
UK says Hong Kong rejection of FT journalist visa politically motivated
Tennessee Death Row Inmate Opts for Electric Chair
Tennessee death row inmate wants electric chair as 'lesser of two evils'
A condemned Tennessee inmate wants to die in the electric chair, rather than by lethal injection, calling electrocution the “lesser of two evils,” his lawyer said.
Edmund George Zagorski, 63, is set to pay the ultimate price on Thursday for the 1983 slayings of John Dotson and Jimmy Porter — 35-year-old victims who were planning to buy 100 pounds of marijuana from Zagorski.
Lethal injection is the primary form of execution in Tennessee, but inmates whose offenses happened before January 1999 may opt for the electric chair.
The Volunteer State is one of nine that still includes the electric chair as a form of execution.
Kelley Henry, Zagorki's defense lawyer, said lethal injection is a long, brutal process that can take up to 18 minutes.
“Faced with the choice of two unconstitutional methods of execution, Mr. Zagorski has indicated that if his execution is to move forward, he believes that the electric chair is the lesser of two evils,” Henry said. “Ten to 18 minutes of drowning, suffocation and chemical burning is unspeakable.”
Use of the electric chair is rare, with just 14 of the 871 executions happening via electrocution since 2000, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. The last electrocution was in Virginia in January 2013.
Celebrity
I've met people that were in that category, and they don't usually strike me as someone whose place I would want to take, even temporarily. Whatever there is cool in being recognized, and I know that's a rush even from extremely minor bits of local fame, the most intolerable feeling is that of being unable to hide.
I met another celebrity last night, sort of. I mean, I was just standing there, and boom, there he was, 3 feet away. A huge name from a few decades ago, a guy I would call myself a fan of. Bigger in real life, leatherier in the skin, older, definitely the same guy.
So he came into the building through a side door I happened to be extremely close to. He nearly ran over me, his bodyguards were behind him, lucky I wasn't their sup. The only thing between us, as our eyes met, were the two THOTs that had been trying to chat me up only a split second before.
Naturally they immediately double-teamed him and started taking selfies. I backpedaled in horror. The moment was over, his bodyguards eventually peeled the THOTs off, by which time I had retreated ~7 yards to claim the nearest unoccupied table out of range of the crowd. By this time, however, he was being swarmed with adds, more bodyguards were arriving, and soon a line had been formed for selfies and autographs.
I watched, somewhat amused at first, then rapidly becoming simply bored. I wandered off.
So, I went there to support the cause, not to meet him, but I'll confess I was actually hoping to do both. And I'm not even sure if I did or not!
We were 3 feet away, and looked each other in the eye, and nodded our heads, and grunted in an appropriate masculine manner. Twice. But I was really, really hoping to shake the man's hand. And that did not happen.
Not sure if I'm bummed or not. You tell me. Should I be?
Bonus Points: Will it change your answer if you find out who "he" was? Or which cause this was for?
