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With the flip of the Virginia Legislature from R to D earlier this month, the newly elected majority has vowed to finally ratify the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) when the legislative session opens in January.

A vote on the amendment in the last session failed by just one vote.

With the almost certain passage of the ERA in Virginia, 38 states will have ratified it, meeting the 3/4 of states threshold required (along with 2/3 majorities in the House and Senate) to make ERA part of the US Constitution^*.

For those not in the US or those who might be unfamiliar with it, the Equal Rights Amendment (first proposed in 1923) forbids discrimination on account of sex:

Section 1: Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.
Section 2: The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
Section 3: This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification.

Once Virginia ratifies the amendment, the House and Senate will need to pass it once again (that was first done in 1972) with 2/3 majorities.

There are some procedural issues with ERA in Congress, but given the history of constitutional amendments, they don't seem to be a high bar to get over.

So, shall the US, nearly 100 years after its proposition, formally enshrine the ideal of equal rights for all in its constitution?

Or should we stand with Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and other nations that treat women as second-class citizens?

^*Process for ratifying amendements.

Thursday morning, the boss came in to work, and I met him outside, in the break area. His mouth was agape, looking at the sky. The sky was an eerie glowing green, with patches of gold where the sun was almost peeking through the cloud cover. (Bear in mind my color vision - maybe the green wasn't really green, but it's close enough.) Over the course of several minutes, it changed to a pretty solid slate green, without that glow. In my experience, that's one of the many different "snow" skies. I always loved these skies when I was driving, because all the wannabe truck drivers and all the timid 4-wheelers were searching for a warm den to hole up in. Which left the highways open to those of us more serious drivers, who would drive across several states before the wannabe's would venture back outside again.

The weather forecast for Thanksgiving promises lots of snow and/or rain, pretty much everywhere in the US and Canada. It makes me wish I were back out on the road again - except, it's a holiday week. That makes for lots of crashes, and lots of wrecks.

https://www.independent.co.uk//arts-entertainment/photography/amazing-storm-photos-tornadoes-the-great-plains-us-america-weather-a9209381.html

23 photos of truly beautiful nature

Eric Meola became interested in storms during a 1977 road trip across Nevada to photograph an album cover for the musician Bruce Springsteen.

While driving in the desert they encountered a violent storm, and Springsteen wrote a song about the experience called “The Promised Land”, saying later of those photographs: “Eric caught some great pictures but what he really captured was something in the sky and in the lay of the land that deeply revealed the grandeur and character of the country.”

Meola was transfixed as well by the display of nature’s fury, stating: “I always wanted to go back to that day when we drove up on a hilltop and watched as lightning revealed the valley floor.”

He began to photograph the tornadic storms of the Great Plains – the area in America’s heartland. Driving through the area known as Tornado Alley – from the Rio Grande in southern Texas, north to the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan – he photographed a forbidding landscape where atmospheric instability collides with moisture from the Gulf of Mexico and spectacular cumulonimbus clouds form at twilight.

Over a period of several years he documented a landscape of elemental forces, where immense storms percolate miles above the ground, rotating with energy until tornadoes spin on the horizon.

He discovered a country of haunting beauty where the wail of coyotes and the glow of constellations fill the prairie’s void with simple graces.

“This book extends that narrative and reaches something profound,” says Bruce Springsteen of these new photographs.

I suppose I could write my own book. The night I sat on top of the mountain above Las Cruces, and watched a violent thunderstorm sweep in from the desert, envelope the town below, then move on toward El Paso, and not a single drop of rain landed on my truck. Or racing a blizzard out of the Yakima Valley, to Kansas City, where the blizzard smashed into a major rain storm that had developed over San Diego. Random photos of hurricanes crashing ashore.

Major weather events have always excited me - they get the heart pumping, and make me want to get out in it.

If you're traveling this week, take a little time, and admire the weather. Maybe you can find a place to get some great photos. Don't be one of the miserable drudges, cursing Mother Nature for ruining your holiday. Look up, and admire the beauty. Look around you, get some photos of vegetation bowing to the forces of nature.

There seems to be lots of opportunity for you to play Storm Chaser!!
https://weather.com/forecast/national/news/2019-11-22-thanksgiving-weather-forecast-travel-2019

Me? I'm going to do what is expected of me. Sit at home, and let the kids come to me.

I just spent all day running AC duct in the New Debar Fellowship Hall (what I've decided the remodeled church shall unofficially be named) with another day of it to look forward to tomorrow. That's what I did shortly before I got on at a computer repair shop/ISP back in the late 90s. I now completely remember why I enjoy sitting on my ass and poking at a keyboard.

My girlfriend and I had to break up last week. Which really sucks, since we were together almost 2 years and had discussed marriage from time-to-time. Her kids don't like me and the constant battles between them and her desire to continue seeing me was causing too much stress for her. She said she will miss me but gave me the "square peg in a round hole" line of reasoning. It's somewhat true, since I'm a think with my head engineer and she's a live by your heart artist. I always looked at it as we're the yin to each other's yang, each of us providing situational balance to the other by offering a different way of thinking about something.

But as I've been turning this over in my head the past week I've started thinking maybe she's right.

You see, my kids were raised to be polite and respectful to adults. They'll never use foul language in my or their mother's presence. They were taught basic life lessons, like saying "thank you" and "I'm sorry." They know everyone deserves a second chance. They take responsibility for their actions and are not afraid to admit they were wrong. They were taught to forgive and forget. They're strong, independent and self-sufficient. They understand you can't live beyond your means and if you want something you work for it. They know that failure happens from time-to-time but it's never the only option. They realize that excellence is its own reward. They know the difference between a hand up and a handout. They're not picky eaters, can cook for themselves and have excellent diets. They'll get married before they have their own kids, and will be ready to support that family themselves when the time comes. They know they haven't got and probably won't have everything they want but they'll never waste time bemoaning their station. They have no fear and posses the confidence it takes to conquer any challenge life throws at them.

As for myself, I was raised by a U.S. Marine and am an engineer. I've approached almost everything in life from a practical, conservative and frugal line of reasoning. It's why by the age of 50 my mortgage was paid off and I had no debt.

However, through her I came to realize that not every problem can be solved by intellectual reasoning alone. Sometimes you have to think with your heart and put yourself in the other person's situation. Empathy, patience and understanding are required when considering the abuse others may have been unwittingly subjected to through no fault of their own, without dismissing their feelings out of hand. Most people, especially teenagers, can't handle abrupt attempts at correcting selfish, destructive behavior. Everyone needs to heal on their own time; there's no clock on the process. We are a square peg in a round hole because I'm willing to consider these things and think with my heart, even while my head screams it will lead to chaos later.

Love requires giving all of yourself to someone and expecting nothing in return. In this I have failed, but I'll never stop trying to get it right.

I was checking out some tracker music that someone gave me (I'm guessing they got it from modarchive.org) when I got to a file called montyii.xm and it reminded me of a moonblaster tune I'd heard.

Moonblaster is of course an old music composition program for MSX computers ('80s Z80-based lineup from Japan). While the MSX generally only came with a YM2149 (a.k.a. PSG or SSG) there was also something called MSX-AUDIO proposed as part of the standard which rolled a Yamaha OPL FM synthesizer and an ADPCM source into one chip. As a cheaper alternative, some makers opted for a YM2413 synthesizer instead. (YM2413 is a cute little 18-pin DIP which is still available on ebay.) Both were available as add-on cartridges. Some dudes from northern Europe created Moonblaster to take advantage of these dual synthesizers.

The XM format on the other hand originated with FastTracker2 which was DOS tracker program also from the '90s. Montyii.xm contained this in the comments field:
by jogeir liljedahl
N-o-i-s-e-L-e-s-s
--------------------
Hubbard's A.W. Monty
converted in '92.
Finished by request
03.02.97.

Despite not having been a C64 user I have nevertheless heard of Rob Hubbard. So it seems that montyii.xm and the moonblaster tune (actually there are two of them, one credited to DANDAN) are both recreations of a C64 tune. (No surprise, since many moonblaster tunes floating around are derivative of something eg. Laserdance.) A web search (eventually, after getting past all the irrelevant results about a law firm) confirmed this, and yielded this interesting article:

Rob Hubbard's Music: Disassembled, Commented and Explained

The music is originally from the game Monty on the Run from Dec. '85.

A semi-related story: Recently I was thinking about software Mod music players. This basically involves converting the sample rate of instruments at a specified pitch into the playback rate. Some players use interpolation, while another strategy is to simply repeat or skip samples as needed but apply a low-pass filter to the output to hide artifacts. The latter is likely less computationally intensive and perhaps truer to the implementation of the Amiga audio hardware. As testament to my newb amateur-ness, I wasn't sure how to code a low-pass filter. Wikipedia articles on subjects like this tend to be geared toward general mathematical theory and therefore offer no hints to a non-math-major on how to apply it to a specific purpose. Eventually I was able to think back to a simple resistor+capacitor electronic circuit implementation of a low-pass filter and how that could be translated to code. It seems to boil down to an embarrasingly simple output=(newsample-oldsample)/X+oldsample where X would correspond to the capacitor charge rate.

For a time I had also considered a speaker cone with a certain mass, maximum acceleration, and maybe a maximum velocity. So what if I put caps on the derivative and/or second derivative of a PCM stream? I tried it, but it wasn't really the sound I was looking for. I think it was a good simulation of old rubbish speakers one might find in a junkyard car, with rotting paper, corroded wiring, and weak voice coils. That's how it sounded :)

I have simplified the way I make kimchi and made some improvements.

All soaking and mixing is done in a 5 gallon food grade bucket. The initial fermentation starts in the bucket for 7-10 days, and then I transferred it to sealed wide mouth quart-sized mason jars for about 7-10 days. Then I put them in the fridge to slow down fermentation.

4 cabbages
1 cup salt for soaking 4 cabbages
~2-4 lbs carrots

1/2 to 2 cups red pepper flakes (I used 1 cup)
1 can crushed pineapple
soy sauce
fresh ginger or paste
garlic
1-2 onions
MSG
some brown sugar

1. Clean the bucket. It helps if it can fit in your sink or you have a sink sprayer.
2. Cut the cabbage stems off, cut the cabbages in half and then a ~1 inch square pattern. I used 4 green cabbages this time.
3. Add them all into the bucket as you go, add the salt, add hot water, stir, and let soak for a couple hours or overnight.
4. Drain it. Clutch the lid on to keep cabbage from spilling out.
5. Add carrots. I cut them into cylinder segments and then fourths lengthwise, but you can do any kind of cut you like or use pre-cut. Stir.
6. Use a food processor to blend the sauce ingredients.
7. Spread the sauce on top. Use a stiff spoon (e.g. bamboo or metal) to stir as much as possible. Mash down the cabbage until liquid creeps up. Use a wide plate to compress the kimchi until the liquid is nearly covering the plate, and leave the plate in the bucket. Add some additional warm/hot water if you need to.
8. Put the lid on and ferment for 7-10 days.
9. Start transferring to mason jars. Stir as you remove kimchi to keep things from settling at the bottom. You want to minimize the amount of liquid that goes in, but compress down the kimchi until liquid covers the top of the contents. Hand tighten the rings. The lid will pop up as it slightly pressurizes/carbonates over the next week, but it shouldn't explode.

I filled about 9 quart jars instead of the 13+ I would get from not compressing it down. Having less liquid and more cabbage per jar also helps make the kimchi less messy to use. I put one jar in the fridge immediately so I could try it with less fermentation, and the other 8 are fermenting now.

Notes

4 large cabbages mostly fills the bucket when soaking. I wouldn't use more than that.

I made a soup out of the leftover kimchi liquid at the bottom of the bucket. Basically just take what you don't want to put in a mason jar (liquid with pepper flake debris a small amount of cabbage and carrots left in it), add chicken broth, sauteed onions, white beans, tomatoes, etc. and boil or pressure cook. If it's too sour or spicy, add more broth or water+bouillon. You could also add some rice or pasta. Basically, I was going for a minestrone.

Wash your hands or rinse them with hot water repeatedly during the process, and have the bucket lid loosely covering the bucket when you aren't interacting with it.

I used an entire 20 oz. can of crushed pineapple because I didn't feel like using it for anything else or storing it in the fridge. I don't think you actually need that much in the sauce.

I dropped the green onions from the latest batch. I'm not sure they add that much and they kind of turn into mush. If I were to add them again, maybe I would cut them differently or just process them into the sauce.

I didn't have enough fresh garlic, so I used a lot of granulated garlic. That was probably a mistake and I might add the full ~3 bulbs next time.

I didn't bother using previous kimchi as a "starter".

On the last batch, I used 1 red/purple cabbage and 2 green. That created a deep blue/purple kimchi (all of the liquid was dark blue as well).

Someone asked about smell in a previous journal entry. Because things are sealed up pretty well as compared to alternate methods, there isn't that much of a smell except from the initial saucemaking. Glass mason jars can be cleaned thoroughly although their metal lids might retain a bit of smell. There should be some smell/stain in the bucket but not too bad if you rinse it enough, and you can put the lid on to block it. You might not realize how much raw carrots can stain things until you cut pounds of them and start touching stuff, like the bucket lid.

I'd rather store this in quart jars than pint or half gallon. The bigger cabbage chunks could take up too much volume in a pint jar, and the half gallon can be unwieldy.

The bucket lid probably does not need an airlock (the bucket is not going to explode). I have never had a contamination issue with any batch. Keeping things immersed in liquid (an anaerobic environment) or sealed probably helps. This advice makes sense.

I use the kind of bucket lid that can be pressed down easily for a nice seal and doesn't need to be pounded with a mallet or whatever.

Things you can use kimchi for: kimchi fried rice, stir fry, yakisoba, spicy reubens or grilled cheese, scrambled eggs, tacos/burritos, soup, curry, pizza topping, eating it straight out of the jar, etc.

I'd like to try fermenting just the sauce portion on its own (which is predominantly blended red pepper flakes, pineapple, and garlic).

Previously: 4 Gallon Kimchi Ferment
Kimchi Update

Pregnant woman killed by dogs in France during hunt in forest

A pregnant woman has been killed by dogs in a forest in northern France where a hunt with hounds was taking place, investigators have said. The body of Elisa Pilarski, 29, who was walking her own dogs, was discovered near the town of Villers-Cotterêts. She died after "several dog bites to the upper and lower limbs and the head," prosecutor Frédéric Trinh said.

Police said they were carrying out tests on 93 dogs and that they had opened a manslaughter investigation. The tests, comparing fresh DNA samples with those taken from Ms Pilarski, will try to establish which animals were responsible for the attack and who they belonged to. Five dogs belonging to Ms Pilarski, who was reportedly six months pregnant at the time of her death, were among those being tested.

[...] The pack of hounds was out hunting deer in the forest, the local newspaper Le Courrier Picard reported on Tuesday.

A person associated with the hunt, Angela Van Den Berghe, confirmed that an event had taken place on Saturday but told the L'Union news site (in French) that "to our knowledge, the tragic accident that occurred has no relation neither with our dogs, nor with the hunt with hounds".

The actor Brigitte Bardot, who is president of an animal welfare foundation, called on French authorities to immediately suspend "all hunt authorisation for this season". But the French hunting association insisted there was no evidence of "the involvement of hunting hounds in the death of this woman".

Also at CNN and France24.

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/cortneyobrien/2019/09/26/watch-rep-elise-stefanik-shades-chairman-schiff-at-dni-hearing-n2553774

On Thursday, as the chairman was kicking off an Intelligence Committee hearing with Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire, he decided to improvise some parts of the phone transcript.

        Rep. Schiff re-writes the call transcript for added drama: "I’m going to say this only seven times, so you better listen good, I want you to make up dirt on my political opponent, understand, lots of it, on this and on that, I’m going to put you in touch with people" pic.twitter.com/1rV7BpEN6o
        — Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) September 26, 2019

Schiff later explained that his version of events was simply a "summary of the president's call was meant to be, at least part, in parody."

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) was having none of it. She didn't wait to call the chairman out until their proceedings had finished. She took him to task right there.

        Today’s @HouseIntel hearing with Acting DNI Maguire is extremely important for Americans to hear. I focused on the whistleblower complaint itself & did not recklessly improvise a fake dialogue for parody purposes like Adam Schiff—the head of this committee—did. Watch part 1 ?? pic.twitter.com/5MBeV7XNCd
        — Elise Stefanik (@EliseStefanik) September 26, 2019

"On page one - and I'm not going to improvise for parody purposes, like the chairman of this committee did," Stefanik said when she began to read the whistleblower complaint. "I'm going to quote it directly."

She went on to read the whistleblower's confession that he or she "was not a direct witness to most of the events described." Still, officials concluded that even though the complainant was relying on secondhand knowledge, it was "credible" enough to investigate.

So, Schifty Schiff pretty much admits he's full of schitz, and making stuff up? Bolding is mine - but we're going to impeach the president in parody!

https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Impeachment-hearing-uncovers-new-evidence-from-14831773.php

Near the start of Tuesday’s hearing, Stefanik pushed Schiff to respond to a list of several witnesses Republicans want to call. Republicans submitted their list of witnesses on Nov. 9 to Democrats, who are reviewing their requests.

On Fox News last week, she said she wanted to call Schiff as the Republicans’ first witness in the impeachment inquiry. She has also supported a resolution to censure Schiff for his comments in an earlier public hearing.

Rep. Mike Conaway, R-Texas, asked for a resolution Wednesday to question the whistle-blower, whose complaint sparked the inquiry, in a closed-door session. Democrats voted down that resolution at the close of the public hearing.

NO NO NO!! YOU CAN'T QUESTION THE WITNESSES!!!!!

WATCH: Rep. Elise Stefanik’s full questioning of Volker and Morrison | Trump impeachment hearings
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yZJs5iHLB0

IF YOU QUESTION ANY MORE WITNESSES OUR ENTIRE NARRATIVE FALLS APART!!

Rep. Stefanik Makes Schiff Squirm, Exposes His Hypocrisy on Whistleblower
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eip14ZOLro

Oh yeah - Stefanik 2024. She's better looking than Trump, she's smarter, and she has better fashion sense. Not to mention that she looks a good bit like my nieces.

See? Not all millenials are vacuous bubbleheads!

Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism.

--George Washington

There are seasons in every country when noise and impudence pass current for worth; and in popular commotions especially, the clamors of interested and factious men are often mistaken for patriotism.

--Alexander Hamilton

Patriotism consists not in waving the flag, but in striving that our country shall be righteous as well as strong.

--James Bryce

If we love our country, we should also love our countrymen.

--Ronald Reagan

The highest patriotism is not a blind acceptance of official policy, but a love of one's country deep enough to call her to a higher plain.

--George McGovern

I saw courage both in the Vietnam War and in the struggle to stop it. I learned that patriotism includes protest, not just military service.

--John Kerry

The greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults.

--Alexis de Tocqueville

True patriotism is loving your country and countrymen enough to want to make it better.

--Malcolm Jenkins

I do think the patriotic thing to do is to critique my country. How else do you make a country better but by pointing out its flaws?

--Bill Maher

There is a fuzzy but real distinction that can and I believe should be made, between patriotism, which is attachment to a way of life, and nationalism, which is the insistence that your way of life deserves to rule over other ways of life.

--Todd Gitlin

Unfortunately, after Sept. 11, there was an outburst in America of intense suffering and patriotism, and the Bush administration was very shrewd and effective in painting anyone who disagreed with the policies as unpatriotic or even traitorous.

--Jimmy Carter

Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.

--Mark Twain

Patriotism is love of country. But you can't love your country without loving your countrymen and countrywomen. We don't always have to agree, but we must empower each other, we must find the common ground, we must build bridges across our differences to pursue the common good.

--Cory Booker

Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism, when hate for people other than your own comes first.

--Charles DeGaulle

Politics is too partisan, and sometimes patriotism is cast aside. Patriotism is honor and love of your country and your brothers and sisters. With politics I get the impression that it's all about what's good for the party and not necessarily what's good for the country.

--Ricardo Montalban

Iowa Poll: President Trump's popularity sky high among registered Republicans; more than three-fourths definitely plan to vote for him

© Copyright 2019, Des Moines Register and Tribune Co.

President Donald Trump enjoys widespread popularity among registered Republicans in Iowa, the first state that will cast preference votes in the 2020 presidential race, a new Iowa Poll shows.

The president's popularity has never been higher among registered Republicans who don't plan to attend the Democratic caucuses, the Des Moines Register/CNN/Mediacom Iowa Poll found.

His overall job approval is up 4 percentage points from March to 85%. The percentage of those who say they will definitely vote to re-elect him is up 9 percentage points to 76%.

“I think he’s doing a tremendous job, really, as far as I’m concerned,” said Wayne Sparker, an 82-year-old Lake Mills resident and poll respondent. "... I’ve been a Democrat all my life, but when he ran for office, when I could see what he was standing up for — for the borders and the different solutions he brought forth — I felt that I definitely needed to vote for him."

The findings come as the U.S. House of Representatives advances its impeachment inquiry into the president, an ongoing trade dispute with China and conflict over the way the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulates biofuels.

It also comes as a wave of Democratic presidential candidates floods the state — some seeking to convert disaffected Republicans and independents.

But these Republicans are sticking with the president, poll results show.

"A majority of every demographic group say they will definitely vote to re-elect the president, with the exception of moderates (47%)," said J. Ann Selzer, president of Selzer & Co. "All other groups stand with President Trump with strong majorities, not surprising given it is 76% overall."

Amy Potter, a 32-year-old Gilbert resident and poll respondent, said she doesn't pay attention to the daily ins and outs of politics, but she is a lifelong conservative and appreciates the thriving economy.

"At this current point in time, the way the housing market is and the way there are so many jobs available, I really do not believe America could be in a better place at all," she said.

Apologies for not providing a link - https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/iowa-poll/2019/11/18/iowa-poll-results-president-trump-popularity-sky-high-among-registered-republicans/4205580002/

For reference, you can always take a block of relevant text, and copy/paste it into a search engine. I've done that often enough :^)