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Memorial Day is actually kinda depressing. No one seems to know what it's about.

Today, as I was leaving work, HR came waddling up to me.
"Are you coming to our Memorial Day picnic?" I have a number of reasons why I don't attend company picnics, among them, the fact that I am an asocial asshole.
Me:"No, I'm not going to be there."
HR: "Oh, but we're honoring all of our veterans! You should come!" Welllll - first off, I'm not her veteran, nor the company's veteran. None of us served the fat broad, nor her board of directors. And, second, I resent every time the company collects all the veterans they can, snap a photo, then publish it in the local papers to capitalize on our service.
Me: "Naaahhh, it's to much bother to drive home from work, get a shower, get dressed, then drive another hour to come back for a picnic."
What I SHOULD HAVE SAID, "Memorial Day isn't about those of us who came home. Memorial Day is about our buddies who didn't come home. Memorial Day is about all of my dad's buddies who didn't come home. Memorial Day is about the MILLIONS of people who laid down their lives, so that the rest of us can get on with our lives."

So very, very, VERY few seem to "get it". We veterans already have a day, called "Veteran's Day". On that day, it is appropriate to have a picnic for your favorite veteran(s). Shake their hands, make sure they get a piece of cake, and say "Thank you for your service". That sort of thing is entirely appropriate on Veteran's Day.

On Memorial Day - I like to sit around the house, and reflect. I think about shipmates who are still on patrol. I think about all those sailors, Seabees, and Marines of my dad's generation, all of them still on patrol. I think about the men and women who have served this country since our nation's Declaration of Independence. People who fought the British - twice. People who fought the Indians, many times, rightly and wrongly. Our ancestors who fought the Mexicans, the Spanish, North Koreans, Russians, and more recently, Vietnamese, Iraqis, and Afghans.

So very many never came home.

And, HR wants me to attend a picnic, so that she can "honor" me? WTF? I ain't dead. Someone tried to kill me a few times, sure, but that doesn't count.

Maybe we didn't suffer enough in our wars. Some other countries understand Memorial Day better than we do. Both China and Russia seem to have better observances than we do. Maybe it's because both countries have survived wars in which literally millions of civilians were killed. Much of Europe lost far more than we did, because both the first and second world wars were fought right there. In their town squares, in their schoolyards, in their backyards. Us? All we did was to send a bunch of men and material overseas. Our town halls weren't blown into splinters. Our churches weren't bombed. Our hospitals weren't firebombed. Our women and children didn't watch brigades of foreign troops trying to butcher each other in the streets.

Memorial day. To me, it's just not a time to party. Let us honor our fallen, instead. Even if it might mean a little discomfort for you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARtqpGMkhN4

Maybe - just maybe - I can persuade a few among you to visit a cemetery. Walk around, and find some of the veteran's tomb stones. Many are easily identifiable. Take a few flags with you - some of those little 9 inch flags, on little wooden sticks. Plant those flags beside the tomb stones. Spend a few minutes, and think. And, tell the man beneath that stone, "Thank you for your sacrifice, Sir."

That done, may you enjoy your picnic. And, tell me whether the food tastes even better, for having taken the time and trouble to honor those who deserve honor.

So, I was out smoking and getting my first cup of coffee down this morning when the solution to the skills gap in the U.S. hit me out of the blue.

You know how your ears, nose, and feet keep slowly growing all your life, right? What we need is some lab coat wearing sons of bitches to figure out the mechanism that causes this. Then we need them to figure out a treatment that will cause the same in the penis. Enough guys should then spend what would otherwise go to a degree to pay for the treatment and force them to take up a skilled trade if they want to make a good living.

Problem solved.

And I don't have the hardware required to reproduce it.

It's a purely cosmetic bug, and a really minor one at that. But my client's sales people feel it is crucially important for me to fix it.

Today I regressed it on a whole bunch of different macOS - the operating system formerly referred to only by Apple employees as "Mac OS Ten" - versions as well as a whole bunch of different boxes.

Late in the day I was delighted to find my email totally spammed full of me adding new regressions to RedMine:

No - 10.12.5 (NNNNN) Late 2019 Mac mini, Model Identifier Mac512k42,1984

The entire company got copied on every single regression I tried, each of which was just one line like the above.

And I can't install El Capitan on an Early 2016 MacBook because El Capitan is from 2015 and so the 2016 on up models won't boot off the installer stick.

Just as I left work I explained what was meant by Model Identifiers and how to... uh... "identify" them - use the System Report button in "About This Mac" then suggested they buy me the correct Model Identifier from Other World Computing.

With a mischevious grin I checked Other World's stock of used MacBooks to find that they had no 2015 MacBooks in stock.

But I did point out that they get new used Macs in all the time.

I'm likely to stay home today but I'll check my email regularly. Somewhere I have an email that links to a couple other reputable used Mac dealers.

Bonita and I developed a really effective budgeting template at first in Quatro Pro, then in Microsoft Office Excel, then in OpenOffice.org and now in LibreOffice but not dot org.

The result of that is that I've already spent More Money Than G-d and as well have spent another five thousand Samoleons.

Sucks To Be Michael David Crawford.

More VRAM and cores, less memory bandwidth:

NVIDIA Officially Launches GeForce GTX 1050 With 3 GB VRAM – Improved Core Specifications Along With A Cut Down Memory Interface

Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 (3GB) has a 96-bit memory bus

Lars von Trier's 'gross' and 'torturous' film prompts walkout

Provocateur Lars von Trier is under fire again after a screening of his film, The House That Jack Built, prompted dozens to walk out.

Starring Matt Dillon as a serial killer, one reporter, Roger Friedman said it was a "vile movie. Should not have been made. Actors also culpable". Another tweeted: "Gross. Pretentious. Vomitive. Torturous. Pathetic."

Dillon plays an architect who kills several women and children in gruesome fashion. Uma Thurman also stars.

Von Trier had been banned from the festival for seven years for comments he made in a press conference for his sci-fi film Melancholia. The Danish film-maker pushed organisers too far when he said (as a joke it was later assumed) he was a Nazi.

Now, with The House That Jack Built, the offence has gone further - into the throng of the gathered press. In one scene, as the killer Jack mutilates a girlfriend, he says: "Why is it always the man's fault... If you are born male you are born to be guilty. Think of the injustice of that."

IMDB. Film is 2h35m. It doesn't appear to have been widely released, so streaming/downloading it isn't possible yet.

No, Octopuses Don't Come From Outer Space

Disputed study:

Cause of Cambrian Explosion - Terrestrial or Cosmic? (open, DOI: 10.1016/j.pbiomolbio.2018.03.004) (DX)

https://www.rt.com/news/426774-crimea-bridge-opening-ceremony/

Europe’s longest: Putin leads column of trucks at Crimean bridge opening ceremony (VIDEO)
Published time: 15 May, 2018 11:36
Edited time: 16 May, 2018 12:31

  A new 19km bridge connecting the mainland with the Crimean Peninsula has been officially opened, making Russia the host of Europe’s longest bridge. President Vladimir Putin personally drove a truck across it to mark the occasion.

The opening of the bridge was all about the people, who created the massive construction in record time. A column of dozens of heavy-duty vehicles including hauler trucks, construction cranes and cement-mixers buzzed along, occasionally tooting their horns. Putin, who showed up for the ceremonial trip unusually dressed in casual style, drove one of the two Kamaz trucks in the front of the motorcade. His usual entourage was literally sidelined, keeping at a distance on the other half of the road.

The column arrived to the Crimean side of the bridge, where Putin spoke a few 'thank you' words to the thousands of people who contributed to the project – from underwater explosives specialists, who helped sweep the seabed for bombs left from World War II, and archeologists to the many construction workers who made the bridge possible.

“10,000 people work at this construction site, 15,000 during peak load. Almost 220 companies were involved. In fact, the entire country worked on it. The result is wonderful. It makes Crimea and the legendary Sevastopol stronger and brings us all closer together,” he said.

The bridge has two parts – one for automobile traffic, which is opening this week, and one for trains – which is to be finished next year. For several more months, trucks will not be allowed through, giving extra time to check all the safety measures and engineering quality. The parade of heavy vehicles on Tuesday apparently aims at dispersing any speculation about the strength of the bridge.

A direct path connecting the Crimean Peninsula to the Krasnodar region on mainland Russia is a significant achievement. Building one was considered as early as the late 19th century. The invading Nazi Germany started constructing a bridge, but the project was cut short by advancing Soviet Union.

The soviets went as far as erecting a bridge themselves, but it quickly failed due to difficult seabed terrain and harsh winter weather. Eventually a ferry connection was deemed a more viable alternative. In modern times Russia and Ukraine were trying to negotiate a joint project to create a bridge with modern technology, but it didn’t take off.

Tables turned in 2014, when an armed coup in Kiev put a fiercely anti-Russian government in power in Ukraine. Frightened by threats of nationalist pogroms and a rollback of autonomy, the predominantly Russian population of Crimea voted in a referendum to break up from Ukraine and ask Russia to take the peninsula back as part of the country, which Moscow did. Kiev responded by trying to isolate the region, disrupting supplies of freshwater and electricity and restricting travel to Crimea.

The Crimean bridge project was Russia’s response to the situation – a permanent overland link between the peninsula and the rest of the country. The work on the project started in 2015 in parallel with creating necessary infrastructure on both sides of the Kerch Strait.

In 2016, the actual work on the bridge started in earnest, with workers building temporary constructions and driving pillars into the seabed. Year 2017 was marked by arguably the trickiest part of the construction – towing, rising and putting in place two arches under which ships can pass. The steel constructions weighted 6,000 tons and 5,500 tons for the railroad and automobile parts of the bridge respectively.

Previously the title of Europe’s longest bridge was held by the Vasco da Gama Bridge in Portugal, which has a total length of over 12km. Trailing shortly behind it is the Lezíria Bridge located in the same country. European bridges however pale before their Asian counterparts. The world’s longest bridge is a 164.8km monster connecting China’s cities of Danyang and Kunshan, which opened in 2010.

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        Europe’s longest: Putin leads column of trucks at Crimean bridge opening ceremony (VIDEO)

Such a script would ease the burden of implementing a few site-wide changes to The Global Computer Index.

As it stands 319 HTML files need to be revised in one or more of four separate ways.

Simply to contemplate such laborious and tedious work gets down so I focus on the smaller countries first, as well as the countries of whose cities I list only a very few.

I use find to produce a list of all the files that require revision. What I'd like is a script that sorts that into countries - or into US states - that have the fewest cities that require revision.

That won't save me any effort but it will make me far more productive. It's much easier for me to initiate a task if it at least appears to be a small task.

Here's some sample data:

$ find . -name index.html -exec grep -l 'Computer Job' {} \; | grep -v united | tail
./pakistan/rawalpindi/index.html
./philippines/manila/index.html
./poland/gdansk/index.html
./poland/warsaw/index.html
./russia/moscow/index.html
./russia/novosibirsk/novosibirsk/index.html
./russia/tomsk/index.html
./russia/tomsk-oblast/index.html
./serbia/belgrade/index.html
./singapore/index.html

In this list I would start with Singapore then go on to Serbia and the Philippines.

If I only needed to change "Computer Job" to "Computer Industry Job" I would use sed. But sed alone won't do it because I often have to break long lines into smaller chunks so as to make iFone Fanbois happy.

I'm also migrating my entire site to HTML 5 - but many of my as-yet-unrevised pages are _already_ HTML 5 but some get warnings when I validate them.

Some have spelling errors. Some have errors that doubtlessly would lead foreign patriots to undertake a vendetta against me, my male children and all their male children.

So really I do need to at least inspect all 319 candidate files.

I thank you, and your future managers thank you.

Nine-year-old Instagram star Lil Tay’s ‘flexing’ got her mom fired — that’s only the beginning of her reign of terror

"flex" = show off wealth

Jake Paul’s influencer circle begins to crumble as his dad comes aboard

****should have a 'Politics' section for Journal Topics!

There is an election coming in Ontario, June 7th (though I usually try to vote in the early polls in case I'm sick on election Day (and lines are non-existent!)

The Liberal party in power, currently, have pretty much blown their welcome for a lot of people but the Conservative party looks like Trump 2.0 (Doug Ford won't give interviews because he's afraid to blow his lead by opening his mouth).

With our voting system, I may be 'wasting' a vote by voting green but it's not a wasted vote for $$$ (each vote brings the party $$$), so my vote will matter $wise.

I'm just tired of status quo, corruption and favouring big business because of money (although parties in Ontario (Canada too???? Not sure) aren't allowed to accept donations from companies, only individuals and up to $1000ish per person WHICH IS AMAZING!!!)

So, I'm going green and Gaaark is becoming Kermit.

Hoping the conservatives don't get a majority, but I want to keep helping the green numbers grow.
The more they grow, the more people may see them as an option.

If you don't know Doug Ford, you may remember his brother Rob Ford...made a scene on (Letterman???) a few years back, lol. Our loveable bum-fuck Rob. :)