Greetings from Milano. How is everyone doing in my absence? Any news?
About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
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Yes.
New York has seceded from the United States, declaring itself the Republic of New Klopstockia, and John McCain has chosen himself to be his running mate.
Other than that, not much.
Generously, we kept Albany and Buffalo and Messina in our new nation.
But not Kerhonkson.
Hi BooMan! Hope you’re having a good time.
Boo Man, I thought you were relaxing in sunny Italy but I guess it’s ok to check back with the pond, once in a while.
We had a special visit from a troll, no kidding. It was very informative. What a truly humorous thread, it all was.
Sincerely,
Three cheers for the INFJ’s.
Can the ISFPs get love too? 🙂
ISFP = “Warm and sensitive-unassuming, short range planner, good team member, in touch with self and nature. Most Artistic Type Talk by Otto Kroeger and Janet M. Thuesen
Certainly, you get love too. The “NFs” are such touchy-feely types, they love everybody, esp ISFP’s.
Cheers.
Listening to Bill Moyers on Democracy Now! speaking at this weekend’s National Conference on Media Reform.
Ah . . . talk about Fresh Air . . .
I love that guy. Did you see how he handled being ambushed by a producer for O’Reilly?
I heard the clip after the speech — he was awesome!
Reuters: WELLINGTON, New Zealand – One of the last shipments to a U.S. research base in Antarctica before the onset of winter darkness was a year’s supply of condoms, a New Zealand newspaper reported Monday.
Bill Henriksen, the manager of the McMurdo base station, said nearly 16,500 condoms were delivered last month and would be made available, free of charge, to staff throughout the year to avoid the potential embarrassment of having to buy them.
The base only has a skeleton staff through the long winter.
“Since everybody knows everyone, it becomes a little bit uncomfortable,” Henriksen told the Southland Times newspaper.
About 125 scientists and staff are stationed at McMurdo base, the largest community in Antarctica, during the winter months when there is constant darkness.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Since everybody knows everyone….”
Gee, ya think? If not plans are for getting very well acquainted. I might browse Monster.com next year to see if McMurdo has any openings.
16,500 divided by 125 equals 132 condoms per person are available free of charge and if requested. Can people bring their own supply? Can they be traded? What is the gender breakdown for the staff at McMurdo?
365 divided by 132 equals 2.76 days between each condom use assuming one condom for each sexual experience and assuming everybody does it and at the same rate.
And, it’s dark all the time and everyone knows everyone else. Did they bring enough?
Computations by dirty old man.
It seemed to me that the supply was for winter – not the whole year. I have to take issue with your mathematics, or perhaps it is just the assumptions. 16,500 condoms divided by 125 staff equals 132 each. Let’s assume the supply is just for winter. In the southern hemisphere, winter lasts 92 days, which means that there’s 1.4347826 condoms per day per person.
The crucial thing you forgot in your calculation is that it is unlikely that you would need more than one condom per encounter, which involves two people. The US Government, it seems to me, is actually budgeting for 2.8695 sexual encounters per day per person at McMurdo over winter. That seems reasonable, but then again I’m a male.
Oh my gosh, my post is just a tissue of errors. I forgot, as you pointed out, that it was only for the winter; that the winter down under is a certain number of days – I’ll take your number – and that you normally only need one condom for two people (unless we are dealing with some strange multiple. But, scientists seem pretty straight so that should not be a major deviation, no pun intended.)
Just goes to show what happens when an NF gets his hands on a calculator. No wonder I can’t do my income tax anymore.
“16,500 condoms were delivered last month and would be made available, free of charge, to staff throughout the year to avoid the potential embarrassment of having to buy them.”
Hey Mr. Pinguin, do you still carry condoms?
Not much news, but you’re missing the ridiculous heat wave here on the East Coast.
Hope you are having a great time. I survived the Texas Democratic Convention but haven’t written it up yet.
I did fill out my application for a scholarship for Netroots Nation and need some people to nominate me. LOL
Help Send refinish69 to Netroots Nation
chalk up another one, it’s now official: NOAA Confirms Caribbean Monk Seal Extinct
six years ago, an article by phillip levin, noted “that on average, a distinct species of plant or animal becomes extinct every 20 minutes. Donald Levin, who works in the section of integrative biology in the College of Natural Sciences, said research shows the rate of current loss is highly unusual — clearly qualifying the present period as one of the six great periods of mass extinction in the history of Earth.”
source
l suspect that rate may well have increased.
Our first shot at gardening last year produced a bounty…for the deer.
I was SO looking forward to the squash and tomatoes I planted, and damn if Bambi didn’t eat everything in sight! We tried planting herbs near the plants (well, at least we have plenty of fresh rosemary–the one thing i couldn’t screw up), taking a wiz by the plants…nothing kept the critters away.
I paid good money in seed and soil to flippin’ feed Bambi!!! Argh!!!
Eat the damned grass, why don’t you?
I’m going to have get some kind of gate or I’ll never have a garden.
:<(
I am cursed to forever have a brown thumb…or one chewed up by Bambi and friends.
See? I get so totally frustrated at my lack of gardening skills until I’m not even careful about who I’m responding to. Sad, isn’t it?
I wouldn’t mind the seals eating the garden if it could help them stay alive. Of course, that would have taken a great feat…
Seriously, I heard about that story, and I think it’s damned scary. We’ll kill ourselves if don’t stop screwing around the planet.
I vanquished Bambi from the veggie plot with an 8ft black (poly 2″ x 2″ cell) deer fencing that’s invisible to human eye from 10 ft away. So they turned their grazing to my hostas.
Yummy salad mix those hosta varieties! So I made them a special salad dressing for the hostas: garlic, oregano, safer soap with hot chillies. A potent spray.
Do you have a brand name for it? Or a place where I can get it? I’ve seen some gates and thought they looked fairly ugly, but I REALLY want to have some home-grown tomatoes (esp. in the wake of salmonella tomatoes), squash and peppers, for starters.
Many thanks in advance. I really want to try again. I know I’m a bit late in the season, but I think I can still plant some late summer/fall veggies.
And with the price and safety of food being what it is, it’s becoming a necessity.
Happily. I used Benner’s Deer Fence, Benner’s Gardens out of PA comes with installation guide. Easy. They’ve a mail order: 800 No 800.753-4660 or 800. 244.3337. I skipped the UV posts (shipping issues) – got some local posts. They developed the best…in a variety of sizes and quantities. UV resistant. A garden saver b/c around here they come in extended families (5-50) little bambi to great grandpa.
see here
yeah. My turn this year to put in an enlarged garden – 60 tomato plants, a potato patch, rows of onions, beets, broccoli, eggplant, peppers, various herbs, winter and butternut squash, cukes; all grown organic method.
And I’m doing so between the thunderstorms in 85 F.
Need to save the money.
No heirloom corn, b/c the raccoons watch, giggle and pounce just when the kernels are ready for the lobster dinner. It happened four years ago…they ambushed me –the night before our big cook out.
The.night.before… and I’m pissed ever since then.
You are doing so much better than I am. See down-thread.
I can’t even respond properly when it comes to my lack of gardening skills. Just pathetic.
AP, it takes a certain green thumb.
Gar.den.ing (n) the art of killing weeds and bugs to grow flowers and crops for animals, insects and birds to eat.
And I don’t know why! My parents had a garden! I thought something rubbed off on me.
If you’re offering remedial gardening classes, let me know. I’ll sign up. 🙂
be able to come home!
snark!
With this view out our hotel room window last night, we almost don’t want to go home:
Someone is a lucky lady.
OK. Maybe you should find a way to stay.
:<)
That’s just gorgeous.
A little of this, a little of that. Nothing important enough to interrupt a well-deserved vacation.
Hey I forgot the “r”. Rationing!