Monday, September 27, 2021

"something of a taboo"

South Korean president Moon Jae-In is asking people, maybe, to give up dog meat:

"The meat has long been a part of South Korean cuisine with about 1 million dogs believed to be eaten annually, but consumption has declined as more people embrace the animals as companions rather than livestock.

The practice is something of a taboo among younger generations and pressure from animal rights activists has been mounting.

'Hasn’t the time come to prudently consider prohibiting dog meat consumption?' Moon asked the prime minister, Kim Boo-kyum, during a weekly meeting on Monday, according to the presidential spokesperson.

South Korea’s pet industry is on the rise, with a growing number of people living with dogs at home – the president among them. Moon is a known dog lover and has several canines at the presidential compound, including one he rescued after taking office.

Adopting Tory was one of Moon’s pledges during his presidential campaign and the pooch became the first rescue dog to make its way into the Blue House."

I've done a ton of posts like these over the years, but never has a prominent South Korean official come out and suggested a straight-up ban.  I'm very happy to see he's adopted a rescue animal as well.

Thursday, September 23, 2021

"one more time"

"These are pointless questions.  The only reason I have lived so long is that I let go of my past.  Shut the door on grief on regret on remorse.  If I let them in, just one self-indulgent crack, whap, the door will fling open gales of pain ripping through my heart blinding my eyes with shame breaking cups and bottles knocking down jars shattering windows stumbling bloody on spilled sugar and broken glass terrified gagging until with a final shudder and sob I shut the heavy door.  Pick up the pieces one more time."

-- Lucia Berlin, "Homing"

Wednesday, September 22, 2021

"perfect language swap"

Where does right-wing extremism come from, and why are so many ostensibly "liberal" people falling for it?  George Monbiot takes a stab:

"I believe this synthesis of left-alternative and rightwing cultures has been accelerated by despondency, confusion and betrayal. After left-ish political parties fell into line with corporate power, the right seized the language they had abandoned. Steve Bannon and Dominic Cummings brilliantly repurposed the leftwing themes of resisting elite power and regaining control of our lives. Now there has been an almost perfect language swap. Parties that once belonged on the left talk about security and stability while those on the right talk of liberation and revolt.

But I suspect it also has something to do with the issues we now face. A justified suspicion about the self-interest of big pharma clashes with the need for mass vaccination. The lockdowns and other measures required to prevent Covid-19 spreading are policies which, in other circumstances, would rightly be seen as coercive political control. Curtailing the pandemic, climate breakdown and the collapse of biodiversity means powerful agreements struck between governments – which can be hard to swallow for movements that have long fought multilateral power while emphasising the local and the homespun."

Tuesday, September 21, 2021

Books, Books, Books

I'm reading Lucia Berlin's A Manual for Cleaning Women and honestly, it's floored me more than once so far.  Funny, dark, just sentimental enough when it needs to be, and spare, vivid language throughout.

I've been reading a ton since I got to Bellingham last February, and this is easily the best thing I've come across.

Sunday, September 19, 2021

Where We Are

Thursday, September 16, 2021

'ripple effect'

Since nobody asked, me and my father (and my sister by association) have been incredibly cautious regarding COVID.  My dad is in very good shape for being 92, but there's no way in hell we're going to take any extra risks with regards to exposing him to anything.  We go shopping roughly once a week, and both of us mask up.  I'm happy to say that at least here in Bellingham our favorite grocery stores are very good about enforcing masks, and social distancing to a lesser extent.  All of us got our dual shots, and I'm planning on taking my Dad in for his booster this December, eight months after his second dose of Moderna.

So I guess the good news is that in this very rural, politically mixed area, people are doing what they can to stem the tide of the virus.

Then, there's the bad news or more simply, what happens when one state does what it can to stop the virus spread and a neighboring one "pulls a Florida":

"In conservative northern Idaho, only about 4 in 10 eligible residents are fully vaccinated. Hospitals there are so packed that authorities announced last week facilities would be allowed to ration care, potentially giving life-saving care to some patients at the expense of others.

Hospitals there have sent patients to hospitals in Washington, particularly in Spokane [eastern Washington], though how many is not clear. The New York Times reported Monday that as of last week, Providence Sacred Heart in Spokane had patients from Idaho taking up 29 beds.

Briley said that while it’s normal for eastern Washington hospitals to treat patients from Idaho and vice versa, the influx of COVID patients had caused 'some ripple effect' in western Washington.

'We are keeping our head above water, but barely,' said Dr. Christopher Baliga, an infectious disease specialist at Seattle’s Virginia Mason hospital. 'Our capacity to absorb overwhelmed patients from other states is severely limited.'”

It's almost as if peeing your pants over your "rights" and "freedoms" to not wear a mask or take a safe, free vaccine, is meaningless in the face of a global pandemic.

And no, Washington State shouldn't take any more patients from Idaho.  Not anybody who has chosen not to get the vaccine, at least.

Tuesday, September 14, 2021

"the now city loves us all"

 


The Sea and Cake, "Bombay"

Things are mostly fine here in Bellingham.  The fall rains are setting in, which I actually quite like.  The snow will be here soon enough I imagine.  I've applied for some jobs and am waiting to hear back, albeit impatiently.  If this was South Korea I'd probably have started somewhere by now, but you have to respect the patterns and rhythms of the rural Pacific Northwest.

Norm MacDonald has died.  Maybe I wasn't his biggest fan, but when he was good he was amazing.  And by good I mean weird and a bit hostile to the audience, or to the standards of standup comedy at least.

There is some tree trimming that needs to be done, and we just worked on some well issues but should be set for the near future.  I'm getting back into American football, if only because when it's on it means we don't have to watch FOX News.  I'll take it.

I'm also making plans to visit South Korea in February.  There's still a 14-day quarantine in effect for foreigners though, so I'm hoping that might change soon.  It would be far too time- and money-intensive otherwise.  (You have to pay the South Korean government anywhere between 1.5 and 2 thousand bucks for the honor of being confined to a hotel room for two weeks.)

Wednesday, September 8, 2021

Ocean Lady Insights

One small regret about my time in South Korea is that I never made it to Jeju Island, very roughly the "Hawaii" of the country, a beautiful island off the south coast.  It's famous for seafood, pork made from special black pigs, and the "Ocean Women" -- middle aged women who free dive for various ocean foods.  The U.S. Navy is now studying them for insights into preventing hypothermia:

"His so-called crazy idea is to eventually engineer these microorganisms that maintain a symbiotic relationship with their host humans to generate heat when the environmental temperature drops.

'Basically, what we want to develop is a genetic circuit -- we call it a genetic circuit -- that is basically in the bacteria that allow microbes to increase heat production in response to temperature downshift,' he said.

The microbes, he said, would also be able to reduce heat generation if exposed to a warm environment to maintain homeostasis of the human body."

Why not? 

Tuesday, September 7, 2021

"the tar tar pits"

Polyglot tautologies, where you name something for what is already is, are amazing:
"The River Avon, running through Shakespeare’s hometown Stratford-Upon-Avon, is another example. 'Avon' in an ancient Celtic language means 'river' – so the River Avon is more properly the River River. The La Brea Tar Pits manage to be redundant in two ways: La Brea is Spanish for 'the tar' – so the La Brea Tar Pits effectively mean 'the the tar tar pits.'"

Wiki has a handy list of them

Monday, September 6, 2021

Why Washington Will Never Forgive Biden For Doing The Right Thing

It's money, of course:

"But the generals who led the mission — including McChrystal, who sought and supervised the 2009 American troop surge — have thrived in the private sector since leaving the war.  They have amassed influence within businesses, at universities and in think tanks, in some cases selling their experience in a conflict that killed an estimated 176,000 people, cost the United States more than $2 trillion and concluded with the restoration of Taliban rule.

The eight generals who commanded American forces in Afghanistan between 2008 and 2018 have gone on to serve on more than 20 corporate boards, according to a review of company disclosures and other releases."

Friday, September 3, 2021

"he expects them to be precisely met"

"'I will never understand the English,' said Lisl.  She trumped, picked up the trick, smiled, and led again.  Having said she didn't understand the English, she proceeded to explain the English to us.  That was berlinerisch too; the people of Berlin are reluctant to admit to ignorance of any kind.  'If an Englishman says there's no hurry, that means it must be done immediately.  If he says he doesn't mind, it means he minds very much.  If he leaves any decision t you by saying "If you like" or "When you like", be on your guard -- he means that he's made his requirements clear, and he expects them to be precisely met.'

'Are you going to let this slander go unchallenged, Bernard?' said Koch.  He liked a little controversy, providing he could be the referee.

I smiled.  I'd heard it all before."

-- Len Deighton, London Match

Wednesday, September 1, 2021

"he was always telling me so"

"Sometimes I wondered how much money went through his hands for him to be able to run this place with its desirable living accommodations for the servants, a self-contained wing for his guests, and heated stabling for his horses.  I parked my battered Ford between Kimber-Hutchinson's silver Rolls and his wife's Jaguar.  The Kimber-Hutchinsons wouldn't have a foreign car.  It wasn't simply a matter of patriotism, the old man once told me, it would upset some of his customers.  Poor fellow, he needed handmade shoes because of his 'awkward feet' and Savile Row suits because he wasn't lucky enough to have the figure for ready-made ones.  Cheap wines played havoc with his stomach so he drank expensive ones, and because he couldn't fit into economy-size airline seats he was forced to go everywhere first class.  Poor David, he envied people like me; he was always telling me so."

-- Len Deighton, Mexico Set