The same way…

The Most Galling Part of the Whole Eric Adams Affair

Mr. Adams has exacted a high price from New York, in reputation and morale, for what seem to be petty acts of greed and disregard for democratic principles. It raises questions of how America’s largest, wealthiest city, with its reservoir of talent in everything from the arts to finance, ended up with someone accused of being an incessant petty grifter as mayor.

The same way the entire country, with its reservoir of talent…

Well, you can take it from there.

[Emphasis mine] 

OK, maybe not everyone, but still…

Sorry, Harvard. Everyone Wants to Go to College in the South Now.

This flow of students to Southern colleges promises to impact the region’s economy for years. About two-thirds of college graduates go on to work in the same state where they graduate, according to a recent study from researchers at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and others. The transplants are well-educated, motivated young workers at the least expensive points in their careers.

And it's warmer, too. 

Mark your calendar

The chunkiest of chunks face off in Alaska’s Fat Bear Week

It starts next week — October 2 — but it'll take some time to scope out the candidates and pick a winner. 

They're on camera, live, here, chowing down.

Don't don't look now

China-Linked Hackers Breach U.S. Internet Providers in New ‘Salt Typhoon’ Cyberattack

Officials have repeatedly said that what the private sector and government agencies know about Chinese intrusions into critical infrastructure is likely the “tip of the iceberg” because of how stealthy and sophisticated the hackers have been.

Somehow Sun Tzu comes to mind.

"Use tactics to overpower opponents by dispiriting them rather than by battling with them; take their cities by strategy. Destroy their countries artfully, do not die in protracted warfare."

Insult of the day

Snudge

Definition: a miser; a sneaking fellow

Useful for describing: anyone you don’t like

Snudge is a lovely little word: it’s obscure, yet readily understood (few people will think you are complimenting them if you say ‘stop being such a snudge!’). It can also be used as a verb, with a further variety of uncomplimentary meanings: “to be stingy,” “to cheat, especially in competition,” and “to go about hunched over or as if in deep thought.”

Courtesy of Merriam-Webster. 

In Ohio, a pawpaw parcity

Drought and shifting weather patterns affect North America’s largest native fruit

Chris Chmiel, who owns and operates a small farm in Albany, Ohio, about 90 minutes southeast of Columbus, said he used to have several hundred pawpaw trees but is down to about 100 this year thanks to erratic weather patterns, including extremely wet weather some years followed by severe drought.

 Can't say I've ever tasted one — North America's largest native fruit — although I do remember my mother talking about them. She spent a lot of her growing-up years in Indiana. I have, however, eaten mangos and bananas — haven't we all? — so I doubt I'm missing much.

Suddenly in Washington

US proposes ban on smart cars with Chinese and Russian tech

“In extreme situations, a foreign adversary could shut down or take control of all their vehicles operating in the United States, all at the same time, causing crashes (or) blocking roads,” she said.

In the wake of the pagers and the walkie-talkies…as we were saying the other day… 

How much wackier can it get?

The Long, Strange Saga of Kamala Harris and Kimberly Guilfoyle

Around San Francisco, where Ms. Guilfoyle has lingered as a distant memory since her divorce from Mr. Newsom, those close to Ms. Harris are generally disinclined to revisit this chapter.

 I won't say weird because weird has descended into politics (and malarky bit the dust a long time ago). But just plain strange is not enough for this election cycle. 

Monday seems to come more often every year

America’s Ambitious Climate Plan Is Faltering

Renewable energy is growing faster than expected. But surging demand for power is sucking up much of that additional capacity and forcing utilities to burn fossil fuels, including coal, for longer than expected.

 Back to the real world.

(Here, summer seems to have ended right on cue.)

I'll get rich

I'm reading an AP article about a game company in Chicago suing Elon Musk for trespassing in Texas. 

It seems said game company, some time in the past, collected $15 from each of 150,000 people and used it to purchase land in the path of Donald Trump's proposed border wall. The land was sitting there undisturbed ever since, preserving nature, the company says, until a construction company working for SpaceX used part of it to store building materials without permission. 

That's trespass, the game company says, and it wants $15 million in compensation, 15 seeming to be a winning number here.

Which reminds me.

Sometime near the middle of a previous century I spent $1 and a boxtop to purchase one square inch of the moon. I own land on the moon.

It's been sitting there undisturbed, preserving nature. And if one of those guys — any one — landed a rocket on it or even stepped on my land without my permission that's trespass. 

And as soon as I find the deed, which has been temporarily misplaced, I'm calling a lawyer. And I mean it.

I'll be wanting my dollar back. And the boxtop.