Comments on: Open thread 1/3/22

By: Molly+Brown

Molly+Brown — Tue, 04 Jan 2022 21:51:14 +0000

Phillip Sells,
Yes, you can harvest the pigs and my good friend and neighbor had me over one night for slow cooker pig. She’s a good cook so it was pretty tasty.
The problem with ‘harvesting’ is finding someone to butcher them. Said friend spent hundreds on a trap after losing thousands in damage done to her irrigation system. She gets one every time it’s baited. My next door neighbor snares them and my son – when he visits – has caught them with a makeshift trap. However, there are only a few people to give them too. It’s really illustrative of how urbanized we have become, even out here in what is regarded as ‘The Country’. When I first moved into my house 32 years ago, on weekend mornings I would see pig hunters driving up the road past my house with their dogs in the truck bed and later driving back down with a pig on the hood. I honestly can’t remember the last time I saw this.
The state is trying to support hunting as the pigs are doing untold damage to the native plant life but not having much success. Hunting skills are passed down father to son and there has been a huge generational drop off. Same with horse culture. My neighborhood was originally an equestrian one but I see fewer and fewer riders every year. My daughter’s first word was ‘Horthey!’ as she sat in her high chair watching the riders go by. Won’t happen with the grandkids. Sad.

By: Leland

Leland — Tue, 04 Jan 2022 16:54:28 +0000

Philip, a few astronauts have spent time at this facility. A lot of studies on living in cramp conditions for extended times was performed leading up to Gemini. But Gemini was fairly short and fit the long flight fighter/bomber type conditions. I do think long term travel is closer to the nuclear submarine, which is generally cut off from what we think of the world for months at a time. It's a 6 month trip just to get to or from Mars. That will not be easy for many people. And much of that 6 months will not be as scenic as popular culture tends to suggest.

By: AesopFan

AesopFan — Tue, 04 Jan 2022 06:24:56 +0000

@ Rufus > In 1999, we had the opportunity to observe a space shuttle launch in Florida. We then gave our kids the choice of going to Disney World or St. Augustine.
We must have done something right raising them – it was a unanimous vote for the historical city, and we had a great time!
The Castillo de San Marcos was fantastic, and we climbed to the top of the lighthouse (I wouldn’t try that now, but my mother made the hike with us at age 72).
The only other “attractions” I remember are walking past the Huguenot Cemetery, visiting the Oldest Wooden Schoolhouse (Mom was a teacher) and admiring the Orthodox Shrine.
And the shop that sold guns and swords.

By: Philip Sells

Philip Sells — Tue, 04 Jan 2022 04:40:38 +0000

Darn, that empty “” was supposed to say “unpronounceable glyph” but in brackets. I see now what happened – the site thought I was trying to make an HTML tag out of it.

Molly, can you harvest some of the pigs or is that frowned upon where you are?

By: Molly+Brown

Molly+Brown — Tue, 04 Jan 2022 04:39:57 +0000

Very nice, physicsguy! I agree about the need for space.
And a great suggestion from R2L about the live oaks. Be sure to drape some Pele’s Hair on them.
How will you maintain that acreage? I’ve got a full time job going with my single acre – and half of that is lawn my husband takes care of with the rider mower.
No gators here but the wild pigs are giving me grief.
And not a day goes by that I don’t give thanks – as I tromp around knee deep in vegetation – there are no snakes in Hawaii.

By: Zaphod

Zaphod — Tue, 04 Jan 2022 04:36:52 +0000

Another excellent David Goldman = Spengler article on China:

https://asiatimes.com/2022/01/why-does-the-west-think-china-wants-global-hegemony/

By: Zaphod

Zaphod — Tue, 04 Jan 2022 03:30:56 +0000

@R2L:

What kind of turtle soup? One reads scary things about gobs of gloopy green turtle soup at London Lord Mayor’s Banquets in days of yore. The Victorians were really into the stuff.

But I once tried the most glorious smoky delicious Consommé-like turtle soup in a very high end Japanese restaurant in HK which sadly closed down when Japan Inc. really hit the skids mid-90s and shuttered a lot of foreign junketing Representative Offices and sinecures to cut costs.

Amazing soup to die for!

By: R2L

R2L — Tue, 04 Jan 2022 03:25:27 +0000

RTF: “… captures the alligator and releases it in a larger lake.” Do you mean like Lake Jessup? 🙂

physicsguy: nice slide show – and you will be well provisioned with venison, wild turkey, and turtle soup. Since your property area looks to be largely pines, I suggest you consider planting some live oaks. But keep them at least 50 to 60 ft. apart, so they grow and spread properly. Put them NE and NW of your house and you will eventually have really nice early/late summer day shade – something you will appreciate even more in time. Welcome to FL., and helping to keep us less purple than might otherwise be the case.

By: Zaphod

Zaphod — Tue, 04 Jan 2022 03:11:06 +0000

Re: Ploughing Through the Dead Tree Economist Xmas Edition Flopped on Sofa

Feels like hard work. I’ve grown accustomed to being able to take Trolling Breaks. The damn thing has no keyboard though. And you can’t copy/paste from a dead tree.

By: Zaphod

Zaphod — Tue, 04 Jan 2022 03:05:10 +0000

@Philip Sells:

— Zaphod: I will say that “`” at least sounds better than “”.

You’re a true connoisseur!

“Rufus and Leland: it has struck me that the closest thing in planetary travel to space transit is being in a submarine. Maybe it’s something NASA should consider when it comes time to train people for really long-haul space journeys. Discovery One looks like a cruise liner in comparison to what I suspect they’ll be riding.”

There’s an article about crew psychological modeling for Mars missions in the Christmas double edition of the Economist I’m currently ploughing through. Thinking is that that if they study the participants enough they can build tailor-made model which will monitor and dynamically re-arrange scheduled interactions and work partners to help smooth things over.