"American Pathogen"

"American Pathogen is a 30-minute documentary film, narrated by Jeffrey Wright, that tells the full story of the administration’s historic mishandling of the coronavirus outbreak in the US – from the dismantling of our preparedness system starting in 2016 to the “missing months” of inaction in early 2020. 

 This election, we need to remember: it didn’t have to be this way."

"I never saw a purple cow..." (updated)

First, about the squirrel in the photo.

It was trapped, photographed, and released in Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania.   The photo shows it inside what looks like a Hav-A-Heart trap.

The Emerts currently do not know why the squirrel is purple. "We have no idea whatsoever. It's really purple. People think we dyed it, but honestly, we just found it and it was purple."

Some initial suggestions were that the squirrel had gotten into purple ink or paint.  Here is a more ominous suggestion:

That color looks very much like Tyrian purple. It is a natural organobromide compound seen in molluscs and rarely found in land animals. The squirrel has too much bromide in its system possibly from all the bromide laced frack water its been drinking. I would raise the alarm. This could mean bladder cancer for humans down the road.

Some of the photos at the link suggest that the squirrel had some non-purple hairs, which I think would argue against a metabolic cause.

Further details and photos at Accuweather (where someone has suggested the squirrel robbed a bank and triggered the dye pack).

Now, about the title of the post.  The squirrel story reminded me of a poem my father recited to me about 60 years ago (almost certainly the only poem he ever learned):

I never saw a purple cow.
I never hope to see one.
But I can tell you anyhow
I'd rather see than be one.

This nonsense rhyme was written in 1895 by Gelett Burgess, who invented the word "blurb."

The word blurb originated in 1907. American humorist Gelett Burgess's short 1906 book Are You a Bromide? was presented in a limited edition to an annual trade association dinner. The custom at such events was to have a dust jacket promoting the work and with, as Burgess' publisher B. W. Huebsch described it,

"the picture of a damsel — languishing, heroic, or coquettish — anyhow, a damsel on the jacket of every novel"

In this case the jacket proclaimed "YES, this is a 'BLURB'!" and the picture was of a (fictitious) young woman "Miss Belinda Blurb" shown calling out, described as "in the act of blurbing." The name and term stuck for any publisher's contents on a book's back cover, even after the picture was dropped and only the complimentary text remained.

The poem was very popular in its day, and became something of a meme, parodied by other writers of the day -

I've never seen a purple cow.
My eyes with tears are full.
I've never seen a purple cow,
And I'm a purple bull.

And later by Ogden Nash -

I've never seen an abominable snowman,
I'm hoping not to see one,
I'm also hoping, if I do,
That it will be a wee one.

- and other writers -

I never was a vitamin;
I never hope to be one;
but I can tell you anyhow;
I'd rather C than B₁!

Burgess became so exasperated that the nonsense rhyme overshadowed his other work that he eventually wrote this sequel:

Ah, yes, I wrote the "Purple Cow"—
I'm Sorry, now, I wrote it;
But I can tell you Anyhow
I'll Kill you if you Quote it!

That's enough.  And as I'm proofreading this post, I have to note that it is totally a coincidence that the title of the book and the postulated toxin in the squirrel both involve "bromide."

Reposted from 2012 to add this stunning photo of a purple toad [Atelopus barbotini], endemic to the uplands of French Guiana:

Western wildfires resulting in corrugated eggs

Hat tip to Dredgen Memor for providing a link to this superb webpage listing and illustrating abnormalities of eggshells, where heat stress is listed as one of the causes of corrugated eggs.

Lost treasures

Signs of the times

 

Moving past Grihastha

A very brief excerpt from an article in The Atlantic ["Your professional decline is coming (much) sooner than you think."]

I told him my conundrum: Many people of achievement suffer as they age, because they lose their abilities, gained over many years of hard work. Is this suffering inescapable, like a cosmic joke on the proud? Or is there a loophole somewhere—a way around the suffering?

Acharya answered elliptically, explaining an ancient Hindu teaching about the stages of life, or ashramas. The first is Brahmacharya, the period of youth and young adulthood dedicated to learning. The second is Grihastha, when a person builds a career, accumulates wealth, and creates a family. In this second stage, the philosophers find one of life’s most common traps: People become attached to earthly rewards—money, power, sex, prestige—and thus try to make this stage last a lifetime.

The antidote to these worldly temptations is Vanaprastha, the third ashrama, whose name comes from two Sanskrit words meaning “retiring” and “into the forest.” This is the stage, usually starting around age 50, in which we purposefully focus less on professional ambition, and become more and more devoted to spirituality, service, and wisdom. This doesn’t mean that you need to stop working when you turn 50—something few people can afford to do—only that your life goals should adjust.

Vanaprastha is a time for study and training for the last stage of life, Sannyasa, which should be totally dedicated to the fruits of enlightenment. In times past, some Hindu men would leave their family in old age, take holy vows, and spend the rest of their life at the feet of masters, praying and studying. Even if sitting in a cave at age 75 isn’t your ambition, the point should still be clear: As we age, we should resist the conventional lures of success in order to focus on more transcendentally important things.

More at the source, which is worth reading (and I think the embedded graphic is brilliant).

Addendum: a relevant comment from reader Chemsolver -

This reminds off Sir Bertrand Russell: How to grow old

"An individual human existence should be like a river: small at first, narrowly contained within its banks, and rushing passionately past rocks and over waterfalls. Gradually the river grows wider, the banks recede, the waters flow more quietly, and in the end, without any visible break, they become merged in the sea, and painlessly lose their individual being. The man who, in old age, can see his life in this way, will not suffer from the fear of death, since the things he cares for will continue. And if, with the decay of vitality, weariness increases, the thought of rest will not be unwelcome. I should wish to die while still at work, knowing that others will carry on what I can no longer do and content in the thought that what was possible has been done."

Divertimento #183 (gifs again)

(I'm still on a semi-blogcation, but I'll post some of the gifs that have accumulated, 

just to clear out bookmarks while I continue to focus on some non-blog home projects)

Comparison of presidents' rounds of golf
This is how heavily armed Mexican cartels are
Holding a BLM sign in Arkansas
Replay this over and over (unmuted, sound up)
Colin Kaepernick jersey used to demonstrate attack dog

Nature and science
Surface tension
Bird nest in a stitched leaf
How to feed a stingray
A nest of scorpions
Lungs inflating (ex vivo)
How ribbon worms capture prey
Praying mantis vs. bee
Releasing dew from a mist tent
Cuttlefish catches prey
Sea angel (info)

More animals
Siberian husky sheds for the summer
Alpha male gorilla blocks the road
Snowy owl is fluffy
Squirrel asking for water
Medusa
Crocodile runs faster on mud than you can
Rescued bald eagle released

Impressive or clever
Hiding wood screws
Laser removes surface rust
Painting with a marionette
Interesting door
Recycling aluminum cans
Hyper-realistic cakes [related article about fondant hate]
Immense aquarium tank
Sorting pomegranates by size
Precision haircuts
Artist at work

Sports and athleticism
Great football run, or bad tackling? (Derrick Henry)

Fails and wtf (trigger warning for various consequences)
Woman's response to being asked to put on a mask
Trying to fill gas tank
Collapse of a jade mine
Attempt to stowaway inside a jet engine
People taking fuel from an overturned tanker truck
Intentional asphyxiation during the "suffocating game"
Woman gets flashback while vandalizing car
Deceptive food label
Faulty zip line breaks

Humorous or cheerful
Taking homeless dogs for a ride
Crow playing on children's teeter-totter
Dog helps during basketball practice
Man rescues tortoise from intersection
Dog with tetanus nursed back to health

The embedded images are digital microscope views of insects from the Spiky, Hairy, Shiny: Insects of LA exhibit, via The Guardian.

Now what we need is some ham...

The discussion thread appropriately notes that getting this close to a cassowary's nest is a major health risk.

Covidiot mesh mask

The discussion thread at Trashy has comments from people who have already encountered these in real life.  These do not follow the mask mandate rules in some states.   Business owners and employees can (and do) refuse to serve patrons wearing these travesties, as for example...

"I do security for a bar and we've already had several people trying to come in with those thinking they're being clever. If they keep arguing with me I just tell them unfortunately you are wearing what appears to be cut up stockings on your face which leads me to believe that you are under the influence of some sort of substance and I cannot safely let you in"

"We don't see enough normal skin"

Absolutely true.  Children especially form abnormal standards for "normal" skin and become unnecessarily distressed by their own imperfections.  Normal skin has probably not been shown in movies or television since the beginning of the technology.  Now a model is decrying the use of filters on phones.

A recent survey, carried out by Girlguiding, found a third of girls and young women will not post selfies online without using a filter to change their appearance. Thirty-nine percent of the 1,473 respondents, aged 11-21, said they felt upset that they could not look the same in real life as they did online. 

The survey results mirror the worries of make-up artist and curve model Sasha Pallari, who recently launched the hashtag #filterdrop in the hope of seeing "more real skin" on Instagram. "I just thought, 'does anybody realise how dangerous this is?'" she said, recounting the moment she spotted a global beauty brand had reposted filtered content from an influencer advertising its products. "I don't want children to grow up thinking they are not good enough because of what they see on social media.".. 

"Nearing the end of the lockdown period I received an email from a parent highlighting their worries of a change in their child's behaviours," Miss McGrath said. "The email went on to say that the child was having issues with their physical appearance. I was taken aback. This child is four, just four. "It then made me feel a deepening sense of sadness, that at such a young age our children are now becoming aware of their physical appearance." The four-year-old then asked Miss McGrath why she wore make-up every day - a question she couldn't answer... 

Responding to the comments, Miss Pallari said: "It's a shame there's still not enough acknowledgement of how dangerous face-changing and face-morphing filters are, regardless of being shown in the Effects Gallery or not. They can still be found really easily just by tying in simple words like 'beautiful'. "Filters are most commonly used via the creators and the influencers with the largest platforms, which reach far more impressionable people from their stories than by searching for a filter. "I hope it's not long until responsibility is taken for how much slimming down a nose in less than five seconds is causing prolific damage to our confidence."

Proper dress for a "Zoom wedding"

Pajama bottoms are better than "nothing" in case the minister asks the congregation to "please rise."  Via.

Asbestos in a Kent cigarette filter (1950s)

And I agree with the comment at the via that it appears to be crocidolite ("blue asbestos"), which is the most carcinogenic of the asbestiform minerals.

Curiosities #4

In the 19th century, the famous horror writer, Egdar Allan Poe, wrote a book called ‘The narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym’. It was about four survivors of a shipwreck who were in an open boat for many days before they decided to kill and eat the cabin boy whose name was Richard Parker. Some years later, in 1884, the yawl, Mignonette, foundered, with only four survivors, who were in an open boat for many days. Eventually the three senior members of the crew killed and ate the cabin boy. The name of the cabin boy was Richard Parker. 

In 1930s Detroit, a man named Joseph Figlock was to become an amazing figure in a young (and, apparently, incredibly careless) mother’s life. As Figlock was walking down the street, the mother’s baby fell from a high window onto Figlock. The baby’s fall was broken and Figlock and the baby were unharmed. A year later, the selfsame baby fell from the selfsame window, again falling onto Mr. Figlock as he was passing beneath. Once again, both of them survived the event. 

A German mother who photographed her infant son in 1914 left the film to be developed at a store in Strasbourg. In those days some film plates were sold individually. World War I broke out and unable to return to Strasbourg, the woman gave up the picture for lost. Two years later she bought a film plate in Frankfurt, over 100 miles away, to take a picture of her newborn daughter. When developed the film turned out to be a double exposure, with the picture of her daughter superimposed on the earlier picture of her son. Through some incredible twist of fate, her original film, never developed, had been mislabeled as unused, and had eventually been resold to her. 

In 1973, actor Anthony Hopkins agreed to appear in “The Girl From Petrovka”, based on a novel by George Feifer. Unable to find a copy of the book anywhere in London, Hopkins was surprised to discover one lying on a bench in a train station. It turned out to be George Feifer’s own annotated (personal) copy, which Feifer had lent to a friend, and which had been stolen from his friend’s car. 

In 1953, television reporter Irv Kupcinet was in London to cover the coronation of Ellizabeth II. In one of the drawers in his room at the Savoy he found some items that, by their identification, belonged to a man named Harry Hannin. Coincidentally, Harry Hannin - a basketball star with the famed Harlem Globetrotters - was a good friend of Kupcinet’s. But the story has yet another twist. Just two days later, and before he could tell Hannin of his lucky discovery, Kupcinet received a letter from Hannin. In the letter, Hannin told Kucinet that while staying at the Hotel Meurice in Paris, he found in a drawer a tie - with Kupcinet’s name on it. 

Reposted from 2009. More examples at Listverse

Photos of our new local public high school

Selected images from a gallery depicting the new 592,000 square foot high school in Verona, Wisconsin, starting with the reception desk and atrium...

Then the "commercial kitchen" for culinary classes, the "competitive pool," and the performing arts center:

Some local taxpayers felt the $181 million cost was excessive.  I'll defer commentary since I have no grounds for comparison.  Perhaps this is the way schools are being built all around the country.

More photos and brief explanatory notes at Madison.com.

How to buy votes when you're president

"The U.S. government will implement an across-the-board payroll tax deferral for about 1.3 million federal employees starting in mid-September, forcing some workers to take a temporary financial boost now that they likely will have to repay next year.

The policy, confirmed Monday by a senior administration official, comes in response to a widely panned policy directive issued by President Trump earlier in August. Unions have sharply criticized the government’s decision, fearing federal workers may not have a choice in whether to take the deferral — resulting in them receiving smaller paychecks in 2021 until the past-due taxes are paid off.

Trump’s order specifically targets the 6.2 percent tax that employers deduct from their workers’ wages so the government can fund Social Security. His directive postpones payment of those taxes until January, at which point employers are required to start collecting back what is owed, perhaps by withholding double the amount they usually take until May. The deferral applies only to people who earn up to $4,000 on a biweekly basis, and less than $104,000 annually.

"See - your paycheck just got bigger.  You're welcome.  Vote for me. "

Oh, also, if you see reports of "wages going up" recently... that's bullshit too, as explained by Bloomberg:

Measures of U.S. wage growth which have surged despite staggering levels of unemployment during the coronavirus pandemic reflect disproportionate job losses among low-income workers, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco President Mary Daly argues in a new study that she co-authored.

Although the unemployment rate jumped to a multi-decade record 14.7% in April, median weekly earnings increased by more than 10% in the second quarter over the same period last year. This rise does not mean wages are increasing, but is occurring as more low-income workers than higher-wage earners lost their jobs during the pandemic. That left an overall pool of higher-earning workers from which to calculate the data, Erin Crust, Mary Daly and Bart Hobijn wrote in an economic letter published Monday on the San Francisco Fed’s website.