Friday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Friday, May 24, 2024
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47 comments
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About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored
A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog).
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The headline of the day- More than 100 people believed killed by a landslide in Papua New Guinea, Australian media report
How long… can… you… tread water?
A real estate mogul bought her way into the New York mayor’s inner circle – and then the favors started
Not that anyone will be surprised that he’s a corrupt pos, but it’s kind of amazing how deep it goes and the innumerable tentacles it has.
Texas doctor who said nine-year-olds can safely give birth appointed to maternal mortality committee
Forget it Jake, it’s Texas.
Competitive eater Takeru Kobayashi feels body is ‘broken,’ retires due to health issues
@OzarkHillbilly:
So. FLA is already complaining about the heat. Recently a heat index in Miami of 112 and 115 in Key West.
The big day has arrived. My first trip outside Florida in over 20 years.
Dear Wife and I already brought our cat to Maria. Misay is scared to death of course but I know she will be fine. Maria’s front door has a window, unlike out condo door, so I bet Misay spends lots of her watching the comings and goings upstairs.
Maria and DW are talking and I’m back downstairs after excusing myself. My teeth were in urgent need of flossing. Not really but when DW and Maria get together they can talk just about non-stop and I’m like a 5th wheel when that’s happening.
Everything is packed. Three suitcases, one roller bag, one laptop bag. We have medicines for over a month.
Interesting thing- The same limo service I used sometimes 25 years ago will be taking us to Miami Airport. It is operated by a husband & wife. Her name is Abbi, he’s Egyptian with a name I can’t spell or say but he also goes by John. These days John and Abbi’s oldest son also works for them. Abbi will be taking us to the airport.
I’m carefully monitoring the status of our Miami flight because it was severely late yesterday. It originates in the Turks and Caicos before going on to DFW. All of you say it at once- I worry too much.
DW and I arrive in Sydney on Sunday morning and naturally about the first place she will want to go to will be- Church. You have to love your Roman Catholic Filipina wife.
Our time in Sydney will mostly be spent sight-seeing. Only a small bit of my Yakuza epic takes place there but the scenes are important.
When DW are in and around Melbourne and go to Alice Springs, my book research will be more time consuming. My Australian character is from Alice and has family down in Victoria. All of which is important.
This book when finished will be my pride and joy of everything I’ve written. I want to get it as right as possible.
My laptop is 7 years old. I can get a voltage converter but I can’t forget that crashed laptop of mine when DW and I went to Singapore.
We were talking editors the other day, mine suggested part of the ending to my yakuza epic and I’m going with it. My main character is in love with both a man and a woman and they love her too. How do I resolve that? Leeanne gave me an idea.
I don’t mind an editor who can improve my wording in books I have written. For I consider myself better at forming a story than putting into words sometimes.
I’m a little nervous but overall I am really looking forward to the trip.
One last thing. My main character is co-operating with law enforcement. If an ally approaches her, there is a recognition code
“Do you know the way to San Jose?”
“Just follow the yellow brick road.”
“We may end up wasting away in Margaritaville.”
You don’t have to tell me. I’m an insane writer.
DW is home. So bye.
@Bill Jempty: Enjoy yourslves.
I asked Google assistant to remind me to look up how the half lives of elements are determined.
It reminded me to look up how the hot wives of elements are determined.
Reminder: the Simpsons were making fun of how machines make a hash out of such things all the way back in 1995
@Bill Jempty: Bill, I hope you mirror your hard drive online somewhere? If not, and you use an online email account like gmail, you can send your latest draft to yourself everyday. If none of that, I would recommend copying critical documents to a USB key every night, not overwriting the old versions but making a new folder with that days date. Keep the USB completely separate from your computer.
I am one of the most cautious, backup intensive people I know and I discovered that despite all my efforts, I lost a good half days work somehow somehow. So you can never be too backed up as far as I’m concerned.
@MarkedMan:
I use one drive. All my unfinished stories are saved there, plus books I have finished and published. My book covers are also stored there.
When working on a new story, I save to OD daily. Sometimes more than once a day.
My baseball stuff are also backed up there. This stuff I save again about every two weeks but since I’m going out of town I saved everything again today.
Then I have folders for my book business documents and personal files. Anything important gets saved to OD as quickly as possible.
If my laptop crashed, I’d suffer very little harm.
Potentially habitable planet size of Earth discovered 40 light years away
Also, at the end of the article comes this little teaser:
I’ll just leave this here for your amusement.
(translation: he had trouble putting on his pants that morning)
@Tony W:
Hey, it’s a legit question.
@OzarkHillbilly:
Let’s send Musk to explore it.
Trump had a rally in the Bronx yesterday.
This is why we can’t have nice things…
25,000 supporters of the former president descended on Crotona Park, Trump’s campaign said
Bullshit!
‘That’s it?!’ Police at Trump rally express surprise at small size of crowd, estimated at 3500
They have drone and helicopter visual evidence. It was not a big crowd. Less people than concerts at that place on a regular basis.
CNN Data Reporter Raises Alarm on Why Trump’s Bronx Rally Could Spell Trouble for Biden
What a stupid take. Seriously. You’ll be more stupid reading it.
TIL: most of the agricultural irrigation canals in the Phoenix area were originally dug by the Hokoham tribe between the fifth and fifteenth centuries.
They hand dug 500 miles of irrigation canals up to 15 feet deep and 45 feet wide.
Then the Europeans showed up and stole them, and they’re still in use today.
@Bill Jempty:
Cloning herself, and then she and the clone secretly swap places on a regular basis in a zany madcap adventure that reads like a science fiction version of “I Love Lucy”? All while keeping everyone in the dark about the existence of the clone, and making sure the man and the woman never meet?
@EddieinCA:
Yeah, people don’t get a sense of how densely populated the NYC area is. There are a lot of people there. A LOT! Across the 5 Boroughs, Trump got approximately 700,000 votes. Which is a big number. However, Biden got 3.2 million votes.
So pulling in (liberally) 4,000ish people to a rally isn’t that hard.
I know folks were posting the long waiting line. The issue was that there weren’t many entry points and they required people to go in single file–so that’s going to create a line.
Throuple! Then everyone wins!
@Matt Bernius:
People are ignorant of their own country.
If I asked you which state, California or Texas, had more Trump voters in 2020, what would your answer be? Texas, right?
Nope. California had 6.0 million Trump voters in 2020 presidential election.
Texas had 5.8M Trump voters.
Interestingly enough, California is more blue than Texas is red. California went 63-34 Biden. Texas went 52.46.5 Trump.
Did you know more Californians voted for Trump than Texans? (#1 and #2 most populous states respectively)
@EddieinCA: I saw a pic of the crowd. 3,000 at best.
Singapore airlines will suspend meal services when the seat belt sign is on.
That’s good, but the seat belt sign wasn’t on when the turbulence hit the plane, while a meal service was underway.
The problem is people unfasten their seat belts when the sign goes off. I’ve explained why this is not right, but as long as the seat belt sign is the seat belt sign, the problem will remain.
Now, there are several reasons to leave one’s seat, especially in a long haul flight. You may need to use the lavatory. Or you may want to get a snack form the galley (many long haul flights leave snacks and drinks by or at the galley between meal services). Or you may want to walk around a bit, ro visit with someone at another seat. It’s even recommended to move around on long flights, to reduce the risk of deep vein thrombosis due to sluggish blood flow from prolonged seating.
So that’s ok, but ti needs to be separated from the seat belt sign.
Long ago, airlines allowed smoking in the cabin. But this was not allowed at all times. The no-smoking sign was on on the ground, and during take off and climb out to 10,000 feet. That’s mostly when the seat belt sign is on as well, unless there’s turbulence. These days there’s still a no-smoking sign. Either it’s on at all times, or there’s a sticker of it.
So how about a permanent seat belt sign, coupled with a sign that indicates “it’s ok now to move around the cabin”?
If it gets more people to keep their seat belts on through the flight, it would reduce injuries from sudden, severe turbulence. If you’re up and around, or are cabin crew during a meal service, you’d still be at risk.
It may work, or it may work as well as telling people to leave their belongings behind in an evacuation.
This seems like an unforced error on the part of the Biden Administration:
Park rangers are now banned from wearing uniforms to Pride because it’s political issue
@EddieInCA:
100% on so many levels. Just ask them to estimate the size of different ethnic groups within the country.
And wouldn’t it be great to live under an electoral system where those California votes counted?
@Gustopher: My books are clone and clown free .
I’m at Miami airport now. Flight to DFW is on time. Being lazy and drinking water in American airlines club.
Great news before I left.
Someone wants to buy the rights to a 3rd book of mine.
@Kathy: all good advice, Kathy. My DFW to Sydney flight is 15 hours long. I’ll stay buckled in except for when I get up which I’ll have to. I take diuretics and deep vein thrombosis is a threat with me
@Stormy Dragon: I disagree. Like uniformed military, all uniformed government employees, including law enforcement and border patrol, should be banned from wearing their uniforms to political events.
@Bill Jempty:
Take advantage of the empanadas and cuban coffee at Versailles at any terminal. Grab a few empanadas or potato balls for the flight. You’ll thank me when you land.
@Stormy Dragon:
Nope. I agree with Scott. No government employee should be wearing a uniform during political events.
@Bill Jempty:
Enjoy the flight, and don’t worry too much about sudden turbulence. It’s very rare.
Take advantage of the flat bed as well. Vein flow is driven largely by muscle contractions. You can exercise the leg muscles while lying flat or in a deep recline. And make sure you keep the seat belt on when lying flat, too.
But I’m sure you know better than I what you need to guard against deep vein problems.
@EddieInCA:
And neither state will get more than one, maybe two, campaign stops, because the Electoral College system ensures a Republican’s vote in California or a Democrat’s vote in Texas is essentially worthless.
Meanwhile the nine “battleground states” will total over 200 campaign stops.
The other 41 states, comprising 80% of the US population? They’ll be ignored.
@EddieinCA: “It was not a big crowd. Less people than concerts at that place on a regular basis.”
I was in the Bronx yesterday, too — at Yankee Stadium. And I suspect that there were far more people in that 3/4 empty stadium than there were for Trump…
@Kathy: “And make sure you keep the seat belt on when lying flat, too.”
The flight attendants usually insist on that. Part of the pre-flight announcement is that if you’re going to sleep you should buckle your seatbelt outside your blanket so they won’t have to wake you up to remind you…
@wr:
The local Pride Festival in that park on June 20th will have more people than were at the Trump rally.
@wr: Well yes, but 3/4 empty Yankee stadium still has about 12-15,000 people in it. No comparison to 3/4 empty Crotona Park.
@Kathy:
The second-worst turbulence I was ever in was while the cabin crew was collecting trash before we began the final descent. You knew it was going to be bad when the captain came on and said, “Cabin crew, take your seats and strap in immediately.” The crew dropped whatever they had in their hands and ran for their seats. The only person who got seriously hurt was the idiot in the last row who had ignored the earlier order for passengers to fasten their seat belts. He got bounced off the cabin ceiling and then off the floor.
@Mikey:
California always gets more small stops than that because of the amount of money that can be raised there. I will be surprised if Harris is not there several times on her own, although doing private fund-raising gatherings rather than campaign rallies. I may be misremembering, but I believe Trump made multiple CA stops in both 2016 and 2020 to hit up the techbros for money. Texas doesn’t seem to have the same sort of spigots that California does.
@wr:
I’ve read lots of reviews of premium class flights, and not one ever mentions using the seat belt in connection with the lie flat bed mode. Not even in first class products that have a bed separate from the seat, like the new Singapore A380 first class.
@Michael Cain:
I’ve never had bad turbulence.
In 2009, though, flying Mexicana (RIP) to Las Vegas, there was turbulence through much of the flight, and it didn’t let up until well into the descent. To cap it off, we had a crosswind landing.
@Kathy:
The FAs do remind you to buckle in a lie-flat, outside of your blankets.
My biggest turbulence concern is the bathrooms. My head is already touching the curved ceiling.
@Michael Reynolds:
And it’s not because of your height.
(Couldn’t resist.)
@Mikey: It is a happy part of my life that I live in a non-competitive state vis presidential elections. I was thrown last fall watching my college football team playing in Iowa and in Wisconsin when political issue ads came on. That was annoying.
@Scott:
@EddIeInCA:
Cool. You’re going to ban uniforms in, say, St. Patrick’s Day parades?
Because saying that’s okay but Pride is forbidden is itself a pretty extreme political position.
Also, don’t forget that Stonewall is an NPS facility, so Biden announcing “no Pride at Stonewall” the week before Pride Month in an election year is certainly… a choice…
@Michael Reynolds
If your head actually touches the ceiling, you could bring a folded blanket or a pillow into the lavatory, and place it between head and ceiling. Yes, it looks ridiculous, but who’s gonna see? A little cushioning has a disproportionate effect on the severity of injury. That’s why cars today have more padding all over than they used to.
@Stormy Dragon:
Yes. Unless you’re working the event or appearing as a sanctioned group in the event, I don’t think any government official should be wearing a uniform to any political event.
Follow up to the park Rangers at Pride:
Apparently someone at the NPS got way out over their skis and the Secretary of the Interior is not happy…
https://x.com/MSchwartz3/status/1794142967894032554