Not a lot of time today – gotta make a run to the city and be back to town before the mechanic closes to pick up my wife’s Jeep.
I managed to give away the last tray of plants on Friday – one of the locals wanted several and the last few were given to neighbors on the way into town. It’s becoming a running joke that the reason I am trying to get the whole town gardening is to provide the local deer an alternative choice for vegetable consumption than my own garden.
Not part of the plan, but perhaps a fortuitous side-effect.
Last year, I thought I had it made – I had a bountiful crop of tomatoes that had finally ripened and I was ready to harvest them all. I went to the local town grocery and picked up the additional ingredients needed to make a kick-ass batch of gazpacho with the plan to harvest the next morning then make the soup.
What’s that saying? “Man plans while god laughs before sending a horde of cervids to gobble up your garden and teach you a lesson,” or something like that.
Well, I get up the next morning, grab my harvest bowl, go outside, and… everything is gone – including several of my tomato cages. I was lucky enough to be able to still harvest seed from a few of the half-eaten remnants left, but there was no gazpacho that season. My only consolation was knowing there were a few young bucks out there walking around with tomato cages stuck to their rack looking like dunce caps. Hopefully the other dear teased them mercilessly and they’ll stay away this year.
Anyhow, off to deal with cidiots – send prayers.
Interesting Tidbits
Trump Taps Palantir to Compile Data on Americans – “The Trump administration has expanded Palantir’s work with the government, spreading the company’s technology — which could easily merge data on Americans — throughout agencies.” Combine this with compulsory Real ID for travel, ICE monitoring online dissent, AI biometric scanning, and FedEx AI-powered license plate readers, and we’ll be living “1984” in no time.
I crisscrossed America to talk to people whose views I disagreed with. I now have one certainty – “It may be daunting, the idea of making a common life – in public space, in the pursuit of wellbeing on an imperiled earth, even in the unpredictable span of a conversation – with others unlike ourselves. But we need to find our way back to the communion we may share with those beyond our bounds.” Quite an interesting read.
Trump Deletes Database Containing Over 5,000 Police Misconduct Incidents – “‘President Trump rescinded the order creating this database on Day 1 because he is committed to giving our brave men and women of law enforcement the tools they need to stop crime.’ It is unclear what tool Trump is giving to law enforcement by deleting a nonpublic misconduct database—besides protection from future background checks.”
Cop Gets Jail Time for Failing to Stop Fellow Cop from Savagely Beating Innocent Elderly Woman – “In one of the first of its kind cases, a Colorado cop has been sentenced for failing to stop a fellow officer from carrying out horrifying elderly abuse.”
Walmart workers are sharing photos of price hikes of 38% or more — and some prices are up at Target too – “Walmart CFO John David Rainey said recently that tariff rates remain ‘too high’ and warned that prices would go up on some items in the coming weeks and months.”
Edmonton senior survives moose attack in own yard: ‘I could be dead’ – A Møøse once bit my sister… No realli! She was Karving her initials øn the møøse with the sharpened end of an interspace tøøthbrush…
Miss Atomic Bomb: The woman, the mystery and the man who solved it – “Her photograph is one of the most requested of the 7.5 million images kept in the Las Vegas Convention Center and Visitors Authority’s archive.”
AI Hallucination Cases – “This database tracks legal decisions in cases where generative AI produced hallucinated content – typically fake citations, but also other types of arguments. It does not track the (necessarily wider) universe of all fake citations or use of AI in court filings.”
Remembering The ISP That David Bowie Ran For Eight Years – “David Bowie might have been best known for his cast of rock-and-roll characters and number one singles, but he was also an internet entrepreneur who got in on the ground floor—with BowieNet.”
A matchmaking service with a twist: Connecting big givers to programs cut by USAID – “In a world where the U.S. has now largely retreated from its commitment to foreign aid, they wanted to know how to donate their money to have the greatest impact on saving lives.” This is the best way to do it – private foundations and individuals donating rather than US taxpayers being extorted to fund causes they may or may not support.