Stepping outside with the dogs this morning felt like walking into a hot sauna. The impact was staggering and while my body adapted quickly enough, I was glad that the pups didn’t feel like lingering outdoors any longer than they needed to. They prefer cooler breezes and softer places to lie down, like my bed. There does seem to be some chance for rain today, but they said that about yesterday and last night, also, and neither happened. The band heading in our general direction isn’t huge, so any moisture we get will be slight.
Notice anything about this morning’s picture? Check the date. 2024! Do you understand what that means? That’s a NEW image from this past Wednesday’s adventures! The bank overnighted my debit card which meant I was able to get a card reader here by a little after 6:00 PM. I’ve processed 18 of the pictures and have roughly 20-something more to go, then I’ll post them for you. Hopefully, that will happen later this morning. I’m having to use a new slider app, though, since the one I used two years ago is no longer supported. That may delay things if it doesn’t work with the high-resolution images.
Having access to my money again also meant being able to pay bills and buy groceries. The groceries didn’t amount to much because the waiting bills took most of what I had. Late fees. Yay. 😒 Hopefully, though, what we got will be enough to get us through all next week. My biggest concerns there are milk and eggs. I’m not sure we ever have enough of those two items.
Meanwhile, in “How Stupid Can Christians Get?” news, it appears that a pastor in Mexico is selling real estate in Heaven. I wish I was kidding. This con man is offering his followers plots of “land” in Heaven for $100 per square meter. Installment plans are available. This isn’t the first time a shyster has perpetrated such fraud on a congregation. A pastor from Uganda Fred Isanga, the head of David of the Universal Apostle Fellowship Church of Righteousness located in South Africa tried perpetrating the same scam in 2023. He was encouraging people to sell off their livestock and earthly possessions to purchase land in Heaven. Both pastors claim to have gotten permission directly from God for these sales.
What can I say? These types of things become possible when people believe so deeply in the mythologies they’ve been told will save them. Remember the late Jim Bakker? He had your grandparents building a Christian theme park! At least he was prosecuted for his fraud, but even after serving his jail time, people still were stupid enough to believe him. At one point, he was selling five-gallon buckets of mac and cheese for people to eat during the apocalypse. C’mon, who the fuck is writing this stuff? Not even D-rated sci-fi movies are that stupid.
In the real world, remember when we talked yesterday about SCOTUS overturning the Chevron decision of 1984? I told you then there would be serious repercussions and here’s the first one: The 6-to-3 ruling means judges should no longer defer to the scientific expertise of those agencies on a vast range of technical questions and, instead, should make such decisions themselves. “Agencies have no special competence in resolving statutory ambiguities.” They’re throwing scientific expertise right out the fucking window. Nooooo, that’s not going to bite us hard in the ass, is it? I cannot imagine anyone who is supposedly as intelligent as a Supreme Court justice making such an insanely stupid comment. There has to be a payoff here that is behind these decisions. No one with a working brain would make such an ignorant statement otherwise.
We may be getting a clue, though. A study released this past week shows the first instance of Downs syndrome in Neanderthals. While scientists are focusing on the social aspects of the community caring for those with special needs, the evidence of the extra copy of Chromosome 21 in ancient individuals raises questions as to whether certain populations of mixed genetic origin might be more likely to have the abnormality. DNA-level research has yet to begin, so there is still a lot we could learn from our early pre-human ancestors.
Okay, I have pictures to process and I can’t begin to tell you how much that thrills me. You go do your thing, I’ll do mine, and we’ll meet back here later. Sound good? Yeah, sounds good.
Stepping outside with the dogs this morning felt like walking into a hot sauna. The impact was staggering and while my body adapted quickly enough, I was glad that the pups didn’t feel like lingering outdoors any longer than they needed to. They prefer cooler breezes and softer places to lie down, like my bed. There does seem to be some chance for rain today, but they said that about yesterday and last night, also, and neither happened. The band heading in our general direction isn’t huge, so any moisture we get will be slight.
Notice anything about this morning’s picture? Check the date. 2024! Do you understand what that means? That’s a NEW image from this past Wednesday’s adventures! The bank overnighted my debit card which meant I was able to get a card reader here by a little after 6:00 PM. I’ve processed 18 of the pictures and have roughly 20-something more to go, then I’ll post them for you. Hopefully, that will happen later this morning. I’m having to use a new slider app, though, since the one I used two years ago is no longer supported. That may delay things if it doesn’t work with the high-resolution images.
Having access to my money again also meant being able to pay bills and buy groceries. The groceries didn’t amount to much because the waiting bills took most of what I had. Late fees. Yay. 😒 Hopefully, though, what we got will be enough to get us through all next week. My biggest concerns there are milk and eggs. I’m not sure we ever have enough of those two items.
Meanwhile, in “How Stupid Can Christians Get?” news, it appears that a pastor in Mexico is selling real estate in Heaven. I wish I was kidding. This con man is offering his followers plots of “land” in Heaven for $100 per square meter. Installment plans are available. This isn’t the first time a shyster has perpetrated such fraud on a congregation. A pastor from Uganda Fred Isanga, the head of David of the Universal Apostle Fellowship Church of Righteousness located in South Africa tried perpetrating the same scam in 2023. He was encouraging people to sell off their livestock and earthly possessions to purchase land in Heaven. Both pastors claim to have gotten permission directly from God for these sales.
What can I say? These types of things become possible when people believe so deeply in the mythologies they’ve been told will save them. Remember the late Jim Bakker? He had your grandparents building a Christian theme park! At least he was prosecuted for his fraud, but even after serving his jail time, people still were stupid enough to believe him. At one point, he was selling five-gallon buckets of mac and cheese for people to eat during the apocalypse. C’mon, who the fuck is writing this stuff? Not even D-rated sci-fi movies are that stupid.
In the real world, remember when we talked yesterday about SCOTUS overturning the Chevron decision of 1984? I told you then there would be serious repercussions and here’s the first one: The 6-to-3 ruling means judges should no longer defer to the scientific expertise of those agencies on a vast range of technical questions and, instead, should make such decisions themselves. “Agencies have no special competence in resolving statutory ambiguities.” They’re throwing scientific expertise right out the fucking window. Nooooo, that’s not going to bite us hard in the ass, is it? I cannot imagine anyone who is supposedly as intelligent as a Supreme Court justice making such an insanely stupid comment. There has to be a payoff here that is behind these decisions. No one with a working brain would make such an ignorant statement otherwise.
We may be getting a clue, though. A study released this past week shows the first instance of Downs syndrome in Neanderthals. While scientists are focusing on the social aspects of the community caring for those with special needs, the evidence of the extra copy of Chromosome 21 in ancient individuals raises questions as to whether certain populations of mixed genetic origin might be more likely to have the abnormality. DNA-level research has yet to begin, so there is still a lot we could learn from our early pre-human ancestors.
Okay, I have pictures to process and I can’t begin to tell you how much that thrills me. You go do your thing, I’ll do mine, and we’ll meet back here later. Sound good? Yeah, sounds good.
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