This Cat-4 started just down by the Yucatan and worked up 140mph-sustained winds in a couple of days over the Gulf of Mexico. I’m wondering how common that’s been before.

I ran into a very old saying yesterday: A fish rots from the head down.

Quite the contrary! The idea is that today’s curricula and methods of instruction have changed a lot over two centuries. Here in the US, it is not uncommon for secondary arts teachers and programs to be dropped whenever schools are feeling a budget crunch. Now we see similar things going on in major universities. Often ones with more administrators than professors.

In the high school I attended, and later in one that I taught in, the separate building for the sports program was as large as the rest of the school. I thought those were fairly clear statements of what the district’s priorities were. ‘Education’ is a very broad word that can mean many things in many places.

A musician friend of mine, when asked “Why are there no Mozarts or Beethovens any more?” replies “We went through your schools.”

As they always teach over at Electoral College.

Up to about the 1980s, the popular magazines used to frequently run cartoons with ragged-looking people holding up ‘It’s the END OF THE WORLD!!!’ signs. Guess they ran out of variants on that joke. But Doomsday Prophets have been around for centuries (some made big money from it) … and yet … here we all are.

We humans like to scare ourselves, but observation seems to show that it’s not a big worry. Will it all end, sure, some day. When? NOBODY KNOWS. Carpe diem, my friend … seize the day. And go ahead and make plans and execute them. Save your worry time for the little things that are inevitable.

Me too! (I can only wish I could hear the Carlin version.)

Glad to hear that! I’ve got that problem too! Sometimes it takes hours to find the way out … hours free of social media, boring or horrifying news (real or fake) … today it was the Medici family history …

US parts prices are … WOW … There was a time when there were junkyards, guess there aren’t so many as once.

Talking the talk is popular with these guys. They know it helps their image. In this case, it’s gaslighting.

On the whole, car should be lighter (-engine & parts,-muffler,-fuel tank) … depending on # batteries needed (+ holding structure + cables)(might lose the back seat). Same Transmission/drive train needs.

Here’s a picture of it while it’s still in the shop. https://inspenet.com/en/noticias/nasa-tests-solar-sail-in-solar-in-orbit/

Oh, for sure. Heat pumps are a-comin, dear Lisa.

Yeh, she was outstanding. That ‘poor little deer’ scene in that Brooklyn accent alone.

Yep, it’s really a lot of fun. A little hard on some parts of both southern culture and NY culture, but just enough to make it even funnier. Not just Pesci as a lawyer and all the lawyer jokes; making a judge out of Fred Gwynne so he could make all those facial expressions he’d perfected was a casting winner. So was Marisa Tomei. And the characters that played witnesses … to this day when I’m saying ‘I guess’ it always comes out with that drawl. Every scene in the film was comical first, and never let up. Masterpiece.

Other’n a couple others named? My Cousin Vinny.

(Some quotes to help my arguement: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104952/quotes/ )

Margaret Hamilton (witch) in a sci-fi Wizard of Oz remake. Oh hell, let’s throw Burt Lahr (lion) in there too.

Haven’t heard about the NASA design yet, but JAXA’s 2010 IKAROS used "Eighty blocks of LCD panels are embedded in the sail, whose reflectance can be adjusted for attitude contro ".

Thanks for reminding me of a great film I saw in theatres long ago… I was at a con once and heard Barry (spouse and I both liked ‘Enemy’) and bought his Workshop book … good to see he’s still kicking …

and thanks too for hooking me up with Feral Historian’s stuff (like his style) which I might never have found otherwise…

Oops, good catch! (I even used to live by her… will fix that, thanks!)