ope...a life
The moon, she follows me.
Minneapolis Mayor Says Remote Work Turns You Into a Loser. Minneapolis Mayor Frey says comment that remote workers would turn into "losers" was a joke
'We were shocked': Gov. Walz orders state workers to return to the office. Also in the article: Mayor Melvin Carter is pushing for St. Paul’s city employees to return to their offices, announcing last fall that staff would be expected to be at their desks at least three days per week starting April 1.
Raspberry Island was once home to curling rinks, a Navy training center, even an R.E.M. concert
St. Paul’s Raspberry Island has been reinvented again and again.
In the 1890s, it was a popular spot to take a dip in the Mississippi River in summer and home to curling rinks in winter.
Later, it was the site of a U.S. Navy training base. Its historic boat club housed a series of nightclubs with colorful names: Tugboat Annie’s, Golden Garter, River Serpent.
It became an outdoor concert venue, hosting bands like R.E.M. and Aerosmith before spending a sad stretch of years as a parking lot.
Today, the tiny 2-acre island underneath the Wabasha Street Bridge is a park, planted with ornamental grasses and small oak trees.
A part of keeping "peace" means stopping violence. Nazism is an inherently violent ideology. Organizing under Nazi ideology is an act of preparation for mass violence. Stopping Nazi's is done in the name of peace. Sometimes when people are violent, you have to use violence to stop them, in the name of peace. Just like we did in World War 2. If you don't want to face violence, do not wield violence. If you want to claim nonviolence, do not advocate an ideology that is inherently violent
There is no paradox of tolerance in the first place.
The paradox is resolved by treating tolerance not as a moral precept (something that is done because doing otherwise makes you a bad person, something that must always be done) but as a contract or treaty (something that is reciprocal, the benefits of which you are not obligated to afford to those who do not reciprocally offer those same benefits to you and others in return.) Treaties/contracts come with restrictions which signatories are obligated to follow, and benefits those signatories receive in return.
Those who refuse to tolerate others who are not impeding anyones rights are not entitled to our tolerance.
Federal Funding by Cake.
My wife is very into hockey (she's from Minnesota, dontchaknow) and just told me this: Minnesota Wild sign Kirill Kaprizov to richest deal in NHL history: $136 million over 8 years.
My first thought? I'm not sure I would trade 8 years of my life for $136 million.
Which just goes to show what a dumbass I am.
My instincts tell me to say no (and I don't seem to be paying attention to the more logical parts of my brain (which is, usually, par for the course)).
Just colossal dumbassery on my part.
But no matter which way I look at it, if my current job - and let me tell you I have a pretty plum gig - offered me $136 million to stay for eight more years? I'd say no.1
It just feels wrong.
It doesn't matter that I would still be below retirement age at the end of the 8 year contract and could retire early. It doesn't matter that I would make roughly $136 million more dollars for 8 years of work than if I worked those same 8 years at my current (with step increases) salary. It doesn't matter that I would be lucky - oh so very lucky - to be able to keep my job for the next 8 years at all.
None of that matters.
What seems to matter? I don't know. But good for Kaprizov. He seems smarter than me. And richer. Younger. More athletic. Probably nicer. And? And my wife is very happy that he'll be playing for the Wild.
1My wife, god bless her, would soon set me straight, though.
I wonder what Ignaz Semmelweis, the physician in 1800s Hungary who was shunned, mocked, fired, beaten, suffered a nervous breakdown, and killed for suggesting healthcare workers should wash their hands to reduce postpartum mortalities that were three times higher than midwives (who did wash their hands), would think of this comic found in a doctor's examination room?
Cure hiccups by getting a glass of water and a pen or pencil. Place the pen or pencil inside your mouth and lightly bite down on it. Drink the glass of water.
Wrote up the visit to Dee Wright Observatory.
Also got the following previously written write ups up:
The “Debate Me Bro” Grift: How Trolls Weaponized The Marketplace Of Ideas
The “debate me bro” playbook is simple and effective: demand that serious people engage with your conspiracy theories or extremist talking points. If they decline, cry “censorship!” and claim they’re “afraid of the truth.” If they accept, turn the interaction into a performance designed to generate viral clips and false legitimacy. It’s a heads-I-win-tails-you-lose proposition that has nothing to do with genuine intellectual discourse.
The fundamental issue with “debate me bro” culture isn’t just that it’s obnoxious, it’s that it creates a false equivalence between good-faith expertise and bad-faith trolling. When you agree to debate someone pushing long-debunked conspiracy theories or openly hateful ideologies, you’re implicitly suggesting that their position deserves equal consideration alongside established facts and expert analysis.
Perhaps most insidiously, these aren’t actually debates at all. They’re performances designed to generate specific emotional reactions for viral distribution. Participants aren’t trying to persuade anyone or genuinely engage with opposing viewpoints. They’re trying to create moments that will get clipped, shared, and monetized across social media.
Kirk perfected this grift. As a recent detailed analysis of one of Kirk’s debates demonstrates, when a student showed up prepared with nuanced, well-researched arguments, Kirk immediately tried pivoting to culture war talking points and deflection tactics. When debaters tried to use Kirk’s own standards against him, he shifted subjects entirely. The goal was never understanding or persuasion—it was generating content for social media distribution.
Do not block door.
Kite Festival Lincoln City.
(If you're tired of waiting for the video to load, view it on youtube.)
Spent the last couple of days off work. Yay!
Rode about one thousand miles - around Mt. Hood, to Astoria and Washington (and Dismal Nitch), to Eugene, and all around locally. Got into a (very) small altercation with a Boozefighter. Got confused by a gas pump in Parkdale (I really am turning Oregonian).
On the naming of Dismal Nitch:
The group landed in a cove on the north bank of the river that Captain William Clark called in his journals "that dismal little nitch". With no more fresh food and their soaked clothes literally rotting away, he wrote that "A feeling person would be distressed by our situation"
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Started writing a book. An actual book. All my own. Not just one of my rewrites. So hard!
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Tomorrow I'm taking a trip with Stacy to Dee Wright Observatory up in the Cascades.
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Mt. Hood:
Dismal Nitch:
Have you ever been so despised by a coworker that they wrote an arguably pretty decent slutty romance book and made you the bumbling, embarrassing, low iq, homosexual sidekick? I have.
The Octopus Tree. Not to be confused with the Tree Octopus.
An invasive species billionaire is a societally introduced individual or family that harms its new environment everything, causing ecological, environmental, and/or economic damage. The term can also be used for native species politicians that become harmful to their native environment after including human alterations to its their food web. Since the 20th century, invasive species billionaires have become serious economic, social, and environmental threats worldwide.
Invasion of long-established ecosystems societal systems by organisms cunty assholes is a natural phenomenon, but human-facilitated introductions have greatly increased the rate, scale, and geographic range of invasion. For millennia, humans have served as both accidental and deliberate dispersal agents, beginning with their earliest migrations, accelerating in the Age of Discovery, and accelerating again with the spread of international trade. Notable invasive plant species billionaires include the kudzu vine, giant hogweed (Heracleum mantegazzianum), Japanese knotweed (Reynoutria japonica), and yellow starthistle (Centaurea solstitialis). Notable invasive animals include European rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus), domestic cats (Felis catus), and carp (family Cyprinidae) Mansa Musa (Mali Folli), Elon Musk (Doofus Extravagansis), Larry Ellison (Collectus Crapus), Jeff Bezos (Bozo Uninterruptus), Bill Gates (Bluescreenus Hominis), Charlie Koch (Goodgriefus Penus), Mark Zuckerberg (Dumbus Fuckus), Richard Sackler (Drugus Allofus), Waltons (family Avariceae), and Gina Rinehart (MineMineMineMineMineMineMineis).