First, they made me wear a mask. Now they want me to cover the containers I use to collect palm sap. They go to far.
In defense of human nature, I totally expected Covid to result in genocides (Xenocides? Ordocides?) of bats, and set google alerts to alert me to them. But, nothing in three years. Just some culls of fruit bats in Mauritius, because they were eating people's fruit. For which, fuck you, Mauritius.
And, if you don't cover your palm-sap-collecting container surely it gets full of dead insects anyway? Or do you just sell it to western chocolate manufacturers so it doesn't matter?
There are a lot of Keralites in Arrakis, many of them working in healthcare to which see #5 in Mossy's scone link on the OP.
The insects are protein. Anyway, everyone here loves bats. You can buy bat houses to put in your yard. But if you don't locate them well, the bats won't be able to maintain their temperature.
There's a great bat-viewing location near me where you see them eating insects on the wing. But it's on top of a drainage ditch which smells fucking disgusting, because of humans.
Everyone loves bats around here, too. Austin brags that it's got the world's largest urban bat colony, in fact.
There's a fruit bat sanctuary near Sinkhole City where I grew up, and that's where I really came to understand that those are flying puppy dogs. So now I'm partial to them.
We've started going on "bat walks" in the neighborhood, where you try to time the walk so that you're out while the bats are out. You have to be a little careful because bat time is also skunk time.
There are caves and old mines that they have sealed up all entrances bigger than those needed for a bat. Though not in a city or built up area so far as I'm aware.
I'd rather have 4 scones, tbh.
Can't play with bats or handle camel poop. It's like they're deliberately trying to take all the joy out of life.
More seriously, for our resident genii: what are the vaccine prospects? How do RNA viruses differ? Does mRNA technology make a difference?
mRNA only works if you have 5g phone service in your city. Naomi Wolfe said.
Kerala totes has 5G.
I was very confused by this post at first before I remember that Karalites and Karaites are different words.
Overall, my view is that disease outbreaks will keep getting worse until enough people die that they remember that public health is vital. I'm upping my estimates of the number of people who need to die before that happens.
I don't think Kerala ever forgot. AIUI they've handled Nipah to date remarkably well.
The Republican are determined to stop U.S. funding for HIV care in Africa. Obviously, it's more important that those too poor to pay for their own medical care suffer for having had sex or been born to someone who had sex than it is to control a deadly disease. Unless this "evolution" thing is real, in which case allowing a large population to slowly succumb to a disease that destroys their immune system will just allow more varieties of germs to evolve until you get one that rich people can't dodge.
To his credit, what GWB for HIV treatment is vast. Many millions of lives.
No he doesn't. He just asks me out for drinks. Not creepy at all. Very polite.
He was quite insistent about the chess, true.
Overall, my view is that disease outbreaks will keep getting worse until enough people die that they remember that public health is vital. I'm upping my estimates of the number of people who need to die before that happens.
I no longer think that intensifying consequences sway public opinion. I now believe in mushy undefinable things like culture and public discourse and PSAs. And op-eds. Which can all be surprisingly disconnected from real world consequences.
I think you're overestimating PSAs and op-eds.
I think you're overgeneralizing from your own benighted land.
Propaganda Service Announcements. It includes Fox News and conservative talk radio.
We don't even have titles of nobility.
I think you're overgeneralizing from your own benighted land.
What's the median benighted state, globally speaking? For comparison purposes.
Have I told you all to watch The Green Knight? Watch The Green Knight. I think it's on Disney now.
When I blog my trip to Kerala back in 2009, I used the word "Keralan" and a commenter corrected me that it was Keralese. But Wikipedia says Keralan.
32: La República de Cabo Verde.
36: Are they as ignorant of me as I am of them? Where is Texas with respect to LRdCV on the scale of benightedness?
Nipah seems like one of those diseases that's definitely worth combating since it's so horrible, but is not the kind likely to go pandemic with such a high fatality rate.
Batphone autocorrect is the worst.
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ISTR I once wrote on this site a riff on The Toast going "If Treebeard were your partner". I can't find it by G or DDG. Did it exist?
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"There are caves and old mines that they have sealed up all entrances bigger than those needed for a bat"
MMMMMMPH!
(distant muffled hammering)
They have an actual door, so they can get in and science. You must have something on your utility belt to open a lock.
Is that a crossover I hear coming?
33: Wait, everyone said it was terrible. Is it not?
I was looking forward to it based on the trailer.
47: People lied to you. It's fucking amazing.
I heard Ryan Reynolds was forced to make it if he wanted to play Deadpool.
38: It's also not airborne, apparently.
Bats can only infect you if they walk up to you.
It's more of a hop and a scramble, tbh.
Bats can only infect you if you invite them into your home.
If only other rodents were so considerate.
I'm reading Abraham Verghese's Covenant of Water* right now, which caused me to learn for the first time about St. Thomas Christians. I knew that there were a lot of Christians in Kerala, relatively speaking, but had always assumed that this was as a result of 19th or 20th century contact with missionaries, or because of British rule. I had no idea that Doubting Thomas went all the way to India after Jesus' death, and that the St. Thomas community had existed in Kerala for centuries before the mass Christianization of Europe.
*I absolutely loved the first 300 pages of this book, but the next 200 pages were pretty meandery. I'm starting to lose patience, and I still have more than 200 pages left to go.
I found a grotto by a church in Kerala! I remember posting it here, but it went unappreciated.
They're Catholic/Orthodox, there's no way the British had much to do with it.
Anyway, as I probably mentioned before, I met an Indian priest who said much of his congregation claimed to be St.Thomas Christians, but he figured the Portuguese responsible for most. Anyway, he wouldn't eat beef.
Which was something he mentioned to my parents when they invited him to dinner and asked if he had any dietary restrictions. I think he didn't eat pork either.
Green Knight
I thought it was pretty flawed but worth it. Visionary, not uninspired hackery like so much period drama. Pretty sure I'll watch it again at some point. Only Loosely connected to the poem, which takes real work to read but is also good (I think-- been many years since I did that).
Is it better than the one with Connery?
Re: The Green Knight, I liked it. It's a very loose adaptation of the source material, but considering that it's Arthurian, who cares? (I mean, I think people worry too much about adaptations being beat-for-beat retellings in general, and in particular with Arthurian stuff, the source is so old that it really doesn't matter.) It's surprisingly "serious", for lack of a better term, for a movie in its genre.
56 perfect for the next UnfoggedCon
Agree with 60 but it made me want to rewatch Boorman's Excalibur which is fantastic (and a lot more camp than I'd remembered it).
Google says the one I saw was called "Sword of the Valiant" and that it sucked.
I can't say I blame them for a bat genocide, even though I don't want the bats to die. Disease with a nasty fatality rate, no cure, found in bats and the public health people are assuring us that killing bats won't help because they'll just move somewhere else? Is that somewhere else not my town?
The "somewhere else" is your attic.
Anyway, I have participated in a successful bat hunt. I assume the bat was stepped on, but I don't know.
I didn't think The Green Knight really held together, but at least it was visually very interesting. And I'm willing to see any movie with Alicia Vikander, including much worse movies than this one.
Confidential to Governor Newsom: I would make a wonderful senator and am willing to relocate to any of your less meth-y areas.
Frankly, an area with meth and great scenery is fine too.
NMM to the debate over whether Feinstein needs to step down.
I mean, that debate is probably dead.
He should appoint me regardless. I don't think Menendez is going to be pressured into resigning and I would rather represent California than New Jersey, even though New Jersey is less of a schlep.
So pleased. She was a destructive force in the field I care about.
It is a reassuring reminder that all those fucking olds will actually die.
I'm not sure why we're all assuming that she's going to stop being Senator now that she's dead.
According to the Buddhists, you get reincarnated until you become one with water use policy.
74 to 78. I corrected my error.
75 A governor of Montana did that. It was pretty unpopular. Actually, he resigned and on the same day the Lt Gov appointed him.
Nebraska's prior governor did that. But I don't know if there are state rules.
Sasse didn't die, but he did move to Florida.
Speaking of near-death, I'm getting my Ursack today. I'm tired of bears stealing my food.