Quote of the Day

Joseph Moore is talking about Catholic schools and education. He starts by quoting from a papal letter to bishops in 1890, wherein I found this line:

If in their early years they find within the walls of their homes the rule of an upright life and the discipline of Christian virtues, the future welfare of society will in great measure be guaranteed. - Sapientiae Christianae (1890), article 42

 

Joe Rogan Media Matters

The Joe Rogan Experience

Very cool and encouraging article about the fringe media, like me: 

Joe Rogan Gets New Spotify Deal Worth Up to $250 Million by Anne Steele February 2, 2024

Hit show to be distributed broadly, including on YouTube, rather than exclusively on audio-streaming service

I especially liked this bit: 

My friend Phil Bak casually asked me on Friday what I thought the marketing budget was for big media corporations.

“Like fifty million a year or something,” I guessed.

“Exactly,” Phil replied to me. “Fifty million fucking dollars. And they can’t find a single interesting thing to say.”

Via ZeroHedge

 

Fork the System

Volunteers at the Khalsa Diwan Sikh Temple in Manila prepare chapatis for the evening crowd [Sonny Thakur/Al Jazeera]

Yes, Aljazeera is run by Nazis, but outside of their coverage of the Palestinians and Israel they seem to be fairly well balanced, so you get stories like this one about Sikhs emigrating from Bombay to the Philippines and going into the microfinance business. They are doing well enough there that they are offering free meals to all at their community kitchen.

Your Tax Dollars at Work

First Ball and Socket
Replaced in Second Surgery

Just got a statement from UnitedHealthcare. It has my total medical expenses from last year, which means it includes my hip joint replacement surgery.

Witchcraft

Consolidated B-24 Liberator (25-2534)

This is not the original Witchcraft. That one was scrapped long ago. This one has its own history. Since it was restored it has been dressed up to play a couple of different characters. From the Collings Foundation:

The history of “Witchcraft” is a story that legends are made from. The original “Witchcraft” was produced as a B-24H, built by Ford at the famous Willow Run, MI plant in 1944. It was delivered to the 467th in Wendover, Utah and initially assigned to Second Lieutenant George W. Reed and his crew who flew the aircraft to England. “Witchcraft” safely arrived with her crew at Station 145 in Rackheath, England on March 19th, 1944, after a 20-day flight over the Atlantic. The aircraft and crew began their combat service on April 10th, 1944, flying the first combat mission of the 467th Bomb Group. Over the next year “Witchcraft” flew an incredible 130 combat missions with various crews. “Witchcraft” was never once turned back while on a mission, and never had any crewmen injured or killed. Her last mission was flown on April 25th, 1945 which also was the last mission flown by the 467th Bomb Group. “…Witchcraft” was there at the beginning and at the end.” After the war, she was returned to the United States and like many other B-24’s, was scrapped on October 3rd, 1945 at the surplus depot in Altus, Oklahoma.

Gerrymander

Gerrymander - Elkanah Tisdale

Schneier on Security posts a new solution for the gerrymander problem. Sounds like it might work, which means no one will like it, and even if they do they will fight over who goes first. Still, it's nice to see someone applying logic to a previously intractable problem.

More Die Cutting

New grey hide soon to be a crisp pair of boots
jkbootsusa

That's a pretty serious press. Imagine the collection of dies you would need to cover the complete range of sizes for a particular kind of boot. Now multiply that by the number of different styles of shoes and boots you want to make. Those dies look like they would be difficult to make, but I suppose once you had a made a couple dozen you'd get the hang of it. Still, I suspect it would take substantial outlay of capital to equip even a small shoe factory.

I'm posting this because just last week I was down this rathole.