How to operate an abandoned Russian tank

Ukrainian woman teaches her people how to operate an abandoned Russian tank on TikTok from Damnthatsinteresting

This woman is Russian, but the comments in the thread on reddit place her in Ukraine, which isn’t uncommon.

STATNEWS: Coronaviruses are ‘clever’: Evolutionary scenarios for the future of SARS-CoV-2

From STATNEWS:

In the ongoing struggle of SARS-CoV-2’s genes versus our wits, the virus that causes Covid-19 relentlessly probes human defenses with new genetic gambits. New variants of this coronavirus with increasing transmissibility have sprung up every few months, a scenario that is likely to continue.

Some experts believe that the pandemic appears to be on an evolutionary slide toward becoming endemic, a “new normal” in which humans and the virus co-exist, as we currently do with influenza. But coronaviruses are clever. While an endemic resolution may be in sight, SARS-CoV-2 could still shock the human species with a devastating evolutionary leap.

Here are four possible scenarios, each taken directly from the known evolutionary playbookof coronaviruses.

Read the whole thing.

How to Make Potatoes While Dread Presses In from Every Direction

I’ve spent years trying to “perfect” roasted potatoes. And while this is a pretty solid take on how to make them while dread presses in from every direction, I prefer a 400 degree oven and about 30 to 35 minutes.

I’ve done my fair share of too crunchy. But I’ve recently converted over to a less crunchy option.

Casino cheating expert reviews card counting and casino scams

This is a highly entertaining video about ways real gamblers cheat and how they’re represented (or not) in movies.

A child is raised by someone else’s child

I mentioned a book I’m reading:  Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life by James Hollis, PH. D. I found it in a large second hand store in a free books bin.

It’s one of those books that you think, “I’ll flip through it and if it’s dumb, I’ll toss it back out.” But it took hold and I couldn’t put it down for almost an entire Saturday. Tina picked it up, too, and it caught her full attention.

I can’t find the exact quote, but it was something like the title of this post: “A child is someone raised by someone else’s child.”

Mind blown.

There’s a joke in a dumb joke book I have that reads, “The odd thing about parenting is that by the time you are experienced at your job, you are unemployed.”

It’s all just food for thought, and I’m not sure I have captured exactly what I think about that yet. But it’s an idea to ponder.

Selfishness wins again!

I’m in NC right now, and it’s moving how the local population resembles the overall population. In any given store, about half are wearing a mask, the other half do not.

I’ve heard it from the horses’s mouths that “masks are political.” And no matter how apolitical disease is, the mask is seen as a vehicle driving the parties in separate directions.

I see the mask as an act of compassion toward others, not a political stance. It doesn’t tell me, I’m a democrat. It says, “I care about people at risk.” Hell, it’s selfish, too, I guess. I like not being sick and it seems to be a simple safeguard against even silly diseases that have forever gotten in my system and left.

And, yet, here we are. Watching our population diminish for politics. One side’s politics think it’s selfless to wear a mask, to contain not just Covid, but disease. To think of others health first. The other party associates freedom with their face free of diversion, thereby allowing their crusty, shit-infested spittle and viral-loaded snot to fly free from interference.

These charts are loaded with data that show how America is winning its war to spread covid faster, further and more productively than the rest of the world, exemplifying our dominance in killing itself from within. Good on us. We are winning the war of killing ourselves for “politics.”

August 16 to September 3 is a lifetime

This Sorry Antivaxxer post about Cy Nunez is heart breaker.

Nunez was an anti-vaxxing, Joe Biden hating, mask despising, Trump loving, God-fearing gentleman of just 56 years old. He announced that he contracted Covid on August 16, 2021. He posted frequently within that time frame about the inefficacy of masks.

He bragged he felt fine.
He kept gardening.
He took care of his wife sick with covid.

Cy departed the world on September 3, 2021.

Two short weeks with a flu. A flu that wouldn’t have killed him if he just understood the simple concepts behind vaccinations. His post in the hospital where he says, “I just want to hold my wife” will tear at your heart. If it doesn’t, check your pulse.

I’ll post the announcement video and the final video below the fold. They are showing up huge on my computer screen. So you might want to head to the link in the first line to view them.

What to read? … what to read?

In light of the onslaught of book banning going on lately following the manufactured dilemma of “CRT,” there’s a meme going around by Stephen King about what to read:

Surprise! it’s the books that are getting banned.

The quote reads: “When books are run out of school classrooms and libraries, I’m never much disturbed. Not as a citizen, not as a writer, not even as a which I used to be. What I tell kids is, don’t get mad, get even. Don’t spend time waving signs or carrying petitions around the neighborhood. Instead, run, don’t walk, to the nearest non-school library or the local bookstore and get whatever it was that they banned. Read whatever they’re trying to keep out of your eyes and your brain, because that’s exactly what you need to know.”

Man, that is excellent. Read the stuff they don’t want you to.

Banning books ≠ cancel culture. Amirite?

Coinkidinks vs Faithful Fervor

At our AirBnB over Christmas, one of our guests managed to put a slight dent and cut in our stainless steel range hood.

They felt awful. Just awful, I tell ya.

The guests were a brother and sister. Their mom is staying in assisted living about 2 minutes from our home. They were able to celebrate Christmas here with a lot of their local family.

They swore that they would repay us for any amount that it took to fix it.

We were dubious that they were really going to pay for the damages. A brand new hood would cost upwards of $500 to $1000 with installation. How could we possibly ask anyone to pay that amount for a measly mistake? It wasn’t a HUGE deal after all. The hood works. It wasn’t going to hurt anyone.

But the guests insisted.