Snowflake's Forum

Whether seen as friend or foe, the subject of religion is one of many categories of human thought.  Religions live on, millennium after millennium, whether we like it or not.  Virtually all of us are told about some sort of religion, starting at an early age, usually once we are capable of making some kind of rudimentary sense of our world and words/sentences begin to have enough meaning. At the center of (dare I say all?) religions is the concept of a god figure; the ruler of all that exists.   The “god of choice” is usually passed on to children within the family structure, such teachings often going back for many generations. Gods have many uses: instructor, overseer, values-maker, protector, punisher, ultimate judge, among many other attributes.   Humanity’s civil and criminal laws themselves reflect much of what the god figures suggest; a melding of “do this,” and “don’t do that” instructions.   In that way, human laws and gods’ laws are somewhat correl...

Highway double take: Albuquerque sign spelled without ‘R’ This photo provided by the New Mexico Department of Transportation shows a misspelled sign in New Mexico. A newly upgraded state Department of Transportation sign erected last week that pointed drivers toward Albuquerque misspelled the city's name, losing the “R.” (New Mexico Department of Transportation via AP) ALBUQUERQUE, N,M. (AP) — It made drivers on Route 66 and Interstate 40 in New Mexico do double takes. A newly upgraded state Department of Transportation sign erected last week that pointed drivers toward Albuquerque misspelled the city’s name, losing the “R.” People called and emailed the department to point out the mistake on the sign visible to drivers on the parallel highways, said Kimberly Gallegos, a department spokesperson. A corrected sign went up this week, she said. “I do not recall this happening before,” Gallegos said. “But I honestly think this was just a simple mistake.” Albuquerque used to have another...

 It's all over the news: tonight's the drawing for a lotto prize of over one billion dollars!  Enough money to do, well, pretty much anything, right? CNN made some useful suggestions 1. Buy a yacht, but be reasonable. Do not buy a 50-foot yacht which starts at around $145 million, not counting staff and docking, so let's buy a smaller boat and keep the cost around $15 million. 2. Summer in the South of France and eat out for every meal for a while. You can afford it. 3. Buy a Rolex. 4. Buy good jewelry. 5. Look expensive, not flashy. Don't turn into a "Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" cast member. 6. Get some work done. Lift your whole face up if you'd like. You have to look the part. 7. Go Hollywood with your teeth and pay cash. 8. Oh, have you quit your job yet? Do that. 9. Log into your bank account and look at the sum multiple times per day for fun. 10. Disappear. Poof never heard from again. 11. Go live on a farm in Ireland. (Just me?) 12. Buy a Wes...

e_monster      -What was the most dramatic event you ever witnessed?      -What was the most furious you've ever been? Happiest? AlextheKa y      -What's the dumbest thing you've ever heard from someone you didn't want to upbraid for it?   The “Ask Series” is coming to an end today.  I have a few leftover questions I will include here, as I turn off the lights and close up shop.  Some questions submitted were too similar to ones already asked, so I won’t be posting them.  Too much repetition can lose posters’ interest and/or blog followers. Thanks for all the suggestions.   They got us through around 6-weeks of posting fun. As a reminder, if you like this blog and want to help keep it going, you too can become an author.   Snowflake is always looking for new authors. Just tag him (@Snowflake) and let him know.   Once you get set up, it’s pretty easy and fun to be the creator of a thread. ...

A soap bubble in space A real gaseous bubble blown by a dying star wanders alone, floating in space. PN G75.5+1.7, known as the Soap Bubble Nebula, sports an extraordinary spherical symmetry (just like the bubbles children play with) and was created over 20,000 years ago by a star similar to the Sun, at the end of its life. Having exhausted the nuclear fuel in their nuclei, the medium-small stars expel the outer gaseous layers and collapse under the effect of their own gravity until they become dense and   warm white dwarfs. The material ejected from the star impacts interstellar gas and dust, while the hot star core illuminates the surrounding gas, leading to the formation of colored clouds, known as planetary nebulae. The cosmic spectacle is short-lived: within a few thousand years this beautiful planetarium is destined to disappear forever in the dark night.   CAM

e_monster   •   What expectations of life, career, or relationships were fulfilled? Which were not? And why? What was your biggest disappointment in life? Your biggest success? Another double-header today with somewhat related questions. Give e_ your thoughts on these life experiences. And thanks for favoriting and supporting the Ask Series! (posted by PrimalSoup)

                                                    Remember this ass? Remember him Hawleying Ass? Josh Hawley, senator who ran from Capitol mob, mocked by home paper Kansas City Star editorial excoriates Republican as ‘laughingstock’ as memes based on January 6 video proliferate. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jul/24/josh-hawley-republican-senator-ran-running-capitol-attack-kansas-city-star Talking about memes, here are a few: OK, all you good folks, Hawl your ass in here and have some fun with Hawley or with Trump or with anyone else you want to slag with a funny meme.

Okay, let’s do something a little different/silly today. Name some normal and especially some odd scents/smells that you like?   E.g., I like the smell of Jergen’s Cherry Almond Lotion.   I like the smell of new mown grass.   I also like the smell of gasoline!    Is that odd or what?   Here’s another odd one.   What about not minding the smell of our own flatulence but getting disgusted at other’s. 😮 Yes, we be weird/discriminating like that.   (Hope that gave you a Tuesday chuckle [because you know it's true]!  😁 ) Thanks for playing along.   The odder the better!! (by Primal “Do/Don‘t breath deeply” Soup).

  THE SALT MOUNTAINS This spectacular dome is one of the finest examples of his genre. The salt dome of Jashak is one of the largest and most beautiful of typical salt domes.  Millions of years ago, the Persian Gulf was a much larger body of water than it is today and flooded large sections of the Arabian Peninsula to the south and Iran to the west. When the water evaporated and the sea banks retreated, he left behind huge amounts of salt. The salt layer was covered   with sediments washed out of the mountains by rainwater and, over time, the sediment layer thickened and compacted. In such circumstances, salt begins to behave like a fluid leading to an interesting behavior known as salt tectonics. The weight of thousands of feet of sediment and rocks pushing down on the salt layer causes the salt to rise through the overhanging rocks. When a weak point is found in the overlying sediment layer, the salt will pass through it to form domes known as diapirs.  You can see...

Dan T   •   What's something you've done that took courage? --Especially (but not exclusively) if it wouldn't be obvious to a casual observer that it would require courage to do what you did.   What makes a King out of a slave? Courage. What makes the flag on the mast to wave? Courage. What makes the elephant charge his tusk in the misty mist or the dusky dusk? What makes the muskrat guard his musk? Courage.   What makes the Sphinx the 7th Wonder? Courage. What makes the dawn come up like THUNDER?! Courage. What makes the Hottentot so hot? What puts the "ape" in ape-ricot? Whatta they got that I ain't got? Dorothy & Friends: Courage! Cowardly Lion: You can say that again. 😁 Okay, just having a little “author’s prerogative” fun.   That’s one of the perks of being a forum author.   You can take some courageous liberties.  But on a serious note, courage is something to be proud of.   To mu...

CNN reports : US telecom providers will now be required to block millions of illegal robocalls a day advertising extended vehicle warranties, the Federal Communications Commission said Thursday, taking aim at a group of individuals accused of sending more than 8 billion such messages since 2018 (that's about 4.4 million calls/day). Thursday's order by the FCC requires voice providers to stop carrying calls the agency has linked to 13 individuals and six companies, mostly based in Texas and California but also in such far-flung places as Hungary. The robocalls produced by the group typically begin with recorded lines such as, "We've been trying to reach you concerning your car's extended warranty," the FCC order said. Such calls represented the single largest source of consumer complaints to the FCC in each of the past two years, adding up to thousands of complaints a year. As part of its scheme, the group bought access to nearly half a million phone numbers ...

 I know, I know, who wants to know? Nevertheless, I like to keep the few that are still interested up to date. Movers booked. We move the first week of august depending: I asked the landlord of the new location not to paint the rooms, I do my own painting (some of you might remember I used to do house painting). But I did insist on new flooring, landlord agreed but not quite to my specifications, didn't want any carpets but will have to accept them in bedrooms and living room - though the carpeting will be new, the other areas will have new laminate wood flooring. The hardest part this weekend will be having my brother and his family over later today to go through keepsakes I inherited from my parents but don't want to take with me. My son, who lives in Alberta, has expressed no interest in keepsakes passed down to me from my parents that I wanted to pass on to him. Geri's daughters on the other hand are very interested in keepsakes and will come over Sunday to take a look ...

AlextheKay   Mod   • -What's the most "difficult" pop-culture work you've ever read or watched?   -Who did you love more: mom or pop? That’s right, you’re getting a twofer, a double-dipper today, in order to spark more interest.  Seems many are out enjoying their summers (here in the No. Hem. that is, which is the bulk of us) so participation is really down lately.  Disappointing but understandable. 😔 So, for those who are still with us, give Alex your thoughts on one or both of these questions.  “Keep hope (and this blog) alive!” 😊 And thanks for favoriting and supporting the Ask Series! (posted by PrimalSoup) 

Germaine   • The issue of wokeness among liberals is starting to look to me to be more important than I assumed. The radical right is demagoguing the issue as hard as it can and it arguably has had some impact. For example, intolerant wokeness about teaching critical race theory in Virginia arguably cost the Democrat Terry McAuliffe the governor's seat. His opponent directly attacked wokeness and that seems to have won the election for him, or at least it was an important factor. The radical right is working hard to weaponize and demagogue this issue, and there is some data  indicating that this line of propaganda is effective in drawing people to Republican candidates. How bad or important is wokeness, defined as intolerant, closed minded and often shallow or unreasonable demands for social justice and its brand of political correctness?  (Wikipedia discusses wokeness   here ).   Something on the heavier side today. Give Germaine your though...

 Ok we are moving Aug. 1st. We still owe a month on our apartment here in Minny. But we couldn't pass up an apartment we found in our new location in Ontario. We had been looking for a ground floor apartment, ended up with a penthouse with an awesome view. The building is for seniors, so no need to worry about noisy kids, but is your basic garden variety apartment building. Nice size rooms, but not a lot of amenities. Shopping and such are a bit of a drive but not more than 10 minutes. That distance almost squashed our taking this apartment, but............ The location is absolutely stunning, the rent is reasonable, and the penthouse apartment was available by August, so now it is rush rush to get back to our home in Minny, to get packed, find movers, and say farewell to family members. OH, and btw, for those who are still curious, Geri has fully recovered from her illness, thanks. Will leave you a couple of images of our new home taken off the net: Reason number 1, penthouse, rea...

  July 19th's the big day!   A giant solar flare is flaring our way! According to a prominent scientist,  Dr. Tamitha Skov,  "The long snake-like filament cartwheeled its way off the Sun in a stunning ballet." "The magnetic orientation of this Earth-directed solar storm is going to be tough to predict. G2-level (possibly G3) conditions may occur if the magnetic field of this storm is oriented southward!" she further noted. Skov is known in the scientific community as the "Space Weather Woman," so she ought to know. Solar flares can block radio transmission, damage power lines and more.  They're rarely big enough to do serious damage -- but it can happen.  And we're at the peak of the sun's 11-year cycle right now. So are you protected from surges?  Will your internet whimper and drop?  Do you have popcorn? What will YOU do if the storm blows out your connectivity? (Connect and tell us.)     AlextheKay, Ever the Science Nerd...

KipSmithers   •   How did you get your "Disqus Name"?   Easing into the new week with something on the lite side. And thanks for favoriting and supporting the Ask Series! (posted by PrimalSoup)

It’s Sunday in my neck of the woods.  How about a little religion? We’ve all heard of the Book of Ezekiel, in the Bible.   Can somebody tell me what that was about, since I don’t speak/understand Bible language?   Alien visitation, someone consuming too many “refined poppies 😉 ,” the retelling of a really bad dream? What have you been told (taught) about that Ezekiel incident? Thanks for posting. (by Primordial “WTH?” Soup)

 So where's Alex been this weekend?  Well, it's REUNION TIME!  Yes, my high school class is having its 50th anniversary reunion -- two years late, due to the pandemic.  And it's everything you'd expect it to be...and less! Skeevy ballrooms! Old farts dancing! Of course, it's fun catching up with some folks.  And pretending to remember others.  But a whole weekend of this stuff?  Oy. So:  have you been to your reunions?  If you don't attend, why not?  If you did, was it worth it?  Tell us all about it!    AlextheKay is curiously inquisitive    

  Loud music leads to arrest on felony drug charge Loud music reportedly coming from a car stereo resulted in the arrest of a local man on felony and misdemeanor drug charges early Thursday. Lewellis Elijah Coleman, 50, who lists a Linwood Street address, was taken into custody shortly after 1:30 a.m. and charged with a felony count of possession of a controlled substance, meth, punishable by up to six years in prison, a misdemeanor count of possession of drug paraphernalia and a citation for loud and disturbing noises. Coleman, who lists no prior felony history, also had a warrant for misdemeanor failure to appear. He was being held on a $3,500 bond and was set to appear Friday in Garland County District Court. According to the probable cause affidavit, around 1:30 a.m., Hot Springs police Cpl. Zach Brown was on patrol in the 100 block of Greenwood Avenue when he reportedly heard loud music coming from the area of the 500 block of Linwood, which was about two blocks away from his ...