A Lazy Day

6 61 miles at Versailles and walking around Norte-Dame.

Eiffel Tower

Like the Arc de Triomphe, pictures fail to convey scale.  This is an amazing construction.

We did not have tickets to the top but even level two was pretty amazing views.  It was cloudy with sprinkles, so going to the top was perhaps not such a loss.

Why Transgender Needs to Go Back into The Closet, At Least

 3/12/25 Fox News:

Members of a Washington state city council will hold a special meeting just days after appointing a new councilor who identifies as a "bisexual transwoman" while operating an OnlyFans account, according to reports.

MyNorthwest.com reported that Jessica Roberts was the Lynnwood City Council’s original choice to fill a vacant seat, though, on Thursday, the council plans to consider rescinding the appointment after it was discovered Roberts had an account on the subscription-based platform where some creators share explicit pictures, videos and messages.

While Roberts’ account has been taken down, the account's bio reportedly identified Roberts as a "bisexual transwoman." The bio also included graphic details about Roberts' body parts, the publication reported.

Other reports, to which I will not link, are so horrendously misognystic that I will not link.  I had run into the LGBT cannibalism fetish before. 

Let Me Apologize for My White Privilege

1. I grew up below the poverty line.

2, My parents sacrificed mightily to rent in a city with good schools (largely because parents were engineers, scientists, and college faculty).

3. I  experienced discrimination in scholarships.

4. My father spent most of my life running from the FBI.  (He played poker with the sheriff.  Guess who won and who lost.)

It is Only Noon

10,591 steps, 5.16 miles, 521 calories.  A lot of steps in the Louvre.

The dfull title escapes me, but Liberty is part of it for by Delacroix.
 Home

UPDATE: Back from dinnenr.   20,273 steps.  9.88 miles.  995 calories.  I have not been on a scale since I left home.  I am hoping the exercise at least compensating for the meals out.  Lots of good food.  This is Paris 

How Stupid Are the Tesla Vandals?

I don't fault them for not knowing the cars record their surroundings and thus vandals.  I did not know this beforehand.   But once this was widely publicized, what idiot does this without a mask?

What a Day!

21,000 steps. 10.31 miles. 1000+ calories.   I am pushed.  I have been awake since 5 AM Wednesday.

Cleopatra's Needle.

Arc de Triomphe

This one in particular is much more impressive than its pictures do it credit.  It is huge.

I Found This and Had No Choice But to Share it

"I Had To Put My Grades Up For Adoption Because I Couldn't Raise Them"

Always Bring Hiking Boots to Paris

I stepped into bathtub in Paris.  When I tried to get out, I discovered that the tub was very slippery and had no grab handles above  tub level.  I had enough strength in arms and legs to lift myself up, but only if my stopped sliding. A variety of brute force approaches by my wife failed.  My brilliant daughter came up with winning solution: put my hiking boots on in the tub.  Presto!  Enough friction to get above tub level to push up and out..

I am glad my daughter is so smart, or I would spend the rest of my life tubblogging.

A Very Kangaroo Stock Market

Many of you are probably watching 401ks and IRAs fluctuations of $30-50K per day.  This is a scary bur I think positive sign. As scared as some investors are, others are confident enough to buy on the dips.

Delta's Frequent Flyer Program Includes Free WiFi

I am approaching Ireland. 

I Smell A Desire to Guarantee a Right to Impose Gender Reassignment

I saw this law review article complaining about Meyer v. Nebraska and Society of Sisters.  I'd these cases are unfamiliar to you, you are forgiven for your lack of nerdity.

Meyer struck down a Nebraska law that prohibited teaching K-8 students any language other than English.  (This was part of an anti-German attitude during WW1.)

Society of Sisters was a challenge of an Oregon law that prohibited Catholic schools.   (I do not remember if it was a general ban on private schools or applied only to religious schools.  Another part of the law banned public school teachers from wearing religious symbols.)  This law was struck down. 

Both of these seminal cases limiting state power through the 14th Amendment used to be considered a good thing.  So imagine my surprise at this law review article: "Mired in Meyer's Mischief A Century After Fabrication of Constitutional Parents' Rights."

The article argues that limiting state based on parental rights is a bad thing.   Even though he never raises the issue, it takes no discernment to see where this is going: making sure parents do not constitutionally challenge laws giving guardianship to the state when parents oppose gender change.  Or for that matter, wanting to send them to a school that reflects the parents' values instead of DEI or 1619 Project.

The idea that the 14th Amendment should be read as not limiting state power is very close to a matter/anti-matter collision.

Getting Aboard Big Silver Bird

Expect little blogging for a while.

Careful What You Throw Away

 I mentioned that I prefer to cut CFC so that instead of making it Dust in the Wind, I can cut useful parts instead.  I am getting such an opportunity.  I am remaking that motor bracket in CFC.  I have a significant piece of CFC from which I can cut a 2.5" x 3" piece.  

My sneaky way to connect two CFC parts together at a right angle with screws, since the threaded inserts approach is clumsy and gooey, is to use effectively a coupler:

Vertical part A gets two through holes.  The screws goes through them into through holes on the coupler C, with nuts on the far side of C.  Two screws from the top of C go into holes in horizontal part B with nuts on the bottom of B.

A commenter made an interesting suggestion of counterboring the far side of the second part to bind and epoxying a nut there.  This is a great idea if you need a flat surface on the far side.  (It also looks prettier.) 

In this case, after cutting off the 2.5" x 3" part, I seem to have an uncut piece that I can cut off to make a coupler.

Someone Asked Me: "Did Biden Administration need DEI for air traffic controllers because there were no qualified blacks?"

 There seems to be at least one federal employee who appears to have thought that.  3/12/25 Daily Mail:

A top 'DEI' activist is caught on voicemail allegedly offering minority air traffic controller candidates the chance to cheat in a make-or-break entry exam.

Shelton Snow, a powerful figure in the National Black Coalition of Federal Aviation Employees (NBCFAE), can be heard promising advance access to test answers in a shocking audio clip obtained by DailyMail.com.

'There are some valuable pieces of information that I have taken a screenshot of and I am going to send that to you via email,' says Snow, an air traffic operations supervisor based out of New York.

'I am about 99.99 percent sure that it is exactly how you need to answer each question.'

The inside info was made available in 2014 to African Americans, females, and other minority candidates – but whites were left out of the loop to 'minimize competition'.

Exactly how many applicants were able to capitalize on Snow's brazen offer to secure coveted controller jobs responsible for the safety of millions of fliers remains a mystery.

But one former NBCFAE member, Matthew Douglas, told DailyMail.com: 'I know several people who cheated and I know several people who are controlling planes as we speak.'

Why does Sniow think so badly of black people?  Projeection? 

Beyond Cool

3/17/25 Yahoo article about the James Webb successfully imaging exoplanets.

The star is where a coronagraph blotted out the star to image these four planets, all gas giants.