That was fascinating! I thought it was some kind of hyena. I did not know about these animals. They do wear lovely stockings. Thanks, MG. I've learned something new today, and that is always a good thing.
Haven't even read the Tabs yet, just wanted to comment on the glorious stiltfox. The plural should definitely be in the Old English style - stiltfoxen. Ok, back to Tabs.
Oh my, look at those lovely Hungarian treats on that same page! I want that Langos right now for breakfast, even though I am not at all certain my gut has recovered enough yet for solid food again (nuked by weapons-grade antibiotics, wouldn't you think the docs at Kaiser would have something in the pharmacopeia to deal with this, it must not be all that uncommon?)
When my family went to the Czech Republic, I got a somewhat dim view of Mittel European cooking, since the Czechs seemed to live on tough, greasy sausages and floury dumplings and cabbage soup. Good beer, though, and a seasonal sparkling young wine to die for (name, alas, forgotten).
That's basically all food in the Balkans. Romanian food is that plus potatoes. Slovakian- that plus sour cream. Bulgarian- that plus cheese. Yugoslav- that plus red peppers. Hungarian- that plus paprika. The other variable is more or less garlic, depending on the vampire presence in the region.
Have you ever read Rebecca Wells' great "Black Lamb, Grey Falcon"? I am rereading it, and just came to her story of defending South Slav cuisine against a train compartment of scoffing German tourists. "They cook lamb and suckinng-pig as well as anywhere else in the world,have a lot of freshwater fish and broil it straight out of the streams, use their vegetables young enough, have many dark and romantic soups, and understand that seasoning should be pungent rather than hot.". I cannot recommend this book too highly.
p.s. I forgot to mention the superb pastry in Czech coffee houses of the old school, plus the gorgeous art deco surroundings.
You can't know how happy that makes me. I always said that if I had the musical talent I wished I could have, I'd play an entirely new genre of music that I call "dirty lounge punk".
If you don't know what that would sound like, I give you Nadeah's cover of Too Drunk to Fuck:
To be clear, this is a little closer to "clean lounge punk" than I'm thinking, but all it needs is a little more clothes hanger and it's dead on my vision for the perfect band to play in for the next 60 years.
If you want to see examples of what Mother Nature comes up with during an acid trip, go to Madagascar. Example #1: On the Red Island, there are no woodpeckers. A lemur has evolved to fill the niche:
Kirindi is pretty amazing for the fossa. Isalo is beautiful. And all over the island, people often ignore the insects--they're just as weird as the larger fauna. The Tsingy are amazing. One aspect of Madagascar that is often overlooked by tourists is the geology. In Antsirabe, you can buy some of the best aquamarine, morganite and other semiprecious gems in the world if you know what to look for.
My favorite example was the European Finch and one that biologists thought was the same bird in Australia. Apparently, one had to be trained to spot the minor differences in the birds and their behavior. Turns out through DNA tests that the Aussie bird wasn’t even close to being a finch.
It turns out that Darwin wasn't the one who identified the differences in the Galapagos finches. He brought the specimens back, and a bird-specialist friend pointed them out. What Darwin contributed was scrupulous notes and excellent organization.
Good times set off by EXTREMELY stupid WaPo headline. Actually a TON of people showed up and partied until the permit expired, "family friendly" drag show and all. In Idaho! gift link:
"He wanted to throw an Idaho town’s first Pride. Angry residents had other ideas.
Tom Wheeler envisioned a celebratory first Pride for rural Canyon County, Idaho. But in a state that has led the nation in passing anti-LGBTQ laws, the festival quickly sparked outcry."
Troy Nehls is a performative scumbag, but the issue over his Combat Infantryman's Badge isn't as cut and dried as Notus claims. It looks like there's a legitimate dispute over interpretation of the regulations. Normally, it's available only to infantrymen and a tightly restricted handful of closely related specialties, if they are serving with an infantry unit and otherwise qualify. But as tight as the Army keeps the qualifications, there's still a loophole: soldiers with a secondary or prior infantry MOS can also be eligible, if serving with an infantry unit, yada yada yada.
That's why Nehls was initially awarded the badge, and why is was revoked when his service record was revised: he was serving in an infantry unit at the time, if broadly described (that is, a parent unit of his actual unit). A more precise notation of his actual unit reveals it as a non-infantry unit, removing Nehls's eligiblity.
He's disputing this, but he should stop wearing the badge until it's resolved. Especially since he's likely to lose this dispute, unless the Army decides to issue some sort of special waiver or ruling as a favor to a sitting Congressman. Even that's unlikely, the Army is super strict about the CIB.
Regarding Elmo's breeding fetish, there is a theory that posits that sociopaths are fundamentally different from the larger population in that they have no conscience. This lack of conscience allows survival of the species in an alternate way. Rather than nurturing, a sociopath is driven to breed by the millions. The species survives through sheer numbers. No nurturing required. Great book by Robert Hare called Without Conscience is a great read.
Yeah well, if the USA wants to be believed when they call someone a criminal they can start by not torturing people, not having the highest incarceration rate, not doing war crimes or other atrocities, and not getting their knickers twisted when said war crimes come out.
Assange is a flawed human being, but I would support him over the USA government any time. Assange is still several genocides and about a million war crimes short of being morally comparable to the USA Government.
Any excuse used by The Convicted Felon, short of being in the ER or morgue (with votes), will be BS. But only the MAGAsses need a PAB Excuse any excuse.
If you listen carefully you might hear a bunch of "Justin Trudeau is doomed!" talk floating out of Canada today. The Liberals lost a Toronto seat in a by election that they'd held since the Progressive Conservatives were all but wiped out in the 1993 election. So a lot of people think this might push the Liberals to pressure him to resign before next year's federal election.
Having said that it should be noted that, not entirely surprising for a by election, voter turnout was crap. Only 43.5 percent of voters apparently went to the polls, a drop of 21.96 percent from the last federal election. So a lot of voters weren't particularly interested in sending a message, other than "Don't call a by election just before summer starts, and as the school year is ending." Conservative Don Stewart won by around 600 votes.
An interesting element of the vote was that the ballot was the longest in Canadian history. An electoral reform group called the Longest Ballot Committee helped a large number of candidates run, in protest of the current first past the post electoral system. So there were a record 84 candidates on the ballot, and the ballot paper was just under a meter long. Parties actually listed on the ballot were the Conservative Party of Canada, the Liberal Party of Canada, the New Democratic Party, the Green Party, the People's Party of Canada, the Marxist Leninist Party of Canada, the Rhinoceros Party, the Marijuana Party, and the Centrist Party.
"Don't call a by election just before summer starts, and as the school year is ending." And it's game seven of the finals, with a Canadian team in the running to perhaps beat an 80 year old record. A Toronto record.
Granted, I'm in Edmonton, but nobody was thinking anything but hockey all day long yesterday, and I'm sure Toronto also had some of that energy.
To be fair no one would have guessed Edmonton would still be in it when the by election was called. I get the impression hockey ratings drop pretty heavily once the Canadian teams are eliminated.
Is that NYT link to the recipe for skillet cookies a "gift link"? The last time I tried to look at a recipe at the Times site, it said one was required to pay and additional subscription fee ( I already pay the "basic" fee ).
The unusual maned wolf in your hed gif today. Find our more about this unusual canine here: https://open.substack.com/pub/martiniambassador/p/maned-wolf-is-not-really-a-wolf
Tall drink o' water...
Their pee smells like weed!
Not to be confused with a Maine d'Wolf
https://livingwithagolden.com/maines-mysterious-dire-wolf/
Neck up it's a fox. Neck down it's a deer. Beautiful. Thanks!
Giraffe dog!
Not really much of a mane. More of a faux hawk? or maybe a mullet? Are mullet hawks a thing?
Mullet hawks do exist.
Shelly Laurenston had one of these as a character in her shapeshifting series. It did not end well for him.
You're not fooling me. That is a chupacabra if ever I've seen one.
Which I have not.
Such a weird animal out to be in Australia, with the platypus and the other evolutionary one-offs.
That was fascinating! I thought it was some kind of hyena. I did not know about these animals. They do wear lovely stockings. Thanks, MG. I've learned something new today, and that is always a good thing.
I thought it was hyena like as well.
The wolves(?) with manes
Reign mainly on the plains.
The long legs on that magnificent beast look as if they were inspired by those of a gazelle.
Haven't even read the Tabs yet, just wanted to comment on the glorious stiltfox. The plural should definitely be in the Old English style - stiltfoxen. Ok, back to Tabs.
I want one. To keep my ocelot company!
To keep my Mangalica pig company!
https://www.atlasobscura.com/foods/mangalica-hungarian-woolly-pig
Oh my, look at those lovely Hungarian treats on that same page! I want that Langos right now for breakfast, even though I am not at all certain my gut has recovered enough yet for solid food again (nuked by weapons-grade antibiotics, wouldn't you think the docs at Kaiser would have something in the pharmacopeia to deal with this, it must not be all that uncommon?)
When my family went to the Czech Republic, I got a somewhat dim view of Mittel European cooking, since the Czechs seemed to live on tough, greasy sausages and floury dumplings and cabbage soup. Good beer, though, and a seasonal sparkling young wine to die for (name, alas, forgotten).
I have not been to Hungary (and won't go until Orbán does), but I had very good food in both the Czech Republic and Transylvania.
That's basically all food in the Balkans. Romanian food is that plus potatoes. Slovakian- that plus sour cream. Bulgarian- that plus cheese. Yugoslav- that plus red peppers. Hungarian- that plus paprika. The other variable is more or less garlic, depending on the vampire presence in the region.
Have you ever read Rebecca Wells' great "Black Lamb, Grey Falcon"? I am rereading it, and just came to her story of defending South Slav cuisine against a train compartment of scoffing German tourists. "They cook lamb and suckinng-pig as well as anywhere else in the world,have a lot of freshwater fish and broil it straight out of the streams, use their vegetables young enough, have many dark and romantic soups, and understand that seasoning should be pungent rather than hot.". I cannot recommend this book too highly.
p.s. I forgot to mention the superb pastry in Czech coffee houses of the old school, plus the gorgeous art deco surroundings.
How do you titillate an ocelot?
Toys.
Scritch the box eared little freak!
Well whatever you do, you have to do it A LOT.
Very insightful.
You oscillate its tit a lot.
But don't mention ham, nor jam, nor Spam a lot.
A whole world of erotic prose style just opened.
"There once was a man with an ocelot....."
That is not a species specific tactic.
You're a lounge act for intellectuals. I mean, not that there's anything wrong with that...
You can't know how happy that makes me. I always said that if I had the musical talent I wished I could have, I'd play an entirely new genre of music that I call "dirty lounge punk".
If you don't know what that would sound like, I give you Nadeah's cover of Too Drunk to Fuck:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8C49yyVCq-w
To be clear, this is a little closer to "clean lounge punk" than I'm thinking, but all it needs is a little more clothes hanger and it's dead on my vision for the perfect band to play in for the next 60 years.
Superfox. Convergent evolution?
If you want to see examples of what Mother Nature comes up with during an acid trip, go to Madagascar. Example #1: On the Red Island, there are no woodpeckers. A lemur has evolved to fill the niche:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aye-aye#/media/File:Wild_aye_aye.jpg
I’ve been to Madagascar. It was amazing but sadly difficult to see AyeAyes as they are nocturnal and really protected. Very thought provoking trip.
Yeah, it's an amazing place. I've been 3 times now.
WOW! Lucky. We were only able to hit the east coast from tip to tip. Any highlights you can share from your travels?
Kirindi is pretty amazing for the fossa. Isalo is beautiful. And all over the island, people often ignore the insects--they're just as weird as the larger fauna. The Tsingy are amazing. One aspect of Madagascar that is often overlooked by tourists is the geology. In Antsirabe, you can buy some of the best aquamarine, morganite and other semiprecious gems in the world if you know what to look for.
My favorite example was the European Finch and one that biologists thought was the same bird in Australia. Apparently, one had to be trained to spot the minor differences in the birds and their behavior. Turns out through DNA tests that the Aussie bird wasn’t even close to being a finch.
It turns out that Darwin wasn't the one who identified the differences in the Galapagos finches. He brought the specimens back, and a bird-specialist friend pointed them out. What Darwin contributed was scrupulous notes and excellent organization.
Basically, as it's not related to wolves or foxes, but is canine. It's also omnivorous.
Those pups are just beyond adorable.
They are so SQUEE!!!
A fine leggy creature, still.
Spotted it right off as a maned wolf.
If there’s one guy in this crowd that can identify all the animals, it’s you, my dear. ;-)
It just reminds me that I don't have a maned wolf character in the inventory. Oh well.
Time to remedy that!
Well, payday IS coming up . . . and I know an artist who does great work for only $40 a clip . . .
Moral High Ground nailed their breeding ambitions. The Texas infant death rate is going to bury it. And not just for three days.
"She's got legs! And knows how to use them." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUDcTLaWJuo Beautiful Tabs gif today.
"Guess who’s going to live at the White House if Trump manages to steal the 2024 election? Not Melania."
For some reason (prob obvs), I read that as "not Alina." So I eagerly clicked to hear the lastest gossip about the Fake Pretty Woman!
Oh, god. Axios.
Even a fleeting glimpse at that bullet-point fetish site takes at least two hours to get over.
Just remember, when Muskrat talks about the “underpopulation problem,” he just means white people.
What I Learned From My Tabs Today by Daniel O'Riordan.
Today, I learned from my Tabs what an EFT is.
And I am richer for it.
Storkpuppies are weird looking creatures.
Good times set off by EXTREMELY stupid WaPo headline. Actually a TON of people showed up and partied until the permit expired, "family friendly" drag show and all. In Idaho! gift link:
https://wapo.st/3VD3wlN
"He wanted to throw an Idaho town’s first Pride. Angry residents had other ideas.
Tom Wheeler envisioned a celebratory first Pride for rural Canyon County, Idaho. But in a state that has led the nation in passing anti-LGBTQ laws, the festival quickly sparked outcry."
https://wapo.st/3VD3wlN
Troy Nehls is a performative scumbag, but the issue over his Combat Infantryman's Badge isn't as cut and dried as Notus claims. It looks like there's a legitimate dispute over interpretation of the regulations. Normally, it's available only to infantrymen and a tightly restricted handful of closely related specialties, if they are serving with an infantry unit and otherwise qualify. But as tight as the Army keeps the qualifications, there's still a loophole: soldiers with a secondary or prior infantry MOS can also be eligible, if serving with an infantry unit, yada yada yada.
That's why Nehls was initially awarded the badge, and why is was revoked when his service record was revised: he was serving in an infantry unit at the time, if broadly described (that is, a parent unit of his actual unit). A more precise notation of his actual unit reveals it as a non-infantry unit, removing Nehls's eligiblity.
He's disputing this, but he should stop wearing the badge until it's resolved. Especially since he's likely to lose this dispute, unless the Army decides to issue some sort of special waiver or ruling as a favor to a sitting Congressman. Even that's unlikely, the Army is super strict about the CIB.
Outbreed the left? That just makes me laugh. As if they could.
Regarding Elmo's breeding fetish, there is a theory that posits that sociopaths are fundamentally different from the larger population in that they have no conscience. This lack of conscience allows survival of the species in an alternate way. Rather than nurturing, a sociopath is driven to breed by the millions. The species survives through sheer numbers. No nurturing required. Great book by Robert Hare called Without Conscience is a great read.
I mentioned Assange earlier ... here you have a nice horseshoe of "the left" and "the right" praising his release.
https://x.com/EricColumbus/status/1805446713278447794
Yeah well, if the USA wants to be believed when they call someone a criminal they can start by not torturing people, not having the highest incarceration rate, not doing war crimes or other atrocities, and not getting their knickers twisted when said war crimes come out.
Assange is a flawed human being, but I would support him over the USA government any time. Assange is still several genocides and about a million war crimes short of being morally comparable to the USA Government.
He nicely did Russias bidding and helped to get Trump elected to make said sad government even worse; so whatsoever.
BTW, it seems he can only travel using a private jet, so you can always donate to the gofundme his wife just created to cover that cost.
I just wish Vlad would give Assange the hacked RNC material. Or is that the kompromat the PAB has on all those Republican senators?
What makes you think Assange would publish that?
Wondering how long it takes before Wikileaks starts publishing stuff that's good for Trump again.
I don't actually think he would unless his 'freeze peach' BS is much deeper than Elmo's.
There's a fun story about how CNN cut off Trump spokesperson Karoline Leavitt when she wouldn't stop ranting about how the debate moderator is BIASSS against Trump (https://www.rawstory.com/maga-2668592260/). So Ms. Leavitt went on Bannon's show to complain, and Bannon said CNN should apologize, or else Trump should just cancel the debate (https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/6/24/2248345/-Breaking-Bannon-to-Trump-Cancel-the-debate). It looks like Trump is looking for an excuse to do that: maybe this bullshit excuse will do.
Any excuse used by The Convicted Felon, short of being in the ER or morgue (with votes), will be BS. But only the MAGAsses need a PAB Excuse any excuse.
Art!
https://x.com/GaryPetersonUSA/status/1805422960104100055
zOMG hilarious!
If you listen carefully you might hear a bunch of "Justin Trudeau is doomed!" talk floating out of Canada today. The Liberals lost a Toronto seat in a by election that they'd held since the Progressive Conservatives were all but wiped out in the 1993 election. So a lot of people think this might push the Liberals to pressure him to resign before next year's federal election.
Having said that it should be noted that, not entirely surprising for a by election, voter turnout was crap. Only 43.5 percent of voters apparently went to the polls, a drop of 21.96 percent from the last federal election. So a lot of voters weren't particularly interested in sending a message, other than "Don't call a by election just before summer starts, and as the school year is ending." Conservative Don Stewart won by around 600 votes.
An interesting element of the vote was that the ballot was the longest in Canadian history. An electoral reform group called the Longest Ballot Committee helped a large number of candidates run, in protest of the current first past the post electoral system. So there were a record 84 candidates on the ballot, and the ballot paper was just under a meter long. Parties actually listed on the ballot were the Conservative Party of Canada, the Liberal Party of Canada, the New Democratic Party, the Green Party, the People's Party of Canada, the Marxist Leninist Party of Canada, the Rhinoceros Party, the Marijuana Party, and the Centrist Party.
"Don't call a by election just before summer starts, and as the school year is ending." And it's game seven of the finals, with a Canadian team in the running to perhaps beat an 80 year old record. A Toronto record.
Granted, I'm in Edmonton, but nobody was thinking anything but hockey all day long yesterday, and I'm sure Toronto also had some of that energy.
To be fair no one would have guessed Edmonton would still be in it when the by election was called. I get the impression hockey ratings drop pretty heavily once the Canadian teams are eliminated.
Is that NYT link to the recipe for skillet cookies a "gift link"? The last time I tried to look at a recipe at the Times site, it said one was required to pay and additional subscription fee ( I already pay the "basic" fee ).