What did you learn today TIL

[Dudester]

And calling Miller a Jewish Nazi as a bit low as.

https://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/amp/rcna179816

right, says the company facing bankruptcy. But still IDGAFF what you say or do anywhere else, but all I am saying that its not a good subject to do it in.

Daily Mail:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14069583/amp/stephen-miller-donald-trump-advisor-deputy-chief-staff-immigration-hawk.html

New York Times:

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/11/us/politics/stephen-miller-trump.html

PBS:

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/amp/show/trump-begins-to-name-appointees-who-could-oversee-his-mass-deportation-plans

CBS:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-mass-deportation-plan-cost-consequences-60-minutes-transcript/

Miami Herald:

https://amp.miamiherald.com/news/local/immigration/article295379159.html

Just because you don’t want to read about it doesn’t make it untrue. The desire to do it.

What his uncle says about him:

The uncle of incoming White House deputy chief of staff for policy, Stephen Miller, spoke out Tuesday against the longtime Trump ally‘s hardline stance on immigration, telling The Daily Mail that it‘s a bit rich considering Miller’s family history. “More than 70 of our family who were denied entry to the US from 1925-1940, because of their ethnicity/religion, due to the xenophobia of the ‘America First’ political faction of the day, were all gassed or machine gunned by the Nazi Einsatzgruppen in WWII,” Dr. David Glosser told the outlet. Miller, an architect of Donald Trump’s controversial family separation policy who has espoused white nationalist talking points, was previously a speechwriter for Trump. In that role, Miller filled the campaign with increasingly dark rhetoric about immigrants “poisoning the blood” of the U.S. Glosser compared that language to the way Nazis justified extermination camps. “The killers‘ political masters’ rhetoric had portrayed them as being sub-human, criminal, or even demonic elements that needed to be expelled, expunged, and eventually exterminated,' the retired neuropsychologist said. “The same pattern of seeking power by exciting and exploiting racial anxieties and blaming scapegoats in times of plague, economic, or social turmoil has been a tragic element of human history since time immemorial.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/stephen-millers-uncle-trashes-his-mass-deportation-plan/

I don't know if you're up on the latest, but ALL of those sources you cited have NO credibility and are on life support. Newspapers are done and have been done. MSNBC is about to layoff staff to keep a pulse. CBS is doomed. As podcasters proved, the glamor media has lied and continues to lie. Don't take my word for it, look at the latest ratings.

[Pornhubby]

The glamor media has lied and continues to lie. Don't take my word for it, look at the latest ratings.

Because ratings are the ultimate arbiter of truth. Got it.

“Wrong does not cease to be wrong because the majority share in it.” — Leo Tolstoy

[Writers Bloque]

The glamor media has lied and continues to lie. Don't take my word for it, look at the latest ratings.

Because ratings are the ultimate arbiter of truth. Got it.

“Wrong does not cease to be wrong because the majority share in it.” — Leo Tolstoy

Love the Tolstoy quote, so I will counter and add this, since I do not agree with dudester on this particular topic.


“If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”
― George Orwell

AND


“Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind. ”
― George Orwell

The last one I feel encapsulates my feelings and opinion on politics and a reason as to why I do not like talking about it.

[Dudester]

The glamor media has lied and continues to lie. Don't take my word for it, look at the latest ratings.

Because ratings are the ultimate arbiter of truth. Got it.

“Wrong does not cease to be wrong because the majority share in it.” — Leo Tolstoy

https://www.shorenewsnetwork.com/2024/11/12/comcast-to-put-msnbc-and-oprah-founded-oxygen-networks-up-for-sale-in-cable-tv-sell-off/

https://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/news/msnbc-ratings-plunge-after-trump-election-victory-as-more-than-half-of-primetime-audience-flees/ar-AA1tXZMB

https://nypost.com/2024/10/31/media/msnbc-parent-comcast-weighs-spin-off-of-declining-cable-networks/

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/entertainment/3229938/the-view-expected-bring-pro-trump-perspective/

https://ktxs.com/news/nation-world/los-angeles-times-owner-announces-new-editorial-board-fair-and-balanced-pat-soon-shiong-la-times-non-endorsement-kamala-trump-election

[Writers Bloque]

Today I learned something.....

There is a tree growing in south Florida and mostly central and south America called the Manchineel tree. It is the worlds most toxic tree. Its bark is poison, its sap is poison, and it bears a fruit called the Death Apple, which of course is poisonous. They mark them with big red X's on the trunk, and warn people not to seek shelter underneath them during a rain storm, as the water drops can carry enough of the sap to blister your skin. Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon was shot with an arrow coated in its sap. He died shortly after.

[Dudester]

Today I learned something.....

There is a tree growing in south Florida and mostly central and south America called the Manchineel tree. It is the worlds most toxic tree. Its bark is poison, its sap is poison, and it bears a fruit called the Death Apple, which of course is poisonous. They mark them with big red X's on the trunk, and warn people not to seek shelter underneath them during a rain storm, as the water drops can carry enough of the sap to blister your skin. Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon was shot with an arrow coated in its sap. He died shortly after.

 

WOW!! Amazing!! Thank you for sharing.

[Raceway]

I learned today that I should have taken a course in economics when I was at university.

Reading a history of India from the 17th to the 20th century, I became acutely aware that parts of the book made no sense to me. I had no difficulty following the accounts of social, cultural and political developments, of uprisings and mutinies, of victories and defeats, of bravery and treachery, of famines and epidemics. But when the authors began describing monetary policies, taxation, tariffs, gold and silver standards, and the import and export of specie, I was completely out of my depth. And when they rolled out statistics and census data, I felt like giving up.

I used to number several economists and economic historians among my colleagues. Now I regret not making use of their expertise while I had a chance. Recalling, however, some of the complex mathematical formulae with which they decorated their papers and books, I wonder if I could have kept up with their explanations.

My sad and very depressing conclusion is that you can't understand what's happening in the world of politics and business without a grasp of basic economics. I fear that I'm too old to pick up such knowledge, and even if I did, it would serve for only the limited number of years left to me. There are better ways of spending that time.

[Dudester]

I learned today that I should have taken a course in economics when I was at university.

Reading a history of India from the 17th to the 20th century, I became acutely aware that parts of the book made no sense to me. I had no difficulty following the accounts of social, cultural and political developments, of uprisings and mutinies, of victories and defeats, of bravery and treachery, of famines and epidemics. But when the authors began describing monetary policies, taxation, tariffs, gold and silver standards, and the import and export of specie, I was completely out of my depth. And when they rolled out statistics and census data, I felt like giving up.

I used to number several economists and economic historians among my colleagues. Now I regret not making use of their expertise while I had a chance. Recalling, however, some of the complex mathematical formulae with which they decorated their papers and books, I wonder if I could have kept up with their explanations.

My sad and very depressing conclusion is that you can't understand what's happening in the world of politics and business without a grasp of basic economics. I fear that I'm too old to pick up such knowledge, and even if I did, it would serve for only the limited number of years left to me. There are better ways of spending that time.

In the not too recent past past I was living in an upscale part of town. The laundry machines at my apartment complex were for shit, so I began using a local launderette owned by an Indian family. Over the course of years I befriended the family. The two oldest daughters were in college and sometimes they ran the launderette-standing in for their parents. When one of the girls told me that she was born in India, I stupidly said "You speak English rather well for someone born in India." She replied "The British did colonize India for hundreds of years." I felt about an inch high.

The schools did a poor job of teaching anything about India. Aside from the Dutch East India company and two paragraphs about India in World War Two, nothing was taught. By the way, both girls ended up going to work for Arthur Anderson (one of the largest accounting firms in the United States). 

[Raceway]

People living or travelling in fiercely hot places (only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun) are often described as wearing "sola topees", a kind of lightweight mushroom-shaped helmet. The purpose was to shade the wearer from the debilitating rays of the sun, and I assumed that was where the "sola/solar" came from.

I was wrong.

"Sola" is the name of the material from which the topee/topi was made:

sola or solah /sōˈlə/
noun

• Spongewood, an Indian papilionaceous plant (Aeschynomene aspera or indica; also known as the hat-plant)
• Its pithlike stems used in making lightweight hats

sola hat, sola helmet, sola topee or sola topi noun
A sun helmet made of sola pith (also, incorrectly, solar)

Chambers also informs me that "topi" is the Hindi word for hat. One of those fragments of information that I'd completely forgotten until this morning.

[ObiDongKenobi]

TIL what Castoreum is.

The first question that sprang to mind was who in the perfume and food industries first thought "what will improve our product. I know - the arse end of a beaver"

[Raceway]

TIL what Castoreum is.

The first question that sprang to mind was who in the perfume and food industries first thought "what will improve our product. I know - the arse end of a beaver"

I wonder if perfume manufacturers still use animal products. Chanel No. 5 showed what could be done with synthetic alternatives, and that was over a hundred years ago.

Some smelly reminiscences:

• A friend's brother dropped out of college and spent a year wandering around the Middle East. He came home with an odd souvenir: a ball of what looked like putty but was, he said, the gland of a musk deer. He would rub it lightly over walls, and rooms would be filled with the sweet scent of musk for days thereafter.
  
• I once spent a vacation in the medieval town of Grasse, the centre of the French perfume industry. The town was surrounded by fields of flowers, and every other building was a perfume workshop. The town was filled, day and night, with an intoxicating blend of flowery fragrances.
  
• Long ago, somewhere around what used to be the London Docks, there was a large Victorian edifice that housed a spice importer. I loved walking past that building and savouring the heady aromas of black pepper, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, and other spices. I also noticed that it was a favourite spot for homeless people to pass the time of day.
  
• One of the most malodorous places it's been my misfortune to visit was a town with a major soap-making factory. Before driving through it (without stopping, if possible), I'd roll up the windows, turn off the ventilators, and hold my breath.
  

[Dudester]

TIL what Castoreum is.

The first question that sprang to mind was who in the perfume and food industries first thought "what will improve our product. I know - the arse end of a beaver"

I wonder if perfume manufacturers still use animal products. Chanel No. 5 showed what could be done with synthetic alternatives, and that was over a hundred years ago.

Some smelly reminiscences:

• A friend's brother dropped out of college and spent a year wandering around the Middle East. He came home with an odd souvenir: a ball of what looked like putty but was, he said, the gland of a musk deer. He would rub it lightly over walls, and rooms would be filled with the sweet scent of musk for days thereafter.
  
• I once spent a vacation in the medieval town of Grasse, the centre of the French perfume industry. The town was surrounded by fields of flowers, and every other building was a perfume workshop. The town was filled, day and night, with an intoxicating blend of flowery fragrances.
  
• Long ago, somewhere around what used to be the London Docks, there was a large Victorian edifice that housed a spice importer. I loved walking past that building and savouring the heady aromas of black pepper, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, and other spices. I also noticed that it was a favourite spot for homeless people to pass the time of day.
  
• One of the most malodorous places it's been my misfortune to visit was a town with a major soap-making factory. Before driving through it (without stopping, if possible), I'd roll up the windows, turn off the ventilators, and hold my breath.
  

I have hyperosmia (enhanced sense of smell). All of those fragrance memories you mentioned would have driven me absolutely insane. Some fragrance memories that stick with me:

*There is a flower in the Southern California area, that, when it blooms in the spring, it smells like someone's unwashed rear end. I was ten and we were waiting for a relative at a rendezvous point. I kept begging my mom if we could move locations until the relative arrived.

*I was 18 and at a party. An extremely attractive woman came over and hit on me. The air conditioning vent was behind her-blowing at me. I could smell semen in her vagina even though she was fully dressed. When I declined her advances she looked at me as if I was insane.

*I was in the forest with my mom. We were sitting on a large rock, about fifty feet above a trail. I told my mom, "There are people on the trail, about one eighth of a mile, that way." She asked how I knew and I explained my sense of smell. Sure enough, about ten minutes later, those people came down the trail.

*The guys in my Marine Recon unit quickly figured out about my sense of smell, which is why I was always on point. Actually, it was the cigarette smell that gave away those in the bush that we were avoiding.

[Pornhubby]

TIL that Black Friday is the busiest day of the year for plumbers. Scraping all those cooking morsels, dirty plates, and turkey grease down the sink makes for major clogs.