People began to rejoice in their ability to speak freely. Furious debates over the country’s future ensued. In cafes, over cups of coffee and cigarettes, furious arguments were taking place about the direction the rebel-led government would take, voices raised as people tested the new limits of their freedoms.

Still, it was not easy to shake off the idea that the regime was watching. During an interview with a public-sector employee who preferred to remain anonymous, the employee paused as they were asked about their opinion about the new government. They excused themselves and went to the next room, where they threw up.

Returning to the interview with red-rimmed eyes, the employee apologised.

“You ask me if I’m afraid? Of course, I am afraid. I am 53 years old. And in 53 years, this is the first time that I am speaking freely,” they said.

Yeah. And how is it that corporations, or big businesses in general, have elevated themselves to an almost holy status? Why is it murder when Blackrock kills 17 civilians in Iraq (Nisour Square), but not when an insurance company denies an operation that a doctor who’s at the top of their field says could save your life? And the hospital helpfully tells you it will cost over a million dollars. For all the non-Americans, that’s not an exaggeration.

And even with Blackwater, it was only the individual employees who got convicted. The company just kept going under a different name. And the employees got pardoned later.

Do you know what kind of things might get turned down and what would count as a good reason? And if your claim gets turned down, do you have any options other than “go bankrupt or suffer” like us in the U.S.?

I’d take hunting for the right form any day over being told to hork down ibuprofen for what I know is a serious problem, and hope the insurance company might eventually deign to approve an MRI. There’s a reason a lot of Americans are out of shape, and it’s not just because of desk jobs and junk food.

Here you go. Courtesy of Courthouse News.

I love that view, especially at night. Crazy how different (and barren) it used to look.

Yeah. Those keys on the piano are E and F. You can see those notes in the sheet music for the title track. Those long rows of notes are a bunch of E’s and F’s.

If you hit the play button in the bottom left corner, you can hear a computer-generated version of the song. Real version here.

I started learning a little about music theory. I’ve been interested for a while, but always thought I wouldn’t be able to understand it. But it’s doable, a little at a time.

And I’ve been going outside more. I spend too much time in front of the computer. It’s nice to have fresh air and read, listen to music, or just take in the surroundings.

And the newer threads (from the last 1-2 years) often just aren’t that helpful. Lots of people who don’t know what they’re talking about, or comment just to say they have the same problem.

I can usually get a helpful answer by trying a couple search engines or just fighting with Google, but it takes longer than it should sometimes.

And wealthy or well-connected. If you’re poor, you don’t necessarily have much of a chance.

The link is a long read, but interesting. The story of Cameron Todd Willingham, who was executed in Texas in 2004 for supposedly setting a fire that killed his three kids.

In December, 2004, questions about the scientific evidence in the Willingham case began to surface. Maurice Possley and Steve Mills, of the Chicago Tribune, had published an investigative series on flaws in forensic science; upon learning of Hurst’s report, Possley and Mills asked three fire experts, including John Lentini, to examine the original investigation. The experts concurred with Hurst’s report. Nearly two years later, the Innocence Project commissioned Lentini and three other top fire investigators to conduct an independent review of the arson evidence in the Willingham case. The panel concluded that “each and every one” of the indicators of arson had been “scientifically proven to be invalid.”

You get told it’s just pneumonia, but it keeps coming back for years.

Eventually someone figures it out and says you have mesothelioma. You travel the country for a few years, looking for treatment wherever you can. It costs everything you have.

Somewhere along the way, you have to put down $120,000 in cash for a surgery that gives you a few more years. But your last years are still mostly pain and exhaustion.

I wish my uncle hadn’t died the way he did.

Some kids have died at camps like this. The link is the story of a 16 year old who died in Arizona in 1994.

He had to hike for miles a day and sleep with no blanket or sleeping bag in temperatures below freezing. He had no food for 11 days out of 20, partly as a punishment for being sick.

He complained about being sick for weeks - stomach pain, falling down, hallucinations. On the day he died, it took him an hour to crawl 20 feet to the fire. He died from an infection from a perforated ulcer. The staff were standing around making fun of him when he collapsed for the last time.

The owners of the camp pleaded guilty to negligent homicide. One of the counselors was convicted of felony neglect.

Earlier this year, a 12 year old suffocated to death at a wilderness camp in North Carolina. His death was found to be a homicide.

Fascinating! So oxygen from the air (or wherever) + hydrogen from food = water.

Plants can make their own food, and birds can make their own water :)

That’s what I thought too, but bones are about 1/3 protein with a lot of fat and minerals. Kind of like tonkotsu broth.

They also store well. If the vultures find more than they need, they’ll keep the extra bones in a storage place really high up. The fat content drops a lot when the bones dry out, but the protein is still there.

The downside is bones don’t have a lot of water, so bearded vultures need a source of fresh water in their territory.

Bearded vultures are pretty neat too. They pretty much only eat bones. They can eat surprisingly big chunks whole. Or if the bone is too big, they drop it onto a rock to break it up.

And they’re very peaceful, because they know no one is going to fight them for the bones.

Maybe it depends on what you watch. I use Youtube for music (only things that I search for) and sometimes live streams of an owl nest or something like that.

If I stick to that, the recommendations are sort of OK. Usually stuff I watched before. Little to no clickbait or random topics.

I clicked on one reaction video to a song I listened to just to see what would happen. The recommendations turned into like 90% reaction videos, plus a bunch of topics I’ve never shown any interest in. U.S. politics, the death penalty in Japan, gaming, Brexit, some Christian hymns, and brand new videos on random topics.

Here’s a link to the original song. The part the meme comes from starts around 0:45. It was a hit in 2004.

Other made up offenses include having a knife and having nothing but walking toward them

Or having a seizure on your kitchen floor.

Or having dementia and ending up at the wrong house because you think you live there.

Were you standing inside something when you took this, or is the black frame something that was added later?

The ones that interest you the most will be easiest to stick with. I find things just through my general interests and poking around.

Favorite music genre? Listen to bands from different countries and see how they sound. TV shows, movies, and documentaries from other countries are another big one. Listen to the original language, see if it sounds interesting, maybe read a little about it.

Or maybe you know someone who you’d like to be able to talk with in their language. It could be anything. Pick one or two things to try and you’ll get a feel for what you like.

Oh yeah, the yellow European style butter was a revelation when I found out about it. It tastes way better and is less watery than the pale American butter.

I never heard of filtered milk. Milk is milk for the most part, but once I made the mistake of buying it on clearance. Grabbed it without looking because the price for a normal gallon freaked me out. It wasn’t spoiled, but it was super watery and had a weird color.