25.1.24

Flip a valve

b1-66er: Datum of the moment:
2500 people die from heart related problems everyday in the US (includes heart attacks).

D4rw1n: This coming on the day my next door neighbor got diagnosed with an aneurysm of the aorta 

b1: There is that, and what... Several weeks after Johnny Cabinet decided to sleep through the dance too...

D4: Yes

b1: We never tended to hang around the
Lazy and Slothful Gang
I'm guessing we'll see fewer of our personal contemporaries check out that way than the average American.
Having said that, I bet we'll be right in line with -if not a little ahead of- The Dementia Wave.
D4...
... What were the symptoms that got your neighbor checked?
(And what will they do about it? Stent it?¹)

D4: I haven't talked to him yet in detail. I do not know what the treatment is, but I'm suspecting there's some kind of operation to protect that vessel. He had no symptoms. In for a different kind of appointment, and they offhandedly suggested they could use a chest scan for that thing (whatever it was), but it was optional. He basically tossed a coin in his mind and said yes.

b1: Bold
And I support that behavior
...One of the ways 67 and I have become divergent over time is in the way we think about medicine...
...I trend toward getting as much data as I can and, broadly speaking, trust the professionals.
67 is more automatically suspicious/questioning.

D4: My own cardiologist wasn't so lucky with his own cardiological health. 
I learned of his untimely death from a mutual acquaintance, my own primary care physician (PCP). The story is startling one. In a recent appointment with my PCP. I mentioned the medications I am taking on the orders of the cardiologist (whom I will call Dr. O.).
PCP says oh, I'm sorry to be the one to tell you, but Dr. O. died suddenly in May.
The story is Dr. O was on rounds at the hospital one day when he started feeling very ill. He sat down. Looked ill enough that one of the nurses said, let's get you down to the ER.
They went to the ER and immediately strapped him onto the EEG. Dr. O personally tore off the readout strip, took one look at it, and said, "uh oh. This isn't good."
And died instantly.

66: Man oh man.
Hitting the statistical number.
Mom got a call one day, "we need to reschedule your appointment, The dentist died (heart attack) over the weekend."

b1-67er: Rescheduled to The Second Coming of Christ, I guess.

66: That is so fricken cold...
... So why am I laughing?

Special K: I have sometimes avoided dentist appointments, but not by dying, so far.

66: For you, I'd say the best strategy would be to treat it like Old Home Week.

K: Sounds right.


¹ there is an excellent PDF on the aorta aneurysm situation/procedure that I read from the Mayo Clinic website after seeing D4rw1n mention it in the TXT stream. Highly recommended if you wanna dig deeper.

22.1.24

Slave diving

b1-66er: My newest book
How to Break Up with Your Phone
Americans do over 9B phone checks everyday.

Special K: I've done 35 today.

66: Don't sweat it.
The day's not even close to over.
There's room to improve.

K: 115 yesterday.

b1-67er: Jesus.  How do you even know that number?

K: It's in the Settings. 
<phone data pic>
Android version:

67: I guess I shouldn't be surprised that they have that number.  It looks like mine varies from about 25 to 75 over the last week or so.  Still a lot.

K: They have all the numbers.

66: Mine is REMARKABLY consistent...
... Slightly > 35 unlocks.
8 hours on my phone. 
day after day. Almost linear.
<Unlock pic>
<Screen time pic>

67: You do long dives.

K: My daily time is similar.

20.1.24

"Hey pal, can I borrow your llama a second?"

b1-66er: https://petapixel.com/2024/01/19/the-awesome-winners-of-the-2023-ocean-art-photography-competition/

b1-67er: The monkey image is surprising, but it does create the uneasy possibility of just chucking wild animals in the ocean and taking pictures of them. 

19.1.24

The future penalty of dodging

b1-66er: En El Ocho they just said, "Dodgeball is all about integrity. About honesty."

b1-67er: I thought it was all about humiliation.
Oddly dodgeball was a game I could play ... I was very good at dodging. But, as you know, I could not throw worth a damn. So I'd last until the end, then the Casa Diver would destroy me with a 100 mph fastball.

66: That's just weirdly funny....In a "watch your little brother fall into the slush pool he just tried to push you in" kind of way.

16.1.24

Magically delicious apes

Special K: "The special charm of the first follow-up, Beneath the Planet of the Apes, is that the entire movie is out of its mind from start to finish."

Any colour you like (./?)

b1-67er: Interesting cell phone camera effect.  

This picture is with no flash. <blue moonrise>

Same sky a few minutes earlier with flash <purple moonset>

I think the camera bumps up the reds when you use the fash.  There is probably insufficient red in the flash led, so the software tries to make up for it.

b1-66er: That is interesting.
What make/model is that phone?

67: Samsung galaxy a53 
It takes nice landscapes

66: Sure as hell does.

<Pix © 2024 Huey Moon, Ltd.
All rights reserved.
Used by permission>

Holding the GFI steady

b1-66er: Remember this number

-> 0.392 <-

{The exact number doesn't matter ... The only thing that's important is it's

"... About 0.4..."

This'll come up in a medium-term face-to-face conversation at some point.

You'll think it's funny.

{Unless the Russians start WW III. Then it might not be so funny.}

b1-67er: Ok. I think if www3 starts, general funniness may be down.

14.1.24

The word isn't, "fornever"

b1-66er: https://petapixel.com/2024/01/12/the-millennium-camera-will-capture-arizonas-landscape-for-1000-years/

b1-67er: That's a really interesting idea, but I damn sure would want something that I could verify that I was getting an image within my lifetime. I'd also like a bigger negative. And the camera shouldn't be butt welded to a handrail on a slope that will be eroding across that much time. There should be a single piece of steel all the way to bedrock. I think they should imagine a little more.

66: Great comments.

D4rw1n: b1-67er out long-now-ing the millennium guys 

12.1.24

b1 series Sky Battle!

b1-66er: <desert neighborhood>

b1-67er: <not>
{pic © 2024 Pink Floccing, Unlimited
All rights reserved
Used by permission}

10.1.24

Building the Apophenia Mound

b1-66er: Say, "hi."

The Dear Hunter: These ant pics directly conflict with my
 Walk in Beauty 
mission statement.

b1-67er: But the ants are beautiful in a fierce way.

•••

66: <Headspace 'fortune cookie'>

D4rw1n: I found this to be one of the most interesting daily meditations yet

66: It's easier for me to comprehend if I break it into 3 sentences:

Appreciate each moment.
Find peace in impermanence.
Keep death by your side.

That's a fairly famous taoist principle <ed: "the vinegar tasters">

b1-67er: And that ties straight across to the fire ant picture.

66: So very right.
Your index finger is on the Pulsing Jugular Vein of Life.

4.1.24

2.1.24

Ridin' The El with my best friend

b1-66er: Announcer: This is the Superbowl, it doesn't get better than this.
Guess the sport.

Special K: Not football. 

b1: Partial credit.
Not football is trending correct.
Hint: El Ocho 

K: I guessed that. 

b1: So clever.
You gotta guess again.
"Anything on El Ocho"
is not an acceptable answer.
(Even if you say EL Ocho trying to butter me up by using the incorrect station identification...which I actually prefer.)
Again. Announcer: This is the Superbowl, it doesn't get better than this.
Another hint: 
Not axes or knives

K: Cornhole. 

b1: I like that answer. 
Thinking cornhole-y shows both your natural affinity and understanding of mass media/sport...
The correct answer is

The AKC Agility Dog Championships

Now why that's on
Offbeat Sports Channel
I can't tell you.
It doesn't feel like a sport to me.
You point at an object and a dog jumps through it implies -to me at least- no human athleticism.

K: Me too. But there's not a dog sports channel The Perro.