Odds and Ends — 20 April 2021
Cat Ladies of the Apocalypse:
Kids these days.
None of them really has a clue about what things were like before The Collapse. How do you explain surfing through YouTube music videos to someone who’s never seen a functioning monitor? When us old farts reminisce about still being able to buy gasoline for under a hundred dollars a gallon, what can that mean to a teenager who’s never seen a car do anything but sit there and rust and wouldn’t know what paper money was if you handed it to him to wipe his butt with? Hell, these kids think “running water” means a river.
So I didn’t even try to tell Charlie’s boy about things before The Collapse when he told me with pride about the price haggling he did with the Cat Lady to get the price for that tabby down to 27 eggs and a pair of pliers. He’d never believe that there used to be people who had dozens or even hundreds of cats as pets — it would be as impossible a concept to him as that people used to actually go to the moon. Cat Ladies capture and sell cats as food, “everybody knows that” he’d say.
Coronavirus News, Analysis, and Opinion:
Disinfecting surfaces to prevent Covid often all for show, CDC advises
Why do so many vaccinated people remain irrationally fearful?
Guido Calabresi, a federal judge and Yale law professor, invented a little fable that he has been telling law students for more than three decades.
He tells the students to imagine a god coming forth to offer society a wondrous invention that would improve everyday life in almost every way. It would allow people to spend more time with friends and family, see new places and do jobs they otherwise could not do. But it would also come with a high cost. In exchange for bestowing this invention on society, the god would choose 1,000 young men and women and strike them dead.
How the Tiny Kingdom of Bhutan Out-Vaccinated Most of the World
Cryptocurrency, Investing, Money, Economy, and Debt:
Mix of Old, Wrong and Dubious ‘News’ Scares Rookie Investors, Fuels Crypto Selloff
Blockchain Association executive debunks rumored crypto crackdown by Treasury
Larry Kudlow: Once an Asshat, Always an Asshat.
Politics:
Leaked Ukraine memo reveals scope of Russia's aggression
Apple to let Parler back onto App Store
MyPillow is doubling down on election conspiracy theories despite being hit by a massive lawsuit
Biden Administration Considering Rule to Cut Nicotine in Cigarettes
U.S. ambassador refuses Kremlin push to leave Russia
Serendipity:
Why Spirited Away is Japan’s greatest animated film
How product placements may soon be added to classic films
Meme credit: TroutieMcTrouterson (source)