Elizabeth Moon's Blog, page 106

Breakfast idiocy

Sometime last week I was watching a network morning program, looking for weather, and the talking heads were expressing great horror over one-dollar fast-food breakfasts because they had (gasp) 300 calories!!!  Sometimes even 400!!!   And they had (gasp!) some fat!  and (gasp!) eggs!

I ran a quick calculation and thought "That's really stupid..."  The recommendation has been that you eat at least 25% of your daily calories in the morning.   4 x 300 = 1200.  Not really a huge caloric intake...

From Twitter 01-10-2010

22:08:56: Running water behaving normally: very, very nice thing to have back.

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Sunday: bright

It's clear, started cold, is warming up.  All good things after the extreme (for us) cold and broken pipe.  It's possible (we won't know until late in the day) that yesterday's patch will warm up enough today to set the goo.  (Chemical reactions like that of the goo take longer in colder temps and may even fail completely.)   My cold or whatever it is hasn't gotten worse.   The wormer buckets of water in the shower stall have let me keep flushing as needed.  (Yes, I know ways to extend...

From Twitter 01-09-2010

10:48:55: 10F overnight. Busted pipe repair ongoing. Ice on all ponds. Horses fine & energetic. Cat fine. We're fine, too.
16:30:57: New post up about the freeze and pipe break at http://www.80acresonline.org/blog/ Pictures.
22:40:51: New post up with snippet at http://www.paksworld.com/blog/ , part of the pages from today.

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Saturday

The day was spent entirely in relation to the burst pipe and the cold.   For story and pictures, see the 80acres blog.   I didn't sleep much at all last night and can barely keep my eyes open now.

From Twitter 01-08-2010

14:12:12: Bread dough is rising. Baby, it's COLD outside. Don't know what the morning low was, but it hasn't gotten up to 30F all day (28F now.)
14:13:06: Horses are fine--were out in the field, nibbling stuff. Cat is fine, on the sunny front porch (still refusing to come inside.)
16:18:07: New post up at http://www.speedofdark-thebook.com/blog/ about helping our autistic son with public transportation.
16:19:15: New post up at http://www.paksworld.com/blog/ about cold and writing.

Adventures in Plumbing

Local temps went below freezing yesterday afternoon and stayed so overnight and all day.  We knew it was coming; pipes had been wrapped, spigots covered, etc.   R & M went off to the city in the afternoon, to return at ????

This afternoon, sun striking the west side of the house (brick veneer) apparently heated up a not-sufficiently-insulated and thus busted pipe enough to let the water flow--out.  Very out.   Sometime between 3:30 and 5:15 (interval during which I wasn't in the utility room) ...

Economics & Ethics (Cost/Benefit of Behaviors)

Or, why the business model gives rise to lousy long-term results in many areas of activity....

Humans are (among whatever religious beliefs you may hold) social animals, and as such have neurology hard-wired to respond in certain ways--at a fundamental individual level (common to all animals, including the solitary) and at the social level (to maintain the social structure of the species.)   Some of the hard-wiring that "works" (preserving species--and, for social species, the social...

From Twitter 01-07-2010

11:35:20: New post up on http://www.paksworld.com/blog/
11:36:18: Earworm: Mozart's "Inter Natos Mulierum"
13:18:23: "Bare-throated Tiger Heron" suggests a fictional monster-bird, but it's real and causing excitement among S. Texas birders.
14:20:59: Beef/vegetable/barley soup made from "my" stock and "my" beef. Just added the slug of red wine. Barley goes in last.
15:43:57: Country living: friend brings me ducks he shot on his tank; I hand over a tub of newly homemade soup. (Hmm...duck soup...

Writer's Block: Do (political) opposites attract?

Torture is such an issue.   Wrong in all situations.   (Yes, it happens--doesn't make it right.)  I do not respect, let alone agree with, apologists for torture. 

Slavery, sexual abuse, trafficking in humans.  Wrong in all situations.   Whether it's child sexual abuse, abduction and enslavement, enslavement of "captive" workers (has happened on ranches, for instance)--always wrong, never OK, and I do not respect anyone who defends any of these practices.  Related but sometimes considered as d...