Despite the continuing grotty weather, I pushed myself out for a couple of walks today, meaning I've crept over 10,000 steps. Thanks to hurting my leg I haven't done that very often recently, but I wanted to get back to it and so I mostly feel being out in the drizzle was worth it! I did briefly think about posting a photo again – not a 365-style one, just something mildly interesting – but to be honest everything looks so dreary in these conditions that it's going to have to wait a few days.
This is a really great thing! The ACM is one of the premier organizations for computer science, and for them to open up their publication library to open access is an incredibly huge deal.
In their statement released in mid-December, they announced: We are pleased to share an important milestone for our field. Beginning January 2026, all ACM publications and related artifacts in the ACM Digital Library will be made open access. This change reflects the long-standing and growing call across the global computing community for research to be more accessible, more discoverable, and more reusable.
By transitioning to open access, ACM is supporting a publishing environment where:
Authors retain the intellectual property to their Work- All ACM authors retain the copyright to their published work while ACM remains committed to defending those Works against copyright and integrity related violations. Published Work Will Benefit from Broader visibility and impact- Research will be freely available to anyone in the world, increasing readership, citations, and real-world application. Students, educators, and researchers everywhere benefit- Whether at well-resourced institutions or in emerging research communities, everyone will have direct access to the full breadth of ACM-published work. Innovation accelerates- Open access fosters collaboration, transparency, and cumulative progress, strengthening the advancement of computing as a discipline.
The world of research publication is tending towards increased lockdown and paywalls, plus corruption by AI slop. The ACM is fighting that by opening their doors and ensuring their authors maintain control of their IP. This is an incredibly cool thing!
There's a cool library tool that we use occasionally called Hathi Trust. They archive old material and they're a great reference place to find stuff. I was looking to borrow a book for one of our instructors, and Hathi had it online! You can download it! ONE PAGE AT A TIME. The book is 90 years old, in the public domain, and I can't find a free copy of it. So I literally started downloading it. One page at a time. I have the free time at work.
It costs $6,000 a year to become a member of Hathi. A YEAR. You have to be a pretty good-sized library to pay that, or have special needs to justify that outlay.
Fortunately my story has two happy endings. I was able to find a physical copy of the book, the United States Department of the Interior Library sent me a copy! But there's an even better ending. I was looking for something in our archive, sitting in the corner, pulling stuff down and buzzing through boxes. I happened to glance down and saw a three-ring binder in an area that I knew didn't contain what I was looking for. but the label on the binder caught my eye.
It was the same name as the book that the instructor had requested!
I pull the binder, and it was a facsimile of the book! So now I'll be able to scan the pages that I hadn't yet downloaded and assemble my own ebook! I had already assembled two sections of what I'd downloaded into ebooks: PDFs combined make HUGE ebooks!
Weirdest luck I've had in a long time. And no, it was not cataloged in our system.
The wave yearns at the cliff foot: its pale arms Reach upward and relapse, like down-dropped hands; The baffled tides slip backward evermore, And a long sighing murmurs round the sands . . .
My heart is as the wave that lifts and falls: Tall is the cliff—oh! tall as that dim star That crowns its summit hidden in a cloud— Tall as the dark and holy heavens are.
The sad strange wreckage of full many ships Burdens the bitter waters’ ebb and flow: Gold diadems, like slowly falling flames, Lighten the restless emerald gulfs below;
And withered blossoms float, and silken webs, And pallid faces framed in wide-spread hair, And bubble-globes that seethe with peacock hues, And jewelled hands, half-open, cold and fair.
Sea creatures move beneath: their swift sleek touch Begets sweet madness and unworthy fire— Scaled women—triton-things, whose dark seal eyes Are hot and bloodshot with a man’s desire.
Their strange arms clasp: the sea-pulse in their veins Beats like the surf of the immortal sea— Strong, glad and soulless: elemental joys Bathe with green flame the sinking soul of me.
Downward and down—to passionate purple looms, Athrill with thought-free, blurred, insatiate life, Where the slow-throbbing sea-flow sways like weed Dim figures blended in an amorous strife—
I am enclasped, I sink; but the wave lifts, With all its freight of treasure and of death, In sullen foamless yearning towards the height Where the star burns above the vapour-wreath;
And a deep sob goes up, and all the caves Are filled with mourning and a sorrow-sound. The green fire fades: I rise: I see the star— Gone are the triton arms that clipped me round.
Hope beats like some lost bird against the cliff— The granite cliff above the burdened wave, Whose fleeting riches are more desolate Than gems dust-mingled in a nameless grave . . .
When all the wordless thirsts of Time are slaked, And all Earth’s yearning hungers sweetly fed, And the Sea’s grief is stilled, and the Wind’s cry, And Day and Night clasp on one glowing bed—
Oh! in that hour shall clay and flame be blent— Love find its perfect lover, breast on breast— When dream and dreamer at the last are one, And joy is folded in the arms of jest.
I don’t know why, but I am a total sucker for books about Arctic and Antarctic exploration. Bring me your frostbite, your scurvy, your long marches, and, above all, bring me my warmest pajamas and a hot cup of tea and we have what I consider to be the perfect ingredients for a cosy night in.
The Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration (1897ish – 1922ish) and the many efforts to locate the Northwest Passage in the Arctic are simply crammed with stoic imperialist White men who suffer terribly for what, frankly, does not strike me as terribly good reasons. Perhaps my ability to read of their sufferings with ghoulish fascination stems from the fact that none of these guys needed to be either North or South in the first place. To borrow and bend a common phrase: you live by the poorly sealed canned goods, you die by the poorly sealed canned goods*.
Arnarulunnguaq on the Fifth Thule Expedition
Of course, in the case of the Arctic, people were already living there long before any White explorers staggered upon the scene. Yu’pik and Inuit peoples were instrumental in exploratory expeditions in the Arctic and, less directly, the Antarctic. I’ve already written about Ada Blackjack, an Inupiaq woman who survived on Wrangel Island alone for eight months after the other members of her party died.
Other Indigenous women often supported expeditions, especially Arctic ones, by sewing, skinning and preserving fur and leather and cooking. Taqulittuq (also known as Tookoolito and as Hannah), an Inupiaq woman, accompanied Charles Francis Hall on many expeditions including one in which she and some crew members were marooned for months and survived because of the skills of Taqulittuq and her husband. Many other Indigenous women accompanied and supported expeditions and were never formally recognized for their valor.
Arnarulunnguaq, the first woman to travel from Greenland to the Pacific, was born in Greenland in 1896. She related that when she was six or seven, her father, a hunter, died and the family became so desperate for food that they prepared to sacrifice Arnarulunnguaq so the the rest of the family could live, having one less mouth to feed. However, at the very last minute, her brother started crying and her mother decided not to kill Arnarulunnguaq after all. Arnarulunnguaq was (of course) powerfully changed by this experience. According to the explorer Knud Ramussen:
She says herself that the gratitude that she came to feel many years later, and the life she had almost received as a gift, has made her placid towards people.
Arnarulunnguaq married a hunter named Iggiannguaq (allegedly she had a previous marriage that failed because she was “too lazy,” a trait which truly does not match the historical records of her life!). The two planned to accompany Knud Rasmussen on his Fifth Thule Expedition (1921 – 1924). This trip involved travelling from Greenland to Siberia via dogsled. Iggiannguaq died before the trip commenced, and Arnarulunnguaq asked to be allowed to continue with the trip. Her cousin, Qaavigarsuaq Miteq, filled the role of hunter.
Qaavigarsuaq, Arnarulunnguaqin, and Rasmussen
Arnarulunnguaq cooked, built peat shelters, sewed, and maintained skins and furs as well as helping with the dogs. She drove dog sleds, gathered specimens, and assisted with archeology. She also documented the trip in drawings. Rasmussen said of her that she had:
that good humour about her that only a woman can instil [and was as] entertaining and courageous as any man when we were out on our journey.
Rasmussen hoped to use the journey to document the lives of Indigenous people of the Arctic.
Arnarulunnguaq and Qaavigarsuaq in Native clothing
Danish anthropologist Kirsten Hastrup says that because of Arnarulunnguaq’s and Qaavigarsuaq’s influence:
…what resulted was a ‘collaborative ethnography’ because “‘he Polar Eskimos were no longer being studied but studying with him, and clearly Rasmussen sees the American Inuit very much through Inughuit eyes.’
After the expedition, Rasmussen took Arnarulunnguaq and Qaavigarsuaq to New York City. Arnarulunnguaq loved riding elevators and described New York city as the coldest place she had ever been. She married Kaalipaluk Peary, son of explorer Robert Peary. Like so many other Arctic Indigenous people, she contracted tuberculosis and battled it for years. In 1925, Arnarulunnguaq returned to Thule, where she died in 1933.
*Was the Franklin Expedition of 1845 (which has nothing directly to do with Arnarulunnguaq other than being an Arctic expedition) doomed by lead seeping into their canned goods? Lead poisoning was long thought to have been one of many trials that beset the men of the expedition, but according to Smithsonian Magazine, it was probably not a factor after all. More prominent factors were starvation, hypothermia, scurvy, illness, and exhaustion.
If you like exploration stories set in cold places, I recommend the3 following, with links to those that have been reviewed on Smart Bitches:
The Arctic Furyby Greer Macallister. A novel about Arctic exploration placing a fiction group of women as the leads.
The Damned, a horror movie about Icelandic Fisherfolk who are being picked off one by one by a mysterious assailant while battling cold and hunger.
The Naturalist Society by Carrie Vaughn: a novel in which a gay couple who seek funding for their next Arctic expedition becomes involved with a widow who wrote ornithology papers using her husband’s name.
Endurance by Alfred Lansing: A nonfiction book about Ernest Shackleton and Antarctic exploration.
The Terror by Dan Simmons. A horror novel about the Franklin Expedition. Also a television series.
Madhouse at the End of the Earth by Julian Sancton. A nonfiction book about the first ship to overwinter in Antarctica.
In 2022, the bill that funded NASA extended funding for the International Space Station to 2030, and that was it. NASA started researching ways to end the life of the ISS at that point, and decided that a controlled deorbit was the best bet: lower it to a planned orbit where the increased friction with Earth's atmosphere will eventually cause re-entry and for it to crash into the Pacific Ocean's "space graveyard". That way it's controlled and theoretically won't hit land, potentially causing some really significant damage. The station would be shut-down in 2030 and the deorbit burn would happen in 2031, I'm a little unclear when it would actually re-enter the atmosphere.
Well, that plan might end up being scratched because of an effort being led by California Democratic Representative George Whiteside.
He's on the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology (vice-ranking member) and on the Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics (according to Wikipedia). His career has involved a lot of the space industry, and he's worked at NASA, but the roles seem to be in management and as a director. His Masters degree is in GIS and remote sensing, not in engineering.
He attached a rider to the new NASA funding bill, currently in committee, for them to study boosting the ISS to a parking orbit rather than deorbiting the thing. He thinks it can have a longer life. ( Read more... )
Amongst the things that I was purchasing was a set of replacement heads/brushes for my electric toothbrush.
The cashier rings them up and then, since it popped up on her register screen, ASKS ME IF I WANT THE PROTECTION PLAN FOR THEM.
WTF?!
We were both quite puzzled over that one. What exactly would a protection plan cover? If they wear out, I can get them replaced? THEY'RE EFFING DESIGNED TO WEAR OUT!
When I told it to Russet just now, she said 'Do they offer a protection plan on these paper plates?'
For the first time in 87 days we got above freezing today! Just for a couple hours in midday but still, it was there. ... Also we got another inch or so of snow, just in time to make bunnyhugger's fourth drive up to work this week lousy. But it also meant we have a somewhat clean-ish driveway for the first time in a month or so, with the snow and ice scraped clean. That's nice.
It also puts me in mind of unending days in the 90s or above, like during the Most Extreme Mid-Atlantic Parks trip, and our day at Kennywood that was too short because for some reason they closed at like 8 pm against all reason and decency:
Here's the Lucky Stand, now a self-service pop refill station, and the silhouette of The Phantom's Revenge in the late afternoon light.
And the fountains of Lost Kennywood's midway looking into the late sun.
We're back to the Grand Carousel for the last ride of the day!
And here's a picture of a horse with the pole almost lined up to the decoration of the railing around it. This is a good idea that maybe I can execute better next time.
So, shockingly, Kennywood closed before sunset that day. The result is the traditional picture from the bridge looking out at Racer and Jack Rabbit over the lagoon looks like this instead.
There's the carousel with the lights all off suddenly. They closed it fast on us, including running a weirdly short cycle after waiting for everybody to get on.
This directional sign is new but I like it, for building on the Kennywood Arrow and for letting all the attractions have their own typefaces.
We didn't even get to see if the Refreshments neon was still neon!
Since the park didn't have printed-out maps I grabbed a photo of one of their too-few map signs.
Spotted this car in the parking lot. Wonder if it's an amusement park fan's.
This is a picture outside our motel room. bunnyhugger found a spot with a great 50s-60s style layout (the interior was sadly fresh-renovated) that was really sweet.
Here's the road sign which could not be much better.
Trivia: The International Olympic Committee accepted its first female members (Pirjo Haggman and Flor Isava-Fonesca) in 1981. Isava-Fonesca became the first woman elected to the Executive Board in 1990. Source: Encyclopedia of the Modern Olympic Movement, Editors John E Findling, Kimberly D Pelle.
Currently Reading: Joke Farming: How to Write Comedy and Other Nonsense, Elliott Kalan.
We've got two very romantic ones this round. Perhaps a Raspberry Mimosa with Sorbet sounds like your thing.
Or maybe Love Potion No 9 suits your fancy!
The festivities will begin at 10PM GMT/5PM EST/2PM PST on Friday February 13! Hopefully, the time works for you but remember that you can come and go as you please, start early, leave late. It's all good as long as while you are writing, you're drinking. :D
We are hosting on our DW community again this round. If you do not have a DW account (yet *g*), you should be able to comment with OpenID or anonymously.
Your Prompts!
Under Your Spell
Chocolate
My Bloody Valentine
Only One Bed
Friday the 13th
"Love isn't something you find. Love is something that finds you."
A rundown of the rules. A more thorough explanation will be posted on the night of the event.
Ten years ago, when the Spartan HPC system was launched at the University, it was small, innovative, and experimental, its very name a laconic reference to the funding provided (i.e., not much). But the tricky combination of traditional HPC flexibly supplemented by cloud VMs for single-node jobs worked, and over the years, it would become one of the world's most powerful supercomputers, supporting thousands of researchers with the computational power required in engineering, astronomy, mathematics, economics, climate science, and especially the various medical and life sciences. One of the decisions we made at the time was that Spartan would be open and collaborative; researchers could come from anywhere in the world, as long as the project's principal investigator was from the University of Melbourne. It was an openness that has allowed hundreds of researchers to access the supercomputer resources.
There has been, however, a change in policy and not one to my liking. Now each project requires a university supervisor, and each external collaborator requires a University email address, with the supervisor making a separate application for each individual. This is an overly bureaucratic procedure, in my opinion, and if there's anything IT workers hate doing, it's wrangling systems to meet unnecessary bureaucratic requirements. It's wasted work and time that provides no change in outcome; mathematicians would describe it as "inelegant", engineers would call it "suboptimal", economists would call it "damaged goods", you get the idea. My unfortunate role this week has been to get a list of active non-University researcher accounts and craft individual emails to each of them and their university supervisor, informing them of their need to apply for new email addresses. Due to nuances that I won't go into (such as one user many projects) it was not a matter of just making a single SQL database extraction, but rather required several steps of data wrangling.
The procedure was a bit of an annoyance, an interesting technical challenge, but the real moment of joy was achieved by going through the various projects: ecosystem population connections in tropical oceans, molecular modelling of novel antivirals against SARS-CoV-2 proteins, cosmic birefringence from the South Pole telescope, subterranean dark matter studies - and so it goes on. It is the range, diversity, and importance of these projects that inspire me, a quest for objective knowledge without partisanship, in a world where universal norms are betrayed by the influences of power and wealth, and aesthetic expressions are either trite or manipulative rather than sincere expressions of the imagination. As I tell researchers in my introductory class, you are the people who will make the discoveries and inventions that hopefully will make the world a better place. I'm just going to show you how to harness the resources of a supercomputer to make this easier for you. So even when I'm deeply engaged in a project I find grossly and even offensively unnecessary, there are still some parts that bring joy and hope.
Good grief, this is a mess. A story about a pair of chancers and a pair of nuclear physicists, both played by Michael Caine and Roger Moore. At the very least you'd have thought a film teaming up those two might have had some old-school charm about it. And it does – occasionally – with Moore in particular giving some nice, sub-Bond one-liners. There are some nice shots of Inveraray in the second half, too. But for the most part Bullseye! is a confusing, overstuffed, and worst of all unfunny mess. Sizeable chunks of it could have come from the less amusing end of mid-1970s British comedy, including an agonisingly smutty scene about dogs having sex. That this was directed by that abusive bastard Michael Winner does not surprise me. ★½
IT SUCKS when great shows are on the platforms of fuckass companies, but here we are.
The Muppet Show reboot was a direct hit of nostalgia, dopamine, and earnest joy that I needed and I was more and more charmed the longer I watched.
I’m old enough (ahem) to remember the original Muppet Show, and this reboot is faithful to the format while updating with jokes, references, and the presence of Sabrina Carpenter, whose resemblance to Miss Piggy is played perfectly, and who is somewhat of a Muppet herself.
Some folks just have Muppet energy. Carpenter has Muppet energy. Off the top of my head, Daniel Radcliffe, Robert Pattinson, the late Catherine O’Hara – they have Muppet energy. Eugene Levy pretty much is a Muppet, per my husband – that tracks. (Honestly this show might have been engineered in a lab for Adam. There is nothing, he says, that he has loved longer than the Muppets.) John Leguizamo, Bowen Yang, Biz Markie…Tim Curry has Big Muppet Energy, which is why he rocked so hard in Muppet Treasure Island.
These are performers who don’t take themselves too seriously, and who are seriously talented. (The “performers with Muppet energy” game is going to be playing nonstop in my house today.)
Carpenter was a perfect first guest and I liked pretty much every sketch she was in.
Spoilers if you haven't watched
I don’t know whose idea it was to have her sing “Islands in the Stream” by Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers but this was a God tier decision for a Muppet Show sketch. It plays off Carpenter and Miss Piggy’s similar aesthetic to Dolly Parton, for one thing.
And it was vintage (1983) but still lovely to listen to, and there is plenty of room for visual comedy because the song is replete with cheese and earnestness.
I think it’s in Dave Barry’s Book of Bad Songs due to the lyric, “I set out to get you with a fine toothed comb.” What the hell does that even mean?
While the Kermit voice is quite different, nothing else felt disconnected to the original – there were even Muppet characters I hadn’t seen in years, like Rolf and Beauregard. It’s a 30 minute sketch show with on stage and offstage plotlines, and it has the sharpness of SNL in its most impressive years, but trades skewering humor with bite for more wholesome and cheerful optimism, mixed with slightly bewildered theatre kid perseverance.
I hope it gets picked up, and I hope the same attention to tone and the relentless embrace of nutritious fromage remain.
So, yeah, if you’re looking for something nostalgic, charming, silly, and wholesome to watch tonight, you might really, really like The Muppet Show reboot. This is especially true if you grew up with the Muppets in one of their many showcases, and most especially for those of us who have enduring fondness for the original.
Unromance by Erin Connor is $2.99 and a Kindle Daily Deal! Connor has a new book out this month that I’m excited for. I believe this is in the queue for Cover Awe and it was mentioned on Hide Your Wallet.
A recently dumped TV heartthrob enlists a jaded romance novelist to ruin romance for him—one rom-com trope at a time—so he never gets swept off his feet again . . .
Sawyer Greene knows romance. She’s a bestselling author of the genre—or she was, until her ex left her with nothing but writer’s block and a broken heart. But when she gets stuck in the elevator with a handsome stranger, she sees their meet cute for what it is: just a one-night stand. It might have worked, too, if they could stop running into each other.
Actor Mason West sees Sawyer’s reappearance in his life as a sign. Obviously, they’re meant to cure each other. Him of the hopeless romanticism that only ends in heartbreak—and tabloid trainwrecks—and Sawyer of her writer’s block. Their agreement is simple: 1. No (more) sex, and 2. No matter how swoony the circumstances, absolutely no falling in love.
It’s a foolproof plan–until Sawyer and Mason find that, once set in motion, some plots can’t be stopped—and that they might be hurtling towards a happy ending…
The Duchess Hunt by Lorraine Heathis $1.99! This is book two in the Once Upon a Dukedom series and wow, she’s about to be tits out in that field. The heroine is also named Penelope Pettypeace, which is a mouthful.
Hugh Brinsley-Norton, the Duke of Kingsland, is in need of a duchess. However, restoring the dukedom—left in ruins by his father—to its former glory demands all his time, with little room for sentiment. He places an advert encouraging the single ladies of the ton to write why they should be the one chosen, and leaves it to his efficient secretary to select his future wife.
If there exists a more unpleasant task in the world than deciding who is to marry the man you love, Penelope Pettypeace certainly can’t imagine what it might be. Still, she is determined to find the perfect bride for her clueless, yet ruthlessly charming employer.
But when an anonymous note threatens to reveal truths best hidden, Kingsland has no choice but to confront the danger with Penelope at his side. Beguiled by the strong-willed, courageous beauty, he realizes he’s willing to risk everything, including his heart, to keep her safe within his arms. Could it be the duchess he’s hunting for has been in front of him all along?
Dishonestly Yours by Krista and Becca Ritchie is $1.99 and a KDD! This is the first book in the Webs We Weave series. I mentioned this one in a previous Hide Your Wallet because I was tempted by the conwoman heroine.
Starting fresh is the only way Phoebe can escape a life of crime, but her best friend’s older brother complicates honest dreams in this gripping new series from the authors of the Addictedseries.
Phoebe Graves grew up in a family where deception and seduction are as commonplace as breathing. The Graves and her best friend Hailey’s family have been on the run their whole lives, but after a high-stakes con job goes south, Phoebe and Hailey decide to run away and start over. The small Connecticut town they settle in seems too good to be true.
The biggest flaw in their plan is Hailey’s frustratingly handsome brother, Rocky, who insists on coming with them. Living honestly isn’t in his DNA, and his past with Phoebe is downright messy. He’s everything she wants, but nothing she can have.
Phoebe worries that Rocky will tempt them back into their old ways, where lying is second nature. She doesn’t want Rocky to mess up the new life she’s begun for herself. The longer she stays in town, the more she realizes what it means to have a reputation—and what a normal life with the man she loves could look like.
How to Steal a Scoundrel’s Heart by Vivienne Lorret is $1.99! This is book four in The Mating Habits of Scoundrels series. I’m not sure if we featured this on Cover Snark, but I definitely remember talking about that dog in the SBTB Slack.
In USA Today bestselling author Vivienne Lorret’s latest steamy romance, a determined debutante discovers that making a deal with a notorious rake might just give her more than she ever bargained for…
Ruined debutante Prudence Thorogood lost everything when she was ousted from polite society, including her inheritance. Now she’ll do anything to take back what’s hers… even if she has to steal it. Accepting a scandalous offer from Lord Savage seems like the perfect solution to disguise her criminal intentions from the ton. Until she discovers that there’s more to this scoundrel than meets the eye.
Leo Ramsgate, Marquess of Savage, has everything except for a heart. That organ dried up long ago after a devastating betrayal. Since then, he vowed never to trust or love again. He ensures that his dalliances are mutually satisfying, but always temporary… until he meets the reserved Miss Thorogood. Not one of his previous lovers has ever beguiled him the way she does. Not one has made him want to break his own rules. Not one has tempted him to keep her… forever.
Prue has every intention of disappearing from London after their affair ends. But her plan falters when she finds herself falling hopelessly in love with a man who may never love her in return. With time running out and so much at stake, she cannot help but wonder…
We all mishear things from time to time. Heck, I still think Elton John just wanted a hug from Tony Danza. However, there are certain levels to auditory misunderstanding, which thanks to today's bakers I can now illustrate and then make snarky comments about. WOOHOO!
Level 1: The Simple Mistake
This is the one anyone can make, since at first blush the bungled interpretation almost makes sense:
Poor Chad. He went from rad to sunburned.
Level Two: The "HUH?"
This is a more convoluted level, and one that requires an explanation to understand. For example, this cake was supposed to read, "Happy 24th Birthday, Ashleigh. YOU ARE OLD!"
"Yes, I'm afraid you DO need to spell it out for me."
(This reminds me of the time in grade school when I had to interview my grandmother about her travels. She kept referring to Mexico as "Old Mexico" [presumably because she lived in New Mexico], but it sounded like she was saying "Oh Mexico." So that's what I wrote - about a billion times in that report. My family all found it quite funny. I did not.)
Level Three: The One You're Never Going To Believe
This is the level of misunderstanding that takes you so far down the wrong road that there's simply no turning back. So, little Seth, you just enjoy your "blue camo" baby shower cake, mkay?
"Watch out, they spit!"
Thanks to Lelia R., Joann R., & Yvonne D. for the "just deserts."
The internal classified version was started in 1962 as The National Basic Intelligence Factbook. It was a resource that gave you very detailed information about countries around the world: form of government, economic information, population and make-up, etc. Very useful information. It went public in 1971 as the World Factbook and later joined the World Wide Web in 1997 in an unclassified version. It was available between '71 and '97 in print form and on CD.
And now it's gone. Any page for any country that you may have had linked now redirects to the closure notice. Everything's now inaccessible. Of course, you can still look into it via archive.org, but the information was updated regularly when the site was live, and it will now grow increasingly stale.
No reason given. The CIA was subject to the same chainsaw-trimming that most other government agencies were given courtesy of DOGE and the Muskbrats. We also have the intense administration's dislike of facts. Either or both could have contributed to its demise.
But with a little luck, in a possibly truthier future, it could be resurrected. There's no doubt that the CIA found the resource useful, so it may again become available to the public in a better tomorrow.
I’m going to need to make a logo for Friday Videos, huh? Suggestions welcome!
This week’s Friday Video comes from Varian via the podcast Patreon Discord, and when I say I sent to everyone I know, I mean every person I could think of.
Please welcome Lizzy and the Triggermen performing Irving Berlin’s 1941 chart, “When That Man is Dead and Gone.”
I love the Mildred Bailey version. I think I’ve listened to it six times this hour.
Happy weekend, everyone, and enjoy the Bad Bunny concert!
And, speaking of, a bonus video!
For those who are in Canada, and especially for those who are still moving around all this snow concrete, please enjoy this parody of Bad Bunny’s “NUEVAYoL” by Carlos Bolivar: INVIELnO!
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