@CowperKettle Yes, the trees aren't very diverse west of the Mississippi compared with east of it. But on the west coast they are immense like unto no others on this planet.
@Robusto The easterners are blind the cryptobiotic crust there.
@Mitch If the Brits weren't so inscrutable, just imagine where that'd land ’em! Yup, scruted is right.
@tchrist This kind of thing is in the back of my mind when I do a crest climb. For miles and miles it's only you and the wilderness. No gas stations, no restaurants, no cars, no nothing except you climbing along in your granny gears. Anything that wants to attack you—be it bear, coyote, or puma—has only to trot on over and dig in. Like the automated kaiten sushi shops you see in Japan, plate after plate of sushi rolling right past you for the plucking.
@Robusto Co-yo-tes are cowards. I wouldn't worry much on a bike in that a lion isn't going to want to bug you because you look big there. The ones who gets eaten tend to be slim youths jogging alone whose running spurs the predator instinct into action. A bear won't bother you if you don't drive into her or her cubs.
That said, I've had more than a lifetime's worth of fear coming down a mountain at sundown.
@Robusto You do take your cell phone, so you could make a 911 call in case of a fall? Also you need a signaling device so that a helicopter can locate you, perhaps a mirror.
@JohanLarsson That's been going on for a while. It's about the new "black" farm bills/laws passed by the fascist idiot in chief and his gang of thugs.
@Robusto A good summary of that unpleasant thing called the real world.
@Mitch You obviously aren't looking hard enough.
Anyway, like in the US, and other places, the news media, which is mostly controlled by govt friendly interests, prefers not to report strikes as much as possible.
@JohanLarsson The farmers are blockading New Delhi right now. It's quite a thing.
We haven't been affected here yet (Maharashtra), but if the Govt doesn't see sense (and they probably won't, because they are a fascist gang who think they can do whatever they want), then the protests will escalate. and we'll be seeing stuff here too.
[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Bad ip for hostname in body, bad keyword in body, bad keyword in title, blacklisted website in body, link at beginning of body, +3 more (631): How To Sell Keoni CBD Gummies by JearnaJoy on english.SE
@JohanLarsson Unsurprising. If India and Pakistan start a nuclear war, that probably won't get reported either. I think the Guardian did have something about the protests.
The Guardian's world coverage is skimpy, erratic, and inconsistent, but better than many. I wonder if/how the NYT is covering this. Historically they have among the best international coverage in the world.
@NiharKarve Loathsome fascist dirtbags. Basically street ruffians formed into a political party. Why do you ask?
We have been recently treated to the edifying spectacle of one gang of fascist dirtbags (the RSS) quarrelling with the other gang of fascist dirtbags (the Shiv Sena). Probably a good thing - helps to keep them both occupied.
@NiharKarve They're plenty. They're just regional parties.
The two I mentioned are actually it for fascist parties, as far as I know. Unfortunately one of them currently controls the Central Govt. And now imagines itself to be India.
Technically the RSS is not a political party, though.
@FaheemMitha But, to play the devil's advocate, what alternative is there at the centre? Either the Congress, with stunningly weak leadership, or a tangle of barely-united coalitions which could implode at any point?
@FaheemMitha consider me vaguely acquainted with the Indian political system :D
@NiharKarve There are currently no good alternatives to the RSS. That's part of the problem.
@NiharKarve That's something of a coy response.
The Congress has always been quite dysfunctional, and these days it's so dysfunctional it can barely function. But it's still the only party which has significant presence across India.
@FaheemMitha haha no I was looking to see if google would find instances of 'i blame the British' -on ELU chat- (re the preceding convo on google supposedly indexing ELU chat. Not a perfect test but still.
@skullpatrol I don't know how old you are but... there's a classic scene in 'Freaks and Geeks' where the main girl (Linda Cardellini) talk about 'Teenage Wasteland' and the stoner fizzy haired guy (played y Seth Rogen) corrects her snidely 'It's called Baba O'Riley'.
classic. because that conversation happened every day in the late 70's.
@MattE.Эллен I guess that leaves out The Beatles: "She Loves You," "Please Please Me," "Eight Days a Week," "Baby You Can Drive My Car," "Back in the USSR," "Paperback Writer," and dozens of others.
Also Elvis Costello: "Oliver's Army," "Chemistry Class," "Beyond Belief," "Watching the Detectives," "Alison," "Mystery Dance, "Moods for Moderns," etc.
> Cause when they pull the shutters down and throw up in the dark They'll find that all the dogs outside bite much worse than they bark
Except for @Cerberus.
@skullpatrol Pretty much.
Interesting side note: Elvis Costello was Napoleon Dynamite way before Napoleon Dynamite (the movie) was.
> The name "Napoleon Dynamite" is a pseudonym used by Elvis Costello for his 1986 album, "Blood and Chocolate." Executive producer Jeremy Coon had stated that the similarity is a coincidence and that the producers [of the film Napoleon Dynamite] were unaware of Costello's usage of the name until the film was in production.
> Even if you have recovered from COVID-19, you can still benefit from vaccination. There is evidence in hospitalised patients that the infection was so overwhelming that the immune response became exhausted and so immune memory to the virus was not created efficiently.
@Xanne: Actually, I do use a mirror, a tiny one affixed to my sunglasses so I can see behind me. But it would be of no practical value for signaling, I should think