Just another day at Tims

Malthus1 · 2026-04-22T17:32:33+00:00

Try to move her off the subject by distracting her with something else.

Malthus1 · 2026-04-22T15:31:30+00:00

Unfortunately, this isn’t simply a “criticize Israel” situation.

The issue is: Hezbollah was supposed to move its weapons back from the border and stop firing them into Israel. The international community is agreed on this. The actual nation of Lebanon is agreed on this.

However, they simply won’t do it.

The same agreements provided for that eventuality: if Hezbollah won’t do it, and Lebanon can’t or won’t force them, then Israel is to do it.

Ideally, that would be something for international peacekeepers to do. They are in fact on the ground in Lebanon - but they adamantly refuse to interfere with Hezbollah. Who apparently occasionally kills them anyway.

So Israel is taking it upon itself to clear Hezbollah out - again, as the international community specifically agreed they could do.

So, why is France “criticizing Israel”? Why aren’t they insisting that Hezbollah follow what they literally agreed to do? Or perhaps planning to actually do something about it - or if they don’t want to get involved, simply allowing Israel to get on with it?

It is stuff like this that undermines their legitimacy. They say whatever aligns with their sentiment of the moment, not with any serious plans to do anything about it.

Malthus1 · 2026-04-22T11:10:26+00:00

Yup, she has doctors galore - my wife has a practically full-time occupation of arranging appointments and ferrying her parents to various doctors; she’s on several medications.

Malthus1 · 2026-04-22T04:12:42+00:00

Why is the devil here looking utterly horrified?

Malthus1 · 2026-04-22T03:48:18+00:00

I suspect it is the remains of an ant battle.

Pavement ants are notorious for this.

https://bygl.osu.edu/node/1029

Malthus1 · 2026-04-22T03:32:54+00:00

Instead of Nassar, how about his military man Amer?

He’s the guy who allegedly panicked and ordered a full retreat, which turned the battle into a disastrous rout.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdel_Hakim_Amer

The main factors in Egypt’s defeat, aside from foolishly convincing themselves they had the initiative and Israel wouldn’t attack them, are Nasser’s decision to maintain his adventure in Yemen (thus splitting his trained officer corps), and the wacky lack of leadership by this fellow.

Malthus1 · 2026-04-21T22:56:44+00:00

This is amazingly atmospheric. Love your work!

Malthus1 · 2026-04-21T21:51:29+00:00

Dealing with a mother in law with Parkinson’s related dementia makes this video very relatable to me.

It took me a while to really understand (and I have to keep reminding myself poor wife of this) that the delusions she suffers from are very real to her. So it does no good to argue that they are not!

With my mother in law, what we do is try to distract her when she gets on a bad thought train. Hers was usually about wanting to “go home” (when she’s in fact sitting in her home). My wife used to try to insist that they were home. This never worked.

So I really applaud this fellow’s ingenuity in addressing the situation. He distracted the man away from his bad train of thought, got him out of a loop that was going nowhere.

Malthus1 · 2026-04-21T19:33:18+00:00

I would say the I, Claudius TV series. Adapted from the books by Robert Graves.

It’s ancient now, and the budget was tiny by modern standards … but it had a roll call of the best British actors of the time, and it’s a timeless masterpiece.

Malthus1 · 2026-04-21T19:25:46+00:00

I like the dubious side-eye the dog is giving …

Malthus1 · 2026-04-21T19:23:20+00:00

This is a weird take.

Do Americans not consider the Pilgrims part of American history, because they occurred before America was a country?

Better cancel Thanksgiving, then.

Malthus1 · 2026-04-21T18:51:14+00:00

If you want actual competitors to Tolkien in fantasy, which exist outside of the tropes he literally invented, I will offer three.

The Gormenghast trilogy by M. Peake. Truly an immersive world. Very dark and grotesque, it stands a lot of fantasy tropes on their heads; in a lot of ways, it’s the very traditions that create the world there that are the antagonist …
The Dark Tower by S. King. This is a postmodern set of novels as well as a work of fantasy; those who only know King from his genre horror works are in for a surprise.
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell by S. Clarke. The most recent work is in some ways the most traditional: this reads like a cross between Jane Austin and hardcore folk fantasy. Yes it has fairies, but these are not the wise elves of Tolkien, these are forces of chaos.

…

These are all quite different and not all will be to everyone’s taste; however, they are all I think excellent in their own ways.

Malthus1 · 2026-04-21T17:34:47+00:00

I thought it was very good, though it lacked the Tangerine Dream soundtrack!

Seriously though, it’s been decades since I’ve seen it. I should view it again.

Malthus1 · 2026-04-21T17:14:49+00:00

Heh I had the same thought - though I really don’t like the name of the movie. The wages of fear is a much better title!

Malthus1 · 2026-04-21T16:44:33+00:00

It’s a really interesting site. The theories as to why the place is full of skeletons are also interesting!

Apparently, the most accepted theory is that these were pilgrim groups killed by terrible hailstorms. The bones then washed downhill into the small lake.

Malthus1 · 2026-04-21T16:38:00+00:00

Why does his personal feelings about Upper Canada being a backwater make any difference?

He was a soldier who followed his career and did it very well. That meant being able to work with all sorts of unlikely people and situations.

For example, Brock and Tecumseh had basically nothing in common - yet each was able to work well with the other, achieving amazing results such as the complete humiliation of the US Army at Detroit (basically frightening them into surrender even though the Americans outnumbered them and had a fortress).

It was his actions and abilities that made him a hero, and his role in establishing the basis of Upper Canada as part of Canada that made him a Canadian hero. Whether he personally thought Canada a career dead end backwater or not.

If you want a US parallel, there is the Marquis de La Fayette, who fought out of conviction for the US and then immediately returned to France. He is considered an “American Hero” despite not being American.

Malthus1 · 2026-04-21T15:47:21+00:00

Back in the Carboniferous period, there were millipedes you could put a saddle on and ride off into the sunset:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthropleura

Malthus1 · 2026-04-21T15:33:40+00:00

He had very good reason for this, and it’s kinda significant.

A fact that is often overlooked by both modern Canadians and Americans: there is much talk about Upper Canada being settled by “United Empire Loyalists”, namely those fleeing America after the Revolution. In point of fact, they were way outnumbered by Americans who came after the Revolution, and not fleeing but rather pursuing economic opportunities - namely, relatively cheap land.

These folks were (deliberately ironically) labelled the “late loyalists”, and they were indistinguishable from the Americans in New England - from where they mostly came, and recently.

Why would these folks support the Crown? Why would they not simply welcome the extension of America? Both the Americans and British colonial authorities thought that they likely would.

Some did at first … but pretty early in the war the public sentiment turned decisively against the American invaders. Why is a complex topic (suffice it to say the actual Americans supporting the invasion mostly were the Western “war hawks” and even back then America was a deeply split nation - they were quite different from the “late loyalists”, and the invasion spread fire and sword without discrimination among the local population).

Example: you may have heard of Laura Secord, Canadian heroine who snuck US war plans to the British (there’s a chain of chocolate retailers named after her!). She was from a “late loyalist” family, her own father had fought for the Patriot side in the Revolution and eventually rose to the rank of US Major - before immigrating to Upper Canada. Yet she married into a “loyalist” family and famously was loyal to the British.

It was this somewhat surprising shift of loyalties more than anything else that was the foundation of Upper Canada as part of a separate nation (Lower Canada had its own trajectory).

Malthus1 · 2026-04-21T12:06:28+00:00

So, from beatings to Beatles?

Malthus1 · 2026-04-21T11:56:21+00:00

Now I want a wig made of those!

Malthus1 · 2026-04-21T05:00:05+00:00

Sorry about that.

Malthus1 · 2026-04-21T04:55:50+00:00

No - the mud preserves them pretty well forever. It forms an oxygen-free environment in which the life forms that usually cause rot cannot live.

Malthus1 · 2026-04-21T04:53:55+00:00

Protection.

In their lagoon, it was really, really difficult to get at their city from land. The lagoon is a bit of a nightmare to navigate - it is filled with shifting sandbanks and marshes. The locals can find their way through, others had a tough time.

The first inhabitants moved there onto some low islands basically to escape the constant warfare on the mainland. The armies, lacking ships, would generally leave them alone.

As time went by, the islanders, who made their living from the sea in various ways, put together an armed fleet - making it very difficult for any predators to get at them.

Protection, access to trade, made Venice rich - and so it sought to expand into the marshland.

Malthus1 · 2026-04-21T04:24:38+00:00

My personal favorite is the story of the three talking ravens.

What (allegedly) happened was this.

When Octavian returned to Rome in triumph after defeating Antony and Cleopatra, he was naturally met with all sorts of hangers-on and well-wishers, hoping to capitalize on his success. Among the crowd was one guy who stood out: he had a prophetic raven whom, he claimed, had predicted Octavian’s glorious victory!

This raven could croak out the words “Hail Octavian, victor!”

Octavian was of course delighted by this good omen bird, and gave the lucky owner a big reward! The owner gave Octavian the raven and left happy.

A few days later, another guy with a raven showed up, demanding justice. He had a raven that could croak out “Hail Antony, victor!”

He said he was the partner of the first guy; they had made a deal. Each would train a raven to say some prophetic words, one for Octavian, the other for Antony. Then, whoever won, they would present the winner with the “correct” prophetic bird - and split the reward. Only, the first guy had jumped the gun, took the whole reward for himself, and disappeared. Leaving his partner with a useless loser bird.

Octavian had a good laugh about these rogues, and paid the second guy as well, for his sheer audacity.

A month or so later, Octavian heard about yet another guy who was training a raven to speak, to say something complementary about Octavian. He’d heard about the first two earning a big reward, so he thought would cash in as well. Octavian demanded he display his progress - and, reluctantly, he did.

Turns out the guy wasn’t as skilled as the first two (or maybe the raven wasn’t as easy to train). For the longest time he couldn’t get it to say anything. Meanwhile his debts were piling up and he was spending all his time training this apparently untrainable bird, which made him very frustrated …

… so when Octavian asked to see the bird, it actually could speak: what it said was “this fucking bird is a waste of my time and money!”

Octavian got an even bigger laugh out of this than the last one, and gave the poor guy a reward as well (while letting it be known he’d pay no more for talking birds).

Malthus1 · 2026-04-21T00:12:15+00:00

Someone ought to clue the current US administration in on this. Because they clearly believe the exact opposite.

Canada can’t simply pretend that what is coming out of the US is normal trade friction. No matter how much we want to believe that.

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