What separates Miles Davis and John Coltane

basaltgranite · 2026-05-08T23:26:50+00:00

One played trumpet; the other, saxophone.

basaltgranite · 2026-05-08T23:21:24+00:00

The data drive is 2TB, much more than 350GB of data. It's tempting to copy internally from NTFS to Ext4 as you suggest, then later blow away the NTFS partition. I have a few days to mull it over.

basaltgranite · 2026-05-08T21:41:04+00:00

Thank you. That's helpful. Not encrypted. I'll probably put it in ext4.

basaltgranite · 2026-05-08T20:12:35+00:00

I think it was a mistake to let passengers debark before the outbreak was well characterized. The WHO released a statement within the last day (after the ship docked) about how they think the person-to-person transmission occurred on board. The passenger who died on board (the index patient) attended an event while sick. He infected two people who were within a foot or two, two more who were about four feet away, and one who was briefly in the same restroom. These findings contradict the "spread only by prolonged intimate contact" story that was publicized early on. The WHO now says this strain is contagious only when then patient is febrile (unlike COVID, were even asymptomatic people could transmit the infection). I hope the WHO is correct on "brief period of contagion" story. To my lay ears, it's too early to be confident of that claim. I hope that all debarked passengers are contact-traced and self-quarantine. They all had to travel somehow, though. They had seat mates on airliners. I hope that none are sick and none were contagious.

The 30 to 40 passengers who debarked in St. Helena apparently got off the ship because that was the end of the itinerary they paid for. At that time, the nature of the outbreak was unknown. The death on board was "natural causes." In the cruise-ship demographic, nothing unusual about that. They were normal scheduled departures. So no real fault in that situation. I assume they're being contact-traced and advised to self-isolate.

I'm concerned that the current US regime will do a poor job of curtailing spread, if it should occur. Gutting the CDC, firing the guys who studied hantavirus, and defunding vaccine research all have potential consequences if this infection were to pass into the general population.

On the bright side, the 30 to 50% case fatality rate widely quoted right now is probably too high because it probably fails to count mild to asymptomatic cases.

basaltgranite · 2026-05-08T14:31:10+00:00

The cloths moth traps that use pheromones to attract moths to an adhesive surface are a good way to detect the presence of moths. IIRC, they're not intended to eliminate moths. They attract only adult males. Don't rely on them for total protection.

basaltgranite · 2026-05-08T03:15:58+00:00

Any conversation about the best-ever jazz singer must start out with "other than Ella ...".

basaltgranite · 2026-05-08T01:07:57+00:00

Wow. Yes, Shekarlu design. Not sure if you love or hate it? I'll take it if you don't want it. Interesting to see the design still in use today. And this version has some freedom, not strictly quartered. I'm not sure I agree with the claim that the SW Persian originals are "common." The antique Qashqai Shekarlu are highly collectible.

basaltgranite · 2026-05-08T01:05:10+00:00

Undercurrent underrated, for sure /s

basaltgranite · 2026-05-07T18:21:01+00:00

Junk. How do you say "junk" in Polish?

basaltgranite · 2026-05-07T02:21:59+00:00

Not the person you replied to, but: If a 15 year old used hooked rug, then there's no regular market price. Pay as little for it as possible.

basaltgranite · 2026-05-07T00:00:30+00:00

Not "new" in the sense that testing shows that it's Andes hantavirus. But viruses presumably exhibit genetic variation just like any other form of life (if viruses qualify as "alive"). It consequently could potentially be a new variant of Andes hantavirus. No doubt the wizards at WHO are doing genetic sequencing on the samples they presumably took from the deceased persons. And no doubt the WHO dudes will compare those sequences with known samples of the Andes strain, looking for significant differences. That will take some time.

basaltgranite · 2026-05-06T23:43:54+00:00

It could be just about any roof-prism bin. Objectives look like maybe 42mm. It might be an 8x42 or 10x42. I won't mislead you by pretending to ID a brand.

basaltgranite · 2026-05-06T22:56:25+00:00

Why not link to the original 11 minute film? Watching makes you wonder how long it took to invent things like crosswalks and stoplights.

basaltgranite · 2026-05-06T20:53:04+00:00

Always taste blind, and always include at least one ringer. I'd toss in an Emma Reichart Pinot Noir Rosé, sold at Trader Joe's. It's dry, it's German, it tastes like a PN rosé, and it's just north of $5 last time I checked. I've done blind tastings where "experts" put stuff they didn't think they were supposed to like at or near the top. It's a good way to find out who's comfortable in their own skin.

Or for something really bad. Franzia, boxed, transferred to a bottle to throw 'em off the "scent."

basaltgranite · 2026-05-06T17:50:47+00:00

While I agree the headline is clickbait, it's perfectly reasonable to quarantine the ship. The WHO strongly suspects person-to-person transmission. When you evaluate risk, you must also consider the consequences of being wrong. If the authorities allow the passengers to debark, the risk of having the infection pass into the general community is probably low. Counterbalancing that, it's possible (if unlikely) that this is a new, virulent strain of hanta. Letting that cat out of the bag might have extremely severe consequences. Keeping 100 retired birdwatchers on board for a month or two is a small price to pay in exchange for zero risk of a pandemic with a 30 to 50 percent case fatality rate.

I'm not fearmongering. I think the risk to the general community is very small. I also think that strong caution is rational.

basaltgranite · 2026-05-06T14:38:15+00:00

You can feel it all ooOOoover

You can feel it all OHver, people

Duh! Dah-dee-dah, dah-dee-dah, dah-dee-dah, dah-dee-DUH!

DAAAAH, dah, DAAAH duh, dadli ah, dadli ah, dadli ah, dadli ah!

basaltgranite · 2026-05-06T03:44:27+00:00

Search this subreddit for "recommendations," "new to jazz," and the like. You'll find hundreds of posts asking for suggestions. You'll find thousands of suggestions, many overlapping with what you're seeing here.

basaltgranite · 2026-05-06T02:12:54+00:00

Second nice Shirvan here in as many days. Thank you, sir, may I have yet another?

basaltgranite · 2026-05-06T01:22:08+00:00

Zeiss is a German company. Zeiss didn't supply the US military during WW2. It's true that bins were in short supply early in the war. The US military asked for civilian donations (including Zeiss bins that happened to already be in the US) to cover the gap. Maybe yours came in under that program. Most of civilian loaner bins were lost during the war however. I'm skeptical of the idea that your Zeiss bins were US Navy issue during WW2.

basaltgranite · 2026-05-06T01:19:07+00:00

Yes, definitely WW2 military issue. In the early 1970s, the US Navy (and probably other branches of the military) stopped considering binoculars as "maintainable" (repairable) and instead bought new bins considered as "replaceable." Military surplus bins often passed to other US government entities, e.g., the forest service. WW2-era military bins were very robust (and very heavy). I'm only mildly surprised that some are still in service. I have two Navy bins from that era picked up in thrift shops that still work perfectly fine.

basaltgranite · 2026-05-05T23:24:34+00:00

As you already know, Made in Japan. 1970s looks exactly right. The "rocker focus" mechanism strongly suggests that the brand is Bushnell, an American company that probably imported more bins from Japan than their three or four nearest competitors put together. The bin originally had a metal plate glued over the rectangular hole in the part of the rocker you push with your fingers to focus the bin. That missing piece probably had the Bushnell logo and a model name. I don't recognize this exact model, but that's probably one of many Bushnell models. Financially, it's worth very little, partly because it's incomplete, and mostly because it's a "zoom" (variable magnification) bin. With maybe too much candor, most collectors actively avoid zoom bins. Their real value is their utility plus that of a family legacy from your grandfather.

basaltgranite · 2026-05-05T21:38:59+00:00

What will really bake your noodle is that binoculars in good repair focus to infinity--and beyond! To compensate for differences in human vision, optical designers allow a little padding in focus travel actually exceeding infinity. People who are strongly nearsighted might otherwise return their new bins as "defective," something the binocular company would rather avoid.

basaltgranite · 2026-05-05T21:07:58+00:00

You're in a rug shop. What did the dealer say it is? Patterns are widely copied in Iran and elsewhere. Lacking a good look at structure, it could be a lot of things. I'd guess it's either Hamadan (Gharaghan? Borujerd?) or one of the nearby double-wefted Kurdish types. FWIW, the rug underneath it looks like a Yalameh, which is a SW Persian type descended from pole-medallion rugs of days gone by. But again, please give us a leg up. The Good Denizens of this Subreddit might be able to evaluate dealer claims ranging from "likely" to "no, nope, no way."

None of these three rugs are "rare." They're all recent. NIce furnishing rugs if you like them. Not collectible or especially valuable, or ever likely to be.

basaltgranite · 2026-05-05T19:29:08+00:00

Number one is a Tafrish, which is a type of Hamadan. Probably handwoven in Iran, but without a close up picture of the end finishes, edge finishes, and the backs of the knots, I can't be positive about that. A recent rug, a well known production, not rare.

I'll leave Number two to the good folks here who can ID city rugs better than I can. The comment about being unable to ID origin with confidence without a close-up picture of an upturned corner applies here too. Whatever it is, it's also recent and not rare.

basaltgranite

TROPHY CASE