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Faits Divers

Things that happen

The building known as the Palace

December 13, 2019 by sergneri Leave a Comment

Sacramento Daily Union, 25 January 1861 in the City Intelligence column: Fire. — About ten minutes before four o’clock yesterday morning, the building known as the Palace, on Second street, near I, was discovered to be on fire. The Palace is a wooden building, and has been known for several years as a house of … [Read more…]

Posted in: California History, California Newspaper Archive, Faits Divers, Sea Stories, Thinking about Tagged: Arson, Confidence Engine Company, Fire Company, House of ill repute, Neptune Hose Company, Piano, Prostitution, Scandal

John Turner – Property of Thomas Smith

December 13, 2019 by sergneri Leave a Comment

In the Sacramento Daily Union, 25 January 1861. in the City Intelligence section, page 3 is this article: Attempt to Kidnap. — Sometime during Wednesday, officers Keyser and Mclntosh received information from Placerville and Mud Springs, El Dorado county, that a colored man would arrive in the city that night, who was being taken through … [Read more…]

Posted in: California History, California Newspaper Archive, Faits Divers, Racism, Slavery, Thinking about Tagged: American Slavery, Missouri, Slavery, slaves

Americans take fish antibiotics because it’s cheaper than a visit to the doctor

December 12, 2019 by sergneri 1 Comment

A study of antibiotics marketed for fish online found user comments about human use garner nine times as much attention The Guardian US healthcare

Posted in: Ethical and green living, Faits Divers, Finanace, Politics, Racism, Science Tagged: anti-bacterial, antibiotics, drugs, fish antibiotics, healthcare, Self-medication, veterinary medicine

Opinion: The Man Who Predicted Nazi Germany

December 7, 2019 by sergneri Leave a Comment

John Maynard Keynes foresaw the chaos that would follow from the Versailles peace treaty.,by Jonathan Kirshner, New York Times, Dec 7, 2019.

Posted in: Faits Divers, Finanace, Politics, Thinking about Tagged: Austen Chamberlain, David Lloyd George, Europe, Fascism, France, Georges Clemenceau, Germany, John Maynard Keynes, Lloyd George, Nazi Germany, Paris Peace Conference, Prime Minister Lloyd George, United States, Versailles, Woodrow Wilson

Wind Farm interference in NWS Doppler Radar

December 6, 2019 by sergneri 1 Comment

The National Weather Service (NWS) runs a system of WSR-88D Doppler radars across the USA, Guam and Puerto Rico. On our local northern California maps we often see a bright cluster of precipitation over Rio Vista CA, often on a sunny day with no rain. I’ve always thought that this was due to some local … [Read more…]

Posted in: Faits Divers, Science, Thinking about Tagged: California, doppler radar, NEXRAD, Rio Vista, Sacramento River, Wind Farm, wind turbines

A Few Notes About the Future of Work

November 25, 2019 by sergneri Leave a Comment

Seems that themes come in batches, the newest theme for me is the old Jetson’s promise of leisure time replacing work, somewhere in the future we’d all work at what we’re good at and there would be enough (food and other goods and money) to go around. I’m firmly convinced that since the dawn of … [Read more…]

Posted in: Ethical and green living, Faits Divers, Feminism, Finanace, Future of Work, IT Failures, Politics, Racism, Science, Thinking about Tagged: AI, Artifical Intelligence, Economics, Future of Work, Government, innovation, MIT, money, Politics, productivity, Skidelsky, so-so technology, startups, Stockton, technology

Read Sacha Baron Cohen’s scathing attack on Facebook in full: ‘greatest propaganda machine in history’

November 23, 2019 by sergneri Leave a Comment

The Guardian published the contents of a speech by Cohen: In a speech last night at the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the actor and comedian Sacha Baron Cohen attacked Facebook and other social media platforms for enabling the proliferation of hate speech and misinformation. The speech was striking in its sincerity – Baron Cohen appeared as … [Read more…]

Posted in: Ethical and green living, Faits Divers, Feminism, Finanace, IT Failures, Politics, Racism, Science, Sea Stories, Slavery, Thinking about, Trump Tagged: Anti-Defamation League, Aphabet, bigotry, Facebook, Fake News, GOOGLE, hate, hate speech, misinformation, Propaganda, racism, Sacha Baron Cohen, Stephen Miller’s Labradoodles

Wreck of the Slaver America – Pressed into the Slave Trade.

November 19, 2019 by sergneri 1 Comment

From the California Digital Newspaper Collection: Sacramento Daily Union 25 January 1861 https://cdnc.ucr.edu/ Pressed into the Slave Trade.— New York, December 30.—By the arrival of the steamer Canark, from Nassau, N. P., on the 24th, we have accounts of the wreck of the American ship America, on Cape Lobos, with 500 Africans on board, destined … [Read more…]

Posted in: California Newspaper Archive, Faits Divers, Politics, Racism, Sea Stories, Slavery, Thinking about Tagged: 1860, Cuba, slave trade, Slaver

My Armchair Adventures – Travelogues from the Local Library

November 17, 2019 by sergneri 3 Comments

It all started innocently enough, a good review of an old classic and then another and another, soon I was hooked. They are all free as I check them out from the library and few are in great demand so renewing was easy enough. I always know they are there and can go back and … [Read more…]

Posted in: California History, Ethical and green living, Faits Divers, Sea Stories, Thinking about Tagged: Baha California, Bedford, Constantinople, Danube, Diaries, Diary, Ed Ricketts, Europe, Fermor, Ibn Battutah, John Steinbeck, Library, Mexico, Monterey, Patric Leigh Fermor, Sea of Cortez, Steinbeck, Sybille Bedford, Tim Mackintosh-Smith, Travelogues

Could this be Major Duane Marvey from Gravity’s Rainbow?

November 14, 2019 by sergneri Leave a Comment

In the November 2019 Smithsonian Magazine is a fine essay The Untold Story of the Secret Mission to Seize Nazi Map Data, about HOUGHTEAM headed by U.S. Army Maj. Floyd W. Hough. It explores the exploits of Major Hough and his team and I immediately thought of the parallels between him, Maj. Duane Marvey and … [Read more…]

Posted in: Faits Divers, Politics, Science, Sea Stories, Thinking about Tagged: Europe, geodetic survey, Gravity's Rainbow, Major Duane Marvey, Major Floyd W. Hough, mapping, Military Intelligence, The Zone, Thomas Pynchon, U.S. Army, World War II
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