I'm Bad at Predicting the Future

After Trump was elected, I forecast a stock market drop by the end of April. So, it looks like May 17th is the start. Who knows when the turbulence will end?

No Way To Know In Advance

Lana Del Rey - Coachella - Woodstock In My Mind

I like the self-conscious way she says "hella". Northern California slang there!

I Am a Bunny

Theater loot is the best loot. But like the dog who caught the car, I need to figure out what to do next.

The Dunning-Kruger Effect, and Why People Believe Donald Trump's Lies

It would be funny if it wasn't so sad:

It’s all to do with the Dunning-Kruger effect, the tendency for the least mentally proficient people to often overestimate their own abilities.

Research into this area was inspired by a story so incredibly ridiculous it’s hard to believe that it’s true.

In 1995 a man by the name of McArthur Wheeler learnt that lemon juice can be used as an invisible ink.

He took his new-found knowledge one (rather large) step further and robbed two Pittsburgh banks, his face covered in lemon juice, convinced it would render his features invisible to CCTV.

When police later showed him video tapes of himself robbing the banks, he muttered: “But I wore the juice.”

Non-Compete Agreements

A form of modern slavery (an apparently unenforceable in California):

Keith Bollinger’s paycheck as a factory manager had shriveled after the 2008 financial crisis, but then he got a chance to pull himself out of recession’s hole. A rival textile company offered him a better job – and a big raise.

When he said yes, it set off a three-year legal battle that concluded last week but wiped out his savings along the way.

“I tried to get a better life for my wife and my son, and it backfired,” said Bollinger, 53, of Conover, 45 miles northwest of Charlotte, N.C. “Now I’m in my mid-50s, and I’m ruined.”

Today's Big Meeting

H2$:

"Now here is a sales chart of the past fiscal year, which reflects the disastrous effect of our former advertising policy in terms of per capita consumption of wickets. Note the sharp decline from normal regularity. Down, down, down. And here's what's going to happen to our sales when we finally get going, as we will. Up, up, up! And there you are!"

"Convoy" Crash Scene

I never saw "Convoy" (1978), but this crash scene was right where Hwys. 550 & 85 meet in Bernalillo. Home turf!



Somebody put together this nice locations video. Much of the movie was filmed in New Mexico.



Holy crap, do I know this guy? He sure looks familiar. The Convoy in the Park is coming up, too.

Resist

Love this!

About 200 people grouped to form the word “RESIST!” on the grounds of Trump National Golf Course in Rancho Palos Verdes on Saturday.

Reprising This Post

Happy Mother's Day! Marjorie Louise Buzzell, 1941 graduate of Hirschfield High School in Chicago, IL.

Dog Mom Anthem

Leftovers

Put my knowledge of neighborhood homeless camps to use from Bella-walking days, and delivered leftovers to 2 guys at X St. & Hwy. 99.

Crow Chases Panicked Dove

I was startled by a thuggish crow. At the stop light on 2nd St. near Target and TJ Maxx in Davis, while heading over to Wok of Flame after Peter Pan strike, I watched a crow chase an evasive dove. I thought I saw something fall out of a tree when the dove raced through a tree canopy seeking escape. What was that? Was the crow going after nestlings? What the hell was going on? I've never seen a crow do this before.

The dove escaped, so the crow joined its posse of crows circling near Mace Ranch Rd. & I-80. Those crows were also behaving in weird, uncharacteristic ways, hovering and diving as if on a hunt.

After dinner, I returned to the mugging site and in the fading light walked the ground looking for nestlings in the landscaping, but found nothing.

Damned crows! Leave the doves alone!

Bring Me a Shrubbery

The Bait-and-Switch Pro

Fortunately, Comey took notes:

“I don’t think it’s inappropriate,” Trump told Fox News’ Jeanine Pirro, responding to a report by the New York Times that he asked former FBI Director James Comey in January to pledge loyalty to him.

This Is A Start

As J. says, "There is no try. Next time, get it done!":

Wright reportedly started screaming, and hit the windows of Kustoff's vehicle, even reaching inside at one point. She briefly blocked the car from leaving until she got out of there once cops were called. Authorities arrested her later when she wrote about the incident on Facebook. At first authorities tried to get her side of the story but she refused to cooperate. "That left us with no other choice but to issue an arrest warrant for her and take her into custody," a sheriff's department official said.

Calamitous Confederate Camel Craves Caffeine

Mississippi story, but features Florida woman:

Abbott’s attorney, Charles M. Thomas of New Orleans, said Abbott visited Beauvoir with her husband. They were strolling to the cemetery behind the Davis home when Sir Camelot appeared.

“June was basically just walking across the grounds and this camel charged at her, stampeded her, and ended up biting her,” Thomas said.

As a result of the attack, he said, Abbott suffered a fractured wrist and vertebrae.

...By December 2015, the Beauvoir board had decided the camel and other animals needed to go. A motion the board passed 6-2 cited waste issues and aggressive behavior from the camel, plus goats that were butting car doors. After visitor numbers dropped, Sir Camelot and other animals returned to Beauvoir in June 2016.

Melania's Great Escape

BBC's Why Factor Considers Goths

I always like to learn what the first readily-identifiable song of a genre happens to be. According to this fascinating BBC Why Factor podcast, the first clearly-identifiable Goth song is 1979's "Bela Lugosi's Dead" by Bauhaus.

Goths amaze me. I remember once being on the floor of a casino in Las Vegas. The atmosphere was unimaginably-crass: noisy crowds laughing and farting to the clanging sounds of slot machines. Suddenly, like a ghost, a Goth appeared - an 18-year-old woman with only traces of red around the eyes to break the grim darkness of sorrowful mourning dress. She glided across the casino floor, eyes darting neither left or right but focused straight ahead, perhaps contemplating a funeral.

I should hire Goth pallbearers for my funeral.

Inappropriate Technology

Technology needs to fit the problem:

How did technology that has increased efficiency in every other industry become such a drag on health care? For starters, people who take care of patients did not design or choose these systems. They were foisted upon us.

Doctors and nurses know that good diagnosis and treatment requires listening attentively to their patients. They spend years learning to parse the clues that patients offer, both the physiological and personal, in order to provide the right care.

To do this well takes time and undivided attention.

The Accidental Hero

Making the effort:

“I was out having lunch with a friend and got back about 3pm and saw an influx of news articles about the NHS and various UK organisations being hit,” he told the Guardian. “I had a bit of a look into that and then I found a sample of the malware behind it, and saw that it was connecting out to a specific domain, which was not registered. So I picked it up not knowing what it did at the time.”

The Hobbit, Explained