lookin

What Biden brings to the party is a sense of inclusiveness and in the Trump era I think there's nothing more important. Trump and DeSantis are in a perpetual state of war and have no problem pitting us Americans against one another. We really can't survive a long-term diet of divisiveness. So I'm for whoever can get elected and continue a process of healing. I'm impressed that Biden has steadfastly focused on things that are good for the majority of Americans, with a particular emphasis on those who need a helping hand the most. Although it's too soon for me to pick a candidate, he's the guy I'll vote for until someone more compassionate and more inclusive comes along. Biden's biggest liability, in my opinion, is Kamala Harris. She's not a unifier and I would not be happy seeing her as President. There may be other Democrats who are not anathema to Independent voters. I don't have the polling research but I expect such a one exists. Our divisiveness is best reflected in the pure party-line votes of recent years and that needs to change. Biden has a reputation for at least trying to reach across the aisle. I'd go so far as suggesting he consider a moderate socially progressive Republican as his running mate, unless the Senate looks like a 50/50 split. Whoever can bring us back from the war on one another will get my vote. And I think Biden has been more effective at bringing folks together that anyone else currently in the running. If it weren't for the overriding need for inclusivity and healing, and we could afford a full-on progressive candidate, I've got a handful of folks I'd like to see enter the Democratic primary: Clinton (so sue me, but she did win the popular vote) and Sanders and Newsom among them. But there is an overriding need to pull together and Biden understands that in his bones.

I can understand the North Koreans being so far off the grid that they would give Kim Jong-Un high approval ratings, but I'd have thought that enough Russians would be aware of the hell Putin is causing in Ukraine for him to drop in the ratings. If I'm hearing stories of Russians lining up to get out, and Russian soldiers being used as cannon fodder, and Russian criminals being released back into their communities, why are 80% of Russians agreeing that Putin is doing a good job? Are they misinformed, or am I? And then Oz's Russian friends have Oz to turn to for an outside perspective, yet they still think highly of Putin and his 'special operation'. I'm just having trouble understanding what they're seeing that I'm not. And vice versa. I guess one difference between us could be that most Russians will support anything that could bring back the old Soviet Union, while I couldn't care less. But that's just speculation on my part. It's been many years since I've personally talked with someone who's just back from Russia and I'm hoping that some better-connected folks than I am can weigh in with some fresh insights.

OMG, I thought you said COSTCO! And here I am down to my last can of tuna. Re CSTO, it's good to see Putin getting some grief closer to home. When it comes to his countrymen, though, it seems his popularity rating is as high as ever. Apparently, it was over 80% in January. I've never been to Russia and I wonder if any posters here have ever spent time in the country. I'm curious as to what separates the 80% who like Putin from the 20% who don't. Is there a difference in political awareness? Or in degree of nationalism? Or in economic wellbeing? Any insights would be welcome.

If I understand what I've read, one theory is that everything - all the matter in the universe, and all the energy - existed in a single point called the singularity. ⚫ When it exploded, everything contained in it started flying away in all directions. That's what we're seeing flying away from us today. It's mind-boggling that everything we can see once existed in a single infinitesimal point, but smarter folks than I am believe that to be the case. I've also read that someday things will start contracting again and everything - all matter and all energy - will collapse once more into another singularity, a single point containing everything. And then I guess the whole thing could start all over again. But I think there's another theory that says things will just keep flying away, expanding into space and never stopping until someday entropy will be complete and there won't be any identifiable matter or any measurable energy. They call that 'heat death'. I'm sure not the guy to explain what happened or what's going to happen but I recently saw a PBS special about the Webb telescope in which someone remarked how amazing it was that folks on this tiny planet of ours, orbiting an unremarkable star in an unremarkable solar system in an unremarkable galaxy, should have figured out how to look all the way to the edge of the universe. I do think it's a privilege even to have these kinds of discussions. In fact, if I had to choose between searching for the answer and actually having the answer, I think I'd pick the former. But I couldn't swear I wouldn't page ahead to see how it all ends.

It would have looked better in a cooler.

Every time I hear we need a higher birth rate, I think of the growth of human population and wonder where we will put them all. We're already near the carrying capacity of planet Earth with clean air and water harder to come by as our population grows. Is this really the time to add another billion or two humans to the draw? Sounds like the main argument in favor of a growing population is increasing the ratio of more-productive to less-productive humans and, looking at that metric alone, one could make a case for higher birth rates. But, as long as we continue to deplete the planet's resources at the current rate, we'll all hit the wall in the foreseeable future. It could be that countries willing and able to redistribute income equitably among their citizens (shades of socialism! 😳) will find a way to grow modestly and still make sure young and old all have enough to get by. But unrestrained economic growth, combined with institutionalized inequality and finite natural resources, doesn't seem to bode well for any of the less economically productive members of society. Of which I count myself a proud, if endangered, example.

What's up, Doc?

Thanks for the stories, guys! 👍 Especially nice to hear about leaders who put their citizens' lives first. I've been really lucky living in a semi-rural area where most of my social and volunteer activities have been outdoors. My local friends and I are of an age that got us early vaccinations. Plus wearing a mask isn't a big problem, so I haven't been under all the stress that some folks have. Most of my city friends have hunkered down, even though they've been vaccinated. While we'd all like this behind us, nobody I know has been out demonstrating against restrictions, or vaccines, or masks. I wish I understood better what motivates people to get so worked up about taking precautions that are meant to keep them healthier, along with their friends, families, and colleagues. Especially when they get so angry, it makes me wonder if someone is winding them up or if it's a regular part of who they are. If I had to choose between marching around yelling and waving a sign or taking a hike, it would be an easy choice.

Why are we flying over Florida? We're looking for the biggest asshole in the Universe I'm picking up something in New Jersey

True enough, Doc, just ask my agent

You rang? Someone may have floated the idea before me, but I mentioned it a few days ago in response to another poster asking about a path of least resistance for preserving Daddy's site. I tried to recall the time fifteen or so years ago when I heard OZ was interested in buying the site after HooBoy's passing, but found the family wasn't interested in what happened to it. My thought was that, if OZ were still interested after all these years, there might be a way to do the deal. As far as I know, OZ has all the resources and experience needed to fold one site into another, or to run it separately. Sounds like you're a lot smarter than I am on how estates are settled and what becomes of assets. All I know is that there's probably a court somewhere that will figure out what becomes of the website. But there seem to be other plans unfolding, so I've got back to an earlier project.

These days it's hard to find a drug ad where the manufacturer doesn't offer a bargain price to those who "have trouble affording their medications". You'd think they could do a little something on Veuve Cliquot.

According to this calculator, she's a hundred years old. Not sure how old a cat has to be before she's entitled to jump on her owner's balls, but I'm thinking she's gotta be getting pretty close.

Gosh, OZ, glad as we all are to hear you’ve thought of every contingency and made every plan, I hope you know that we are united in wishing you a long and happy life with many years of adventure, joy and pleasure yet to come. Still, I can’t help noticing no mention of a small token for some of us - OK, me - to remember you by.

So far, so good!

What's different these days is that, while it used to take some effort and expense to track someone's whereabouts and therefore be limited to someone 'important enough' to warrant tracking, these days there's no measurable cost whatsoever to track someone's every move. The data's collected routinely and stored as bits and bytes somewhere in the Cloud. Could that information ever become useful to someone or some entity? Not that I know of, and not that I'm especially concerned about. But if you asked me to write you a guarantee that no one would ever find a use for knowing everywhere you've been this year and who else was next to you, I couldn't do it. And if you asked me to promise you that you'd always be happy with the use of that information, I couldn't do that either. If there's a benefit to me from Apple knowing where I am, like when they steered me turn-by-turn to Palm Springs recently, I turn tracking on. If there isn't any benefit, then - just to be on the safe side - I turn tracking off. And, yes, I'm aware that someone could still figure out from cell tower data where I was any time of any day. If you're interested in learning more about the tracking of people who probably didn't consider themselves 'important', take a look at the Uighurs in China after the government decided to take an interest in their whereabouts. All the data was there, just waiting to be analyzed and acted upon. Uighur men in a reeducation camp in Xinjiang - in the days even before AirTag

Somehow, I've never been able to figure out Apple TV. My current TV has internet connectivity, so I don't need that especially. It's a Sony and the user interface is kind of kludgy, so I'm thinking Apple's would probably be better. I think the thing I'm missing most is a way to get a few local channels so I can get all of my content off the internet and get rid of my cable box and, most especially, the 30-foot HDMI cable I need to run between the cable box and my TV. But I can't tell if the Apple TV would make that any easier than the same app running on my Sony TV. At $29, the AirTag has some appeal, but I have a real aversion to Apple - or anyone else - tracking my whereabouts - or my car keys' whereabouts - every minute of every day. It's not that I go anywhere particularly secretive these days, but I haven't totally given up hope.

For me, it's a question of how much my time is worth. When I was working, I used DOS and Windows computers but we had technicians to do the upgrades and data migration. At home, I used Macs. When it was time for a new computer, I plugged in a cable, answered three questions in the Migration Assistant, and waited a couple of hours to see everything transferred exactly where it belonged. Last time, I got it to pull a backup from my Time Capsule. These days, even without much dollar value on my time, I just don't want to spend it figuring out why something doesn't work, hanging on the phone with tech support, or downloading software drivers. I have a friend who would sometimes spend days setting up a new Windows computer for her or her husband. It seemed she never gave a second thought to other things she could be doing. Don't get me wrong. Apple isn't perfect. My previous laptop, a 2013 MacBook Pro, had connectors for every conceivable peripheral device, an SD slot, and a built-in drive to read and write CD's and DVD's. This 2017 version has four "lightning ports" and needs a separate adapter to hook up anything besides my iPhone. On the plus side, this is the first computer I've had that responds instantly. The spinning beachball is a thing of the past and the extra time in my day is much appreciated.

I got my first computer, an Apple ][+, in 1980 and have upgraded - on average - every three years. So that's about a dozen upgrades, and only the first one - from the ][+ to the first Mac in 1984 - was done out of a desire for something new and better. All the other upgrades were because my hand was "forced". And most of those were because something crapped out and I didn't want to spend hundreds of dollars or wait a week to get my old computer back. After all those upgrades since the first Mac, there wasn't a single time when the newer model was irresistible, nor was there a single time when I regretted getting a new model. So, for me anyway, there really isn't such a thing as a "bad" decision. I'm currently getting close to a "forced" decision, as the battery on my 2017 MacBook Pro is showing signs of fatigue. I'm not looking forward to this transition, as I'll need to upgrade to the new Catalina operating system and leave behind a few favorite 32-bit applications. Looking back at all those dozen computers, I'm struck by the fact that nearly every one of them cost right around two thousand dollars. With my first Apple computer, I got an 8-bit processor running at 1MHz, 48kb of memory, and a 5 1/4" floppy drive which could hold 160kb of data. My current MacBook Pro has a 64-bit processor running at 3.1GHz, 8gb of memory, and an SSD drive that can hold 500gb of data. And both computers were around two grand. Sorry for the trip down memory lane, OZ. I guess where I'm ending up is that, if your experience is anything like mine, you won't have a terrible outcome with any decision you make. And, if you do, you can probably bail yourself out for the price of a dinner at Mar-a-Lago.

Wish I knew. For some reason, the R0 number, despite its predictive importance, doesn't seem to be widely tracked in the U. S. One thing that complicates matters is that the transmissibility of the virus varies by strain, and I don't think the U. S. has ever had a testing program robust enough to track individual strains very well. From what I can tell, the vaccination rate in France is around 15%, and full immunization won't happen until August. So France has a long way to go before getting to roughly 70% for "herd immunity". That would make the R0 number more critical than for countries currently approaching that magic number. The area where I live reports a hodgepodge of vaccination rates. Roughly 40% of the total population have got at least one dose. 50% of the population over sixteen years old have got at least one dose. And 25% of those over sixteen have completed a full course of vaccinations. Add to that around 5% of the population who have already contracted the virus, and we have a little over half of the riskiest population with some level of immunity. So, while we're a few months from "herd immunity", it's getting progressively harder for the virus to find someone vulnerable to infect. I expect our R0 number is significantly less than one, and our case numbers are trending down. Plus our area is pretty mask-friendly. All-in-all, it's been a while since I've felt highly vulnerable, knock on wood. And that's especially true since I'm one of those who has completed my vaccinations.

1. Downtown Brown 2. Guiness 3. Boddingtons Pub Ale 4. Old Rasputin 5. Corona #2 and #3 make my favorite Black and Tan.

One of the funniest and brightest lights on the Forums. And a kind man in real life. He was always respectful of other posters and he didn't have a mean bone in his body. He'll be missed. From one of his heroes: Death is the mother of beauty; hence from her, Alone, shall come fulfilment to our dreams And our desires. Sunday Morning, by Wallace Stevens

I live in an old cabin in the woods and, every few years, something crawls into the attic and dies. Over the next week, I'll get an influx of fat lethargic flies that invariably take up residence on my kitchen windows. After running a quick breath-on-the-mirror check to make sure it wasn't me who drew them, I haul out the canister vacuum and suck them up. More arrive in the afternoon, and overnight, and again the next day. In a few days, they're gone and I put the vacuum away till next time. I don't currently have a pet but there are a lot of living things around, so I wouldn't use an indiscriminate pesticide. Every time I see them, I recall staying with a friend up in the Gold Country in a cheap room next to the Coke® machine. Right outside the door was a well-used fly strip. I told another friend about the cheap room we had and he reminded me that the really cheap rooms don't have any fly strips.

It was from this recent ad, so probably not too long ago. You are the Condé Nast of gay travel.

Glad the new site is up and running like a Swiss watch! I started infesting the HooBoy site just before he left, and this one when it was still MER. Both sites had - and have - their charms, usually owing to who's posting at the time. Before this latest Gay Guides incarnation, Boytoy and my browser seemed to have declared war on one another. For a few months, I couldn't log in and then, for a few more months, I couldn't log out. The last message I got at the top of my sign-in screen was: Warning: require_once(../index_forum.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/boytoy/public_html/forum_top.php on line 6 Fatal error: require_once(): Failed opening required '../index_forum.php' (include_path='.:/opt/cpanel/ea-php73/root/usr/share/pear') in /home/boytoy/public_html/forum_top.php on line 6 No matter what I did, the message wouldn't go away. It seemed to have something to do with a Forum_Top and I figured perhaps OZ was off in India interviewing some new programmers. I made a little puja that it wasn't really a fatal error and figured I'd check back from time to time. A few days ago, somebody posted directions for getting into the new Gay Guides site but, in spite of assurances that the new site would recognize me, this was not the case. My posts were all there from days gone by, but the sign-in screen said it had never heard of me. And my avatar was nowhere to be found. I had been ghosted by a bot. Good thing OZ was on-line, as he knew just where the problem was and what to do about it. So, year after year, site after site, bug after bug and post after post, we persevere. Kind of amazing, really, to think of what keeps us coming back.