Friday, April 1, 2022

Althouse

Althouse

At the Cardinal Café...

Posted: 01 Apr 2022 04:35 PM PDT

IMG_9709 

... you can talk all night.

I watch TikTok for you — and here are my 9 new selections.

Posted: 01 Apr 2022 05:01 PM PDT

1. An accurate miniature of a heavily graffiti'd ice storage box.

2. The way someone talks when he wants to get you to volunteer to wall-mount his TV.

3. The charitable work of detangling someone's hair.

4. A cat sings the blues.

5. Reacting to the news that someone's tested positive for Covid — in 2020 and in 2022.

6. Seeing if the dog likes celery.

7. A quick animation of Joe Biden, telling about when he was a little boy.

8. Discovering just how introverted you are.

9. A famous fractal — the Sierpinski triangle.

Sunrise — 6:41, 6:43.

Posted: 01 Apr 2022 09:04 AM PDT

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"Several hundred Russian soldiers were forced to hastily withdraw from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine after suffering 'acute radiation sickness' from contaminated soil..."

Posted: 01 Apr 2022 07:59 AM PDT

"... according to Ukrainian officials. The troops, who dug trenches in a contaminated Red Forest near the site of the worst nuclear disaster in history, are now reportedly being treated in a special medical facility in Gomel, Belarus. The forest is so named because thousands of pine trees turned red during the 1986 nuclear disaster. The area is considered so highly toxic that not even highly specialized Chernobyl workers are allowed to enter the zone.... The Chernobyl facility fell to Russian control on Feb. 24, the first day of the invasion. Workers were on duty for more than 600 hours before being allowed a shift change.... Digging trenches in the forest—considered the most contaminated area of the site—drew widespread ridicule from Ukrainians who work at the site."

 From "Russian Troops Suffer 'Acute Radiation Sickness' After Digging Chernobyl Trenches/Several hundred Russian troops reportedly rushed to a special medical facility in Belarus after digging in radioactive soil in a forest near the infamous nuclear plant" (Daily Beast).

"No one escapes the aging process... [But] there is scope for rational debate over when decline sets in, how steep it is, how much variance there is..."

Posted: 01 Apr 2022 08:15 AM PDT

"... among persons within particular age groups, and the degree to which the cognitive effects of aging may, up to a point anyway, be offset by experience of life."

Wrote Judge Richard Posner, in his 1996 book "Aging and Old Age," quoted in "After Posner retired from 7th Circuit, a grim diagnosis and a brewing battle" — a new article at Reuters.

ADDED: It was a big surprise when Posner suddenly retired in 2017 — blogged here — so the additional information that surfaced because of this legal dispute is revealing. We are only learning now that at the time he had received a diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease. 

From the Reuter's article:

When Posner quit the 7th Circuit after nearly 36 years on the bench with a single day's public notice, he told the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin that "I was not getting along with the other judges because I was (and am) very concerned about how the court treats pro se litigants, who I believe deserve a better shake."...

On Feb. 25, 2018, the judge emailed [Brian] Vukadinovich with an offer to share responsibility with him in running the center, which aimed to have representatives in all 50 states to provide pro bono legal help and behind-the-scenes advice to pro se litigants....

The center is the Posner Center of Justice for Pro Se's (yes, with the apostrophe).

"You would receive a substantial salary in the role I envisage for you, though I can't specify salary yet because the company has as yet no money. Within weeks or perhaps days, however, the company will be reorganized as a 501(c)(3)," Posner wrote, according to an email Vukadinovich forwarded to me. "I ought to be able to raise more than $1 million through donations," Posner continued. "I will not take any of it for myself, because my wife and I have ample savings and low expenses. I should be able to pay you at least $80,000 a year and I hope more."

Posner wrote all that a that, 5 months after the  Alzheimer's diagnosis?

Vukadinovich told me he and the judge ultimately agreed upon a salary of $120,000 a year. As it turned out, Posner found fundraising to be more difficult than expected.

In his self-published 2018 book "Helping the Helpless: Justice for Pro Se's: A Company Handbook," Posner wrote: "My efforts to obtain donations have been strenuous, and include requests sent to almost a hundred lawyers in Chicago, but have thus far yielded only a few fruits (none in the case of my requests to those lawyers!) — not nearly enough to meet the company's needs."...

Jonathan Zell, who was co-executive director of the Posner Center alongside Vukadinovich [said] Posner disclosed his Alzheimer's diagnosis to the staff early on... "He said the doctor showed him a CAT scan that showed he had Alzheimer's, but that 'It doesn't affect me.'"

Zell added, "Of course it did."

Still, he said the judge, at least in the beginning, "could put on a good show" in friendly interactions. Indeed, Posner continued to practice law in 2018....

"The £1 billion palace boasts helicopter pads, an underground ice-hockey rink, a tunnel to the beach and a spa with a storage area for therapeutic mud...."

Posted: 01 Apr 2022 07:06 AM PDT

"Its lavatories are fitted out with gold-leafed Italian lavatory brushes worth £650 and £900 lavatory paper holders. While only the best is good enough for Putin's needs, one in five households and about 3,000 schools lack indoor plumbing, according to the government's own figures."

From "Vladimir Putin's love of luxury, from designer watches to £650 lavatory brushes/The Kremlin likes to portray the Russian president as a man of the people — just not one of the 16 million living below the poverty line" (London Times).

3,000 schools without indoor plumbing — that's what got me.

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