View source for March 2021/Mar 12th

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This week was Esther’s father’s first [https://www.shiva.com/learning-center/commemorate/yahrzeit/ ''yahrzeit'']. It was a tough year for Esther and her siblings; dealing with the loss of their beloved father, in the midst of the global pandemic which made it impossible to deal normally with all the stuff one must. But deal they did, and they’re continuing to deal with “all the stuff”.

A few words about my father in law. He was one of the most generous people I’ve known. He lived his life entirely “in the present” — doing what he wanted, as he wanted. He was loved by many, and admired by many more. An astute businessman, he managed to keep a number of businesses going for decades in the very difficult Argentinian economic and political environment. 

He is missed by all of us. יהי זכרו ברוך.

This week’s grab-bag of knowledge:
* Science-fiction fans: raise your shields! It may ''actually'' be possible [https://www.uni-goettingen.de/en/3240.html?id=6192 to travel faster than light], according to an astrophysicist at Göttingen University…
* … which ''might'' let us visit the [https://www.jpost.com/health-science/scientists-find-concentration-of-black-holes-at-heart-of-ngc-6397-661272 concentration of “black holes”] which is “only” 7,800 light-years away. I know, I know! You think, “that’s not all that far away”; but it works out to be about 1.8 ''trillion'' times around the Earth. That’s about one trip around the Earth for every dollar to be spent in the recently passed [https://www.bloombergquint.com/politics/what-s-in-the-1-9-trillion-stimulus-bill-passed-by-the-senate US stimulus bill].
* Cannabis might be all sorts of wonderful, but growing it causes [https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/03/as-a-crop-cannabis-has-enormous-carbon-emissions/ enormous carbon emissions]. So that “green” isn’t all that Green.
* Please, [https://reason.com/2021/03/11/stop-trying-to-create-a-zero-risk-society-covid-19/ stop trying] to create a “risk free” society. 
* Unsafe Space: documentation that [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkyMEr3C_RA not even one] of the 80+ lawsuits brought to contest the US election was able to present evidence in court. So the claim that “there’s no evidence” is spurious and disingenuous. It’s a dangerous precedent to set, in my opinion.
* Mike Solana: [https://www.piratewires.com/p/green-eggs-and-stfu Green Eggs and STFU].
* And Matt Walsh [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjOMtXOBB1E reviews some rap].


I spent some time “hardening” my various servers, this week. It turns out I hadn’t upgraded the server software for a while (apart from security updates). So I was pleased that the upgrade procedure went without a hitch. One must be thankful for the little things in life.

I have also been pondering [https://8th-dev.com/forum/index.php/topic,2281.0.html various improvements] to 8th. There’s some interesting feedback from my users, we’ll see how it goes. Pondering is what I do best.

This week’s weather was mostly warm, above average temperatures. For ''shabbat'' we're starting off cold and rainy, but during the day it will presumably be sunny and warmer.

Our ''shabbat'' menu includes:<br>
homemade wholegrain rolls,
chicken soup,
baked chicken,
traditional ''cholent'',
roasted veggies,
various ''salatim'',
“nut clusters”,
and cookies from a can.

Until next time,<br>
''shabbat shalom''!

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