Obsidian Wings

An open thread

by liberal japonicus

For reasons unknown, the video below the fold popped up in my Youtube feed and since we have a few metal fans here as well as Russell, I thought I'd put it up.

Surprise, surprise, surprise

by liberal japonicus

From that Marxist rag, the Atlantic.

The researchers also found that the guaranteed income did not dissuade participants from working—adding to a large body of evidence showing that cash benefits do not dramatically shrink the labor force and in some cases help people work by giving them the stability they need to find and take a new job. In the Stockton study, the share of participants with a full-time job rose 12 percentage points, versus five percentage points in the control group. In an interview, Martin-West and Castro Baker suggested that the money created capacity for goal setting, risk taking, and personal investment.

and

Finally, the cash recipients were healthier, happier, and less anxious than their counterparts in the control group. “Cash is a better way to cure some forms of depression and anxiety than Prozac,” says Michael Tubbs, a former mayor of Stockton, who spearheaded the project. “So many of the illnesses we see in our community are a result of toxic stress and elevated cortisol levels and anxiety, directly attributed to income volatility and not having enough to cover your basic necessities. That’s true in the public-health crisis we’re in now.”

More work, less destitution, more family stability, less strained social networks, less stress, fewer incidences of homelessness, fewer skipped meals: This is what welfare could give the country.

Go for it.

The latest Japan-Korea thing

by liberal japonicus

As was astutely observed in the comments, it's amazing that problems are so often reduced to a failure of people to make proper contracts. If you like the sarcasm in that observation (which I do), you'll love this, below the break

Hello . . . there!

by wj

I came across this article in the Washington Post today:
We’re having trouble recognizing each other in masks, and it’s getting awkward
I confess my immediate reaction was: Welcome to my world!

There are some people, me being one, who are really terrible at recognizing faces. It doesn’t necessarily rise to the level of Prosopagnosia (a neurological disorder characterized by the inability to recognize faces). But it can be difficult nonetheless. I spent years travelling as part of an organization I belonged to. And I often would arrive somewhere to be greeted as a long lost friend . . . by people that I had no memory of ever having seen before. I routinely responded to “Hello, Bill” with “Hello . . . there.” Simply because I just had no name to insert.

And it isn’t just casual acquaintances. One of the stories in the article is of a guy who encountered his wife while working, where he had no expectation of seeing her. With masks, he simply didn’t recognize her. Me, I wouldn’t put money on my picking a picture of my wife (or my brother, or my sister) out of a photo array unless there were contextual clues I could use. I just don’t register faces.

Now, it appears, masks are bringing this to everyone. Except they don’t have a lifetime of practice at covering up their failure to recognize others. Rough.

Totally open thread.

An open thread for dishes and recipes

by liberal japonicus

Commentariat regular nous wrote

New Mexican apple pie (with hatch chilis, piñon streusel, and cheese in the crust) is the pinnacle of apple pie as far as I'm concerned.

Found some recipes, here's one

https://www.newmexico.org/nmmagazine/articles/post/an-official-new-mexico-state-pie/

Favorite dishes or ones you want to try, with or without recipes. My daughter is coming home and earlier, she discovered Brussel sprouts, so I'm going for this recipe, I found a local veggie store that sells them fresh. Incidentally, they are called me-kyabetsu (cabbage buds?) here in Japan.

https://www.wellplated.com/sauteed-brussels-sprouts/