Daily Archives: October 18, 2026

Sunday [8 to 11]

(1410) Afternoon all. (1521)

 

11. France


10. Moo corner


9. Aberfan

Someone told me it was tomorrow … it’s actually Wednesday 21st, early morn. This has been the song most associated with the disaster internationally, though maybe not within folk circles in Wales. It does not directly refer to Aberfan, it’s a reminder though.

Wiki:

“Although the Byrds were anxious to correctly pronounce the Welsh place-names in the song’s lyrics on their recording, they, like Seeger, actually mispronounced the name Rhymney as “Rimney” (it should be pronounced as “Rumney”).”

“Discrepancy

  • “The Bells of Rhymney” is a poem written by Idris Davies in 1938 (published in his anthology Gwalia Deserta). It was later set to music by Pete Seeger in 1957 and made famous by the American folk-rock band The Byrds in 1965. Davies wrote the lyrics to highlight the grim conditions of Welsh miners, specifically inspired by the 1926 General Strike and earlier pit disasters like the 1913 Senghenydd or 1927 Marine Colliery tragedies. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]
  • The Aberfan Disaster occurred much later, on October 21, 1966, when a colossal National Coal Board colliery waste tip collapsed. It slid down the mountainside into the village of Aberfan, engulfing Pantglas Junior School and killing 144 people, including 116 children. [1, 2, 3]

Because the poem and song existed before 1966, “The Bells of Rhymney” does not explicitly mention Aberfan. The song explicitly voices the names of nearby mining towns—such as Merthyr (which sits in the same local borough as Aberfan), Rhondda, Blaina, and Caerphilly.”

8. With all the blackpilling going on

… lighten up for now and work out what she’s making:

1744: This is what she was baking:

Sunday jazz

The first morning slot on a Sunday is usually musical, baroque, but if there is none, then my second thought is Pater Gunn … and there are many awaiting us in the vault … but maybe later. This time, 0900, really needs to be musical, e.g. Vivaldi but we’ve had most of him recently … so a thought started to form (careful, dangerous).

Let’s have the jazz early, not pre-last post. You’ll recall this past week it started shimmying, then jitterbug, zydeco, ragtime, non-vocal jazz, even some Goodman and Peggy Lee swing … there was a long post on Keith Emerson and Oscar Peterson, which brought in boogie, plus modern jazz (not my bag I’m afraid, quite Felonious, I’d rather be a Monk, frankly).

One interesting diversion were the Gennett and Vocalion recordings, inc. jam sessions (the Midnight Rounders below, late 20s) … but first, Jelly Rolls opening of non-vocal jazz to the masses earlier in the 20s.

Those Gennett and Vocalion jam sessions .. players crouded into the studio, see what they could come up with, free form:

And then, past Oscar Peterson asking Keith Emerson why … why go back to early forms, e.g. ragtime and boogie, stride? People like it, that’s why. Even Brendan here had people interested:

Me? I love the more raw sound, the garage rock, early artists. Refined is nice, admirable … but the early years give it all context imho. And voices in the bkgd, showing there were humans present, having a ball.

Sunday [2 to 7]

(0755) Morning all … it’s confused in the sky out there. Please don’t forget the opening post on Alberta weekend, also Aberfan tomorrow. (0844) Brighter out there now. (0845)

 

7. One for the Lord, via Ed


6. One of mine from X


5. Steve at 1518

  • Wisconsin Elections Commission Sparks Uproar After Banning All Municipal Clerks from Checking If Voters are US Citizens – Ruling Comes Days Before Critical Gubernatorial Election
  • Here is the Discovery that Triggered the Federal Agents’ Raid on Ilhan Omar’s DC Home
  • WA School District That Forced Kids to Hide Bibles in “Concealed Envelopes” Must Now Apologize, Undergo Religious Liberty Training, and Fork Over $275K
  • Iran Used Submarines to Arm Yemen’s Houthis
  • Ukrainian Man-Catchers Breached Moldova’s Border for “Prey”
  • The 25-minute threshold: Why prolonged sitting silences your muscles and how to counteract it
  • NHS nurse denied state vaccine injury payout because she was assessed as less than 60% disabled by AstraZeneca’s COVID vaccine
  • Study that claimed Amish were worse off for refusing COVID measures and vaccines was flawed
  • A ‘No’ Vote On Virginia Amendment 2 Is A Vote for Marriage
  • Much more.

4. Quora this morning (US site, remember)

How come men aren’t sympathetic to the female loneliness epidemic

I’m going to answer this as a guy whose friends are mostly (>50%) are women. Most of them are my age, plus-minus 10 years, and most of them are indeed single.

In these gender discussions online, on Quora included, I feel like I’m the outlier because I’ve rarely found anything resembling what the typical answers by men say. This question is no different. And I think this is because I do talk to my women friends freely about their (and my) romantic life.

Many of them are single because the men they kept finding does NOT meet the bare minimum standard. And I don’t mean any crazy lofty things like high 6-figure salary or their own house right after college (in fact, none of them ever mentioned material wants—maybe because most of them have Master’s or PhD and/or a good job, so can take care of themselves), but just being a decent guy. I’m talking about basic hygiene, a little common sense, and not being misogynistic. They will get hundreds of likes on Tinder and the likes but this simple filter eliminates an unbelievably huge number of them.

I can dismiss this as a fluke if this happened to one person in one place, but since there are many of them and they are spread through the entire length of continental US, then it’s got to be more than a coincidence.

Firstly, they want someone who have similar views about relationships. Many of them, at this stage, want a permanent partner, i.e. old-school marriage. No, as far as I know, they don’t sleep around campus back in the day (I’ve been friends with some of them for nearly 10 years and it would be obvious), so there goes your typical incel rant against them. But despite all that craze surrounding tradwives, not many men of my age are really committed to marriage.

After that, they will also filter for personal preferences. Political views can be one (and in this age of Trump, that’s more important than ever for many of them). Interests could be another, after all you better have a common ground to talk about when you’re spending time with each other. Similar level of intelligence and education is also good. I’m not being elitist with that one because one of them went out for a few dates with this guy who has an expensive Master’s degree from a private college and yet is dumber than a bag of rocks and has the awareness of a koala when it comes to anything beyond his daily life; it was impossible for her or me and my friends to talk to him. The funniest one was how one of them broke up because he’s a vegetarian and she’s not and she can’t really go out to eat with him. I don’t see that being petty; it’s bound to cause issues later on if not discussed early.

After this, only very few guys are left, if any. Many of them simply never got more than a few dates before they realize they aren’t compatible. In a way, I do feel honored that I must have passed their filters as a friend.

What about friends? You ask. Similar filters, but less stringent. However, it still baffles my mind just how many guys can’t pass the misogyny filter. I wish I’m exaggerating, but there is indeed a significant number of young men who still can’t see women as equals. I’ve experienced it myself as a teaching assistant, where students act differently in front of me vs one of my friends even though we are quite similar in physical build and academic qualifications—others have it even worse.

If there’s a takeaway from this is that women are generally reasonable but many men can’t meet their requirement. However, I can say the same with many women too. And it’s not hard for men to be sympathetic; we just need to sit down and listen.

3. DAD at 1518

a) French flee as Mélenchon unveils radical 2027 budget plan. Wealthy French citizens are rushing to move assets abroad amid fears that far-left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s proposed 100-billion-euro tax increase could devastate their fortunes.

b) French Member of the European Parliament Marion Maréchal [niece of Marine Le Pen] denounced the “taboo” around discussions of the underlying causes of the youth revolt spreading across the country, which she said is the failure to assimilate immigrant groups into French culture. The demonstrations and riots ostensibly over a lack of school funding will hit their one-month anniversary this week, with mayhem and violence continuing despite thousands of arrests.

c) Migration has cost German taxpayers at least €400 billion since 2016. The €400 billion figure does not include education, police, court, prison, and healthcare costs, just to name a few, which means the real burden on German taxpayers is far higher.

d) The modern welfare state is a European invention—but can it survive? At the Social Sciences Plenary, Stein Kuhnle traced its golden age, its crisis decades, and rising social spending across OECD countries, before asking whether economic, political, and moral sustainability can hold amid demographic change, geopolitical crises, and deepening inequality.

e) E85 Superethanol Under One Euro Per Litre Wins Over Drivers. Sales of conversion kits enabling petrol vehicles to run on cheaper E85 biofuel are soaring across France, with some manufacturers reporting tenfold increases as motorists seek relief from pump prices. The conversion devices range in price from approximately 600 to 1,200 euros depending on engine size and manufacturer.

f) (Situation in France)


2. Poor Ukraine

… to have such monsters running it.

Sunday [1]

(0648)(0712)

 

The Alberta Referendum Questions

Good reader, leave aside for now whether Alberta has a hope in hades of doing it … the point is the progress of the process versus evil karney and globopsycho. That’s the true point here.

When those outside of Alberta start speaking of it, that’s good. Again I say, where it ends up is in the lap of the Lord. Our job is to do our part, as one small cog each, that’s all.

Going to open here with an X post from some days back …


Remember that Alberta officially votes on October 19th but people I know have already early voted … I presume by mail-in. These are the ballot and other papers, sent by Sarah @shankarita .


Afterthoughts

(This will remain open for me to add to from Sarah, X, elsewhere, through today and tomorrow.)