Month: July 2026

Categories
Banality of Evil

Dumb .Vs. Evil

Professor Jonny Thomson is a writer, philosopher, and former Oxford professor. He has an educational Facebook channel (mini philosophy), where he asks challenging questions and looks into them, step by step, from the ground up, introducing philosophical concepts in plain language. He also has a YouTube channel where he does deep dives:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvQECJukTDE2i6aCoMnS-Vghttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCD2eYNCY8wWVpR0ps6O22aA Sister Magdalena recently […]

Categories
Adventures of the Elders

Elder JimZim: B-Day Sando

The Gateway to Culinary Self-Sufficiency Elder JimZim is celebrating his birthday. To make this day blott-o-licious, we offered Elder JimZim the vast resources of WLBOTT. He is at the helm of the creative flotilla. His request? My mind went to my gratitude for my favorite bite – an open face pickles and mayonnaise sandwich (I […]

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Curated Absurdity Fine Arts

Recent additions to the WLBOTT Fine-ish Art Gallery

Title: My Dear Companion Title: True Tales of the Pandemic Title: A Bonding Moment Title: Gemini Given Full Artistic License Title: Why is a Vegetable Something to Hide? Title: High Holy Day Title: Perch and Sister M. Take Intro to Swimming Title: WLBOTT Has Arrived Title: The Chilean Royal Family Title: Still Life: Breakfast Title: […]

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Agriculture Food

Go Waggies! A Garden Update

It’s been a while since we’ve given our gentle readers an update on the WLBOTT Ag Service‘s summer garden. Let’s Start with the Sorghum. We’re trying to mimic some of the main Texas agricultural products in the garden – sorghum, cotton, peppers, peanuts, okra, amaranth, and sweet potatoes. Our unpaid interns took a nice picture […]

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Gods, Goddesses, and Mythical Heros Health, Beauty and Medicine

Technetium: Who, What, Where, When and How

Let’s dive right in. The Red Giant Elder G walks us thru the spectral line discovery. Technetium has no stable isotopes. Every isotope of technetium is radioactive. The most relevant one in stars, technetium-99, has a half-life of about 211,000 years. That sounds like a long time, but in the life of a star, it’s […]

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Agriculture Banality of Evil Collapse of Democracy/Civilization/etc. Gravediggers of American Democracy Late Stage Capitalism Will there be a buffet?

tRump and Explosive Diarrhea

[Thanks to Elder DZ for informing us of this Federal corruption scandal] Cyclospora Outbreak The timeline: [1] Cyclospora season: mark your calendars! The Daily Beast Snopes As Snopes previously reported, The Washington Post published a story July 16, which relied on anonymous sources, reporting that federal investigators had traced the cyclosporiasis outbreak to Taylor Farms. […]

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Banality of Evil russia

Wildberries: Where’s My Stuff?

Things are not going well in russia. Multi-kilometer long gas lines. Empty grocery shelves. No diesel to irrigate, harvest or transport the fall harvest. Burning oil refineries. And now – an enormous Wildberries (the russian Amazon) facility has burned to the ground. The facility is listed as 188,000 m2, or about 46.46 acres acres. Wildberries […]

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Animal Kingdom Exonumia/Philately are not contagious Late Stage Capitalism Peru South Seas

Kingman’s Reef, Guano, Dr. Strangelove, and National Security

A junior Elder recently brought a topic before the WLBOTT Security Counsel: Guano. She reminded us of the Guano Islands Act of 1856. Back in the 19th century, bird poop (guano) was the world’s premier fertilizer and a vital ingredient for gunpowder. The US government passed a law allowing American citizens to claim any unclaimed, […]

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Adventures of the Elders Erudition Meaning of Life Texas

𝔓52

Yesterday, Elder DZ and I saw the World’s Rarest and Most Valuable Papyrus Fragment (WRMVPF). Also known as P52 (or 𝔓52), this papyrus fragment was on display at the University of Texas’ Harry Ransom Center. Prior to our adventure, we had a cordial breakfast of “eggs in purgatory”, tortillas, tomatoes, and avocado. Elder DZ drove […]

Categories
Oh, Grow Up!

Poetic Challenge Accepted

We recently challenged our Poet Laureate, Elder JimZim, to apply his talents to the word “cuboidal” (a reference to the shape of certain varieties of yak cheese). As a romantic versifier and belletrist, he delivered this thing of beauty: There once was an office worker named WillowShe toiled all day with her workers at ZillowThey […]