Happy New Year!

Christmas Island/Kiribati celebrated the new year first on earth at 6pm Bali time, 2am US West Coast time on the 31st. and at 8pm on the first here in Bali and 4am in the US West, much of the US Minor Outlying Islands, Baker Island, Howland Island will be the last. So it's becoming New Years somewhere on earth for 26 hours. So on earth, a day is 26 hours long. - hmm

Good to know

 

Some Covid masks are better than others. I know – I’m the Mask Nerd

Harambee Arts in Chron

 

Good article in SF Chron on Gloria Simoneaux's Harambee Arts.

Chritmas Origens

 The True Meaning of Christmas - thanks Nick Charles

Christmas Origens and Customs

 from Encyclopedia Britannica

A Part of our Daily Diet

 Plastics in the air even way way up

Concern Repelled

Today a close friend here who won't have a credit card because he's a monk, asked timidly if Katrinka might bring him back some special vitamins and nutrition suppliments, not much, and said he worried about bothering us for days before asking me. Said he didn't want to impose I told him this was no imposition and anyway if I wanted something from him, I wouldn't think about whether it was imposing or not but whether I he'd do it if I asked and what was the most effective way to ask to get him to do it. But then maybe that's how he was thinking and I'm just being cleverly manipulated. But then again, I'd say yes no matter how he asked. He persevered with concern and how he didn't want to cause any trouble or bother us and I said that his concern was getting to be an imposition and was bothering me. Now he's unconcerned.

 

Palindrome Alert!

 Alert co-conspirator Michael Katz sent a palindrome alert for today, December 22, 2021. But he wrote it

12-22-21 which is how they write that date in the US, Micronesia, and Belize. Here in Indonesia and all over the world it's 22/12/21 or 21/12/22. So the US, Micronesia, and Belize get a rather exclusive palindrome today.

Another Solstice Factoid

 There's an hour and fourteen minutes more sun today in Bali than night - according to my quick calculation. This longest day of the year here is one hour and one minute longer than the shortest day. In Singapore, located just north of the equator, today is eight minutes longer than the shortest day. What is these differences where you are? - DC

Solstice Factoid

 It's summer solstice today here in Bali where the season ian'r called summer. It"s rainy season. Here's a bit about the summer solstice from Britannica. I didn't know this either. Happy solstice whichever it is for you. - DC

At the summer solstice, the Sun travels the longest path through the sky, and that day therefore has the most daylight. When the summer solstice happens in the Northern Hemisphere, the North Pole is tilted about 23.4° (23°27´) toward the Sun. Because the Sun’s rays are shifted northward from the Equator by the same amount, the vertical noon rays are directly overhead at the Tropic of Cancer (23°27´ N). Six months later, the South Pole is inclined about 23.4° toward the Sun. On this day of the summer solstice in the Southern Hemisphere, the Sun’s vertical overhead rays progress to their southernmost position, the Tropic of Capricorn (23°27´ S).

Computer Hacking Post

 An interesting answer to a question on if ones computer can be hacked if it's not on the Internet.

Lagu Lagu

Lagu Lagu is one of the six songs on my newly released Album, Baliyuga on the Way to Venus. In the possible event that someone may wish to know what the title of this song, and some other foreign words in the song mean, herein before a link to the song on YouTube, we will enlighten you.

Indonesian  -- English

Lagu lagu -- songs - plurals in Indonesian are made by doubling the word when it's not obvious

Gamelan -- Indonesian traditional orchestra

Nyoman -- our bemo driver and helper since July, 2014

bemo -- VW Bus like vehicle with open side that functions like a bus on short routs

bule -- white people (not pejorative)

cewek -- female

cowok -- male, can be tomboy the way it's used: "cowok hon" [c is pronounced as ch in English]

kain poleng - black and white checkered sacred cloth

Lagu Lagu on YouTube

Baliyuga.com

Really?

 

Bali only received 45 international tourists in 2021 despite reopening - CNN

But it says, about 13,000 Indonesian tourists come in every weekend.

Climate Change on the March!

 All these are headlines in today's Washington Post

Climate change has destabilized the Earth’s poles, putting the rest of the planet in peril

Crucial Antarctic ice shelf could fail within five years, scientists say

Russia blocks U.N. move to treat climate change as a global security threat

Arctic temperature soared to an unprecedented 100 degrees in 2020, scientists confirm

Magnets and Hard Drives

 I don't know why I get these Quora questions and answers. Usually I just delete the email with them but sometimes one catches my eye. I think this one is useful and is not what I thought. 

Dhirgham Murran

Works at Artists and Creative Professions4y

I’ve heard that a magnet can seriously damage an SD and hard drive. Is this true?

Originally Answered: I’ve heard that a magnet can seriously damage an SD and hard drive is this true?

Once, the myth busters on the Discovery Channel dealt with this issue. They tried all kinds of the strong magnets, but none spoiled the hard drive in a laptop. But, when they exposed it to a commercial high powered magnet which is capable of lifting a car, the hard drive was entirely damaged. So the answer: it is unlikely to be damaged by any available magnet except the one used in shipyard to lift cars.

Which led me to wonder about

Is the magnet scene in Breaking Bad possible?

Final verdict. While destroying a hard drive using magnets is highly plausible, 'The Magnet Scene' from Breaking Bad appears unfeasible. The same scene was also investigated by MythBusters in the final episode of their spin-off series MythBusters Jr.

Covid numbers Bali

New cases in Bali yesterday were 3 and recorded Covid-19 deaths were 1. The 7-day average for new positive cases was 7, while the 7-day average for deaths was 0.4. Active cases in Bali numbered 151.

from Jackie Pomeroy's thorough daily Bali Covid 19 Update on Facebook.

Serious about Climate Change folks

 Job One for Humanity

Life in Bali Podcast

Just uploaded a podcast with Aussie buddy John Dobinson who's trying to get back here from Australia. He gets into some interesting tales of coral reefs and WWII remnants on the islands, and how it's changes in 25 years. 

Omicron Article

Chair of South African Medical Asso. says world is way overreacting to this mild variant. 

Earthquake!

 Several people have asked me about the recent earthquake in Indonesia that made the news around the globe. Thanks for your concern. We live in Sanur on the edge of Denpasar in Bali. The quake was 1200 miles away in the ocean and affected the Philippines too. Indonesia has more active volcanos and earthquakes than anywhere, maybe than everywhere else added up. I checked on a volcano/earthquake report site.

During the past 7 days, Indonesia was shaken by 1 quake of magnitude 6.0, 3 quakes between 5.0 and 6.0, 32 quakes between 4.0 and 5.0, 75 quakes between 3.0 and 4.0, and 49 quakes between 2.0 and 3.0.
Biggest quake: 6.0 quake Philippine Sea, Indonesia, Dec 5, 2021 8:47 am (GMT +9) 1 day 16 hours ago
Biggest quake today: 4.5 quake Molucca Sea, 86 km southeast of Gorontalo, Indonesia, Dec 6, 2021 5:33 am (GMT +8) 18 hours ago
Most recent quake: 4.3 quake Flores Sea, 88 km north of Bima, West Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia, Dec 6, 2021 10:24 pm (GMT +8) 1 hour 16 minutes ago

Remembering

 Fifty years ago today, Shunryu Suzuki died. I'm most grateful for his teachings - both Zen and nonZense. - dc

She's in the Air

Forgot to post this yesterday - she's there now.

So Katrinka's now somewhere in the air way up between Doha and San Francisco, maybe going over the North Pole at this time or near it. Dogette Bandita and guest dogettetina Bumble ( who we all call Bumbu) are staying close to me, very close. I'm sitting on the couch typing with legs crossed and a while ago Bandi was on my left, Bumbu on my right, and feline Kucita was on the couch armrest to my left right next to Bandi. I made a video to post here but they were too close and it was not successful. Bandi isn't sitting by the gate for days waiting for her I guess because she'd getting used to this yearly abandonment, because she went to the airport and saw Katrinka walk off with a porter pushing a cart with her bags, or maybe because it's raining a lot. Nice to have such uncomplicated company.