He died

Sometimes, I forget that I care about them and like them until I hear they have died.  My college friends were about my age so now we are basically old.  When you are old, death is increasingly likely.  You draw near the end of your years alive. It is not just college friends but also work colleagues and friends from social sources.  It no longer comes as a shock to learn that a person I was close to, but haven't communicated with lately, has died.

I realize that dying is something that can happen at any age.  But these higher-number decades get what seems random hits as a friend here and another there leave this life.  I got a message that a friend had died last week but it was worded somewhat elliptically, and the reference only said he had "gone".  It was abrupt and short.  I assumed the message was referring to death but I wasn't sure.  This week, it is clarified and he did die.  He must have been in poor health because he wrote his own obituary and did a good job of it, too.

I certainly have not done a good job telling people how much they mean to me.  I don't think I can perceive their value nor am I good at explaining in words the value and character they have added to my life and relationships.

It can be murky at older ages

At many points in my education, I had the conviction that a smart person should learn the right way, the proven way and stick with it.  However, it is becoming apparent that that may not be possible.  Sometimes, the "right'-est way may be unknown.  Often, there is more than one way to brush my teeth or be a husband or buy bananas and there is argument and reasoning in favor of multiple ways of proceeding.  I can stick out my chest and act assured or I can confess to confusion and doubt but most of the time in connection with many issues, I can't show irrefutable proof that the path I am following is superior.  

I have known more than one PhD who recalled the morning of their orals, a morning when they realized that very day, a committee of highly educated, sophisticated thinkers would question and prod and come to a decision as to whether they were indeed doctorate-level.  When my step-father, a careful, rigorous and skilled thinker, stated that he didn't want to stop smoking, whether or not cigarettes were shortening his life, I thought he was being silly.  Now, years later, I might decide that I will continue with habits that I like, or drop habits that health experts say I should continue. I am confident that I have reached an age where I am my best guide, using due consideration of course. 

Provocations

A long time ago, I read Loren Eisley's "The Immense Journey", a consideration of the evolution of life.  Somewhere in that book, he says that all primate males tend toward grouchiness in old age.  I have been feeling grouchy today.  I wonder if I am biologically equipped with a grouch template that is wired to need exercising every now and then.

We are experiencing smoke in the air from Canadian wildfires.  This town of 25,000 is experiencing a temporary influx of a large number of golf fans since the US Senior Golf Tournament is being played on a local golf course.  Several areas of the town are blocked off to accommodate the crowd, which is expected to double the local population.  Is that enough to arouse my grouchiness?  Over the last day, I have developed another instance of sore back muscles with no explanation or excuse.  Backs are famous as sites of discomfort and there are all sorts of muscles for balance, breathing and motion that can become irritated. The best way to deal with the soreness that I have found is to sit with a heating pad and in more severe instances, take a pain pill.

So: smoke, crowd and sharp involuntary pain.  Snarl!

Adventures!

I find that a useful approach to aging is a stance of adventure.  I have never lived this day before so what is it going to be like? I have never been this exact age before - how will it turn out?  I was interested when the woman Byron Katie stated that she is having the time of her life watching her body fall apart.  Mine hasn't been falling apart, yet, but it is aging and I can sense the process going on. I wonder what's next.

It is not just bodies.  I am trying to direct my native country in the best direction but I am having very limited success.  So, I am eager to see what twists and turns unwind for the country.  Similarly, I am told that my home planet is not headed for a life-supporting future so I am trying to contribute to improving its prospects. I am not experienced nor notably skilled at contributing to the country's future nor that of the planet so I am watching and appreciating my contributions and the complex results of my bit and everyone else's.

.gov sites

I guess most people, like me, tend to think of web addresses as ending with ".com".  But recently, I found the site "time.gov".  It is from the US Bureau of Standards and gives the time in the various time zones of the US. It even tries to give a figure for allowing for the information transmission time to the device being used.  That feature reminded me of reading about astronomers in the 1800's realizing that light from an astronomical event took time to reach their eyes and should be accounted for.  I got interested in time.gov trying to place a phone call at a given time.

More recently, I found the National Weather Service site helpful in getting a feel for a day's weather.  Using Firefox browser, I enter "NWS" and click my way to the radar page.  Wisconsin is at the top of the US but open to weather from Canada as well as east-moving storms from the US west.  Seeing well above and on all sides of the state often gives me an idea of what's what.  

Recently, our normally high quality air is negatively affected by Canadian forest fires.  The site "airnow.gov" asks for a ZIP code and gives the air quality around there.

What she said

A relative of ours said,"My husband died.  Now, I have to figure out who I am."  That situation comes up for more of our friends and relatives these days.  I have mentioned before that when two psychologists were creating a test of stress, they chose the loss of a long-term mate as a strong, deep, disorienting hit that a person can experience.  As some of our friends can attest, it can take awhile to recover, not including the documents and papers and decisions involved.

https://www.google.com/search?q=how+long+does+upset+last+after+a+longtime+husband+or+wife+dies

When it is time to figure out who you are, you may evolve to be able to start a new phase of life. I am fairly familiar with the freeing and fascinating possibilities that can come from using meditation to develop mindfulness.  I haven't lost my longtime wife to death but I can see how any upset, as well as any strong pleasure or accomplishment, can be accepted more efficiently and fully with well-developed mindfulness.

Saturday at the farmers' market

Saturday is the farmers' market day.  In summer, it is held in the downtown public square and has been since the land was donated in 1847.  We have ready to eat food at several stands, a specialist in mushrooms, several local meat producers and excellent Hmong farmers who produce vegetables and flowers.  

https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=Stevens+Point+farmer%27s+market&iax=images&ia=images

One vendor brings large tasty pastries of several kinds.  He is the one who got us started.  During the winter, he is often available at the indoor version of the market but then, we often go to a local grocery store.  It is doubtful that one or two pastries is the healthiest possible lunch but they are good and we often look forward to them on Saturday mornings.  One problem with the market is that we sometimes don't want to wait until they assemble and put out their wares.

Hydration ideas

Some basic ideas from the book "Quench" by Cohen and Bria.

As Dr. Stites pointed out, coffee makers tend to mark off "cups" in 5 oz.amounts.  As my nurse practitioner said, don't count caffeinated beverages as hydrating ones.  For me, when I didn't count them, I was left with very little water by mouth.

On the pages of the Hydration Foundation, Bria notes impaired electricity transmission by highly treated water.

https://www.usgs.gov › special-topics › water-science-school › science › conductivity-electrical-conductance-and-water

"Conductivity (Electrical Conductance) and Water Completed - USGS.gov

Science Publications Water and electricity don't mix, right? Well actually, pure water is an excellent insulator and does not conduct electricity." If you are interested in our body's use of electricity, you might want to see "The Spark of Life: Electricity in the Body" by the Oxford scientist Frances Ashcroft.

The book advises paying strong attention to eating vegetables, such as cucumbers, that have plenty of internal water.

Cohen and Bria emphasize the role of the body connective tissue, fascia, as a major hydration conduit.

I have never been very affected by the lift power of coffee or tea but I have been drinking a pint of water first thing upon rising and it is very satisfying.

Used copies of "Quench" are available through the Amazon book section at low costs.

"Quench", a book

I feel that this book I am recommending is life-changing.  It has been for me.  The book is "Quench" by Dana Cohen, MD and Gina Bria, cultural anthropologist.  My blog of June 10 tells about my surprise at being diagnosed as inadequately hydrated.  When I was younger, I was bewitched with the idea of drinking adequate water.  Over time, I became convinced that I could get by with less.  However, since the diagnosis and reading "Quench", I have felt genuinely renewed: younger and more spry.

Ads for the 2018 book made it clear that the authors searched long and hard.  I did know that dehydration is a major problem of older people.  They may get bored with the subject but more importantly, they lose some ability to feel thirst.  "Quench" caught my attention because ads for it stated that the authors discuss diet, eating vegetables for their water content and pay less attention to actual drinking.  I gather that Cohen, the MD, was not the impetus for the book so much as Gina Bria.  She was so taken by the value of adequate hydration that she founded the Hydration Foundation. https://hydrationfoundation.org/

After a couple of weeks of working at 50 oz. consumed, a pint at a time, through the day, I can clearly feel that the diagnosis has helped me considerably.  I was impressed that the first blurb on the back cover was by the physician Christiane Northrup.  She praises the book's emphasis on the body's connective tissue, fascia, as a major water transport and delivery system to all parts of us.  Do yourself a favor and read the book.

Summer!

Today is the beginning of summer here and the longest day of the year for daylight.  I saw a headline that people visited Stonehenge to celebrate the summer and the light.  With electric light and cars, the amount of daylight is mostly a psychological factor in our lives.  It is nearly 90°F outside, which is HOT to us and people who live around here.  We expect even hotter weather before the end of summer in September.  By the fall equinox, I get impatient for cooler weather, which may not arrive until October.

Idea trapping

As we experience more senior moments, those times when we can't think of a name that we have known for a long time, it can be helpful to have pen and paper to jot down a description of who or what we are trying to recall.  Lately, I have been carrying a scrap piece of paper and a small ballpoint in my pocket for ideas and themes for a blog post or a reminder to call a friend.  I have also learned from experience that interesting or subtle themes and comparisons come to mind that are too subtle or rare to remember.  Sometimes, I get an idea that seems worthy of description and expansion but it is too slippery or background-ish to be likely to ever occur to me again.  That's a good one to write about.

Yesterday, an idea came back to me and I recognized it as one I have been wanting to write about but I have forgotten it again.  I didn't write it down but I thought some of my blog notes might include it or successfully prompt it to me again.  No luck so far.

One idea I do know I have been meaning to repeat is that we can select feelings we want instead of having our brains create feelings we don't want.  Lisa Feldman Barrett makes clear in her book "How Emotions Are Made" that we can toss feelings we don't want and create what we do.  That might seem like heaven and continuous joy or amusement is available but I don't mean that.  I seem to be constructed to want and need irritation, impatience or boredom from time to time.  But I enjoy questioning myself and my thoughts and offering myself possibly attractive alternatives when I want them. 

Refreshing

It is always a puzzle to picture what comes after death.  Some people say that imagining myself "gone" is too hard or even impossible.  Many pictures of events post-death seem too static to me.  Our bodies and our thinking depend on processes of refreshment.  Eating, sleeping, being awake - many conditions and activities require rest, periods of variety and being given new supplies.  Any description of wonderful, delightful, marvelous, happy conditions or activities that attempts to show permanence seems wrong, not human, unnatural to me.

In my graduate school psychology courses, the first one was psychophysics, about body and perceptive processes: how our vision, our hearing and other processes work.  I was impressed at how vision and other perception processes require refreshing, sometimes at very high rates.  

When I see the deteriorating body of a dead rabbit or squirrel in the woods, I think I am looking at a model of what is in my future.  I realize I consider myself far too wonderful to simply rot away but however tight and strong my coffin may be, I am confident that if you take a peek inside in 1000 years after my death, there will be very little left of me.  I am interested in some groups focusing on the memory of a person.  To some, if there is no attention by any human to my history, loveable personality, thought, comments, there is a deeper condition to fear, postpone, counter than the absence of flesh.

Another picture of somehow continuing on is sometimes focused on reproduction.  Maybe as long as some of my descendants are alive, part of my precious self continues.

Outside of our conscious minds

I looked at records of my reading and before I read "Incognito" by Eagleman and "Seven and a Half Lessons about Your Brain" by Barrett, I read Bargh's "Before You Know It" and Fine's "A Mind of Its Own".  I looked at my files of highlights of both books.  These struck me as worth posting.

Cordelia Fine in "A Mind of Its Own"

The vain brain that embellishes, enhances, and aggrandizes you. The vain brain that excuses your faults and failures, or simply rewrites them out of history. The vain brain that sets you up on a pedestal above your peers. The vain brain that misguidedly thinks you invincible, invulnerable, and omnipotent. The brain so very vain that it even considers the letters that appear in your name to be more attractive than those that don't.

The vain brain that embellishes, enhances, and aggrandizes you. The vain brain that excuses your faults and failures, or simply rewrites them out of history. The vain brain that sets you up on a pedestal above your peers.

The vain brain that misguidedly thinks you invincible, invulnerable, and omnipotent. The brain so very vain that it even considers the letters that appear in your name to be more attractive than those that don't.

John Bargh in "Before You Know It"

Half a century ago, Princeton professor George Miller pointed out that if we had to do everything consciously,  we'd never be able to get out of bed in the morning. (That's often hard enough as it is.) If you had to  painstakingly decide which muscle to move, and do so in the correct order, you would be overwhelmed. In the  helter-skelter hustle of each day, we don't have the luxury to reflect carefully on the best response in each and  every moment, so our unconsciously operating evolutionary past provides a streamlined system that saves us  time and energy. As we will soon explore, however, it also guides our behavior in other important, less obvious  ways—for instance, in such things as dating and immigration policy. 

------------------------------------------------------

It is only comparatively recently that psychologists and others have begun to grasp how complex our brains are and how much of what we do, think and feel comes from other parts of us than our known, conscious minds.

Breath and breathing

A friend got me thinking about breathing.  She was reading "Breath" by James Nestor, which has been quite popular.  I recommended "Conscious Breathing" by Gay Hendricks but I got to thinking about breathing books that have helped me use breathing as a focus of mediation.  As I looked over books and mentions of books, I realized that "Breath by Breath" by Prof. Larry Rosenberg was an earlier book in my reading that I really liked.  I knew I owned that book in Kindle form and when that is the case, I sometimes make a web page of highlights I have made while reading the book.  I searched and yes, I have such a web page here: https://sites.google.com/view/kirbyvariety1/breath-by-breath-notes

These books explain and celebrate the value of using one's breath as a focus of attention while meditating.  However, my friend has been suffering shortness of breath, which I think is more of a lung and health problem.  

Meditation can be a great assistance with any problem or any success but if I was interested in what I could do about shortness of breath, I would also look elsewhere.

Meditation and bleeding

Sometimes I ask friends and acquaintances if they meditate. They usually answer with something like "I should".  It was in the mid 70's that I learned about meditation.  I learned enough that I thought college students and teachers would benefit from developing a habit of meditating.  As with praying, there are a number of ways of giving yourself over to being still and focusing your attention on the internal awareness of you.  

One of the main things is that doing so is easy, inexpensive and immediately available.  There are instructors, leaders, courses and tons of books and videos about what to do and how to do it.  My main approach is not to ask myself for an hour or a week or day but for a minute or maybe 10-15.  Find a good chair (no need to sit in a lotus position unless you want to), place yourself in good posture, close your eyes and sit.  I say an audible timer that sounds after 5, or 10, or 15 minutes is a help.  You may find yourself wondering when the timer will ring, why doesn't it hurry up?  You may find yourself wondering if "you are doing it right",  You are.  It's good to get to know the internal you.

The other thing referred to in today's title is 'bleeding'.  I have been on a blood thinner for several years but only recently found out about BleedStop and Wound Seal, two products to help stop bleeding.  I accidentally gave myself a small cut on the shin and Lynn went out and bought some BleedStop and some WoundSeal.  If you have a small cut that won't stop bleeding, it is handy to have either product on hand.

Why are old people so wise?

Why are old people so wise?  It has to do with memory slowdown.  You may have noticed that old people tend to pause in speaking, throw back their heads and stare up.  They experience what is sometimes called a "senior moment".  It simply means they can't recall a name, usually a noun of that sort.  Normally, they haven't recalled that name recently but it is a name that they used to know well.  They realize they used to know it.  Old people who just started being old may show strong irritation at the beginning of a recall delay but over time, they become used to the problem.  

An interesting aspect of senior moments is that the senior knows he used to know the name he is trying to think over.  I am not clear how it can be that he can't recall it but he still knows he used to know it.  I find Google a big help.  Describing the facts I do know: he was an author, he wrote funny novels, he wrote for the New Yorker as well.  This time, looking up what I thought was indeed the name of one of his books worked: Peter DeVries!

See, older people spend lots of time reviewing what they were doing, why and where to track down a missing name or goal.  That tracking gets them in the habit of reflecting: what am I doing?  Why am I doing that?  In short order, I start reflecting on the meaning of life.

Reading as virtue

I was surprised when two retired professors made statements that more or less elevated "reading" the book club book to the level of virtuous activity.  I guess there is a difference between "Did you read that 400 page book?" and "Do you know what that 400 page book says?"  One of the questions seems to be about properly behaving and dutifully "doing the homework" while the other asks if you know something.  I have written about my dumb practice of asking students who say they have read the book "what is the next word after the word "model" on page 64?"  Of course, students respond with a bewildered look.  They did not claim to have the text memorized.  So, what do we tend to mean when we say we have read the text?

I think we normally mean that "I can probably answer most basic questions about what the text states."

A man recently advised getting information about a book by searching YouTube.  He said that many authors of many recent books have interviews on YouTube aimed at promoting sales of the book.  The few times recently I looked up an author on YouTube, he was quite correct.  In fact, the author interview I watched included comments and opinions that may well have been created only after the author had the book published. So, searching YouTube and maybe Google, too, may provide insights not available to one who simply reads all the text.

I posted several suggestions for members of my group who know the discussion is coming up but have not read all or maybe any of the book.  My three suggestions were:

Look up the author's interviews on YouTube

Read one paragraph per page

Read the last chapter

One professor called my writing "the voice of temptation", I guess more or less equating me with evil.  The other professor expressed thanks for the "Cheats".  I actually advocate attending book club meetings without having read the book.  Such attenders, if not gagged by shame, may make valuable contributions and ask pertinent questions.

Fwd: Numlock News: June 13, 2023 • Autopilot, Catfish, Dog Poop

Thought this might be of interest.  Bill

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Numlock News <numlock@substack.com>
Date: Tue, Jun 13, 2023 at 5:04 AM
Subject: Numlock News: June 13, 2023 • Autopilot, Catfish, Dog Poop

By Colin Sholes Today our guest writer is Colin Sholes, who writes all about scams and the people who do them in his excellent newsletter A Scammer Darkly. Good morning! In Walt's absence, I've been instructed to fill your inboxes full of scam and scam-adjacent stories this morning. Please enjoy this rich sampler of guile, deception and blatant criminality.  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

	Open in app or online Numlock News: June 13, 2023 • Autopilot, Catfish, Dog Poop Jun 13   Share   By Colin Sholes Today our guest writer is Colin Sholes, who writes all about scams and the people who do them in his excellent newsletter A Scammer Darkly. Good morning! In Walt's absence, I've been instructed to fill your inboxes full of scam and scam-adjacent stories this morning. Please enjoy this rich sampler of guile, deception and blatant criminality. Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm Tesla's Autopilot driver-assistance software has been involved in far more crashes than previously reported, according to updated NHTSA data. Since 2019, Teslas have caused at least 736 crashes and 17 fatalities with driver-assist engaged. The new data is incomplete, since regulators often can't determine whether assistance software was enabled during a wreck. These partial numbers still account for the vast majority of driver-assist accidents and nearly all the fatalities reported by any car manufacturer, due to Tesla's widespread rollout of its systems and lax oversight. Tesla's CEO insists "Full Self-Driving" tech is safe despite a recent mass recall due to safety concerns, a laissez-faire attitude that tracks with his approach to most of the companies he runs. Faiz Siddiqui and Jeremy B. Merrill, The Washington Post Let Me Be the One Early in the gig economy, customers may have been inclined to deliver an honest — or scathing — rating of their ride-share or delivery driver. Once it became common knowledge that doing so could endanger the precarious livelihoods of those propping up our increasingly entitled on-demand existences, app users made it rain stars. Lyft expects drivers to maintain a rating of 4.8 or higher on the app or risk disciplinary action. The average Airbnb rating in the U.S. is 4.7. Ride-share drivers, in a perfect encapsulation of the gig economy writ large, are even more generous, with the average Uber passenger scoring a truly absurd 4.9 out of 5 stars. Preetika Rana, The Wall Street Journal Our Lips Are Sealed Finance podcast enthusiasts may have noticed a recent rash of ads by firms offering to help businesses claim the Employee Retention Credit (ERC), a tax incentive for companies who paid out wages during the COVID-19 pandemic while their operations were fully or partially suspended or their revenues declined. If companies meet the ERC criteria, they could be eligible for up to $26,000 per employee, which makes for a great marketing pitch while you're halfway through an episode of Odd Lots. But the IRS has zeroed in on companies filing fraudulent claims via dodgy firms, going so far as to add the ERC to its annual "Dirty Dozen" list of tax scams, due to its ease of filing and the aggressive marketing campaigns that have sprung up around it. Cheryl Winokur Munk, CNBC My Whole Crew is Loungin' In the United States, public housing has long been associated with poor living conditions, poverty and systemic racism. At the federal level, it's limited to low-income families and individuals, and demand wildly outstrips supply. Even the wealthiest cities in the country have slashed budgets and can't keep up with building repairs. What would it look like if public housing's stigma were removed? In Vienna, a century-long project to build affordable accommodations has led to 80 percent of residents qualifying for public housing, and 80 percent of the city's inhabitants renting rather than owning. Once admitted to the program the contract never expires, and caps on rent mean renters spend a fraction of their income on housing, often in the single digits, which is around what the average American family spends on food each month. Francesca Mari, The New York Times Catfish Boogie Catfishing involves creating a fake persona to lure someone into a relationship. Sometimes it's a play for money, sometimes it's a convenient fiction to juice your NFL draft prospects. Whatever the motivation, modern day catfishing is easy and lucrative. So lucrative that networks of romance sites have sprung up all over the internet, spawning remote freelancer networks to provide humans to operate the fake profiles. Companies like vDesk use elaborate systems to build and run accounts called "virtuals," paying the freelancers behind them as little as 7 cents a message. The targets of said catfishing pay up to €2 per message to talk to a stranger impersonating a romantic interest in two-minute increments. The industry exists in a sort of legal limbo because most sites include language in their terms of service stating profiles may be virtuals, and most sites operate out of privacy-friendly foreign countries like Cyprus and Switzerland. Laura Cole, WIRED It's Everyday Bro If, hypothetically, you were a powerful real estate investor with deep ties to the state attorney general, like, say you had hired his mistress and remodeled his house in exchange for him keeping your companies out of legal trouble, how long would that protection last after said attorney general was impeached and removed from office? The answer to this particular question is around two weeks: Austin developer Nate Paul was arrested this week and charged with eight counts of making false statements by federal prosecutors. While seemingly unrelated to the impeachment proceedings, the government alleges Paul was able to accumulate the vast wealth he deployed to, uh, make powerful friends by lying about his holdings to score bank loans and snap up valuable Austin property. Zach Despart and Robert Downen, The Texas Tribune Sue Jack Daniels Despite its recent track record, not all the cases the Supreme Court hears want to strip civil rights and protections from millions of the most vulnerable Americans. Some are about dog poop. Well, one is, though if any court historians are reading this and have further precedent please email me. Last week, the justices sided unanimously with Jack Daniel's against VIP Products, maker of the "Bad Spaniels Silly Squeaker" toy which is shaped like a bottle of Jack and boasts "43% POO BY VOL." and "100% SMELLY" which spirits company Brown-Forman took issue with, claiming people could easily mistake a different bottle of brown, disgusting substance for their whiskey. The Supreme Court stopped short of issuing the broad IP protections Jack Daniel's sought, which free speech advocates worried would restrict First Amendment rights to parody popular products. Devan Cole, CNN If you enjoyed today's edition, check out A Scammer Darkly. A Scammer Darkly Scams, scammers, and exposing the ways the game is rigged. By Colin Sholes Send links to me on Twitter at @WaltHickey or email me with numbers, tips or feedback at walt@numlock.news. Send corrections or typos to the copy desk at copy@numlock.news. Check out the Numlock Book Club and Numlock award season supplement. Previous Sunday subscriber editions: Psychedelics · Country Radio · Zelda · Coyotes · Beer · Nuclear · NASCAR · Seaweed · Working · Cable · Ringmaster · Hard Seltzer · Enhanced Geothermal · Hoop Muses · Subsea Cables · Wrestling · Tabletop Renaissance · BTS · Baby Boom · Levees · Misdirection · Public Domain Sunday Edition Archives: 2022 · 2021 · 2020 · 2019 · 2018   Like Comment Restack   © 2023 Walt Hickey P.O. Box 3106, Astoria, NY 11103 Unsubscribe