I Am the Code! Farm Exports. Cursive. Kennedy’s Worm
I Am the Code!
When the architect of Trump’s White House ballroom warned him that the project violated building codes, the president reportedly said, “I am the code!” The architect, James McCrery II, then withdrew from the project. That raises an obvious question: if the finished structure doesn’t meet code, can it legally be used?
The answer is murkier than you might think. As Reason points out, the Supremacy Clause and the doctrine of sovereign immunity broadly exempt the federal government from state and local rules, including zoning laws and building codes. But there’s a catch: federal law (40 U.S.C. § 3312) requires that any construction of, or alteration to, a federal building comply with one of the nationally recognized model building codes. So the president may not be the code after all. And will the building be allowed to open without adhering to some code or the other – besides the president’s?
Farm Exports
Trump’s tariffs have caused farm exports to tank, most notably exports to China. Remember soybeans? Exports plunged from 12 million tons to fewer than 2 million as Chinese buyers took their business elsewhere. Overall, American farm exports to China peaked at $38.1 billion in 2022 and fell to just $8.4 billion last year.
China was one of the few countries willing to match Trump tariff for tariff. As with Canada, every time Beijing retaliated, Trump raised the stakes further. Now the bill may be coming due if republicans lose seats across the Midwest as frustration with the tariffs grows.
Bring Back Cursive!
I’ve mentioned before that when I returned to the classroom at UT that fateful semester, my students were incredulous that I expected them to write their exams by hand on the paper provided. They wanted to use their laptops, but I held firm. Imagine my shock when every exam came back printed, one so neatly that I wondered why I hadn’t heard the printer. The students simply don’t know cursive. One told me her mother had to teach her how to sign her own name.
It turns out that dropping cursive is just one more in a long line of failures by our so-called “educators.” There are real intellectual and aesthetic values in the handwritten word and 27 states now require their public schools to teach cursive. Handwriting matters for retaining information, especially in elementary school, and writing of any kind beats typing for improving spelling accuracy, letter recognition, memory, and recall. Cursive may offer even more. Studies suggest its continuous, connected strokes do more than printing to build fine motor skills, strengthen neural connections, and encourage fluid thinking, and some research points to benefits for dyslexia and reading development.
BTW, why do we say “typing” when there are no typewriters and “dialing” when there are no telephone dials?
RFK Jr.’s Worm
It’s hard to deny that RFK Jr. is a bit of a kook, and it frightens me that this guy is in charge of HHS. One of his stranger claims is that a worm once ate part of his brain and then died inside his head. He made the assertion during his 2012 divorce proceedings, describing cognitive problems he feared were a brain tumor, until a doctor told him the dark spot on his brain scans was a dead parasite.
Well, a recent story in Ars Technica has made me reconsider:
A rice farmer in the Philippines began experiencing uncontrollable shaking in her arms and legs. A physical exam turned up nothing, but a brain scan revealed a bright cluster of nodules surrounded by fluid in her left frontal lobe. Her doctors immediately suspected worm eggs, specifically neuroschistosomiasis, an uncommon complication of infection with Schistosoma, a parasitic worm also known as a blood fluke. This infection occurs most often among those who work in water.
The adult worms can live in blood vessels undetected, producing no noticeable symptoms. It’s usually their eggs that cause the trouble and give them away. The parasite’s life cycle is the stuff of science fiction. The eggs hatch into free-swimming larvae that seek out particular kinds of aquatic snails, burrow inside them, and pass through two life stages there. The late-stage larvae then burst out, grow a forked tail, and swim off in search of an animal host. On rare occasions, eggs lodge in the brain, where they’re linked to seizures and other neurological problems.
With the MRI pointing to eggs, the doctors diagnosed cerebral schistosomiasis as the cause of her focal seizure. They saw a forked tail! They prescribed an anti-parasitic drug, an anti-inflammatory and an anti-seizure medication. Three months later she reported no further seizures, and a follow-up MRI showed the eggs were gone.
So there you have it! Maybe Kennedy really did have a worm in his brain after all.
First, the artwork above is worthy of Mike Luckovich of the AJC.
I wonder out loud if we’re seeing the mental deterioration of Trump in living color on live TV. He’s repeating himself like a scratched LP vinyl record at the injurious rallies he still holds (for 90 minutes!), and believe he “is the code!” He’s everything a President of this great country shouldn’t be – and still a better choice than any on the left. What dire straits we are in!
I went to parochial school, grades 1-8. Handwriting – or Penmanship as it was called – was a formal class through 4th grade. I can still see the practice pads that assisted in shaping each letter correctly on the upper and lower line. Our Franciscan nuns (great teachers!) would watch us closely and incorporate the “trial/critique” loop of true learning with discipline.
Sadly, over the years, I’ve allowed my penmanship to deteriorate into chicken scribble. My 92 year old mother and 85 year old mother-in-law both still write beautifully, with perfect lifts and lines. Certainly a lost art, and fascinating factoids you called out about its benefits.
As for RFK, don’t you know – KOOKS RULE!
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When David Brooks said the ballroom was needed, I lost all hope the ‘addition’ would stop. Brooks , who must go to the White House, said more room was needed to include more people..
..which will never include me. But my wife has an astounding picture of relatives walking up to & taking their pictures at the North Portico; yes, it’s an old picture…
Don’t know about brain worms but did experience viral encephalitis/ brain swelling..
Doing some work in a area with mosquitoes, I woke up the next day not knowing who I was..
After diagnosis of stroke , then rabies, viral encephalitis was confirmed because of coma and amnesia..
Rice farmer was probably not agitated and unhinged during procedures, but I will add, don’t ever overlook the staff doing MRIs & CTs. A patient in my condition won’t remember those people , nor recall bad-acting during those procedures..
Category of Be Of Good Cheer!
About Young’uns who don’t know how to sign their name..
…October 1 was PostCard Day. At least one Knox library had a section of general postcards , where I guess kids could write a message. Then the library would mail these cards to addressees.
I hope Postcard Day becomes an annual event; and include kids being taught that the stamp goes in the upper right corner.
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