Category: Local / Living

Pics – January – Denver 2024

Chicago Rat Hole

The Chicago rat hole is a petrosomatoglyph, a hole shaped like a rat in the sidewalk of West Roscoe Street in the Roscoe Village neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois, United States. After existing for decades, it became a viral phenomenon on social media (mainly Twitter) in January 2024, attracting tourists to the site.

The New York Times described the hole as “Chicago’s Stonehenge“, as its origins are unknown.

History
The hole gained worldwide attention on January 6, 2024, via a tweet by Chicago-based comedian and writer Winslow Dumaine. The post quickly became viral, compelling many Chicago residents to visit the hole—in what has been described as a “pilgrimage“—and to make offerings to it, such as coins, flowers, candles, cheese, cigarettes, alcohol, children’s toys, foodstuffs, and estradiol pills. One group of visitors took shots of Chicago specialty Malört beside the hole, before leaving the bottle as an oblation.

Despite its newfound attention in 2024, the hole had existed for at least 20 to 30 years, according to locals. A local softball team has been using the rat as its unofficial mascot since around 2018.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_rat_hole

Cold Day – Denver – January 15, 2024

Martin Luther King Day

U.S. Carbon Emissions Down

America’s greenhouse gas emissions fell 1.9 percent in 2023, in large part because the burning of coal to produce electricity plummeted to its lowest level in half a century, according to estimates published on Wednesday by the Rhodium Group, a nonpartisan research firm.

The drop means that United States emissions have now fallen roughly 17.2 percent since 2005. There was a huge, anomalous dip in planet-warming pollution at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, when large segments of the economy shut down, followed by a sharp rebound in the following two years once activity resumed. But over the longer term, America’s emissions have been trending downward as power plants and cars have gotten cleaner.

U.S. Carbon Emissions Fell in 2023 as Coal Use Tumbled to New Lows
The drop was big, but emissions will need to fall three times as fast for the rest of the decade if the country wants to meet its climate goals.

Washington Park – January 1, 2024

Tooth Problems and Early Death

Deaths from dental abscesses today are so rare, that it is difficult to fathom that only 200 years ago, this was a leading cause of death. When the London (England) Bills of Mortality began listing the causes of death in the early 1600’s, “teeth” were continually listed as the fifth or sixth leading cause of death. (This does not include the category of “Teething” which was probably erroneously blamed for many children’s deaths. As we examine several historic factors of this period, it is apparent that the number of deaths attributed to “teeth” in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was probably fairly accurate, and it was not antibiotics, nor the discovery of asepsis, that brought about the dramatic reduction in these dental mortalities, but two much earlier dental innovations.

J H Clarke
NCBI
The National Center for Biotechnology Information advances science and health by providing access to biomedical and genomic information.

RE: Taylor Swift at Football Games

Red Rocks Attendance – Nov. 1, 2022 to Sept. 30, 2023

MORRISON, Colo. — Colorado’s famed Red Rocks Amphitheatre was the most-attended outdoor venue in the United States and one of the five busiest venues in the world this year, according to data released by Billboard magazine.

According to Billboard, a total of 1.4 million people attended 174 shows at the amphitheatre between Nov. 1, 2022 and Sept. 30, 2023. The venue’s capacity is 9,525 people.

Red Rocks was among the most-attended venues in the world this year
In terms of attendance, Red Rocks was the fourth-ranked venue of any type or size, according to Billboard rankings.

Cold Day – December 26, 2023 – Denver

2020 – World Shutdown

Just a reminder of what we went through in 2020
byu/Far-Stay9417 ininterestingasfuck

Texas Woman Leaves State for Abortion

Dec 11 (Reuters) – A woman who had asked a court for an order allowing her to get an abortion under the medical emergency exception to Texas’ near-total ban will leave the state to receive care while the state’s highest court considers her case, her lawyers said in a court filing on Monday.

Lawyers for Kate Cox said in a filing with the Texas Supreme Court that she nonetheless wished to continue her lawsuit. A lower court last week issued a restraining order allowing her to obtain an abortion, but the state Supreme Court put it on hold while it considers an appeal by Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican.
…
Cox’s fetus was diagnosed on Nov. 27 with trisomy 18, a genetic abnormality that usually results in miscarriage, stillbirth or death soon after birth.

Texas woman who asked court to allow emergency abortion will leave state for care
REUTERS

Laying bricks on a beautiful sunny day

Laying bricks on a beautiful sunny day
byu/Rollo_Tomasi3000 inoddlysatisfying

Juarez Burritos – New York Times on

No one questions that Juárez is the birthplace of burritos, though there are competing origin stories. Some attribute their creation to Juan Mendez, who sold guisados wrapped in flour tortillas from a donkey-pulled buggy — a burrito — during the Mexican Revolution. Others say they were born of the workers who took these wraps on the go and then called them burritos because they resembled the rolled blankets that sat atop donkeys in the fields. Some say they were named after children who helped women carry their shopping — endearingly nicknamed burritos — and paid with these wraps.
…
On both sides of the Rio Grande, the love for and dedication to the craft of making what they consider true burritos are perhaps what define the style most. Making them, Mr. Vasquez said, “has to come from the heart.”

Ms. Covarrubias echoed that sentiment. “The main ingredient is mucho amor.”

On the Border, the Perfect Burrito is a Thin, Foil-Wrapped Treasure
Despite a culinary rivalry, the sister cities El Paso and Ciudad Juárez can agree that a simple burrito is the best burrito.
Pati Jinich