Yep, as psychodad said not so many hours ago,


 ...and it literally was empty.

 Maybe I don't understand your question exactly but my daughter is learning, I'm learning (you'll have to take my word for it as I didn't have to take the tests), we (my daughter and I) are learning about each other as we navigate a shared experience and I believe we are also learning about the learning experience itself.  You (the royal you, unless you have me on ignore) are also learning as I share my stories which is fundamentally how we learn from one another while connecting as humans.  I mean, who isn't learning from this process?  Maybe you focused on the "making me help her" part; I do that willingly and happily.

 We didn't even have computers when I was in high school let alone internet.  My parents second-mortgaged the house to get us a set of Funk & Wagnall's encyclopedias and if I couldn't find he information in there, I would head to the library.  For the most part, we were taught right from a text book so it was pretty easy to learn/study the material.  Nowadays there are no textbooks and while I might know how to solve the problems and get the correct answer,  I don't know how to show the methodology the teacher wants to see ie draw a proper free-body diagram to solve a physics problem and this is where YouTube comes in very handy.  They said textbooks were too expensive but now every kid gets a laptop and the school pays for software and it's not cheap.  When I was i school, they loaned you the textbooks and if you lost it, you bought it.  Anyway... the good old days aren't likely coming back.
 

 Well, my daughter is keeping my mind active by making me help her study for tests and quizzes.  I know all about eukaryotes for example and I've also been refreshing maths and chemistry lately.  I feel as though I've forgotten just about everything I had ever learned in school but it does come back to you once you look at it again.  Helping her with computer programming was the most fun for me but that's her least favourite area of study

 Damn!  I was up all night trying to figure out how to get me some of this fungus.  Turns out this discovery was made 6 years ago and sadly, it doesn't actually turn other metals into gold but I suspected that due to the massive amounts of energy required for the transmutation of metals.  Instead, the fungus acts as a biological catalyst which can produce the necessary oxidants and ligands [molecules or ions that form a bond with a central metal atom] to dissolve gold and then incorporate it into it's biomass.  The gold has to already exist so we're not going to be able to run biological gold generators in out back yards with our used beer cans and brake rotors. 

 It essentially catalyzes this reaction somehow:

Au_(s) + O₂^- + 2 H₂O_(l) = Au(OH)₄^-  (log K₂₅ = -1.91)

O₂^- <-- this is known as superoxide and is a common byproduct of plant and fungal metabolic processes
(log K₂₅ = -1.91) <-- this negative value indicates that the reaction doesn't favour the right side under normal circumstances (which makes sense since gold is highly inert)

 That sucks.  Hopefully bitcoin will moon to make up for that disappointment.

 

 That reminds me, we couldn't even find let alone afford eggs to dye for Easter this year, so we used small potatoes instead.

Surprise auroras just appeared this evening.  Cloudy here as usual but northern US observers should be able to see them.  I saw one report of visible auroras from West Milford, NJ so far.  I see them over Mt Katahdin, ME through a break in the clouds.  Peak plasma density is predicted for 2200 UST May 2nd so Northern Europeans, Scandinavians, Northern Russians and Southern Kiwis might see them this evening (it's already May 2nd there)... maybe Aussies too if you're in a dark enough locale.

 Looks like a fork of Valentina Picozzi's Lugano Satoshi statue.

 May 2nd 0200 UST

  I'm not much of a history buff so I had to research it last night.   I read about the ravages of the Ottoman empire on Carniola during the 15th-16th centuries and how the locals would light bonfires on the hills/mountains to warn of Ottoman attacks.

from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stražišče,_Kranj

"The name Stražišče, like similar names (e.g., Straža, Straže, Stražica, etc.) is derived from the Slovene common noun straža 'guards' or 'guard post'. Such names are often applied to settlements near hills or mountains where warning fires were lit to warn against Ottoman attacks."

 I also found out about a recent historical mini-series produced in Hungary called "Hunyadi - Rise of the Raven (or Rise to Power)" which debuted at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. 

overview from https://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunyadi_(televíziós_sorozat)

"In Rise of the Raven, John Hunyadi devotes his life to defending Europe against the Ottoman invasion. Amid political intrigue and betrayal, and conspiracies between noble families from Hungary, Austria, Italy, Poland, Serbia, his key allies are his wife Elizabeth, who fights alongside him, and Mara, his first love, who becomes Sultan Murad’s concubine. As the Ottoman Empire mobilizes an enormous army to conquer Hungary, Hunyadi leads his smaller but formidable forces into battle, sealing a hard-fought victory at the Siege of Belgrade."

 It even has our own Vlad Țepeș (Vlad the Impaler) in it.  I'm putting that on my list of things to watch.
 

 I used to go out regularly for souvlaki but the place closed.  I did my best to keep it afloat.

 I tried to tell you guys that it no longer exists; it's a kebab shop now.

 ...but that would just create more problems because the conspiracy theorists would be like "Absolute zero?  How did we get here?!  That's not even possible."

Wow.  I put myself on Venus and a few days later Spaceweather comes out with report debunking my story.

 While I hadn't heard about any bitcoin bars there, the architecture reminded me of Bucharest, RO but the Bitcoin Bar in that picture is in Budapest, Hungary - not so sure it still exists as there's a kebab place at that location in 2024.

 Well, there were 91 fucking candidates on the ballot in Poilievre's riding - it was over a yard long.    Some moron's idea (allegedly) of a protest against our "first past the poll" system of elections in Canada.  It doesn't cost the candidates anything - they only need 100 signatures from people who reside within the riding.  My understanding is, they only need submit their name and someone else does everything for them.

 I think we've actually left the frying pan and are into the fire.

   https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-mark-carney-end-freedom-convoy-ottawa-state-of-emergency/  or  https://archive.ph/mUCZs

 The fact that he flip-flopped on the carbon tax ideology (he pushed for years) alone makes him a lying SOB.  Just like Trudeau, the man lacks integrity and I can't believe Canadians fell for it while somehow conflating Polievre with Trump... ah I'm sure nobody wants to hear about it in here.  I'm done.  Sorry

I know it's not nice to laugh at another's misfortune but sometimes you can't help it.  Somehow I discovered a YouTube channel call Chat Music where this guy puts comments to music with the image/video they were associated with. 

https://www.youtube.com/@chat.m/videos

I was laughing so hard at some I had tears in my eyes - my daughter was looking at me like I was nuts.

 I might check that out later tonight.  No way I'm going to be able to watch that with my wife.