U.S. Playing Card Company. Queen Of Hearts -- 24. 2014 Courtesy of the Richard F. Brush Art Gallery. via JSTOR. Accessed 14 May 2026.
Description
A red playing card with a Queen of Hearts on it. Text at the top states, āYou have a true loving woman friend. You can trust her fully.ā
Text at the bottom states, āLove and happiness are within your reach; grasp them.ā
Provenance notes
On the side of the card, the number 24 is circled in red. This Queen belongs to a set of 52 Revelation Fortune Telling Playing Cards from 1919 that were used as a simple fortune-telling device; everyone had the ability to interpret the cards, unlike the esoteric nature of tarot cards.
Normally the cards are used in a āCircle of Sevenā format where the entire deck is shuffled and every 7th card is counted for the reading (the rest of the cards are discarded). The seven cards are then analyzed to tell oneās fortune. Each card also has a circled number on its side, either red or black, which denotes the power value of the card (if this Queen were pulled during a reading, the red 24 would hold a lot of power). The power values are summed together if theyāre red, and then the black power values are subtracted from that total. The higher the number, the stronger and more accurate the reading will be.
After calculating the number, the phrases on the top of the cards are read to give a fortune. It is unclear what the purpose on the phrase on the bottom of the cards is used for. I wish I had come across an entire deck instead of one lone card.
This card was given to me at the Peopleās Climate March on September 21, 2014, somewhere between 86th Street and 59th Street on Central Park West, but it advertises for an event on September 22, 2014, on Broadway and Wall Street in the financial district of Manhattan, New York City, New York.
The Hyper Text Coffee Pot Control Protocol for Tea Efflux Appliances (HTCPCP-TEA):
The Hyper Text Coffee Pot Control Protocol (HTCPCP) specification does not allow for the brewing of tea, in all its variety and complexity. This paper outlines an extension to HTCPCP to allow for pots to provide networked tea-brewing facilities.
Note that the above abstract from RFC 7168 is a 2014 update to the original Hyper Text Coffee Pot Control Protocol (HTCPCP/1.0) RFC 2324 of April 1998:
This document describes HTCPCP, a protocol for controlling, monitoring, and diagnosing coffee pots.
IETF = Internet Engineering Task Force
RFC = Request for comment
IETF RFC 2324
It was a different world, when the Internet was new, before Sam Altman and OpenAI were born. This was considered hilariously amusing:
Commands to control a coffee pot are sent from client to coffee server using either the BREW or POST method, and a message body with Content-Type set to "application/coffee-pot-command". A coffee pot server MUST accept both the BREW and POST method equivalently. However, the use of POST for causing actions to happen is deprecated.
Coffee pots heat water using electronic mechanisms, so there is no fire. Thus, no firewalls are necessary, and firewall control policy is irrelevant. However, POST may be a trademark for coffee, and so the BREW method has been added. The BREW method may be used with other HTTP-based protocols (e.g., the Hyper Text Brewery Control Protocol).
The Internet Engineering Task Force was founded in 1986. It was and remains "the premier standards development organization (SDO) for the Internet... helping shape the trajectory of the development of the Internet. But in no way does the IETF control, or even patrol, the Internet."
I guess.
The IETF has fancy meetings, three times a year, in nice places, e.g. Vienna, Montreal, Bangkok, San Francisco, Brisbane, Madrid, Seoul, San Diego, Yokohama, Prague, Singapore, Dublin, Berlin, Buenos Aires, Honolulu and so forth. Meeting length is a full week.
I found it in the 24 April 2019 weekend edition of the The New York Times.Ā
It is a photo of artifacts displayed at the Museum of the Memory of the Jewish People and the Holocaust in Ukraine. The associated article accompanying the image is possibly clickbait; It is titled, Ukraineās Newly Elected President Is Jewish. So Is Its Prime Minister. Not All Jews There Are Pleased.Ā
I cannot read any further, as the days when The New York Times allowed non-subscribers to read 10 articles per month ceased long ago. (Some free views must have been allowed as of 2019, else I wouldnāt have gotten a glimpse of the image at all.)Ā
Is the image gen AI or a photograph?
The NYTās paywall is FAST! Like the drawbridge of a medieval castle, it quickly obscures everything from view, just as drawbridges were intended to do.
In the spring of 2019, Claude, Anthropic, Gemini, Grok, Sorra et al. wouldnāt be available for a few years as the new slick alternative to cell phone pictures, let alone an SLR camera for photographs.Ā
SLR camera lenses are a vague memory; I think good amateur photographers and maybe some professionals used them from the beginning of the Obama years through the end of the Trump 1.0 administration.
April 2019: No COVID19, no monkeypox, yet
In early 2019, on the day of the photo, I wasnāt cynical about much, not the way I am now.Ā Maybe generative AI has made me temporarily or permanently jaded about the authenticity of visual reproductions?
Donāt get me started on COVID19 and Monkeypox!Ā Best not to dwell on them unless unavoidably necessary. Regardless, donāt let memories of the maladaptive pandemic responses by many 1st world public health entities dissuade you from getting a measles vaccine or booster if youāre due. The DPT (tetanus, polio, and diphtheria) vaccineĀ DOES NOTĀ now, nor has ever used mRNA technology!Ā
Best of all is that Dr. Fauci and Dr. Wolensky are nowhere to be seen!Ā
Yet I'm hesitant
Look at the pleasant figure of the woman wearing a forest green and black striped pullover and jeans, on the far left in the photo. She is leaning forward bent at the waist, although I cannot discern the focus of her attention. There is a narrow but brightly lit opening at the back of the exhibit into which she is peering intently.Ā
So far, so good...
Nothing anomalous about Greensleeves. Her friend, or perhaps a museum staff worker for the exhibit is slightly to Greensleevesā lower right, almost kneeling on the roomās clean parquet flooring.
Initially, I entirely overlooked the presence of the second woman. The narrow beam of yellow-gold light from the slotted doorway (or whatever it is) may be open for both women. Greensleeves is standing much more upright, and distant from both the light and exhibit items.Ā
In contrast, the second woman is low to the ground, almost squatting as though she might be working, and she might be nearer and more strongly drawn toward the light beam... and perhaps as much or more to whatever is beyond that sliver of doorway light and beyond.Ā
. . .except for that bassinet?
If the second, mostly obscured woman, with the longer hair, is real, as most people depicted in photos and paintings were, prior to 2020, then...Ā
WHY is she melting? merging? morphing? into the wooden object directly in front of the wall? It looks to be made of varnished dark wood, for a Jewish child under age 4, no doubt sent with older siblings, parents, and extended family members to take a few things and then embark on a relatively brief wagon ride from home to a grassy clearing that was a small precipice which springtime greenery of 1942 served to hide an old and fearsome ravine.
Digression: Babyn Yar
Babyn Yar is the name of that long, very dark, very deep black ravine, where over 400,000 mostly Ukrainian, Polish, and Lithuanian Jews as well as another 200,000 or more Polish Catholics, Gypsies, Serbian Orthodox, and many Soviet Russians were all executed by Nazi German and SS Weimar Division troops. Most were not soldiers, but rather, men and women of all ages, and many children. Death was by gunshot and bayonet directly on the edge of cold, cold Babyn Yar so they would topple in with minimal effort. Babyn Yar encircles the northeast outskirts of Kiev.Ā
Back in the Holocaust Museum of Kiev, in 2019, the nature of the furniture is unclear. Crib, table? Three or four legs, or an impossible two legs, with the young woman being absorbed to serve as another leg?Ā Or is it painted on the wall, close to the center of the room, but to the young womanās lower right or maybe directly behind her?
Is it just my imagination?Ā Ā
Probably.Ā Ā
AI art, more accurately called AI slop, had not yet been released in early 2019. Not even that poor soul, the Google engineer (ex-Google engineer) who became convinced his AI chatbot was sentinant and that they were in love, had met his sad fate until 2021 or so.
There are plenty of challenges in supporting the promised functionality of Generative Artificial Intelligence. So-called hallucinations are the most formidable and intractable so far, and no one seems to be even close to fixing them. Sam Altman and Satya Nodella might want to tell their elite human capital staff to teach Claude and Co-Pilot how to spell while too.Ā Ā
This month marks the 20th anniversary of Google Maps. Google now has only one blog, The Keyword, at https://blog.google with subdirectories for products. The 6 February 2025 post commemorates 20 years of Google Maps with 20 highlighted features.
Number 20 was particularly salient for me!Ā First, some backgroundā¦
Walking man
The little figure that can be used to navigate Google Maps at streetā¦
Excerpt fromĀ āWe (Still) Don't Know How Epstein Got So Rich...ā
What did Trump say?Ā
Epstein is laughing and leering but stops abruptly as Donald Trump whispers something in his ear. Donald Trump has already moved away, turning his back on Epstein, and starts talking to someone else. Epstein is in a hurry to find out more and pursues Trump.Ā
Oh look, thereās Ghislaine! Sheās wearing a white long-sleeved blouse. Sheās only visible toward the beginning of this very brief video clip, near the wall and on the left. I wonder if she was there with Epstein.Ā The NBC timestamp and watermarking indicate 1992 without a month or day.Ā
Why was this filmed? Iām curious whyĀ Epsteinās expression changes so quickly from his usual odious smirk. He dressed like such a slob. The other men, including Trump, are wearing suit jackets and ties.
The narrator asks the best question. How DID Epstein amass such a large fortune in 10 years, given that all records indicate that he was a terrible investor?!
Timeline
This doesnāt tell us much, but a frame of reference is always helpful.Ā
1972Ā --Ā Bill Barrās dad fires Epstein for being a bad substitute math teacher after less than 7 months
1976Ā --Ā Ace Greenberg, CEO of Bear Stearns fires Epstein for the following good reasons: Epstein sexually harassed his secretary; Broke company rules for selling IPO shares to Epsteinās friend for which Bear was part of the offering syndicate but wasnāt a customer of the firm; The U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) was investigating Epstein for securities sales violations, for the IPO thing, probably. Also, Epstein had secretly dated Ace Greenbergās daughter several years prior.Ā
May 1977 Ā -- Ā Donald Trump and Ivana Zelnickova marry
1980Ā --Ā Epstein was in full scam artist mode, making money through Ponzi schemes, blackmail, and deception
1985Ā --Ā Donald Trump buys Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida
1987Ā --Ā Les Wexner hires Epstein as his financial advisor
December 1990Ā --Ā Donald Trump and Ivana divorce
5 November 1991 Ā -- Ā Death of Robert Maxwell
June 1992 Ā -- Ā Ghislaine Maxwell moves to New York City
February 1993Ā --Ā Epstein and Ghislaine are dating, possibly living together
October 1993Ā --Ā Tiffany Trump is born
20 December 1993 Ā -- Donald Trump and Marla Maples marry
1995Ā --Ā Epstein moves in and takes over Les Wexnerās Sutton Place mansion (Wexner bought it only a few years prior in 1989 and spent millions remodelling it; he gave it to Epstein outright in 2011)
1995Ā --Ā Ghislaine introduces the Andrew formerly known as Prince to Epstein
1997Ā --Ā Leon Black makes Epstein a trustee of his foundation
1997Ā --Ā Donald Trump and Marla separate then divorce in 1999
I thought the video was amusing until 26:52Ā and this:
Elon infamously required US Federal government employees to send a weekly email listing what they had done each week.
I have had to do that at almost every job I ever had. My bosses wanted a bullet point summary of what I had done each week and a short list of what I was going to work on next week.Ā
It makes me feel sick and sad that channel owner j aubrey and all those FBI agents and State Department employees and Democrats would ridicule this. If I had sent a photo of my a**hole as described in the video, I would have been fired.Ā
I don't get the outrage
What's so funny and laudable about such entitlement, especially given that it isnāt applicable to the majority of Americans that arenāt US Federal government employees?Ā
I had to send a weekly update to my manager at IBM when I was a storage products hardware engineer. I had to do it when I worked for Standard & Poorās and also during my years working risk management and regulatory compliance at two different banks.Ā
Many US state and municipal employees are required to send such updates to their bosses every week. I know this with certainty because I worked for the State of Arizona Department of Health Services in the Office for Children with Special Needs. We had to send weekly updates to our bosses, and our bosses had to do similarly with their bosses.
In this first video, two utility workers in the Nevada desert are witness to the result of a 500 kV switch suddenly opening. The huge jagged electric arc that leaps out is as good an example of a āJacobās Ladderā effect as youāre likely to see anywhere.
I have a Youtube channel with nothing much of interest other than the degree of my compulsion to collect and categorize...
Misinformation and Democrat Party threats of violence
The Left Hook Substack has 9.1 million subscribers. I posted a comment on the most recent episode, Trump Is Literally Destroying The White House and America.
The authors begin by stating that Antifa does not exist, which was not a good sign!
My comment
The White House ballroom is not funded by American taxpayers. All $300 million (the $250 million estimate plus $50 million overrun) is entirely privately financed. CNN and NPR both published articles in corroboration. This Substack, "The Left Hook with Wajahat Ali" featurning "progressive commentator and host Kyle Kulinski" are wrong for claiming that the ballroom is 100% funded by our taxes.
Wajahat and Kyle advocate for political violence against Americans in their 21 October 2025 podcast and transcript. I find this quite disturbing, as The Left Hook has 27 million subscribers, the highest subscriber count on the Substack platform. (It was the top entry on the main landing page yesterday.) Specifically, they conclude their post--which is about a construction project to facilitate dancing, not about racism--by saying "it's been time [sic] for Democrats to play hardball and take out the brass knuckles against Republicans who are committed to white nationalist rule."
Keep in mind that the East Wing didn't even exist until FDR built it in 1942. Next, President Truman gutted the entire White House, from East Wing to West Wing, leaving only the exterior walls, in the early 1950s. It needed modernization. Truman and his administration worked out of nearby Blair House for those three years. See NPR for details: White House renovation history via NPR (23 October 2025)
Constance, do you describe FDR and Truman using the same language ("no decency, no compassion, no concern for anyone, disgraceful, with endless greed") you used to describe Trump?!
Peter Thiel cofounded Mithril. Peter is an entrepreneur and investor. He started PayPal in 1998, led it as CEO, and took it public in 2002, defining a new era of fast and secure online commerce.
Curious about Peter Thielās office?Ā
This is what it looked like in 2020 or perhaps 2021. Even though there is a share button on the Mithril Capital Management website, it doesnāt direct to the video showing his office. It is an approximately two minute chat with Mithril founder or perhaps co-founder Ajay. Sorry, I forgot Ajayās last name. Peter says heās known Ajay for 20 years. See if this works:Ā
The Mithril video starts and ends with the sound of Indian music. Iām unsure whether the script encircling the indigo blue-backed Mithril logo is J.R.R. Tolkienās Elven language (Elfish I think?) or a language of the sub-continent.
- The last time the United States had a trade surplus was 1975.
- The United States has had a growing trade deficit with China since 1985, and itsĀ largestĀ trade deficits are with Asian nations.
- According to government data, since the start of free trade agreements with NAFTA in 1992, Americaās trade deficit rose from 39.2 billion dollars to 559.8 billion in 2011, or an increase of over 1428 percent. The increase in this deficit was caused by the outsourcing of jobs, and the exploitation of unregulated environments and labor overseas.
- According to government data, before the start of the Central America Free Trade Agreement, the United States had trade surpluses with most nations involved. Now the United States has trade deficits with most.
- A 2011 opinion poll showed the American public has moved from ābroad oppositionā to āoverwhelming oppositionā toward NAFTA-style trade deals. An NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll from September 2010 revealed that āthe impact of trade and outsourcing is one of the only issues on which Americans of different classes, occupations and political persuasions agreeā with 86% believing that outsourcing jobs āa top cause of our economic woes,ā and 69% indicating that āfree trade agreements between the United States and other countries cost the U.S. jobs.ā Only 17% of Americans in 2010 felt that āfree trade agreementsā benefit the U.S., compared to 28% in 2007.
These multilateral foreign trade deals have been hurting us for a long time. It isn't going to be easy or quick to get our country and manufacturing back. It is worth the effort.
