Somebody Check My Brain

[austin_dern]

In my humor blog this week, as you've seen on your Reading page or perhaps in your RSS reader (LiveJournal Friends Pages count) you've seen the end of one MiSTing, a whole brand-new one, two panels from a dumb comic book, some comic strip action, and me complaining about AI scraping. Want to live it all again? Here's your chance:

• MiSTed: The Tale of Jimmy Rabbit, Conclusion
• Statistics December: Another Month Wrecked by AI Scammers
• Statistics Saturday: Steps in Using an Analog Clock as Makeshift Compass
• Robert Benchley: Lights, Please!
• Starting to Think Mad Scientists Are Just Trouble
• What's Going On In The Phantom (Weekdays)? What's coming for The Phantom? October 2025 - January 2026
• As We Consider the Legacy of Scott Adams, the Dilbert Guy
• MiSTed: The Invisible Planet

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And in pictures, we're as far along De Lijn as we would get and walking around some before heading back to our hotel. Take a look.

And here we are at Oostende's famous Cathedral ... uh ... something. Just love all that spikiness, though; it's very soothing to keep looking at and spotting new detail.

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And a monument nearby to the soldiers and dead of the World Wars.

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Not sure if the smaller structure, left, is the old cathedral or merely a church.

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The older cathedral has this text explaining it, although the shadow of the inset makes it a difficult thing to photograph and so transcribe.

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Another view of the cathedral, looking even richer with detail than before.

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Small sign letting you know about the mausoleum here too.

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Sometimes you just need to get really close to an enormous building and look up.

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Sometimes you just need to get not quite so close to an enormous older building and look up.

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Found the Hidden Mickey! Up on top of the frame there, turned upside-down.

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Huh! Now what would a heraldic shield and a pointing brass arrow mean for us?

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Well, look at that, we're being led around the cathedral right to ...

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... a big communal space? I'm not sure we needed the guidance here. Maybe it makes sense if you've got the pocket guide. Please note that this is a duly-posted Zone.

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Trivia: In 2017 World Bank chief economist Paul Romer was stripped of control of the research division after declaring he would not clear any report for publication if the word ``and'' made up more than 2.6% of its text. Source: Seriously Curious: The Facts and Figures That Turn Our World Upside-Down, Editor Tom Standage. Romer claimed to be trying to improve the readability of reports by discouraging complex compound sentences. The 2.6% margin was apparently chosen so the texts would match the readability of academic papers.

Currently Reading: A Call to Arms: Mobilizing America for World War II, Maury Klein.