Saturday: And then I remembered I had cake

Had. Past tense.

And I guess it's now becoming a common thing to do weekend rainbows:

Because there are always rainbows everywhere.

I also had to close my windows today.  It's like 64 right now, with wind gusts that blow everything across my apartment.

Today's also the Ides of March, which means you can read about how the ides were originally designed to signify the full moon in the original lunar Roman calendar.  Then, you can read about how Julius Caesar, who was not ever actually an emperor, but was pontifex maximus, used the religious power that position gave him to convert Rome to the far more accurate solar based Julian calendar.  This calendar was likely derived from Greek and Egyptian calculations that Caesar came into contact with while he was in Egypt, in pursuit of Pompey, during the Roman Civil Wars.  Because Caesar triumphed, returning Rome to a state of relative stability, he was named dictator perpetuo, a position which others thought would lead to him claiming a kingship of Rome, prompting them to form a conspiracy to kill him.

On the Ides of March.

Sometimes history is just so wonderfully perfect.

• This story is just so absolutely stupid.  Not the writing of, but the very concept that someone in Russia really thinks that a new Cold War is a good idea.  Not because that's obviously stupid and no one wants nuclear war, but because of basic economics.
• Ok, so I just now realized that my first sub link is from someone in Ukraine.  That was totally not intentional.  Anyway, he lists the GDP of the USSR and the US in decade intervals, with the takeaway being that the Soviet economy was effectively 1/2 to 1/3 that of the US during the height of the cold war.
• Here's a different source that confirms that, although it pushes hard for 1/3.
• Great, now look at things today: the Russian economy is 1/8 that of the US.  
• The conclusion I see is that guy is basically an old lunatic, who doesn't realize that reality puts a fairly hard constraint on things.  How do you start up a cold war when you can far more effectively 
• Plus, you know, having this much of your economy dependent on one source is not really a stable way to run things.
• Bear.
• Lion.
• Taco cat.
• Pizza burger.