Yep. That works well unless you’re cooking at altitude, then an overnight soak is the best and easiest way. Unless you own a pressure cooker.

Some beans you can get away with not soaking at all, just cook them low and slow for a couple hours. I’ve done that with great northern beans.

It’s not exactly the same for me, but it’s pretty close. Sometimes it’s a little more faded. Just depends on what it is. Sound, on the other hand, I can picture that loud and clear.

You can think of “le” as a way of showing that it’s a syllabic L. Meaning that you say a dark L, and there isn’t really a vowel before it. The L takes up the whole syllable. It can sound like there’s a schwa in there (usually just a blip of one), but that’s just part of how you say the dark L. It comes from having the back part of your tongue press down and back.

This happens at the end of a word when the L is in an unstressed syllable. The spelling can vary a little. For example:

• people
• simple
• model
• oval

There isn’t really a reason why the spelling is different. That’s just how it happened to develop.

The pronunciation can vary a little too. If you hold the L longer, or emphasize the syllable more, it can sound more like a proper vowel is in there. But your tongue stays a tiny bit lower than it does for the schwa sounds.

Good posture also helps you breathe better, which can help you feel more energized and concentrate better. Your diaphragm doesn’t work right when you sit hunched over, so your breath gets more shallow.

If you ever need to talk a lot for work or some other reason, good posture is essential so your voice sounds good and doesn’t get tired too easily.

And it helps strengthen your core, which is good for balance and other things.

Beautiful! What city is that near? And do you know if the mountains are always that red?

Other made up offenses include having a knife and having nothing but walking toward them

Or having a seizure on your kitchen floor.

Or having dementia and ending up at the wrong house because you think you live there.

Were you standing inside something when you took this, or is the black frame something that was added later?

You can add salt, sugar, or lemon juice to the yolks to keep them from getting so gelatinous. Link 1 has a good overview and here’s link 2 for good measure.

Nepal? That would be my guess because of the colorful flags. The river must make quite a sound when it’s like that.

I lived on the same floor as a couple Airbnbs for a while and it was the same way. Lots of trash and noise. More than the usual big city noise. Like bass cranked up at 3 am and they probably won’t hear if you try to knock.

For a while there was a steady stream of men coming in and out of one of the apartments. And a sign on the door that said something about massages.

Now, more than a decade after Sylvia’s death, their efforts have landed the Wildensteins before France’s highest court. The evidence she and Dumont Beghi brought forth has persuaded prosecutors that the Wildensteins are a criminal enterprise, responsible for operating, as a prosecutor for the state once put it, “the longest and the most sophisticated tax fraud” in modern French history.

A trial this September will determine if the family and their associates owe a gargantuan tax bill. The last time prosecutors went after the Wildensteins, several years ago, they sought €866 million — €616 million in back taxes and a €250 million fine, as well as jail time for Guy. The consequences could do more than topple the family’s art empire. The case has provided an unusual view of how the ultrawealthy use the art market to evade taxes, and sometimes worse. Agents raiding Wildenstein vaults have turned up artworks long reported as missing, which fueled speculation that the family may have owned Nazi-looted or otherwise stolen art, and spurred a number of other lawsuits against the family in recent years. Financial distortions have saved the family hundreds of millions of dollars, prosecutors allege, but their treatment of Sylvia could cost them far more — and perhaps lead to the unraveling of their dynasty.

What a story. It’s a long read, but fascinating.

It can be to limit how much vacation time the company has to pay out on separation, or to limit how much “liability” for vacation pay they have on the books at any given time. If your employees get 5 days of vacation a year, use it or lose it, you don’t have to deal with someone who (the horror!) has built up 2 weeks and wants to use it all at once.

There are no state or federal laws that give employees a right to paid vacation time. Only 10 states require the company to pay out unused vacation time when you leave (CA, CO, IL, IN, LA, MA, ME, ND, NE, RI). In most of those states, use it or lose it policies are illegal. Everywhere else, the company policy basically decides if it gets paid out or not.

Did you use a phone camera, or do you take a separate camera with you? Great picture!

High desert mountains are, or were, a great place to see the Milky Way. You had the mountains and the openness. It’s been a few years or 20 for me, though. No idea if those places are still dark enough.

The power dynamic is already heavily skewed in favor of the employer. Especially with construction and landscaping work, the way it tends to go is: workers need the job. The company rules with a pretty strict hand. You don’t like something, there’s the door. So you put up with stuff until you find another job or can’t take it anymore.

Take away a legal right, and that’s that. The workers and the company both know who has the upper hand. Sure, one person could try to stick up for themselves here and there, but plenty of people don’t because they’re afraid to lose their job. And it usually doesn’t change anything anyway. Even when there are laws to protect employees, companies don’t always follow them.

I’m talking mostly about non-union jobs there. Union jobs are better, but they’re not free of problems either.

How big were the mushrooms? I’m looking at the two blades of grass there at the bottom, and I can’t figure out if they’re a decent size or its just the perspective. Nice picture btw.