Cop Car's Beat

Yard work progress report

The photo, below, shows an area of our yard/woods abutment - before recent rework. The photo was taken a year ago.

 
The photo, below, shows the same area of our yard/woods abutment - after some rework - as it appears, now. Many of the spindly trees have been removed and one can now more plainly see our neighbor's brush pile beyond the concrete blocks that I piled up for temporary storage. (Some years ago I had used the blocks to effect a rough retaining wall at the bottom of the small hill.) Brush piles are "illegal" in our city; but, birds love 'em, so I shan't complain. As birds fly from our feeders it is frequently to the refuge of the brush pile that is shown, or to the refuge of another.

The green cart on its side, and the leaf rake, are tools that I've quit pulling out of and replacing into the garage each time I've gone out to rake/move the leaves that have piled up in the area over the years. (That task is nearly completed.) My tools are not visible from the street and by leaving them out I prevent leaves' blowing into the garage while the door is open.

I had planned to construct a sitting area among those three largest/nearest trees, providing a safe place for local family to visit us. Silly me. What was I thinking? The neighbor's dogs have barked and growled at me every minute during which I've worked in that area - whenever they have been outside. Not a good atmosphere for a sitting area; thus, I've rather lost some of my enthusiasm for my tasking. I'll complete leaf removal and have dirt hauled in to smooth out that area. I had thought to have handyman Cecil build a retaining wall at the bottom of that small hill; but, now I am considering plantings to retain the dirt. Big question is: terraced small hill or smooth small hill?

Just enough snow to beautify

We had received nearly an inch of rain in the hours preceding the temperature's finally dropping below freezing; thus, the snow was too sparse and too icy to provide that needed for snow ice cream for breakfast.

Our poor trees are confused

October was cooler than normal in our neck of the woods, while November has been warmer; thus, the trees are confused. Some of them have broken dormancy enough to have budded out. The first photo shows buds on our little North Star cherry tree (I think they are mostly blossom buds) that I planted, bare root, in April 2003.

 

 The next photo is of buds on our white bud tree that was transplanted into our yard in April 2019. They are probably all blossom buds.

Blossom production (and thus fruit on the cherry tree) will probably be sparser than normal this coming spring; but, as long as I keep the trees well watered throughout the winter, the trees should recover from the experience, nicely.

ADDITION OF 12/2/2020 10:59am - Leather Leaf Viburnum

Perhaps you can see the few dozen blossom heads in the photo, below. The second photo shows a closeup of one blossom head.

 

11/17/2020 - What to do first

 

Last evening, Hunky Husband got something in his left eye. I couldn't see anything and suspected he had a scratch; but, this morning, I called around trying to get him in to see an eye doctor. My eye doctor's office, about 1.25 miles from our house, was booked up into December and would not take a walk-in. However, HH's eye doctor (in Wichita) is now in the same network and the woman on the phone told me that Dr McCormick had had a few cancellations. I booked HH for 10am.

After Dr McCormick assured HH that there was no foreign body in his eye and prescribed some antibiotic eye drops for him, HH dropped me off to pick up my car. Super! I told HH that I would meet him at home. I stopped by Hillside Nursery to order a new redbud tree and a new semi-dwarf cherry tree for our back yard. John said that they would bring the trees and plant them next spring - the best season for their being planted. Yay! That's off of my "to do" phone call list. John also let me know that he and his wife had had COVID-19 in July, fortunately with minimal symptoms. They suspect that they (10 years my junior) had caught the virus at the wake for a fellow employee who had died of the disease, thinking that some of his relatives were probably asymptomatic. I don't think that I have mentioned the death of a former co-worker, also about 10-15 years my junior. Kansas is a cauldron of COVID-19 these days.

Week in Review - 10/30/2020

Our family members do not normally exchange greeting cards for Halloween. However, 2020 is not normal. I blame that fact for WichiDude's and Dudette's having sent Hunky Husband and me a really cute card. It lights up and it plays a recording; but, I did not make a video. A still photo (below) will have to do.

Within the past couple of years, our neighborhood has been gifted with a couple of new neighbors whom I've mentioned in previous postings. They are welcome additions to the neighborhood and have gone out of their way to bring a sense of community to it. For instance, Adam & Krista (next door - with the new fence) and their small children, distributed pumpkins throughout the neighborhood about 10 days ago. Krista's parents live on a not-far-distant farm and had grown the pumpkins, bringing them to town to share.

Unfortunately, I did not think to take a photo of the pumpkin sitting on our front steps, where the neighbors placed it; but, I did take a photo of some of the pumpkin sauce that I made from half of it. The other half has been cooked up and is being/will be used in various casseroles and breads. I cannot tolerate wasting food and the hard freeze that arrived last night was forecasted, so I beat it to the punch.

As you can tell by the update of contents and date on the lid, I am not only frugal when it comes to food, but also frugal with things. I re-use lids on jars of foods that I expect to use within a few weeks and to keep refrigerated until use, not really caring that the seal may fail.

Not failing, was another new neighbor from a bit farther down the street, Cathy. It was she who picked most of the cherries off of our little cherry tree this year. At the time, she left a lovely cherry cobbler on our front porch for us. Saturday, she left us a jar of cherry jelly and a loaf of her home-made, whole-grain bread on which to smear the jelly.

Although I have not usually eaten breakfast for the past several years, her bread and cherry jelly just could not be resisted. Sunday morning, I spread a little butter on a couple of slices of the bread, gently warmed them in a skillet to a nice, lightly-toasted state, and spooned jelly onto them. The bread tasted fresh-from-the-oven.

As we were expecting the deep freeze to move in, last night, I took a photo (below) of the tropical plants that had taken root from the pot I had over-summered in the basement escape window well. The photo also includes a volunteer redbud seedling and the two hostas that I had planted there in 2019.

This morning, the scene was captured in the photo, below. Soon, the leaves will die - as will the roots of the tropical plant, in all likelihood. The toads and frogs have burrowed into the sand for the winter.

Unexpectedly, we had just enough snow for me to be able to gather enough from our patio table for a bowl of snow ice cream. It was rather icy, so not the best; but, at least I got a bowl! (When I thawed the snow/ice in the rain gage, I measured 0.51" of liquid. We've had another two inches of rain since then.)

Speaking of beating the weather to the punch, I also gathered in our last two tomato plants during the past few days, placing them in the garden cart in the garage until I had time to strip the green tomatoes from those vines. I used very nearly all of those green tomatoes in putting together a batch of green tomato relish. Below is a photo of the three full 1/2-pint jars of relish. There was a fourth 1/2-pint jar that was nearly filled; but, I started using it at dinner, this evening (Monday).

Having never before made green tomato relish, I pulled two recipes from the internet and used them as a guide. Since it will be at least eight more days until I will make it to the grocery store (it only has special old-people hours on Tuesday mornings and the streets are rutted ice at this point), I had to make do with what I had on hand - part of a green pepper (substituting three banana peppers from our garden for the rest), for instance.

I was pleased to note that the relish is delicious!

Week in Review - 10/22/2020

Last October I spotted a large, brown spider in the basement escape window well and posted its photo. A couple of days ago I think I found the carcass of a relative. It (shown, below) was near the basement escape window on the floor of my sewing room. I've never seen a brown, hairy spider that large in our house. In fact, I don't recall seeing brown hairy spiders in our house, at all.

Last week I included photos of many of our redbud trees in Week in Review - 10/17/2020, and included the fact that our largest, prettiest redbud would be taken out. Benny and his crew, of JoJac's, came out on Monday to do their annual bout of tree work for us. Below is a farewell photo of the redbud they took out. I failed to dig out a camera soon enough, so most of the tree has already been dragged away.

As can be seen in the photo, Benny ground out most of the roots and stump; but, had to leave a bit of the stump - to the left of the log nearest the fence. His grinding machine was too bulky to be able to grind that near the fence without possibly damaging the fence. (I'll wield an axe to finish the job.) The yellow flag in the foreground marks the spot where I plan to have a new redbud planted.

While I'm on the subject of tree work, here are a couple of photos of Benny and his crew at work. The first photo shows the crew bringing up some of the downed tree parts, for chipping, while Benny takes his chain saw back to wreak more havoc.

This photo shows the size of the grinding machine that Benny uses. He is grinding out stumps of about 15 trees removed from a slope. I'm hoping to build a sitting area by putting in a wall and hauling in dirt to level. It will provide a shady place for our loved ones to come visit us in the spring - where we can be outside, but in the shade.I'm including the next photo because I love that the guy's smiling while he's working. (I think he's laughing at the way his buddy is laboring, truth be told.)

Yesterday, Tendercare came out to winterize our irrigation system. Just in time. We're to have a hard freeze over the weekend. Yesterday, the only warm day this week, we awoke to a temperature that was at least 10 F degrees warmer than had been the temperature when we went to bed Wednesday night. Yesterday, we tied the record high temperature on October 22 at 97 degrees F. A cold front came through at about 9pm, yesterday. I deliberately made sure that we scheduled them a little earlier this fall. I'm tired of having to pack the backflow valve and/or replacing the thing when it freezes and breaks, spraying me with cold water when it thaws.

Week in Review - 10/17/2020

Raking:

As we were unthinking enough to build a house on the southeast side of a street, at a bend in the road, I have been paying the price. (Since this house is compass oriented the same as our previous house, I should have thought about that!) The winds manage to scatter the leaves that the neighbors don't get raked up, into our yard. You may recall that, this summer, our sugar maple and redbud trees were removed from the front yard leaving only a gingko tree. The gingko tree has not yet started to turn. Within a few nights of its leaves' turning yellow, the leaves will all fall off.

In the photo, below, which shows about one-fourth of our front lawn, one can see that I've started raking in the foreground. It took me two days (and filling/emptying my 28-gallon leaf bin several times) to "clear" the yard. "Clear" is in quotation marks because the wind has already replenished the supply. BTW: I must admit that there was one (green) gingko leaf in the raking. Raking is part of my exercise program during the fall months.

Yellow Rose:

This is a blossom on the mistakenly-labeled rose that was supposed to have been a (red) Mr Lincoln. I really like it!

Carolina wren:

At least two Carolina wren are year-round residents. That species is one of the few bird species still hanging around. The hummingbirds left a couple of weeks ago, at which time the Eastern phoebes also disappeared. The house finches haven't put in an appearance for a while; but, they are probably still in the area - someplace.

Redbud trees going, going....

When Benny & his crew took out our dead sugar maple, they also (at my request, of course) took out the clump of redbud trees in our front yard - shown, below, as they bloomed this past spring.

A couple of weeks ago, neighbor Fred's dead trees fell into our yard. When he finally got them cleared away (except for a 20-foot limb that remained hanging from one of our trees), I could see the damage done to our redbud tree near the steps to the woods - shown, below, as it bloomed this past spring.

Below are photos showing how Fred left the little redbud tree - with a less-than-adequate attempt to splice back the main header.  Note the duct-taped "splice" that Fred attempted to hold one of the main limbs to the header and to let the split header grow back together - to the left of the pink tape.

Tell me how well you think a splice works that is attempted more than one week after the damage. In the photo, below, the split extends 20-25 inches to the right. The photo was taken after I started unwrapping the tape to assess the damage (two weeks after the damage and one week after Fred attempted the splice). As one may see, the main branch had been held to the header by a couple of wraps of the tape. Note that the split of the header extended down-trunk (to the right) for about two feet and that, at best, there was a half-inch air gap between the two surfaces of the "splice" - with bugs already eating away at the heart wood.

There were two other branches that could have benefited by the timely application of a real splice. IMHO, by the time the dead trees were removed, only some very fancy sawing and fitting and splinting could have saved the three branches and leader of the little redbud. Well...bless his heart...Fred tried. The tree was a volunteer that I had nursed for at least 15 years, so it has only emotional value.

I clean-cut the header below the end of the split and lopped off the three main branches that were hanging. It doesn't look like much, but it should be healthy. In time (which, at my age, I don't have!) I'm guessing that the tree will become lovely, once again. BTW: The apparent offshoot from the trunk, about a foot off of the ground, is actually a stump from a tree that I sawed down. It is marked with yellow paint to tell Benny & his crew (scheduled to do their annual work, this coming Monday) that the stump is to be taken out.

There is one more redbud of concern in our yard. It is the only redbud that I actually paid for and paid to have planted - in 2000. Unfortunately, it grew...and our neighbors changed...and our latest neighbors decided (rightly) that they should install a fence to corral their small children and dogs. Further, the neighbors decided upon a dog-eared board fence and set it just enough closer to the property line that my redbud tree was in the way. Adam asked permission to take off a couple of branches. I suggested that, since he is young and strong and owning of a chain saw, he take the tree down, totally. He chose to remove the two branches and that section of the fence was pretty much installed that day.

This past spring the tree bloomed, beautifully - as in the photo, below.

Do you see the problem? The fence had been installed in February. The added weight of the blossoms (and, later, the leaves) caused the large branches to rub against the fence. Monday, I will have Benny and his crew remove the tree. I hate to lose the tree; but, I cannot have it troubling our neighbors. I had thought to ask Benny to just remove the half of the tree involved in the interference with the fence; but, I've decided that such an operation would be difficult and that, at some later time, the rest of the tree would become bothersome. I will have another redbud tree planted 20-40 feet from the fence. I'm sure that it will become just as lovely and, who knows? I might, at least, live long enough to see the new tree bloom if I can buy a large enough tree to start with.

Health Update:

Flu Shot

When Hunky Husband got his Flusone quadrivalent flu shot in early September, I did not go with him. I habitually wait until October on the theory that the shot is only effective for a few months and I want to cover the deepest part of the flu season. I got a Fluad quadrivalent shot on Monday (the 12th). The following two paragraphs are taken from Cover-Tek.

Trivalent

There are hundreds of A-strains that are mutating constantly and hard to predict, while there are only two B-strains. The trivalent vaccine protects against three different flu viruses: the two most common A strains (H1N1 and H3N2) and one B strain (either Massachusetts or Brisbane), whichever is predicted to affect citizens most strongly in a given year.

Quadrivalent

This form offers the same benefits as the trivalent vaccine, with the added bonus of covering  both B-strains, so four strains total. Experts see this as beneficial since both B-strains have been detected within the United States in the past 10 years.

Tooth Crown

Friday (the 16th) I had the crown re-cemented on my #9 tooth. I had been warned by Dr Shahzada that the installation might not last long since, this being the 4th crown to have been installed on the tooth since 1966 there wasn't much tooth left on which to anchor the crown. The original installation of this 4th crown, accomplished five weeks ago, had always felt wobbly and didn't seem to me to be properly aligned. I was led to wonder if it had been seated properly and/or if the cement had not properly cured around the perimeter. Thursday night, in cleaning my teeth prior to going to bed, the crown had come off.

I must say that, although Dr S wants to have an implant put in the #9 position, and is consulting a colleague who does implants, this cementing job feels different than did the original. I'm wondering if this installation will prove more durable.

Week in Review - 10/2/2020

Tuesday, 9/29/2020: Just before toddling off to bed most nights, I watch the local news and weather. Unexpectedly, last night Ross said to expect the temperatures this (early) morning to drop into the low 40s (Fahrenheit). I was already in my night clothes; but, I stepped out onto the front porch to gather in the tropical plants - all two of them - and put them into the entry hall. That was a good thing. When I came back from grocery shopping this morning (at 6:30am), I found that our thermometer read 40 degrees. The cold nipped a banana pepper plant; but, otherwise, did no damage.

The folding wrought iron stand on which the plants had been standing while on the front porch is in the right-hand background. The hanging table upon which one of the plants will sit for the winter (barely) shows in the left-hand background - in the dining room. Today, I plan to pot up one of the variegated airplane plants that is in the ground, for the winter. Last winter, I had not dug any for over-wintering inside. Since I'm not sure how hardy those plants really are, I'd like the assurance of having at least one plant survive each winter.

It occurred to me that I had failed to bring in the aloe plant that had summered on the steps to the front porch. It's hardy enough that it will be okay; but, it needs to come in for the winter.

Wednesday, 9/30/2020: Oh, my, how oblivious can I get? Today, I placed all of the plants from the front porch into their appointed positions in the dining room. Had I let it go at that, I would have been ahead of the game. No. I had to bring the two plants in from the basement escape window well - not the easiest thing in the world since one of the plants had, as usual, sent out runners that had immediately taken root in the sand/dirt of the window well. I had to cut those runners near the pot rim. In doing so, I came up with another problem.

Remember that we usually have a critter or two living in our basement escape window well; but, we hadn't seen much of it/them, this summer. That's probably because I had so much foliage in the window well - the two indoor plants that I mentioned in the previous paragraph and a couple of hosta plants that are planted in the sand/dirt of the window well. As I started to lift the aloe plant from the window well into my sewing room, I saw that a fat little (fist-sized) critter was hunkered down in the pot. I endured getting pissed on when I shooed the critter away and decided to bring the aloe plant in, second.

Thinking that the critter had hidden in the foliage that had been severed from the second plant, I brought the second plant inside and placed it in the dining room. Of course, at that point, the critter leapt out at me - more peeing. I chased it all over the dining room and the critter, eventually, went under the server. That's the last I saw of it. It may be clinging to the underside of the server; but, I couldn't find the critter by moving the server. Eventually, I'll probably find its desiccated body; but, I've brought in critters before and they tend to find their way into the sump in the basement. We shall hope and see.

Bad goes to a little worse. When I brought the aloe plant into my sewing room from the basement escape window well, a tiny critter leapt out. It sought refuge under a piece of furniture on wheels, so I was able to trap and release that critter back into the window well.

Friday, 10/2/2020: What a surprise! When I go to bed, I turn on my radio-controlled clock radio which is always tuned to one of the local NPR stations. It stays on all night, with BBC providing the programing from midnight to 5am. I nearly always get the late-breaking news via BBC during the night. At 5am, when the programing returns to the local station, I use a remote control to turn on another radio (across the room) that has actual bass output which makes it easier for me to hear the news as I lazily lie abed. All went well, this morning, until about 5:20am, at which time the local station started its fall beg-a-thon. Although I've supported the local stations for 30 years (and NPR-affiliated stations in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Albuquerque, for 9 years prior to that), I hate listening to the begging. I habitually turn off the radio when it starts - which I tried to do, this morning. For some reason, my clock radio would not turn off - nor would the other radio. WTH?!

I bounded from bed, and fought my way through the tropical plants that I had brought in for the winter to get to the bass-y radio. Imagine my surprise when three small birds flushed from the plants! Quickly, I closed the door to the bathroom and the door to the hallway, in order to assure that the birds didn't escape into the rest of the house. The birds settled down, at which time I got a better look at them. They looked like tiny owlets! I threw a sheet over them, in order to gather them up. Even more of a surprise was the fact that, under the sheet, the three little critters wriggled and rolled about, and let out meowing sounds such as any proper little kittens would do. What a dream!

When I came fully awake, I found the begging to be continuing; but, in reality, I was able to turn off both radios. Whew! I don't have any of the over-wintering plants in my bedroom (although I've considered putting one of the plants there) and birds don't turn into kittens. I hadn't been able to sleep very much, but I hadn't expected to hallucinate!

The last photo shows the plants that were brought inside - in their actual location, our dining room. (One more aloe is in my sewing room.) The scraggly little plant on the top shelf of the wrought iron stand is the variegated airplane plant that I had dug up from the yard. The (larger) non-variegated airplane plant is on the lower shelf, mostly hidden by the table and chair.

Later that night: When I went downstairs to dress for bed, I heard an unmistakable "hop...hop...hop" coming from my sewing room. Short version: I trapped that sucker and put it out in the window well where it belonged. I don't know that it was the same frog as had been loose in the dining room; but, I do know that the house is now home to one fewer frog.

And Fred's trees came down

About a year ago, I told Fred that, the next time he had his chainsaw out, he might want to think about taking down two of his trees. They stood just outside his back fence; one, dead, the other, dying.

This evening, I am happy that I wasn't trying to get more photos of the garden spider. Had I been doing so, I would have been hit by one of the branches from one of his trees, as it fell. Instead, I was chatting with Hunky Husband, heard the commotion, and watched the upper parts of the trees fall. One tree snapped off at a fairly high point, fell onto the other tree, snapping it off (a bit lower, of course).

 

 

I haven't seen Fred - not sure he is in town. Sent him the photos via email.

Week in Review - 9/25/2020

Monday, 9/21/2020: Having decided to get down to the task of making more/better face coverings for Hunky Husband and me, I was disgusted with myself for having forgotten my lack of elastic for the ear pieces. Gah! I bought three yards of silk for the double inner layer of fabric, but failed to order the elastic. In case there is someone who missed the announcement: Walmart is trying to compete with Amazon as a "go to" online merchandise ordering website. However, there are items for which they have taken time to establish ordering capability. Such was the case with the elastic. It has, since, become available and I have ordered several yards of white and several of black. It is to be delivered during the first week of October. [Added note: The wild bird seed that was ordered at the same time was delivered on the 22nd.]

       

I still seek a source of two types of light bulbs - and - sanitizing hand wipes.

Tuesday, 9/22/2020: The Wild Turkeys and I are having a contest. They try to see how much of the mulch around our new trees in back they can remove, and how quickly, while I attempt to rake the mulch back into place during my daily outdoor chores. The photo, below, was taken in July; but, it shows some of the turkeys and points out the mulch that they love to scatter.

Wednesday, 9/23/2020: As I stepped outside to gather in this morning's newspaper, there were a couple of bat-like flyers tumbling over our front yard. I could not imagine that we had bats as large as these two appeared to be and, by the time I had taken another step, I realized that there were a number of these tumbling flyers. Aha! It is September. The Common Nighthawks are migrating south with their more-or-less wheeling movement. As happened, it was early enough that it was nearly dark outside, and it was foggy; thus, the birds were flying a bit lower than normally they would have been observed to do. Their tumbling flight was to catch insects around the street light that is near our yard, fueling their long flight to South America. I did not/could not have captured their aerobatic flight; but, YouTube came to my rescue. I recommend full screen for viewing this video (under 2 minutes).

 

 

Several times since moving into this house, I've observed migrations of nighthawks - following the same track each year as far as I can tell. Otherwise, seeing nighthawks in our little town is so rare that I cannot, reliably, recall any instances. I do recall (1940s and early 1950s) watching nighthawks dart about in the even smaller town in which my great-grandparents lived. They lived on a relatively busy street, across from a small hotel. As I recall, some of the nighthawks nested atop that hotel - on its flat roof. Their in-flight squawks are unmistakable.

 

 

Did I mention it was foggy? Thirty minutes later, as I left for my walk, I found that the "perfectly dry" outdoor surfaces were then "perfectly wet". During my walk, within 0.4 mile of the house, I experienced a "Seattle rain". The rest of my walk was dry.

 

I continued my fall cleanup in the yard by yanking out another tomato vine (this is the 5th one, so far, this year.) You can see how huge the plant was in the photo, below. It was late producing ripe tomatoes and sparse in production. It's fruit were tasty, however.

 

The fall yard cleanup continued with my raking cottonwood tree leaves and sticks - for the ninth day in a row. It has been only a couple of hours since I raked and, in the next photo, it is obvious that tomorrow will be another raking day. Unfortunately, I failed to snap a photo "before". The splice of two photos to provide a wide-angle look isn't perfect; but, close enough for government work!

 

 

Thursday, 9/24/2020:

On this, my late mother's 106th birthday, News for Nerds led me to a report at The Guardian, concerning the effectivity of impermeable face shields in protecting against aerosol distribution of the novel coronavirus.

 

Face shields ineffective at trapping aerosols, says Japanese supercomputer

Simulation using world’s fastest supercomputer casts doubt on effectiveness in preventing spread of coronavirus

Obviously, my dentist is ahead of the curve since she insists that all staff working on patients wear a surgical mask under the transparent face shield. I would also point out that dentists have used the transparent face shields "forever". I had always understood it to guard them against droplets of spray.

A large garden spider is having her last fling of summer. It's to be in the low 90s (as high temperature of the day) over the weekend, then into the 60s during next week. It was in the mid 60s when I spotted this beauty, below. I never had the opportunity to show her back in a photo - only her front and side.

 

 

 

Friday, 9/25/2020: One of the items at News for Nerds, this morning, concerns helping people become addicted to Facebook. I understand that, just because one uses FB does not imply that they are addicted; but, there are frequently reports in the traditional media that might lead one to conclude that a non-trivial number of users are, indeed, addicted.

Former Facebook Manager: 'We Took a Page From Big Tobacco's Playbook' (arstechnica.com) 86

Posted by BeauHD on Thursday September 24, 2020 @11:30PM from the engaging-analogies dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Speaking to Congress today, the former Facebook manager first tasked with making the company make money did not mince words about his role. He told lawmakers that the company "took a page from Big Tobacco's playbook, working to make our offering addictive at the outset" and arguing that his former employer has been hugely detrimental to society. His analogy continued: "Tobacco companies initially just sought to make nicotine more potent. But eventually that wasn't enough to grow the business as fast as they wanted. And so they added sugar and menthol to cigarettes so you could hold the smoke in your lungs for longer periods. At Facebook, we added status updates, photo tagging, and likes, which made status and reputation primary and laid the groundwork for a teenage mental health crisis. Allowing for misinformation, conspiracy theories, and fake news to flourish were like Big Tobacco's bronchodilators, which allowed the cigarette smoke to cover more surface area of the lungs. But that incendiary content alone wasn't enough. To continue to grow the user base and in particular, the amount of time and attention users would surrender to Facebook, they needed more."

Tim Kendall, who served as director of monetization for Facebook from 2006 through 2010, spoke to Congress today as part of a House Commerce subcommittee hearing examining how social media platforms contribute to the mainstreaming of extremist and radicalizing content. "The social media services that I and others have built over the past 15 years have served to tear people apart with alarming speed and intensity," Kendall said in his opening testimony (PDF). "At the very least, we have eroded our collective understanding -- at worst, I fear we are pushing ourselves to the brink of a civil war." As director of monetization, he added, "We sought to mine as much attention as humanly possible... We took a page form Big Tobacco's playbook, working to make our offering addictive at the outset."