Solid, Liquid, Gas

Liquid meals serve a pseudo-medical purpose: to provide nourishment to people who cannot tolerate solid food.  Energy drinks and gels (aka Nutrient Goo) fill a need for endurance athletes.  But in 2013, Soylent was introduced and marketed to people who are simply too busy to prepare and chew food.

As we transition from consumption of solids to liquids, I wonder how long it will be before a "Nutrient Gas " will allow people to breath in their meals. Being already in a gaseous state, will these "meals" facilitate our body's need to fart?

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Soylent on Wikipedia
Review of Soylent

A Long View of Venezuela Action

Looked at in isolation, USA's actions in Venezuela may seem arbitrary, or a bully's response to being bullied, or a blatant grab for oil.  However, when considered as a piece in the puzzle of recent world events, it makes sense.

Consider also the bombing of three nuclear sites in Iran, which took place in June, ¹ and then the military strikes in Syria that took place in December ².

This activity in Iran, Syria and Venezuela, in the context of Russia's attempted occupation of Ukraine, reveals effective US international policy against Russia.  The three countries are (or were) allies of Russia.

While Russia remains embroiled in Ukraine, the US can engage Russian interests, reducing Russia's footprint on the world stage.  In effect, we can wage war on Russia, albeit indirectly.

And recall that Russia invaded Ukraine soon after Pres. Biden won the 2020 election and took office in 2021.  Pres. Trump claimed the invasion wouldn't have happened if he had been elected.  At first I assumed that he was talking nonsense, something a sore loser or braggart would say.  But now I think Russia was convinced that a massive operation in Ukraine might encourage Trump to take action.  With Biden in charge, Putin seized the opportunity to take over Ukraine.

In light of this, it seems likely that US support of Ukraine would be just enough to maintain the war, to keep Ukraine from being taken over, but not enable them to completely repel Russia.

What's behind US's desire to annex Greenland?  Partly it's to gain more resources.  But considering that Greenland is well-positioned between USA and Russia, it may be the ideal location to establish defense against hypersonic missiles, which need to be situated as close to the enemy's launch sites as possible.  But why do we need to annex Greenland to do that?  While it's true that the US already has a base in Greenland, my guess is that the technology is Top Secret and needs to be kept careful guarded.

All of this is conjecture based on a thought exercise; don't think I have access to special information.

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¹ https://apnews.com/article/israel-iran-war-nuclear-talks-geneva-news-06-21-2025-a7b0cdaba28b5817467ccf712d214579
² https://www.npr.org/2025/12/19/g-s1-103194/u-s-launches-strikes-syria

Edit Online Forms With Emacs

If you'd rather use your own text editor to enter content into a web form, you could use and configure a browser extension to establish a link between the form field and the editor. One such extension that Google search suggests is Browser's External Editor.¹

But if you use Emacs, you're probably better off with Chrome Emacs.²

Chrome Emacs is added to a Chromium browser, but you still need to add something to Emacs. That something is the mode called atomic-chrome.

atomic-chrome can be found on Melpa; you can use the Emacs package manager to add it. My personal experience is that it's necessary to start its server manually with atomic-chrome-start-server, or add (atomic-chrome-start-server) to your init file.

I find it invaluable when commenting on a LinkedIn post, which can disappear whenever your feed is updated.

I also like it as a replacement for the Blogspot post entry field, which is easily cleared with an accidental press of Ctrl-a followed by any key press. Blogspot performs an automatic backup whenever you pause typing during new post mode. But that's a worthless feature because it will backup every mistake, including one in which you replaced all content with a key press. And it offers no way to access previous backups. I'm less likely to select all text in Emacs³, but it's not impossible. As well, I could still somehow still manage to do the Ctrl-a thing in Blogspot. Nevertheless this is a nice workaround.

But in fact I've been composing new posts outside of Blogspot for years; usually I use LibreOffice Writer because... Well, come to think of it, I don't know why I use Writer when I can use Emacs. Maybe it's because with Writer, I can insert pictures and such. (And I haven't figured out how to do that in Emacs.

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¹ https://chromewebstore.google.com/search/Browser's%20External%20Editor
² https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/chrome-emacs
³ Pressing C-x h will select all characters in an Emacs buffer.

Adding Moon Void of Course Events to Org-Agenda via Diary

In a previous post, I demonstrated how to create an Org file that has Moon Void of Course events. However, I found that the events don't show up in all Custom views of Org Agenda, such as when a Custom Command defines a single org file. So here's an alternate method for displaying the events in the Agenda, which I prefer. It involves adding the events to a special diary file, such as mvoc.

To make this work, you'll need to use fancy diary display, which means setting diary-display-function to diary-fancy-display. As well, evaluate and add these statements into your Emacs config / init file, as explained in the Emacs manual in the Fancy Diary Display node.¹

(add-hook 'diary-list-entries-hook 'diary-include-other-diary-files)
(add-hook 'diary-mark-entries-hook 'diary-mark-included-diary-files)

Recall that we created a spreadsheet document in the first post on this topic.² Then we modified it in a subsequent post³ to create the mvoc.org file. Now we'll modify it again so we end up with something like this in the mvoc diary file:

Oct 28, 2025 22:38 Moon Void of Course
Oct 28, 2025 22:55 Moon entering Aquarius after void

The date format shown above is the default. Alternatively, you can use a date format specified by calendar-date-style.

Here are the steps to create a diary file with Moon void of course events like the ones shown above. Again, we begin with the spreadsheet that was created in steps 1 through 4 of the initial post.

5. Add a new sheet to the document; name it mvoc.
6. Enter the following in cell A1. Please note that the tilde character represents a line continuation character. In fact the content should be entered without line breaks:
   1. =TEXT($moon_void_of_course_table_2025.A2,"MMM D, YYYY HH:MM") & ~
   2. " Moon void of course" & UNICHAR(13) & UNICHAR(10) & ~
   3. >TEXT($moon_void_of_course_table_2025.B2,"MMM D, YYYY HH:MM") & ~
   4. " Moon void of course entering " & $moon_void_of_course_table_2025.C2
7. Set the row height to at least two times its default height so that you can see the result in its entirety.
8. Save the spreadsheet in its native format (Excel as an XLSx file; LibreOffice Calc, ODS). A lot of work went into entering the formula in A1 -- it would be highly frustrating if that got lost!
9. As before, we will pause and breathe for discussion.
   1. The reference to $moon_void_of_course_table_2025.A2 in 6.1 returns the date and time that the void begins. Similarly, $moon_void_of_course_table_2025.B2 in 6.3 returns the date and time that the void ends.
   2. The aforementioned dates and times are formatted with the TEXT worksheet function to ensure that the date is represented in MMM D, YYY format (Oct. 28, 2025, for example), followed by the time in 24-hour notation, where 23:45 is 11:45 pm. We omit the seconds because it won't show up properly in the Agenda. And anyway, seconds are omitted from the data; the event's timing probably isn't determined with enough accuracy to warrant it.
   3. In 6.2 we define the description of the start time; it will say simply, "Moon void of course." That text is terminated by a line ending for DOS/Windows; the two "UNICHAR" worksheet functions resolve to Carriage Return / Linefeed characters. You might need to specify this differently for non-Windows systems.
   4. Similarly in 6.4, we define the description of the end time, for example "Moon void of course entering Aquarius." Although instead of "Aquarius" it could be any Zodiac sign specified in Column C of the source sheet.
   5. The formula in cell A1 will create two lines in the diary file that define the start and end of the event.
10. Starting at cell A1, fill down until all the data of the first sheet is included.
11. Save the spreadsheet again.
12. In step 8 of the initial post, I instructed to "Export the new sheet as a CSV file." We'll want to do that again. But this time it's necessary to pay attention to LibreOffice's "Export Text File" dialog box that precedes the Save dialog box (as we did when creating the mvoc.org file). Ensure that the Field Delimiter and String Delimiter dropdown boxes are blank as shown in Figure 1. Otherwise, each heading will be preceded by a double quote character, and the lines might end with a comma.
13. Remove the extension from the newly-created CSV, and copy it to your home directory. Now there should be a file called mvoc; to verify, use Emacs to visit the file. The default keystrokes would be C-x C-f ~/.mvoc followed by ENTER.
14. Open the diary file. By default the file is named diary and it's located in the home directory. Add the following in the first line: #include "mvoc" and save it.
15. Press C-c a a to view the default agenda view. A screenshot of today's agenda is shown in Figure 2 below.

Figure 1: The LibreOffice Export Text File dialog box with Field delimiter and String delimiter fields blank

Figure 2: Agenda View for Tuesday, October 28.  It shows that Moon is void of course from 10:38pm to 10:55pm.

Please let me know if you found this useful or if you have suggestions for improvement.

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¹https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/Fancy-Diary-Display.html

²https://ludditegeek.blogspot.com/2025/10/add-moon-void-of-course-dates-to-google.html

³https://ludditegeek.blogspot.com/2025/10/an-org-file-to-report-when-moon-is-void.html

An Org File to Report When Moon is Void of Course (in 2025)

In my previous post I wrote about how to create a custom calendar in a spreadsheet and then add it to Google calendar. I used the dates and times when Moon is void of course in 2025 as an example. ¹

In this post, I'll show how to add those events to an org-mode file so that they show up in the Agenda View. And while there are Lisp add-ons that create org files from ICal files, it's easier to create the org file directly, since we don't actually have an ICal file.

Begin with the spreadsheet that was created in steps 1 through 4 of the previous post. But note that the new sheet in step four will be in the format that Org can read.

Here are the next steps:

5. Add the following content in the first 5 rows of column A. These define the recommended file-level settings for the Org file:
   1. #+STARTUP: content
   2. #+STARTUP: hidestars
   3. #+STARTUP: indent
   4. #+CATEGORY: MVoC
   5. #+FILETAGS: :MVoC:
6. Leave row 6 blank and then enter the following in cell A7. Please note that the tilde character represents a line continuation character. In fact the content should be entered without line breaks:
   1. ="* Moon void of course entering " & ~
   2. $moon_void_of_course_table_2025.C2 & ~
   3. UNICHAR(13) & UNICHAR(10) & "<" & ~
   4. TEXT($moon_void_of_course_table_2025.A2,"YYYY-MM-DD NN HH:MM") ~
   5. & ">--<" & ~
   6. TEXT($moon_void_of_course_table_2025.B2,"YYYY-MM-DD NN HH:MM") ~
   7. & ">" & UNICHAR(13) & UNICHAR(10)
7. Set the row height to at least three times its default height.
8. Save the spreadsheet in its native format (Excel as an XLSx file; LibreOffice Calc, ODS). A lot of work went into entering the formula in A7 - it would be highly frustrating if that got lost!
9. Then pause and breathe for discussion.
   1. In paragraphs 6.1 and 6.2, we have code for a heading that will say, "Moon void of course entering Aquarius." Although instead of " Aquarius" it could be any Zodiac sign specified in Column C of the source sheet.
   2. The "UNICHAR" worksheet functions in paragraphs 6.3 and 6.7 resolve to the Carriage Return / Linefeed characters when called with arguments of 13 and 10 as they are here. These two characters define line endings on Windows. It's your spreadsheet's way of pressing ENTER.
   3. The reference to $moon_void_of_course_table_2025.A2 in 6.4 returns the date and time that the void begins. Similarly, $moon_void_of_course_table_2025.B2 in 6.6 returns the date and time that the void ends.
   4. The aforementioned dates and times are formatted with the TEXT worksheet function to ensure that the date is represented in YYYY-MM-DD format (2025-10-14, for example), followed by an abbreviation for the name of the day of the week (Tue, which, by the way, is optional) ², and finally followed by the time using the 24-hour notation, where 23:45 is 11:45 pm.
   5. The start date & time and the end date & time each are surrounded by angle brackets; the bracketed start and end elements are separated by two hyphens. Today the duration that the Moon is void of course is denoted this way:
      1. <2025-10-14 Tue 00:05>--<2025-10-14 Tue 05:47>
10. Starting at cell A7, fill down until all the data of the first sheet is included.
11. Save the spreadsheet again.
12. In step 8 of the previous post, I instructed to "Export the new sheet as a CSV file." We'll want to do that again. But this time it's necessary to pay attention to LibreOffice's "Export Text File" dialog box that precedes the Save dialog box. Ensure that the Field Delimiter and String Delimiter dropdown boxes are blank as shown in Figure 1. Otherwise, each heading will be preceded by a double quote character, and the lines might end with a comma.
13. Change the extension of the newly-created CSV file to org. Edit it with Emacs and press C-[ to add it to the Agenda File List.
14. Press C-c a a to view the default agenda view. A screenshot of today's agenda is shown in Figure 2 below.

Figure 1: The LibreOffice Export Text File dialog box with Field delimiter and String delimiter fields blank

Figure 2: Agenda View for Tuesday, October 14.  It shows that Moon is void of course from 12:05am to 5:47am.

Please let me know if you found this useful or if you have suggestions for improvement.

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¹ https://ludditegeek.blogspot.com/2025/10/add-moon-void-of-course-dates-to-google.html
² The reference for org-mode's date range timestamp format can be found here: https://orgmode.org/worg/org-syntax.html#Timestamps

Add Moon Void of Course Dates to Google Calendar

Google calendar can be configured to show the phases of the moon.  This view can be enabled in the settings. ^{1, 2}  You can find other calendars in Settings, too, such as various religious holidays and sports.

But you can also create your own calendar and upload it as a ICAL file.  Or you can import it as a CSV file.  I used the import CSV method to add the dates and times that Moon is void of course.

What does it mean that Moon is void of course?  In astrology, Moon visits each of the twelve signs of the Zodiac.  As well, Her position may form Major Aspects with other celestial bodies.  When Moon transitions from one house of the Zodiac to the next, and fails to be in a Major Aspect, She is considered void of course.  It is believed to be a time to avoid important business, for example. ³  Thus, believers will want to have this on their calendars.  Here's how to add these times to your Google calendar.

1. Locate a list of dates and times that Moon is Void of Course.
   1. I used the list at voidofcoursemoon.com ⁴
2. Download or copy the data to a CSV text file.
3. Import the CSV into a new spreadsheet.  I copied the data, so for me, the columns were tab-delimited.  As well, I defined the first two columns as Date/Time and the last column as Text.  Delete any lines that do not contain the desired data; I kept the first line as "Void begins: Void ends: Moon enters after void:."
4. Create a second sheet that will link to the content in the first sheet.  You'll export this sheet as a CSV file in a format that Google calendar can read.
5. Add these nine column headings in row 1 of the "Export Sheet"  ⁵
   1. Subject
   2. Start Date
   3. Start Time
   4. End Date
   5. End Time
   6. All Day Event
   7. Description
   8. Location
   9. Private
6. Enter the following content into the cells of the second row:
   1. Moon Void of Course (or whatever you'd like to see as the title of each event).
   2. =$moon_void_of_course_table_2025.A2 (with format code MM/DD/YYYY)
   3. =$moon_void_of_course_table_2025.A2 (with format code HH:MM:SS AM/PM)
   4. =$moon_void_of_course_table_2025.B2 (with format code MM/DD/YYYY)
   5. =$moon_void_of_course_table_2025.B2 (with format code HH:MM:SS AM/PM)
   6. FALSE
   7. ="Moon will enter " & $moon_void_of_course_table_2025.C2 & " after void" (or whatever you want to see in the event description).
   8. Eastern US & Canada (This is the time zone name, but put whatever you want to see for the event location).
   9. FALSE
   10. Select all nine occupied cells in row 2 (columns A through I) and fill down until all the data of the first sheet is included.
7. Save the spreadsheet as XLSx (Excel) or ODS (LibreOffice Calc).
8. Export the new sheet as a CSV file.
9. Create a new Google calendar and import the CSV file into it. ⁵

Or you can skip all that and just use the calendar I created, which you can find here. ⁶  But note that it's limited to events in 2025.

Here's how it looks in my calendar; the Phases of the Moon calendar also is enabled...

I hope you find this useful.  Next, I'll describe how I got these events into Org-mode.

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¹ href="https://support.google.com/calendar/answer/13748650?hl=en&co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop

² href="https://www.maketecheasier.com/display-alternate-calendar-google-calendar/

³ https://www.astrologybyjudithryan.com/void-of-course-moon-info

⁴ href="https://voidofcoursemoon.com/void-of-course-moon-2025-calendar/

⁵ href="https://support.google.com/calendar/answer/37118#advanced&zippy=%2Ccreate-or-edit-a-csv-file

⁶ href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WqS678DtfBI9J0MQzuAphMrURAC3kK8T/view?usp=sharing

Failure to “Practice What You Preach”

A blog post in March on the Proton website¹ recommends several European programs or apps that circumvent potential US privacy violations. The "privacy-focused European alternatives" that are recommended in the social media category include Mastodon (which I use), Lemmy, and Friendica.

However, if you want to share that blog post, the you're offered choices of X, Reddit, LinkedIn, and Facebook! I wanted to point out the irony to the author, but there is no comment box in which to enter a reply.

Share options on Proton blog post

Even better (as in more ironic) is that blog post had been posted to Facebook with a link back that included a "fbclid" parameter. I suppose maybe we can give Proton a pass on this - they're entitled to know where their readers come from and when. But why not just have a simple "referral" parameter set to "facebook20251005185942" (or "linkedin," or whatever)? I ask because who knows what the 118-character value of fbclid unencodes to?

If you'd like to be a bit of a disruptor (or just have fun), you could append "?fbclid=biteme" to the link to the blog post before you navigate to it.

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¹ https://proton.me/blog/european-tech-alternatives