The Unwanted Blog

Surprisingly, this has nothign to do with idiots, video cameras and momentum:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/09/100901-science-animals-evolution-australia-lizard-skink-live-birth-eggs/

 Short form: a lizard is transitioning from an egg-layer to a live-birther.

Bonus: a photo of a lizard that is actually “cute.”

Local news coverage:

http://www.abc4.com/news/local/story/ATK-fallout/Jv5DnBUzBEu8uBF3adO9fw.cspx

Interestingly, the reporters interviewed my neighbor to the immediate west, and the one to the south-east. Had I not been in Idaho yesterday, they mighta interviewed *me.* Consider yourselves fortunate that y’all aren’t being directed to watch my ugly mug rant and rave.

Of course, with sufficient foresight, it might’ve been amusing to do myself up in radioactive mutant zombie makeup, wait for the reporters to show up, then run around the yard screaming about the burning ash that fell from the sky…

Oil Rig Explodes Off Louisiana Coast

An offshore petroleum rig exploded and was burning Thursday in the Gulf of Mexico about 80 miles south of Vermilion Bay.

Wonderful.

Things just keep going wrong. This was probably not the “hope and change” people were looking for…

I remember this painting from before the Shuttle first flew. Specifically, I remember it being printed across a full newspaper spread on the day the Columbia was to first launch. Yes, I kept that “poster,” and yes, I studied it intently, and yes, I believed that someday soon I’d fly it into space. Ah, to be that young and stupid again…

http://www.christiannewswire.com/news/9883914856.html

There’s very little that I can say that will make the subjects of that article - and its author - look any dumber or more pathetically low-rent evil than the article itself does.

With all the health, computer and financial issues of late, I’ve been stuck at home pretty much most of the time for the last three months or so. So rather than go utterly bugnuts, yesterday I got up early and hit the road, pointed north. I had a specific destination in mind (photos on that later), but wound up at Craters of the Moon National Monument. CotM is an ancient lavabed… the same hotspot currently bubbling under Yellowstone. Millions of years ago it burst forth in central Idaho and barfed up several hundred square miles of flood basalt. While basalt makes up a *lot* of southern Idaho, CotM is sufficiently recent as to be uneroded and un-covered by soil or plants. It is a vast field of bare, sharp, pointy, jagged, “come here I want to hurt you” rock.

Ashes and dust and thirst there is, and pits, pits, pits.

There are several large lava tubes (read: “caves”) that are publicly accessible. Unlike most publicly accessible caves, these are largely unimproved… no handrails, smoothed walkways or any such conveniences, just a hole in the ground with a lot of loose rocks. I went through Indian Tunnel, certainly an interesting place; the above-ground lavafields are blasted with wind pretty much non-stop, but that comes to an end as you descend. And the temperature drops. A lot. Some of the lava tubes maintain ice year round, even when the temperature above ground - just feet away - is in the triple digits. It’s been a while since I’ve been in a cave, and the thing that struck me most was the rather sudden complete silence.

This was, I think, the third time I’ve been there. Generally, visitors are torn between “this is the most horrible place I’ve ever seen” and “this is awesome.” There is currently construction on a number of the roads, effectively blocking some of the more interesting spots; but if you happen to find yourself in the area, it’s certainly worth a look and some hiking.

From NASA-MSFC, 1967.

Yes, I finally went there.

Gentlemen, behold:

Now, control yourselves…

If you like critters, give serious consideration to not reading any further than Right Here. Stop. Go have a beer or something and come back after I’ve posted something aerospace or political.

Anyway…

Seems a video was posted online showing a teenage girl merrily chucking live puppies into a fast-flowing river. Now, drowning “excess” critters has been a common occurance for as long as humans have controlled critters; and while sad, it is at least at some level understandable from a purely practical standpoint (critters that are sick, or that you can’t feed, your have to get rid of… and drowning is perhaps one of the quicker and less-horrible ways of doing so). However, we’re past the point where such things are likely necessary… I’ve had a *lot* of excess kittens over the years, and every last one of ‘em, I was able to give away. So puppy-drowning is not “necessary to preserve the farm” anymore. What’s really bad about the video is that it’s clearly not being done sadly, or even matter-of-factly… she’s enjoying throwing puppies to their doom.

One of the down sides to the internet has been that it has allowed people to display their jackassery to the world for their own entertainment, and remain anonymous. But… as it turns out, there’s not near as much anonymity as most people think. Not only do multiple governments watch every online transaction you make and note every dirty video you watch, there are individuals who can do some pretty fair online investigating. And if you band enough of those individuals together and set them a common purpose… they can dig up pretty much *anything.*

Like the identity of Puppy-Chucking-Girl.

http://valleywag.gawker.com/5626105/4chan-on-the-hunt-for-puppy+throwing-girl

 The 4chan miscreants quickly identified the owner of the YouTube account that had uploaded the video, his hometown, and, possibly, his Facebook account. And not just that: /b/tards picked out two Facebook profiles they thought were most likely the girl in the video, as well as profiles of friends and the camera man.

 …

The /b/tards are confident that they’re right, and they’ve got some evidence: “Martin,” the Bosnian kid on whose YouTube account the video was apparently uploaded first, seems to have posted on a Croatian gaming forum here (via) complaining about 4chan.

So not only did the (apparently Bosnian) animal abusers fail to hide their identities… they exposed themselves to the wrath of 4chan. That… was unwise.

Now, if’n you read the post and are feeling bummed, or watched the video and are feeling bummed, here’s some antidote:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glii-kazad8

Shortly after today’s ATK rocket test… it started raining dirt.

My guess is that the rocket exhaust kicked up many tons of burnt dirt and chucked it into the sky, borne aloft in the “mushroom cloud.” The wind conditions were just right for the fallout to cover my property (and my neighbors’… who is thrilled because she had just cleaned her swimming pool). The stuff is *everywhere.* It’s part fine dust, part grit, and sticks to everything. If I come down with cancer or some other crazy-ass disease… well, you know where it came from.

Hmmm.

Maybe I can sell this on eBay?