This dates from waaaaaaaaay back in March, but it it’s not only funny but also still relevant.
Max is the hero we need *and* deserve.
Aug 272017
Aug 262017
In these here 57 United States, is the problem of people shouting “wolf” in crowded theaters so bad that the Constitution doesn’t cover it?
See, this is why whenever I go to the theater I make sure to bring a fully loaded .50 caliber Browning machine gun. The wolves, you see. I can’t say anything about them, what with the freedom of speech now being curtailed.
Aug 042017
Scientists tally the environmental impact of feeding meat to our cats and dogs. It’s huge
Short form: cats and dogs eat a whole lot of meat, and meat requires water and carbon dioxide emissions to make. thus, kitties and puppies are destroying the planet and you should feel bad for enabling the horrible little monsters. Granted, the author of the study specifically says that he’s not advocating getting rid of pets… but you can bet that the environmental whackos *will.* Keep in mind, the Venn diagram covering “environmentalists” has a lot of overlap with “PETA people,” and there have been few organizations more enthusiastic about killing cats and dogs than PETA.
Something that confuses me a bit… yes, animals are turned into kibble, but it’s hardly like this is a wholly separate industry from human food-animal production. The pet food “environmental impact” should therefore be simply a fraction of the agricultural environmental impact that has no doubt already been calculated.
Also: yes, the current process for feeding cows and pigs and such is a major environmental issue. You have to grow corn (or wheat or whatever), which requires tractors and irrigation and the like. But here’s the thing: it doesn’t *need* to. Cows can eat *grass.* Yes, it takes a lot more grass than corn to fatten up a cow, but in many places grass grows for free, on its own. During the “Old West,” grillions of cows roamed the plains gnawing on wild plants. Before them, jillions of bison did the same. So except for the fact that the country is now divided up into itty bitty chunks, this process should still be feasible, and would seem to be reasonably carbon neutral.
So, if we are all agreed that the environment is in danger and we need to do whatever we can to reduce the carbon footprint, perhaps we should consider the use of eminent domain in order to buy up a lot of terrain to turn it over to natural grasslands and cow feeding ranges. The government can use its overwhelming force in this time of crisis to use eminent domain to take the bank accounts and property of environmental activists and pressure groups and use that money to buy land currently used to grow corn.
Jul 192017
Boring headline:
NBC News poll: American fears of war grow
Interesting photo attached to MSNBC tweet:
Alternative interpretation of the photo:
Think This Is Just A Picture Of A Missile Launch? Think Again
Jul 012017
A USAF film from the early 60’s showing some of the things the Air Force was doing to prepare for spaceflight. Parachute tests, ejection seats, various acceleration tests are shown. At about 3:30 several cats are shown in an aircraft doing zero-g maneuvers. The cats are obviously not happy about this. In general, taking cats along on a zero-g flight is something I’m not opposed to… humans living in space are undoubtedly going to take pets with them, and it’d be good to figure out what species can handle what. But the cats obviously are confused, having no idea whatsoever what’s going on… and the humans are having too much fun screwing with them.
May 232017
A cyclops goat recently born in India.
It’s rare for cycloptic critters to survive long after birth… the defects that lead to the cyclopia usually are linked to terminal defects, often malformed brains.
I’d keep an eye open (heh) for Shub-Niggurath sightings (heh).
May 122017
In this time of chaos, when a barbaric ideology is causing havoc in not only the Middle East but also the civilized world, when the President is clearly delusional and his political opponents are even worse, when we have “anti-fascist” movements proving that fascism is a real threat in the world today by actually being fascistic… we need someone who can clearly and succinctly express how we all feel. And I believe that someone is Raedthinn.
Mar 092017
UPDATE:
Sage the cat died this afternoon.
——-
This led off the local nightly news tonight.
Clearfield family finds beloved cat shaved, beaten
There are photos that will ruin your mood and, if you’re at all like me, make you want to set up a second reward. The first rewards is $5000 for anyone who can provide tips that lead to an arrest. But I kinda want a second reward set up for *after* the suspect is found, arrested, tried and convicted.
Chances are good that this was done by a kid. If so, I expect to see family members yammering on about “he’s a good kid” or some such factually indefensible rubbish. Whether perpetrated by a kid or an adult, though, society doesn’t need him among us. If someone can provide a good, valid reason why a jail term followed by deportation to Somalia isn’t a proper response for such behavior, I’d like to read it.
The Humane Society of Northern Utah is paying the vet bills. As of the news report, it was far from clear that Sage the cat would survive. I certainly hope he does… partially just on general principles, partially because this cat, after being tortured and broken and blinded, managed to find his way home and crawl in through the dog door.
www.humanesocietyofnorthernutah.com
Jan 152017
First there’s this…
First female ringmaster takes reins at Ringling Bros. circus
But then, on the same day…
APNewsBreak: Ringling Bros. circus to close after 146 years
Huh.
Let me guess: that first female ringmaster was Counselor Deanna Troi. They put her behind the wheel and she promptly crashed the circus.
Seriously: I was almost surprised to find out that Ringling Brothers Circus was still a thing. Don’t they have an app for that?
Jan 042017
A number of years ago I blathered on about an Idea-with-a-capitol-I that I had: drain the Great Salt Lake, scrape the muck out of the bottom, use blasts and bulldozers to dig it a hundred feet deeper, then run vast pipelines from the ocean to re-fill it with ocean water. Stock it with ocean life, in particular species that are being fished to extinction, set in place some *vast* recirculation and filtration systems, and shazam, now Utah becomes a paradise for both ecologists and fishermen. It was of course a ridiculous notion. but there ain’t no harm in dreaming big.
In the years since… there has been no progress on this idea. Oh well.
But something there *has* been progress on is land-locked aquaculture, raising food-fish in giant farms. Such as here:
Can farmers in Iowa help save the worlds seafood supply?
Where we read about a former hog farm that has been transformed into a fish farm. The waste water is not truly wasted… it goes to irrigate the same farmers corn fields, and the fish poop in the water becomes fertilizer. It seems to be a pretty good system, except that the fry (baby fish) are all flown in from Australia, not made on-site. As vast as the place is, it’s still pretty small compared to a conventional ecosystem.
Converting the Great Salt Lake into a living inland sea would be a chore, but the end result *should* be large enough to successfully host the complete life cycles of many species of ocean fish (and crustaceans, cetaceans, etc.). One advantage that making this a salt-water environment would have over fresh water aquaculture is that in the event of rains and floods, if the salt water critters get into surrounding rivers, they are unlikely to become an invasive species and damage the native system.
Still, good to see Flyover Country expanding its economic base to aquaculture. With the rise of wind power, solar power, small-scale manufacturing/rapid prototyping, the need for high-density peoplefarms will hopefully decrease.