On May 30, I left Yuma, AZ (southwest part of the state) at around 9:30 AM. It was, according to the in-vehicle thermometer, just about 100 degrees F. Drove east to Phoenix, then turned north to Flagstaff. Got to Flagstaff around 2 PM… and it was 47 degrees F. Yay, altitude!
Stopped and took some storm photos between Phoenix and Flagstaff.
A week or so ago I unloaded four kittens by the simple expedient of sitting outside the local grocery store with the kittens in a soft-sided carrier with a “free kittens” sign. Those kittens had been born in my basement, and got a daily dose of human contact, and by the time they were sent out into the world were lovable, friendly little fuzzballs.
But born literally within days of that litter was another litter. This second litter was born outside and spent most of the first two months virtually hidden away, in fields and in barns and under sheds. The upshot here is that this litter is *not* human-friendly, and if you actually catch one, you’re taking your life into your hands. However… that’s not to say that they don’t recognize that there is food to be occasionally had on my back deck.
This litter (Mommacat’s offspring) is much less of a Benneton ad of colorful diversity than Fingers’ litter. There are three black kittens (each with hints of red, just like their mother) and one tigerstripe (looking a great deal like this one’s much older half-sister, Fingers). No idea what sex they are… I’ve managed to catch a few by the scruff of the neck ond hold on for a few seconds, but the claws are always in full view and the risk/benefit analysis just doesn’t support detailed examination.
Hanging on the wall at the Hiller Aerospace Museum are a number of paintings of conceptual airliners. Most were, or seemed to be, Boeing designs. Here’s one of a tandem-wing geometry.
From The Pittsburgh Channel:
Using crime data compiled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, NeighborhoodScout.com made a list of areas with the highest predicted rates of violent crime in the United States.
Here’s the list. I’ve made a minor addition to the list, by listing the Mayor and his/her party affiliation in blue for Democrat,red for Republican, green for independent. Any conclusions you draw from the data is purely up to you.
This one might be a bit of a challenge. List the country of origin, date, company/design bureau that produced this and just what it is. $35 worth of downloads (from Aerospace Projects Review or Aircraft & Spacecraft Drawings & Documents)this time. And this time… I’ll leave the contest up and running until the weekend (probably Sunday), but not say “yes” or “no” until then. Yer on yer own…
Raedthinn showing just how flexible he can be.
A few days back.
According to this website, (note: unpleasant photo on that site) the Iranian thugocracy has finally started massacring protestors:
An Iranian blogger (whose URL I will not publish) (Unwanted Blog Note: it’s a Twitter account, located right here… Google ain’t that hard to use, people) live blogging from Baharestan Square in central Tehran today captures but brief glimpses of the unimaginable horror that took place today. Bus loads of protesters were stopped and unloaded from their buses by “black-clad police” and literally herded. When the massing was sufficient, as the barely controllably distraught Tehran caller to CNN described first hand, hundreds of the regime’s Basij thugs poured out of an adjoining mosque and commenced a massacre with axes, clubs, guns and gas.
From the live blogger’s eyewitness account:
>More than 10.000 Bassij Milittias get position in Central Tehran, including Baharestan Sq.
>Army Helycopters flying over Baharestan and Vali Asr Sq.
>The streets, squares and around BAHARESTAN (Approx. South-eastern of Tehran) is swarming with military forces, civilian forces, the security motorists
>The croud have moved to the south of baharestan, the situation is bad, the shooting has started
>In Baharestan Sq. in the Police shooting, A girl is shot and the police is not allowing to let them help
>In Baharestan we saw militia with axe choping people like meat – blood everywhere – like butcher
Another Twitter Blogger posted these:
we must go – dont know when we can get internet – they take 1 of us, they will torture and get names – now we must move fast – #Iranelection
about 8 hours ago from web Everybody is under arrest & cant move – Mousavi – Karroubi even rumour Khatami is in house guard – #Iranelection –
about 8 hours ago from web they pull away the dead into trucks – like factory – no human can do this – we beg Allah for save us – #Iranelection
about 8 hours ago from web Lalezar Sq is same as Baharestan – unbelevable – ppls murdered everywhere – #Iranelection
A YouTube video showing an apparently shot-dead protestor.
A YouTube video of a CNN broadcast includes a phone conversation with a supposed witness. Witness begs the CNN for “you people” to do something. “You people” probably meaning Westerners/Americans/US Military/Barack-“The One”-Obama.
One must be careful to view this sort of thing with some skepticism. Remember the “Iraqis dumping Kuwaiti babies out of incubators” thing before Desert Storm.
My view: civil wars are best to not jump into once they’ve started. Iraq and Iran have differences… we took down a thugocracy and got in the way of a *real* civil war (as bad as it was, imagine the bloodbath had Saddam been simply taken out, and a civil war broke out with nothing to try to moderate it). But jumping into Iran now would be a propaganda coup for the Surt-worshipping nithingrs who currently run the joint, and would very likely piss off the very people we want to help. The best the US could do is provide moral support, medical support and news/information support for the Iranian people. If an all-out civil war truly breaks out, *then* we provide more, in the form of small arms if needed, and the occasional special forces crack shot who can pick off selected targets. The rare F-15 or AH-64 or Predator zipping in and blowing the crap out of helicopter gunships or armored vehicles being used to wipe out civilians might be a good thing as well, but boots on the ground should be invisible.
It must also be remembered that in the first Obama administration (also called the “Carter years”) the President of the US totally botched an Iranian revolution, with disastrous consequences. Learn from past mistakes.
Due to a combination of a great many events, the 1/288 Naboo Skiff I was building for Fantastic Plastic has seen a great many delays. However, it is now approaching a level of completeness. I hope to get it out the hatch by end of month.
My posting of a day or two back about a song to sum up the Obama years got me thinking about a song I heard a few years ago that really struck a chord… “Hoist the Colors,” written by Hans Zimmer for “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End.” It’s shown being sung at the beginning of the movie by a bunch of prisoners who have been stripped of their rights, and are being marched to the gallows by their own government (gosh… why would “the Obama years” make me think of such a thing?). It’s a haunting little ditty, and speaks to freedom.
A YouTube of the relevant scenes (subtitled in, oddly, Portugese)
Lyrics
The king and his men
stole the queen from her bed
and bound her in her bones.
The seas be ours
and by the powers
where we will we’ll roam.
<>Yo, ho, all hands,
hoist the colors high.
Heave ho, thieves and beggars,
never shall we die.
Yo, ho, haul together,
hoist the colors high.
Heave ho,
thieves and beggars,
never shall we die.
<>
Some men have died
and some are alive
and others sail on the sea
with the keys to the cage…
and the Devil to pay
we lay to Fiddler’s Green!
<>The bell has been raised
from it’s watery grave…
Hear it’s sepulchral tone
Call to all,
pay head the squall
and turn your sail toward home!
Yo, ho, haul together,
hoist the colors high.
Heave ho, thieves and beggars,
never shall we die.
Someone did a pretty good cover of it, posted on YouTube here.