What appears to be juvenile handwriting in the guestbook says, for 12-7-2013:
Hi.
I had a great time in your house. I have one question, what is that black thing hanging in the trees?
Sincerely,
Claire
Admit it: if you saw that scribbled in the guestbook for the mountain forest cabin you’re going to be staying in… you’ll be glad of the 1,000 lumen flashlight and the shotgun you elected to bring.
In December, however, Moscow signaled plans to take over the Sea Launch program and use it to collaborate with Brazil or other so-called BRICS countries… “Now, after the latest events in Ukraine, one may forget about industrial production [there], let alone high-tech manufacturing. It’s dead,” he said, citing the Sea Launch platform’s proximity to the U.S. coast near Los Angeles. “Naturally we will take it away for our own use.”
A joint US-Canada project? Sure. US-UK? Sure. US-Germany? Sure. Heck, US-Anybody-In-NATO? Sure. But teaming up with nations that have the distinct potential of nationalizing industries, or undergoing severe political reversals? Not such a wise idea.
A rapper I’ve never heard of managed to both smack Nancy Grace aroudn during an interview, and express distinctly right-wing libertarian economic and personal viewpoints:
In short: Boston-area idiots thought it was a good idea to chain themselves across a busy highway, bringing traffic to a halt, to protest against people who weren’t trying to use the highway. As a result, an ambulance carrying a severely injured car crash victim had to divert to another hospital.
I’m all in favor of the right to protest, but when your protests are aimed at inconveniencing and even endangering the general public, you’re a jackass. Several possibly-legal responcses by the general public to such “direct actions” seem to present themselves:
1) Park stopped vehicles so that the exhausts are Appropriately Oriented. Might be challenging to pull off.
2) According to Weather.com, Boston is currently 28 degrees F. Hence the Supersoaker utility.
3) Depending on snow conditions… a snowblower or snowplow might be able to pile up drifts onto the new snow-fence across the road.
A kid fell into a coma. Two years or so later, his mind re-awoke… but his body didn’t. He could see and hear everything… including hearing his mother tell him that she hoped he’d die… but he couldn’t move anything to demonstrate that he was in there. And every day the care center would park him in front of a TV showing Barney the dinosaur.
If I understand the process correctly… photons were emitted from a source, with red photons entangled with yellow ones. The beams were split, with some hitting a cat silhouette. But the ones that hit the silhouette were diverted from hitting the camera sensor; the only photons that interacted with the camera were ones that did not “see” the cat. And yet an image of the cat was formed, because the photos that hit the camera were entangled with photons that saw the cat.
One topic that hasn’t appeared much on this blog is “sports cars.” Partially because I’m not particularly interested in them; partially because I’m too poor to even afford to dream about such things. Still, even though if I was suddenly granted a half billion dollars I would not buy a supercar, I find the lack of high-end American sports cars somewhat disturbing. These mechanisms are really quite silly and impractical… but the fact that we don’t make them as we once did means we’ve lost a certain quality. (Similarly, I’ve never been a particular fan of westerns, but the fact that we basically no longer make ’em, that the term “cowboy” has actually come to be used as a pejorative, says a lot, and little of it good.)
But then Ford just unveiled photos of their new 600 horsepower GT which is supposed to enter production next year:
A number of photos at the link. There is also THIS LINK full of photos, with an impressively NSFW grade-school title. The people who seem to know about such things seem to be impressed with it. I’d be happier if it could sprout wings and fly, but I’ll take what I can get, I suppose…
So if you’re into such things, here ya go. If you can *afford* such things, well, start getting your finances together. And in the mean time, if you’re rich enough to afford a supercar and yet you’re reading this blog, why not go hit up the Tip Jar over yonder? It’s part of the social contract, man!
