Month: June 2013

“Hello CQ” – Have A Field Day

ARRL2013fieldday

What if something happened and suddenly cell phones didn’t work, land lines went dead,  all internet servers crashed, what’s left? HAM RADIO!

The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) is an organization for amateur radio enthusiasts (hams) that also rehearses for catastrophic events. Broadcast over shortwave bands, the ARRL’s been around since 1914 a as a way to communicate over long distances, relaying a message from station to station via morse code, and later with vocal transmissions, a bonafide precursor to the internest.

On 22 – 23 June they’re having a “Field Day” to practice for a real emergency:

Objective:
To work as many stations as possible on any and all amateur bands (excluding the 60, 30, 17, and 12-meter bands) and to learn to operate in abnormal situations in less than optimal conditions. Field Day is open to all amateurs in the areas covered by the ARRL/RAC Field Organizations and countries within IARU Region 2.

These citizen volunteers are the last bastion, at least for electronic wireless communication, assuming they have a backup power supply to transmit and receive.

[Tip o’ the tarboosh to W.J.J. Hoge. Somewhat dated yet still related, James Burke explored a worst-case scenario in his “Connections” series.]

Beer of Champions

Beer of Champions

[Found here.]

RabbitDuckRabbitDuck

bunnyduckbunnyslippers

One little tiny adjustment can make all the difference.
Reminds me of this classic.

[Original undoctored image found here.]

Happens Every Day Around Here

Mutants

If you want to earn an A in this class, put this on, and dance like you’ve never danced before.

[Found in here.]

A Great Gibber of Hot Links

walt-kelly-gibber-kluck-klams

Image above from Walt Kelly‘s “Kluck Klams,” an evisceration of the KKK. The Pogo Poop Book was a collection of things that Kelly wanted to say in his daily comic strips but couldn’t, due to left-wing censorship.

Dancer and Prancer and a few Vixens here.

Recycling Scrabble Tiles.

“If we aren’t allowed to test shampoo on monkeys, how will we ever know if our monkeys are clean?” – Diesel Kroese. Diesel helped me start this blog a long time ago, so now he spams me with his book adverts. Payback’s a bitch.

HELLLOOO CLEVELAND! (and this guy‘s got some awesome drafting skills).

Best versions of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star you’ll ever hear.

This Tornado Tracks graphic blows me away [via].

The precurser to “Hot Rod Lincoln” was Arkie Shibley’s 1951 recording of “Hot Rod Race.“

Speaking of “Hot Rod Lincoln, THIS is the perhaps the best version I’ve heard.
There are some surprises, so stay with it.

“The Wizard of Mental Telepathy” Harry Ingalls suckered thousands.

Little Kings.

Giant fluorescent pink slugs found living atop a mountain in Australia.

This spam comment showed up in our inbox yesterday and it made me smile:

Spam Lung Face Cushion Person

Octopus action is cool despite crappy video.

Oh, and one more thing. Do This.

Saturday Matinee – Arkie Shibley, Commander Cody, Roy Acuff, Rocky Roberts & The Bo-Keys

http://youtu.be/svq1-Wxsc2A

Arkie Shibley & His Mountain Dew Boys set up the original template for the answer song “Hot Rod Lincoln” by Charlie Ryan. For decades I thought Phil Harris was the original author/artist.

HRL was later covered by Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen.

Smoke on the Water by Roy Acuff.

http://youtu.be/gXQXxdkffQg

Rocky Roberts was pure awesome soul in France, but not in the US. [tip o’ the tarboosh to Bunkarina for the find.]

The Bo-Keys‘ moniker is a apparently a riff on The Bar-Kays and The Mar-Keys, both great session groups from Stax Records of Memphis Tennessee. There’s enough soul in the last vid to last you for at least a month.

Have a great weekend, and for all men who accept their duties as fathers and do it right, Happy Fathers Day.

The .Gif Friday Post No.284 – A Young Gentleman, Fritz Lang’s Balloon & Light Bulb Trap

Young Gentleman

balloon threat

Light Bulb Trap
[Found here, here and here.]

You like .gif animations as much as we do? Click here.

Slo-Mower

slow-lawn-mower

Chomp chomp *urp* chomp chomp *urp.*

[Found in here.]

Abby Roadtrip

beetles
Clever, but VW missed the obvious. The Bugs in the crosswalk should be blue, gray, black and white, and the gray one should be rolling on rims. [Found here.]

Lo-Heat Slo-Baked Pizza

pizza-moldy-awesome

Reminds me of college. Three of us shared an apartment, took turns cooking and doing dishes. One guy always balked, never wanted to do the chores.  We were pushing a rope.

Then came Spring Break. Scotty & I were done with midterms a couple days early so we left the kitchen duties for The Don, as it was his overdue turn to clean up.

After Spring Break, I was the first one back to the apartment, opened the door and noticed a significant change in our beer-soaked hovel. When I found the source of the aroma, the goop was so far gone it called me by name, flipped me off and dared me to move it. The Don had taken the stack of unwashed dishes, kitchenware, pots & pans, stuffed them into the oven, and left them to cook on their own for a few weeks.

Had the three of us not been bunking in the same room, I would have packed it all underneath The Don‘s mattress. Instead, I filled the bathroom tub with hot water and dish soap, unloaded the oven while holding my breath, and drowned the beast. Then I moved into my college girlfriend’s hovel to wait it out.

[Pro-tip: Never move into your college girlfriend’s hovel no matter how hot you think she is. Better to deal with the maggots in the wok.]

[Image found here.]