Some people don’t deserve to own dogs.
[Found here.]
Cat Path O’logical
Last Chance Hot Links
Computer code that sent the astronauts to the moon. There’s some funny in it, too.
The birth of the webcam: It had to do with a coffee pot in 1991.
Tired of Twitter’s squelching your opinions? Now there’s GAB.IE. It works in a similar way, but without the threat of being sent to #TwitterGulag.
Parking a Porche in Vancouver.
The Moral Machine [via] tests your base values in hypothetical situations involving a driverless vehicle. Do you run over the dog to save the ducklings? Apparently I like to run over animals to save humans more than most, and I prefer to save more lives.
Chevrotain is not a gasoline additive, but it’s apparently good eatin’ in some parts of the world.
Glemie Beasley is still The Coon Man. [Related story with links here.]
Cool wire-frame animation: counter-rotating equilateral triangles create a 3D rotating equilateral pyramid.
Here’s another classic: A Complete List of Things Caused By Global Warming (with links).
This Day in Jazz Age Music. There’s some great stuff in there.
[Top image: Baja Moon found here.]
Saturday Matinee – The Band of the Bold, Where The Hell Is Matt, Where’s Rob, Iron Horse Bluegrass & Danny Gatton
I honestly don’t know what to make of it, but thanks to Bunkarina you get to see it, too. Reminded me of this viral vid from 2006:
Matt Harding was an internet sensation back then, and I was surprised to hear the soundtrack, lifted from a relatively obscure CD from 1992 that I own but don’t recall buying.
“Where The Hell Is Matt?” reminded me of this classic prank:
That innocent stunt still makes me grin.
Iron Horse Bluegrass consists of Tony Robinson (mandolin), Vance Henry (Guitar), Anthony Richardson (banjo) and Ricky Rogers (bass). Iron Horse has recorded twelve projects for CMH Records. Tributes to Metallica, Led Zeppelin, Ozzy Osbourn, Modest Mouse, The Shins, Guns & Roses, The Goo Goo Dolls, Hank Williams, Black label Society as well as others. [h/t Aussie Phil.]
Danny Gatton is a national treasure.
Have a great weekend, folks. There’s more fun on the horizon.
The .Gif Friday Post No. 456 – Neighborhood Watch, Petroll & Hold My Beer
Make Halloween Great Again
Now THAT’s a TRUMPKIN.
“Don’t open the door, Honey. It’s that damn Narwhal kid again.”
[Found here.]
Heaven for Slinkies
Frozen Cow Farts
… Scientists suggest that the greater contribution to skyrocketing methane levels has more to do with biological sources of the gas. Methane molecules are made of carbon and hydrogen atoms, and the carbon in biological methane tends to be slightly lighter than the carbon in methane associated with fossil fuels. And over the past decade or so, the proportion of lighter methane in the atmosphere compared to heavier methane has been rising. “I think this perspective is basically right,” said Martin Helmann, of the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, in Jena, Germany, in an email. Helmann was not involved in the research.
The authors of the Science paper have some ideas about why biological sources of methane may be increasing. “In the southern hemisphere especially,” Nisbet said, “but also in the northern tropics, a series of really wet years has caused wetlands to expand”—and vegetation decomposing in swamps and shallow lakes is a well known source of natural methane emissions. Another is cows, which generate methane as they digest their food, then belch it out into the air.
These explanations, however, aren’t at all definitive — another key point Nisbet and his co-authors make in the Science paper. “The measurements we make in the air are direct,” he said. “Estimates of where methane is coming from, by contrast, is much less reliable. You estimate the contributions from gas leaks, count up the cows, estimate the emissions from wetlands. There’s obviously going to be a lot of error.”
And in fact, there is: the estimates of how much methane should be going into the atmosphere are greater than what actually ends up there. Tracking methane emissions more accurately is crucial, said the scientists, and not just as an academic exercise.
“If we want to control greenhouse-gas emissions,” Nisbet said, “it’s obviously important to know where the emissions are coming from.”
Global vegetation decomposition, wetlands, the oceans, rice paddys, rain forests, patio hibachis, your neighbor’s annoying little yapping kikmi dog and Humpback whales are all part of the mix.
Q: So, what happens if atmospheric methane triples?
A: Click on the image of the Flaming Cow Fart to find out.
[Commentary excerpt found here; top image found in here; snarky related posts here.]
Happy Columbo Day!
The feat was both amazing and dangerous, especially given the limited technology of the time. The world was much larger than anyone had previously imagined, and relatively little had been recorded by seagoing cartographers. Much of what they compiled was inaccurate, but they were not completely in the dark.
They had the Martellus Map of 1489 [pictured above].
Cristoforo Colombo changed all that, and for that he should be remembered. He had big cojones, as did every sailor who joined him on his voyages into the unknown. I doubt that his financial supporters (including Queen Isabella of Spain) expected him to ever return from the first exploration, but he did, and he made several round-trip voyages after that, relying on seasonal trade winds.
Here’s to one of the greatest explorers in history.
Tacky Raccoons 