Category: History

5 TACKY YEARS! Top 11 Posts for 2012

How’s it feel to be a Green Dot? That’s right, one of those little World Peas is just for you. View the Live Map here. It will display little blinkies that show you who else is here, and it’s anonymous. (We’re at the ass end of the US, just in case you were wondering.)

It’s intuitively obvious to the casual observer that we’re on the verge of taking over the world, so be content in the knowledge that you have assisted with the conquest.

We added an online store and a widget that sort of links to another online store. WorpDress now allows adverts, and they also allow PayPal Tip Jars, so we added that as well. Has any of it paid off? Nah.

We’ve featured the Top Posts for each year since we started in 2007. The numbers indicate this year’s ranking followed by last year’s, and we’ve added a third for all-time ranking (2012/2011/All-Time Rank).  NR indicates Not Ranked.

Click on any image and it’ll take you to the original post.

No. 11/nr – Popeye Dead at 108

No. 10/nr – Mickey Possum has a good attitude.

No. 9/nr – The .Gif Friday Post No.104 – Catsup

No. 8/nr – Babe Cannon

No. 7/2/5 – Amy’s Motivational Poster Collection

No. 6/7/8 – Giant Woolly Bear Caterpillar Discovered Near Las Cruces, NM, Predicts Global Warming for Decades to Come

No. 5/nr – 10/10/10 10:10:10

No. 4/nr – 10:11:10 11/10/11

No. 3/nr – Possum Haiku

No. 2/1/4 – Capybara Lapwarmer

AND THE NUMBER ONE POST FOR 2012 IS:

The .Gif Friday Post No.93 – Cat Fish Robot Jam

It scored at No. 6 in 2011, and it’s at No. 7 on the 5-Year popularity ranking.

We plan to keep going with this baboso unless it becomes a chore, but considering all the fun stuff we’ve found just to keep our self-imposed goal of One Post Per Day, it looks like we’ll be around a while. Cheers!

On Milton Friedman’s 100th Birthday

Milton Friedman was honored by President George W. Bush on his 90th birthday in 2002 in Washington D.C.

One of Milton Friedman‘s best known examples of Free Market Economics came from Leonard E. Read who wrote a famous article published in 1958 entitled, “I, Pencil.” (Download the .pdf here.)

The basic concept is so full of common sense that it amazes me that it’s not required reading for every student, every civilian and every government politico of every country on the face of the earth. Get government out of the way of the free market, and the free market will take care of everything else.

It’s that simple.

Friedman’s timeless presentation of “I, Pencil” is well worth the 10 minutes it takes to view. Proven throughout history, practical common sense transcends politics, and it always has and always will, except when bureaucratic forces prevent it from doing so.

[Don’ t miss Dr. Thomas Sowell’s tribute here. “I was still a Marxist after taking Professor Friedman’s class. Working as an economist in the government converted me.”]

Update: We’ve posted about Milton Friedman previously. Here’s a link to the archive.

Saturday Matinee – Computing Cams, 3D Sketch & Jacquelyn Adams

Simple mechanics: Cams!

Cool. More images  here.


While looking for a decent live version of “Welcome to The Machine” I found this. Jacquelyn Adams‘ tribute to Pink Floyd [“Dr. Jacquelyn, Mr. Hyde,”  Horn Day, 10 February 2012, York University, Toronto, Ontario] and it begins with that song.

Given the atrocities of yesterday, we might as well leave the number of vids posted at three, and the selections are in no way a commentary. Hug your kids and loved ones, pray for the victims, and we’ll be back here tomorrow.

Van Gogh’s Shoes 1888

Never saw this one before now. There’s a lot of subtlety and stuff hidden in there if you look at it a bit, and squinting helps.

[Found here.]

Saturday Matinee – 100 Rock Guitar Riffs, Ricky Skaggs, 16mm Clogging in the UK & Dan Hicks

So what if it’s a clandestine advert, it’s cool. I recobanized 95% until he got into No. 66 or so, but I got more than I expected after that. Now let’s talk about some serious pickin’.

That’s Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder, playing in a cave in Cumberland Kentucky in 2010. “Salty Dog Blues” is a traditional song with traditional innuendo that dates to the early 1900s.

Imported from the UK ( and elsewhere):

Clogging is the official state dance of Kentucky and North Carolina and was the social dance in the Appalachian Mountains as early as the 18th century. [Wiki]

The Banjo Boy scene from Deliverance shows a local clogging at about 02:50 [link]. Although the movie was entertaining, it promoted the false and insulting stereotype of southerners as a bunch of inbred ignorant hicks.

Speaking of hicks, here’s one of the better ones.

Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks with “Milk Shakin’ Mama” from the Flip Wilson Show 1972.

And with that, we’re out of here until tomorrow. Have a great weekend, folks.

12/7/12 7:12:7

Didja miss it? We didn’t.
Day/Month/Year, Hour : Minute : Second

Context is Important

A few years ago we posted that image in puzzlement, and we’re still mystified why a young guy in a skirt and a headband is so pissed at an older man that he needs a piece of furniture to take him down. I mean, look, it’s not a matchup between David and Goliath here. On the other hand, maybe Skirt Boy is playing a prank on the old man by stealing his chair right before grampa is about to sit down, but there’s no need to grab it by the leg.

More likely, the strong young man is going to aid his father and hurl the chair at someone or something out of the frame, like this:

That’s my best guess, Occam’s Razor and all.

Independence Day

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. Continue reading “Independence Day”

America Truly Is The Greatest Country In The World.

Kitty Werthmann was born in Austria and witnessed the effects of Hitler’s policies first hand. The article below dates to at least 1996 -I found it in the July 2012 issue of Military. As we approach another Independence Day it seems entirely appropriate for recirculation, especially in this election year.

Commentors on the websites where the article appears generally consider it to be historically accurate, with the exception of her description of the Austrian election which was a contrived fraud. Others corroborate her story. Left-leaning blogs dismiss Werthmann due to her religion, her position on the 2nd Amendment, her age, and especially because she’s a popular speaker at TEA Party rallies. One website even described her article as pure propaganda.

Regardless of the criticisms, it’s a must-read, IMO. -Bunk
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

America Truly Is The Greatest Country In The World.

By: Kitty Werthmann

What I am about to tell you is something you’ve probably never heard or will ever read in history books. I believe that I am an eyewitness to history. I cannot tell you that Hitler took Austria by tanks and guns; it would distort history. We elected him by a landslide – 98% of the vote. I’ve never read that in any American publications. Everyone thinks that Hitler just rolled in with his tanks and took Austria by force.

Continue reading “America Truly Is The Greatest Country In The World.”

Saturday Matinee – Cat Fail Sail, Mechanical Principles, & Tom Waits

[Tip ‘o the tarboosh to Mrmacs who found it here and insisted that we post it.]

“Mechanical Principles” – Simple gear actions from 1930 by Ralph Steiner, set to classical music. From the UToobage comments:

Some of the mechanisms featured:
0:16 Positive displacement pump
0:26 Four-stroke engine piston;
0:50 Simple steam engines or pumps;
2:00 Steam engine reversing gear as on ships;
3:10 Differential gear;
4:05 Worm gear;
4:10 Archimedes screw;
5:22 Geneva gear;
5:32 Pawl and ratchet;
5:55 Grasshopper escapement;
7:15 Scotch yokes;
8:07 Positive displacement pump (same as 0:16);
9:29 Wheel and disc integrator used in analog computers;
9:54 Possibly a turbine.

The only other soundtrack I can think of that might go along with that vid would be something by this guy:

Tom Waits’ Private Listening Party. I’m there if you need to get in touch with me. Have a great weekend, be back here tomorrow.