Sinabung has been erupting sporadically since 2010, when it killed two people, but farmers refuse to leave its deadly slopes because the land is so fertile.
That’s Sinabung, as in Mount Sinabung, Sumatra, Indonesia.
Category: True Stories
Saturday Matinee – Laws and Statutes: Words Have Meaning.
John Mayall, 1970. Yeah, John, I agree, up until the point where the SCOTUS decides to rewrite them by fiat, then all bets are off and you’re left to figure out what happened. No more Room To Move.
Terry Gilliam‘s 1985 movie Brazil was prescient. It was originally promoted as farce, but too much of it has come true. It’s a must see IMO, especially in light of the recent judgments handed down by the presumed last bastion of logic, The United State Supreme Court. Once the Supreme Court fails to uphold Constitutional Law (as it did again this past week) the whole system of law collapses.
When the very people we elected to office to combat the corruption and cronyism refuse to do so and participate in the same, we are lost.
When the clear and precise words of The U.S. Constitution may be interpreted with alternative and convoluted meanings that have no foundation in the English Language by appointed (and supposed apolitical) jurists, we have no more recourse.
The majority of U.S. news outlets have become the equivalent of PRAVDA, and Washington D.C. might as well be renamed Obamagrad.
I pity you younger folks who have been indoctrinated into accepting this insidious propaganda and for the precedents that have been set. I hope that, as you grow older and wiser, you read history (real history, with all its warts, moles, lesions and scabs, and not the rewritten kind) and understand what’s coming down on you, your children and grandchildren, and try to repair the damage before those of us who know what’s happening are all gone. If you don’t figure it out soon, it’ll be too late, and I guarantee you’ll regret it.
For those of you who know what’s coming down, find a safe place to hide your reference books and eyeglasses, learn something about farming so you have a cover occupation, and remember that government-sponsored atrocities also happen in modern times.
Bunk Strutts
Hello, I am Ms. Twitter.
Hello, I am Ms. Twitter, daughter-in-law of Mr. Twitter and wife Significant Other of Mr. Twitter II. I have been put in charge of something very important and I’ve been very important for some time.
See that door behind me? That’s the #TwitterGulag. It’s where I send people whom I decide have violated Twitter’s Terms Of Service, written by my 12 year-old niece, Denada. She hates everyone for no particular reason, but she’s still my niece, and I am still in charge.
I send email messages to those of you with Twitter Accounts whom have been flagged as inappropriate and non-compliant with my unspecified political point of view. I ensure that your Twitter accounts are appropriately blocked, banned and deleted, and that you are required to jump through tiny little email hoops to get your pathetic Twitter accounts reinstated.
It never happens.
At the same time, I allow the most egregious violators of our TOS to fly free and clear no matter what offensive garbage they post or how much targeted harassment they get away with, despite your whining complaints. That makes me laugh, because there’s absolutely nothing you can do about it. Yeah. Complain to @Twitter or @TwitterSupport and see what happens, loser.
But here’s the fun part. Once I decide you’re banned, your entire history goes away and you get to start all over. It’s like you never even existed. You are nothing more than a squeezed spent pimple on the Junior High Boys’ Restroom mirror to me, and the school janitor takes care of you.
I am Ms. Twitter. Do not trifle with me.
HOT LINKS Squeezin’s [Updated]
That image is from Page 25 of The Best Cookbook Ever, aka “The Campus Survival Cookbook” by Jacqueline Wood & Joelyn Scott Gilchrist (William Morrow & Company, 1973). While not condescending in the least, it assumes you know little about cooking, own few cooking utensils, don’t know how to shop for groceries or what staples you need. It also assumes that you’re on a tight budget and even provides shopping lists. It’s out of print, but there are used copies out there, and no, you can’t have mine.
[Beware of the freebee .pdf’s – MalwareBytes threw a hissy when I tried to download a copy.]
The Seven Tone Fart Symphony is awesome.
Flying houses [via].
2.2 lb burrito swallowed in 1 minute 44 seconds.
Ancient Islamic depictions of Mohammed. Don’t worry. You won’t be beheaded for looking at history, at least in the one remaining country with Freedom of Speech. Here’s the full archive. Download them all before The Powers That Be decide that they are hate speech, and God Forbid it ever comes to that. [BTW, Zombie is brilliant.]
LMAO. AGW is a fraud, a transparent hoax that has nothing to do with science and everything to do with confiscation of your income. Check this out.
George Carlin on Global Warming [warning – strong language].
Can you say “indoctrination?” Here’s the Reverend Jesse Jackson on Sesame Street. Really.
“Remember when you stuck my nose in it when I was a puppy? I do.”
I saw an insect yesterday I’d never seen before. It was about 2-inches long, the size of a large grasshopper. It had pumpkin-colored wings that laid flat on its back, and a shiny black body with a sky-blue band on the top of its abdomen. It crawled into a patch of dead rye grass that we’re growing on the side of the garage, so I pulled the grass out to get a better look and disturbed it. It flew off, with orange dragonfly wings and black dangling legs, obviously a wasp. It was a Tarantula Hawk, and I’ll never mess with one again. Here’s one description of what it’s like to be stung.
But then there are bullet ants.
So you’re in the Outback on walkabout and you need some rabbits? Catch some snakes first.
This may be the most mildly disturbing collection of miscellaneous links we’ve posted, but to make up for it, here’s a link to our Hot Links Archive.
Hurricane Sandy & The Golden Ratio φ
BTW. nature doesn’t run on mathematics, and the typical example of a nautilus shell exhibiting the proportions of Phi has been debunked. It’s still a fun exercise, counting the seeds in a sunflower’s (or pine cone’s) spirals and dividing the larger number by the smaller to see how close it approximates Phi.
Oddly enough, if you multiply Phi by ten it gives you the approximate average miles per hour on Interstate 10 between Santa Monica and Los Angeles in either direction at any hour of the day and any day of the week. TRUE.
[Image of Hurricane Sandy (2012) found here. The definition of Phi is stuck in my head, but it’s also found here.]
Awesome Clock Is Awesome.
No, it’s not a Harry Potter movie set. It’s a functional astronomical clock in Prague, Czech Republic. Its workings date to 1410AD and it’s still in operation after over 600 years.
[Image found here, story here. Here’s a video with an annoying soundtrack.]
Saturday Matinee – R.I.P. B.B. King (1925-2015)
The Blues had fallen out of favor in the U.S. recording market in the 1960s, as it was considered retro and passé. Many talented blues musicians from the ’40s and ’50s were left with few options until British rock bands took notice and revived the genre by covering various classic American blues songs, often without credit, which fomented a resurgence of interest in the original recordings. The British were largely responsible for restarting the careers of such notables as Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf. Even early blues-based rock and rollers Chuck Berry, Little Richard and Bo Diddley got career boosts, and all were more popular in England than they were in the United States at that time.
Riley B. “Blues Boy” King was one of the greatest bluesmen of all time, known for his roaring vocals and understated guitar solos. He paid the cost to be the boss, and this BBC documentary from 1972 is amazing. There’s no posing, no strutting or preening, just straight talk about influences and style in a refreshingly honest manner. There’s no point in posting other B.B. King videos here because this one covers it all.
R.I.P. Mr. King. That’s one hell of a legacy you left us.
Nothing Much Happened Today.
4 May 1970 Kent State – Remember Always
Remember Always that this atrocity was planned and choreographed, not by students of Kent State University, not by the City of Kent Police Department, not by the Governor of Ohio, not by the Ohio National Guard, and not by the Nixon administration.
Many poor decisions were made by people in charge in the days leading up to this atrocity, but those who deliberately set up the scenario for purely political reasons are the ones who deserve the blame for the injuries and lives of innocents. Those people were self-identified socialists, fascists, communists and anarchists, and that’s not conjecture. The people who incited the violence freely admitted it, and were indeed proud of it.
They wanted it to happen, and they made it happen.
Kent State University was chosen, just like Ferguson Missouri was chosen, just like Baltimore Maryland was chosen.
Never forget.
[Related posts with links here. Image from here.]
Saturday Matinee – Cool Paper Tricks, The Fibonacci Series & Iron Horse Bluegrass
Cool tricks you can do with paper. It reminds me of Doodling In Math Class.
The Fibonacci Series explained graphically.
Killer version of Elton John‘s “Rocket Man” by Iron Horse Bluegrass.
Have a great weekend, folks. I’m sleeping in tomorrow.
