
[Found here.]

[Found here.]

What an ordeal.
Once Verizon bumped off its FIOS service to Frontier Communications on April Fool’s Day (appropriately enough) stuff happened.
We started hearing an unidentifiable *beep* from somewhere in the house, but it was of such short duration we couldn’t pinpoint the source. We timed it, and the missus and I positioned ourselves in various spots every 15 minutes attempting to triangulate it with no luck. We were hunting for an electronic cricket and after unplugging/dismantling every thing we knew that could beep, it kept recurring. We thought we we’d been pranked by a friend, cursed him while searching likely spots he might have hidden a quarter-sized “beeper.” No dice.
On a whim I opened up the FAU closet and found the culprit. There was the Verizon FIOS equipment, and every 15 minutes it was telling us that its backup battery was dead. Bastards.

So I reset the alarm, yanked the battery. Silence for 24 hours, and then it began again – every fifteen minutes. Hitting the reset button daily was a temporary solution, but we could finally get some sleep without that infernal beeping.
Perhaps it was just a coincidence, that I’d only imagined that the Utoobage was stuttering. Nah.
Then BAM.
Nine days later, our landline and internest access crapped out. The landline came back, but internet access and WIFI was dead. I called Frontier Communications. Technicians would be out the following day between 8AM and 6PM (a tight window) so I took the following day off without pay, as did the Frontier Communications techs who didn’t bother to show up or call to cancel the appointment.
Buh-bye, Frontier Communications.

Time Warner Cable has been deluged with calls from disgruntled Verizon / Frontier Communications subscribers to set up new services, so we waited it out. Three “appointments” later, Time Warner Cable finally came through this morning.
I never realized how much we depend on internest access, and having to watch TV only added to the torture. Instead, I watched “End Of The Century” and “The Imitation Game,” and read Elliot Carson’s excellent book “Joe Rochefort’s War.”
Anyway, we’re back. Thanks for your patience, and we’ll try to make up for lost time.
Bunk
[Related post here, and no, that’s not me in the .gif.]

Funny costume, but I dunno, Babs. Maybe you should teach something other than grammar, like DMFQ 101.
[Found here.]
[Found somewhere in here.]

Occasionally I google three random words just to see what turns up. “John headlight insect” produced this, and I’m going to try it tomorrow.
A Fallen Tear – The El Dorados [1956 Vee-Jay Records].
A Fallen Tear – The Marcels [1961 Colpix Records].
Beep … beep … beep … THIS equipment is evil.
The Chalk Police have been summoned.
Look out, Cannes. Look out Oscars. There’s an old kid in town.
[Top image from here – Melchoir Lorck‘s “Tortoise above the Venetian Lagoon” 1555].
[Click for larger. Images found here.]
This one’s been sitting in our What-To-Do-With-This-File for several years now. It’s way past time we set it free.
All we can guess is that the owner of this black pervo-van knew exactly what he was doing after he re-upholstered the interior and dash with tufted blue and white carpet, installed a wet bar, string lights and a sound system with an 8-track player that plays nothing but Barry White’s Greatest Hits. But even that didn’t get the babes, so he took the obvious next step: GO STEALTH.
[Found here. More Babe Magnets here.]

Even a babushka with a baby carriage full of pea soup fits in, without a drop spilled. The car never made it to production, but the concept is interesting, given the state of automotive manufacturing in the USSR at the time.
[Click the images below for full size.]
This unique test car was designed in 1964 based on components of “Moskvich-408”. It successfully passed performance tests in Moscow and was recommended for serial production In Yerevan, but due to different reasons it didn’t go this far…
[Caption with more photos here.]

Spotted this machine here, and all I can say is WOW.
The following is the Feb. 29, 2016 Medal of Honor award ceremony for Chief Special Warfare Operator (SEAL) Edward C. Byers Jr. who won the award during actions he took in a hostage rescue in 2012. [Jump to 00:16:00 to hear his story.]
Scientists have discovered a way to extend the lives of lab mice by 40 percent. Somehow that’s darkly humorous to me.
This is a must read for all voters: Dr. Thomas Sowell.
The Star Wars paintings of 1920 Soviet Russia.
The Museum of Communism, Prague.
[Top image from here.]