Monday, March 31, 2014
All your Gods are dead.
Late last year a journalist wrote a bit about the near religious fervor with which many advocates of Global Warming, ne Global Climate Change, approach their subject.
Folks like me who are not believers are beat about the face, breast, chest, neck, and head with various reports detailing the end of the earth in a cataclysmic fireball whenever we suggest that the studies that are currently being used to bludgeon us are flawed.
http://dailycaller.com/2013/08/29/mit-professor-global-warming-is-a-religion/
Today the IPCC is due to release a report that largely downgrades the economic effects of Global Warming, ne Global Climate Change, from, "So scary we will literally pee ourselves "to, "Meh."
http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-London/2014/03/31/Global-Warming-Will-Cause-War-Pestilence-Famine-and-Death-Says-New-IPCC-Report-Inevitably
And yet the religious fanatics have been out in force for the last 2 weeks.
One particularly strident article called for jail time for deniers.
http://gawker.com/arrest-climate-change-deniers-1553719888
Suzanne Goldenberg of The Guardian calls for war and despair due to Global Warming, ne Global Climate Change, while Mother Jones asserts that there will be lots more a-rapin' going down.
http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/02/climate-change-murder-rape
All of this would be merely humorous and a bit irritating if not for the fact that so many people have bought into this in the same manner that many bought into Scientology.
The truth is that global temperatures have remained static for the past 16 years, that is, little to no change whatsoever.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/01/08/the-other-big-story-today-bbc-forced-to-admit-global-warming-static/
There are no more tornadoes and hurricanes than in previous years.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamestaylor/2012/09/05/dont-believe-the-global-warmists-major-hurricanes-are-less-frequent/
Despite wall to wall, round the clock coverage of every hurricane since Andrew rubbed it's dank booty on Miami, hurricanes - major or minor - are no more frequent than they have been for the past 100 years.
Ditto tornadoes.
And yet the alarmists persist, even managing to co-opt the biblical story of Noah to tell their high moral tale of corporate greed and corruption leading directly and inevitably to a total cataclysmic earth ending flood.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/03/27/noah-is-a-global-warming-epic-about-the-battle-between-religion-and-science-says-cinematographer.html
The whole thing is funny and ironic and kinda painful when you consider that this movie was made largely by people who hate all religion to support their own weird and flawed "religion" all while taking on the form of the religion they despise.
(Also I heard the movie was long and boring.)
But that's what we have seen in the past from these folks and we can expect more -
Methods don't matter as long as the goal is just.
Wednesday, March 26, 2014
As if you didn't have enough fears in your anxiety closet now there is something called a "Viking" rat.
And it is scary.
http://www.thelocal.se/20140326/40cm-rat-from-hell-caught-in-sweden
And while we're on the subject of rats for the second time in the last few months, a Swedish was nearly thrown off a bridge by a gang of immigrants.
If you read entirely too much news like me you'll see that this type of violence has been steadily increasing across Europe.
Groups of immigrants attacking natives without provocation or for the slightest offense.
Making it worse is that throughout much of Europe there are rules regulating speech in such a way that even discussing the issue could result in jail terms for "discrimination" or even "hate speech".
http://www.thelocal.se/20140326/man-charged-for-dangling-malm-man-off-bridge
A man has been charged on the suspicion of aggravated assault after another man was badly beaten and nearly thrown off a bridge in Malmö, while his 18-month-old son looked on.
Tuesday, March 25, 2014
I saw the new Jason Bateman movie, Bad Words, last night. It's a solid funny movie. B+.
Go see it.
The trailer for this movie looked very interesting.
The lead male actor played the part of Piscine Molotar in The Life of Pi.
I am Dom Hemingway stars Law as a parolee trying to get in the game.
The trailer is hilarious.
Monday, March 24, 2014
If I learned anything from The Life of Pi it's that you should always go with the story that has animals.
Read on.
http://www.takepart.com/video/2014/03/21/drone-video-dolphin-stampede
March 21, 2014 By Kristina Bravo
As if we needed more proof that marine mammals don’t belong in tanks, here’s an amazing five-minute video of a "mega-pod" of dolphins, along with a few whales, thriving in their natural habitat.
Dave Anderson, owner of a California whale-watching company, launched a camera-equipped quadrocopter drone from a small boat to record ocean dwellers in action. The three-segment video he pieced together shows a mega-pod of common dolphins parading off Dana Point, Calif., and three gray whales migrating down the coast off San Clemente. The captain’s last foray, in Maui, produced dramatic moments of a newborn humpback whale calf huddling up to its mom as an escort whale stands guard.
Though one drone was sunk during his mission, Anderson said that it was well worth the loss. “My wife says no more drones if I lose this one,” he says on his website. “I learned so much about these whales and dolphins from this drone footage that it feels like I have entered a new dimension! Drones are going to change how we view the animal world.”
Though the technology has been controversial, conservationists are looking to unmanned aerial vehicles to keep tabs on wildlife in ever-widening contests. Nepal, to cite one example, recently celebrated 365 poaching-free days since it deployed its first drone to monitor the vast Himalayan foothills.
As if we needed more proof that marine mammals don’t belong in tanks, here’s an amazing five-minute video of a "mega-pod" of dolphins, along with a few whales, thriving in their natural habitat.
Dave Anderson, owner of a California whale-watching company, launched a camera-equipped quadrocopter drone from a small boat to record ocean dwellers in action. The three-segment video he pieced together shows a mega-pod of common dolphins parading off Dana Point, Calif., and three gray whales migrating down the coast off San Clemente. The captain’s last foray, in Maui, produced dramatic moments of a newborn humpback whale calf huddling up to its mom as an escort whale stands guard.
Though one drone was sunk during his mission, Anderson said that it was well worth the loss. “My wife says no more drones if I lose this one,” he says on his website. “I learned so much about these whales and dolphins from this drone footage that it feels like I have entered a new dimension! Drones are going to change how we view the animal world.”
Though the technology has been controversial, conservationists are looking to unmanned aerial vehicles to keep tabs on wildlife in ever-widening contests. Nepal, to cite one example, recently celebrated 365 poaching-free days since it deployed its first drone to monitor the vast Himalayan foothills.
Mario is suffering from terminal cancer and has reportedly worked most his life taking care of animals at the zoo.
While visiting the giraffes, one approached Mario and appeared to kiss him.
“It was a very special moment,” said Kees Veldboer, the foundation’s director. “You saw him smile. It was special that the animals knew him and could sense all was not well with him.”
More politics. Bored. Pause. Yawn. Click.
Last week there was an op ed in which the writer suggested that "climate deniers" should be rounded up. Now, this piece from The Guardian says that "climate deniers" are as bad as holocaust deniers.
Except there's a little bit of something called "science" that would support my claim that "global warming" (which has been magically changed into "climate change" over the past couple years) does not exist.
Let's look at some "science".
Over the past many years, an actual scientist, has been monitoring satellites and gathering actual temperatures from around the globe.
The result:
Over the past many years, an actual scientist, has been monitoring satellites and gathering actual temperatures from around the globe.
The result:
Temperatures haven't changed in 17 years.
"Climate change" advocates also assume that the earth has some static, set temperature/energy level that man has disturbed, although any look into something called "history" would illustrate that this is a false assumption.
Seen any good dinosaurs lately?
OH MY GOD!!! DID WE KILL THEM TOO!?!
No. No "we" did not.
Turns out they had a period of time on earth in which they dominated and then that ended.
"Experts" that support and get hysterical about climate change should look at the long history of our planet and realize that outside of some dramatic catastrophic event, like a meteor strike or total nuclear war, the earth will continue on, with or without humans.
(BTW, is anyone else catching on to how intolerant many on the left are when you disagree with them?)
The end.
________________________________________________________________________________
MARCH 18, 2014 BY BRUCE MCQUAIN
It never fails. At some point, the mask slips among the “tolerant” members of academia and we are exposed to their real controlling and authoritarian face. Over the past few weeks there have been two good examples of this. At Harvard, we had senior Sandra Korn (“a joint history of science and studies of women, gender and sexuality concentrator”, whatever that might be) declare that academic freedom is an outdated concept and that “academic justice”is a much better concept:
In its oft-cited Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure, the American Association of University Professors declares that “Teachers are entitled to full freedom in research and in the publication of the results.” In principle, this policy seems sound: It would not do for academics to have their research restricted by the political whims of the moment.
Yet the liberal obsession with “academic freedom” seems a bit misplaced to me. After all, no one ever has “full freedom” in research and publication. Which research proposals receive funding and what papers are accepted for publication are always contingent on political priorities. The words used to articulate a research question can have implications for its outcome. No academic question is ever “free” from political realities. If our university community opposes racism, sexism, and heterosexism, why should we put up with research that counters our goals simply in the name of “academic freedom”?
Instead, I would like to propose a more rigorous standard: one of “academic justice.” When an academic community observes research promoting or justifying oppression, it should ensure that this research does not continue.
Tolerance of ideas you don’t like or agree with? Forget about it. Instead, refuse to fund research that doesn’t conform to your agenda and we’ll call that “academic justice”. Feel a little chill?
Now we have an assistant professor of philosophy at the Rochester Institute of Technology who would like to see those who disagree with him on climate change put in jail. Apparently freedom of thought and speech and the right to disagree are outdated concepts as well. Eric Owens at the Daily Caller brings us up to date:
The professor is Lawrence Torcello. Last week, he published a 900-word-plus essay at an academic website called The Conversation.
His main complaint is his belief that certain nefarious, unidentified individuals have organized a “campaign funding misinformation.” Such a campaign, he argues, “ought to be considered criminally negligent.”
Torcello, who has a Ph.D. from the University at Buffalo, explains that there are times when criminal negligence and “science misinformation” must be linked. The threat of climate change, he says, is one of those times.
Throughout the piece, he refers to the bizarre political aftermath of an earthquake in L’Aquila, Italy, which saw six scientists imprisoned for six years each because they failed to “clearly communicate risks to the public” about living in an earthquake zone.
“Consider cases in which science communication is intentionally undermined for political and financial gain,” the assistant professor urges.
“Imagine if in L’Aquila, scientists themselves had made every effort to communicate the risks of living in an earthquake zone,” Torcello argues, but evil “financiers” of a “denialist campaign” “funded an organised [sic] campaign to discredit the consensus findings of seismology, and for that reason no preparations were made.”
“I submit that this is just what is happening with the current, well documented funding of global warming denialism,” Torcello asserts.
No mention of the current, well documented funding of global warming alarmism (Al Gore, call your booking agent). No mention of the science that counters many of the claims of alarmists. No mention of the unexplained 15 year temperature pause. In fact, no mention of anything that might derail his argument. But that’s par for the course among alarmists, and Torcello is certainly one of them. And, as he makes clear, he will not tolerate deniers because they’re not only wrong, they’re criminals:
Torcello says that people are already dying because of global warming. “Nonetheless, climate denial remains a serious deterrent against meaningful political action in the very countries most responsible for the crisis.”
As such, Torcello wants governments to make “the funding of climate denial” a crime.
“The charge of criminal and moral negligence ought to extend to all activities of the climate deniers who receive funding as part of a sustained campaign to undermine the public’s understanding of scientific consensus.”
Of course the reason he’s so upset is this new fangled thing called the internet has enabled anyone who is curious about the climate debate to actually see both sides of the argument layed out before them. For the alarmists, that has inconveniently helped a majority of people realize that the science behind the alarmism is weak at best and fraudulent in some cases. It has also helped them understand that the alarmist science that Torcello wants enshrined as “truth” was gathered from deeply flawed computer models and fudged data. And, it has also let the voices of dissenting scientists be heard. Finally, this ability for the public to weigh the arguments has found most of the public viewing climate change as a minor problem at best.
Torcello would like to make all of that a crimnal activity based simply on his belief that the alarmist argument is the accurate argument. He’d jail the heretics and deny the public the opposing argument.
The Torcellos of the world once tried to do this to a man named Gallileo. And we know how that worked out.
It is always easy to wave away those like Torcello and claim they’re an anomoly. But it seems we see more and more of them popping up each day. The struggle to gain and maintain freedom is a daily struggle. It is the Torcellos and the Korns of the world who would – for your own good, of course – be happy to help incrementally rob you of your freedoms. They must be called out each and every time they do so and exposed for what they are.
~McQ
_________________________________________________________________________________
by JAMES DELINGPOLE 22 Mar 2014 1173POST A COMMENT
Global warming 'deniers' are as bad as 'Holocaust deniers' because climate change is as "as certain as Auschwitz", a Guardian columnist, Nick Cohen, has claimed.
________________________________________________________________________________
College professor: “Jail climate change deniers!”
MARCH 18, 2014 BY BRUCE MCQUAIN
It never fails. At some point, the mask slips among the “tolerant” members of academia and we are exposed to their real controlling and authoritarian face. Over the past few weeks there have been two good examples of this. At Harvard, we had senior Sandra Korn (“a joint history of science and studies of women, gender and sexuality concentrator”, whatever that might be) declare that academic freedom is an outdated concept and that “academic justice”is a much better concept:
In its oft-cited Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure, the American Association of University Professors declares that “Teachers are entitled to full freedom in research and in the publication of the results.” In principle, this policy seems sound: It would not do for academics to have their research restricted by the political whims of the moment.
Yet the liberal obsession with “academic freedom” seems a bit misplaced to me. After all, no one ever has “full freedom” in research and publication. Which research proposals receive funding and what papers are accepted for publication are always contingent on political priorities. The words used to articulate a research question can have implications for its outcome. No academic question is ever “free” from political realities. If our university community opposes racism, sexism, and heterosexism, why should we put up with research that counters our goals simply in the name of “academic freedom”?
Instead, I would like to propose a more rigorous standard: one of “academic justice.” When an academic community observes research promoting or justifying oppression, it should ensure that this research does not continue.
Tolerance of ideas you don’t like or agree with? Forget about it. Instead, refuse to fund research that doesn’t conform to your agenda and we’ll call that “academic justice”. Feel a little chill?
Now we have an assistant professor of philosophy at the Rochester Institute of Technology who would like to see those who disagree with him on climate change put in jail. Apparently freedom of thought and speech and the right to disagree are outdated concepts as well. Eric Owens at the Daily Caller brings us up to date:
The professor is Lawrence Torcello. Last week, he published a 900-word-plus essay at an academic website called The Conversation.
His main complaint is his belief that certain nefarious, unidentified individuals have organized a “campaign funding misinformation.” Such a campaign, he argues, “ought to be considered criminally negligent.”
Torcello, who has a Ph.D. from the University at Buffalo, explains that there are times when criminal negligence and “science misinformation” must be linked. The threat of climate change, he says, is one of those times.
Throughout the piece, he refers to the bizarre political aftermath of an earthquake in L’Aquila, Italy, which saw six scientists imprisoned for six years each because they failed to “clearly communicate risks to the public” about living in an earthquake zone.
“Consider cases in which science communication is intentionally undermined for political and financial gain,” the assistant professor urges.
“Imagine if in L’Aquila, scientists themselves had made every effort to communicate the risks of living in an earthquake zone,” Torcello argues, but evil “financiers” of a “denialist campaign” “funded an organised [sic] campaign to discredit the consensus findings of seismology, and for that reason no preparations were made.”
“I submit that this is just what is happening with the current, well documented funding of global warming denialism,” Torcello asserts.
No mention of the current, well documented funding of global warming alarmism (Al Gore, call your booking agent). No mention of the science that counters many of the claims of alarmists. No mention of the unexplained 15 year temperature pause. In fact, no mention of anything that might derail his argument. But that’s par for the course among alarmists, and Torcello is certainly one of them. And, as he makes clear, he will not tolerate deniers because they’re not only wrong, they’re criminals:
Torcello says that people are already dying because of global warming. “Nonetheless, climate denial remains a serious deterrent against meaningful political action in the very countries most responsible for the crisis.”
As such, Torcello wants governments to make “the funding of climate denial” a crime.
“The charge of criminal and moral negligence ought to extend to all activities of the climate deniers who receive funding as part of a sustained campaign to undermine the public’s understanding of scientific consensus.”
Of course the reason he’s so upset is this new fangled thing called the internet has enabled anyone who is curious about the climate debate to actually see both sides of the argument layed out before them. For the alarmists, that has inconveniently helped a majority of people realize that the science behind the alarmism is weak at best and fraudulent in some cases. It has also helped them understand that the alarmist science that Torcello wants enshrined as “truth” was gathered from deeply flawed computer models and fudged data. And, it has also let the voices of dissenting scientists be heard. Finally, this ability for the public to weigh the arguments has found most of the public viewing climate change as a minor problem at best.
Torcello would like to make all of that a crimnal activity based simply on his belief that the alarmist argument is the accurate argument. He’d jail the heretics and deny the public the opposing argument.
The Torcellos of the world once tried to do this to a man named Gallileo. And we know how that worked out.
It is always easy to wave away those like Torcello and claim they’re an anomoly. But it seems we see more and more of them popping up each day. The struggle to gain and maintain freedom is a daily struggle. It is the Torcellos and the Korns of the world who would – for your own good, of course – be happy to help incrementally rob you of your freedoms. They must be called out each and every time they do so and exposed for what they are.
~McQ
_________________________________________________________________________________
CLIMATE CHANGE 'AS CERTAIN AS AUSCHWITZ,' CLAIMS GUARDIAN
by JAMES DELINGPOLE 22 Mar 2014 1173POST A COMMENT
Global warming 'deniers' are as bad as 'Holocaust deniers' because climate change is as "as certain as Auschwitz", a Guardian columnist, Nick Cohen, has claimed.
Anyone who disagrees with this is a "bed-wetting kidult", he says.
Oh, and also, climate change deniers are a bit like people who believe in aliens.
Clive Hamilton, the Australian author of Requiem for a Species, made the essential point a few years ago that climate change denial was no longer just a corporate lobbying campaign. The opponents of science would say what they said unbribed. The movement was in the grip of "cognitive dissonance", a condition first defined by Leon Festinger and his colleagues in the 1950s . They examined a cult that had attached itself to a Chicago housewife called Dorothy Martin. She convinced her followers to resign from their jobs and sell their possessions because a great flood was to engulf the earth on 21 December 1954. They would be the only survivors. Aliens in a flying saucer would swoop down and save the chosen few.
Cohen has a well-deserved reputation as one of the British left's most thoughtful, articulate and original journalists. He is sufficiently eclectic to write an excellent monthly column on television for the high-brow, right-wing journal Standpoint. And he is one of only very few left-liberal commentators to have called out the left's hypocrisy and double-standards on Islamism. His book What's Left is a corrosive attack on the way so many left-wingers have abandoned their progressive principles by refusing to condemn the abuse of women by Islamic fundamentalists and by effectively condoning the worst excesses of jihadism, including 9/11.
Unfortunately, though, it would appear that on the climate change issue he has abandoned his customary rigour and intellectual independence and fallen victim to the environmental left's lazy groupthink. To appreciate just how lazy, here's a website which shows just how often the "denier" smear has been used by the left against sceptics in order to try to close down the climate change debate.
He asks:
Whatever you do or say, it is going to happen. How can you persuade countries to accept huge reductions in their living standards to limit (not stop) the rise in temperatures? How can you persuade the human race to put the future ahead of the present?
But actually, had Cohen bothered to research the issue rather than simply regurgitating the green propaganda associated with NGOs like Greenpeace and Friends Of The Earth and warmed over in the pages of HuffPo, Slate and Climate Progress, he would not have needed to ask these questions rhetorically. The answers would have been bleeding obvious.
You will never persuade countries to accept huge reductions in their living standards until you have made an irrefutable scientific and economic case for doing so.
The scientific case is looking shakier by the minute: if there has been no global warming since 1997, why should we stake our faith in all those doomsday computer models which failed to predict this "pause"?
The economic case is non-existent. By the time - if it ever does - catastrophic global warming makes its presence known in the future, our descendants will all be considerably richer than we are and therefore have more than enough money spare to take whatever remedial actions are necessary.
Perhaps finally Cohen, as normally careful journalist, ought to consider whether the "Holocaust denial" really is an appropriate metaphor to use to describe as a blanket dismissal for anyone who is unconvinced by climate change alarmism.
Since he obviously hasn't got time to research this issue, I'll help him out.
Number of dead directly attributable to the Holocaust: around six million.
Number of dead directly attributable to "climate change": none.
Do the math, Cohen.
Oh, and also, climate change deniers are a bit like people who believe in aliens.
Clive Hamilton, the Australian author of Requiem for a Species, made the essential point a few years ago that climate change denial was no longer just a corporate lobbying campaign. The opponents of science would say what they said unbribed. The movement was in the grip of "cognitive dissonance", a condition first defined by Leon Festinger and his colleagues in the 1950s . They examined a cult that had attached itself to a Chicago housewife called Dorothy Martin. She convinced her followers to resign from their jobs and sell their possessions because a great flood was to engulf the earth on 21 December 1954. They would be the only survivors. Aliens in a flying saucer would swoop down and save the chosen few.
Cohen has a well-deserved reputation as one of the British left's most thoughtful, articulate and original journalists. He is sufficiently eclectic to write an excellent monthly column on television for the high-brow, right-wing journal Standpoint. And he is one of only very few left-liberal commentators to have called out the left's hypocrisy and double-standards on Islamism. His book What's Left is a corrosive attack on the way so many left-wingers have abandoned their progressive principles by refusing to condemn the abuse of women by Islamic fundamentalists and by effectively condoning the worst excesses of jihadism, including 9/11.
Unfortunately, though, it would appear that on the climate change issue he has abandoned his customary rigour and intellectual independence and fallen victim to the environmental left's lazy groupthink. To appreciate just how lazy, here's a website which shows just how often the "denier" smear has been used by the left against sceptics in order to try to close down the climate change debate.
He asks:
Whatever you do or say, it is going to happen. How can you persuade countries to accept huge reductions in their living standards to limit (not stop) the rise in temperatures? How can you persuade the human race to put the future ahead of the present?
But actually, had Cohen bothered to research the issue rather than simply regurgitating the green propaganda associated with NGOs like Greenpeace and Friends Of The Earth and warmed over in the pages of HuffPo, Slate and Climate Progress, he would not have needed to ask these questions rhetorically. The answers would have been bleeding obvious.
You will never persuade countries to accept huge reductions in their living standards until you have made an irrefutable scientific and economic case for doing so.
The scientific case is looking shakier by the minute: if there has been no global warming since 1997, why should we stake our faith in all those doomsday computer models which failed to predict this "pause"?
The economic case is non-existent. By the time - if it ever does - catastrophic global warming makes its presence known in the future, our descendants will all be considerably richer than we are and therefore have more than enough money spare to take whatever remedial actions are necessary.
Perhaps finally Cohen, as normally careful journalist, ought to consider whether the "Holocaust denial" really is an appropriate metaphor to use to describe as a blanket dismissal for anyone who is unconvinced by climate change alarmism.
Since he obviously hasn't got time to research this issue, I'll help him out.
Number of dead directly attributable to the Holocaust: around six million.
Number of dead directly attributable to "climate change": none.
Do the math, Cohen.
_______________________________________________________________________________
http://www.populartechnology.net/2014/02/skeptics-smeared-as-holocaust-deniers.html
http://dailycaller.com/2014/03/24/climate-scientists-refuse-to-debate-global-warming-skeptics-in-the-media/
http://dailycaller.com/2014/03/21/scientists-government-agencies-use-the-peer-review-process-to-squash-dissent/
_________________________________________________________________________________
New Yorkers are the reason New York can't have nice stuff -
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/exclusive-citi-bike-operators-neglecting-bikes-stations-article-1.1731484
This is the last known photo of Wu Meng who was attacked by 22 bears in China.
Authorities say the bears killed Ms. Meng for her pancreas, known in traditional Chinese Bear Homeopathy to be a powerful aphrodesiac.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2587391/Smuggler-caught-22-bears-running-free-car-tried-convince-customs-officials-dogs.html
A Chicago train decides to take a walk causing mass confusion at O'hare.
In it's defense, there was no sign stating, "NO TRAINS ON ESCALATOR".
The train is said to have retained counsel.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2587889/BREAKING-NEWS-30-injured-train-derails-platform-rides-UP-escalator-Chicago-OHare-airport.html
http://dailycaller.com/2014/03/24/climate-scientists-refuse-to-debate-global-warming-skeptics-in-the-media/
http://dailycaller.com/2014/03/21/scientists-government-agencies-use-the-peer-review-process-to-squash-dissent/
_________________________________________________________________________________
New Yorkers are the reason New York can't have nice stuff -
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/exclusive-citi-bike-operators-neglecting-bikes-stations-article-1.1731484
This is the last known photo of Wu Meng who was attacked by 22 bears in China.
Authorities say the bears killed Ms. Meng for her pancreas, known in traditional Chinese Bear Homeopathy to be a powerful aphrodesiac.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2587391/Smuggler-caught-22-bears-running-free-car-tried-convince-customs-officials-dogs.html
A Chicago train decides to take a walk causing mass confusion at O'hare.
In it's defense, there was no sign stating, "NO TRAINS ON ESCALATOR".
The train is said to have retained counsel.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2587889/BREAKING-NEWS-30-injured-train-derails-platform-rides-UP-escalator-Chicago-OHare-airport.html
Sunday, March 23, 2014
Since I've put so many pictures of Mike recently, I thought I would repost the slide story.
Enjoy.
______________________________________________________________________________
Sunday, September 30, 2012
Mikey is not feeling well
Mikey has not been feeling well which has been a real bummer.
I don't like having a sick dog.
He kept me up all Friday night, having to go out over and over.
Saturday we went to the vet's office and Dr. Freman was nice enough to squeeze us in, even though Mikey hates all vets and had to be muzzled.
Again.
He really, REALLY hates the vet.
And I really, REALLY hate when he's sick.
He's not the same.
Lethargic. Grumpy.
And he just stares at you with those big eyes.
"Fix me."
That's what the eyes seem to be saying.
And I can't.
So he has to go back to the vet's office and be muzzled again.
Which I hate for him.
Mikey has been a real life-saver and has helped to keep me sane over the past few years.
(Well, he's a dog; he can only do so much.)
And between his greying face (his muzzle and mine are greying at exactly the same rate.) and him being sick, it makes me think of his mortality.
Which sucks.
I don't want him to leave me.
He's not dying, so please don't panic, it's just that his greying beard and his illness make me think of some time in the not far enough away future when I'll have to say goodbye to him for good.
And that makes me sad.
Before I was given Mikey I had a German Shephard named Jack.
He was a sweet dog.
Jack was a gift from the ex for my 30th birthday and we were buddies.
But Jack was one of many things I had to give up in the divorce.
Sometimes life is full of bad options.
I think the phrase is "Between a rock and a hard place" or "The devil and the deep blue sea."
Either way it means the same.
I felt like I couldn't focus on getting thru my illness if I was still fighting with my ex and the ex was not going to give up Jack without a serious fight.
It was something we went round and round about many times.
And to be fair, while the ex didn't particularly care what happened to me, she did deeply care about Jack.
I used to joke about wanting to come back as one of my ex's dogs when I died.
When I was sick, for some reason I just wanted to be near Jack.
To pet him or throw the ball or just have him put his head in my lap.
Doctors say that pets have a way of keeping people calm.
Their blood pressure goes down, their anxiety goes down, they just relax.
Something about the simple, direct, unadorned affection of an animal that brings inner peace to a body.
But the ex wasn't interested in my inner peace.
I had left and I was the one that asked for the divorce and that meant I had no right to see the dog.
Mikey is not feeling well
Mikey has not been feeling well which has been a real bummer.
I don't like having a sick dog.
He kept me up all Friday night, having to go out over and over.
Saturday we went to the vet's office and Dr. Freman was nice enough to squeeze us in, even though Mikey hates all vets and had to be muzzled.
Again.
He really, REALLY hates the vet.
And I really, REALLY hate when he's sick.
He's not the same.
Lethargic. Grumpy.
And he just stares at you with those big eyes.
"Fix me."
That's what the eyes seem to be saying.
And I can't.
So he has to go back to the vet's office and be muzzled again.
Which I hate for him.
Mikey has been a real life-saver and has helped to keep me sane over the past few years.
(Well, he's a dog; he can only do so much.)
And between his greying face (his muzzle and mine are greying at exactly the same rate.) and him being sick, it makes me think of his mortality.
Which sucks.
I don't want him to leave me.
He's not dying, so please don't panic, it's just that his greying beard and his illness make me think of some time in the not far enough away future when I'll have to say goodbye to him for good.
And that makes me sad.
Before I was given Mikey I had a German Shephard named Jack.
He was a sweet dog.
Jack was a gift from the ex for my 30th birthday and we were buddies.
But Jack was one of many things I had to give up in the divorce.
Sometimes life is full of bad options.
I think the phrase is "Between a rock and a hard place" or "The devil and the deep blue sea."
Either way it means the same.
I felt like I couldn't focus on getting thru my illness if I was still fighting with my ex and the ex was not going to give up Jack without a serious fight.
It was something we went round and round about many times.
And to be fair, while the ex didn't particularly care what happened to me, she did deeply care about Jack.
I used to joke about wanting to come back as one of my ex's dogs when I died.
When I was sick, for some reason I just wanted to be near Jack.
To pet him or throw the ball or just have him put his head in my lap.
Doctors say that pets have a way of keeping people calm.
Their blood pressure goes down, their anxiety goes down, they just relax.
Something about the simple, direct, unadorned affection of an animal that brings inner peace to a body.
But the ex wasn't interested in my inner peace.
I had left and I was the one that asked for the divorce and that meant I had no right to see the dog.
It was upsetting as hell at the time.
"The Lyon" had given me Mikey as a gift just as I was getting back on my feet after the illness and the divorce.
The ex had called one day late in 2006 to tell me that Jack would have to be put down and she would let me know when, so that I could see him one last time.
She never called.
I'm not sure who was more upset about that, me or "the Lyon".
But shortly thereafter, I had Mikey.
"The Lyon" was good like that.
I slept on the floor with him for almost a month so he wouldn't feel lonely without his brothers and sisters.
And I took him most places with me so that we could bond.
We joined the Schutzhund club out near Athens so that we could start training.
It's pretty cool to watch your dog get the "bad guy" out on the practice field.
Like watching your kid do Karate, I guess.
Mikey has a diploma on the wall and everything.
Not too bad for a German Shephard that doesn't speak German.
Back in the summer of 2008 (I think it was 2008?) I met and fell for a girl that later I nick-named "Crazy-pants".
You can probably guess that it didn't end well.
It was over before it really started but for some reason I took it really hard.
Even then I knew it was stupid but, to quote George Clooney, "there ain't no logic to be found in the chambers of the human heart".
Those were dark days.
I was not fit for human consumption for quite some time.
One particularly dark day, when I had awoke on the wrong side of life, I begrudgingly took Mikey down to the park.
To me, the weight of the world was on my heart and shoulders, and I wasn't up to the task.
I was miserable and a misery to be around.
To Mikey it was Tuesday.
Did we wake up?
Yes.
Then why aren't you throwing the ball?
Actually, fairly sound rhetoric now that I think about it.
But at that particular time, I wanted some one to dig a hole so that I could get in the bottom of that hole and dig another hole so I could then crawl under a rock and MAYBE come back out 6 - 12 months later.
I was in an awful state.
Mikey wanted to play.
Little is more annoying than a happy anything interupting your misery.
It makes it so very much worse.
Someone or something has the nerve to be enjoying something while you roll around in your blackness?
Not on my watch, Mister.
I took Mikey down to Orme Park where we normally went to train or play ball and unhooked the leash.
"Go annoy somebody else, dog. I'm not playing ball today. Leave me alone."
Or something close to that.
Mikey was patient.
He ran around. He got a stick. He jumped up on the big fallen oak tree. He tugged at my cuffs.
I was not having it.
"Leave me alone, Mikey!"
I was a jerk.
I moped my way over to the other side of the park and sat down heavily on a bench with my head in my hands, all the misery and darkness of the world there on top of me.
Mikey was not deterred.
He went over to where the little kids play, there at the jungle gym.
Normally he would've just walked around it or found the spot where the other dogs had marked and sniffed and left his own mark.
But that day he didn't.
That day he climbed the steps to the jungle gym.
And he crossed the little swinging bridge.
And then he climbed the second set of steps to the top.
And then he came down the slide.
All 100 pounds of fierce, Schutzhuund trained, certified man-stopping, German Shepherd, came flying down the children's slide.
The look on his face was so full of life, so exuberant, so.....surprised and pleased with himself that,
he did it again.
And the second time he came down that children's slide, there on the jungle gym in Orme Park, with that look of absolute joy on his furry face, that expression that shouted, "Did you see that, dad!?! Did you see what I just did!?!" my clouds parted.
And I laughed.
My misery broke and I laughed in a way that I had not laughed in several months and the darkness began to leave me.
Finally.
All because of Mikey and the slide.
He had never done it before and though I've tried many times to get him to do it again, he won't go near the jungle gym now.
Somehow he knew what I needed at that moment and he did it.
So now when he's sick and he's looking at me with those big, brown eyes, that seem to weakly say, "Fix it, dad." it kinda breaks my heart that I can't make him better the way that he did for me.
So tomorrow, we'll go to the vet's office again, and be muzzled again, and probably the vet will do something unpleasant that I hope will make him feel better soon.
But it won't be anywhere nearly as great as what he's done for me.
"The Lyon" had given me Mikey as a gift just as I was getting back on my feet after the illness and the divorce.
The ex had called one day late in 2006 to tell me that Jack would have to be put down and she would let me know when, so that I could see him one last time.
She never called.
I'm not sure who was more upset about that, me or "the Lyon".
But shortly thereafter, I had Mikey.
"The Lyon" was good like that.
I slept on the floor with him for almost a month so he wouldn't feel lonely without his brothers and sisters.
And I took him most places with me so that we could bond.
We joined the Schutzhund club out near Athens so that we could start training.
It's pretty cool to watch your dog get the "bad guy" out on the practice field.
Like watching your kid do Karate, I guess.
Mikey has a diploma on the wall and everything.
Not too bad for a German Shephard that doesn't speak German.
Back in the summer of 2008 (I think it was 2008?) I met and fell for a girl that later I nick-named "Crazy-pants".
You can probably guess that it didn't end well.
It was over before it really started but for some reason I took it really hard.
Even then I knew it was stupid but, to quote George Clooney, "there ain't no logic to be found in the chambers of the human heart".
Those were dark days.
I was not fit for human consumption for quite some time.
One particularly dark day, when I had awoke on the wrong side of life, I begrudgingly took Mikey down to the park.
To me, the weight of the world was on my heart and shoulders, and I wasn't up to the task.
I was miserable and a misery to be around.
To Mikey it was Tuesday.
Did we wake up?
Yes.
Then why aren't you throwing the ball?
Actually, fairly sound rhetoric now that I think about it.
But at that particular time, I wanted some one to dig a hole so that I could get in the bottom of that hole and dig another hole so I could then crawl under a rock and MAYBE come back out 6 - 12 months later.
I was in an awful state.
Mikey wanted to play.
Little is more annoying than a happy anything interupting your misery.
It makes it so very much worse.
Someone or something has the nerve to be enjoying something while you roll around in your blackness?
Not on my watch, Mister.
I took Mikey down to Orme Park where we normally went to train or play ball and unhooked the leash.
"Go annoy somebody else, dog. I'm not playing ball today. Leave me alone."
Or something close to that.
Mikey was patient.
He ran around. He got a stick. He jumped up on the big fallen oak tree. He tugged at my cuffs.
I was not having it.
"Leave me alone, Mikey!"
I was a jerk.
I moped my way over to the other side of the park and sat down heavily on a bench with my head in my hands, all the misery and darkness of the world there on top of me.
Mikey was not deterred.
He went over to where the little kids play, there at the jungle gym.
Normally he would've just walked around it or found the spot where the other dogs had marked and sniffed and left his own mark.
But that day he didn't.
That day he climbed the steps to the jungle gym.
And he crossed the little swinging bridge.
And then he climbed the second set of steps to the top.
And then he came down the slide.
All 100 pounds of fierce, Schutzhuund trained, certified man-stopping, German Shepherd, came flying down the children's slide.
The look on his face was so full of life, so exuberant, so.....surprised and pleased with himself that,
he did it again.
And the second time he came down that children's slide, there on the jungle gym in Orme Park, with that look of absolute joy on his furry face, that expression that shouted, "Did you see that, dad!?! Did you see what I just did!?!" my clouds parted.
And I laughed.
My misery broke and I laughed in a way that I had not laughed in several months and the darkness began to leave me.
Finally.
All because of Mikey and the slide.
He had never done it before and though I've tried many times to get him to do it again, he won't go near the jungle gym now.
Somehow he knew what I needed at that moment and he did it.
So now when he's sick and he's looking at me with those big, brown eyes, that seem to weakly say, "Fix it, dad." it kinda breaks my heart that I can't make him better the way that he did for me.
So tomorrow, we'll go to the vet's office again, and be muzzled again, and probably the vet will do something unpleasant that I hope will make him feel better soon.
But it won't be anywhere nearly as great as what he's done for me.
Friday, March 21, 2014
First day of spring with Mikey
I had a beautiful walk with Mike yesterday afternoon.
We stopped at John Howell Park on Virginia Ave. and took a few pictures with a backdrop of blooming dogwood trees.
Finally, we've had a couple of good weather days in the ATL.
Jeff Slate @ Slate Photography was in the park and took these last 2 pictures.
404-876-6459. Slatephoto@bellsouth.net.
I found these pictures of Wisteria over at Atlas Obscura - - http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/wisteria-tunnel
Blooming Wisteria covering a curved frame forms a beautiful flowering tunnel in Japan.
The "Lion" and I went to Japan early in 2007, arriving at the tail end of the cherry blossom festival, when what feels like a kajillion cherry trees all bloom at the same time.
Just gorgeous.
If you ever get the chance, go to Kyoto and walk the "Philosopher's Path".
A couple more shots I took this morning on our walk.
We stopped at John Howell Park on Virginia Ave. and took a few pictures with a backdrop of blooming dogwood trees.
Finally, we've had a couple of good weather days in the ATL.
Jeff Slate @ Slate Photography was in the park and took these last 2 pictures.
404-876-6459. Slatephoto@bellsouth.net.
I found these pictures of Wisteria over at Atlas Obscura - - http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/wisteria-tunnel
Blooming Wisteria covering a curved frame forms a beautiful flowering tunnel in Japan.
The "Lion" and I went to Japan early in 2007, arriving at the tail end of the cherry blossom festival, when what feels like a kajillion cherry trees all bloom at the same time.
Just gorgeous.
If you ever get the chance, go to Kyoto and walk the "Philosopher's Path".
A couple more shots I took this morning on our walk.
Thursday, March 20, 2014
From The New Mind of the South by Tracy Thompson.
Copyright 2013 by Tracy Thompson.
http://www.npr.org/books/titles/175496381/the-new-mind-of-the-south#excerpt
Being a Southerner is a lot like being a Jew, and every bit as complicated. For starters, this means there is no such thing as "Southern culture" — only "cultures," plural, which range from the equivalent of the militantly Zionist (the neo-Confederate crowd) to the Hassidic (regular attendees of the Ole Miss–Alabama game, perhaps) and all shades in between. Jews and Southerners are both self-anointed chosen people — Jews in a religious sense, Southerners in a cultural sense. Both identities substantially overlap with a specific type of religion (evangelical Protestantanism, in the case of Southerners), though within those parameters there's lots of room for variation. Both identities are voluntary affiliations that can be either adopted or forsworn, even if the natal imprint is tough to erase completely. Jews and Southerners alike know what it is to be a kind of invisible minority in the culture at large, forced to smile politely as they hear themselves referred to in unflattering, one-dimensional stereotypes: I'll see your Jewish American Princess or Shylock, and raise you one Alabama hick plus a Bible-totin', evolution-denyin' school board member from Dogpatch.
Wednesday, March 19, 2014
It's a long way between
Worth a peek over at the Harley-Davidson timeline.
http://www.harley-davidson.com/en_US/Content/Pages/HD_Museum/explore/hd-timeline.html
and this
http://www.harley-davidson.com/en_US/Content/Pages/HD_Museum/explore/hd-timeline.html
I want to live in a bookstore.
I just read an article about Hemingway's Paris that included a section on the famous bookstore, Shakespeare and Co., where he spent much of his time.
The store was a hot-spot of that writer's group from "The Lost Generation" and many other famed writers made it their home.
http://www.timeout.com/paris/en/things-to-do/hemingways-paris
Now here comes my favorite blogess, Messy Nessy to "one up" Time Out's article with this little fact: Shakespeare and Co. allow up and coming writers to stay in the store as a sort of youth hostel for artists.
How awesome is this!?!
They only ask that you work a couple hours a day and read a book a day.
I'm going.
Quote from Nessy:
"Just as Sylvia Beach helped a struggling young Ernest Hemingway in the 1920s when she first opened Shakespeare & Co, nearly 100 years later, the bookshop is still extending a helping hand to young writers in Paris by inviting them to stay at the bookshop. The only things they ask in return from the tumbleweeds is that they work in the bookstore 2 hours a day, commit to reading a book a day and write a one page biography."
http://www.messynessychic.com/2014/03/17/13-things-found-internet-today/
http://malborkmalbork.blogspot.fr/2013/01/tumbleweed-hotel-shakespeare-and-company.html
_________________________________________________________________________________
Time Out says:
The original Shakespeare & Co, run by Sylvia Beach and beloved of Hemingway and his ilk, closed in the 1940s during the occupation of Paris (the site at 12 Rue de l’Odéon bears a plaque). In 1951, wandering spirit George Whitman opened Le Mistral at 37 Rue de la Bûcherie, re-naming it in 1964 in homage to Beach’s legacy (he also named his daughter after her). But the back history hardly matters now – George, who passed away in 2011 aged 98, turned the shop into something entirely unique and magical.
A gathering place, source of inspiration and often a bed for beat generation bohemians, writers, travellers and readers for over 60 years, Shakespeare & Company has hosted thousands of ‘tumbleweeds’ – volunteer helpers who sleep in the shop – and featured in numerous films, books and memoirs. The sprawling site includes a large used and antiquarian section, while the main store is a heavenly labyrinth of book-lined passages, alcoves and reading rooms full of secret corners, an unmissable destination for bibliophiles the world over. Sylvia Whitman now runs the store with as much charm as – if less eccentricity than – her father, launching an biennial literary festival and maintaining a strong focus on events and readings.
Address:
37 rue de la Bûcherie
5e, Paris
phone: 01.43.25.40.93
www.shakespeareandcompany.com/
Email: news@shakespeareandcompany.com
Hours:
10am-11pm Mon-Fri; 11am-11pm Sat, Sun
http://malborkmalbork.blogspot.fr/2013/01/tumbleweed-hotel-shakespeare-and-company.html
_________________________________________________________________________________
Time Out says:
The original Shakespeare & Co, run by Sylvia Beach and beloved of Hemingway and his ilk, closed in the 1940s during the occupation of Paris (the site at 12 Rue de l’Odéon bears a plaque). In 1951, wandering spirit George Whitman opened Le Mistral at 37 Rue de la Bûcherie, re-naming it in 1964 in homage to Beach’s legacy (he also named his daughter after her). But the back history hardly matters now – George, who passed away in 2011 aged 98, turned the shop into something entirely unique and magical.
A gathering place, source of inspiration and often a bed for beat generation bohemians, writers, travellers and readers for over 60 years, Shakespeare & Company has hosted thousands of ‘tumbleweeds’ – volunteer helpers who sleep in the shop – and featured in numerous films, books and memoirs. The sprawling site includes a large used and antiquarian section, while the main store is a heavenly labyrinth of book-lined passages, alcoves and reading rooms full of secret corners, an unmissable destination for bibliophiles the world over. Sylvia Whitman now runs the store with as much charm as – if less eccentricity than – her father, launching an biennial literary festival and maintaining a strong focus on events and readings.
Address:
37 rue de la Bûcherie
5e, Paris
phone: 01.43.25.40.93
www.shakespeareandcompany.com/
Email: news@shakespeareandcompany.com
Hours:
10am-11pm Mon-Fri; 11am-11pm Sat, Sun
________________________________________________________________________________
Example 1,025 of how one sided and unprofessional nearly all reporting and journalism has become.
My favorite podcaster, Adam Carolla, has a new show on Spike TV called "Catch a Contractor".
By all accounts it's a good show and based on my experience remodeling homes, a great idea.
Carolla and crew find homeowners who have been screwed over by contractors working on their homes and set them up, ala Keith Morrison's "Catch a Predator" series, and force them to correct their mistakes.
But this reviewer can't resist slipping in his political opinion when reviewing a home improvement show. The first line contains 3 insults all at once.
"Although he once shared a couch with Jimmy Kimmel on “The Man Show,” Carolla now winds up in lower-rent districts like this, or serving as one of Fox News Channel’s house clowns."
It's fine if you don't like Carolla or home improvement or reality TV but making Carolla some sort of right wing lap dog because he showed up a network you don't like is just bullshit.
And before my friends and family try to give me the whole, "Well both sides do that.", routine.
No.
No they don't.
And certainly not to this extent.
I get this excuse when I rant about Islam.
Normally, about 3 breathes into whatever current "look what Islam has done now" moment I'm having someone pipes in with the, "All religions are bad/have violence/diminish so-and-so", etc.
But no.
You're wrong.
I don't recall a lot of stories about the violence and intimidation committed by Episcopalians.
Or how there's another case of an angry Presbyterian killing his wife or child because they shamed him.
So stop making these things equivalent.
They are not.
This review has an axe to grind and does so at Carolla's expense.
If you don't like the show, fine.
But his snide and caustic commentary is just unprofessional and spiteful and shows what a lowly profession journalism has become.
_________________________________________________________________________________
TV Review: Spike’s ‘Catch a Contractor,’ Bravo’s ‘Online Dating
Rituals of the American Male’
You cannot lick my woman's face!
I don't care how many zombie's you kill you may not lick my woman's face.
After watching this Sunday's episode of The Walking Dead, I have a large crush on Melissa McBride.
A.) Talented
B.) Very attractive
C.) I like when a woman let's her hair go grey.
Something very cool about owning that.
That being said, there is something downright weird about catching yourself attracted to women in their 50's even though I'm just a few years away from that myself.
It's that weird thing, where you just still feel like a 15 year old boy on the inside, so 50 just seems ancient until you do the math and realize, "Shit. I'll be fifty in just 6 more years and this woman is totally inside my demographic. Now I have mixed feelings about "doing stuff" with her."
But still she is kinda hot.
(And I would totally "do stuff".)
http://celebrity.yahoo.com/news/melissa-mcbride-walking-dead-shocker-185400161.html
And speaking of age appropriate women, "Hey there Ashley Judd. How you doin?"
This is the exact opposite of that.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2584006/Ashley-Judd-45-goes-drab-fab-shows-decolletage-Divergent-premiere.html
I swear I'm not in a weird mood this morning.
Just reading random stories and stumbled onto various over 40 women.
Which is somewhat heartening
A.) That they exist
B.) I'm attracted to women my own age
And here is Lean Headey from Game of Thrones looking stunning.
Woontcha like ta' rent a "honkey" ?
Normally my automatic response to the question, "Would you like to rent a person for a few hours?" would be, "Thanks but I just put one out."
Or more commonly, no.
But I am no rethinking that position thanks to this Japanese website,
http://www.gaikokujin-rental.jp/ , where you can "rent a white person".
http://www.thrillist.com/travel/nation/new-japanese-website-allows-you-to-rent-white-people
Here a just a few pics of the white people you can rent -
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