Saturday, May 11, 2013
Live from pump 16, Burbank
BuzzFeed: explains:
“Pumpcast News” is a Tonight Show sketch in which actor Tim Stack, posing as the anchor of a (fake) news show aired at gas station pumps, starts to talk directly to the unsuspecting gas station patrons.
While usually the intention of the sketch is to frighten and shock normal people just trying to go about their day, Wednesday’s installment was something else.
Neat video - Robins: 4 eggs, 4 weeks
A robin built a nest in a hanging basket on his porch and laid 4 eggs. That kept mom and dad busy for the next four weeks. Here's what happened. via The Presurfer.
Friday, May 10, 2013
Friday links
The Founder of Mother's Day Later Fought to Have It Abolished.
These 4 Sisters Were Photographed Every Year For 36 Years.
How high can a human throw something?
14 Animals Demonstrating Why A Mother's Love Is So Special.
A Polish man blew up his own house when he realized his wife and children had gone on a picnic without him.
Does swearing make you feel better?
These 4 Sisters Were Photographed Every Year For 36 Years.
How high can a human throw something?
14 Animals Demonstrating Why A Mother's Love Is So Special.
A Polish man blew up his own house when he realized his wife and children had gone on a picnic without him.
Does swearing make you feel better?
Thursday, May 9, 2013
One of the career civil servants Hillary threw under the Benghazi bus Immortalizes it in poetry: ‘The Queen's Henchmen’
Weekly Standard:
Last December, Hillary Clinton's State Department famously threw four career officials under the bus for Benghazi (while of course exculpating all senior and political appointees). One of them was Raymond Maxwell, the deputy assistant secretary for Maghreb Affairs in the Near East Bureau. But Hillary didn't reckon on the fact that Maxwell was also an aspiring poet. He soon became a participant in National Poetry Writing Month, and Diplopundit has republished one of his efforts, a poem a clef about the former secretary of state called "Invitation."
Here are the first and last stanzas (23rd and C Street NW is the location of the State Department):
The Queen’s Henchmen
request the pleasure of your company
at a Lynching – to be held
at 23rd and C Streets NW
on Tuesday, December 18, 2012
just past sunset. ...And the ones being lynched?
Who cares? They are pawns in a game.
Our game. All suckers, all fools,
all knaves who volunteered to serve -
Us. And the truth? The truth?
What difference at this point does it make?
Read the whole thing.
The Story of ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’
I thought it was from WWII, but no - it was designed then but never used.
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Philip K. Dick and Our Predicament
Any fellow fans out there? I really enjoyed this article. As they say, read the whole thing:
Dick, it seems, was a far superior prophet than the colleagues who disdained him, because, unlike many of them, he had a line on human nature, which never changes.
So what does Dick have to say about surviving and prevailing in this world?
Dick had no political solutions. His personal politics was as convoluted as the rest of his personality. He was a man of the "left," but, like Orwell, very much a left of his own devising. He was once thrown out, within a period of weeks, of meetings by the local GOP and the Communist Party, in both cases for asking penetrating questions. He had no use for authoritarian systems (His short story "Faith of our Fathers" is one of the eeriest condemnations of communism ever written, in which the leader of a victorious worldwide communist party is indistinguishable from death itself. When he grips the protagonist's arm, he leaves stigmata that continue bleeding and refuse to heal.)
Dick's political awareness was not so much undeveloped as developed to a point where he fully recognized the futility of politics.
Dick, it seems, was a far superior prophet than the colleagues who disdained him, because, unlike many of them, he had a line on human nature, which never changes.
So what does Dick have to say about surviving and prevailing in this world?
Dick had no political solutions. His personal politics was as convoluted as the rest of his personality. He was a man of the "left," but, like Orwell, very much a left of his own devising. He was once thrown out, within a period of weeks, of meetings by the local GOP and the Communist Party, in both cases for asking penetrating questions. He had no use for authoritarian systems (His short story "Faith of our Fathers" is one of the eeriest condemnations of communism ever written, in which the leader of a victorious worldwide communist party is indistinguishable from death itself. When he grips the protagonist's arm, he leaves stigmata that continue bleeding and refuse to heal.)
Dick's political awareness was not so much undeveloped as developed to a point where he fully recognized the futility of politics.
via Instapundit.
"Man Who Thought He Just Had a Runny Nose for a Year-and-a-Half Finds Out It Was Really His Brain Fluid Leaking"
He finally went to the doctor to be told his runny nose was far from run-of-mill allergies: his brain was leaking.
What It's Like To Ship 3.2 Million Bees Across State Lines
There aren't enough honeybees in the wild to pollinate all the commercial crops these days, so John Kraus steps in as a migratory beekeeper. He sends hives of bees to agricultural areas that need them during each crop's pollination season. That means shipping hives in big trucks, two trucks at a time, for a total load of over three million bees!
It’s different at different times of year. When we ship them to California, we don’t leave home. We just hire somebody to unload them down there and put them on a ranch up towards the gate of Yosemite. Then we go down to California in January and we spend about three weeks there. We go through the hives, check them for queens, for strength, and then put them in the almond groves. And then we’re back home for five or six weeks depending on the season. It takes about a week to go down and gather them all together and ship them back north.
After almonds, we go through again and move them into the soft fruit. That’s probably the worst move because we load them ourselves, beat feet and drive all night, and then unload. Load them up on a semi at dusk, drive 300 miles, and then unload them.Read more about the intricacy of shipping bees across country in an interview with Kraus at Modern Farmer. Link -via Neatorama.
Monday, May 6, 2013
Cheese and Onion Chocolate Bars are a Hit
The bars are made from the famous Irish Tayto cheese and onion crisps mixed with Irish chocolate - all in one bar.
A winning combination or a controversial mix? The jury is out but the response has been overwhelming.
Taste Ireland CEO Eamon Eastwood is the holder of the elusive chocolate bars and decided to raffle them off in a Facebook campaign.
"I couldn't believe the reaction, it went off the richter scale with almost half a million impressions," said Mr Eastwood.The last five bars were given away Friday. Link -via Neatorama
If you didn't get one, you can make your own.
Sunday, May 5, 2013
Headline du jour: Man arrested for abusing parakeet after police dog eats his hamster
Read the whole thing: When police raided a home in Werneth, Oldham, looking for drugs, the sniffer dog knocked over a hamster cage. The creature escaped. The police dog ate the hamster. Police then forced the dog to vomit up the dead hamster.
Police then arrested the hamster’s owner, one Muza Khan. No, not for any drugs offences. He was booked to appear at Oldham Magistrates Court because having killed his hamster, police found a bald parakeet during their raid. They said Miko the parakeet was “in distress”.
Police then arrested the hamster’s owner, one Muza Khan. No, not for any drugs offences. He was booked to appear at Oldham Magistrates Court because having killed his hamster, police found a bald parakeet during their raid. They said Miko the parakeet was “in distress”.
There's an American Gerbil Society, and they have an annual pageant
The American Gerbil Society’s annual pageant brought dozens of rodents scurrying to New England this weekend for a chance to win ‘‘top gerbil.’’