It's transport aircraft over at the Friday Flyby.

Pretty cool stuff.

Starry night

A Coast Guard HC-130 Hercules aircraft from Air Station Clearwater is parked on the tarmac in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The aircraft has four 910-horsepower Allison P56-A-15 turbo prop engines and has a multi-mission capable range of more than 2,400 miles.
(U.S. Coast Guard photo illustration by Petty Officer 2nd Class Robert Colon, 15 MAY 2013.)

Looks like the end of a perfect day

Sound money - what would it look like?

Via the Deliberate Agrarian, an essay on specie based money, why it was originally mandated by our country's constitution, and an explanation, in a round about way, of the popularity odd alternative currencies currently enjoy.

Plus, there are kind words about one of my favorite presidents, Andrew Jackson, who hated fiat currency, and had an epic and bare knuckled battle with that era's version of Greenspan/Bernanke over the issue.

                                                                 A true American

Freckles, they are good

Perfect!

Garfield?

Welsh man tosses hard drive in the trash, but feels somehow that it's a mistake.

Realizes way too late that the hard drive has 7500 bitcoin that he bought in 2009, currently worth 7.5 million dollars.

Moral of the story: listen to that nagging feeling that you shouldn't!

Swimming hole of dreams

Torque

It's what's for breakfast

Gun Porn

HK and a green knife (?)

The controversial video: How to Fight a Baby.

I dunno, I think this is pretty standard baby fun.  My favorite was playing "baby on the cob" with the kids when they were little. Insane and uncontrollable laughter for everyone.

Moon and shadow

Comet ISON may not have survived it's brush with the sun

Maybe for Christmas?

Not what you want to watch just before Thanksgiving dinner

A dead whale rots from the inside, which in turn sets up this event.



First seen on Bayou Renaissance Man.

Rare ice disk on North Dakota river

The phenomenon explained.

It's National Beard Month

One of my Scratch and Spit buddies sporting an epic beard while enjoying the High Sierras. 

This was at the end of October, and I started mine growing then, so it's looking good now, but it will be coming off on December 1st.

Man skill: how to carve a turkey

Impress the relatives, thrill the wife, amaze the kids.   Watch and learn.

George is the Man!

Indian headdresses explained.

Proving that once again, it was fun to be an Indian.

A beam of sanity shines out over the smoldering ruin of an insane state

A Sacramento Judge rules that the state cannot access bond money for the high speed rail disaster/ Democratic union crony support system !

  "Judge Kenny ruled that the state does not have a valid financing plan, which was required under the 2008 bond measure, Proposition 1A."

Imagine that, our state government can't even comply with the most basic legal requirements to just get the program off the ground!

   

  "The measure included provisions intended to ensure the state did not start the project if it did not have all of the necessary funds to complete a self-supporting, initial operating segment."

Good thing someone had the good sense to add this into the measure!  Who would have thought that a government would just blow off the necessity to have enough money on hand to properly begin the bullet train to nowhere?

   "The state rail agency created a funding plan, but it was an estimated $25 billion short of the amount needed to complete a first working section of the line."

25 billion?  Chicken feed for the lightly taxed producers of California, who already shoulder the burden to support a seething, angry and violent mass of illegal aliens.   What's wrong with adding the state's unions to their already crushing load?

    "Kenny ruled that the state must rescind the plan and create a new one, a difficult task because the state High-Speed Rail Authority hasn't identified sources of additional revenue to allocate to the project."

Let's hope this is the de facto end of this idiotic idea to build a state version of Amtrack.

Smart car..

... stupid driver.

My kinda reading material

Russians.

It's like someone in Russia said, "let's build the most awesome, over the top, rocket shooting plane the world has ever seen!" Then everyone looked at each other and shouted, " Da!"

Classic

I hear the thunder, I see the storm a - coming...

Almost 80 million people with employer health plans could find their coverage canceled because they are not compliant with ObamaCare, several experts predicted.

Their losses would be in addition to the millions who found their individual coverage cancelled for the same reason.

Stan Veuger of the American Enterprise Institute said that in addition to the individual cancellations, “at least half the people on employer plans would by 2014 start losing plans as well.” There are approximately 157 million employer health care policy holders.

Avik Roy of the Manhattan Institute added, “the administration estimated that approximately 78 million Americans with employer sponsored insurance would lose their existing coverage due to the Affordable Care Act.”

And these folk will see exactly what a disaster it will be for those who have now had their personal policies made illegal and cancelled by Obamacare, and who will be without insurance on January 1st.

This is shaping up to be a political firestorm of epic proportions. 

And already, Forbes Magazine is making a serious call of Obama's impeachment.

The faster, the better.

Cabin Porn

Cabins are always better if they come with a waterfall.

I wonder where it is now?

The “Monster Gun” — Tanjore, Tamilnadu, 1858, photo by Linnaeus Tripe. About the cannon (24 feet 5 inches), the photographer writes: “It has received the name of Rajah Gopala, and as this is a name of Vishnu it may be inferred that it was made by one of the Vaishnava Nayakar kings. It certainly belongs to that period. It is said to have been once fired, on which occasion the inhabitants of the Fort were warned by beat of drum to leave their houses. A trail of powder was laid for two miles and 40 minutes elapsed before the fire reached the gun. The sound, it seems, was as if Mount Meru had exploded…” (British Library)

Obamacare seminar in New Mexico gets a less than enthusiastic response

FARMINGTON — Officials from the New Mexico Health Insurance Exchange have reached out to communities throughout the state to explain the exchange and new insurance plans, periodically holding seminars in San Juan County.

But many of those seminars have been sparsely attended. A free health insurance exchange seminar and dinner scheduled last week in Bloomfield was cancelled due to a lack of response.

“We advertised for three weeks before, put it on our reader board and hand-delivered invitations to various doctor’s offices and small businesses,” said Bloomfield Chamber of Commerce President Janet Mackey. “We only had seven people RSVP, and since we were also going to be providing dinner, we thought with so few people it would be a waste of resources.”

Only 10 people attended a separate seminar in Wednesday at the Courtyard by Marriott in Farmington.

Mondays, they're like that.

Biscuits in the big skillet

The wife took Doug, our sourdough starter, and used him to make this, a lovely batch of biscuits in the large Lodge skillet.

We're gorging on them now. :-)

Spiritus Sanctus

Saint Thecla Monastery, Maloula, Syria

Epic battle between cougar and bighorn results in fatal fall from cliff.

Found along a closed road in Glacier National Park.  Apparently, the battle between them resulted in both falling to their deaths on the road below.  The jungle (or as here, the mountain wilderness) is red in tooth and claw.

Link to more pictures, but be warned, they are not for the squeamish.

Apex predator.

Slow mo video of a Ruger tossing a bullet downrange

I was surprised at the spirals of carbon thrown off by the bullet as it flies.

Exploring Frame Rates and Resolutions on a Phantom Flex High Speed Camera - Video Blog from Tom Guilmette on Vimeo.

Worked for me.

Sacrilege!

But still cool.

You're just not all that.

Freckles, they are good.

This is so classy!

Good to know

November is National Beard Month

Skateboarder and Mercedes race down the Franschhoek Pass mountain road in South Africa

Via Bayou Renaissance Man.  It's a commercial, but a good one.

It's Jolly Green Giant time over at the Friday Flyby

Plus a story about an incredible American airman.

Refueling over Vietnam, with Skyraider escort.

Virgin Atlantic head Richard Branson: book your space flight with Bitcoin

My prediction: First this, next regular air fare.

Even if our government tries to destroy Bitcoin, it looks like it will be entrenched in other Anglosphere countries.  More and more interesting developments on Bitcoin seemingly everyday.

Friday Open Road