Via Blue Bird of Bitterness.

Her heart might be in the right place, but little Billy's head isn't.

CW, the teenage years

Building bomber nose cones

Add the planes to go with all those, and you got yourself an air force.

World's most hazardous job.

Heh

Making the desert rock.

Swimming hole of dreams

This is called a well armed woman.

Dogs....

The ultimate ground speed check

Tales from the Blackbird.

Kids, get out of the water!!

Grouper eats four foot shark in one bite.

Ouch, and ouch again!

The communications director for Congressman Stephen Fincher (R-TN) saw this and Facebooked a pithy comment on the outfits and demeanor of Sasha and Malia Obama during their father's turkey pardoning speech for Thanksgiving.

She advised the teens:

"Dress like you deserve respect, not a spot at a bar."

And then she followed up with this gem:

"I'm guessing you're coming up a little short in the 'good role model' department."

Hey Michelle and Barack, need a little ice for that nasty burn!

Naturally, due to speaking a brutal truth to the King's offspring, she has deleted the post and apologized.  Yet it's still the truth, and indeed good advice, which apparently no one in the girls' own family is giving them.   Especially the one on the left, who could use some lessons on how to stand like a lady, in addition to her choice of clothing for an event like this.

An amazingly good image of the wild fire they had in the heart of Yosemite last year.

Photo by Darvin Atkeson.  Well done, sir!

Hat tip: Tai Wiki Widbee.

Note that fires like this are a natural occurrence, and in many ways are beneficial.  More on this fire here.

F-15E Low Level in the Cascades

Via XBrad



Looks like fun, doesn't it?

Cabin Porn

Sam Summer’s stone cabin on South Island, New Zealand.

Really digging in

Foul weather has never stopped the Norwegians from going sailing.

Norwegian ketch Christiania

Check out the amazing story behind this boat.

Great moments in celebrating Thanksgiving

The stage: the boy is staying at college in Portland, so it's me, the wife, and the two girls.  I feel like a hitch-hiker on the estrogen express.

1. The wife has been jonesing for another cat ( we usually carry two, and we've been down to one for a while), so I brought back a really cool kitten from the pound on Monday.  Thanksgiving day it started barfing over and over, and so inevitably the wife and girls became alarmed and had to take it on an expensive journey to the vet right after dinner.

2. The internet went down at our house Thanksgiving morning, inexplicably, and in spite of pulling out and plugging in the router, resetting everything multiple times, and even shaking the thing, no luck.  My suggestion that it would be healthy to do without the net at least for day was met with incredulous stares.  Miraculously, the net's back today, no idea what the original problem was.

3.  Without the net, the Estrogen Gang decided to watch multiple episodes of Downton Abbey on disc. The three of them collected themselves on the couch and nibbled turkey and sipped egg nog while watching English people talk.  I went to bed.

4. This morning, the oldest daughter left in her car to visit some of her friends from up here, and she took most of the sweet potatoes with her.  Five minutes after leaving, the phone rang, and it was her.  She told me that as soon as she left, she smelled something rotten in her car, and expressed some fear that she might have run over the other cat on her way out.

I reassured her that if she had run over the cat, it wouldn't smell rotten because the corpse wouldn't have had a chance to rot yet (and to boot I could see both the cats from where I was).  The most likely cause, I explained, was that she had inadvertently stepped in some dog poo on the way to the car, and that was the source of the smell.  I advised to check the bottom of her shoes before going into her pal's house.  She assured me she would.  Glad I had the chance to help.

Reason 513 why the internet is so great

There actually is a Blog of Unnecessary Quotes, and it's hilarious.

Hat tip, Ace of Spades

Friday Open Road

LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin

Pushing up quite the wave

Cold and quiet

Ch-paa-qn Peak at Sunrise 
Missoula, Montana 
© Mark Mesenko

The Dutch discover a dandy deposit

Via The History Blog.

Archaeologists excavating the future site of the Rotterdamsebaan access road in The Hague announced on Friday that they’ve unearthed a Roman-era pot containing a hoard of coins and jewelry. The contents of the pot were discovered fused together in a large lump of metal. Conservators were able to separate the individual parts of the mass and discovered 107 silver coins, six silver bracelets, a large silver plated fibula (cloak brooch) and some glass beads that were probably on a chain that has now disintegrated.

The coins are all silver denarii, a very valuable collection at a time when brass coins were far more common in circulation. The oldest coin dates to the reign of the emperor Nero (54-68 A.D.), the youngest to the reign of Marcus Aurelius about a century later (161-180 A.D.). One extremely rare coin was struck under the reign of Emperor Otho who only ruled three months, from January 15th to April 16th 69 A.D., the second in the turbulent Year of the Four Emperors which came to a close with the ascent of Vespasian.

Before banks, the best way to stash your cash was in the Roman equivalent of a Mason jar buried in the back yard.  The owners were probably rounded up and killed by the Saxons, and since dead men tell no tales, the stash of silver cash remained safely buried until now.  More secure than any modern bank, if you are still around to make a withdrawal!  

Camels, not as friendly as they are portrayed on TV

Must be California

Close quarters battle tool

Once the rioters are close, and you use up all the 12 gauge ammo, this is what you can use to keep them off the porch.

That's one wicked blade.

He's about to tag the water with his prop.

Someone has irritated the freckles

I don't know what this thing is, but it looks dangerous and bad azz.

The camo on that soldier's face is off the hook. Goes well with whatever evil weapon this is.

Rebel to the core.

Via Wirecutter, naturally.

The MSM, and the New York Times in particular, are promoting lawlessness and violence against those they don't like.

These two are exhibits no. 1. 

They look like the stereotypical self loathing white liberals, don't they?

This morning on Facebook someone has posted what he represents are their home addresses and phone numbers.  Since I can't confirm their correctness, I'm going to learn from Spike Lee's mistake and not print them here, but that info is out there now, and can't be taken back.

Truly, to publish the home address of Officer Wilson is to openly encourage violence against him personally, and to ignore the significance of the conclusions of the grand jury.  In it's very essence, such an act, which was approved by the editors of the Times, is an invitation to anarchy. It is a rejection of the rule of law and of civilization itself.  If this is going to be the game, then it's kosher, and indeed necessary, to publish the accurate personal information of these reporters, and their editors, and to then follow through with as much harassment and even violence against their property, their persons, and their families, as they themselves have so clearly invited against an officer now found innocent of wrong doing by the grand jury.  If it's mob rule they want, then it's mob rule they should get.

If these reporters wish to sow the wind, then they absolutely need to reap the whirlwind.

More spelling genius from the rocket scientists protesting in Ferguson

That angry emoticon face is a great touch as well. His first grade teacher must be so proud.

Bird on blue

Norwegian Leopard 2A4 MBTs.

Unfortunate automated ad placement

I'm sure Kohl's will want some money back, as that's certainly not what they paid for.

Via American Digest.

Small things are sometimes innately satisfying

Like this little bit of woodworking.

Sometimes termed a "Dutchman," it's simple purpose is to prevent the crack from worsening.  It's placement preserves the board for it's intended purpose, while adding to the beauty and interest of the piece.  Note that the grain of the Dutchman is place to maximize it's strength in holding the wood together - a small but critical point.

The job done inlaying it in is nearly perfect.  This is just a picture I found on the web somewhere - I didn't do it - but I liked it as soon as i saw it. One day I'll get good enough to do something similar, if I practice.

Excuse me while I smile.

Dazzling

Somewhat uncommon, an auroral corona appears as a center point for a surrounding display and may occur when an aurora develops directly overhead, or when auroral rays are pointed nearly toward the observer. This picturesque but brief green and purple aurora exhibition occurred last month high aboveKvaløya, Tromsø, Norway. The Sessøyfjorden fjord runs through the foreground, while numerous stars are visible far in the distance.

Via APOD

Your good news of the day - British special forces kick moslem arse in the former Iraq/Syria.

SAS troops with sniper rifles and heavy machine guns have killed hundreds of Islamic State extremists in a series of deadly quad-bike ambushes inside Iraq, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

Defence sources indicated last night that soldiers from the elite fighting unit have eliminated ‘up to eight terrorists per day’ in the daring raids, carried out during the past four weeks.

Until now, it had been acknowledged only that the SAS was operating in a reconnaissance role in Iraq and was not involved in combat. But The Mail on Sunday has learned that small groups of soldiers are being dropped into IS territory in RAF Chinook helicopters – to take on the enemy.

The missions have taken place on a near daily basis in the past four weeks and the SAS soldiers have expended so much ammunition that regimental quartermasters have been forced to order a full replenishment of stocks of machine-gun rounds and sniper bullets.

An SAS source said: ‘Our tactics are putting the fear of God into IS as they don’t know where we’re going to strike next and there’s frankly nothing they can do to stop us.

Control of the air, an ability to enjoy near constant view of the battlespace via drone and satellite, and a first hand familiarity of the land leads to dead jihadis.  Then again, that's what they tell us they want - to die - so they should send the Brits a thank you card.

How many people, I wonder, looked at Michael Brown Sr.'s shirt before it was made, and failed to see the obvious spelling error?

None of them were educated in a Catholic school, I can guarantee.  

How pathetic.