Via Bayou Renaissance Man, a video of Georgians dancing their hearts out. Lots of fun.
Tuesday, March 31, 2015
The Bakersfield run - did it in 12 parsecs (Star Wars reference)
Got up at 4am, on the road by 4:30, made it to my business by nine, and on time. The old Dodge (189,000 miles and counting) ran like a champ.
It was a long old drive back, but the weather was fine, and there isn't really any traffic on 99.
After crashing at home for a couple hours, I wandered out to the garden, and discovered some volunteer cilantro from last year, coming up vigorously. To say I'm pleased is an understatement.
Also, last year I planted a blood orange tree, and this evening I found a fruit that I suspect is left over from last fall. The wife and I split it, and the juice was indeed blood red. Very tasty, and judging from this example, I can't wait until it's much bigger and more productive.
This was pretty much what we found.
Gardening is lots of work, but is very rewarding.
It was a long old drive back, but the weather was fine, and there isn't really any traffic on 99.
After crashing at home for a couple hours, I wandered out to the garden, and discovered some volunteer cilantro from last year, coming up vigorously. To say I'm pleased is an understatement.
Also, last year I planted a blood orange tree, and this evening I found a fruit that I suspect is left over from last fall. The wife and I split it, and the juice was indeed blood red. Very tasty, and judging from this example, I can't wait until it's much bigger and more productive.
This was pretty much what we found.
Gardening is lots of work, but is very rewarding.
Monday, March 30, 2015
The Saudis tag a weapons cache in Sana'a, Yemen. Looks like a lot of rockets cooking off.
The Houthi's are gonna be howlin' with hate over this one!
Shale fail: The super genius Chinese can't make fracking work
"China’s state-owned oil firm, CNOOC, is giving up on a high-profile shale gas project in Anhui province, conceding that the play “is not suitable for development on a large scale.” The FT reports:
Fascism only takes you so far, I guess.China National Offshore Oil Corp (Cnooc) has decided to shelve its shale gas project in Anhui province in the latest sign that the shale gas revolution that transformed the US energy industry is unlikely to replicate itself in China. […]Cnooc joins larger Chinese firm PetroChina, which has already sharply scaled back on shale project in Sichuan province that it was developing with Royal Dutch Shell. Neither PetroChina nor Shell will publicly define the extent to which that project is on hold."
All areas of the world that were ever part of the British Empire. Current British Overseas Territories have their names underlined in red.
Alexander the Great, eat your heart out.
Your reassuring fact of the day: there are more museums in the US than there are Starbucks and McDonalds, combined
There are roughly 11,000 Starbucks locations in the United States, and about 14,000 McDonald's restaurants. But combined, the two chains don't come close to the number of museums in the U.S., which stands at a whopping 35,000.
The IMLS' Mamie Bittner notes that that many of these institutions, particularly in small towns and rural areas, are historical societies and history museums. "We are in love with our history — at a very grassroots level we care for the histories of our towns, villages and counties," she says. These museums may be small, but they play outsized roles when it comes to the "informal learning" that happens outside of the classroom. She added, "These museums are the community institutions that are the cornerstones of this informal learning."
Cool.
The IMLS' Mamie Bittner notes that that many of these institutions, particularly in small towns and rural areas, are historical societies and history museums. "We are in love with our history — at a very grassroots level we care for the histories of our towns, villages and counties," she says. These museums may be small, but they play outsized roles when it comes to the "informal learning" that happens outside of the classroom. She added, "These museums are the community institutions that are the cornerstones of this informal learning."
Cool.
Sunday, March 29, 2015
Wow.
A vile gathering of corruption, ambition, and stupidity. I'm surprised that a critical mass of evil wasn't reached here, causing the devil himself to appear and start spearing people with his pitchfork and tossing them directly into the lake of fire.
Oh wait, that hell is the USA with these kids in charge.
Samantha Powers is even sitting there with her mouth open.
Segregation is back in style
This genius yearns to return to segregation.
MLK Jr. is spinning in his grave.
A Brooklyn city councilwoman wants to know why “blocs” of Asians are living in two Fort Greene housing projects — and suggested it would be “beneficial” to assign housing by ethnic group.
“How is it that one specific ethnic group has had the opportunity to move into a development in large numbers?” Laurie Cumbo, who is black, said at a council hearing on public housing Thursday
Hat tip: Weasel Zippers
Saturday, March 28, 2015
Your "feel good/take heart fellow Americans" story for the weekend
Those of the left who would denigrate their country and their own people, and who shout that Americans are hated, are wrong. Among the common people overseas, there is a deep and abiding reservoir of good will and trust that no treasonous and evil act from our current administration and elites can begin to drain.
Richard Miniter points out examples old and new of this, which you of course will never read about in our main stream media.
First, there is this from the dark days of WWI.
"Lafayette, we are here."
July 4th 1917. On that day, the recently arrived U.S. Army 16th Infantry Regiment paraded in front of Lafayette’s tomb in Paris and the words “Lafayette, we are here” were spoken by a member of U.S. Army General John Joseph “Black Jack” Pershing’s staff. For Britain and France and countless oppressed people everywhere, the instant before those words were said was the low point of the First World War, the instant after the first moment in which they knew good would triumph because something akin to the army of God was piling in on their side and would, in the fullness of time, put things right.
More recently there is this:
Then, this story:
When the gigantic American carrier Theodore Roosevelt visited Portsmouth, England. Thousands turned out who couldn’t reach it to touch it (it is too big to anchor in the harbor) but wanted to see it, photograph, pose with it. To applaud and laud the sight of it in numerous comments to the online papers.
The British press proudly reported that one of its escorts was the U.S. destroyer Winston Churchill which always has a serving Royal Navy officer aboard.
And the moral of the story?
And so America still has that long ago day in Paris in its pocket, not as a memory of jubilant millions rushing into the streets to honor America but in the facts on the ground, with the common people of Europe to this day. Because those generations of Americans who first liberated so many and then kept so many safe so honorably have piled up such a mountain of goodwill and admiration that no one very bad American president can disperse it, not in six years and not in eight.
Which means the tedious self-contempt of the argument against a twenty-first century America able to throw its weight once more into the contest between good and evil falls on inspection. Because all we have to do is scrape this administration off our shoe in 2016 and return to doing good. Not a matter of arrogance or pride, but just in the simple announcement that we’ve come back. Millions of hearts in Europe and elsewhere will answer, “We always knew you would.”
Massive Underground City Found in Cappadocia Region of Turkey
In 2013, construction workers demolishing low-income homes ringing the castle discovered entrances to a network of rooms and tunnels. The city halted the housing project, called in archaeologists and geophysicists, and began investigating.
In 2014, those tunnels led scientists to discover a multilevel settlement of living spaces, kitchens, wineries, chapels, staircases, andbezirhane—linseed presses for producing lamp oil to light the underground city. Artifacts including grindstones, stone crosses, and ceramics indicate the city was in use from the Byzantine era through the Ottoman conquest.
The site appears to have been a large, self-sustaining complex with air shafts and water channels. When danger loomed, Cappadocians retreated underground, blocked the access tunnels with round stone doors, and sealed themselves in with livestock and supplies until the threat passed.
It is still largely unexplored, but initial studies suggest its size and features may rival those of Derinkuyu, the largest excavated underground city in Cappadocia, which could house 20,000 people.
Cabin Porn
Treehouse around the Oak. A modern treehouse built around an oak tree by a German architect Andreas Wenning. The treehouse was built 11 meters from the ground and offers some stunning views from the patio. Inside there’s a double bed fitted within half of the treehouse.
Too funny
My dog loves this game, and he's been doing it long enough that he rarely misses. My wife is appalled yet amused at the same time that I teach the animal such bad habits as food begging. I see it as a win/win - I'm entertained, and I feed the dog at the same time, while he is entertained, and gets to eat people food at the same time. Plus, he sees me as the "Food Giver," and is thus totally loyal to me personally. Yeah!
Over the teeth and past the gums, look out stomach, here it comes!
La Légion étrangère Arabian
Bonjour, mon ami. Votre petite nation appartient à moi maintenant!
According to the New York Time, Erik Prince billionaire founder of Blackwater was hired by the crown prince of Abu Dhabi to put together an 800-member battalion of foreign troops for the U.A.E., according to former employees on the project, American officials and corporate documents obtained by a reputable source.
The force is intended to conduct special operations missions inside and outside the country, defend oil pipelines and skyscrapers from terrorist attacks and put down internal revolts, the documents show. Such troops could be deployed if the Emirates faced unrest in their crowded labor camps or were challenged by pro-democracy protests like those sweeping the Arab world this year.
For Mr. Prince, a 41-year-old former member of the Navy Seals, the battalion was an opportunity to turn vision into reality. At Blackwater, which had collected billions of dollars in security contracts from the United States government, he had hoped to build an army for hire that could be deployed to crisis zones in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. He even had proposed that the Central Intelligence Agency use his company for special operations missions around the globe, but to no avail. In Abu Dhabi, which he praised in an Emirati newspaper interview last year for its “pro-business” climate, he got another chance. How would you like to be general of your own private army? The Ahabs better watch it. He might decide one day to use that army to step up to be the "Prince" of his own private country, flush with oil wealth. That's basically what the Roman generals of old did when they had a battle hardened army more loyal to them personally than to the republic. I admit, I'd be tempted, especially when my employers were degenerate camel jockeys, rich as Midas only by the good luck of geography.
Friday, March 27, 2015
Chickens coming home to roost
"Just how badly has Barack Obama and his administration damaged relations with our allies in the Middle East? NBC’s Richard Engel reports that the Sunni nations in the region have begun to fear that the Obama administration leaks intel to Iran as part of its efforts at rapprochement with the mullahs, which is why the US got blindsided by the Saudi-led coalition’s operations in Yemen. The White House’s “incoherence” in policy, Engel reports, has most of them losing confidence in American leadership, according to Engel’s contacts (via Free Beacon)."
This is unprecedented, and shows just how badly our relations with our allies in the middle east have deteriorated. This is a very public vote of no confidence that all our enemies and friends will see. At least these countries are willing and perhaps even able to do the fighting, so we don't have to, but even if this action is successful, we lose significant influence with regional players who are centrally important to the world economy.
If they screw it up and lose, then it will be all out panic time. No doubt the Saudis are calling in their chips with the Pakistanis as we speak for their share of that country's nuclear arsenal ( the Saudis bankrolled the Paki's development of the bomb, with the understanding that they would get some of the nukes later if they needed them).
This is unprecedented, and shows just how badly our relations with our allies in the middle east have deteriorated. This is a very public vote of no confidence that all our enemies and friends will see. At least these countries are willing and perhaps even able to do the fighting, so we don't have to, but even if this action is successful, we lose significant influence with regional players who are centrally important to the world economy.
If they screw it up and lose, then it will be all out panic time. No doubt the Saudis are calling in their chips with the Pakistanis as we speak for their share of that country's nuclear arsenal ( the Saudis bankrolled the Paki's development of the bomb, with the understanding that they would get some of the nukes later if they needed them).
"Clearly, Saudi Arabia has little confidence left in the Obama administration; that much is evident from their actions to cut the US out of the loop on this coalition. Engel’s report strongly suggests that it’s not just incompetence that has the Saudis and other US allies rattled, but a suspicion that they’re being purposefully sold out by Obama to get a deal with Iran that will unleash their ambitions to dominate the region."
Given that Obama just outed major parts of the Israeli nuclear program, this feeling is richly justified.
It is frankly hard to believe this is simple incompetence. Obama is setting the world on fire, and the flames he is stoking are bidding fair to be nuclear ones. The first time one goes off in our country must be grounds for the arrest of Obama, and his cabinet, and an immediate trial for treason.
