Wednesday, August 31, 2016
The pitch drop experiment - world's longest experiment of any kind, and which could continue for another hundred years
Begun in 1927 by Professor Thomas Parnell, this experiment was meant to reveal the surprising properties of an everyday material: pitch. Pitch is the name of a number of hard tar-like substances and in this case bitumen was used. Though at room temperature pitch appears to be a solid and can be shattered by a hammer, it is in fact a very high-viscosity liquid, and Professor Parnell wanted to prove it.
He even looks like a professor!
Just getting ready to perform the experiment took years. First the Professor heated a sample of pitch and poured it into a sealed funnel. Then, he waited. For three years Parnell let the pitch settle in the funnel, until in 1930, when he felt the pitch was settled enough, he cut the bottom of the funnel, freeing the pitch to begin its mind-bogglingly slow downward escape.
He even looks like a professor!
Just getting ready to perform the experiment took years. First the Professor heated a sample of pitch and poured it into a sealed funnel. Then, he waited. For three years Parnell let the pitch settle in the funnel, until in 1930, when he felt the pitch was settled enough, he cut the bottom of the funnel, freeing the pitch to begin its mind-bogglingly slow downward escape.
Parnell died in 1948, but the pitch experiment kept on going without him. As of 2009, the pitch has dripped only eight times. 79 years after the experiment was begun, the ninth drop is only now forming. Pitch has now been calculated to be roughly 230 billion times more viscous than water.
Listed as the longest running lab experiment by Guinness World Records, the pitch experiment not only outlived its creator, but will likely outlive us all. It has been estimated that there is enough pitch to keep it dripping, ever so slowly, for another hundred years.
Native to the area around Perth, Australia, these dudes are quite the showman.
Look at me, look at me!
Tuesday, August 30, 2016
Zowie!
Seen on Interstate 15, a few miles south of Baker, California. Zzyzx (pronounced Zye-Zix) is a word made up by Curtis Springer, owner of a health spa built around a spring on the edge of Soda Dry Lake.
More than a little worrisome.
Even before the FBI identified new cyber attacks on two separate state election boards, the Department of Homeland Security began considering declaring the election a "critical infrastructure," giving it the same control over security it has over Wall Street and and the electric power grid.
"We should carefully consider whether our election system, our election process, is critical infrastructure like the financial sector, like the power grid," Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said.
"There's a vital national interest in our election process, so I do think we need to consider whether it should be considered by my department and others critical infrastructure," he said at media conference earlier this month hosted by the Christian Science Monitor.
I don't trust this administration at all with this authority, and certainly not under a guy who can't even spell his own first name (Jeh, pronounced "Jay").
This is tailor made for election fraud and theft, and I would not put it past these bozos to try it to keep their girl Hillary in power.
Ugh.
Embers from a wildfire smolder along Lytle Creek Road near Keenbrook, California by Noah Berger.
That fire was hot on the hillside, not quite so bad in the foreground.
Monday, August 29, 2016
Ok, this is getting worrisome. Really worrisome
I like to minimize politics here, as multiple other sites do it way better, but this just has to be spread around.
There's this journalist, David Seaman, who published a story on Huffington Post that questioned Hillary's health, and in the article linked to a video that purported to summarize the issues we know about and speculate somewhat based on that.
For that, in true secret police fashion, Huffpo pulled the article late Sunday night, and made a strong attempt to remove it all from the internet, so no one else can find it.
No warning was given to the author, Mr. Seaman, who found out when it went off line. He's creeped out, and posted this video about it. It is chilling indeed to hear him suggest that harm might come to him, and to know that if there is an accident, it's not an accident. Sounds like what's happening in Russia right now, right? At least he hasn't been shot on his birthday like Putin's political enemies. Yet.
Here is the Paul Joseph Watson video he linked to:
Then there's Dr. Drew Pinsky, whose show was abruptly cancelled after he strongly questioned the narrative on Hillary's health. Add in his Twitter account as well. Silence, you Kulak!
Ever see an election like this before? I haven't.
As one of the commenters noted, if his Uber car comes and it's an older Crown Vic with tinted windows, don't get in!
Hat tip: American Digest
There's this journalist, David Seaman, who published a story on Huffington Post that questioned Hillary's health, and in the article linked to a video that purported to summarize the issues we know about and speculate somewhat based on that.
For that, in true secret police fashion, Huffpo pulled the article late Sunday night, and made a strong attempt to remove it all from the internet, so no one else can find it.
No warning was given to the author, Mr. Seaman, who found out when it went off line. He's creeped out, and posted this video about it. It is chilling indeed to hear him suggest that harm might come to him, and to know that if there is an accident, it's not an accident. Sounds like what's happening in Russia right now, right? At least he hasn't been shot on his birthday like Putin's political enemies. Yet.
Here is the Paul Joseph Watson video he linked to:
Then there's Dr. Drew Pinsky, whose show was abruptly cancelled after he strongly questioned the narrative on Hillary's health. Add in his Twitter account as well. Silence, you Kulak!
Ever see an election like this before? I haven't.
As one of the commenters noted, if his Uber car comes and it's an older Crown Vic with tinted windows, don't get in!
Hat tip: American Digest
Sunday, August 28, 2016
Lesson learned: Don't feed the trolls.
Remember that gorilla that the Cincinnati Zoo had to shoot when a little boy got away from his mom and jumped into the enclosure with him? Apparently this incident spawned a runaway internet meme contest based on the gorilla's name and this incident.
I wasn't all that aware of the meme fun, but the zoo folk were not amused. So not amused that they said as much and asked the internet to stop it. Naturally, this was like throwing red meat to a hungry lion, or gorilla, if you will.
Well, I looked around the internet and found a few of the memes that so annoyed the zoo, and there are some howlers. Behold, and enjoy:
I wasn't all that aware of the meme fun, but the zoo folk were not amused. So not amused that they said as much and asked the internet to stop it. Naturally, this was like throwing red meat to a hungry lion, or gorilla, if you will.
“We are not amused by the memes, petitions and signs about Harambe,” Thane Maynard, the zoo’s director, said in an email to The Associated Press this week. “Our zoo family is still healing, and the constant mention of Harambe makes moving forward more difficult for us.”
For example, replying to a Twitter post about zebras and their unique stripes, one user wrote: “U had a unique way of killing Harambe.”
On a post celebrating Elephant Day, another wrote: “Harambe loved elephants.”
Mr. Maynard’s words of protest seemed only to make things worse. His Twitter account was hacked with pro-Harambe messages.
Another bucket list item - fishing for barn door halibut in Alaska.
Just look at those filets! Man alive!
Saturday, August 27, 2016
American Artillery is Pounding Islamic State in Iraq and Syria - U.S. troops are prepping the battlefield around Mosul
No boots on the ground?
Note the name of this gun.
When Islamic State swept into Iraq in the summer of 2014, militant fighters seized a great deal of equipment from the Iraqi army garrison in Mosul. Between equipment seized from Syrian and Iraqi troops, the group had amassed a large arsenal.
As an air-defense-artillery unit, the Dragon Slayers specialize in counter-rocket, counter-artillery and counter-mortar operations. Their job is to help keep friendly bases and units safe from enemy strikes — something Bravo Battery had been doing in Afghanistan just a year prior.
Much of the news on the America war effort in Iraq and Syria has centered on Special Operations Forces and air strikes. But conventional artillery troops on the ground — providing indirect fire support to Iraqi forces and protecting coalition installations — have also played a huge role in the slow-boiling war against Islamic State.
About right for today
Although I've got to install one of those "fence energizers" to keep the dog in the yard today, so I won't be completely unproductive. It's the last resort to prevent our canine escape artist, Rascal, from roaming and annoying the neighbors.
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