Thursday, August 31, 2017

Our yard jaguar out and about this morning looking for trouble


She's a Snowshoe breed.  Found her at the pound as a kitten.

The curse of all yard jaguars - wild turkeys.  There were a flock of them in the back yard this morning, a tom and his harem, about ten or twelve altogether.  By the time I got the camera, they were exiting the yard, clucking and gobbling irritably,  and had put some trees between us. 



Dad's gotten himself between a rock and a hard place again.

Ernst Schwitters’ photograph of his father Kurt in a boat at the foot of a glacier, 1935


And who goes boating in a suit and tie?

A short but very rewarding read


Somehow, through Gorges Grouse, I linked through to Hermit Jim's post on Ishi, a California indian discovered still living the wild life back in the early 1900's, long after everyone else had transitioned, more or less, into the modern world.  

It's a truly fascinating read, tragic in it's way, but full of the interesting interaction between Ishi himself and his modern friends.  The story of the fate of his people, his family, and ultimately of his own journey to the modern world, is unforgettable.

Ishi, by the way, wasn't his name.  It means "man" in his native language.  This particular brand of indians believed it was very rude to ask for someone's real name, and bad karma to give it, as it imparted untoward power to the person who knew it.  We'll never know Ishi's real name, as he never told anyone what it was.


Well worth your time to read.  





One might say this is the physical manifestation of the Left's mental illness

Meet Lynn Yaeger, the Vogue fashion writer who criticized Melania's hurricane clothing.


Wow.  Vogue is assumed to know what is in fashion, but imagine the insanity of presenting this as someone who knows anything at all about the subject.   Honestly, that looks like a very disturbed old man.     


Take another look.



EYE BLEACH, EYE BLEACH, EYE BLEACH, EYE BLEACH, EYE BLEACH.






Those darned tourists!



The two unfortunate tourists were boiled to a crisp!  No, not really, no one was injured.




I'm not saying it's aliens, but....it's aliens

On August 26, the Indonesia based, state-owned satellite operator PT Telkom disclosed an "anomaly" in the pointing of its satellite in geostationary orbit. Company officials said that although they and contractor Lockheed Martin expected to restore service to the satellite, they were moving customers to another satellite as a precautionary measure.
However, new evidence gathered by a US-based firm that tracks objects in geostationary orbit, ExoAnalytic Solutions, suggests the satellite may be falling apart. 
"What you see there appears to be a lot of reflective materials emanating from the spacecraft," ExoAnalytic's chief executive officer, Doug Hendrix, told Ars in an exclusive interview. "They could be solar panels, fuel, or other debris. We don’t really know."
This is the second satellite in about two months to experience such an issue in geostationary orbit, a location about 36,000km above the planet where satellites can easily maintain their position over a fixed point on Earth. On the morning of June 17, the Luxembourg-based satellite operator SES lost at least partial control of a large satellite in geostationary space. ExoAnalytic has observed fragments of the AMC-9 satellite, too.
The company is tracking about 2,000 objects in geostationary orbit, some as small as about 20cm. Of these, about one-quarter are satellites—a mix of military, weather, and communications assets—and the rest is debris. An uncontrolled debris event at geostationary orbit is relatively rare, although there are concerns that they may be coming more common with more satellites in this valuable real estate.
To keep the geostationary belt relatively clean, satellite operators generally raise their older spacecraft to a "graveyard" above geostationary orbit at the end of their operational life. According to ExoAnalytic, Telkom-1 is now drifting, so it's not clear whether it will be able to be raised to this higher orbit.
The Indonesian satellite's internal camera sent this image back to Earth just before going off line.  



I'd say so

“Beware of death” sign above an unexploded shell stuck in a tree WW1 .


Tuesday, August 29, 2017

About time.

Eric Clanton, formerly a professor at Diablo Valley College, has been charged with assault for an April incident in which he allegedly bashed a Trump supporter over the head with a bike lock. The victim’s head was left bloodied and wrapped in bandages.

The professor's victim


Here's the professor's actual attack.  Notice how he sneaks up, like the coward he is, behind a woman for cover, then strikes.  


The real story is the incredible work the internet did to identify him and push the DA into filing charges.

If convicted, Professor Clanton deserves to  rot in jail for decades.  Best of luck to the DA on this one.


Tough gal Antifa gets arrested, whines loudly and crudely for her service animal

Just hilarious.  All ready to fight until arrested, then comes the public, humiliating, pathetic meltdown. Warning for language.

Something's been going on here for 8 thousand years

                Almendres Cromlech, Portugal







The Cromlech of the Almendres (Cromeleque dos Almendres) is a megalithic complex located near the village of Nossa Senhora de Guadalupe, in the civil parish of Nossa Senhora da Tourega e Nossa Senhora de Guadalupe, municipality of Évora, in the Portuguese Alentejo. This is the largest existing group of structured menhirs in the Iberian Peninsula and one of the largest in Europe. The site consists of several structures including cromlechs (stone circles) and menhir (standing stones), that belong to the so-called “megalithic universe of Évora,” with clear parallels to other cromlechs in Portela Mogos (in Montemor-o-Novo). The construction of these structures date back to the 6th millennium BC.
The excavation of the site unearthed a series of construction phases; Almendres I 6000 BC (Early Neolithic), Almendres II 5000 BC (Middle Neolithic), Almendres III 4000 BC (Late Neolithic). The relative chronology of the cromlech and menhirs is extremely complex and covers a period from the Neolithic to Chalcolithic, and it is believed that the monument had a religious/ceremonial purpose, or functioned as a primitive astronomical observatory.


The isolated Menhir


A isolated single menhir, approximately 4.5 metres tall and 0.9 metres in diameter is located near the residences, or 1400 metres northeast of the main complex. A line from the Almendres Cromlech to this menhir points roughly towards the sunrise in the Winter solstice.





Bend the knee, Jon Snow.


It turns out that in GOT, she's his aunt.