Weird stack, maybe to lay a smoke screen?

“A U.S. Navy man walks out on one of the Kasagi, Unryu-class carrier's downward curved smokestacks, at Sasebo, October 19, 1945. A Japanese “Kaibokan” escort ship and a submarine chaser are moored in the middle distance, with several U.S. Navy ships beyond.”

Divinity made audible - intensely moving

Georgian orthodox church singing for Pope Francis

Dude can rock the ukulele

Dance off for the presidency

Dog mischief.

A very young and intense Georgia O'Keefe

Archaeologists have discovered one of the largest Viking axes ever found, in the tomb of a 10th-century "power couple" in Denmark.

It's a bit rusty, but still impressive.

The simplicity of the mighty ax, without any decorations or inscriptions, suggests this fearsome weapon was not just for show.  It's size would have required two hands to use.

It is, in fact, a fearsome "Dane axe."

The Anglo-Saxons used a similar weapon, which characterized a warrior class they called the "huskarlar."  It was a fearsome weapon when used in skilled hands, and could cut a man in two lengthwise, or lop off the head of a horse.  They are depicted in use by the huskarlar on the Bayeaux Tapestry.  In the section below, one attempts to dismount a Norman knight by beheading his horse.

And the man in the tomb was buried with his ax alone. "He didn't have anything else buried with him, so I think you can say he identified himself as a warrior above anything else," Nielsen said.

The ax was one of the artifacts recovered from the Haarup Viking tomb, or dødehus, which means "death house" in Danish. The tomb consisted of a wooden palisade or roofed structure, about 13 feet (4 meters) wide and 43 feet (13 m) long, which was constructed around the two graves.

The tomb was built around A.D. 950 for the burial of a man and a woman of evident distinction.

Other finds from the tomb, and other sites in Haarup, show that the local Vikings likely had some international connections, whether through trade or travel,  the archaeologists said.  The woman in the tomb was buried with a decorated ceramic cup that originated in the Baltic region, Nielsen said. Two silver coins of a Middle Eastern type called “dirhams,” thought to be from an area that is now in Afghanistan, were found in the grave of another Viking woman buried nearby.

Perhaps our dead viking had traveled to England and hired himself out to the Saxons.  His grave was built a short 100 years before William the Conquerer, so it's a possibility he did, made his fortune, and retired rich back to his home in Denmark.

Some nice work right there.

White Helmets trailer

The SCD is currently nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Watch The White Helmets to see why

Breakfast blogging

First, I don't eat this way most of the time.

Second, I wish I did though.

This is a can of corned beef hash (Hormel), hamburger ( 1 dollar off at Raleys!), two beautiful red bell peppers from the garden, as well as five assorted tomatoes, properly smashed into goo, and some green salsa. Cook the burger in the skillet, add the hash, veggies, and salsa, stir until hot.  Grate cheese, and top it with the cheddar. 

For some reason, the red bell peppers this year have been fantastic.  Can't eat them fast enough. Go figure.  

California, land of the stupid liberals.

In the late 1800s, it took railroad companies six years to lay 1,907 miles of track for what was to become the Transcontinental Railroad (or as Barack Obama calls it, the Intercontinental Railroad).

Building that railroad line required tunneling through mountains — at one foot a day — building bridges — including one that spanned 700 feet — and doing all the work almost entirely by hand.

At best, it will now take seven years for California to lay 119 miles of track — on relatively flat ground in the middle of nowhere.

That news came from a contract revision that the Obama administration approved late last week. Instead of finishing the first leg of what is supposed to be a High-Speed Rail service from San Francisco to San Diego by 2018, the new deadline is 2022, which will be seven years after the January 2015 groundbreaking.

Even when completed, the first leg will only run from Madera (population 63,105) down to Shafter, a small town north of Bakersfield.

Jerry Brown, and every democrat and neocon who voted for this, should be banished to a desert island and forced to eat crabs to survive.

Library porn

Vintage Charm

That's one dangerous looking bird

An F-22A Raptor assigned to the 27th Fighter Squadron, Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia, holds pattern and awaits a wingman conducting an aerial refuel during a Red Flag 16-3 training sortie July 22, 2016 at Nellis AFB, Nev. Various units from around the Air Force, joint branches and coalition partners converge on Nellis three to four times a year to take part in the exercise, which puts to test the participant force’s air, space, cyber and combat search and rescue capabilities. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Joshua Kleinholz)

Via Strategy Page

Well, there you go.