No ambiguity here.

Wow! Look at those two!

Fun with helicopters

Canadian Forces Boeing Vertol CH-113 Labrador helicopter from CFB Gander, landing on tip of Bell Island in 1987. Captain Randy Price (check pilot) and Captain David Barkes at the controls. The rock sea stack is locally known as ‘the Clapper’.

Bridgeport Valley under the east face of the Sierra Nevada

I'm getting a little tired of the "Go to work, come home" routine.  Sooner rather than later I'm going to need a little mountain time.

So Slow Joe Biden goes to Kiev, and the Russians use the visit as an excuse to threaten the Ukrainians

Good work, foreign policy geniuses.

Via Zero Hedge:

RT reported moments ago that "Russia will retaliate if it is attacked and the interests of the Russian people are threatened" citing Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov. He alleged the US has a hand in the current stand-off in Ukraine between the coup-appointed government and anti-Maidan activists.

In an interview with RT’s Sophie Shevardnadze, Sergey Lavrov said that Washington “is running the show” in the Ukrainian crisis.

“There is no reason not to believe that the Americans are running the show,” said Lavrov, referencing US Vice President Joe Biden’s visit to Kiev and its coincidence with the renewed counter-terror operation on activists in East Ukraine.

“It’s quite telling they chose the moment of the Vice President of the US’ visit to announce the resumption of this operation because the launching of this operation happened immediately after John Brennon’s [head of the CIA] visit to Kiev,” said Lavrov.

Sounds like an invasion of the Eastern Ukraine is right around the corner, and the administration can and will do nothing except hand the Russians the excuse they want to send in the tanks.

Nancy Pelosi without her makeup

Yeeek!

Heh

Freckles, they are good.

Heh

Mmmmm! Man food.

Swimming hole of dreams

Cool rig on a cold day

This story should be emailed to the Albuquerque police

Via Zero Hedge, a foreign story quite relevant to our times here at home:

Warning! If you are bothered by blood, don't follow the link, because there is plenty of it.

  "As Shanghaiist reports, a riot involving around 1,000 people broke out last Saturday in Cangnan county of Wenzhou city, Zhejiang province, resulting in the hospitalization of five chengguan, China's notoriously abusive and under-regulated urban enforcement officials. The alleged cause for the riots was the five's brutally killing a civilian. According to reports, the chengguan "hit the man with a hammer until he started to vomit blood, because he was trying to take pictures of their violence towards a woman, a street vendor." This man later died while being rushed to the hospital. Given the following images of civilian retribution; is it any wonder, the powers that be in China fear social unrest?"

It should be noted that these were not policemen as we understand them, but regulatory officers serving the bureaucracy, sort of like code enforcement officers with bad attitudes and a penchant for violence.

From our perspective, this comment is on point:

This is the inevitable consequence of letting the public to lose faith in the law enforcement and the justice system, especially when dealing with wrongdoings of government officials. There are other nations headed down the same path.

Does the angry reaction to the BLM's armed and hyper-aggressive actions in Nevada ring any bells?  In the Nevada standoff, there were no real policemen per se, just heavily armed agents of the bureaucracy, and their contractors, trying to bully someone around in furtherance of their arbitrary and senseless defense of a tortoise.

Here, unlike in China, everyone is armed, and counterintuitively, that fact likely prevented any bloodshed in Nevada.  Nevertheless, when faith is lost in law enforcement and the justice system, the people are only left with self help, and self administered justice.  

The militarization of our local police damages trust. After all, just who do they have in mind when the tool up to fight a war?  The same can be said for the militarization of the alphabet soup of government agencies.

When every thing you want to do requires the approval of some government bureaucrat, and the payment of a fee, frustration builds.  When every act you take is taxed, as is every bit of property you own, leaving you with less than half your gross income to live on, frustration builds. When you watch the lazy, the indolent and the criminal reap the rewards of your own sweat and toil, and then see them vote to elect corrupt and venal politicians, frustration builds.

When the government itself is brazen in it's willingness to ignore the law, frustration builds.  When the government spends every cent of tax money, then borrows and prints as much as it thinks it can get away with, fully intending to hand the bill to those who work and are productive, frustration builds.

This incident in China should serve as an object lesson to our government bureaucrats and politicians on this side of the Pacific.  Sooner or later, there is a reaction to all the lies, the abuse and the waste of the nation's treasure.  No number of bullets, or MRAPs, or militarized bureaucracies, will protect you if you set off the explosion.  Nevada was a very close call.  Next time you might not be so lucky.

I hear Biden is in the Ukraine right now, trying to support them in their conflict with Russia

I am told he brought his checkers game with him, in case he ran into Putin and wanted to play.

Geeky cool science

Veritasium’s new video has an awesome demonstration featuring acoustics, standing waves, andcombustion. It’s a two-dimensional take on the classic Rubens’ tube concept in which flammable gas is introduced into a chamber with a series of holes drilled across the top. Igniting the gas produces an array of flames, which is not especially interesting in itself, until a sound is added. When a note is played in the tube, the gas inside vibrates and, with the right geometry and frequency, can resonate, forming standing waves. The motion of the gas and the shape of the acoustic waves is visible in the flames. Extended into two-dimensions, this creates some very cool effects.

Via FYFD