It’s futile to try to exercise off the excess caloric intake of the past few days, but Yahweh help me, I’m trying. Part of that effort is doing an eight mile circuit through nearby towns, and some of the images I’ve captured along the way are things that amused me. A lot of the themes have to do with the pedophile character I created, which SP assures me “is not at all funny.” I smile and tell her that she’ll get it when she’s a grown-up.
What happens when a bunch of GS-12s, contractors, and grantees feel that their power, influence, and funds for grifting are being threatened? Report Of Doom, that’s what. Here’s a nugget:
Farmers will face extremely tough times. The quality and quantity of their crops will decline across the country due to higher temperatures, drought and flooding. In parts of the Midwest, farms will be able to produce less than 75% of the corn they produce today, and the southern part of the region could lose more than 25% of its soybean yield.
Try to ignore the recently set records in agricultural output. We’re going to starve. Any day now, you’ll see.
ZARDOZ SPEAKS TO YOU, HIS CHOSEN ONES. IT WAS NOT A GOOD DAY FOR ZARDOZ YESTERDAY. ZARDOZ HAD HEARD THERE WAS TO A GREAT CLEANSING OF TURKEY… ZARDOZ WAS PUZZLED WHY A SINGLE BRUTAL NATION-STATE WAS TO BE CLEANSED. BUT ZARDOZ WILL TAKE WHAT ZARDOZ CAN GET, CHOSEN ONES. HOWEVER, ZARDOZ SOON LEARNED, INSTEAD OF A GREAT CLEANSING OF BRUTALS, IT WAS A MASS CONSUMPTION OF BUMBLING SEMI-AVIAN CREATURES.
THE CREATURES THAT WERE CLEANSED.
AS YOU CAN RIGHTLY IMAGINE, ZARDOZ WAS NOT AMUSED. BUT, THIS SHOULD NOT STOP THE CHOSEN ONES FROM ENJOYING THEIR NIGHT. FOR YOU HAVE GREATLY PLEASED ZARDOZ WITH YOUR SNARKING AT THE BRUTALS WHO PLAGUE THE EARTH. THEREFOR, RECEIVE THE GIFT OF THE LINK! GO FORTH AND COMMENT!
ZARDOZ CAN ONLY ASSUME THIS WILL LEAD TO GREATER CLEANSING OF THE FILTH OF BRUTALS. “NEVER AGAIN” MEANT “WELL, NOT FOR A WHILE”…YES?
NOT IMPRESSED. REPEAT, ZARDOZ IS NOT IMPRESSED. FAR TOO FEW FATALITIES.
ZARDOZ IS DISAPPOINT. PUNISHED? HE SHOULD BE PROMOTED TO BRUTAL EXTERMINATOR, WITH GUTS LIKE THAT.
Hi, everyone. Happy Black Friday. So far my only major purchase today is a food dehydrator, because I’ll probably use one $50 worth, but not $90 worth. At this time, Texas has not managed to turn the Kansas game into a nail-biter got soft, but lived through terrible special teams to survive. There’s the Texas Longhorn football team I love and hate. Rematch with Oklahoma in the Big 12 Championship game? Can we say “OU Sucks!” if UT wins twice in one season?
I think I’ve been outspoken about my belief that oil would be more likely to hit $50 than $150. Just read an article where independents are drilling and capping wells in the Permian Basin that can be profitable at $35/bbl. They’re waiting for logistics issues to resolve (which are clearing up ahead of schedule. Its crazy how fast you can build pipeline when you’re willing to pay extra to go to the front of the line for supplies and labor.)
Nice response by the Birmingham, AL cops. It seems as if the “engage active shooters” doctrine is taking hold.
STEVE SMITH HAPPY TO SEE YOU, AND HAVE TURKEY IN POCKET! HIM FIND TURKEY IN CAMPGROUND AFTER PAYING VISIT. BY PAY VISIT, MEAN RAPE CAMPERS. NOT SURE IF SMOKE TURKEY, FRY TURKEY, OR RAPE TURKEY. MAYBE ALL 3? STEVE SMITH HAVE GOOD DIET. HIM GET ALL 4 FOOD GROUPS – SCAVENGED FOOD, FOOD FROM CAMPER AND HIKER, CARRION AND RAPED FOOD.
BUT YOU NO CARE ABOUT STEVE SMITH CUISINE CHOICES…YOU WANT LINKS. HERE ARE LINKS!
Happy Thanksgiving, American Glibs. Happy 4th Thursday of November, International Glibs. I’m getting onto a well-oiled family gathering on my mother’s birthday. I’m not gathering with her. She and my father took in the Taj Mahal for her birthday. So I’m happy she’s doing something for herself. We’re gathering with my mother-in-law and some cousins.
The balloons made it out at the Macy’s Parade today. (t/w autoplay) For some reason this last classic example of department store demand-driving advertisement still seems like classic Thanksgiving for me.
I gotta get busy cooking, so these will be brief. And I figure that y’all are too busy to do a lot of commenting anyway, but still. It will be a noisy day here, since it’s just SP, Wonder Dog, and me.
On our menu, besides obligatory football:
Arugula salad with red wine vinaigrette, tomato coulis, and bocconcini
Celeriac gratin (see the recipe post from this past weekend), with Champagne (Cedric Bouchard Inflorescence)
Roasted balsamic-glazed Brussels sprouts with pecans
Porcini and white mushrooms in a red wine gravy en croute, with Hermitage (1990 Jaboulet La Chapelle)
Apple-cranberry crisp with Swiss Servator’s Glogg
Love to know what the rest of the Glibertariat is doing…
The madness is about to begin. All the food stocks have been laid in, bottles of wine are standing up, Champagne is chilling, and the TV is programmed for SP and me to have a Norman Rockwell-style traditional Thanksgiving on the couch, yelling at 22 guys on a grass field pounding the shit out of one another. Life is close to perfect, and (not to be smarmy) we are super thankful for all the wonderful friends from here and the old Reason days whom we’ve gotten to spend time with, both virtual and face-to-face.
Enough being sincere, time to light the Snark Signal.
Nothing lasts forever — and a German teenager has learned that lesson the hard way, by losing his driving license just 49 minutes after passing his test. The 18-year-old, who was apparently celebrating his achievement by driving four of his friends around, was clocked traveling at almost twice the speed limit less than an hour after his test, police said. They also speculated that the driver was trying to impress his fellow passengers.
Huh, you have to admire fine detective work like that.
Time after time, I run into scientists who claim, almost in the same breath, that they are committed to improving the lives of others but that they have no interest in listening to these people they are supposedly committing themselves to. This was brought home to me some years ago, when I was advising the U.S. President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology on the safe and beneficial development of nanotechnology.
I might nominate that one, wondering, “Who advises the advisers?”
As I read this sludge, I wondered, “Is this someone who has even the slightest notion of how product development works, as opposed to tech research?” Then I found (unsurprisingly) that not only has he never worked outside of academia, he runs a FUD Ranch, raking in money from grant agencies, book sales, foundations, and companies in CYA mode. And I note that in the movie he uses as his frightening example (a great film, by the way, though the comedy escapes him), no one is actually harmed except the dignity of the inventor. Oh, wait, there’s the Milton Friedman spoon fallacy:
In Stratton’s scientist brain, his breakthrough is going to transform the world. He assumes that people are sick of washing, mending, and replacing their clothes, and that his invention will liberate them. He dreams of a future where you only need to buy one set of clothes—ever. In Stratton’s head, what’s good for him is also good for everyone, and a world without the messiness of buying, washing,and looking after clothes is definitely one that he’s excited about. But there’s a problem—several, as it turns out. And one of the biggest is that Sidney never thought to ask anyone else what they wanted or needed.
After he cracks the secret of his new fabric, word of the discovery leaks out, and everything begins to fall apart. Those in the textile industry realize that this is not going to end well: They need their products to wear out and need replacing if they’re to stay in business, and the very last thing they need is clothes that last forever. Mill owners and their investors aren’t the only ones who stand to lose from Sidney’s invention. If the industry collapsed because of his new textile, the workforce would be out on the streets. And so, in a Luddite-like wave of self-interest, they all set about challenging Sidney, not because they are anti-science, but because they are pro–having jobs that pay the bills. Even Sidney’s landlady plaintively asks, “Why can’t you scientists leave things alone? What about my bit of washing, when there’s no washing to do?”
The UA-led team found that by the year 2100, sea level could rise as much as 10 inches more than the previous estimate of approximately 30 inches by 2100. To figure out whether the melting of the Antarctic ice sheet would affect global climate, the research team modified one of the most current climate computer models to include the ice melt.
Adding the melted ice into the team’s model indicated that the global temperature would increase by 2 degrees C (3.6 F) by the year 2065, rather than the year 2053, the team writes.
“Hey, that’s still plenty of grant time before our prediction is falsified!” GodDAMN, I love academic science.
High-priced San Francisco is known for launching trends, however, feces-laced graffiti may be the most peculiar and disgusting one yet.
While surveying parts of downtown San Francisco, the NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit discovered graffiti that appeared to look as if it were made from feces. The markings were found along sidewalks on two different blocks: 700 block of Ellis Street, between Polk and Larkin Streets, and the 500 block of Larkin Street, between Eddy and Turk Streets. Piles of excrement were also found near each of the markings. However, NBC Bay Area did not test the graffiti to confirm the presence of feces.
Don’t worry, the mayor is on it!
In comparing [Mayor London] Breed’s first three months in office with the three months prior, San Francisco 311 data reflects an 8 percent increase in complaints regarding used needles, 3 percent increase concerning trash, and 30 percent increase regarding human feces. “I don’t think it’s because the city is actually dirtier,” Breed said. “I think it’s because more people are reporting the challenges that exist.”
While Breed acknowledges “there is still work to be done” in cleaning up San Francisco, she no longer appears willing to attach any type of time table to future progress. When asked when stepping over feces will no longer be the norm in San Francisco, she quipped, “soon rather than later.” When pressed for more specifics, Breed, with a smile, repeated herself, “sooner rather than later.”
If Sloopy or Banjos are looking in, you may want to check your kids’ whereabouts.
Old Guy Music! And this is short and fun, just like SP.
Turkey is defrosting, step-daughter is home from college, children home from school. Definitely feeling a lot like Thanksgiving. Let’s see if I can can get any work done today.
Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light.
Today in birthdays we have Voltaire, actress Goldie Hawn, actor Harold Ramis, weirdo Bjork, and for our target audience: singer Carly Rae Jepsen.
Hi guys, happy Tuesday. This is my last full day of work this week. I hope the same for all of you. My boss told me I could be done whenever I finished my work tomorrow or I should close down by noon. I figure I can get my stuff done exactly 4 minutes after our morning call. And then a 5 hour drive with two kids. But my wife loves me. She got the Expedition cleaned out, vacuumed and washed. I was only disappointed that (a) she didn’t wear a bikini and (b) do it while I could watch. And yes, central FL, she would have been comfortable.
OMWC swears that he doesn’t endorse this. Custard is not candy. And the girls were too old for him.
