28.2.21

Devil's Den State Park, AR



© The Former Meat Man (displayed by permission)

Arby's: We have the beefs

b1-66er: <pix>
Arby's crispy fish sandwich w/ side of M&C.
Lent is great this year for fish eaters.
Not legal by my 'Eating Standards.'
Although it's very rare for me to actually go outside my house in Pandemic Year, I'm always surprised at how many people are interacting in PandemicWorld.
<Bottom of M&C container>
I was served about 13:00.
I ate it all, finishing it's culinary presentation by warming on intermittent in the microwave.
{The side of the container sez: "Do not reheat in the microwave."}

D4rw1n: Lawyers, not chefs, wrote that warning

b1: THAT surprises me.
I thought Chefs wrote all Arby's messaging.
(And yes, the fish in the sandwich was crispy.) 

Belly down to the bar

b1-66er: "Scientists Find 140,000 Virus Species in The Human Gut, And Most Are Unknown"
I'd bet yours are a bit older (and more unknown).

Special K: Of course.

26.2.21

Choosy mofos choose Jef

b1-66er: https://gizmodo.com/deep-nostalgia-can-turn-old-photos-of-your-relatives-1846363190

Cap'n Happy: That's super cool. Believe it or not I described doing this in the early 90s. I wanted animated photos hanging on the wall. Especially how they can interact with you.
It will happen, I'm surprised it's taken this long to get this far.

b1: Did you also invent Jef Raskin?

C': That's a fictitious person 

24.2.21

Fried ghost, served cold

[22:23] Special K: "Fry's has deleted its Facebook page and locked its Twitter account ahead of a going-out-of-business announcement, which could come as early as Wednesday morning."

The Mumbler: I *just* saw that!
I'm going to have to seriously consider whether or not to go to any liquidation sales and pick up tons of stuff I absolutely don't need.

K: I've heard those stores have been essentially empty for months going on years. How much stuff could they have left?

TM: I DON'T KNOW BUT I WANT IT!
Demo ChromeBooks, unmatched washer/dryers, Kenny G CD's, bring it on!

K: You want the closeout sale from Fry's of a different era. 
I've wondered if the Campbell store has any stuff leftover from when it was an APPL facility.

TM: I think Dave Brockmeier was still roaming the halls.

K: Wow.

TM: (Not really. I have no idea what happened to him.)

K: Good guess though.

b1-66er: I was already asleep when this conversational madness started...
   I DON'T KNOW BUT I WANT IT!
is exactly the right tenor and tone.
A true pleasure to read first thing @ 05:00.
{It's nice to have friends.}

23.2.21

Precisely naming the whatchamacallit

b1-66er: Know ahead of time that the Accomplice, MArch, sez of this piece, "now THAT'S reporting..."

The Tasmanian tiger, or thylacine, is something of a mythic creature in Australian folklore. Unlike, say, the Chupacabra, it was a real beast, but the last documented animal -- Benjamin -- died in captivity in 1936. In the 85 years since, tiger sightings have been constantly reported in Tasmania, an island off the south coast of Australia. Claims are an almost monthly feature in the local press, but there's a bold, new declaration suggesting "not ambiguous" evidence for the existence of the thylacine. 

In a video uploaded to YouTube on Monday, Neil Waters, president of the Thylacine Awareness Group of Australia, claims to have rediscovered the thylacine on a camera trap set up in north-east Tasmania. "I know what they are and so do a few independent expert witnesses," he says as he walks down the street with a can of beer in his hand.

Special K: Whoa.

•••

Karpov: I'll try to incorporate the phrase Unlike, say, the Chupacabra in my lexicon. 

b1: You truly are a word craftsperson.

Kπ: <video>

All that's needed after a firecracker and a hot & spicy beef lather...

Karpov: New scent from my aftershave supplier...Rocket Ramen. I think I need a bottle. 

b1-66er: My accomplice asks, "is it 'rocket' in the British sense, meaning arugula; or is it 'rocket' meaning jet fuel?

Kπ: The 'Rocket' part, in this case, is just marketing. They often have an alien/space theme in their packaging. I think the scent will be pure ramen. 

b1-66er: What a great answer.

Kπ: Of course I could mix it with my Fireworks! aftershave to give it a rocket scent. 

b1: Marketing tagline: Blow your grocery clerk, date or local astrophysicist away.
A different trick, I guess, would be to soak a block of Nissin in kerosene and rub it on your face.

                        👽

22.2.21

Stars not bars

b1-66er: What's the worst thing about being Jewish?

Special K: No candy canes.

It's a BOOM!

b1-66er: "A Father-To-Be Died While Building A Gender-Reveal Device That Exploded"

b1-67er: The overlap between gender reveal party givers and poor pyrotechnic skills seems to be pretty large.

Looking deeper

Special K: What does it mean when you get barbecue sauce on your chest x-ray?

21.2.21

Choose (one): SMART or STUPID

b1-66er: <pic>
AI is not my friend here.

Special K: Dumb.

b1: Maybe her styling hack is showing how to put a rover on Mars?

K: Genius.

19.2.21

Dyin' with your treads on

b1-66er: I want NASA to build a rover that does nothing more than drive around and put a bullet in all doomed Martian craft.

Special K: Call it the "It's Over Rover."

b1: Great idea.
Doesn't putting a bullet in the dead seem like the right concept?
This is the new Wild West of Space after all.
And there's NO DOUBT which country is Sheriff.
To make the point...
...We don't wear a single star.
We wear 50.

K: It should especially kill the Russian rovers.
Howdy, sheriff.

18.2.21

Beaming with fashion

b1-66er: "Hailey Baldwin Balances Her Peek-a-Boo Cutout Pants With a Shacket, Classic Nikes & a Hat from Beyoncé"

Special K: Balance is important. 

AKA Branch

Special K: "FKA Twigs opens up her abusive relationship with Shia LaBeouf"

b1-66er:And...
She SNAPPED!

Throwing the bone

b1-66er: "End of Neanderthals linked to flip of Earth's magnetic poles, study suggests"

D4rw1n--
Humans: okay we've got the magnetoimmune mutation rolled out, and the pole switch up and running. Reverse polarity. 
Neanderthals: aaaaarrrrggggghhhh

The EZ baked lives of 60s children

b1-66er: (from Special K) Predictions by Criswell from 1968.

b1-67er:  Maybe the aphrodisiac part explains the sixties. Wacky!
He predicted Denver would get hit by a ray from space that turned all metal elastic!

66: YOU DON'T REMEMBER THAT?

D4rw1n: His science is dubious 

66: My brother's a Super Elastic Bubble Plastic denier.

67: Super elastic bubble plastic was pretty cool.

66: It was.
I think it may've given me MS. (And mom SAID it wasn't bubble gum.)

67: Really a psychedelic you.

66: It did have its bad points, though.

D4: Yeah. It wasn't elastic 
It was more bubble plastic
It smelled like death 
When you blew it up you were as likely to pop a lung as inflate the bubble 
I would not be surprised if it was the MS vector 
Or worse 

67: it smelled like possibility

D4: Yes. Possibly killing you from the inside out 
A Wham-O product, Says Wikipedia
Polyvinyl acetate, acetone, ethyl acetate acetate

67: Part of the glory days of industrial toys. Creepy crawlers.  Erector sets. Super elastic bubble plastic. We were oh so close to flying cars.

D4: Apparently, the smell of "possibility" consists of (CH3)2 CO off-gassing into your sinuses 
Man, knowing now that that smell was acetone evaporating. I'm a little bit bummed we did not try to make incendiary devices with it

67: I don't remember any flame component, we must have tried. We combined fireworks with most toys at some point.

66: NOTHING sez "Hello!" like a slinky with a string of lit blackcats lomping toward you on the stairs.

D4: Here's a challenge I wish I'd issued us in 1980:
From this list of products ...
... How many can we combine with fireworks?

67: If you look at their canon of toys, it's pretty damn good.  And I would say most are fire/firework compatible.

D4: That was my initial assessment exactly 
With your apt amendment of adding "fire/"

13.2.21

You better not be pointin' at me

Special K: "San Jose couple, married 67 years, getting vaccinations together on Valentine's Day"

b1-66er: SWEET!
(👈 I'm with Vaxxy)

10.2.21

McCoo U.

b1-66er: "Scientists Are Pretty Sure They Found a Portal to the Fifth Dimension"

Special K: Let the sunshine in. 

9.2.21

In the words of our four fathers...

b1-66er: "My name is Leo and I am 8 years old. I listen to All Things Considered in the car with mom. I listen a lot.
I never hear much about nature or dinosaurs or things like that. Maybe you should call your show Newsy things Considered, since I don't get to hear about all the things. Or please talk more about dinosaurs and cool things.
Sincerely,
Leo"

Dad 1: Ha ha. Awesome
Kids got a point

Dad 2: Kid has a point!

Dad 3: That's awesome! 

Old dad 4: Everybody's a critic. 

Now ... bite my dynamite

b1-66er: "If I Have Sex the Way I Really Like, I'm Afraid My Neighbors Will Call the Cops"

Special K: Try to cut down on the explosives, sir.

5.2.21

Cockamamie fight!

b1-66er: "Three countries are due to reach Mars in the next two weeks"

Special K: Good deal.

b1-67er: So there are four possible wins:us lander, china orbiter, china lander, UAE orbiter.  How many wins do you think there will be?

66: That's a good question.
And part of it will depend on the definition of a "win"...
...e.g. Mr. Musk thinks blowing his rockets to smithereens on landing is a "success"...
... There's an added complication in that both espionage and falsified data are possible here...
But I'll go with 2...
... The US and 1 of the Chinese.
Which, I guess, means you can color the UAE entry as "doomed" in my eyes.

67: Win is orbiter operating for thirty days.  Rover has to land (not space x style) and drive for one day.

D4rw1n: I say any confirmed landing is a win because it means the lander was not destroyed on impact. I've got a rooting interest in the US lander, because i'm always rooting for USA. And my client made a lot of the components. But I'm guessing one in four wins.

67: US has pretty good ability to do imagery of Mars surface.  Fraud here would be detected I think.

66: Land not SpaceX style, is a laugh out loud funny expression.

D4:  I wonder if the Chinese could ever get away with falsifying data. You'd think they'd be motivated to, but I'm not aware of any evidence they've done it before with regard to space exploration

67: I was going to go with 3.  Most likely fail is UAE orbiter with Chinese rover not far behind.

D4: I laughed at "space X style" too
This is great. We have votes for one, two, and three. But we have different definitions of a win
Oddly my definition is easiest, but my prediction is lowest

67: US lander has good chances although I think the lowering on cables concept is cockamamie.

D4: Although I guess my definition doesn't work, because the  UAE orbiter never has to land 
That cable thing looks really awkward
But, to be fair, no more awkward than the bouncing balloon ball we had a few years ago

67: Oh no way.  The bouncing ball is a great design.  Pretty failsafe. 

66: My favorite of all these kinds of extraterrestrial motions was the jumping Japanese shoebox. 
(On an asteroid!)

67: Also a great, great design.  I wouldn't have come up with it. Brutally simple. Not external moving parts.  Awesome.