7.12.24

"Chick please"

b1-66er: Dark days...

Jelly Tight: Popeyes tempts with chaos, a fiery snare for the unwary soul. Yet Chick-fil-A stands as a divine beacon, nourishing body and spirit with every bite. Choose wisely—one path leads to indulgence, the other to grace

b1: NOW I get it.

JT: I pray for the chefs involved in this misguided undertaking 

b1: I'm always impressed by the amount of: praying time, resolve and energy you have.

JT: All glory goes to god
I get the chicken in return 

26.11.24

I'll drink to THAT!

D4rw1n: Before dinner drinks. Saint Jean Cap Ferrat, France 

<Pic ©2024 Ribbety Prods
all rights reserved 
used by permission>

11.11.24

Be sure not to hit the koan



Smokey: Getting down to the bottom of the box. 

Here is one for you.  


9.11.24

All in a word


b1-66er: <pic>
There is nothing made N of the Mason Dixon that uses the term, 
SOME FOAM AT THE TOP IS NORMAL

Jelly Tight: It's healthy 

4.11.24

Way koan south in Dixie

b1-66er: <Headspace saying>

Smokey: This is true but so obvious as to be trite.  
Pull the next cup.   

3.11.24

In the clearing

The Accomplice: What a difference 40 minutes makes.


{Pix ©2024 Windex Your World Industries
All rights reserved 
Used by permission}

22.10.24

Talk to The Kernel

b1-66er: Just started 

Einstein in Space and Time

In 1902, two American college students placed a bet on the success/failure of a letter delivery, figuring he was famous enough it'd work (he was lecturing for the just published 'Relativity'). 

 They addressed the letter to: 

Alfred Einstein 
Europe

the letter reached him.

b1-67er: That's awesome.

66: It truly is...
... You probably remember we did the same thing when you lived in KS...
... Dropping one detail at a time...
... But the last one never reached you...
... IF ONLY you had made a bigger name for yourself in Physics.

67: I think I would have to be a big name in corn.

12.10.24

I wanna love that Carolina hockey, but I get so blown away...

Special K: NHL hockey game in Tampa tonight is postponed due to storm aftermath. The scheduled game was the Carolina Hurricanes vs. Tampa Bay.

b1-66er: Ergo: 
There is a God.
Or as they say on the E side, 
"Yes way, Yahweh•"

K: Yah.
Also, naming sports teams for natural disasters is dumb.

10.10.24

Schooling of Rock

b1-66er: Uh...

D4rw1n: We should maybe think about breeding some new rock stars. I'm starting to think that 20-30 years from now these existing guys might start to slow down
Got to plan ahead

b1-67er: Debra Harry shows every mile. 
Sammy Hagar? Still bad.

6.10.24

Sort the crayons

b1-66er: NYT: "Elon Musk Leaps to Trump's Side in Rally Appearance"

Call-in: Dark MAGA

Special K: *Dork MAGA

15.9.24

Perspective geology

b1-66er: <pic>
Kπ (and his mom) are bike riding in Croatia right now. 
Here's a 0" shoulder you don't wanna cross...

b1-67er: I'll bet there are some missing trees in that olive grove.


[Image ©2024  Shoulder Blade Images, Ltd
All rights reserved. Used by permission.]

13.9.24

Bluish

b1-66er: Now playing at home.

Special K: How do you like it?

66: Let me put it this way: I don't want more.

K: Solid.

b1-67er: Maybe just a little bit more?

12.9.24

50¢ Paperback Tomorrow

b1-66er: https://petapixel.com/2024/09/11/the-yashica-explorer-is-a-full-color-night-vision-device-with-f-1-lenses/

b1-67er: $300 seems cheap for color night vision and 48 Mp

66: No kidding. 
This is the good part of living in the future.

67: That's true. While we don't have solar system colonization, we do have $30 drones the size of a credit card, and $300 color night vision goggles. Science fiction is cheaper than you'd expect.

Read

b1-66er: Be sure to watch the video...


b1-67er: That butterfly wing film is definitely a little bit Text of Light (but more organized)

3.9.24

We're gonna need a hook of some sort

b1-66er: https://www.etfstream.com/articles/vanguard-ownership-warning-etf-hysteria-or-reality-check

1 number to pull out of here: 

=$21T=


b1-67er: That is a big number.  Could be a bit of a shocker if they abruptly de-distort the market by limiting index funds.

66: It's like having the pet goldfish you won with a ping pong ball in elementary school... That's now 400 pounds and eats 2 pounds of food a week...

... NOW what do you do?

67: Right.  I think you keep feeding it and hope it doesn't take your hand off before you die.

2.9.24

1.9.24

Keep your sheet on!

b1-66er: Be sure to listen to the interaction with Mission to hear the sound (near the end) 


Special K: Starliner is haunted. 

b1: I have to agree with that. 
"Cursed" seems like a possibility as well.

Maybe it's the planet's fastest haunted house.¹

K: Yes. 


¹ roughly 18,000 mph

Knowing your limits

b1-66er: For b1-67er and Suttonhoo 
(Suttonhoo's in the volcano domain of Iceland right now.)

b1-67er: Flying near volcanos in Russian aircraft, in the fog, may be stacking too many risk factors.

Suttonhoo: Yeah. I probably would have stopped at "Russian," given the current state of world affairs

67: Yeah, if I'm a Russian oligarch I wouldn't go anywhere higher than a milk crate.

I guess that means you have to work at night...

b1-66er: https://youtu.be/Dk8r7O8KDqg?si=uUyxif48zLMpGO4X

b1-67er: I could watch salamanders in a wind tunnel all day. Great idea for figuring out what is happening.

Write it in cereal

b1-66er: Special K!


Special K: Evil and sad. 

b1: I'll use that as your epitaph on KTXT.

30.8.24

Take it to heart

b1-66er: "New Research Links Sleeping in on Weekends to Lower Heart Disease Risk."

As if you need an excuse.

b1-67er: That is the best news I've heard in a long time.

27.8.24

Smördåshbord

The Accomplice: <pic>
Screenshot from Facebook this morning. A combination of partons, b1-67er?!? Bonsai on the dashboard of a restored Ford?

b1-67er: I could see some lowland tropical picture plants doing really well there.

26.8.24

Entering the NV Probing Ground

The Accomplice: I'm going to be naked up and at my computer in a bit. I'm trying for Nevada test site tour tickets in February (or January)

b1-66er: Do you have to be naked to buy tickets?

TA: Hahaha. Damn autocorrect. Masked up

b1: Okay. 
I honestly had no idea what you meant.

TA: I can see why not!!! 
(now I am stuck with Naked and Famous lyrics cycling through my head)

Hemorrhagic Disc

b1-66er: https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/25/24228184/martin-shkreli-wu-tang-clan-shaolin-lawsuit-surrender-album

Jelly Tite: This is so sad

b1: The only difference between Asperger's and Pure Evil is intent.

JT: Yep

25.8.24

I'm transit

The Accomplice: Finally dropped off. Music and mood lighting

23.8.24

Win by contract

Special K: "Danny Jansen will become the first player to play for both teams in one MLB game when the Red Sox resume a game against his old team, the Blue Jays, on Monday.

The game was suspended when he was hitting, so he will catch against his own pinch-hitter"

b1-66er:  THAT IS SO GREAT!

K: Yes. Maybe the best thing ever

b1: And it puts that guy in an interesting psychological situation...
He can't win. 
But he also can't lose.

K: True. 

b1: It's the Purgatory of Baseball.

K: Deep. 

20.8.24

SO close to a pinwheel

b1-66er: Think of it more like a fountain that a rocket. (Video's on top. Description is good.)


b1-67er: When I'm watching that I'm thinking all the time, Is this the worst of it, or is it going to get even worse?"

D4rw1n: 8/10 firework. I prefer rockets over fountains. But points for mass, danger, and large pretty vortices of fire

66: See? I've gotta agree with that. Those're "Carr Court Sensibilities."

Country lockdown UNTIL YOU ALL TAKE YOUR SEATS


b1-66er: Headline- Flights cancelled in Japan after scissors go missing
Lede- Thirty six flights were cancelled and 201 delayed at a Japanese airport on the weekend after a pair of scissors went missing in a store near the boarding gates.

b1-67er: File that under
 Abundance of Caution 
I guess.

D4rw1n: Hey if running with scissors is bad then flying must be stopped at all costs

We all need a little Humanity Soup

b1-66er: "Nature does not care about your safety and will kill you especially if are not properly prepared."


D4rw1n: Okay if dying is a spiritual experience, you can definitely get that. 
Mountain biking yesterday I went over a particularly scary drop and I involuntarily yelled "oh my god," quickly followed by my internal monologue saying "oh shit. I don't have one of those. I might be fucked."

b1-67er: Perhaps "oh any available god!" Would be more suitable.

Advising people to hike by themselves without food in the wilderness is dumb. A buddy system where you check in when you get back is also dumb. No cell phone is probably irrelevant, there's probably no service out there anyway.

D4: Would be funny if the only god is some kind of spaghetti monster. Okay I guess you'll have to do

Or if there really are all manner of gods and they go "Fuck - emergency call. Thor it's your turn. Ganesh got the last one and Dionysus is out sick. Again"

67: Dyonysus does party a little too hard 

I have a theological solution for you D4. It seems that both saint Odan and Saint Augustine are considered patron saints of Aetheists. And the Catholics do pray to saints, asking them to advocate on their behalf to God. So you may have a path to salvation after all.

66: What a great play•

D4: The concept of a patron saint of atheists breaks my brain

But I guess if Catholics are praying to them for my salvation, my work here is done

That is even better than another, slightly more straightforward approach first outlined by the philosopher Blaise Pascal: Pascal's Wager. It essentially says that atheists should accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and savior ... just in case. It's considered an attractive wager because as an atheist it costs you nothing to say it. But if you are wrong about being an atheist, the payoff is infinitely good.

I reject it because it's not intellectually honest

66: Patron Saint of Atheists is the joker in the Catholic card deck. 

No over card trumping the play.

67: But praying to saint Augustin as an atheist really requires no duplicity. It can be a I don't really believe this, but I'm in real trouble, so just in case kind of prayer.

There is an interesting question here. I think most Christians have moments, maybe big ones, of doubting their faith. And I think most atheists have moments of doubting the nonexistence of God. That suggests those Venn diagrams overlap. So at what point is the doubting Christian an atheist, and at what point is the doubting atheist actually religious

66: THAT'S a good question. 

There's NO DOUBT they're all part of humanity.

 This is the equivalent of calling 911 from the inner city. 

Probably won't work. In desperation, it costs nothing to try.


67: We can think of the Saint Augustin prayer as the "Hail Mary" move.

Wrapped in flannel

b1-66er: "An Olympic rings tattoo is a rite of passage. If a Paralympian gets one, they'll be disqualified"

Special K: Why?

b1: I don't know. I didn't read the article.

<2 minutes pass>

K: "Body advertising is not allowed in any way whatsoever and that includes the Olympic rings. The athlete did not wear a cover and was therefore disqualified," an IPC spokesperson said in a statement at the time.

b1: What's the K's take? 

K: Dumb.

b1: And so it is written...
... And so it shall be told.

K: So sharp I cut my jammies.

b1: That's not a penis reference, is it

K: It's not.

18.8.24

... AND it reeks of cola!

b1-66er: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cdd7y3nm09lo#webview=1

b1-67er: I love the picture of the guy in the Tyroleon hat dumping boxes of hand grenades overboard. That's a picture that says a thousand words about Swiss neutrality.
That's a really hard, hard problem to solve.

16.8.24

Gettin' worked up

b1-66er: https://youtu.be/2gWudPtN6z4?si=3hrm3wg7PozSVl5U

b1-67er: Heating the pool thar way is generally the right idea sort of. It's tough to use heat that's at say 180F (probably about as hot as you want server chips to run), because the delta T relatively low.  So you have to move a lot of water. And pumping costs energy. What you really want is relatively high temperature heat so that a small amount of pumping energy moves a lot of heat. There are some practical thresholds. Regular buna-N seals will get you to about 200F. CHEAP. Slightly more expensive viton seals will get you to about 450 F. Still very practical.  Temperatures above that get trickier, it's expensive to get sealing materials that will survive. But there are solutions. Then there are the solar concentrator guys that are using molten salt as their fluid at around 1000F. They are out of their goddamm minds if you ask me.

They call me, "Bellow Yellow"

Smokey: I've owned this thing for 32 years now.
Left it rotting in my mom's garage for the last 10 years.
Got it all fixed and drivable now.
But want to drive it for a few days before I decide to sell it.

b1-66er: You should.

S: I have someone interested so may just send it on it's way

b1: Where'd you advertise?

S: I didn't. A friend I was talking to knew someone who has been looking for a TR-6 for years
The problem with them (other than the fact that they are unreliable garbage cars) is  when you buy one, you don't know how bad it is.
This one is close to perfect mechanically. Not bad otherwise but not perfect. 
So for a 1974 triumph, on a scale of 1 to 10. This is a 4. And Triumphs top out at 5. 
They are pretty. But it is like a 4 wheeled motorcycle.
You can smell the oil leaking as you drive.
It is part of its charm.

b1: Me: Right. Like a girlfriend who has a lot of polish and curves in all the right places...
... But smokes.


[Pic © 2024 Carbuncle Removing Feats

All rights reserved
Used by permission]

Dox gotta eat!

b1-66er: "Artificial intelligence software now can read — instantly — chest X-rays for indications of TB or other conditions as accurately as radiologists can."

DENT: Ya. Doctors need to be worried about job security and should vote for a guaranteed minimum wage. $500k/year should do it. 👍

15.8.24

Turn of a phrase

b1-66er: My brother's life just got better...
... This version kinda bridges space rock and acid rock.

D4rw1n: That is so 1979...
...Or should I say that 1979 was so Ric Ocasek.

Just IMAGINE what's left...

Former Flyer: I was this many years old before I learned that peacocks actually fly. 

14.8.24

"Help me, Wolfman Jack, you're my only hope!"

b1-66er: Remarkably good live rendition. 

(I remember when this originally aired. I was at a friend's house.)


b1-67er: You have that right.  Her vocals are so good I was watching close to see if it was prerecorded. But it wasn't.  Really good. And Luke Skywalker on lead guitar.

When two tribes go to store

b1-66er: Russia Moves Some Troops From Ukraine to Fight Incursion, Kyiv and U.S. Say
That has broad feelings of a Frankie Goes to Hollywood Frankie say... headline. 

b1-67er: PUTIN SAY RELAX

66: That would be a great shirt.

How many sides does "bad" have?


The Accomplice: OMFG!

D4rw1n: Combines two things I don't need: a snow globe, and a Casa Bonita snow globe

13.8.24

No Strings Attached

Special K: North Korean TV intercepted.

b1-66er: That qualifies as "legitimately strange."
(My favorite part was the puppet show.)

b1-67er: I notice the Korean newscaster and the puppets both look a little Kim Jung Un.

11.8.24

What's your aim?

b1-66er: https://youtu.be/SDhTeRpWc6k?si=qGGI4pzjtir-sfQk

b1-67er: Really tall seems to make the most sense where the land is really expensive.  Land is cheap in Oklahoma, so I'm not sure it makes sense. I wouldn't build the tallest building in the US. You might as well paint a target on the side of it, since that's what you are building.

10.8.24

The Bacon Powdered Sugar Madison

Suttonhoo: Greetings from the Wisconsin State Fair

{pix ©2024 Slick Pix, Inc. 
All rights reserved
Used by permission}

Improving the aim

The Dear Hunter: Some people get nicer after they are dead. 

9.8.24

In a dream state, the end is rear

b1-66er:
11:15 second sleep

(Today's Break Fast Day, although I have not yet eaten...

Had electrolytes for the first time in several days yesterday [I'm certain they do something encourage/enable/help me remember dreams.])

On with the show...

I'd been reading in a chair just inside the entrance of a grocery store. Not unlike the ones at a video poker machine in a casino. 

I'm not in LV. The climate's wrong. Probably Denver. 

Apparently I had fallen asleep(?) when you called.)

I apologized for being asleep and in a store, telling a joke about it that fell flat. 

I couldn't hear you very well and switched from ear to speaker...

...a young teenage girl had just come in and leaned in a bit to say something snide in the conversatio we were having.

"Here you can talk to him. It's my pal, Smokey. He's used to lifeforms of your kind..."

She sneers at me and mumbles a dismissive line. 

I say, "Isn't it amazing how your phone grocery store interactions with people are just like your real life?"

It starts raining hard enough that the drops coming are under the pedestrian overhang.

You say something I only can ½ hear. It's something like, "You know, I'm WORKING..."

"Well you know I was SLEEPING... And YOU called ME."

Phone call drops. 

[EOD]

I wake up thinking, 'oh geez. Now I've got to call him back.' But my phone's not in my hand. I'm not even in a grocery store. 

Oh geez.

I'm in bed.

•••

Smokey: So weird. I had the exact same dream except you weren't in a grocery store but a store that sold tack for horses and were wearing a bear suit and waxing on and on about how much you like carrots. I said I wasn't much for root vegetables which appeared to offended you and you screamed "If I had a boiled egg right now, I'd jam it in your face hole!" It was at this point I realized we would be friends for life. Except that that makes no sense at all since I don't like boiled eggs.    

  Ok, so maybe the dream has some subtle differences. 

28.7.24

Advice to the world

Special K: People need to chill the hell out a bit.

25.7.24

A cultural look at (and with) blind Barbie

b1-66er: F3m, you need to have your first Barbie movie experience with a new pal...

F3mb0t: Me, to Blind Barbie:  "Have you seen the Barbie movie?"  
BB to me: "No, but I heard it is fabulous."

66: So bad.

The Accomplice: Hahaha. I saw that you'd replied, and I was certain it was going to be something about how bad it was that blind Barbie couldn't see Ken on the big screen

•••

b1-67er: Weird. Blind barbie is kind of interesting.

D4rw1n: I'm a fan of the blind Barbie concept 

67: So my question is: should they remove all added color from blind Barbie?  Make her plastic colored, whatever that is, and make the textiles whatever their natural color is?  All that color is added for the people with vision. Maybe blind Barbie doesn't need all that color baggage?

66: Oooh. Heavy duty. A question that makes you ponder the inner-life/meaning of blind Barbie...
... But:
1. Is playing on the colors possibly offensive to color blind owners? (ie. "The swine at Mattel think color blind is some kind of grand disability like being Real Blind!?")
2. Should BB, therefore, focus more on texture? Pore-up her skin, por ejemplo?

67: There are people with really bad eyesight that are effectively blind. I wonder if those people have certain wavelengths that they see better? You could go that way.

66: If there's an engineering solution my brother will find it...
... and the true 'beauty' of everything here? It doesn't have to look good. Barbie is blind, afterall.
For your hard work, we'll make you a special edition

"b1-67er Colorblind Barbie"

Which will be normal production Blind Barbie, but a specific frequency of red will be grey. 
So maybe she'll have something like a full red spectrum wrap, cape or skirt that'll have a grey band through it?
OR MAYBE MAYBE have the tape demarking the end of the cane be grey...
The thought being, "You trip on this? You understand my pain."

D4: No. Blind Barbie should look like other Barbies, only blind. That's the point. To mess about with the colors would undermine the concept of bringing people with different abilities into the frame together as equals 

66: You're right. Of course you're right.

67: I say there is some pounding round pegs into square holes. It needs some traditional Barbie elements to make it a Barbie. But it should also be modified to make it more interesting to a blind user. And I think removing some unneeded features for the sighted makes the case that this thing really is for the blind.  

Special K: Why is it only for blind people?

66: As usual, The K has found an awkward way to word my question that I hadn't even considered yet: Who do you think BB is for? 
Meaning, what is the target audience?
Sighties to help incorporate blindies into their lives, ideals and minds...
... Or blindies to be represented in the Barbie World?

K: Well, both. And friends / family / advocates of the blind.

66: I'm not asking you. 

K: And yet I answered.
I see it has braille packaging.
I thought there already was a blind Barbie. But my Barbie knowledge is limited.

67: I think it's for blind kids to have a more suitable toy for their strengths. At the bottom of this, there is a very complicated question. My daughter has been around quite a few high functioning autism spectrum kids at her college for people with adult disabilities. What I often wonder is: is all of this training: to smile, to behave more like normal kids for the kids sake? Or is it to make everyone around them be more comfortable?

66: That is a good question.

16.6.24

Maximum underdrive

b1-67er: I just flipped on Mega Piranha. The actor that played Greg Brady is a major character.

b1-66er: Sounds promising. 
If Cindy Brady IS a piranha I'll have to track it down. 
How was it? 
How sharp have Greg Brady's acting skillz become?
<pause>
Now, I just watched the preview with the sound off...
There must be something about this movie that isn't good.
How could a gem like this escape my view for a decade?
Oh geez...
TIFFANY is in it too.

67: In the ten minutes I watched, megapiranha was the best actor, followed closely by Greg Brady. Oddly the megapiranha I saw was only about 2 feet long. And there were a bunch of them. Should have been called Midipiranhas

28.5.24

A whole lotta root

The Actore: On a different note, here's a cool concept, where a band will take the barcode for a product and turn the numbers into musical intervals and make a song based on it. Like this one for mug root beer.

b1-66er: That's just funny.

TA: An internet rabbit hole I'm  happy to go down

b1:Yes. 
Your inner mongoose wants to go down a rabbit hole. 
I get that.

19.5.24

Sotto Orecchio

Special K: "Quentin Tarantino is interested in watching somebody's ear getting cut off; David Lynch is interested in the ear."

b1-66er: Bad.

14.5.24

Doozy

b1-66er: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2jdd4xxx94o#webview=1

D4rw1n: "'speedy winds' had caused the collapse." 

From the looks of it, also snoozy city planners, breaky materials, and bribey builders

3.5.24

Go with the dough

The Actore: [stuff elided] Spent a couple of hours with D4rw1n today randomly. He was in town on business and we got to hang for a couple of hours

b1-66er: Both looking > arm's length healthy.
Did you have a donut? 

The Accomplice [aside]: We have a Randy's Donuts walking distance from Scorpion Manor!

TA: We each had 2 donuts! Or the equivalent. I had literally 2 normal size donuts but D4 had one normal size donut, and a half of a ginormous, behemoth of a doughnut.

66: I assume he's still negotiating with government officials with what that EXACT quantity is.


•••


66: An actor and a lawyer walk into a donut shop...

D4rw1n: The Texas Glazed lost them a star because it was too big to eat
Company 10/10
Big as my head. Which is pretty big by all but b1-series standards 

66: (We have a Randy's walking distance from SM...
... We can go next time you're out.)

D4: Really good donuts 
To walk to¹

66: Well played.

D4: Yeah boy. Donuts 9/10
I sentence myself to an extra 50 Mike Tyson push-ups tomorrow for the ones JP and I tried to eat today

66: In a move of solidarity, I sentence myself to a box of Nestle Push-Ups.

D4: 67 - you like a good donut. How do you like Randy's?

b1-67er: I have to Assume D4 is Kraven the Hunter's council?
That picture feels like Shut the Fuck Up Friday with Kraven

{quick reference: https://youtu.be/6EI_RYIEtrg?si=9dqao7UCaksvadEn}


<Image ©LCD Paper 2024
All rights reserved
Used by permission>


¹ best said in a Triumph the Insult Comic Dog voice

25.4.24

Calming the calamity

The Dear Hunter: We got a hard frost last night. That's pretty rude. This is shot indoors.

<pic © 2024 FabLight Prods
All rights reserved
Used by permission>

15.4.24

CRUNCHY!

Special K: "Bakery asks customers to 'check cookies' for diamond after owner loses £3,200 ring"

b1-66er: That'll give you a filling.

14.4.24

Why everyone lost four bucks at dinner today...

b1-66er: "This is where you can order a full Mayonnaise and Corn Pizza (mayo and corn is one of the most popular pizza toppings in Japan) for just 500 yen (US$3.26), which is an absolute bargain."

b1-67er: Is that a bargain? Really?  I'd pay $3.26 to NOT have a corn and mayo pizza.  

7.4.24

Think "bigger"

b1-66er: <Cracked lion image>

b1-67er: Clone it!

1.4.24

Pushin' the Peep limit

b1-66er: <Sour Watermelon Peeps line-up>
As hard as it is to believe, these are BETTER than regular Peeps.
<single Peep shot>

b1-67er: Jesus. What are those?  Roadkill frog Peeps?

26.3.24

Take it to the bridge!

b1-66er: With video!

D4rw1n: Note the several cars on the deck as it's going down 

66: Yeah. That's one you're not expecting... It's full-on Cloverfield.
...The way the lights wink out on the bridge (and the small balls of flame flourish!) is really something.

D4: It's very dramatic 
Also how slow gravity looks when it's a huge structure seen from far away 

b1-67er: Also the extent of damage from a low speed boat.  It really shows how heavy of a battering ram that boat really is.

Seeing red

b1-66er: "Jack Black's Mom Helped Design the Abort System That Saved Apollo 13 Astronauts"

b1-67er: Are we talking about the duct tape and plastic bag solution to the carbon dioxide scrubber?  That kind of makes sense.

21.3.24

Take a second and play for the millionth

b1-66er: I just learned about this 'concept' (I guess that's what it is)...
"5 second films"

b1-67er: That may be the funniest movie in history in terms of humor per minute.

D4rw1n: I liked Whoppenheimer okay. Extra credit for the title. Missing would get 5 stars. But a 5 second film i guess can only get a max of about 0.0006944 stars (assuming in average film is about 120 minutes long). So Whoppenheimer gets 0.001388 stars from me, and Missing gets a full 0.006944 stars

19.3.24

The eyes have it

b1-66er: Hong Kong Security Laws

b1-67er: So maybe it's not two systems one country?

66: Not anymore.

D4rw1n: Nah they all look pretty Chinese to me, meaning sadly raising a hand to vote unanimously for something they either do not understand or do not believe in, knowing that a "no" vote might subject them to banishment or death

13.3.24

Topper

The Accomplice: Sunset from the flight home last night.

<pic ©2024 Peaked Interests
all rights reserved
used by permission>

12.3.24

Just Ass King

b1-66er: "Our bacteria are more personal than we thought, new study shows"

Special K: My bacteria are totally fucking personal.

b1: Jesus.

K: THIS IS AMERICA.

b1: "Do you think these pants make my butt look big?"
<pic>

K: I can almost smell that photo. 


[pic ©2024 NYT
No ownership implied
Used for commentary and socio-TXTual reasons only]

Look for his label

b1-66er: Label on organic 100% lemon juice

REFRIGERATE AFTER OPENING AND CONSUME WITHIN 30 DAYS

Begs an obvious question:
How would you know when it's gone bad?

Special K: I would ask my wife.

10.3.24

Psychological Advice

The Dear Hunter: Fear is healthy. Now go check your closets for clowns. 

3.3.24

Watch the cat for me, will ya?

b1-66er: <Cracked pic>

b1-67er: I've got to say that double decker bus is zero deterrent for a cat that size.  They are heading for a Siegfried and Roy moment.

26.2.24

Clawed in

b1-66er: (I especially like the accompanying picture)

The Dear Hunter: Next Level Role Playing. Just say 'No' to dating apps. 

b1-67er: Apparently warm enough to take your dinosaur paddleboarding.

TDH: And there's that.

21.2.24

Draining your aqueous of humour

Special K: This is the statement for my hospital visit. Hospital says "That'll be $163,421. Oh, did we say $163,421? You have insurance, so we really meant $9,143.15."

Insurance company says "$9,143.15? We'll pay, let's see, 6,400.22. You get to pay the other $2,742.93."

Crazy.

<image ©2024 K-TAX Scripts
all rights reserved
used by permission>

8.2.24

Iran so far away

b1-66er: Pop Life https://www.nytimes.com/1990/08/29/movies/pop-life.html?smid=nytcore-android-share

Dear Hunter: After reading about the river changes, I'm still not sure who is right as far as agency policy.   
Frankfort area is the wealthier half of the river. Empire is a bit poorer. Unless it's all hyper developed now which is possible. Lake MI is preferable over Eastside lakes. 
I spent a lot of time cleaning that fishing river. My husband at the time would fish. If I went, I picked up horrid amounts of fishing line and litter. It's a significant salmon area. I think it's planted with fish. 
Evidence of illegal snagging was always present. It's a bit odd that boats have to go into the river ... I guess they don't know how to fish in the lake. 
That was my husband's Go To spot for fishing. I could walk my dogs on Empire Beach, but not Frankfort's. I have not been there since the 90's. I used to order fries at the a and then go to the beach and start a seagull riot. 

Flashin' the peace sign, enterin' the chopper

b1-66er: Mojo Nixon Dies at 66

D4rw1n: Damn that is a loss. The obit essentially boiled down to "died as he lived: as a rock and roll madman"

b1: Yes.
"Died of a heart attack on a cruise he was sponsoring. Go fuck yourself."


6.2.24

Seepage

b1-66er: The seepage lines on the north property wall are interesting.
<wall pic>

Suttonhoo: Hope it doesn't crumble like a sugar cube in an old fashioned 

5.2.24

Imagine the drool...

b1-66er: 'Cresci told CNET you should think of the gut microbiome as "little pets living inside your intestinal tract."'

D4rw1n: Uh oh. That is trillions of individual "who's a good boy" I need to give every day 

The Lander of Enchantment

b1-66er: https://www.reddit.com/r/Weird/s/BWg6XKabZg

b1-67er: It looks like we may need to spend a 4th of July in Lander.

3.2.24

Battle yer beauty

Former Meat Man: <Shoreline pic ©2024 Ozzie Prods>

Gulf of St Vincent 
Great Southern Ocean
2:14 PM Sunday Feb 4
UV Index 12.9


b1-66er: Beautiful

<The Accomplice's desert pic ©2024 Spines-n-Peaks Industries>

Hualapai Canyon Park
Las Vegas, NV
USA
12:00
3 February 2024


<both pix:
All rights reserved
Used by permission>

1.2.24

Going in for the kiln

D4w1n: Thinking of you, b1-67er 

b1-66er: That's a great piece.

b1-67er: What I like about that video is you get a good look at his brick. That guy is right, there are big gains to be had if you are taking heat, storing it as heat, and redeployment it as heat. Taking heat, storing it as heat, then deploying it as electricity is trickier and worse efficiencies, but is much more broadly applicable. Lots of people working this problem in different ways.

25.1.24

Flip a valve

b1-66er: Datum of the moment:
2500 people die from heart related problems everyday in the US (includes heart attacks).

D4rw1n: This coming on the day my next door neighbor got diagnosed with an aneurysm of the aorta 

b1: There is that, and what... Several weeks after Johnny Cabinet decided to sleep through the dance too...

D4: Yes

b1: We never tended to hang around the
Lazy and Slothful Gang
I'm guessing we'll see fewer of our personal contemporaries check out that way than the average American.
Having said that, I bet we'll be right in line with -if not a little ahead of- The Dementia Wave.
D4...
... What were the symptoms that got your neighbor checked?
(And what will they do about it? Stent it?¹)

D4: I haven't talked to him yet in detail. I do not know what the treatment is, but I'm suspecting there's some kind of operation to protect that vessel. He had no symptoms. In for a different kind of appointment, and they offhandedly suggested they could use a chest scan for that thing (whatever it was), but it was optional. He basically tossed a coin in his mind and said yes.

b1: Bold
And I support that behavior
...One of the ways 67 and I have become divergent over time is in the way we think about medicine...
...I trend toward getting as much data as I can and, broadly speaking, trust the professionals.
67 is more automatically suspicious/questioning.

D4: My own cardiologist wasn't so lucky with his own cardiological health. 
I learned of his untimely death from a mutual acquaintance, my own primary care physician (PCP). The story is startling one. In a recent appointment with my PCP. I mentioned the medications I am taking on the orders of the cardiologist (whom I will call Dr. O.).
PCP says oh, I'm sorry to be the one to tell you, but Dr. O. died suddenly in May.
The story is Dr. O was on rounds at the hospital one day when he started feeling very ill. He sat down. Looked ill enough that one of the nurses said, let's get you down to the ER.
They went to the ER and immediately strapped him onto the EEG. Dr. O personally tore off the readout strip, took one look at it, and said, "uh oh. This isn't good."
And died instantly.

66: Man oh man.
Hitting the statistical number.
Mom got a call one day, "we need to reschedule your appointment, The dentist died (heart attack) over the weekend."

b1-67er: Rescheduled to The Second Coming of Christ, I guess.

66: That is so fricken cold...
... So why am I laughing?

Special K: I have sometimes avoided dentist appointments, but not by dying, so far.

66: For you, I'd say the best strategy would be to treat it like Old Home Week.

K: Sounds right.


¹ there is an excellent PDF on the aorta aneurysm situation/procedure that I read from the Mayo Clinic website after seeing D4rw1n mention it in the TXT stream. Highly recommended if you wanna dig deeper.

22.1.24

Slave diving

b1-66er: My newest book
How to Break Up with Your Phone
Americans do over 9B phone checks everyday.

Special K: I've done 35 today.

66: Don't sweat it.
The day's not even close to over.
There's room to improve.

K: 115 yesterday.

b1-67er: Jesus.  How do you even know that number?

K: It's in the Settings. 
<phone data pic>
Android version:

67: I guess I shouldn't be surprised that they have that number.  It looks like mine varies from about 25 to 75 over the last week or so.  Still a lot.

K: They have all the numbers.

66: Mine is REMARKABLY consistent...
... Slightly > 35 unlocks.
8 hours on my phone. 
day after day. Almost linear.
<Unlock pic>
<Screen time pic>

67: You do long dives.

K: My daily time is similar.

20.1.24

"Hey pal, can I borrow your llama a second?"

b1-66er: https://petapixel.com/2024/01/19/the-awesome-winners-of-the-2023-ocean-art-photography-competition/

b1-67er: The monkey image is surprising, but it does create the uneasy possibility of just chucking wild animals in the ocean and taking pictures of them. 

19.1.24

The future penalty of dodging

b1-66er: En El Ocho they just said, "Dodgeball is all about integrity. About honesty."

b1-67er: I thought it was all about humiliation.
Oddly dodgeball was a game I could play ... I was very good at dodging. But, as you know, I could not throw worth a damn. So I'd last until the end, then the Casa Diver would destroy me with a 100 mph fastball.

66: That's just weirdly funny....In a "watch your little brother fall into the slush pool he just tried to push you in" kind of way.

16.1.24

Magically delicious apes

Special K: "The special charm of the first follow-up, Beneath the Planet of the Apes, is that the entire movie is out of its mind from start to finish."

Any colour you like (./?)

b1-67er: Interesting cell phone camera effect.  

This picture is with no flash. <blue moonrise>

Same sky a few minutes earlier with flash <purple moonset>

I think the camera bumps up the reds when you use the fash.  There is probably insufficient red in the flash led, so the software tries to make up for it.

b1-66er: That is interesting.
What make/model is that phone?

67: Samsung galaxy a53 
It takes nice landscapes

66: Sure as hell does.

<Pix © 2024 Huey Moon, Ltd.
All rights reserved.
Used by permission>

Holding the GFI steady

b1-66er: Remember this number

-> 0.392 <-

{The exact number doesn't matter ... The only thing that's important is it's

"... About 0.4..."

This'll come up in a medium-term face-to-face conversation at some point.

You'll think it's funny.

{Unless the Russians start WW III. Then it might not be so funny.}

b1-67er: Ok. I think if www3 starts, general funniness may be down.

14.1.24

The word isn't, "fornever"

b1-66er: https://petapixel.com/2024/01/12/the-millennium-camera-will-capture-arizonas-landscape-for-1000-years/

b1-67er: That's a really interesting idea, but I damn sure would want something that I could verify that I was getting an image within my lifetime. I'd also like a bigger negative. And the camera shouldn't be butt welded to a handrail on a slope that will be eroding across that much time. There should be a single piece of steel all the way to bedrock. I think they should imagine a little more.

66: Great comments.

D4rw1n: b1-67er out long-now-ing the millennium guys 

12.1.24

b1 series Sky Battle!

b1-66er: <desert neighborhood>

b1-67er: <not>
{pic © 2024 Pink Floccing, Unlimited
All rights reserved
Used by permission}

10.1.24

Building the Apophenia Mound

b1-66er: Say, "hi."

The Dear Hunter: These ant pics directly conflict with my
 Walk in Beauty 
mission statement.

b1-67er: But the ants are beautiful in a fierce way.

•••

66: <Headspace 'fortune cookie'>

D4rw1n: I found this to be one of the most interesting daily meditations yet

66: It's easier for me to comprehend if I break it into 3 sentences:

Appreciate each moment.
Find peace in impermanence.
Keep death by your side.

That's a fairly famous taoist principle <ed: "the vinegar tasters">

b1-67er: And that ties straight across to the fire ant picture.

66: So very right.
Your index finger is on the Pulsing Jugular Vein of Life.

4.1.24

A big idea about tiny thoughts

The Dear Hunter: It's ok to appreciate simplicity. 

2.1.24

Ridin' The El with my best friend

b1-66er: Announcer: This is the Superbowl, it doesn't get better than this.
Guess the sport.

Special K: Not football. 

b1: Partial credit.
Not football is trending correct.
Hint: El Ocho 

K: I guessed that. 

b1: So clever.
You gotta guess again.
"Anything on El Ocho"
is not an acceptable answer.
(Even if you say EL Ocho trying to butter me up by using the incorrect station identification...which I actually prefer.)
Again. Announcer: This is the Superbowl, it doesn't get better than this.
Another hint: 
Not axes or knives

K: Cornhole. 

b1: I like that answer. 
Thinking cornhole-y shows both your natural affinity and understanding of mass media/sport...
The correct answer is

The AKC Agility Dog Championships

Now why that's on
Offbeat Sports Channel
I can't tell you.
It doesn't feel like a sport to me.
You point at an object and a dog jumps through it implies -to me at least- no human athleticism.

K: Me too. But there's not a dog sports channel The Perro.