Saturday, June 21, 2014

Conundrum...

Conundrum...  Via reader Simi L.:
The definition of the word “conundrum” is: something that is puzzling or confusing.

Here are six conundrums of socialism in the United States of America:

1. America is capitalist and greedy - yet half of the population is subsidized.

2. Half of the population is subsidized - yet they think they are victims.

3. They think they are victims - yet their representatives run the government.

4. Their representatives run the government - yet the poor keep getting poorer.

5. The poor keep getting poorer - yet they have things that people in other countries only dream about.

6. They have things that people in other countries only dream about - yet they want America to be more like those other countries.

Think about it! And that, my friends, pretty much sums up the USA in the 21st Century.

Makes you wonder who is doing the math.

These three, short sentences tell you a lot about the direction of our current government and cultural environment:

1. We are advised to NOT judge ALL Muslims by the actions of a few lunatics, but we are encouraged to judge ALL gun owners by the actions of a few lunatics.  Funny how that works.

And here's another one worth considering...

2. Seems we constantly hear about how Social Security is going to run out of money. How come we never hear about welfare or food stamps running out of money? What's interesting is the first group “worked for” their money, but the second didn't. Think about it...

and last but not least,

3. Why are we cutting benefits for our veterans, no pay raises for our military and cutting our army to a level lower than before WWII, but we are not stopping the payments or benefits to illegal aliens.

Am I missing something?

Yacht goes up in flames...

Yacht goes up in flames ... in San Diego harbor, and a guy with a drone just happened to be in the area and filmed it.  Spectacular footage!

On an entirely different note, the comments on the YouTube video are full of people wishing the worst on that yacht's owner.  Sometimes I don't care for my fellow humans very much.  No, that's not right.  Most of the time, I don't care for my fellow humans very much...

Stork baby cam...

Stork baby cam ... live streaming video of a stork's nest in Estonia...

Now that I've seen it...

Now that I've seen it ... I'm pretty sure I simply cannot live without this tube bender! 

I once needed to bend four lengths of copper tubing identically, with three bends each, none of which were coplanar.  That was hard with the conventional “jig” approach.  I ended up with imperfect results, and that only after several false starts and much frustration.  This little gem would have spit them out lickety-split.  Must have tube bender – even though I can't think of a single use I could make of it...

An owl for my mom...

An owl for my mom...  Drawn by a Slovakian girl, just 15 years old.  Oh, and she's also a falconer!  See the video at left for more about her, or visit this site...


Tomorrow morning...


Tomorrow morning ... at o'dark thirty, I'm headed “down” to Jamul to see my wife and dogs.  I haven't been back to Jamul, or seen my dogs, for over three months!  Debbie came up to visit about six weeks ago, which is the last time I saw her.  I can hardly wait!

The plan is to spend about a week in Jamul, packing the FJ Cruiser and otherwise getting ready for our vacation to the San Juan Mountains of Colorado (see map at right).  Then we'll head up here to Paradise: Debbie, Miki, Race, and I.  We'll stay here for a day or two, then head out to Colorado for three glorious weeks in a remote cabin, at 11,000' way up a 4WD road.  Then it's back here to Paradise for a day or two, then back to Jamul, then I'm heading back up here to finish off all the remodeling so we can move in...

Woo hoo!

Programmers and software users...

Programmers and software users...  Via friend, reader, and former colleague Simon M.:


I think most programmers would agree that bottom pane is unrealistically positive about users :)

The real Hillary?

The real Hillary?  This article gives the background, and provides a link to an audio recording of her being interviewed about a rape case in which she defended the accused perpetrator (this was in 1975; the interview was in the '80s).  To me she sounded quite natural and frank, unlike her public appearances these days.  That adds to the plausibility of her behavior, which is disgusting ... and affirming of the mental model I've built up about her.

Just the possibility that she could be elected president in 2016 gives me the willies...

Naturally hydrophobic (water-repelling) surfaces...

Naturally hydrophobic (water-repelling) surfaces...  A nice explanation and exploration of the science...

This is simply amazing...

This is simply amazing...  Perhaps especially so if you happen to be a worker of wood.  I've seen these boxes before, but I had absolutely no idea how they were made...

Love you Riley!

Love you Riley!  I had not seen (or even heard of) this story of Riley's rescue.  It had me in tears (but it has a happy ending, never fear)...