Cuteness Overload.

I've got to tell you, I've never seen anything like this.  Watch the whole thing:


Watching 5 minutes of fuzzy kittens and baby ducks will cure your rotten week.   

Saw This Somewhere ...

Saw this somewhere and just had to do the "right click - save image".  Don't recall where.

Edited to add: as I learn more about what the Russian girls did, I see this meme isn't true.  Brandon Raub did not do the same thing.  He did far less, and he did it far less offensively to anyone else.  They were trying to be outrageous and offensive.  He was having a private conversation.  If Mr. Raub was sent to a mental hospital for 30, the girls of Pussy Riot should be in a Siberian gulag for years.  8/27 2050 EDT

Newt Gingrich vs. Rosie O'Donnell

(Rosie when captured in Rawalpindi by Pakistani police, 2003)

I'm not much of a fan of Newt Gringrich, but in a smackdown between Newt and Khalid Sheik O'Donnell, I'll go with the Newt every time.  He may be a faux conservative, and a despicable human being, but he's the brightest guy on stage whenever those debates are going on. 

H/T to the inimitable Frank at IMAO, for the story that in an interview on the closing Joy Behar show, Rosie suggested Newt should read a book.  Srsly.  Equally absurdly, she thinks he knows nothing about history.

Rosie, sweetie, I will take a $5 bet that Newt has written more books on history than you've read! 

Edit: 1735 - Dang that typo monster...

Forecast for Tonight

Forecast for tonight is Busy. Continued busy with a sudden drop off of in busyness accompanied by loss of consciousness later this evening. 

Thursday will be busy with busyness increasing to fully occupied by the evening. 

Busyness levels should return to normal by the weekend. In the interim, a little diversion.

(Lisa Benson at Town Hall - too right for comfort)

Obligatory Happy Thanksgiving Post

It was a busy day here at Castle Graybeard.  We finished replacing a shelf for the "Armageddon closet" (don't recall who invented that term...); I built it last weekend, and finished it with Polycrylic today.  Put it in place and did a little Spyderco-assisted surgery on my thumb to remove the only big splinter.  Watched football, smoked a turkey, replaced strings on my guitars, played a bit, and just enjoyed a quiet day with Mrs. Graybeard, and the delightfully crazy cats.

(Smoked a turkey?  How big are the rolling papers?  How do you light it?)

I am thankful for so much... despite the coming troubles, I am richly blessed here and now, and I know it. May all of you enjoy a wonderful day with your families and friends.  Or by yourself, if that's your day.  Thanks to the EMTs, Nurses, Doctors, LEOs, Firefighters and others who work today so we can have the day off.  Thanks to the service men and women who keep the barbarians from the gates and give us the chance to relax.  For now, eat, drink, be merry, and pray. 

Cowboys and Aliens

As world continues to go down the tubes around us, I don't know about you, but we need some light-hearted diversion.  We've gone to see a handful of the "summer blockbuster" movies: Thor, Captain America, and Cowboys and Aliens. 

I've read some critical things about the movie, basically complaining that it isn't a compelling story with characters you want to get to know.  Get a grip, people: it's not Shakespeare, it's freakin' Cowboys and Aliens!  There's a lot of explosions, chases, Apaches, authentic period firearms, fights with bad-ass looking aliens, what more could you want? 

The story asks the question, "what if alien abductions took place in the old west?".  Daniel Craig wakes up in the 1873 Arizona back country with some sort of strange "bracelet" on his left wrist and no memory of who he is, or much of anything else.  Turns out he's a robber who got abducted along with his girlfriend but managed to escape.  Harrison Ford plays a tough, grizzly, old Civil War veteran turned cattle magnate with a useless son and very useful, adopted Apache son.  Olivia Wilde is not just thrown in for the obligatory beautiful girl who has to be in any blockbuster movie; her character has a very big and important, but secret, part in the movie.  The aliens aren't just here to abduct folks, probulate them, mine their nose nuggets, and set them free; they're here for our gold! 

So while there's still a civilization around us, enjoy some recreation.  It can't all be prepping, training, drilling, reinforcing your retreat and loading ammunition.  You might wanna consider taking advantage of civilization within the next week or so. 

Just sayin'...

I Stand With Dilbert

Prompted by

I've Always Wanted To Do This

Well, it would be better to wear one to work.  You'd look into my office and behind the dual computer monitors would be this pile of straw....

Those Turtles at JFK

(couldn't resist)

Possibly true story, told to me by a pilot friend who says he was there and he heard it.  Traffic was held up at a regional airport while a large turtle got off the runway.  The tower finally cleared everyone with the advisory, "Beware wake turbulence, departing turtle". 

Friday Night Funnies

We all have our little idiosyncrasies, and one of my many is that when I'm doing the kind of work that keeps me at my desk in my office, I usually listen to the I Heart Radio app on my iPhone.  I used to bring a general coverage handheld radio and tune it to either the local talk radio, local ham repeaters, FM broadcast or perhaps the airport tower.  Although the app itself can be clunky and crash too often, when it works its sound quality is better than what I can get indoors with a limited antenna.

My latest little find is the 24/7 Comedy Channel, which features short (usually less than 2 minutes, always less than 10) of stand up comedy performances.  Some big, classic established names - George Carlin, Robin Williams, Steven Wright, Richard Jeni; some big newer names - Jeff Foxworthy, Larry the Cable Guy, Chris Rock; and a bunch that I frankly had never heard of before.  I really enjoy Maria Bamford, Patton Oswalt, Jim Gaffigan and more.  One guy I've never heard of before is John Pinette.  Earlier this evening, Mrs. Graybeard laughed until we hurt watching a full hour of Pinette's "I Say Nay Nay". 




If you're up for a good hour of silly, start here and go watch the other 5 sections. If not, just watch this one.  If you can't handle 10 minutes or want a sampler, just go here and pick something.

Weiner Hacked

Has anyone seen Lorena Bobbitt ? 



That is all.

It's A Good Thing These People Weren't in Massachusetts

An hour or so south of the castle is sleepy St. Lucie county, where a unique story is reported.  If Massachusetts almost put TJIC away for a bad joke, these folks would be in solitary confinement. 

Officials are investigating a weekend incident during which a man indicated his wife fired an AR-15 rifle at a target inside a master bedroom closet, missing the target and blasting holes in a washing machine.

Now, I gotta tell you something.  I've got an AR or three, and I find the 35 or 40 minute drive to the rifle range somewhat annoying.  I really wish there was something closer, or Florida was like it was when I was 14, and I could just wander around past the end of the road with my rifle and plink at cans.  But I have never, ever thought of putting a target in my closet and shooting it with my AR.

A deputy learned they'd been in the bedroom shooting the target in the closet.

See, up till now, I never thought I would see the words "in the bedroom shooting the target in the closet" in a single sentence.  

"They had done this on multiple occasions," a report states, noting both had been drinking.

And they had been drinking while shooting targets in the closet.  Who would ever guess that alcohol could be involved?

But notice the article concludes this way:

Investigators spoke to a prosecutor and determined no charges would be filed at the time.

Well, to be fair, the LEOs confiscated the dude's three guns "for safe keeping", but I think I would expect that in pretty much every situation where a gun is discharged in a house.  Not saying it's right, but I think if this couple were in The Peoples Republic of Massachusetts or Callie-Fornia, they'd be hanging from a dungeon wall by shackles.

A Dual 1 W Laser? Set Two People on Fire at Once??

Seems like only yesterday, but actually a year ago, I posted about a one watt laser from Wicked Lasers.  It featured warnings it could burn through your skin, set you on fire or blind you instantly. Naturally, everybody wants one.

They're at it again.  This time, the "Sith" (what else?) laser that couples two of those same "Arctic" model 1W lasers into a "Darth Maul" style dual. 

A friend of a friend just ordered one of the Arctic models.  Hopefully, I'll get a look at one without burning off parts of either of our bodies. 

The Spam I Get

I got this ad from Midway USA today - or so they want you to believe...  Personally, I think this is spam directed at the growing population of Whitetails online and they got my address wrong. 

Happens all the time.  I remember the day I got spam from the same seller offering to increase the sizes of both my p3nis and my brea5t5.

Edit: 1358  To change those two words and put numbers in them.  Let's try to head off the spammers as much as we can, o-tay?

Signs of Our Times

Looks like I'm not the only skeptical of this whole airline traveler's bill of rights thing...

and this one is just prescient

Both from Townhall.com Political Cartoons.

Yet Another...

Atlas Shrugged review.  Strange as it may seem, small town Central Florida (well pop. of about 100k) got it.  And the theater was about half full. 

Terrible confession that I know puts me at the bottom of the libertarian pecking order.  I've never read the book.  Been meaning to, and all, but I've never been much on fiction, and I don't think much of her writing, at least what I've been exposed to.  In high school, I had to read The Fountainhead, and I found her writing (searching for a word) painful.  Tedious.  Ponderous.  Most of my reading tends to non-fiction, things like what you see on that list over there on the right...

All that out of the way, I enjoyed the movie.  The movie is dated 2016, and the headlines and actions of the politicians seemed completely believable.  It's a sign of the times we're in that an openly socialistic/crony-capitalistic government that passes laws to reward some companies or states and punish others is a faithful depiction of life and not the extreme fiction it was when Atlas was written.  None of the government actions struck me as going too far.   I thought Grant Bowler, as Henry Rearden, and Taylor Schilling, as Dagny Taggart, both put in compelling performances.  Certainly, Taggart, Reardon, and Ellis Wyatt were the most developed characters and the characters who made the most sense.  (Ellis Wyatt, by the way, was played by Graham Beckel, conservative brother of regular liberal commentator Bob Beckel).  Extra style points for a minor character in the movie: Dr. Potter, the government wonk that offers to buy out Rearden Metal from Hank Rearden, getting him to sell out rather than excel.  The mousey Dr. Potter is played by Armin Shimerman, best known as "Quark" in Star Trek Deep Space Nine - minus the Ferengi ears. 

I don't know enough about the book to know what's coming, but I hope they continue to get part II out next year and part III out the following year.  All planned for tax day. 

We hesitated about going because of what we've read online.  Don't know if you've noticed it, but the liberal Rand-haters hate the movie (as expected) and the die-hard Rand-fans are bad-mouthing the movie, too, for failing to live up to their expectations.

Go see it.  Maybe a few times. 

Not An April Fool's Joke, Per Se...

Just one of my all time favorite videos. 

Odds and Ends

Borepatch has a great summary of why we shouldn't fund NPR - they're violating their whole reason for existence. 

The argument for funding NPR is that they can focus in greater depth than commercial news sources, giving listeners more background and context around important stories.  This leads directly to a better informed electorate (so goes the argument) which is a public good.

and then goes on to show that this isn't true.

When Discovery ended her mission yesterday, I went outside to hear and feel the double sonic boom all returning shuttles give - and I realized I'm going to miss this.  From about 1986 until 1997, Mrs. Graybeard worked up there; starting on expendable vehicles and then over to work on the shuttle solid rocket boosters.  After Challenger (she was outside watching - I was working through lunch and watching on TV) they had an open house at the KSC for family; Discovery was on the pad for the return to flight operation, and we got a good look at her.  On two separate other open houses years later, I stood underneath Discovery.  I almost could have reached out and touched her, but I didn't.  Still, I got up close and personal with Discovery like no other member of the STS "fleet".  Yeah, she was getting to look like a used space ship Han Solo might fly, but I'm going to miss her.

As I mentioned in my riff on corporate wellness programs, I work for a major aerospace corporation.  Like many, we have a big "diversity" program.  I can't help but feel like they're going about it all wrong;  they emphasize what we look like, or what we eat, not who we are.  For example, we have a very Indian guy in our group, with a very Indian name, heavy accent, did his undergrad work in India and MSEE in the states.  I have more in common with him than 99% of the people outside the building.  Last week, I was on TDY in the factory.  I was the only "old white guy" in the place, but I had more in common with those technicians and younger engineers, like the young Latina, than with the vast majority of administrative workers, marketing people, HR folks and other non-technical workers - as well as the 99% of the public outside our buildings.  Diversity isn't white guys and Indian guys or "smart Latinas": it's engineers and art majors. 

Short on Energy Tonight

Sorry, been working TDY far from my office at work.  Long days, far from familiar surroundings and familiar duties.  Too much going on to sit with you.

Re-habbing a slightly injured right shoulder...
Trying to lift weights around that...
Trying to prep some un-needed radio gear to sell...
Trying to read up on reloading...

As Kevin says, no free ice cream today.  I'll try to give you a bigger scoop soon. 

It's Time I Talk About My Disease

But first, I'd like to publicly thank Larry Potterfield at Midway USA for sending me a birthday discount to his fine candy store.  I've heard talk from insiders that Larry is really a very nice guy and completely genuine.  And, no, I'm under no illusions that Larry personally was sitting up there last week and said, "Hey, the Silicon Graybeard's birthday is coming up!  Let's give him a discount on everything!"  But he did set up the business.

So Midway made it a bit cheaper for me to buy myself something I've been contemplating for a while: a kit to get started reloading.  After reading ASM826's articles on reloading last month, I was pretty sure I needed to try this.  I have a friend locally who reloads, but we can never seem to get together so that I can watch.  Both of them own an RCBS Rock Chucker Single Stage Press, so that's what I got.

Since I'm an absolute novice at this, I didn't get any powder or primers.  I've saved brass from my .223 and .308 rifles, so I'll start with the .308.  I got a set of dies and shell holders for both of those calibers.  Eventually, I will almost certainly add pistol reloading.

Now it's time to come forward about my little problem.  Everyone knows there are "fad diseases" that get lots of attention and become big celebrity fund raisers.  Anything that has a ribbon associated with it, from breast cancer to autism. I don't have one of those.  Everyone has heard of Attention Deficit Disorder, ADD.  I don't have that; I have its opposite, Attention Surplus Syndrome, ASS.

ASS is not as widespread as ADD, and there are no drug treatments for it.  ASS is characterized by paying extreme amounts of attention to things.  ASS sufferers tend to be involved in extremely intricate tasks that, simply stated, require the amount of attention only those with attention surplus can provide. They can't watch half-hour TV shows because, "they're over before they start getting interesting".  Hour shows are somewhat better, but a two hour movie is about right.  ASS sufferers can be easily recognized by the quote, "I don't know where the time went!  I just sat down to do this!" 

The previous paragraph hints at the diagnostic tests for ASS. 

1. Sits quietly engaged in any activity for more than 20 minutes. 
2. When presented with a new problem, studies alternative solutions rather than just saying "do something!"
3. A wide range of hobbies is possible: model trains, making any sort of models from scratch: ships, cars, trains, - anything.  Mathematical problems, crossword puzzles, things that combine manual skills with mental effort, such as jewelry, lapidary, telescope making, stained glass making, music, F-class shooting or any long range shooting.   

Because of their innate ability to do tasks others can't, ASS patients can be well-paid, although obviously not as well paid as the ADD cases that hire them.  And because they tend to be absorbed in their puzzles and problems, ASS patients integrate well with society.  They may not "play well with others", but they don't ruin other people's play, either. 

Physicians consider it diagnostic to leave an intractable problem with them (Fermat's last theorem has been used) and casually suggesting, "anyone should be able to do this". 

Three famous ASS sufferers (artist's depiction).