Food finds.

Update: I never saw this before, but Sarah Palin’s turkey incident…

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Last night at my local Asian grocery store… I found this.

And, believe it or not, my $0.99 investment paid off. It was sweet and peppery, with a tamarind and rotted-fish taste so wonderfully obtained from fish sauce. Cruel Wife was not sure how she liked it at first and then decided it was too tamarind-ey.

I loved it and took it to work to share. Out of ten people only one did not like it. Everyone looked askance until I assured them that it was not my usual kill-them-with-love-and-peppers MO.

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I want this. Go look at this guy’s gallery.

There, Dave. I hope you sell many and prosper. Excellent work.
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Normally, I really like what Krauthammer has to say.

But today, I could not agree less.

Charles Krauthammer responded on Special Report tonight saying, “The Ukrainians, and I think everybody, is shocked by the weakness of Obama’s statement. I find it rather staggering.”

Krauthammer thinks Obama’s statement is about “three levels removed” from actual action. He explained: Obama said “we will stand with the international community — meaning we are going to negotiate with a dozen other countries who will water down the statement — in affirming that there will be costs — meaning in making a statement not even imposing a cost, but in making a statement about imposing a cost — for any military intervention.”

“What he’s saying is we’re not really going to do anything and we’re telling the world,” Krauthammer said.

I was not shocked by weakness in anything Obama does. He sounds no less weak than he did regarding Syria. He is a gutless chump.
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Far be it for me to laugh at someone els… Oh, hell. Who am I kidding?

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Frozen bubblage.

It is -5F now and Cruel Wife and I put the kids in bed and did something I have wanted to do for over a month.

We went out of the house for a little fun. We blew bubbles.

These are bubbles frozen in mid air, caught, and torn.

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Did she get dinner first?

Woman inseminated by cooked squid.

Yeah. I thought it was peculiar, too.

Wherever Drudge gets the pics, he uses them well.

I am not sure if I posted this but I think I first saw it on New Year’s Eve or around then. Lighting makes the mood, and boy does it.

Rotate your owl was like this but not as cool. Ultra-stabilized camera.

Restore your frown-cracked child’s face with a casting..

Now THAT is a tat. I don’t know squat about Twitter. CW sent me the link, so however you trail after the guy or whatever, it is up to you.

Spike Lee qualifies as Prick of the Year 2014. Rather than say “Hey, awesome!” or “How can we get everyone together to make a strong community and make it a place where people trust and thrive?” he focuses on the same old negative and racist patterns of thought.

. I am thinking that next time we have a “discussion” or “dialogue” about race, maybe we should include crappy attitudes, too.

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It’s the wind, stupid.

Scientist proposes walls to stop tornadoes.

It does lead to a few questions.

1)  Really?
2)  Really?
3)  This wouldn’t have unintended consequences?
4)  Really?
5)  Where are you going to get the resources to do that?

I know!  Ship LA’s garbage over and make giant ski slopes out of it.  Or dams.  Or bicycle trails.

Whatever this guy got ahold of, more people need it.  It’s like he rolled in catnip for crazy people.

“If we build three east-west great walls in the American Midwest …. one in North Dakota, one along the border between Kansas and Oklahoma to the east, and the third one in south Texas and Louisiana, we will diminish the tornado threats in the Tornado Alley forever,” according to physicist Rongjia Tao of Temple University.

The walls would need to be about 1,000 feet high and 150 feet wide, he said. Tao is presenting his research next week at the annual meeting of the American Physical Society in Denver.

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Now taking votes to see who should take Salma’s place at right as veeshir-bait.  No nibbles at all.  It used to draw him in.

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Obama’s IRS has spoken… those of us who do not pay the fee/tax thing for Obamacare will face a:

shared responsibility payment

Look, if you don’t choose to use the word “penalty” you choose something else because you want to send a message.  If you choose words that sound like a utopian’s conformational wet-dream it means you want to be as ominous as possible without sounding like a threat.  And that is what Obama is all about.

Well done, Mr. Obama.  Well done.  You now sound like a scary dictator (or beloved leader) rather than merely behave like one on paper.

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We’d like to get a sample of your brain tissue.

Screw that, get a tissue.

Harold Ramis dead.  This ranks up there with the loss of Leslie Nielsen in Lemur King’s world.

I collect spores, molds and fungus.

The man directed GroundHog Day, which is one of my favorite movies.  It took a stroke of genius to find the right balance between comedy, smug satisfaction at Phil’s fate, pity at the horror of his fate, and transformation of a vile creature into a human.

Thanks Harold.  RIP.

Any movie that includes Scott’s work or the work of Oscar Wilde wins with me.  This one won’t be applied to Mr. Ramis.

High though his titles, proud his name,

Boundless his wealth as wish can claim;

Despite those titles, power, and pelf,

The wretch, concentred all in self,

Living, shall forfeit fair renown,

And, doubly dying, shall go down

To the vile dust, from whence he sprung,

Unwept, unhonor’d, and unsung.

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For me, and for me alone…

 

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icanhazcatzass.

Well anyone can have a cat’s ass, because cats are always willing to share.

Thanks to Cruel Wife.

That kitty doesn’t know the definition of irony. Yet.

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Now hear this…

Did you hear the one about the cops tasering and beating up the deaf guy and cuffing his hands behind his back so he could not sign to them?

Apparently his pleas fell on deaf ears and they refused to listen to what he had to say. He was stunned speechless by their brutality. The whole thing sounds like it ended with no one on speaking terms. The police defended their actions, gesturing at the same time that their hands were tied.

Ok, I joke, but as a hearing deficient individual he has my sympathy, and you know what? I hear the winds of litigation blowing…

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Thanks to Lemurita… who agrees that I only drink Red Bull(tm) socially and that I do not have a problem.

And for some reason someone out there took a picture of these people humping trees and I keep wanting to post it. No idea why. Probably I do it because I think tree hungers and duck squeezers are idiots.

Maybe more later.

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Life on Mars

First, the British version rocked, and I had zero desire to see an Americanized version.

Second, Muslims are being told to not live on Mars.

Bowing to Mecca would get wicked complicated, I imagine.

Then, too, Islamic Rage Boy would scream something like, “Ooooh, you have made me very very angry. I am going to cause an Earth Shattering Kaboom.”

That would be a huge ginormous suicide vest and IED’s would get ridiculous.

The General Authority of Islamic Affairs and Endowment (GAIAE) in the United Arab Emirates said that anyone making such a “hazardous trip” is likely to die for “no righteous reason”.

So accidental death or natural causes would also be unrighteousness, right?

They would therefore be liable to a “punishment similar to that of suicide in the Hereafter”, the Khaleej Times reported.

Oh, of course. I get it.

The Fatwa was apparently issued in response to the proposal from the Dutch company Mars One last year to send four people on a one-way journey to the red planet in 2022.

Can anyone just make a fatwas thing whenever one pleases? What are the rules about edicts like this? Does everyone have to follow them or can a person pick and choose? Is there a Fatwa Registry of some sort?

“Such a one-way journey poses a real risk to life, and that can never be justified in Islam,” the committee said. “There is a possibility that an individual who travels to planet Mars may not be able to remain alive there, and is more vulnerable to death.”

So… Risking one’s life is kind of a given if you blow other people up, have wars with each other, get up in the morning… Do you just lie down and wait for the end?
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Oh.  If you are into Steam/Valve (think Portal 2) then check out The Stanley Parable.

No, I cannot explain it.  I have no idea how to do so.  No, I cannot explain why I found it fascinating.  No, I have no idea if you will like it.

It was whimsical like elements of Portal, it was edge-pushing like Dear Esther, and… weird.  But I enjoyed it.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to try out Slender: The Arrival.

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I can’t claim I am a Snowden fan. He stole secrets. He broke laws. But at the same time he did us all a favor by waking people up to the dangers of government getting too large, having too much reach. And yet that lesson still has not sunk in, not really. It has died down rather than gaining steam just like all the other revelations under this Admin. (Yes, I know this is not all Obama’s fault)

But that isn’t what I am talking about in this space…

Why is snowden’s every utterance printed as if he were now the world’s most authoritative authority? He stole huge amounts of data. Does that make him worthy of pontificating on all things security?

Former US security contractor Edward Snowden on Wednesday spoke out about the use of state secrecy privileges as he presented an Oxford University award to fellow intelligence leaker Chelsea Manning.

Snowden, who is in hiding in Russia, presented the prestigious British university’s Sam Adams awards for integrity and intelligence to the jailed former US Army intelligence analyst via YouTube.

Snowden recorded a four-minute message, in which he warned of the dangers of “overclassification”.

He said the term described governments’ use of state secrecy privileges “to withhold information from the public that’s not related to national security”, adding it had become a “serious problem”.

This is like a reckless driver suddenly being considered NTSB top-level expert on car crashes after wiping out a farmer’s market with a semi.

Yeah the analogy broke down, but do you get my point?

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From Cruel Wife.

This, I post to be cruel, just like when I posted that pic of Helen Thomas years ago.

President Clinton!

Oogh. I am such a bastard.

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Pressed Freedom

You might walk away from this post thinking I believe what reporters tell me, and you are right to a point. You might think I think much of polls, which I don’t at all. But polls do sometimes have value.

In 2014 the US is in 46th place in terms of freedom of the press as shown in a Reporters Without Borders survey.

So yeah, I can link news articles. But for shits and giggles I searched out the results of all the years they did this. Here you go, the US world press freedom rankings from 2002 on. I wish the ranking went as far back as Nixon, but I will take this.

2002. 17
2003. 32
2004. 22
2005. 44
2006. 53
2007. 48
2008. 36
2009. 21
2010. 20
2011. 47
2012. 47
2013. 32
2014. 46

It is hardly the most transparent administration ever. How do I know it originates there? A fish rots from the head down.

It is very interesting. We got the post 9/11 bump I would have expected and then as the world relaxed I wasn’t surprised at the decline. We got a bounce that would correlate well with the coming of the Messiah changing of the guard and the (ig)Nobel Peace Prize but then tanked as rapidly as a proverbial three day old fish. There is a synopsis that goes along with each year but I have not read any of them prior to 2012.

But fairly consistently we suck and blow surprisingly bad given how proud we are of freedom of the press.

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Have a cringe.

Have a Vermeer. Good art always relaxes me, like a kitten, just not quite as much.

Have some snow. Please.

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Apparently Apple owners are not caring for the loss of their bitCoin app.

Geez, people, it isn’t like bitCoin is used to buy drugs, prostitutes, weapons, documents, and assassins or anything like that.

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Yeah, I am a fan of recycling.

No deposit though.

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What is really scary?

Hey, maybe global warming has stopped due to the huge mass of ice in the Great Lakes!

It is as plausible as any other damn fool reason the Thermogeddoners are coming up with.

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Oh. My. Goodness. This is so ridiculous as to be hysterical. And… Hah! Oh my. It… Oh gosh… And you say big bad old greedy companies are the corrupt ones? This is just freaking hilarious.

Is the latest delay of ObamaCare regulations politically motivated? Consider what administration officials announcing the new exemption for medium-sized employers had to say about firms that might fire workers to get under the threshold and avoid hugely expensive new requirements of the law. Obama officials made clear in a press briefing that firms would not be allowed to lay off workers to get into the preferred class of those businesses with 50 to 99 employees. How will the feds know what employers were thinking when hiring and firing? Simple. Firms will be required to certify to the IRS – under penalty of perjury – that ObamaCare was not a motivating factor in their staffing decisions. To avoid ObamaCare costs you must swear that you are not trying to avoid ObamaCare costs. You can duck the law, but only if you promise not to say so

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/02/11/thought-police-firms-must-swear-obamacare-not-factor-in-firings/

The admin is pushing a law back when it is outside their real granted power to do so… And saying THIS? And you say they are not corrupt?

It beggars the imagination.

Cynicism is a form of corruption when it guides policy, and this is about as cynical as it gets.

“Do you swear you aren’t going to take advantage of our magnanimosity and act on real-world free market pressures that will eat you alive?”

“Oh yeah, we swear. Yeah.”

Slowly whittling away the groups that would vote the Democratic Party out of existence if they really knew how badly they are going to get screwed when the bill comes due… The Hail Mary double-down pass of all times, hoping to buy control through government largesse just long enough to maintain past the election and then shoot for single-payer “because it is the only thing that will work”.

No, I am not laughing.

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This is a day late. Been recouping my energy from a cold and I just plain fell asleep last night. Rare for me to do.

You would think the National Guard was really scared of a certain group.

Participants in the disaster drill located documents expressing the school employees’ “anti-government” sentiments, as well as a note identifying Pierce as the fictional right-wing terrorists’ leader.

ONG’s 52nd Civil Support Unit participated in a similar drill involving left-wing terrorists with Athens County first responders last year; public officials apologized for that training the next day in response to complaints from local environmentalist groups.

No apology to Ohioans who supported limited government and the Second Amendment appears to be forthcoming.
[snip]
Ohio National Guard Communications Director James Sims II suggested Media Trackers was “inferring” from the ONG document’s contents as opposed to “what’s actually in the report.”

After excerpts of the report were read to him, Sims said it was “not relevant” to understand why conservatives may feel unduly targeted by ONG’s training scenario.

“Okay, I’m gonna stop ya there. I’m going to quit this conversation,” Sims concluded. “You have a good day.”

Note that they apologized to the environmental groups but not the Second Amendment crowd.

Which group has historically had more ideological nutjobs?

Honestly, after a search, I am not sure. I can tell you that the biggest problem as far as ideology goes is not, historically speaking, supporters of the 2nd Amendment or the Constitution.

Historically.

The Ohio Nat’l Guard probably has been scenting the wind and worrying what would happen if there was a power grab by the gov’t, however. That possibility doesn’t even bear thinking about because I think it would be pretty damned awful.

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A Post in Parts.

First, with more to come, is from the “If I Only Had a Brain” Department.

Cole said, “Obamacare has been an issue from day one that’s hurt Democrats and helped Republicans.” And he said it’s “not going to go away” as an issue “because it’s fundamentally a flawed, bad policy.”

Ellison countered that the CBO report on the reduction of hours worked means, “We are going to have parents being able to come home, working reasonable hours. People are going to be able to retire. People might actually be able to cook dinner rather than have to order out and get some takeout.”

He added: “If you look at international comparisons country by country, Americans work way more that the average of industrialized countries around the world.”

He said the report showing fewer work hours gives us the chance “to look at our work/life balance,” which he described as “a great opportunity.”

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I see that Obama has been telling his generals that China needs to be told in no uncertain terms that they are approaching a red line and that they should waste no time in saying so. The guy is tickled to trumpet good news in person, or bad if he has his posse behind him, but otherwise sends others to do his work.

As usual, Obama hasn’t the guts or ability to say it himself with any convincing conviction.

US Pacific Air Forces Commander Gen. Herbert ‘Hawk’ Carlisle says any attempt by China to replicate its air defense zone in the South China Sea would be a “very provocative act.”

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Rock on, dude.

As I say, rarely do I see someone who I think “Wow, there is a person who is a force to be reckoned with just by virtue of his spirit.”

Argue for your limitations, and sure enough, they’re yours.

And then there is this guy who doesn’t know the meaning of the word “can’t”… He only knows “Can’t yet.”

Excellent find from Mrs. Lemur. Excellent.

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This is how we did it when I grew up on the farm. Every now and then… More chicken, less eggs.

Have not tested this tech out, myself.

Asking too much?

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Mwuh-ha-ha…

Ok, ok, ok, ok, ok…

So, if I use an under expanded flow nozzle with a small secondary resonance chamber I can create a more or less harmonic oscillation as a shock wave builds and collapses (Hartmann resonance tube). If that is fed into a parabolic reflector and then coupled to an exponential cone resonator cavity… Then the resultant pressure and particle velocity waves should not stack and create shock wave front or couple into harmonics…

…and put it all together in the Dr. Lemur Ethereal DePestinator(tm).

Yes, kids, a Steampunk thing that will have real science if no worldly application beyond making a deafeningly loud 1KHz tone.

And by deafening, I mean what I think won’t immediately reach 150dB but it won’t be far away. It seems that the viscosity of air may be a limiting factor.

But some mathey stuff seems to be in order first.

Note: I am having some fun with this. Obviously.

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Speaking of science… Should you believe it?

Never take it at face value. On Watts Up with That is a nice illustration of how badly probability can behave, even when guests are visiting.

I pointed this one out before but in light of the “95% certainty that the world is heading for Thermageddon”, I wanted to reaffirm that figures do not lie but figures don’t mean jack if they aren’t framed properly, and people lie like rugs.

Thanks, cracked.com!

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Authentic falsity.

I have it on good authority from real researchers that you can turn one of these:

Into one of these:

With simple video games. Yes. Apparently in western culture our children are so devoid of anything in their lives that constitutes an anchor that they will grasp on to the one thing we provide them – a single video game console, and the only game we give them, whatever it may be.

Grand Theft Auto will turn them into Marv (or only slightly worse, Kevin) from Sin City.

But if we give them wholesome things like Pokemon or Candy Crush, we will end up with the perfect child – one that we will not even have to interact with when raising them! Awesome!

Below is my son after just two applications of Clumsy Ninja(tm). Now, aren’t you envious?

Of course, a number of educated women don’t seem to appreciate art’s ability to start discussion and thought. Maybe they have been out of touch with life?

r

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Immigration reform seems to be wobbly (for now, anyway) but even when they try to get it right folks on the right get it wrong. Like a kid with autism that mimics empathy he isn’t feeling but doesn’t do it in the right context, politicians don’t seem to get what people are against.

“There are serious divisions because there are some people who, frankly, just don’t want a lot of folks coming from the outside,” said Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.) on Wednesday. Pointing to the current jobless rate, he added: “They have some very legitimate arguments.”

It isn’t that we don’t want anyone coming from the outside. It is that we don’t like people doing it illegally and then getting a free end-run around the system because it is politically expedient to grant absolution for all the years they broke the law.

From The Examiner, Boehner sails true to his colors..

He’s under pressure from business groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, to pass legislation that would increase visas for both high- and low-skilled workers. But he knows moving too quickly could risk a rebellion from his right flank and could turn off the Republican voting base ahead of the November election.

“We are going to continue to discuss this issue with our members,” Boehner said.

“But I think the president’s going to have to demonstrate to the American people and to my colleagues that he can be trusted to enforce the law as it is written,” the Speaker added, “It’s going to be difficult to move any immigration legislation until that changes.”

Funny to hear tough guy talk from Boehner, the 200lb fish reeled in on 4lb test line, since he lacks the balls or fight to do anything with conviction. He’ll suck up to whoever can further his goals or destroy him.

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Been a bit under the weather. The usual head-cold thing except everything in my head is raw and burning (eyeballs, nose, ears, sinuses), and there is an inner ear part of it. The room is spinning sideways. Not in yaw but in roll, and it is really making it hard to do much of anything. Work isn’t remotely possible because coherent thought is really not reasonable.

I have been thinking recently, however, about making some large amplitude sound. If I am reading some aeronautics papers correctly, it should not be exceedingly difficult to generate somewhere around 150dB (acoustic) using rather easily fabricated geometry and using a standard compressor. And if I can make a resonator…

Why? Mwuh-hah-hah-hah. I want to be a Spark, of course. Sparks don’t need reasons. Just ask Cruel Wife if the idea I sketched out doesn’t sound sparky-ish.

And I will do it steampunk-like. If the idea works, you’ll be able to own a Dr. Lemur Etheric De-Pestinator(tm).

Yes, mooooooo-ooooom, I know 150dB can destroy hearing and is moderately dangerous. And yes, I know you can make a lot of heat with an expansion nozzle.

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