BitWrench

It's Friday

Antipodes Of Murphy

No Unplanned Detonations Were Encountered In my AO, anyway. Generally a good determinator between a Good Day and a Bad Day. Originally shared by Yonatan Zunger You may not know that there's a rich tradition of chemists writing, shall we say, rather bluntly about their trade. And one of the kings of it is Derek Lowe, a drug discovery chemist who writes a semi-regular blog titled "Things I Won't Work With," primarily about the research that people in other branches of chemistry do that makes him question their sanity. While it helps to know some chemistry to follow what's going on (that e.g., most of the molecules in your body use carbon for their superstructure, because nitrogen in the superstructure tends to want to get out of said superstructure rather quickly, which is to say "with an earth-shattering kaboom"), you don't really need to: "If you or I (’cause we’re sensible, right?) look at a well-known crater-maker like dinitropyrazolopyrazol...

#WordlessWednesday #wordlessonwednesday

Brefuss

Click Bait To Change The World Other terms and conditions may apply. Check local listings. http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/94cd43b56f/katy-perry-votes-naked

Like Doritos They'll just make more... Originally shared by ****

Collecting The Dirt Rev. William Barber spoke about this project at the Unity Rally. Apparently the Klan had threatened to show up to the march, but other than some rednecks rolling by in muscle cars and pickup trucks, blipping throttles, nothing happened. I would not have predicted this slide back into Jim Crow and segregation in my lifetime, but I can't argue that it hasn't happened. "...my eyes were drawn to tables along the wall topped with dozens of empty glass jars. Some of the perfectly polished containers were emblazoned with names, others just bore the word “Unknown.” In smaller print on the gallon jars were the names of towns strewn across the state and dates ranging from the 1880s to 1947. Each jar was one life snuffed out in racial terror." "Our task was to collect soil from the sites of each lynching." "Lined along shelves on the back wall behind us were rows of dozens of jars, already filled, and empty rows, waiting to hold our jars, with...

Walking The Walk The Rev. William Barber led the march for the Unity Rally For Justice And Transparency in Charlotte, NC last night. He made it about two blocks before he had to stand aside, his face full of pain. He was once told he would never walk again. In his remarks, he mentioned that he hoped he might be forgiven for speaking a little longer, as he doesn't notice the pain so much when he's speaking. Pain can teach you things, if it doesn't break you. That's a lesson that applies to a lot of things. http://www.beaconbroadside.com/broadside/2016/02/reverend-william-j-barber-learns-the-power-of-standing-together.html

"With Certain Ineligible Rights" The opening speaker misspoke when quoting the Constitution, but might have been more accurate than he knew... I attended the Unity Rally For Justice And Transparency in Charlotte, NC last night. The Rev. William Barber: "They will not divide us... We're going to make America have to report, that when you see folk marching in the street for Black Lives Matter, they are black, they are white, they are young, they are old, they're gay, they're straight, they're people of faith, people of no faith, but all of us believe in equal justice under the law. All of us!" "We are not anti-police. We are anti-murder-by-police." "We protest because we will not allow race to be a trigger for death." I've not always agreed with William Barber's aims or rhetoric, but I think I'm closer to finding a middle ground with him, especially on the issue of police conduct. Increased transparency, stronger rest...

The Song Of My People "...they’re not a big deal until they’re a big deal." Not just about stunts... Originally shared by Damn interesting https://features.wearemel.com/when-a-car-chase-goes-horribly-wrong-293d2ec0a282#.yqz6hlekp

On The March I reckon I'm going. I don't always agree with Rev. Barber, and I'm not always happy with what the NAACP has turned itself into, both nationally, and locally. But I can't disagree with the need to protest the current status quo of police behavior, and this time, it's happened close enough to home that I should show up and fuss about it. Because, like it or not, police behavior is a local issue. Been awhile since I've been arrested, might break a streak. My take on the situation is that Keith Scott was guilty of bad judgement, but he shouldn't have been killed for it. I think that the cops pretty much followed accepted policies and procedures in this instance, and that the investigation will support that. Doesn't mean I think they did it right, just that they did what is currently expected. I think that police are taught to be hypervigilant and proactive to threats, these days. They are not taught that they are amongst neighbors, and that ...

In Black And White The Internet is made of Oreos. Special Oreos. #NotRightFoods http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/09/internet-data-is-like-oreos-isp-claims-while-defending-data-caps/

OMG FREAKING FINALLY One can hope that it won't take quite this long for G+ to support drag 'n' drop images, again... One also can't help but wonder how long the return of webp will last, a format so wonderful, no one else wants to use it...

Taste The Rainbow Originally shared by lynn paden The New Colossus by Emma Lazurus Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land to land; Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame. “Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Skid Steer Loader "So, I'll just leave them here then?" Originally shared by Rod Uding Yup, someone was not to familiar with how physics works when they decided to try this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDDorMeDvII&feature=player_embedded

Hey, Ho, Way To Go, Ohio The Pretenders-My City Was Gone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wplUBFVsbtw via George Station Originally shared by Cheryl Martin I have to laugh at things like this. Otherwise, I'd be in a murderous rage. All. The. Time. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/sep/22/trump-ohio-campaign-chair-no-racism-before-obama?CMP=share_btn_gp

Equinox I'm not ungrateful. We needed the rain. Lani Hall's distinctive voice carries the day... (She later married Herb Alpert). Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66-Constant Rain (Chove Chuva): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2aakQo9Lk4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2aakQo9Lk4

#WordlessWednesday #wordlessonwednesday

Busted Flush http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/fred-grimm/article70581602.html Good news is, apparently the deal fell through. One of the few upsides of the busted economy, I reckon: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/broward/fort-lauderdale/fl-lauderdale-bahia-mar-withdrawn-20160617-story.html Not being down around those parts, much, anymore, I found this out when I went looking for pictures of Miss Agnes, a 1936 Rolls Royce painted an outlandish blue and converted to a pickup truck, after reading about +John Bump sighting a Jaguar XKE parked in a Big Box Store lot, full of drywall tools... This is as close as the Internet could find me: http://news.pickuptrucks.com/2012/04/custom-1920s-rolls-royce-pickup-truck.html http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/fred-grimm/article70581602.html

The Lord'll Provide Mike Cross-The Lord'll Provide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JA3PEv3LWEU Originally shared by Kam-Yung Soh The fascinating story of a farmer trying to do the right thing, instead of the easy thing. "White Oak is home to one of the largest pastured chicken flocks in the country; at any given time, 60,000 birds wander the land in accordance with pasture-raised parameters. As the next level beyond free-range, this farm never contains its adult birds indoors, instead allowing them to roam without restraint at all times. This also means that for the Bald Eagles that showed up a few years ago, White Oak is an all-you-can-eat buffet. [...] Right around the time Harris contacted the National Audubon Society, in December 2015, the eagles had moved from attacking chickens only to taking down turkeys, too. A few weeks later they went after the newborn goats. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has a program that reimburses farmers who incur losses from protecte...

John Snipe's Men It's damp, it's dark, it's always really slimy. If the Top orders so, you'll always come out grimey. Life sucks, you moan, this is NOT what I signed up for. This is not the Glory I seek, I'll do my four and no more! Just who does he think he is, This guy all crisp and clean, Tellin' me to clean the bilge, as clean as he's never seen. Having no choice (and really no place to go), I grab a flashlight, rags and bags, and wiggle myself below. This is a whole new world, this space beneath the deckplate, a world seen by few, dark and desolate, make's one consider his fate. There's things down there that, whether real or in the mind, would break the strongest man, in the shortest amount of time. Crawling through pipes and always a few inches of whatever, avoiding hot piping and wondering, "will this last forever"? Amazing, you think, as you gather what lies, "How does all this stuff find it's way down here? A Coke can...

Teach Your Children Well Must have a code, that you can live by... “Robots should not be designed solely or primarily to kill or harm humans; humans, not robots, are the responsible agents; it should be possible to find out who is responsible for any robot and its behaviour." Crosby, Stills and Nash-Teach Your Children Well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztVaqZajq-I Graham Nash, who wrote this while a member of the Hollies, claimed that he found the inspiration for this song in this Diane Arbus photograph: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_with_Toy_Hand_Grenade_in_Central_Park# Originally shared by Irina T. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/sep/18/official-guidance-robot-ethics-british-standards-institute#comments

Leaving The Church http://christandpopculture.com/bidding-farewell-garrison-keillors-church/ I generally enjoyed PHC, although there were times when I thought it lost its edge (what there was of it), and the musicians were all quite good. My view of Garrison Keillor and his work changed a bit after I read his columns as Mr. Blue, and the novel that came out of it. http://www.salon.com/2003/09/02/keillor_9/ I'm glad he's still around, and I hope he keeps writing. http://theweek.com/articles/471990/garrison-keillors-triumph-over-addiction http://christandpopculture.com/bidding-farewell-garrison-keillors-church/

Bruthas From Anutha Mutha Any words on who the Sistren voted for? Originally shared by Yonatan Zunger The national Fraternal Order of Police has endorsed Trump. I did not think I could become any more disappointed with American police, but they have found another way. It is clear that they see Trump as deeply representative of their priorities and likely to stand behind them no matter what. Unfortunately, this makes clear what their priorities are. Police unions have decided that their first and foremost principle is to protect individual officers from any form of accountability, up to and including for rape and murder; they apparently have also decided to include white supremacy in their formal charter. If you combine this with other police union statements in the past few days - like the Miami union's saying that they will not provide police protection to the Dolphins football team until and unless the team forces its members to stand during the anthem - it has become painfully c...

Accept No Imitations There can be only One... via Robert Rambusch Originally shared by J. Kenji López-Alt https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOBfSvyHOdc&feature=autoshare

Gone Off The Reserve “The midlist author is dead.” http://news.nationalpost.com/arts/books/the-essential-wp-kinsella If you only knew Kinsella's work from the movie, Field of Dreams, you've been missing out. He's been writing steadily, and it is worth the read. From all reports, he was a combative curmudgeon, but he did good work, and his stories of the First Nation peoples are full of grace and humor. “The Muppet Show is the most detested show on TV,” he say, “and the character everybody loathe most is Kermit the Frog. In local frog lore the frog is feared and hated. Frogs are supposed to suck blood and be able to make pacts with devil spirits.” “It really is no fun being green,” says Frank. “I bet the people who make The Muppet Show would sure be surprised at a reaction like that,” I say. “Up here they call the TV set koosapachigan, it’s the word for the ‘shaking tent’ where medicine men conjure up spirits, living and dead. A lot of people fear the spirits of the TV are...

Making Things Up Author Lionel Shriver takes on the topic of Cultural Appropriation. I'll just say that Authenticity, and Tastefulness are difficult to define, and there are always useful exceptions, as well as egregious behavior that inspires criticism. As a rule, I think one should attempt to be Civil and Respectful, but Art (and Life) is sometimes neither, and there are good reasons for that. It would be better to learn to discuss (and disagree) usefully. But that's hard, too, isn't it? "I hate to disappoint you folks, but unless we stretch the topic to breaking point this address will not be about “community and belonging.” In fact, you have to hand it to this festival’s organisers: inviting a renowned iconoclast to speak about “community and belonging” is like expecting a great white shark to balance a beach ball on its nose." https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/sep/13/lionel-shrivers-full-speech-i-hope-the-concept-of-cultural-appropriation-is-a-...

Eminent Domain Finch's Fine Foods... The joint opened in 1945 as a Drive In. Curb Service is still stenciled on the window, and the canopy still leads into the building. Finch's will be closing at the end of October, to make room for an updated and expanded expressway intersection. A "meat and three" place, where the waitresses all called you "hon". Raleigh without Finch's will be like breakfast without grits and biscuits, or tea without sugar. Peggy Jin bought the place in the 90's. It worried some folks, that she might change things too much. But the veteran staff (and customers) helped her to see the light. Especially when she figured out that Southern cooking was easier than Chinese food. "It's not that fancy. It's a big piece of meat." Jin remembered that the restaurant's barbeque chicken looked good. But the barbecue pork? “I said, ‘What the hell is that?’ I’d never seen that in New York City.” I'm hoping to du...

Originally shared by M Sinclair Stevens Artifacts: Keeping Score "A life lived in frugality, spent frivolously" on a million-dollar scoreboard, one commenter wrote on a local newspaper site, calling the decision "an assault" on Morin's life. Others say it's simply a shame that more of the money didn't go to the university's Dimond Library, where Morin spent much of his life. --------------- A frugal librarian amasses $4 million dollars and leaves it to the university where he worked. Said university decides to spend $1 million dollars of the bequest on a scoreboard for their stadium; and a mere $100,000 for the university's library. http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/09/15/494134464/-1-million-of-frugal-librarians-bequest-to-n-h-school-goes-to-football-scoreboar

We'll Leave The Light On For You Originally shared by Timothy Street Today is the 300th anniversary of the first lighthouse built in the U.S.A. -during colonial times - Boston Light. It is also the only lighthouse where the U.S. Coast Guard is required to have a light-keeper's presence on the property, although the light is automated. Several events are planned for the tercentenary in the area, including the dimming and relighting of the lamp at dusk. http://www.npr.org/2016/09/14/493794425/keeper-of-boston-light-reflects-on-americas-first-lighthouse more info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Light #lighthouse   #coastguard   #maritime   #navigation   #boston   http://www.npr.org/2016/09/14/493794425/keeper-of-boston-light-reflects-on-americas-first-lighthouse

#WordlessWednesday #wordlessonwednesday

A Footnote To History Highly Cited. Originally shared by George Station Darn it thumbnail images, you're not helping here. #librarians   #researchers   #citations   http://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/citation-needed

Threat Identification Originally shared by Ralf Haring Everything in this story is the opposite of how it should it be. The fired cop should be praised. The secondary responders should undergo further training. The chiefs should not be chiefs. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2016/09/12/west-virginia-cop-fired-for-not-killing-a-man-with-an-unloaded-gun/?utm_term=.554aa8451d37

States Rights Originally shared by Alex Scrivener Montana has no sales tax. Zero. Zip. Zilch. Nada. Walk into a DMV in California to register your new $1.5-million McLaren P1, and you'll pay something like $120,000 ... for a license plate. That's like $17,000 per letter or number. It's $10,000 per inch of license plate. This is a lot of money, even if you have a McLaren P1. Most McLaren P1 owners probably did not earn enough money to buy a McLaren P1 by paying $10,000 per inch of anything. On the other end of the spectrum, you have Montana. Rural, comfortable, relaxed Montana, where there's no sales tax, and registering that very same McLaren P1 costs you something like $200 in registration fees. This cost difference -- for those of you without handy access to a calculator -- is roughly $119,800. In many places, this amount would buy you a condominium that includes an assigned parking spot and a community swimming pool with at least nine adult-only swimming hours every ...

Parallax Error Originally shared by Alex Scrivener Today I Learned: The Nine-Dash Line is a thing of great geo-political significance, and that Google maps will show it to you if and only if you are searching from China. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine-dash_line https://twitter.com/JRKaiman/status/775352439167815680

Icebreaker Gap A 15M aluminum hulled yacht sails through the Northeast and Northwest Passages in a single season: http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-37351271 Still, it's yet another sign of the dysfunction of our government that we only own two working icebreakers, the 399 foot heavy icebreaker Coast Guard Cutter Polar Star, and the 420 foot medium icebreaker Coast Guard Cutter Healy, commissioned in 1976 and 2000, respectively. https://www.navytimes.com/story/opinion/2016/06/08/us-navy-and-coast-guard-need-more-icebreakers-now/85603456/ The wreckage of the HMS Erebus and HMS Terror were recently found, remainders of Lord Franklin's ill fated attempt to cross the Northwest Passage In all, 129 men were lost, the worst disaster to hit Britain's Royal Navy's long history of polar exploration. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/sep/12/hms-terror-wreck-found-arctic-nearly-170-years-northwest-passage-attempt Micheál O'Domhnaill & Kevin Burke-Lord Frankl...

The Birth Of The Technical On Television! In Color! With non-reg bush hats, kepis, and berets, too... Originally shared by Semicentenary Project http://buff.ly/2c49J2b

Dress To Impress For Cara Evangelista, because Bunny Slippers. http://thedevilspanties.com/archives/11480 http://thedevilspanties.com/archives/11480

Raise Your Hand In The Air, If You Care About The Flair The Perils of Buttoneering... Originally shared by George Station Imagining folks paying all the change fees to get on a different airline :-) http://fusion.net/story/345703/black-lives-matter-flight-attendant-pin-button/

NYC F*CK OFF http://expatclaptrap.com/september11th-new-york_fck_you/ Matson Jones-New York City F*ck Off: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-um9CQTZB7M http://expatclaptrap.com/september11th-new-york_fck_you/

Paying The Cost To Be The Boss http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/saudi-arabia-cannot-pay-its-workers-or-bills-yet-continues-to-fund-a-war-in-yemen-a7232466.html Canada has an ongoing 14 billion dollar deal for LAVs to the Saudis, with substantial costs to break the deal... http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/the-saudi-arms-deal-what-weve-learned-so-far/article28180299/ James Brown-The Boss: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jC2ZY2loo74 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jC2ZY2loo74

Walking Each Other Home It's always a good day to ask, "How's your mama and them?" http://sharonrandall.com/2016/09/giving-thanks-good-medicine-column-aug-30-2016/ http://sharonrandall.com/2016/09/giving-thanks-good-medicine-column-aug-30-2016/

Number 9 Part of this, of course, is about the conformance requirements of UX design, where you, the user, would imagine that you can Have It Your Way, but you'd be wrong, because Programmatic Reasons. Also, having machines and OS's that can do Everything All At Once, inevitably leads to latency problems. If you don't believe me, just go look and listen to a wall of digital TVs at your local Big Box store. I'm still sad that I can't have a vertical portrait monitor for print (like the Radius Pivot) because of the ubiquity of widescreen movies. http://arstechnica.com/apple/2016/09/an-os-9-odyssey-why-do-some-mac-users-still-rely-on-16-year-old-software/2/ The Beatles-Number 9: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-NwzozflCQ http://arstechnica.com/apple/2016/09/an-os-9-odyssey-why-do-some-mac-users-still-rely-on-16-year-old-software/2/

Everything Which Is Not Allowed Is Forbidden Except for when it is not. Oh, Dropbox... Why must all the most ubiquitous things behave the worst? Is it a law, somewhere? http://applehelpwriter.com/2016/07/28/revealing-dropboxs-dirty-little-security-hack/ Soundtrack by Steely Dan (named after William Burrough's Steely Dan III from Yokohama; don't ask what happened to Steely Dan I and II): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YB1SEbltbO8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YB1SEbltbO8

Who's Got The Biggest Dongle, Now?" via Christopher Butler https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgBDdDdSqNE

"You Don't Have To Be Crazy To Work Here" Originally shared by **** THE TOXIC MYTH OF MANIC CREATIVITY It is said that alcoholism is the only disease intent on convincing those who suffer they’re not sick. This deception is, of course, only one of alcoholism’s many lies, the first of which is that happiness can be purchased and consumed. There is a parallel, and equally dangerous, bit of twaddle in the world of mental illness. This nonsense runs thusly – I do not want to “become sane” because if I do I will lose my uniqueness, my brilliance, and my creativity. That skewed perspective has led to many voyages of self-destruction, some more abbreviated than others. At first, alcohol does give one a rosy; numb feeling – so it is not hard to understand how people imagine they’re not ill but simply having a good time. Likewise, manic episodes carry much with them to provide the illusion of creativity – boundless energy and confidence, bizarre observations and juxtapositions of ...

Nobody Died Originally shared by **** I've never seen a better performance by an airline pilot. ~ Sky Mall LOL! http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2016/09/09/watch_sully_play_tom_hanks_on_jimmy_kimmel_live_video.html

Replication No word on whether the Navy Chiefs continue the tradition of Never Washing The Mugs. Ever. Actually, now that I think of it, I'm not sure that the tradition of Navy Chiefs continued. I can only remember seeing Officers and Enlisted Swine. Hmm. Originally shared by Al Tlön http://www.tor.com/2016/09/08/50-years-of-star-trek-people-drinking-coffee/

A Tale of the Hundred Acre Would For certain values of "Blustery" Days (and Nights)... Originally shared by Timothy Street I thought this was going to be about the Adventures of Pooh . . . . . . . . but it turned out to be a story of The Hundred Acre Would , , , , http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-brilliant-m16-spy-who-perfected-the-art-of-the-honey-trap?utm_source=Boomtrain&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20160909&bt_email=gatorstreet@gmail.com&bt_ts=1473429637534 http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-brilliant-m16-spy-who-perfected-the-art-of-the-honey-trap?utm_source=Boomtrain&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20160909&bt_email=gatorstreet@gmail.com&bt_ts=1473429637534

Risk Management “Risk comes from not knowing what you`re doing.” “What we learn from history is that people don’t learn from history.” Warren Buffett “Risk is like fire: If controlled it will help you; if uncontrolled it will rise up and destroy you.” Theodore Roosevelt “Even a correct decision is wrong when it was taken too late.” Lee Iacocca “There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.” Robert A Heinlein The one great weakness of Modern Capitalism is that it isn't about the Long Game, and it isn't set up to clean up it's own messes. There are penalties for failure, but they are not carefully balanced with even the most likely consequences of failure. I've always reckoned that was the purpose of government; to force brash, impatient entrepreneurs to go slower and spend resources on hazard mitigation. To try as hard as possible to prevent damage, force damaging entities to cease and desist and mitigate, and to step in to mitigate when entities can't be forced to. T...

"Time For A Colorful Metaphor" Originally shared by lynn paden sometimes, being in the right place at the right time can be very rewarding... #startrek   https://www.wired.com/2016/09/punk-star-trek-iv-vulcan-nerve-pinch/

Bus Rider "Get up in the mornin', get on the bus Get up in the mornin' like the rest of us Places to go, important people to meet Better not get up or you might lose your seat..." "Doesn't matter what you do, you've nothin' to lose I'm so awful goddamn glad I'm not in your shoes..." The Guess Who-Bus Rider: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hY4n9CtxFlk http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-37307626

Loss Prevention

Courage

Find My AirPods To be found under sofa cushions, everywhere. Soon... Originally shared by David “not B” A want

Originally shared by M Sinclair Stevens Book: The Little Virtues Quotes from the article... -------------------------- The title essay considers what we should teach children—“not the little virtues but the great ones,” according to Ginzburg. “Not thrift but generosity and an indifference to money; not caution but courage and a contempt for danger; not shrewdness but frankness and a love of truth; not tact but love for one’s neighbor and self-denial; not a desire for success but a desire to be and to know.” ... “What we must remember above all in the education of our children is that their love of life should never weaken.” http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-book-that-taught-me-what-i-want-to-teach-my-daughter

Come Be My Light " Come Be My Light is that rare thing, a posthumous autobiography that could cause a wholesale reconsideration of a major public figure–one way or another. It raises questions about God and faith, the engine behind great achievement, and the persistence of love, divine and human. That it does so not in any organized, intentional form but as a hodgepodge of desperate notes not intended for daylight should leave readers only more convinced that it is authentic–and that they are, somewhat shockingly, touching the true inner life of a modern saint." John Hiatt-Alone In The Dark: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyNun3IUoz4 http://time.com/4126238/mother-teresas-crisis-of-faith/

Tooth To Tail Ratio Originally shared by **** If someone had designed a work regime perfectly suited to maintaining the power of finance capital, it’s hard to see how they could have done a better job. Real, productive workers are relentlessly squeezed and exploited. The remainder are divided between a terrorised stratum of the – universally reviled – unemployed and a larger stratum who are basically paid to do nothing, in positions designed to make them identify with the perspectives and sensibilities of the ruling class (managers, administrators, etc) – and particularly its financial avatars – but, at the same time, foster a simmering resentment against anyone whose work has clear and undeniable social value. Via +carmen vindiego http://strikemag.org/bullshit-jobs/

Running The Stop Sign "Schlafly was the woman who organized and empowered women to fight the organization and empowerment of women. She did it all, and she did it against all odds. By the time STOP ERA was founded, 30 states––out of the necessary 38–– had already passed the ERA. And she shut it down in 10 years’ time, just her and an organization that she created. It was impossible not to be in awe of that, if not admire it. A little like it's hard to hate a majestic iceberg for sinking the Titanic." http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/09/why-america-needs-more-housewives-like-phyllis-schlafly/498917/

"You've Got To Get Mad!" It ain't about rational thinking... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwMVMbmQBug "THE SHOW LACKS A POINT OF VIEW" http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/22/movies/paddy-chayefskys-notes-for-network-film.html Pauline Kael in The New Yorker, in a review subtitled "Hot Air", criticized the film's [Network, 1976] abundance of long, preachy speeches; Chayefsky's self-righteous contempt for not only television itself but also television viewers; and the fact that almost everyone in the movie, particularly Robert Duvall, has a screaming rant: "The cast of this messianic farce takes turns yelling at us soulless masses." This movie was supposed to be satire. But in an age of television dominated by Survivor/Reality TV, I suppose Trump's rise should have been easier to predict. Originally shared by The New Yorker Last summer, Evan Osnos spent time with Donald Trump supporters. Here are four who are still standing by th...

#WordlessWednesday #wordlessonwednesday

"I Guess Pop Was Right" All eighteen of these wonderful panels can be found on Peter Maresca's "The Origins Of The Sunday Comics": http://www.gocomics.com/origins-of-the-sunday-comics/2015/08/21 Originally shared by Al Tlön Via http://www.design-is-fine.org/post/149804832934/charles-forbell-naughty-pete-the-new-york#notes

Passé https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/phyllis-schlafly-a-conservative-activist-has-died-at-age-92/2016/09/05/513420e2-73bc-11e6-be4f-3f42f2e5a49e_story.html

Them! "Because conditions in the bunker are so harsh, constantly cold, and mostly barren, the ants seem to live in a state of near-starvation. They produce no queens, no males, and no offspring. The massive group tending the nest is entirely composed of non-reproductive female workers, supplemented every year by a new rain of unfortunate ants falling down the ventilation shaft." Probably fodder for Terry Gilliam's next movie... Originally shared by Damn interesting http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/09/bizarre-ant-colony-discovered-in-an-abandoned-polish-nuclear-weapons-bunker/

"To Search And Recover That Which Is Missing" Uli : It's later... V.C.R. Cameron: Miss Ullman's right. Listen to her! Uli : ...and time to go to bed. V.C.R. Cameron: Hold the remarks, everybody! Now Lockwood, you have a long flight ahead of you tomorrow. It's time to assist the young lady to the elevator. [Lockwood offers Uli his hand] Lockwood: May I? Uli : Mais oui! Dr. Griffin: If she's speaking French, the lady says "yes". http://www.bigredhair.com/search/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Axb1EiJdbCg

Get The Goat Originally shared by Semicentenary Project

Lost and Found Originally shared by David Brin Rosetta’s mission to Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko has finally spotted the lost Philae lander. Pretty amazing photos reveal the lander tumbled on its side in a shadowed crevice, a fate long suspected suspected since it ran out of solar power soon after touch-down… or bounce-down. Ah well. A lot of science got done anyway, verifying much of my doctoral thesis. (And some bits from Heart of the Comet!) Thanks Europe! Now onward into space! http://www.space.com/33971-lost-philae-comet-lander-finally-found-photos.html

View From The Bridge

Dinged By A Dinghy We held all but one boat off until the last three miles of the race. The Viper took us by two minutes.

Pursuit Racing Flying the Asym and the Dazy...

Ready Room Some tasks and processes require managing states of higher disorder. But having clear paths and spaces to the most mission critical tasks is always good. Originally shared by M Sinclair Stevens Lifehacks: The State of Readiness An old story has it that when an IBM manager saw a light indicating two states, working and idle, he had the label "idle" changed to "ready"...because "our machines are never idle." Most of my life I, too, have switched between these two extremes; I'm either fully engaged or not. As one boss described me, I'm on or off...there is no middle ground. One effect of this trait is that my desk, my virtual desktop, or any room that I'm working on a project is left in disarray. When I'm focused, I will work slightly past the point of sheer exhaustion, then drop everything and fall asleep. I was talking to a colleague about the concept of orderliness and how chaos seems to be winning the battle in my life. We are ...

Step Right Up Water is a little high this morning...

One Of The Hardest Things Like all really hard things, there isn't one way to do it. But you must be present, which is hard. And should be professional, because it is serious. Everything else is about whatever the family needs, and often you cannot give them what they want, or what they need, and that will be hard, too. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/04/opinion/sunday/how-to-tell-a-mother-her-child-is-dead.html via Yonatan Zunger http://www.npr.org/2013/05/27/186452175/a-grim-task-military-death-notification http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/04/opinion/sunday/how-to-tell-a-mother-her-child-is-dead.html

Taste The Rainbow!

Bar Band Speaking of Bars, and Bands, and 1971... “They came and flung the door open and said, ‘Hello, John, mate, how’s it going, squire?’ You know, ‘Come on, let’s have a drink.’ And I didn’t drink at the time at all. And as they went away, my first reaction was, ‘Dear, oh dear, what dreadful rowdy people.’ And then I saw them disappear into their dressing room that was full of scantily clad women and so forth and the sound of breaking glass and curries being flung against walls and so on, and I thought to myself, ‘Actually, these people are having a much better time than I am,’ you know." John Peel An unreleased bootleg from the BBC, and a segment of BBC's Crown Jewels, introduced by Glenn Tilbrook: http://doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com/post/149794136767

"In A Thin Glass" https://www.theguardian.com/notesandqueries/query/0,,-200320,00.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62qvbg_n7OU

Killer Suit I'm watching Get Carter, again. "Like Sinatra in a younger day..." Dream Academy-Life In A Northern Town: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5uxQElYu68 http://clothesonfilm.com/michael-caine-in-get-carter-killer-suit/20222/

Drench By Anne Stevenson You sleep with a dream of summer weather, wake to the thrum of rain – roped down by rain. Nothing out there but drop-heavy feathers of grass and rainy air. The plastic table on the terrace has shed three legs on its way to the garden fence. The mountains have had the sense to disappear. It’s the Celtic temperament – wind, then torrents, then remorse. Glory rising like a curtain over distant water. Old stonehouse, having steered us through the dark, docks in a pool of shadow all its own. That widening crack in the gloom is like good luck. Luck, which neither you nor tomorrow can depend on. http://www.anne-stevenson.co.uk/astonishment.html

Escape Velocity via John Bump https://www.reddit.com/r/space/comments/50r7vx/crew_dragon_test_abort_speed_compared_to_falcon_9/

Rise and Shine

Just March Right Over A Cliff "There are a lot of people in the United States that genuinely—and with some validity—think their influence is shrinking. Their lives have not turned out as they expected or hoped. If you’re a 53-year-old white guy that didn’t go to college, the chances are that you have had a pretty rough life. You have probably switched jobs any number of times, lost your health insurance any number of times, almost lost your house in the recession, and Trump comes along and says, “Of course this happened to you because of stupid politicians and immigrants.” He is appealing to people who look around, and their constant refrain is, “This is not the same country that we grew up in.” And it’s not." http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/09/james-carville-presidential-election-2016 http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/09/james-carville-presidential-election-2016

Tears The Roof Off Hermine's antics cancel the 33rd Oar Race. Center of the storm was forecast to be right over the race course at 8 AM Saturday. Trés bummer. We have done well in big wind. Remains to be seen what happens on Sunday. Trombone Shorty-Hurricane Season: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSkKSviyPKk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSkKSviyPKk

Begins With The Letter A Creative types, take note. Alas, I am tainted mesel', having accepted filthy lucre for endeavors in occupations a little further down the list... Still, I suspect the results. Several of the most supremely narcissistic and arrogant individuals I have ever met were surgeons, who didn't even make the top ten... http://www.marketwatch.com/story/3-professions-with-the-most-arrogant-workers-2016-09-01?reflink=MW_GoogleNews&google_editors_picks=true

Oh, Man Wayne Jackson points out another element that helped break the record. "The disc jockeys used to love that record. We left a hole in it with nothing. They got to say it ['last night']. It was a great gimmick." One such disc jockey was Memphis's Dewey Phillips, famed for being the first to play Elvis Presley on his "Red, Hot and Blue" show on WHBQ. Jackson claims, "Phillips made 'Last Night' happen. He played that record over and over. We sold three thousand records in Memphis, which was total saturation of the market. On the two bar break Dewey could be heard hollering 'Open your Budweiser and pour it in. Freeze it and eat it." "Last Night" was to be the first of a long line of hard edged instrumental recordings by a number of Stax artists, including the Triumphs, the Barracudas, Sir Isaac & The Do-Dads, most significantly Booker T. and the MG's, and eventually the Bar-Kays. The Mar-Keys-Last Night...

#WordlessWednesday #wordlessonwednesday