And i'm back...

Read the title - watch the clip, you'll eventually get it...

(no, it's not really clever, but whatever)

So, you are probably wondering where I went and what was the crisis that caused a two month hiatus. To make a long story short, I unexpectedly became unemployed. Thus, my every waking moment was spent teetering between abject fear as to how I would support my family and aggressively pursuing my next job. In a word, it's been an interesting experience, one I will write about more in the future after I truly can say I have left the worst of it behind me and have let thoughts and emotions settle a bit. Suffice it to say that the end of my dark tunnel is in sight and it appears that one one way or another I will return to the land of wage earners in a week or two.

So for this introductory return post, I will merely introduce some links that caught my eye this morning that I found interesting (with commentary of course!)

First, was this odd little island where everyone is related to each other. The very first thing I thought about was with such a closed society, how do they avoid birth defects and the like? During my hiatus I became a vociferous reader, speed reading a book a day just to avoid boredom and put my mind on something other than the job hunt. One I just finished was David Rosenfelt's 'Dead Center'. Now while I generally read him for his smartass'd delivery and his love of dogs, this one obliquely addressed a small town where the cult-like bound residents never left. Again, I could not help but wonder about the small gene pool and the very real danger of birth defects. I am sure scientist love to study such things, am at some point I will look into this further, but that's where my head was at this morning...

The next worthy thing that caught my eye was this story about the apprehension of the dangerous taliban pajama boy. What caught my eye was not that he was using the rather ridiculous name of "Assad Biglosmurf" (which according to Google means literally 'lion of the big blue balls'), or that he apparently was plotting to train Syrians to bomb Americans. No, this is what caught my eye:

Half-Ass'd Beard

and this note from the article:

Teausant was also a member of the National Guard, assigned to the 118th Maintenance Company in Stockton. The Guard recently released Teausant reportedly because he lacked minimum qualifications.

The guy was in the National Guard and was allowed to wear a beard like that? I have no question as to how he was allowed to enlist, after all, the services have a hard time turning away anyone these days. My question was how he was allowed to stay in, then exactly how was he released? Did he get a 'General' or 'Honorable' discharge? I did a little digging, and true to form, the magazine whose job it is to get things right didn't actually bother to quote the National Guard spokesman to establish the truth about pajama taliban boy's relationship with the service. Here's what they actually said:

a spokesman for the Guard took issue with that characterization.  Teausant enlisted with the Guard in 2012 but "never trained or served as a solider in the California National Guard," Capt. Will Martin, chief of media relations with the California Military Department wrote in a statement.

 Next my attention wondered quite naturally to food. I found this little article about how to make homemade buttermilk and sour cream. I remember my first taste of buttermilk. I was probably about 8 or so, and my grandmother gave me some of the buttermilk that was from the fresh milk they got from the cow. It was all I could do to keep from throwing up! I do have to say that all the milk that I drank while on my grandparents farm tasted like buttermilk, with the acidic tang that you only get from fresh, raw milk. In any case, you need buttermilk to make sour cream. I will also say that I don't much use sour cream since as far as I can tell it's mainly good for putting on top of potatoes, a vegetable that I have abandoned since I went mostly-paleo due to it's uselessly high starch content.

Next I found this great idea article on things to wrap with bacon - a decidedly paleo friendly train of ideas. The ones that I saved in my recipe box? Bacon wrapped tomatoes and bacon wrapped strawberries. Pure genius! You know what's hard to spell? the word genius - I always try to start to spell it with 'gui',  then the spell checker gets all confused and tells me I am actually trying to write a word synonymous with beer (Guinness)... that's why there aren't more smart people in the world right there. The modern spell checkers make us drink (or something).

Finally, just for fun I wondered over to buzzfeed. There I found this fairly accurate article about things you think while shopping at Costco. I have to admit that it's been a while since I've been to Costco. With the paleo diet, I really don't have much need for large bulk items that aren't really cheaper at Shoppers or the like. Since I became unemployed, we have been being conservative about where we buy our food, so big dollar places like Costco are out anyway. That being said, I can honestly say that when I did go there, I can recall saying most of those things - except for all the stuff about waiting for samples. I never had the patience for waiting for those things or trusted the people working them not to wipe their nose on their hands before handing me a cup of fried cheese.

With thoughts of drippy nosed Costco chefs I will wrap up my return blog post. I will not make any promises here about regularity posting but I will say i'll try. Thanks for your support.

Whole lotta nothing

A lazy Sunday round up of stuff in no particular order that caught my eye this morning

I am thinking that Steven Segal would make a great Congress Critter. While most of the critics of him running compare him to Jesse V, he doesn't have that crazy factor that Jesse has. He actually is aikido master. While my study of martial arts mainly was taekwando, I have a great deal of respect for guys who have aikido expertise. Of course the guy is a bit of a show off, but have you ever met a congress critter who isn't? The only thing is I would urge him to run against Dirty Harry Reid for Senate. That would be epic!

Here's something that I never noticed before, but in thinking back on, eh, personal observations, it seems to be about right - dogs do try to align themselves North and South when pooping. There is so much we don't now about nature...

So it was inevitable that someone would make an app for voting. Basically, it generates a paper ballot with then gets scanned into a counting machine. The article doesn't mention how security is implemented, but i'm sure its all good. NOT!  This falls into the really bad idea column. There is no reason that does not involve voting fraud for making voting easier. Not. One. If the a voter cannot get off their lazy butts and make it to the polling place, they really should not be voting. Ditto for counting votes. It should be a mechanical process that any moron can do. Machines just make the fraud easier. End of story.

So now they are thinking that there is a 'dark matter' disk around the equator? I remember when I was working satellites we had to take into account a region called the South Atlantic Anomaly where satellites were prone to going haywire. I wonder if the two are connected?

I'd say it's about time that local police are being sued for providing color of law pressure to support the Feds randomly collecting DNA from citizens. It's wrong and the only way to stop this nonsense is to hit the responsible jurisdictions in the pocketbook. Now if only we could do something about those damn revenue cameras.

A definitive guide to cooking steak. While I don't think warming the steak before cooking it is a great idea, I have to say that the scientific arguments they make for doing it makes sense and has me rethinking my preferred methods.

Does anyone remember the Battle of Fallujah? No - well here's a little summary. So now it appears that it is firmly back in the hands of Al Qaeda. Nice job of statesmanship there Obama administration. Guess you don't mind seeing everything we accomplished over there going the shit.

So the Australians have cleverly figured out a method to tag sharks so that when they are near swimming areas the tweet the beach to alert bathers to not go in the water. Brilliant! Of course just avoiding swimming during their prime feeding times at night would probably be a good idea too.

If you read this blog much you know I really like my classic YJ jeep. It breaks my heart that Chrysler has been sold to the gutless French <spit> Fiat. That it was basically stolen then given away to them by our current leadership is beyond disgusting. Buy American doesn't quite mean what it used to.


That's the most important (and less important) stuff that caught my eye today. Tune in again for more mindless drivel, drooling, and butt scratching.

Stuff from the week (just to get it off my chest)...

So here's what caught my eye this week...

Moore's Law seems to continue to be possibly proved true as the development of quantum computers proceeds apace. That whole 1000 years to break commercial DES? Not looking so good anymore...

So I still haven't bought myself a tablet yet... I guess I am just somewhat a dinosaur in that respect. However, this tablet specialized for the closet chef looked appealing. Talk about a specialty item..

So this story about London reclaiming the fat that is clogging up their sewers is probably not a great reflection on the healthy eating habits of their population (fish & chips indeed?). One wonders if there is a relationship between that and their recent 'almost' terrorist attack?

So if you have ever wondered what all the fuss about Portlandia is, or if it is exaggerated, watch the above video & wonder no more...

I will probably never buy this 'lonely guy' car, but is really does seem stupid that States are requiring drivers of these things to wear helmets - I mean really, aren't they suffering enough? This regulatory nonsense is just a bully kicking sand in the face of the 98 pound weakling at the beach...

I guarantee you that this is the way ever Chuck Norris wantabee sees a roundhouse kick working as soon as they learn how to do it - I know I did. The sad fact is it usually takes so long to happen and execute, and is so clear what you are doing, that it is practically useless in a real fight. That this guy pulled it off in a MMA match means to guy on the receiving end was probably just not paying attention or already out on his feet... at least that's my assessment...

I saw the above picture from this site documenting the ship turned forest, and it made me think of this old fort that at some point in the future I am resolved to break into visit..

I know there are rumors about some pro athlete 'coming out' - but really guys - this is a family game and  this not the way to do it...

(DO NOT PLAY THIS VIDEO - YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!)

I am kinda against these for smores construction - in fact for the record, having to watch the above video over and over when my kids were little kinda ruined me to the whole smore thing...

Having just gone through the pain & tourture that is a sleep study and a short period wearing a 24 hour heart monitor, I am all for these 'band aid' type heart monitors replacing the low tech monitors they use today. Another interesting(?) medical development is the new Xbox can reportedly detect your heart beat and blood pressure - not sure if that's a good thing...

Sunday Link Dump

Here's where i dump to the links I have been collecting throughout the week, but haven't yet had time to comment on appropriately...

Fist up is the Egyptians. I had a friend that worked with them for a while when the US was selling them a few of the above Coastal Mine Hunters (Swiftships). While there were a great many stories he told about that experience,  one of the things that he talked about was their attribution to God when things broke (and on those, things were always breaking). Engines not working? Insha'Allah! Bad Weather? Insha'Allah! Ran out of gas? Insha'Allah! - take the rest of the day off... This was of course well before the Arab Spring and the ouster of Mubarak. From his stories I got the impression of the Egyptians as causal, a little lazy, but still good people. I guess the Arab Spring and all that followed from that changed their culture forever. So when I saw this article about how the Muslim Brotherhood is insulating themselves into their military, it really came as no surprise, but still saddened me.

I gotta say, that just because a guy puts his feet on his desk, it's not necessarily a sign of a lack of respect. There can be reasons. Back when I was much younger and more active, I sprained my ankle rather badly. Part of the remedy for it was to keep it elevated. Therefore, while working, I usually could be found with that bad ankle propped up on the corner of the desk, keyboard in my lap, working away. Once upper management once saw this and complained to my boss, who quickly explained the situation and backed them off. That being said, I too find this picture:

as noted in this article disturbing. As far as I know, he doesn't own that desk (or that Office) - he's just using it for a little while, and I know of no medical reason for that pose...

Finally there is this article about cyber attack on Florida voting process. First known case? Really? That whole massive fraud that was the last presidential election didn't clue you in that there might just be a problem there? (as noted here, even ostriches aren't that stupid)

Sunday's Kitchen Sink Link Dump...

It's Sunday and time to bravely dump all those links I have been collecting all week of stuff that I just didn't have time to comment on, so I will divest of them now with (hopefully) brief comments. In no apparent order here they are
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Do you want to play a game?

Cool idea to use a game to teach a system to dock by picking the 'winners'. Where have I seen that before? Oh yeah - here:

For robotic control, I think these guys have a fairly interesting approach. I will be looking into their concept / API for some ideas for a personal project I have on the back burner...

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So the Russians are going to help the the ESA with a Mars mission? As noted in the above movie, there is much to like and dislike about the Russian space effort. They make things work, perhaps not in the most elegant way. On the other hand, sometimes finesse matters. I am aware of a constellation of commercial dead satellites whose rapid demise is at least partially attributable to Russian involvement.

On the other hand, I like this launch approach. The price point puts it in the sweet spot for most commercial ventures. However, in the commercial space game, talk is cheap and the follow through is rarely what is advertised. Inevitably the cost rises or the scope reduces as real hardware matures. It will be interesting to see if that is true with this method. My main concern is what happens between the point the satellite is released from the shuttle at 50 miles and where it reaches it's a target orbit at say 450 miles. there is a lot of cost and engineering to go that extra 400 miles.
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Just for fun, Jerry Pournelle had a link to a cool optical illusion here. I'd advise reading the description before following his link - it will make the illusion even more cooler.

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I think that in addition to preventing running backs from lowering their heads the NFL should consider banning wide receivers from using hot air balloons.

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Not exactly the tech that we were led to believe was possible in Jurassic Park, but I find it laudable the guy is so devoted to bringing back an extinct species. The problem of course is what it if becomes an invasive species? Like we really need another class of flying rats to poop on our stuff? I say ok, as long as they keep them contained (which we know from the movies is impossible)

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I didn't even know Grimm was back. I liked it at first, but then it got all 'Lost' like and was too much effort to follow. I will give it a try & hope for the best I guess.

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So you think your 401K is safe from being snatched as 'revenue' to make up for the difference in tax income and massive spending? It could never happen? After all, that's money you personally didn't spend but saved for retirement. Well the depositors in Cyprus are finding out that it can happen. Sobering to think that fiscally we are probably much worse off than them... what will be our remedy?