Aunt Rose

My Aunt Rose died Friday, after Thanksgiving.  I liked Aunt Rose and had not seen her in some time.  I plan to attend the funeral on Monday.

Babakurn al-Turki

"Popcorn the Turkey, now calling himself Babakurn al-Turki, was pardoned from the dinner table only yesterday by President Obama in a public ceremony at the White House. Normally the pardoned bird is sent along with its competitor to live out its remaining days at Morven Park’s Turkey Hill in Leesburg, Virginia.
However, U.S. officials have now admitted that al-Turki instead hijacked an Osprey out of Andrews Air Force Base in nearby Maryland and flew like a bat out of hell to Syria."

Video at the link:

Pardoned White House Turkey Defects To ISIS

 HT: http://pjmedia.com/instapundit/219911/

Good News for Sunday

" Dubbed the Ghostbusters, the quartet of distillery cats are extremely hard workers, keeping rodents at bay day in and day out, and even making friends with their human co-workers – who were kind enough to buy the motley crew an array of toys before realizing they wanted only one thing for entertainment: cardboard boxes!"

Chicago Distillery Guarded by Feral Cats Is a Win for Everyone

 HT: http://pjmedia.com/instapundit/219515/

Mo F.O.E.

I enjoy reading Fred's posts, whether I agree with him or not.

To whit:

"White Privilege is real, of course. It is a combination of high genetic intelligence, studiousness, a tendency toward intellectual exploration, the capacity to organize, sustained hard work, and conscientiousness. There is a reason why whites design Mars landers and black athletes do not."

Missouri: Taking the National Temperature

Alligators

When I was growing up in South Central Louisiana in the 1970s and 1980s, my cohorts and I spent a lot of time in and around the local waterways.  We would see alligators on occasion but they were hardly a nuisance.  The animals seemed to be wary of humans and shied from us.

Today, 2015, and for the past ten years, the alligator population has increased to where it has become a nuisance.  Large alligators sometimes show up on city streets near waterways and become a traffic hazard until someone stops or calls someone to handle it.

"►Population data: In 1971 the Fish and Wildlife Service reviewed the alligator’s status and requested information from range states. Louisiana supplied data showing the species was not imperiled, and recommended the alligator be removed from the federal list of endangered species. Louisiana also provided the FWS with information on state conservation legislation that had been passed or was planned. Florida also had data, available to the FWS, showing the state had a large and healthy alligator population. Data released in the aftermath of the ESA’s passage provided more confirmation. In 1974, Louisiana estimated the alligator’s total population at 734,384 and increasing over most of its range. This estimate was the result of a 1973 survey, released in 1974, in what became known as “the Joanen Report” after its author, Ted Joanen."

The Great Gator Hoax: The American alligator is thriving—no thanks to the Endangered Species Act

Quantum Locking

I think that this is pretty cool.  Click on the link for video.

 

How to Do Quantum Magnetic Levitation at Home

 

Climate Model Science Update

If this man is correct, all the smoke and mirrors vanish.

"It turns out the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has over-estimated future global warming by as much as 10 times, he says.
“Yes, CO2 has an effect, but it’s about a fifth or tenth of what the IPCC says it is. CO2 is not driving the climate; it caused less than 20 per cent of the global warming in the last few decades”.
Dr Evans says his discovery “ought to change the world”.
“But the political obstacles are massive,” he said."

Perth electrical engineer’s discovery will change climate change debate

Bureaucratic Tyranny

"When 87 percent of Americans do not trust the federal government to do what is right even most of the time, it is obvious that the alienation does not break along party lines. When I propose systematic civil disobedience to regain some of our freedom, it is not against a government that has made a few unintentional missteps and should be given the benefit of the doubt. The civil disobedience I propose is against a federal government that has fully earned our distrust."

The regulators’ yoke

Precipitate from Ice Cubes

A few days ago, I fixed a drink that was mostly water and ice cubes.  Yes there was vodka.  Anyhow, I noticed that a white precipitate of all sizes up to a millimeter or two was falling from the ice.  It so disgusted me that I went to the CVS store and purchased a PUR water filter for the faucet, 25% off!

After I arrived back home, I installed the filter and dumped all of ice into the sink.  Never one to pass an opportunity, I gave the food dispenser a good clean/sharpening by running the ice through it.

I fixed the same drink sans ice and all was crystal clear.  I filled my ice trays with the filtered water any the next time I made a clear drink with ice, there was that same precipitate!  After some research, I determined that it was likely calcium carbonate that I was seeing.

"No matter what you do, there will always be a few poor people around, but to really maximize those numbers there are very specific government policies abetted by a few cultural attitudes that will make all the difference. You want to make as many Americans poor as possible? Then start by…."

The 7 Keys To Trapping As Many Americans As Possible In Poverty

 HT: http://pjmedia.com/instapundit/219013/

Flat Tire

I had my first flat tire today on my morning ride.  I had to push my bike for the last mile and a half.  After I heard a ticking noise, I removed a piece of glass from my front tire.  On passing through UL campus, I realized that my rear tire had gone flat.  I pumped air into it but it only held for a half a block.

Malum Prohibitum

"If it were up to me, I’d find it a violation of the due process clause to treat violation of regulatory statutes as a felony. Historically, only the most serious crimes — typically carrying the death penalty — were felonies.  Nowadays, though, we designate all sorts of trivial crimes, such as possessing an eagle feather, as felonies. This has the effect of empowering police and prosecutors at the expense of citizens, since it’s easy to find a felony if you look hard enough, and few citizens have the courage of a veteran like Cort, who went to trial anyway. Most will plead to something."

Glenn Reynolds: How gun laws put the innocent on trial

Ghost Stories

When I was a boy, we used to camp out and tell ghost stories.  Here are some "true" stories form policemen.

Cops Share True “On Duty” Ghost Stories

Extortion

Here is an interesting piece that fairly sums up my own thoughts.  Of course, this is an age-old complaint.

"In the United States, our swollen public-sector payrolls, particularly at the state and local level, are little more than a supplementary welfare state, providing a more dignified form of public dependency for relatively low-skilled and mainly unenterprising people."

The gist of the article is that, "When it comes to government, if you aren’t involved in the provision of actual public goods, you are involved in extortion."

Read more here.

Related: "Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy states that in any bureaucratic organization there will be two kinds of people":

 First, there will be those who are devoted to the goals of the organization. Examples are dedicated classroom teachers in an educational bureaucracy, many of the engineers and launch technicians and scientists at NASA, even some agricultural scientists and advisors in the former Soviet Union collective farming administration.

Secondly, there will be those dedicated to the organization itself. Examples are many of the administrators in the education system, many professors of education, many teachers union officials, much of the NASA headquarters staff, etc.

The Iron Law states that in every case the second group will gain and keep control of the organization. It will write the rules, and control promotions within the organization."