America’s largest bank joins the war on cash. This isn’t surprising, but nevertheless darned scary, especially considering it’s also a war on gold and silver coins. Since we don’t have a full name for this guy, I wouldn’t yet take this story as gospel. But if true, tragic (and stupidly so on the part of dog-breed bigots). Danish man kills himself after his dog is forcibly euthanized. For those who can stomach a once-secret report on surveillance. (Tip o’ hat to MJR) Seven epic fails of environmental predictions. And five phony fields of forensics. One more reason not to live…
Category: Miscellaneous
… do I wear it while doing construction? Or save it for some politician’s townhall meeting? Big smile and thanks to Karen.
Eeeew! Just when you think tech can’t get any creepier. And this isn’t govtech or secretive corptech; it’s meant to be you-and-me tech. (Via MJR and Wired.) Tom Knapp on why America’s not ready for Hillary. And no, it’s not because she’s a walking scandal machine. Or because of her corrupt and otherwise undistinguished career in “public service.” Or her utter phoniness. Or even the fact that she’s a less pleasant person than Dolores Umbridge. Revolt of the raisin growers. (Incredible that a program this socialistic and this outrageous has been tolerated so long.) Some background on the Sugar Pine…
My friend Nicki has been dealing for months with tenants from hell in a house she owns. Their shenanigans (coupled with other financial setbacks; you know how bad things always come in bunches) have driven Nicki and her family near financial ruin. She’s been keeping quiet about it, hoping to resolve the mess peaceably. Hoping to get the deadbeat tenants to be responsible or just quietly go away. Or at least find a way to have them evicted. But today she got the setback of setbacks. A real heartbreaker from a judge. She finally went public on her blog —…
The courts have been so all over the place on police search issues that it’s hard to say what impact this will have. But the Supremes just declared that cops cannot prolong a routine traffic stop even for a minute without legit cause. Inside the strange and wonderful world of micronations. Emphatically NSFW, but funny: company posts a … unique Craigslist ad for engineers. Bet we’ve all wanted to do this at some time or another. Looks like a must-see documentary (though the characterization of Tasers as “rifles” needs some explanation for sure). Gradeschooler challenges school anti-pot propaganda. His activist…
Immune-system drug combo “melts” tumors. Yeah, I know there are always reports like this that eventually come to nothing. But this is pretty dramatic. Are you nuts, Mr. Cop??? Officer shoots (at) dog in a crowd. Fortunately misses. Dog just looked as if it was being rambunctiously friendly, too. (Here’s the video if you can’t see it on that page.) If you’re going to have anti-abortion laws, you’re going to have to be prepared not only to prosecute every doctor, nurse, and med-tech for murder, but to investigate every miscarriage as a potential homicide. Some countries do. Results aren’t pretty.…
The story of the reserve deputy who killed a pinned-down suspect in Tulsa County gets worse and worse. Wonder who this cop is or who he knows that entire chains of officialdom were ordered to falsify records for him? Ohhhh, wait. It says right there in the article … Don’t be nervous now. It probably means you’re a terrorist. In the future your insurance company (ugh) will know when you’re having sex. And of course so will “security” ‘crats in DC. ‘Cause you know we still don’t have enough surveillance. I wonder … why don’t these people ever get that…
“Oh crap! More ammo for the ‘ban body armor’ people.” Something on the lighter side from Y.B. ben Avraham. And exactly who here terrorized and abused those free-range kids? Just another example of why people are fleeing the biggest nanny states. Schadenfreude is so very ignoble. Still, it’s a delightful thing to see some of the greatest supporters of Obamacare getting skewered by it. This is one of those things you might have intuitively perceived but never quite believed: we recall better (especially recall concepts better) when we write notes by hand rather than type on a keyboard. Those “racketeering”…
Ban the trebuchet! (And while you’re at it, tell that writer that 1895 wasn’t “medieval.”) H/T MJR Princeton opts for insensitivity discursive rape hurting people’s itty-bitty widdle feewings free speech and free thought. And does it for the right reasons. Seattle. Cops. Humanity. Hm. We’ll see how this works out I used to know a fair bit about the pre-WWII history of aviation. I could have bored you silly with tales of how Henri Coanda almost invented a jet plane in 1910 and how Jacqueline Cochran won the Bendix Race. But I never knew this. It’s touching that after all…
I’m having one of those “brilliant” blogthoughts that just hasn’t gelled yet, thus the “lite” posting. Today I’m spring cleaning and making beef jerky. The house is filled with a wonderful honey-teriyaki-beef-pepper aroma. Haven’t made jerky since moving into this place because this house doesn’t have an oven and I didn’t think the dehydrators I have for fruits & veggies were quite powerful enough to handle drying meat. But I tossed a folded flour-sack dishtowel over the vents to keep more heat in and they’re doing just dandy. Can’t wait to sample the product. Speaking of sampling the product, a…