So long and thanks for all the fish

Some things are just too good not to share.

Comic from Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal.

I'll be on vacation for the next couple of weeks. Hopefully, I'll be reporting from Worldcon.

But we'll see.

TSIB July Award

I've been putting the "Wall of Idiots" links in this blog for a while. But occasionally I think that maybe some events should have a more formal recognition.

I'm creating the "The Stupid, It Burns" award. Plognark created the image here and I'm thinking of giving a gift certificate for a Plognark coffee cup to the lucky winner.

(Please note: I have no relationship with Plognark in any way. He does not endorse my mentioning his image or condone the connection to the image. Further, if he ever at any time decides I shouldn't use it, I'll drop it like a hot rock. So he's not responsible for this. I am. That said, I've purchased some of the TSIB merchandise. You should, too.)

Now, I could have just gone over the "Wall of Idiots" for a suitable candidate-- and, I'll admit it. I'm not above that. Lord knows there are enough candidates. (See below.) But sometimes fate just hands you just the right mix of idiocy and opportunity.

I'm speaking of Gates-gate.

On 7/16, Henry Louis Gates Junior, a Harvard professor who is also black and has been known to be a bit of a flashpoint, locked himself out of his house. He broke in. A 911 call was made. Police were dispatched. Something happened and Gates was arrested by the Cambridge police. See here. So: who wins the award? Henry Gates who shot off his mouth to the officer? (See also, here.) Sergeant James Crowley who decided to arrest a black man in his own home after he had produced documentation to prove he was not a burgler? Crowley has some pretty good credentials but still, arresting a man in his own home just because he's upset in his own home?

How about Ann Coulter who leaped on whatever side is White and Right regardless of facts? I especially like how she thinks the question to Obama was "planted". Or Bill Carter, who had the presence of mind to snap the picture and made $4,000 on it so far. Or Justin Barrett, a Boston police officer who actually put some nasty stuff about Gates in an email and got snagged. I mean this is the 21st century, after all. How about the police union who are perfectly happy to get on this bandwagon and would never, never admit that there might be some differences in handling calls based on race. Or even Lee Landor, a deputy press secretary in bloody New York City, who put up disparaging comments about the situation on Facebook. I mean, guys! Get a clue!

So many candidates. So little time.

I think I have to go with Obama on this one. For managing to make a nasty local flap up here in Frozen Massachusetts that was of little interest to anyone outside of the Northeast into a national and international nasty flap. I mean, come on, Obama. Everything you say is news. Anything you mention becomes elevated into national controversy. Fix it. Go have a beer.

So, for the first of possibly a couple of TSIB Awards, I am proud to award the "The Stupid, It Burns" Award for July, 2009, to Barack Obama, President of the United States of America and Leader of the Free World.

Sheesh.

Looks like race, like religion, is another thing that can cause an IQ to drop like a paralyzed falcon.
==========================
Wall of Idiots
Patenting Genes
Eating Flipper
Misinterpreting Data
24 Hour Church of Elvis
Lies about Michelle Obama
Bill O'Reilly
Facebook more popular than porn
The world eating our clean power lunch: Here. Here.
Pop Rocks Sushi
WiFi Allergy

Weird places to visit:

• Alnwick Poison Gardens
• Biosphere 2
• Lenin's Mausoleum
• Lilydale, NY
• Meguro Parasitological Museum
• American International Rattlesnake Museum
• Still National Osteopathic Museum
• Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary Museum
• Steve's Weird House
  
• Automata in New Jersey

Links of Interest
Money Laundering
Shrimp move the sea
Trains and America
The Patchwork Brain
Chimps appreciate music from birth
Anatomical entertainment
Ecodocks in NYC
V: Making a baby cake. Really. Way, way high on the Creep-O-Meter.
Capillary calendar
Big Bad Vortex Cannon
Stone Age Population Boom
Sweat the little things: Unexplained physical anomalies
Crocodiles on the inside: Inside Nature's Giants Part III

DIY
Cake in a Jar
Malaysian Coconut Balls
Acoustic Rain Guage and here
Orange Liqueur
Berry picker
Tissue and balsa model planes and here
Fast wooden rings

Of Interest

(You are here. Expand the picture and look.)

Nothing today.
















===============================
Wall of Idiots
Denial ain't just a river in Egypt.
United Breaks Guitars
Obama Birthers and here
UFO Hacking

Links of Interest
V: Playing Robot Soccer in Japan
Takes a licking and keeps on ticking-- in space
Obama Approval down to 53% and here
Knotweed Control
Symmetrisketch
Rabbi Kidney Laundry
The Health Care Sausage
Angkor Wat in 3D
Atlas Obscura
Jupiter's Scar
Chandra's First Decade
Inside Nature's Giants: Part I, Part II
Homemade Toaster
Bizarre Boats
Animations from a Gunsight
Blue Brain
Robot Firefighters

DIY
Home Depot Headlight
Hibley DIY Archives
Arc Light
Head Mounted Water Cannon
Mounting a Knife Blade
Drawing Techniques
Persimmon Wine
Dry Ice Bubble
The Aquaharp
Steampunk Multitool
M&M Guessing
Microtomes: LEGO Hand

Of Interest

Nothing much today.










===================================
Wall of Idiots
Sarah Palin's Resignation Speech
Electronic Cigarettes
17,00 Tons of Mercury
Factory "Food"
Walmart
Farmers and the Climate Bill
Why China is eating our clean energy lunch

Links of Interest
Beautiful Minerals of Massachusetts
The Stem Cell Heart (Poe would be proud.)
Small Power is Beautiful
China and the Environment and here
Texas Wind
Solar Blimp and here
Freaks of Nature
Dubai

DIY
Talk to your Solar Installer
Cardboard Wine Rack
Cardboard Trebuchet
Cardboard Shoji
Cardboard Furniture
Wicking Garden Beds
Folding Machines: Jeans and T-Shirt
Fermentation
Woodgas Stove
Oscilloscope
Tub Bass
Microbial Fuel Cell
Roach Control
Reso Drum
Tiny Kite
T-Shirt Tote Bag
Dobro

Pangolins, for God's Sake

I've liked Pangolins since I first saw one stuffed in the Fields Museum. I found out later in a zoo they're a lot more fun when they're alive.

Pangolins are inoffensive anteaters that live in Africa and Asia. They have a sort of plate armor on their backs and tails. They have no teeth. They protect themselves by rolling into a ball. They're about as dangerous as an armadillo.

Well, we can now add Pangolins to the vast list of meat that Chinese men believe will get them a better stiffee. (See here.)

We can add to this questionable category seahorses, tigers, rhinoceros horn, black bear bile, owls and musk deer.

I mean, come on, guys. There's more to life than sex. I mean, Jeez! Pangolins! Look, bulls have much bigger sticks and they're domesticated. Dry up, powder and eat some of that! Please!

With China being the most populous country in the world, you'd think they have nothing left to prove.

=============================================
Wall of Idiots
Pangolins as Chinese Stiffee Maker
CBS News
More Lead! More Lead!
Infectious Diseases in Kansas

Links of Interest
Thursday, The New Friday
Tiny, The Stem Cell Mouse
Wall the Sahara
Ma'adim Vallis
Another Method of CO2 Capture
Jupiter: Threat or Menace
Happy Birthday Zinjanthropus
More light on Dark Matter

Jupiter Impacts

Jupiter Impacts: Here. Here. Here. Here. Here. Here. Here. Here.

==========================================
Wall of Idiots
Feds Buried Cell Phones Cause Car Crashes
Biomass Fueled Robot Will Not Eat People
ADHD Drugs Affect the Brain
The Great China-Tibet Permafrost Railway

Links of Interest
Apollo Videos
Feynman Lectures Online
Europe and African Solar Power
Sunspots and Climate Change
Ecocycling
New Turtle Ban in Florida
Cellscope and here
Mindless Rational Thought
Cop car mods
All electric, no plugin car
Epcot and the future it predicted
Rolamite
Another LHC Delay

DIY
Lego Microtome
Leeuwenhoek Microscope
Microbial Fuel Cells: here. here. here. here. here.
Beekeeping
Ceiling Fan LED Display
Foam Cutting Nunchucks

Of Interest

Nothing today.












=====================================
Wall of Idiots
Lies about the House energy bill (Hint: Limbaugh is a Liar)
Chia Keyboard

Apollo
Apollo Summary and here

Links of Interest
Duck Sex
More on Jupiter Impact
Fixing Wikipedia
Towards a Type I Civilization
Science and Comedy
Something hit Jupiter
Junkbot, Defender of Cutlery
Swamp Wars
Comet Strike and the North American Die Off
Music and the Mind
More electric airplanes
Blade innovation could have led to neolithic population boom
Increasing creativity
Ida and the Apes
Bamboo bikes
DDT and Diabetes
No Till Farming
Aborigines Originated in India
Big Oil and Algae

DIY
Beer
How to use a potato
Latent heat of materials
Smelting iron ore
Yeast: Bread and Beer
Plum Vodka
Milk Crate Composting Toilet