Day 2: Getting to the Good Parts...

We had a wonderful day today. The overall goal was to get from Parowan, Utah (where we stayed last night in a less-than-memorable Days Inn) to Moab, Utah. That mission was accomplished; at 6:30 pm tonight we rolled into town. But the rest of the day was a real treat as well, starting with a big surprise as we cruised through Cedar Breaks National Monument - the wildflowers were in prime:

They were so beautiful! The weather was overcast and intermittently rainy, but we didn't care.  We saw a few deer, notably skinny, as winter (for them) is just barely over.

After wallowing in the wildflower beauty there, we headed down the east side of Cedar Breaks into Panguitch, and from there down to Bryce Canyon National Park. There we zoomed through; it was crowded with yelling, screaming tourists fully equipped with children. This is like Tom & Debbie repellent; we took a quick look and got ourselves out of there. But I did take a few photos:

After leaving Bryce, we zipped over to the town of Escalante, where Debbie had a cup of memorably bad espresso, purchased at a place we called the hippy-dippy baristas. If you go to Escalante and meet a couple of aging hippies who sell coffee - don't buy any! After dumping her coffee out on an unsuspecting and perfectly innocent clump of grass (thereby certainly causing its death), we went through the Escalante National Monument up to the west side of Capitol Reefs National Monument. I think that area is spectacularly beautiful; Debbie could take it or leave it (she wants more lushness). Naturally, I took photos. You can make up your own mind:

The last fun thing we did was to drive through Capitol Reefs National Monument.  It was stormy and raining, and we were running short of time, so we sort of zipped through.  But Debbie spotted the Fremont River running high and muddy through the park, so I just had to get out and take a look.  Everywhere the river had lapped up on the shore, it left a thick layer of mud behind.   This river water must be heavily laden with silt!  Further downstream, we noted that much of the silt was gone, and the water was transparent again.  There must be a slow spot in the river current that allows the silt to settle out...

Now we're settled in our hotel room, which is considerably nicer than the place we stayed last night.  Debbie is curled up on the couch with the two dogs as I type this.

The FJ performed flawlessly today.  This trip is the first time I've driving the FJ extensively at highway speeds, and it was pleasant to discover that its highway handling is quite competent.  We had no problem zipping around the Utah highways with their 75 mph speed limit, even though we're loaded down, the roof rack is loaded up, and we've got big old headlamps sticking up into the slipstream.  It worked great.  Even better: so far none of my modifications have either failed or fallen off the truck :)  Our "Slighty Loony" sign on the front, and "Don't Tread On Me" hitch receiver cover on the back have garnered some attention.  Mostly people smile and give us the thumbs up when they see them, but today one fellow took a good hard look at the front of the truck and pronounced it a "stupid looking car".  Oh, well.  We can't please everybody, so we'll just please ourselves :)

First Day: the Yucky Part (Mostly)...

We got off a bit late, leaving the house at just before 7 am.  Yesterday we decided to avoid Riverside, LA, the Grapevine, and (as much as possible) the I-15.  So instead, we took back roads through the desert.  That adds about sixty miles and two hours to the trip, but we figured it might be worth it – and now, after doing it, we still think so.  It's still mostly yucky summertime desert, but at least we weren't stuck in traffic, or behind big semis, and forced to watch billboards.  For most of this trip, we had almost no company at all.

One interesting surprise waited for us during one fill-up the gas tank stop: right next to the gas station was the General George S. Patton museum, complete with WWII era tanks on display (some photos below).  Some other day I'd like to wander around in there.

No wildflowers on this part of the trip.

Once we crossed the Arizona border, just a couple hours ago, the scenery started improving drastically.  The Virgin River Canyon is quite beautiful, and just as you exit that, you're in St. George and the beginnings of serious red rock country.  The drive up I-15 from St. George to Parowan (where we are tonight) is an endless series of vistas of mountains, red rock, ranches, and pinon-juniper country.  In the late afternoon sun it was quite beautiful.

Now we rest.

Some photos for you:

All packed and ready to roll...

Cuyamaca Meadows, checking to see if the stuff in the rack was still attached to the truck.  It was :)

The dog platform is working great.  They have lots of room to stretch out comfortably, and memory foam cushions to relax into.  Race spent much of the day staring out the window at the desert rolling by.  Miki slept.  He's a field spaniel, what did you expect?

Two happy mutts in their mutt compartment...

Entrance to the General George S. Patton museum...

One of the tanks on display at the Patton museum...

Limited Blogging Alert...

Until July 29 we will be on vacation in the San Juan mountains, motoring from San Diego to Silverton, Colorado and back.  Hopefully we will have Internet access and we'll be able to post updates and photos.  Most blog posts during that period will be vacation related...

Unexpected Competition...

Via reader Jim M. I have no idea what TV show this is from:

Japanese Commercials...

These are apparently real:

The Drums of Doom...

Man-on-the-street interview edition:

He's Like a Superhero!

Burglar gets a little surprise in Tulsa, Oklahoma:

TULSA, Oklahoma - A burglary suspect got quite the surprise Wednesday morning. Police say Robert Cole tried to break into a home, but ended up hogtied in the front yard.

The picture is making its way around the Internet. Police say Cole was bum-rushed and hogtied by the homeowner, after he tried to break in to the house in the 2600 block of East 54th Street North.

"He's like a superhero," said Denay Houston.

Read the whole thing, and watch the videos:

Three Nickels...

Via reader Jim M.:

A father walks into a restaurant with his young son. He gives the young boy 3 nickels to play with to keep him occupied.

Suddenly, the boy starts choking, going blue in the face. The father realizes the boy has swallowed the nickels and starts slapping him on the back. The boy coughs up 2 of the nickels, but keeps choking. Looking at his son, the father is panicking, shouting for help.

A well-dressed, attractive, and serious looking woman in a blue business suit is sitting at the coffee bar reading a newspaper and sipping a cup of coffee. At the sound of the commotion, she looks up, puts her coffee cup down, neatly folds the newspaper and places it on it on the counter, gets up from her seat and makes her way, unhurried, across the restaurant.

Reaching the boy, the woman carefully drops his pants; takes hold of the boy's testicles and starts to squeeze and twist, gently at first and then ever so firmly. After a few seconds the boy convulses violently and coughs up the last nickel, which the woman deftly catches in her free hand.

Releasing the boy's testicles, the woman hands the nickel to the father and walks back to her seat at the coffee bar without saying a word.

As soon as he is sure that his son has suffered no ill effects, the father rushes over to the woman and starts thanking her saying, "I've never seen anybody do anything like that before, it was fantastic. Are you a doctor? "

"No," the woman replied, "I'm with the Internal Revenue Service."

I'm not absolutely certain whether this is apocryphal or is a true story.  Seems plausible...

Cute Puppy of the Day...

Via my mom, purveyor of cute puppy pics:

Seems to me that if you had enough photos like this, and you sprinkled them all over the Middle East, the conflict there would be over...because everybody would be holding a photo and smiling at each other....

Sleepy Time...

Via my mom:

Crazy People...

...are fun to watch:

If Your Computer Crashes or Is Stolen...

Via reader Simi L.:

But Then...

Via my mom:

America the Beautiful: Updated Lyrics...

By Tam, from View From the Porch:

Oh, beautiful for drone-filled skies
A tax code so arcane!
A voting class on their fat ass
From Houston to Fort Wayne!
America! America!
You voted stuff for free
You made your bed, ye overfed
Go watch some more TV!

I don't think she's celebrating Independence Day, either...

These People Are Going to Control Our Healthcare...

Imagine for a moment that you are a magician who performs at churches, schools, and even people's homes.  In one of your acts you employ a rabbit.  It's the only animal you use in your act.  You have no employees.

Sounds like a perfectly innocent small business, doesn't it?  The kind of business that you'd think would be completely free of government regulation and paperwork.

Wait a minute.  You must be thinking that you live in the old America, the one founded by the liberty-loving Founding Fathers.  That's not today's nanny-state America, the one enabled by low information voters.  No, siree!

In today's America, that magician has to file a “disaster plan” for his bunny.  It takes eight pages of bureaucratese just to describe what that disaster plan must contain. 

Yes, I'm serious.

Independence Day...in Egypt...

The news from Egypt has been interesting and sometimes downright exciting over the past few days.  Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood leader, was leading Egypt down a path toward an Iran-like fundamentalist Islamic republic – and the people of Egypt said (rather loudly) “No!”  If we are to believe the pronouncements of the Egyptian military that enabled Morsi's removal (and their actions are so far consistent), Egypt will get another bite at the apple – they get a “redo” on their constitution, and new elections.  It will be fascinating to see how this plays out over the next six months to a year.

While reading this news, I caught myself having an odd reaction, and it took me a while to figure out what it was.  It was envy, plain and simple.  I'm envious of the chance the Egyptian people have now to rework their government into something more to their liking.

Today is Independence Day here in the U.S., ordinarily a day I would enthusiastically celebrate.  Overeating and too much alcohol might be involved.  I don't feel much like celebrating this year.  The country whose independence I'd celebrate is slipping away, bit by bit.  Another slip happened this week: Obama, acting like the dictator he clearly would like to be, arbitrarily decided to delay enforce a law – he delayed the implementation of Obamacare for large companies.  He is exercising a power that our Constitution does not give him.  Under the Constitution, a president doesn't have the power to simply override a law passed by Congress and signed into law by the president.  Obama is doing it anyway, precisely as any tyrannical dictator would do.  Now perhaps there will be a lawsuit filed to prevent him from actually pulling this off, but in these days of complicity by both political parties, I'm not confident that such a thing will happen.

Why would Obama do this?  A reasonable question, and this one has a clear answer.  It's not the excuse that Obama is giving; that's just political cover.  The real reason is that his fellow Democrats are afraid of getting creamed in the 2014 election cycle – because they're afraid of the electorate's backlash when they find out what Obamacare will cost them once it's implemented.  This is especially true of some key Democratic constituencies: young people and minorities.  When these groups have to start writing the checks to pay for Obamacare, they're not going to be happy campers. 

So Obama waves his magical, tyrannical wand...and kicks the problem down the road another two years.

I'm envious of the chance the Egyptians have to adjust their government to something better.  We Americans need that chance.  We need a second Independence Day.  That's an Independence Day I would love to celebrate!

Up In My Grill...

Remy at Reason.tv mocks the nanny state:

Quote of the Day...

From Glenn Reynolds, writing at Instapundit:

I mean, he’s only a Senator, and there’s no IQ test for that job...

Hah!

When's the Last Time...

When's the last time you heard a religious leader calling on devout women to go have sex with soldiers to improve their morale?

Yes, I Miss Him Yet...

I miss having a genuinely compassionate and warm man as our President.  I had (and have) many disagreements with George W. Bush, but his humanity and his humility are very attractive compared with the cold, narcissistic, and egotistic Barack Hussein Obama...

San Juan Mountains, 2013...

We'll be headed for the San Juan Mountains of Colorado within the next few days, returning at the end of July.  Our route both ways will also take us through the Utah red rock country.  All the posts related to this trip (including, we hope, lots of wildflower and scenery photos – and maybe some wildlife photos as well) will be tagged as “SJM2013”.  You can view them all anytime you'd like by clicking here.  Bookmark it and visit often!

Note that we're not certain about the quality of our Internet access where we're staying (at 11,000' in the mountains near Silverton, Colorado), so the posts may be a bit irregular, as we get a good cell signal...

Oops...

Superconductors, Mobius Strips, and Rare Earth Magnets...

What more could a geek want?

Would You Want to Know?

Huntington's disease is a genetic disorder that invariably leads to death, after causing cognitive, psychiatric, and muscular problems.  The onset is usually in the middle of adulthood.  There is no cure.

The children of someone with Huntington's disease have a 50% chance of having the disease themselves.  A genetic test is available (for about $300) that can tell whether any individual will develop the disease.

Imagine, for a moment, being a 20 year old child of a parent diagnosed with Huntington's disease.  Would you want to take that test, and know whether you were going to get Huntington's disease 15 or 20 years down the road?

When I first read that question, I thought “Of course I'd want to know!  What idiot wouldn't?!?” I can think of all sorts of life choices I'd make differently if I knew I would die early.  Then I read that 95% of people at risk don't get the test.  This fascinating Freakonomics podcast explores the reasons why most people at risk don't get the test.

Myself, I think they're all crazy...

Broken Government...

Here's another sad story from the overflowing annals of our broken government.  A farm's bridge washes out in spring floods.  The contractor estimates the repair costs at $7,000 – but notes that a permit will be required.  The repair would be made with a couple I-beams and some concrete blocks.  The engineering firm's estimate for a design and analysis that will meet permit requirements (but not the construction itself!): $25,000.  Oh, and it will take two years to get the permit.

The farmer's tentative solution to this dilemma: hire a couple itinerant Mexicans and fix it when nobody is looking.

I'm with the farmer on this one.  What business does the government have telling me how to build something on my own farm?

FJ Cruiser: Finishing Touches...

I've just about finished all the mods to our FJ Cruiser.  In the last couple of days, I've mostly been packing it – but there are a couple of finishing touches I've done as well:

License plate holder and winch access cover.  The license plate holder also serves to cover up the fairlead for the winch, and helps protect the synthetic winch line from the sunlight (as does the access cover).  “Slightly Loony” is what we've named our offroad chariot.  People we meet who see our license plate often think we're named "Sigma" and have 6 kids.  We do not :)  A “sigma” is a mathematics reference; one sigma is one standard deviation from normal on the bell curve – so 8 sigmas is eight standard deviations from normal.  Even if you're not familiar with the math, you can understand this: anything that's eight standard deviations from normal is really, really, weird.  That's us!

A view from above.  The access cover is made of plywood.  The license plate holder is an aluminum billet holder, mounted on thick-wall stainless steel standoffs, with bolts tightened into threaded holes in the steel bumper...

We also added an aluminum billet license plate holder to the rear, and that beautiful hitch receiver cover.  My lovely bride painted that cover, which is solid steel...

Psychedelic Drugs...

Interesting essay by Sam Harris...

Quote of the Day...

From a much longer, and very funny, post by Dave Carter at Ricochet:

Remember that a politician's honesty, like his virtue, is a commodity more precious than gold, which is why he serves it up so sparingly.

Very sparingly, recently...

Japanese Kids Do Swing...

Via my mom:

Quote of the Day...

From Jay Lehr, writing in the Wall Street Journal (via reader Simi L.):

After decades of federal subsidies—almost $24 billion according to a recent estimate by former U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm—nowhere in the United States, or anywhere else, has an array of wind turbines replaced a single conventional power plant. Nowhere.

And the left wants the same government that brought us this debacle to run our health care.  It's easy to predict (but very sad) that at some point, our Obamacare bureaucrats will most likely spend billions on something most of us would immediately recognize as snake oil.  Homeopathic “medicine” is a good candidate...

“Sothrun” Humor...

Via reader Jim M.:

Florida

A Florida senior citizen drove his brand new Corvette convertible out of the dealership. Taking off down the road, he pushed it to 80 mph, Enjoying the wind blowing through what little hair he had left. "Amazing," he thought as he flew down I-95, pushing the pedal even more.

Looking in his rear view mirror, he saw a Florida State Trooper, blue lights flashing and siren blaring. He floored it to 100 mph, then 110, Then 120. Suddenly he thought, "What am I doing? I'm too old for this!"  And pulled over to await the trooper's arrival.

Pulling in behind him, the trooper got out of his vehicle and walked up to the Corvette. He looked at his watch, then said, "Sir, my shift ends in 30 minutes. Today is Friday. If you can give me a new reason for speeding -- a reason I've never before heard -- I'll let you go."

The old gentleman paused then said: "Three years ago, my wife ran off with a Florida State Trooper. I thought you were bringing her back.

"Have a good day, Sir," replied the trooper.


Georgia

The owner of a golf course in Georgia was confused about paying an invoice, so he decided to ask his secretary for some mathematical help.

He called her into his office and said, "Y'all graduated from the University of Georgia and I need some help. If I wuz to give yew $20,000, minus 14%, how much would you take off?"

The secretary thought a moment, and then replied, "Everthang but my earrings."


Louisiana

A senior citizen in Louisiana was overheard saying ... "When the end of the world comes, I hope to be in Louisiana ."  When asked why, he replied, "I'd rather be in Louisiana 'cause everythang happens in Louisiana 20 years later than in the rest of the world."


Mississippi

The young man from Mississippi came running into the store and said to his buddy, "Bubba, somebody just stole your pickup truck from the parking lot!"

Bubba replied, "Did y'all see who it was?"

The young man answered, "I couldn't tell, but I got the license number."


South Carolina

A man in South Carolina had a flat tire, pulled off on the side of the road, and proceeded to put a bouquet of flowers in front of the car and one behind it. Then he got back in the car to wait.  A passerby studied the scene as he drove by, and was so curious he turned around and went back. He asked the fellow what the problem was.

The man replied, "I got a flat tahr."

The passerby asked, "But what's with the flowers?"

The man responded, "When you break down they tell you to put flares in the front and flares in the back. I never did understand it neither."


Tennessee

A Tennessee State trooper pulled over a pickup on I-65. The trooper asked, "Got any ID?"

The driver replied, "Bout whut?"


Texas

The Sheriff pulled up next to the guy unloading garbage out of his pick-up into the ditch. The Sheriff asked, "Why are you dumping garbage in the ditch? Don't you see that sign right over your head."
"Yep," he replied. "That's why I'm dumpin' it here, 'cause it says: 'Fine For Dumping Garbage.' "


Y'all kin say whut y'all want 'about the South,
But y'all never heard o' nobody retirin' an' movin' North.

Hyperion...

Hyperion, moon of Saturn.  From Cassini, via APOD, of course:

Peak Oil...

Not in Texas!

More on the amazing growth of crude oil production in Texas.

They're Not Going To...

Claire Berlinski is the author of my favorite biography of Margaret Thatcher: There Is No Alternative: Why Margaret Thatcher Matters.  She's also an investigative journalist, and lives in Istanbul, Turkey – just four blocks from Taksim Square, the epicenter of the current disturbances there.  As you might expect, she's been reporting in mainstream media – with the unique perspective of an alien long-time resident of Turkey.  In the latest piece I've read, her concluding paragraphs:

According to legend, when the great historian Robert Conquest was asked if he wanted to rename the updated edition of The Great Terror, his history of the Stalinist purges, he replied, “How about, I Told You So, You F***ing Fools.”

And that’s what I’m saying now to every single lazy journalist and policy wonk, professional sycophant, diplomat and idiot pundit who’s never so much as visited this place, the duly-funded social scientists and craven Western politicians and everyone else who for years swallowed Erdoğan’s nonsense and helped to manufacture the fantasy that Turkey was getting more and more democratic by the day.

Only months ago, not an hour went by without some dimwit churning out an article about the economic and the reformist wonders of the AKP and its newly-emerged Anatolian middle class, the magnificent result of the AKP’s mix of moderately-Islamist daddy-state, fiscal discipline and free-market economic policies. One of the best performers of its kind in the world, a model for every Arab who felt like springing, the blossoming of Turkey’s open society, proof that Islam and democracy can mix just fine. Now, I have no idea if Islam and democracy can mix just fine. Maybe they can, maybe they can’t. But I can tell you one thing for sure: authoritarianism and democracy can’t mix just fine. And this was just obvious, blindingly obvious, years ago.

I have no idea what will come next, now that things that have been overwhelmingly apparent for the past decade are finally getting attention and coverage in English. But this I do know: There are real people here. They are not pawns to be moved about on a geopolitical chess board. They are not subjects for fashionable tales told by people climbing up the greasy pole of their careers in the West. They could use some honesty from the rest of the world, because they’re sure not going to get it from their government or their media and they know it. So if you had any part in creating this situation, whether by cheering the rise of this authoritarian government or promoting the fantasy of Turkey’s advanced democracy and this nonsense about it being a model Muslim nation, go look at those photos of the kids with no eyes. Then get down on your knees and ask God to forgive you—because those kids, they’re not going to.

Read the whole thing...

Who Knew?

Ducks, Meet Water...

Via reader Simi L., this delightful video of some “hoarded” ducks who meet water for the first time in their lives, as adult birds:

The Battle of Gettysburg...

In a nicely done interactive infographic...

A New Discovery...

It's amazing just how big this world of ours is – big enough that archaeologists continue to make major discoveries in still-remote places.  Announced yesterday: the discovery of an untouched, intact pre-Inca tomb in Peru...

D-Wave Processor Validated...

Scientists at USC have validated that the D-Wave “Vesuvius” processor chip is in fact operating as a quantum computing device.

That's not the same as saying that they have fully functional quantum computer, ready to rock and roll (and solve all those pesky traveling salesman problems)...

Be Careful What You Say on Facebook...

Or you might end up in jail...

Isn't it great living in a country with free speech?

Don't Buy Bottled Water in Charlottesville, Virginia...

The cops may attack and arrest you...

My parents live near Charlottesville, but I don't think they buy bottled water.  So I think they're safe...

A Win for All of Us...

Bruce Schneier has joined the Board of Directors of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).

We all win with this one...

Sea Level Change...

Measuring sea level change is difficult even with the best of modern instruments.  Figuring out the sea level thousands of years ago is even harder.

We think of the rocks that form the sea bed and continents as hard, solid, stable things.  In fact they are not – over geological time scales, the rocks move, sometimes a lot.  I got a first-hand look at this on the Baltic islands of Estonia, especially Saremaa and Hiumaa.  These islands are rising out of the sea, growing a little higher and bigger each year.  If you lived there, you'd probably thing that meant the sea level was declining – that's what it looks like to you, standing on “solid” ground.  But in fact, the limestone that makes up those islands is slowing rising – and in this case, geologists know exactly why.  During the last Ice Age, an enormous mass of ice on the land pressed it down, displacing magma deep under the crust.  After the Ice Age ended (and the ice all melted), that weight was lifted – and the land is slowly resuming its natural level.  Geologists estimate that for the next 100,000 to 400,000 years, the land will continue to slowly rise.  And residents will probably still think the sea is receding :)

A Win for Free Markets...

Tesla Motors had a big win this week – on something that in a supposedly capitalistic, free-market state should have been a no-brainer.  Tesla is now allowed to sell cars in North Carolina, direct from the factory to consumers with no car dealer involved.  Crony capitalism just suffered a blow.  Let's hope there are many more...

What's So Special?

About the number “2”, I mean.  Why should marriage be limited to just 2 people? 

Now that the Supreme Court has broadened the definition of marriage to include gay couples, by what logic would they defend a limit to just 2 people?  Polygamy supporters are overjoyed by the two decisions this week, with good reason.

I fully expect to see not only legal polygamy in the U.S. within my lifetime, but also legalized inter-species marriages.  Why not marry your dog, horse, or goat?  Where in the Constitution can you construe something preventing that?

I'm not the only one wondering these things...

Oh, Well...

It might have been a wonderful trip, that vacation that Debbie and I were planning to take to the U.K. one of these fine days.  There are so many beautiful places there that I'd like to share with her.

But it looks like I may be banned from entering the U.K...

An Excellent Rant...

From a politician, about Obama.  An Irish politician:

Flying Pig Moment...

...wherein I agree with Barney Frank.

I never thought I'd write that sentence!

The subject is drug legalization.  He and I are on the same page. 

Scary, isn't it?

Memory Lane...

I remember this ad, which ran in one of the computer hobbyist magazines in the late '70s (probably Byte).  I remember thinking how amazingly inexpensive that system was.  Just a couple of years prior, I had purchased a used, broken Memorex 630 for $10,000.  I spent a month or so troubleshooting and fixing that thing, and ended up with a washing-machine sized 10 MB hard disk (5MB fixed, 5MB removable).  I had to build a computer to interface with it.

And IMSAI was selling a complete system with a miniature “Winchester” hard disk for just $6,000.  Cheap!

An Old Marine Gets a Job Interview...

Reader Larry E. passes along a little Marine humor:

Job Interview

Personnel Manager: "What is your greatest weakness ?"

Old Marine: "Honesty"

Personnel Manager: "I don't think honesty is a weakness !"

Old Marine: "I don't give a crap what you think"

There's one problem with this story: there's no way that old Marine said “crap”!

I've hired a few ex-Marines, and the interviews I had with some of them rank as both the most interesting and most entertaining I've ever had.  This reads as entirely plausible to me :)

Simple!

You know that sexual harassment/sexual assault scandal that's got the military falling all over themselves with politically correct (literally) initiatives, like banning all the Playboy magazines?  Well, it turns out the answer to the problem was amazingly simple!

The Air Force discovered this simple solution.  All they had to do was put teal-colored robes on their students, and like magic the problem disappears.  They're sure of it.

Via former Air Force member, reader, friend, former colleague, and Idaho real estate mogul Doug S., who comments: “Stop the world, I want to get off!”

As a former Navy enlisted man, I have a lot of trouble wrapping my brain around these changes, and also the idea of women serving on ships.  Now don't get me wrong, I'd have loved having women on the ship I served on – what I'm having trouble imagining is the women handling it.  The average age of the sailors on the USS Long Beach, in the '70s when I served on it, must have been around 24 or 25 – and all male, of course.  These young, testosterone-drenched men wandered about the ocean with no contact with women for up to months at a time (the USS Long Beach was nuclear-powered, and the brass loved to show off how long we could stay at sea). 

The ship was chock-a-block full of pornography; anything from lingerie photos to hard core 8mm movies (no streaming Internet video back then :).  Then when we finally did pull into a port somewhere – anywhere – the local version of “sailor town” was waiting for us.  On the surface, the sailor towns consisted of two things: sources of alcohol (in whatever form you preferred) and sources of sex (in whatever form you preferred).  Dig a little deeper, and you'd find sources of drugs (anything at all) and other illicit, er, entertainments. 

I once served on “hard hat” Shore Patrol (the Navy's military police) in Olongapo, Philippines for six months; it was just such a sailor town, perhaps the largest in the world at the time (this was during the Vietnam War, and Olongapo was just outside the gates of the Subic Bay Navy base, one of the largest bases in the world).  I can tell you from personal experience and observation that the vast majority of the thousands of sailors who visited Olongapo every night – officers and enlisted – had just two objectives for their visit: to get plastered and to get laid, not necessarily in that order.  And Olongapo was there with hundreds of bars and thousands of willing girls to help them meet those objectives – and to separate them from as many of those lovely U.S. dollars as they could.

So I wonder...

Has human nature somehow fundamentally changed since I was in my 20s, in the '70s?  Have young men evolved into some new, higher order of being, in which the desire for sex is not so...urgent?  What happens when one of the new “co-ed” ships hits port in a place like, say, Hong Kong?  Where once legions of rental girls lined up to hawk their attributes to the sailors, what's there now?  Soda and ice cream trucks?  Or are there rental boys for the female sailors? 

Inquiring minds want to know :)

Mark on Nigel...

Mark Steyn – one of my favorite political commentators – talks about Nigel Farage – one of my favorite politicians.  Read the whole thing.

Weird personal note: my father was a nurseryman and horticulturalist for many years.  In the '50s and '60s, he specialized in American Holly, and patented several varieties (as did his father before him).  One of his patented varieties was named “Farage”.  I have no idea why my dad chose that particular name, which at the time didn't appear in any English dictionary.

Update: my mom tells me that Farage was not one of my dad's varieties, but instead is attributed to Miss Elizabeth White (doesn't that sound very old fashioned now, saying “Miss”?), from the Pine Barrens of New Jersey...

You'll Never Guess What This Is...

Check out the nice, modern tourist facility at right.  It's a theme park.  For Hezbollah, in Lebanon. Featuring blown-up Israeli tanks and other war paraphernalia.  Along with a theater spouting anti-Israeli propaganda (including the ludicrous claim that Israel has fallen).

The outstanding Middle Eastern journalist Michael Totten visited there, so we don't have to...

Someone Please Tell Me This Is A Joke!

New Yorkers can't be this stupid!

OpenWeatherMap...

It's a new one to me.  Looks interesting...

Corporate States of America...

For each of the 50 states, Steve Lovelace picked a company based in that state and that he thought best represented that state.  For the states I know best, his choices look good.  Here's the result:

More on the D-Wave Quantum Computer...

Via Scientific American...a magazine I stopped subscribing to several years ago (and several years later than I should have) when its oh-so-politically-correct ways started getting in the way of its science reporting, and I lost faith in its credibility...

Amazing Photo...

Check this out:

Looks like four photos stitched together, right?  Wrong...it's a single photo!

Geography Lesson...

Via reader Jim M.:

The Geography of a Woman

Between 18 and 22, a woman is like Africa. Half discovered, half wild, fertile and naturally Beautiful!

Between 23 and 30, a woman is like Europe. Well developed and open to trade, especially for someone of real value.

Between 31 and 35, a woman is like Spain, very hot, relaxed and convinced of her own beauty.

Between 36 and 40, a woman is like Greece, gently aging but still a warm and desirable place to visit.

Between 41 and 50, a woman is like Great Britain, with a glorious and all conquering past.

Between 51 and 60, a woman is like Israel, has been through war, doesn't make the same mistakes twice, takes care of business.

Between 61 and 70, a woman is like Canada, self-preserving, but open to meeting new people.

After 70, she becomes Tibet, wildly beautiful, with a mysterious past and the wisdom of the ages. An adventurous spirit and a thirst for spiritual knowledge.


The Geography of a Man

Between 1 and 80, a man is like Iran: ruled by a pair of nuts.

Welcome...

Via reader Jim M., who lives in New Mexico:

Every American Had It...

The use of past tense here is very sad:

FJ Cruiser: Pull-Pal Test...

If you're offroading and you get stuck somehow, there are two basic tools for “self recovery” (aka “getting yourself out of a mess”): the Hi-Lift jack and an electric winch.  We'll be carrying both with our FJ. 

The jack is easy to understand, and works anywhere.  Basically, you use the jack to lift whatever wheel is stuck, and fill in underneath it with dirt, gravel, or rocks – whatever is handy.  You can also use a hi-lift jack for other things, including (if properly rigged) as a short-throw winch.  But “lift and fill” under a free-spinning wheel is the most common use.

The winch probably looks about as easy at first blush (and of course, much less actual work, since it's powered by electricity).  And in truth, it is easy, with one very large caveat: that there is a tree or other good anchor point within reach of your winch (in our case, we have 100' of winch rope and 200' of extension rope).  In some areas, that's not a problem at all – if you're offroading in Maine, there's probably always a nice big tree within 25' of you.  Out west, though, things are often quite different – you may be in the desert (with no trees), in the high desert (with only small trees), or above timberline (with no trees).  What do you attach your winch rope to in areas like that?

The traditional approach is to dig a hole 4' to 6' deep, dismount your spare tire, attach your winch rope to the spare tire, and bury it.  That works, but it's a lot of work – especially in the hard-scrabble soils full of rocks that are very common in the West.  Our yard is a great example.  It's made of soil that is primarily decomposed granite.  In the summertime, it's hard as the proverbial rock – you quite literally have to use a jackhammer to get more than a foot or so deep.  I'd really hate to have to bury my spare tire in my yard in the summer!

I don't know the history of the Pull Pal, so I'm not sure who to thank for this clever invention.  I do know that it works, because yesterday I tested ours out, in our yard (which is hard as a rock right now).  With almost no work at all, I was able to winch our FJ up a 15% dirt slope with all four tires locked.  I can't measure the force required to move it like that, but I suspect it's around 4,000 pounds.  My winch's anchor point was the Pull Pal, which I just set on top of the soil and pulled it in.  Bottom line: it worked flawlessly, and with far less physical effort than I expected.

Here are a few photos I took during the test:

About halfway through the test, under tension.  You can see the small furrow at the top where the spade part of the Pull Pal dug itself in.  The spade is about a foot underground at this point.  The winch rope looks much thicker than it really is, because the last few feet of it are covered with a thick Dacron sleeve to protect the rope. 

Close-up of the spade section, still while under tension.  I was surprised how short the travel was while the Pull Pal was digging itself in – only about 3 feet.  I was even more surprised how shallow it was when it could take the full tension on the line.

After finishing, I pulled the Pull Pal out (just pulled backwards and it came right out).  The spade part comes right off so the whole thing can fold up flat for storage.  The soil I tested with here is entirely typical of what you'd find on many offroad tracks in our area.